I remember one of the highlights of being a kid was when my parents allowed us to walk to the Quick Shop. That was the name of the closest corner store—where we would buy candy, chips and soda. The Quick Shop owners knew us and it was always such a thrill when we were able to go there unaccompanied by our parents! There were other corner stores close by, but we always went there. All the kids in the neighbourhood did.
Read the rest of this entry »

My last post was about understanding your customers offline in order to understand what the mandate and goal is for the target market you want to reach and how best to reach them. You need to talk to them and find them, so that you can be sure that you are aiming your strategy in the right place.
Read the rest of this entry »

Many months back I wrote about the Korean BBQ street vendor: a guy who had an idea for tacos—that featured Korean BBQ. He parked outside of the clubs late at night for weeks with no action. He  then went to the famed Robinson Blvd. where the famous Ivey restaurant resides and the paparazzi shoot the lunching celebrities……still no action. Next up was Twitter and Facebook…and before he knew it, the line ups were around the block.
Read the rest of this entry »

As many of you know, this past summer I was confronted with several technological challenges—including the end of the PC that I had come to rely on for everything. After some consideration, I chose to have my technical architect construct a PC from individual component parts—rather than purchase a branded product such as Dell or Hp—with the hopes that if some of the parts died, I could replace them or upgrade them as my needs and business changed. I also decided it was now time to add a lap top to my business tools so that I could be more mobile. I do own and use a Black Berry—which I now cannot live without—but it’s still limited when it comes to handling documents and other things I use for business on a daily basis.
Read the rest of this entry »

It’s not just the large companies that are getting in the Social Media game—it’s also the small “mom and pop” shops that show how success can be attained in building customers by using twitter. For those that are looking for case studies to support the notion that social media can drive success (proof that it’s safe to dive in) the article I am going to post from the New York Times is for you.
Read the rest of this entry »

In the last couple of weeks I have been talking to several potential clients about how they can integrate social media into their marketing mix and how will they determine whether it is beneficial or not. Linkedin is turning out to be very beneficial for me as I connect with businesses both here and abroad and find ways for us to partner with one another. The article below provides the most superb overview regarding social media and measurement steps. I got this from Ed Stilava who posted the article on Linkedin—a social media community for professionals—and he got it from  Econsultancy Digital Marketers United. It is this vast net of engagement with like minded people, who can share an infinate amount of info relevant to YOU, that can then be shared as I am doing with this post. That’s what makes social media so powerful.
Read the rest of this entry »