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…

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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.

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!

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.

Have you exposed your brand to negative buzz?  Starting with good intentions, have you started a negative firestorm online?

What should you do?  Ignore or engage in a verbal sparring match as many do everyday on Twitter, Facebook and in forums?   Here are a few simple tips to consider when confronted with negativity online.

Assess the situation

Everyone should be listening to the Internet and monitoring channels and communities important to their business.  Look to identify the source, the ignition point or statement that has set things in motion then consider these questions.

• Is the information factually accurate or inaccurate?
• What is the level of credibility of the person, account or organization responsible?
• What platform is the negative activity happening on?
• Does this person, account or organization understand the technology and community they are operating within?
• Is there an ongoing conversation already as a result of the statement for you to research?
• What has been the sentiment of the initial responses to the negative statement?
• Is the discussion growing in size quickly or is it isolated?

What if any social media action should be taken?

Your options here are fairly simple, however, how they’re executed may not be.

MONITOR: This needs to be an ongoing activity for your organization so that you’re not taken by surprise.  This can allow you to assess in near real-time if the issue is progressing and if so how.  Be careful, ignoring issues completely can place you in a position where a conversation between two people on twitter can quickly turn into a firestorm of international media exposure in hours.  Do your assessment quickly and learn to act fast.  Generally, most issues do not reach firestorm stage but the potential is always there.

ENGAGE: You can choose to engage in a sparring match with the individuals and organizations involved.  This is rarely a good idea, you almost always look like a bully.  I experienced this during the airport debate, even if I was looking to offer facts available to me, it was usually still a negative outcome.  Rather than spar, I recommend remaining factual without emotion.  Your detractors will attempt to initiate personal attacks, do your best to not add validity or take it personal whenever possible.

Instead focus on clearing up misconceptions, admitting mistakes quickly and zero in on providing solutions to move ahead with. This is very difficult sometimes as often a mob mentality can ensue, don’t attempt to try to control this conversation, it will only make it worse.  You may however want to nudge the conversation in the right direction and your supporters should look to reinforce that.  No surprise that where this routinely happens includes politics, the environment, and government related communications.

Pre-emptive social media strike

Often there’s an urge to attempt to get your message out before anyone else can generate the story flow on your behalf.  Let’s say mainstream media writes an unflattering story about your brand or you have been misquoted, and it’s on their website.

If you feel compelled to respond, do it on their platform first, in the comments section, where you can most likely put things into context, to expand you may then want to use your own blog or website to follow-up and explain if required.  Resist the urge to jump straight to Twitter where the conversation may not be underway, and jump start it yourself.  This will almost certainly draw out trolling behaviour, and open up the opportunity for facts to be twisted 140 characters at a time, igniting a firestorm which you were trying to avoid in the first place.  One which could last a few hours, days or until someone gets fired.

Not a perfect science

There is definitely an art to this type of communication situation and the above tips are not intended to be perfect.  Continue to provide positive, share-worthy information and support others doing the same.  I’m of the belief that there is definitely an audience for that worth being a part of.

Walter Schwabe speaks with Shawna Randolph, spokesperson from the Edmonton Humane Society about how their nonprofit is using social media such as Twitter and Facebook to communicate more effectively.

Download on iTunes

This time last year we were seeing the same rumors flying, especially after the appearance of leaked screenshots on the Boygeniusreport website. The photos are included below for those looking for a recap of the last round of rumors. It is time once again to speculate on when Apple will fully embrace social media.

The reality is that iTunes has not had a real significant change in its functionality in years, it is a music store at heart and it is a very popular. A change to introduce social media integration could be a minor one or it could amount to a complete overhaul of the interface we all know and have accepted. As it sits the rumors are pointing to the integration of social elements as a way for users to share not only information on what they are listening to but also for them to share recommendations with others. That sadly doesn’t mean that we will be able to share our favorite songs with our friends, but it is still a step towards making music and iTunes a friendly place.

The positive side of the rumored updates, assuming they are true, will be a new way to share music with friends. What worries me is the possibility we may see millions of “ (name) is listening to (blank) on iTunes” posts on Twitter… Then again there are easy and simple ways around that issue. Other music providers such as Last.fm already offer social media updating without the annoyance of thousands of posts about your listening habits to your friends and family. The model is in use already and works without issues.

Rumors of increased social media integration have been flying for a long time, iTunes is the logical first step if they are really intent on following through. The technology is there and services such as Facebook and Twitter are already in use by hundreds of millions of people. My personal bet is that Apple will bring some form of integration, tomorrow, I don’t know, but certainly it is on their radar.

Come tomorrow we will see if its going to be true and if Apple is really going to make a move into social media with iTunes.

The default reaction might be to think this is “facial recognition” software.  According to Annika Heinle of Facebook Corporate Communications, “this is not facial recognition software in the sense that it recognizes specific people. Instead it is a facial detection feature that finds faces in photos.”  There in lies the difference, a big one. The intent of the software is to make it easier to tag photos – which I think is a good thing.

This all stems from the recent corporate acquisition of Divvyshot, the creators of this software.  A smart investment since there are over 100 million photos uploaded a day according to Odio.

Still, one might ask since Facebook continues to struggle with a large segment of users who are revolting against their privacy policies, will this go any further?  Some might see this as yet another step in the wrong direction, albeit a small one in this case. Certainly Facebook’s track record with respect to privacy is abysmal, bad move after bad move so there it is reasonable to question the social networking giants’ intentions.

What do you think?  Conspiracy, smart acquisition, don’t care either way?  Leave your thoughts here and we’ll use them on the radio show…

UPDATE: Canadian lawyer launches class-action suit against Facebook as covered by CTV, and Canadian Press.

Do you think this lawsuit has a chance?  Would you participate?

Personally, I believe that in this age of social, many organizations lost an opportunity to engage.  Doritos seems to be the clear winner of this year in terms of laughs and online conversational footprint among consumers.  With one clear exception, there’s no one talking to me or anyone else for that matter about Doritos online from Frito-Lay.

Bridgestone Tires has a SuperBowl specific section on their site but that’s not enough.  Here’s E-trade’s Youtube Channel as listed in their continuing baby commercials and NO online interaction that I can find.

Gary Vee quickly pointed out this issue and I find it clear evidence that many a large enterprise and their ad agencies for all their tweeting and Facebook groups and fan pages are still living in the…

“build it and they will come, bolt it on rather than bake it in mentality.”

They still don’t get it.  This is the difference between having accounts and using them effectively to build brand presence and social capital.  I’ve enjoyed many of the commercials this year, and I wonder if the lame ones like Boost Mobile could have improved their status through online engagement?  I’m watching the game as I type this so if someone finds something interesting regarding some online engagement let me know…

Check these Twitter accounts out: @vizio & @dockers – disgraceful…thanks for pointing this out – @josephaldrich

Here’s the Youtube AdBlitz 2010 channel with all the ads from the SuperBowl so you can check them out.

Interview with the Mayor of Hinton, Alberta – Glenn Taylor

I first met Glenn on Twitter, when he put a link out asking for feedback on a housing report for the Town of Hinton.  I replied asking if he and his administration had considered using a wiki for policy feedback from citizens?  He replied, “No, but I’ll pass it along.”  Then becoming Facebook friends and continuing our discussion, we found out that he was presenting at the ALI Social Media for Government conference.  This gave me an opportunity to meet Glenn in person for the first time.  Glenn was presenting a fire-side chat (no PPT slides) with Ken Chapman of Cambridge Strategies about the Grande Alberta Economic Region (GAER).  The story is interesting in terms of how this particular region has been impacted by many different issues.  The Mountain Pine Beetle for example has had a devastating effect.  After the conference we agreed to follow-up and today’s interview was our next step.

WS: Why become an elected official?

GT: “That started in the sandbox, I was learning about the political process in grade 5 which was when I became class president.  After school I was involved in unions and activism.  For me, it has always been a sense of representing other’s concerns that’s interested me. Union politics turned out to be too limiting, contractual negotiations etc – a narrow lens of looking at the world.

The opportunity to represent citizens’ concerns to administration is what I found fascinating and why I really love governing at the municipal level.  You can discuss something at Council and the next day be having a cup of coffee over the fence with a neighbour fielding questions about the decision.  That has translated into what is currently my 3rd term on council and 2nd term as Mayor.  We’ve focused on shaping the community identity.  We’re an industrial town, and yet, as a community realize that we have a responsibility to give back to the land.”

During the ALI conference, Glenn described his initial response to Ken Chapman’s suggestion that he start using social media as resistive.  ”I don’t have time for this,” he stated while speaking at the ALI conference this week.   However, what I don’t think Glenn bargained for is how persistent Ken Chapman can be and so @mayorhinton is now active on Twitter.  Also during that presentation he revealed that others on his Town Council are on Facebook now, although they’re not as active as they could be and more Twitter accounts have been set-up recently too.

WS: What resistance if any has there been from your colleagues on Council, administration or the region?

GT: “Well I would start with the traditionalists being afraid to engage, the silent majority if you will.  They’re asking, how can we control the message?  What’s motivating that fear are examples like what’s happening with elements associated with Rockyview County Council generating a facebook group.  Basically fixating on the negative.

We (government) can’t be superficial, can’t just listen and continue to do the same thing.  We need to take action.  However, within administration there can be fear that change will bring about more work.  Fear about change of the status quo.  At the provincial level there’s a tendency to consult with citizens through town halls so that it can be stated folks were consulted and then do what was planned anyway.  As the community changes, we need to bring that message back from the citizens to the government.  In a municipal government it’s truly the citizens issues being presented to the government and that’s my favourite part.  The challenge becomes then, how do we get those issues to the administrative team…for change in process?”

Glenn didn’t name the group but I found this one called Stop the Madness in Springbank! which seems to be against development.

WS: How do you see social media impacting your region economically?

GT: “Well number one – you need to make decisions with good information which means you have to gather good information first.  Being open to listening is key and understanding the challenges.  How do we tap into that knowledge?  Traditional invitations to discuss the issue and also connecting people online through various channels.  Flexibility has to be present in our approach so that we can reach as many citizens as possible.  In fact, we’re hosting a workshop on social media to help folks understand the tools better.”

WS: What challenges lie ahead for you and your community?

GT: “We’re really at the beginning stages of engaging the citizens.  I believe that we’re ahead of the curve and that’s a source of pride for us. However, there can be a disconnect between administration and council that sometimes exists and that will be something we have to work on.”

WS: What advice would you give to other elected officials?

GT: “Build the business case, not I have a dream, rather it’s what I have learned. It’s way easier to to operate in reactionism rather than finding the path.  I’d say it’s important to be proactive rather than reactive.  For example at our GAER Board meetings we now start with blue sky sessions and ask what’s on the horizon?  What are you hearing in your communities?  Is it a priority, do we need to spend time working on it…that means that key issues have a chance to help us set our course at the beginning.”

“Leaders get the behaviours that they themselves exhibit and tolerate.”  - Larry Bossidy, Author of Execution: The discipline of getting things done.

And with that in mind, I’ll leave you with the same question that Glenn has posted on Facebook and like other elected officials I’ve come across (but unfortunately not all), he cares about the answers you give…

GT: What does community mean to you?

First up is Starbucks:

Here’s a post from Econsultancy.com that outlines what Starbucks is up to.  Below is an excerpt. According to Starbucks VP Chris Bruzzo, Holiday 2009 is all about scaling up Starbucks’ Holiday 2008:

It’s like we’ve taken the version 1.0 of last year and now we’re really doing it at scale and going to a lot more places where our customers already are. People are saying this is going to be a big year for social media and we’re a microcosm of that. Whereas last year it was a curiosity, this year it’s a core part of the program.

Some of Starbucks’ specific online efforts worth noting include:

• Facebook holiday photo uploads and branded virtual goods.
• A Flickr page encouraging consumers to upload holiday pictures of themselves.
• A branded playlist on Pandora, additional integration in Pandora’s iPhone app and traditional ad placements on the Pandora website.

Starbucks Love Project

Adage Article on Starbucks

MyStarbucksidea.com

Coca Cola:

In an article by Mediabiznet, an explanation is given as to what the beverage company is describing as their “largest social media campaign ever.” 206 countries, 365 days, 1 mission

Expedition 206, as it will be called, will send three 20-somethings to 206 countries and territories where Coca-Cola is sold. The trio set off on their 275,000 mile tour from Madrid on 1st January 2010, stocked with laptops, video cameras, smartphones and other gadgetry, in order to document their search for happiness to the masses.

 

Their journey will be tracked online via www.expedition206.com as well as Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Twitter. Fans following the trio will be able to weigh in on what the trio should do and who they should see at each destination.

BestBuy:

It’s no secret that BestBuy has been pushing further into the social web than probably any other electronics retailer to date with their Blue Shirt Nation experiment at the core.

They’ve decked out their Facebook page with a Christmas theme as a start, offering gift advice, a “hint helper” to let friends and family know what you want for Christmas, a Secret Santa area, and a smattering of “Christmas carol videos.”

The New York Times reports that BestBuy is building a large TV commercial campaign around their “Twelpforce” Twitter account, said to be manned by 2500 BestBuy blue shirts with the claim that “no knows more about electronics than BestBuy employees.”

Today’s organizations should realize that assigning the responsibility of social media to an intern does a few things that are not necessarily great for their brand.

1.) Puts front-line communications of the brand message in the hands of the inexperienced.  If you wouldn’t position your intern to pitch your biggest client in a lead capacity, don’t put a mass communications tool(s) in their hands either.

2.) Puts inexperienced intern in a position where they may be forced to make a critical “judgement call” decision publicly and in real-time.

In both cases, serious damage could be done to the brand “when” the situation is mishandled.  Often it’s a matter of time, not if but when.

Here’s another perspective.  Assign a value to your brand. Once you’ve estimated the financial value of your brand – $10M, $100 million dollars, measure that against how old your company is.  Then realize that it can all be negatively and dramatically impacted with an ill-advised tweet, video, blog post or photograph.

Sure many executives today are social media rookies, however, they should know what’s critical to communicate about their businesses and they have the authority that comes with their positions to back it up. In many cases the simple fact that the executive is the one communicating builds credibility, credibility that could lead to business.

Social media is not a place for interns to learn about your business via real-time interactions with your customers.

Your top line executives cannot afford to be “too busy.”  The world is a different place today for business and organizations, if your CEO, VP Marketing, VP Communications are not prepared to operate in this space to some degree and they’re not prepared to learn more about social media, your organization is at a severe disadvantage.

How would you like to wake up one morning as the CEO of a publicly traded company to find out your stock “allegedly” lost $180 million dollars in value?  The result of a song that went viral on Youtube.  You didn’t see it coming because you were “too busy.”

The above blog post link refers to the “cost of inaction,” I would offer an alternative to that – “cost of ignorance” could actually be proved in many cases.  Ignoring the implications of social media on your business model and its frontline communications or subsequently handing this important aspect of business communications to an intern is in my opinion foolish.

With the increase in aggregation solutions and cross-integration of popular channels, social media will become even easier to manage.  Effective management of social media channels comes from education and understanding how to use them first.

We designed this because many public transit users have expressed a desire for a full featured Public Transit Application for smart phones.

Should you want to have this for your city, please let your local transit authority know about this application.  As always, we are appreciative of all suggestions, questions and feedback. Feel free to become a fan at our Facebook Group if you’d like to stay on top of development.

Please share your thoughts in the comments below or take a few seconds to answer this poll (lent to us graciously by the Business/IT Alignment blog)

Twitter, Facebook and other social media are already impacting your organization.

Social media is about the social dynamics and the amplification of human behaviors, rather than the technology used. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other platforms have cultural variations but ultimately “human nature is human nature.”  Pay close attention and strive to understand such statements as, “human-web, citizen-web, crowd-sourcing,” which demonstrate that people are at the centre of it all.

With this fact in mind, it’s a safe bet that many of your employees are already engaged in various social web activities.  Your organization may block access to these technologies at work and yet privately, employees are talking about how they “hate work, can’t wait to leave work” via a mobile device, “love their work but hate their boss” or worse.  On the flip-side there are also folks who love their job, company and customers.  Probably most importantly, your customers are also out there talking about your brand, at least you should hope they are.  Either way, having your organization sitting on the sidelines with its “head in the sand” is the last option that should be exercised.

Only the brave shall pass.

In this “frady cat, uneducated” scenario I’ve seen play out more times than I care to count, decision-makers are typically the barriers to moving forward successfully.  Often, managers think social media is a waste of time and honestly, there is some truth to that point-of-view.  That’s correct, I just said that social media can be a waste of time.  If time is purely spent on self-gratification and entertainment with little to no engagement in meaningful discussions or learning about issues, trends within your industry, that’s time wasted.  Tagging photos on Facebook and offering “dude you were so wasted last night,” doesn’t constitute the kind of relationship building most managers appreciate.  Having said all of this, scheduling endless meetings over coffee, or having long phone conversations without a point can also waste time, however, that activity can be made to appear productive.  In the end, the sales numbers don’t lie and everyone pays the piper eventually.

The social web can be a tough transition for managers, there’s a sense of control loss.  Especially for those who are not about listening to customers.  I’m not an advocate for shutting all access down.  A clear policy and accountability behind the use of these powerful tools and platforms should be designed and implemented.  Imagine an organization of 5000 people or more all engaging positively in building brand loyalty…I suggest providing direction, education and creative solutions as a healthier alternative.  By the way, this is the same flat-organization success that induces cold sweats among the “coast and collect a pay-check” managers in your midst, you can see them coming a mile away.  We lose business opportunities when matched up against these folks.  The social web represents a shift in business model and cultural philosophy that many want to avoid at all costs.

Your customers demand increased access

Organizational leaders should realize that many customers have learned to voice and amplify their opinions, especially when things go wrong.

This evolution means re-examining how your organization addresses customer relations.  Savvy orgs will claim that (theoretically,) every employee is now responsible for the customer experience, (as it should be.)  If this is true, that philosophy needs to translate online, managers following an effective social media strategy should learn how to cultivate internal evangelists and teach them to take the lead in terms of community management.

Prepare for the psychological and cultural impact

Participation within social media will definitely impact the psyche of your organization. Participation takes commitment and the bravery to push through these changes and we’ve found that this is the toughest thing for organizations to do.  When was the last time you invited clients to sit down and offer their advice on how you could be better?  When was the last time this event took place publicly for all to see?

If unprepared for this environment, social media can expose short-comings, insecurities, ineffective processes and dated marketing strategies.

Frankly you should probably ask yourself if your organization actually does anything of interest?  “If your organizational tree fell in the forest would anybody care?”  Are you irrelevant?  If so, your company has larger issues at hand, like looking for a new leader.  The social web can be tough and if you commit to it properly, it can also be extremely profitable and one of your most powerful tools.  The question is, are you up to the task?

Also, for those staying in touch on Facebook regarding Edmonton Fringe shows, food, street performers and reviews.  You should be aware of the main Fringe related Facebook group.

We are excited to have performers and Fringers blogging about their experiences at Edmonton’s Fringe Festival.  Much of the daily action regarding social media and specifically blogging activity is happening on ShowYouOurBlog.com.

Many on Twitter are following the Twitter account @EdmontonFringe which notifies everyone of a new blog post on the aforementioned blog, as well as, other interesting Edmonton Fringe tidbits that come along.

Many like watching video and we don’t disappoint.  Here is the ShowYouOurs Youtube channel.   You’ll also be interested to know that we’ll be live streaming a couple of shows from the Edmonton International Fringe Festival this year.  This first of which is tonight at 8:45pm from Venue #1 – Choon-Hyang: True Love The live feed will be broadcast from the ShowYouOurBlog site listed above and the archived content will be posted on this Youtube channel.  The Edmonton International Fringe Festival continues towards breaking new social media ground as this will be our 2nd of 3 live webcasts from the festival.

We have been working with the production staff from Seoul, South Korea and we expect a good turnout online from that Internet savvy country, despite the time zone difference being 16 hours ahead, which in this case works in our favor as it should be early Tuesday afternoon in Seoul.

If our challenge helps one more person, child, family eat- it was WELL WORTH the effort.

Many may have thought that we forgot about this charitable social media project, the Facebook group and flickr groups have seemingly been ignored and it’s all over before it really got started…WRONG!  Our work has been to inspire and organize and then inspire and organize some more. Starting with keeping Edmonton’s Food Bank in the loop, which has led to a discussion at the provincial level with the Alberta Food Bank Network Association, we hope to involve the national and international organizations shortly.

Achieving a “happy mind.”

The fragmented photo group approach wasn’t going to work.  So we found some great and very giving people for the construction of a centralized website to house all the photos.  This is being donated by Victor Rubba and his Crazed Coders of Edmonton.  Victor assures us that the site which is to be located at www.happymind.ca will be fully operational on August 15th, 2009.  We chose “happymind” by the way because it represents two things:  One, the state of mind after donating.  Two, D-DAY or donation day for this challenge will be in support of and coordination with the central message from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, who is scheduled to speak in Calgary, Alberta on October 1st, 2009.

We want to get his attention by scheduling this on September 30th, 2009.

SIDEBAR:  I was invited to meet with and speak to the University of Calgary steering committee on the topic of social media at one of their meetings this summer.  This great group of people responsible for inviting the Dalai Lama to speak inspired me to align this challenge with their efforts around actNOW and what we’re doing perfectly supports the message from the Dalai Lama of achieving a “happy mind.”

Trying to collect 1 million photographs representing 1 million donations from people around the world predominantly via social media is a daunting task and one I know we’re all up for.  There have been many social media initiatives for the purposes of charity that have done very well in the past.  Twestival comes to mind, I attended the Edmonton event and that model is brilliant and we’d love to inspire a similar effect in cities around the world.  The 12 for 12K gang continues to do great work each and every day as well.  The real challenge here is to get folks not only to donate food but then take a picture and upload it.  We hope you’ll agree, that in this day and age of uber connected citizens, donating a picture is not too much to ask in order to achieve a “happymind.”

Our plan remains simple.

Go out to the universe and ask for your help.  To support you, we’re working through Rotary International and still need to reach higher within that organization.  Anyone know John Kenny President of Rotary International?  By the way, Rotary has 1.2 million members and great communication channels within their organization, Rotarians are very special people and their help would be spectacular.  We’re also approaching other organizations with considerable size such as the Lutheran Church of Canada and Edmonton’s World Trade Centre organization.  We’ve had numerous discussions with Share Our Strength on their ability to help promote and support this initiative.  They have agreed to promote this to their 40 thousand newsletter subscribers and we are very grateful for that.  Wouldn’t it be fantastic if President Obama, Prime Minister Harper made a donation and posted a twitpic?  They both have twitter accounts, so does Premier Stelmach for that matter.  What about other world leaders?  How about the United Nations?  There are people out there with connections to get folks like this involved.  Please reach out and touch them…

Does anyone know somebody at Feeding America or having anything to do with the Pound for Pound Challenge?  Please contact me at walter[at]fusedlogic.com your help is greatly appreciated.

What about brands?  How can your corporation benefit?  Simple, own this event, put your brand behind it, your marketing message of inspiration.  We want to share this experience with you, it’s about feeding the hungry for us and we know we cannot do it alone.

How can you help?

1.) Donate, take a picture and upload it to www.happymind.ca once it goes live or the facebook, flickr groups already in place today.

2.) Inspire everyone in your personal network to donate food and a picture at work, home, friends and family and the world at large via all means possible on or before September 30th, 2009.

3.) Be creative, persistent and inspirational in your communications regarding this world changing challenge, we won’t stop after September 30th and we must surpass the 1 million photos.  Hold tweetup food drives in your city on September 30th and post the pictures.  Write a song, make a video to inspire others and post it on Youtube, (our channel).

4.) Be an Ambassador!  Get your local organizations like the food bank, Second Harvest, Rotary Club, chamber of commerce, church, mass media, politicians, schools etc involved.  Send them the link to this blog post or others that explain the goal and what to do.

5.) Use Social Media: On Twitter (@fusedlogic) please use the hashtag #happymind, on your blogs please consider posting a “happymind” badge.  Spread the word through Facebook, with well over 200 million people, we can do it folks, take minute to inspire others.

VERY IMPORTANT: Please tag your photo with “HAPPYMIND.”

I had a comment on my Facebook last night from a friend who had decided to drop me. Nothing personal, I’ve just been Tweeting way too much from #democampyeg! Last night’s Edmonton Democamp 6 was the last straw.

I’ve recently taken advantage of the ability to have my Tweets directed to my Facebook status. It has been good in that it’s allowed me to update Facebook more easily and often, thought it may be a little too often. I have noticed one or two friends dropping off since I’ve done this.

So, should I disconnect my Twitter feed from updating my Facebook status? I have an idea what some of my Edmonton Twitter friends will say.

Is the only option to disconnect the feed? Well, I looked at several options to cut down on my updates so I don’t upset my Facebook friends.

Cut the Twitter/Facebook link altogether

Upside: keep friends who don’t want to see my face in every one of their Facebook newsfeed stories (not that I blame them) from not wanting to be my friend. Downside: I update Facebook less. This also limits the conversations I’ve been having in Facebook.

Limit Twitter updates that go to Facebook

You might wonder how this can be done, but I have noticed that when you respond to another Twitter user, that doesn’t go to Facebook. Normally I respond a lot to other Twitterers. Social media is about the conversation, after all, which I do plenty of. When I attend an event like Edmonton Democamp 6 and Tweet all about it, most of that stuff goes to my Facebook status.

Friends adjust Facebook updates from me

This is the part that has changed. The original post section is left in italics, so you can see what might work again if Facebook changes their mind. Hey, it can happen. They’ve done it before!

The new option in Facebook is similar, but it seems to be an all or nothing approach. Mouse over an entry on your home tab. You’ll see an X in the upper right hand corner of the entry. Click it and you have the option to no longer see updates from that person. I prefer Facebook’s approach from before. It’s not perfect, but at least you can still see something.

The photos above show the process by which you can hide someone from your news feed. I added Jerry back to my feed. I am just using his feed as an example. It’s fairly straight forward to hide someone from your feed now, but if you’ve made a mistake, you can undo it right away.

Notice you also have an option to show your hidden Facebook friends as well so you can add them back into your news feed. If you scroll to the very bottom of the page you’ll see some text “show hidden posts” and “see hidden friends” just in case you’re not quick enough to catch these boxes as they pop up.

If you have some complaints from Facebook friends, let them know how they can adjust your feed so you can keep them happy.

This can be done. When you’re in your home window in Facebook, if you scroll all the way down to the bottom, you can find the “Options for newsfeed” link. Click on that and you will notice that you can see “more about these friends” or “less about these friends.” Seems like a good idea, but I would be willing to bet that most people don’t even know that exists. It also relies on people making the adjustment themselves. Not a bad option though. Less experienced users, of which there are many, would probably never figure this out.

If you mouse over a Facebook news feed story you’ll notice a pencil appear in the top right of the story. This gives you the option to see more or less about a person.

Twitter box

It used to be stuck in the Boxes tab along your menu bar, but now you can move it to the Wall tab. The problem is Facebook doesn’t allow it to move above some of your other boxes so people can actually see it. You have to look for it. You may as well not even have it. It also only shows the latest Tweet, so if you had something interesting about 10 Tweets ago, forget it.

Limit Facebook status updates friends see

This one is tougher than you might think. There’s no obvious way to do this. Facebook has so many ways to tweak your settings and they’re all over the page. In fact, on this note, Facebook is a disaster.

What Facebook needs is a way for you to be able to determine how many of your status updates go out. I could make it so certain friends can’t see my updates, but this isn’t ideal either.

I think the ideal solution is to be able to stop your status updates from being published but people can look at your profile to see what you’re up to. So the updates are essentially only being published on my page. This allows me to keep my Twitter link active and post away. Those who are interested will come to my page anyway.

Manage social media updates

This is a bit of a work around, but I thought I could post to ping.fm, which I have set to update my Twitter status, as well as Brightkite and Friendfeed. I could set it to update Facebook and Twitter, but cut the Twitter link to Facebook on the Twitter side. I would have to go in and post the occasional ping.fm update to make sure I’m updating periodically. I don’t use Ping.fm all that often, and it would be a hassle to go out and do it this way, even just to remember to do it.

Why bother?

I know some of you must be wondering, why? I think it’s important to manage your social media relationships just as you’d manage your real life relationships. No doubt there’s much crossover between the two.

I’ve decided to tackle the issue because if there’s one person who says something, you can bet there are a dozen others who aren’t. So, it’s incumbent on me to evaluate and adjust how I do things so I don’t make some people unhappy. I think it’s all part of getting along and I really do appreciate the feedback. If I’m doing something that upsets someone, I want to know. Yes, I know you can’t make everyone happy, but if there’s a minor change I can make to keep someone happy, what’s the big deal?

I’m focusing on personal relationships here, but I do have a lot of business contacts in my social media network too. If it was a client or potential client and you were doing something that upset them, don’t you think you’d want to know?

I would appreciate your suggestions on this. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s run across this issue. We’re breaking new ground on a regular basis with social media, so I think ironing out these kinds of issues to smooth out those relationships is important.

Alain Saffel

With a smaller group and a few new faces to the group, we engaged in a discussion about the social media people are using, the tools they use to augment their social media experience and some of the issues surrounding social media. The discussion this time was led by Mastermaq.

Of course Twitter was the main topic of discussion, as it usually is. Everyone at the Social Web Meetup was on Twitter. Normally I’d be tweeting about the discussion, but because it was such an active discussion, I wanted to make sure I caught all of it. Do you prefer to actively tweet what you’re hearing or to listen, reflect and respond or tweet?

Peoplebrowsr was recommended as a good tool to be able to track multiple Twitter streams.

How do you use Facebook?

I thought one of the more interesting discussions was about Facebook and how people use it. Some people have a real issue with having an open profile, with worries of identity theft or at the very least doing some data mining. Having pictures of relatives, particularly children, was an issue with one of the meeting attendees. Do you keep your profile open and add everyone?

My profile is limited to friends and family, but I do have some business contacts on there. One of the meeting’s more active Facebook users said he had thousands of friends on there!

Some of the other social media tools we talked about: LinkedIn, ping.fm and friendfeed. Randy Troppmann from runningmap.com was there and talked a bit more about his site.

Free versus paid social media tools: how much would you pay?

One question I brought up was: At what dollar amount are you willing to go beyond the free account and into a paid account?

Most people said it really depends. I was thinking of my recent purchase of a pro account on Flickr, which is $25. One other person said $25 as well. Would you be willing to pay $25 per year for Twitter? I’d be willing to pay more, but I know a lot of people wouldn’t be willing to pay anything.

It’s actually quite an important question because the majority of social media tools out there are free and many people stick to the free ones. As the economic downturn continues, more and more companies are likely to ask themselves that same question about how much the market will bear in terms of subscription fees or ads. Their will likely depend on finding that balance.

Our next Social Web Meetup is February 2 at NAIT. There’s plenty of room, but make sure to join the group and RSVP. It doesn’t matter how experienced you are with social media. The point of the group is to share. I am a fairly experienced social media user and I learned a lot at this Meetup. I’m looking forward to the next one and hope to see you there too.

Alain Saffel

I want to thank the folks from CPRS Edmonton from the bottom of my heart for not only inviting me to speak with them today but more importantly for supporting Edmonton’s Food Bank and the fusedlogic Food Bank Challenge in particular.

As many of you can tell from our blog and (even a bit of press, yeah baby!) or the section entitled “Food Bank” we’ve got something going on with Edmonton’s Food Bank.  As mentioned above it’s the fusedlogic Food Bank Challenge.

This really is exciting because outside of our daily client work we can focus on having some fun with our social pals, friends and acquaintances and explore our collective desire to give back.  Contrary to what others may think, I think it’s in our human nature to want to give.  This exercise will help prove my hypothesis.  1 million pictures of 1 million donations in 1 year.  WOW, talk about being able to measure results.  Regardless of where we end up (past our goal…) this will be a great learning experience for all concerned.  Human nature, social conversation and even the advantages and disadvantages of some of the technology…lot’s to observe and learn from.

Plus, for the gadget freaks we get to play with our digital cameras too.  Speaking of which I’ll ensure we get lot’s of photos of the donations made by the Edmonton’s PR society today and post them on our Facebook group

Oh and by the way, look out Calgary, Edmonton’s gunning for ya…I know that my pals in Calgary who are reading this right now are shakin in their space boots (it’s in their nature).  You better go take some pictures of your donation drives before we here in Edmonton get too much of a jump on you…and Flames fans this goes double for you.  Oilers fans will never stand for it…

Welcome to the new Battle of Alberta!

Walter Schwabe

Help us help food banks around the world. Post your picture of your food bank donation.

Edmonton has thrown down the gauntlet! fusedlogic has kicked-off the fusedlogic Food Bank Challenge.

The goal is 1 million pictures of 1 million food bank donations in 1 year. It’s a busy time of year for food banks and we met with Marjorie Bencz of Edmonton’s Food Bank to get started.

Christmas is such an important time for every food bank. I was surprised to learn that much of Edmonton’s Food Bank’s fundraising supports the food bank well into the new year. Cash and canned food donations are an important contribution.

Food bank needs don’t stop at Christmas. It seems obvious to say it, but people aren’t thinking about it much in the middle of the summer. At fusedlogic, we’re hoping that this joint effort with Edmonton’s Food Bank will get people thinking about helping people throughout the year.

Please join our groups on Facebook and Flickr. Take a picture of you, your family, your coworkers and your friends making a food bank donation. Our goal is to get one million pictures by the end of 2009, but with your help we think we can do it much sooner.

Walter was on SomethingTV yesterday talking about the food bank challenge.

Challenging other cities: Milwaukee. Anyone else?

The goal is to have one million pictures by the end of 2009.

“We” (Edmonton) believe that we can put up more pictures of individual donations to Edmonton’s Food Bank than Milwaukee can. Now certainly this challenge isn’t limited to Edmonton vs. Milwaukee, here in the Edmonton region, well over a million strong ourselves, we’re formidable people. We’ll take on anybody.

I’m sure Edmonton’s southern neighbour, Calgary, may be up to the challenge. Canada’s other major cities like Halifax, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Saskatoon and Winnipeg should be able to find a few people to add photos too. Sorry if we’ve missed your city, but you can join in as well!

Our press release on the food bank challenge went out this morning and the Edmonton Journal has already interviewed us. Now we’ll see if the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is also up to the challenge. I call upon Tannette Johnson Elie (despite being on holidays) to rise to the challenge and get the word out in Milwaukee about the fact that the great City of Milwaukee has been challenged, in a friendly Canadian manner of course.

Because this is almost entirely designed as a social media event, we anticipate that early on it will be the Edmonton tech community that will rise to the challenge. Organizations such as Techvibes may want to blog about it.

Anyone from Techvibes or TechCrunch want to take on the challenge? Alberta bloggers such as Ken Chapman, Dave Cournoyer, Mack Male, Chris LaBossiere, Brad Grier, Dean Owen and many others have also been a big help in talking about this and helping us promote such a great cause.

If you’re in a position to help, please do! No donation is too small. They are all important. Help set a great example for your family, friends and coworkers. We know it’s a busy time of year and it’s easy to forget that there are many who are much less fortunate than we are.

Thank you and Merry Christmas! : )

Or does the fact that during CBC’s Canada Votes! election broadcast, Susan Ormiston attempted to look like she actually “gets” Twitter while trying to pull off her best “I-wanna-be-hip-like-John King on CNN” impression by informing the future leader of the Liberal party – the ever unbiased Peter Mansbridge-that there’s this thing called the Internet (Peter, see Bill Curtis ref below) and something called Twitter while finger-scribbling on a SMART board.

I would have almost believed Ormiston if she hadn’t delivered her segment with all the micro-blogging savvy of someone who was briefed about Twitter while getting her make-up done just before going in front of the camera that night.

Thankfully much of her audience not on Twitter were probably blissfully unaware.  That’s partly for the reason Twitter is not yet “mainstream,” at least from the Canadian perspective.

Does the fact that the mainstream broadcast media is grappling with micro-blogging and Twitter on television broadcasts mean we can all exclaim Twitter as “mainstream?” No, not yet.

How about if the Wall Street Journal writes an article about Twitter as it did today?  A helpful explanation of Twitter (and how some are using it) for the beginner and the more savvy Twitterati to be sure.  Does the fact that WSJ (just another “broadcaster” on Twitter) in terms of it’s use as a tool like many pro-journalists mean that Twitter is finally becoming “mainstream” when WSJ starts conversing with others rather than simply pushing updates?

Well maybe. . .

In fact, WSJ only needs to follow and learn from Tannette Johnson-Elie (@telie) of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel who uses Twitter very effectively as an unpaid crowd-sourcing tool for stories and sources -myself being one of those sources.  She not only updates us on what she’s writing about, but she actually talks with us as if we were…well…”human beings,” just like she is.  I suspect many other journalists/broadcasters such as Sanchez and Lemon on Twitter do the same but that still doesn’t mean Twitter is “mainstream.”

Having said all of that, there are certainly signs that we’re at the “tipping-point” for the label to be more realistic.  Why?  Well for one, many high-profile users are “tweeting.”  Barack Obama’s campaign for President of the United States is using Twitter very effectively for their purposes (107K+ followers); Joe Biden has 2600+ followers; McCain, of course, needs Bill Curtis to find the Internet for him, and because of that, McCain has 4174 followers.  Sarah Palin has just over 1000.

Actually, the “tipping-point” is fast approaching really because of the collective combination of all of the above.  With these high-profile users comes a large communal following. Obviously that certainly helps to spread the word about Twitter into the “mainstream” of society.  So, we’re getting there, but we’re not there yet.

No, for me, the litmus test for when I’ll start calling Twitter “mainstream” is when the Republican party and McCain campaign shows a Youtube video of McCain himself using Twitter remotely (a laptop is fine) which is then followed up by a Ross Perot-like SMART board explanation of the micro-blogging technology and culture-at-large that makes John King red with envy.

When that happens “my friends,” then I think it’ll be safe to say Twitter is not only “mainstream,” but more likely just about to be “mothballed.”  Not to mention that by that time, Biz Stone and crew will have figured out how to make a buck on Twitter without it caving and everyone jumping ship to Identi for good…

Actually come to think of it, Twitter is perfect for the McCain/Palin ticket.  McCain can sum up his entire campaign platform like this “My friends, Maverick, Iraq war, Barracuda, drill baby drill,” and still have 81 characters left of the 140 to talk about his economic plan or “pork-barrel spending.”

First, politically you should know that I’m a right of centre conservative.  Having said that, I wouldn’t call myself a political activist at all, certainly not like Ken’s daily routine that’s for sure.  My wife and I vote and we judge people on their character, morals, what they stand for and actions.  Jim Ford is a salt of the earth kind of guy, very experienced and I agree with him that election reform is absolutely required in this riding.  There’s no doubt that he’s a conservative given his history with the PC Party and beyond that he lives out here and knows our community.  A community that myself and my family have only just embraced a few short years ago.  This kind of Uppal-Gate thing (more here) really frustrates me and for that reason and many others I found out while talking with Jim tonight I’m voting for Jim and hoping that many folks in Strathcona County will do the same.  This is an election reform decision, it’s a pro-conservative philosophy move as well.  I just won’t endorse a candidate that’s parachuted in.  I certainly won’t vote Liberal, Marijuana (NDP) or Sierra Club Green either…that said, just to spin this, if I was an American I’d vote for Obama in a heart-beat but that’s another blog post and another country.   There’s a reason why James Ford’s Facebook group:

James ford for MP – Edmonton-Sherwood Park

is open to comment and his opponent’s group is not…Jim wants to hear from you, talk with you and even debate with you if required…yes he started his Facebook group late and still you should join and start a discussion.  Better yet, meet Jim in person, I know once you do you’ll most certainly vote for him.

Social Networking Explodes Worldwide as Sites Increase their Focus on Cultural Relevance

Facebook and Hi5 More than Double Global Visitor Bases During Past Year

RESTON, VA, August 12, 2008 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a study of worldwide usage of social networking sites, indicating that while the growth in new users in North America is beginning to level off, it is burgeoning in other regions around the world. During the past year, the total North American audience of social networkers has grown 9 percent compared to a much larger 25 percent growth for the world at large. The Middle East-Africa region (up 66 percent), Europe (up 35 percent), and Latin America (up 33 percent) have each grown at well-above average rates.

“While the social networking trend first took off in North America, it is beginning to reach a point of maturity in the region,” said Jack Flanagan, comScore executive vice president. “However, the phenomenon is still growing rapidly in other regions around the world – especially as the established American brands turn their focus to developing markets.”

Facebook and Hi5 Lead Global Growth among Top Social Networking Sites

During the past year, many of the top social networking sites have demonstrated rapid growth in their global user bases. Facebook.com, which took over the global lead among social networking sites in April 2008, has made a concerted effort to become more culturally relevant in markets outside the U.S. Its introduction of natural language interfaces in several markets has helped propel the site to 153-percent growth during the past year. Meanwhile, the emphasis Hi5.com has put on its full-scale localization strategy has helped the site double its visitor base to more than 56 million. Other social networking sites, including Friendster.com (up 50 percent), Orkut (up 41 percent), and Bebo.com (up 32 percent) have demonstrated particularly strong growth on a global basis.

Facebook Gains Traction in Europe and Other Regions

Facebook’s recent ascension to become the top global social networking site has been spurred by its substantial growth across worldwide regions. Though its largest visitor base is still in North America (49 million), Facebook’s growth in the region is a relatively modest 38-percent. In every other worldwide region, Facebook’s audience has more than quadrupled.  Europe is quickly catching up with North America as Facebook’s largest visitor base with 35 million visitors in June, a 303-percent increase and a net addition of nearly 27 million monthly visitors versus year ago. Other worldwide regions have seen even more dramatic growth on a percentage basis.

“Facebook has done an exceptional job of leveraging its brand internationally during the past year,” added Mr. Flanagan. “By increasing the site’s relevance to local markets through local language interface translation, the site is now competing strongly or even capturing the lead in several markets where it had a relatively minor presence just a year ago.”