Edmonton social media discussion

Edmonton’s latest Social Web Meetup was quite an interesting one. We met at NAIT again, but this time the style was a little different. We had a smaller group this time. I think people didn’t want to brave the cold, and it was a touch nippy out!

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

Social web meetup: Runningmap and Smibs

On Thursday I braved the first real taste of winter we’ve had in Edmonton and went to the Social Web Meetup to check out what Randy Troppmann of Runningmap.com and Peter Urban of smibs.com had to say.

Randy described how he started Runningmap, a map site that allows you to plot your jogging routes. He delved into how the software worked and I think everyone was pretty impressed. I think a few people were surprised that he used Yahoo for his maps and not the seemingly ubiquitous Google.

Yahoo got nothing but praise from Randy for their approachability and willingness to work with him to make changes to their software, something that Google might not be so willing to do.

Looking at his software from a user perspective, I can see why people would like it. It allows you to easily draw up customized route maps and view the elevation and distances. I haven’t used the software (not being a jogger) but I plan to tinker with it. The social media element to the software is that you can share the routes and upload photos.

While I may not be a jogger, I don’t see why you couldn’t use this same software to plan walks, hikes, mountain climbing, cycling, automobile trips and more. Why limit it to jogging?

It sounds like there are some interesting plans afoot for this cool site. It is definitely worth checking out.

Smibs ringing the Doorbell

Peter Urban gave us a demo of his Doorbell software, explained what Smibs is all about and gave us all a copy of his “unbusiness plan.” Peter’s approach to everything seems a little unconventional which, when you’re trying to grow your business, can be a good thing.

It’s kind of a collaborative tool that is useful for keeping track of what you have to do every day. I like the idea of being able to keep track of projects in one spot. I’ve found it to be a bit of pain working on different projects simultaneously because everyone uses a different project management tool.

There’s a lot more to it, and I plan on exploring it. I’ve signed up and haven’t had a chance to really tinker with it. It’s in public beta, so check it out. I’m curious what you think of it, and I’m sure Peter would love to get your feedback too.

NAIT

I almost forgot to mention the great location for the Meetup. This time it was at NAIT’s HP Centre. It worked really nicely because it seems like it’s only a five minute drive for me. That’s not the only advantage. It was a good, central location, though the weather didn’t seem to be cooperating. Parking, my eternal frustration, was certainly not an issue at NAIT.

Not sure where the next Meetup is, but I’m looking forward to it. It’ll be nice to get out in January and try to avoid cabin fever.

Alain Saffel

Social Web Meetup 2 in St. Albert

Last night was the second Social Web Meetup. We were out in St. Albert, the guests of Inside and Out Naturally.

They’ve got a great facility out there. Unfortunately a few people had some difficulty finding the location due to a Google Maps marker error. With so many coming from Edmonton. where the grid system rules, the curves in the road were too much for some of us. I got lost too, but a phone call to Inside and Out put me on the right path.

The guys from somethingtv.net were there doing a live broadcast. It was interesting watching it. They interact with their chatroom but I’m not sure if they’re used to a live crowd. They were mostly talking about politics and the recent U.S. election, so that was good. Some of us are suffering from withdrawal!

I just checked and the video from the episode is up on the site. It streams nicely. It’s definitely worth watching. It was great to be there seeing it live and checking out what happens behind the scenes in one of these productions.

As usual, there was some great food and really interesting conversation about social media. Using social media is a lot of fun and I really like it when I can get out and meet the people I talk to online. My social media of choice is Twitter, but I’m also a fairly regular user of Facebook. LinkedIn is another good one, especially for business people.

Every attendee at the Meetup was even treated like an Oprah guest, receiving a free radio from Brittney of iNews880.

The next Social Web Meetup is scheduled for December 4. I will definitely be there, unless we have a blizzard. It may be time to get set up with some snow shoes and make sure there’s plenty of hot chocolate available at that meeting.

See you there!

Alain Saffel

Small Business Week in Alberta

October is the month for Small Business Week festivities here in Alberta and across Canada for that matter.  In years past there has always been lots of events to attend and people to meet and this year is no exception.  Speaking of events across the province, here’s a list of many of the events as provided by the Business Link.  Being that I’m a (proud) director of the Sherwood Park and District Chamber of Commerce I’d like to suggest to everyone in the Greater Edmonton Region that they consider being a member of this great organization which has over 900 members and 30 years of history.  There’s nothing in the books that says you can only belong to one chamber.  fusedlogic inc., has been a long-standing member of the Edmonton Chamber and I have friends that like me belong to both.  Sherwood Park and the surrounding area of Strathcona County is a thriving northern Alberta business community and one that you should strongly consider doing business with.

In the spirit of sharing some business news during Small Business Week (and condensing posts because I’m so busy lately,) here’s some interesting new information for you.  Some of you may remember a video I shot earlier this year with Peter Urban of Smibs (featured below.)  At the time, SmibsNet (a collaboration and networking software for businesses) wasn’t ready for public beta.   That all changed last Tuesday with the launch of the public beta and Peter asked me while on Twitter the other day if I’d blog about it.  Peter provided me with a personal invite to sign-up for the beta and fusedlogic is now listed on the site.  This software is very cool and helps to solve the business development collaboration issue that many companies have.  I suggest that you consider signing up and trying it out.

Sidenote: Peter did agree to call me so I could asked him some specific questions as prep for a more in- depth blog post but if you know Peter, he’s hard working and a beta takes a lot of effort.  I’m sure he wasn’t going out of his way to ignore me.   Besides we bump into each other all the time at events and around the neighborhood.  Maybe he’ll bring his SmibsTV crew down the Web 2.0 meetup and present SmibsNet there on Nov 6th.   Below is the video interview with Peter some months ago on Whyte Ave in Edmonton.

Also, Peter if you’re reading this and I know you are, Smibs needs to be a Sherwood Park Chamber member right away…expect me to be relentless on this point.