digital media

Top 5 Business Apps for the iPad

I haven’t used my iPad for too long. In fact, I’ve had it for under a year. When I first received it I didn’t think much of it. It had some cool apps but I was using it more for consuming entertainment than anything else. However, a business meeting I had a couple of months ago changed everything.

The person we went to see was impressed that we all had iPads at the meeting rather than mini sized laptops. Really? Impressed with iPads? Hey, he was in charge of the Canadian arm of a billion dollar brand. So who was I to argue. Since that meeting I have taken my iPad to every meeting. And in so doing, I’ve tried to use my iPad more and more for business.

Today, I present to you my 5 favourite business apps for the iPad. In no particular order:

Trello – We’ve been using this collaboration tool at our social media agency for the better part of a year now. Besides all the great features of the app, the iPad version comes with push notifications and multi-touch dragging.

Evernote – I’m sure everyone already knows about this app. Just in case you “forget”, go here.

LinkedIn – The go to app for staying connected to professionals in your network is available for you to use on the iPad.

HootSuite – I recently wrote about HootSuite. I’ve actually written a lot about HootSuite over the years so you know I’m a fan. Personally, HootSuite is my go to app for managing conversations for multiple brands across multiple social media platforms.

Dropbox – I’m not the biggest fan or user of Dropbox (I’m a heavy Google Apps user) but it has come in handy for me. It’s the best thing I’ve found to help me share presentations with clients and prospects.

What are your favourite iPad business apps?

youtube

how to make air pressed coffee

Our friends at Network Orange and downtown Toronto’s ING Cafe recently included new “air press” coffee devices. I’m sure they are called something more refined and sophisticated. But I’m writing this at 10:40 pm on a Sunday and I really want to watch Gandhi. So you go check Google for the proper name.

Anyway, I’m going to show you how to make air pressed coffee. I’m now an expert. And some say a coffee snob. 🙂

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb7zJUKdYPo?rel=0&w=560&h=315]

Uncategorized

the (in)complete list of coworking spaces in Canada: part two

As our social media agency was getting off the ground I wrote about coworking spaces in Canada. In fact I wrote that piece while “incubating” our Toronto-based startup in coffee shops in North Toronto. As we’ve grown we’ve spent most of our time in coworking spaces in Toronto. And thus, I think I understand the importance that these spaces play in the growth and development of Canada’s future businesses and business leaders.

The following is a my updated list of coworking spaces in Canada. It is, as the title suggest, an incomplete list. Please keep the list growing by adding locations in the comments section.

British Columbia: SwitchCube in Abbotsford; HiVE in Vancouver; cowork penticton in Penticton; The Network Hub in Vancouver and New Westminster.

Alberta: unit b in Edmonton; CoworkYYC in Calgary; AcceleratorYYC in Calgary.

Prairies: The Two Twenty in Saskatoon; *Upcoming in 2013: New Media Manitoba.

Ontario: Foundery in Toronto; The Creative Space in Barrie; Camaraderie in Toronto; Coworking Space Toronto; Longbranch  Executive Centre in Toronto; ThreeFortyNine Coworking in Guelph; The Hackernest Coworking Shared Office in Toronto; *Currently closed: The Work Republic in Toronto; Colab in Toronto; kowork London; 3rd Rail Society in Stratford; Project RHINO in Toronto; 10Carden in Guelph; Centres for Social Innovation in Toronto; The Code Factory in Ottawa; treehaus in Kitchener; CoWorkative in Richmond Hill; Spark Box Studio in Picton; Bento Miso in Toronto; Beach Business Hub in Toronto; CO:WORK in Toronto; Locus Quo in Toronto; Network Orange in Toronto The YMC in Toronto.

Quebec: Abri.Co in Quebec City; Station C in Montreal; Ecto in Montreal; Exeko in Montreal; la banque in Montreal; Jelly in Quebec City; RPM Montreal; Notman House in Montreal; nexus montreal; Comunoloft in Montreal; 6cent1 in Montreal

Maritimes: Common Ground in St. John’s; The Hub in Halifax; Coworking Cape Breton; The Hub in Mahone Bay; Queen Street Commons in Charlottetown

Know of places I’ve missed? Please share in the comments section. Thanks!

digital media

Windows Phone 8: CBC News

I presently am using a Windows Phone 8 powered Nokia smartphone.

One of my most used apps is courtesy of “The Corporation”. The CBC News app is my go to resource for all international, national and local news.

The stories are updated on a timely basis and include the following sections:

  • Top Stories
  • Regional
  • Photo Galleries
  • Videos
  • World News
  • National News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Health
  • Arts & Entertainment
  • Technology & Science
  • Offbeat
  • Sports

The app was reportedly developed in partnership with Toronto-area dev shop, Digiflare. If you’re interested in this must-have news app you can find more information and download instructions here.

social media, twitter

thirdoceanTV: Gail Gabrielle Ordogh from RealSports

As a partner with a Toronto-based social media agency I have the opportunity to interview the various personalities in the industry on a regular basis. The following interview first appeared on our agency blog last week. I hope you enjoy the conversation.

—–

Our guest today is Gail Gabrielle Ordogh who is the community manager and host for RealSports.

In our conversation we talk about:

  • Social media and e-commerce initiatives at RealSports
  • How RealSports adapts to work stoppages and impacts experiences at e11even, a casual fine dining restaurant at Maple Leaf Square.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG6J2vY9xZA?rel=0]

Show notes:

  • 0:19 – Karim introduces Gail
  • 1:18 – Gail shares how she got into social media and what she’s learnt through her experiences
  • 5:15 – Social media users’ expectations online and how it influences the relationship between the customer and the company
  • 8:07 – Social media management through Gail’s personal Twitter account and it’s influence on the brand’s overall reputation
  • 10:33 – The impact of work stoppages (hockey strike, NBA lockout, etc.) and how it was handled on social media on RealSports
  • 14:30 – How to cater to different needs under one collective brand
  • 15:40 – Using Twitter as a conversion tool to increase foot traffic and purchases
  • 18:49 – What type of content resonates with RealSports fans
  • 23:49 – How RealSports e-commerce platform impacts social media initiatives
  • 25:33 – Working with a consumer popular brand and if it has made Gail’s social media efforts easier than it would for an unknown startup brand
  • 27:16 – How has e-commerce at RealSports impact experiences at e11even, and how such experiences will come to the social media savvy crowds at RealSports. Gail also shares the pilot project for RealSports apparel that started last year – a thirdocean exclusive!
  • 29:27 – Karim wraps up.
digital media, social media, twitter

itbusiness.ca: Vine is making the case for business use

As many of you know, I am  a partner with a social media agency in Toronto. I am also a regular contributor on social media with itbusiness.ca. The following article was first published last week. I hope you enjoy.

——

Earlier this year Twitter released the mobile video-sharing app, Vine. I also shared my early thoughts about Vine on my agency blog here.

As soon as it came out two very distinct camps started to form. The first camp argued that nothing of real value could be created in just six seconds (or less). These were probably the same people who argued that 140 characters was not long enough to tell any sort of meaningful story.

The second camp was mostly filled with creative types. These people didn’t see a 6 second limitation. Rather, they believed that Vine was just another platform where art could be created. They focused on the medium rather than the message.

And if you have spent any amount of time on Vine or even Vine aggregators such as Vinepeek then you now know that people’s creativity knows no bounds. One of the most popular personalities (and my personal favourite) on Vine is Adam Goldberg: six seconds of pure entertainment.

However, in my circle, most people are interested in whether or not there are any business uses for Vine. Of course there is. Two examples pop into my head.

The first is Wired Magazine. On a regular basis Wired Magazine publishes six second videos of visitors and promotions of upcoming stories and features they are working on.

The second is the Humane Society of New York. In February, the Humane Society placed a cat in an adopted home courtesy of a Vine video that was posted earlier in the month.

It is still early to properly quantify the business value of Vine but here are some tangible points:

  1. If you’re hiring, Vine is a great tool to showcase the type of culture your brand lives and breathes.
  2. For those in the publishing industry (books, magazines, digital, etc), Vine is a great way to offer a preview of what’s to come.
  3. Leave a call to action (visit our website or call our number) in your Vine. It can be in the comments or tag section. Or the call to action can be part of the video.
  4. Like all types of content, content best practices still applies with Vine: Publish on a regular basis, produce interesting and shareable content, and listen to your community as you continue to publish Vine videos.

There are plenty of examples of companies already using Vine. If you’ve come across a brand using Vine in an interesting and compelling way, please share with the rest of the community in the comments section.

social media, twitter

HootSuite vs Buffer

Earlier this month I conducted a non-scientific analysis comparing two social media publication tools: HootSuite and Buffer. To set the stage here are some facts:

  • The social media agency that I am a partner of is a paying HootSuite client.
  • I use HootSuite (not just for business) to publish to a variety of platforms including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
  • I use HootSuite to publish in real time as well as push out scheduled messages.
  • I have used the free version of Buffer (sparingly) to send out scheduled tweets.

I scheduled 10 identical tweets on both platforms between the dates of Monday, March 4 2013 – Wednesday, March 6 2013.

HootSuite’s schedule engine heavily loaded the tweets on Monday. Buffer scheduled 4 on Monday, 4 on Tuesday and 2 on Wednesday. Here are the results:

  • 4 tweets from HootSuite had no clicks.
  • HootSuite’s analytics (unless I’m missing something) didn’t share how many RTs or mentions the tweets received.
  • The 10 tweets sent through HootSuite’s scheduled feature received a total of 33 clicks; the highest tweet received 14 clicks and was about Toronto’s Community Managers.
  • Every tweet sent through Buffer received at least 1 click.
  • The average tweet sent through Buffer received 6.5 clicks.
  • The most popular tweets each received 12 clicks (Toronto’s Community Managers, Co-working Spaces in Toronto, and an interview with Gregg Tilston of Flight Centre).
  • The Co-working tweet also received 1 RT and 1 mention.
  • In total, the tweets sent through Buffer received 2 RTs, 1 mention and 65 clicks

Conclusion:

Use Buffer to send out more than 4 scheduled tweets at once. The platform will ensure they are spread out evenly. What will I do? I will continue to use HootSuite. Scheduling has benefits (as seen above) but I also place a high level of importance on engagement, monitoring, moderating and searching for conversations and topics. These are things that provide me with personal and business value.

digital media, social media, twitter

itbusiness – Is credit card alliance Foursquare’s saving grace?

The following post was originally posted on itbusiness.ca last week.

By now you’ve probably heard that Foursquare had initiated a retail program that allows users to check in to locations and save money with their Visa or MasterCard. In fact, it’s been almost two years since Foursquare created this initiative with American Express.

The most recent announcement is quite interesting as Forbes opined at the beginning of the year that Foursquare was doomed for failure in 2013. Which leads me to ask this question: Will this latest initiative with Visa and MasterCard help Foursquare become relevant, profitable and an important ally of retailers?

Time will tell but I think it is not too early to say yes.

  1. Immediate ROI. Retailers (and all businesses for that matter) have been concerned about the value of social media ever since it was determined that one could actually measure social media. Participating retailers will find ROI from this program just by plugging in. However, they will still need to actively engage and communicate with their community and potential audience members. Now that this opportunity has been handed to them how innovative will retailers become to attract people via social media in general and Foursquare specifically? And what active role will Foursquare play in this? Will we see sales offices open up similar to their social media cousins such as Facebook and LinkedIn?
  2. Huge big data opportunity. Big Data is going to continue to be huge in 2013 and this is just one example of why. Foursquare and the credit card companies are the biggest winners here. For years, credit card companies have been harvesting data on the purchasing habits of customers. Foursquare has been compiling data (although not as rich) for a few years now. This marriage of sorts will – for the first time – now combine consumer behaviour and social media. In fact, I believe that American Express’ recent partnership with retailers and Twitter is a direct result of lessons learned (and data obtained) from their Foursquare initiative of two years ago. Look for Visa, MasterCard and American Express to use this data to offer special services, insights and even products to their corporate and consumer clients in the very near future. Also look for Foursquare to continue working with retailers and credit cards companies to be their social media partner.
  3. The importance of the check-in. Many retailers still rely heavily on their store fronts for the majority of their revenues. This partnership with Foursquare shows the importance that bricks and mortar still plays in today’s digital economy. However, I believe that Foursquare will now start to develop a GetGlue-type solution by offering consumers the ability to virtually check in. Why? in 2010, e-commerce accounted for $15.3 billion in sales in Canada. And it’s growing.

For Canada the question is when will we see this initiative north of the 49th? Don’t hold your breath. The Amex initiative is still not available in Canada after two years. So the chances of Foursquare opening up this program anytime soon in Canada is unlikely.

digital media, social media

thirdoceanTV: in conversation with Melody Adhami COO of Plastic Mobile

The following article originally appeared on thirdocean.com/blog last week.

My guest last week was Melody Adhami who is the COO of Plastic Mobile. This is the second time that I have had the opportunity to interview Melody. Visit here for our first conversation.

Plastic Mobile is an award-winning mobile marketing agency, working with some of North America’s leading brands such as Pizza Pizza (20+ awards including a Webby Award Winner), Sportsnet, and Mazda among others.

They are industry leaders for many first-of-their-kind mobile initiatives, including launching the first radio iPhone app and video iPad app in Canada.

In this conversation Melody and I talk about:
o Mobile marketing trends among retailers and big brands
o Plastic Mobile’s new developments

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYX1cMFLR7w?rel=0&w=560&h=315]

Follow Melody @melodyadhami and Plastic Mobile @plasticmobile and on the web Plastic Mobile.

Follow me @karimkanji and thirdocean @wearethirdocean and on the web thirdocean.