E-Commerce - Learning To Sell Online

Back in the early 1990's, I worked in the head office of 'General Accident Assurance Company of Canada', in their Research & Development Department. I was very fortunate to be assigned to some of their most innovative marketing, product development and R&D projects.

One of the projects I had the pleasure of working on, was helping to create General Accident's Online Storefront.  Now, in those days, e-commerce sites were built in communities like AOL and CompuServe (yikes, did I just date myself?).  Communities like this existed before the world wide web was used for commercial purposes.  It was really the only option at the time that made good business sense to executive management at GA.

GA's online storefront was more of an information centre for GA's Brokers and Sales Agents - it wasn't really meant for the general public, although you could visit them and learn all about their product and services.  Their main business reason for creating an online presence within CompuServe was to provide a centralized location for GA's international community of Brokers and Agents to visit, so they could download corporate overviews, product brochures, policy forms, insurance forms, and all the necessary business documents that were needed to sign up new business and serve existing customers.

GA was an early adopter of e-commerce and were noted as being a trailblazer in the global insurance industry, as they were the first insurance company to create an online presence.  I co-developed the online storefront, and created the content that was published on the site. I also developed a training program and trained our sales agents and brokers on how to use the system. Those were some 'good old days' - where we had a lot of fun training inside sales staff, attending tradeshows, and travelling North America to debut our state of the art e-commerce site on CompuServe.

Within two years of developing our CompuServe Storefront, the world wide web opened up for commercial use and GA's executive management were one of the first company's to build a website. Naturally, I was part of the web development team and found myself having to learn HTML coding. The coding was a daunting task so we experimented with some early versions of HTML Web Editor software. If memory serves me right, we used HotDog for a bit, then moved on to something more robust, unfortunately I can not recall the name of the product, but it was a paid service and was far superior to HotDog. Ahhh, some good memories.

It's hard to believe almost 20 years has passed and we are now living in the digital economy, where global online sales exceeded a trillion dollars in 2010.  Canadian Consumers spent $16 billion and by 2015 it is projected that Canadian Online spending will nearly double. 

So I'm thinking that if you haven't moved your brick and mortar business to the online world, now is a good time to start because 40% of your potential market is buying your type of services online.

So how do you get started?  

Here is a really good information video that will tell what you need to know about selling online:

If you need additional help getting started, we offer a full suite of training and coaching services that support retailers, small business and producers with marketing automation, digital technology, and new and social media for business.  There is government funding available for digital skills development for small business.

If you are ready to move your business to the online world, we offer a 60 minute complimentary needs assessment. 


To book your session, you can:

1. Call me at 902-724-3330
2. Skype me at sweet.spot.marketing, or 
3. Book online using our GenBook Scheduling Service:  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author: Nancy Beth Guptill
Founder of Sweet Spot Marketing Canada
Marketing & Social Media Training Consultant
http://www.sweetspotmarketing.ca
http://about.me/NancyBethGuptill
Twitter: @SweetMarketing
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SweetMarketing

About Sweet Spot Marketing: Sweet Spot Marketing is a new media marketing training and education company that lives by the motto "It is better to know than to think you know, there is power in knowledge". We have a host of education programs in the areas of digital technology, new and social media, marketing automation, creativity, commercial innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. To learn how we work with government, business organizations and corporate clients, please book a complimentary assessment appointment: http://sweet-spot-marketing-canada.genbook.com

October Events

MAKING IT WORK FOR YOU

Social Media Training for Agriculture & Seafood Producers

In this 4.5 hour workshop, Agriculture and Seafood Producers will learn how to optimize their use of social media to create market interest in their products. You will be introduced to the top 5 social networking tools with a focus on Facebook Marketing, and you will learn how to integrate these tools into an overall Facebook Marketing Strategy & Tactical Plan.


DATES, TIME, LOCATION:
Tuesday, October 25
Hilton Garden Inn Halifax Airport, Nova Scotia
9:30 AM – 3:00 PM
http://conta.cc/MakingItWorkForYouSocialMediaTraining


Tuesday, November 15
Moncton, New Brunswick
9:30 AM – 3:00 PM
http://conta.cc/MakingItWorkForYouSocialMediaTraining_Moncton


TO REGISTER:
Chad MacPherson
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Government of Canada
Email: chad.macpherson@agr.gc.ca
Phone: 902-426-8903
Fax: 902-426-3439
NOTE: Seating limited to 35 participants

E-COMMERCE - LEARNING TO SELL ONLINE

A ProfitLearn PEI Workshop

More and more customers are buying on-line. How can your business take advantage of the power of the internet to sell products or services on-line? This workshop is about first steps in moving towards internet selling.


WORKSHOP TOPICS:
  • Why should I consider an on-line storefront?
  • What are the benefits and risks for my business
  • What are the first steps
  • Success stories from PEI
  • Where do I go from here
  • And more


DATE, TIME, LOCATION:
Wednesday, October 19
Alberton, Prince Edward Island
9:00 AM - 12 Noon
http://conta.cc/E-CommerceSellOnline


TO REGISTER:
 Barb MacDonald barb.macdonald@cbdc.ca (902) 853-3616
 David Gamble dgamble@resourceswest.pe.ca (902) 853-4555


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author: Nancy Beth Guptill
Founder of Sweet Spot Marketing Canada
Marketing, Digital Technology, Social Media Training Consultant


http://www.sweetspotmarketing.ca
http://flavors.me/sweetspotmarketing
http://about.me/NancyBethGuptill
Twitter: @SweetMarketing
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SweetMarketing


About Sweet Spot Marketing: Sweet Spot Marketing is a new media marketing training and education company that lives by the motto "It is better to know than to think you know, there is power in knowledge". We have a host of education programs in the areas of digital technology, new and social media, marketing automation, creativity, commercial innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. To learn how we work with government, business organizations and corporate clients, please book a complimentary assessment appointment: http://sweet-spot-marketing-canada.genbook.com

Why Farmers Are Embracing Social Media: the #AgChat Story

This article is taken from 'Good Business' magazine.

Image: (cc) by Flickr user Per Ola Wiberg ~ Powi.

Rural isolation is a thing of the past, says Madeleine Lewis, as social media opens new windows of opportunity for farmers around the world.

She grew up on a dairy farm, bought her first calf when she was seven, and her husband is a dairy nutritionist. So when British farmer Michele Payn-Knoper was stumped by her Holstein dairy calf not weaning, she did what any self-respecting 21st-century dairy person would: She went onto Twitter to get some advice.

Within 20 minutes she had six ideas. One of them (to put grain directly into the milk) solved the problem and, one year later, her calf has just been bred—a social media success story.

Michele is the founder of AgChat, a moderated Twitter discussion that takes place every Tuesday night. Since its creation in 2009, nearly 10,000 people from ten countries have attached the hashtag #agchat to their tweets, or joined in to discuss issues and share ideas related to food and farming.

It's a long way from the perception that Twitter is "just about what people are having for lunch," and with use of the platform growing at over 1,000 percent a year, it doesn't seem to be going away. The majority of British farmers—56 percent—are now using the internet according to the U.K.'s National Farm Research Unit's 2010 survey.

Phil Gorringe—aka 'FarmrPhil' on Twitter—runs a mixed farm in Herefordshire, England. It's the most sparsely populated county in England, with the fourth lowest population density. For people living and working there permanently, especially farmers working out in the fields most of the day, often alone, that can be isolating.

Gorringe believes social media is a great way to tackle that isolation. As he puts it: "Social media gives a mental advantage when farming isn't going so well. In the last few years we've been dealing with lower prices for our products, difficult weather conditions, and bovine TB. It can be a lonely place. Through social media I can share my problems and realize that others out there have problems too. It makes you feel better."

He's not the only one. Alabama dairy farmer Will Gilmer tweeted his day's work—"209 milked, three bred"—and heard straight back from Ryan Bright in East Tennessee: "all 100 milked and two bred before breakfast." 'Farmerbright' then tweeted that his newly-repaired silo auger—an apparatus to shift grain—is still holding together, and got an offer of a new one for sale.

But farmers are not just reaching out to each other for support. Social media is also a powerful way of talking directly with consumers. For Gorringe and his wife Heather, aka 'Wiggled,' social media has also helped to get an important second income stream off the ground.

Heather runs Wiggly Wigglers, a natural gardening mail order business and online information source in the U.K. for everything from composting to water management. When she puts up a Wiggly offer on her Facebook page, she'll get 30 to 40 orders within an hour and a half, and 7 percent of her website visits are driven from Twitter. It's a very cost-effective form of advertising, she says.

She's not alone. Phil Grooby, of Bishops Farm Partners of Lincolnshire, England, started using Twitter to show consumers what it takes to get peas from the field to the table. Grooby belongs to a pea vining group that harvests about 900 acres each year. He finds social media "a useful tool when it comes to setting the record straight and showing people how farmers care for the countryside."

'FarmrPhil' agrees. "Twitter is the perfect medium for farmers to engage in differential marketing in a world of commodities." Offline, he confides: "We don't do horrendous things as farmers, but we've been brought up to be terrified of the outside world seeing in. It's been a pleasant surprise that when we tell our story via social media people aren't horrified by what we do—it's shown me that there's no need for secrecy."

Social media also offers farmers the opportunity to engage directly with policy makers. "It gives us a level playing field that we've never had access to before," says Phil. "Recently a senior conservation spokesperson wrote on his blog that he didn't trust farmers to carry out the Campaign for the Farmed Environment (an industry initiative to improve biodiversity and resource protection on farms). I challenged him on it and he apologised and changed his blog."

So is social media just a fad? For Payn-Knoper, the answer is unequivocally 'no.' She says it has been a "cultural shift" to connect farmers and help them get the word out about food production. That's why last year she was part of founding the AgChat Foundation with a handful of farmers passionate about social media. The nonprofit aims to empower a connected community of 'agvocates,' by training farmers to use social media. In August 2010, it organized Agvocacy 2.0, gathering 50 people from the agricultural industry to advance their social media skills at this application-only conference. They have plans for more of the same, along with outreach to the non-ag public.

But Payn-Knoper also believes there is a challenge ahead: "The next big thing for social media and farming is a way for information to be more effectively managed through social hubs. Many people are just at the point of information overload."

At Farming Futures we started to use social media about a year ago to do just that, creating a hub for useful information, news and views about climate change and farming from people across the agricultural sector. We run a user-generated blog, reach out to communities on Twitter to do research and share ideas, and make use of other tools and platforms such as Audioboo and Slideshare to share our information in more accessible and interesting ways. Social media can't take the place of face-to-face communication, so we still run very popular on-farm workshops—but it's a great way of getting people along.

Madeleine Lewis is Creative Communications Manager at Forum for the Future. A former radio and online broadcast journalist and producer at the BBC, she co-manages Farming Futures.

Image: (cc) by Flickr user Per Ola Wiberg ~ Powi.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author: Nancy Beth Guptill
Founder of Sweet Spot Marketing Canada
Marketing & Social Media Training Consultant
http://flavors.me/sweetspotmarketing
http://about.me/NancyBethGuptill
Twitter: @SweetMarketing
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SweetMarketing

About Sweet Spot Marketing: Sweet Spot Marketing is a new media marketing training and education company that lives by the motto "It is better to know than to think you know, there is power in knowledge". We have a host of education programs in the areas of digital technology, new and social media, marketing automation, creativity, commercial innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. To learn how we work with government, business organizations and corporate clients, please book a complimentary assessment appointment: http://sweet-spot-marketing-canada.genbook.com

Gender Diversity In the Technological Workplace

Sweet Spot Marketing is pleased to announce our involvement with the "Women's Summit" conference that is taking place in Moncton, New Brunswick September 14-15. 

The ICT Sector in Atlantic Canada is experiencing growth and there are many employment opportunities for skilled ICT workers in Engineering, Health Sciences and Financial Services.

If you are a High School Student, University Student or underemployed woman and you want to learn about the opportunities available in these sectors, we highly recommend this conference which is bringing together top level speakers, industry stakeholders, women organizations, governments, educational institutions.

Below is the conference agenda. 

Agenda at a glance September 14-15, 2011 Ramada Plaza Hotel Dieppe, New Brunswick Wednesday, September 14 5 pm           Registration 6 pm           Networking Cocktail                   Word of Welcome 7 pm           Speed-dating Banquet                   Keynote Address                   Jane Craighead, Senior Vice President                   Total Rewards, Scotiabank Thursday, September 15 7:30 am       Breakfast 8:30 am       Setting the Stage: Technology is                    Borderless 9:00 am       Plenary Round Table I: How                    Technology is Changing the World                    of Work ·      Sucharita Eashwar, Senior Director, NASSCOM, India ·      Sally Ng, Community Engagement & Outreach Coordinator, Tech South East ·      Wes Armour, President and CEO, Armour Transportation Systems ·     Vinita Ananth, President, Vangal, India 10:30 am     Health Break 11:00 am     Plenary Round Table II: Health                    Sciences ·      Suzanne Robichaud, Vice-President, Primary Health Care, Vitalité Health Network ·      Dale Weil, Senior Vice President, Integrated Healthcare Solutions and Pharmaceutical Solutions, McKesson Canada ·      Lori Marshall, Vice President, Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre ·      Trisha Coady, President, NursesNetwork.com/Medsenses 12:30 pm     Networking Lunch 1:30 pm       Feature Address                    Lynn Roger, Senior Vice-President                    Talent Strategies and Executive                    Resourcing, BMO Financial Group 2:30 pm       Plenary Round Table III: IT and                    Engineering ·      Robin Drummond, Vice President of Sales, Speilo ·      Theresa Williams, CEO, Atwood Technology inc. ·      Lily Durepos, Owner, Alliance Assurance and Technologie Keal inc. 4 pm           Wrap-up Programme en bref Les 14 et 15 septembre 2011 Hôtel Ramada Plaza Dieppe (Nouveau-Brunswick) Mercredi, le 14 septembre 17 h         Inscription 18 h          Cocktail de réseautage                 Mots de bienvenue 19 h          Banquet « rencontres éclair »                 Conférencière de marque                 Jane Craighead, vice-présidente                 principale, Rémunération globale,                 Banque Scotia Jeudi, le 15 septembre 7 h 30       Petit-déjeuner 8 h 30       Mise en contexte : La technologie                 est sans frontières 9 h            Plénière en table ronde I:                 Comment la technologie                 transforme le monde du travail ·       Sucharita Eashwar, directrice principale, NASSCOM, Inde ·       Sally Ng, coordinatrice de l'engagement et des relations communautaires, Tech Sud-Est ·       Wes Armour, président et chef de la direction, Armour Transportation Systems ·      Vinita Ananth, présidente, Vangal, Inde 10 h 30       Pause-santé 11 h           Plénière en table ronde II : Sciences                  de la santé ·       Suzanne Robichaud, vice-présidente aux Soins de santé primaires, Réseau de santé Vitalité ·       Dale Weil, vice-présidente principale, Solutions intégrées de santé et Solutions pharmaceutiques, McKesson Canada ·       Lori Marshall, vice-présidente, Centre régional des sciences de la santé de Thunder Bay ·       Trisha Coady, présidente, NursesNetwork.com /Medsenses 12 h 30       Dîner de réseautage 13 h 30       Conférencière de marque                  Lynn Roger, première vice-présidente,                   Stratégies de gestion des talents et                  Renouvellement de la haute direction,                  BMO Group financier 14 h 30       Plénière en table ronde III : TI et                  ingénierie ·       Robin Drummond, vice-président des ventes, Speilo ·       Theresa Williams, PDG, Atwood Technology ·       Lily Durepos, propriétaire, Alliance Assurance et Technologie Keal inc. 16 h           Conclusion
www.diversit.ca/
For more information: Women’s Summit Secretariat Tel.: (506) 861-6340, 1-800-680-1211 Fax: (506) 855-1646 Email: info@diversIT.ca Visit us on :   Twitter Hashtag: #WomensSummit		Renseignements et inscription Secrétariat du sommet des femmes  Tél. : 506-861-6340, 1-800-680-1211 Fax : 506-855-1646 Courriel : info@diversIT.ca
Hosted by / Présenté par:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author: Nancy Beth Guptill
Founder of Sweet Spot Marketing Canada
Marketing & Social Media Training Consultant
http://flavors.me/sweetspotmarketing
http://about.me/NancyBethGuptill
Twitter: @SweetMarketing
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SweetMarketing

About Sweet Spot Marketing: Sweet Spot Marketing is a new media marketing training and education company that lives by the motto "It is better to know than to think you know, there is power in knowledge". We have a host of education programs in the areas of digital technology, new and social media, marketing automation, creativity, commercial innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. To learn how we work with government, business organizations and corporate clients, please book a complimentary assessment appointment: http://sweet-spot-marketing-canada.genbook.com

Improve Communications & Workplace Productivity by using the Power of Social Media and Web Applications

A trend we are beginning to see within our client base is using Social Media and Web Applications to improve communications and enhance work productivity. We are working with companies and industry groups to address these two main business goals by designing custom digital training programs for their staff and members, as they view it vital to invest in digital upskilling.


We can help you accomplish goal and strategy development in your use of digital technology, new & social media and web applications, whether for business marketing purposes, customer relations and engagement, improving communications and workplace productivity.


Need Help?  Call 902-724-3330 or book online at:  http://sweet-spot-marketing-canada.genbook.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author: Nancy Beth Guptill
Founder of Sweet Spot Marketing Canada
Marketing & Social Media Training Consultant
http://flavors.me/sweetspotmarketing
http://about.me/NancyBethGuptill
Twitter: @SweetMarketing
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SweetMarketing

About Sweet Spot Marketing: Sweet Spot Marketing is a new media marketing training and education company that lives by the motto "It is better to know than to think you know, there is power in knowledge". We have a host of education programs in the areas of digital technology, new and social media, marketing automation, creativity, commercial innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. To learn how we work with government, business organizations and corporate clients, please book a complimentary assessment appointment: http://sweet-spot-marketing-canada.genbook.com