Dictionary.com

 There’s really only a few plausible reasons for operating anonymously on Twitter. 

1. You intend to criticize and don’t want anyone to know who you are.
2. You have a specific negative agenda.
3. You are breaking a rule of your employer by using Twitter.
4. You are fearful of others opinions.
5. You are a contractor, and you’ve been hired to operate this account.

NOTE: Here at fusedlogic we have operated Twitter accounts for other organizations and whenever asked directly who we are, we disclose that information.

There may be more than that but these are the most obvious. 

Today, something I put out on to Twitter was retweeted by the anonymous account @NewsatSherPark.  

Here’s what I find interesting.  I asked the person behind the account to introduce themselves.  They refused.  Why this is interesting is this exchange in particular. 

The real question is why, if someone wants to spread positive news and be of good cheer do they need to be anonymous?

Analyze the followers, and who is being followed by this account.  There lies not only indications of the true agenda, which I believe is a political one, but there’s also a clue as to who might really be behind this account.  I admit, all assumptions at this point.  However, let’s continue to observe the @NewsatSherPark account to see what is revealed.  

Now, I don’t care if it’s a positive agenda about politics or garage sales.  I do care however, if people are being disingenuous and attempting to sham people, especially under the guise of “being positive”.  

There’s very little credibility behind this account based on actions and statements to date.  And its reasons for existing doesn’t jive with being anonymous.  

I don’t recommend that businesses or political campaigns take this type of approach with their social media and digital strategies.  

Want to have an account that’s all about being positive?  Fantastic!  No need to be anonymous.  

Do you agree?  If you do, ask the account listed above in your own words why they’re choosing to anonymous?

Often “strategy” gets confused with “tactics”.  This blog post is a tactical one since I’m writing specifically for the audience at Edmonton’s iMedia Conference 2013, taking place today at the Fantasyland Hotel at West Edmonton Mall.  

Here are a few common sense thoughts on blogging.  

1.) Why are you blogging?  What is your long-term goal for your blog?  

Here at fusedlogic, I do most of the blogging, (when I have time).  I recognized that I’m not going to be blogging daily.  Just too busy for that.  So my goal with this blog is to write when inspired.  That can be infrequent.  In fact, over the last couple of years, very infrequent.  This blog has fallen off the radar and as a result so has our audience…but business is rocking.  

So the goal for the fusedlogic blog is to support our business objectives but not necessarily drive them daily.

2.) Timing and relevancy.

You can drive audience by being “johnny on the spot” and releasing a timely, relevant blog to the right audience.  Look for those opportunities.  Do your homework though, sometimes in a rush we get things wrong, then you spend time managing the fact you got it wrong instead of desired conversation about the original topic. 

3.) Want audience?  

Be consistent.  Some of the greatest bloggers in the world have achieved that status in large part because they’ve been relentless in their consistency.  Everyday, content is produced, optimized and distributed through predictable channels.  Don’t forget to provide links and references.   

4.) Build rapport

I admit, I’ve been a hermit.  Losing multiple family members, going through a divorce, and ultimately watching the business slide because life sucks (2011,12) doesn’t inspire one to go and leave comments on other blogs.  You however, should do that regularly.  I will again too, life doesn’t suck so bad, in fact, it’s quite good but I still miss my family members.

5.) Be genuine, authentic, real

I’ve pushed the boundaries here at times.  I can get cantankerous.  That said, I’ve learned that what can be great blogging fodder may not be great for the brand long-term.  Independent bloggers who have sugar mommy’s or daddy’s bringing home the bacon every day enables them to blog without any rules or reservations. As such, many don’t play by the same rules as corporations.  We have something to lose, they don’t.  So find your voice.  Too real can be a genuine disaster unless you want to become the “shock jock” blogger in your area of focus.  Then you better own it, or it’ll own you. 

My thanks to Carol McBee

Carol McBee was kind enough to invite me back to her conference, and this year I’m privileged to sit on a panel about strategic blogging.  For one thing, it forced me to write a blog post, albeit a short, simple one, but I have to get back in the groove.  Also, I get to sit on a cool panel with some cool cats.  And finally, it’s on a Sunday which means I get out of washing clothes today, not sure what I’ll wear to the conference, whatever I come up with might make for a great flickr set.  

Thanks for the invite Carol, you’ve made a big difference.  Here’s to another successful conference year for you and the WeCanYeg team.

There’s a lot of great bloggers and social media enthusiasts at this year’s Edmonton iMedia Conference. 

Project details

Project budget: $1,500.00 + we will promote you as our designer.  Success means there could be future client project work if all goes well.  We won’t go over this budget, but would be happy to pay less, that said, the lowest price is not the only deciding criteria.  

Project timeline: 45 days

Media included: text, video, images, audio

Project priorities: Mobile friendly, SEO, branding, fast loading UI, interactivity, content migration, your design process

Design style: Clean, modern, minimalistic, elegant, simple, highlights our services intuitively

Winning

We’ll choose the winning bid, designer or design firm when we find the right feel for us.  We reserve the right not to award the project should we not find the right design fit.  Our goal is to get this project going on or before April 15th, 2013.   

Other things that are important to us include your ability to communicate your process well.  Your experience level, design style, and capabilities to raise the bar of our brand through design.  

Also, you will be asked to sign a Non-disclosure agreement with us before you take on the project.  

Would you like the fusedlogic.com redesign project?  Get our attention by showing off your talents.  

Leave a comment here on our blog if you like.

@fusedlogic

Submit your formal bid: info[at]fusedlogic.com 

Hide, duck, stay silent.  ”Best to say nothing,” stated zero tolerance oil company lawyer.  

Hey if you’re doing a poor job then own up to it.  If you’re doing a great job, get to the podium and explain it…fast.  It took Shell nearly four days to provide a statement regarding the fact their arctic drilling rig Kulluk was bobbing around like a champagne cork  then run aground in Alaska.

Many in Alberta’s energy sector think they’re doing a bang up job reaching out to the world.  Excellent communicators?  There’s not a lot of folks I’ve talked to that would state that.  In fact, I heard a top oil exec state, “we communicate like dinosaurs…”

Now that’s an accurate, honest statement!

Some suggest we should lay off the oil executives.  Bad management isn’t the issue they say…  

When you match the level of revenue these companies generate as compared to the amount they spend on innovation…there’s a huge disparity between the two.  They just do what they do.  Nothing changes unless you hit them with so many lefts they beg for a right.  Lots of air sauce and wind pudding served with little substantive change in approach. 

Dinosaurs indeed.

So what should they do?  Well, first recognize that the environmental lobby isn’t going away.  Second, have more dialogue with them instead of running and hiding.  Now sure, the environmental lobby can be ridiculous, and over the top in their antics. However, they’ll almost always feel justified in their near militant action since the energy sector is non-responsive. 

My hope is that more open and honest communication can happen between the energy sector, and those who own the resource here in Alberta.  Better communication.  Stop sticking your heads in the bitumen hoping it’ll all just go away. 

Change is tough

In order to accomplish this, a change in the “old guard corporate culture” is required.  That’s going to take a long time, so I’m not holding out for an overnight success at all.  The only thing that moves the energy sector is the pursuit of money, everything else is secondary.  

Show examples

That said, if you have witnessed a positive communications effort by an energy sector company point it out here, let’s identify the good ones and provide them with support.

So how as parents can we protect our children while they use social media, and digital communications to interact with friends, family and yes, strangers. 

Here are some simple security tips

Education

Facebook profile privacy settings

As parents in today’s digital reality we need to understand Facebook.  We also need to learn the security options that Facebook has.  Do not expect Facebook to protect your children.  Do not expect any social network to think of anyone but themselves when it comes to privacy and personal information.  Here is where you can go to see Facebook’s privacy policy.  There’s a great CNET article on recent Facebook privacy changes that’s also worth a read.  Do your homework.  Pew Internet is a great resource.  

Open Communication

Once you understand the privacy policy, and settings for Facebook or other social network, you need to have an open conversation with your kids about it.  Help them understand that they should never share private information with people online.  Depending on age you may want to be right beside them as they communicate.  

Phishing

Educate yourself and your kids on “phishing”.  This is where scam artists attempt to get your private information by fooling you into thinking the link or email is from an official source.  On Facebook, there will be links to websites with claims of free stuff, once you click the link you are compromised.  They might hack your Facebook password and control your account, they might insert a “key-logger” software or malware so that it records all the things your type including passwords to internet banking etc.  

A great rule of thumb is just don’t click on links left out of the blue trying to offer something for free or sell something.  Don’t click the link unless you really know or trust the person and there is a conversation for context involving the link.

Here’s Facebook’s Security Page where some of the latest issues will be talked about.   

Security Add-ons

Technology can help you monitor activity.  Here’s a fantastic list of security applications by PC World that has some great applications for you to consider.  Minor Monitor is free and has lots of functionality to alert you of issues when they arise on your child’s Facebook profile, wall posts and comments. 

Secure Behaviour

Establishing rules of engagement that are based in secure behaviour with your kids is important.  Most people’s life exists on computing devices.  Your identities, business information, banking information and location of your children.

Set some simple rules for not sharing of information, location or things about everyday life that could aid a predator or scammer to learn how to compromise your life in a negative way.  

For the second year in a row, the Edmonton twitter-sphere and local Edmonton media are buzzing over the debate whether the tweeting of police checkstops is acceptable or not.  Everyone agrees that drinking and driving is unacceptable.  However, the real underlying issue should be whether City of Edmonton police checkstops are actually effective in changing behaviours. 

I appeared on CTV Edmonton yesterday, and was asked if about the actions of The Treasury Vodka Bar twitter account, and tweeting City of Edmonton police checkstops.  Also, what Edmonton businesses should do to prevent this kind of social media issue.  The CTV Edmonton story structure is short, and doesn’t tell the whole story.

Also, this story angle is has been the approach of Global Edmonton and Edmonton Journal as they pursue the story.  

I believe that The Treasury did get caught unprepared.  This is what happens in a business without clear communication protocols.  Publicly tweeting they were hacked, then communicating on a different social media platform, Facebook that they were taken advantage of by a former employee doesn’t make the owners look very professional.  Followed up by allegedly deleting negative entries on Facebook just adds fuel to the fire.

There is no doubt they’ve done damage to their brand.  This will equate to lost revenue in less patrons going to their bar.  There’s several lessons to be learned here for business.  

That said, the much larger story remains.  Are police check stops actually effective in changing behaviours among drunk driving offenders?   And what can the Edmonton twitter-sphere do about it to increase effectiveness? 

The story on CTV Edmonton did not look into these questions.  However, I think they should. 

What if the Edmonton twitter community decided to consistently tweet fake police checkstop locations?  

The conversation about this debate rages on.  It’s a good one, this is an important issue. We all want drunk drivers off the road.

This isn’t whether the Edmonton Police are competent.  They are.  Statistics show that the Curb the Danger program does catch drunk drivers but requires the public’s help to accomplish that.  The police can’t be everywhere, but what if they were?  Figuratively speaking.

Some may want to debate whether the police should have the Charter of Rights power to perform checkstops as in this CBC report earlier this year.  

In this case, I want to encourage further debate on “curbing the danger” of drunk driving.  That saving of life trumps human rights for me at the moment.

Every year for my entire life people have died from drunk driving.  All due respect to MADD, policing authorities, and government but the current solutions are not working to change behaviours at the pace required.  One death is too many.  

So what is the solution to this twitter issue? 

What if MADD actually coordinated a plan with the City of Edmonton Police Service to tweet fake check stops?

What if the Edmonton twitter-sphere, and Facebook community followed suit and assisted?  Posting fake check stop locations.  In this case, the white noise of fake locations done properly with the assistance of city police and MADD I think would actually work to confuse and misguide would be drunk drivers and/or their friends.

The police could easily provide pictures of a check stop set-up, and distribute them.    

Clearly, people will still expose the real locations.  Despite pressure it’s still happening.  Where do you stand on this issue of tweeting fake police checkstops?   

Should City of Edmonton police work with MADD to start a digital campaign to add confusion by adding fake locations?

Let’s keep it simple. Data.  Data collection, data analysis, data, data, data…You should become better at collecting, analyzing and taking action on the data that flows through your business, and the markets you want to dominate.  

Further, look to better understand data across multiple devices.  

How does your customer use their smartphones for example?

Mobile IS your strategy

Which leads me to the continuing trend of mobile.  Change your thinking.  According to Marc Andreessen, we’re going to grow from 1 billion smartphone users to billions more worldwide in the next 3-5 years.  Still hesitating?  

Do so at your own risk. 

Infographic by- GO-Gulf.com Web Design Company

Thank-you to all the public servants of Alberta who are reading the fusedlogic blog and my posts.  You guys rock. 

In fact, Albertans will be happy to know that there’s a group of public servants which for now instead of the actual program name, I’ll call Alberta’s own “Champions of Change” that I want to recognize.  As you can you see by the image below, you’re not alone in the world.  This is just one example of the movement you’re joining.

As Champions of Change, you are the true believers in a better Alberta.  You clearly stand for all that is great about “innovative” public service.  As Albertans you also care deeply for your province, and the well-being of your fellow citizens. 

Patience has paid off

Recently you have chosen to rise up within the Government of Alberta, and stand for better outcomes.  You have controlled your frustration with co-workers who block progress out of laziness or ego.  You have controlled your frustration with ridiculous rules that are not based in common sense, but rather BS from zero tolerance lawyers, and supervisors filled with fear.  In fact, many of you have chosen to find ways to do the right thing despite the fear driven rules.  That’s AWESOME by the way.    

You now realize you’re not alone that there are others like you.  Many, many, more champions across the entire enterprise.

Identify two friends

Your mission, is to grow your already substantial group of internal advocates for a more transparent, innovative, cutting-edge Alberta into a larger force of change.  Each of you needs to identify two friends, two more Champions of Change.

Bureaucratic “bed-blockers”

Your days are numbered.  You know who you are.  First, you’re not reading this because you don’t realize there’s something called the Internet.  Second, you’re probably close to retirement, and are riding out your remaining days until you can bolt.  Third, you’re tired, and the word “change or innovation” makes you cringe because all you hear is – learn something new.

I want you to do all Albertans a favour and get the hell out of the way.  I’m upset that my tax dollars go to your salary.  

I’d prefer that you transfer what relevant knowledge capital you have to the open-minded innovators in the Government of Alberta, and then just stay home.  That said, the bed-blocking, stone-walling, stifling collaborative innovation system you’ve come to know and love is being ripped out of the Government of Alberta anyway and you can’t stop it.

Slackers this also means you! 

Why set goals that are ridiculously easy to meet?  Don’t you have any pride left?  Push yourself, innovate, come up with new ideas, stand for something great instead of wading in mediocrity.  There’s no place for you in the “new” Government of Alberta public servant ranks.  You are a big part of the problem.  Look in the mirror and ask yourself, do I like that my co-workers think I’m a lazy ass, slacker?  Do I like that a lot of Albertans feel the same way about me when I tell them what I do?  It’s up to you to help change the perception.  Be proactive and push limits. 

I know you’ll hold on to this anti-progression environment with all your might, the status-quo is your friend.  I’ll give you one last chance by saying, why not put all the energy into doing a better job and get with the program.  End your career on a high note with real pride and satisfaction.  Leave the slacker world behind and join the revolution of change.

By the way, not everyone close to retirement is in the category above.  The pressure is on those of you older Champions of Change to separate yourself from the bed blocker clan.

Those who fear change

Fear is a choice.  You can choose to be fearful, OR you can choose to communicate openly, and honestly with Albertans.  You can focus on bosses who fear the loss of control of their own little pond, or you can collaborate with them as a group, and buy into the the new program so you, your colleagues and all of Alberta can reach new levels of success.  

Alberta citizens can also join the Champions of Change…

To my fellow Albertans, the above is the real deal.  A perfect storm of change is coming and Alberta’s public servants are doing the heavy-lifting.  Now it’s up to you and I to support this innovative change that is sweeping through the Government of Alberta as we speak.  They will be changing culture and that’s a brutally tough job.  The change in culture will lead to changing of process, bye-bye “silos” hello collaborative actions.  They’re channelling fear into affirmative innovation and action.  YES, they are human, and so yes they will make mistakes.  We need to applaud failure in this regard not chastise it.  

Put aside your scepticism.  We have people in the Government of Alberta who have world beating, kick-ass ideas, and they need our support now more than ever.

Long live Alberta’s Champions of Change!

Fear of change, fear of repercussions, fear of increased workload, fear of technology…fear, fear, fear.

My good friend Nick Charney, trail-blazing public sector rogue, spends his time having fun with his family, and fighting the good fight against the fear meme within the Canadian federal government out in Ottawa.  He has done this as a member of the public sector since 2007.  I’ve spoken with Nick at OpenGovBC, interviewed him on fusedlogicTV, and he’s been a mainstay in the Open Government scene for years.  Here’s what he does officially, or at least according to his linkedin profile.

This morning Nick posted on Facebook that he was giving a presentation to his public sector colleagues which was made up entirely of “memes”.  In true open government style he immediately shared the presentation so I could embed it here…see how that works folks…we could use more of this Open Government type stuff within the Government of Alberta.

Of course this social experience would be just that much better if Nick was able to stream his presentation today via video, but that would require a CSIS approval.  Even then, IT wouldn’t change it’s risk management style of deny all access to all technologies except those developed in 1999 because our goal is to control the government world as we know it….

Despite the virtuous intentions of the Canadian government’s IT branch to protect us from real and actual threats.  I still think there’s room to wiggle a some social technology through securely.  I’m also not the only one who believes in this.  

Enjoy Nick’s presentation and share it among your public sector colleagues where IT doesn’t block the outside world from you.  

Time to turn the Government of Alberta into a social experience. 

What is a Social Experience?

Simply put, it’s a team effort towards better story-telling, better one-on-one engagement, better analytics, and a more “real-time enabled” rank and file.  

Currently Premier Redford has the largest communications staff we’ve seen in recent years packed into office 307 within Alberta’s legislature, complete with out of province “social media expert” Stefan Baranski .  This is exciting for Albertans, and might suggest we can look forward to seeing a social experience plan for more effective transparent citizen engagement coming from Mr. Baranski based on his experience.  That said, my hope is for more than just twitpics of Premier Redford throwing a mean football at the 100th CFL Grey Cup in Toronto.

If you’d like to better understand Baranski’s recent history on twitter have a look at some tweet stats below. Baranski’s tweet volume has dipped a bit since he took on his new job in September 2012.  Expect that to increase once his role is more clear.  That said, he’s never really been that much of a prolific communicator on Twitter.

Taxpayers should notice below that the premier’s social media expert tweeting peaks “off-hours”, before and after stated work hours.  However, as we all know Twitter never sleeps, and Baranski is still founder of Ontario News Watch which means another time zone is still in play.

Understanding that Baranski is new to Alberta, and social media communications in our province, we’ll need to give him to time to shift a bit of his focus.  Have a look at what he’s been communicating about up to this point on Twitter, hashcloud first, then tweetcloud, and finally who Baranski ReTweets the most. 

A Team Effort

How would we accomplish creating a Government of Alberta social experience?  First, transparency is a must.  Training is critical across the enterprise, right up to the premier’s office.  Also, I would involve the Public Affairs Bureau (Disclaimer: PAB is a past client).  Word on the street?  The department has been known to be a bit heavy handed in terms of wanting to control communications within the government.  I’m not sure that’s still the case.  So I’d recommend tapping into that expertise to get messaging about transparency and training out to Albertans.  And to the PAB, I’d say continue to play nice with the new team in 307 or risk being kept out of the decision-making loop on communications and even then…who knows.   

Home Grown Advice

No specific offence to Stefan Baranski and others in Premier Redford’s office from outside Alberta, but we have a fantastic base of knowledgable people right here at home that are plugged in, and very successful with respect to citizen engagement, social media, open government, analytics and big data.  My thoughts in support of turning the Government of Alberta into a social experience would be to create a special volunteer committee that reports to the premier directly on such topics.  Yes, it’s that important.

Good luck to the premier and her new team, there’s a lot of important work ahead.

When frustration takes over our emotions, usually rash actions follow.  In the case of Alberta politics, the Wildrose Alliance Party of Alberta has long been known for their negative digital antics on Twitter and Facebook.  They do this in the name of “respect for all Albertans” as their version of “Opposition”.  Meanwhile outside the Wildrose Party distortion field, and in light of today’s Wildrose Party AGM, the question I’m asking is…

What is their digital reach?

In particular, on Twitter.  The tweetreach screenshot below represents the activity during Danielle Smith’s speech at the Wildrose AGM earlier today.  Arguably this should be a peak time for the party’s faithful before during and after to praise their Party.  The data reinforces something else.  

Roughly an hour after Danielle Smith completed her speech.  The primary contributor to the #WRP hashtag as you’ll see below is the Calgary Herald’s Don Braid.  All of the Wildrose Party faithful were busy at the AGM I suspect.  Essentially if the Wildrose don’t talk about themselves on Twitter, few others do, less Don Braid in this case.    

Further, they decided to end their live video stream minutes after Danielle Smith ended her speech.  A mistake in my opinion.  There’s so many ways an AGM can be amplified and increased reach gained.  

The Wildrose Party did invite media into their AGM and they’re getting some decent media exposure today, not all of it favourable, but that’s politics.  

What continues to be clear is that the Party doesn’t have an effective digital strategy, and is simply slapping various technologies together such as live video streaming today.  Combine that with an inflammatory communications approach, and that about sums up the Wildrose Party in this regard.  

In fact, it about sums up the much of the Alberta political scene generally.  

Someday maybe someone will begin to think about penetrating the collective political discussion online with a comprehensive plan based in understanding behaviours, trends, data, relationships, relevancy and timing, at least as a start…   

I’m on the hunt for new business.  Clients in the Edmonton region who are serious about social media.  Serious about the process and are committed to change.  Too often in the past I’ve seen businesses who start down the right path only to give up before they reach the digital promised land.  Why?  Typically, they are unwilling to change.  They say social media is important, but their actions are less decisive. 

Building a social enterprise requires starting at the top.  Certainly, having the CEO acknowledge the social nature of today’s Internet is an important first step.  

Leadership

A social leader will understand the transformation that the company, and in particular, the people within the company will be going through and will commit to a plan to get the job done.  Social media will affect the entire value chain within the company if done correctly, and the social leader will be encourage this.  Too often the break-down is that willing staff report to leaders within the company who do not respect social media, do not understand social media and secretly wish it would all simply disappear.  

Culture

A social leader will strive to learn and anticipate the cultural impact that the transformation into a social enterprise will bring, and the stress it may have on the organization as a whole.  This will require patience, training, and follow-up to shift perceptions, behaviours and outcomes.  This is probably the toughest element of the entire process to get right.   

Employees

Employees will be asked to change their work habits, learn new skills, increase their creativity, and certainly look for new ways to collaborate within the new social work environment.  They need to buy-in, management cannot leave the staff twisting in the wind either, training as a support mechanism will pay dividends later on by building confidence and limiting costly mistakes to the brand.      

Process

To really be effective, internal processes need to change as well.  A social Internet integrated into the corporate marketing and communications planning means that it’s no longer an after thought covered off by owning a Twitter account and Facebook profile.  Increased access to cloud-based collaboration tools is something a social enterprise will seriously consider.  Passing word documents back and forth is not the most efficient way to go.  

Technology

The current technology footprint is analyzed ,and no longer is the “block everything” style of management going to be allowed.  IT departments need to protect their systems from attack, they need to work with their marketing and communication colleagues to ensure a harmonious integration of the required social technologies is achieved.  Security in the cloud is not perfect but it’s better than ever before.  Most of the time issues here are more about work load and unwillingness to change than actual security threats. 

Metrics

Measuring what matters in terms of results is critical.  Increased sales inquiries, opportunities to hire top people and resumes submitted are more important than hits, followers and friends.  Although those metrics should not be ignored, as they help with brand awareness, they are not the ultimate outcomes a social enterprise should measure its campaigns by. 

Despite all of these points, many corporations will pay only lip service to the idea of a social media enterprise.  However, the truly committed will execute daily as an integrated part of business life, and they’ll be more competitive for it. 

A cautionary tale.  Don’t believe the hype.  Don’t build meaningless numbers.  Measure what matters to your business.  

Social media will not solve all your problems. 

Many marketers will tell you what you want to hear to get your business.  According to Seth Godin, marketers tell stories.  They pull out the technology card, and stories about stuff that doesn’t matter.  We’ve all believed the hype at one point.  It wasn’t so long ago that someone asked you, “are you on facebook?”  Now it’s generally assumed, if you’re in business you have a Facebook fan page, or if you’re a woman you login to Facebook at least twice a day.  Today one assumes that if you have the Facebook and Twitter icons on your website you’re covered. Not true, by a long shot. 

What is the Myth Economy?

The Myth Economy is my opinion.  I describe it as a layer of popular beliefs about social media based in bullshit that simply propagate falsehoods, and make it more difficult to achieve actual success online.  

Myth #1: Participating and filling social networks with white noise means you’re adding value.  No you’re adding white noise.

Myth #2: You’re not supposed to make money while using social media platforms.  Bullshit.

Myth #3: You’re guaranteed to make money because you’re using social media.  Most don’t have a clue how to convert.  I study this constantly, it can be done, and yet it’s tough when you have a limited budget and no experience. 

Myth #4: The bigger the numbers the more important and influential you are.  Hype.  You already had a large brand.  You’ve been helped by the platform  or bought your following.  I’ve paid my team to promote things that fusedlogic is doing, and to help build our following.  Others will use bots to drive false numbers.  Even Facebook has been accused of this.  We don’t use bots.  Relationships drive influence.

Enter this with your eyes wide open, do your homework on the people you hire, scrutinize their experience.  This is just business basics.

Facebook is driving the Myth Economy

Facebook is betting that your business will agree to pay to spread your marketing message to “all” of your fans.  Why?  Don’t you know?  Zuckerberg is CEO Bitch!  Yes, this smart blogging coder has come a long way since 2004, and he’s now the CEO of a multibillion dollar public company whose IPO stock is currently suffering. Why?  Wall Street wants to see more revenue, and now Zuckerberg needs to generate more cash from sources other than Facebook ads.  Facebook is making real money, but you should look beyond the aura of a billion people, and analyze why companies like GM pulled its advertising budget earlier this year.  

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard a hacker say…” so, we just wanted to build something cool, we have no idea how we’ll make money with it.”  For every rare online massive success actually built on business fundamentals instead of being propped up by risk taking venture capitalists, there’s tens of thousands of startups that crash and burn.  Why?  Investors inevitably want revenues, unless of course you’re building your hot start-up to get the 10 billion buy-out phone call from Google or Facebook.  Typically a pipe dream for those without the right connections.  ”Pre-revenue startups” this a name used for new companies that simply burn money and don’t make any, need to consider how they’re going to make money from the outset.  Sure it might change down the road when people use whatever you’re selling, but solve a meaningful problem and generate cash, freemium model works just fine.  We’re doomed to repeat the dot bomb history unless this changes.

Even the fabled Facebook game builder Zynga is struggling.  There is a point where you get too big and the myth (bubble) folds in on itself.

Are consumers more likely to buy from your company if you’ve enticed them to “like” your Facebook fan page?  Well there’s at least one study that suggests there’s truth to that.  However, if you’re deeply involved in Facebook, only you’ll know if your tracking this and can prove or disprove this data for your company.  I’m not convinced a Like translates into revenues.  I know I haven’t bought more products simply because of a Like, and I think this is the truth for the majority of consumers on Facebook.  I’ve made buying decisions based on peer influence, lots of them.  That is typically more substance than a Like.   

The bigger question is “why”?  Corporate engagement in many cases sucks, it’s boring and impersonal.  

Facebook has never really been a place for business. I stay in touch with my mom, family and friends there and yes clients but I don’t go to Facebook to buy stuff.  It’s about entertainment and social interactions not commerce based exchanges.

Twitter is also a BIG part of the myth economy

Twitter insiders claim that Twitter will generate over a billion dollars in sales in 2014.  Twitter is also rumoured to be in the sights of Google’s acquisition engine.  Does that mean that you and I can make a billion dollars on Twitter?  Not likely.  Not unless your Lady Gaga but of course, her brand is big not because of twitter but because of her music.  Going viral on Twitter if you’re not Lady Gaga is a myth, unless you can throw a lot of money at it and try to manufacture it, including media exposure.  Much of twitter following is manufactured, and filled with very little real business value.  I have nearly 11,000 followers, I don’t know 99% of them.  They don’t communicate with me on a regular basis, yet they fill my twitter feed with white noise.  What I do focus on are the ones who do speak with me and provide value.  I do the same in return, helping people where I can.  That’s what I focus on – relationships, but so many don’t, instead they’re looking for the perceived fast buck.  Twitter does allow me to communicate with more people then ever before.  Do those conversations translate into business value?  Yes but rarely without timing, context and follow-up. 

Is social media a myth?

Yes!  Social media is a made-up term. What we’re actually still just using the “Internet”.  There are still websites, we can just comment on most of them easier.  Further, we can publish far easier today then ever before.  There are still search engines, #2 just happens to be one where you search videos only.  There are still server farms, you just don’t have to buy them, and run them yourself.  I’m frustrated that I have to use the term “social media” for SEO results, and recognition within target audiences but there it is.

Can the “Internet” assist you in growing your business?  Yes, if you can cut through the hype and get down to basics.  Are Facebook and Twitter all you need to be successful on the Net?  No.  That said, are they powerful enough to do damage to your brand if you’re irresponsible?  Yes, as KitchenAid found out when a dumbass on their twitter team tweeted something negative about Obama’s grandmother from a corporate account.  You also don’t have to be a Fortune 500 to suffer from idiots in your organization.  The Wildrose Alliance Party here in Alberta proves it wants to be the Tea Party of Alberta with nearly every childish, argumentative, low value tweet they collectively put out.  Operating like a pack of rabid trolling dogs does not a savvy Internet communication strategy make, neither does it inspire votes in the mainstream.  Official opposition doesn’t mean check your common sense at the door.  Responding directly, and engaging on that level isn’t a great plan either.  Imagine if one side or the other was actually trained in more than simply typing 140 characters and hitting send.  My dad used to always say, “think before you speak”.      

Going beyond the myth economy

Business basics is where it’s at.  However, there’s a level of advice out there that I battle every day which suggests all you need to do is tweet and post to walls and you win.  Wrong.  Start with building and retaining relationships.  Measure what matters and is of value to your business.  

Here’s where most fail!  Companies don’t follow-up.  Generate a bunch of viewership, follows, likes, friends, connections…they stop there.  They don’t take the time to convert each one into a brand advocate.  That takes time AND MONEY.  After all, social media is supposed to be free right?  

Outcomes for fusedlogic?

Meaningful business meetings are up, opportunities are up, proposals are up, and I’m on the right track to grow revenues in 2013, bigger and better than ever.  Stick to the business basics, and use the Internet to enhance your traditional efforts not replace them.  

These punks out there that want to sell you on all you need is to “join the conversation” and focus solely on digital are full of it, and have been from the beginning.  Their plan is written in bullshit.  I’ve never preached that.  I’ve always communicated a need for “balance”.  Traditional marketing, real world engagement supported by online engagement with a focused plan.  Doesn’t mean you leave your creative hat at home, far from it.  Just that you should have a clue as to why you’re doing this, and don’t forget what already works for you and to measure meaning, behaviours and human nature.  The Internet is a fantastic way to grow brand awareness exponentially, just make sure you strive to measure and adapt to what you find.  

Opportunity

Want to learn from my mistakes and my successes?  Lets get together.  Affordable, straight forward, experienced advice awaits.  

Tomorrow morning I’m excited to be presenting at the Landscape Alberta Nursery Trade Associations conference entitled the Green Industry Show and Conference.  

I’ve been asked to speak about how Alberta landscapers, landscape architects, greenhouse owners can in general improve their business operations by leveraging cloud computing.

What is Cloud Computing?

Generally, “the cloud” can be broken down into four key areas.  Data centres, Network infrastructure, software applications and software services.  I won’t delve into the inner reaches of data centres, and network infrastructure. Rather I’ll provide some insight into applications and services as I feel this will benefit this audience the most in the short-term.

cloud computing simplified

Wiki definition   

What is the largest benefit of the cloud?

Being able to shift Information Technology investments from capital investments like an in house server farm over to operational investments, and leveraging other people’s server farms and web services.  Ultimately it’s scalability, multiple web-based services, cost-effective and easy to access.

Cloud Services: Amazon Web Services, Cisco Cloudverse

Walter Schwabe’s Green Industry Presentation Outline 

As stated, I intend to help the audience hit the ground running and keep things simple in this workshop.  I’ll define cloud computing and move onto how a small or medium sized Edmonton or Alberta business, in this case, one in the green industry can leverage Software as a Service or (SaaS) applications to increase their business efficiencies, and digital marketing capabilities.

Links

Instead of a powerpoint presentation or prezi, I instead will surf through the cloud and explain the applications in realtime. Below are the links I’ll use and reserve the right to off script.

Digital Marketing

1. Twitter
2. Facebook
3. YouTube
4. Instagram
5. Linkedin
6. Pinterest
7. Yelp
8. Hootsuite
9. Flickr
10. Meetup
11. Sliderocket
12. WordPress

Project Management

1. Basecamp
2. Dropbox
3. Google Drive
4. Google Docs
5. getjobber

Payments – Invoicing

1. Square
2. Freshbooks

Customer Management

1. Zendesk
2. HighriseHQ

Mobile

1. Pro Landscape Companion – iPad  Video
2. Skitch
3. Garden Landscape app

Greenhouse 

1. Fujitsu Cloud
2. Picas (not cloud based)

Anyone in Edmonton who truly makes their living solely from using social media has seen how influential social media has become in many ways.

One of the most obvious examples of this is how a blogger on almost any topic can influence news cycles, major policy decisions, politics, business growth rates, customer service issues, general brand awareness, volunteerism and fund raising just to name a few.

The most powerful bloggers can do this with a single post which shifts the balance of power out of the hands of media and into that of every day Edmontonians. 

This is fascinating to watch, at least I think so.  What’s more fascinating is when you drill down into a given geographic community such as Edmonton and analyze the social structure behind the shift in power.  Often referred to as highschool cliques.  Tribes and relationships in real life play out online. 

I’ve watched and participated in the local Edmonton social media community for years now, and I’ve seen it grow in influence and key personalities along with it.  Some stand out among the rest.  The key here isn’t to pump up a person’s ego, rather I’ll let you decide in your area of interest who influences your world.  What I’d like to quickly explore instead is your definition of “influence and power” within the Edmonton social media community and beyond.

What is influence and power to you?

To answer my own question, influence in this case is when someone writes a blog post, and that post directly engages a target community for a period of time.  The best blog posts inspire action on behalf the Edmonton social media community.  Such as a new reason for people to physically meet.  As we’ve seen lately all you need is a sponsor, and some pictures to be uploaded in order to make a difference in the Edmonton community. 

Of course, when a blog post is written on behalf of an agency like Hope Mission that has value.  How much value is not easily defined however.  If my blog post influenced one more picture to be uploaded, then one could argue is was worth $2.70 in hard currency.  However, what about the good will the digital asset will generate not only for Hope Mission but also their sponsor Wallish Greenhouses?  I guarantee DDB Canada will be proudly touting the success of the Hope Mission campaign in future pitches.  As a part of the metrics of success they will have to include all exposure and expansion of the campaign’s digital footprint to be thorough.  That includes my blog posts, although I doubt it will be inserted into a slide.  Although they’re welcome to do that. 

The Result?

Every time this type of effort is made it enlarges the digital footprint of Edmonton and the Edmonton social media community.  Can you think of a specific agency or agencies in Edmonton whose job it is to increase awareness for Edmonton’s brand?

That’s right, every time something happens within social media, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Linkedin about Edmonton or the Edmonton community it helps to do the job of Edmonton Economic Development Corporation, Edmonton Tourism, The City of Edmonton directly and indirectly.  

The more times that locals in Edmonton, Sherwood Park, St. Albert, Leduc, Spruce Grove etc…get involved using social media to promote something about their local community the power to control the message shifts into the hands of individuals, sometimes working as mobs, tribes or large groups of advocates.  

This variable confounds entire industries like Alberta’s energy sector.  The environment lobby has been pounding the energy sector for years, and they’re winning a lot of PR battles.  Penetrating the psyche of large groups of people, generating earned media and international exposure.  The energy sector’s response has been ineffective to date.  

How do you create influence and shift power?

The shift in power doesn’t happen just because you write a blog post.  You need to think about several things before you put fingers to keys if you want to generate measurable outcomes.

Audience  

Are they aligned with what you want to say.  In this case, there are several target audiences for this post.  Edmonton’s social media community.  If I wanted more reaction I could have easily named some of Edmonton’s top bloggers and listed their sites.  I’ve mentioned some public agencies, if they’re monitoring their own names they’ll read this post and become more familiar with the fusedlogic brand and our services.  I could have went further and named agency heads.

Intention  

What do you intend to accomplish with your blog post?  In this case, I feel like writing and ensuring people don’t believe the rumours of my demise.  Further, I wanted to highlight how the loss of control creates internal power struggles within the organizations I’ve mentioned, as well as, between bloggers, agencies, businesses, you name it.  The social media community amplifies human nature so it can be very combative. 

Timing

The other day I wrote a blog post and posed a question about Premier Alison Redford.  The question I asked isn’t a new question, I and others have wrote about it many times.  Still in light of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta AGM I thought it might be good timing to put some relevant content out.

Distribution

There are more things to think about such as distribution of your blog post. If you want to reach as many Edmontonians as possible what is the best way to do?  I recommend a balanced approach.  The Twitter force is strong with #yeg but it’s not the only source of power.  Facebook is also a great place to go but what do you do when you get there?  Who do you make sure sees your post?  Use language that’s sure to get the attention of your target influences and advocates.  Again timing plays a key part in this as well.  Some influencers are morning people, others night owls.   

Action

So what can you do to witness this for yourself?  Simple, take this blog post and repurpose it for your world.  Internally, use it to influence discussion about adopting social media in your organization.  Externally, leverage it to site your own examples of how people in your sphere of influence communicate and influence the community-at-large.  

Have fun, I’d appreciate a link back too if this post has been helpful.  

Links

I was reading these two posts which inspired my thoughts behind this blog post.

http://bizshifts-trends.com/2012/02/27/social-media-is-changing-the-balance-of-power-in-advertising-publications-dying-social-media-rising-it’s-all-about-community-connections/

http://www.briansolis.com/2010/07/the-hybrid-theory-manifesto-the-future-of-marketing-advertising-and-communications-part-one/

Too often the negative story leads the headlines in the news media.  Well that’s not the case with Hope Mission’s latest efforts to feed Edmontonians with the strong financial support from Wallish Greenhouses who is donating $2.70 per photo uploaded. 

Together they launched a campaign this past Wednesday to generate a 1000 uploaded pictures as part of their Share Hope Now campaign.  

Where’s the value in this digital marketing campaign?

Well first, the collaboration between Hope Mission and Wallish Greenhouses.  Clearly that relationship is benefiting from the increased positive brand awareness as evident in blog posts like this one, media coverage and goodwill built within the Edmonton community both in social media circles and offline.

Second, each time this campaign is covered by a media outlet that has measurable financial “earned media” value.

Third, is the low cost, notice I didn’t say “free or no cost” to Hope Mission, Wallish Greenhouses and the campaign.  

Fourth, is the most important outcome.  Feeding 1000 Edmontonians.  At this pace I believe that Hope Mission will surpass that goal by 5pm today.

Twitter reach?

What is the reach of Twitter?  Even though Facebook and Pinterest are also being deployed for this campaign, let’s focus on Twitter as it tends to feed the other platforms more rapidly.

Building momentum by getting the Edmonton twitter community involved helps to encourage Edmonton news media to engage.  Further, all the sharing that’s going on will dramatically increase the digital footprint for the Hope Mission and that’s a very good thing.  

Sixth, future sponsorship and donor discussions

Expanding the digital and social media footprints for Hope Mission is a great thing for future discussions with potential donors and sponsors.  Hopefully Devin Komarniski of Hope Mission is tracking and measuring this so that it can be included in documentation down the road. Always measure what matters and what is making a difference.  When you look at the advocacy relationships in the #yeg twitter community and how they are helping to spread the word, one should realize that’s where the measurement gold is.  Leveraging that in the future properly could feed thousands of Edmontonians in need in the future.

The general message here is – at this event, talking about the very important issue of domestic violence and we’re making “great progress”.  

To which I replied:

I don’t expect a direct response.  The protocol for Premier Alison Redford’s twitter account is “no engagement, no direct responses to Albertans”.  

Is that how you would like your Alberta Premier to use twitter?  

Let’s compare apples to apples.  Clearly my position in the world is far different than being an elected official.

Here’s BC Premier Christy Clark’s twitter account.  Notice a few things.  One, I’m following Premier Clark AND she is following me in return.  More importantly, notice that she is directly engaging citizens.  This is why I’m following BC’s premier. 

Observe Premier Alison Redford’s twitter account

Here’s is Alison Redford’s twitter account.  Notice I don’t follow her, she doesn’t follow me, and notice she doesn’t respond directly to Albertans

 Now of course, we can all choose who we follow on twitter and for what reason.  I choose not to follow Alison Redford, not because of any other reason than she doesn’t engage with Albertans.  I find that this flies in the face of a “transparent” government.  There are always parameters by which elected officials need to adhere, that said, BC Premier Christy Clark and a multitude of other notable elected officials engage openly with citizens.  

Not sure why the Government of Alberta is so massively risk adverse…you’re going to be scrutinized everyday for what you do. That comes with the territory.  How you address it, shows character, skill level and confidence.  The complete lock-down of the GoA is growing tiresome.  This isn’t Open Government, to claim otherwise in this respect misses the mark.  Has there been progress since Former Premier Ed Stelmach’s reign?  Yes, but as you stated in your tweet Premier Redford, there’s “so much more to do”. 

“Innovation means you have a good idea, you’ve put it in the marketplace, the money’s in the bank and you’re not being sued.  The economic and broad society benefits are why we innovate.” – Iain Gillespie, Professor, University of Edinburgh

This week at the 4th Annual Canadian Science Policy Conference, there’s mention of policy, in fact, a discussion of whether we need a national Canadian science policy.  Kennedy Stewart, NDP MP and the Official Opposition Critic for Science and Technology went ahead on an opportunistic basis and released the first of a series of policy documents called Toward a National Science Policy.

 The debate of whether we need one or not “rages” on.  All kidding aside, the jury is still out.

The undertone across the board during this conference was consistently “Canadian”.  We’re doing ok, but we could do better.  Frankly, for me, this conference has really been about “leadership”, who’s going to lead the charge on a national science debate, and the required commercialization and productivity outcomes Iain Gillespie so eloquently emphasized today?  Who’s going to actually increase innovation and MORE IMPORTANTLY, successfully commercialize those new innovations at a faster pace to the benefit of society?  Innovation in healthcare, agriculture, energy and the environment?  

The room here is generally filled with academics, government agencies, engineers, consultants, and only a few entrepreneurs.  In other words, typically the slowest moving elements of the science and innovation portion of Canadian society, and we’re talking about more policy.  

I would like to suggest a future thread on Rapid Application Development, just to expose this crowd to quick and dirty innovation.  Even if that story is based on software.  This community needs to be exposed to hack-a-thons, and app contests just to show how quickly an application could be created to solve a problem, tested and then deployed for beta testing.

Then we need to employ “rapid adoption” policies.  I always shook my head at public jurisdictions that took 18 months to create social media policies for “their” administration when so many had already been published and could easily be modified.  This goes to the heart of the bureaucratic mind.  The reality is they just didn’t understand what they were doing and needed to catch up.    

What I’d recommend is that everyone read The Lean Start-up by Eric Ries and lets fire up the innovation engines powered by commercialization fuel for productivity growth here in Canada.  

Here are a few of Iain Gillespie’s slides, I found his presentation this morning refreshing and his scottish humour spot on.

In the opening panel, Chad Gaffield asked a great question, “how do we innovate successfully?”  Richard Hawkins stated, “Canada’s innovation problems are really Canada’s problems, they’re Canada’s socio-economic problems.”  He expanded by saying that we need to change our perspective and ask analyze the value generated from innovation.  

I agree, with out work in social media marketing, we always look at measuring what matters to our client and their objectives.  For example, below you’ll see the beginning of the Canadian Science Policy Conference conversation on twitter under the hashtag #CSPC2012.  One of the objectives for our work here at the conference is to expand the audience and the awareness of these discussions.  This is only one aspect of participating in the global discussion around science, innovation and the policies that support it, not only here in Canada but elsewhere around the world. Stay tuned for more from the conference and be sure to tune in to our live stream at fusedlogic.tv. 

Over 100 speakers are scheduled to speak at this year’s Canadian Science Policy Conference taking place at Telus Spark in Calgary, Alberta on several important topics.  Including Minister Gary Goodyear, Preston Manning, Eric Newell, Jay Ingram and a long list of other impressive academics, journalists and business people.

We’ll be streaming the keynote speakers, as well as, interviews with many of the presenters through out the three days…This year’s themes are important ones such as, “sustainable resource management, re-imaging Canadian healthcare, food, fuel and farmers, and science-technology-society-nexus.  I have no doubt that a lot of ground will be covered over the next 3 days and beyond.  Here’s a backgrounder on the themes. 

You’ll be able to watch live from fusedlogic.tv/live and also at the Canadian Science Policy Conference website. 

The show starts at 8:30am MST. 

What clients should understand about Klout is what fuels it, and how people game the system, including Klout itself.  Here’s an interesting article called “Don’t Fall for this Sneaky Klout Trick…” on Klout scores by Anthony Wing Kosner on Forbes.com.  Another dose of reality, “5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Care About Your Klout Score” by Erik Kain also on Forbes.

Ego Fuel

So why are Klout scores a form of hallucinogenic drug for so many?   

They feed ego, especially when the number goes up of course.  This is further justified (predominately in the US) by the fact that the Klout heavy weight would suggest that they could be hired because of their high Klout score.  If a company hires someone because of a Klout score generated based on a high volume of low value engagement, it sets the wrong precedent. Klout is trying to combat this by reducing your score if you associate with this type of social media communicator.  That said, they also rank spambots which is problematic when considering its value.  

In my opinion this provides for further propagation of bullshit numbers manufactured to appear like influence.  

Let’s ask ourselves about the purpose of this infographic released today by Hill and Knowlton.  

Make a list about politicians and journalists on Twitter, and hope to get some brand recognition as a result by pumping up their egos for today.  Watch to see if it’s a slow news day and generates media play.  If so, it was time well spent, Klout scores would have directly contributed to media coverage for this brand and that has value. 

And what about free Klout Perks?  PCWorld.com Brad Chacos asks, “Do Klout Perks carry any real world weight?”  There is some evidence of free products exchanging hands from major brands but there isn’t evidence that Klout Perks has achieved the kind of consistency of repeat business that would suggest real lasting results for major brands.  

Real Influence

Ultimately, I find it a stretch to connect Klout scores to real world boardroom influence.  For the vast majority of people, a Klout score will not make them any more money or increase career success beyond some possible bragging rights with little meaning.  

Do you think more or less positively of any one of the politicians on this list?  What about the journalists?  Is Paula Simons more influential in your mind then she was before being listed on this image?  As a side note, Dave Cournoyer is a great political blogger but would be the first to state he’s not a professional journalist…

I suppose if Klout eliminated from their algorithm any activity generated by me on my accounts, and left it entirely up to others to dictate my “clout”, I would start to feel differently about all of this.  That said, an argument could be made that tracking my efforts can be directly connected to the outcomes.

Kind of like Edmonton calling itself “world class”, versus others praising our fine city.

What about you, has your Klout score helped you get a great job, free stuff, media attention or nothing more than another profile to maintain…

CTV Edmonton reported yesterday that Travel Alberta estimates that the Bachelorette romantic weekend in Edmonton has already netted them $500,000.00 in earned media exposure from tweets and magazine articles as a result of their $20,000.00 investment to bring the Bachelorette couple to Edmonton. 

Is this estimate of any real value to Albertans?  Statements about the “entertainment value” of the Bachelorette seem to be at the heart of the sentiment within the reactions by Albertans on Twitter and Facebook.  I suppose, anytime Alberta can be showcased in a positive way Travel Alberta is heading down the right path to rebuilding our image.  Yes, we need to invest solving the homeless issue in Edmonton, yes we need better roads and YES we need to invest in positive communications about Alberta to the rest of the world.  Are the lovebirds the right way to go about that?  Well women out there like them I suppose.  Whether Ashley and JP managed to convince those women to take a vacation to Edmonton is up for debate.  In this case, Travel Alberta and Edmonton Economic Development Corporation are focused on “inbound” traffic to the province with this effort.  We can talk about ourselves all we want, that wasn’t the focus of this effort.  This isn’t primarily about the opinion of Edmontonians about Edmonton or Albertans taking a “staycation”, it’s about the opinions of those who watch the Bachelorette TV series.  

Bachelorette Value Proposition

Will the $20,000.00 investment impact the travel decisions among 18-34 women towards Edmonton and Alberta?

All due respect to the Travel Alberta and Edmonton Economic Development Corporation teams involved in this romantic getaway, but I’m curious if the marketing plan, (the specifics of which Albertans are generally unaware of) includes more E-list celebrity paid vacations or on-location broadcasts (Live with Kelly in Banff, AB which generated decent TV exposure) as the central strategy.

No one on either team would argue that there’s nothing new about a celebrity endorsement strategy.  So if that’s their plan, what are these teams doing to maximize the effect of these investments given the digital communication bounty that’s now possible when you have the considerable resources that both these organizations do?  What’s their digital strategy?

Well, let’s take a peek shall we…

To justify this investment the following question is asked.  How much money would it cost to purchase the same level of media exposure for the province on all platforms reached?  Earned media exposure is almost always preferable.  I suppose even if that media exposure has Richard Wong from Travel Alberta defending the expenditure based on the question above as he did in this CTV Edmonton piece.  

This investment is not a complete digital flop.  However, it is in my opinion, “shallow” in terms of it’s meaningful penetration and lasting positive effect for the province and City of Edmonton, especially on a digital communications level.  Sure, everything including this blog post is “fleeting” to some degree.  However I believe there should have been much more “bump” then there is currently showing.  My focus here is to loosely identify whether this effort managed to penetrate the deeper levels of lasting online discussion that might actually lead to swaying opinions, sentiment and ultimately lead to action by the Bachelorette audience or passive online observers.  Afterall, we weren’t retained in advance to create a digital strategy to support this initiative, and we haven’t been retained to analyze the data afterwards so that the next effort is more powerful and hopefully more positive here at home.  As a result, this post will not be a formal report of the massive amount of potential data needed to be assembled to truly confirm whether Travel Alberta and Edmonton Ec Dev achieved the required conversion rates to justify the expenditures.  Which are more than $20,000.00 by the way, because there were two teams who planned this event and those teams are doing post-morteums about the campaign and may also include this blog post and others as we speak.  The investment of their time should also be considered in the resource budget.   

Ultimately, perception is reality for most Albertans currently talking about this lovers retreat, and the related sentiment, and perception isn’t positive.  There’s more out there than just Mack’s tweet but he made me laugh…and he posted a blog entry of his own.

Take for example the hashtag #TravelAlberta seen here on tweetreach.com

Yes this is low engagement at the time I took this screen shot and frankly, this isn’t the primary hashtag for success in terms of this investment.  Thank-goodness too, did you happen to notice the negative sentiment regarding the Bachelorette investment?  

We should look at the relevant hashtags and Twitter accounts related directly to the Bachelorette audience.  Afterall, that’s the audience Travel Alberta and Edmonton Economic Development Corp paid to tap into on our behalf, hoping to reach them in a multitude of ways.

Let’s just look at JP Rosenbaum.  He has over 100K followers so when he tweets I would expect a minimum of what you’re seeing here.  This might look big but actually, if JP was truly reaching people this number should be 3X, 4X or 5X what it shows here at least.  Notice there is no significant retweeting. Notice that David Staples of the Edmonton Journal and the Hotel MacDonald accounts are contributing here.  Essentially, we’re talking about ourselves.

These are just a few small examples of how one might start looking at these types of investments.  If digital conversion isn’t considered beyond simple tweets, Facebook fan pages and media exposure, I believe we aren’t looking at the entire picture and I believe we aren’t achieving all that we can.

Personally, I’m not a fan of the Bachelorette television series, I’m also not the show’s target market being a man, and older than 18-34.  The decision for recreational travel to Alberta by outsiders is most likely made by the woman of the household today.  This is also the person generally who controls most consumer purchases at home, and frankly owns the Internet outright now too.

Did both Bachelorette participants tweet about their trip to Edmonton?  Yes, did it seem to stop their followers in their tracks and get them to start asking a series of questions of what it’s like here in Edmonton?  No.  If fact, the real traction this campaign managed to garner online is of people communicating a negative sentiment for the $20,000.00 expenditure which by the way, isn’t that large in reality.  The issue for most I feel isn’t the exact number but the value in return.  Albertans at large are probably unaware of Travel Alberta’s marketing intentions so here’s a link to their Brand Workbook. 

One doesn’t have to have direct tourism experience to see what Travel Alberta and Edmonton Economic Development were attempting to accomplish with this effort.  All you need do is go to the Travel Alberta website and read about “free spirits and cultural explorers.”  Not to put words in Travel Alberta’s mouth but my interpretation is that they believe that’s who watches the Bachelorette.

Interestingly though it seems this particular campaign generally ignores the “baby boomer” population.  This is the other demographic that has disposable income and loves to travel.  I’m excited to see what Travel Alberta does next to promote our great province abroad.  Might I suggest this demographic next?

Ultimately, whatever you think of this idea, I do think we left some digital roses on the table…  

Do you love or hate the Bachelorette strategy overall?

He asked me where I thought Canada was in terms of digital adoption, innovation etc in comparison to the US.  I said we were “12 to 18 months behind up here”.  Not because we don’t have access to the technology.  Not because we don’t have smart people, and not because we don’t have a business need or the resources.  Rather, it was because Canadian companies tend to be “chicken shits” when making decisions I said.  

I live in the greatest province in the greatest country in the world.  So let’s just get that out of the way right now.  It’s because of that however, that “we both” felt the need to agree and get upset on this point.  

Where did all the Alberta guts go?  

Some might say Alberta is the economic engine of Canada.  I’d be one of them, however, it’s sometimes despite ourselves.

My point is that when it comes to pushing the envelope, Alberta is not at the front of the innovation line as often as it should be.  In fact, my colleague and I mused about having seen way too many Alberta executives making safe decisions to save their careers instead of doing their jobs and leading the  innovative charge.  

Someone takes a series of pot shots at our province, it’s energy and tourism sectors around the world, and we run and hide?  

Where did all the Alberta guts go?  ”Taking a breath”, is great and it’s not enough. 

From now on in Alberta, it should be against the law to operate with the priority of protecting your pension.  Instead, go make a difference, kick some global ass, and make Alberta pensions bigger.  We’ve forgotten how to take on the toughest problems, leaving the easy ones to others.  Stop being “chicken shits” Alberta, stand up and lead.  Dominate.  Help more people on the planet then the next guy, gal, province or country.    

We have incredibly smart people.  We have the resources, but don’t invest them in innovation as aggressively as we should.  We have a growing start-up community, get off your large wallets and invest!  Keep the winners here, don’t let them be stolen by Silicon Valley. There are other opportunities outside of oil and dirt.  We have the global connections, time to develop them more effectively.  We just don’t think big enough!

Most of all though.  We don’t move fast enough.  The energy sector moves as fast as bitumen sludge being pushed up hill with a wet noodle when it comes to communications.  This isn’t the only sector in Alberta that’s slow to react to a changed digital communications reality.  Frankly, that’s the problem – being reactive versus proactive.  

It seems that in Alberta, no one wants to be “first in” leaders, instead we’ve become a society of “second in” followers.  Let the other guy go first – that’s our motto.  Well, guess what message that sends to the world?  Disregard us, stomp on us, ignore us unless you want to insult us.

Alberta should be first to the race, and first to cross the finish line or blow up trying.  

We’re definitely good enough!  

Instead of always wanting to call ourselves “world class”, we should be leading through our actions, and letting the world continually admire the class in which Alberta achieves greatness – again and again.

Is Alberta business too chicken-shit in your opinion?

Back in 2009 (and several times since) I gave a presentation on Government 2.0, one of my slides encourages creating a “wiki government”, citing the “future melbourne 2020” wiki as a successful example of citizen engagement by a government.

How far have we progressed in Alberta in this regard?  Well, welcome to the first ever Government of Alberta wiki.  Established as a part of the “Speak, Share, Thrive” social policy framework online initiative by the Government of Alberta.  Despite the standard three word marketing tagline, I love seeing this type of direction.

Having launched earlier in 2012 in direct response to Premier Alison Redford’s Mandate Letter to Minister Dave Hancock, the participation stats (seen below) suggest a steady 2-3 thousand total site visits per week over the first four reports.  

Engagement is low

Despite maintaining the total visitor numbers per week, there is a noticeable drop in those numbers when looking at engagement.  Albertans are encouraged to participate in one or more of three ways, blog, wiki, survey.  

I like this combination, and I think it’s important to note that despite the leadership from Minister Dave Hancock’s portfolio here, there are key variables to remember when judging the success of this effort.  

First, it’s early days.  Second, 3.2 million wiki entries from Albertans shouldn’t be the goal.  Third, this is new to Albertans. 

Be patient

This is a brand new opportunity to engage with our provincial government and from my own experience I personally witnessed zero online discussions about this concept prior to launch.  So was there momentum prior to launch outside the usual GOA channels?  Probably not as much as there should have been.

Launching a new concept that requires a behavioural change in your audience like this one does requires a lot of discussion and encouragement ahead of time to “prime the pump”, then people will be ready to participate when launched…

Why should we care about this variable?  Simple, do you want more government wiki’s, if this one fails to reach a critical mass, you can forget another one.  No one will want to risk failure.  Government as you know is massively risk adverse.

Too often governments work internally without an ongoing public discussion.  Who’s to say Albertans actually want to engage the Government of Alberta via wiki technology?  Just because the technology exists doesn’t mean it’s a slam dunk.   (Having said that, maybe there was a discussion ahead of time with targeted groups…could someone let me know if that’s the case?)

UPDATE:

After a direct inquiry Minister’s Hancock’s Assistant Deputy Minister Shannon Marchand, my info was forwarded to Engagement Lead for the Social Policy Framework, Leann Wagner who was kind enough to respond to a couple of questions.  See below:

Hello Leann,   

Social policy tribe

Surveys are notorious for low engagement, people are busy and the evidence suggests that between 15 and 30% of “new visitors” are filling out the survey.  Wiki participation can be even lower on the engagement list because it’s not a standard citizen engagement behaviour, and it requires more work.  The average Albertan doesn’t wake up in the morning jazzed to augment their local government social policy wiki.  The Government of Alberta has to reach the “true believers”, the advocates, the established social policy tribe.  In reality, this is a small group compared to the general population, and in fact, that’s what Minister Hancock should strive for here.  So I wouldn’t be discouraged by they engagement numbers at all at this point.  However, for more of the social policy tribe to become engaged a distinct strategy should be launched.  (Remember I believe it should have been implemented well in advance of the website launch.)

Increase success

How in my opinion can the Government of Alberta increase success with this wiki and future similar initiatives across other portfolios?  For one, it’s time to allow the front line workers to engage with Albertans where Albertans already are.  I’ve blogged about this in one form or another for years.  

Premier Redford’s government routinely encourages us to “join the conversation”.  As a digital media geek since 2004, I can’t wait for that statement to go away but that’s just a personal pet peeve.  

Join OUR conversation

In fact, I’m suggesting that Premier Redford allow her government to join “our” conversation.  

Why must Albertans continually be asked to go to yet another new initiative website?  Well, ok, I know why…”control”.  

Let the government employees who’s job it is to communicate with Albertans directly engage with us openly using social technologies.  What exactly are we waiting for? 

Joining Alberta’s conversation will increase engagement and learning organically.  Can you still monitor results?  Absolutely, just takes more coordination.  Will you be able to control the digital ecosystem?  Well, you’re smart enough to know the answer to that, and frankly so is the Government of Alberta’s Public Affairs Bureau.  

However, the end result becomes Albertans will have established what they really want in terms of engagement, so then you can go build something specific to support the momentum.  Rather than always trying to drive attention and engagement after the fact.  Community engagement isn’t about campaigns, it’s about being ever present. 

Let go of the fear

What I just suggested will provide the Public Affairs Bureau with weeks of nightmares where the moment of horror involves more Deputy Premier Lukaszuk like public Facebook remarks but this time made by John and Judy government worker on a mass scale.

In reality, these avoidable faux pas incidents are few and far between and most of the time are chalked up to certain individual personalities.  The majority would no doubt operate trouble free within social media.  Especially with the proper training. 

Sound-off

If you like this idea by the Government of Alberta, let them know.  Encourage them to engage more in this way, it’s better than reverting backwards…

You never know, maybe Albertans will surprise, and start their own issue based wiki and ask the Government of Alberta to participate instead of the other way around.  The true test in that case will be whether the GOA steps up.    

Regardless, I applaud Minister Hancock and his team for leading the charge – great job!

Imagine your organization has an important communications and/or marketing need.  That probably describes just about every one at some point.  Now ask yourself, how can you leverage digital communications to accomplish your goals in part or as a whole?

fusedlogic clients leveraging our services continue to experience, in this case, how video production done well and with the proper plan opens up targeted business doors to drive results.

Video traffic 91% by 2014

Google, the owner of YouTube states 50.5% of all US consumers watch video online.  Cisco states further that video currently makes up 40% of all internet traffic, and expected to climb to 91% by 2014.  

This traffic will inevitably include pornography, cuddly kittens, full-length feature films, skateboarders crushing their melons trying to land tricks, and everything in between.

Opportunity: Your Custom WebTV Show

We’ve taken over all the production hassles for you, and if you don’t have your digital strategy figured out, we can certainly help you there too.  In fact, it’s best that this is all integrated together.  

Live streaming, recorded video production, custom virtual sets, on-location video production in Edmonton, Calgary and the rest of Alberta.  

Don’t be afraid to contact us for more information about our video production services or mainstream digital strategy capabilities that include social media.   

Internal dialogue:” but I only prepared for the one hour…looks like I’m going to have to fill time…”

This is the problem with having a simple mind.  

After speaking with Carol McBee who explained that my session was so popular that they decided to schedule it twice back to back, my stress level reduced sharply.  Now I’m not that special, in fact, the iMedia attendees picked 5 sessions including mine requiring this repeat performance.  Great job by iMedia to give their attendees what they wanted.   

I want to thank the iMedia attendees who attended my session in advance, here’s my presentation for your enjoyment.

Carol McBee and Gillian Galante of Bossy Mama a business network for entrepreneurial women, created the iMedia conference to bring social media enthusiasts of all backgrounds together.  I’m honoured to be invited to present one of the breakout sessions.  

Session: Creating Personality on a Business Blog

At 3:30pm on May 5th at the Fantasyland Hotel I’ll be providing some insights into the topic session title listed above.  My take will be more about managing your “reputation” online with the blog as the hub of that important business activity.  In my session, you’ll learn how to generate “earned media”, and increase brand awareness using your blog and social media.

Further, I’ll be providing some interesting examples of reputation management both positive and negative extending beyond the blog as well.  

I believe in an integrated approach to one’s digital strategy, so I will be quick to explain the correlation between the different platforms and how establishing your blogging personality effectively is a key part of properly managing your business or personal reputation online.  

Results

Carol McBee and Gillian Galante have compiled a strong local line-up.  Attending iMedia will be time well spent with expertise such as imported keynote presenters Darren Barefoot and Gillian Bollwitt, each from the Vancouver area. 

I expect to learn a lot from the keynotes, and sessions that I’m not a part of, there’s some very smart people presenting and attending, it should be a great time.

The finer points of my talk will reveal that understanding how developing an online persona for your brand and doing it well takes a conscience effort and an awareness that not everyone has.  

This fact can become an advantage for you and your business, and with that, I hope you’ll join me at iMedia and participate in my session.  

If you have some questions you’d like answered provide them here and I’ll look to integrate them in my presentation.

On April 23rd to the 25th at Edmonton’s Fantasyland Hotel, the largest conference in Canada (and to my knowledge the first of its kind for Alberta) focused on analytics, big data and cloud computing will be held.  

The organization behind this innovative conference is the Alberta Council of Technologies (ABC Tech).  Conference Chair Perry Kinkaide has been working tirelessly along with the rest of the organizing committee to bring on key sponsors, speakers, panelists and of course attendees. 

We’re proud to announce that fusedlogicTV has been hired to provide a live video stream of the keynote speeches, as well as, one on one interviews with the speakers, sponsors and attendees at our on-location set.  

Syndication

We’re expanding the reach of this conference not only by providing the live video stream from our website, and that of the conference website www.bestofanalytics.com but we’re also going to “syndicate” our stream for free to anyone in this industry who’d like to drive additional traffic to their website.  This is a tremendous opportunity for sponsors of the event, organizations within any of the three main topic areas mentioned above, bloggers and government agencies regardless of their physical location.  

Once we release the “embed code” website owners can create a page on their site that carries the video player and promote the content to their online networks.  Everybody wins. 

Bloggers invited

Something new we’ve suggested to ABC Tech was a “bloggers lounge”.  Why not provide a special experience for local Edmonton and Alberta bloggers who are interested in networking, learning more about this area of technology, and would like to condense a ton of content generation into 3 days.  This unique space will house our on-location set, and enough room for approximately 40 bloggers/media.  We’ve also arranged for each keynote speaker to visit the bloggers lounge after their speech for an on-camera interview and blogger Q/A.  This gives the bloggers a great opportunity to get a story that others will not.

There is a small fee of $50.00 for the bloggers lounge to cover refreshments for the 3 days.  Power, internet, tables, chairs, food, drink and access to watch all the keynotes will be provided.  You’ll also be able to network with attendees in the lobby, and if you’d like you can pay an extra $25.00 for the Recruiters Reception on Tuesday night, that should be a great party and networking opportunity.  

ABC Tech invites bloggers to RSVP by sending an email: info@abctech.com or by phone 780-990-5874

Start-up Edmonton

Tuesday night is also the hack-a-thon being put on by Start-up Edmonton in conjunction with ABC Tech, apparently there’s some pretty cool prizes led by The City of Edmonton’s IT Branch.  This will be another great opportunity to see our local programmer community strut their coding abilities.  This will be cool and we’ll look to cover the action as well.   

Discounted conference ticket

Want to attend the full conference and save some dough?  Use this discount code (case sensitive) “Fused4U“

As the hammer comes down on Google+, Mark Sullivan of PC World thinks Google+ may be the better bet in the battle against Facebook.

In fact, Sullivan has nine reasons to believe that Google+ will be the champ 

Soon enough, Sullivan says Google+ will become a part of Google’s identity – then, the question will really be, “can Google beat Facebook,” he says.

Integration with other Google Services such as YouTube or Gmail is one major player in the picture, says Sullivan.

“Google will build Google+ social networking features and tools into almost all of its existing online services from Search to Documents to Video (YouTube)… This lets you monitor all Google+ events (updates, messages, etc.) as well as share content with friends without ever leaving the Google service you happen to be using,” Sullivan writes.

The ability to manage friends in “circles,” over Google+ is much more realistic, writes Sullivan. 

“We have many different kinds of friends, and we interact with them and communicate with them in very different way,” he says.

When it comes to privacy, Google+ is the far better option, says Sullivan.

Examples include simple things such as photo publishing – On Google+, when a user tags another user in a photo a warning message will appear that informs the user the other person will be tagged.

Google also decided to stay away from face recognition software, unlike Facebook, says Sullivan.

Running a social network is all about responsible stewardship of users’ personal information. Facebook is a young, fast moving company that has proved itself to be cavalier in its movements, lacking in respect for user data privacy, and accident prone,” writes Sullivan.

“Google on the other hand, is a far more mature company that is, I would argue, seen as more trustworthy than Facebook. For the most part, Google has lived up to its “Don’t Be Evil” slogan. Which company would you rather have as the steward of your personally identifiable information?”

Would you feel safer on Facebook or Google+ when it comes to sharing information?

Do you think the fairly new Google+ could win your Edmonton business vote over the highly popular Facebook?

Despite a new report that suggests Google+ is seemingly loosing the race in social networking, the company continues to stand by their product.

New comScore Inc. data shows that users are not all that fond of the network, spending on average just three minutes per month on the site.  

Meanwhile, social network rivals Facebook seem to be grabbing more of users attention as they spend an average seven hours per month on the site, says the report.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, a Google spokeswoman said comScore’s data is “dramatically lower” than Google’s internal data. 

Google vice-president Bradley Horowitz would not reveal Google’s data about how much time people spend on Google+, but did tell the Wall Street Journal, “we’re growing by every metric we care about.”

As Todd Wasserman points out, Google is claiming the comScore Inc. data is inaccurate due its inability to track users who access Google+ remotely.

On this note, Horowitz was quoted telling The Wall Street Journal that, “it is extremely hard for any third party to measure (Google+).” 

Why? 

Because according to Horowitz, the social media site is designed to be more of an auxiliary to other Google services including YouTube and Gmail. 

He also said Google+ is  meant to add a “personal,”  layer on top of the already existing services. This way, Google+ users searching on Google will get personal results that use content from Google+, according to The Journal article.

Just last month, Google CEO Larry Page announced Google+ had 90 million users globally. 

Page also announced that Google reported revenues of $10.58 billion for the quarter ending December 31, 2011.

Do you think Google can compete with Facebook for social networking?

As a company social media strategy, would you prefer to use Google+ or Facebook? Is your Edmonton business currently on either social networking site?

By Jasmine Franklin @JasFranklin09  

Further, we are moving into a larger office space in Edmonton, Alberta just off of Gateway Blvd behind the Weber Centre where we’ll have two studios and more space for a larger team, this will allow for us to serve more of our client’s needs once we’re all settled in. 

Here is today’s official press release. fusedlogic Media Release – Investment

Our team and our new partners are very excited that on our Birthday we’re making this major step forward and that we’re free to pursue the markets that have shown promise for us in the past.  I’m proud of our team, they deserve this for all their hard work and stalwart commitment to our vision, this is only the beginning.    

Personally, I’m also proud of the fact that this investment is another win for Alberta’s tech sector.  Home grown Alberta company meets other home grown Alberta company, decides to kick-ass together in true Alberta fashion.

A special thank-you to our clients who have stuck with us as we launched live Internet TV, we think you’re going to be excited to reap the benefits of the new innovations we intend to launch very soon designed to help your businesses grow even more.  We have a new pricing model that will enable you to work with us long-term, opening the door to all businesses.

What does all this hoopla mean?  We’re hiring, and looking for the best people we can find.  Account executives, on-camera hosts, digital community managers, video editors are some of the positions we’re patiently looking to fill.  

Send your resume and digital links to jobs[at]fusedlogic.com 

I only had 20 minutes, and for me that’s barely enough time to tell one story about the online digital world I and my team work in, but brevity and focus were a virtue in this case so I got right down to business.

Below is the PowerPoint I delivered with a business focus, and then I had just enough time to go onto Twitter live so that people could see Twitter hashtags like #shpk #strathco work in real-time.  For example, here are a couple of Tweetreach.com screen shots of the activity around my @fusedlogic account and the #shpk hashtag during my presentation. 

 Greg Douglas kindly made one up based on an example I cited. #WaltersShoesAreUgly  This helped to illustrate how Twitter organizes conversations, and the differences between those and actual user accounts. 

There were lots of questions after the presentation regarding how to gain followers.  The simplest, targeted way I know of is to search the things that interest you and engage in conversations with people who align with what is important to you.  Following those people who offer value to your world is great way to open up new doors.  Engaging in community building online and offline is a great way to gain followers on Twitter as well.  This morning’s breakfast is a prime example of this.  Truth is however, many this morning who have twitter accounts in the room aren’t using them to their full potential.  My hope is that they reach out to say hello to me on Twitter, and their fellow community members.  

One great example of “reaching out and following up” is Michele Weselake, someone I’ve known for a few years in Sherwood Park, who today asked me what would help my business.  Referrals, speaking, contracts?  My response was “well, all of them works for me.”  Michele wanted to know how to grow her business using Twitter, she’s already on Facebook.  Acting as a “connector” in real life is a great way to be really valuable to a lot of people online.  This is a savvy technique that Michele is clearly adept at in her offline business life.  As a result, she may help to introduce me to business owners who’d like our help with their digital marketing needs, or perhaps a speaking opportunity at a Rotary Club or other organization she may feel is a fit.  Either way, as Michele implements this simple, effective business development practice to her online endeavours, I believe even more real estate business will come her way in the form of referrals and yes, twitter followers too.  The key for Michele (and for you), is to get her twitter account activity to reflect a bit more about who Michele is in real life, because she’s a valuable and powerful force that includes more than the selling of dirt.  

Thoralf brought his communications team in the hopes of identifying new applications or strategies for their bank.  The discussion made me laugh harder than I have all week here as I’ll expand on with video examples below.  And, his top competitor DNB is also here, in fact, RIGHT here.  See the picture. L-R (Nina Hareide-Larsen DNB, Walter Schwabe, Thoralf Cranerod Sparebank 1)

 I’ve landed myself in the middle of a Norwegian bank battle.  

Did you know that all Norwegian banks use the same online banking application platform.  Imagine that in Canada or the US…

Norwegians can send money securely from friend to friend via SMS, the free app has actually increased sms transaction fees for the banks.  Having said that, Sparebank 1 doesn’t make money on mortgages, they’re free.  The money is made on the sale of their other products, they have eliminated the majority of their “fee mentality.”  I forgot I was talking to a banking executive and thought I was speaking with a guy from a web start-up.  I’d love to take all the top Canadian bank executives duct tape them together and not let them free until they adopt the Norwegian way of banking.  Instead of pounding us into submission on fees for breathing, think about actually earning our business.  

So here’s the fun stuff. DNB hired George Clooney for a great spot…love this. In fact, it won a National Norwegian marketing award and you’ll see why. 

And my new friends at Sparebank 1 decided to spoof DNB, which didn’t go over at all well with DNB at first…however, they’ve seem to have more of a sense of humour today…

I love that these guys are going head to head, and can sit at the same table…The Canadian banking industry could learn a fjord’s worth of business lessons from these banks and their industry.  Competitive collaboration to the benefit of the Norwegian banking client. I think that I live in the best country in the world and I do, but we don’t have the best banking industry.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s better than most but could always be better. 

This was one of the most favourite hours I’ve had so far at South by Southwest Interactive 2012.  

The R and R Limo SXSWi shuttle service van left a group of us stranded this morning.  We tweeted the account @rrlimobus and @sxsw it seems there were several left hanging this morning.  If not for Cory and Ashley from the Country Inn giving a few of us a ride to the Austin Conference Center we would have still be sitting in the lobby, you guys are golden. 

What I find fascinating is that this conference is very large and “interactive,” or so it should be.  Meaning I would expect a company like R and R Limo here in Austin, Texas, who last year was terrific to be more savvy with respect to a fail like today.  At least send us a tweet.  Instead?  Nothing.  Everyone has a bad day, it was raining today and even though I don’t consider that to be a serious reason for none fulfillment of service.  I want my money back.  The one time I’ve actually managed to catch a ride, the driver didn’t know where our hotel was.  

The really simple lesson for businesses here is to”listen” and be “responsive” in a crisis situation.  It’s not a new one but it is important.  Especially in a hyper-connected environment like SXSWi.  R and R Limo, you get a fail for damaging my sxswi cool this year.  I missed a critical panel for my business today because of your poor prep and execution of your services.

Can a company react to every tweet?  I don’t they need to.  However, in a crisis situation?  Definitely…and immediately.  Here’s a quick snap-shot of what many sxsw attendees had to say today, clearly R and R caved. 

Hey Southby…have you had a poor experience with the R and R limo shuttle service in Austin this year at SXSW2012?  Sound-off. 

Will they recover their service for the rest of the conference?

Here’s a Social Break episode with a short interview of Joey McGirr. 

It’s good to be back for a second year of the infamous SXSWi in Austin, Texas.  My day started at 2:30am to prepare for a flight out of our impressive, brand new International Terminal at the Edmonton International Airport at 6am bound initially to Denver, then to Austin.  I flew United Express Airlines to Denver, and then Frontier to Austin.  United definitely didn’t break my guitar.  Far from it, actually I was impressed with their service.  Their service today has restored my faith, I will fly them again.   

Denver is a very nice airport and easy to navigate, this is a very cool mosaic in Terminal A.

 Today’s travel was actually quite smooth and trouble free.  

That said, the customer service award has to go to the General Manager Cory Armer at the Country Inn and Suites just North of Austin’s downtown.  Due to the fact I booked my trip a month out, which is “very” late for SXSW.  I originally wasn’t able to book the full week at one location.

Cory went way out of his way to get me a room at his hotel for the entire week and most importantly, it’s on the R and R Limo Shuttle route.  This means I can return the rental car saving me over $500.00.  The shuttle is the absolutely the best way to go for transportation during SXSW.  Not only did I end up at a better property but Cory stayed late to ensure I was checked-in without incident.  This all started with a little story about the SXSW housing authority, as I frantically called around to get a room because the SXSW housing authority was claiming they were sold out.  Apparently, from what I gathered from talking to several hotel folks while trying to find a room, the conference blocks off large amounts of rooms at all the major hotels in the Austin region, then of course, they look to take a piece of the action.  However, lot’s of mix-ups can and do occur apparently, where there are more rooms available but unknown to the average conference goer.  

I do have to hand it to SXSW for their registration process, it’s generally efficient.  Once you buy your badge online, showing up and getting the badge is absolutely painless. This has been the case both years I’ve attended.  Mind you, I’ve always shown up on the Thursday…less lines for sure.  That said, a volunteer gave me the “Film” conference bag rather than the Interactive, oh well.  I won’t use the physical book and the bag is cool either way. 

I’m excited to see my Austin friend Joey McGirr tomorrow, we met before I came down here last year on Twitter, and we’re scheduled to have a coffee tomorrow.  He was gracious enough to allow us to use his office here in Austin as a bit of a base of operations, I look forward to spending time with Joey, it will be great to catch up this week and you never know maybe some business might come of it.  

I will say this, my opinion is, I would have never has this positive end result without booking directly with the hotel and the personal customer service provided by a General Manager who cares about his customers the way Cory does.  In a world where all too often we settle for less, everyone in this story has contributed to a great start to this year’s conference for me. 

Yes, it’s good to be back in the heart of Texas, I’ll endeavour to help “Keep Austin Weird” while I’m here…

(Credit: tomsguide.com )

The online world has been buzzing this past week after research firm comScore Inc. released new data showing Google+ may be getting a bad grade among users.

The report says, users on personal computers spent only three minutes every month on Google+ for the months of September to January. 

Compare that to a little more than seven hours users spent every month on Facebook.

Google+ was launched last June offering much of the same social services as Facebook. The social product allows users to share content including photos, articles, videos and even the option to add circles of friends.

But if the competition is on with Facebook, comScore data suggests that Google+ is losing.

In fact, as The Wall Street Journal put it, the report shows Google+ is “a virtual ghost town,” compared to its rival social networking site, Facebook.

Todd Wasserman says, comScore numbers show a downward spiral over the past few months for Google’s fairly new social network. 

Wasserman says the report shows that in November users spent an average 5.1 minutes on Google+.

Come December, that number dropped to a mere 4.8 minutes.

When Google+ was first launched, comScore Inc. collected data based on its first few weeks of operation. 

In just 21 days, the site drew in 20 million visitors.

So where did Google go wrong?

Brian Solis, an analyst at social-media advisory firm Altimeter Group, told The Wall Street Journal people aren’t looking for another social network.

“Google hasn’t communicated what the value of Google+ is,” Solis told The Jounal. 

But for Google employees, the declining situation of the new social network could more than just disappointing.

Last April, Google CEO Larry Page sent out a company-wide memo informing employees that 25% of their annual bonus would be tied to the success or failure of Google’s social strategy in 2011. 

Talk about a tough break. 

What do you think about Google+?

Has your Edmonton business ever had a use for the site? Does your company promote itself through Facebook?

If you had to choose Google+ or Facebook for your company, which it be and why?

By Jasmine Franklin @JasFranklin09  

Here are a few examples of networking possibilities: 

Social Media Breakfasts Edmonton @SMBYEG 

BoB Club Breakfasts: http://www.bobclubs.ca/club/Edmonton @BoBedmoton

The Edmonton “Linked In” Business and Social Network: http://www.meetup.com/linkedinEDMONTON/

Not all groups thrive all the time…here’s one that Walter Schwabe started in 2008 http://www.meetup.com/The-Social-Web-Meetup/   and enthusiasm for the group has dropped off. Most of the 193 members don’t show up, why?  This forum, currently run by Dave Yadallee @rootnl2k is for people to engage in discussion about social media on a different level and is perfect for people from all walks of life.  This sounds like a group that would interest me, what about you?

It’s amazing the opportunities that present themselves when you respond to people in need, here are a couple of the responses to @fusedlogic‘s recent plea regarding the Benefit for Darren Mostoway, friend and victim of the Heather Ridge Condo fire…

Last November, Sandra @saysandra put this out to the twitterverse:

She also put out a few tweets requesting help to prepare and serve the meal at @mustardseedyeg …and tweeps responded with produce and time!  People who prior to that event did not know each other,  started grating large quantities of carrots for slaw, cutting a never ending supply of  apples for crisp, and as a result can no longer be called  strangers.  Most were there on account of twitter, a tweetup for the social good….and social networking, an unexpected bonus.

The Slave Lake disaster.  Almost instantly local ladies rallied on twitter before anyone knew the full extent of the damage, clothes were being collected, space being donated for drop off points, Facebook pages updated with information.  http://www.torontosun.com/2011/05/16/donations-flood-in-for-slave-lake-fire-evacuees  Once again, a call for help from key organizers @feliciadewar, @karissa_nicole, @magzDLife, @kristiwozniak, @naturalurbanmom: so many donations, how to manage it all? Enter @recyclenazi , @Rainyfool and many others arriving with their children, sorting, folding, many conversations and lasting connections made.  Check out the  Moms Help Slave Lake Facebook album by @TimelessEdge: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.199827176729129.52560.133832619995252&type=3

There is no shortage of  need but as these people have shown social networking can be a terrific way to self organize…What experience have you had? What event should we know about?

Bobbi Cullum @RealTurkeyLady

The subject matter itself wasn’t breaking news, in fact, Sherman was referencing articles and content from 2011 with content from Wikileaks from as far back as 2006.  However, I realized that the Alberta Liberal, in full campaign mode is attempting to put the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta on the defensive.  Of course, what else would you expect from one of the opposition parties, especially one with a new leader who’s looking for any edge possible. 

Having said that, here’s what’s interesting about digital communications that never go away.  Today,courtesy of Sherman many people are seeing this information regarding electricity transmission for the first time.  Communicating effectively on platforms like Twitter is all about timing and relevancy.  One might say the exact same thing about communicating during an election campaign.  

I decided to put my own tweet out about this story.       

This was retweeted and the content will continue to play a role in the upcoming election, and the critical question will be how well the Alberta PC Party campaigns are prepared for what is sure to be an even more intense barrage.  This will put all that election college time to the test.  It will be interesting to observe the content strategy of all of the political parties as March comes into view.  Do you respond to a tweet like Raj Sherman’s?  By this time, all campaigns should definitely have discussed the critical issues that will almost certainly be discussed during the campaign, and have their content plan and crisis plans ready to go.  If not, a day like today is simply a small taste of what’s to come.  This will put you under pressure each day to make decisions on what or if to respond.  From a spectating voter’s perspective, it will be interesting to watch these dynamics play out in yet another election.  

As an aside, a couple people responded to me today focusing on the date of the information.  Sure that’s one element, and the way I wrote the tweet certainly suggested a “breaking news” sense of urgency.  In retrospect I could have put the word “again” at the end to clear that up but I was about to run out the door.  Instead I decided to do this blog post to expand on my thought process.

There was also some PC response today on Twitter.  Interestingly, there wasn’t much traction for these responses.  A key lesson is that it’s always easier to attack than defend which is the position of the current governing party.  I suspect the majority of the time it will be one of two types of responses, fact clarification and be nice.  This of course is less sensational, and means that it might receive less play, as was the case today. 

Around the same time, another tweet originally by The Sun’s Rick Bell refers to an article originally written yesterday on the .05 law including comments from Alberta’s Solicitor General.  This was the second issue on the go today on Twitter that the current PC Government has to contend with. 

There will be many different issues that all Parities will want to have front and centre.  Anything to get attention and possibly votes.  

Speaking of getting attention. One thing is certain, the uncertainty of whether Stephen Carter will return to twitter during the campaign after this tweet.   

Then the apology.  

What do you think?  Is this going to be the best election thus far for interesting digital communications?  And by interesting, one might infer that I mean realtime mud-slinging, mishaps and political missteps?  Will one or more parties be more innovative and responsive than their counterparts? 

Will one or more campaigns step up with a clear plan, a great digital content strategy, and execute the debate effectively?  

Mud-slinging by the way IS a strategy, although I think all the political parties, the PC Party, Wildrose, Liberals, NDP, and Alberta Party should be capable of more. Don’t you? 

How can this impact greater Edmonton Area businesses?  Here is an example of why you should push your brand on Pinterest:  If  a client has a good experience, they google your business, pin your logo and share it.  You can WAIT for future clients to have that experience, or you can be proactive and have that pin already available, circulating on Pinterest.  Be sure your pin is linked to your website , add your Twitter handle and KEYWORDS to the comment space below.  This provides another SEO tool for your business using social media. Be creative, pin your products! In the food industry?  Why not pin a signature dish…ensuring that pin leads them right back to you. 

This pin explains the importance of Social TV. www.fusedlogic.tv

 http://pinterest.com/bobbi_cullum/neighborhood-finds/ 

The following links are examples of businesses engaging using Pinterst:

http://pinterest.com/generalelectric/

http://pinterest.com/etsy/

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      What is immediately noticable about Pinterest?  It is a very positive platform, a breath of fresh air if you will, so if your business is looking for positive exposure, start pinning and generate that conversation.  

Need help getting started on Pinterest? Here’s Mashable’s Pinterest Beginner’s Guide.

Happy Pinning!

Bobbi Cullum @RealTurkeyLady

According to Matthew Latkiewicz @mattlatmatt of Zendesk.com, video chats on the go could be the next big thing (http://mashable.com/2010/10/12/mobile-video-chat-business/). 

The beauty of this feature – take Apple’s iPhone FaceTime as an example – is that it allows a new level of communication with clients beyond a computer desktop, argues Latkiewicz.

 A business, or client, can be in two places at once.

For example, say an Edmonton-based business has a client located in Calgary that is actively searching for a venue in Edmonton, however, this client cannot make the trip to see the location in person. 

The business could, with the use of FaceTime, video call the client from on-location of the venue in Edmonton. This feature can then both provide a live visual of the location for the client and allow the business to see the client’s live reaction. 

According to Eric Rice @LWIPro, CEO of LWI (http://blog.lwipro.com) video chat saves his company up to 25 hours monthly in email writing and around $13,000 every 60 days in plane trips, he told  Latkiewicz.

So which Edmonton businesses would benefit from adopting the mobile video chat?

Those with highly personal customer relationships are best suited for this mobile face-to-face video method. 

“Video chat is intimate, and businesses built on a more anonymous customer relationship may not find much value from putting a face on every interaction,” writes  Latkiewicz.

Businesses with a highly mobile workforce can also benefit from the mobile video chats – those who live off their phones can continue doing business without being tied to a desk. 

But as  Latkiewicz also points out, mobile video chats are not being marketed to the business world, but rather, geared toward personal relationships and scenarios such as a girlfriend showing her boyfriend a new haircut.

Though companies, such as Apple, have a long way to go in engaging mobile video chat to the business world, Edmonton customer-focused businesses could become game-changers if adopting the mobile video chat strategy.

Do you think your company could benefit from the use of mobile video chats? Is it a strategy you’re willing to try out?

Jasmine Franklin @JasFranklin09  

Climbing to the top of Google’s search engine results page sounds like a difficult task to do. But in reality, all you need is a business strategy for your video production that includes keywords. 

According to Forrester, (http://blogs.forrester.com/interactive_marketing/2009/01/the-easiest-way.html) videos embedded with  specific, searchable keywords have a 50 times better chance of appearing on the first page of Google results than any text page.

Forrester explains that when putting your video online, be sure to insert keywords into the video filename. 

These keywords should identify what the video is about in the most simple terms, this way, when a user is searching for a related topic your video becomes one of the top results. 

Long gone are the days when a simple Google search merely displayed a website or text page.  Now, more major search engines are adopting the “blended search,” practice where videos, pictures, infographics and maps are displayed more frequently, explains Forrester.

This is a prime opportunity for Edmonton businesses to take advantage of the blended search method. 

Another trick in making your  video high on the results page is to upload  the content to YouTube.

Businesses can then embed the YouTube videos to their own website ultimately optimizing the search traffic.

In fact, an infographic compiled by Mashable.com shows that 20 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute. That’s 28, 800 hours of video every day or, three years of video updated to the site every day.

Has your Edmonton business been using key words when filing video online? Do you think this practice will help your video become more searchable?

Jasmine Franklin @JasFranklin09 

Today, the online world is driven by content, fresh, juicy, breaking news type content.  The Internet is one large human sensor network.  Often this content is written by citizen and pro journalists, bloggers and hacks…some of it out right lies.

The central issue here is “quality”.  The quality of the writing, the background information and sources.  Professional journalism is professional for a reason, they are trained to check facts, and get multiple sources whenever things are in question.  The rest of the social media, blogging world?  Questionable as we all know.

What about professional business copy-writing?  There are companies out there, local Edmonton area companies, like ours, who you can hire to write great copy for blog posts and articles.  They, (we) would recommend having a digital “content strategy”.  The days of stagnant copy on your website should be gone.  You can’t afford to sit idle.  Google depends, indeed, Google thrives on fresh data and digital content dripping with a “that was so 8 seconds ago” twinge.  

The search engine optimization battle is won with an optimized content strategy designed to dominate your market space, if not you, then your competition.  

Will this battle yield sloppy sales driven content optimized strictly for the benefit of the prospective customer audience?  Yes.  Will it damage our cool?  Sure, some spam riddled garbage does make it through, soon Google’s Artificial Intelligence (or someone else’s) will remove that before we ever see it in the search results.  Then we’ll see the SEO guys and gals freak.

Having a content strategy is critical, including a well balanced diet of all content types, text, video, images, and even some audio is recommended for all Edmonton businesses.  Add to that a human voice distributed within social media, and you’ve got a terrific way to share this content extending out from your blog that helps to build rapport. 

If you have questions about this post or would like to share some fresh content give me a shout on twitter (@fusedlogic) 

Happy blogging. 

For another angle on this discussion check out this post by Michael Brenner on the B2B Marketing Insider blog.

Link: Will Content Marketing Destroy Social Media? – Rich Content Daily: Latest Tips, Tools & Ideas

Audi – @Audi  
Cadillac – @Cadillac 
CareerBuilder.com – @careerbuilder
Cars.com – @carsdotcom
Century 21 – @Century2
Chevrolet – @chevrolet
Chevy Volt – @ChevyVolt
Doritos – @DoritosUSA
Downy – @Downy
General Electric-@generalelectric 
GLSEN – @glsen
GoDaddy.com – @GoDaddy*
Hyundai – @Hyundai
Lexus – @Lexus
Pizza Hut – @PizzaHut
Pepsi – @Pepsi
Pepsi Max – @PepsiMAX
Oikos Yogurt by Dannon – @Dannon
Skechers – @SKECHERSUSA
Volkswagen – @VW

Here’s a quick screenshot of an exchange Walter Schwabe had with the General Electric account…

 These companies, not so much:

Acura – @Acura_Insider
belVita – @belVita
Best Buy @bestbuy *
Bridgestone – @Bridgestone
Chevy Sonic – @feel_the_sonic (no longer existed?)
Coca Cola – @CocaCola*
eTrade – @ETRADEFinancial
Fiat USA – @FiatUSA
H&M – @HM
Honda – @Honda
Hulu – @Hulu
Chrysler-@Chrysler *
Kia @KMA_PR
M&Ms – @MyMMscom
MetLife – @MetLifePR
Priceline – @TheNegotiator or @priceline
Samsung USA – @Samsungtweets
Suzuki – @SuzukiAuto
TaxAct.com – @TaxAct
Teleflora – @Teleflora
Toyota – @Toyota

It should be noted that @GoDaddy was rated highest (56.8%) for being offensive, and while engaging, did a lot of damage control.

@bestbuy was criticized for only profiling male inventers.

@Chrysler  had fantastic feedback, but did not engage with their fans. Very expensive way to entertain if there is no follow up.

While it’s clear that many advertisers see the value in social media, they don’t know how to make it work in the best interest of their company. We were surprised at the number of companies who have chosen handles that just don’t make sense from a consumer standpoint. Perhaps traditional brands like Coca Cola take for granted their history with consumers, but are they missing the boat with the teach savvy?

One week after SuperBowl 46, the conversation within social media continues…

Does your Edmonton area business engage using social media? How does it stack up?  Do you use social media to inform/to converse or both?

When we think of greater Edmonton area businesses that are making the most of social media, we can’t help but mention Kristi Wozniak of Key Lime Athletic Wear.  Kristi has been very effective in promoting her business using various forms of social media, whether it be contests on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/Keylimeclothing or promotion on Twitter @KEYLIMEclothing,  most importantly she is engaging customers in real conversation.  Her message: Look Your Best~Feel Your Best~Be Your Best. Easily accomplished when she provides the finest performance fabrics and top quality blends of nylon, supplex, bamboo blends, and organic cotton blends, with a vast range of sizes, athletic wear to fit real people. Lastly, what cannot be ignored is her passion to use social media to promote all small independent businesses. http://www.keylimecanada.com/

 Is your brand using social media effectively, do you have a story we should be aware of?

Bobbi Cullum @RealTurkeyLady

In today’s social media world, video is an attractive player in the business field. Whether it’s promoting a product, or distinguishing a company brand, consumers are more likely to flock to a video than text. 

According to a study (http://www.youbrandinc.com/social-media/how-to-get-more-facebook-likes) conducted by YouBrand, videos and pictures posted on Facebook are more likely to get clicked on by users when compared to plain text and audience questions.

Consumers have the option to “share” a video link on Facebook which will allow your video to be seen by more users. Through this social media medium, an Edmonton business is able to reach a whole new audience far beyond its local borders. 

There is also the option to “like,” a video and help maintain viewer loyalty and well as build local community. 

Beyond social media, emails and newsletters containing video have a 96 per cent higher click-through rate compared to those that did not contain video, according to a GetResponse study (http://www.getresponse.com/press-center/releases/01-12-2009.html). 

That study also identifies video as the “fastest growing trend in Internet history.”

The message is clear: consumers and clients are captivated by the moving visuals that are not only a source of information for users but also a source of entertainment. 

Here you have an example how Edmonton Social Media Consultant, Walter Schwabe, uses video to give social media advice on The Social Break:

Business owners, ask yourself: are you currently using video to reach your audience through various social media platforms?

How do you think your Edmonton business could benefit from video production? 

Jasmine Franklin @JasFranklin09 

In the words of organizers: MediaCamp Edmonton is a conference aimed at getting journalists and other storytellers together with technology developers to learn new skills, understand more about each other’s worlds, and find ways to work together, and honestly, it did not disappoint.

With coffee in hand, 100 people settled in for what turned out to be an informative and very motivating day at the World Trade Centre.   

There were two options (Learn it! Or Discuss it!) for every session, kicking the day off with Mack Male-@mastermaq covering Intro to Data, and Brittney Le Blanc- @britl  and Jay Palter- @jaypalter speaking to Self Branding and Online Conversation not only imperative to the Edmonton Social Media scene, but most facets of our lives.  Putting ourselves out there is good, lands us jobs, stories and friends and any Google mentions add to your brand.  Jay shared this well received quote: Personal Brand is what people say about you when you leave the room ~Jeff Bezos.

Todd Babiak @babiak  presented What it Takes to get a Developer’s Story Out: filled with much insight, and resonating with the entire group.  Challenged to be professionally curious, he reminded us that we can only start the story once.

Curating the Story was a hands on lesson on Storify http://storify.com/ and included a Tamara Stecyk- @TamaraStecyk displaying her Storify on Walter Schwabe’s – @fusedlogic Social Media Breakfast #SMBYEG Prezi  and video http://storify.com/TamaraStecyk/edmonton-social-media-breakfast-january-27-2012

Almost as fascinating as the presenters, were the attendees, and networking opportunities were abundant.  Always great to put a face to the twitter handle AND find new tweeps to follow.  Meeting Maureen O’Reilly a Creative Catalyst of http://www.mordirections.com  was a personal highlight of the event.

Missed out on the popular session by Dana DiTomaso- @danaditomaso titled Make Google your Friend AKA Demystifying SEO & Analytics? Do not fear as she will be a guest speaker at BlogWest in March! http://blogwest.ca/

This only touches on what was learned at MediaCamp Edmonton, for a recap check out http://mediacampedmonton.ca/news/  Kudos to the organizers of this fine event!

Bobbi Cullum @RealTurkeyLady

The event itself was orchestrated by the American Chamber of Commerce Canada West, Edmonton Chapter.  Representing “AmCham Canada West” was Norman Leach, Executive Director, and the Edmonton Chapter’s new Managing Director Leslie MacDonald.  

 The luncheon was sponsored by PCL, represented by Doug Stollery, introduced Ambassador Jacobson. Carrying a folder with the Presidential Seal on it, took the podium and spoke about the importance of maintaining a strong relationship between our two countries.  Strengthening security at our border by increased use of the Nexus program, and of course, “a trip to Alberta wouldn’t be complete without discussing the Keystone XL Pipeline”, stated the Ambassador.  He spoke of the fact that US President Obama couldn’t approve the pipeline project without an approved route.  Seems the Republican Governor of Nebraska objected to the proposed route and the hearings held in that State obviously didn’t go well for TransCanada.  He estimated that should there be another application by TransCanada the soonest it would most likely be in a situation to be approved would September or October of this year, not before.  

I enjoyed the event, it was a great opportunity to network, and meet-up with old friends and colleagues.  Further, it accomplished the goal of announcing AmCham to the Edmonton business community.

I have no doubt that with Leslie McDonald at the helm of the Edmonton Chapter the next time Ambassador Jacobson comes back to Edmonton the room will need to be a lot larger to accommodate all the members and he may attend yet another Oilers victory over the Hawks as was the case last night.

Does your Edmonton business currently use social media?  We’d be happy to help you get started and develop a plan to properly implement social media.  Whether your Edmonton area business is a one person operation or has 5000 employees, we’ve created digital strategies for all types of businesses.

In the meantime, check out the cool Flowtown infographic called the Social Media Cheat Sheet.  The complete infographic is at this link: Social Media Marketing: An Easy Guide

Walter Schwabe, Chief Evolution Officer, fusedlogic Inc.

It was with great anticipation that the first Social Media Breakfast Edmonton of 2012 (SMBYEG) kicked off this morning. With 50 participants in attendance our very own Walter Schwabe-@fusedlogic, Edmonton Social Media Consultant and Digital Strategist was the featured guest speaker. It was fast paced, extremely relevant and in the words of @redneckmommy: a bang up presentation! We learned to not take ourselves too seriously, the importance of monitoring stats, and that Commerce sites that use video sell 45% more. In other words: the value of Social TV.

We also noshed on @PrairieMill ‘s sweet treats, provided by @EdmNextGen and were entertained by @HedgeHodge ’s discussion on sweet tweets.

If you missed this great event, either in person or via live streaming, do not fear, we have Walter’s prezi here for you!

I’m still formulating some thoughts on my presentation approach.  I’m leaning towards doing our own version of a “Tweetchat” as my actual presentation rather than go the standard presentation route.  Communicating key points about socialTV in the form of 10 questions in which the audience can participate directly by answering via Twitter.  There’s no wrong or right answer, everyone  on Twitter contributes to the overall conversation, as well as, in the room.

Example:

Using such hashtags as #smbyeg #socialtv we can encourage other social tv curious/enthusiasts to join in, probably from the East coast primarily…

I will post 10 questions, one at a time on the big screen for those in the audience who’d like to share on twitter, see the following.  

Q1: How would you describe SocialTV? #smbyeg #socialtv

A1: TV’s that talk nicely…:) #smbyeg #socialtv

Everyone can answer on their own if they choose, again using the hashtags for the tweetchat…

In between each question and answer I’ll fill in details, and my thoughts with images and other goodies to keep things interesting.  After all, more than just being the eye candy, I’ve got a job to do.

The audience members in the room who are not on Twitter still get to participate directly by being there, using the microphone if they choose when I open the floor up to comments.

Also, as everyone who’s ever been to a Social Media Breakfast in Edmonton knows, there are prizes offered up, and everyone in attendance get’s a chance to win one of 3 or 4 great prizes available.  In the past, this has usually been in the form a an on the fly quiz by the presenter.  This of course, falls to me this time around. 

I must honestly say at this moment I’m stuck, and could sure use some help on how to make the prize giveaways unique…I suppose we could have people guess the color of each other’s underwear…on second thought…any suggestions?

All in all, I’ve got a Prezi nearly ready to go if we decide not to go the Tweetchat route, but I like pushing things out of my comfort zone and that of the audience whenever possible and this relaxed, social media savvy crowd may just be the right formula…

What do you think?  Please vote here in the comments…Prezi or tweetchat, along with any thoughts you might have…  

Also, please don’t forget to give this a G+ hit and share it with others who might want to attend the event. 

Social Media Breakfast Edmonton #13 tickets here while they last. 

Rapid video content creation – 2 million live and recorded viewer minutes served!

Social media plans for small, medium and large businesses…Please call 780-640-9339 

Please don’t hate us if you missed those great prices…Stay tuned, you just never know what’s coming around the corner. 

This is true of any large event, the best ways to follow them online is by finding good curators of the information.

Good content curators are:

1. Proven Trustworthy
2. Knowledgable
3. Aware they ARE curating for an audience
4. Familiar with the individuals/companies/government involved

The Verge

This is a relatively new site, but created by many previous employers of several popular tech sites. Here’s their own description: 

The Verge is a technology-focused news publication founded in 2011 by Joshua Topolsky and Marty Moe in partnership with Vox Media and its CEO Jim Bankoff. The Verge’s mission is to offer breaking news coverage and in-depth reporting, product information, and community content via a unified, modern platform.

I recommend this site to anyone who is interested in consumer electronics/tech

TWiT Live/Leo Laporte

I had the privilege of visiting the TWiT studio over this holiday, they were prepping for CES even then. TWiT comes live from CES every year. If you want the ‘On The Floor’ experience, watch their live streams and podcasts this week, alway informative, entertaining and interesting to watch.

Robert Scoble (The Scobeilizer)

You can find Robert Scoble EVERYWHERE. Twitter, Google+, his website. The Scobileizer will be roaming the CES floor and talking to as many people as possible. He is great at sharing useful and interesting information, but not being TOO overwhelming.

Other useful CES links:

• CES Website
• Keynote Schedule
• Conference Program

Thats my list of curators, there are many others. Who are some of your favorite content curators?

Interestingly, this issue touches on a few points I think you’ll find interesting.

1.) Many get excited about the technology first.  This isn’t really a “twitter” issue, despite being the primary social technology platform used for communication in this case.  Evidence within the sentiment of this online discussion state it’s a “moral” issue for many.  ”Do you like drunk driving?  Do you want drunks on the road?  No, then don’t tweet locations.”  Based on retweet evidence within the #yegtraffic and #checkstop hashtags on Twitter, this is the majority sentiment, punctuated by Lindsey Robin.

The response is ghost accounts created simply to tweet #checkstop locations, and snub those who speak out against the practice.  As with different issues in the past, this inevitable pattern persists. 

2.) Another popular but minority sentiment stated, is that since it appears to be acceptable to broadcast photo-radar locations (which are provided in advance to print media by policing services) that it should be acceptable to broadcast checkstop locations.   As always, what you tweet reflects on who you are, and what you stand for.     

Social media etiquette

With respect to protecting your brand and business here’s a tip.  Always remember to provide recognition for someone else’s work if you’re going to reference it or try to benefit from it.  

For example, if we were going to create a video in the hopes of generating awareness for our brand.  Say in this case, a video about this checkstop discussion.  First, we wouldn’t want the message to appear as if we had really been the first ones to recognize a pattern of behaviour, because in reality, it was CTV.  The professional thing to do is to give credit, and reference those who did the original heavy-lifting. 

Credit here is due to CTV Edmonton and Sean Amato for first identifying the discussion and doing a segment on it. (Disclaimer: a segment that I was in)  Anyone who positions themselves as being ahead of the curve on this issue, and doesn’t give CTV recognition for doing the ground work is suspect at best.  Common courtesy and etiquette should always come first.  Not providing credit or recognition says something negative about your brand.  If you see this tactic being used, my recommendation is to stay away.  

Once again, my sincerest thanks to all of those too many to count who retweeted me on the weekend for thanking CTV Edmonton about their efforts to raise awareness of this issue.  I believe this entire issue serves as an important reminder to be responsible in our decisions, whether that’s when consuming alcohol, tweeting or conducting business.      

Clearly a mental lapse, which was brought to Twitter by a since fired employee of New Media Strategies, the agency handling the Chrysler account. The Wall Street Journal reports that Chrysler also cut ties to New Media Strategies in March as a result of the above tweet.  

This is further evidence that in the social web, even though you can delete a tweet, it doesn’t disappear if it’s been retweeted.  Rather, it lives on forever in follow-up blogging by AdWeek in this case, and articles like the ones here and Chrysler’s own response here. 

Appropriate response?

Did Chrysler take the appropriate steps in your mind?  Should they not only have ensured that the employee of New Media Strategies was immediately fired but also end the business relationship with the agency themselves for a single tweet?

If this happened to you, what would you do?

Fun Free Gift

If 20 people participate and sign-up as per the instructions below, starting now and ending at 5pm MT today, then all 20 people qualify and will get a FREE (5) minute video produced by fusedlogicTV.

1.) Email info@fusedlogic.com and let us know you want your free (5) minute show, ask questions about the process in the email and we’ll be happy to answer them. 

2.) Schedule the show with us, and produce the show in our studio or via Skype

3.) Promote your show to the world online or just to your family.  

Small Print

The show is yours when it’s done, we’ll supply you with a digital file so you can upload it where you like.  We don’t do gambling or pornography focused shows or anything that promotes illegal acts or subject matter.  We reserve the right to refuse service. You agree to allow us to include our branding, logos and show production credits.  We will post your video to the internet if you would like.  

So, picking up where I left off in my last post about not paying for social media profile services.  This is where you pay someone, or a company, to set-up your shiny new Twitter page, Facebook profile or YouTube channel for you.  

Next, look to avoid blindly creating “chit chat” or continuous “self-promotion” as the core of your new content development strategy.  

Here’s the question you should ask “before” you agree to work with any individual or company on your social media presence. 

First, you want to converse with others in the world, digital or otherwise.  Having said that, ask your new “social media guru” what their content plan is for you.  If they answer by saying, “we’re just going to start talking and engaging” put your cheque book away. What they’ve just told you is that not only do they not understand social media strategy deployment, they also don’t understand you, your customers, your culture or your business objectives.  Yet, they intend to announce your brand to the online world and you’ve just paid them to do that.  

Why would you cut corners on your digital strategy?  

The web is filled with case studies of companies who leverage social media in unique ways to grow their businesses, brands, influence and presence.  Yet, for everyone one of those success stories there’s another thousand who hired the lowest quote, and just started babbling on Twitter.  Worse yet, the plan is to beg for followers.

Gaming social media to pump up numbers, pump up perceived influence isn’t valuable, it detracts from your brand, reputation and real world influence.

Has your organization been down the following path?

1.) Start twitter account

2.) Start tweeting about yourself

3.) Not much initial response, so you follow 1000 accounts thinking everyone will automatically follow you back.

4.) You deem your 100 new followers as twitter success

5.) Reality sets in that you’re not gaining any new business from the first 2 weeks on Twitter and abandon the effort.  

Thank goodness you didn’t spend much money on this plan in the first place…but…

6.) You buy twitter followers thinking that somehow this is a win for your organization.

Instead, think of context, think relevancy and think of how you can provide value to your community.  You’ll build a reputation in the right way and for the right reasons.  A reputation built on pure values rather than fake numbers.  This is a marathon not a sprint, lay a strong foundation and be committed to the long-term.      

Ultimately, you have a choice.  

Hire someone who’s adding social media to their list of other services or hire a dedicated digital agency.  Of course, I have an opinion on which way you should go, but it’s your brand, your company and your budget…

Was this post helpful? 

I’ve found that many companies and organizations have their priorities misaligned when it comes to exploring and implementing social media.  In fact, for years now things have changed very little.  

Step one: Company executive says to subordinate “we need to start using social media, get us a quote”.

Step two: Google search, phone call, meeting(s), proposal.

Step three:  Award contract to lowest bid that includes setting up the usual social media profiles, and a training session on how to tweet, update a Facebook status and start a Linkedin group.  Which can all be accomplish in a day for $250.00 per the quote, this can now be supplied by anyone.  If you must pay for it, I recommend that you hire a student for that task.  

Twitter is filled with people who are dying to share their knowledge in this regard, so is Facebook and LinkedIn, which means they carry that urge with them daily in their work lives too.

Businesses who value this type of social media project, and hire companies who market this approach have the same misaligned priorities.  That’s why it works I guess, at least in the beginning.  There’s clearly a market for the cheapest price, lowest value option.  I give you the Dollar Store.  The logic in this approach?  If that’s all the social media experience you have, and someone still values it then I suppose it’s pure capitalism rules at play, plain and simple.  I don’t consider it to be moral but it is capitalistic.   

We’ll do it for FREE!

If your logic is that you don’t care about having a proper social media plan that will focus on moving from “conversation to conversion” and you only want the cheapest quote to set-up your social profiles fast then fusedlogic will do that for FREE!  It’s your choice, your brand, your company, but don’t pay for that service!  

At fusedlogic, we won’t take advantage of people like that.  Now, if you want to learn how to align your business objectives with social media.  Build with the proper integration in mind as part of a digital strategy, then we can address that with a quote. Included will be the “right” social media profiles for your business, established with your direct collaboration.

Whether you consider this blog post to be helpful or not, my hope is that you’ll consider other factors beyond just the technology and the price.  

You don’t have to come to fusedlogic for your digital strategy needs.  However, we are dedicated to the social media and digital strategy space and that has benefits in terms of experience, professionalism, and results.  

After you meet us, you’ll learn more about that key difference, our philosophy to protecting your brand and the value of our services.

Don’t pay someone to set-up your social media profile. (Unless you’re hiring a student.) Give a kid a job.  

This means that through this special COSSD video service as provided by fusedlogicTV, customers can now generate a unique looking video right from their office and desk using Skype with excellent production value.  This service immediately increases the effectiveness of businesses in the Alberta energy sector once they realize, and understand how rapidly they can create high production value videos in order to increase brand awareness online.

Alberta energy sector businesses can use this service for direct and immediate communications with investors, sales and marketing, employee recruitment and labour relations, crisis communications and a lot more.

We’re excited at what this new MOU and business relationship with JuneWarren-Nickle’s Energy Group represents in terms of new services.  JWN customers are going to enjoy having access to cutting-edge digital video production, and how it will help them communicate to their global customer base in new ways.  

Have a look at a couple of COSSD focused examples of this new video production service now available to all COSSD customers.

The first video demonstrates the possibilities with an interview style, on-camera host and virtual set.

In this next video, Rob Pentney, Director of Sales for JWN demonstrates how a customer using Skype at their desk can host their very own video segment.

Contact the team at JuneWarren-Nickle’s COSSD to book your video production project.

Your sacrifice will never be forgotten. 

In Flanders Fields

Knowing how to set yourself apart from the crowd is critical if you are to succeed in business.  Sometimes, it’s because you roast your own beans in house.  Other times it’s the special rub on the brisket that has been passed down for generations that creates killer bbq. Maybe, as in the case of Double Tree Hotels, it’s the chocolate chip cookie you’re greeted with when you arrive.

Or maybe, you’re one of my favourite companies, Thinkgeek.com  These guys are really unique right down to the cool monkey.  No wonder they’re sold out of their “singing monkey balls” seen here:

Thinkgeek is wonderfully unique and dedicated to their space.  In fact, I’d say they “own” their space of special geek swag.  Nearly 400K followers on Twitter agree with me too.  They do a heckuva job engaging with customers in all of their social media channels.  Simple, happy, geeky effectiveness.

Let us know if you have a favourite niche company that you love. 

In the area of social media however, uniqueness doesn’t always win the day.  In fact, quite the opposite.  For many it’s about their automated content.  There’s an audience who just want the top ten things you can do to make something better.  There are large amounts of twitter users who believe that the best way to use their account is to push other people’s content without creating their own.  Don’t get me wrong, RT’s and links to content are great but not solely.  At least in my opinion.

The flip side is true.  One shouldn’t be so unfocused so as to not be known for something or lose your purpose.    

Whatever your uniqueness is, celebrate it.  As annoying as Bill Zucker is for his use of upper case letters for EVERYTHING he says, he’s managed in his own way to entertain and engage, a tactic that for him is working just fine.  Is he getting more gigs as a result?  A question maybe the Zuck will answer for himself here.  I will say that general brand awareness has definitely increased over the past year or so I’ve been observing.  People love quirky entertainment and Zucker doesn’t take himself seriously and has a lot of fun with his fans.

 Check out the #damnyouzucker hashtag.  

This all started when he was working on a online video project with Kelsey Grammer called The Kelsey Grammer Bill Zucker Comedy Hour.  One of the bits they did was Zucker would steal all the toilet paper on Kelsey and he’s scream….you guessed it – “damn you Zucker!”

For us here at fusedlogic, we don’t steal people’s toilet paper.  That said, we feel we’re unique because of our live video streaming business – fusedlogicTV.  That really sets us apart from other digital agencies in terms of services offered.  Add to that our strict dedication to digital strategy development for years, our great clients, and we’re very different than the other guys. Well I suppose that, and my unique aerodynamics but that’s another story.   

Communicating a clear advantage is often difficult.  Lack of creativity, lack of experience, and in larger companies, the lack of internal processes or champions to support such thinking.  Often though, it’s a lack of guts.  Business people become experts in “the way it’s always been done”.  Now if you’re Coca Cola, then you’ve been taught by your customers to keep Coke’s formula the way it is. However, Coke has been an innovator in countless other ways since the new Coke fiasco.  A pretty tough thing to do in the beverage industry.  

Question of the Day

What sets you apart from the mundane in your industry?

I realize this isn’t a purely social media question, it’s a marketing one.  The social web is the perfect channel to amplify your unique message once you’ve identified it.  As we’ve seen above.

Get it right and people will want to come work for you.  Get it right and customers will want to buy from you.  Get it wrong and nobody will care about you.  You’ll blend in.

Who do you think is highly unique?  Is there a person, business or thing that’s super different?

I’ve been thinking about this today as I listen and watch Jeff Pulver’s 140 Conference in New York or #140confNYC.  However, “humanization” has been on my mind for a while now.  

Do people really want to peer behind the curtains here at fusedlogic?  I know our competitors do, but what about clients?  I know they do too.  How about our audience on fusedlogicTV?  Yes, people love to go behind the scenes…  

Does exposing our corporate culture and soul help our brand?  I think it does but what’s more important is do you?  Why is this important to consider?  Well, because we ARE human.  We do business with other humans, our team is human, our friends, fans, followers….well you get the point.  

I’ve also learned that so many brands resist this openness because of a fear of losing credibility but maybe more importantly their perceived control.  I’ve seen our brand grow in general awareness from our work online and offline, our largest gains are when we show our true selves.    

Who is fusedlogic?

fusedlogic, loves to give back to the community.  We love to innovate.  We work very hard for our clients.  We’re honourable, loyal and love to laugh.  Although sometimes, we need to spend more time socializing than staying in the studio.  That’s probably my fault.  I’m introverted by nature.  You might find that odd seeing as I love to speak publicly.  I’ve probably been more introverted these past few months than at any other time in my life.  Now because the fusedlogic brand is so in tune with who I am as the owner that has had an effect.  

How would you describe us?  What has been your experience with us online or else where?  

Community

What does a “humanized brand” mean to you?  To your company, your customers, your friends?  The social web experience is so much more rich when people are genuine.  Community managers who are good at what they do are just every day people who care, and know how get customers or audience members what they need.  They operate in both the social web, and also offline at networking events and they’re often the most human element to your brand online.   They study human behaviour so that they can anticipate needs and be ready to respond.  

To understand this concept better I recommend this valuable post from Charlene Li of Altimeter Group on Socialgraphics. 

Discuss

We have meetings at work about who we are, and who we want to be, not every day but we do.  This is important in a culture where we’re innovating every day, trying to learn something new and experimenting constantly.  Our last major shift was the launch of fusedlogicTV almost a year ago now.  

What about your team?  Do you truly understand internally what you’re all about?  How do you approach this process?  Is it discussed openly or behind closed doors?  

The more human and real you are, the more return on your social media investment.  That’s been our experience anyway. 

Several including Ben Parr at Mashable, and Brian Solis have been quick to respond with blog posts today. That’s great, we love the idea too, which is why I’m blogging about it now.

Having said that, Google is receiving increasing heat today from many who consider this to be a restricted roll-out of the service to a few select brands.  Words like “unfair” are being used…not sure if Google’s Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President of Engineering was looking for this kind of g+ love when he blogged about the new Branded Pages service on the Official Google Blog today.  The optics of this effort could have been better.  

Here are some of the comments that Ben Parr generated on Google Plus with his post about the Google + introduction today.  Starting with my favourite comment:

Michael F. Feeney  -  Agreed! Premature nerdgasm.

Scott Hilgendorff  -  I was a journalist before the Internet let everyone be a ‘journalist.’ This would be a bad day in the newsroom for making a mistake this big in announcing something that wasn’t actually true yet.

Nick Seabrook  -  What is funny is that you can’t use your business Google/Gmail account to make a G+ Profile [since you have to use a real name - not a business name] to then make a G+ Page for your business. Hope there is a way to use an “admin” account, so to speak!

Stephanie Cañarte  -  Well this is kind of yes we have the pages ready but not quite ready. How much longer can this take google??? Make brand pages available already!

I could have went on all day, the comments are flying.  The sentiment of 99% are negative related to the way Google released information about this service.  For a company filled with incredibly smart people who all had to guess the number of jelly beans in a bus before getting hired, this “introduction” feels like a “limited, exclusive” roll-out for a few premium brands.  That’s what people are saying.  

We all know (except Google it appears) that the innovator group (probably most of all) who first jumped on the Google + platform likes to have instant gratification.  Much of our behavioural patterns today exist simply because we want it our way, and want it now!   

Was this all just a large marketing tease effort by Google?   What’s your opinion?  Let me know on Google + profile or here. 

UPDATE:

As of this afternoon, Google opened up Branded Pages to everyone.  Not sure why the delay but we’ve created a fusedlogic Google Plus Branded Page today.

I, along with about 100 volunteers and members of  the City of Leduc’s Council including Mayor Krischke were very fortunate to have the opportunity to hear Ms. Crooks speak.  

I was really inspired by her talk about her life as an elite athlete, and how volunteers played an incredible role throughout her life in sport.  She credits volunteers, and the time they spent helping kids like her turn into a 5-time Olympian and Canadian silver medalist in track and field.

As part of her presentation she showed a video of Dr. Maya Angelou reciting the poem “Amazement Awaits” while we watched images from a number of Olympiads over the years.  After hearing Dr. Angelou speak, I can see why she has been given over 30 honorary degrees.  The word “inspirational” doesn’t do Dr. Angelou or Ms. Crooks justice.  

Watch the video of Dr. Angelou below. 

What a tough act to follow, however, I was fortunate to have a great crowd stick to take in my presentation on how volunteer organizations in Leduc can use social media.  

As is customary for me I like to take pictures of the audiences as part of my presentations and tonight at the Executive Royal Inn in Leduc was no exception.

Having volunteered as a hockey coach, I understand the nature of why people decide to give back to their community in this way.  Countless hours and a ton of work by so many people, I was honoured to speak about social media. 

This was a packed night of information because after my presentation Brent Collingwood from the UofA School of Business was to present on the roles and responsibilities of volunteer boards.  Thank-you Brent for allowing me to take 5 minutes of your time. 

Overall the evening was terrific, I met great people, had a great dinner, and was inspired by the great presenters.  I’d like to thank the City of Leduc for the invitation to speak at their special event.

What about your volunteer organization?  Does it use social media effectively?  If not, feel free to ask a question.  

The evidence shows that releasing public data, although an important first step is often resisted by public servants and elected officials behind the scenes. 

For example, in an article in the Guardian newspaper released earlier this year, Professor Nigel Shadbolt, who with Berners-Lee was instrumental in getting the data.gov.uk portal set up, says that the past year has seen “a great deal of progress” but adds that “there is a huge amount still to do. We have to change the behaviour of public servants and Ministers so that they make data available without being asked.”

Further, Open Data doesn’t really inspire citizens to take much action at all, it’s never been the silver bullet to increased citizen engagement.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s the right thing to do, especially for holding government accountable, but as part of a broader Open Government vision.  

The problem is that there’s still a lack of vision and awareness.  That’s most certainly the case here in Alberta.  I’m also commenting on the lame excuses I hear from some within government.  ”We don’t even know if we want to go with Open Government,” one public servant responsible for strategy in a small town told me.  Lame, lame, lame.   

We are seeing simple levels of progress in terms of releasing data, but of course, it’s not the end solution.  The passion for this movement is waining while the frustration is rising, and for the majority of everyday citizens, it was never there.  This isn’t about the Data, it’s about us.  Our spirit to change or lack thereof.  Government IT departments are still managing systems, and networks with a zero access footprints to Web 2 technologies.  Which is embarrassing for those who would like to use technologies like Skype for example to communicate more effectively thereby saving taxpayer dollars.  Rather than the IT department using all of their know how to enable while protecting the system, they stick with the status quo approach to system administration. Although I will say that for many in government it would be nice to have machines capable of processing something more complex than email.

Data doesn’t excite citizens en mass other than nerds (we include ourselves in that group).  Even nerds get bored with it if they can’t make immediate returns.  I refer to the lack of interest and sustainability with respect to application development from the private sector using public data.    

Up to now, the perception seems to be that much of this is for show.  My excitement for the Open Government Partnership of which Canada has recently joined is muted by the reality behind the scenes.  Resistance to change is still so rampant, the “status quo” mongers frustratingly wearing down the advocates for innovation.

This is all our own fault.  It doesn’t have to be this way.  However, then who’d be around to advocate for the internal power struggles and protection of departmental silos? 

Elected officials need to commit (for real) to this concept, and smack IT departments around until they buy in.  Second, everyone honestly support the change.  We’ve always needed to look beyond Open Data, and towards a change in culture internally within government before citizens will recognize the value in all of this.

Yes, I know the release of data and direct engagement can be uncomfortable for elected officials and public servants alike.  Why? Well for all sorts of reasons.  What if your efforts to date behind the scenes has actually sucked? An O’Reilly Radar article written by Audrey Watters today asks a great question. ”If you data mining practices were made public would you be nervous?” 

We all need to do a better job and realize that it’s far more than Open Data, it’s about an Open Culture with a can-do attitude in support of this “right to data”.   

Please donate and help us raise 65,000 diapers.

Click here to donate online: Terra Centre, choose our team ‘Diapers on Wheels Team Challenge’. 

Thanks also to Kikiplanet.com for their blogpost with all the details.  

UPDATE:

Yesterday I had the pleasure of sitting on a Web Marketing panel for South Edmonton Business Association (SEBA) with Adam Rozenhart of Calder Batemen, Michael Donovan of Donovan Creative and Joyce Byrne of Venture Publishing.  We each had 5-7 minutes at the start to provide some background on our respective organizations.  

I chose to use my time to inspire the audience to participate in a the Baby Heroes campaign.  To date, this effort raised commitments or actual donations totalling $1,000.00 via twitter or in person at the event.  

My thanks to the SEBA members who stepped up to support this great cause.

Once in awhile you come across extraordinary individuals whose spirit and energy fills the room with positive vibes.  So much so, that it inspires people to take action.  Well, that’s @kikkiplanet in a nutshell.  I had the pleasure of recently attending the launch party for Edmonton’s newest social media driven entry into the local community consciousness –  kikkiplanet.com.  

While sipping my cocktail, I asked the woman of the hour what the purpose of the site was,”This site is all about giving back,” said Kikki. “I wanted to showcase young Edmontonians who are giving back to the community, and it was the Twitter community that really encouraged me to do this,” she added.  For the launch, the feature Edmontonians were revealed.  Woman to Watch, local radio talent Brittney LeBlanc of iNews 880, whom I first met when she came to a Social Web meetup, and gave everyone a free radio.  And Man About Town, Seth Glick, owner of Edmonton’s friendliest window cleaners – Clear Skies.  See below:

Continuing to sip my fiery, cinnamon chocolate goldschlagger concoction, looking as swanky as a man with my aerodynamics can I asked what the business model was.  Kikki responded,”we haven’t really thought about that just yet…”  

Don’t be fooled into thinking there’s an absence of entrepreneurial talent behind this project.  That’s not the case, kikkiplanet.com was pulled together by a fashionable, talented group of women (save the enigmatic Mr. Kikki) who worked hard to get the site ready for the swanky launch at the Daffodil Gallery on 124th st in downtown Edmonton.  Delicious food was provided by DLish Urban Kitchen and Wine Bar located right next door to the gallery.  Still love those killer chocolate stuffed pastry balls.  I would drive from Sherwood Park to DLish just for those, and yes I just wrote “pastry balls”…twice.  That’s what local social community influencer ZoomJer and I called them anyway.

What social media enthusiasts and business owners might take away from this is that connections created online, in this case on Twitter, can translate directly into real world action.  Often the most powerful events are driven by an integrated approach with a small tribe of people at the core who feel strongly about something.  Social media amplifies these human connections.  Social media doesn’t replace the need for direct human contact, it amplifies it efficiently.  This is the humanization of the web.  You can’t stop it, to stop it would be stopping ourselves from what we truly desire.  Human interaction and validation from our peers we’re on the right track.

I enjoyed the “swanky” launch party for kikkiplanet.com very much.  Great hosts, great food and great fun with some of the best Edmonton has to offer.  Visit the site and support this very cool project that’s definitely on the right track…be sure to let Kikki and her friends know that you like their efforts…

The name of the Twitter chat was called #leadfromwithin which was first started by its originator, motivational speaker Lolly Daskal.  I was fascinated and not sure what to expect from this particular chat.  I wasn’t disappointed.  If you’re looking for a philosophical, motivational, inspirational and emotional out pouring of thought, then #leadfromwithin is something you should search on Twitter often and conversation you should join.

My experience was disruptive – in a good way.  So often in business and in life you get caught in the “grind”. This was an hour of group reflection and streaming consciousness.  Seriously!  It was. You may be reading this and think that’s ridiculous and be moving on.  That’s perfectly fine but you’d then be missing the best part.

RoR – in this case I define, not as Return on Relationship as many might think.  In the context of this chat, I only really knew one person, still a great return for sure.  Having said that, my definition in this case is Return on Reflection.  There were so many great tweets that I simply couldn’t include them all in this post.  However, one “really” resonated beyond all the others.

“You are not your circumstances”  - Dr. Steven Eisenberg

It’s been no secret that the last several months have been very difficult for me personally, none of which I’ll highlight here again.  However, the circumstances I have been in have been pretty overwhelming.  This one statement freed me from a ton of personal feelings that I know was holding me back from being myself.  Changing my thought patterns in this instance brought on by this one tweet, and overall twitter chat experience has brought prosperity in the form of new deals this week.  My return on investment of that one hour on twitter will go far beyond these new deals this week.  Far beyond…  

How can you measure the change within a human spirit?  

Thank-goodness I was open to suggestion, none of this would have happened had I’d been closed minded.  Thank-you to all of the contributors of the #leadfromwithin twitter chat tribe.  

Also, a very special thanks to my friend Josepf Haslam for doing what you do.  

Finally, a special heartfelt thank-you to a woman in New York, whom I’ve never met in person, and only to date have had minimal but meaningful exchanges on Twitter with- Lolly Daskal.  A human being with a boundless spirit of inspiration – thank-you.

I started my public speaking career primarily to challenge myself because it scared me.  I did my first business focused presentation approximately 13 years ago, and haven’t look back since.  I constantly look to improve my skills and relish the feedback from audience members.  Especially when I suck, I need to hear it so that I can improve.  That’s part of the business, one should always look to improve, although today’s presentation generally went well.  Despite hearing something negative from an audience member (which is thankfully rare), I love it!  I mean, really love it. 

Today’s presentation on Social TV was unique for three reasons.  One, it’s the first time I’ve presented this particular material on SocialTV, and second, because for the first time I had a public heckler.  Well, atleast my form of a heckler.  During questions, Robert Manolson from the crowd suggested that producing a 5 minute video for a small business owner wasn’t a good thing.  He said it was a “disservice” because we were just handing over the video without any marketing advice, and (essentially leaving the small business owner twisting in the wind) – my words.  

He of course, missed the beginning of the presentation that explained how we would always be willing to help out a business owner in need regarding social media strategies.  How I talked about an integrated approach – “baked in, not bolted on.”  Sure, the price would go up for that advice, depending on what the customer wanted, and that’s business.  The idea is that the customer can choose what level of service they’d like, and we “always” have our clients back!  

Robert rated my presentation on meet-up as not being relevant for the business owner audience in the room.  Well, I believe all businesses should consider social media, video production, and an integrated approach to marketing, while keeping up on new trends like socialTV.  Not sure how that’s not relevant.  You can’t please 100% of the people 100% of the time.  I missed the mark with Robert but it also seemed like he just wanted to banter, sometimes that happens.

I’ve included my presentation to give you a chance to review some of the material I presented and make up your own mind. Robert is certainly entitled to publicly state his opinion at the expense of mine, but I believe the presentation went well and it was relevant.  The feed back I received was very positive and supports my statement, there were several follow-up questions.  I also have a stack of business cards to follow-up on which is always positive and a great litmus test overall.  Thank-you everyone, we certainly look forward to doing business with you.  

Oh yeah, and here’s the third!  I soft launched a new price for fusedlogicTV video production services.  

$199.00 for 5 minutes of studio time.  (some restrictions may apply)  For more information contact us. 780-640-9339 or info@fusedlogic.com 

I’d like to thank everyone who attended my presentation, it was great to have a packed house of enthusiastic business owners.

Here’s the presentation in case you’d like to review it.  Enjoy and please let us know what you think…   

As you may or may not know, we are giving away four 15 minute productions to four non-profits. I thought it would be nice for you to come down to the studio to see what that entails first hand!

So come on down this Thursday (Sept 22) anytime after noon, and we’ll show you what it’s all about.

Where: fusedlogic Studio: 213-65 Chippewa Rd, Sherwood Park, AB

When: Thursday Sept 22nd, noon to 4:00pm

RSVP: evan@fusedlogic.com

Starting with lowest to highest Twitter reach and discussion:

Doug Horner: 3,709 people reached

Rick Orman: 4,616 people reached

Gary Mar: 7,879 people reached

Ted Morton: 8,402 people reached

Alison Redford: 8,554 people reached

Doug Griffiths: 16,332 people reached

Now as you can see these samples were taken yesterday evening and cover 50 tweets.  To have a more interesting look, one might take these readings hourly throughout a 24 hour period.  However, I’ve got a life and won’t be doing that.  This is simply a snapshot of the ebbs and flows of Twitter conversation related to the leadership race of the Alberta PC Party.  I still find it interesting though.  The folks in the movie industry take detailed research on Twitter to predict whether a movie will be a financial winner based on the conversation, volume, sentiment, influencers associated etc…

I think this is too small a sample to truly have any real significance but it’s still interesting to see.  What do you think?

UPDATED

Based on the interest and my own curiosity I thought I would do a quick update of the numbers, so I took some more samples between 12 and 1pm today Saturday.  Take into consideration the time of day, also that this is now a weekend day and more people have the freedom to be online.  Also, it’s important to take into consideration the idea of “sentiment”.  Having a really high reach number but having a percentage of the tweets be negative attacks by opposition party supporters etc…so we should keep things in context.  Also, I like to look for breadth of accounts, are the tweets just made up of a few supporters or do we have a large list of people engaged?

Here are samples taken just a few minutes ago:

Again they are organized in ascending order.

Rick Orman: 3,062 people reached

Doug Horner: 3,808 people reached

Ted Morton: 4,863 people reached

Doug Griffiths: 11,472 people reached

Gary Mar: 13,126 people reached

Alison Redford: 18,073 people reached

What would be most interesting would be to dissect these samples to see the account demographics for each candidate, that would require a lot of work but it would reveal at least by appearance if for example Alison Redford is getting a majority of twitter conversation from women.  I wonder how much of the vote will be affected by those types of subset variables.  Further, is Doug Griffiths getting the 18-34 year old vote?  Where are the brands sitting in this regard?  

What do you think? 

UPDATED SATURDAY AT 5:00PM

All samples are in ascending order, we can see once again some have shifted in terms of general activity and discussion around their account.

Doug Horner: 3,748 people reached

Rick Orman: 5,114 people reached

Ted Morton: 7,126 people reached

Gary Mar: 7,150 people reached

Alison Redford: 10,338  people reached

Doug Griffiths: 14,365 people reached

Well, approximately 5 hours later, it seems the Griffiths camp continues to engage online, while the other camps have dropped considerably.  With approximately an 1.5 hours left until the poll stations close this will be the last update I’ll probably do.  Noticeably in this batch of samples is the discussion of Simon Ostler of CTV Edmonton news.  He shows up in all but Doug Horner’s stream… 

Thanks very much for reading and your comments on Twitter and here on our blog.

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The hope is that you’ll carry the “branded” hashtag and conversation on Twitter well beyond the show air date which often happens. Now those loyal viewers turn themselves into a tribe that turn out to watch more shows and discuss the topic of the moment.

This becomes very interesting when you now want to further justify advertising costs, if you’re CNN, you’ve just drawn that engagement into the equation for advertisers.  

Sure, what transpires is a vast amount of conversations and micro-discussions that can be hard to quantify in terms of direct value. To truly understand the dynamics you have to be embedded in the community and know who the influencers are in order to draw out the impact for a particular brand if there is one.  Most of this impact is passive association and brand awareness.  This can be difficult for people to invest in solely.  Most would rather social media always be a direct marketing environment.  I push out a flyer, therefore my phone rings type of deal.  Social media and indeed, Social TV requires more patience, finesse and understanding.

Brand awareness is ok, positive brand awareness is even better.  At the heart of every purchase should be a feeling of trust.

Interestingly for businesses this is where Social TV is really shining.  Integrating audience into your corporate video work is powerful when you get it right.  For the audience it’s a chance to learn more about the company and ask direct questions.  For the business they get to build rapport with a target audience.  Doing this consistently can open doors, it’s happening for fusedlogicTV and our customers who do this.  

However, you should have a strong social media strategy already, this will make the integration far easier to accomplish.  This shouldn’t happen in a digital vacuum.  

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One shouldn’t expect a formal Open Government Framework designed specifically for the Government of Alberta as a political campaign announcement.  However, today’s announcement suggests that Mar will put himself on the line with enough specifics to be held accountable.  Always a tough thing for candidates to do and he is the first to make a specific effort regarding “open government.”

You can throw words out like “open, transparent, accountable, responsiveness” as Mar has done, and to the average Albertan they may seem little more than political positioning.  That said, this is no slouch of a statement, we have enough to hold Mar accountable should he win.

I’m sure we’re all looking for specifics beyond broad statements like “major decisions made in an open and accountable manner,” so here’s what I pulled from his campaign in their release today as a start:

1. Live-streaming cabinet policy committee meetings
2. A new model for civic engagement
3. Pre-budget discussions with Albertans
4. Public Service Innovation Task Force

Evone points out a point of view that’s unfortunately all to prevalent among citizens and elected officials and administrations.  Rather than seek to understand the true impact of Open Government, large assumptions are made about losing control and the case is closed before it begins.

If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less”.  - General Eric Shinseki

Has old thinking doomed rural Alberta?

If you’re a taxpayer, business owner, community member in rural town Alberta, life is incredibly challenging.  You’re most likely led by an honest, hardworking and well-meaning town council charged with making tough decisions.  Also, your town council is probably supported (or directed) by an honest, hardworking and well-meaning town administration.

Now if you’re lucky, you might have a town mayor who stands at the podium exclaiming the virtues of “moving foward”.  They recognize, a desperate need to be innovative, to do business differently, in a word…Change!  The good news is that the majority of council, and some elements of your town administration recognize the same needs, and put a plan in place to head in that direction.  After surveying the community in many different ways, the word comes back.  ”We like it, we’re behind you, but do it this way.”

Innovation in rural Alberta?  Why?

Well to start with, brain drain.  For years, your young talent has been leaving town by the truck load, heading to where the action is.  This problem is so bad in many towns, that small business owners on main street can’t find anyone to man the cash register for an hour while they attend a chamber of commerce luncheon.

The world of government is actually a very competitive environment in its own way.  The economic survival of all communities big and small depend on jobs, business, education, quality of life, and doing it better than the town down the road.  Sure, there’s collaboration among communities and jurisdictions, but make no mistake, jealousy runs deep too.  Someone always wants a better museum, better library, more convenience, bigger this and fancier that…we read about it all the time.

Unfortunately, economic development in rural Alberta is often relegated to cheering about a hotel, strip mall, and a Walmart if you’re lucky. Not that this type of development isn’t welcomed taxes, jobs and convenience, but it’s hardly innovation, and it often leaves large holes on historic main street.

Now lets say your town mayor and council have been able to see past the standard issues that plague the docket of all small town council meetings, and they start thinking big.  They realize that for the town to not only survive in the 21st century but thrive, drastic measures are called for, big ideas needed.  Sure, this might be the 21st century, but this is also rural Alberta.  We’re a conservative province, have been for decades, and I don’t see that changing.  There isn’t anything wrong with this, except when it paralyzes decision-making or causes innovation to die on the vine while wasting taxpayer money.  We all know that life requires more than planning, it requires intelligence and decisive action in order to be successful. So if you claim to be about innovation in your planning, then you need to be innovative in your actions.  Otherwise, you’re spinning taxpayer wheels fuelled by taxpayer dollars.

Opportunities lost.

Think of the opportunities lost every day rural Alberta doesn’t consider and plan for Open Government.

Imagine over time potentially saving your town millions of dollars in process expenses.  Imagine having an open and transparent local government that saves citizens time and money when interacting with their local government.  Imagine having a town administration strapped for resources now having more to work with simply by doing business differently, more efficiently. Imagine gaining strong economic development opportunities in the tech sector that will retain some of that young talent, and potentially attract others back into the community.

Imagine….just imagine, every small town in Alberta inspired to consider, analyze, and think about this, then set goals specific to their situation and implement communication strategies that get the community organized and focused on these goals, together collaboratively.

More money, more efficiency, better trained.

Your town administration becomes more efficient, has tools that make their job much easier and that might actually be free, they’re happier and we’re happier.  Sure training and education comes first, and there’ll be the stick in the mud laggards resisting but that too will pass.   We don’t need old thinking today in rural Alberta.  We need to bridge the gap between where we are today, and where we need to go, and we must start now.

If I was the mayor of a town and I stood publicly saying, “we must move forward” and I heard our town managers in charge of strategic thinking say “we’re really not sure we want to go towards Open Government”.  My tendency would be to fire them on the spot, (this maybe a harsh gut reaction, that’s true) and this is a huge mistake, one that will take years to recover from.  Years that many small towns may not have.  The Undertaker is measuring many small towns around the world for their wooden boxes, just search it…

Is Open Government in rural Alberta a pipe dream?  Maybe, the reality is, things need to change.

My experience and a show of hands is that 85 out of a 100 hard working Chief Administrative Officers (CAO) and Town Managers have never seen a Google Analytics or Web Trends report on their town website.  When I was selling website development in 1998, it was standard practice to include this step for business clients, as it is today.  Often these CAO’s are supported by managers of strategic projects, managers of economic development, managers of communications, managers upon managers who put down the idea of Open Government (if they’re even aware of it) simply because they’re scared of what they don’t understand.  When I converse with them, it’s clear they haven’t done their homework, and in an instant have doomed their town to last century thinking.

Band-aid solutions?

Don’t be fooled by “band-aid” thinking.  Saying the words “Open Government” doesn’t make it so.  Just like having 48 followers on twitter doesn’t justify you charging people to show them how to set up an account.  422 communities in Alberta have access to the Alberta SuperNet.  Broadband Internet access is a great thing, did it eliminate the digital divide?  No.  Did tech companies warp into your small town and create a technology utopia?  Ummm, no.  Did it help?  Sure, but it’s only one unfinished pre-requist step of many.  How did some communities leverage this power?  They installed video conferencing rooms at an average of $40,000 a piece to connect to other towns.  Unfortunately, they’ve realized that this is a low impact closed circuit system, which you have to travel long distances in Alberta winters to get to, and they sit dormant the majority of the time.  No amount of ads in the local paper is really going to change that…a different way of engaging rural citizens is required, and I’m not talking about starting with a new website, or Facebook fanpage.

Enable evangelists.

Face to face exchange of ideas that lead to action held accountable by the administration and the citizens.  This is precisely what happened in the City of Edmonton and is happening around the world.  Practical, low tech communications led by citizens, young and old, with administrations and political leaders at the table.  Sure there’s a unique structure and plan to these meetings that makes them different, but the results are undeniable.  Open Government takes hold, and a citizen led “movement” is created, to benefit of all, whether they’re initially aware of it or not.

Open Government IS governance for the 21st century.

Sad news!  Until yesterday I thought we had at least one small town in rural Alberta that was ready to be an amazing rural leader, and at least begin the conversation about Open Government as part of their communications mix.   Their official documentation suggested they were.  Many in the community I interviewed suggested that innovation is needed, but more work and clarity was required.  Unfortunately yesterday I heard things that just made my heart sink.  Today I’m saddened to say that the choices made by this town administration will set them back dramatically.  We cannot jump over dollars to pick up dimes, we can’t think 2-dimensionally, and do things the way they’ve always been done.  As citizens, (or “rate-payers” as I heard this one manager call you and I so she didn’t have to use the word “tax”), we need to think about replacing our strategic planners who advocate yesterday’s thinking, and who put the brakes on Open Government thinking.  Should citizens demand they be replaced for being asleep at the wheel during the biggest revolution to happen in governance in over a century?  Albertans have demanded resignations for less.  

In my opinion, you don’t stop Open Government discussions because you have too many documents to scan in preparation for Open Data, and you don’t delay Open Government because of “legacy systems” still in place…both excuses demonstrate a lack of understanding.  More importantly to you and I, it demonstrates that the internal culture of your town administration is in trouble and will cost you more money than it should.

That said, the future is bright

I’ve written this blog post as a commentary regarding decisions made by one well-intentioned town administration in the hopes that others may learn and be inspired in some small way to consider Open Government.

Do you want an Open Government discussion to happen in your town?  Would you like to help your town save money, be open and transparent allowing citizens to collaborate with it better?  Would you like your town to be a part of a global movement and yet, benefit locally?  Do you just want to know more about what Open Government is?

Let us know, we can help kick-start the discussion in your town, meet with your leaders, administration and citizens to explain what Open Government is and how it benefits you…please call us.  780-640-9339

As is our style, we’re also opening up the show to questions from the online audience and are encouraging Albertans to post questions on our Facebook fanpage that we will look to include in the show and pose to Doug Horner.

This show is not an endorsement of Doug Horner or any one candidate that may appear, we’re simply providing Albertans with an opportunity to learn more about each candidate that appears, and an opportunity for you to ask a question or two…

What do you think about education, healthcare, energy, the environment or anything else that’s happening in Alberta.  Post a question…

Why?

What’s not evident in their announcement is why they’ve decided to stop the Edmontonian.  Possibly their close friends know, and maybe if it’s appropriate at some point they’ll let us all in on the deal.  Regardless, it seems that Edmonton may have lost a popular blog, but not the popular bloggers – that’s the good news in all of this.

What now?

Samsonow claims “their heads are bursting with ideas and schemes,” and of that, we have no doubt.  Although we didn’t get a chance to work directly with Jeff and Sally, we respected their tireless work to bring the world interesting stories about Edmonton.  A blog is a huge amount of work and commitment, a work load they clearly embraced for two and a half years.  We respected the quality of their work and ability to make us and I suspect countless others laugh.   Are there other Edmonton focused blogs to fill the gap?  In a manner of speaking, sure, but I suspect not with the same wit for sure…

Good-luck Jeff and Sally, we at fusedlogic wish you both all the best with the next chapter…stay in touch.

I vowed that when I was ready I would do something to give back in his name.  My dad was the most giving person in the world, if you were stranded, needed help and he was physically able to help, he didn’t hesitate, not for a second.

Here’s what we at fusedlogic would like to do.  We’re going to dedicate one hour of video production at fusedlogicTV per month FREE to non-profit and charitable organizations in Alberta.

What does FREE video production at fusedlogicTV mean?

Simple, we’ll be setting aside (4) 15 minute show slots for non-profits.  As a non-profit or charitable organization, you would “like” the fusedlogic Facebook Fanpage and then tell us what you’d do with the free 15 minutes of recorded talk show format video produced in the fusedlogicTV studio.

The top (4) ideas with the most Facebook likes at the end of the available voting time on our fanpage will win the available production slots for that month.  You will have to host your own show, prepare your own simple script, and promote your own show as you see fit.  As part of the provided free production service, fusedlogicTV will supply you with the ability to Skype in up to (2) people, and you’d also be able to invite up to (2) in studio guests.

Once completed, fusedlogicTV will supply you with your digital file, you’ll own the content.  However, you will have agree to allow us to include production credits but your branding will be front and centre.

We’ll be starting this program formally in September, and just thought we’d give you an advanced  heads up.  I’m very excited about this, and hope that you’ll take us up on the offer once it’s officially launched.

Stay tuned…and get your creative juices going…if you’d like to see what these shows can look like, visit and subscribe to the fusedlogic YouTube channel.

I applaud the fact that Redford proposes to do this should she win and at some point become Premier of Alberta.  That said, the question must be raised as to why it’s taken till 2011 and into 2012 to do something this simple in principle?

Only the beginning

This is certainly a positive step should it come to pass, AND it’s only the beginning of the required level of transparency and accountability we need in Alberta.  Is this truly a change in “attitude?”  I’m not ringing the change bell just yet.

What I believe would serve Albertans even more than a single act like this one would be for a political candidate to explain how they intend to deliver an “Open Alberta.”  A comprehensive Open Government Framework, a concept that I’ve written about multiple times in the past year or more.  I’ve even called for these candidates to “pledge” an Open Government as part of their administration.  Yesterday we announced on our blog that this Thursday on Gov2TV, I’ll be speaking with the Government of British Columbia’s Minister of Labour, Citizens’ Services and Open Government Stephanie Cadieux about the status of her government’s Open Government activity.

While at the international level, the US was releasing their public data in 2009, making it available for the public to work and innovate with, followed by the UK in 2010.  The United States then dubbed 2010 the year of “participatory platforms.”  Here in Canada we’re still in the “pilot project” stage.  Yes, it also seems some are attempting to get their Open Data groove on by working on Open Data licences as written by David Eaves earlier this year which is cool.  However, noticeably absent in this effort is Alberta.

Here at home, we’re talking about helping the public better understand how MLA’s get paid as a shift in transparency.  No doubt this is important, and yet, we have a long way to go regarding our actions on transparency and accountability.

Further, it’s not enough for a government to simply launch a Facebook fanpage, Twitter account and say, “we’re social and being transparent.”

To do this properly I believe a leader must understand the needs of Albertans today, and into the future.  Ensure that at every policy discussion there’s someone credible to speak to the integration of social or Web 2.0 technology into that policy, and the impact of same.  Speaking from experience that exists beyond having 98 followers on Twitter.

We need to raise our game, we need someone in the Government who is plugged in globally on this issue, who is advising on global best practices as they develop and who can advise the next Premier, and working together with Albertans quickly position Alberta as a leader and global partner in being Open.

Why is an Open Alberta so critical?

An Open Alberta leads to innovation within government, business and the community-at-large in a multitude of ways.  Improving the sharing of information and reducing costs, while ensuring proper privacy and security in areas like education and healthcare as is happening around the world.  Transportation and infrastructure can be positively impacted.  The environment, water conservation, and yes, land usage, can all be included in this mix of areas that Open Data.  This as a foundational linch pin in a broader Open Government plan can improve services for Albertans.  The best part will be that Albertans using public data will create digital eco-systems important to them, while working with government to change Alberta for the better.  Then as I’ve written about last year, we won’t have a broken link at data.alberta.ca.

This concept isn’t perfect, there’s still a lot to learn, the great thing is, we can learn together.  There are Open Data and Open Government models, policies, licenses etc, being constructed all over the world, replacing old tired systems at every level of government and it’s happening almost daily now.  Underneath those new systems is the support of a new breed of leader, and culture that embraces citizen opinions, and rather than just saying “we’ll work together with Albertans,” they actually do it openly.

An Open Alberta isn’t work done behind closed doors.

I’ve heard through the grapevine that at least one or more of the Alberta PC leadership candidates and some within the Government of Alberta have been reading my blog on this topic, and all of us here at fusedlogic appreciate that.  I’ve also heard that apparently there’s work being done internally within the Government of Alberta in this area.  Not sure what that means, but here’s the concern. Why is the Government of Alberta doing any of this behind closed doors?  Open Government is just that, you facilitate an open discussion on our future.  For example, that’s precisely what ChangeCamp did for Edmonton.  We as citizens publicly contribute in meaningful ways, and the government facilitates our collective wishes based on stated priorities.  Not go into Santa’s workshop and have the elves build some shiny new toys (you think we should like) to hide under the tree only to be revealed on Christmas Day.

Further, I sure hope that a large vendor hasn’t swooped in to save the Open Government day, and that we’ll learn of a large enterprise purchase made on behalf of Albertans being spun as a big first step solution.  No offence to any one vendor such as Google, Microsoft, IBM or Open Text, but Open Government is not an excuse to simply buy more software.  Not until a lot of work and discussion with citizens on engagement, culture and policies is done should we consider the technology platforms for participation.  And Open Source must absolutely be a part of the discussion.  Premier Stelmach didn’t take a leadership role publicly on this issue.  The next Premier of Alberta must.  That’s where we start.

Regardless of your political party, if you want to be Premier of Alberta, this needs to be a primary part of your policy platform, technology permeates every single Albertan’s life in some way.  This is a shift in attitude, one that in my opinion represents true leadership for Alberta into 2012 and beyond.  Although a strong message, it’s certainly more than a promise to help Albertans know and understand the pay structure of provincially elected officials…

Who is Minister Cadieux?

Stephanie Cadieux

Stephanie Cadieux serves as Minister of Labour, Citizens’ Services and Open Government, having been appointed on March 14, 2011. She formerly served as the Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development. Stephanie was elected MLA for Surrey-Panorama in the 2009 general provincial election.

Stephanie resides as chair of the of the Cabinet Committee on Open Government and Engagement. Formerly, she servied on the Special Committee to Appoint an Information and Privacy Commissioner, and is also a member of Agenda and Priorities Committee, the Select Standing Committees on Health and on Children and Youth and the Special Committee to Review the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Living with a spinal cord injury since a car crash at the age of 18, she became a strong community advocate for programs to assist people with physical disabilities to achieve their goals and regain independence. In 2007, Stephanie worked with 2010 Legacies Now to develop an Accessible Tourism Plan for BC.

Stephanie worked with the BC Paraplegic Association for eight years, most recently as director of marketing and development. She has been an active community volunteer and was the president of Realwheels Society, Ambassador for the Rick Hansen Man in Motion Foundation, as well as a member of the advisory panel and a researcher with International Collaboration On Repair Discoveries (ICORD).

Stephanie was voted one of Business in Vancouver’s Top 40 under 40, in 2007.

Stephanie has lived Surrey for seven years with her husband and enjoys sailing and travel.

This will be an honour, and a great opportunity to learn more about where her portfolio and indeed the Government of British Columbia is in its effort to continue increasing transparency, collaboration and operating as a platform for British Columbians and Canadians.  For background, here is a press release from Premier Christy Clark and Minister Cadieux on Open Data and their new direction.  You can also review the BC government’s Open Data website and blog.

Who should watch Gov2TV?  Citizens concerned about government efficiency regardless of their country of origin.  Political leaders and administrators looking to learn about the latest news within the Open Government movement and mainstream media should also watch for story ideas.

Questions for the Minister?

Please add them here, or join our chat room at fusedlogic.tv/live this Thursday live and we’ll look to add them to the show.

If your government is doing something interesting in the Open Government area, please let us know so we can have a chance of featuring it on Gov2TV.

What has me thinking of this?  Kiwis.  No not the fruit, but the great Nation of New Zealand, recently ravished by devastating earth quakes.  Despite disaster and rebuilding, New Zealand has released a Declaration on open and transparent government in New Zealand.  Absolutely brilliant!

And here we are, this magnificent Canadian provincial powerhouse called Alberta still partying in government as if its 1999.  I’m speaking directly about the ridiculous behind closed doors, power struggle, silo protecting, short-sighted reactionary culture of government.  I literally had a public servant yesterday on twitter argue against “participatory budgeting” in Alberta because he thought it showed a lack of respect for Treasury employees.  This is simply a lack of understanding.  The Open Government movement around the world isn’t about disrespecting public servants and saying they suck at their jobs.  Open Government is about government operating as a collaborative platform where citizens can directly engage digitally “with” public servants.  Do things on behalf of government with Open Data.  Open Government is truly “Our Government.”  Now for those leaders who simply want to dictate to Albertans, well, now you can see the disconnect.  They of course, would never come out and say that’s what they’re doing, but actions speak louder than words.

The time has come for this to end, for a “real leader of the people” to emerge, willing to take the “Open Government” folder currently buried on the desk of the Premier, and not only set it on top but actually open it and get to work.

I’ve heard several times from different sources within the Government of Alberta say, “they’re aware of it.”  As Albertans, you should be angry, you may not think this is a priority for your life, and yet, we should all realize this hits all areas of government, every public servant, and looks to change the culture.  Making service for you better.  Which is why it’s so freaking scary for many bureaucrats and politicians alike.  All except the brave visionaries.  The brave visionaries realize that they grow in altruistic strength and power with this movement.  Alberta goes global overnight, and for a positive reason for a change, instead of always being embattled and on defence.  Let me just say, we won’t have to spend another $25 million to rebrand the province again either.

Yesterday, I tweeted this:

fusedlogic Walter Schwabe    I’d like to know which #pcldr candidates would have a “Minister of Open Government” in their cabinet? #ableg #pcaa #AB #opengov

How do I know this?  Well here’s the PDF outlining the deal between the City of Edmonton and Google regarding the Workspace Edmonton Program.  If you’re young, hip and want a working environment that’s hyper-connected from anywhere, and cutting-edge fusedlogic is your first stop.  However, if all of those things apply and public service is on your mind, then consider the City of Edmonton’s IT Branch as the perfect home.  For those of you who don’t know, Edmonton’s IT Branch is led by a strong group of people and its CIO, Chris Moore.  Full disclosure, Edmonton’s IT Branch is a client of ours, and Chris Moore has been on fusedlogicTV several times to talk about Open Government.

He is not only a real advocate but as you can see above, he and his team are people of action when it comes to creating efficiencies, collaboration, and increasing transparency among their team on behalf of Edmontonians.  The world is literally now, their oyster when thinking of all the ways collaboration can happen across great distances.

This is a fantastic example of what cities and towns need to do, Chris no doubt will be able to speak about the pros and any cons that come out of this migration to Google, and it’s Enterprise level Google Apps Premier Edition. Using Apps such as Google Mail, Google Docs, internal YouTube for training will dramatically save the team time.  Not to worry Microsoft, (Disclosure: another client of ours) Office and SharePoint are still a part of the picture as required.  People have a choice, imagine that.  Also, Edmonton’s public servants have had access to Yammer, a Twitter clone designed for internal communications, now with over 1000 people on it. In the case of the BC Government, they’ve been using Yammer for well over a year now with great success.  Glad to see the City of Edmonton embrace real-time communications internally as well.

Overall, this step into the Cloud is fantastic, congratulations to the City of Edmonton, the IT Branch and to Chris Moore for walking the walk.

I want to believe that people are honourable, but my “faith” in humanity has been repeatedly tested.

Despite being impossible, life can also give you a shot in the arm.  For example, Terry Paranych joined other great clients, such as, the host of Focal Point – John Cutler, and Mommy Talk’s Narissa Singh to name two, all of which are rock solid human beings.

Also, last night a gathering took place that seems to represent precisely what I want to surround myself with in terms of human spirit.  I was invited by John Winslow (@sirthinks) to attend an organizational meeting for an informal group who’s looking to raise donations for Edmonton’s Terra Association during their upcoming annual Baby Heros campaign in October.

Our non-partisan group, comprised of PC MLA’s Doug Elniski, and Honourable Thomas Lukaszuk.  Also, Wildrose hopefuls Kyle McLeod, Wayde Lever, John Corie, and other caring citizens like Tamara Stecyk and @GuitarKat has pledged to raise enough funds to purchase 65,000 diapers for young single moms in need.  Did you know that Terra helps approximately 600 young moms in this way?  My daughter is 6 years old but when we bought diapers I remember that was no small monthly bill.  Roughly 200 diapers per month is the average.  If you’re still in high school, and have a child that means a minimum of $100.00 per month, $1,200 per year is required, a $1,200 bucks many don’t have.

There is simply nothing more precious in life than our children.  Working with people like this on such an important need will go a long way to restoring my faith in humanity and I’m going to do all I can to help.

Please join our cause and help by letting John know, all political parties are welcome, and by no means do you have to be politician to help.

At minimum, I hope you’ll support this cause with any sized donation, although a $100 or more when the time comes would be fantastic.

The first question I have is, are you invested in this process or are you absent?  You must invest, and below is a series of ways you’ll need to expend effort, and in some cases budget in order to have any possibility of driving new sales for your business via social media.

For us at fusedlogic, it’s a different story than those really big household brands I mentioned.  We’re not about consumer goods or point of sale items.  The sale of our social media related services primarily happens based on relationships, referrals, awareness too and great customer service.  If we mailed you a flyer stating that fusedlogic is your answer for social media strategies, would we get any business from you?  Maybe, but doubtful since we’re not business to consumer.  Having said that, our client Terry Paranych has done a show on fusedlogicTV and spoke about his “flyer program which nets him huge business results.  Terry understands the need for an integrated unique approach to marketing to consumers.  He understands the value of building relationships in numerous ways, added to things like direct flyer marketing (not really about relationships) is the use of social media – all about relationships and communication.

Social media allows for you to reach out directly to the fusedlogic team, to our clients, and to potentially millions of people in a meaningful way.

Here’s how properly increasing your sphere of influence can increase your sales regardless of what industry you’re in.

1.) Search Engine Optimization – your content if properly positioned will be found by new prospective clients, giving you a shot to start a sales discussion.

2.) Reputation Management – we may have met at a business luncheon, or other networking event, social media allows us to maintain our discussion inbetween face-to-face meetings.  Keeping in touch allows for acquaintances to turn into friends and advocates.  Big difference.  When the time is right, this fact alone will lead to business opportunity.  Chris Brogan’s book Trust Agents speaks in many ways about being that trusted source.  Good book, you should download it.

3.) Realtime Customer Service – rather than wait for hours on a phone line, many companies can improve customer service through options like Twitter.  A great customer service experience here and it’s passed on to multiple networks, screw it up and the same result is true.

4.) Targeting Trends – things happen in a flash in social media, and if you blink you could miss real opportunity.  Being timely and relevant is often critical.  Many people parachute in to Twitter once a day for 2 minutes to push out a tweet and then leave and wonder why their phone isn’t ringing off the hook.

5.) Not a Silver Bullet – sales comes from credibility, value, trust, awareness, rapport, relevancy, convenience and time investment among other things.  Especially, if you’re relatively unknown.  If you’re Google, well that’s different.  Using social media can provide you an opportunity to do all of this work more efficiently, as long as, you commit to it and have a plan.  Be patient!

6.) Content Creation – you know why Terry Paranych will continue to dominate in Real Estate awareness online in his markets?  Even more so since he became our live streaming video client?  Increased content creation relevant to his target audiences.  He’s literally out-gunning his competition.  Add to that his commitment, hard work, listening to customer feedback, learning and of course a budget and you’ve got a recipe for a win.  The Real Estate market in Edmonton was unprepared for Terry to take this next step, he’s changed the game again!  There is no other agent, Re/Max or otherwise certainly in Alberta and possibly beyond with their own series of live weekly streamed shows.  When a consumer goes to do research on the Terry Paranych Team Re/Max Elite, they’ll quickly realize that his marketing plan is more advanced than the others for lots of reasons but especially his live shows.  Ultimately that will translate into new business.  What scares me in a good way is if Terry starts to promote his shows in other areas of his marketing efforts…

7.) Routine – this doesn’t mean “automation” so much as working a plan of what works.  I’m guilty as the next person for not always doing this, as life gets in the way sometimes.  That said, when I can correct my course and get back on track, we see results.  What do I mean by this?  Simple, there are lots of examples of suggested daily routines and Chris Brogan has put out some dandy examples.

Be human not a robot!  Engage and support one another.  Respect others, and for goodness sake, do what you say you’ll do.  That is so rare, people will respect you for that alone.  All of this is definitely hard work, but worth it in the end.

Many in the Edmonton Real Estate scene already know that our client Terry Paranych has been burning up the live streaming web with his shows and they’re going very well.  Terry is incredibly excited about the feedback you’ve been giving him about this shows and he’s already done more than one show answering your questions as supplied on his facebook fan page and on Twitter. However, now we need your help to convince Terry (I haven’t told him yet about the Google Plus angle) to include you in his shows live.  So, regardless of where you are in the world, if you’re a Real Estate investor, consumer or agent let us know that you’d like one of 10 Google Plus spots on Terry’s show and we’ll look to get it done.

Further, we’ve got other shows, like KrytonLIVE, the soon to return Gov2TV (hosted by yours truly) Play and Learn Toy’s Mommy Talk and AutoMojo…we’re going to start opening up our shows even more to you.

Remember, if you’d like to have your own show, let us know info@fusedlogic.com  We’ve generated great awareness for our clients and well over 1,000,000 viewer minutes…it’s powerful!

I see top executives running for cover, I see political campaign managers cringing at the prospect of having a not so favourable blog written about their particular candidate.  The echos of “see I told you, there’s nothing good about social media.”

The fact is, here in Alberta we’re dealing with really serious issues.  Our economy is only “ok” and not spectacular by any stretch, healthcare is a complete and utter mess, teachers are getting laid off, and the list goes on.  Families are struggling here in Alberta, albeit not as badly as in other parts of Canada and certainly not like the US.  Often you don’t get to know who you’re doing business with until it’s too late.  In politics, it’s really important to understand who we’re dealing with “ahead of time.”  Which is why I offered a special one hour live debate to both Doug Griffiths and Rick Orman.  One person on twitter suggested that Orman was “staying on message” by not answering my direct invitation.  Not sure if that’s true but something to consider.

Some organizations stand up for what’s right, some executives stand for respect and others run and hide.  I took a couple shots last night from Orman supporters, or people who thought I was simply being “whiny.”  Ok, everyone’s entitled to an opinion, if you’re unwilling to take comments, and sometimes criticism, constructive or otherwise, then don’t publish content.

At the time, I felt like Alberta PC Party leadership candidate Rick Orman was snubbing me in particular, I’m not sure that’s ever a good idea when it’s a politician and a voter.  Some people think it’s ok to allow people to walk all over them, that I should “get over myself…”  I forgive people for a show of lack of respect but last night, with Rick Orman, I decided not to.  I’ve had support via DM come in to confirm my impressions from others. But really…does anyone truly care whether Rick Orman insulted me or not?  Well, curiously, the late night crowd did as our analytics would suggest.  Does that mean they’re not going to vote for Rick Orman as a result of my blog post?  I wouldn’t go that far, most people prefaced their comments on Twitter or on the blog by saying…”I’m not a Rick Orman supporter…” so today is another day in the realtime web and we’re all moving on.  Today seems to be about Mar’s thoughts on healthcare in Alberta, more Edmonton Fringe discussion and whatever’s important in your life…

Doug Griffiths to my knowledge is continuing to look for another candidate to debate live on Alberta LIVE.  I think a 1-1 debate with an hour of air time would really be great for Albertans.  Much better than the 30 second sound bites they currently offer.  I hope he finds someone, and yes, if Orman comes back into the picture I’ll consider it. (Not to sound too much as one person commented, a “whiny Rupert Murdoch,” that cracks me up.)

Hey Doug, Gary Mar apparently is going to privatize healthcare or so it’s being reported.  Maybe he’s game…

True to the form I’ve witnessed from you already, you showed little respect for those with whom you were communicating with. Now the other Alberta PC leadership candidate that was involved in our discussion is probably much more aware of your abrasiveness since he’s clearly met you, and might be willing to forgive your ignorance towards him, although I certainly won’t speak for him.

However, I’m an Alberta taxpayer and voter, someone who a leadership candidate for the PC’s or any Alberta political party should consider respecting.  I also own two companies, fusedlogic and fusedlogicTV inc.  I admit, I’ve not generated the same type of tycoon status in business that you have Rick, in fact, we’re just this tiny little company out in Sherwood Park, Alberta working hard as a team to make a living.  Your status has clearly emblazoned you with an arrogance that countless millions of dollars can provide. (I’m not saying all millionaires are assholes to be sure.)

Having said that, I tried to see past your arrogance tonight on Twitter, and give you the benefit of the doubt.  I even warned you to conduct yourself as if media was watching our exchange.  Despite that, you openly insulted a voter who hasn’t made up his mind yet AND you did it in fine style by leveraging the realtime web like a complete neophyte.  You don’t think we here at fusedlogic have “any distribution?”  We do.  Do you think being ignorant towards a voter isn’t news?  To some it just might be.  That I don’t care about.

You deliberately disrespected me by not answering my questions directly.  On Twitter, and frankly anywhere else in civil society that’s a direct insult.  Rick Orman, you acted like a pompous ass.  Now we all do from time to time, Lord knows I certainly have, and I’m man enough to admit when I’m wrong.  However, when Albertans take a look at your twitter stream by going to search.twitter and searching #pcldr hashtag tonight, they’ll see that you intentionally ignored me when I was being respectful but firm in not allowing you to avoid my direct question about agreeing to come on fusedlogicTV along with Doug Griffiths and have a one to one debate on the issue the two of you were discussing.  Now sure, it’s your prerogative not to answer me for any number of reasons.  Especially if I was being grossly disrespectful.  I admit I was calling you out for being evasive about the invitation, and you still are.  Most recently also to Griffiths based on his last tweet regarding this issue.

So here’s the thing, I own fusedlogicTV, you want to be on it, you’ve got to respond to me publicly on Twitter with an apology.  Mr. Orman, I don’t care who you are, you don’t treat people like you did me tonight.  If you want to be leader of the Alberta PC Party, you need to learn some humility and manners.  Secondly, you sure as hell won’t be rewarded after insulting me with a special opportunity to promote your campaign free of charge on my network which will then be shared with mainstream media, bloggers and website owners.   Who the hell do you think you are?  I’ve told you who I am, I’m a honest, hard working Albertan with a family and I’m a voter, just like millions of others.  Including Stuart Thomson I suspect, who beat me to publishing a blog post about tonight’s exchange.

Rick, I already knew you clearly had a lot to learn about the social web, but I never thought I’d have to remind you of your manners as well.  Albertans will decide once reading this and the information provided whether they liked your demeanour and value it in their choice for leader of the PC Party.

For all the time you spend online using social media, regardless of whether you’re from Alberta, do you think social media will help to change anything in Alberta regarding the discussion around key issues?  I’d love to hear your opinion, is social media helping to influence your thoughts on the issues below?

1. In Edmonton, is social media in your opinion influencing you and your thoughts regarding the debate about Katz Group’s bid for a downtown arena district?
2. Will social media influence the outcome of either the Alberta PC leadership race or that of the floundering Alberta Liberals?
3. What about things like Bill 50?  I know of some power companies in this province that really want Bill 50 passed and they want it done quietly.  Has social media influenced your thoughts on it in any way?
4. Do you care about the land use legislation as a result of finding out more information about it online?

There are certainly many more issues then the four I’ve listed here, so if you have another issue that ranks high in your world please by all means list it in the comment section, IF you think social media influenced your thoughts about it.

To be clear, I’m not referring the social technologies specifically, rather the on-going discussion, chit chat, pow-wows, debate, stare downs and tweeted zingers you are experiencing or creating within the social web.  This would include Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube and of course blogs comments just like the ones I hope you’ll offer here.  You spend so much time of your life doing this, it would be neat to know where you and others like you think it’s having an effect.  I have an opinion (of course) but I don’t want to influence you one way or another by offering it here.  Please comment and offer your opinion and then ask others what they think.  This issue is on many people’s minds from decision-makers to the every day Joe and Judy.  (My apologies in advance for speaking on behalf of all Joes and Judy’s)

Who’s talking?  Many who spend time following the #pcldr hashtag seems to be a small grouping.  This is partial speculation, however, with as explosive as politics can be, this is really low engagement overall.  People just don’t seem to care about what’s being said, at least enough to spur on discussion and content generation online outside of the current observers.  The group actively participating in this Twitter discussion, predominately led by candidate supporters is even smaller.

Taking samples such as the one below over a week or more, the players on the list move up and down but generally stay the same. You’d think that the best time to see the most activity would be during or right after a live debate.  That is generally true, although policy announcements help, yet the amount of people being reached on Twitter, is in my opinion, very small considering the importance of this.  I do expect this to heat up as we get closer to the first ballot in mid-September.  Here’s a screen shot from tweetreach.

Now lets take a look at the Wildrose Alliance Party and their hashtag #wrp, who are not currently in an internal leadership race.

By comparison, the Downtown Arena District hashtag #yegarena discussion as of late has heated up but in the last 24 hours is on a bit of decline.

Go beyond this one small view, and take into consideration the amount of main stream media coverage this issue has generated in the last 6 days or so surrounding the Enoch and MLA PR issues have reached well over a million people.

The reasons for the low digital engagement regarding the PC leadership race in part would include accounts with small follower counts engaging.  A small cross-section of account variety engaging in the discussion.  That said, I’m not including the #ableg or #pcaa hashtags in this post, and that would normally need to be sifted through and considered for a more accurate reading of issue reach.  Also, the various campaign camps might want to consider the activity of their own teams in particular.

When building a better understanding of a digital footprint, one should consider several factors.  To measure more accurately, say as part of a formal project report, I would consider all primary elements that make up a digital footprint.  From the content created, the attention given to that content, the influence of those engaging, the sentiment of the comments, and the reach of that content across all relevant digital channels, such as Facebook, YouTube, Linkedin, political blogs and mainstream media websites, then compare that with conversions.  This is a lot of work.  Some may be fooled into thinking that a single piece of software might handle all of this, and they’d be wrong.

To interpret what’s happening within that PC tweetreach stat above we need to ask some key questions.  Sure hired guns can create white noise to look busy but is this translating into increased interest in their candidate?  I’m seeing more impact based on direct comments made by a particular candidate.  As it should be.  How about the volunteers?  A small group of 5-7 or so per candidate quick to defend their candidates is evident, but are they convincing voters to join the discussion, donate to their candidate, buy a membership and become advocates?  I’m seeing a bit more positive evidence of this lately based on some of my own real-time analysis, that said, I wouldn’t suggest evidence of a “landslide” victory for any one candidate.  Pretty safe to assume this is going to a second ballot.

Curious as to who is getting the most traffic to their website?  I consulted Alexa.com which provides a global ranking for all websites. The higher the number, the more websites with better traffic than your website.  You want a low number.

In order of Alexa ranking worst to best:

 
When asking why these rankings are the way they are, there are several reasons.  From a commitment or lack thereof to digital content generation, and existence of an actual digital strategy versus those who haven’t focused on it.  In the case of Rick Orman, a concerted use of traditional advertising driving awareness.  He is also an outlier and less of a known entity as compared to the other candidates, plus he throws all other candidates under the bus every chance he gets.  Having said that, the proof is in the conversions pudding.  Each campaign will know whether this traffic is translating into meaningful membership conversion.  I would hope they’re modifying web content based on their internal web analytics AND what they’re hearing at events.  However, the above evidence supports that this work is beyond some of these campaigns. In at least a couple of the campaigns, this is likely a lack of knowledge and understanding.  In others, I would add a lack of prioritizing resources to focus on this.
Just for fun I also looked up the various Party websites.

 
Clearly, this is only a fraction of the information that one should consider before making any serious judgements, recommendations or moves.  However, if one or more campaigns takes a critical look at what they’re doing, and can figure out the flash points that drive membership conversions for them in particular among voters, and then repeat it, some late gains can be made.  I will say though, there is little help for those without any strategy.  The numbers above separate those who are simply going through the motions from those making a concerted effort.

Also, one final little tid-bit, currently with respect to “sentiment,” Doug Griffiths and Alison Redford are reaping more positive comments related to their efforts in the last couple of debates, Doug Horner, Gary Mar and Rick Orman are not inspiring noticeable jumps in positive sentiment, the majority is “neutral,” and Ted Morton is leading with respect to negative sentiment.

One other key thing to monitor is the low “attack” factor.  Generally the Wildrose is leading the political attacks with one NDP supporter being vocal.  That said, the PC candidates are generally not being challenged as much as I would have expected.

For me, as far as personal voting goes, demonstrating an understanding of technology is important to me regardless of Party. Technology permeates our lives, whether you’re 9 or 90 years old.  This isn’t the only consideration to be sure, but it’s important, and it drives me nuts that in this day and age, we still have to explain to business and political leaders that there’s this little thing called the “Internet,” an environment that should definitely be respected and mastered.  For me, the above numbers suggest there’s a fair amount of work yet to do.

All of this data from comScore is coming from their Video Metrix service designed to focus on the online video landscape.  Below is a graph that outlines viewership for June.  Pretty insane numbers overall, which continues to suggest that you should definitely have video as part of your overall digital marketing plan.  This trend is why we launched fusedlogicTV, with live, plus recorded, plus digital marketing included in our packages, they are incredibly powerful and affordable.  Have a look below, I was actually surprised to see Yahoo ahead of Microsoft.  Another interested item is that Facebook is generating viewership, people love to watch video and look at pictures on Facebook.  It will be interesting to see in 6 months if Google plus will start to erode this as the migration of something new continues to take over.  That said, Facebook has over 600 million users and I don’t see them being crush tomorrow, but it’s nice to see some more competition.

 This information provided by comScore goes on to cover ad networks as well:

Other notable findings from June 2011 include:

• The top video ad networks in terms of their potential reach of the total U.S. population were: Tremor Media at 44.3 percent, BrightRoll Video Network at 38.5 percent and Break Media at 37.6 percent.
• 85.6 percent of the U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
• The duration of the average online content video was 5.4 minutes, while the average online video ad was 0.4 minutes.
• Video ads accounted for 13.6 percent of all videos viewed and 1.3 percent of all minutes spent viewing video online.

Before the first episode of Mommy Talk

By reading the title of this blog post you might have thought that I had gone mad, I admit it’s not your typical title for our blog here at fusedlogic, and that’s because today’s topic is not typical in many ways.

Our client Narissa Singh of Play and Learn Toys is working feverishly to build the brand of her online toy emporium.  A shiny new website built by Monolith Digital is about to launch and being new to the Greater Edmonton and Strathcona County area, it’s important that Narissa make friends, as it is for all of us.

As part of her plan to grow her business we included a new live show to help separate her and her business from the pack.  ”Mommy Talk” launched today and everything in today’s title was a part of the discussion in the show.  Never before has fusedlogicTV had a show cross so many fun topics in one episode.  The energy was great, and so were the guests.  Melanie Schmidt from Little Belties was the first guest on with Narissa to talk about being a mompreneur and to demonstrate her cool products for little kids.  I’ll be picking up a belt for my daughter, she’ll love it.

Next up was Tanis Miller, TheRedNeckMommy herself, who has taken the tragedy of suddenly losing her son Shale, and bravely focusing that energy into sharing thoughts on “all” aspects of her life (less fighting with her husband) with the rest of the world resulting in amazing success.  Something so devastating that if I were to experience it with my daughter I know I wouldn’t have the strength to do.  Never mind the originality of the content, the fact that Tanis and her husband carry on every day is a miracle in itself in this blogger and parent’s humble opinion.  Inspiration for us all.

I’d like to say thanks to both Melanie and Tanis for coming on to “Mommy Talk with Narissa Singh,” she’s a terrific client, a brave soul for listening to me and my ideas, and did a fantastic job hosting her first ever live show…keep it up Narissa, you’re global!

Terry Paranych and Michael Kryton

Today marks the launch of “Inside Real Estate with Terry Paranych,” the first of three shows we’re producing for the Edmonton region’s top Real Estate Agent here at fusedlogicTV.  Terry has a tremendous amount of experience in real estate, producing results at the highest level.  Being a top five Realtor in the world doesn’t happen by accident.  The fact that he wants to share his knowledge and educate the home buying and home selling public with his first show says a lot to me about his business acumen, and character.

Every time Terry comes into our studio he leaves a positive lasting impression, his energy and belief in what he’s doing is “unshakeable.”  Frankly, he inspires me, not only in business but also of course in learning more about real estate, how to invest in it etc…

We’re excited, about all of his shows, #2 comes out tomorrow – “Terry Paranych LIVE!” designed for Realtors around the world and helping them grow their businesses.  Then #3, “How to Create Amazing Wealth by Investing in Real Estate.”

We hope that you will find time to view one or more of this shows live or on-demand.  Also, all of us, Terry included want to hear from you, your feedback will help to refine the shows going forward.  Have questions, comments or concerns, tune in or leave a comment here or on Terry’s blog, we want to hear about them.

You can contact Terry’s office at 780-457-4777 or visit www.paranych.com

You can contact our team at 780-640-9339

Terry Paranych

Pushing boundaries is nothing new for fusedlogicTV’s newest client Edmonton Real Estate Agent Terry Paranych of Re/Max realty.  Well known throughout the Edmonton area, and Alberta, as the Real Estate “Superman,” Terry has worked incredibly hard to become the “brand of choice” when it comes to selling homes.

When Terry came to understand what fusedlogicTV does, produce live, recorded and market customized video content unlike anyone else, he knew our program was the next major step in the evolution of his brand and his real estate business.  We’re excited to welcome this business leader to the fusedlogicTV client list.  The local Edmonton real estate industry will see and witness incredible value coming from Terry’s show.  He’ll be providing insight into his massively successful marketing programs, as well as, sharing his experience and elements from his seminar series for Real Estate Agents to improve their sales dramatically.  In fact, there’s so much content and value here we’re working on organizing it all for you. There has never been a show for real estate like the one we’ll be producing with Terry and we’re all very excited.

Michael Kryton interviews Terry Paranych on “A Brilliant Idea Every 60 seconds.”  This show is packed with stories…we’re looking forward to seeing and hearing more from Terry very soon.  If you want to ask questions of Terry, be sure to tune in to his show.

A bright, sunny day on Saskatchewan drive in Edmonton played host to the grand opening of Incite Solutions‘ new digs, in this case, marketing that moved a couple hundred people to take in the festivities yesterday afternoon, enjoying tasty beverages, delicious food and cool music.

I first met Jared and Ted when I launched fusedlogic back in 2000.  They had an office in the Boardwalk market downtown Edmonton and I wanted to learn more about what they did as a marketing firm.  I must admit their whole model was very different, and I didn’t really understand all the nuts and bolts, probably by design.  Jared especially, has a knack for communicating in a way that is specifically vague and yet very pleasant.

The Incite event was an energized example and proof positive that their approach to business works.  A who’s who of the local business community showed up, and then there was Michael Kryton and I, just honoured to be invited.  The picture above is just before Jared and Ted cut the ribbon and gave a couple of speeches.  Among thanking the many people that helped them and their company along the way, one key statement Jared made stuck out for me.  How the new office had 3 chairs for their mentors and the importance that mentors have played in their growth.  (I didn’t have much opportunity to take a lot of pictures as there were lot’s of terrific people to chat with, however, here’s the second floor of the office and I like the wall).

Having recently lost my father, my most important mentor, I’ve found myself really missing those almost daily discussions. It was great to hear Jared and Ted make mention of the importance of family yesterday, I have no doubt they will continue to play a pivotal mentoring role and that is certainly to be cherished.

People were certainly soaking up the upbeat and positive atmosphere, just as you’d expect from a celebration of an important business milestone that the Incite Solutions team has achieved.  Not resting on their laurels, the Incite gang was encouraged by Jared at the end of his speech to get out there and “close some business.”  Reflecting on the past to predict the future, I have no doubt new opportunities will come their way.

Once again, congratulations Jared and Ted on your fantastic success over the years, and to the Incite team from all of us at fusedlogic, we wish you nothing but continued massive success in the future.

Many in business spend their days talking about social media.  Sure we talk about it too.  We also use it in a very targeted way to build business.  Many people spend all day being “social media rockstars,” building up their own account numbers.  We spend time tending to our relationships, when we can….but we’d never call ourselves “rockstars.”  Thankfully, a lot of the time we’re doing client work, and using the power of social media to drive new opportunities and revenue for them and us.

Using Linkedin, I reached out to some key people in the Alberta Oil and Gas sector.  The ensuing conversation via LinkedIn led to Skype calls and discussions of potential social media and live streaming projects for fusedlogicTV.  Which brings me to my quick trip to Calgary to meet with a few different firms at the Gas and Oil Expo and Conference on the Calgary Stampede grounds.

Steve Zurakowski from Dynamic Vision (shown above on the left) appeared on “A Brilliant Idea Every 60 Seconds” on fusedlogicTV a week ago.

Once again, social media has enabled me to reach out in ways I never could have in the past, it’s an absolutely critical business development tool for fusedlogic.  Building relationships in person is incredibly important, social media opens doors, and draws us closer in between face to face meetings across Alberta and beyond.  Today I met with people from Dubai, China, Calgary, Ft. McMurray and Halifax, all from a simple “inmail” within LinkedIn and within the next week or two we should be announcing a very exciting and major new global project.

After walking around the exhibition and meeting with a couple of clients, I ended up at the Xtreme Hot Oil and Pressure Service tent for a tasty beverage.  Frankly, they had the tunes cranked up after the Expo closed at 5pm.  I like these guy’s style and I was like a moth to a flame.

Due to the fact that this new business relationship isn’t quite signed off on yet, I won’t mention all the folks I met with today. However, in one case, we’ve agreed to announce a new powerful global relationship very soon.  Stay tuned and thank-you for your support…