Original Post
Architects of change
Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco, Financial Post
Published: Monday, September 28, 2009

Many believed the recession would force businesses to survive on starvation-like revenues for a prolonged gloomy period. But as the more humble recession than anticipated begins shuffling out the door, the real story, the long-term one, remains the major social and technological changes that are likely to transform most business models in the years come: internationalization, technology - with Web 2.0 in the forefront - environmental issues and the global trend toward urbanization.

Read more: http://www.financialpost.com/executive/smart-shift/story.html?id=2042949#ixzz0TCnaETYQ

Here’s some great events you don’t want to miss by Sun Star Media (not Star Global), that’s SUN STAR. They are a local Victoria company, and they’re offering lectures and training for your organization. Whoop! Check out their website for more information: http://www.sunstarmedia.ca

IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING RIGHT FOR YOUR BUSINESS?

(1 1/2 hours)

Blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook… the use of social media is exploding and it’s left many business owners wondering if its time to get on the bandwagon.

Terri Davies, co-owner of Sunstar Media will attempt to answer this an many other related questions in this dynamic luncheon lecture:
– What is social media?
– How is are other companies using it successfully?
– How does a small business benefit from social media?
– Can you time-manage effectively using social media?

Gourmet lunch will be provided by Ambrosia catering (includes vegan options)

Date: Monday September 14th, 2009
Time: 11:30-1pm
Location: Ambrosia Conference and Events Centre
Cost: $25 including tax (cash or cheque)
RSVP required. This is a sell-out event.
info@sunstarmedia.ca

CREATING A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY FOR YOUR BUSINESS

(3 1/2 hours)

You already know there is power in social media marketing, but now you want to know how to tap into it effectively. Is blogging beneficial in your business, or would you be better served by LinkedIn or Facebook? Is Twitter a waste of time? This engaging 3 ½ hour seminar will take an in-depth look at ‘netiquette’ and give you tools to empower you in using social media.

Gourmet breakfast, refreshments and snack break included.

Date: Thursday September 24th, 2009
Time: 9:00am-12:30pm
Location: Ambrosia Conference and Events Centre
Cost: $95 including tax (cash or cheque)
RSVP required. This is a sell-out event.
info@sunstarmedia.ca

Video appears in paper magazines

Magazine publishers are beginning to experiment with new technologies
The first-ever video advertisement will be published in a traditional paper magazine in September.
The video-in-print ads will appear in select copies of the US show business title Entertainment Weekly.
The slim-line screens - around the size of a mobile phone display - also have rechargeable batteries.
The chip technology used to store the video - described as similar to that used in singing greeting cards - is activated when the page is turned.
Each chip can hold up to 40 minutes of video.

Read whole story

More on the story by Zee at Nextweb

This September, a partnership between American TV network CBS, drink giant Pepsi and Entertainment Weekly magazine will mark the first time a video advertisement has appeared within a paper magazine.

CBS will insert a paper-thin interactive video screen into copies of the Sept. 18 issue of Time Inc.’s Entertainment Weekly. The screenswill be around the size of a mobile phone display and have rechargeable batteries.

When readers open the magazine to the ad pages, it will activate a chip used to store the video (similar to a singing greeting card), they will then see a small screen flicker on and start to load a video. By pressing one of five different buttons, readers can watch a video montage from a number of different CBS TV shows. Each chip can hold up to 40 minutes of video.

Where does Pepsi play into this you ask? Well Pepsi will pay for the co-branded print ad for their Pepsi Max drink, the high-caffeine, low-calorie beverage aimed at men.

Original Post @ National Post, August 22, 2009
“I honestly don’t know, in this day and age, how TV shows will get made without having an initial run on the Web,” Ms. Giosia (from Bitchin’ Kitchen) said in an interview. “Networks are very wary, and everyone says you have to try it on the Web first. They want to see how this concept performs on the online market before investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in a TV series.”

Read entire story

Original Post @ Food Network Buys Bitchin’ Kitchen
Community - News
Wednesday, 01 April 2009 14:27
Toronto—Bitchin’ Kitchen is headed to Food Network Canada which has greenlit the edgy cooking show, slated for production this Fall 09’. Executive producers Tricon Film & Television will be debuting the Bitchin’ Kitchen TV series this week at MIPTV in Cannes.

Bitchin’ Kitchen is a 6 X 30 series that follows Nadia G — dubbed the “anti-Rachael Ray,” on a riotous romp through the kitchen. The show started out as a mobile and web series, winning the coveted Wave Award for ‘Favorite Mobile Comedy Series’ after its first season on air –- beating out Conan O’Brian’s mobile series. The quirky and fun content was quickly picked up by the social networks and went viral on Youtube and iTunes.

Watch Video
Visit Bitchin’ Kitchen website

Read whole article

Social Media Club - Victoria BC Chapter
Type:
Organizations - Professional Organizations
Description: If you get it, share it!
WHEN: We meet the 4th Tuesday of each month, from 6:45pm to 9pm, at the University of Victoria, Faculty of Business.

Like other Social Media Clubs in the US, Canada and around the world, we are excited about Social Media! And we care about this growing communications tool enough to encourage a high standard of practice among industry professionals and end users of these great relationship-building tools.

Our mission is to promote these aims:
1. Expand Media Literacy
2. Share Lessons Learned Among Practitioners
3. Encourage Adoption of Industry Standards
4. Promote Ethical Practices through Discussion and Actions

SMC Victoria will meet monthly, and encourage speakers, discussions and networking activities that will help us do all of the above.
Contact Info:
Email: catherine@wordspring.ca

Website:
http://socialmediaclub.ca/
Location:
Victoria, BC

JOIN THE FACEBOOK FAN PAGE

Article posted by Justin Smith, March 19, 2009
@ Inside Facebook
Tracking Facebook and the Facebook Platform for Developers and Marketers

There are a variety of options at your disposal, and how you choose to proceed is really up to you.

1. Ask Facebook to transfer control of the Page to you. Most brand managers who plan to actively invest in Facebook promotions want to control the destination Page, and Facebook’s policy on Pages is that they may only be controlled by the rightful brand owner. If you’ve found a Page for a brand that you’re the rightful owner of, contact Facebook and they can transfer it to you once they can confirm your identity. However, of course, you’ll need to consider whether and how this should be communicated to the Page’s fan base – especially if there’s already a strong community in place.

2. Ask the Page owners to transfer control to you. For those brands concerned about alienating the fans that have invested their time in creating and building a Page – sometimes over a period of years – talking with the Page owners directly may be a more appropriate approach to try first. Facebook doesn’t make the contact information of Page owners publicly available, so you’ll have to either just post a message on the Page’s wall or ask Facebook for their contact info. From there, you can have a conversation with the Page creator about how to proceed.

3. Ask the Page owner to share control with you. In cases where the fan community has become very large and the brand isn’t incredibly perturbed by the way the Page owner is running things, a more innovative approach to sharing administrative responsibilities can work. In the Coca-Cola case, “Facebook made the decision to either close the page or let Coca-Cola take it over. Coca-Cola instead proposed an alternative: Let the creators keep the page but share it with a few of Coca-Cola’s senior interactive folks… Coke instead flew the guys down to Atlanta for a few days of meetings, a tour of the World of Coke museum and a visit to the company’s legendary archives.”

4. Ask Facebook to shut the Page down. If for some reason you just don’t want this Page to exist any more, brands can ask Facebook to shut it down. Facebook can either simply delete it or roll over the fans of that Page into another Page that you own. However, in this case especially, you should be careful to communicate this in such a way that it does not create a jarring or otherwise poor experience for the Page’s community.

5. Let the Page continue to exist, and start an “official” Page of your own. For those that don’t mind having “unofficial” Pages around, you’re always free to do nothing and let it ride. However, fans searching for your page may find the unofficial ones instead, which could be confusing and/or splinter your community. Facebook itself may notice that there are duplicate Pages and ask you if you’d like to consolidate them at some point.

Read entire article

Rachel Zupek ” Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
CareerBuilder.com writer (CNN.com)

If you’re a social media guru, here are five jobs to consider in your next job search:

1. Recruiter

Candidates have been on social networks for years now, and it’s about time recruiters joined them. Daniel says Dan Temps’ recruiters can find candidates faster, screen them better and reach out to individuals they wouldn’t see otherwise.

“Dan Temps believes that the environment candidates are accustomed to in a social network will keep the conversations and information real,” Daniel says. “Candidates don’t feel they are being pressured in that environment like they would in a more formal interview or screening process and are more likely to get real with our recruiters.”

2. Strategist

Many companies are seeking social media strategists to find the best way to interact within various social sites and online communities. In this role, you would be the face of social media for your company, creating and maintaining an effective social media strategy by interacting with users, growing brand awareness, creating buzz, increasing traffic and providing valuable information. To thrive in this position, Durbin says you must have a proven track record of achieving goals, or companies will be hesitant to hire you.

3. Enterprise architect

“This is the most exciting job in social media and requires someone with broad experience in networks, multiple platforms, development, security and political infighting,” Durbin says. “This is a very rare find. It’s for companies looking to completely revamp their content management strategy and internal networks. It could be the most important role in a company in the next five years.”

4. User operations analyst

For any company with an online presence, user experience is one of the most vital parts of the business. The only way to monitor that is to have someone in charge of the experience themselves. No matter if the company is blogging, has a Web site or pages on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, user operations analysts interact with users, answer queries, investigate problems and keep track of user habits.

5. Director of social media

Similar to a strategist, companies need someone to organize company blogging, viral marketing, podcasting, etc. This person has a background in building teams and who really gets the promise and the purpose of social media, Durbin says. These folks should be wary of new technologies and be all over blogs, RSS, have Facebook and Twitter accounts, and know the difference between his or her employees playing and researching on MySpace and YouTube.

Searching for social media jobs

You might think that finding social media jobs is difficult but many of these positions under a variety of job titles that don’t include “social media.”

Try searching job boards and the Internet for “social media,” “interactive marketing,” “new media” or “branding manager” and you should get a good start in the right direction.

While many job seekers heed advice on joining social media sites to use as networking tools, they are also warned not to invest too much time — especially at work — in these all-consuming, often-addictive online vehicles.

Read whole article

Reciprocal interviews discussing social media, Victoria, BC.

Paul Holmes interview via Michael Allison’s Communication

Michael Allison interview via Paul Holmes Blog

What is Twitter? 69 Percent of Adults Don’t Really Know
July 28th, 2009 | by Adam Ostrow of Mashable

You would think that with an estimated $48 million of free media coverage per month, most people would at least have a pretty good idea about what Twitter is, even if they aren’t users themselves. But according to a new study out today from Harris Interactive, 69 percent of adults don’t know enough about Twitter “to have an opinion about it.”

Of those that do have an opinion of Twitter, 12 percent think it’s poised for exponential growth, another 12 percent think it’s something that will stay relegated to “young people and the media,” while 8 percent think it’s just a passing fad.

Read whole article

by July 20th, 2009 | by Josh Catone | Mashable

Twitter is immensely useful as a utility for joining in the global conversation and sharing thoughts, opinions, information, and media. But for new users, there’s also a fairly steep learning curve. For many people new to Twitter, the site doesn’t immediately “make sense” and it can be a bit daunting. But there are things those users can do to make the service more useful from the get go.

Below are five steps for new users to take in order to make the Twitter experience more enjoyable from the beginning. New users have both third party services and built-in tools at their disposal to make Twitter work for them, and this post highlights some of the best.

STEP ONE: Find People You Already Know
STEP TWO: Find Like-minded Users
STEP THREE: Find People in the Area
STEP FOUR: Get a Desktop (or Mobile) Client
STEP FIVE: Learn the Ropes

Read the whole article