Research Your Influencers
One of the biggest points from the report was highlighting the slightly disjointed relationship between brand marketers and influencers. The report says that often, brands look to influencer’s ComScore when choosing someone to work with, when in reality, this might not always be the best source for finding an influencer to work with, as the numbers do not always fairly represent the influencer. In order to establish Influencers to help your brand reach audiences that you might not have access to, conducting research beyond ComScore numbers is key. What kind of following do they have? How responsive is their community? Is it always growing? There are other elements to consider when approaching an Influencer. You also have to recognize if they will be a good fit for your brand. Just because your product might be in the same industry as an Influencer’s expertise, it might not correlate well. Research your Influencers and take a look at their community and their content before you jump right into numbers.

Measuring Your Success
There still remains the slightly sticky topic of ROI and measurement on a ‘successful’ campaign when Influencers are engaged for a promotion. Technorati’s report outlines that there is a lack of uniform metrics to effectively measure the success of campaigns. Influencers are looking to pageviews and traffic whereas brand marketers are looking at Facebook likes. Before finalizing a campaign, it is within both parties’ interests to define what a successful campaign would look like. That is to say – if the objective is brand awareness and reaching new demographics, pageviews and traffic sources might be of value. If you’re looking to Facebook likes, you might want to reach out to an Influencer who has a strong Facebook community. None the less, having a conversation prior to campaign launch about objectives will help drive the campaign forward and yield more satisfactory results.

Get Mobile
We all know by now that your brand should be social but what does that mean? It means that you should be connecting with audiences through Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. 90% of brands have a presence on Facebook. That’s a staggering number – and you don’t want to be left out. YouTube and Facebook are the top two sources used on the Internet. Over the next year – spend on social will rise 59%. What’s more interesting is that spend on mobile is expected to increase 79%. With those numbers you definitely want to make sure your site is responsive (you can read more about responsive design here). You don’t want to alienate any part of your audience or advertisers by not having a mobile friendly layout for your website. Pay attention to your analytics and see where your traffic is coming from. With mobile digital spend on the rise, you definitely want to be accommodating to the trend. What are your takes on this years report?

We’d love to hear your agreements, disagreements or general comments!

On Tuesday we (Savannah, Jessica & I) were privileged to be in attendance at Conversuasion 6 presented by Ad Lounge at The Arts and Letters Club in Toronto. The night featured three 20-minute fireside chats, a Q&A period, and a chance to mingle afterwards. As far as Tuesday nights go in the city, this wasn’t a bad way to spend one at all.

The three speakers for the evening were, in order of appearance:
Shawn King (President, Chief Creative Officer – Extreme Group)
Susan Kim-Kirland (CEO – JWT Canada)
Paul Regan (Director of Media Innovation & Strategy – Scotiabank)

All three speakers did an excellent job of engaging the audience from the comfort of an armchair – which was placed on stage appropriately situated next to a roaring (televised) fire. Each speaker was personal and genuine. It was easy to see that the information and stories being shared were educational and each of them felt that there was value in them being told. As I expect was the case with everyone in the room, some points rang louder to me than others. And I feel fortunate that each of the 3 speakers contributed points that I’ve been thinking about in time since the night ended.

Shawn King was an excellent speaker who connected with the audience in a very relaxed manner (perhaps due to his glass of scotch?) and set the tone of the evening. He spoke about not taking things so seriously that you forget where you’ve been or where you are in life. We get quite caught up in our daily lives that it’s easy to be completely consumed by the small details. Perhaps his most relevant point centred around the idea that you shouldn’t always be 100% sure of what you’re doing – if you think you have all the answers to everything – you’re heading down a dangerous path. The willingness to admit that you’re always in a position to learn something new and improve is an important part of everyone’s continuing development. I’m thankful to have heard someone in Shawn’s position share that sentiment.

Susan Kim-Kirkland’s chat did a great job of reinforcing the message that continued development and growth are not only imperative to our personal careers, they are our responsibility to those who are coming up through the ranks behind us. She spoke about the value of the mentors in her career and the importance she sees in being that mentor to others now. Susan’s point crosses all industries and hits a nail on the head: take care of your people, foster their growth and the rewards will be seen with exponential returns. I agree with her 100% and believe that her point translates through various life experiences. As an industry leader, Susan showed that leadership is about people, not just projects which was a great reminder for everyone in the room.

Paul Regan took the stage last, although that was in no way an indication of value. His fireside chat was titled, Innovation and the Art of Letting Go. He hit great points about not staying emotionally attached to pieces or projects that will inevitably change direction, be disrupted or come to an end. Paul touched on inspiration that he has drawn from renowned American Buddhist teacher and author, Pema Chödrön which helped reinforce a wonderful example of success – it is about more than the work you do on paper. And while Paul made many great points; the one that stuck with me the most was this: work hard to maintain a childlike “beginner’s mind” that hasn’t been hardened by being told no. Paul’s words reminded us to revisit a time when we weren’t hardened by being told ‘no’ or ‘impossible’ – the ‘beginner’s mind’ is constantly inquisitive and ambitious. This is a fantastic approach to new projects – instead of meeting a challenge with ‘no’, it would be great to explore other options or methods to make an idea happen.

In the end the entire audience was lucky to have had the chance to sit and listen to these three industry leaders share their stories and perspectives without hearing a sales pitch or wondering where the catch was. Ad Lounge put on a great event and we look forward to the next Conversuasion and the great line-up of fireside chats that we’ll be taking in. The stripped-down, raw approach to the evening made the talks much more relatable. It was very much, a conversation.

In the last few months, Twitter more than any other social media service has been at the center of a maelstrom of revolution, free speech and radical political thought. Many pundits have gone so far as to call the domino collapse of the governments in the Middle East a “Twitter Revolution”. Despite all the connections and connotations between Twitter and free speech, Twitter itself seems to be maintaining a hands off approach. Their attitude seems to be, “Hey, we just provide the network what people do with it is their business.” This way of thinking harkens back to the very early days of the web, where the original pioneers worked on a sort of don’t ask don’t tell policy of what people sent across their networks.

The Global Network Initiative is a group of companies and investors that have banded together and come forward to protect privacy and free speech on the web. Google, Yahoo!, Human Rights Watch and Microsoft are among the groups that have signed on. There has been some grousing lately that Twitter hasn’t joined up with the Global Network Initiative. Facebook also has opted out, but their free speech record is a subject for another blog post.  The media and http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/technology/07rights.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss” title=”Twitterati”>Twitterati are using the fact that Twitter hasn’t signed on for GNI as a brush to paint them as a company that doesn’t put its’ money where its’ mouth is, and that they don’t support free expression.

It seems the opposite to be true. While Twitter has not officially stepped up and started waving the free speech flag, they are quietly providing a tool that makes free speech possible. It’s one thing to talk a big game, and quite another to keep the servers up and running while they pump out controversial information. What is being played out in the media is a talking vs. doing. The Global Network Initiative is a noble idea, no question. However, GNI isn’t the actual service that is allowing people to spread their message on the net. When an angry dictator or a totalitarian regime decides to shutdown a service because they don’t like the message they’re hearing, they won’t be shutting down GNI.

Teddy Roosevelt said, “Speak softly and carry a big stick”], and this would seem to be the philosophy that Twitter has put into practice. While they may have declined to comment on their free speech policies, the evidence of their “big stick” (mind out of the gutters, please!) is apparent. The credit for the mass upheaval in North Africa belongs with the citizens there on the front lines, but unquestionably Twitter has been the digital cudgel they’re all carrying. Let’s all keep that in mind when the topic of free speech on the web comes up. Speaking about digital freedom is one thing, but putting your servers on the front line of a real revolution is quite another.

A question we hear frequently from many clients: “Is the writing on my blog copyrighted?”

This question comes in all sort of variations, ranging from who owns the copyright, to the process needed to copyright something, to wondering if copyright even exists on the web. Copyright on the web can easily turn into a labyrinth of complications. I like to offer clients who ask a very simple solution that protects their work, and has the added bonus of helping to promote it. Register all the creative work on your blog under a Creative Commons license.

Working with hundreds of blogging clients over the years, has led us to the conclusion that Creative Commons is often misunderstood by people who are new to blogging. This is really a shame, because using CC can give your blog and creative work a big hand by helping others share and promote what you make. New, and even experienced bloggers, see Creative Commons as a license to steal their work, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Applying a Creative Commons license to the content you create actually ensures that you will receive proper credit for whatever you make, while letting people freely share your creations to help get the word out.

Many bloggers are very resistant to Creative Commons at first. We’ve heard many reasons, but the one we hear the most is “People are going to rip me off, and post my work everywhere!” Let’s think about that for a second. People are going to re-post your writing everywhere? The horror! What a problem to have! There are many reasons that people choose to blog. One of the most common is to promote themselves, their business and their work, in order to establish a reputation. If someone reads your blog post, then chooses to publish it elsewhere, that’s a fantastic compliment and a great way to have more people see what you’ve created.

Let’s face it, unless you are a successful professional blogger (and even then, this can be quite a stretch) you probably aren’t getting paid for your blog posts once they are published. If people share or re-post one of your pieces with a link back to the original, it’s a win for you. There is no chance of you being “ripped off” when people share your work. Most of us could use the exposure for what we create. Applying a Creative Commons license to your projects ensures that when people share your work, you receive proper credit.

There are several variations on the Creative Commons license. The one that we recommend to blogging clients is the Attribution-No Derivatives license. In the simplest term, when your work is licensed this way others can share, distribute and reprint it other places as long as they give you proper credit, and don’t modify your work.  Fair enough? With this license, your original creation will remain intact, and whenever it appears on the web, your name, and a link back to the original on your blog will be included.

Often, when people are looking to source content for a project, they will specifically search for Creative Commons licensed work, because they know that it can be legally shared. If your work falls under this umbrella, it increases the chance that someone will find and share it, increasing the exposure and bolstering your reputation. This is a great passive distribution strategy, and requires no work on your end, other than noting on your blog that the work is CC licensed.

The Creative Commons http://creativecommons.org/ organization has an excellent website, and a huge amount of resources to help you understand and apply the licenses to your creation. Take a look at the site, have a look at the various licenses available and read through the FAQ page which will most likely answer any questions you have. If you need any more convincing, the Content Directory lists a portion of the thousands and thousands of people using CC licenses to protect, share and distribute their work. A quick look will show you that you’re in excellent company. Many of the most innovative creators on the web are proponents of Creative Commons.

The most important thing to keep in mind, is that letting others share your work is a cornerstone of the web, and the more people that see your work the better. Remember: Sharing is a good thing!

The Conference. Shriek. Gasp. Cower. Shudder.

Is there any industry more conference happy then the tech world? From a three person tweetup at a local bar straight on up to CES and SxSw, if you were so inclined you could attend a conference everyday of the year. Should you?

The question I see asked more than any others: “Is it worth it?”

Let’s try to answer that.

Pricing The cost of a conference is really the biggest factor in deciding if it’s worth attending. There is a certain slice of the conference world that we can eliminate right off the bat: the wildly overpriced. They tend to be targeted at the corporate market, and the thinking behind the pricing is “Hey, your company is footing the bill, so who cares!” Usually, there are one or two “Big Names” attached as speakers, which is supposed to somehow justify the outrageous price tag. These conferences are never worth the money. There is no “magic bullet”, secret strategy or tip you can learn in a few hours that will ever justify the cost.

If an event you want to attend is double, or even more than what most conferences cost it’s a rip off, plain and simple. Save your money. If the pricing seems on par with similar events, it passes the pricing test and is worth examining further.

Stay on the lookout for tiered pricing. Some conferences have a low general ticket price, then offer upgraded passes. This can be a fine pricing structure, but take a look at what the basic ticket gets you. If you can get into most of the events, then it isn’t an issue. I’ve noticed in the last year, that more and more events are requiring an upgraded badge to get into the most interesting part of the conference. This stinks. Check that the type of entry you buy actually gets you into the events you want to attend. The entry fee may seem very reasonable, until you realize all you’re entitled to is the right to hang around an empty conference room showing YouTube videos on repeat.

Scheduling The way speeches, panels and roundtables are scheduled can easily make a conference with great content a nightmare to attend. It makes sense to write yourself a quick plan of what you want to attend before you buy your ticket. Carefully take a look at the conference schedule, and see how many sessions are happening each day. Is there a huge amount of downtime, breaks or dead air? No question that some free time is important to digest what you’re learning, especially during multi-day events. You also don’t want to drop your cash so you can spend half the day in a shabby hotel lobby drinking bad coffee while annoying MLM’ers glad hand you and stuff your pockets full of business cards you won’t ever use.  At a good conference, there will always be something going on. At a really good conference, they will even have social events or other activities in between the main events to keep you learning, socializing and enjoying yourself.

It’s important to determine how man sessions you’ll be able to attend.  A well put together event will be structured so that all the attendees can make it to a session during every period. Sometimes the sessions are overlapping, which is a sign of a poorly administered event.

Make sure you take note of where the sessions are too. In some cases, the talks may be spread out in different buildings, or even entire different parts of the city. Depending on what session you attend first, you may not be able to make it from session 1 over to session 2 on time. It would seem like a no-brainer to schedule events in close physical proximity, but I’ve attended conferences where it took a full 30 minutes to get from point A to Point B. If you aren’t able to make it to all the sessions you want, re-consider attending.

Content Reading the marketing materials for a conference would lead you to believe that not attending that conference will passively destroy your career. Finding out who is speaking, what they are speaking about and the format they will be delivering the information is, are really the heart of any event. Doing just a few minutes of research on your own, beyond the official website of the event, will quickly give you a sense of the quality of the content.

Who will be speaking at the event? There is an entirely new breed of person that has invaded the tech world in the last few years: The Professional Talker. You probably know their names, see them hawking their wares on Twitter and being constantly quoted in blog posts. The Pro’s are often the keynote, or main event at a conference. No matter how big their reputation (or head is), don’t let the professional speakers be the reason you attend a conference. Lot of pro’s have interesting, useful things to say. You can nearly always find these things on YouTube. The talk you’re going to hear is probably just a slightly customized version of the same speech they’ve given dozens of times. If you’re attending a conference mainly to hear Famous Social Media Guru X enlighten you, my advice would be to save your money. You can definitely dig up the wisdom they dispense somewhere online.

Most likely the speaking roster will be filled with people who aren’t Internet Famous, and you don’t follow on Twitter. This is where it pays to do a bit of digging. Do a quick search for their name, and the company they work for. See if they have a blog, take a quick dig through their Twitter stream and look to see if they have spoken at other events. You can usually make a pretty accurate determination about what these people can teach you by seeing what their online footprint looks like. If they have interesting content posted online, it’s a good bet that will have interesting insights to share in person. If they work for a company that are innovators in the field they are speaking about, or do research at a university on this topic, you can expect to learn something. If the speakers have no online presence and work for a company you’ve never heard of, you might want to skip this one. If someone has original, intriguing and worthwhile thoughts about a specific topic you can be certain they have written and discussed it online before, so it should be simple to find this out. At the best conferences, the speakers will have thorough bios that point you to qualifications that make them good choices to discuss their specific topic. Remember, you are attending a conference to hear and learn things that you can’t find out yourself with a bit of time and a search engine. You’re paying. You have a right to expect quality presentations.

The last factor in deciding on the quality of the content is how it is presented. Will you be seeing a traditional speech, a presentation with a slideshow, a panel with several people discussing a particular topic or a round table where conference attendees have a discussion together? In the right context, all of these are great methods for learning something new.

Whether or not a certain format will prove valuable will depend on how much you already know about the subject. If you have deep knowledge on a particular topic, someone giving a slideshow aimed at a general audience probably won’t do much for you. This will be doubly true if there is no, or a limited opportunity to ask questions. Find out if the speakers will be taking open questions, or conducting a discussion at any point during their talk. The size of the audience is a factor as well. The smaller the audience watching is, the better chance you’ll have for asking questions or seeing if the speaker can address a certain aspect of their area of expertise. Most conferences usually detail the size of the various talks, panels and speeches, so factor these numbers into your decision making process.

If the conference offers a roundtable discussion, this can be another reason to attend, if the subject is one you know something about. A roundtable can go two ways. When a roundtable works, all the attendees will walk away with a much better understanding of the topic being discussed. You’ll also have the chance to share what you know, and help others learn. It’s also possible for roundtables to go off the rails. They might be dominated by one or two people with strong opinions, or devolve into petty arguments. There is no surefire way to see what type of roundtable you’ll end up with. However, experience goes a long way here. People that have run and attended many events like this will have a solid idea of how to run a session, so that everyone benefits. It’s worthwhile to check in with the organizers and inquire about their specific experience facilitating group discussions.

Socializing Socializing and networking can often be the best reason to attend a conference. Whether you are looking for new clients, vendors, partners or even just friends with similar interests, a conference is the easiest way to make this happen. You’ll definitely end up meeting people throughout the course of any conference, just by attending. Beyond that, find out what networking opportunities the conference provides.

Are there dinners, happy hours or specific times set aside to meet the other attendees? Does the conference provide any way to get in touch with other people before or after the actual conference? Will there be any opportunities to meet the speakers? The more opportunities the conference provides for you to meet people there, the more valuable the conference will become to you. Definitely investigate the time set aside by the conference for being social. To some people this may seem like a throwaway, but I would recommend you weigh the social aspects as heavily as you do the other factors when making your decision whether or not to attend. Some of the best experiences I’ve had at conferences have been at a bar, discussing what I heard that day, over a beer or six with new like minded friends I met earlier that day. Don’t write-off the nightlife!

Miscellaneous *Swag! – Sometimes conferences will promise you an “Awesome Swag Bag, with more than $500 worth of goodies!” These bags will always be filled with crap. Never let the possibility of getting something good in a swag bag sway your decision to attend a conference.

*Meet and Greet With Your Favorite Gurus and Mavens! – A meet and greet will always be an awkward, unsatisfying event. Generally, you and everyone else at the conference will crowd into a media room at a hotel. People will sidle up to the Internet Famous and make small talk. Everyone will realize how socially strange the situation is, and no meaningful conversation will ever occur. Meet and greets are never a good reason to decide to attend a conference.

There are so many types of conferences up and running now, that it is nearly impossible to create a definitive guide to attending them. What we’ve laid out here is a framework that we think is a solid jumping off point that can make the decision process easier. Most of all, we recommend doing your research asking lots of questions and having a clear idea of what you want to gain by attending. With so many events in the tech world, the decision of which ones to attend is getting harder. There are a lot of really terrible conferences out there. There are quite a few fantastic ones. We hope this guide helps you find the great ones. If you see us at a conference, make sure to say “Hi!” If we’re there you’ll know it’s a great one. Please drop us a comment on how you decide which events to attend and which ones to let pass you by.

If you’ve had a discussion with me in the in the last year about blogging, and more specifically about making a buck from your blog, chances are high that I mentioned The Deck. The Deck describes itself as “The Ad Network of Creative, Web and Design Culture”. It works in a wholly different manner compared to the way other ad services function, which is why it has become so successful in such a short period of time.

I’m not a big fan of PPC ads. I rarely recommend them to our clients, and in many cases I actively dissuade clients from using them. I truly believe your marketing dollars can be spent better somewhere else, especially if you are working with a limited budget, as most mortals are. It’s certainly possible to see results with PPC ads, but I see it as a endless money pit. The minute you stop dumping money into ads, the clicks stop. You aren’t building anything that has value in the long term. PPC ads are also difficult to make effective and get working correctly. It’s a supremely crowded space where you’re competing with the entire world for a limited amount of screen space and eyeball time.

There are two factors that make The Deck innovative and worth examining and applying to to your marketing strategy. The first is the “Cost Per Influence” model which lets you reach a targeted audience without limiting them by non-human search strings. The second is the idea you are buying a percentage of the total ad time on the network. You aren’t purchasing a set number of clicks or page views that end up becoming more expensive every time someone views your ad,

The Deck functions on what they define as the “Cost Per Influence” model. I think this is a brilliant way to do things, which is why I’m bringing it up here. I’d like to see this model spread to other online spheres of influence. Here’s how it works. The sites that make up the ad network for The Deck, are hand picked. You have to be invited to join, and while the sites deal with different subject matter, they are linked by their general attitude and outlook. Readers who are interested in one of these sites, are probably interested several of them.  The ads that run in the network, run on all of the sites, on a rotating basis throughout the month, which is the length of the ad buy.

If you have a good idea of who will be buying your product, you can make a sound judgment as to whether or not the people who read a certain website are your audience. With standard PPC ads, you determine where your ads appear based on keywords. The theory goes that through research, you can determine the keywords people use when searching for products similar to what you have on offer,and people who use those keywords for searches,and where they appear in online writing, is where your audience lives. I know others will disagree, but this seems a scatter-gun approach to finding your clientele. There is a certain type of person that reads 43 Folders, Daring Fireball and Kottke.org, which are a few of sites in the network. It’s nearly impossible to define and find these readers with keywords. You’d never be able to reach an audience like this via traditional PPC keyword ads. The “Cost Per Influence” model gets you in front of an audience that is hard to quantify, but it’s a case of “I know it when I see it.” You could spend years combing through keyword data and never hit on the combination that reaches someone you define with a phrase like, ‘You know, he’s the kind of person that probably drinks expensive tea, reads Monocle and listens to the Dap Kings.” The influence model at work here breaks down the traditional ad silos, and sees your audience as whole people with many interests, not a narrow set of one and two word search terms.

There are 51 websites in The Deck network, and there are 33 ad slots available each month. When you purchase a slot, your ad will appear every 33 times a new page is loaded, across all 51 sites. You own a percentage of the total traffic for the month your ad runs. You aren’t competing with other advertisers for the same space. With that portion of the competition eliminated, you can be certain that your ads will be running. You won’t need to keep pumping more cash into the endeavor just to keep your ad showing up where you want it. It’s a fixed cost, so you can count on getting what you pay for without any surprising cost overruns.

The Deck launches in 2006, and has been growing steadily. It appears to be a solid success for the advertisers, the sites that offer the ad space and the network itself. It’s a fine example of how throwing out the accepted way of doing things can create a winning formula. I’d really like to see this ad model appear other places, and expand into other demographics. I also think the “Cost per Influence” way of thinking has potential applications for ads, but also finding audiences for anything online you are looking to spread and share. It makes the keyword model seem clunky, impersonal and outdated. Most of all, The Deck is a good reminder that you should never be afraid to tear something apart and build it back up from scratch. Even if the old way works.

All hands on deck! The North By North East festival is descending on Toronto Monday for a full-on Music, Film, and Culture takeover. What’s more exciting for us geeks this year is an ‘i’—meaning NXNE has gone interactive, just like i its’ big sister festival SXSW (where the interactive portion has actually become larger and more popular than music and film!).

Alongside the massive gathering of bands and fans, there will be 30+ panels featuring industry leaders and design professionals discussing digital technology, creativity and social media trends.

This is especially thrilling for us here The Blog Studio, and we’re beyond excited and honoured to be taking a really active role at NXNE. Our President Lucia Mancuso (@lulula), and our Lead Strategy and Outreach nerd, Mike Dolan (@EvilPRGuy) will be speaking on two panels at the sold out conference.

On Monday June 14th at 2:00 pm, Lucia will share the stage with Amrita Chandra, Guinevere Orvis, April Dunford and moderator Meghan Warby on “Thank You For Being A Friend: tips, traits and tactics of successful women in tech and social media.” These women are Toronto’s leaders in Social Media, Marketing, and Digital Communications. They will unveil and discuss gender, workplace and media strategy. You can also expect to walk away from this panel with usable strategies and ideas you can implement into your own workday right away.

On June 14 at 9:30am, Mike will share the stage for the hotly anticipated “Circle Jerking 101” panel, along with Andrew Lane, Kevin Airgid, Mark Evans, and panel moderator Jamie Woo. Mike Dolan is a man who tells it like it is (for better or for worse, his talk at Toronto Social Media Week stirred up more than a little controversy)—and this panel won’t be any different. These contributors will discuss the pitfalls of social media, and exactly what a client can expect from a great social media campaign. You can arm yourself with the insider straight dope you need to make the right decisions for incorporating social media into your business strategies, and avoid getting ripped off by the sham artists that multiply by the day in this industry. This panel is guaranteed to be entertaining, so this is one you definitely don’t want to miss.

These Digital Discussions will be cutting edge, raw and uncut. We are excited to sink our teeth into the NXNEi’s Social Media fabric, but are concerned that NXNEi could fall into the pit that many people feel has crippled SXSW in recent years. SXSW started small and expanded exponentially very quickly. With its rampant growth, depth of information and diversity of the SXSW conference, the festival became so popular it it lost some of the intimacy that ensured you would make personal and business connections that are really the most valuable takeaway from a conference..

Too much of SXSW is now spent waiting in lines, coordinating hangouts and trying to hit the fifteen parties hosted each night. A ‘Swarm‘ badge on Foursquare? That’s the line at the Empanada Truck at 4am. How about a SuperSwarm of 250+ people in one spot! That badge popped up at nearly every gathering at the festival.

We love NXNE’s intimate vibe, and are curious to see if it can retain the ‘warm feeling’ this year. As How Magazine editor Bryn Mooth says, “All this Social Media stuff makes us think we are really connected—facebook and twitter are fine ways to do that—But for my money, making connections in person is what really matters.” While Social Media enables you to reach out to a huge cross section of people , there r is nothing like an old school face to face chat. So come out and chat with Lucia, Mike and all of their colleagues next week during the industry panels (or the parties, which are just as important)!

We invite all of you to attend our panels as well as email us questions to address during our talks, so please send them in. We will also keep you posted via twitter and our blog on the people, parties and panels.

Plus we’ll be annoucning a huge surprise for every attending NXNEi. So keep your eyes on the blog here and at http://www.nxne.com for this special announcement . You’re going to love it (pinky swear)! Stay tuned!

In order to keep up with all our new projects, and continue to provide
you with same level of service and individual attention you’re used to,
we’re expanding. We’d just like to take a moment of your time to
introduce you to the new members of our staff, here online. You’ll have a
chance to meet everyone in person very soon.

The Blog Studio team has grown by three. We now have a dedicated
Account Director Nalin, and PR Intern, Victoria.  As our Account
Director, Nalin will be overseeing the daily business operations and
acting as a point of contact for all of The Blog Studio Clientele. 
He is a business administration expert, and we are excited for all of
you to meet and chat with him. That will be easy because Nalin is ultra
friendly and loves to talk. He is the go-to-guy for information on
planning your projects, status updates, day-to-day questions or any
information you might require while working with The Blog Studio. While
Nalin knows the business side of things, he’s also a well trained web
designer and developer, so he can answer your technical questions and
help you make sense of any aspects of your project that might require
translation into plain English. He’s the guy that will make sure your
project is done on time, on budget, and works just the way you want it
to.

Victoria will be working in our PR division, creating web content for
our blog, sharing new ideas, chatting away on Twitter and keeping up on
social media trends. She’s a dedicated blogger herself, and enjoys
interacting in the real life and online. 

We’d also like to take a second too formally introduce you to Michael
Dolan, who heads up strategy and outreach at The Blog Studio. Michael
has been with us for a while, and many of our clients have had a chance
to work with him in the last year. In fact, he’s so busy on all of our
projects we haven’t had a chance to properly introduce him. He’s a PR
vet with many years of agency and in-house experience. As on old-school
geek, Michael is always on the bleeding edge of the tech scene and his
one-of-a-kind creative strategies have been widely praised everywhere
from Wired Magazine to the NY Times.

So I invite you to get to know them and what makes them tick. Here is a little Q&A and some info about our new friends:

Account Director:

Nalin is a
graduate of McMaster University, and also Web Design Development at
Humber College.  He then began freelancing for tech companies in
Toronto learning the ropes before joining the team at The Blog
Studio.  He has an eye for design, development skills and is a damn
friendly fellow.  Nalin is a truly gifted communicator who
specializes in bridging the gap between the deep tech world and everyone
else. Nalin spends his days riding hard on all The Blog Studio projects
to ensure that every client gets exactly what they want at the end of
the day.  When he’s not keeping the wheels greased at work, you can
find him following the NBA (Go Raptors!), swinging a tennis racket or
hanging from a climbing rope somewhere. He’s excited to take on new
challenges at the Blog Studio and brings things to a whole new level.

Questions:

1) What are you most passionate about? I am most passionate about communicating and forming new relationships with people.

2) What is your favorite ice cream flavour? Mint chocolate chip!

3) What is your twitter handle? @nalins

4) What social network do you love the most? Twitter, because Facebook is just starting to get creepy.

5) What piece of software is your favorite? I would have to say Coda for
Mac, it’s a great development tool and lets you do so much through a
simple interface.

6) What can’t you live without? My macbook.

7) Mac or PC? Mac. They are much more stable and have better applications for what I do on a daily basis.

8) Favorite Website? Probably something sports related, maybe nba.com…

9) Gamer? If so expand on favourite games? Used to be. I loved strategy
games. Age of Empires, Starcraft, Command & Conquer. Goldeneye and
Mario Kart for N64 were classics.

PR Intern:

Victoria is a devotee
of all things surrounding design and social media.  She’s a social
butterfly that combines her gift of gab with an innate ability to write
publicity love notes on all of her favourite subjects.  Having
studied English Lit and Communications at UofT, she’s written for Holt
Renfrew—who deems her work “truly inspired,” Toronto’s http://www.iheartthemusic.com,
The Varsity and her own blog Rosebuds&Rascals. She draws influence
from classic concepts of aesthetics as well as from her diverse
background; her vision is created through a mash-up of eastern and
western textures and flavours.  When she’s not tweeting her heart
out (a rare occasion) you can find her in a yoga studio or patio
hopping. She is really excited to working at the Blog Studio and putting
her creative eye to use.

Questions:

1) What are you most passionate about? International Travel and photography in search of beauty (in all its obscure forms.)

2) What is your favorite ice cream flavour? Roasted Marshmallow from Greg’s Ice-cream.

3) What social network do you love the most?

My blog http://rosebudsandrascals.blogspot.com I’m constantly updating it and it’s my vehicle for being fearlessly self-expressive.

4) What is your twitter handle? @lolakuketz

5) What can’t you live without? Sleeping in, dark chocolate and house music:)

6) Mac or PC? Mac—After having Apple I could never go back to PC. Love love my Mac.

7) Favorite Website? Style.com and I have a committed daily love for Scott Schuman and Garace Dore.

8) What makes you blush? Admitting my middle name is Lolita—after the opera, not the book. But try convincing people of that:)

Strategy and Outreach

Mike Dolan

1) What are you most passionate about? Making new ideas fun. There is no
reason you can’t make things both succesful and enjoyable.

2) What is your favorite ice cream flavour? Strawberry Tofutti

3) What social network do you love the most? Twitter. I’ve been called a
Twitter-aholic by more than one person. You can usually find out what
I’m doing minute by minute by checking out my feed.

4) What is your twitter handle? @EvilPRGuy

5) What can’t you live without? Long bike rides as often as possible.

6) Mac or PC? I never go anywhere without my Macbook, and it’s been that
way for 10 years. I also have a Linux box for games and general geeking
out.

7) Favorite Website? BoingBoing.net I need my daily fix of the strange and geeky.

8) What makes you blush?  Red wine. 

Last night I had the honour of attending the Hills Season 6 premier and
live taping of The Aftershow at MTV. The show was good but it was the
way that MTV handles social media that really left a lasting impression
on me. 

The premier followed Kristin, Brody and the rest of the cast members
partying in Miami for Superbowl weekend and lest we forget: the official
Hills unveiling of the new and improved (?)
Heidi Montag.  Then Jesse and Dan discussed the show highlights
and had a bit of naughty back and forth with the audience during The
Aftershow.

What you won’t get from watching online is the atmosphere MTV creates
during their live tapings. They created an intimate, communicative vibe
for both in house guests, and the web audience. 

MTV treated the bloggers with style and courtesy. They welcomed Social
Media to the premises via a dedicated press entrance and seated us in
the balcony, which were the best seats in the house.  Everyone was
invited by the hosts to tweet and blog away. MTV’s policies were clear:
social media is welcome here, and so are your cameras, laptops and any
other electronic gizmmo you can think of. They provided a fast wi-fi
connection and encouraged everyone to take full advantage of it
throughout the show.  MTV is smart and they get it. They understand
social media and the influence that bloggers hold in their target
demographic, and did everything possible to ensure we had a good
time…and could easily tell our online friends what was going on. 

It was cool to see the barriers between “formal journalism” and social
media fall away in this regard.  So many publications make it
crystal clear that these are two mutually exclusive arenas. We really
appreciated that bloggers were treated as press, because we are. Viewers
outside the studio were interacting with MTV via twitter, adding
another layer of inclusivity to the event.

I really enjoyed myself last night and was impressed by the scope and
spirit of the event. There were 90,000 viewers in North America alone
and I can’t wait to see what MTV brings us in the months to come. I
think a lot of this can be attributed to the influence of MTV’s new
community manager Casie Stewart, and I’d like to extend a thank you to
her for having The Blog Studio be part of the action. 

Is Social Media Week over already? It went so fast, and we learned so
much here at The Blog Studio. We’re just starting to process and make
sense of it now. We’d like to take a second and send a heartfelt
‘Thanks’ to all of you who came out to our office for our ‘No
Cheerleaders Allowed’ talk. We wanted an honest conversation about
social media, and thanks to all of you, we really got one.

If you’ll indulge us for a moment, we’d like to take a quick stroll down
memory lane and recap some of the interesting discussions we had that
evening, and share what we learned for those of you who couldn’t make it
in person. For those of you that braved the Canadian cold to squeeze
into our offices, we commend your moxie!

The biggest lesson we learned is that social media means something
different to everyone. Everyone in the room had a different opinion on
what social media is, how you can use it personally or for business, and
what works and what doesn’t. This make a whole lot of sense, because
the one thing everyone agreed on is that social media is powered by the
individual behind the keyboard. So to all the ‘experts; out there trying
to define social media, you’re being shouted down by the rabble. There
is no solid definition that everyone in the industry feels comfortable
with.

We started the conversation off by asking everyone to discuss the early
experiences they had with the web, and with social media. I got the ball
rolling discussing how I miss the days where social media was a free
for all, and everyone shared their ideas free of charge. Maybe this is a
bit of nostalgia, but it still holds true for. Early memories in the
room ranged from telnet to Twitter, and I quickly realized the age of
people in the room started in the early 20’s and went all the way to
people in their 50’s. How cool is that? Social media crushed the age
barrier. It isn’t just for young tech savvy whippersnappers.

The hot button topic of the night was definitely using social media to
make a buck. Is it OK to do this for profit? The answers ranged from
absolutely to absolutely not. Fair enough. The consensus seemed to be we
all want to make a living, but it can be very difficult to quantify ROI
on social media campaigns. It’s great to hear that people really want
to show their clients and employers they can demonstrate real value with
social media, and hopefully prove it.

A thorough discussion of tools and analytics followed, and again the
room was split. Many of you felt you can use analytics to show success
with the numbers. A second camp felt that while numbers are important,
you can’t always quantify the intangible way that people view yourself,
or your business in the social media world. Personally, I agree with
both points of view. In a perfect world a combination of analytics and
conversation is able to tell the whole story. That isn’t an easy concept
to explain, but we’re trying, and as time goes on we’re getting better
at making our case.

This brought up the idea of whether it’s more valuable to target a
select group of people on the web, or get your message out to everyone
and see what sticks. Here’s one point where just about everyone in the
room agreed: the targeted approach is the way to go.  Speaking to
your specific audience, in the space where they live, generates the best
results and the most clear communications. This is genuine two way
engagement. The ‘scatter gun’ approach is headed out the door with the
old media world, because it gets in the way of having a real
conversation.

This led to a discussion about where people live and hang out online. We
all agree that fewer and fewer people are watching television, at a set
time, on an actual television. More commonly, viewers are tuning into
their favorite shows online. This has a huge impact on the way we buy
and consume advertising, or what even constitutes advertising anymore.
While online viewing hasn’t eclipsed traditional TV watching yet, it’s
coming.

Our favorite loudmouth American at The Blog Studio, Michael Dolan,
turned a few heads when he said “Everyone who watches TV will be dead in
a few years anyway.” That’s one way to put it. Maybe a more optimistic
way to look at it, is you can get great bang for your buck by
participating in TV online, either through ads or social media
conversations around these shows.

Mr. Dolan gave a quick rundown of one his favorite topics: Social Media
Trainwrecks. We discussed the Saatchi and Saatchi Toyota social media
campaign, The Motrin Moms Debacle and the Steve Rubel Wal-Mart bloggers
screwup. All interesting cases with a lot to teach anyone who gets
involved in this space. The takeaway here is to enter at your own risk
and be certain to keep things honest. Your audience is as smart as you
are, don’t forget that.

The discussion continued with people and brands who are honest, and
using social media in a fun and transparent way. Shaq, PDiddy and BlogTO
were three names that popped up right away. I agree. They all do it
well, keep it honest and make it fun. They also engage with their
audiences and don’t use social media as a way to blast out ads.

The last part of the evening focused on Facebook, and opinions were all
over the place. Some people love it, some people hate it. That’s the
only honest assessment I can give of this discussion. Every person had a
wholly different opinion. Some thought it was the future of online
engagement, and some thought it’s already seen its’ day. The line of the
night came out of this conversation, courtesy of Meghan Warbly of
Argyle, “Facebook is the Nickelback of Social Media.” Ha.

We really had a great time, and were extremely impressed with the wide
range of opinions and backgrounds that all came together in one room for
a smart and civil conversation. That’s why the social media world is a
such a great place. We’d like to take a second and thank all of you for
coming and sharing with us. A few of you went far beyond the call of
duty. Like Crystal Gibson, who shared her excellent great notes with
us. Carolyn Van who showed up early to help us set up, and
@tourdedufflet for bringing over some yummy dufflet treats.

It was lovely to meet some familiar Twitter avatars in the flesh like
Toronto PR gadfly @J_Lab, @interpretivist and man about town
@mynameisguygal. We also got a chance to play Smush. CA, and meet the
brilliant minds at Atmosphere industries who thought it up.

Also a special thanks to Marijke Daye from Sweet Something Design for her awesome candy table that kept us all hopped up on sugar for our chat.

Thank you all for taking the time to visit, we’re looking forward to having you over for drinks again soon.