If, like most Alberta business owners and marketing managers, you’re on the wiser side of 30 years old, you probably remember Bob from Sesame Street singing about the people in your neighborhood. From the policeman to the dentist, his songs introduced you to everyone you could expect to see in the real world around you, and the list was always growing.

I think back to those songs at times, especially when I’m explaining the Internet, social media, and online marketing. In fact, I like to bring up Bob in my speeches and presentations. I have two good reasons for doing this. For one thing, whether I’m speaking to authorities in the Alberta provincial government or a group of entrepreneurs in Edmonton, almost everyone seems to remember Bob and what it’s like to meet “a person in your neighborhood.” And on the other hand, it’s a great analogy for the way the Internet has grown.

In its earliest days, the World Wide Web was mostly populated with a handful of young geeks who understood the basics of HTML code. In a relatively short amount of time, however, programmers started to appear as well, and then web designers who made pages more visually appealing, followed by coders who came up with custom apps and languages. The Internet just kept growing and growing – more and more people moved into the neighborhood – until we reach the point where we have search engine optimization specialists, social media advisers, online marketing gurus, community managers, and a lot more.

As the neighborhood has gotten bigger it has become more important than ever for the owners and managers of Canadian companies to know how these different types of professionals can help them grow their organizations and compete online. Just as we have reached a point where we realize the value that comes with having the right accountant, lawyer, or IT professional, having the right online marketing team on your side isn’t a luxury… it’s just good business.

The Internet has grown in complexity to the point where it’s difficult for any business owner, manager, or executive to know everything they need to master the subject. Luckily, you don’t have to – you just have to know who the right people in your neighborhood are.

Want to learn more about Internet marketing professionals, or have David come speak to your group? Get in touch with us today to talk about your event or business situation.

It can be easy to get the itch to imitate something you’ve seen a competitor do online, especially when they’re sitting well ahead of you in the search engine rankings, or expanding their company at a time when you’re treading water and are struggling to get by. In fact, we meet with small business owners every day who are motivated to make a change in their website or online marketing plan simply because they’ve seen someone else do the same.

There are times when a competitor’s move can inspire or necessitate doing something different, but take care that you don’t choose a losing Internet marketing strategy.

Why do we point this out? Because not everything is as it appears from the outside. Unless you have a great deal of personal insight into your competitor’s books, there’s nothing to say that they aren’t pouring a lot of time and money into the wrong things. Or, it could be that they’re drastically increasing their Internet marketing budget simply because the rest of their business is doing so badly. It’s surprisingly common for struggling companies to turn their efforts to find new customers after it’s already way too late.

To keep you from copying someone else’s mistakes, here are a few quick things to look for when examining a competitor’s website or online marketing campaign:

Run the numbers. Take a hard look at what the other company is doing and try to make an educated guess at what kind of return they’re likely to be seeing from it. You won’t have all the figures, naturally, but by talking to your web design team in thinking about prices and percentages, you might be able to come closer than you think.

Imagine what a similar activity will cost you. If you were to try the same thing, or something similar, what would the cost be? Compare that to a conservative estimate of what you think it’s earning them, and then try to decide whether it’s an idea that’s even worth considering.

See if there’s a better or more efficient way. Often times, the first business to try something isn’t the one that gets it right. See if there isn’t some way to improve on your competitor site or idea, and you might just make the breakthrough that they weren’t able to find.

Effective online marketing takes a lot more than a small business website. Contact eKzact – One of Calgary’s best web design teams – today to find out what we can do for you.

Amazing as it seems now, there was a time not so many years ago when no one, except the most tech-savvy small businesses, had regular access to a webmaster or IT professional. Granted, those people were around, but you generally called on them when you needed something fixed, not because you wanted one on staff. Now, of course, nearly everyone has an internal or contracted team to keep their small business site up and running and their technology online – to go without would quickly put your company at risk.

That’s how I’m starting to feel about community managers – men and women whose job it is to keep your online content and social profiles up to date and moving forward.

Why? Because as with all things on the Internet, change is coming faster than most of us had anticipated. Social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter aren’t just gaining steam – they are bulldozing any previous notions we had about how customers find us and communicate with us. The profiles you have on these websites affect everything from your repeat business to your online reputation, and even search engine optimization. To go without them means to give up valuable ground to other companies who would love to take new accounts away from you.

The way a community manager fits into this mix is by making sure your posts and profiles are all up to date, on point, and keeping your online marketing efforts in sync with one another. That’s why, here at eKzact, we’ve made our community manager a big part of our ongoing work, and invite you to take advantage of this service. The web (and especially social network marketing) has simply gotten too big, and too important, for most of us to keep our hands around while still running our companies – why not let a professional help us keep things moving in the right direction?