Mitch Joel on your Personal Brand at Third Tuesday Toronto

February 4, 2010 • Joseph Thornley • HumberCollege, MichaelCayley, MitchJoel, personalbrand, ThirdTuesdayToronto, TTT

We have a special Third Tuesday Toronto on Feb. 23. It’s special because we’re holding it in conjunction with Personal Brand Camp – a project being undertaken by Michael Cayley for the Humber College social media students.

During the afternoon, the Humber students will meet with volunteer mentors to discuss the importance of their online personnas, the issues involved and how they can develop an online brand that will be consistent with the people they are.

Then, in the evening, Mitch Joel will be our featured speaker at Third Tuesday. Mitch has built a remarkable personal brand. He is well known and widely respected as a marketing thought leader. This year, he published Six Pixels of Separation, a handbook to digital marketing and social media. He’s often referred to as “Canada’s Seth Godin.” That’s no small feat.

Mitch will offer us his perspective on the concept of personal brand. Does he build his brand consciously? Are there rules, implicit or explicit, that he applies in doing this? Is personal brand building something that we all should be engaged in? What advice would he offer to anyone concerned about the image they project online and in the real world.

Interested? Register online to attend Third Tuesday Toronto with Mitch Joel.

As always, I want to thank our Third Tuesday sponsors – CNW Group, Molson Coors Canada, Rogers Communications, Radian6 and Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. Their support make it possible to bring great speakers like Mitch, and others including Katie Paine, Julien Smith and Shel Israel not just to Toronto but also to Third Tuesdays in Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver. (Speaking of Vancouver, stay tuned for the announcement of a Third Tuesday Vancouver with Mitch Joel.)

Thank you to our sponsors – and thank you to our speakers.

Trust Agents co-author Julien Smith to speak at Third Tuesdays across Canada

November 4, 2009 • Joseph Thornley • JulienSmith, ThirdTuesday, TrustAgents

Julien Smith is co-author with Chris Brogan of Trust Agents, a New York Times best-seller that has been named one of Amazon’s top 10 business and investing books of 2009. And Julien Smith will be the next speaker to “go cross-Canada” with appearances at Third Tuesdays in Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver.

I found Trust Agents to be a smart, practical introduction to the mindset that underpins success in the interconnected world of social media. A few quotes from the book that will give you a sense of what to expect from Julien:

“You need to be liked, and you start becoming likable by being worthy of being liked.”

“Helping others is probably one of the most effective ways to help yourself. By spreading ideas that help others, you get credit and people get the help they need. It’s win-win. What a change from the scarcity mentality most people live with every day, isn’t it?”

“One element of being considered One of Us is that the benefits or rewards you will encounter come from genuine interactions. Exchanges of kindness or transactions involving social capital tend to build on each other.”

Julien will be sharing his insights into the nature of social capital, the role of trust agents and how we can form tribes with others who care about the things we care about. In Julien’s words: “We will never need more advertising. We will always need more community, and tighter links between those we care about. Learning to build tribes using the new radios has never been more important, and understanding social capital has never been more valuable.”

Register to attend

Julien will appear at Third Tuesday Ottawa on November 30 and Third Tuesday Toronto on December 1. He’ll then do a pair of appearances at Third Tuesday Calgary on January 18 and Third Tuesday Vancouver on January 19.

You can register online now to attend Third Tuesday Ottawa and Third Tuesday Toronto with Julien Smith. The links to the Third Tuesday Calgary and Third Tuesday Vancouver events will be posted soon.

It takes a community to make Third Tuesday possible

Our sponsors – CNW Group, Rogers Communications, Molson Coors Canada, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, and Radian6 – underwrite the cost of bringing speakers to Third Tuesdays in cities across Canada. Their sponsorship goes toward travel, accommodation, the costs of the venue and audio visual.

Our speakers donate their time. Thank you Julien.

And volunteers in each community organize the events. So, a big thank you to our volunteers – Michelle Sullivan and the Montreal team; Tanya Davis and Monica Hamburg in Vancouver; Doug Lacombe and Andrew McIntyre in Calgary; Kirsty MacRae in Ottawa and Sarah Laister in Toronto.

Without you, Third Tuesday simply wouldn’t be possible.

Third Tuesday Toronto explores Social Media and Customer Reviews

October 15, 2009 • Joseph Thornley • alidebold, briansharwood, edenspodek, pemahegan, stuardmacdonald, ThirdTuesdayToronto #TTO

Where do you look for advice when you are considering whether to buy a product or service? If you’re like me, you’ll probably search for customer reviews on specialty Websites or, event better, you’ll reach out to your online friends to find out who has experience with the product or service and what they think of it.

Customer reviews married to social media are changing the way that many people make decisions.

At the next Third Tuesday Toronto, four well-known entrepreneurs will share what they have learned building and working with customer reviews and social media. We’ll hear from Ali De Bold, co-founder, ChickAdvisor Inc., Pema Hegan, co-founder, GigPark.com, Brian Sharwood, president, HomeStars.com, and Stuart MacDonald, CEO and founder, Tripharbour.ca and Tripharbor.com.

Special thanks go to Eden Spodek, founder of Bargainista.ca, who suggested this session and put the panel together. Eden also will moderate the discussion.

You can register online to attend Third Tuesday Toronto. I hope to see you there.

One more thing: As always, we’re grateful for the ongoing support of our Third Tuesday sponsors: CNW Group, Molson Coors Canada, Rogers Communications, Radian6, and Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. Their support is allowing us to program great speakers not just in Toronto, but at Third Tuesday across Canada.

Katie Paine removes the mystery from measurement

October 14, 2009 • Joseph Thornley • #TTO, KatiePaine, ThirdTuesdayOttawa

Katie Paine earned her reputation as one of the foremost experts in public relations measurement. So, when social media emerged, it was a natural step for Katie to begin to explore the best ways to measure social media. And she has emerged as a sought after speaker on how to measure the right things in the right way.

Katie will be sharing her expertise at the next Third Tuesday Ottawa #TTO. I asked Katie to give me a preview of what she’ll be talking about. She replied:

Social media measurement doesn’t require new standards or new methods, just a new mindset. How the best measurement tools today are some of the oldest. Relationship surveys, content analysis, correlations and statistical analysis have all been around for decades, and we really don’ t need much more than those.

What we do need is a new way of looking at measurement – from a functional perspective, not a tactical perspective. It’s not about measuring what you do – those individual campaigns, or tactics, or gimmicks you happen to be using. But rather about measuring why you exist. What’ is your function within the organization, and how are you contributing to the success of your organizations objectives.

Each communicator must face the fundamental fork in the road. Are you doing social media for sales? For reputation? For cost avoidance? For crisis management? Once you’ve decided the reason, then measurement becomes quite simple.

This sounds like an interesting perspective on measurement. I’m definitely looking forward to attending to hear Katie elaborate on it. And, of course, we’ll keep at least half the time available for Third Tuesday attendees to ask questions and discuss Katie’s ideas.

We’ll also have a bonus at this month’s Third Tuesday: a demo of Google Wave. A lot of us have heard about Google Wave, but relatively few of us have had a chance to use it yet. Come and see what all the fuss is about.

One other thing is special about this month’s Third Tuesday Ottawa: the time. We’ll be holding the event at 7:30 AM on October 23. We’ve been able to book Katie on her return from speaking at the MeshMarketing conference in Toronto on October 22. And a Friday evening event just didn’t seem like it would work. So, for this one time only, we’re making Third Tuesday Ottawa a Social Media Breakfast (Hat tip to @bryanperson and the real SMB Ottawa organizers, @sylc, @ryanAnderson and @roblane).

If you’re interested in attending, you can register online for this month’s Third Tuesday Ottawa.

Thank you to our sponsors

Of course, we wouldn’t be able to book a great speaker like Katie Paine to come to Ottawa without the support of our sponsors: CNW Group, Molson Coors Canada, Rogers Communications, Radian6, and Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. You make it possible to bring smart speakers together with Third Tuesday participants across Canada.

You want Twitterville. We've got Twitterville

September 12, 2009 • Joseph Thornley • Twitterville

Chapters came through – right on time. The copies of Shel Israel‘s Twitterville ordered by the Third Tuesday participants have arrived.

As promised, I’ll get Shel to sign them so that he can personally present a copy to each person who ordered it in advance.

First stop, Third Tuesday Montreal, then Third Tuesday Ottawa, Third Tuesday Toronto, Third Tuesday Calgary and Third Tuesday Vancouver.

I hope to see you there.

The first box arrives

Look what's inside

Twitterville for all

Get a signed copy of Shel Israel's Twitterville at Third Tuesday

August 24, 2009 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

Registration for the Canadian launch of Shel Israel‘s Twitterville at Third Tuesday Ottawa and Third Tuesday Toronto is open.

And here’s a neat extra for people attending the Third Tuesday launch. You can get a copy of Twitterville signed by Shel for only $10 plus your Third Tuesday admission.

So, if you’re interested in joining us for a great evening of networking with others interested in social media plus a chance to meet Shel Israel and get a personally signed copy of his new book, Twitterville, register online to attend Third Tuesday Ottawa or Third Tuesday Toronto.

I hope to see you there.

Shel Israel to launch Twitterville in cross-Canada tour of Third Tuesdays

August 11, 2009 • Joseph Thornley • ShelIsrael, ThirdTuesday, Twitterville

Shel Israel is coming to Canada in September to launch his new book, Twitterville. And he’ll be doing it at Third Tuesday social media meetups in five cities across Canada: Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver.

twittervillecover-090811 Three years ago, Shel co-authored Naked Conversations with Robert Scoble. Naked Conversations was a must-read book in 2006. It captured the zeitgeist of the blogosphere.

Now Shel Israel is back with Twitterville, his look at Twitter and how it is being used by people and organizations to connect, play, share, create community, organize…. You name it and we’re finding a way to do it on Twitter.

Shel was the very first speaker at the inaugural Third Tuesday in 2006. So, launching Twitterville at Third Tuesday is like Shel coming home. I’m really excited that we’re able to bring him to Canada to do this.

Hold these dates

We’ll be opening registration for each of the Third Tuesday events with Shel in the next few days. In the meantime, mark the date of the Third Tuesday Twitterville launch in the city nearest you:

September 13 Montreal
September 14 Ottawa
September 15 Toronto
September 16 Calgary
September 17 Vancouver

What’s it about?

I had a chance to read an early draft of Twitterville. It’s a great read. Packed with interesting stories of real people using Twitter today. It drove home to me that we are still in early days of understanding the implications of social media and applying the new technologies to achieve the things we want to do. And it sparked my imagination, giving me ideas about how I can use Twitter and other social media in my own business and life.

I plan to post more about the content of Twitterville. In the meantime, you too can get a preview of the book. Shel has posted the book’s Introduction on his blog, Global Neighbourhoods.

Thank you to our sponsors

We’re able to bring Shel to cities across Canada thanks to the support of our Third Tuesday sponsors:

CNW Group, our founding sponsor;

Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, who are providing accommodation for Shel;

Molson Canada, whose use of social media Shel has profiled in Twitterville;

Rogers Communications, whose network provides us with both landline and mobile Internet access; and

Radian6, who provide us with the tools we need to monitor and measure social media.

Thanks to each of these sponsors, Shel’s Canadian book launch will be just the first of several exciting initiatives we’re planning for the coming year.

Stay tuned

We’ll be opening the actual event registration soon. And we’ll have more news about how you can get a copy of Twitterville signed by Shel Israel. So, subscribe to the ProPR RSS feed or check back here for more information.

——————–

UPDATE: Shel has blogged about his coming visit to Canada and his memories of when he came here in 2006 to launch Third Tuesday.

Social Media Business Council President Bob Pearson at Third Tuesday Toronto

June 30, 2009 • Joseph Thornley • No Tags

BobPearsonPhoto3 You may know him as Dell‘s Vice President of Communities and Conversations, where he headed Dell’s social media team. But since April, he’s Bob Pearson, President of the Social Media Business Council, which brings together large companies to understand social media and how they can adopt it in an intelligent, effective way.

The members of the Social Media Business Council are the heads of social media at Fortune 1000 companies, including Molson, Dell, Coca-Cola, Allstate, Cisco, Ford, General Electric, H&R Block, Home Depot, Intel, Intuit, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Petro-Canada, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Starbucks, UPS and Walmart.

ThirdTuesdayToronto Bob has run one of the most successful social media outreach programs during his time at Dell. Today, he rubs shoulders with the senior executives who are trying to the do the same at other big companies. At Third Tuesday Toronto, he will share his unique perspective on the right way for corporations to engage with social media. What are the largest companies hoping to achieve through social media? What are the biggest challenges they have to adopting it effectively? What works well and what doesn’t seem to work?

You can register online to attend Third Tuesday Toronto with Social Media Business Council President Bob Pearson.

Thank you to our sponsors

There’s a lot that goes into putting together Third Tuesdays. And we couldn’t do it without the support of our sponsors. Sponsors for this month’s event include Molson Canada – Ferg Devins thought of us when he heard Bob was coming to Toronto and arranged for him to speak to us; CNW Group, our founding sponsor; and the Berkeley Event Venue, who provide us with a fabulous and friendly place to meet.