The Chatham-Kent Fire Department is tapping into new communication tools thanks to a little help from CIK Marketing. Over the past two months, CKFD and CIK have been working together to create a social media management system that would help improve online communications.

The Chatham-Kent Fire Department will be leveraging various social media accounts and their official website to release department information, share fire safety messaging and alert the media to information regarding fire scenes. The public can follow the Chatham-Kent Fire Department on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ckfiredept (@ckfiredept) and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ckfiredept. Plans are also in place to launch a department YouTube channel later this spring.

Embracing a New Approach

The reason for the social media shift? Improved communications. “About two years ago, we started to realize that our old school methods of trying to reach out to the public and the media were starting to fail a little,” remarked Chief Bob Crawford an interview with Blackburn radio this morning. In order to provide faster, more accurate information distribution, the Fire Department worked with CIK Marketing to tether their accounts together. Now, when a message is posted to the official CKFD website (www.ckfire.com), the same information is immediately published to the Department’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. When information is posted to the Facebook page, it is automatically tweeted, and vice versa. “This will enable consistent messaging and the ability to use various forms of communicating to reach a wider demographic,” said Fire Chief Robert Crawford. The tethering also provides the department with an efficient distribution channel.

Better Media Relations

The new social media set-up will enable the on-call chief to “tweet” information for structure fires as the information becomes available. Detailed follow-up will be issued to the media via a release when needed. This will assist in providing access to initial information about an incident without interrupting or hampering fire fighting efforts and strategies.

A "tweet" from the new Chatham-Kent Fire Department Twitter account. Followers can trace this tweet back to Assistant Fire Chief Ray Stone thanks to the use of his unique call sign "^CK3"

The public educator will be able to post messages and tips regarding preventing fires, early detection as well as important steps and planning for what to do in case of a fire emergency.

The CKFD social media system is the first fire service social media project that CIK Marketing has worked on. In the past, CIK has provided social media assistance to numerous police services, including the Guelph, Woodstock and Chatham-Kent services. For more information on these projects, please visit our Social Media for Law Enforcement page.

This is just a reminder that CIK Marketing will be moving today.

Our new location will be at 67 King Street West – we’ll see you there on Monday!

Many thanks to everyone who helped make our time at DeKoKo’s a great succes – onwards and upwards to new adventures!

The web will look a little darker today as some of the world’s largest tech companies take a stand against SOPA. Last night at midnight, Wikipedia shut down its English-language sites in order to protest plans to police the internet and combat piracy in the U.S., and they aren’t the only ones.

Google has joined the protest ‘blacking out’ its logo on its U.S. home page and providing a link to a landing page explaining the proposed law. BoingBoing, Reddit, WordPress and Firefox are also fully or partially blacking out there sites and service to show solidarity.

The following video and links provide detailed information on what SOPA and PIPA are, why they’re bad, and how they could affect you and your business. Knowledge is power, so take some time to educate yourself today.

Just don’t try to use Wikipedia for your research

• What is SOPA? - http://gizmodo.com/5877000/what-is-sopa
• What is the PIPA Bill? - http://ansonalex.com/technology/what-is-pipa/
• How SOPA Would Affect You: FAQS - http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57329001-281/how-sopa-would-affect-you-faq/
• Black Wednesday: In Protest of SOPA, Darken the Web (includes information on how SOPA would affect Canadians) - http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/michael-geist/sopa-protest_b_1210467.html

If you’re reading this from the U.S., make sure you answer Google’s call to action and sign the petition to stop SOPA – click the image below for more details.

But don’t stop there. Write your congressman or senator – SOPA sets a dangerous precedent and will change the foundations of the Internet.

Big things are happening at CIK Marketing this year… starting with a move!

For the past 8 months, CIK Marketing has been operating out of DeKoKo’s Espresso & Espresso Cafe at 44 Fourth Street in Chatham. Since opening our office in the space our business has grown substantially (as have our caffeine addictions)! DeKoKo’s reputation has also grown considerably, attracting tons of customers.

Turns out, we’re both getting too big to co-habitat in our cozy quarters.

So, on January 30th, CIK Marketing will be moving our office to 67 King Street, where we will share amenities with another local web-savvy company: Potensia Corp.

Could this be the start of a larger co-working project? You’ll have to wait and find out!

But What About The Perch?

As many of you know, CIK and DeKoKo’s also collaborated on a community workspace within the coffee shop, called The Perch. This space included a public boardroom that local entrepreneurs could utilize as part of a membership based program. CIK’s move will have little effect on current members – they will still be able to utilize the space and amenities as they have in the past until their membership expires at the end of May 2012. However, new memberships will no longer be sold. Instead, entrepreneurs are asked to contact the owner of DeKoKo’s, Christy Dekoning, directly for more information on renting the space.

But don’t worry, the concept of co-working is far from dead here in Chatham! Stay tuned to The Perch Facebook page for more details!

Thanks to all who helped make our time in DeKoKo’s memorable, especially Christy! It’s been great working alongside you for the past 8 months and I’ll certainly miss spending every day in Chatham-Kent’s coolest coffee shop!

It sure has been a crazy year at CIK Marketing! From the launch of the Shop Local CK program to our experiment with The Perch Workspace, 2011 certainly was a year of discovery and growth within our company.

And we can only expect more as we round the bend into 2012!

From expanded office space to an overhauled business model, we’ve got lots lined up already.

Which is why we’re taking a much needed vacation!

The CIK Marketing offices will be closed from Friday December 23 until Tuesday December 27 for the Christmas holiday. The office will be available via phone and email on December 28th and 29th. The office will be closed again from December 30 through to January 6th, with full operations back in swing come January 9th.

Technical Coverage During Off Hours

If you are a current website client of CIK Marketing and are experiencing hosting issues during these off hours, please send an email to info@cikmarketing.ca to reach our technical representative.

Wishing all of our clients, friends and family a safe and happy holiday season!

With only seventeen days left until Christmas it’s safe to say that the holidays are here. And while I have yet to really start my Christmas shopping (ugh), I have started my holiday giving. Every December, like clockwork, I donate to a handful of specific charities. Why? Because I’m lucky enough to be able to. Because I have had experiences with these organizations and I know they put the money to good use. Because I want to help. To put it simply, it’s because I give a crap.

I’m an old-school craptivist.

Sadly, there aren’t a lot of true craptivists left these days.

Craptivism used to be about making a difference. It used to be about caring, sharing, giving, and then giving more. And not just money. Craptivists give their time, their expertise, their knowledge, and their kindness. They don’t care about rewards, or recognition, they don’t take no for an answer, and they don’t make excuses. They simply get things done.

But craptivism is changing. It’s becoming, well, crappy.

From Craptivism to Slacktivism

One of the main pillars of craptivism is action – doing something, anything, to spark change. Unfortunately, fewer and fewer people are “doers” these days. We’ve become slackers instead of act-ers.

Welcome to the generation of slacktivists.

A relatively recent development, “slacktivism” refers to feel-good online activism that has absolutely no political or social impact. The act of participating in obviously pointless activities as an expedient alternative to actually expending effort to fix a problem, (definition care of the Urban Dictionary), slacktivism is how people show that they give a crap while successfully doing crap-all.

Why volunteer my time at a homeless shelter when I can simply add a Twibbon to my twitter profile image that shows how much I care about the less fortunate? Why bother standing in line to vote when I can share my political views online? Donate to the Movember campaign? I’d rather create a Facebook photo album chronicling the furrification of my face.

On the surface, people still care. They still give a crap, they just refuse to do crap about it. And while signing an online petition or changing your profile picture to reflect your support is great, it’s an easy out.

“But I’m helping advance the cause by sharing with my friends,” you say, “it’s about exposure.” But is it really? Look me in the eye and tell me that itty-bitty icon that shows you support outreach for hunger programming is more effective than dropping canned goods off at your local food bank.

Better yet, tell that to a mother who depends on the food bank to help feed her son. 

You see, the thing about slacktivism is it’s selfish. It makes you feel good – but what about the people you’re suppose to be helping, the people you’re suppose to care so desperately about?

Now don’t get me wrong, some slacktivists are actually craptivists in disguise. According to The Dynamics of Cause Engagement study by Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication and Ogilvy Worldwide shows slacktivists are often more likely to take meaningful action after participating in promotional social activity (check out this recent post from Mashable for more details on the study).

When all’s said and done, it doesn’t matter whether or not you participate in slacktivism. Giving a crap is what matters. Care, share, give, and then give again.

After all, ’tis the season for craptivism.

Craptivism can be easy. Click here to donate to the United Way of Chatham-Kent from the comfort of your couch.

Now that the holidays are almost here, the folks at CIK Marketing want to know: how are you planning to celebrate this festive season?

If you’re a young professional in the Chatham-Kent area, we hope it will be with us at the Eat, Drink and Be Merry Chatham-Kent Young Professionals Networking Night!

CIK Marketing, and our friends over at Logix Design Studio, are hosting a fun and festive night out inside DeKoKo’s Dessert and Espresso Bar at 44 Fourth Street, downtown Chatham. The evening will include free holiday appetizers, festive refreshments, and tons of opportunity to mix and mingle with other engaged local professionals.

We’re still hammering out some details (rumour has it Logix might be setting up a photo booth in The Perch Boardroom!) so stay tuned to the Chatham-Kent Young Professionals Facebook page for more information. Admission to the event is $5 and a canned good for the local food bank.

The fun gets underway at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, December 7th. Mark your calendar and join us for a (not-so professional) young professionals night of networking!

Well hello there! Welcome to the new CIK Marketing website! This site redesign has been a long time in the making, but I’m happy to say it’s finally here. If you have a moment, feel free to browse around and review our new service offerings, updated portfolios, and side projects like the Shop Local CK program and The Perch Workspace.

We’d love to hear your feedback on the new look – drop us an email or leave a comment below.

Wishing you all a safe and happy Hallowe’en!

I started my day yesterday just like any other Monday morning. I poured a cup of coffee, fired up my computer, and logged into Facebook in order to to see what my social sphere was up to. Amidst the pictures and status updates was a shared note. Now, if you’re from this area, you know exactly what note I’m talking about. Over the past 24 hours, a story concerning an incident at a Blenheim, Ontario Tim Hortons location has been heating up the Internet. According to the note on Facebook (I wish I’d bookmarked it as now I can’t find the thing… if anyone has it, please paste into the comments below), a LGBT couple was asked to leave a bench outside the coffee shop because they were engaging in some minor PDA. The note, which was written in the couple’s defence, explained that a pastor had complained to restaurant management that the couple’s actions were not suitable to a “family-friendly” establishment specifically because of the couple’s same-sex relationship status. The note went on to explain that when the couple refused to leave the property, the pastor held an impromptu prayer circle in the parking lot, presumably to pray for the girl’s souls.

Now, my initial reaction to the post was to share it. I don’t know the couple in question, nor do I know the pastor. All I knew was what the note told me: this couple had been subjected to a terrible act of discrimination right here in my own community. If this information was true, there was no way I could possibly stay quiet.

If this information was true.

I support equality, I support our local Pride organization, and I have a number of LGBT friends. But ultimately, I didn’t share this note with my Facebook friends. And it wasn’t because I was scared of what other people would think, or because I wasn’t touched by the issue. It was because that if was too big. The story was too one-sided; I needed to know more before I could choose a side.

So I waited.

After an hour or so, I came across a link to the pastor’s response. Sure enough, this version of events contradicted just about everything in the original note.

By dinner time, every local news source, and a number from outside our community, had picked up the story. To their credit, most provided a pretty fair account of both sides:

• Coffee Cold Shoulder? - CTV London
• Incident Brews Trouble - Chatham Daily News
• Kicked Out Part 1 / Kicked Out Part 2 - Global Toronto
• Should Tim Hortons Issue Kissing Lesbians a Personal Apology? - CBC.ca

And yet, even as more facts came to light, the folks on Facebook continued to point fingers and pick sides. An event was created rallying people to protest outside the Tim Hortons in question and a press release was issued by the local Pride organization admonishing the franchise. Our community was in the middle of a social media war and no one was backing down. As the story unfolded, I watched Facebook with growing interest and a increasing sense of disappointment. Two versions of the story quickly became 20. Everyone had an opinion, but it seemed like absolutely no one had the facts. Everyone was willing to judge and lay blame, and more importantly, everyone felt some sort of social responsibility to share this information, regardless of proof.

Which got me thinking – what is our social responsibility? 

Are facts really irrelevant in a world powered by social media?

Later that evening, while sharing a bottle of wine with some friends, we landed on this exact topic. Of the five of us at the table, two people had shared the original Facebook note without question. To them, sharing that note meant more than highlighting this one incident. I was about shedding light on the bigger issue of discrimination itself. Whether this particular story was true or not, didn’t matter – the point was that this sort of thing is happening in our community, in some shape or form, and that people need to stand up for equality.

The other ladies at the table felt exactly the opposite. To them, it was their social responsibility to get the facts first before speaking up. Sharing one side of the story (regardless of which side that might be) was irresponsible and dangerously close to slander. These were real people we were talking about – shouldn’t that matter for something?

Personally, I don’t know what happened at the Tim Hortons, and I doubt that the general public ever really will. Social media muddied the waters so much that now, the truth doesn’t even seem to matter anymore.

So I ask again, what is our responsibility in an increasingly social world? Is it to right the bigger wrongs, regardless of actual events, or is it to seek the truth?

Should we ignore the if factor or embrace it?

Welcome to the Timeline

Since the beginning of time Facebook time,  your profile has been the place where you tell your story. It’s where you experienced your first poke, and where you were tagged for the first time. Facebook helped you dump your first boyfriend, and provided you with the perfect place to creep future prospects. Facebook was your public diary, a place to publish all of the ridiculously dumb things you’ve done during the past six years.

The only crappy thing about Facebook? You couldn’t review all of your past stupidity easily. Since Facebook focuses on your most recent posts, all of those juicy details were quickly replaced (thankfully), never to be seen again.

But, thanks to the brilliant minds at Facebook, things are about to change. Remember, that night in third year University, where you ran naked through the quad? Ya, me neither, but guess what – Facebook does, and it’s about to remind all your friends! Facebook Timeline is like taking a trip down Memory Lane; you’ll see some old friends, and remember some moments better left forgotten. And the best part? There’s pictures!

Now settle down, it’s not all that bad (it’s worse, actually).

Facebook Timeline is a pretty revolutionary idea. It makes the content that you share with others more readily accessible. With one quick scroll, your friends will have the ability to review your entire Facebook life. They’ll have access to your questionable tastes in music (it’s ok, we all thought Nickelback was cool at one point), television shows, and movies. They’ll be able to review your entire relationship history and countless fish-mouthed mirror shots.

Sure, you’ve matured now. You have a good job, your iPhone includes respectable indie artists, but all of that means nothing now. Your Facebook past is about to bite you in you right in the butt.

But It’s Still Not Enough to Make You Leave

Like  I said, the new Timeline feature is bad news bears for all of us who’ve grown up and left our rebellious years behind. It’s so bad, that many people are already threatening to shut down their Facebook profiles forever (dun dun dunnnnn).

Ya, right. I’ve heard that one before.

No one likes change, I get it. Change throws everything for a loop and makes us uncomfortable. Remember when Facebook came out with the original News Feed feature – boycot, BOYCOT! Now most of us can’t start our day until we’ve reviewed the latest posts. So yes, you will hate the new Facebook. But then you’ll love it… for about five minutes until you fully understand what you’re looking at. Then you’ll hate it again. Eventually, you’ll adjust. You’ll review all the information in your profile and hide anything that’s especially incriminating. Human’s have adapted to much worse (Furbys, Hanson, reality television), so chances are we’ll be ok.

Just remember, things could be worse… your old MySpace profile could magically reappear.