I’m not too keen on using this blog as an advertisement. It’s one of the reasons you don’t see any affiliate banners, badges or sponsored posts. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that – it’s just not for me. Today, I need to change this. But don’t worry – it’s just a one-off, so hope you don’t mind too much. A little back story. I’m in Canada, having arrived here Christmas 2006. I applied for my residency and it’s…

When you’re selling something, how do you do it? Are you keeping it simple or are you overselling? In other words, are you using translation marketing or not? In his post today, Chris Brogan discusses the sales cycle and where social media fits into it. Prospects, awareness, leads, customers and evangelists. All great stuff and well worth reading. But that’s internal talk. Yes, the aim is to take that internal talk and transfer it to external listeners. But when you’re…

The advertising industry is like many other creative industries at the minute. Advertisers are looking at new ways to reach their audiences as the print industry continues to suffer and new mediums challenge ad agencies to think differently. Some agencies are doing this better than others by letting real people tell real stories. Instead of going for a celebrity endorsement, Visa Europe opted to go with Brooklyn-based artist Bill Shannon as part of their Life Flows Better campaign. Bill was…

A little while back, I shared some tools with you that I thought helped enhance the community spirit for bloggers.  One of those tools was Scribnia, which I described as your “personal feed recommendation”. Having sat down with it a little more since then, it’s clear that it’s a lot more than that. At its simplest, Scribnia allows members to find blogs and authors and rate them. So far, so what? After all, BlogCatalog offers the same feature with their…

Social media is great. Social media brings people together. Social media opens the conversation. Social media puts you in the eyes of the world. Social media gives you a voice. All true. All valid. All beneficial. But what happens when the eyes that social media puts you in front of aren’t the friendly kind? What happens when being transparent in social media opens you up to harassment, abuse and virtual stalking? Sadly it’s a very real problem. Even sadder, some…

…over at John Haydon’s blog today and tomorrow. After having my blog hijacked by the mysterious Jack Tweet, I’ve finally managed to get around his firewall and take back control. While I give the blog a thorough search for any hidden clownware, I’ll be looking after John’s blog while he’s at the SobCON event over in Chicago. Feel free to drop on by and say hello.

Title: Social Mastermind / Social Media for Social Change Location: Toronto, ON Link out: Click here Description: As a part of the Net Change Week line up helping social change organizations harness social tools, Social Mastermind / Social Media for Social Change looks to pair social media experts with social change agents for direct consultation, advice and strategic planning. On June 10th 10-4pm at MaRS participating charities will be paired with a team of volunteer gurus representing different areas of…

The best strategies have an exit plan. These are the thresholds that say, “Okay, we tried but it’s not working.” Can you adapt something that isn’t working? Did you plan for all eventualities? Do you have an exit strategy? If so, what’s your threshold?

The best strategies have an exit plan. These are the thresholds that say, “Okay, we tried but it’s not working.” Can you adapt something that isn’t working? Did you plan for all eventualities? Do you have an exit strategy? If so, what’s your threshold?