Category Archives: social media

digital media, social media

2013: A Look Back

karim kanji
karim kanji

As we approach the last day of 2013 I thought I would take a moment to reflect back on the year.

2013 started off on a high with my start-up, thirdocean. However, it became clear after a few months that the company would either have to undergo some dramatic changes in what we offered or we would have to shut down and move on (which is what eventually has happened). A little bittersweet but a move that has turned out for the best.

My co-founder, Carolyn Van will be starting graduate studies in 2014 and is currently doing some interesting work as a consultant.

In September 2013 I started as the Digital Content Manager with Catalyst. It’s an industry-leading company with some amazing people working here. I can’t wait to tackle 2014 and do some really innovative and interesting things in content marketing. I was also approached by George Brown college. I will start teaching part-time in their Social Media Marketing Certificate program in 2014. That should be fun!

In 2013 I travelled to Orlando to cover BlackBerry’s annual (last?) BlackBerry World Conference. I also went to Bogota, Colombia to check out that South American country’s digital and start-up community.

Top Videos from 2013:

Alicia Keyes at BlackBerry Live 2013

Walk Off The Earth at ING Cafe Toronto

City of Vaughan Twitter Fail

In conversation with Laurie Dillon-Schalk

Royal Ontario Museum – Social Media Coordinator

In conversation with Andrew Jenkins

Community Manager of Real Sports

MADE Clothing

HOVR.IT with Adam Jarczyn

Top Blog Posts from 2013:

HootSuite vs Buffer

the (in)complete list of coworking spaces in Canada

a look back at Syncapse

Think Like Zuck

Beware Bullshit from Conferences

I also continue to contribute to the itbusiness website and community.

Thanks to all my good friends and family who helped support me in 2013. A special shout out to the lovely boys and girls from The Work Republic family, all the Karim’s at big time design and communication, and the smart folks from The Cat’s Pyjamas.

books, reading, social media, twitter

Book Review: Hatching Twitter

Back in 2010 in the initial iteration of this blog I did a short book review of Accidental Billionaires which was the book that inspired the movie, Social Network which were both inspired by Facebook.

hatching twitter
hatching twitter

Hatching Twitter is the story about how 4 friends came up with the idea for the 140-character “status” updater/social networking site/global phenomenon, who then became co-founders and then became sworn enemies.

Ev told Jack he had to “chill out” with the deluge of media he was doing. “It’s bad for the company,” Ev said. “It’s sending the wrong message.” Biz sat between them, watching like a spectator at a tennis match.
“But I invented Twitter,” Jack said.
“No, you didn’t invent Twitter,” Ev replied. “I didn’t invent Twitter either. Neither did Biz. People don’t invent things on the Internet. They simply expand on an idea that already exists.”

Like Accidental Billionaires (which is a better book than movie) Hatching Twitter (which has just been optioned as a TV series) is about friendship, betrayal, success, business, love, hatred, loyalty, and almost any other emotion you can think of.

Although media and recent history tells a different story, I would like to thank Ev, Jack, Biz and Noah for creating a tool that has changed and continues to change the way people communicate and brands market.

Twitter has become the place where everyone from private citizens, brands and celebrities continue to compete for the attention and adoration of their friends, family members, consumers and marketers. Reading about how this successful company was hatched is a must for everyone. Especially if you’re an avid fan and user like myself.

digital media, social media

Maersk Line and Social Media

A few months ago I had the opportunity to chat with Jonathan Wichmann. Who is Jonathan? Among other things he used to be the head of social media for the world’s oldest and largest shipping company: Maersk Line.

maersk line social media
maersk line social media

What is a 100+ year old boring shipping company doing playing in the social space – a space many believe is reserved for sexy and young consumer brands? Well, I hope you take the time to listen to my conversation with Jonathan.

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

Now, more than ever, it is important for companies of all sizes and types to understand the value of social media and content marketing. We are all playing in a crowded space. We are not just competing with other brands in our space. We are competing for the attention (heart and minds) with our friends, family, other companies and finally our competitors.

Creating content (social or otherwise) that our consumers and potential consumers want is paramount if we want to rise above the noise and capture the hearts and minds of people and businesses.

social media, twitter

Twitter and Starbucks team up for @TweetACoffee

As Twitter continues to prepare for their upcoming IPO we should expect announcements and program such as this one.

Starbucks has teamed up with Twitter for an initiative called @TweetACoffee. This program allows an individual to send a virtual Starbucks $5 eGift to anyone they want to. All the recipient has to do is print off the coupon or add the $5 to their Starbucks mobile card. Pretty simple and easy.

Tweet A Coffee
Tweet A Coffee

It will be interesting to watch how other retailers use Twitter to increase brand awareness, affinity and e-commerce sales.

As for Twitter, I’m sure more partnerships like this and even the earlier Comcast and NBCUniversal announcement will be forthcoming.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxPZj9x_Dsk&w=420&h=315]

social media

What we should learn from Buffer

This past weekend, Buffer suffered an unusual hacking incident that saw many people’s Facebook (and some Twitter) accounts post spam. You can read about the incident (and the updates including the solution) on the Buffer blog here.

There are many security and privacy lessons that can be learned from this incident.

However, the number 1 lesson that I hope every single brand that is active on social media gleans from this is:  Be open, honest and transparent. That’s exactly what Buffer did. And guess what? No one is shitting on them this morning.

buffer hack
buffer hack

The screenshot above shows the top results for a search on “buffer weekend hack”. Most focus on the tactical response from Buffer rather than any security issues.

Throughout the weekend, Buffer updated their social media accounts, blog and even sent out email updates. their goal was to let their community of users know what had happened, what they were doing to resolve the issue and what steps their users could take in the meantime.

buffer response
buffer response

One of the things they were also not afraid of doing was apologizing. They actually said sorry: Which is something everyone needs to do a little bit more of because none of us are perfect.

social media

Content Marketing – #SMWTO #SMW13

Yesterday I attended a session that was part of this year’s Social Media Week – Toronto.  I was a little underwhelmed at the presentation. It was 60% promotional and 40% thought leadership and knowledge.

content marketing

One of the points I heavily disagreed with was the speaker’s claim (and by extension the agency he works for) that there are only 5 “secrets” to successful content marketing:

  1. engaging
  2. rich media
  3. mobile
  4. shareable
  5. call to action

One could argue (and I would be in that camp) that these 5 are incorrect. And they are not even secrets. However, one things is missing: DATA. How can a professional or company claim to create successful content when they are not including the metrics and data to create content?

One of the most important things when creating content is to understand the brand and the consumer. And one of the ways we do this is understanding how people talk about a brand online (social and web) and how they behave on that brand’s website.

Without this knowledge, content that is created is only based on assumptions. We have access to barrels of data. We must use it for ourselves and for our clients if we really want to create engaging content that delivers any sort of measurable ROI.

Your thoughts?

digital media, social media

#FollowFriday: Ryan Dodge – Social Media Coordinator for the Royal Ontario Museum

This week’s #FollowFriday profile is of Ryan Dodge. Ryan is the Royal Ontario Museum’s (ROM) Social Media Coordinator (https://www.rom.on.ca/en/visit-us/con…).

Between 2006 and 2009 Ryan was part of and supervised a large and diverse Visitor Services team at the ROM while welcoming over one million visitors annually. He has an advanced BA in History from Dalhousie University and an MA in Museum Studies from Johns Hopkins University.  Ryan is Interested in all things social, mobile, information accessibility, and interactive technology use in exhibits. He regularly presents on museum mobile/social media strategies and lead/collaborate on various social media projects throughout the institution.

Here is a conversation we had about social media, technology, community and, of course, the ROM.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4GJpWzCheU&w=560&h=315]

digital media, social media

#FollowFriday: Laurie Dillon-Schalk

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Laurie’s. And not because she’s a lover (of coffee, like me!). Or a leader in her industry. I am a fan because, like most people I feature here, she shares her time. She takes time away from her family and work to share her wisdom and insights with others. She doesn’t do it because she sees something in it for herself. She does it because, for her, its the right thing to do.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7l-SfiAzh0&w=560&h=315]

social media

The dichotomy of social media

Last week, Facebook Canada released data on how people and brands are using its platform and interacting with one another.  When we think of people using Facebook we tend to think that people are connecting to their friends and family. And most brands tend to use Facebook to market/sell their wares.

However, there are those people who use Facebook for motives that are not as simple. And the same goes for brands. How people use Facebook (and social media in general) is a topic for another blog post in the not too distant future.

Personally, I “follow” brands to learn. I want to learn how they talk to their audience. I want to learn how they market to potential customers. I want to learn what they say during times of crisis as well as when things are looking great.

Two brands I follow are The YMCA and Flight Centre. And for very different reasons. Flight Centre has a strong team here in Toronto led by the very capable Gregg Tilston. YMCA does an amazing job on social media. Their content is very engaging.  And, of course, they are accomplishing two very different things.

Today, their posts found themselves together, one on top of the other.

Screen Shot 2013-08-19 at 11.31.26 AM

And these two message could not be any more different. YMCA highlighted the fact that many people in Ontario face: how to make ends meet.  Flight Centre posted an aspirational message.

Two very different, yet effective, uses of social media.

social media

#FollowFriday: Head of Magic – Saul Colt

I won’t pretend to speak for Saul but I’ve considered him a good friend and mentor since before rocks were soft. Or 2009.

I was first introduced to Saul via a blog post by another good friend, Sameer Vasta. Sameer wrote a post about job titles in 2008 which referred to Saul’s title, Head of Magic. I was intrigued. Who has the audacity to insist on a title (especially with his employer at the time: FreshBooks) like that? Saul!

When he began working at Zoocasa, I was in the same industry. So I took it upon myself to grab a drink/lunch with him whenever I could. And guess what? Saul gave me his time. He didn’t ask for anything in return except to introduce him to cute women and never c@#k block him.

For those that don’t know Saul check him out. He is a word of mouth marketing genius who transcends technology and trends to focus on results.

social media strategy

For his friendship, time and wisdom, Saul is my #FollowFriday for this week.