Tag Archives: Social media

Kerry Morrison

Just finished taping episode #4 of Welcome! with @kmore. #podcast #Toronto #GirthRadio #PJH

A photo posted by @karimkanji on

Last week saw Kerry Morrison, of endloop, visit the Welcome! studios at Girth Radio.

Kerry was born in the Yukon, grew up mostly in Edmonton and moved to Vancouver in 1994. Most recently he’s lived in Italy ( Rome & Florence), Mexico and Montreal. Today, Kerry calls Toronto home.

During this episode we chat about:

    • Growing up in the Yukon and Edmonton.
    • His dad buying a Macintosh and then falling in love with technology.
    • The importance of traveling.
    • Why make the move from Vancouver to Toronto?
    • Why Kerry identifies as an Apple fan
    • And why Father John Misty is his favourite musical artist

Girth Radio
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You can also subscribe to the podcast via RSS Feed if you’re so inclined.


Featuring music by:
The New Pornographers – Moves
Father John Misty – Chateau Lobby #4

Twitter’s Mobile App now has simple analytics

By now you’re probably very familiar with Twitter’s new analytics. For those who haven’t seen this you can now see analytics on a post basis from your Twitter mobile app.

Previously we had to login to ads.Twitter.com to see our analytics. However, with more than 75% of users (Canadians) of Twitter on mobile, Twitter was bound to offer users the ability to view their analytics on mobile.

Here’s what we see on the web:

Twitter Analytics | karim kanji

 

When we clicked on the tweet we would see analytics that included:

Twitter Analytics | karim kanji

Now on our Twitter mobile app, here is what we see:

Twitter Mobile Analytics | karim kanji

You can see from the above image that we now have the ability to “view tweet activity”. And here’s what that looks like:

Twitter Mobile Analytics | karim kanji

We are shown impressions (how many people saw the tweet), engagements (how many people clicked the tweet) and details on engagement (here we can see how many people expanded the Tweet, clicked on the hashtag, and clicked to see the profile).

According to Twitter here is what we will be able to see:

Twitter Analytics | Karim Kanji

So what does this all mean?

Most importantly, you will be better able to understand the performance of your tweets. Are people seeing them? And if so, how many of them are actually taking any sort of action? Again, this information has been available for some time via Twitter web. But now that we all have access to the metrics on mobile, we should all be able to better understand the success of our tweets (business or otherwise).

 

The Legitimization of Social Platforms as Performance Channels

This week Toronto is playing host to Advertising Week – Canada. And I’m excited that our company, Catalyst Canada, is producing 5 original articles this week. Here’s the one that I was tasked with writing:

“Over the past 10+ years we have witnessed the rise of social media and social networking. What once was the domain of individuals quickly became a hybrid of brand marketing and personal posts. Today we have come to expect zero organic reach for brands on Facebook. And while brands continue to see reach on Twitter, many have opined that Twitter may follow Facebook’s lead as it continues to monetize their platform.”

Read the entire article, The Legitimization of Social Platforms as Performance Channels.

The latest Facebook changes

Recently, Facebook announced changes to their News Feed algorithm. Again. They’re always making changes. Sometime users hate them. Most of the time, brands are left scratching their heads. Marketers see change as an opportunity. Here’s the piece I wrote for Catalyst Canada:

“According to the most recent numbers Facebook has made publicly available, more than 19 million Canadians are logging on at least once every month with 14 million of us checking our news feed every day.  Add to that the brand updates from the hundreds of thousands of brands and companies on Facebook and the average user has more than 1000 status updates in their newsfeed when they login.”

Click through to read more on the 2015 Changes to Facebook.

Corporations on Twitter

I love Twitter. Ever since the days of sending and receiving tweets on my Motorola flip phone via SMS. I also happen to work with the platform on a daily basis. I teach Twitter Marketing at George Brown College here in Toronto. I also help brands understand how to use Twitter from both an organic and paid perspective. It’s really quite interesting. And my work is both fun and rewarding. To be able to help brands increase their reach and achieve goals on my favourite communications tool is very exciting!

There are times when I do use the product where I come away scratching my head. Why would a brand be on Twitter and stay quiet? It’s like having a store and never opening. Or a phone number but never answering a call. An email address but never replying. If you’re a brand and you’re on Twitter you better believe that your customers and potential customers expect you to reply and engage. Especially, if these people are asking for help. I present to you exhibit #1:

I’m still waiting for a response from Pet Smart.

Here is my closing remarks: Don’t be cute. Stay on brand. Be entertaining. And don’t play baseball if all you know is hockey. Make sense? Here’s my final exhibit. Exhibit #2:

John Oliver: Corporations on Twitter | Karim Kanji

John Oliver: Corporations on Twitter 

 

How Will Businesses Use Social Media in 2015?

How will business owners and social media strategists refine the way they engage potential customers on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and other social media channels in 2015?

“Overall, we see social media beginning to reach its potential as a marketing tool – businesses are finding they can use social media channels to sell their products or services while maintaining an authentic voice that social media is famous for,” says Bernard Perrine, CEO and co-founder of SocialCentiv, a Twitter marketing tool designed to help businesses find new customers on Twitter.

Perrine predicts businesses will find success with these top trends in 2015:

Targeting audiences. Instead of trying to reach the masses to find a handful of customers, the idea is to specifically target several small, tailored groups of people via the social media channel that you are most likely to reach them on. That way, companies are reaching more people who are relevant to their business and more likely to become customers.

Blending paid and owned content. As marketers have perfected their social media strategies, they have found that blending their paid and owned media together lets them get their content out to more people while keeping costs down and still maintaining an authentic voice. Striving to find the perfect blend of paid and owned media will be the challenge in 2015.

Enlisting employees to help share. When employees are sharing their company’s social media content on their own channels, businesses cash in with a higher organic reach and engaged employees who feel passionately about the company. How should a business organize this effort? Simply ask!

Laughing it up! Social media marketers have found that one of the best ways to resonate with their followers – many of which are Millennials – is to be silly and give them a good laugh. Businesses can achieve this through pictures, videos or even corny jokes. Humor has boundaries – make sure that jokes are within good taste, tied to the business and relevant.

 

Top Articles of 2014

2014 is almost over. And 2015 is just around the corner. In this post we take a look back at some of the more popular articles of 2014.

Coffee Lounges

I attended a few coffee lounges at Willowdale this past year. After attending I posted some thoughts and pictures here. The most popular article that was written in 2014 was the Lounge that featured former Rogers CEO Nadir Mohamed. The second most popular article from this past year featured the CEO of Aga Khan Foundation Canada, Khalil Shariff.

Toronto Politics

If you lived in Toronto in 2014 you know that politics took front page on almost a daily basis. And not because of anything good. Mostly. The third and eighth most popular articles from 2014 highlighted two personalities from Toronto politics. Third place (coincidentally) features Olivia Chow. I met Chow over the summer at a friend’s backyard barbeque. I also read Crazy Town by Robyn Doolitle which ended up as the eighth most popular article of karimkanji.com this past year. The book detailed the various shenanigans of Rob Ford and his dysfunctional political family. I also wrote about meeting eventual Mayor of Toronto, John Tory.

Social Media

The following three articles also ended up in the top ten most popular articles of 2014:

The Problem with LinkedIn;

How To Block Promoted Tweets In HootSuite;

I started teaching a couple of social media marketing courses at George Brown College here in Toronto.

Wearables

On itbusiness.ca, I started writing more about wearables in 2014. However, the most popular article I wrote on itbusiness this past year was my digital technology forecast for 2014.

Catalyst Blog

My writing can also be found on the Catalyst blog. The most popular piece from this past year was a look at the future of mobile banking.

YouTube

Did you know I also have a YouTube channel? I do. And you should subscribe! Here was my most watched video from 2014:

 

Twitter hopes to dominate #WorldCup second screen action with World Cup hub

As The Verge (and others) reported earlier this month, Facebook and Twitter will be battling it out during Brazil’s World Cup in the hopes of dominating second screen World Cup social media participation. (Man, that was a mouthful!)

I am a huge user and evangelist of Twitter so I was surprised I hadn’t seen anything. Until now. (I’m also a huge user of HootSuite)

Here’s a screenshot tour of the World Cup Twitter experience:

World Cup 2014 - Twitter

When you login to Twitter and click on the home tab on the top left you will be directed to your timeline. On the left you will notice the right navigation is World Cup themed.

World Cup Brazil - Twitter

This is what it looks like. The upcoming games are shown as is the ability to actually customize your Twitter World Cup experience based on your favourite team.

Brazil World Cup - Twitter

By clicking on the first game we get a Brazil vs Croatia themed Twitter page. Everything from scoreboard, photos, videos, tweets and even team players’ accounts are displayed.

Brazil World Cup - Twitter

What is you actually want to choose your side and get more personalization? Click on through to the other side! (The Doors would have loved Twitter, eh?)

Brazil World Cup - Twitter

Click a flag to choose your team! Who are you supporting?

Brazil World Cup - Twitter

Social Media Marketing – George Brown College

social media marketing
social media marketing

This past winter I had the privilege to teach my first ever course at George Brown: Twitter Marketing. Well, it seems my students liked me enough that the powers that be at George Brown College have agreed to have me teach the Social Media Marketing courseWe’ll go through some social media history, take an in depth look at the popular tools of the day, and empower students to be able to create a social media strategy.

There’s still some space if you’re interested in registering. Classes start soon!

 

The Problem With LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a very valuable tool for professionals and companies alike. For example, many people have used the recommendations feature to help them increase their employment and career goals and aspirations. Many companies have used LinkedIn’s vast source of data to search for new talent.

When people have a problem with LinkedIn, most of the time (although the platform is far from perfect), it’s because of the way individual people use it.

Take the following as a case in point:

I don’t mind connecting with people I know on LinkedIn. I also don’t mind connecting with people I don’t yet know but who might work in the same office as me. However, this one made me laugh hard:

LinkedIn
LinkedIn

I am a person he trusts yet he doesn’t know me. So why the heck should I connect!? Should I connect?