There aren’t many “scandals” that can truly live up to their name, but the ongoing investigations into the Rupert Murdoch/Fox News allegations are giving us a little bit of everything: public outrage, high-tech spying, multiple police entities from different countries, and even lots of half-denials from various people in positions of power. The only thing that’s missing is salacious details from someone’s young, foreign, and impossibly beautiful nanny.

Believe it or not, however, the unfolding drama holds a few important lessons for small business owners and online marketers everywhere. Here are three things your company should definitely learn from the scandal taking place across the front pages:

It’s a good idea to update your web security frequently. Granted, most of the story in question revolves around stolen texts and the like, but the point remains: There are people out there who would love to know things they don’t have a legal right to know. Make sure that your data – and your customers – are protected online.

Better yet, you should have someone who knows what they’re doing handle it for you. From experience, we have learned that most businesses tend to put off updating their websites, and especially hosting software and security packages, far longer than they should. If you’re serious about protecting what you have online, not to mention the future of your company, then get some expert help with the job.

The public won’t forgive you for doing the wrong thing. The biggest lesson for businesses to come out of this whole thing is that if you do something terrible you will eventually be caught, and the public will be anxious to punish you for it. This applies to high crimes, of course, but also minor annoyances like selling e-mail addresses, lying to your customers, and engaging in other shady tactics. In the long run, the men and women who buy from you are your most valuable asset; remember that and treat them appropriately.

Want help avoiding the biggest blunders in Internet marketing? Then contact eKzact Solutions – One of Calgary’s best web design and online marketing team – for a free consultation today.

If you ever have a few minutes to kill, and want to blow your mind, go to your favorite search engine and look for stats and figures on the size of the known universe. We don’t want to spoil the surprise, but it’s big – so big, in fact, that it defies comprehension. And strangest of all, a lot of physicists seem to think it’s still growing.

You might think this wouldn’t have anything to do with Internet marketing, but the reality is that it does. Why? Because, just like the area around and between galaxies, the Internet is massively huge – billions and billions of pages huge – and getting bigger all the time.

Even if you aren’t a physicist or web designer, this knowledge has important implications for your business. Why? Because as interesting as a growing Internet is from an academic perspective, it also means that it’s getting harder and harder to stand out and get the attention you need from potential customers.

Astronomers like to talk about how looking up into the sky can make us feel small and insignificant, in a good way, but there are few positives to having your small business website blend into a cluster of information. In order to have your pages and content stand out and attract buyers, they have to be more than tiny points of light, and more like the comets and shooting stars that streak across the horizon.

How do you accomplish this? By getting closer to your customers and narrowing in on topics, products, and services that appeal to a very specific kind of buyer, rather than anyone who has enough change in their pocket to make a purchase from your site. That means knowing as much as you can about the men and women who visit your pages, where they’re coming from, what they’re looking for, and why they should choose to do business with you, rather than one of your competitors.

The Internet is too huge for any one business to try to compete with everyone, even within a lot of niche markets and industries. That means that you have to narrow down in order to stand out among buyers. Once you accomplish that, though, it doesn’t matter how big the Internet gets – you’ll always be the brightest star in your system.

Recently, we wrote about community managers – dedicated professionals who update your social media profiles, post new content, and respond to inquiries. While this is still a new position in most organizations, and one with evolving responsibilities, it’s becoming clear that having one, even on a part-time basis, can be incredibly helpful.

So the question is: does your small business need a community manager to keep up social networking?

Truthfully, probably not… at lease not any more than you occasionally need a plumber, an accountant, or a dentist. That is to say, you can definitely get by without one in the short term, but is it really worth it to do all of that work for yourself?

In most of the cases we see, it’s not. For one thing, there are just too many sites, with too many new features being added all the time, to stay on top of everything. But what’s more, community managers are becoming increasingly important because of something a lot of small business owners don’t even really think about: their online reputation.

Besides just posting pictures and generating tweets, one of the most valuable things a community manager can do for you is take a look at what other people are saying back to you, and about your business. Because the Internet is becoming more interconnected – not to mention updated in real time – and it only takes one or two negative remarks to put a long-term dent in your company sales. For all of the opportunities that exist for finding new business online, it’s more than prudent to have someone who’s looking out for potential threats to your marketing, too.

So if your company is planning on profiting from social media anytime soon, and it should, make sure you plan on including community managers in the mix. They can make the whole process easier and more efficient… but more importantly, they can help protect your reputation online.

Get the most out of social media marketing by working with Canada’s premier web design and development company, eKzact. Call us today and setup a free consultation – it might turn out to be one of the best things you’ve ever done for your business.

The geniuses working at Google’s Silicon Valley offices must have been pretty busy lately. Not only have they decided to outfit an entire town in Kansas with super high speed Internet, but they recently rolled out their “+1″ feature that allows searchers to share which results they find most helpful. But rather than taking the rest of the month off, as some of us would be tempted to do, they quietly introduced another new feature: Google Guru.

Guru, in a nutshell, is a service that allows users to open up a chat window and ask simple questions they want the answers to. Experts or other users can then help them find the appropriate information, without having to delve directly into Google search interface and find results. What are some of the things people might want to find? Here are just a handful of examples:

• Current weather and forecasts
• Sports scores
• Average prices
• Currency conversions
• Time in a different part of the world
• Geographic questions
• Trivia

… and a lot more. Much of this information could be available elsewhere on the Web, but using guru has the potential to make things faster and more efficient.

From an online marketing standpoint, this probably doesn’t mean a lot for your business at the moment. That’s not to say that it doesn’t matter, however. The introduction of Google Guru means more ties between the world’s largest search engine and mobile devices, more interaction with people instead of search engine spiders, and an overall focus on helping users find the information they’re looking for with minimum effort.

As you consider your online marketing plans going forward, try to find ways to make it easier for people to locate information or do business with you more efficiently. That’s because, as Guru shows us, you’re bound to be rewarded for it sooner or later.

eKzact Web Design and Online Marketing is Calgary’s premier Internet development company. Call us today to schedule a free consultation and find out why!

If you’ve noticed something new about your Google search results today – and not everyone will, since the changes being made are gradually across different locations and browsers – you’re not alone. Google has recently announced that they’ll start adding “+1″ buttons to listings.

What does +1 mean? It’s most similar to Facebook’s “like this” tab, which allows users to point out which pages are destinations they consider to be most helpful. The results are then made public to your Gmail contacts, although this may expand in the future, and Google has some tentative plans to collect aggregate +1 data for sites and pages to see which ones are most popular.

As a web user, this might seem like a neat little feature to share which sites you enjoy. But as an online marketer, it should alert you to some deeper truths and trends. Here are three things you definitely need to know about Google’s new +1 addition:

It’s further blurring the lines between search and social media. By essentially following in the footsteps of Facebook’s like this or Twitter’s “retweet” option, Google is positioning itself less as a pure search engine and more of a social hub. Expect that these Internet giants will continue to battle it out for the lion’s share of your attention.

Online marketers will try to one up each other. You can bet that, as soon as +1 becomes widespread, companies will be trying hard to one up each other with more +1′s. Not only will it make them seem more popular and possibly spread their marketing message, but there’s the chance that it could even help their search positioning down the road, if Google (logically) decides that sites with more approvals should get higher rankings.

Quality content is more important than ever. Ultimately, what +1 does is place more control into the hands of searchers. And what sort of sites and pages will they reward? That’s right, the ones with the most helpful – and most interesting – content. Having high quality writing and video on your small business website has become more and more important in recent years. That trend is only going to continue.

Need a Calgary Web design and online marketing partner who can help you stay on top of the latest web trends? Contact eKzact today. We’ll show you what’s going on in the online world, and how your business can take advantage.

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For those of you who haven’t tried it yet, public speaking opportunities are a great way to position yourself as a leader in your industry, while making a little bit of cash at the same time. With that being said, however, there are a few things you might want to consider if you aren’t planning on making your first paid speech your last.

There are seven quick tips for creating speeches that are entertaining and informative:

Don’t do “death by PowerPoint.” There was a time when PowerPoint was new, exciting, and cutting-edge… unfortunately, that was for about five minutes in the early 90s. Now, it’s just another tool to supplement your presentation. Rely on it too much, and your audience will start to wonder you are trying to hide beneath all those slides and multimedia clips.

Remember that preparation is the best way to beat stress… In surveys, people regularly report that public speaking is their number one fear – one step ahead of dying. You probably wouldn’t be reading this article if you had a crippling fear of presenting to groups, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a bad case of nerves before speech. It happens to all of us.

The best way around this problem is simply to over-prepare. The more you know, and the more ready you are, the fewer butterflies you’re going to feel in the pit of your stomach as your speech approaches.

… And that that practice makes perfect. By the same token, once you have planned out what you want to say, practice it until you feel comfortable enough with the material that you feel like you could give your speech without notes. That’s not to say that you should go without notes, of course, but that put in enough time to be sure your presentation has a good chance of going smoothly.

Avoid repeating yourself. A sign of a weak or unprepared speaker is that they will come back to the same point again and again, using it as a crutch to stand up for the rest of their presentation on. Your audience doesn’t want to hear the same thing several times over, so break that habit of repeating yourself.

Avoid repeating yourself. See what I mean?

Anticipate the questions your audience will ask, and then be prepared for them. In every topic, there are probably 5 or 10 questions that are naturally going to come up. Anticipate them, and rehearse the answers you’re going to give. By thinking about these things ahead of time, you can give replies that are quick, crisp, and insightful – everything you would want for the rest of your speech.

Treat humor, quotations, and statistics like you would a powerful hot sauce. A good joke, an interesting fact, or a timely quotation can all add a bit of punch to your speech… but only if you don’t overuse them. Consider this as you plan out your major topics and talking points; go too far and you will overwhelm your audience and risk having them lose your main points.

Let me start off this post by admitting that I absolutely love Netflix. I’m not employed by the company in any way shape or form, and I don’t receive any royalties from my recommendations (which will become apparent in just a moment), I’m just a huge fan of what they do. And so, like a lot of movie buffs in Canada, I was more than a little excited when it was announced that they were finally opening service north of the border.

Unfortunately, however, what should have been a wonderful launch turned in to something of a black eye for the company. That’s because, in their rush to create good “buzz,” Netflix decided to try to help things along entire handful of paid actors to roam around the event spread “positive chatter” about the service and the company.

Apparently the actors they hired weren’t all that great, because it didn’t take too long for many of them to start spilling the beans. And it didn’t take long after that for a public backlash against the company.

So, the question at hand is this: did Netflix do something wrong by trying to fake good word-of-mouth? Keep in mind that our opinions, as marketers, don’t mean much; it took most of Canada’s buying public a matter of hours to decide that they’d been had.

Really, I think this speaks to the fact that people don’t like to think they are being fooled. They don’t necessarily mind straightforward advertising and marketing, but when you try to slip it in “under the radar” so that it doesn’t look like marketing, buyers feel like you’re trying to get away with something. Maybe you are.

This observation is especially prudent when it comes to social media, which is probably the most powerful “word-of-mouth” marketing forum ever known. While it might not have been intentional, Netflix’s blunder has shown us that there are right and wrong ways to try to use these tools. Doing a good job in letting people talk about it is fantastic; trying to solicit “reviews” from every person you’ve ever met – or worse, paying someone else to invent them – is a different animal altogether. If it looks and smells like something you wouldn’t want to get caught doing it, then don’t do it.

Businesses and marketers have been looking for ways to get around the time and effort it takes to build positive word-of-mouth for centuries. What Netflix tried to do isn’t anything new, and the chances are good that somewhere along the line, another dozen corporations have done the same thing and gotten away with it. But are the risks worth the rewards? Before you decide they are, think about what’s going to happen if you get caught. I bet the executives over at Netflix wish they had.

…also known as Facebook Fan pages.

Our team has been busy producing badges and facebook fan pages recently.  Using Facebook Markup Language, traditional HTML and CSS, we have been developing these new fan page strategies.

Watch for more news in this area, and in the interim, here are a couple of recent samples – > be sure to “Like” when you visit.

Here is the new page for our Social Media Consulting FanPage

Here is the Facebook FanPage Design we did for our Calgary Web Design Company

If you are interested in getting a professional Facebook FanPage Design visit us here to learn more.

Our very own – eKzact page – Calgary Website Designer page

Here’s a quick social media marketing tip for you: make a regular habit of jumping online and posting, at length, about the first things that come to mind. Just go ahead and grab that little filter in the back of your mind that tells you to hold back and crumple it into a little ball. In fact, the more personal, or damaging, material you can come up with, the better.

Don’t worry about it… your employer, business partners, and clients won’t mind one bit.

By now, you’ve surely figured out that I’m having a little bit of fun too. Most of us have figured out (and some of us the hard way) that what we post online isn’t ever really temporary. It can linger with us long after the instant we wrote or thought it in, and often without the sense of context and timing that were originally there.

A purported “guru” in social media recently wrote on Twitter: “Are you promoting your company, your brand, or yourself? All things being equal, people will do business with those they know, like, and trust. Therefore, you are more important than the company you work for, or the products you sell.” This blogger might believe that today, but I wonder if he’ll feel differently in a week, or month, when he can no longer find corporate clients willing to pay him to tell their employees to put themselves first and ignore the company mission. In other words, there’s a good chance he’s going to wish he could take that back.

Moments of extreme candor online at blogs and social media sites may not benefit you in the future. Talking about about personal issues, religious or political views may indeed alienate prospective clients or future employers.

The Internet has a much longer memory than most of us realize when we are using social media. You might think that because you’re not famous, or you aren’t baring your unmentionable parts on a webcam, that what you say or post isn’t going to follow you around. But your thoughts, opinions, and off-the-cuff remarks – especially the ones that aren’t going to look so flattering in the light of day – tend to do a good job of following you around.

What you Tweet, and what you post online, it’s probably going to hang around for a long time, or at least for a bit longer than you are going to be running wild on planet Earth. Keep that in mind, and use it as a guide to stop yourself from saying something that might cost you a friend, an account, a promotion, or anything else – now or years down the road.

As social media continues to pick up steam – not to mention hundreds of millions more users in every part of the world – a lot of small business owners are left wondering how to best take advantage of this trend.

What, they wonder is, what is the secret of social network marketing?

Like the sound of one hand clapping, the trick to getting social media to “work,” at least in terms of seeing real, tangible business results, is a mystical conundrum known and understood by few. But we’re going to let you in on the secret anyway. And that is… there is no secret.

The individuals and businesses who are actually profiting from social media sites usually aren’t doing anything special or fantastic; they were just amongst the first to get there, and continue to use them consistently and efficiently. That means they don’t logon to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter simply to “make a few posts” – they do so every time with the intention of furthering their marketing goals and adding customers to their lists. That’s it.

Too much is made right now of what social media represents. It’s an important marketing tool, and one that continues to gain strength, but it’s hard for it to make a major impact in your business all on its own. If you really want to see the best results, you should be using it in conjunction with the other online tools at your disposal, like search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, strong landing pages, etc.

It might be a little anti-climactic to find out that there aren’t any hidden secrets to turning social media contacts into customers, no secret chants or meditations that will explode your online sales. But, as they say, it’s the truth that sets you free – or at least keeps you in business. The truth is that a Guru is traditionally an older man, exalted by his community, that has years of aged experience – a title that no Social Media Consultants in Calgary deserve. The fact is that I find the terms like “Social Media Guru” and “social media expert” cheap and demeaning. I refuse to compete on that level.

Wish you were getting more from social network marketing? See how easy it is to get help from the great team we have waiting for you – we’ve got the tools and experience to turn online friends into real world customers.  Reach out to me here, at this blog, or at our Calgary Web Design & Search Engine Optimization company.

Almost every business owner or marketer, when they start out with a social media campaign, is convinced that they’re going to have hundreds, if not thousands, of Facebook fans for their companies almost overnight. And yet, once they put up their profiles and get all the pieces in place, the result tends to be the virtual equivalent of crickets chirping, or tumble weeds blowing across dusty streets.

So the question, then, is this: why don’t you have more Facebook fans?

There are a lot of possible reasons, but over time we found that these four tend to stick out again and again:

Not enough people know about you. Few of us are same as those we think we are, or would like to be for that matter. Maybe that’s why the online crowds don’t come beating down the doors the second we open them. It takes time to build a following, so be patient and stay at it.

Your products or services just aren’t that great. In the same way, lots of us think we are a little more competitive than we actually are. We think what we sell is top notch; our customers feel like it’s middle-of-the-road. If you aren’t sure where you fall the marketplace, look yourself up on a review site, or send out an anonymous questionnaire to some of your customers. The feedback might be a little painful, but the truth will set you free.

You don’t have a great brand. This is a related, but separate, problem. Sometimes, what you sell is perfectly fine. However, because people think your company is boring, or “just another vendor,” they aren’t willing to devote the time and energy to connect with or follow you online. If that’s the case, the challenge is to develop a more interesting story and public image.

You don’t participate in social media enough. Just as most businesses don’t simply put out an “open” sign and get flooded with customers, neither is your profile going to attract followers and fans all on its own. Building a strong platform through social media takes time and patience, so do your best to chip away at it in the coming months and years.

If you need to increase the number of friends and fans – or new orders – your company is getting in social media, my partners and I have developed  programs designed just for you. Contact us today at 403-775-2230 or at contact our Social Media Consultants to find out how easy it is to get your online marketing back on track.

Will you be one of the people that has to change your name in the future? Will you have to close your company and relaunch with a whole new persona one day?

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google has predicted that people may indeed be given the opportunity to change their names to avoid exposure to their youthful exploits on their friends Social Media sites.

Schmidt’s comments came during an interview with the Wall Street Journal,

“I don’t believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time,” he says. He predicts, apparently seriously, that every young person one day will be entitled automatically to change his or her name on reaching adulthood in order to disown youthful hijinks stored on their friends’ social media sites.”

“I mean we really have to think about these things as a society,” he adds. “I’m not even talking about the really terrible stuff, terrorism and access to evil things,” he says.

It does beg the question, will you have to change your name? How about your company name. The impact that Social Media and the new “user contributed web” is having on society has yet to be truly measured. I believe we are only now starting to see the real damages surface. While social media practitioners tout the virtues of being “social”, and very often with an emphasis on sales, there is far too little conversation around management of reputation.

Hal Varian posted, on Google’s 10th Anniversary,

“Information technology has enabled the “democratization of data:” information that once was available to only a select few is now available to everyone. This is particularly true for small businesses.”

During a recent webinar, I expanded on that thought and stated,

“The democratization of the Internet by way of user contributed communities has changed the way that data is created. Your corporate story will now be written collaboratively by you, your employees, ex-employees and the public.”

The reality is that, on the democratized web, Corporations no longer create all of their data – they participate in it.

I think it is safe to say that business owners are feeling a stressful pressure to participate in the Social Internet to one degree or another.

As the Borg used to state, on Star Trek, “Resistance is futile.”

Cheers – David A. West
Calgary Website Design

Among online marketers, few things are as misunderstood as search engine optimization. The premise is simple enough: get your site to one of the top rankings for important keywords on Google, Yahoo, or Bing, and new customers will flood in through the virtual front door. The reality, however, is that it’s usually a whole lot harder than that.

Here are three reasons your search engine optimization plans might not be working out the way they were supposed to:

You aren’t being patient enough. There’s no way around this one – SEO takes some time. It’s usually 3 to 6 months before most marketers will even see their site show up in the first couple of pages of search results, and depending on how competitive your industry is, it could be twice as long before you make it to one of the top spots. Just because you aren’t getting a lot of hits yet doesn’t mean your search engine plan isn’t working; be patient, do the right things, and it will.

You are emphasizing the wrong keywords or phrases. One of the great ironies of SEO is that the money isn’t always where we think it is. In other words, even though we think a certain word or phrase is going to be profitable, it might turn out that the best customers are searching for different variations – or something completely different. All you can do, as a marketer, is make an informed guess and then keep adjusting your campaigns as you go along. Eventually, you’ll find the most profitable terms to target.

Your landing pages aren’t doing the trick. Hits mean nothing if they aren’t turning into sales. As important as your search engine optimization content is, it’s just as critical that you have strong sales elements on your landing pages. Make sure to tweak and test different versions so that your buying ratios are improving over time.

The real goal of SEO is never to gather traffic, but to increase sales.

Bryan Eisenberg, who recently lost ½ his body weight, is not losing anything online.

Improve user experience and get higher conversion goals or advertise for more traffic? All major brands focus on constant improvement. Eisenberg presented at the SES Toronto this morning, and I had the pleasure of sitting in on his session. Eisneberg’s presentation “21 Secrets to Top Converting Websites” was excellent. It was also preceded by a warning that the content is confidential, so I’ll have to be sparse about the actual secrets that he disclosed and simply praise him for the value that the attendees received from his lecture.

A few points that I would like to share… some of my thoughts anyways;

Conversion rate is a measure of your ability to persuade visitors to take the action you want them to take. As was discussed this afternoon, understanding your real-world sales process can contribute to your websites ability to convert visitors to potential sales. If your websites conversion goals are low, you may want to take a step back and revisit your website. Revisit the copy on the site and then revisit the design. Finally, without considering your calls to action and sales process, your site may still fail. At eKzact, a Calgary based internet consultancy, we preach balance. Balance design, written content and your calls to action. Only balanced websites can achieve their goals.

One of the questions posed during this session, “should a website owner Improve user experience and get higher conversion goals or advertise for more traffic?”

The point being that without constant review of usability, written content and conversion goals a website owner may well consider saving their money. A website that does not convert visitors to clients is just another pretty picture.

Cheers

David West

Stuart Crawford & I are on the ground and registered at the Toronto Search Engine Strategies conference.

Stuart has selected a series of alternate speakers sessions to participate in. It was relatively easy for us to choose the sessions that peeked our general interests. One of the reasons that Stuart and I are excellent business partners is our evolving core areas of practice. My focus has always been technical. Specifically around website layout, conversion and search optimization. Stuart has successfully built interest in several businesses, including eKzact, by leveraging both face to face as well as online social opportunities.

There is no doubt that the roads are crossing between Social and Search and I am looking forward to exploring this over the next two days at the Toronto SES conference.

Here is the plan for today;

The keynote speaker today is Mr. Perter Morville, President, Semantic Studios.

10:15 – 11a the conference floor is open.

11a – 12p – the first session that I will attend, “21 Secrets of Top-Converting Websites”

1p – 2p – Information Architecture, Site Performance Tuning, & SEO

3:45 – 5p – Bringing SEO In-House: The Pros & Cons

Stuart, already in Toronto, and I will be attending the Search Engine Strategies conference June 10th and 11th. We have been invited to participate wearing our “press” passes and will be blogging through the event. We both consider this an honour and look forward to learning from our peers and sharing our thoughts with you as the Conference proceeds.

The SES Toronto event is in it’s 7th season. The longevity of this seminar is a reflection of the importance of search and how it has impacted business owners. Some industries have indeed become reliant on being found online and as competition has heated up over the past decade, so have the skill levels of search optimization practitioners. Being able to attend learning events like SES  is one of the many keys that separates professionals from people who switch from selling “Franchised Workout Bootcamps” one day to being your Internet Marketing Consultant the next.

I am excited to be heading out to the airport in a short while to shoot off to the big city of Toronto. Many of you may not know, but I lived and worked in Toronto for two years after high school.

Stay tuned as Search Engine Strategies 2010 Conference & Expo is about to begin. See you there!

David A. West

Very often the simple things are the ones that work too. If you need to collaborate, keep track of things to do or manage projects then here are some web-based apps that are free or nearly free that you should have a look at.

Have you heard of Paste Interactive?  These folks are doing some pretty nice work in the world of Software as a Service (Saas). They have produced several applications that are free for you to use (or nearly free). I found these guys several months ago and recently received an invitation to the beta of their newest app called “Paprika”

Paste’s primary apps include Jumpchart, Staction and now Paprika.

Jumpchart is an app that allows web designers to mock-up website content into an interactive interface that allows navigation and work flow, just like a real website. Clients and contributors can then access the moch-up and comment. Reasonable fees are applied as your account grows.

Staction is Paste’s response to group collaboration. Taking all that works from the world of Social Media sites like Twitter, tagging and keywords Staction positions itself to simplify your groups collaboration. Reasonable fees are applied as your account grows.

Paprika uses a simple text based system to keep track of all your tags, dates, and todos fast, and easy. While only in beta, I have to admit, I really like Paprika! After creating a “wiki” type page for a project or task list, you can easily navigate and find items. You can share each page (or project) with collaborators via a private web address. Paprika is free for now and is currently by invite only. I have a few invites in my inbox if you want to try it, comment below.

While the above apps are cool and clearly going to get traction, if not already, I really like this one little “subordinated” application. I say it is subordinate because the little link is tucked way down on the page of apps. http://pleasenotify.me/ Please Notify Me is a tiny little app, that really is quite brilliant. Brilliant because we all need it and because it’s just so darn simple.

Please Notify Me is a little form, no membership account required, where you simply send actionable items to anyone you wish. They will be notified of the actionable item by email. Hear’s the easter egg… they will be reminded daily and so will you! They will continue to receive reminders daily until they mark the item as completed. Really, who doesn’t need this?  http://pleasenotify.me/

Visit the folks over at Paste and check them out. I subscribed to their blog in hopes to be the first to learn about the next innovations coming out of Paste!

Visit Paste today and see what they are up to – Paste Interactive

David West

The iPod, iPhone and the new iPad all have the Safari browser installed. The Safari browser on these mobile devices do not support Flash. Apple will likely be investigated under U.S. Anti-Trust laws. Their policy to not allow Flash is backwards and contradicts what the users of their devices want. Well, that is what I used to think, before reading Apples letter on their website that has put this into a different light.

The founders of Adobe recently posted a letter, and stated that Apples approach in this case is opposite their own approach to openness.

“We believe that Apple, by taking the opposite approach, has taken a step that could undermine this next chapter of the web — the chapter in which mobile devices outnumber computers, any individual can be a publisher, and content is accessed anywhere and at any time.” http://www.adobe.com/choice/openmarkets.html

In Apples response to Adobe, they write a compelling argument as to why flash has not been adopted on mobile devices. They go on and state that;

“Even if iPhones, iPods and iPads ran Flash, it would not solve the problem that most Flash websites need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices.” http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

That statement alone supports my long time argument that websites developed in Flash have a higher cost of ownership to the website owner.

I really did think that Apple was simply stonewalling… putting off the ‘inevitable’ inclusion of flash on mobile devices. I did believe that they are simply protecting the iStore by not allowing flash devlopers to create web-apps for the mobile devices. After reading Apples letter regarding flash, I have changed my mind.

Join me here at 8:45 for a live blog – Stuart Crawford will be starting the Linkedin for business seminar in Calgary. I will live blog the first half hour or so of the seminar.

Join Stuart Crawford and David West from eKzact, leading Calgary SEO Professionals for this very special mentoring breakfast at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce in the heart of downtown Calgary. There will be plenty of free parking at the IMPARK lot across from the new Bow Tower (North) and James Short Parkade (East). We have free parking until 9:30 AM secured for this special Calgary business networking and mentoring event.

During this mentoring breakfast, the team from eKzact will share with you how to search effectively on Google plus other search engines. Maximize your search results and the time you spend looking for information online. There are many secrets to getting the information you need online, and how to go about searching for it. During this breakfast, you will learn the tips and tricks from the some of the best in the business.

Your registration fee includes a great breakfast from the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.
Come out and meet other business professionals in Calgary and learn a couple of new tricks to enhance your online searching.

Event starts at 7:30 and runs to 9 AM.

Register online here –> CLICK IT

To make friends and grow your “circle of influence”

No doubt some people are using social media sites like Twitter to build a list of loyal followers and to follow people of influence. The “social circle” can become an important influence on some. Others may be influenced. A great example of this potential influence is how Google is now returning a mix of search results, including “Results from people in your social circle…” Who better to trust than someone you know?

Drive Traffic to Your Sales Funnel

Probably one of the areas of Social Media that creates the most contraversy… but don’t kid yourself, a lot of people are using social media to drive traffic to their marketing website.

Listen to What is Being Said

Don’t want more friends? Not worred about using social media to drive interest in your products? At the very minimum, if you are not in the social circle, you may miss an important opportunity to manage your reputation. This may be one of the reasons many business owners are adopting social media. Reputation management does not have to be a full time job, but one day, it might be.

And on Another Note…

The VAR Guy, wrote about “Seven Signes Your Social Media Coach is a Fraud” today. He has whipped up a good converstation that is worth pondering. Thanks VAR Guy for your kind mention of Stuart and eKzact.

I recently had a bit of my own rant about Social Media Consultants, among other… here.

Cheers,

David

How about your Search Engine Optimization expert? Do they hold their cards so close to their chest that you have no idea what their next move is?

“Baby Google” Causes a New Industry Called SEO

Only 10 years ago, when Google search was in it’s infancy, a whole new industry started to appear. Search Engine Optimization consultants, or SEO’s, as they are commonly referred to, emerged as a new industry. Over the years there have emerged some excellent SEO practitioners, as well as some less than desirable. Most SEO practitioners continue to do the work of Search Engine Optimization for their clients, but the act of doing SEO is something that can be learned. It is something that can be taught. As the purchaser of these services, I assert that you should have, at minimum, an entry level understanding of what you are buying.

Where Do the Best SEO Practitioners Come From?

Some of the best Calgary Search Engine Optimizers, that I know of, have evolved from website developers into website marketers. It is natural that someone who develops hundreds of websites would be challenged to help their clients get those sites on Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERP’s). I have also witnessed some very driven entrepreneurs create very powerful online brands by doing their own research and implementation. You can effectively get your own website to perform online.

There is no Secret Sauce or Magic Relationship to Page 1

Beware the Search Engine Optimizer that tells you there is a secret formula. A silver bullet that only they can shoot, a special relationship with Google… I met one of these new SEO practitioners recently. My red flags were flying pretty high by the end of our little chat. Unfortunately, the website owner doesn’t typically know enough about this industry to protect themselves from people like this. More and more website owners are tuning in though, and as a result making better decisions when finding trusted advisors.

Enter The Era of a New Industry – and a bunch more confusion

11 years after Google revolutionized the word “search”, a new industry is spinning up. Companies are being driven to find a Social Media Consultant. Enter the era of a new industry, and another confusing purchasing decision for small business owners. Business owners have to decide to learn and do it themselves, hire an employee, or hire a consultant. This industry is, in my humble opinion, even more crazy than that of website development, or search engine optimization. We are seeing people who were Virtual Assistants yesterday touting themselves as an expert in Social Media the next. I’m sorry, but just because you can open a Twitter account or use Facebook does not make you the best advisor for a legitimate business.

We found this at a recent blog posting in Calgary;

I have been helping businesses market themselves for over 10 years, starting off with promotional products and now with Social Media. I understand the value of 140 characters

Anyone Can Tweet – But Does a Tweet in the night get heard?

There is more to Social Media Consulting than just opening accounts and shouting at the World. Having a fundamental understanding of the tools and technologies helps. Having the ability to craft good messages and manage relationships – essential. Having a social media action plan that gives purpose to your chatter online – essential. At the end of the day, if participation in the social aspect of the Internet does not position your business as the experts in your industry, and if it does not allow you to own your online reputation, then what are you getting out of these efforts?

How Many Red Flags can you raise?

If your Social Media Consultant simply brushes your questions off with the assertion that they are the expert, “just leave it to me”, then you should raise a red flag. If your Social Media Consultant does not teach you with the intention that you or your own staff can take ownership of your online “persona”, then you should raise another red flag. If you do not control your social media accounts online, you are at the will of your consultant. Raise another red flag.

Know What You are Buying…

You can learn how to do these things yourself. Indeed you may want to stay focused on your core business. In any case, being educated about these industries will make you a much better purchaser, should you wish to hire a consultant.

eKzact, a Calgary Internet Consulting firm, combines the power of search with the power of social to turn website havers into website owners. We have developed a website owners training process that will empower you to take ownership of your online marketing. Is it time to get started now?

Cheers –

David

As social media and the onslaught of “free-for-all” user contributed content storms the web, until recently one of the few areas you had complete control over was your own website. That recently changed.

Google has launched it’s new “Sidewiki” as a portion to the Google Toolbar. Now as people surf the net they are being encouraged to comment on any website that they visit.

From the moment I upgraded my toolbar to give this “sidewiki” a little go, I can see there is certain degree of anxiety based on the postings on Google’s own sidewiki own  page…

Travis Claridge wrote “How will this affect business and advertising? – this is a very scary tool from the aspect of a business and advertising. How deos a buisness prepare for the PR onslaught and respond to issues brought up through this service? Worse yet… if they don’t adapt quickly they will never even see content written about them.”

Kevin Fox wrote, “Promising, I’m glad to see Google try this… As Google explains their algorithm for comment position – irrelevant or unhelpful comments should sink to the bottom.” He also wrote, “I’m curious how Sidewiki will impact SEO, or will it be a whole new venue for SEO?”

It begs the questions also, when will Sidewiki “comments” be returned as actual relevant search results that then link to the related page?

Skye B wrote, “This is a place for “word of mouth” so to speak. Hopefully with the help of majority of surfers it will be spam free. No more websites or blogs that don’t offer a chance to readers to speak their mind. Some websites don’t post your comments if you don’t agree with them, but those days are gone! Freedom of speech for everyone! Thanks Google”

Interesting that this person, under an alias name, is also the one most concerned about freedom of speech – but won’t put their name to it.

A little shoot over to YouTube to see what viewers of Google’s sidewiki video are saying… and wow, some very interesting comments.  Of course, comments that are welcomed at YouTube may not be so welcome at your marketing website. At YouTube when you post a video you have the option to moderate comments and you can decide which comments should be public… Google Sidewiki does not give website owners the ability to moderate user contributed content.

MrSaxaman1973 wrote, “Those talking about “Freedom of Speech”. This has nothing to do with YOUR speech. It has to do with the website owners Freedom of Speech. You need to be a website owner to really understand. We assemble websites the way we do on purpose. To provide info and services that YES, make us money, but its our money that we are putting on the line & our decision on how to use it. SideWiki is taking that away by enabling random users the ability to direct visitors ($) away from our investments! “EVIL”!!!”

Over now to the seroundtable.com forums to see what the search optimizers are chatting about. Ah, they are chatting about blocking users from accessing websites if they have the Google toolbar installed. Interesting.  The chatter here is to either convince Google to allow webmasters to opt-out on a site by site basis or to simply block users or redirect them somewhere else, like maybe Bing.com for example.

Whitenight commented at webmasterworld, “…this is a lawsuit waiting to happen.”

Just like with Twitter, my jury is out on Sidewiki. I am not sure how this is going to pan out. I can safely say, it is causing a bit of a stir online.

David

Stuart Crawford from Bulletproof InfoTech is at it again, yes, he is starting another blog focused on delivering information to the small business community throughout Canada.

The Canadian Small Business Blog launched over the past weekend with a goal to help entrepreneurs, small business owners and those who work in small business from coast to coast to coast in Canada have a place and a voice in our vibrant community. Small Business is a healthy community and the cornerstone of our economy right here in Canada. With over 97% of business in Canada employing less than 250 staff members, it will be this community which rebuilds Canada after the great economic reset.

Stuart, Vice President at Bulletproof InfoTech, a firm focused on delivering Calgary and Red Deer firms with quality IT services, computer repair, computer solutions and technology consulting has only focused on small business throughout his entire career. “My passion is to help small business get the right information technology so they can build a strong business”, says Stuart.

Check out the Canadian Small Business Blog today at http://www.smallbusinessblog.ca.

Has the economy slowed your business down?

I talk to a lot of small business owners in a week and the general consensus is that most companies have seen a decline in revenue over the past 12 months. You really have two choices to make when your business is slow – cut expenses or increase sales.

Do You Want More Leads from Your Website?

You may have the ability to increase the leads that your website generates.  Have you heard of Search Engine Optimization – my guess is yes. It’s quite a buzz right now. That and “Social Media”… things like Twitter, Facebook and Linked In.

What does all of this SEO, social media stuff mean?

If you are even slightly confused or feeling overwhelmed trying to both understand and implement an online marketing program – we have a solution for you.

What does it do for your business website?

If you cause enough banter online and direct the focus of the various media to your marketing website, the search engines respond by showing searchers links to your online presence. The louder you banter… more traffic.  A well designed website with clear conversion goals will convert those visitors to potential clients.  That’s what search engine optimization, social media and video syndication can do for your business.

I’d like to Introduce you to eKzact

I would like to introduce you to ULISTIC Inc. Our focus is completely on internet consulting and marketing.  Here are some of the things we want to help you with;

• Managed social media, yes we can do it for you. Become a part of a growing Twitter pool and let work at driving traffic to your website or blog
• Search Engine Optimization, get your website showing up on Google for the important keywords and phrases that will generate new leads.
• Website conversion goal review and optimization. Getting traffic is only one part of the big picture… is your website really ready to greet guests and compel them to call you?
• Social Media Coaching and Setup. One and one setup and design of your Facebook company page, LinkedIn, and Twitter account. Setup to automatically cross syndicate you blog writing, tweets and status updates!
• Internet video production and syndication – with a focus on getting traffic!

I was glad to see the recent statistics for website browser usage at the w3school site showed that Firefox is now the dominant web-browser. The simple fact that there are still stats for IE6 are indicative of the issues that Microsoft brings to the web-browser world.

In November 2002 a combined 83% of users used either IE 5 or IE 6. Internet Explorer 6 was released on August 27, 2001, a few months before Windows XP. So it begs the question – why the hell do so many people still have IE 6.0 on their computer?  Someone must have the answer… let me Google..

Here is what one blogger wrote;

“Internet Explorer 6 is always a hot subject of debate. We’ve talked about it here many many times. The forums are full of folks trying to troubleshoot it. The CSS support is problematic and the JavaScript support is proprietary nonsense.”  Source

I believe that a great number of computers in Corporate Calgary are still using IE 6.0. Accordng to stats  90% of the World uses Microsoft Windows – 67.2% Win XP and 18.4% Vista (w3school.com May 2009). So, Microsoft released Vista and 67.2% of their customers did not precieve enough value to upgrade…

This morning when I logged into my computer, I was soon prompted by FireFox to download their newest version of this popular web-browser – v 3.5. So why can’t Microsoft push their browser upgrades in the same manner. Am I missing something here?

Please, people… check your browser and if it was released in 2001 – it’s time for a change.

Download FireFox today. Your IT support team won’t mind

Do you have a Blackberry and struggle to understand some of the basic functions on how to use this device?

If you do, you are not alone. Many business executives, sales people, service engineers, and all other workers have these wonderful devices that are suppose to make our lives easier and keep us productive while away from our office. However, many of us continue to struggle with even some of the basic use of our Blackberry devices.

Bulletproof InfoTech has the answer for you!

Register today for your special half day seminar on June 23rd (morning and afternoon sessions) and take the first step to understanding how to use your blackberry today. Calgary business special price is $199.00 for this 3 hour seminar, held at the Calgary Coast Plaza Hotel at 1316 33rd Street NE. Special Group discounts are available, please call Stuart directly at 403.206.2233 to get yours.

Members of our networking group get in for $139.00, you save $60.00…

You will walk away with valuable insight and knowledge that will save you hundreds of dollars in roaming fees when you travel. When you finish this session, you will have knowledge that will provide you with instant return on your investment and return on life.

Register online today at http://www.bulletproofIT.ca

Red Deer course available on June 24.

Thank You for your time

Join Stuart Crawford from Calgary’s Small Business Specialist, Bulletproof InfoTech and George J Sierchio from Action Business Partners as we discuss one of the most difficult areas of business today, Partnerships.  Partnerships can help your business succeed in new areas with business partners and also allow you a bit of a safety net with others to share your risk.  Water dangers lurk beneath the surface when you go into unchartered waters?  George and Stuart will discuss and share some of our experience with business partnerships, what works? What doesn’t? What to do when you are doing all the work?  We will also share tips and tricks to bring your partnership back up to the surface or when you decide to abandon ship.

Listen live to Small Business Radio on Friday, March 13 at Noon Eastern/9 AM Pacific Time.  Listen live at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/smb.

Miss an episode, catch up on back editions online today.

Are you interested in being interview and sharing your story, email Stuart today at radio @ stuartcrawford.com

Tomorrow is our blogging course, if you haven’t registered yet – visit https://www.ekzact.com/training/index.php

Is it just me, or do some people say things in email message that they wouldn’t dream of saying to your face?

I remember when email was just evolving. I read a note on etiquette and one of the things that the author said was that “at some point all people will send an email that they will regret”.  How many times do you reply to message that raise your hair… only to delete the response. Some email messages have me actually leave my desk and take a walk.

One thing I have noted is that when people are frustrated or feeling lost in a process they might shoot off a note that is borderline rude. It is clear that they haven’t really thought it through. More often than not, the email message is “out of character”. You know, when you think to yourself “that doesn’t sound like Mrs. X”. What is the best way to deal with it?  Ironically I think the answer is to rely on an old technology. Pick up the phone and call.

It seems apparent that people are more apt to write things in email that they quite frankly wouldn’t say to your face. Am I wrong about this?

I always remember that note about “one day regretting an email that I have sent”. I always ask myself, would I say that to a person if they were in the room with me?  If the answer is no… the email gets deleted.

The workplace has to be respectful. The respect is recipricol and has to apply equally between service provider and service receiver.  Some times written corrospondence shouldn’t replace a good old fashioned telephone call.

Tell me your thoughts on this… I would love to see your comment added below.

Cheers -
David A. West