Jeremiah Owyang is coming to Third Tuesday Toronto

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Jeremiah Owyang is a true thought leader on social media and its impact on the relationship between corporations and their employees and customers. And Jeremiah Owyang will be the speaker at the next Third Tuesday Toronto.

Jeremiah is an Analyst at the Altimeter Group, whose other principals include founder Charlene Li and Brian Solis. You won’t find a smarter, more social media-savvy group of people anywhere. Altimeter undertakes and publishes open research – they make their research freely available to the world and then count on being engaged by corporations and others interested in taking advantage of their understanding and insight. That’s a bold business model. A model that Altimeter appears to be making work well.

Altimeter’s research is widely read and frequently cited as a source of actionable insight into how social media is being integrated into the enterprise and the best practices that are emerging. Jeremiah regularly posts about the research on his Web Strategy blog, speaks at conferences and publishes his presentations on SlideShare. A sample of his writing and presentations gives a sense of the range and depth of Jeremiah’s thinking:

That’s deep knowledge – shared generously with others who share Jeremiah’s interests.

And now Jeremiah is coming to Toronto share his most recent insights with the Third Tuesday community. And that can include you. If you’re interested in hearing and talking with Jeremiah Owyang, register online to attend the next Third Tuesday Toronto. I hope to see you there.

A taste of Jeremiah: Le Web 2011

Jeremiah is a great speaker. His 2011 Le Web presentation will give you a sense of what to expect when he joins us at Third Tuesday.

Thank you to our sponsors

As you know, Third Tuesday is a community-oriented, volunteer-driven event. And we wouldn’t be able to bring great speakers like Jeremiah Owyang to Third Tuesdays across the country without the support of some like-minded sponsors. We’ve been lucky to have some great companies step up over the past several years to help us make Third Tuesday happen. Big thanks are due to CNW Group, Rogers Communications, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, Radian6 and Cision Canada for making the 2011/12 Third Tuesday season possible.

We want students to be able to attend

Third Tuesday is a great opportunity to hear about the latest developments in social media and to network with business and thought leaders. And we don’t want students to miss out on this opportunity. So, if you are a student and would like to attend, don’t let the admission fee stop you. Simply present your student ID card at the time you sign into Third Tuesday and we’ll refund your admission fee, courtesy of Thornley Fallis.

 

Pathways to Privacy Research Symposium: Privacy for Everyone

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Privacy is an issue that has caught many users of social media and social networks unawares. Heck, it’s probably an active issue for 99% of us, whether we’re aware of it or not.

The challenge of online privacy starts with the terms of reference that we “read” when we’re signing up for a new service. How many of us actually read through the pages of legalese that stand between us and the shiny new service or app that we want to try out? Very few, I’d say.

The problem is compounded by changes to privacy policies we didn’t understand in the first place.

Remember, if you are not paying for a service, then you yourself are probably the product. And some advertiser or other third party is probably paying to access the data you’ve willingly and perhaps unwittingly provided to the shiny new app/service. It’s a case of User Beware.

Thankfully, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner have both taken an active, intelligent interest in online privacy. For several years, they’ve researched issues related to our online privacy and shared their findings and observations in real life events and online. They’ve been effective advocates for our personal privacy even when we’ve given into the temptation to skip reading the privacy notices or not spent enough time considering the issues surrounding privacy. (Few of us do, including me. They are complex and layered. Tougher to get our minds around than the simple joy of “liking” or “friending”.)

So, I’m looking forward to an upcoming event staged by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. On May 2, they are convening a day-long research symposium: Pathways to Privacy: Privacy for Everyone with a top-notch line up of speakers from academe, government, and civil society. Topics and speakers include:

8:30 – 8:50 am Opening Remarks
  • Ms. Jennifer Stoddart, Privacy Commissioner of Canada
  • Ms. Patricia Kosseim, Senior General Counsel and Director General, Legal Services, Policy and Research Branch, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

8:50 – 9:15 amOpening Keynote

9:15 – 10:30 amPanel 1: The Changing Landscape for Youth

10:45 – 12:00 pmPanel 2: Reaching Diverse Populations

1:00 – 1:25 pmAfternoon Keynote

1:25 – 2:45 pmPanel 3: Cultural Perspectives on Privacy

3:00 – 4:20 pmPanel 4: Frontiers of Surveillance and Identification among Different Populations

4:20 – 4:30 pmClosing remarks

I’m planning to attend this symposium. And if I’m able, I’ll record interviews with the speakers who have the most impact and make the greatest contribution to thinking on privacy issues.

 

The next Third Tuesday Ottawa will look at social media and health care reform

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We live in an era in which our health care system must change. Diminishing resources, an aging population, extended life expectancies, enhanced treatment for illness. They all put pressure on our health care system.

The next Third Tuesday Ottawa #3TYOW will tackle the question of whether social media help hospitals to do more with less. Ann Fuller, the Director of Public Relations at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), will present a perspective from inside the health care system on the important role social media can play in patient care, patient support, health research, education, training, advocacy, and more.

Third Tuesday is a great opportunity to hear about the latest developments in social media and to network with business and thought leaders. If you’d like to participate, click on this link to register online to attend Third Tuesday with Anne Fuller.

Thank you to our Third Tuesday sponsors

Third Tuesday is a community-oriented, volunteer-driven event. And we wouldn’t be able to bring great speakers like William Mougayar to Third Tuesdays across the country without the support of some like-minded sponsors. We’ve been lucky to have some great companies step up over the past several years to help us make Third Tuesday happen. Big thanks are due to CNW Group, Rogers Communications, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, Radian6 and Cision Canada for making the 2011/12 Third Tuesday season possible.

We want students to be able to attend

I know that students live on tight budgets. If you are a student and would like to attend Third Tuesday, don’t let the admission fee stop you. Simply present your student ID card at the time you sign into Third Tuesday and we’ll refund your admission fee, courtesy of Thornley Fallis.

William Mougayar at Third Tuesday Toronto Storify-ed

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William Mougayar shared the story of the founding and development of Engagio with the participants of Third Tuesday Toronto. I’ve storify-ed the highlights of the twitter stream during the event. (This was the second of two presentations William made this week. I also storify-ed the previous night’s presentation at Third Tuesday Ottawa.)

I think you’ll find many quotable nuggets here in both of these streams.

 

[View the story “William Mougayar at Third Tuesday Toronto” on Storify]

William Mougayar at Third Tuesday Toronto

William Mougayar, the founder of Engagio, spoke at Third Tuesday Toronto about how he came up with the idea for Engagio and how it is being developed as a startup. This storify captures the highlights of the tweet stream from attendees at William’s Third Tuesday presentation.

Storified by Joseph Thornley · Thu, Mar 29 2012 08:27:51

Third Tuesday Toronto fills up. Waiting for @wmougayar to take the stage. #3tyyz http://pinterest.com/pin/268879040223009835/Joseph Thornley
Third tuesday toronto: william mougayar discusses becoming a social media entrepreneur #3tyyzkate
Thanx to the sponsors at Third Tuesday #3tyyz http://pic.twitter.com/FypWihRqElizabeth Correia
Startups are a series of "brick walls" you have to go through, says @wmougayar #3tyyzHolly Bacchus
My favourite phase of a startup: Wiggles of hope 😉 #3TYYZKing Siu
Building is a start up is like having a blurry vision. #3TYYZJorge Lee
According to @wmougayar, u are more likely to see success with a restaurant than a start up. #3tyyzLaurinda Shaver
A great turnout for @wmougayar at third Tuesday Toronto #3tyyz talking about @engagio http://pinterest.com/pin/268879040223009941/Joseph Thornley
Having a blurry vision of the future is key to a start up. Christopher Columbus didn’t google America before he found it – @wmougayar #3tyyzHolly Bacchus
@wmougayar behind many successes, there’s a lot of failures #3TYYZJorge Lee
Angry birds was their 52nd game before they got it right #Learnfromyourfailures – W. Mougayar #3TYYZKing Siu
"if u polish shit, it still won’t shine." -@wmougayar #3tyyzLaurinda Shaver
Relationships don’t matter. Trusted relationships do. – says @wmougayar #3tyyzFarah Ng
Conversations is the new information. Intelligence lives inside social discussions. #3tyyzLaurinda Shaver
Behind all comments and conversations is potential connection #3tyyzAIMS Canada
Form relationships by tracking your conversations on #sm @wmougayar #3tyyzTabitha David
layers of social web cake from top to bottom monitor/listen,sharing/liking, replying/commenting via @wmougayar #3TYYZJorge Lee
Actually replying on the social web (creating convos) takes you above the "noise" of just reading, "liking", linking: @wmougayar #3tyyzHolly Bacchus
Listening to @wmougayar talking about his entrepreneurial journey #3tyyz. His latest startup @engagio was conceived on @fredwilson’s blogDavid Feldt
Engagio became a viable product after 8 weeks via @wmougayar #3TYYZJorge Lee
"The way to do really big things seems to be to start with deceptively small things." Paul (didn’t type fast enough to get last name) #3tyyzLaurinda Shaver
"we made @engagio look & feel very similar to Gmail in case Google wants to buy us out!" @wmougayar #3tyyzLaurent Magloire
Engagio let’s you follow a user on all social profiles in one click says CEO #3tyyzkate
here’s @engagio’s @wmougayar doing his thing at #3tyyz http://pic.twitter.com/1uU4W46GApril Dunford
I want this now. Getting demo of @engagio creates a universal mailbox for all your social interactions. Simply like gmail. #3tyyzAIMS Canada
@wmougayar showing engagio at #3TYYZ http://pic.twitter.com/y9gNNVIbJorge Lee
Getting a demo of @Engagio, am I seeing the future of #SocialEngagement right now? #3TYYZKing Siu
Engagio. #3tyyz http://www.engag.io/welcomeAndrea T
#3tyyz the @engagio tech stack -ruby on rails… Solar for indexing, bootstrap twitter…Rob Tyrie
Engagio will be available on iPhone using html5 via @wmougayar #3tyyzJorge Lee
Words of wisdom! Spoken by William Mougayar #3tyyz http://pic.twitter.com/qcMxzEH0Elizabeth Correia
Thank you to the sponsors who make #3tyyz possible: @Rogers, @CNWGroup, @Cision, @Radian6, @ciraJoseph Thornley
Sketchnotes: @wmougayar (@engagio) at Third Tuesday Toronto (#3tyyz) http://sachachua.com/blog/2012/03/sketchnotes-william-mougayar-engagio-at-third-tuesday-toronto/ (cc @thornley)Sacha Chua
Amazing & Thx! “@sachac: Sketchnotes: @wmougayar (@engagio) at Third Tuesday Toronto (#3tyyz) http://sachachua.com/blog/2012/03/sketchnotes-william-mougayar-engagio-at-third-tuesday-toronto/ (cc @thornley)”Engagio
Great learning @ #3tyyz last night with @wmougayar about @engagio Crafting meaningful conversations out of the social media chaos swirl.Heather Leigh Mundle

William Mougayar talks about engag.io at Third Tuesday Ottawa

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William Mougayar is a serial entrepreneur, the founder of two social media startups, eqentia and engag.io. William appeared at Third Tuesday Ottawa #3 TYOW last night to share what he has learned in the process of developing these services.

I’ve known William for a couple years. And I’ve always been struck by his focus, optimism and perseverance – essential qualities for any entrepreneur. So, it was a truly nice experience to hear him talk about Engag.io – which I think is the right idea at the right time – a universal inbox for our social media conversations.

I Story-fied the highlights of the Twitter stream during the event. Enjoy.

 
[View the story “An entrepreneur’s journey: William Mougayar and Engag.io at Third Tuesday Ottawa” on Storify]

Things worth watching: Jugnoo, Tablets, Facebook Timelines and Sysomos-Google Analytics integration

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On this week’s Inside PR podcast, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and I talk about new social management tool Jugnoo, tablet computers, Facebook timelines for pages and a new feature in social media measurement tool Sysomos.

Jugnoo – and the importance of courting before marriange

Last week we reported that Jugnoo, a new social media management console service had launched in open beta. Martin and I both were impressed with its feature set. (Disclosure: Gini Dietrich is an adviser to Jugnoo. However, Martin and I weren’t aware of this when we raised it as a topic of discussion for the podcast. Discreet Gini.) I was so impressed that I requested access to the beta so that I could test it. And then I hit a hard stop. As one of the first steps in using the service, Jugnoo asked me to install some code on my website so that Jugnoo could access data from my site. For me, this is a show stopper. Installing code and sharing data is a big step, one that I am willing to take only with services that I trust and that I have some degree of comfort I’ll use for some time. Gini thinks that I’m being overcautious. She believes that most small businesses won’t hesitate to provide access to their data because they will perceive that in return the service will “hold their hands,” providing them with insight into what they should be doing and whether it is working. Do you have the same reaction to being asked for access to the backend of your Website as a first step in testing a service.

Tablets and the content creation challenge

We also talk about the rapid adoption of tablets in the workplace. Two years ago, we considered our notebook computers to be the go-to mobile devices. Today, we each use a tablet computer. Initially, tablets were billed as media consumption devices. However, all three of us now use our tablets to create content – blog posts, documents, etc. Gini and I have found that this has driven us to switch from Microsoft Office to other applications that exist in the cloud – Evernote, DropBox, Google Docs. We use these apps to have access to our data and content across devices. This enables us to move smoothly between our desktop computers, notebooks (yes, we still use them), tablets and cellphones. And we see this trend accelerating with the newest generation of tablets. We wonder how long it will be before we will be able to reduce the number of devices. The limiting factor on this is the evolution of tablets to include both the hardware and software to support all the content creation we want to do.

Timelines – too much commitment for small businesses?

Timelines for pages is being rolled out to all users at the end of the month. Gini is keen on timelines. She’s watched as content that she had long ago posted to the Arment Dietrich page has resurfaced. Old content becomes more accessible. I’m skeptical of the value of timelines for small businesses. Many small businesses have limited resources to devote to social media. And it seems to me that corporate page owners will have to devote considerable energy and resources to keep their content fresh. And this may not be a priority for may businesses.

Sysomos Heartbeat integrates Google Analytics

Finally, we talk about the integration of Google Analytics into Sysomos’ Heartbeat social media monitoring service. A nice addition that makes a good service better.

What do you think?

Listen to the podcast and tell us what you think. Are we on the right track? Missing something? Do you have a different view?

Inside PR 291 [ 19:24 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

Social Media and Government: We're all human

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In this week’s Inside PR, Martin Waxman and I shared our takeaways from last week’s appearance of Canada’s Treasury Board President, Tony Clement at Third Tuesday Ottawa and Third Tuesday Toronto.

Social Media in Government: Treat them like we would want to be treated

I came away with a sense of respect for a politician who is making a sincere attempt to introduce social media to government in a manner consistent with his conservative principles. Martin was struck by the vulnerable position a politician like Tony Clement puts himself in by engaging in the social media flow. His takeaway: If we want to encourage our government leaders to engage with us in social media, we must be prepared to allow for the fact that they make mistakes and refrain from “piling on” every time  a politician makes a mistake on social media.

The discussion about social media in government starts at 1 minute 25 seconds into the show.

Inside PR 289: Social Media and Government [ 15:53 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Playing with Pinterest

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Gini Dietrich LOVES Pinterest (You have to listen to this week’s Inside PR to hear her enthusiasm.)

Gini has been testing the reach and impact of Pinterest. She pinned some pictures of items from a friend’s ecommerce store on her pinboard. Then, she and her friend watched her Google Analytics. Pinterest generated lots of traffic to her friend’s ecommerce site- it was the number three traffic source for the four hours after Gini pinned the pictures. That’s pretty impressive, especially given the ease with which content can be posted to Pinterest. But it goes beyond that. The conversion rate for people who arrived at the site via Pinterest was higher than the conversion rate from any other source of referrals. Pinterest drives traffic and the traffic it drives is engaged.

Martin Waxman has been experimenting with Pinterest as well. He’s found that the tags he attaches to Pins are important. Clearly, in his view, people are following tags that reflect their interests and they will look at new content that is tagged into one of those categories. (This raises a whole other question about “tag SPAM” on Pinterest.)

I’m interested in Pinterest’s impact on other existing services. I’ve moved my photo-taking from Instagram to Pinterest because I like the ease with which I can tag, organize and then browse my photos on Pinterest. I’m also drawn to move some of my social bookmarking – at least for the highly visual items – away from the two services I have been uising, Diigo and Delicious.

I find the simplicity of Pinterest makes it a tool with many possibilities – much like Twitter was at its outset. A basic concept that appeals to a common urge – to express ourselves – and because of its simplicity allows people to use it in the way that makes sense to them.

Pinterest may not work for all companies and products. It may be best for highly visual products. But if you sell items that you can showcase visually, you should explore whether Pinterest is for you.

 

Our discussion about Pinterest starts at 7 minutes 15 seconds into this week’s episode of Inside PR.

Inside PR 289: Gini Dietrich LOVES Pinterest [ 15:53 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

We are: Martin Waxman, Gini Dietrich and Joseph Thornley on Pinterest.

William Mougayar: Becoming a social media entrepreneur

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Social media has changed the way that we connect with our friends, with news and with organizations. It has opened up possibilities that we hadn’t even dreamed of 10 years ago.

Social media has also proven fertile ground for entrepreneurs with ideas. Canada has spawned some great social media companies – Radian6, HootSuite, PostRank,StumbleUpon, Tungle, and more.

Behind every one of these success stories is an entrepreneur who had an idea and the persistence, energy and sheer determination to make it happen.

William Mougayar is the entrepreneur behind not just one, but two social media startups:Eqentia and Engagio. The first of these two startups, Eqentia, is billed as a “vertical news environment.”   It enables you to curate the content you care about from a variety of sources across the social Web. The newer company, Engagio, enables you to draw together all of your conversations from different social media into one place.

Less than two months after launch, Engagio has earned positive word of mouth and prominent backers such as Fred Wilson thanks to its simple but compelling proposition.

Developing a successful startup isn’t easy. If it were, we’d all be heading up successful companies. It takes a lot of luck and some smart decisions. But in the era of social, we see more and more of the people around us pursuing their dream, trying their hand at starting up a new business, at making their idea become reality.

So how did William Mougayar do it? You can find out at the next Third Tuesday Toronto #3TYYZ and Third Tuesday Ottawa #3TYOW meetups. William will share his personal journey from idea to beta to seed funding. He’ll tell us about the dark nights of doubt, the highs of the Eureka moments and the grinding work that goes into that success.

This Third Tuesday will be for you whether you are a budding entrepreneur yourself, know some people involved in startups or just wonder as you use your favourite social app, “How did they do that?”

I hope you be able to join us that evening to hear from one of Canada’s true social media entrepreneurs, William Mougayar.

You can register to attend either on the Third Tuesday Toronto #3TYYZ or Third Tuesday Ottawa #3TYOW websites

 

Thank you to our sponsors

As you know, Third Tuesday is a community-oriented, volunteer-driven event. And we wouldn’t be able to bring great speakers like William Mougayar to Third Tuesdays across the country without the support of some like-minded sponsors. We’ve been lucky to have some great companies step up over the past several years to help us make Third Tuesday happen. Big thanks are due to CNW Group, Rogers Communications, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, Radian6 and Cision Canada for making the 2011/12 Third Tuesday season possible.

Want to know more about William Mougayar and Engagio?

Engagio is the 1 Inbox to rule them all, ReadWriteWeb

Engagio goes from the Comment Section to $540K seed investment, Venture Beat

Engagio wants to be your one stop social inbox, Mathew Ingram in GigaOm

Toronto’s Engagio raises $540K and heads to New York, TechVibes

 

 

Social networks: What are they good for?

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You and I probably share something in common. We probably use more than one social network. And if we do, we’re probably always considering what we get out of each network and wondering whether the time we invest in each is worthwhile.

I use four social networks on a regular basis: Twitter, Google+, Facebook and LinkedIn. Each seems to be do different things better than the others.

Twitter is my real time news flow. I follow people who care about, think about and speak about the things I also care about. So, if I’m likely to hear first about something important to me on Twitter (Sorry mainstream news sites. You no longer are a destination for me.)

Google+ gives me the best conversations with the smartest people. There’s no apparent limit on post or comment length. And people routinely go back and forth and discuss topics in depth. It’s really a satisfying discussion.

Facebook is where the most people are. And it’s hard to ignore a place where most of my friends hang out. Still, it seems like the cotton candy of social networks. All show. But empty calories. There’s really nothing of substance happening there.

LinkedIn is the “business network”. I get the least out of LinkedIn. It seems to be a place for people to make useful business connections. And it feels a bit tawdry, a place for users and people who want to be used.

So, that’s the way that I see my social networks.

What about you? Do you agree with my assessments of the different networks? Which do you use? What do you think each one is best for?