Category Archives: blog

#FollowFriday – Joe Botnick

Every once in a while you meet someone who reminds you that there are amazing people in this world. I am fortunate to know many great people. Yet, if someone were to ask me to name a person who exemplifies the term “good person” I would, without hesitation mention the name Joe Botnick.

Now, I’ve only know Joe for a couple of years. We met at a golf tournament and have maintained our friendship even though I’ve only seem him a few times since. Yet he is someone I feel comfortable talking to and asking for his opinion.

However, I don’t want to spend anymore time talking about me and Joe. you NEED to know about a charity golf tournament Joe organizes every year called Shawn Tompkins Memorial Golf Tournament. This annual golf tournament raises funds to benefit the Shawn Tompkins Foundation. For those who don’t know who Shawn Tompkins was, he was a mentor, coach, trainer and friend to many mixed martial arts fighters. When he passed (the same day I met Joe) he left a void in the MMA community in Canada and around the world.

If you’re on Twitter, consider following Joe at @RelentlessJoeB. And if you’re a golfer and/or a fan of MMA consider supporting a great cause.

New podcast in my ears

Many of you know I love listening to podcasts. Almost everyday I’m commuting 2-3 hours per day. So I spend most of this time listening to podcasts such as This American Life, Wiretap, This Week in Startups, and even the UFC ESPN Podcast.

Last week I discovered another podcast: Humble and Fred Radio.  I wasn’t a big listener of theirs when they where on the radio here in Toronto. However, these guys are gold. They are funny and raw. Besides their random musings they also have amazing interviews. Recently they had Toronto Blue Jays long time announcer Jerry Howarth on.  This was one of the best interviews I have ever heard.

Great job guys! And congrats on your new deal with Corus.

What podcasts do you consider required listening and why?

My Favourite Podcasts

Podcasts are what I refer to as the intersection between great radio and technology.

A few of the podcasts that I am going to list below can be originally heard on radio. However, most of the time I’m too busy to actually spend the time to listen to them live.  And that’s why I enjoy my podcasts. I can still enjoy great talk radio. But on my schedule – where ever and whenever I want to.

In no particular order…

  • Drunk Jays Fans. Published by The Score this podcast is digital heaven for Blue Jays fans. This no holds barred podcast includes everything a Blue Jays fan could want: stats, opinion and entertainment. The hosts are fans but they are also not homers.
  • ESPN UFC Podcast. Hosted from England this MMA-themed but very UFC-centric podcast is a must listen to for all fans of the fight game. A similar show from North America would not be able to lend the perspective that this show does. I think the distance from England to the UFC head offices in Las Vegas allows this show to lend more perspective and credibility.
  • Freakonomics Radio. If you’re a fan of the books and a reader of their blog you will love this podcast. Here’s what you can expect to learn from this podcast: the hidden side. Of everything.
  • This American Life. I got turned on to this podcast by Karim Awad, who is an avid podcast consumer himself. He also used to have his own podcast! Every week, This American Life brings to life stories from America. It’s not so much about flag-waving, red-neck gun-shooting America. It’s more about the neighbourhoods, people and stories that can be found in any city in any country. A recent episode, titled The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar will leave you hanging until the end more than any TV show has ever done.
  • This Week In StartUps. Want to hear conversations with some of Silicon Valley’s top entrepreneurs? Want to hear about the technology news of the week from the perspective of the insiders? Then this is a must listen to show.
  • Under The Influence. Get an insider’s perspective on the world of marketing and advertising and the implications for today’s company’s and consumers. The host’s delivery and the show’s production will leave you wanting more.
  • Wiretap. I stumbled across this program on CBC Radio. Ever since, I’ve been hooked. Wiretap, as I see it, is about how the world looks through the eyes of the host: Jonathan Goldstein. After just one listen you will feel like all the characters on the show are part of your family.

There are actually 13 podcasts that I subscribe to. But there are the 7 that I cannot do without.  What are some of your favourite podcasts?

social media workshop at PwC

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to lead a workshop focusing on social media as it relates to the business-to-business realm. It was a lively 75 minute workshop mostly filled with discussion and interaction amongst the attendees who were all from the marketing department at PwC (Price Waterhouse Coopers).

We didn’t video tape the workshop, but I do have the presentation below. I hope you enjoy. And if you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment or find me on Twitter

social media and business-to-business [slideshare id=11943108&w=425&h=355&sc=no]

View more presentations from Karim Kanji

UFC uses Social and Digital to rule Sporting Universe

Earlier today an article I wrote was published on the website Web Not War.

On the weekend of December 10th Dana White’s UFC settled in Toronto with Sunday’s UFC 140 anchoring their activities. Over the past 10 years, Dana White, his partners the Ferenzzo brothers and their MMA athletes have created one of the most popular and fastest growing sporting and entertainment brands in the world. The reasons are manifold: the demise of the boxing industry and the need for fresh and new programming for this 200+ channel universe being just two of them.

To read the rest please visit http://www.webnotwar.ca/ufc-uses-social-and-digital-to-rule-sporting-universe/

Why Klout (aka influence) is Important

Like it or not influence matters.  And chances are you’re not sitting on the fence on this one.  Especially when it comes to online influence. You either love Klout or you hate Klout.  

You love Klout because you either understand what they are trying to achieve.  Or if you’ve received a free bag of chips.

You hate Klout because you’ve never “won” anything in your life or your score is lower than 50. Or you don’t believe in what Klout is attempting to build.

But if I asked you if influence matters you would have to agree with me.  Think about it for a moment:

  1. have you “liked” something on Facebook?
  2. ever “retweet” something on Twitter?
  3. have you ever forwarded an email or online article?
  4. do you refer products or services you enjoy to your friends?

You answered yes to at least one question above.  And by doing so you’ve exerted your influence over someone else.  And I believe this is what Klout wants to capture:  The influence you, others and myself have in comparison to others.

Is Klout perfect just yet?  Of course not.  And it may never be.  But here’s the question you should ask yourself:

Will you stop forwarding good content to your sphere of influence?  Of course not.  And that’s why Klout is important.

What say you?

creating community: part 2

Money Mart
Image by Thomas Hawk via Flickr

Just over a month ago I blogged about creating community: part 1.  The beginning of this story was a refresher on my experience with GREENtuity and my first lessons in creating communities online.

The next step of my journey brings us to a company I used to work for called RealCash.

RealCash was a finance company in the residential real estate space.  They factored a portion of an agent’s earned commissions.  In short, RealCash was the Money Mart equivalent for real estate agents.

My role with the company was in marketing.  I put together email campaigns, trade show strategies and even set-up strategic partnerships with major real estate companies across Canada.  After a while, due to market conditions, I was forced to slash our budget and look for creative ways to market for free.

Enter social media.  Here are some lessons I learned:

Blogging:

Almost everyday I blogged.  And the results were phenomenal!  Searching for “commission advance in Canada” on Google resulted in RealCash moving from the 5th page to the 1st page.  Not bad I’d say.  Remember, we had a zero budget for marketing at this stage.

Active Rain:

Active Rain is the social network for professionals involved in the real estate space in North America.  After leaving RealCash more than six months ago I STILL receive calls from people finding the RealCash profile online through searching online.

Facebook:

Would you ever tell your professional friends, family and close friends that you use “Money Mart”?  Neither would I.   Facebook didn’t result in any community traction at all.

Twitter:

A great tool that RealCash used to promote itself as a thought leader in the real estate social space.

Overall, RealCash had success at creating an online community online.  So much so that potential clients called alot.  How much?  Too much. RealCash advanced more financial resources than they had access to.  Now they’re out of business.  Yikes!

What’s the overall lesson:  Don’t make promises (on social media or otherwise) that the company’s bank account can’t cash.

To be continued…

5 Questions with Shayan Hamidi

Shayan Hamidi is the CEO and co-Founder of TheRedPin.com.  He studied Computer Science, Economics and Math at the University of Toronto.  After running a few startups he teamed up with two other UofT comp-sci graduates and a real estate professional to start TheRedPin.  Back in 2008 they realized that the real estate industry in Canada depends on the agent’s MLS system which does not cater to the new home and pre-construction industry, which is a huge and growing part of the market.  So they considered building a new and improved MLS system for the new home industry that would also be open to the public.  Today they are focused on brining transparency to the market and through technology they have streamlined the real estate process, and are able to pass on significant savings to the Canadian home buyers.

  1. What motivates you to do what you do on a daily basis?

I love what I do, and I feel blessed having everything that I have today.  I have surrounded myself with really smart and motivated people that just make things a lot more exciting for me.  I also have the opportunity of working on a product that directly helps people with making the biggest investment decision in their lives, in an industry that’s very traditional and requires lots of improvements.  Therefore, everyday that we introduce a new feature, tool or information we are directly helping someone in one of the most special moments in their lives; this makes me feel privileged and also responsible to deal with something so real and so important.

  1. If you had 30 seconds to impart your wisdom on a classroom of soon-to-be graduates, what would you say?

You are lucky, there has never been a better time to graduate and start working.  Don’t just take care of school and graduate.  You can do lots to get yourself ready.  The means of production and the tools to make or produce anything is now pretty much available to anyone and at a really low cost.  Traditionally, you had to come out of a great university with great grades in order to prove you are worth getting a job at a decent firm.  You don’t need anyone’s help anymore.  You can do it all by yourself.  The key is to be pro-active and make a move.  Don’t wait till you graduate, start TODAY.  Start reading about what you like and follow the players in your industry.  Start a blog and show you care, leave comments on other people’s blogs and become active on Twitter and other social networks.  You don’t need big names on your resume to show you are worth it, you can simply display your portfolio online with the initiatives you have taken till now.  Read Linchpin by Seth Godin.

  1. In your opinion, what has been one of the most important technological developments over the past 12 months?

Most of last decade was about the rise of social networks, and for the last few years we saw Facebook growing to pass 500 million users and pretty much finish building the framework for the social graph.  This is a huge accomplishment, and with the social graph in place the fight over social networks came to an end.  Every industry has its own trends, but overall for the last 12 months or so, the most interesting technologies were the ones that tapped into the existing social graph and introduced gaming into their platform to make the process more engaging.  As a result we saw Groupon, the social buying application, becoming the fastest growing online company, and a game like Farmville growing to have more active users than Twitter!
Mobile is also huge, and we saw companies like Foursquare grabbing a lot of attention in the past year or so which has all the elements I mentioned and tries to bring the offline and online world closer together.  But if I had to choose only one, it would be gaming.  Games are the best engagement engines and I still find it hard to believe how big Farmville has become and how much attention it demands from its users.

  1. If you had a crystal ball, what would you say will be the most important technological development over the next 12 months?

There is a lot happening, and today Quora is probably the company with the most hype.  But I think the trends that I mentioned with new applications leveraging off of the social graph, games and mobile would be here for years to come.  And companies that are able to successfully apply a mix of these three, to address different needs would be the big hits for 2011.  This is just a beginning.  Gaming will continue growing this year, so will mobile and I believe 3D technologies (both display and print) will also become mainstream.

  1. Who is one of Canada’s tech stars and why?

I have worked with a lot of talented techies.  My vote would go to TheRed-Hacker, Mr. Ali Ajellu who is also my partner and our CTO at TheRedPin.com.  To be a tech star you obviously need to have a great deal of technical background and be comfortable with a variety of technologies and be able to keep yourself up-to-date with the new trends.  But there are other factors involved that would differentiate a great developer from a tech star.  A tech star needs to have vision, and ultimately understand that technology is just a means to an end, not an end in itself.  So being able to see trends and consumer needs and then figuring out how to apply the tech to address the needs is the key.
Beyond that, I have to vouch for the folks over @freshbooks for their platform as well as the guys over @gridcentric. They’ve done a great job. In addition, let me give a shout out to @jpuopolo who walks like a tech guy, talks like a tech guy, and not surprisingly, is a star tech guy.