November Entrepreneur Meetup!

November 18(Thu) 7:00PM

Location: 422 Richards Street 3rd floor Vancouver, BC V6B 2Z3  

The Network Hub (www.thenetworkhub.ca)

Where has the year gone? We are nearing the end of 2010 and this will be the last Vancouver Entrepreneur Meetup of the year! We are going out on a bang with a topic that everyone has been asking for – generating more traffic to your website! I hope to see you all at this last Vancouver Entrepreneur Meetup of the year!!!

For many years, a lot of questions have been raised about Search Engine Marketing – How do I get listed on the 1st page of Google? How can I get more targeted traffic to my website? What can I do to increase lead conversion on my website? What is this local marketing or targeted local online marketing?

It is all very dizzying to keep up and get going for entrepreneurs and small business owners. This month we are fortunate to have a leading expert in Search Marketing who will be giving practical tips that you can take and use right away. No lingo, no theory – just useful and practical tips that help you see the impact right away.

Search Marketing is very important for entrepreneurs – it’s an effective method for driving highly targeted visitors to your website. Without search marketing, your website and online store is buried deep in the thousands of results that a search engine produces.

This month, our guest speaker is Adrian Eden. Adrian has experienced a great deal of success in increasing visibility and profitability of his clients thanks to his ability to consistently deliver exceptional results.

Adrian, borned and raised in Salmon Arm is a small town boy who moved to Vancouver after many years in Costa Rica, is the founder of YaletownSEO.ca – an online search marketing company. He spent many years holding key marketing roles in Fiver Media and Riptown Media, executing results for the Bodog Brand. Right now, Adrian is one of the key people behind the Search Marketing and Social Media Strategy for Coleman Heating and Air Conditioning.

If you want to get practical tips to increase traffic to your website, increase engagement online and more importantly, increasing your online profitability – make sure you RSVP to hear Adrian Edenspeak!
The event is FREE but we do appreciate a bottle of wine to share with everyone.

Sign Up!

http://www.meetup.com/vancouver-entrepreneurs-startup-vancouver-office-space/calendar/15383841/?from=list&offset=0

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October Entrepreneur Meetup!

October Entrepreneur Meetup!  “Can social media help grow your business?”

On October 21, The Network Hub held the Vancouver Entrepreneur Meetup at the office (422 Richards Street, Vancouver).

 We had a guest speaker Yu-kai Chou and over 150 people in attendance. Yu-kai is a Serial Entrepreneur and Social Media Advisor with over 5 years of adventures in the high tech startup world. He is the Founder and CEO of Viralogy Inc., a Social Personalization and Analytics Platform for eCommerce sites. Yu-kai’s team has also run many successful social media campaigns for LG, Levi’s, Los Angeles Lakers, Activision and more.

He spoke about the importance of social media. When he asked the audience if they were using social media, almost everyone raised their hand. Social media is one of biggest marketing tools and strategies out there. So, the audience listened carefully and asked lots of questions.

The meetup was packed with energetic people! There were lots of different business ideas being discussed. I think new connections and resources for business were made!  

I enjoyed meeting, chatting, and wine-ing with cheerful and dedicated people. In addition, Goldies Pizza supplied us with a few tasty pizzas and those were gone instantly! And thank you to Lonsdale Event Rentals for sponsoring us with beautiful glasses and tables!

  The Network Hub is planning a bigger meetup in early December. Don’t miss out!

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Community Building And Social Media

I’ve been having an on going and spirited debate with a good friend about the value of online social networks, and the usefulness of social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook.

The other day, he sent a provocative email addressed to me and our group of friends. In it, he quoted several articles from psychology magazines that in essence claims the only value of Twitter is to create and nurture a narcissistic society. My friend goes on to say that there is no real use for it other than for marketing and creating ‘plastic relationships’.

I understood, in part, where my friend was coming from. There are definitely aspects of social media that are narcissistic and plastic. But that’s because the online world is made up of people from the real world, which is a mix of the good and the bad. Unfortunately, just like the real world, it takes time and a bit of effort to find and connect with the good people amongst all the noise.

I also understand that his email was partly motivated by the difficulty he’s been having in getting in touch with me via phone, email or in person. He’s right to be frustrated, and he’s right that I need to put in more face time with my friends. However, I take exception with the claim that these tools create nothing but ‘plastic relationships’.

I’ve been using these social media tools lately to reach out to Filipinos in Vancouver, as well as across the globe.  My friend, 

RJ Aquino, and  I have been trying to connect with the younger generation of Filipinos in Vancouver, in an effort to bridge the perceived gaps between the more established Filipinos in Vancouver and the more recent Filipino immigrants and overseas foreign workers. The experience I have had with this group these past few weeks has shown me that these relationships do not have to be merely ‘plastic’.

Below is an excerpt of the email response that I sent out to my friend. Please forgive the slightly brassy tone of the email, as it was sent to an old friend and we’re used to talking to each other in this manner :

Through my experience in the past few weeks, I’ve met a lot of caring and passionate Filipinos online, some through Facebook, and some through Twitter.

I’ve always emphasized that these tools, if you wanna use them to make connections, should only be a starting point. (Using it as a curative tool for finding reliable interesting info is a totally different application)

By sharing ideas, articles or engaging in conversation through Twitter, you get an idea of where people’s minds and hearts are at.

At this point you can move from being like-minded strangers online and into a real-world community.

This is what’s happened with our little Filipino group. We are slowly but surely, building a community of passionate and caring young Filipinos, who wants to a) connect with other Filipinos and their culture b) Help pass our heritage onto 2nd and 3rd
generation Filipinos c) Enable positive cultural identification in a group that is sorely lacking it, and d) Help new immigrants who have a difficult time adjusting to this new land due to point c.

The open system of Twitter has allowed us to find each other here, and connect with Filipinos back home, through exchange of ideas. Lacking a geographic centre was no longer as big of a drawback. Nothing replaces face to face contact, and we have had several events since then, including the Wine & Keso night on Friday, where several young people spoke up about being tremendously excited and happy to find this ‘Community’ that we’re building. Everyone is enthusiastic about finding out what the others are doing, and seeing what they can do to support each other’s causes and events, and learning from each other through volunteer run workshops.

….., my very good friend, do you want to attend our next gathering and speak to these teens that have been sparked up with hope and excitement, and tell them what they are feeling in their heart is all merely ‘plastic’.

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Hungry Girl’s Guide: Zero One Sushi

There is huge value for small businesses to be on twitter. A lot of small business owners are just slowly adopting social media to grow their business and some have fully embraced it; here is an example of a super small business using social media to their advantage – Zero One Sushi.

Zero One Sushi is a small sushi shop; it literally is very small but it is conveniently kitty corner to The Network Hub. For the long working days when I simply do not have the energy to venture very far to find food, Zero One Sushi’s social media savvies help lazy hungry entrepreneurs like me by having everything online. Zero One Sushi (@sushizeroone) tweet their daily specials and also has a very handy online ordering system.

When I am feeling REALLY lazy and don’t feel like picking up my food, Zero One Sushi is there to deliver! I can find out through twitter when their last call for delivery is. Asides from daily specials, Zero One Sushi also takes advantage of their twitter account to do promotion – such as their “Beat HST !! We pay this additional 7% for 1 month in July 2010 !! Here are the rules: 1. follow us on twitter.” From their online presence and the sophistication of their use of technology, I thought it was a huge restaurant operation but it wasn’t.

Zero One Sushi - Twitter Account

Zero One Sushi - Specials + Promotion

Today I came in to get my usual smoked salmon salad and mini kimchi udon. Their foods are always tasty and guess what, no HST on my bill, but only for this month!

Zero One Sushi - Interior

Zero One Sushi - Vancouver

Zero One Sushi - Kimchi Udon

Zero One Sushi - Smoked Salmon Salad

I hope Zero One Sushi inspires your company to embrace social media to grow your business.

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My experience with event marketing

In the last 2.5 years, I have managed and promoted a lot of events, but for this particular post I will speak about the Vancouver Entrepreneur Meetup.  I took over the role of organizer for http://www.meetup.com/vancouver-entrepreneurs-startup-vancouver-office-space/" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(38, 62, 84);" target="_blank">Vancouver Entrepreneur Meetup in June 2006. At that time we had about 200+ members, today we have about 2000+ members.   Our mission for http://www.meetup.com/vancouver-entrepreneurs-startup-vancouver-office-space/" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(38, 62, 84);" target="_blank">Vancouver Entrepreneur Meetup was the same as our mission for http://www.thenetworkhub.ca" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(38, 62, 84);" target="_blank">The Network Hub – connect, create and collaborate.

When we first started, our first meetup (which took place in http://www.meetup.com/vancouver-entrepreneurs-startup-vancouver-office-space/calendar/5005808/" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(38, 62, 84);" target="_blank">July 2006) consisted of about 14 people. It was a seminar format and we relocated at SFU Harbour Centre because our office was just a couple of days behind on finishing construction (for those doing some calculation in their head, yes, we did open before Workspace).   Our very first guest speaker was http://www.pamelachatry.com/" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(38, 62, 84);" target="_blank">Pamela Chatry and, bless her for taking a chance on me, she trusted me enough to come and share her wisdom with the group.  Getting the word out about the group was difficult; people hesitate to promote a group that is so new that they have not made up their mind about how they feel about it yet.  We posted on http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/cal/" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(38, 62, 84);" target="_blank">Craigslist community events and posted on a few local event websites but it was all very random.  We gained a few members but they just joined to see what’s going on, they didn’t engage or RSVP to attend the event. But the people who were coming regularly were strong believers and supporters of the Meetup.

I am referring to loyal, long-timer supporters of Vancouver Entrepreneur Meetup such as http://www.facebook.com/josh.ellwood" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(38, 62, 84);" target="_blank">Josh, http://www.addcoach4u.com/" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(38, 62, 84);" target="_blank">Pete , http://www.sohosalescoaching.com/" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(38, 62, 84);" target="_blank">Tom, Efrain, and Arash.  They were the tipping point of the Vancouver Entrepreneur Meetup. They not only told their friends about it but they brought their friends.  Tools such as Craigslist, event websites and even Facebook group/event invites were just awareness tools; it was the people who were believers that made that extra push – from awareness to engagement.

We’ve tried many different things: tradeshows, posting online events, Craigslist, flyering, cross-promoting, building ambassadors. We put flyers in coffee shops, libraries, bars and cross-promoted with different entrepreneur clubs (this was our guerrilla marketing effort).  Do we use these tactics anymore?  Not as much, because Twitter, and now Facebook Fan Pages, do a better job assisting us.

Fast forward to this year, we had about 1800 members to start the year and we are now ending the year with about 2200 members.

What do we do today? We use Twitter and we cross promote with other organizations with similar interests.  Did we get lazier?  Yes! Have we gone outside? It’s not flyering weather. Jokes aside, Twitter works very much like flyering, as well as posting to online event websites, except that I can add the personal touch by directly connecting with persons of interest and inviting them to events.  Vice versa with organizations, I can personally tweet them about the upcoming events and invite them out.  But the #1 reason why we are able to sit back a bit more and why the Meetup was able to gain the membership we have up to date? The PEOPLE who are our ambassadors!

If you offer value to people and they deem it useful to their lives, they cannot help but talk about you.  Remember, don’t get lost in the tools.  Social media is not so different from ads in newspaper or television advertising: just because you are shown on TV or is retweeted it does NOT mean that you will gain an ambassador who will go out of their way to tell their friends, invite their friends and get their friends to engage with your event/product/service.

Once you gain an ambassador, do everything in your power to fulfill and exceed their expectations.  Rain or shine, Meetup will always take place on the third Thursday of every month (with exception of summer when networking in a room full of people can get too hot).  Every guest speaker is vetted, and once in a while, I like to mix things up to keep the event fresh such as Meetup of Meetups or a mini tradeshow.  Sometimes I make mistakes: the speaker isn’t as prepared or the topic isn’t as interesting, but that’s ok because my ambassadors will let their new friends know that next month will be even better.  These kind of conversations and support can hardly take place on a platform that only provides 140 characters nor can they be done with a “like” button.

I hope this helps you think about your social media/guerrilla marketing strategies. Feel free to ask me any questions you need using the comments below.  On a side note, follow us on http://www.twitter.com/thenetworkhub" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(38, 62, 84);" target="_blank">Twitter and be a http://www.facebook.com/thenetworkhub" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(38, 62, 84);" target="_blank">Facebook Fan if you are interested in great networking opportunities and interesting workshops geared for entrepreneurs and small businesses.

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