Federal government reimburses wages for SMEs wanting to hire e-business interns
Published on April 29, 2011
The Small Business Internship Program (SBIP), offered by the Government of Canada, is reimbursing over 75% of eligible wages, and related expenses, associated to hiring a student intern to improve competitiveness with e-business marketing practices. Small and medium-sized enterprises will receive support from the program for a twelve week period.
James Parsons, owner and senior consultant at Partek IT Solutions, a Medicine Hat based company, assists companies in creating online marketing and social media campaigns. He expressed the advantage for businesses to seek assistance in e-business and have a strategy in place.
“A lot of online marketing and social media is strategy, “said Parsons. “It’s important to be educated and not just jump into putting up a Facebook page or advertising through an ad without really understanding what it is you’re trying to achieve. There are hundreds and thousands of different online marketing and social media tools out there, and it’s really about finding the right mix for your business and what you’re trying to achieve.”
Youth interns hired through the program can assist your SME by planning and/or executing an e-business strategy; measuring the effectiveness of your current marketing practices through monitoring website analytics; as well as increasing your search engine optimization (SEO) to attract traffic to your website.
Online marketing practices include such things as: e-mail campaigns, blogging, social media, podcasting and viral marketing (electronic word-of-mouth).
According to the top three social media platforms: every minute 35 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube; in March, 140 million Tweets were sent out per day on Twitter; and through the power of Facebook more than 30 billion pieces of content including news stories, blogs and photos are shared in a month, proving to be cost-effective ways to maximize exposure.
Parsons explained that an advantage to online marketing is that anyone can get into it. “It’s not just something reserved for a large company anymore. That’s a huge benefit - the cost of entry is so low.”
Also noted was that the Return on Investment (ROI) from social media is higher than any other advertising stream. “Overall, successful advertising and marketing campaigns use a combination of different mediums. I think it’s just important to recognize that social media and online marketing is one of the key portions included.”
“The advantage of this program (SBIP) is that it’s timely and available now,” said Tracy Heebner, Rural Business Enhancement Officer for the Economic Development Alliance of Southeast Alberta. “It’s advantageous for both the company and student; students are savvy with e-business practices so they’re bringing fresh knowledge to the business and for the student, they benefit from the practical, real life experience.”
Providing access to programs like this, as well as other grants, loans and funding opportunities, the Economic Development Alliance of Southeast Alberta has an experienced business team to assist you through the business cycle. Call 403-488-7015 to book an onsite consultation or visit www.edalliance.ca to see the business assistance available to you.