Being the lone line of defence when pretty much everyone’s after your blood is a thankless task that no-one should have to face, but Scott Monty of auto manufacturer Ford proves it can be done. As the lone social media face of the US car giant, Scott probably has one of the toughest jobs around at the minute: – He has to face negativity surrounding his employers and their part in the auto-bailout – He has to show social media’s…

Welcome to a first for me (and many others, it would seem). The Social Media Goes Gonzo blog carnival was suggested to me by fellow blogger and provider of invaluable information Kilroy_60. Host of numerous carnivals himself, this is the first social media one and he asked yours truly if I’d be interested in hosting it. So, here we are. The idea behind the carnival is to take you on a journey through the social media blogosphere, and introduce you…

Image by Clearly Ambiguous via Flickr Recently, I found a blog post from Paul Seaman, a  PR professional from Zurich, Switzerland. In it, Paul makes predictions about the future of social media and how it will fit in with traditional media and PR. At the time, while I agreed with some of his points I also disagreed with quite a few. I posted a link to the article on Twitter and asked for people’s opinions. The responses were varied, but…

Image by ATENCION: via Flickr Let me ask you a question – what’s your view of the PR industry? It doesn’t matter if you’re involved in it professionally, someone that uses its services or just an average person on the street – is it a positive or negative view? I’m guessing that the majority of views about the industry I love and work in are fairly negative. There’s the belief that we’re charlatans who are just after a client’s money,…

Image via Wikipedia Can you remember when television was called the root of all evil? How it was blamed for desensitizing kids and breaking up the family fibre? American author and cultural critic Neil Postman wrote a book about it in 1985, called Amusing Ourselves to Death. Postman’s argument was that television lessened the educational growth of people, as well as dumbed down arguments, by going for entertainment and images over political discourse and more serious issues. While there’s no…

Image via Wikipedia I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I’m a bona-fide geek who has a lifetime subscription to the comic book industry and fantasy creators everywhere. I’m not ashamed of it (although my wife may laugh and tell me to grow up), and I also know it’s not for everyone. It is for me, though. Yet before you join in the laughter (if you’re about to – maybe you’re a fellow geek too?), let me…

A little while back, I sent out a request via Twitter asking if anyone would be interested in being interviewed for a discussion on social media. With the medium meaning so many different things to so many people, as well as how it can be used, I was interested to hear the views of the people I connect with. My original plan was to run a “round table” style of blog post – raise the questions and then have a…

Image by bryancrump via Flickr If you’ve got teenage kids, you’re probably aware of Twilight. Even if you don’t have teenagers, or aren’t even parents at all, it’s pretty hard to miss the pop culture phenomenon that is the Twilight saga. Set over four books, it’s the tale of a love story between a teenage human girl and a teenage vampire boy. It’s not the greatest of stories and critics have complained about author Stephenie Meyer’s’ writing style, but none…

Now that the 12for12k Challenge has officially launched, it’s beginning to catch the imagination of the media. The challenge has already been featured in the Mississauga News in the Greater Toronto Area, and the press release is being picked up by various online media outlets. On top of that, I will be interviewed on Toronto news station CityNews by CityNews reporter Kris Reyes. The interview will take place on the morning of Thursday 8th January, with probable airing time that…

Part of my background is in corporate telecoms, from my days working in the UK before I moved to Canada. Also, my wife works at the biggest business telecommunications solutions provider in Canada – so between us we know how cut-throat and competitive the telecoms industry is. Koodo Mobile is a new company whose sole aim is to take on the established mobile providers in Canada – Bell, Telus, Rogers and others – and offer simpler, less constrictive options: No…