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2011
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Another Vancouver Riot Casualty
If you watched coverage of the riots, you saw footage similar to this image. For whatever reason, those who participated in the riots seem to have no concern about what people around them thought of them or the risks of being arrested or tear gassed. For many of them, the risks are more severe and far [...]
Highlights from #MRUShift
Today I was privileged to attend the Social Media Shift forum at Mount Royal University. It was great to see over 200 people that saw value in social media, so much so that they invest time and money to learn from great speakers. If you were watching my live-tweeting, you probably came across some of my comments. [...]
Social Media Overload? Make Sense Of It All On June 23 At #MRUShift
Social media, engagement, authenticity, real-time and sentiment. These are all buzz words. But how can social media really help your organization or business? There are blogs, wikis, videos, podcasts, forums, groups, case studies and more dedicated to explaining social media. It’s information overload. The Solution Mount Royal University has organized an unprecedented event in Calgary on June [...]
Social Media ROI: An Interview with Olivier Blanchard – Part 2
This post is is the first in a 5 part series based on an interview with Olivier Blanchard, author of Social Media ROI. Weaving Social Media into Strategy My second question I asked Olivier was, “how do you go about weaving social into business strategy to accomplish objectives?” Olivier advises that to be successful with social media, [...]
Mobile… The New Frontier
Actually mobile isn’t all that new. Wireless Markup Language (WML) has been around since 1998. But it seems that lately that mobile awareness has been increasing significantly. This may be largely affected by the increase in smartphone usage and social network activity. Over the past few months I have visited dozens of mobile websites. Here are [...]
Social Media ROI: An Interview with Olivier Blanchard
This post is is the first in a 5 part series based on an interview with Olivier Blanchard, author of Social Media ROI. This book couldn’t have come at a more perfect time as my role has naturally evolved into a social media strategist. If you are involved with strategizing, organizing or managing social media [...]
Let’s All Get on the QR Code Bandwagon… Maybe
By now you’ve probably seen these 2D images called QR codes. They are popping up everywhere. Businesses, in an effort to use the latest technology are plastering them on posters, billboards, businesses cards and more. QR (Quick Response) Codes can encode various data elements including a URL or contact information. These codes can than be [...]
Knowledge is Power BUT… you have to keep it up
The following is a guest blog post from Susan Roberts. Susan is an E-Recruiter and began working at Lethbridge College in September 2010. She graduated in 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and a Bachelor of Management in Marketing , both from the University of Lethbridge. When Susan is not tweeting or crunching [...]
Social Communications: Don’t Spray & Pray
I’m studying corporate communications at Athabasca University. The unit I’m in talks about strategy, particularly communications strategy. In an article I’m reading, the author indicates that communicators often will choose from one of five communication strategies. One of these strategies is Spray & Pray. Spray & Pray involves giving a bunch of information, hoping people will be able [...]
Social Media Unplugged 2011
From small businesses to mainstream media to large corporations, social media is impacting the way we do business and how we communicate. For many, social media is a new experience. One that requires learning by trial and error. That’s where the value of conferences come in. Instead of learning by trial and error yourself, you [...]
I Don’t Want 50,000 Twitter Followers
Two years ago I wrote a post about the failure of social media. Recently, I’ve been thinking about that topic again. I follow 1,900 people, which is almost impossible to be social with that many people. I’ve put people that I really want to listen to into lists to help raise them above the noise. [...]
Social Media & Politics
Transparency and authenticity are not the first things that comes to mind when I think of politics. But they are when I think of social media. How can politics and social media really go together? Like some corporations, I’m sure some politicians wish social media didn’t play a role in politics. But the fact is, [...]
The On-demand Generation
We’ve heard of Baby Boomers, GenX, GenY and Millennials. Each provide their set of communication challenges. A realization came to me of what the next generation might be called and some of their challenges. We have a PVR and Netflix and our children love to watch their favorite shows on their own schedule. There is [...]
Social Media: A Catalyst for Change
Social media tools will come and go. But the underlying concepts behind social media will remain. They have and will continue to change the face of politics, business and corporate culture. When organizations begin the journey of integrating social media into their operational activities, they are really trying to adjust their culture. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube [...]
Another Post on Listening, But We Need It!
We all remember as little kids covering our ears when an adult talked to us. We had to be taught the importance of listening and that it was rude to ignore adults. While we don’t literally cover our ears and sing ‘la la la,’ our actions on social networks show a different story. There are [...]
My New Social Media Opportunity
Social media will not be going away. This is largely due to the mobile market. According to comScore, 25% of US mobile subscribers used their devices to access social networks sites or blogs in January, 2011. Olivier Blanchard in his great book, Social Media ROI, had this to say: We did not grow tired of [...]
Twitter: The Best Customer Service Tool
Years ago, before the rise of social media tools like Twitter, I had poor experiences at two different Arby’s restaurants. I sent Arby’s head office an e-mail to voice my concerns. I never received a reply. In all honesty, Arby’s executives probably realized the complaint ends with them and maybe a few of my friends. [...]
Don’t be a Troll!
I apologize for the ranting in this post, but I’m frustrated with the blatant inconsideration of people’s feelings on social media. Have you ever had someone correct you in public or make a comment that has no point, except to anger you? On social networks, this type of activity is called trolling. In most cases, people know what [...]
5 Steps to a Killer Website
We recently launched a new website for our athletic teams. We adopted a process that was used when we redesigned our main college website last year. The Athletic Director was fairly new to the college and was quite anxious to have a new website, and at times appeared to just want to get it done, [...]
Case VIII Conference Wrap-Up
This past week I attended the Case VIII Conference in Vancouver. District Case conferences are a great opportunity to put aside the competition in higher education and build relationships, share ideas and help each other out. This was my first Case conference and it was an amazing experience. I want to share with you some of [...]