Canadians hit the Power 150

• • No Tags

AdAge Power150 from Tod Andrelik

It was great to see many Canadian marketing and PR blogs show up on the AdAge Power150 developed by Todd Andrlik. The current list includes:

  • Adgoodness: Frederick Samuel showcases the best (and sometimes the worst) advertising the world has to offer.
  • One Degree: A Canadian take on Internet marketing featuring the views of a stellar cast of Canadian marketing practitioners.
  • Canuckflack: Long-time blogger Colin McKay draws from his eclectic interests to comment on all things online that interest him. And he shows just how interesting a sharp mind can be in the process.
  • Twist Image: Mitch Joel, Canada’s “mini-Seth,” blogs, podcasts, speaks and in the process creates a one man promotion industry. His enthusiasm is infectious.
  • Blogging Me Blogging You: Ed Lee knocks down the barriers between PR and digital media. Ed’s a transplanted Brit, but we’re happy to claim him as ours now.
  • My Name is Kate: Online marketer Kate Trgovac has two blogs on the Power150: One Degree and her personal blog, My Name is Kate. She clearly knows something that the rest of us want to figure out.
  • CrapHammer: Sean Howard has sent his blog into rapid ascent through edgy content and strong SEO.
  • thefruitsofimagination: a blog written by the employees of Leo Burnett Toronto. And agency blog! Why aren’t more companies doing this?

I have to confess that I was unfamiliar with some of these blogs. That’s one of the good things about lists like the Power150. Whether you agree with the rankings or the methodology or even the implicit competition (who can really deny being tickled to be on a list like this?), these lists expose us not only to the well established, but also to new voices who are making a mark.

I’d never come across Adgoodness, CrapHammer or thefruitsofimagination. But, as a result of discovering them on the list, I’ve subscribed to each. So the time I spent looking at the Power150 has yielded the return of discovery of three new blogs. That’s a pretty good ROI for a Sunday afternoon.

Gnomedex – What happened to Joe's live blogging?

• • No Tags

logo If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’re probably wondering why I’m not live blogging Gnomedex the same way I’ve liveblogged previous conferences.

Well, I’m trying something new. I’ve been carrying my video camera with me and grabbing interviews with some of the more interesting speakers and participants. So far, I’ve got video clips with Robert Scoble, Josh Hallett, Jeremy Wright, Darren Barefoot, and Chris Heuer. But if you’ve seem some of the videos I’ve already done, you know that I’m not yet very adept at production. And video production does take more time than writing.

I will post about Gnomedex over the next several days as I edit and produce the clips.

Technorati Tags: ,

Third Tuesday Vancouver is going to happen

• • No Tags

Third Tuesday Vancouver organizersIt looks like the Third Tuesday Vancouver social media series of monthly events is a go. A dozen social media folks came out Monday evening to discuss bringing the events to Vancouver. At the end of the evening, new friendships had been made and the group agreed to launch the series.

Just before leaving Vancouver, I grabbed a quick video interview with Tod Maffin talking about Third Tuesday in Vancouver. I’ll post that as soon as I’m able to upload the video.

In the meantime, you can find out more by joining the Third Tuesday Facebook group or by joining the Third Tuesday Vancouver group on Meetup.com. Tod has also created a Google Group.

Thanks to Tod Maffin, Tanya Davis, Jacqueline Voci, Kate Trgovac, John Biehler, Christine Rondeau, Steve Palmer, Michelle Sullivan (on loan from Montreal for the summer), Allyson McGrane, and Shane Birley for coming out for the session. It was great meeting you. The discussion showed again just how vigorous Vancouver’s social media community is.

I’m looking forward to coming out for Third Tuesday Vancouver sessions whenever I can make it to the west coast.

CBC blogging & Facebook policies

• • No Tags

The Inside the CBC Blog reports on the introduction by Canada’s national broadcaster of two new policies governing use of social media by employees.

CBC’s Facebook policy

“The CBC is directing its journalists to avoid adding sources or contacts as “Facebook friends,” and to not post their political leanings on their profile.

It’s part of a short policy document distributed to CBC journalists surrounding the use of popular social networking site Facebook.com.”

CBC tells employees their personal blogs must be approved by management

“Any CBC employee who wants to start a personal blog which “clearly associates them with CBC/Radio-Canada” now requires their supervisor’s permission, according to a new policy document.”

According to Inside the CBC, “this rule applies ‘not only to CBC/Radio-Canada journalists but to any corporation employee.’”

Hang on. This sounds a lot like the policy adopted last autumn by Canada’s Armed Forces. That policy states that, “CF MEMBERS ARE TO CONSULT WITH THEIR CHAIN OF COMMAND BEFORE PUBLISHING CF-RELATED INFORMATION AND IMAGERY TO THE INTERNET, REGARDLESS OF HOW INNOCUOUS THE INFORMATION MAY SEEM.”

OK. I can accept that the army might want to go to this extreme. After all, as their policy states, the inadvertent release of sensitive information about operations could put lives at risk: “OPERATIONAL SECURITY IS PARAMOUNT. IT IS INCUMBENT UPON ALL CF MEMBERS TO CONSIDER THE POTENTIAL FOR CREATING RISK TO THEMSELVES, THEIR FAMILIES, THEIR PEERS, AND THE MISSION BY PUBLISHING INFORMATION TO THE INTERNET. SUCH INFORMATION OR IMAGERY MAY, EITHER INDIVIDUALLY OR IN CONJUNCTION WITH OTHER INFORMATION, PROVIDE EXPERT ANALYSTS INSIGHTS INTO CF CURRENT OPERATIONS, EQUIPMENT, CAPABILITIES, TACTICS, AND INTENTIONS, OR MAY PROVIDE INFORMATION THAT PUTS PERSONNEL IN SPECIALIST ROLES OR THEIR FAMILIES AT RISK.”

But what is at stake with the CBC? Not lives. The embarrassment of senior management?

In this case, it looks like the CBC wants to roll the clock back to an earlier era when managers believed they could control communications. (I emphasize “believed,” because communicators know that we’ve never really controlled anything.) It’s incredible to think that an organization that gathers news every day from countless sources – authorized and unauthorized – would believe that a policy like this will achieve anything other than to make them look foolish.

How long will this policy stand before wiser heads retract it?

Terry Fallis talks about Inside PR

• • No Tags

Inside PRTerry Fallis and David Jones have been nominated for a Podcast Award for their work on Inside PR.

Inside PR is part of my weekly listening routine. The guys are always interesting and entertaining. You can tell that they are true friends with great personal chemistry. (Disclosure: Terry co-founded Thornley Fallis with me and I’ve worked with Dave both as a colleague and a client.)

I get to see Terry every day. But the vast majority of Inside PR listeners have probably only heard his voice. So, I decided that Inside PR’s nomination would be a good reason to conduct a video interview with Terry.

Terry talks about the history of Inside PR, its content and focus, some of the lessons he has learned from the experience (If you’re thinking of starting a podcast, this section is a must-watch) and the challenge of keeping it fresh after more than seventy weekly episodes.

[MEDIA=4]

I didn’t have a chance to arrange for David to be in the room with Terry. But I’ll try to make it to his office at Fleishman Hillard in the near future to get his perspective.

Oh, and if you’re a fan of Inside PR like I am, don’t forget to cast your vote for Inside PR.

Let's talk about starting Third Tuesday in Vancouver

• • No Tags

For the past year, Third Tuesday/Third Monday have provided the social media community in Toronto and Ottawa with a monthly opportunity to gather, hear from great speakers and talk about new developments in social media and social software.

Third Tuesday VancouverAs we look forward to this autumn’s season, we’re hoping to start up a Third Tuesday in Vancouver. Vancouver has a great community of social media thought leaders and innovators. So, it’s a natural for us to try to extend the events to Vancouver.

Several people, including Tod Maffin, Kate Trgovac, Tanya Davis, and Darren Barefoot (when he returns from his global jaunt) have said that they are willing to pitch in to make this happen.

I’ll be in Vancouver next week on my way to Gnomedex. So, we’re organizing a get-together to kick off the planning for the fall season. If you’d be willing to help with the organization of Third Tuesday Vancouver, we’d love to have you join us. Just leave a comment on this post or send an email to me and I’ll send you the coordinates of our get together as soon as we’ve finalized it.

We’d also welcome your suggestions for topics and speakers. Please feel free to leave a comment or send an email with your ideas about what we should cover and who might speak to it.

Google Finance in Canada – A question of timing

• • No Tags

The Official Google Blog announced tonight that Google Finance Canada will offer “a localized version of Google Finance tailored specifically, as you might guess, for Canadian investors.“

And what’s the first thing that grabs your attention at the top right corner of the page? This graph, showing the index trends for the July 31 trading day.
A question of timing
Yep. A good day to for an announcement. That kind of trend should draw people like moths. It’s a bit like having a water depth gauge on the deck of the Titanic. You just can’t look away.

Answering Shel Israel about Social Media in Canada

• • No Tags

Shel Israel asked me for my views on differences and similarities in the development of social media in Canada.

Our economies and communication networks are so intertwined that it would be noteworthy if there were any significant differences in the pace of technological adoption and innovation.

However, I think the truly significant difference relates to social media’s potential to transcend the impediments to self expression that Canadians endured as a result of limited bandwidth, high production costs and the complex distribution systems of traditional cultural industries.

I’m late in responding to Shel. So, rather than publish a lengthy written post, I’ve tried to capture my thoughts in a video. I hope that you’ll take a look at it and share your perspective on this by leaving a comment.

[MEDIA=3]

I just noticed on second viewing that I inadvertently made my point about the dominance of U.S. cultural product in Canada. If you look closely, you’ll see that the two authors whose books flank me on either side are Stephen King and David Halberstam. Next time, I should sit in front of Margaret Atwood and Robertson Davies!

Shel Israel asks about social media in Canada

• • No Tags

Shel IsraelRecently, Shel Israel, co-author of Naked Conversations, was commissioned by SAP to conduct a study of the state of social media around the world. Shel explains it this way:

Here’s what I am doing. I am trying to answer a single, overwhelming question: “What is going on in the world with regard to social media? I am looking for useful statistics, but those are often outdated before they are published as we learned with the book.

Mostly I am looking for real people with stories and personal experience about what is happening with blogging, video, online communities and assorted conversational media. I’d like to get some anecdotal granularity on why blogging is taking off in Poland these days, or how social media behavior is different in Italy than it is in Russia and Canada.

Shel sent me his questionnaire just before I left for vacation. It was a good vacation and I didn’t do much of anything, including Shel’s questionnaire. So, now I’m about to start. And I’d like the social media community in Canada to have a go at the answers with me.

Here are the questions that Shel put to me.

  1. You are very much in touch with social media in the US and Canada. How would you describe the similarities and differences of the social media evolution in the two countries?
  2. The journalist Mark Evans has written often about how slow Canada’s business has been to adopt to blogging and social media. Do you agree with him? If you do, why do you think this is and do you think it is a trend that will continue?
  3. Which social media tools are the most popular in general in Canada? What about among business users?
  4. Canada is a bilingual country. How has this impacted social networks and blog audiences? Do you think social media can play a role in bringing French and English speaking people closer together in Canada?
  5. Is social media in Canada just for young people or is it spreading across multiple age barriers? What do they talk most about? How much of the conversation is business oriented?
  6. Who or what are the greatest influencers on social media in Canada?
  7. You and I have talked about Canadian businesses wanting greater access to American markets. How does social media lay into that strategy?
  8. Can you give me one or two brief case studies of social media in Canada impacting business?
  9. What trends do you see in Canada these days?
  10. Additional comments

In the next few days, I’ll post about each of Shel’s questions. As I do, I’d welcome your thoughts on both the questions and my answers.

Please post any comments you’d like to offer and I’ll incorporate them in my responses.