Here in Toronto, where I live, we are experiencing an historical event.  For   the first time in over 10 years the Toronto District School Board has cancelled all classes for the entire day.  But as you’ve come to expect, we don’t take a day off because of weather at thirdocean.  And if it’s a Wednesday you can always count on another edition of 5 Questions.

Ali Ghafour, of viafoura, is an Internet veteran with over 12 years of web development and design experience.  A University of Toronto grad with a computer science degree coupled with an incontestable understanding of the web has proven to be an absolute asset to the company and its clients trying to navigate the social space.

Ali was on the Canadian National Taekwondo team for five years and competed at three World Championships, as well as the 2007 Pan Am Games. He finished in the Top 4 to be chosen to compete at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.  On his own time, he coaches students who want to become future Olympic champions, teaching them both the physical and mental aspects of sport and how to implement these skills into everyday practices.

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

Solving a real problem is what motivates me. Working day in and day out on tools that increase user engagement for websites fits in that optimal zone of “challenge vs skill” for me. There are times when your self motivation becomes a little low, but hearing validation and strong interest from the people we present to, recharges the batteries.

This past summer I had the glorious opportunity to travel to East Africa for 6 weeks.  I would highly suggest this to anyone who wants to take a break from Canadian life and see how the other side is doing it.

While in Kenya I hooked up with someone I first connected with on Twitter, Soud Hyder.  Soud is a mover and shaker in the technology and innovation space in Kenya.

Recently, Soud wrote an article about a product called M-Pesa which is a mobile money solution that first launched in Kenya.  With his permission, here is that article:

M-Pesa is a mobile money transfer service conceptualized in Kenya by Safaricom/Vodafone and funded in part by the UK government. M-Pesa has since grown exponentially with a user base of over 50% of Kenya’s adult population, throughput of over 11% of the country’s GDP and higher transfer rates than those of Western Union globally. The service has slowly expanded to Tanzania, South Africa and Afghanistan in Vodafone networks. Other operators in the region have also deployed similar services.

If there is anything better than sliced bread for the average Kenyan, it has to be M-Pesa. A money transfer service that proves that endogenous growth of an economy mainly populated by the bottom of the pyramid is possible. All human beings are endowed with certain unique skills which can be monetized in a market oriented world. For Kenyan micro entrepreneurs M-Pesa has been the right lubricant that has catapulted them to be active participants in the economy. Growth in mobile telephony has allowed millions of people in the informal economy to connect and communicate with each other to render products or services. M-Pesa has allowed the same people to receive and send money to each other, thus greatly enhancing the velocity of money moving around the system.

M-Pesa’s success can largely be attributed to its open business model that allows local entrepreneurs and organizations to serve as M-Pesa agents. They pretty much act as rudimentary bankers that exchange hard cash for virtual cash stored in mobile phones. The virtual cash is transferable to all Safaricom subscribers who can withdraw the same as hard cash at any of the over 20,000 agents countrywide. The mobile operator charges a commission for the service, part of which is shared with the agent. An agency model such as the one used by M-Pesa has exponentially expanded the service and has allowed the service to permeate across all sectors of society across the country. A seasoned salesman would say “sell to people how they like to be sold to” and M-Pesa has done exactly that. By partnering with local shopkeepers, entrepreneurs, banks and other formal as well as semi-formal organizations, M-Pesa has piggy backed on established social and business networks to create a service that is very convenient with huge customer satisfaction. The thought of a recipient receiving money hundreds of miles away within five minutes of the transaction being executed creates an air of solid trust in the service. Never before has this been possible in a developing country such as Kenya plagued by challenges in infrastructure development and a relatively under developed financial sector that only served a certain segment of the economy.

The success of the service naturally would attract the likes of micro-finance institutions. Commerical banks have also jumped into the bandwagon creating symbiotic relationships and partnerships with Safaricom. The biggest so far has been with Equity Bank on a product dubbed M-Kesho. This service allows M-Pesa account holders to register for a virtual bank account that enables them to transfer their M-Pesa balances into a virtual bank account that would accrue returns on savings. All this is done without filling up more forms, as the data that already exists with the mobile operator is shared with the bank. These meet all regulatory requirements including KYC rules and regulation of deposit taking institutions as the money is moved to the bank and M-Pesa just facilitates the transfer of money from one point to another. Credit and debit cards may possibly never really work in the developing world, but mobile money certainly is.

This past week I had the chance to finally meet the guys behind StoryGuitars.com.  I’ve known about Ricardo and Ujwal and their unique business for a few months.  But to hear their story was quite interesting.  And to see the relationship musicians have with their instruments is something to behold!

StoryGuitars came out this week at Toronto’s monthly SproutUp held during Small Business Week.

I encourage all of you to check out their website.  Here’s a sneak peek:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=904FM-nsO2k]

What’s your story?

Andy Nulman, the guy in charge of laughter in Canada – he’s actually in charge of the Just for Laughs brand, tweeted this past weekend:

…what do I have to do to make 20,000 stand in the rain for comedy?

Andy was attending a Green Day concert and realized that 20,000 rabid fans were moshing it up in the rain. 

So I thought I’d dedicate this post to Andy.  I hope I can help.  Although I do know that Andy has friends much smarter than I.  So there’s no pressure on me to perform.

First off, I don’t think Green Day ordered rain.  Honestly.  So let’s take rain out of the equation.  The question should be, how do we get 20,000 people to buy tickets to a comedy act/show that will take place outdoors?

Step one.  Hire an act or a number of performers so that selling 20,000 tickets is no problem.  Talent matters.  I’m not a follower of the comedy industry, but I do know that Russell Peters sold out the Air Canada Centre back in 2009.  So find someone who has filled or can fill an arena.

Step two.  Energy.  If Green Day were performing an intimate, unplugged set, maybe their fans would have rebelled and left the show.  No one like’s just standing in the rain.  But singing in the rain and being active can be kinda fun. Especially if it’s summer and a lot of white tops are being worn. You shouldn’t plan for rain but you can at least prepare for it.  Which comedy act get’s people fired up?

Step three.  This is a blog about “marketing in a social age” so here’s a suggestion with this in mind.  Create a collaborative event.  Create an interactive community-driven site where fans can suggest jokes and themes.  Think about a mash-up of Twitter, YouTube and flash mobs.  Allow the talent to participate in this collaboration with their fans.  Can you imagine the electricity in the air as people wait for their “contribution” to be shared?

Andy, these are just some thoughts.  Hope they help at least spark some ingenious ideas on your end.

Anyone else have any other ideas?

One of my goals for 2010 was to do 3 speaking gigs. Not as a source of revenue but as part of my personal growth strategy.  I have well surpassed this.

I thought it would be neat to revisit my first public talk this year.

Just click on the link below to be taken to the video.

The Techvibes Community

I hope you enjoy!

You’ve heard the saying “Wear your heart on your sleeve.”  Now comes a new one:

Wear your pants.

It was inspired by friend, #agencyball teammate and all around smart marketing genius Saul Colt.

In an age of social media this and digital marketing that, it is sometimes refreshing that good old word of mouth can be simple and effective.

Saul spoke yesterday in New York at an event called Word of Mouth Supergenius.  It was put on by the good folks at gaspedal.  Now, I wasn’t there to hear Saul speak.  However, I have heard him speak on numerous occasions.  And I’ve been lucky enough to be on the receiving end of an outlet pass from him on the court.  So I think I know a little bit about how he operates.

Saul is a marketing genius.  He understands (I think) that to make a mark a brand needs to employ the element of surprise.  He knows that people will remember and (maybe more importantly) tweet about moments of “Ah Ha!”

For example, he’s bought a free-loading client a bottle of wine, put the SkyDome up for sale and has taken pictures with Santa in the middle of summer.  All “Wow!” moments to say the least.

And the companies he’s worked for have benefited from his wacky antics.  Freshbooks, Zip.ca, Zoocasa and Thoora.com are all better off because Saul has been on their payroll.

But here’s the important thing.  The thing that separates marketing professionals from people like Saul who are marketing geniuses: Even when Saul is not “working” he’s working.  Whether it’s the insanity of some of his tweets or the clothes he wears, Saul has figured out that the element of surprise doesn’t stop when he leaves the office.

He literally wears his heart on his sleeve.  Or in Saul’s case, he likes to wear his pants.  Or something like that.

Do you walk your talk?

Marketing that is. 

It may feel that way especially when you’ve lived and worked in one location.

For example, living most of my life (ok, all of it) in the western world (aka Toronto, Canada) I am subject to very innovative and experiential marketing campaigns.   These days, it seems everything is about the social web and how mobile technology is changing how companies are marketing new services and products.

Yet, in places like East Africa (I’m presently in Kenya) it’s a little bit different. 

While more people in Kenya have a mobile phone (per capita) than in Canada, it’s not all about the social web experience on the mobile phone.  That’s because smartphones are not as ubiquitous as they are in Toronto.  Affordability is one example. 

However, this does not mean that people in the “third world” are not entrepreneurial.  Fact in point is Kenya’s M-Pesa service which I blogged about on Techvibes.  This service let’s the user transfer and get access to cash via their phone using SMS. 

There is not yet a market (nor a need, I think) for cool smartphone banking apps.  The operative word is yet.

So while SMS might seem “old” in Canada, it’s very much in use here in Kenya.

And marketing should be the same.

Sometimes we’ve been in a place for so long that the only marketing plans and schemes we can think up are the ones that have already been done or are presently being done.  What can we do to ensure we don’t keep copying and doing the same thing?

Use your imagination and start learning to think a little different.  Ask questions like what are the people in my market doing?  How are they interacting with one another?  What tools are they using that will allow me to communicate with them more effectively?

Remember that people are people and while we all may do similar things we are also not all the same.

Hello from Nairobi!

With companies quickly embracing social media as a marketing tool I thought it would be wise to remind everyone that customer service still counts, no matter how many Twitter followers you have.

Case in point:  Yesterday we visited the Animal Orphanage just outside Nairobi.  It was a couple of hours after lunch and we all were starving.  So we decided to grab a quick lunch before visiting the animals.  There was a great restaurant overlooking a watering hole.  The baboons and antelope (at least I think that’s what these bambi-lookalikes were!) were in full force.  The atmosphere was great.  They even had all the flag of the nations in the World Cup all over the place.

But it took more than 90 minutes for our food to get to us.

This is not just a case of “that’s how it is in Africa”.  This is a case of forgetting that the customer experience is paramount. 

Most of my work these days revolves around marketing and showing companies how they can effectively use social media tools in engaging their community online.  However, I always insist that no matter how cool their website is; or how many Twitter followers or Facebook friends they have, they must always remember one thing:  The experience I have when I visit their online or offline space trumps everything.

If the customer service rep is rude; if the food is cold; if they forget about me as soon as I walk out the door with my purchase then everything else matters not.

Customer service matters.