1. 20 to 30 percent of very active Facebook users called “power users” are responsible for a lot of the friend requests, tags, posts, and messages we all recieve
2. Women do more status updates than men
3. People love to use the like button — it is one of the most popular activities on Facebook
4. It is more common to be “liked” than to like others
5. On average, Facebook users receive more messages than they send
6. Users comment on their friends’ pages more often than they update their status
7. People are more likely to be tagged in photos than they are to tag others in photos
8. Facebook users average 7 new friends a month — men are more likely to send a friend request, women are more likely to receive one
9. Few people unsubscribe from their friends’ news feeds
10. Your friends on Facebook have more friends than you do, and they probably don’t know each other
11. Facebook users can reach an average of 150,000 other people through their friends
12. Active Facebook users are also more likely to participate in political activism
13. Active Facebook group members are more likely to try to persuade someone to vote for a specific candidate
14. Almost no one uses the poke button
15. The more friends a user has, the more they do on Facebook
16. There is no evidence of Facebook fatigue, even amongst Facebook veterans
17. More educated users have a more diverse group of Facebook friends
18. If you tag your friends in photos, you probably have close ties and friendships with others.

Stephanie Cloutier joins CIBC Mellon as Coordinator, Communications and Corporate Affairs

Daniella Gullo has been hired as a Community Manager at Pulp & Fiber

Here’s are five tips to help you start out your blogger relations program:

1. Subscribe to Blogs.   Get familiarize with an RSS reader like Google Reader and subscribe for updates. Get in the habit of catching up on feeds for a few minutes each day.
2. Create Folders in Your RSS Reader. After subscribing to a blog, add them folders based on their focus, ex. fashion blogs, tech blogs.
3. Rename Blog Feeds. By default, Google Reader displays the blog’s name, but sometimes we need more detail. I rename each feed to include the blog title, author’s full name, and author’s Twitter handle.
4. Create Blogger Lists on Social Networks. I suggest lists because it’s too easy to lose sight of bloggers in the stream of everyone you follow. Creating lists on Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus lets you easily scan within a category, just like in tip #2 above. Make your lists consistent with your RSS reader lists.
5. Add Bloggers to Your Contact Database. So you’ve built rapport with a blogger, a relationship. They have indicated they like your brand and is open to PR outreach. Do you have her email address? Phone number? There’s nothing worse than having a story that’ll resonate with a blogger, only to discover you don’t have their contact info handy.

Prior to joining, Lisa was Director of Convergent Project Management at Cossette, where she ran the agency’s project management office for the past 10 years. Prior to that, she was Director of Project Management at Blitz Direct for eight years.

Tom Creary has been appointed Vice President and Group Leader in Ottawa for Public Affairs, previously he was Senior Associate with Hill+Knowlton Stratégies in Quebec.  Tom has 35 years of experience in public affairs, government, sales and business development from various positions at SNC Group; a number of emerging Canadian new technologies companies; the American Chamber of Commerce in Canada where he founded the Quebec Chapter; and as co-founder /CEO of a well-respected public affairs agency. Prior to joining Hill+Knowlton Stratégies as an associate, Tom was chief of staff to a federal conservative cabinet minister.

Paul Moen joins Ottawa’s public affairs team as an associate. He has extensive experience in the global biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors – most recently at Amgen, where he was Director of International Government Affairs in Washington, DC.  Paul’s record in the corporate sector is rounded out by his public service in Canada at the Department of Industry and as senior policy advisor to the minister of international trade, Jim Peterson.  He also served as a corporate lawyer at EMD Serono in Geneva, Switzerland, and at Paladin Labs in Montreal.

Paul Benoit, also in H+K Strategies’ Ottawa office as an Associate, he has 25 years of federal-level experience that complements the existing team as a strategic advisor on trade and investment issues. Paul has worked on critical public policy issues from a range of perspectives: as senior policy advisor to Canada’s minister of international trade, where he engaged departmental officials in advancing Canada’s trade agenda including further trade liberalization; a parliamentary official; a senior departmental advisor; a candidate in a federal election; an academic; and as a representative of business interests and non-governmental organizations.

Kim Doran, who joins the firm as an Associate, and she brings in-depth understanding of the policy and regulatory frameworks for financial institutions and other industries, she provides advice on policy initiatives and regulatory challenges in the financial services and chemical industry sectors. Rounding out more than 18 years as a government relations professional, Kim worked for two of Ottawa’s major government relations consulting firms before joining the Liberal Party of Canada as its deputy national director of policy and organization, and later working as a principal with an Ottawa-based government affairs and public relations firm.

“Our study delved into the dynamics of influence on Canadians’ shopping habits, examining media influences, ‘circles of trust’, and the impact of social media on our buying process,” said Carol Levine, chair of the CCPRF. “What we discovered is that hierarchy of influence is a much more complex force than people may expect.”

According to The Impact of Influence poll findings:

• Facebook trumps Twitter (21 per cent versus 15 per cent), but blogs trump Facebook (29 per cent versus 21 per cent)
• Company websites, however, trump blogs by more than a 2:1 ratio (68 per cent versus 29 per cent)
• Ultimately, traditional media sources – newspapers (86 per cent), TV (83 per cent), radio (78 per cent), and magazines (73 per cent) — still outrank all of the above as the go-to source for information

But this equation of influence changes dramatically for younger generations:

• Almost four in ten Canadians (38 per cent) aged 18-34 consider blogs to be one of their top research sources when purchasing a product or service, compared to less than half that (16 per cent) of Canadians aged 55 or older
• YouTube mirrored the same pattern, with 27 per cent of Canadians under 34 years of age reporting it as one of their top research sources versus only 15 per cent of the boomer generation (adults over the age of 55)
• Moreover, 18-34 year old Canadians were twice as likely as their older counterparts (aged 35-54) to list social media sources such as Facebook as credible news sources (22 per cent versus 12 per cent). Interestingly, they were also more trusting of company websites as credible news sources than boomer Canadians (23 per cent versus 10 per cent)

“A significant portion of our younger generation sees blogs, YouTube, Facebook and company websites as credible sources of news. This suggests to us, that in their minds – and in contrast to older Canadians – the boundaries of credibility between news, “circle of trust” conversations and marketing are blurring,” explained Levine. “In our social media world, where one individual’s opinion can stand out against a sea of other information, ‘exposure’ as we know it is passé; young Canadians are hand-picking who they want to pay attention to, no matter the source.”

In addition to generational differences, there is a wide gap between how all Canadians are influenced today, versus how self-identified socially engaged respondents are influenced on what to purchase. For example, The Impact of Influence study found:

• If a blogger posts a positive product review that is contradictory to a traditional news report (newspaper or magazine), average Canadians are more likely to believe traditional media according to the survey (32 per cent versus 13 per cent). In contrast however, self-identified influencers were almost twice as likely to believe bloggers over media (21 per cent versus 13 per cent)
• 41 per cent of self-identified “early adopters” of new products and services, and 41 per cent of avid smart phone app users count on blogs as one of their top research tools, when considering buying a product or service, compared to 29 per cent of the general population
• While one in five Canadians (21 per cent) rely on Facebook to research new product/service information, in advance of a purchase, that figure jumps to 30 per cent among self-identified social media savvy consumers
• 35 per cent of bloggers use YouTube for researching products and services they are considering buying whereas only 21 per cent of average Canadians do the same
• Just over six-in-ten poll respondents (62 per cent) who considered themselves to be the influencers among their social circles, said they would visit their favourite stores online to stay in the know. This figure drops to 52 per cent when looking at the national average
• Interestingly, almost 1 in 3 Canadians (31 per cent) admit conducting research simply as a means to justify their purchase

“The vast differences in media usage and social media credibility among socially engaged Canadians compared to other Canadians have great implications for PR professionals and marketers as a whole,” said Levine. “The mind map of the socially engaged Canadians in contrast to their counterparts shows us that the future of public relations lies in strategies that are inherently share-worthy by design.”

Sabena has been hired at Environics to join the public relations agency’s technology team as an Account Coordinator.  Prior to Environics, Sabena completed an internship at MSL Group where she provided day-to-day support including result reports, presentation development and media/social media outreach.

“We made the decision to engage Fleishman-Hillard not merely to highlight Foraco’s work but to raise awareness of the drilling industry and the intricacies of this business,” says Jean-Pierre Charmensat, Vice-CEO and CFO of Foraco. “The business of drilling is absolutely crucial to a successful mining project, and it’s rewarding work for our employees because they really have the opportunity to demonstrate their highly diverse and sophisticated skill sets.”

As part of their mandate, Fleishman-Hillard will cover Foraco’s key regions and will focus on internal and external communications. The company will be appearing at this year’s Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Convention.