Thanks to the organizers of Calgary SEO Meetup for asking me to be a panel speaker at the July 14, 2010 Meetup!
It was a well attended meetup, with 5 valuable presentations and great discussions among the group.
Calgary Social Media Meetup July 2010
May 20th, 2010
Calgary Marketing Meetup Summary – Oh My!
The Calgary Marketing Meetup Group, “MySpace, YouTube, Identica, Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook and LinkedIn….. Oh my!”
One of the best attended Calgary Marketing Meetup Group events occurred on Tuesday, May 11th. Six panellists spoke to over 60 attendees, Conversation was spurred by reviewing Backbone’s “Technology Test” – an online multiple choice test that “will give you insight into the areas in which you are strong and those in which you could use some improvement. Consider it a health check: wire your company up to the virtual ECG and see how it performs”.
An attendee, who works in the automotive repair industry stated that due to the high level of competition in his industry, his company needs to respond very quickly to customer inquiries that come in online. Referring to an Inside Sales report, a customer is 100% more likely to use your services if contacted within 5 minutes of hitting your website.
The audience was mostly interested in the technicalities of online marketing. When the panel was asked about preferred web analytics tools Roger Kondrat of West17Media mentioned Crazy Egg and Clicktale, Yves Matson of Found Pages also stated that “there is hardly a drawback of installing Google Analytics”. Statcounter was also a suggested tool for those that prefer an “analytics for dummies” type tool. A key area to check in analytics is your exit pages. “Pay attention to them, unless it’s your contact page” Michael C. Breuer, Technical Director, Calin Daniel Creative.
Attendee Jackie Dumaine, with The Stillness Room endorsed Facebook Advertising, Facebook Analytics and the new Like page. “Facebook gives extreme demographic data, for $5 a day the advertising is amazing”.
What to watch out for? “Mobile Marketing is in it’s infancy” – stated Steve Joyce of Local Search Heros. And apparently “Flash intros are dead!” Ernest Barbaric , Digital and Social Media Marketing Trainer and Consultant “they stall the customer’s need to get what they want”.
Mail Chimp was also mentioned several times as a worthwhile email marketing tool and service that can help companies avoid getting slammed into the Spam garbage pail.
Attendees also wanted to know what your home page MUST have. “It must have a call to action”. Ernest passionately stated. What do you want your customer to do? Buy your book? Book a meeting? It sounds simple, but this call to action is often missed.
The event was so jam packed with meaty and technical information that there was not enough time to delve into how to use Photography and Video online to market your business. Although the topics were touched on, both panellists Brett Gilmour of Gilmour Photography and Tish Bell of BizBoxTV didn’t get the opportunity to share their experience and knowledge…
Overall a fabulous event and fabulous info from a power panel, and all for only $10.
Thank you to Sandra Schultz of Ad Spots who helped organize and emcee the event.
Follow the Panellists on Twitter:
Tish @Tishsdish, Brett @ brettgilmour, Ernest @ebarbaric, Roger @Roger, Steve @localsearchhero, Sandra @sandraschulze, Michael – sorry I couldn’t find him on Twitter, leave a comment if you know his handle.
Join the The Calgary Marketing Meetup Group if you would like to attend future events.
Shannon Bowen-Kelsick (sbk)
Twitter: @sbkelsick
contact me: sbk@sbkelsick.com
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May 17th, 2010
The Art of Marketing Calgary TWEETUP!
It's a Tweetup!
The best part about attending events and conferences is the networking. Are you attending “The Art of Marketing” (TAOM) in Calgary on June 14th? Well let’s TWEETUP before the event!
Come by for an evening of socializing and meeting other TAOM attendees. This is a free, un-hosted, unstructured event. Please RSVP on EventBrite so I can prepare the venue appropriately, and spread the word!
Location: TBA (will be downtown Calgary)
Tuesday, June 12th @ 7:00pm
Twitter: Hashtag: #TAOMTweetupYYC
LinkedIn: And be sure to join join the LinkedIn Event for TAOM. It is a good way to see who is attending, and also stay connected after the event.
If you would like to donate any doorprizes to this event please let me know.
See you then!
Shannon Bowen-Kelsick (sbk) - just attending the event, not affiliated with the organizers
Twitter: @sbkelsick
contact me: sbk@sbkelsick.com
For more info on the The Art of Marketing Events please visit the website: The Art of Marketing
Photo by Flickr Creative Commons
May 9th, 2010
What did Arlene Dickinson have to say about Social Media?
On Thursday, May 6th Arlene Dickinson spoke about ‘The Future of Social Media’ to a room full of surprisingly dressy (I thought we would see more artsy and/or jeans and blazer type Calgarians, there sure were a bunch of suits) marketing related professionals, put on by the Calgary Chapter of the Canadian Marketing Association.
Strange topic for Arlene Dickinson? I think so, she is clearly a marketing expert – no question, but Arlene on Social Media (SM)? She started the night off by indicating it was an odd topic for the CMA to ask her to speak about.I follow @ArleneDickinson on Twitter, she posts several times a day, but one thing that is evident is that she doesn’t engage with her audience, and that is what SM is all about, engaging, and that is what she told us throughout her talk. But then again – she already has a TV show….maybe there is not enough time in the day to do it all!
A shocking stat from the night, when asked how many people in the room were on Twitter – less than 25% of the people in the room raised their hands. We are marketers, we should be testing all the tools, Arlene was adamant about that, “because I don’t want someone talking for me”. “We can’t keep up with most of it, but we have to participate with most of it”.
Arlene pointed out that an established online presense (that includes social media) can help balance some of the negative online talk about brands.
I would rate the event an 8.5 out of 10. The room (Palliser Hotel) was nice, but it was a long room so the tables were far back, there was a screen at the front of the room that I hoped would project Arlene’s image out to us, but it was not used, so Arlene was very far away and it was difficult to see her.
Arlene was kind, honest and very humble. “Calgary should be proud of our marketing talent” was a message she hit on several times, noting that Canadian marketers need to believe in themselves and tell the world that we are here, and we can market!
I found that hypocritical when we hit the Q&A session, when asked “what has made you the icon you are today” Arlene struggled to answer that, she quietly and humbly said “I don’t know the answer to that question, a bit of luck and being in the right place at the right time”.
Really? It may have more to do with hard work, intelligence and determination! Arlene, Arlene, Arlene we don’t believe it was luck 
After the talk and the Q&A she stayed after the event and spoke with many attendees. The best laugh of the night….
When asked by a young entrepenuer: “Arlene what advice could you give to yourself when you were just starting your entrepreneurial efforts?”
Arlene responded: “Don’t get married”.
The room broke into laughter, and I have to say Arlene has one of those laughs that just makes you laugh even more.A tweet from Arlene during dinner:
About to speak at #CMA dinner in Calgary. Topic at dinner table is dental hygiene. Now I need to go check my teeth!less than a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®
Arlene Dickinson
ArleneDickinson
I spoke with a colleague that works at a very successful local advertising agency, his comments “she was preaching to the choir”. That is true, I would have preferred to hear about her personal stories of entrepreneurship and what she has learnt, but she was still delightful and hit home the reason to have a personal online presence that YOU own.
As it goes with most events, it is the interaction with other attendees that can put the icing on the cake. I was able to meet up with a handful of colleagues (thank you Twitter!), and I also lucked out and sat at a great table, we had a great night, and connected with some pretty cool people. A fabulous night.
Thank you Calgary CMA, Arlene and my Twitter connections.
Follow on Arlene on Twitter.
Follow Canadian Marketing Association on Twitter
by Shannon Shannon Bowen-Kelsick (sbk)
Twitter: @sbkelsick
contact me: sbk@sbkelsick.com
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May 1st, 2010
F5 Expo 2010 Vancouver
I thoroughly enjoyed the F5Expo in Vancouver in April of 2010. The networking was fabulous thanks to the use of social media.
I organized a Tweetup the night before the conference which was incredibly well attended. Thanks to everyone for helping make it successful! This Calgary girl was able to meet a pile of savvy Vancouver social media players.
Hopefully next year the registration process for the conference will go a bit better, and the keynote room will be able to fit everyone into
Looking forward to the next F5Expo Vancouver!
At F5Expo Vancouver 2010
April 26th, 2010
Why Do I Follow A Blogger I Despise?
WHY does one have to mention their business, their title, their history and their expertise every single time they write a post?
Come on, I read certain blogs for a reason. I think they are either entertaining or they provide information I am seeking. When we want to know someone’s credentials we seek that out, but normally we just want to read the post. And if the post is well written we will know the person has some credentials, no need to flap them in my face every single day.
It may be for SEO (search engine optimization) reasons, if we determine winners by that alone I guess I will say this blogger wins. Let’s hope he is different in person than online.
For now I will continue to subject myself to this pain and misery, I think I can learn something from it, how not to blog.
by Shannon Shannon Bowen-Kelsick (sbk)
Twitter: @sbkelsick
contact me: sbk@sbkelsick.com
Photo from Flickr Creative Commons
March 24th, 2010
Networking at Events – The Host Mentality
Get the most out of event networking, act as the host!
Hosts benefit greatly at events:
- They meet the most people
- They are remembered by the crowd
And it is generally MUCH more fun to be the host than to the be the person that walks into a room of strangers that is expected to ‘network’.
It’s human nature to prefer that other people approach you rather than you approaching them. The hosts of events usually get an enormous amount of people that approach them for different reasons, and the results are that the host often connects with the more people at the event than anyone else, therefore building their “tribe”.
There are two options we have – host events or act like a host at events.
You can ‘become the host’ a number of ways if you are not the actual host (assuming this would be well received by the actual hosts), here are some ideas:
- Offer assistance to the organizers – Do more chairs need to brought out?Do they need help getting the presentation running? more chairs etc. need to be brought out?
- Introduce people to other people with an introduction line like “Susan spoke at the last event on Search Engine Optimization…”
- Offer to take pictures and to send them out to the audience – many people blog now and would appreciate a real photo to add to their post
- Offer to pass out a page that everyone can write their contact info down and email it out to the willing participants after the event
- Approach the organizers at the end of the event and and offer your help with the next event. Be specific, “I can help with name tags” or “I can bring pens and paper” instead of “let me know how I can help”.
Taking on the host mentality will increase the number of people that you engage with at an event – give it a try.
Shannon Bowen-Kelsick (sbk)
Twitter: @sbkelsick
contact me: sbk@sbkelsick.com
January 4th, 2010
Why I Give a Tweet
The most common comment I get about my profession is “Why would I care about things like Twitter”.
So here I ask myself the same question: “Why give a Tweet? ”
Here’s why I Tweet:
I found the Marketing Community
The number one reason I Tweet is because I live in Calgary, Alberta – and we do not have a very strong Marketing Community – what I mean by that is I have found it hard to connect with other Marketing professionals. We do not have very many options for courses, seminars or conferences – although this is improving. So I Tweet to meet other Marketing Professionals in Calgary and other areas that I can learn from and relate to – it’s kinda like finding your long lost family. I also get great event postings and course postings, and that is valuable to me.
I don’t want to be left behind
Look, I am in my thirties and felt like I was loosing ground on being “in the loop” and “cool” because I did not have a smart phone and had no Tweeps to speak of. This was a bit terrifying to me. I look at our current older generation and feel they are missing out on some pretty cool things if they have not fully embraced technology. I can say that my smart phone and all of the other cool technologies I use make my life interesting, fun, and efficient – but most of all they have allowed me to feel like I am in the loop – and that is valuable to me.
I am building my network
I think that following valuable** people and them following me is like meeting someone and exchanging business cards. We exchange cards, check out our websites – and now we have another contact to refer work to, ask for quotes, buy products and services from etc. But this is even better than just having someone’s card to pull out and maybe call, I follow their business (or life) on Twitter and see what they need, do they all of sudden need a new computer? Graphic design? A good restaurant? Maybe I can offer my services or refer a friend? That is valuable to me.
** valuable people to me are people that I want to connect with – either to learn from their postings, or to see what my customers are doing to ensure I understand them.
I think Twitter is fun. If you try Twitter and hate it – it is not going to work. It should be a fun and entertaining activity that you get something out of.
Shannon Bowen-Kelsick (sbk)
Twitter: @sbkelsick
contact me: sbk@sbkelsick.com