Social Victoria

Time to Vote in Calgary Centre!

2012-11-11T19:05:00.000-08:00

The Prime Minister has announced that by-elections will be held Calgary Centre on November 26th.

Not know your Peter Lougheeds from your Naheed Nenshis? I have compiled all you need to know about the election and candidates below. No Political Science degree required!

1. The Conservatives - The Big Shots

If you don’t know who the Conservatives are, you haven’t been living in Calgary (nay Canada) long, but it won’t take long to figure out they are the dominant party in the City and Province. Canada’s answer to the Republicans of the US, the Conservative Party isthe party of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and has been the party of choice in Calgary Centre since 1968.

In fact, the election in Calgary Centre was only called because Conservative Lee Richardson left the position in May to go work for Alison Redford. Redford, another Conservative, was running for (and won) the position as Premier of Alberta. You can find an interesting article about the riding here.

To replace Lee, the Conservatives have chosen Joan Crockatt to run in the upcoming election.

Background:

The former managing editor of the Calgary Herald, Crockatt has an impressive resume. She worked as a senior newspaper executive with Southam Newspapers, Canwest Global and recently as a communications consultant and media commentator (also known as Pundit). She has a BA from the University of Saskatchewan and went to the London School of Economics in Political Science. Crockatt is the candidate to beat in this election.

Policy:

Crockatt considers herself “fiscally conservative,” concerned about the economy, energy and the environment. She is pro-choice but publicly thanked her gay and lesbian volunteers during her acceptance speech in August. Although she has been called polarizing and too right wing for the riding, a recent poll reported on in the Globe and Mail found that 44 per cent of voters backed the Conservatives in the riding, with the Liberals a distant second and the NDP and Green further back battling for third.

However, since this riding includes the downtown area, which is home to many young, urban, liberally minded professionals, don’t count the other candidates out just yet.

2. The Liberal Party - The Challengers

The Liberal Party, which used to dominate politics on a National Level, was also the last non-Conservative party to win a seat in Calgary Centre, back in 1968. This time around, the Liberals chose conservationist Harvey Locke to represent them, and commentators say he might have a chance of winning in this riding of 90,000 eligible voters.

Background:

Locke was born in Calgary and has an Arts and Law degrees from the University of Calgary. In 1999 was named one of Canada’s leaders for the 21st century by Time Magazine Canada for his work in the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, which is the best known corridor conservation effort in the world. He served as President of the Alberta Liberal Party from 1995 to 1997 and worked as conservation adviser for The WILD Foundation and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

Policy:

Locke said that he will campaign on his values of being “fiscally prudent, socially progressive and environmentally responsible” at home and abroad. Coming from an environmental background, he has strong environmental policies, which might appeal to the voters in this area.

3. The NDP - The Under Dogs

The NDP may be the National Opposition party, but here in Alberta they still have a lot of work to do to be taken seriously. Thomas Mulcair (the currently leader of the NDP) was publicly criticized in Alberta for condemning the Oil Sands, blaming energy exports from the Alberta Oil Sands for artificially raising the Canadian dollar and saying the government is allowing the Oil Sands to develop, "without applying basic rules of sustainable development”.

In Calgary Centre, Dan Meades is running for the NDP.

Background:

Meades has a degree in English and Business, and has worked throughout North America, Europe and West Africa. He is the executive director of Vibrant Communities Calgary, a public policy advocacy organization focused on social, economic and political engagement. Meades has consulted with the City of Calgary on strategies for affordable housing, public transit and poverty.

Policy:

Meades wants to “bring the community together to fight against damaging Conservative policies that have made life more unaffordable for the people of Calgary Centre”. He supports small business and services like pensions and healthcare and is against tax cuts to large corporations. With the little amount of publicity his policies have gotten, in the news or online, it is unlikely Meades will have a chance of winning in this election.

4. The Green Party – The Bench Warmers

Not to be forgotten, the Green Party won their first federal seat in the last election with Elizabeth May winning a seat for Saanich – Gulf Islands in BC. In Alberta, the Green Party has little chance of winning in any riding, but in the last election the candidate did win 9% of the votes, or over 4,000 ballots were cast in their favour.

For the by-election, the Green Party has chosen Chris Turner.

Background:

Turner is a bestselling author and has a BA in History as well as a journalism degree from Ryerson University. His writing has also appeared in, The Walrus, The Globe & Mail, The Independent, The Sunday Times, Time Magazine, The Guardian, Utne Reader, Adbusters and The South China Morning Post.

Policy:

Turner says as part of his election platform, he'll unveil a federal Green Party commitment to pursue a national transit strategy.

Something much needed in Calgary, and something voters in City Centre must appreciate.

So no matter who you like or dislike, remember to get out there and vote on November 26^th!

More information about polling stations and voting history is available from Elections Canada here.

Citizens from Calgary Centre will join citizens from Victoria, B.C., and Durham, Ont. in going to the polls, as the only 3 cities in Canada with upcoming by-elections. You can find out more information about the Bi-Election in Victoria and Durham here.

If the world were a village...

2011-06-04T13:36:00.000-07:00

Taken directly from: Toby Ng's website

via [Brain Pickings]

I've learned about this before, but I love all these images, so I thought I would share.

The one that really got to me was the one about Fear and Freedom.

Sure, 1/100 people are HIV positive, and that’s a huge problem, but 20/100 people live in fear of death by bombardment, armed attack, landmines or of rape or kidnapping by armed groups?? That’s huge.

Even worse, 48/100 people aren’t free, in the sense that they can’t speak or act according to their faith and conscience due to harassment, imprisonment, torture or death? Those are the things we really take for granted here in Canada.

I’m sure it all goes back to the governments (or lack of responsible governments) that are in place around the world, and that only 1/100 people have a post secondary education. Of course, this is probably due to the fact that 20% of the world’s population shares 2% of the world’s wealth. All these problems are connected.

Trying to solve the world’s problems is a big job, but at least there are organizations like Oxfam, Amnesty International and the Red Cross which are willing to help. Check out their websites to see how you can help.

Which statistic do you find most disturbing? Anything that surprised you? Feel free to respond in the comments section.

Politics Explained...be careful what you wish for!!

2011-05-17T21:22:00.000-07:00

My mom always sends me such interesting political commentary I'm going to start posting it here. This ones a funny story/email forward she sent me today. I don't where its from, but it's worth the read.

Subject: Fw: Politics Explained !!!!!

While walking down the street one day a "Member of Parliament" is tragically
hit by a truck and dies.

His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance.

'Welcome to heaven,' says St. Peter.

'Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high
official around these parts, you see, so we're not sure what to do with
you.'

'No problem, just let me in,' says the man.

'Well, I'd like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we'll do is have
you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to
spend eternity.'

'Really, I've made up my mind. I want to be in heaven,' says the MP.

'I'm sorry, but we have our rules.'

And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down,
down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green
golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are
all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him.

Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, shake
his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at
the expense of the people.

They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and
champagne.

Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly& nice guy who has
a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good time that
before he realizes it, it is time to go.

Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises....

The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where St. Peter
is waiting for him.

'Now it's time to visit heaven.'

So, 24 hours pass with the MP joining a group of contented souls moving
from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time
and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter
returns.

'Well, then, you've spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose
your eternity.'

The MP reflects for a minute, then he answers: 'Well, I would never have
said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be
better off in hell.'

So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to
hell.

Now the doors of the elevator open and he's in the middle of a barren land
covered with waste and garbage.

**Photo Via Shane O'Brien, PNG Files

He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting
it in black bags as more trash falls from above.

The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder. ' I don't
understand,' stammers the MP.

'Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate
lobster and caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time. Now
there's just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable.

What happened? '

The devil looks at him, smiles and says, ' Yesterday we were

campaigning.....

Today you voted.

**Note: not actual photo of hell, but of Slave Lake after forest fires. Click on the photo to read the story.

Why you should hire me! (And other young people like me)

2011-05-13T15:01:00.000-07:00

Top 8 Reasons why companies should hire more young people

Going back to what I was talking about last week, and how people are worried about all the “young” and “inexperienced” MPs elected in the last election, I thought I would write about why more companies should hire young people. Like me!

Here are the reasons I think that stand out the most:

1. The economy needs your help!

Although Canada is believed to be coming out of the recession, unemployeement is still high across the country and according to recent reports, it's around 7.7% across the country. Much higher than it was pre-2008, but at least not as bad as mid-2009, where it hovered around 8.7%. As you can see from the graphs below, part-time work is way up, but those illusive full-time jobs are still not as high as in 2008.

Statistics Canada. (March 2011). Labour Force Information.

Of course unemployement varies depending on a million different factors, such as region, sex, ethnic background and age. But as a group, young people are the most unemployed group (next to those living in the Territories). Hiring more young people (who are also more likely to spend the money they make than save it) will help stimulate the economy. You’re welcome!

2. Those Baby Boomers won’t be working forever! (Or so they say…)

We all know that the population is aging and as Baby Boomers, (those born between between 1946 and 1964) creep towards retirement it means that close to one-third of the country's 32 million people will be out of the labour market.

According to StatsCan, by 2036 the median age of the population in Canada will be between 42 and 45 years old. This means that seniors will account for between 23% and 25% of the total population! With the working-age population (those 15 to 64 years old) declining from about 70% to about 60% in that time frame, companies need to make sure they have hired and adequately trained employees to take over senior management and executive positions, or they could face a huge “knowledge gap”. Why not start hiring young people before your company reaches crisis levels?? I want to be a manager/executive/VP one day...hire me!

3. In with the new, out with the old (ideas that is)

Inexperience on paper, doesn't mean inexperience in life. And although many people don’t think young people have the skills, dedication and drive to get things done, it doesn’t take long to find young people who have made a big difference in business and society. Besides Mark Zuckerberg who created Facebook when he was only 20 and Shawn Fanning, who created the first popular Peer-to-Peer sharing sites Napster at only 18, there are many examples of people who had a great new idea and ran with it, all before they turned 30. Check out a great list of the Top 30 under 30 here. Here are some examples:

Would you hire this man?

In technology: Michael Dell, who created the successful computer company Dell at age 19.
In culture: Hugh Hefner, who launched Playboy magazine when he was 27 and is just as famous today, at 85 years old.
In fashion: Ralph Lauren, who launched his clothing line, one of the most iconic labels in fashion, at age 28.
In sports: Mark Cuban Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, sold his first company at 33 for $6 million.
Internet: Of course you can’t forget Sergey Brin & Larry Page of Google fame, who started the company when they were 33.

So maybe the next young person you hire wont be the next Ralph Lauren, but it couldn’t hurt to give them a shot! You could be famous by association!

4. That new thing you just heard about? They’ve known about it for weeks

Most jobs today require a lot of computer work, if not exclusively working with the internet and programs such as Word and Excel. That’s one of the great things about hiring a young person, most of them are at ease with learning new technology. If they don’t already know how to use a program, they can learn! And mostly like they can figure it out quickly, without too much help. So don’t worry about holding “training sessions” or “technology seminars” to help them learn how to use basic programs, they can figure it out. And if you’re business uses Social Media in any form, you can bet your new young person will be on top of (at least know about) all the latest trends. So give a young person a chance, they can handle it. Maybe you will even learn something!

5. They will pretend to like you, even if they don’t

Once you give the right new person a chance, they will be happy to win your approval. Data entry for 6 hours straight, even though they were hired to work in the creative department? Sure, no problem! Staying late to get those reports in before deadline? Of course! And all with a smile, since they are sure that one day all their hard work will be rewarded. That’s how the world works, right? Anything they can do to slowly climb up the corporate ladder. Of course this attitude won’t last forever, but with promises of wage increases, extra bonuses or maybe just even a pat on the back, young people will be eager to please for weeks to come. Especially since many of them have huge amounts of student debt to pay off, the more work the better!

Interesting fact, if you type in “young people sucking up” into Google Images, you will find a picture of Mark Zuckerberg. True story.

6. There is less holding them back

Related to the last point about young people working hard, is that even if they don’t want to do all that extra work you assigned them, they probably don’t have too many reasons to say no. Unless you count a beach volley ball session with friends after work, or going out of town to attend that awesome music festival happening on the weekend. Which, yes, are important things in the life of a young person, but not the same as the obligations older people have. Young people probably don’t have kids, or spouses to take up their free time and goodness knows they don’t have to worry about in-laws or important house repairs.

At the Y Combinator Startup School event at Stanford in May 2007 Mark Zuckerberg said to the audience “Young people just have simpler lives. We may not own a car. We may not have family.” In the absence of those distractions, he says, you can focus on big ideologies. Later he added:


Running shoes with jeans? Really?

“Simplicity in life allows you to focus on what’s important.”

Obviously this is work in Zuckerberg’s case, since it’s definitely not fashion.

Sure, one negative about young people is that they don’t always dress the part, but they can learn. Zuckerberg is a good example of this, as he is notorious for showing up to black tie events and important functions in no more than jeans and a T-shirt. He was even a winner in Esquire’s 2010 Celebrity Style Hall of Shame. (See more of his “geek chic” fashion choices here.) But I'm sure it won't be long until we see him in at least a nice jacket, and some better shoes. Young people are nothing, if not adaptable!

7. They know young people!

Finally, in today’s youth obsessed culture, who better to tap into the ever important 18-29 demographic than young people! They know what they like, what they don’t and what will work in terms of marketing. They know the best ways to reach people like them, and who influences their decisions the most. All you need to do is (hire a young person like me) and ask!

8. Oh, and you can pay them less. But don’t. If you can help it.

Enough said

So please, when you see a young person’s resume, please don’t discard it just because they don’t have the required 2-5 years related experience. Or because they only graduated last month. Or any of the other silly preconceived notions you have about young people. Hire the right young person and they will be a huge asset to your team. I promise you will thank me one day!

Do you have any other reasons to hire young people? Post them in the comments below. I'm sure I missed some!

Update - Election results are in!

2011-05-06T11:04:00.000-07:00

It's been too long since I've posted, but I have some time today, so I thought I would post some election related news, to follow up on my last post.

The results are in from this Monday's election, and for those who thought this election wouldn’t make a difference, just look at the colour coded map of Canada, taken from the CBC’s website:

Click on the map if you want to go to CBC’s website and check out who won in your area (if you don’t already know).

Can’t tell what’s changed? Just look at the map after the 2008 Election (also from the CBC’s website). And look, they haven’t changed their formatting in 3 years! Impressive CBC!

Ok, wait, I guess the colours are a little different, but still pretty close.

My riding in Calgary Center is pretty boring (Conservative again) since from 1968 it has been held by some sort of right leaning party (Tories from 1968 to 1993, Reform in 1993, 1997 and 2000, then Conservatives in 2006 and 2008).

*Side note, looking back at my riding info, it looks like all the info has changed since I wrote my last post…don’t know what that’s about. I blame the CBC.

However, some exciting news came when I found out Elizabeth May of the Green Party was elected in one of my old ridings, Saanich Gulf Islands. I saw her interviewed on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight, and I can’t say she impressed me too much as a person, but of course as a native BC’er, I have to support the Green Party.

I thought she made a great acceptance speech, even though she comes across a little goofy, you can’t help but share in some of her excitement. I posted the video below, even though CBC has a better quality one on their site here, but with the amateur video you can really hear sound of the crowd cheering. Check it out below.

She has an impressive resume, including getting a letter of reference from then Governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton, for her acceptance into Dalhousie Law School. Let's hope she can actually make a positive difference in parliament.

I also compared the results in my old ridings, which I talked about in my last post, but besides the Green Party winning in Saanich Gulf Islands, not too much of a change…

2008 Results


2011 Results

Actually no changes at all in my old ridings (except for May).

Of course there were other big changes, like how the Liberals lost a lot of other ridings (especially in Ontario and Quebec) and Michael Ignatieff stepped down as leader. Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe also quit immediately after the results came in that his party had been crushed in Quebec. But maybe change isn’t necessarily a bad thing?

Layton defends inexperienced Quebec caucus

A lot of these changes are due to the fact that the New Democratic Party got a record 102 seats and will form the official opposition to Harpers Majority Government. No word yet on if this will be a good (yay NDP!) or bad thing (boo Harper Majority!) for the country.

Unfortunately, Voter turnout was only up to 61.4% but I guess that’s a bit better than last time, and a record number of women were elected so that’s another positive…not all bad news!

So I still have hope for my country, especially since so many new, young MPs were elected for the NDP. So what if they don’t have that much political experience. They ran and they won! That’s Democracy for you. How much power individual MPs will really have in parliament under a Conservative Majority anyways? And I’m pretty sure the government won’t collapse if we give young people a chance.

And thank you Jack Layton, for saying “I don’t share this notion that a young person is somehow not qualified”.

"Young people got involved in this election in an unprecedented way…We should see that as something to celebrate, not something to criticize."

I agree wholeheartedly.

Chaos in Chaonada (Ie. Canada Votes)

2011-04-13T15:51:00.000-07:00

Since my Social Media class is over, I’ve been lacking a bit of direction on where to take this blog, but I’m thinking I want to keep talking about current issues, “in the social world around us”.

So what have people been talking about lately? Well if you watch the Canadian news, its all about the upcoming Canadian election (besides all the NHL Playoff fever of course, which I will try to talk about later this week). Sure, there are problems in Japan, Libya, Ivory Coast and Yemen too, but I don’t think those issues will be resolved any time soon, and we only have until May 2nd to decide who to vote for! Less than a month people.

What really made me start thinking about the election this year was Rick Mercer’s Rant on the season finale of his show. He talked about how every demographic group has been targeted by politicians, and “if there were more than 5 paraplegic lesbian Inuit women in Labrador...they would be a target”. He points out that is everyone is targeted...that is, except the youth vote. Watch his rant below.

But do young people even care? Voter turnout for the 18-25 demographic has historically always been low, but as Elizabeth May pointed out on George Stroumboulopoulos tonight, she wants to “merge” with the 41% of everyday people (of all ages) who don’t vote in elections. You can watch Strombo interview May here.

So why don’t more people (of all ages) vote? Well, as Stephen Colbert points out ya, Canadian politics is boooooring. See below.

But I would hope that everyone agrees they would rather live in a Democracy vs. some sort of crazy Dictatorship, so they do care a bit....so then whats the problem?

I would say a big problem is that people don’t know who to vote for. Who knows who’s even running in their riding and what they stand for? I’ve voted lots since I turned 18, in Federal, Provincial and Municipal elections, and to be honest I can’t even remember who I actually ended up voting for in each one.

And if you’re like me, who has voted in a different riding in each election since I was 18...it gets confusing. The ridings I've voted in include: my hometown riding of Vancouver Island North (ok, I never actually voted there, but I always pay attention to the results there), Saanich Gulf Islands (where I lived during University), Vancouver Centre (where I lived after University) and soon to be Calgary Centre (where I live now) and that doesn’t count all the places I’ve lived in between elections.. Candidates change, their policies change, and heck I’ve changed.

Well, lucky for us, we don’t live in ‘50s any more, and we have more resources than ever to learn about the election and all *joy* it brings.

Besides typical news shows like The National, which I love to watch purely for Peter Mansbridge funny quips, (eg. “Don’t roll your eyes Canada, Toronto has needs too” as spoken by the Man, regarding transit issues in urban areas) you can always catch videos clips of the candidates themselves, repeating their “key messages” (but please don’t listen to anything they say on TV commercials. Unless you believe things like “iPods are Magical” as I talked about in this post). There are also shows like George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight where you can get some basic background info, or uh the Rick Mercer Report I guess, before it finished for the season. (Am I missing any other good shows? Let me know.)

Heck, you can even just follow them on Twitter for all their funny commentary, (eg. @strombo and @rickmercer) or any of the candidate who use Social Media themselves (eg. @ElizabethMay). Its better than nothing!!

Bobbleheads help us learn about the Election Candidates
- used on Strombo Tonight

But most importantly, don’t forget about the regular old internet! Instead of going on Facebook for the 5th time today, why not just do a quick search and educate yourself? You’re here already, so why not just follow this link and go to CBC’s My Election page, where you can simply input your postal code where it says “Find My Riding” and boom! All the info about your riding is there, including who the candidates are! (If you are silly enough not to know your postal code, just go to the Canada Post website here and type in your address.) It’s easy, I swear!

So if you say “I don’t have the time”, that’s a lie. Educate yourself (for 10 minutes over the internet), and then take 10 minutes out of your day, on your way home from work on May 2nd, and make your voice heard. It will probably take you less time than going to Starbucks during their weird 3pm rush.

If you need any more reason to vote, just check out this awesome video. Then do your research and VOTE!

Before I end this post, I would to share some of what I learned from the CBC Find My Riding page with you below.

Random Fact Time:

Did you know that in my current riding of Calgary Centre, the Average Family Income is $145,427!?! That’s crazy! Do you know what it is in your riding?

Well, residents of Calgary Centre seem even richer if you compare them to people where I’m from:

The Average Family Income of residents of Vancouver Island North is only $68,472!!! (Strangely enough, both ridings tend to go to the Conservatives.)

This might make sense, if you look at the education levels of the two areas:

In Calgary Centre 96% of families hold a Post-Secondary Degree.
In VI North only 36% of families hold a Post-Secondary Degree.
The National Average is 51%.

So maybe education and income go together. However, if you look at residents of Vancouver Centre, (another one of my old ridings), it's a little different:

The Average Family Income is only $88,204, but
131% of families hold a Post-Secondary Degree! How is that even possible? Well, they obviously combine 2+ people, but still. Yowza.

Maybe closer to the election I will put that into an Excel sheet for easy reference.

So do you have any interesting facts about your riding? More reasons to vote/not vote? Share it in the comments below!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update:

If you need more help deciding who to vote for, there's always:

The Vote Compass on CBCs website, which allows you to take a simple quiz regarding key issues and it tells you which party most reflects your views. Not the most accurate, but a neat idea.

The website Project Democracy, which gives suggestions of who to vote for in key ridings. Just type in you're postal code (similar to the CBCs "Find My Riding") and it tells you more about your area. Its a little ahem, left leaning, but that's ok with me!

Blogging, what is it good for?

2011-04-03T15:44:00.000-07:00

Blogs have come a long way since 1994, when Justin Hall created what is credited as the first blog ever. Once used as sort of an online diary, today they can be used in any industry, to accomplish a variety of marketing and communication goals. They can be used to differentiate a company from the competition, to create a community around your brand and to manage your reputation. And of course, like the Dilbert comic demonstrates, to establish yourself as an industry expert.

According to blog statistics, the Huffington Post is currently the most visited blog, and receives an estimated 28,000,000 Unique Visitors every month. According to Forbes, “the site is a mix of news, politics, opinions and entertainment, and is fed by an army of 6,000 free bloggers and celebrity contributors”. To be honest, with all this content, I didn’t even think of the Huffpo as a blog, more an in-depth news website, which I talked about in this post about my RSS feeds. But that just goes to show what blogs today are capable of.

Blog can also be very valuable assets, as shown when Huffpo was sold to AOL for $315 million in February 2011. This, despite the fact that Huffpo simply aggregates content from a variety of sources to build its own traffic, and doesn’t pay for many of its writers bloggers. In fact, this led to Stephen Colbert to creating his own website, called the Colbuffington Re-post, which he described as “everything you love about the Huffington Post, because it’s the Huffington Post with a new border around it that says the Colbuffington Re-post”. He offered it for sale for $316 million, ($1 million more than AOL paid for Huffpo) and said that if he finds a buyer, he will give them the same cut he’s getting for them to publish his content - in other words, nothing. A humorous way at poking fun at the fact that much of the content on the internet is not really “free”.

So what is the Huffington Post doing right? What could other industry blogs learn from them?

Based on my experience, if companies want to leverage the power of blogging, they need to:

1. Make it relevant:

Many blogs, as lovely as they are, write about obscure topics. Although I think it’s great that people want to write about what they are interested in, (eg. their injured dog’s recovery after hip surgery) if you want a blog for a company, you better make sure it has relevant content, or you just won’t be able to accomplish your objectives. Whatever they might be. That doesn’t mean you have to take the same position as everyone else, because that would be boring too, but just make sure whatever your talking about is worth your readers time, and can be tied back to your industry, brand or company. Some way or another.

2. Find your voice, personality, style

Many industry blogs can be dry, and boring. I would post an example, but I don’t read any! They are hard to find in search engines, and don’t have links to from any other sites. Its like the writers are bored themselves, and they don’t last for long. The content that does gets shared and promoted is interesting, and this often means it’s personal. It has style, and isn’t written by Tina the Tech Writer, for her boss (going back to the Dilbert example) because that just wouldn’t be authentic. I think one of the reasons Huffpo is so popular is that it has so many opinion pieces, and its bloggers take a position, on one side or another. You may not agree with what they say, but the more people talking about it, the more popular the site becomes.

3. Promote, promote, promote!

Sure it only took Huffpo 6 years to turn their $4 million investment into a $315 million brand, but it didn’t happen over night. It takes time, and energy, and more time. And since they have an “army of 6,000 free bloggers and celebrity contributors” their content is constantly updated and according to my Google Reader, they post 260 new articles a day. So maybe you, or you’re company doesn’t have as many resources behind it, but there are other ways to promote your content. Social networking is one great way, (it’s pretty much the only resource I have) and by following the SMO rules like increasing your linkability, making tagging and bookmarking easy and encouraging the mashup you will make sure your content travels. All for free!

So I’m no expert, but if you really want to leverage blogging for all its worth, think about these tips before you just write about the next thing on your mind. That’s what Twitter’s for. :)

Are you a Fan of Oreo?

2011-03-22T18:48:00.000-07:00

Nom Nom

Facebook Fan Pages are the newest installment of The Social Network as it tries to constantly reinvent itself. As I learned in my Social Media class, typically businesses set up a Fan Page because of the following reasons:

There is no limit to the number of Fans you can have – Profiles are limited to 5,000 "friends".
You can email all your Fans at once –Profiles are limited to sending 20 emails at a time.
Fan Pages automatically accept Fan requests – Profiles require you to manually accept requests.
Fan Pages have more customization options.

One Facebook Fan Page that has received a lot of attention is Oreo, as they recently tried to win a Guinness World Records entry for most Facebook likes. Sure, shortly after their record was broken by Lil Wayne, but it sure gained a lot of attention.

Photo courtesy of KRAFT FOODS INC.

"Oreo Man" receiving Guinness World Records mark for "Most Likes on a Facebook Post In 24 Hours".

Oreo is the #4 rated global brand on Facebook, as I pointed out in this post. So why does an American cookie company, once criticized for having a high amount of Trans Fats, as you can read about in this blog post, have so many fans on Facebook? For cookies that are basically nothing more than sugary Crisco (that’s right, no butter, milk or vanilla) how could they get to 17,427,180 fans, as of March 22, 2011?

Photo from AlmightyDad.com

Well Oreo is doing a lot of things right on their Facebook page. For example,

1.       Obviously they got the name right, step #1, so they are easy to find via search. If that wasn’t enough, on the homepage of the Oreo website there are also links to their Facebook (and Twitter) pages. A great way of integrating across platforms.

2.       They customized their landing page so they engage visitors immediately with a customized message: “Oreo & milk moments are best when SHARED”, which encourages fans to upload a photo of themselves sharing Oreo cookies. Right now it’s a cute picture of a boy and girl (almost) sharing an Oreo cookie, in a “Lady and the Tramp” spaghetti dinner type moment. Cute. They also continue their brand’s theme colours (blue, white) throughout the page.

3.       Besides the Shared moments, they also are promoting User Generated Content (UGC) through their Oreo “World’s Fan of the Week” contest. Fans can submit photos of themselves to the Facebook Fan page and each week Oreo will chose one photo to highlight on their Fan Page’s side bar. This week it’s Abby A. from California. I don’t think they win anything, but they do get “world” recognition and this seems to be enough to encourage a lot of submissions from fans. It also means there are tons of pictures of people enjoying their ~~sugary Crisco~~ yummy Oreo cookies on Oreo’s Facebook page – great PR!

4.       Oreo obviously updates their content frequently, and beside the weekly fan contest, they post a new “Status Update” on their Wall about every day two. I already talked about how they asked fans to ‘Like’ their status, but they also pose questions to their fans, (eg. Oreo: “What is your favorite part of an Oreo - the cookie or the creme?”) post recipes (eg. Oreo: “Your sweetheart would love an Oreo treat”…Oreo Sweetheart Strawberry Tarts Recipe) and share information about current promotions (eg. GEAR UP with OREO! Enter the unique PIN code found in your specially marked OREO package and you could win a brand new set of hockey equipment! Kraft | Canada Assists IWG). So not only are they marketing their brand, they are making sure their content shows up in fan’s News Feeds – another great way to encourage more responses from fans.

5.       Right now Oreo is also providing unique, Facebook only content through their crazy ass “Double Stuf Racing League” game, (DSRL) which is promoting their new(?) cookie, Double Stuf (half chocolate, half vanilla). I think it is basically like a cookie eating contest, (“ready, set, lick!” its says on Race Rules for the Lick Race) and contestants: 1. Select their choice of 4 celebrities, 2. Upload a photo 3. Share it with others. I think you also need to “like” Oreo on Facebook, which I couldn’t quite bring myself to do.

Maybe this video explains it better:

Anyways, I’m sure you could spend hours on there. All the better for engaging fans of Oreo and bringing in those marketing $$.

Of course, Oreo’s Fan page isn’t perfect (they are only #4!) and they could use some improvements in the following areas:

1. One area where Starbucks (#2 global brand) has a leg up on Oreo is in the area of two-way communication. Scanning their post I mentioned above “What is your favorite part of an Oreo - the cookie or the creme?” there were over 9,794 comments, but I couldn’t find any actually from Oreo. They pretty much asked the question and stepped back. Starbucks seems to be doing better in this area, so I think they could improve this in the future.

2. Ok, I can’t really think of anything else. Can you?

So overall, I can’t say I’m really a big fan of Oreos (unless it is a layer of a delicious DQ cake) but I really got sucked into their Facebook page, especially the whole DSRL thing. So I would definitely give Oreo’s Fan Page an A+. Check it out!

Tracking Starbucks in Social Media

2011-03-17T13:08:00.000-07:00

This week I wanted to review some of the tracking tools available to gather data and monitor conversations about brands. I personally like to use Google Analytics on my blog, but this only analyzes website data, so I thought I would check out some tracking tools that work across social media platforms, like HowSociable and Addictomatic. These are both free applications that you can use online, and since they don’t require you to sign up, or download anything, they are easy (and quick) to use.

Side note: As a big Google fan I like to use Google Alerts, but since you can only receive data via email or RSS feed, it’s not really practical for this one-time-only type of search. It’s much more useful if you want to monitor information on an ongoing basis.

To test out how HowSociable and Addictomatic work, I thought I would take a look at conversations people are having about Starbucks, since it is such a huge global brand and one of the top-10 brands on Facebook, as I wrote about in this post.

So what are people actually saying about Starbucks? Here are ten relevant conversations I found on March 17, 2011 while searching Starbucks on HowSociable and Addictomatic. I will rate them according to how positive or negative I think they are, with positive = +1, neutral = 0 and negative = -1.

Facebook:
1.       Sabrina Hernandez: “The New Logo Sucks ! Change It Back!!!” Rating = -1
2.       Maggi Kovacs: “java chip choclate cream! <33333” Rating = +1
3.       Isaac Corral: “Starbucks sucks!” 2 people like this. Rating = -1

Blogs:
4.       What’s So Special About Starbucks?: “I’m told that people either love Starbucks or hate it. I’m indifferent.” by Paul Simister. Rating = 0
5.      Starbucks: “Our weekend morning routine has to include trips to Starbucks. We are just not the same otherwise.” by doublewd. Rating = +1
6.      Thursday = Working from Starbucks: “i love working from Starbucks, it is comfortable and i always feel inspired here.” by spearmint baby. Rating = +1

Twitter:
7.       MBDP_Tawsha: Drinking @Starbucks counts as wearing green, right? #StPatricksDay. 10+ recent retweets. Rating = 0
8.       starbucks: We are donating ¥100 million Yen ($1.2 million USD) to the @RedCross for relief efforts in Japan. #helpJapan http://sbux.co/fsjDQR. 400+ recent retweets. Rating = +1
9.       StefkaB: I'm not sure how I feel about this. Starbucks to buy Peet's? http://bit.ly/e35lXl. Rating = 0
10.   royswisdom: Starbucks, we are on every corner. #HonestAds. Rating = -1

Overall rating = +1

So in the end, Starbucks gets a positive rating, but I think these ratings just depend on which platform you use, and which posts you chose to analyze. However, as HowSociable pointed out, they are a highly "visible" company.

Right now a lot of people are negatively commenting (on Facebook) about the new logo Starbucks introduced but Starbucks also announced that they will be donating ¥100 million Yen ($1.2 million USD) to the Red Cross, so that is generating a lot of positive feedback (on Twitter). Overall, I think that people feel strongly about Starbucks, one way or another, and calculating the sentiment of asll these comments they almost cancel each other out. However, if Starbuck’s wanted to find out what people think about their company, they could definitely find out that a lot of people are talking about their logo, and more recently, their donation to the Red Cross. So for Starbucks, I think it would be more useful to rate the sentiment on a certain topic (eg. new logo) instead of across the whole brand.

So have you had any success with tracking tools? Which ones do you think are the best?

This is what I’ve learned about HowSociable and Addictomatic:

About HowSociable:

Enables access to data from 32 different social media sites, all visible on one page.
Each brand receives an overall score in each category and an overall “visibility score”. A good way to compare across brands.

Note: Ratings compared to one (unnamed) globally recognized traditional brand, which received a score of 1,000, and put on a sliding scale.

Starbucks’ overall visibility score is 3,473 (vs. Coca-Cola = 3,522)
To find actual comments/blogs/tweets etc., you need to leave the page, which can be time consuming, if you are comparing sites.

About Addictomatic:

Only enables access to data from 25 different social media sites, but you can create a custom page, and add, delete and move around the feeds you are interested in and then bookmark it. This is a great feature.
You can also view a preview of the comments/blogs/tweets etc., and while you hold your mouse over the subject it gives you a preview of where your search term was mentioned. No need to leave the page to compare sites.
Of the 25 different sites, I couldn’t find Facebook, which is weird. This is why I also used HowSociable in this experiment.

Social Media Release - The New Official Beer of the NHL

2011-03-13T20:51:00.000-07:00

For beer brands, only the Olympics is more important than the NHL in terms of sponsorship rights for high-profile events. Not only are the official sponsors of the NHL the only ones able to sell their beer at stadiums and market to fans watching the games, but they also gain access to key League events, such as the NHL Face-Off™, NHL Winter Classic®, NHL Heritage Classic™, NHL All-Star and the highly rated Stanley Cup. A sponsorship deal also provides the brand with opportunities to engage fans online, through NHL.com, NHL Network™, NHL Mobile™ and NHL Social.

For the last ten years Labatt had been the official beer of the NHL and they were in the process of negotiating an agreement with the NHL to continue their sponsorship until 2014. However on February 22^nd, the NHL announced that Molson Coors (NYSE: TAP) in Canada and MillerCoors in the U.S were to replace Labatt as the official beer of the NHL, starting in the 2011-2012 NHL season. According to Marketing Magazine, this “monster” deal cost slightly more than US$375 million, believed to be the largest in league history.

Read Labatt’s response in the social media release below.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Share|

Client contact:
Catherine Pringle
416-361-5247
catherine.pringle@labatt.com

Labatt Breweries sponsorship agreement with THE NHL terminated

Molson Coors in Canada and MillerCoors in the US to replace Labatt as official sponsors of the NHL

TORONTO, Feb. 22, 2011

CORE FACTS

The National Hockey League has informed Labatt Breweries of Canada it intends to terminate their sponsorship agreement as of June 2011.
Before the relationship was terminated, Labatt had been the official beer sponsor of the NHL in Canada for more than 10 years.
The National Hockey League and Labatt Breweries had been negotiating the conditions of renewing the sponsorship for months and had agreed on continuing it until 2014.
Labatt's sibling Anheuser-Busch and its Bud Light brand have a long hockey history and currently sponsor 22 of the 24 NHL teams based in the United States.

Charlie Angelakos, Labatt Vice President, Corporate Affairs:

"We have an agreement with the league and are pursuing all legal remedies available to us to enforce this agreement. Bud and hockey belong together and we will pursue our case aggressively."

"Budweiser and hockey are a natural fit and in addition to the league sponsorship, we are actively looking for opportunities on a team and grass-roots level to reinforce that connection."

View News Release

More multimedia available by request

RELEVANT COVERAGE TO-DATE

February 28, 2011 - Molson, Labatt and the stakes for NHL beer sponsorship

February 25, 2011 - NHL Snubs Labatt Breweries With Surprise Beer Sponsorship

February 23, 2011 - Labatt Objects to Molson Coors' NHL Sponsorship

February 22, 2011 - Labatt dropping the gloves with Molson over NHL rights

February 22, 2011 - Molson Canadian named 'Official beer of the NHL' in new landmark league deal

BOILERPLATE

About Labatt Breweries of Canada

Since its founding in 1847, Labatt has become an internationally renowned brewer. Today, Labatt is a proud member of AB InBev, producing over 60 quality beers, employing 3,000 Canadians, and operating six breweries from coast to coast. For more information about Labatt Breweries of Canada visit: www.labatt.com.

About the NHL
The National Hockey League, founded in 1917, is the second-oldest of the four major professional team sports leagues in North America. Today, the NHL consists of 30 Member Clubs, each reflecting the League's international makeup, with players from more than 20 countries represented on team rosters. The NHL entertains more than 250 million fans each season in-arena and through its partners in national television (VERSUS, NBC, TSN, CBC, RDS, RIS, ESPN America, ASN and NHL Network™) and radio (NHL Radio™, Sirius XM Satellite Radio and XM Canada). For more information on the NHL, visit www.NHL.com

RSS Feed to Labatt Breweries of Canada's News Releases

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Social Networking: What are you doing?

2011-03-03T16:40:00.000-08:00

Although most large companies still spend millions of dollars on advertising, sales promotions and public relations, (as well as possibly direct marketing and person selling) internet marketing is gaining in popularity among companies. Social networks, like Facebook, Twitter and Linked are a huge reason people go online, and as I showed in this post, Americans spent over 900 million hours using social networks in June 2010 alone.

It only makes sense for companies to use social networks in an effort to achieve their marketing goals. Social networking, along with blogging, multimedia sharing, collaborating and providing entertainment on the internet has become a great way for companies to interact with fans and gain customer feedback, increase brand awareness and maybe even generate sales.

So why isn’t every company taking advantage of these online resources? Lots of reasons! A big one being there is a lack of direct ROI (return on investment) measurement that makes marketers wary that they are effectively generating sales for their company through social networking. Of course, it also takes a whole lot of time to do well, it may not have the support of upper management and in worse case scenario, it could lead to negative results.

According to a study done by WongDoody (yes, that’s the real name of a US marketing agency!), even the leading global brands who have the resources to effectively utilize social networking could use some improvement on the social networking juggernaut Facebook. That is, if they use it at all, which sixteen of the top 100 don’t!

In a study from February 2011, WongDoody evaluated the Facebook activity of the top 100 brands, as determined by Interbrand's Best Global Brands 2010 rankings. They found that the other 84 of the top 100 brands present on Facebook are most lacking in quality content and involvement techniques. For example, while 88% of the brands posted videos on their Facebook pages, the videos are, for the most part, television commercials. Not exactly specialized content to reward fans for “liking” your brand! They also found that only 66% of the brands actively reply to fan posts or comments, even though 82% of them solicit fan stories and comments! That means a third of the corporate Facebook users are missing an opportunity to interact with and engage fans, one of the biggest benefits of social media.

If you want to see WongDoody’s full report, click here.

So are these companies achieving their marketing goals for social networking? Probably not! If they are, they shouldn’t be, because interaction and engagement should be key goals for any social media campaign. But of the top 100 brands as determined by Interbrand's Best Global Brands 2010, which ones are using Facebook the best?

Well, according to Interbrand the Top Ten Brands in 2010 are:

1	Coca-Cola	70,452 ($m)
2	IBM	64,727 ($m)
3	Microsoft	60,895 ($m)
4	Google	43,557 ($m)
5	GE	42,808 ($m)
6	McDonald's	33,578 ($m)
7	Intel	32,015 ($m)
8	Nokia	29,495 ($m)
9	Disney	28,731 ($m)
10	Hewlett-Packard	26,867 ($m)

Compare this to the Top-10 brands on Facebook in the last month, according to SocialBakers, the “Heart of Facebook Statistics”, are:

#	Name	Fans	Growth
1.	Coca-Cola	22 766 262	+2.66%
2.	Starbucks	19 809 260	+1.91%
3.	Disney	17 532 937	+5.57%
4.	Oreo	16 900 504	+2.20%
5.	Red Bull	15 475 646	+2.98%
6.	Skittles	15 312 252	+2.58%
7.	Converse All Star	12 906 187	+2.88%
8.	Victoria's Secret	11 623 580	+2.53%
9.	Converse	11 463 147	+4.82%
10.	iTunes	10 610 203	+2.83%

Coca-Cola is on the top in both places, but that’s where the similarities end! Ok, if you look at the U.S. list McDonald’s is number 1 and in Canada they are number 6 in, but still. (In case your interested, globally Disney Pixar is #22, McDonalds is #23, Nokia is #54 and Google is #59. After that I stopped looking.)

So what makes a fan page like Starbuck’s so great? Especially since they don’t have the resources of the Top-10 global brands (they are actually rated #97 on the list of Best Global Brands 2010)? Well according to Mashable Starbuck’s content is varied, fun, and interesting. Their page “incorporates great videos, varied content, and has active engagement with the fans”, good and bad. Like one fan who uploaded a photo of a large box Starbucks used to send her 5 small stickers.

Facebook fan:

"I like Starbucks, but aren't we all trying to be a bit greener now a days?

Check out the big O box the company used to send me 5 stickers!!"

But even this comment is constructive, and Starbucks could use it to change its practice of sending out large boxes for small products. By allowing comments like these, they are making the most of their social networking. According to SocialBakers, Starbucks even responds to 58% of Wall Posts. Not bad, considering that if even 1% of their 19+ million fans leaves a comment, that's, well, a lot of posts!

So which companies are not using social networking effectively? Well, there are many more examples of companies using social networking poorly than using it well, but pretty much any company doing the opposite of what makes a good Facebook page! I also found this interesting list of the top 9-worst-ways-use-facebook-business, which included #7. Use a Profile Image That has a Poor Thumbnail. For example, the following businesses haven’t cropped theirs logos properly:

Not a huge mistake, but something to avoid.

Overall, I think companies can use social networking for a variety of goals, but to use it well is a different story. Companies need to research, plan, and constantly monitor their efforts to make sure they are really getting the most from their efforts. They need to interact with fans, engage them with content and make sure they are participating in a two-way conversation. These tips not only apply to Facebook pages, but also to the other social networking sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, or any of the other hundreds of others out there.

So what are you doing with your social networking? Do you deliver?
As the WongDoody report said, in the realm of social media,

"to compete with the very best brands in the world, there’s no room for hesitation"

Horrifically Good Movies

2011-02-26T16:23:00.000-08:00

If Hollywood is the Dream Factory, 2010 was the year of dreaming dangerously, a year when horror films had no monopoly on nightmares – Horrifically Good Movies (Macleans Magazine)

With the 83^rd annual Academy Awards coming up this Sunday, I thought it would be fun to write an Oscar related post this week, since that seems to be what everyone is talking about. However, since this week’s class actually involves doing a Vlog (video blog) – Cue gasp - I will do my best to make a video talking about an article I chose to discuss.

There are lots of articles and posts about the Oscars out there, but besides just listing the nominees, like the ones listed on the office Oscar website, I thought I would talk about something a little different. As you might know from this post, I like to read Macleans Magazine, and a while back I remember reading an article called Horrifically Good Movies that really stuck with me. It was about all the best movies of 2010, most of which have now been nominated for multiple awards, including Oscars.

This year I have actually managed to watch all the movies nominations for Best Picture, so I do know what the Macleans article is talking about. In case you are curious, the films nominated for Best Picture are: Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids are All Right, The King’s Speech, 127 Hours, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit, and Winter’s Bone. That’s 10 films, so it was quite the feat! I saw 6 in theaters, rented 2 and saw 2 online. In fact, I actually saw Inception and The Social Network twice, they were that good!

But check out the below video, to hear (literally!) my thoughts about what Macleans called, Horrifically Good Movies.

The Oscars are a huge event for the motion picture industry, and they draw large television audiences, whether it’s to check out who wins, who goofs their speech or just to see what people are wearing. According to BBM Canada, last year, the 82^nd annual Academy Awards broadcast and the Academy Awards Pre-show had an Average Minute Audience (AMA) of 5,889,000 and 3,678,000 people 2+ respectively. Nothing to laugh at, since this year’s Superbowl only gained an AMA of 6,537,000 in Canada.

So will you be watching this years show? Think any deserving movies were missed or nominated unfairly? Let me know!

For a list of all the nominations, check out this Oscar Ballot. For those interested, you can even print it out and use it at this years Oscar party!

RSS Feeds, a Top-Ten List

2011-02-15T17:02:00.000-08:00

According to a great article I read online called 7-tips-for-writing-a-killer-blogpost-that-actually-gets-read creating lists and bullets points is a great way to get readers attention and interest. Makes sense to me, but what sort of information can I put into a Top-10 List?

When thinking about what I like to do online, (besides checking Facebook) reading articles through my RSS reader came to mind. I love to browse articles and in my attempt to learn as much as I can around me, I’m currently subscribing to 97 separate feeds (but that includes 30 for my social media class) through my Google Reader.

My subscriptions cover a wide variety of topics, and so far, I’ve classified them into 16 different folders. This means I can minimize or maximize the folders, depending on which feeds I feel like reading. Since I have thousands of unread articles to check out, I tend to just click on “All items” so Google can decide what I should read first. In my limited amount of time, and since I tend to have a short attention span for online tasks, it’s perfect!

Click on the screen shot below to see what my Google Reader looks like.

My Google Reader

Never used an RSS reader? Well if you’re new to the technology, adding content is easy, its deciding what to add thats the difficult part.

I think the best way to start adding content is by adding feeds your interested in and deciding you want to gain from your reading. For me, it started with wanting to be up-to-date on news and fashion and now it has shifted towards marketing, an industry I’m trying to get in to. Adding subscriptions in your industry (or even subscribing to your own organization or its competitors) feeds is a good way to stay up-to-date on what’s going on at your work, (ie. Avoid looking like an idiot) in case your like me, and didn’t exactly get insider information from your boss. (eg. “What, we’re moving into a new market? When did we decide that??”) And of course, sometimes you just want to look at stuff that will make you laugh after a long day. Nothing wrong with that!

Personally, I have 16 folders, but these could really be narrowed down into 8 or 9 categories.

These are the categories I think everyone should have:

News
Events/Stuff to do
Commentary/Opinion pieces
Passion related feeds
Industry of choice feeds
Employer/competitors feeds
Blogs
Random fun stuff
Optional - Employment (ie. Job searches)

So if I had to choose only the best, more useful or most entertaining subscriptions in those categories, what would they be?

Here are my current Top 10 favourite RSS feeds:

Huffington Post (News) – The most up-to-date news article and stories from around the world. American, without being too American-y.
Mashable! (Industry related) - It seems like they update their content all the time, (how many people work for them? It’s amazing) and they include topical information in a variety of topics, from pop culture to business. Best of all, they often share interesting information and facts using “Infographics”. The best way to get a lot of information quickly. Smart and fun!
The Onion (News/Random fun stuff) – Sometimes I read their headlines and forget its not real news. Headlines like 'And Now For A Thrilling Tennis Season,' Nobody In Nation Says are funny, but also give you an idea about what the day’s news stories are.
Macleans (News/Commentary/Opinion pieces) – Because everybody needs a little Canadian content! I subscribe to other Canadian news feeds, but besides skimming the headlines, I don’t tend to read them very often. Macleans has some very good editorials, which are actually thought provoking. That’s where I got the glee article from for my last post.
The Bloggess (Blog) – Have you heard of her? A hilarious female blogger, who also had an advice column (which recently was discontinued) and sex column and multiple other internet outlets. One of her best articles was called: So I got a box in the mail filled with 80 body parts. A must read.
Fashionista (Passion) – Pretty much what it implies. Who are the The Most Influential People in New York Fashion including those in Marketing and Branding? You will just to have to read to find out!
Hacked IRL (Random fun stuff) – Pretty much just a summary of images from WIN and the Fail Blog, because sometimes you just need a no-brainer.
eMarketer (Industry related) – A feed I recently added. Interesting mix of social media, pop culture and technology articles.
Gizmodo (Industry related) – More based around technology than marketing, it is an interesting mix of the two, and a lot of brand insights.
Monster Job Search (Job search) – I think this site is better than www.workopolis.com but I’m undecided. I subscribe to job searches in both.

What do you think? Any categories I missed? My favourite feeds change all the time, depending on what I'm currently interested in, but I think the categories stay the same.

What are your favourite feeds? I’m always looking to add more!

Digging glee. Not the marketing

2011-02-09T11:11:00.000-08:00

A story that I recently posted on Digg was an article I found in Macleans called “Not much Glee over these slushies”. It caught my eye because it is about the hit show glee (which I watch) and their recent “slushie” marketing campaign.

If you don’t know anything about glee, it surrounds a bunch of American high school students who are part of “glee club”, a sort of show choir. It would be a pretty typical PG sitcom, except for all the singing (and dancing) the characters (and family, and staff, and guest stars) do. Which they make sure to include whenever possible. Even if it doesn’t really fit with the plot of the episode.

I started watching Glee sometime during the first season, at my friend’s recommendation. Sure it’s pretty cheesy sometimes, and yea, the plot lines aren’t very consistent, but its fun. It’s usually a good laugh and you know each episode will have some pretty catchy songs, remixes or mash-ups (my favourite).

The reason I wanted to share this article is because it is talking about the strange (if you watch the show) way glee is being promoted and the author brought up some interesting points. Glee is just coming back now after the recent winter break and last Sunday there was a special episode that aired right after the Superbowl. Of course they were promoting it like crazy.

The Macleans article used a photo from the recent campaign, which shows all the main characters throwing slushies at the camera. See below.

Cast of glee, slushie-ing

Side note, did any other glee fans notice that this shot is so airbrushed that they somehow managed to make Corey Monteith’s character (center) look like he could actually be in highschool? He's really 28.

The campaign includes magazine ads, cover shots, billboards, you name it.

Sure, it looks fun, with all the characters laughing and making funny faces while throwing the colourful drinks around, but this is much different than what actually happens in the show. During the show (and what Macleans describes in their article) being slushied is not fun. Obviously. It is done to the kids in glee as a form of bulling (because only “losers” are part of glee, although some of them – like the cheerleaders and football players would be popular otherwise) by the highschool jocks, usually football players. It is humiliating, and god knows if those stains will ever wash out.

In the show, being “slushied” looks more like this. Eek.

But so what, right? Advertising is rarely accurate interpretations of reality, as Dove showed in their great “Evolution” commercial. So why does the advertising of a TV show need to match what actually happens in said show?

Well what the Macleans article talks about is that while the show has been praised for its stand against gay-bashing and “the daily high school realities of bullying, discrimination and ignorance”, this show might be actually been promoting "slushie-ing". They reference an instance where bullies in a Toronto highschool actually used this technique, and they might have even gotten the idea from the show. Ouch.

The article argues the age old issue of whether people imitate what they see on television. I say sure they do. As far as the show goes, the bullies are very rarely punished for what they do (one of the gay characters, Kurt, was even bullied so badly he decided to leave the school) and since it always gets laughs on the show, I could see other teenagers in the real world doing it as well. (Hopefully with more consequences.)

So then why would the ads show that slushing is cool, if its not cool in the show, or in real life? I think this is a case where the marketing team is very disconnected from their product. The promotions are trying to make glee seem fun and carefree and with colourful images of young people joking around and having a good time, who wouldn't want to watch the show?

Yay slushies, right?

Well maybe this makes sense, until you actually watch the show. Sure, on the surface it’s about young people singing, and dancing, (and having fun while doing so) but on another level they are all dealing with problems that many teenagers have, being popular and fitting in, and what happens when you don’t. I wouldn’t say the show necessarily “takes a stand” against any big issues but it does try to bring to light the serious issues of homophobia and sexism (among others), and tell young people “it’s ok to be different”.That's certainly no where to be seen in this marketing campaign. Do they think that won't attract viewers?

So are these silly promotions actually working? Should they be? I haven't seen the ratings for the Superbowl episode yet, but I'm sure if they did gain audience its because of left over fans of the football game or just the die hard fans who have been following the show all along, and were excited to see their first episode back. Or hey, maybe people did tune in just to see what the whole slushie-ing thing is all about. Did you?

Cast of glee standing in slushies. Ridiculous :P

See the original Macleans article here.

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*Update - According to preliminary data released by BBM Canada, the special Superbowl glee episode that aired on Global was the 9th most watched show of the week (Jan.31st-Feb.6th) with an Average Minute Audience of 2,161,000 people 2+. It had an impressive Share % of 23.6.

This glee episode rated way above Flashpoint, which aired on CTV at the same time, and had an AMA of 1,317,000 (ranking it #25 of the week). You can check out the other ratings of the week here.

The Superbowl had an AMA of 6,537,000 in case you were interested. :)

1,000 social media days later...

2011-02-07T17:11:00.000-08:00

"This has affected us the same way it has affected the world. We are sad about this. We are all shocked about this. We are all horrified." - Joey Houssian

Joey Houssian, the 34-year-old owner of Outdoor Adventures Whistler, has finally come forward to speak with the media today, but is it too little too late?

This news comes 10 days after the news of the WorkSafe BC claim became public, which I wrote about in my last post. An eternity in social media time, news of the sled dog slaughter continues to spread across social media sites and OAW Whistler has been the target of much negative publicity, including boycotts, protests and even death threats issued towards the employee responsible for the slaughter.

In my post I thought a company spokesperson should have come forward sooner, but I am glad to know that they are finally attempting to talk to the public about this issue. Although not quite an apology, Houssian did extend his sympathy to his colleagues and their families, the community and the public, and says he shares in their grief. He also added,

“To everyone who is taking the time to pause, examine the available facts, and recognize the complexity of this matter before rushing to judgment, I extend my deepest appreciation."

I’m sure some things have been taken out of context by the media, and more facts will probably come to light, but nothing changes the fact that horrible things happened to those animals, and even the person responsible is suffering.

Houssian admits that the boycott being heard around the world through social media is probably hurting his business, but he plans to keep the company going.

Are you convinced? I don’t know if I am, but to the 34 year old, running a company that is in the middle of a major PR crisis, I’m sure there are only difficult roads ahead.

Photo by Claudia Kwan, Vancouver Sun

You can read the full letter to the editor, which will be published in today's Vancouver Sun, here.

Thanks to Ashley for updating me on this story.

Social Media – Helping or hurting businesses?

2011-02-04T14:05:00.000-08:00

Social media is being used more and more today, from individuals uploading a record of 750 million photos over New Year’s weekend, to businesses Tweeting about their products, to advertisers leaking Super Bowl commercials which make it onto YouTube, days before they were supposed to air. Although originally used as a research tool, Nielsen Wire has found that Americans now spend most of their time online using Social Networks or reading/writing Blogs.

Is anyone surprised? Should you be working and not reading this blog online right now?

So what does this really mean for businesses? Sure, using social media means companies can advertise and generate buzz around their products (so far that YouTube video above has generated over 5 million hits), interact with consumers and engage them in their brand like never before – but what should they do when the unthinkable happens? A story breaks about their company/brand that they don’t actually want people to know about, let alone share with their friends and network…

It’s a common public relations nightmare that many companies face today, from spokespeople making inappropriate comments on social media sites (a la the Kenneth Cole debacle where he used #Cairo to promote his new spring collection on Twitter) to governments worried about social media being used to facilitate a social uprising, (like the recent events in Tunisia and Egypt has shown). Closer to home, the recent news that an Outdoor Adventure employee slaughtered 100 sled dogs in Whistler after business slumped after the 2010 Olympic Games, has spread like wildfire through social media sites and made international news. Well it made it into the Huffington Post and the NYTimes, so it’s pretty much international news.

I won’t go into the grizzly details of the sled dog tragedy here, because it breaks my heart (and to be honest, I’ve tried to avoid reading all the articles about it, because they go into some horrific details of what happened), but needless to say, the only reason it made it into the public sphere is that the employee was so traumatized by the events that he applied for and was granted WorkSafe BC compensation on January 28^th after developing post traumatic stress disorder. These documents were obtained by local news organizations, and the rest is history.

So what should a company do if this happens to them? I’m no PR expert, but I was always told the best thing to do after a PR nightmare (ie. a “mess up”) was to “fess up” and “dress up” the situation in order to make amends. And in today’s fast paced society, the quicker the better.

Shortly after realizing his mistake (it took about an hour later), Kenneth Cole removed the offensive Tweet from Twitter and posted this:

And less than a day later, this:

Which is a link to his (slightly) more genuine apology on his Facebook page:

“I apologize to everyone who was offended by my insensitive tweet about the situation in Egypt. I’ve dedicated my life to raising awareness about serious social issues, and in hindsight my attempt at humor regarding a nation liberating themselves against oppression was poorly timed and absolutely inappropriate.”

He (or his employees) continued to link to this apology in response to angry fans comments on his fan page, and on Twitter but this didn’t stop #boycottKennethCole and #KennethCole from trending, and from a fake @KennethColePR twitter account from starting, similar to the @BPGlobalPR account that went viral last May. The criticism keeps coming, but at least he responded to the situation pretty quickly, and made an apology. Time will tell if this will actually translate to a decrease in Kenneth Cole's sales in the future.

Photo by Amr Abdallah Dalsh, Reuters

At the other end of the spectrum is what happened in Egypt, where the authoritarian government completely blocked the internet (and cell phone text messaging including Twitter) on January 25^th, only hours before large planned protests were to take place. Although this is one way to stop people from communicating and spreading negative messages on social media sites, resourceful people turned to dial-up systems, and a couple days later Google stepped up to provide a Voice-to-Twitter service. The protests continued, and 5 days after it was shut down, internet service was returned. One has to wonder how successful this was in solving President Hosni Mubarak’s ultimate PR problem.

As for Outdoor Adventures Whistler (OAW), they released a statement on January 31st, (3 days after the compensation report was released) denying they had any knowledge that the dogs were going to be killed in such a manner and refuting media reports that OAW “[instructed] the General Manager to carry out the cull in the manner described in the report”. There was no apology, and little in the terms of “fessing up” to such a horrific transgression.

As a result of the WorkSafe BC report coming to light, the BC SPCA begun a “cruelty investigation”, the RCMP opened a police file and assigned an investigator and Premier Gordon Campbell (who is still working, even though he has formally resigned) has assembled task force which will be headed by Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Terry Lake, who is also a veterinarian. In a Vancouver Sun article, Campbell said he doesn’t believe the dogsledding industry is properly regulated at present and this is something where “people would like to see more oversight.” I think that is an understatement.

Since the January 26th, Google has had a huge increase in searches for “sled dogs” and the most common terms searched are “sled dogs whistler” and “sled dogs killed”, mostly in BC and Ontario. See the graph by Google Insights for Search below.

If you are an active user of Facebook, you would also notice the Facebook groups: Boycott-Outdoor-Adventures-Whistler-for-their-slaughter-of-100-dogs and support-justice-for-the-100-slaughtered-sled-dogs-of-whistler as well as the status update:

“Because I respect the rights of animals and demand that humans treat them humanely, I am changing my facebook picture to a photo of my pet, to raise awareness of the 100 dogs that were executed in Whister, BC and in support of the SPCA who is investigating this disgusting incident - I encourage you to do the same”.

On Twitter, the @Justice4sleddog account was started, which links to their Facebook petition at the support-justice page as well the categories #sleddogs, #whistler and #animalrights being tweeted quite frequently. As you can see below in the Trends in Twitter, Tweets for #sleddog peaked on February 3^rd.

So what did OAW do next? I’m sure they wish they could shut down social media sites, to stop the spread such negative publicity, but they are not so lucky. On February 1st they released a statement saying they had voluntarily suspended operations of Howling Dog Tours Whistler Inc. as they conducted own investigation “to determine the facts”. As of today, if you try to go to OAW Dogsled page, you will get this message:

The link goes to their Media page, which just has a copy of all their new releases, also found on the Canadian News Wire site (posted above) and includes their latest release from February 2^nd, called a Joint Statement from Robert Fawcett and Outdoor Adventures at Whistler Ltd. It states that Outdoor Adventures at Whistler Ltd. and former General Manager, Howling Dog Tours Whistler Inc. agree to the following:

The number of dogs euthanized (estimating 50 dogs)
The condition of the dogs euthanized ("too old" or "sick" and "not adoptable")
The efforts made to arrange for dogs to be adopted (adoption were not as successful as hoped)
The instructions given concerning the manner of euthanizing the dogs (no instructions)

Not exactly a friendly message, especially if you haven’t heard about the tragedy, and genuinely wanted to research dog sledding!! I couldn’t find any statements that OAW had released besides these, and it doesn’t look like they want to talk to the media any time soon!

Because of this, social media is definitely hurting OAW's business, and will continue to do so, until the level of public outrage decreases, because either or OAW makes a better attempt to deal with this situation, or because they are torn apart by the investigations. In my opinion, OAW is handling this situation terribly, and should at minimum, make a public apology (“fess up”) and try to resolve this situation in a more accountable, and transparent way. I doubt the General Manager who is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress is up to such a task, so it should fall on the head of OAW, whomever that might be. They are not mentioned in any of the news releases.

OAW should take a page out of Maple Leaf Foods book, as when they were at the centre of the listeriosis crisis that claimed the lives of 22 people in 2008, the firm's CEO, Michael McCain, held press conferences and posted an apology on their web site. A company spokesperson did interviews in a wide range of media and the company ran advertisements on TV and in newspapers. Their stock prices recovered (if not completely to the same level as pre October 2008) and they have mostly recovered their image.

It seems like all the companies associated with OAW (even those who don’t want to be!) have released personal messages to the public, including Craig Daniell, Chief Executive Officer for the BC SPCA; Tom Benson, Chief Experience Officer of WildPlay Ltd. (another adventure group in Whistler); Barrett Fisher, President & CEO, Tourism Whistler and Craig Beattie, General Manager, Canadian Snowmobile and Canadian Dogsled Adventures Ltd and I’m sure the list will grow with time. So why hasn’t OAW??

Overall, I think social media is great for communicating a message, but like Facebook and Twitter didn't cause the uprising in Egypt, it can only shape the narrative (which can decrease a businesses sales or share value) and put pressure on the government and other organizations to make a change in the legislation or laws. In the end, I think social media can only help or hurt a business (or a presidency!) so much, from there it is up to the people to do something, in the real world.

Let's hope when all the reports about the dog slaughter in Whistler are released by the BCSPCA, RCMP and provincial task force, it brings about some positive changes to the dog sledding industry, where many animals meet a similar fate.

Photograph by: Claudia Kwan, Special to the Vancouver Sun

The BC SPCA conducts nearly 6,000 cruelty investigations a year and is reliant on donations from the public to continue its work. Your gift can help support investigations and bring abusers to justice. Please donate today. I do!!

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*Update - On Saturday, February 5th a group of around 70 people rallied in Whistler for a "funeral procession" to remember the slaughtered sled dogs. Some in the demonstration held signs with slogans such as "Stop Animal Cruelty, saying they want Canada to enact tougher animal cruelty laws. They brought their pet dogs along as they met near a kiosk belonging to OAW, which has since removed its sign, and added security guards.

More about "Stupid"

2011-01-30T13:53:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to write a response to Justine's comments on my last post, and elaborate on what I thought about Diesel's "Be Stupid" campaign.

Justine made a good point about the word “stupid” being used for another media campaign, but in a totally different context. The Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion and Sport also have sort of PSA’s (public service announcements) about why quitting is “stupid” and have their own stupid.ca website. I remember seeing these commercials on TV and print ads on the bus, and like she said, they do “equate smoking with the traditional sense of the word, to be dumb, dimwitted, mentally slow, not bright”. However, I wonder how successful this campaign is? I know teen smoking is a lot lower than it used to be, but in my opinion, the think the typical ads the government uses to dissuade teens from smoking were never very effective. I think the stupid.ca campaign is typical of government PSAs that use simple language and follow the “traditional” fear tactics. Did you visit their website? It actually isn’t its own website, but linked to through the Ontario government’s site. Its actual link is: http://www.mhp.gov.on.ca/en/youth/stupid/index.asp, and in my opinion, the site is not that interesting to navigate through, check it out.

What I think Diesel is trying to do (whether it appeals to you personally or not) is be different, and change the definition of the word. Stupid is a loaded word in English (and many other languages as well) and typically has a negative connotation. It has many meanings, and can be used as a noun, adjective or adverb but according to Dictionary.com, stupid can be defined as “lacking in common sense, perception, or normal intelligence” and “trivial, silly, or frivolous” as well as what I think you were referring to: “having dull mental responses; slow-witted”. I think with so many meanings, there is a lot you can mean by when you say the word, as Diesel pointed out in their “Stupid Philosophy”.

Like Justine pointed out, people typically equate “Stupid” with the “having dull mental responses; slow-witted” definition, as show by the guys who participated in the “Jackass” TV show and movies (they also have their own video game too by the way). However, according to IMDB (the Internet Movie Data Base) Jackass: The Movie grossed $11,125,224, Jackass Number Two grossed $18,755,517 and Jackass 3D Grossed $117,224,271, all in the USA alone. That means their movies alone grossed over $147 million dollars, from ticket sales alone, not to mention video rentals and merchandise for a relatively low budget films.

Would making these movies be equated with “lacking in common sense, perception, or normal intelligence”? Maybe physically, but not from a financial perspective! I think this would fit perfectly with what Diesel said: “Smart may have the brains…but stupid has the balls”. Johnny Knoxville and his friends were willing to do “stupid things” (ie. Because of their “dull mental responses”) on film to entertain their fans and it paid off. I’m sure they love what they do, and I think this is their way of pursuing a “regret free life”.

Justine also made the point that “stupid is the definitive path to a life full of regret, isn’t it? When you make bad, stupid decisions, you regret them, no?” but I wouldn’t agree. Of course you could do things that are “stupid” because you are “slow-witted” but I think you learn from all your mistakes. There’s a reason for the saying “whatever doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger” because you learn to a.) not make the same mistake again or b.) how to do things better next time or c.) grow from the experience and become a stronger person because of it. I don’t think you should chose to do things you will regret later, but once they are done, I think regret is a waste of time.

I think some decisions I’ve made are “stupid” (ie. “Silly”) like when I decided not to take Math 12 in high school because “I didn’t want to have a degree/career where I would ever need Math 12” because, sure I ended up having to take it as a prerequisite for one of my 3^rd year courses at University, and it was a pain. But because of that, I had to take the Math 12 equivalent course at the local college (Camosun) and it was quite the experience. No regrets there. And I know in my life, I’ve made some decisions that are “stupid” (ie. “lacking in common sense”) like living with one of my boyfriends in university after dating for only 6 months, but I learned a lot, and would never want to “take it back”.

So although Diesel only created this campaign to sell jeans etc., I do support their “stupid” campaign and believe they have some words to live by. That being said as “stupid” does have so many meanings that I think one has to be careful not to just take them at their word that being “stupid” (ie. “slow-witted”) is “cool”, like Brittany S. Pears on Glee. It is important to be intelligent, and learn, but by doing it in a “stupid” way, (ie. “lacking in common sense, perception, or normal intelligence”) is ok with me. Don’t do things because you worry about what people will think about you, do them because you want to, even if its “stupid”.

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*Please note that I have not been paid by Diesel to write this post, and neither do I own, or ever plan to own anything made by Diesel. Unless one day I do. In which case it has nothing to do with this "stupid" (ie. trivial, silly, or frivolous) post.

My Social Media Personality

2011-01-28T11:32:00.000-08:00

I would describe my social media personality as social, personal (honest) and opinionated. I like to share information I learn, give my personal, honest, opinions on subjects and usually chose a side rather than just sit on the fence regarding issues.

The marketing industry tries to tell stories to make their brands more personal, so that is what I'm going to try to do with my blog. Marketing today is synonymous with social media, and creating connections while interacting and engaging with users, so I think being personal is a very important part of building a brand in today's world. I think opinionated blogs are more interesting to read, so I will try to do this (without being too offensive I hope!) to keep my readers entertained.

If I could relate myself to any current social media campaign, it would be the Italian Fashion brand Diesel’s campaign called "Be Stupid". At first it sounds like they are trying too hard to be "counter-culture", but according to Diesel representatives, “'Be Stupid' is not an ad campaign, it's a manifesto." They say Stupid = Brave, and have a great video describing their philosophy…

“Stupid is the relentless pursuit of a regret free life...The stupid isn’t afraid to fail. The stupid know there are worse things than failure… like not even trying.”

Their new campaign includes videos and print ads, an interactive website as well as the social media aspects of branded programs with Twitter, FourSquare and Facebook and a mix of blogger relations (whatever that means). Its honest, a little harsh (like I tend to be) and it certainly has stated its opinion clearly (“Smart may have the brains…but stupid has the balls”.) And it doesn’t hurt that they sell some pretty cool jeans, clothing and accessories and the side. Their slogan for their women’s denim collection this season is “Don’t just be cool, be powerful”. As a strong woman myself, it’s hard not to like that!

Some of their print ads go a little far with their “sexy” imagery, but I still like the message. I think sometimes people try to hard to be "smart", that they forget to live a little, and make mistakes. Some people may say getting a Bachelors of Arts degree in today’s technologically based society is stupid, but I don’t regret it for one minute. “The smart might recognize things for how they are. The stupid see things for how they could be”.That me, the constant dreamer.

I think it’s hard to find many media campaigns today that really pushes the envelope, so kudos to Diesel for trying something different. And like they say, “Stupid is trial and error. Mostly error” so at least they can always reference this, if something goes wrong with the campaign!

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Diesel’s Stupid Philosophy

Like balloons, we are filled with hopes and dreams. But over time a single sentence creeps into our lives. Don’t be stupid. It’s the crusher of possibility. It’s the world’s greatest deflator. The world is full of smart people. Doing all kind of smart things… That’s smart.

Well, we’re with stupid. Stupid is the relentless pursuit of a regret free life. Smart may have the brains…but stupid has the balls. The smart might recognize things for how they are. The stupid see things for how they could be. Smart critiques. Stupid creates. The fact is if we didn’t have stupid thoughts we'd have no interesting thoughts at all.

Smart may have the plans… but stupid has the stories. Smart may have the authority but stupid has one hell of a hangover. It’s not smart to take risks… It’s stupid. To be stupid is to be brave. The stupid isn’t afraid to fail. The stupid know there are worse things than failure… like not even trying.

Smart had one good idea, and that idea was stupid. You can’t outsmart stupid. So don’t even try. Remember only stupid can be truly brilliant.

So, BE STUPID

Thats me!

Transparency in todays social world

2011-01-21T15:42:00.000-08:00

When many people in the public think about the marketing industry, they think it’s all about advertising trying to convince you need something you don’t need. Like used car salespeople, they lie and try to make a crappy product seem like a good deal because they are only out to make money at all costs, and don’t care about your rights as consumer. Transparency, what transparency?

What people don’t usually think about is all the laws and standards that have been developed over time to protect consumers from false advertising and increase transparency in the industry. The ASC or Ad Standards Canada recently caught my eye when they came out with their “Truth in Advertising Matters” campaign which asserts “Dressing it up doesn’t make it true”. They released TV commercials like the "I was going to the library" one, which is actually kind of funny.

The ASC works with 150 advertisers, agencies, media organizations and suppliers to develop Code of Standards and are committed to truth, fairness and accuracy in advertising – but you still have to wonder about if they need to advertise that fact. And does anyone really believe the iPad is “Magical” as stated in this TV commercial? Current, yes. Literary, sure. But magical?? Somehow, I think not.

But mediums like TV (and radio before it), and magazine (and newspaper) advertising has been around a long time. People are skeptical, and know marketers often exaggerate the benefits of their products (like this fake ad for Powerthirst shows). But for those gullible enough to believe everything they hear, there are now standards, and laws, and advertisers can’t just come up with a product that makes false claims (Apple example excluded) without consequences. Marketers need to be transparent, and state that they advertising a product, and not claim to be an unbiased source.

So what does being transparent really mean? According to a blog Shel Holz wrote, transparency is:

“[T]he degree to which a company shares its leaders, employees, values, culture, strategy, business processes and the results of those processes with its publics. It’s the opposite of opacity, in which companies operate behind closed doors and shuttered windows."

So what about all the new mediums companies chose to use to engage and interact with its fans or consumers? Fewer laws that govern the way the internet, mobile phones and social media applications are regulated, but does that mean transparency doesn’t matter?

According to Tish Grier, who wrote about Transparency in Social Media: Ethical Considerations in Marketing for her blog The Constant Observer, there are two levels of transparency which are important for companies to follow, that also supports the fact that social media needs to be authentic. The first level of transparency is vendor to client, where it should be disclosed if some parts of social media are outsourced or written by the consultant. In other words, be clear in the kind of services you offer. The second level of transparency is from client to customer, and she says it should be fully disclosed if the content is being created not by someone who is directly affiliated with the company, but by a representative or contractor for the client. The FTC Endorsement Guides mean that if someone takes payment to write on a blog they must disclose that they were paid but also if someone is hired to blog for a company, it should be disclosed that the content produced is coming from someone outside of the company.

Grier states “Are you willing to risk the customer relationships you could be cultivating through social media, and perhaps risk your company's reputation, by sacrificing transparency with both your clients and their customers?”

I would hope not. Transparency and authenticity is important to all companies and brands trying to build relationships with its fans or customers. Just like hiding the truth from friends can create problems in your social relationships, lying to your customers or fans can also damage your business relationships.

The most obvious example I can think of is all the trouble Facebook has got into with its privacy laws. When the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada released a report in 2009 stating Facebook breaches Canadian privacy law, the CBC reported “its main concern was that users could not always give "meaningful consent" to the use of their personal information due to a lack of transparency on the site” and although they provide some information about privacy issues, “it is often confusing or incomplete".

Some people were outraged, some didn’t care. A national “Quit Facebook Day” (which has its own website quitfacebookday.com) was organized, but it mainly fell flat. However, it did bring attention to the transparency problems of the popular social media site, and all the negative publicity might have been enough for Facebook to actually take action.

On February 26, 2009 Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Facebook) posted a blog on Facebook called Governing the Facebook Service in an Open and Transparent Way, updating users on the progress of the new Terms of Use. He wrote, “We decided we needed to do things differently and so we're going to develop new policies that will govern our system from the ground up in an open and transparent way.” And they introduced two new additions to Facebook: the Facebook Principles and the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. This helped quiet some of the disputes people had with Facebook, but I’m sure there is more for them to do, not to mention all the other social media platforms out there.

Of course there are limits to transparency, and I’m sure Facebook would argue that it doesn’t want all its trade secrets known, or it would loose its competitive advantage. Others companies market products around their mystique or “cool” factor, and if we all knew how iPads were created in bleak factories in China, they might loose some if their “magical” appeal. Sure, in theory it’s up to the courts to decide how transparent companies need to be, but with technology changing so quickly, it is tough for laws to keep up.

For example, there is little transparency in the mobile industry, and in many cases, smartphone app developers send collected data to third parties for profit, without their owners knowledge. TPM recently wrote an article called Mobile Apps Come With Huge Privacy Loopholes, Little Transparency which pointed out that Apps running on the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry platforms often collect personal information to be resold to marketing companies and initiatives such as Google's AdMob. This was in response to a report released by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) entitled Your Apps Are Watching You that showed how iPhone and Android apps are breaching the privacy of smartphone users and sending a mobile phone's unique device ID, location and other personal details to other companies without users' awareness or consent. This article pointed out that although ad sales on phones account for less than 5% of the $23 billion in annual Internet advertising, but “spending on mobile ads is growing faster than the market overall”. Something for marketers and consumers alike to think about.

So of course it is important for social media sites to be transparent and authentic while connecting with fans or consumers, but what I think the real thing people need to remember is that consumers are part of the process, and, so they need to demand transparency from marketing and other organizations. Similar to the saying “ignore your rights and they will go away” people need to pay attention and care (!) about what companies are doing, or they will only become more closed door, and “opaque”.

Social media only succeeds because of us, so collectively, I hope we can agree that transparency matters!

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Update: The new Apple commercial now refers to the iPad as "Amazing" and not "Magical". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP8wKtFA4Io

About me

2011-01-11T17:59:00.000-08:00

My name is Victoria, and although I am a full time student right now, I love being social as much as I can. I love asking questions, getting to know people and exploring the world around me. For me, this means learning and absorbing as much as I can, which lead me to obtaining my BA in Psychology at UVic in 2007. I love learning about the mental processes and behaviour of people, so even though I had no clear career aspirations at the time, I knew it was the right fit for me.

After graduating university I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but I ended up getting a job for a Market Research company. Although I wouldn’t exactly call my job Psychology related, (it involved a lot of “free time”, where I honed my online reading skills) it did develop my interest in marketing. After all, isn’t marketing just one big social experiment, with money on the line, and power and politics getting in the way? After putting in a solid 2 years at my job, I decided it was time to go back to school and decided to complete my Marketing Management certificate in Communications at BCIT.

About this blog...

I love using technology, and primarily the internet, as a tool for learning and connecting with people and I always like to try out the newest applications; from MSN Messenger in the ‘90’s to Google Chat today, and from Hi5 in the early ‘00s to Facebook today. My current obsession is with Google Reader, which lets me keep track of the over 40 different websites/bloggers I subscribe to via their RSS feeds. Despite all this learning and absorbing, I’ve never had the time (or desire) to start a blog to actually share what I've been learning/thinking/observing. That’s about to change!

With the recent popularity of Social Media, I’ve realized it is the ultimate combination of my love of social processes, psychology and marketing. I hope to use this blog to share all my observations and thoughts and start conversations about the information I come across in my day to day life, not only in social media, but marketing and current events. I love asking "why??" and trying to find out what makes people and organizations tick. I also know from taking online courses at BCIT that connecting with people about meaningful topics can be very rewarding, and I hope to combine the two!

In the future...

After finishing my certificate at BCIT I hope to find work in the Marketing sector, and I want to use this blog to work on developing my personal brand. So all you companies out there, looking for an eager, educated, social addict, look no further!

Socially yours,

Victoria