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On Saturday, November 12, 2012 Vancouver hosted it’s 3rd annual TEDx Vancouver event at the Chan Centre on the University of BC campus.

This year’s event was attended by over 1,000 people and was considered, by all accounts, to be a great success.

The theme of TEDx Van was “Frontier”. Pretty cool, right? I thought so too. I felt that “most” of the speakers were really great. I enjoyed the energy and the messaging that was delivered and, all in all, I enjoyed the event.

Some of the presenters really had a wonderful message to convey. Nolan Watson, for example, was really great. He spoke with passion about his passion and purpose and he kept the auditorium wrapped up in the story in a way that would make TED organizers proud.

So too were speakers like Kara Pecknold, Dr. Kate Moran and Seth Cooper. Their message was delivered with passion and enthusiasm and an un-wavering belief that what they were going was making a difference in the world. (and I thought so too)

I was somewhat less enthused or engaged by Jai’ Aquarian and Erin Marci’s account of their journey to build the Temple at Burning Man this summer but I can completely see where others would get a lot of their talk and their shared experience. Perhaps after I embrace my inner-camper I might change my mind.

There was a hitch to the day though. The last speaker to appear before the lunch break was not on the roster and, quite frankly, after speaking with several other attendees, I don’t think he belonged at a TED event.

Jose Figarroa fled El Salvador and sought refugee status in Canada in 1997. Recently he, and his family, have been threatened with deportation. While Jose spoke with great passion I felt a little bit like the TEDx organizers were trying to manipulate me.

TED is ideas and inspiration. It’s about sharing ways to make the world better. What it’s NOT about it politics. Why then was Jose given the stage? I’d love to know and I hope that TEDx organizers and volunteers have their fingers on the pulse of the net to look for commentary about their event. I would venture to guess that I am not the only one questioning this decision.

I was also disappointed, as were others I spoke to, with Shahrzad Rafati, CEO of Broadband TV. Her speech, far from inspiring people to be active members of society, encouraged us to watch more video. I get it. I know it’s her business. I know that she believes in the power of the media. Great. But the messaging was weak at best and delivered in such an over-the-top manner that it just put the audience off. It came off as more of a CEO sales pitch then an “idea worth sharing”.

By far my favourite of the day was Victor Lucas. I liked him so much that I will write a post just about his speech in the next couple of days. Suffice to say, for now, that Victor held the audience’s attention in a manner that embodies all that TED has to offer. He is a master story-teller with an important message and his “idea” is definitely “worth sharing”.

No account of the day would be complete without a mention of the other 3 in my top 4. Sean Aitken is a home-grown idea man, from North Vancouver. I loved this passion, his purpose, his commitment to not settle for what society may, or may not, expect of him. His One Week Job Project was an odyssey that enlightened him and everyone who watches his work. If you have a teenager, they really ought to see Seth’s videos.

I also loved Christopher Gaze. Talk about engaging! He silenced a room of 1000 20-50 year olds with, of all things, Shakespeare! I have a minor in English Literature and he taught me more about ol’ Willie S in 15 minutes than I learned in a full university course! I’d love to figure out a way to rent him out to my teenager’s English class.

Finally, but certainly not an after-thought, was Romeo Dallaire. Most Canadian’s know him as a war hero and many American’s would recognize his book “Shake Hands with the Devil” which was turned into a movie called “Hotel Rwanda”  in 2004, staring Nick Nolte as Dalliare.

After what he’s witnessed and what he’s lived through Dallaire is able to get up on stage and mesmerize a group with humour and passion and an enormous sense of purpose. He makes you want to go out and save the world, ask questions, vote and encourage others to do so. He was just amazing and even if it had only been him at TEDx Vancouver, the event would have been worth every penny.

All in all I loved my TEDx experience. I hope that next year I may be on the stage rather than in the audience and that’s what I’ll be working toward. If you were at TEDx leave your thoughts and comments below. I’d love to know what you thought.

Until next year!

Click the image to read the interview.

When Social Media Canada first opened it’s doors in 2010 there were no companies standing in line to sign up for a social media strategy. In fact, most Vancouver, BC companies had very little understanding of social media as a means to promote their brand and build their business.

We set out to inform people that the 500 million users on Facebook could not only be leveraged to improve the bottom line but that there is a unique marketing method required to properly engage in social media and that ignoring it will lead to failure.

Over the last 18 months we’ve had many clients. We’ve had real estate agents, health care clinics, retail stores and online retail operations and most arrived knowing a lot about traditional marketing and little about social media marketing.

Slowly the trend toward authenticity and social responsibility is growing among companies who do business online. Those organizations who are finding success (defined in which ever way you would like to define it) have quickly learned that building relationships based on trust and a true desire to provide visitors to the site with value, is the cornerstone to a good online presence.

Throughout this website you’ll find many articles on the necessity to engage the C-level execs in any online campaign. The best way to convince them they need to be involved is to explain that if they are not able to adequately champion their own company, who else can? Only a CEO who hates what he does is incapable to saying why he does it.

This is going to be a short post. Social Media Canada has moved to a new level in the social media strategic planning game and, as such, we’re not able to publish as much great content.

That said, you won’t find any re-printed articles on this site (unless they’re really relevant) We have always written our own content and will continue to do so, as time permits.

For now, there are a ton of articles on how to be authentic here. How to engage an experienced social media expert to help you come up with a strategy for success here. How to redefine ROI (return on investment) for the Web 2.0 generation here. And a lot of other useful, current articles on how you can use a well-thought-out social media campaign to provide value and garner business.

Keep an eye out here and on our relationships page for  some cool case studies and success stories.

Oh, and don’t forget Social Media Week comes to Vancouver September 19-23!

After the 3rd period of last night’s Stanley Cup game 7 between the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins went to a 3-0 win for Boston I was disappointed. Disappointed but also proud that my fellow Vancouverites showed some class while they cheered on the Boston team’s hoisting of the coveted cup.

Unless you live under a rock you’ll know that my disappointment turned to disgust and dismay shortly after when some dreadful behaviour of a group of young men (and I mean young men. Don’t even try to respond to this saying that the instigators were anything but young men. The proof is irrefutable)

With a run for the cup coming hot on the heels of Vancouver’s great success as a host city for last year’s Olympics, each game was an opportunity to relive the party atmosphere in downtown Vancouver. The city kindly provided massive jumbotrons so that those people who wanted to watch the Canucks play and get the “feel” of the game could watch from the closed streets of the downtown core of Vancouver.

If you know Vancouver at all you’ll know that it’s a peninsula (sort of). The way in and out consists of 4 bridges (3 to the south and 1 to the north) and 1 viaduct. It’s almost isolated when you look at it from the air.

It’s basically tailor-made for a group of trouble makers, hell bent on destruction, to get their own game on. And that they did.

As Boston skated back on to the ice to accept the cup a group of young men began to throw projectiles at the big screen. They then began fighting with other groups, turning over porta-potties and finally setting cars and debris on fire. As the evening wore on the crowds did not disperse as police hoped and, as a result, the violence escalated. By 10:30 the looting had begun.

People were in no hurry to leave the city. Being there must have been really exciting. I guess.

The one thing that you notice when you watch the footage is that everyone, and I mean EVERYONE who was on TV was carrying a cel phone, taking photos and video and Tweeting, Facebooking and sharing the content across every social network around.

The good news is that the Vancouver Police Department has embraced social media as a crime-fighting tool.

In 1994 Vancouver had a similar riot and the police used news footage to identify, charge and convict rioters. It took several months to bring the hooligans to justice but the police were relentless, creating a special team that concentrated all of their efforts on making sure that everyone who was caught on tape was charged.

This time it’s going to be different. This time social media will make the job of the police considerably easier. In fact, less than 2 hours after the rioting began someone created a Facebook page called: Vancouver Riot Pics: Post Your Photos and asked that anyone with photos post them to the page, share them and encourage others to tag the photos. 1 hour after the group was created it had 3,000 users!

This could be the first time that Facebook has been used as a tool to promote public awareness that YOU ARE ALWAYS BEING WATCHED! (and not in a Big Brother way. More in a “your mom’s watching” way.)

I’ll be following this story and reporting the police findings and activities on my blog at socialmedia-canada.com over the next weeks/months.

I hope that the Vancouver Police can bring every, single one of these idiots who have disgraced my beautiful city to justice.

This is pretty awesome!

Social Media is a relatively new career. There are a lot of people out there calling themselves Social Media Experts and some of them even are.

The problem with a new genre is that no one knows just how much a great Social Media Manager is worth in a corporate setting. That’s why you see people advertising on Craigslist for a “Admin assistant/Social Media Expert”. Very little irks me more than these job listings.

If you’re a Social Media Expert, Manager, Coordinator, Strategist, it’s really good business to know what you’re worth to a potential employer. Relying on information from sites like PayScale, who peg Social Media Management salaries between $27,000 and $165,000!, could really mess with your valuation.

So sit down, figure out what you’re time is worth, do some research and be prepared to justify your worth to a potential employer.

If you behave like an Administrative Assistant you’ll get paid like one. However, if you can provide quantitative proof that what you know will add value to the company you’ll be hired as an important member of the management team and treated as such.

Good luck and enjoy the image, it totally cracks me up!

Like most people who have a choice I use a Mac. I always have. In fact, since 1990 I have had 6 Macs and 1 PC. My Mac Lombard G3 still works but, in 2008 my 2 year old Dell Inspiron was infected with a virus via the internet. The virus would create massive popup ads telling me where I could go to buy the software to eliminate the virus. It made me angry. Very angry. So angry, in fact, that I have not, nor will I ever, own another PC.

Mac ownership has allowed me peace of mind with regard to viruses. I mock those friends of mine who complain that their PC has been disabled due to some nasty infestation and I smugly sit back and snicker at their pain. I know that’s not nice but you’ll see how Karma has come to bite me in the ass anyway.

Becoming over-confident in anything is just about always a bad thing. I have bragged about my golf drives only to shank 10 in a row after. I have bored groups by regaling them with skiing exploits then been unable to ski out the day due to sore muscles. I really should learn to keep my mouth shut.

Computer viruses are no different. Being a Mac user has caused me to feel over-confident and like many things, out of sight, out of mind has been my mandate regarding them.

Until now.

Last week I had a client call me to tell me that her computer had been infected by a virus and that, according to her “computer guy” the virus came from Facebook. Facebook! My trusted social media partner! I was devastated. My client trusted me to guide her business’ social media campaign and one of my suggestions lead to the loss of a ton of data. Ack!

To that end I have some suggestions to avoid this happening to anyone in the future but first, a crash course on how they get ya.

Most of the infestations from programs like Facebook are worms. Worms use computer network and security holes to replicate themselves. They search online until they find an unsecured network then jump in there to create havoc. Once in, the worm can open the door for all kinds of nasty visitors to your computer.

From here on out I will be recommending the following to my clients to avoid getting attacked. I’ll be writing it right into my proposals so that they have a clear understanding that doing business online can open their systems up to viruses if they’re not careful.

1. In a perfect world the client would use a Mac to run just their social media campaign. All blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Linked In etc would be on one machine and all of their company records would be on another system that is not networked in any way to that Mac.

2. If #1 is not possible the client should, at the very least, be running Facebook in the https secure setting rather than http.

3. Running an operating system like UNIX pretty well eliminates the virus issue.

4. PC’s have a myriad of software options for security issues. Norton Utilities have been around for ages and seem to have a good track record of keeping things tidy.

Being aware of possible threats to your client’s and making them understand that security should play a part in their overall online strategy is a great way to provide value to the companies you do business with.

It’ll also save you from having egg on your face if something goes wrong 🙂

Which companies have the most successful Social Media campaigns?

Who bleeds their brand online and off and stays true to their business model?

Is it the company that has delegated their Social Media to an intern or an admin assistant? Umm, guess again.

I can’t iterate the value of planning enough. No one, no one serious that is, starts a business without a business plan. A roadmap of where they are at the start and where they hope to be in specific, measurable time frames. Successful companies refer back to their plan, adapt it, grow it, massage it and worship at it’s feet because it keeps them goal-oriented and on-track.

Why should a Social Media campaign be any different?

It shouldn’t. The very first thing any organization should do is sit down and map out their specific, measurable goals.

The following exercise can help you, and your clients, work through a process to set any Social Media campaign up for successful execution.

1. I have always found it helpful to sit down with the c-level executives and discuss what it is about their company they love. What’s the story of the brand? That “story” should be authentic and include why these people do what they do. Do they love it? If they do, your job is a lot easier.

2. Define expectations. What does the client hope to gain from Social Media? Brand awareness? More business? A stronger reputation?

3. Where’s the value? This is probably the most important question to ask because if you (or your client) are not providing something of value to the world, what on earth are they doing? Most executives should be able to tell you what their contribution to the greater good is. Sometimes this question takes them by surprise so make sure you get an authentic answer, even if you have to wait for it.

4. Define how you will measure success. This relates back to #2, defining expectations. If you’re creating a Social Media strategy for a client they are going to want to have some specific measurables to which they can hold you if it doesn’t work out.

I have always found it helpful to attach some of the measurables to the level of participation from the company. No matter how great you are online, there has to be a level of commitment from your client to successfully promote their brand. Whether that comes in the form of engagement or utilizing their contacts or content, you have to insist on involvement from the client if you want to be successful.

(I’m sure there are people out there who will disagree with this point but it has been my experience that if the execs aren’t turned on by what they do, no one else will be either. Authenticity among company leaders is the very best tool for success.)

5. Make sure you know where the customers are. It’s not going to do much good to promote skateboards on a wedding forum. TED conversations is a great place to engage people as they have such an incredibly wide range of subjects. Make sure you know who the audience is and where they hangout online.

6. Speak in the vernacular of the demographic you are trying to engage. Or…dude, shred up the page with some sick vids of skaters and boarders. Whomever you’re speaking to, make sure you speak their language.

7. If you don’t write well find someone who does. Crappy writing is the opposite of providing valuable content and it won’t take long before your audience drifts away. And don’t underpay someone to crank out rhetoric or re-mix something they’ve found online. There are lots of great writers out there who can put together amazing copy that you can use to attract both your audience and the search spiders. They know what they’re doing, so use them.

Once you’ve gone through these steps you should have a solid notion of what kind of a campaign you’d like to run and how you’e execute it. It’s not a ton of prep work but it will make all the difference in the end when you’re “winning” (thanks Charlie) the popularity contest that is Social Media.

I don’t normally share my personal opinions or rants on this blog. This blog I keep professional and as a way to share information with my readers.

That said, I want to let my subscribers know that I do have another blog that pushes the limits and is considerably more controversial in its tone.

On that site I do discuss Social Media but in a more active way and I ask for action from my readers. If you would like to visit, please do so at divahh.com.

I’m now a featured blogger on Social Media Today. It’s a great resource for all things social media-ish.

Check it out!