Here’s your chance Canada. In less than one hour you will have the opportunity to use YouTube to submit a question directly to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The Prime Minister’s response to the Speech from the Throne will be broadcasted live onto YouTube at approx. 11am on Thursday, March 11th. From March 11th until Sunday March 14th, you will have the opportunity to submit questions (text or video) on YouTube and also vote on which questions should be asked directly to the Prime Minister in a live interview on Tuesday, March 16th conducted by Google CFO Patrick Pichette, which will also be posted to YouTube.

I’ll likely be posting one about the need for open data and/or 2-way social media engagement unless someone beats me to it.

Here’s a link to the YouTube channel where you can submit and also vote on questions for Prime Minister Harper. His speech and interview will also be streamed on this channel. Additionally, here’s a link to the YouTube blog with more info about this particular initiative.

Special thanks to Geordie Hyland for the heads up.

Here’s my take on the brief history of demand for social media expertise:

• Back in late 2007, proactive organizations started frantically searching for someone to help them with all this social media “stuff”. They searched for the first thing that came to their mind, “social media expert“. “Surely, there must be an expert out there” , they though.
• Then in early 2008, the real rush came in as the field became more legitimate and the term “social media consultant” emerged.
• Mid-2009 saw a sharp rise in search for the term “social media guru” as certain powerful personal brands emerged that apparently knew everything at an almost enlightening level.
• Late 2009 witnessed a demand in search for “social media strategist” , as certain people realized that the preceding three terms were often being used (with a few exceptions) by hobbyists capitalizing on this trend.

Personally, I like to use “social media strategist”, even though it’s a less popular term in terms of volume. In fact I throw in “marketing & social media strategist” for additional context and to leverage my background in traditional strategic marketing.  The problem with the other terms is that they are too broad.  What are you an expert, guru or consultant in exactly? Technical social media channel setup? Guideline creation? Overall strategy? Tactical promotion?

I’ve witnessed plenty of these “so-called” experts come into organizations (based on poorly written RFP’s asking for “experts”) armed with nothing except the knowledge of how to setup a blog, Twitter account and maybe even a Facebook page as they proudly give out their new “social media expert” business cards.

This is why I use “strategist”. Essentially, I help guide organizations on the most efficient and effective way to get from A to B using a strategic framework. I always start by asking the question, “what is B?”, followed by, “why do you want to achieve B?” You would be shocked to find out how many people don’t have a clear answer for either one. Often, my job involves determining a realistic B for them that ties into their overall organizational strategy.

If your B is flawed to begin with (e.g. if it’s a tactic instead of a strategic outcome), then you’re in trouble. Common examples of flawed social media initiative B’s include:

• “to create a Facebook page”
• “to start a blog”
• “to be on Twitter”
• “to start a YouTube channel

So what are some examples of good B’s for social media initiatives? These depend on your organizational strategy of course (they need to be in-line with it). Here are some examples:

• “to become a more proactive organization” why? : so that we are seen as leaders, not followers – as is the current case.
• “to build relationships with online influencers in our industry” why? : so that we have a community to help us should a crisis occur
• “to share our existing rich media content on new channels” why? : so that content creators can easily embed and share our content so that it is seen by more people
• “to equip online content creators within our industry with facts” why? : so that we can help reduce the amount of incorrect information floating around the social web

Only once these are in place (and you’ve completed thorough macro and micro environmental scans), can you make the appropriate tactical decisions and set corresponding specific goals.

Long story short, just do your due diligence before selecting someone and make sure that whatever they call themselves, they understand this basic premise.

A few weeks ago our organization (CEPSM) sent out an e-newsletter to our database gauging the level of interest for a new workshop we are thinking of offering. We’ve received some pretty positive initial feedback so I figured I’d test this out a bit further with you, my blog readers ( if you don’t already subscribe to the CEPSM newsletter that is).

Here’s the scoop:

Over the course of the last few years of working with our clients, we have found that in general, marketing and/or communications professionals interact with a wide array of stakeholders (i.e. agencies, translators, consultants such as us, etc…) on a weekly, if not daily basis. Often times, what seems like basic knowledge to these stakeholders(i.e. file formats, resolutions, basic copy & paste HTML embedding, etc…) is poorly understood by marketers and communicators. As a result a great deal of back and forth time is wasted on emails and meetings that could have been avoided.We are currently exploring opportunities to create high-level web design and graphic design courses (in partnership with another organization) specifically designed for strategic public sector and non-profit marketing and communications professionals that have received little training on the various technological tools and applications that could potentially make their day-to-day jobs much easier.

What I need you to do:

Fill out this ridiculously short online survey to help us determine if there is a need for this sort of thing or if we’re all crazy.

I love the Olympics. Besides the excitement of the actual events, I love the sense of camaraderie, national unity and general goodwill that the games bring with them. While it’s true that Vancouver has had its series of mishaps, including a tragic death, the overall spirit of the games can be felt radiating out of the homes and workplaces of our great country.

What’s really exciting about these games is that they mark a new era of interaction and engagement during a global sporting event. I remember only having two options as a kid during past Olympics: watch a select few live events on TV (time-zone permitting) or listen to them on the radio. The rest I would pick up on during the evening news or the next morning’s paper.

Wow, have things ever changed. Here’s my daily Olympic routine for the 2010 games:

• Check the medal standings and event schedule on my CTV Vancouver 2010 iPhone App (kudos to CTV for keeping up with the times and creating this!)
• Listen to, and offer words of encouragement to actual Olympic Athletes right before they compete by following the “official” Twitter list of Olympians
• Whenever a live event is occurring, I’ll stream the video if no TV is present nearby. If I have access to a TV then I watch the event on there and follow the #olympics OR #teamcanada hashtags on my mobile.
• If I want to feel a little closer to the action than the traditional media can get me, I do a quick advanced twitter user search based on the GPS co-ordinates of the event to tap into some citizen journalism (i.e. tweets, videos, pics, and other content coming from fans at the actual event).
• Repeat the first step and send a quick encouragement tweet to any Canadian athletes competing the next day.

I do all of the above on my mobile device since I am rarely in front of a TV. Mobile means 24/7 access on my own terms, anywhere I go. Bottom line, I have less time than ever to watch these olympics, and yet I can’t help but feel a stronger sense of community and connection than ever before.

How are you experiencing these 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games?

Chain of events:

1. George Packer rants about Twitter on his New Yorker blog
2. Nick Bilton from the NYT Bits Blog rants about George Packer’s blog post
3. Both blog posts (especially Nick Bilton’s) generate a mass of comments illustrating the social media digital divide that still exists in our society.

My response, which I posted on both blogs:

“I can’t stop shaking my head reading some of the comments on here. Why? Because far too many people are still looking at Twitter at a micro-level (i.e. the actual application). Forget the name “Twitter” for a second. Let’s use the broader term “micro-blogging” , a channel to which Twitter (the app) belongs. Micro-blogging, or real-time status updating, is here to stay. Whether it’s Twitter updates, LinkedIn updates, Facebook updates, or “Application of tomorrow” updates, a critical mass of people (not everyone!) will now ALWAYS be sharing information in real-time regardless of what applications are out there. Google now indexes “updates” from any of these channels. Can you see the bigger picture here? Because these channels are aggregated they form THE WORLD’S LARGEST “REAL-TIME” DATABASE OF COLLECTIVE HUMAN THOUGHT. What most Twitter-dismissers don’t realize is that they can FILTER this database to make it relevant to their needs. Not only that, just like “there’s an app for everything” on the iPhone, Twitter has an open API ,which allows programmers to tap into that “real-time database” to create custom tools for very specific needs. There is no “right” way to use this channel (although plenty of obvious wrong ways). At the end of the day it depends what your objectives are personally and/or professionally. I think we have only seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of the potential of real-time collective human thought. Don’t forget that internet penetration is increasing at a 10X faster rate in transitional and developing economies (holding the majority of the world’s population) than it is in the western world. Quick activity for newbies and skeptics:Go to search.twitter.com, click on advanced search, select Moscow as the location, select 50km radius, and Russian as the language. Hit enter. Press the “translate to English” button on the results page. Now take a deep breath and think about what you just did and how powerful of a tool this can potentially be in bringing humans around the globe closer together. And for Pete’s sake, stop going to Twitter.com, that’s where you go to sign up only. Download Tweetdeck (or equivalent) for yourself and set-up some filters, groups, categories and lists so that you don’t waste time doing it manually. Check-in for 5 minutes a day at first. You’ll determine your own use for it eventually. I can’t tell you what that is, you’ll need to discover it for yourself.”

I could obviously go on and on. At the end of the day thought, there will always be skeptics and people that simply have no interest in sharing, creating and discussing content, especially in a real-time setting. That’s perfectly fine! What I would love them to understand though is that even as in-actives, they will soon be tapping into this collective knowledge base regardless of Twitter (the tools will change) since the broader concept of a “real-time content/conversation channel” is here to stay.

What do you think?