While my interest in blogging is related to becoming a better writer, it also stems from a conversation I had on Twitter yesterday evening with Zach Bussey and Tyler Orchard. The gist of our conversation was the danger of cheering on mediocrity, the fear of providing honest feedback, and how to change the systemic problem of how we label those who offer feedback that may not be of the warm and fuzzy variety.

What does all of this have to do with blogging and becoming a better writer? Quite a bit, actually.

I feel that there are so many great stories out there that deserve more attention than they currently get. Unfortunately, these stories are often drowned out by the larger voices in the room, leaving lesser-known entrepreneurs struggling to find a shred of publicity that will hopefully land them an investor, a few (thousand) new users, or even a paying customer or two.

You may have noticed recently that our blog has been quiet as of late. Obviously, we’d like to change that. To help turn the tide in our favour, we’re looking for stories and interviews for the Pixel to Product blog, and we’d like to feature you, your company or your event on our site.

Among some of the types of stories we’re actively searching for right now are:

Startup launches or big announcements. Stories about new product releases, rounds of funding raised, or acquisitions are the types of stories we’re interested in writing.

Agency news. Articles about a client’s advertising campaign, openings within your agency or new business your company has acquired would be a few examples of the kinds of articles that are of interest to us.

Event profiles. If you’re on the organizing committee of a Canadian marketing/technology event you’d like to promote to a targeted and influential audience, tell us about it. We’re always on the lookout for industry events to promote to our readers.

Industry professional interviews. As our blog is heavily focused on the digital media sector, we’re interested in interviewing industry professionals in the digital marketing space. If digital marketing, advertising or social media are you areas of expertise, we’d like to talk to you.

If you have a story to tell, let’s talk about it. Send me an email with your story, and let’s start spreading the word about what you’re working on.

In the age of instant subscription – yes, I’m coining a new buzzword – and the existence of technology that allows you to engage users and find new fans, I often wonder why organizations don’t take advantage of the plethora of free tools that offer these benefits.

As I walked around from booth to booth, I started to think about what I would do if I was an exhibitor at a conference. Of course, this is by no means a complete list. I’m sure if I spent an hour thinking about it, I could come up 10 more ideas. Here are 3 different tactics I came up with that you can employ to rock your next tradeshow appearance:

User Signup

If your company measures success in terms of the number of users (daily active or otherwise), provide visitors to your booth with the ability to sign up for your service. Hopefully, that service already exists on your site, so put it to good use. I’d put good money on getting a decent visitor to new user conversion rate.

Bonus Tip: If email marketing is part of your communications strategy (and it should be), offer booth visitors the ability to sign up for your mailing list. I’m a big fan of Mailchimp and have been a loyal user for a number of years. As it turns out, they have an iPad app that I can use to sign up subscribers to the Pixel to Product mailing list. It’s free, customizable and is a low-tech way to putting your content on the screens of your customers. In turn, they can share this content with friends, colleagues, and their social networks. Put your content to work for you.

Social Media and You

Is your content already being spread through social media? (If not, ask yourself why.) Are people talking about your product or interacting with you through these channels? (Chances are it’s already happening.) Listen to what they say and look at the sentiment. If it’s bad, why? Do you have a strategy in place for prioritizing and engaging with those making these remarks? (You should. If not, here’s a few suggestions for dealing with negative feedback.) If it’s good, thank them and build relationships with them. Keep in mind the path people take to talking about your product: Interest -> Action -> User -> Fan -> Advocate. If there’s mass adoption of your product, even in a small market, highlight the adoption and make it visible to your visitors. As a rule, visual content draws people in. Display the content you (and others) are creating and don’t be show it off!

Bonus Tip: If your brands hashtag is particularly active, use a free tool like VisibleTweets to show others what the conversation online looks like in real-time. You can also use the Twitter search syntax to display mentions of your company, your product and other social objects using one search query.

Foursquare

Create a venue for your booth on Foursquare and encourage people to check in at your booth to win a prize. Add a tip to the venue where your booth is located with a description of your company and bit.ly the link to your company’s website so that you can track how many people clicked on it.

Bonus Tip: If you have the financial means, create a badge that people can unlock when they check into your booth. As a Foursquare user myself, I love unlocking badges and incentives (10% off my next purchase, preferred seating for the mayor, etc). Use the platform to your advantage. Foursquare has a decent venue analytics platform, and allows you to view data such as total checkins, new and unique visitors and social reach (shares to Twitter and Facebook), as well as age breakdown and who your visitors were (and how to get in touch with them).

Over To You

If you had a booth at a tradeshow, how would you rock it? What would you do? Have you seen a booth at a tradeshow that drew you or compelled you to visit? Let us know by way of a comment below.

Show Notes

49Pixels Live – Season #2, Episode #7
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

Hosts

• Justin Kozuch: Community Manager at OSL Marketing (@jkozuch)

Guests

• Jonathan Goldsbie, National Post (@goldsbie)
• Patrick Gladney, Head of Research and Insights Social Media Group (@pgladney)

Show Info

• Running Time: 1:02:07
• Tweet your question: @49pixels or email them: live {at} 49pixels {dot} ca
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

Links:

• Social Media Analysis for Toronto 2010 Mayoral Election

Closing Notes

• Studio Sponsor: Camaraderie, 102 Adelaide St East, @camaraderie
• Show Equipment Sponsor: Metro Sound & Music, 486 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON
• We’ll be back on January 31st 2012 with Eden Spodek and Ali Martell for a feature chat about crisis management on social media.
• Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ for the latest news in technology, digital marketing and startups.

Show Notes

49Pixels Live – Season #2, Episode #6
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

Hosts

• Lindsay Munro: Manager of Conversations at FITC (@lindsaymunro)
• Justin Kozuch: Community Manager at OSL Marketing (@jkozuch)

Guests

• Tamera Kremer: Managing Director, Cloud Ad Agents (@tamera, @cloudadagents)
• Jeremy Wright, CEO, 23Press (@23press, @23press)

Show Info

• Running Time: 1:01:09
• Tweet your question: @49pixels or email them: live {at} 49pixels {dot} ca
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

Links:

• Cat of The Rings

Closing Notes

• Studio Sponsor: Camaraderie, 102 Adelaide St East, @camaraderie
• Show Equipment Sponsor: Metro Sound & Music, 486 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON
• We’ll be back on January 24th 2012 with Patrick Gladney for a feature chat about social media in politics.
• Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ for the latest news in technology, digital marketing and startups.

Show Notes

49Pixels Live – Season #2, Episode #5
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

Hosts

• Lindsay Munro: Manager of Conversations at FITC (@lindsaymunro)
• Justin Kozuch: Community Manager at OSL Marketing (@jkozuch)

Guests

• Trish Garner: Manager, Web Strategy, City of Toronto (@trishgarner)
• Keith McDonald: Web Strategy Co-ordinator, City of Toronto (@Open_TO, @thewhiners)

Show Info

• Running Time: 1:03:12
• Tweet your question: @49pixels or email them: live {at} 49pixels {dot} ca
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

Links:

• BuzzData
• Doors Open Toronto Mobile Application
• iRescu
• RocketRadar
• Open Kenya
• data.gov.uk
• Brian Gilham
• Adam Schwabe
• Vancouver’s Open Data Catalogue
• City of Toronto’s new open data license
• DataEh? Blog
• FixMyStreet.ca
• SeeClickFix

Closing Notes

• Studio Sponsor: Camaraderie, 102 Adelaide St East, @camaraderie
• Show Equipment Sponsor: Metro Sound & Music, 486 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON
• We’ll be back on January 17th 2012 with Tamera Kremer and Jeremy Wright for a feature chat about networking for introverts.
• Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ for the latest news in technology, digital marketing and startups.

We’ve identified a number of topics that we’d like to discuss this season, and we’re currently looking for guests with expert advice and insights to appear on our show to talk about these topics, including:

• Online Video Marketing
• Managing Crisis in Social Media
• Reputation Management
• Social Media Policy
• Social Media for Non-Profits
• Google+: Social Network or Social Platform?
• Startup Marketing on a Budget
• Community Managers: Does Your Company Need One?
• Niche Platforms
• Social Media: Brand vs. Consumer
• Email Marketing
• Women in Tech
• Social Media in Politics: Campaigning 2.0
• Metrics and Measurement in Social Media: Going Beyond The Click

If you have insights into any of these topics you’d like to share with our audience, we’d love to have you as a guest on our show.

Similarly, if there’s a topic you’d like to discuss on the show, get in touch. We’re always looking for interesting and insightful stories to share with our listeners.

Show Notes

49Pixels Live – Season #2, Episode #4
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

Hosts:

• Lindsay Munro: Manager of Conversations at FITC (@lindsay_munro)
• Justin Kozuch: Community Manager at OSL Marketing (@jkozuch)

Guests:

• Jon Crowley, Lead Digital Strategist at OSL Marketing (@joncrowley)
• David Jones, VP of Social Strategy at Proximity Canada (@doctorjones)

Digital Marketing Wins

The Muppets

• “How Social Media Revived The Muppets”, http://mashable.com/2011/11/20/muppets-social-campaign/
• “The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody”, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY
• Mahna Mahna Phenomahna, http://www.muppetsmahnamahna.com/
• Facebook Fan-a-thon, https://www.facebook.com/muppets?sk=app_197756196961129
• Muppets on Twitter, @MuppetsStudio
• Muppets Google+ Commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSsJtzPng5U
• Muppets on Google+: https://plus.google.com/118177189004466545044/posts
• Tap Tap Muppets iOS App: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/tap-tap-muppets/id478167642?mt=8

The Walking Dead

• The Walking Dead brought TV to life with social media in 2011, http://mashable.com/2011/10/17/walking-dead-tv-ratings-social/
• The Walking Dead on: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube
• The Talking Dead, Fan Site, Podcast

Intel and Toshiba: The Inside Experience

• Intel and Toshiba made the first social film a reality in 2011 with The Inside Experience: http://theinsideexperience.com/about
• Toshiba & Intel’s Movie Heroine Reads Your Tweets, http://mashable.com/2011/07/12/intel-toshibas-movie/
• Conclusion on Social Film and The Inside Experience, http://www.slideshare.net/p10540735/conclusion-on-social-film-and-the-inside-experiance
• Directed by DJ Caruso, creator of Disturbia
• Starred Emmy Rossum as Christina Perasso
• The Inside Experience on: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube

Digital Marketing Wins: Honorable Mentions

• Old Spice
• John St. Catvertising
• American Red Cross Gets Slizzerd

Social Media Fails

#QantasLuxury

• Qantas makes hash of tweet campaign, http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/qantas-makes-hash-of-tweet-campaign-20111122-1nsa4.html

Microsoft & Amy Winehouse

• Microsoft Sorry For ‘Insensitive’ Amy Winehouse Tweet, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/26/microsoft-amy-winehouse-death-tweet_n_909588.html

The Chrysler F-bomb

• Chrysler throws down an F-bomb on Twitter, http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/chrysler-throws-down-f-bomb-twitter-126967

Social Media Fails: Honorable Mentions

• President Obama’s #Compromise Twitter Campaign Draws Criticism, http://mashable.com/2011/07/29/obama-compromise-campaign/
• Ashton Kutcher tweet on Joe Paterno lands star in hot water, http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/11/10/ashton-kutcher-tweet-on-penn-state-coach-joe-paterno-lands-star-in-hot-water/
• The Kenneth Cole tweet heard around the world, http://www.salon.com/2011/02/04/kenneth_cole_tweet_egypt_kennethcolepr/singleton/

Closing Notes

• Studio Sponsor: Camaraderie, 102 Adelaide St East, @camaraderie
• Show Equipment Sponsor: Metro Sound & Music, 486 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON
• We’ll be back on January 10th 2012 with a few exciting guests!
• Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ for the latest news in technology, digital marketing and startups.

Ed graciously took some time out of his busy schedule to speak to us about the current state of social media in Canada and to discuss some of his favourite social media campaigns from DDB Toronto.

How well do you think Canadian companies and brands are doing when it comes to using social media for marketing and engagement?

I think there are some excellent shops and top class consultants doing stellar work here in Canada. I was lucky enough to judge the Strategy Magazine Digital Agency of the Year awards this year and there was some really exceptional work. For Proximity, “Find Red” won big in Cannes while the Doritos team always seems to push out great work. Sid Lee runs the global Adidas and Red Bull creative accounts out of Montreal while the Hellman’s “Campaign for Real Food” was a great example of Canadian agencies being able to tap into the collective consciousness and create a real movement. And that’s not to mention the great work coming out of the agency I work for, Tribal DDB Toronto.

We’re not just communications consultants. We forget that social technology vendors such as Syncapse, Sysomos, Hootsuite and Radian6 all sprung out of Canada as well. I think the Canadian consumer is dragging companies and brands into the social space.

Is there room for improvement in this area and if so, what specifically do you think brands and companies need to do to better utilise social media?

There’s always room for improvement. Just the fact that we’re still talking about “social media” in what is increasingly a post-social world is a cause for concern, but we should celebrate the successes and not be pedantic on what could or should be done “better”.

Does “post-social” mean I think social media is going away? Quite the contrary. Consumers no longer see social media as special or unique; it’s just what’s expected. All media, all marketing, all communication is now and should continue to be social. That’s what I mean by post-social.

“Consumers no longer see social media as special or unique; it’s just what’s expected. All media, all marketing, all communication is now and should continue to be social.”

What is Tribal DDB Toronto’s unique approach when working with brands?

What is our secret sauce? To come at problems with a channel agnostic perspective and try to identify and solve real business problems. Once there is a strategy, the channels come naturally whether they are digital or social.

Is there a particular campaign that you’ve worked on that you’re especially proud of?

I’m proud of all of our campaigns and grateful to all our clients that have trusted us in this space. Obviously there are some that enjoy a special place in your heart. The video we produced for the Subaru WRX launch – Choose Your Angle – where we strapped four hi-res cameras to a professionally driven rally car and then spliced the views together, allowing viewers to navigate through the views in real time within the YouTube player was a great campaign born of an insight or observation generated through a social listening audit/ethnography. It generated a lot of conversation in a relatively niche community of performance car enthusiasts while helping to increase sales 126%.

I’m also incredibly fond of the work we do with Manulife Financial’s Canadian Division partly because it was a long process to get approval for but mostly because it meets a core objective for them; to become more approachable. We’ve worked together to create a really powerful digital ecosystem that delivers valuable content to the consumer while achieving that core business objective. There is a Globe and Mail sponsorship and a web hub along with a Facebook page all work together to be more than the sum of their parts.

There are some smaller campaigns like the StumbleUpon activation we worked on with TELETOON and the video experience we worked on with Penningtons that are just fun to work on.

Finally, this piece for the Canadian Blood Services is from Tribal DDB and one of the best uses of Facebook connect I’ve ever seen.

What trends do you see unfolding in social media for 2012, or is there anything that you’d like to see happen in the realm of social media and digital marketing this year?

As a consumer, I just want to see cool shit. I’m not really worried about who it comes from. Just entertain me and make my time with the brand a little bit special because if your brand doesn’t, then there are hundreds, likely thousands out there who are vying for my attention.

As a professional, I’d like to see someone solve the measurement problem. I truly believe that social media can bring enormous value to our clients (if done correctly) but I can’t definitively prove this.

It’s quite an accomplishment for someone who only a few years ago, was studying Life Sciences as an undergrad at the University of Toronto. “I was on the med-school train. Or so I thought,” he says. “But while working at Mount Sinai during the SARS epidemic, and doing my research, I realized that I wasn’t cut out for that life path,” he recalls.

It was around this time that Kobi noticed a major gap in brands’ access to university campuses, and recognizing an opportunity, he and a fellow student started Kognitive Marketing in 2006. “We were pushing Facebook when it was still fairly unknown and only accessible to university students,” he recalls. Their idea quickly caught on and attracted major brands including Rogers, L’Oreal Professionnel and Scotiabank International. It wasn’t long before they expanded across Canada and then later the Caribbean (Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica and the Bahamas).

Kobi eventually sold his ownership stake in June 2008. His work at Kognitive had caught the attention of MacLaren MRM, and he received a call from them asking him to join their team. He gladly accepted and during his time at MacLaren, he developed digital strategy for various clients including MasterCard, HP, Nestle US, DeGroote School of Business, Glennfiddich, Gibson’s, Lotto Max & Lotto 6/49. While at MacLaren, a new phase in his career began when an opportunity opened up in June 2011 to join the MasterCard Canada team.

As Director of Digital Marketing, Kobi is responsible for driving MasterCard Canada’s B2C and B2B digital strategy and execution, including mobile and eCommerce marketing, web marketing, social media and SEM/SEO. He also continues to be an advocate for youth marketing and is focused on implementing more youth focused marketing strategies.

One such example is MasterCard Canada’s ‘Social Interview’ campaign launched this past spring. The ‘Social Interview’ was an elaborate online exercise that used social media to find 5 of the best and brightest summer interns. All candidates were asked to submit their cover letters, resumes and creative videos to MasterCard via LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Some of the tools that MasterCard used to promote the campaign included, Facebook, Twitter, QR codes, YouTube videos, Flickr and Google search and maps. The campaign was wildly successful. “This was absolutely huge for us,” says Kobi. “It was a completely new approach to recruitment.” The results speak for themselves:

• 15,000+ views of the job posting
• 500+ applications were received with various types of creative including videos, music videos, art pieces, songs, poems, Facebook fan pages, etc
• Within a month, Facebook fans of MasterCard Canada grew by 400%, the largest growth since the launch of the fan page
• During the campaign, 46% of all MasterCard Twitter conversations were about the internship program

MasterCard Canada also raked in a few awards for the campaign, including:

• Applied Arts Interactive Award – Social Media
• Strategy Magazine AToMiC Award – Gold
• Digital Marketing Awards – Silver
• Media Innovation Awards – Bronze
• CMA Gold – Digital

“The ultimate success story is that the Social Interview process will be considered as a part of all future global recruitment efforts given its immense success,” says Kobi.

Another great campaign Kobi’s involved in is MasterCard Canada’s recently launched Priceless Toronto. It offers MasterCard cardholders access to all kinds of offers and experiences, including culinary, sports, music, entertainment, and others. “MasterCard cardholders have the opportunity to experience Toronto like never before,” he says. “For the culinary connoisseur, there are platforms that will give you access to the hottest restaurants. MasterCard makes this experience priceless by having the chef design a custom 5 course meal based on your likings just for you. For the sports fanatic, there are platforms that will score you tickets to a game and MasterCard will have you watching a Boston game or toasting with Bobby Orr. It’s a unique digital platform with a lot of legs.”

It’s undoubtedly been a great year for Kobi and for MasterCard Canada and we can definitely expect to see more from them next year. “It’s a unique time to be at MasterCard,” he says. “We are experiencing a paradigm shift. With the major adoption of PayPass terminalisation and cardholder use, and mobile payments on the close horizon, there is a lot to look forward to.”And do they have any more exciting marketing campaigns that we can look forward to next year? “The future is bright,” says Kobi. “Stay tuned.”

Show Notes

49Pixels Live – Season #2, Episode #3
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

Hosts:

• Lindsay Munro: Manager of Conversations at FITC (@lindsay_munro)
• Justin Kozuch: Community Manager at OSL Marketing (@jkozuch)

Guests:

• Mark Graham, President of Rightsleeve (@heymarkgraham, @rightsleeve)
• Aidan Nulman, Founder of Winston (@anulman)

In The News

1. Sweden lets citizens take over its official Twitter account

• Source article: http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2011/12/16/sweden-lets-citizens-take-over-its-official-twitter-account-this-is-either-genius-or-insanity/
• Sweden’s official Twitter feed: @sweden
• Curators of Sweden: http://curatorsofsweden.com/
• VisitSweden: http://visitsweden.com/

2. KLM To Allow Passengers To Choose Seatmates Via Facebook Profiles

• Source article: http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-travel-2-2011-12

3. Clothing App Organizes Your Wardrobe on Your iPhone

• Source article: http://mashable.com/2011/12/16/cloth-iphone-app/
• Cloth on the App Store: http://bit.ly/getCloth
• Fashism: http://fashism.com/

4. Malls Send Geo-fencing Texts to Lure Shoppers to Stores

• Source article: http://mashable.com/2011/12/16/geofencing-texts-shoppers/
• ValuText: http://www.ddr.com/valutext.aspx

5. SocialFolders Is A Directory For All Of Your Social Content On The Web

• Source article: http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/15/socialfolders-is-a-directory-for-all-of-your-social-content-on-the-web/
• SocialFolders: http://socialfolders.me/

Guest Interview

• Rightsleeve
• Winston
• Twestival

Closing Notes

• Studio Sponsor: Camaraderie, 102 Adelaide St East, @camaraderie
• Show Equipment Sponsor: Metro Sound & Music, 486 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON
• We’re taking a break for the holidays, but we’ll be back on January 3rd 2012 with a few exciting guests!
• Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ for the latest news in technology, digital marketing and startups.