Matts Media

Social Media Course in Vancouver I just put together this snazzy...

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 19:49:38 -0700

Social Media Course in Vancouver

I just put together this snazzy little video using the Googles Search Stories application. The entire process took about 15 minutes. Not bad hey?

Oh, and of course, don’t forget to tell your friends about my social media workshop :)

Let me know what you think of this video. If you decide to create one for yourself feel free to leave a link in the comments.

Becoming an Entrepreneur

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 23:00:00 -0700

The first time I heard the word Entrepreneur. Yep, I actually remember it. It came to me tonight...

Twitter Marketing PDF This PDF is a compilation of tips for...

Tue, 11 May 2010 20:19:00 -0700

Twitter Marketing PDF

This PDF is a compilation of tips for utilizing the Twitter site for marketing. Included is an abundance of third-party tools which can also be utilized for spreading your message, increasing your visibility and measuring your success. The links are meant to be researched and up to you to find the appropriate fit for your marketing strategy. If you have any questions feel free to email me matt@webfriendly.ca or find me on twitter @MattsMedia.

I hope this document will be helpful for you, if there is something that should be added please let me know in the comments below.

Cheers,
Matt Astifan

Vancouver Social Media Training The latest promo video for Web...

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 12:56:03 -0700

Vancouver Social Media Training

The latest promo video for Web Friendly’s Social Media training happening in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Keeping it Simple When I think about Simple business models I...

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 23:18:00 -0700

Keeping it Simple

When I think about Simple business models I think of Apple, Dell, FedEx or Starbucks. Simple business makes me think Modern business. Is there any coincident that the same businesses we see utilizing Social Media are the same ones with these Simple business models? I believe when you stay up to date with your technology you’re bound to stay up to date with your business model.

It’s a lot easier to start a business today not only because the start-up cost is much lower thanks to technology, but entrepreneurs are learning the concept of keeping it Simple. A smart start-up without any founding isn’t going to start by focusing on dominating an entire market; they’re a lot more likely to succeed finding a niche to focus on and grow slowly. The dynamics of creating a product which suits everyone takes a lot more management; meaning a lot more time, talent, people and money.

Make it simple and keep it simple, grow slowly but always be growing.

Cascaad on the iPhone Cascaad is the social filter that helps...

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:55:00 -0800

Cascaad on the iPhone

Cascaad is the social filter that helps you find information you didn’t know you were looking for. What’s most interesting about the service is that it doesn’t take into account how much @replies, retweets or clicks a story has gathered, it has its own unique set of algorithms which takes on the challenge of making it a more personalized service.

Cascaad starts by using your Twitter and Facebook profile to determine your interests. Then it sifts through all the noise within your friends updates to find what’s most likely going to interest you. It reminds me a little of Facebook’s “Most Popular” news feeds feature, only with more metrics (apparently millions).

I believe Cascaad or a similar algorithm would be VERY valuable to Twitter TODAY. I’m very interested to see how popular the browser edition of this service will get.

How to get Cascaad:

Download the free Cascaad app, sign in with your Twitter and Facebook accounts, then you’ll get a pop telling you it’s analyzing millions of algorithms to discover the most relevant stories to you (not sure I believe that one). The progress bar seems to stop at 31%, and I assume as you click on and “thumbs up” more stories the progress bar will rise.. Let me know how far your progress bar gets.

The app is still new and I’m very much looking forward to seeing more features unfold.

If you’ve used Cascaad let me know what you think of it in the comments below.

“There’s a #Hashtag for That” A journey...

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:00:00 -0800

“There’s a #Hashtag for That”

A journey through twitter #hashtaging, what it means and why we do it. Told by Comedian Baratunde Thurston, from #SwineFlu to #GreatMomentsInTwitterHistory

Derek Johnson Interview Part 2 [HQ] In this video Derek talks...

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 11:25:00 -0800

Derek Johnson Interview Part 2 [HQ]

In this video Derek talks about Blogging, Twitter Strategy and Facebook Branding.

Derek Johnson Interview (Part 1) [HQ] Derek is the CEO of...

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 11:23:00 -0800

Derek Johnson Interview (Part 1) [HQ]

Derek is the CEO of Tatango a text message marketing company in Seattle. In part 1 Derek talks about Social Media and what it’s all about.

You can check out Derek’s blog at TheDerekJohnson.com

Guy Kawasaki of AllTop.com talks with Scobleizer about his new...

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:52:00 -0800

Guy Kawasaki of AllTop.com talks with Scobleizer about his new book (not new anymore) AND how much he loves Twitter. This video is about a year old now but it still provides great insight into how powerful Twitter can be for a business. AllTop is now ranked 1335 most popular site in Canada. Not bad for a company run on Twitter traffic.

Social Media Training In Vancouver Here is a video by Web...

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:15:00 -0800

Social Media Training In Vancouver

Here is a video by Web Friendly for the workshops I’m teaching. The course is called ‘Social Media Unstrapped’ and every month we hold one of these workshops over a weekend from 10am-5pm Sat-Sun.

We go through:

How to create and manage your profile
How to establish credibility
How to establish relationships
How to find your market
How to create your marketing
How to promote events online/offline
How to manage your time

If you’re interested in attending or what to know more send me an email at matt [at] Webfriendly.ca

Marhsall Wayne Interview (Part 2) Marshall shares some great...

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:52:00 -0800

Marhsall Wayne Interview (Part 2)

Marshall shares some great social media advice, how to leverage Facebook and much more.

Marshall Wayne Interview (Part 1) Last weekend I held a Social...

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:12:00 -0800

Marshall Wayne Interview (Part 1)

Last weekend I held a Social Media for Beginners Bootcamp. At the training I asked Social Media Marketers from around the globe to contribute to the class via Skype. I was lucky to get @jlate @thederekjohnson @jenfriel @mikestenger @equalman and @marshallwayne. It turned into an amazing weekend where I was able to teach and learn a whole lot from all these experts.

Here is the first video in a series I will release over the next week of the interviews we had during the class.

Marshall Wayne is a Currency Trader and the creative blogger of MovieStarEntrepreneur.com and as you’ll hear in this video he’s used Social Media to form some great business partnerships online as well.

Enjoy

The Age of Privacy, Over? Last year people were still saying “Oh...

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:29:00 -0800

The Age of Privacy, Over?

Last year people were still saying “Oh my god, I Googled myself last night and you wont believe what I found..” Well this year people are saying “Oh my god I can’t figure out whats public about my Facebook page anymore!” Even I lost track of how many times Facebook changed its privacy settings and left my profile more public then I’d prefer it to be.

The un-privacy you should be aware of:

By default a lot more of your information is public.

The pages you Fan cannot be hidden, this isn’t too serious.

You can no longer hide your activity (eg. comments on friend’s updates and links, relationship status and activity you perform while making changes to your profile) now, you have to manually delete this stuff. Again nothing major.. but why do this?

Your friend list is public, and there is nothing you can do about it, this bothers me. Facebook shouldn’t be making this choice for their users.

The fact is now you have less privacy then you originally signed up for and Facebook has certainly risked losing their users confidence by this move.

Although the web is changing to a more “public” environment, I don’t think Mark made the privacy changes to benefit his users. If we can agree he didn’t do it for the users then the question is; how does the public accessibility of our information fit into Facebooks upcoming revenue model?

I do understand that just like business, Social Networks need to adapt to their users [where MySpace failed] or force the users to adapt to it, as Facebook is continually asking us to do.

Only time will tell how these changes will affect the largest social network it’s 300,000,000+ users.

Social Media ROI (by @equalman) This video received over 70,000...

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:04:00 -0800

Social Media ROI (by @equalman)

This video received over 70,000 views in its first month on YouTube. Just search “Social Media ROI” on Twitter and you’ll see the number of people sharing this video right now. This is an awesome video no doubt and it goes to show there is definitely a lot of interest in finding a return on investment via Social Media.

The truth is Social Media ROI starts from plugging yourself into and absorbing the information available to you. Sharing words, files, films, music and pictures across the globe is the originating purpose of the internet. Today we share and receive information between more people, faster and more often than ever before.

Forget about counting how many clicks you got on your Ad.ly account, take a look at the communication of information happening around you. What you’ll find is the majority of the Social Media community wants you to become successful. All the friends, businesses and bloggers I discovered via Social Media have one thing in common, they want to shape the world and help other people succeed. If you’re looking to find ROI via Social Media you won’t need to bring your calculator, just discover a community.

Are early adapters to Internet Marketing late adapters to Social...

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:19:00 -0800

Are early adapters to Internet Marketing late adapters to Social Marketing?

Gary Vaynerchuk has been speaking about social media for some time now. I’ve been following his blog since 2008 when I somehow stumbled onto him on Twitter. Last month Gary released his second book titled “Crush It”, since then he’s been on tour speaking about how everybody should live their passion. I have read his book (and loved it) and also watched a few of his #crushit speeches over the last few weeks, but this video really blew me away.

Last week I was at an Internet Marketers Mastermind Group which meets every Monday evening. For the first time we got stuck watching a really boring video about being an effective entrepreneur. People actually started leaving early because this screen-cast video was so boring. Finally the host stood up and said “is everyone falling asleep here or what?” everyone really was falling asleep. The group didn’t know what to do next so I got up and asked if they’d be interested in watching a Vaynerchuk speech. Besides about 3 other social media enthusiast in the room, nobody in the group even knew who Gary Vaynerchuk was.

They sure do now.

The video sparked a frenzy of people asking: Isn’t twitter a waste of time? Why would I care if someone is drinking a coffee or taking a poop? I’m on Facebook, why use Twitter too? These were pretty easy questions to counter. A 10 minute discussion had the whole room vowing to set up twitter accounts.

What surprised me was that a lot of these long established internet marketers in the room were still not utilizing social media. Even Frank Kern, long established internet-marketing-master has not been utilizing social media (as far as I know, I’ve searched). Two things come to mind from this experience 1. A lot of early adopters to internet marketing are becoming late adopters to social media marking 2. social media isn’t loved by all marketers (yet) but it should be.

Do I think marketers like Frank Kern will go out of business because they’re not utilizing social media? Absolutely not. The man produces excellent content and it’s going to keep selling. But I do believe that Jason Moffatt who snatched up the user name @FrankKern is definitely taking advantage of not only Twitter, but Frank Kern as well. Do I think that what Jason did was effective? Absolutely not, that’s totally lame but I don’t know whether or not he has actually offered the username to Frank or not.

I am on Gary Vaynerchuks side when he says “the game is always gonna change… there is no going back”. I believe this message also spreads to the long establish internet marketers which have yet to embrace social media and find a way to make it work for their business.

"If you are not taking advantage of social media, your competitors are taking advantage of you”..."

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:21:00 -0800

““If you are not taking advantage of social media, your competitors are taking advantage...

People are talking. Are you listening?

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:00:00 -0700

What are they saying? Your customers have opinions and trust us, they love to voice them. It’s...

Facebook Marketing

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:32:00 -0700

Today Facebook has announced improved Facebook Group communications. When you are marketing on...

"Social Media is about sharing what you’re passionate about."

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:00:00 -0700

“Social Media is about sharing what you’re passionate about.”