Channing Smendziuk is Miss Teen Canada

2010 Miss Teen Canada World Winners press release gives insight into the action-packed week of activities, events and experiences that culminated in a dazzling night, the Grand Finale on July 17th.

Congratulations to 17 year old Channing Smendziuk from Brandon, Manitoba. She’s the 2010 Miss Teen Canada-World. The girl is tall and beautiful, and smart and funny; she’s a very good blogger who finished with a score over 8.0 in the blog component of the pageant.

Be sure to check the MTC-W facebook group for more news and updates about Channing’s most recent adventures, and her follow her challenges at the Miss Teen World pageant in Houston Texas.  After that climactic event, and in company with all of the agents and producers choreographers photographers and web storytellers that she meets abroad, Channing will be traveling all across Canada as part of the pageant next year and speaking at Me to We and modeling and acting on the side. If she does as Smojoe says then we’ll all have lots to read about and can cheer her along from the sideline comfort of a good weekly blog.

2010 Miss Teen Canada pageant produced some truly brilliant teen bloggers.

This year the blog component was worth 10% of each participant’s total score. Smojoe was the blog judge and graded each contestant on their overall blogging skills. The competition was a big success because it taught valuable skills as well as brought a great many other people to the main MTC-W website.

Smojoe graded each each blog individually, but using a standard measuring stick. I awarded points for level of sidebar sophistication, quality of narrative, amount of good information in the content especially as it related to the three blog assignments. Basically I looked for talented bloggers that would best showcase the entire MTCW Blog Army program, in the future, and I found them…

Read posts by these four top ranking blog notables - Smojoe applauds their terrific potential as DIY media machines. In the next few years a great many large businesses will seek young dynamic individuals such as these four bloggers to spread their messages online; if these four participants keep blogging, they’re sure to be rewarded with great jobs.

Cynthia Loewen could be a professional blogger, today.

Cynthia Loewen summarizes her experiences at the Miss Teen Canada world pageant on her OnSugar Blog.  This young lady is a strong blogger with great skill at encapsulating her emotions in short meaningful sentences. Her pictures and links are presented in a professional manner and she deserves the high score she received for her personal blog.

Jaya Pham also proved to be a great blogger with a cool sidebar and good writing style. If you have a minute, check out how Jaya Pham blogs the Miss Teen Canada pageant experience on her OnSugar blog.

Who had the highest score in the 2010 MTCW Blog Competition?

The two highest blog scores were awarded to Shelby Gobbo who also wrote a terrific summary of the pageant, and a Ryerson media student named Trinh Theresa Do - both contestants received 9.9.

In the not so recent past Smojoe has written his wisdom here about the many nuances of pictures and how they are the visual candy that most encourages clicks. But did you know they can also be statistics counters? have a look at the ’statistics’ on your own Flickr or PhotoBucket account and you will see how many people have viewed your photos. This information is yet another metric that can be used to help assign prices to buzz media campaigns.

Story fragmentation depends upon using only original images because your own personal pictures make the very best story hooks.

Pictures can be used as Stats counters with a Flickr or PhotoBucket account.

Smojoe uses pictures in many different ways, but did you know they can be used as readership statistic collectors? In the example below its possible to survey how many people opened the Bells and Bows logo that was hosted on Smojoe’s account on PhotoBucket.com

While I was away in Europe, it became the most popular picture in my entire gallery simply because it was manifest on the template of the Miss Teen Canada - World 2010 Blog Army.

Remarkably, the Bells and Bows Logo has been clicked on and opened  20,728 x since it was uploaded to the 2010 Miss Teen Canada blog army template, about three months ago.  That’s because 24 out of 62 finalists used the company as their own sponsor in their TV show ideas (blog challenge #2). That’s interactive social media! This is another piece of compelling sales collateral that can be used to satisfy corporate sponsors; the pageant really is a shot in the arm of digital relevance that’s perfect for anyone selling products or services to young people.

Lenzr is a social media marketing masterpiece that’s tragically flawed, and that’s what makes it so interesting.

The serial photo contest website is basic and clunky, and the rules and voting mechanisms are easily bent by human avarice, but at the end of each session, it works.  With very few exceptions, every business that sponsors an imaginative photo contest on Lenzr enjoys an inexpensive boost in their business URL’s search engine findability. The last session received over 4000 visitors, over half of them unique. The average visitor reviews seven pages and spends four minutes on the website.

On July 1st 2010 the May June Lenzr photo contests came to an extraordinarily dramatic conclusion, resulting in scandal. In the Portable Luxury photo contest, the winning picture was removed by admin (because of ‘voting irregularities’) a mere 15 minutes before the contest was scheduled to end.

Debbie Watson felt like she had the rug pulled out from under her feet. But it wasn’t all bad. Mommakoala was recognized as the winner of the 50 Going On 15 photo contest for Tempo Toronto, a baby boomers magazine that chronicles downtown events and sophisticated lifestyles. And she wins over 50 lbs of chocolate for that accomplishment.

The Portable Luxury photo contest will help bring about changes, a catalyst to the website’s social evolution. These events were not entirely unanticipated. Since its birth last year at this time, Lenzr marketing has advertised all over the internet how this serial photo contest platform is run by the people for the people, and how there are no judges, because everyone is a judge.  But everyone should also remember there is a moderator - there has to be a police officer or society will breakdown into schemes and worthless connivances.

Lenzr admin made a decision and clipped Mommakoala’s picture because it was the right thing to do, and I’ve explained the decision in a long Lenzr blog post titled, What Happened to Mommakoala’s Candy Stash?

Above is Portable City by Seattle Dredge which was the 2nd place image that’s now recognized as the contest winner. The photo received 330 points and now Seattle plus a guest will be flying to Las Vegas courtesy of Its My Potty, a portable toilet rentals company in Toronto the contest sponsor.

Crowded Places had the most participation with 46 PHOTOS UPLOADED | TOTAL VOTES 1828.

Ve3bnw Bill Watson wins the brand new Blackberry Curve courtesy of Innate Media Group for having submitted the first place photo in the Crowded Places photo contest. Bill Watson’s aerial photo of the Rockton Worlds Fair is quite interesting and was well received, collecting 270.2 points, the most in category.  This image also showcases his extraordinary talent for remote controlled devices and aerial photography.

Look at the big picture - Lenzr is trying to achieve something that has never occurred before, a perfectly democratic contest community where business sponsors art.  Admin played a heavy hand in this session, but now implements changes for the betterment of the community and the advancement of an new ideal.

A new participation ritual for Lenzr photo contests: wait-n-vote

From this day forward each photo contest page will simply collect images for the first fifty days, and only allow members and visitors to vote during the last ten days of the contest. That way all images will have a fresh start and manipulations can be more easily monitored. Also it will build a natural excitement, like a horse race. During that ten day period (August 20-30) if any images are found to be unjustly promoted the member will be warned of the activity, and then if the action continues the photo will be eliminated from competition.

How Photographers Can Use Online Resource to Boost Their Careers, the article explores not only other photo contests besides Lenzr, but has good information about how to use Facebook and Twitter and run comprehensive searches for new photo contests on Google.

One of the brightest stars graduating from HumberPR this year is Zack Sandor Kerr. He’s tied with Kyle the Keener in awesomeness, which is a wholesome combination of attitude and aptitude.

Because of his unique skill set, Zack got a cool new job blogging for Gio Bikes about how he’s spending his summer having nomadic adventures on their latest model electric scooter, or ebike as they hope to be called. Zack tweets his experience @GioinTO

Gio in To is about a guy and his electric bike in Toronto and that sets the stage for many countless stories in hundreds of local niches; he could tackle Toronto pedestrian affairs or municipal bike path issues, or chronicle cultural events, ie document Portuguese parades in the Toronto’s west end. He could report on World Cup street scenes and G20 protests - all from atop his ebike.

Zack is a good storyteller who really knows his way around a Wordpress blog, and he’s proving to be a quick study in the practice of multi platform brand storytelling.  Keep an eye on him.

Story Funnels for Faith Seekings at Rapport

Last week Smojoe used the simple fact that Faith Seekings is going to appear in the SugarCRM panel discussion on June 22nd 2010, to boost her company’s natural social relevance so it now ranks fourth in Google.ca for full service marketing.

Google just needed to be reminded that Rapportinc.ca is the among the very best destinations for this keyword combination. This address really is a versatile shop with many strengths and happy customers, friends and authority. New people discovering this website in their search for web marketing options will not be disappointed, or bounce back.

Google.com will deliver similar results for ‘full service marketing’ with the addition of the modifier ‘Toronto’.

On Tuesday June 22nd 2010, Faith Seekings President and Creative Director at Rapport Inc, a full service marketing firm headquartered in Toronto will be present at The Cambridge Suites, 15 Richmond Street East (1/2 block east of Yonge) in the heart of the city (which is presently locked down due to unbelievable security surrounding the G20 Summit).

Faith has grown a great business based on principles of good design, building community and good client relationships.

As her company grew, Faith took on multiple roles but was careful not to abandon her position as Creative Director, or let slip her commitment to helping businesses reach the customers they want, with a message they believe in. Today, as President of Rapport, Faith Seekings has a large staff of programmers, and designers and marketing professionals to help continue building and delivering success. Faith Seekings is a fountain of knowledge, and friends with Smojoe.

Let’s start this journal update with good news… As an online storytelling service, Smojoe likes to hand craft happy endings, and we’re especially fond of documenting Lenzr photo contests, especially when prize winners send in proud photography of themselves with their winnings.

Slimmswitch won the Neuton CE6 battery powered lawnmower courtesy of a Toronto area grass cutting service. That’s a happy ending. The sponsor was thrilled too; they used the Lenzr platform to promote their solar powered organic lawn care business and used contest messaging to get their name passed around in social networks.

Slimmswitch reports that the high technology lawnmower is flawless. It’s good, fast and really quiet. He’s been tweeting about it @LOCOHIPPO.  So have I, and in keeping with my tradition of packaging top shelf ideas as fragmented stories, I’ve been putting a lot more resources on Fotki, and webshots. You can find more details there and on Lenzr photo contest blog.

There’s a disproportionate amount of Ontario private school alumni among the Companions of the Order of Canada.

How to Win the Order of Canada is a cute little Factoid that has fun at the expense of our nation’s highest civilian award.  The piece is good press about Canada, and shares insight into the process by which our nation’s most extraordinary citizens prepare themselves for the history books.  There are over 2000 Companions in the Order today and 18 of them graduated from this Ontario private school, my client.

While researching the article I learned that former Premier of Newfoundland, Joey Smallwood declined appointment as a Companion in the late 1970s because he felt that as a Father of Confederation he deserved a knighthood. Smallwood was never knighted and later accepted induction as a Companion into the Order of Canada in 1986.

Factoidz is a great little website for reproducing the most information rich bits of your client’s message. My favourite ‘home run’ happened here last year when I wrote and published what soon became an immensely popular factoid entitled ‘How To Win The Miss Teen Canada Beauty Pageant’ complete with links to the MTCW website.

Sometimes, growing pains can really hurt. Michael Cayley has asked myself and others to help him promote Change Camp which came to my attention as part of an email dispatch from HumberPR. Michael was quick to add that registration is free this year thanks to the generosity of Microsoft.

According to Wikipedia, Pallett Valo LLP is the largest law firm in Peel region with eighty employees, and twenty eight lawyers. They’ve had more than one notable case, however only one appears on the company’s Wikipedia file.

Smojoe on Collecting PEZ Dispensers

I’m attracted to the bizarre world of PEZ collectors. Did you know they host weekend conventions to shop and share the secrets of their subculture? I’ve seen it. At the event they speak on everything from history lessons to hosting trading posts for avid collectors. Their weekend events are brief glimpses into entire lives spent strategically collecting these candy dispensers.

Some dispensers are worth more then others, and many common units today are going to become much rarer than others in the future. Two very collectible units today are Pink Panther PEZ and Shrek Donkey PEZ - these two models have been earmarked by Steve Reynolds as hot collectibles for the future.

Pink Panther PEZ Dispenser is Special

Thanks Steve Reynold for giving up a matter of time to show me around your store. I wrote about my own encounter with a Pink Panther PEZ Dispenser on Robsome, and that rendition grew larger and then transformed itself  into an article on Dumpdiggers.

My unmitigated passion propelled me closer to Collecting PEZ Dispensers in the Dumpdiggers Library, next I started a thread on the discussion forum inviting folks to upload pictures of their own PEZ collections.

Thank you Jane Reeves wherever you are…  It’s an honour to know Jane.  Not only did she write a very flattering feature article about  Smojoe at IABC PIC presents on May 12th for the IABC website, but she also truncated the bytes and put more pictures and links on her own blog.  She fragmented her message and put another relevant segment of the story about Smojoe on the Jane Reeves Writes blog. Now add some discussion forum posts and a bookmarking service or two, and she will have assembled a powerful Story Funnel (with this Smojoe blog as the buckstop).

Judy Lewis is another IABC member that Smojoe follows

Smojoe will be attending attending Judy Lewis’s panel on Tuesday June 8th in the morning, at the IABC 2010 World Conference between June 6th and 9th. The event showcases the best of the best business communicators from around the globe right here in our home city.

This is an exciting time in public relations and Toronto is again at the center of change.

At this conference, Judy Lewis co-founder of Strategic Objectives, a leading Canadian pr agency that’s headquartered in Toronto, moderates a panel discussion called:  It’s a Brand New Day, alongside three other big thinkers.

Smojoe will be in the audience watching and listening as panelists pull back the curtain on their vision of tomorrow. “The world has shifted,” Lewis writes in her Strategic Objectives PR blog.  “Over the past 18-24 months PR has fundamentally changed. Simultaneous to the economy bottoming-out, social media and digital PR blossomed. Today, it’s all about reinvention and recognizing the tremendous new opportunities and new channels available to PR pros.”

Barb Sawyers builds a blog to help sell her book

Barb Sawyers Launches her Sticky Communication website and freelance copywriter business centered around her book, Write Like You Talk - Only Better which is DIY manual meant to help those folks who have trouble expressing themselves in print. Digging around one day I found this ezine article in which Barb writes, “People who write like they talk avoid long sentences by inserting a period when they need to take a breath. When they briefly pause, they know it’s time for a comma. They naturally use connecting words to link their thoughts. They ask questions, make declarations and express emotions. They interact with other people, not keyboards, screens and their own thoughts.”

Then the G20 Summit Ruined Barb’s Party Plans

I had to smile at her pain when I received an email yesterday from Barb Sawyers informing her subscribers that the date and location for the Sticky Communication website launch party would have to be changed due to overwhelming security for the upcoming G20 summit; of course the mile wide event perimeter would make parking impossible and commuting difficult.

Stay tuned for another date and time.

Portable Luxury photo contest designed to help promote a portable toilet rentals business in Ontario launches on Lenzr.

WIN a trip for 2 to Las Vegas. Got any pictures of portable luxury?

Portable luxuries are those handy conveniences you can take with you on the run. The Portable Luxury photo contest on Lenzr is looking for stories and images that really showcase the kinds of things you could stuff in your pocket or purse to feel more at home wherever you are in the world, outside your comfort zone.

We expect to see lots of small hand-held conveniences and things like expensive watches and diamond rings will no doubt be popular entries, but also technological gadgets.

Sponsored by a portable toilet rentals company that services Toronto and most of southern Ontario, the  prize is airfare and hotel accommodation for two people for three days and two nights in Las Vegas!

Must be Canadian, and over 18 to enter and win this contest, on July 1st 2010.

Once again, all participants in the 2010 Search for Miss Teen Canada - World beauty pageant must start and maintain a personal blog.

That one single innovation has completely changed the landscape. Now the pageant pretty much advertises itself, teaches valuable skills, and lets the public share the excitment in real time. The model also shares links from contestant blogs with sponsors.

Yes indeed, things have changed backstage at the beauty pageant, there’s a new category now; to win this pageant girls not only have to be seven shades of beautiful, but also, the successful finalist will have to be an exceptional blogger as measured in style, technical skill and original prose.

So far the 2010 MTCW Blog Army (that link is to the index page) has recruited over 52 contestant blogs from all across Canada, and the writing is fantastic. Each finalist has plugged in live Twitter feeds and Flickr feeds into a specially prepared custom 2010 Miss Teen Canada- World template made by Sugar Inc.

Starting in June, the bloggers will be issued three unique writing challenges and their responses to these assignments will be graded (by myself and possibly Casie Stewart if I can talk her into helping me) for 10% of each girl’s final score.

With less than two months before the big event, most of these ambitious teens have already filled their OnSugar domains full of original pictures, videos, and links to sponsors and charity websites. This is user driven social media and its a great community building case study. I’ve said it before on here, and I’ll say it again, because of these blogs, the Miss teen Canada - World pageant is a social capital bank.

Right now fifty girls are blogging about their lives, their platforms and of course their preparations for the July event in brand new domains that they have each just registered in their names.onsugar dot com. So you see they are each making deposits in their own richmedia information bank accounts. When the pageant ends they will all no doubt stop blogging, only to discover months or years later that their blogs are the first things to index on Google when they search their names.  That’s how social capital works and eventually they’ll all use it to get jobs and advance their careers. They make deposits today, and their work pays dividends in the future, especially if they actually have something to say.

Last year the MTCW pageant raised over thirty thousand dollars for Free The Children and Siera Bearchell flew to Africa to personally deliver the funds and help build a school in Kenya. This year the organization hopes to raise fifty thousand dollars, and the Blog Army will certainly help that quest.

Just as there are film producers, and theatre producers, please embrace the concept of an online social relevance producer. This position is the head of the social media marketing department.

The social relevance producer sits above the community managers and below the VP of Marketing. She works directly with SEO specialists, and storytellers including the mainstream media.

This is a new vocation. The online social relevance producer is the company storyteller that sets policy and executes keyword strategy. He or she composes stories as ‘hot scripts’ which are txt docs that are in html or pre-fabricated bits of BB code that contain pictures, and links as well crafted incentives. They’re cut and pasted from the backend of the relevance producer’s own favourite blogs and discussion forums. Community managers spread messages as they adapt the hotscript to fit their own blogs and forums.

Following the idea of Story Funnels to Buckstops, and the advantages of fragmenting your media and telling stories on multiple platforms, comes the idea of training a media composer who can engineer an ‘orchestra of participation’.  Like Soviet Constructivist film making at the dawn of cinema, now we seek artists that can montage media across multiple platforms and tell a branded content story as info kibble; surfers digest bits and bytes as they assemble the story in their own heads.

Right now everyone is talking about hiring community managers because business owners don’t want to waste their time blogging and tweeting and posting on Facebook, but yet they want their business to live there. That’s because lots of evidence exists to support the argument that this activity is beneficial for the bottom line. So the proposed solution is to hire interns that become community managers, and spread corporate messages across their networks… but it seldom works out so well.

Community managers cannot be expected to create all the messages, target the perfect keywords and develop compelling stories all on their own. There needs to be a relevance producer that can build modular stories with dissectable messages - this person plants the rich media that the community managers draw out into compelling story funnels.

Build a team of community managers that each are skilled social media marketers.
Back in 2005 at LifeCapture Interactive we had five different experts including an eBay wizard, a MySpace banner master, a Facebook addict, and myself a blogger. We occasionally hired a teenager that was a discussion forum maven who had a dozen profiles on several Film and TV forums, which were the bulk of our clients. Looking back I marvel at how advanced we were, but lament that we needed a relevance producer to write copy and set out resources for everyone’s benefit - we needed common keyword strategy too, and that social media innovation has only now been incorporated into the media mix.

The relevance director starts with keyword strategy and then defines the buckstop (the purpose, call to action) and writes content that will be spread through a network of community managers across multiple social media platforms. If you have a dog food company, and have targeted ‘natural dog food’ in the boardroom, the relevance producer will create good copy that can be tweaked into many different niches by the community managers. The messages will always be different, but share common ideas, photos, links in text under that primary keyword target ‘natural dog food’. At the end of a campaign period (for good SMM campaigns never end) the array of incoming links from all communities, combined with all the warm and fuzzy stuff that is good information rich social media, will produce real results for the dog food company’s bottom line.

Smojoe is an online social relevance producer

Smojoe with the help of a few different Web Development Toronto companies including Innate Media Group works on page and off page to secure social relevance, which is at the heart of keyword acquisition in search engine result pages.

The 2010 Innovators Ball at the Ontario Science Center was a very exciting evening. I went hogwarts in there. There were young beautiful people in costumes playing characters from all the different Harry Potter movies.

I love this picture of me and some girl I’m not even sure who she is no kidding I lifted this from a Deb Lewis Facebook photo album wherein I received notice I was tagged. Wow. Thanks. This is actually not what I look like, which is why I like it so much.

May 6th 2010 was a mild evening outside, and a steamy hot night inside the cavernous spaces of the Ontario Science Centre at Eglinton and Don Mills. The event timeline started soft with quiet music, brighter lights and there was a commercial facet to the experience as several companies dispensed free fantasy genre products. Innovative ideas like a plant bi-product that removes certain tastes from your pallet for hours, and lots of other magic foods, cosmetics and even magic electronic products. There was one hooded fellow working the foyer and casting spells using an LG flip phone. Free cocktails came as potions garnished with plastic stir sticks which safely encapsulated a dry ice cube at the base so the beverage bubbled and hissed.

Smojoe loves big parties like this with synthetic fog machines and DJs and free hordouvers and lots of pretty girls in smart dresses. Some blog friends were there including Lisa Charleyboy and Kelly Gadzala and Mat White of White Capital Investments an exempt market dealer and an old friend from the film business. None of those people are in this picture though.

Deb Lewis was there too of course; she’s always surrounded by a wide entourage of friends and admirers. i heard from one of the organizers that she sold more tickets that anyone else - or was it the second most tickets? She got to go to the dinner freem and she got a signed Maple Leaf Hockey jersey. 2010 Innovators Ball photos on Deb Lewis blog shows some pictures from the dinner.

For most of the evening the music was truly terrible, and impossibly pretentious. Then around midnight it became danceable, and I became disco disruptive.

Smojoe speaks at the IABC, Weds May 12th

It was Story Funnels To Buckstops all over again inside the Oakham House, Ryerson University campus at 55 Gould Street in downtown Toronto. Thanks to everyone that attended the event - the crackers and cheese were divine.

After snacking Smojoe started speaking. For an hour and twenty minutes Rob Campbell showed forty people how he plants content on the internet from the top down. Together we discussed best practices on articles, blogs and discussion fourms and how Smojoe uses bookmarking services, Facebook and Twitter to garnish branded content.

The candid conceptualizions came to life as Will Webb the web developer Toronto ran the laptop / digital projector to show off brand content on ezines and community blogs and discussion forums that carry different parts and pieces of the best and most successful Smojoe story funnels.

To summarize that Weds night I delivered arousing 90 minute speech covering future webinar topics like,  1) Bloggers are farmers, 2) The pedigree of your pictures 3) Fragmenting your media -the elements of multi platform brand storytelling and 4) How to make Keyword Sandwiches for Robots. All this is part of the Smojoe Story Funnels to Buckstops methodology.

Weds May 12th was perhaps my best presentation to date. But at the end of the show I tried to remember the top three ways to make money with your blog, and completely forget the third option - newsletters, and the advantages of using social media to build and leverage a big mailing list.

At the end of the evening I took questions for 30 minutes and then drew a card for the door prize. The gift was won by Gary Schlee. It was books, I myself received an expensive pen, which is a fitting gift for a storyteller.

Photo credit by Alan the photog Mckenzie. Thanks Alan, here’s another link from Smojoe to his professional wedding portraits website.

Dumpdiggers is something I used to write every week, but now I only update it once a season.  I’ve stopped digging up old dumps in Toronto, and I don’t buy glass bottles or Canadian pottery anymore. I do however still collect knowledge.

As Smojoe, I make my passion pay dividends by writing rich media articles that are ‘hero driven’ whenever I can get behind the subject. I make stories more compelling for humans by personalizing the text. Dumpdiggers is really an act of charity, and a character building exercise. That’s because collecting antiques is a niche that’s almost entirely without sponsors, and so my text adventures here are purely personal. I love the idea of using a life’s passion to accrue knowledge and grow wealthy in wisdom. Like the wise old man whom I admire, i too will someday be able to spot the rare and precious opportunities, and one-of-kind investments that come from simply listening and writing and eventually just knowing lots and lots of little details.

Dumpdiggers wrote about the 2010 Toronto Bottle Show and then visited the 2010 Toronto Costume Jewelery Show at Leaside Gardens on the next Saturday. This is my own social capital. I love writing about historic things and junk jewelry is my own favourite shade of citizen journalism.

Four Lenzr photo contests climax as more struggle to launch

May 1st, 2010 - Four Lenzr photo contests ended today, and the results were full of surprises, as usual. The biggest shock came when I noticed that John Kenyon’s photo Only three remain had won the Backyard Party Events photo contest that his own Toronto tent rentals company sponsored! Oh no. The worst part is that its entirely possible and within the rules of the website, which is machine driven and has no board of appeals - Lenzr admin cannot change the winner which has been picked by members and visitors, and their votes and comments. Fortunately Mr. Kenyon has agreed to bestow the prize on the member that uploaded the 2nd highest ranked photo. Dr. Sandra Ausma wins twice this session. Her picture He “Really” Nailed that Pig is just as excellent, and truly deserves a reward.

You can read all about the separate web challenges, see all the winning photos, get links to the successful members pages and read all the prize details on the Lenzr blog.   Each contest has its own story; some competitions became grudge matches when members went head to head soliciting friends’ votes. My favourite battle occurred between Johnny and Slimmswitch who each used social networks to recruit help and draw attention to their campaigns - that kind of viral marketing that makes sponsors real happy.

The How Green Are You? photo challenge collected 27 photos and amassed a healthy total of 1592 votes. Almost all of the images are entirely focused on green subjects, and most have one or two sentences that share insights into recycling and reusing materials, and using alternative energy sources. The contest itself was sponsored by a solar powered grass cutting business in Toronto Ontario, and curious readers can lots of information about the company on their blog.  Slimmswitch wins the Neuton CE6 battery powered lawnmower and I do hope he’ll be kind enough to send me a photo of himself cutting a lawn with it somewhere this summer.

Lenzr analytics tell stories about traffic sources and website usability

Lenzr delivers a good user experience as measured in the 43% bounce rate, and the high number of pages per visit. When people are spending over three minutes on the site and visiting six pages they are engaged as active participants.

The next round of contests will use some new marketing tools to triple number of visits. SMOJOE PREDICTS on July 1st 2010 the traffic sources overview will be very different, and there will have been over 15,000 visits in the next sixty day contest period. I have some tricks up my sleeve and hopefully some new alliances including getting some help from the original Contest Queen, Caroline Wilman of Oshawa Ontario.

Stabathon is an iPhone app for Stabbing Friends (and then sharing it on Facebook).

From the mind of an evil genius comes an iPhone application that’s purpose built for puncturing pals. Stabathon is fun for the whole family, esp teenage boys.

This app comes complete with gory sound effects and there are several ways that users can share their virtual stabbing success, including Facebook. Also there are several different weapons available to choose from - my favourite is the pint glass.

Smojoe Speaks Out Against Predatory Instructional Seminars in an Age of Cliches

Rob Campbell is throwing down the gloves and leaving nasty comments on community websites in which savvy businessmen promote ‘Introduction to Social Media’ seminars with $400 per seat ticket prices. This is digital flimflam, and everyone associated with that scheme should be ashamed of themselves. Their strategy is so predictable. First they gather up some speakers who are promoting their own software products and companies so they don’t need to be paid, and then they rent the Hyatt so the event appears prestigious. Throw in a bean salad and some sandwiches for lunch, and the rest is pure profit.

What makes Smojoe different than other social media speakers?

Well for starters I don’t begin my presentations by asking for a show of hands to see who is on Facebook, and who is on Twitter. And I don’t follow that useless exercise with ten slides of statistics. Actually I don’t even have a slide show anymore - Smojoe evolved beyond PowerPoint presentations last year, preferring to just talk straight and use the projector to do Google searches and show off reports and good media - you know why? because PowerPoint presentations are boring.

My unique performance is an original blend of good storytelling and proven search engine marketing strategies. This is NOT affirmation, but rather this is good useful information that will help anyone selling anything online. This is the view from the trenches that you won’t find ANYWHERE else right now, especially ad agencies and PR firms.

Tickets are very reasonably priced between $25 and $40 ea

On 10th May 2010 Smojoe will be at speaking for the Toronto Business Leaders at a secret location (you have to be a member to see the details).

And then Smojoe Speaks to the IABC on 12th of May 2010 at Oakham House, Room A/B, 55 Gould Street, (one block north of Dundas, 1½ blocks east of Yonge.

Come out and listen, and surprise me with tough questions. I’m asking for it.

On Weds 22 April 2010 @roberrific and @geoffness sat in the back row of the downstairs gallery at The Spoke Club on King St W in Toronto, to attend the Toronto chapter of the American Marketing Association (or AMA) networking event.  Sponsored by Environics Analytics, three speakers were asked how to prove ROI in Social Media Marketing - is it even possible?

Twitter #SMROI

Laurie Dillon-Schalk made me fell extra welcome when I arrived as she announced to the staff that I was on her list.  Minutes later she presented me with 450 gram jar of mulberry jam. (Why?…it’s a long story that relates to a past Smojoe presentation in which I discussed my ‘Where are the Mulberry trees in Toronto?’ discussion forum thread on UrbanToronto .ca which I’m not even going to link to here because I’m sure I have already somewhere earlier on this blog) Laurie is the Chief Marketing Strategist at Social Wisdom and more than just a guest at this event, she was the moderator.

Laurie is a great speaker herself and she skillfully opened the event. She thanked AMA staff & volunteers, specifically, Christie, Layla, Jessica, Bruce and Brad, before she introduced the speakers.

Bryan Segal from ComScore

The first speaker was Bryan Segal from ComScore, a marketing research company that provides marketing data and services to companies that sell online. Bryan started by stating social media is not a fad (it is however rife with clichés).

He opened his presentation by asking for a show of hands on how many people used Facebook and Twitter and how many people blah blah surf porn. Ha ha I stopped putting up my hand after question three, but more so I could keep writing notes. Then in keeping with his classic ‘social media presentation’ model Bryan followed with a brief slide show of user adoption statistics. I’m not even going to write the stats here – such figures are meaningless and obsolete the minute they are published. Suffice to say that Canada as a nation is leading the social media adoption curve. In fairness to Bryan, who is a good charismatic speaker, this rather formulaic approach was indeed perfect for his presentation, as I believe his company records and crunches stats as a core business.

Bryan Segal talked about Social Search

One amazing idea that came out near the end of Bryan’s speech was his insights into the progress of social search, and the idea of being able to ask your friends questions and get answers on multiple platforms. Questions like ‘How many of my friends have XXX brand phone? Do they like it?’ This is indeed interesting…

Next up was Patrick Gladney of North Star Research Partners

Patrick started off by repeating the question in the title of the event ‘Is it possible to derive ROI from social media?’ and he said something very interesting – he reminded everyone in the room that radio and television advertising were also challenged the same way, in their origins. Patrick projected the words ‘social currency’ on screen and consequently I wrote those words down in my book. The next slide outlined his entire presentation in three sub headers, but it was only on screen for less than a minute, and I didn’t get time to write down the third point.
Measure against objectives
Advocacy has value
Okay there is a gap in my notes here – I had to go to the bathroom.

The third speaker was Steve Irvine from 8020 solutions

Steve Irvine started by referencing the earlier questions and asking two questions that he reckoned would help the networking. He asked ‘who here is looking for information?’ and then ‘who is in the business of giving information’ and then he instructed folks to look around and remember these people - those questions did indeed help networking

Steve launched a compelling idea by relating a famous Harry Potter blog marketing campaign story wherein one clever marketer saved the enterprise oodles of money and instead of creating big mass media vehicles with a rather synthetic message, they gave seven bloggers an intimate experience with rich information to leak across their networks. And somebody somewhere reckoned it reached 3.5 million fans in the first month. Good story.

Next was a slide ‘Right Person, Right Message, Right Time’ and this seems like a good approach. So now simply determining the right people, message and timing becomes the task. The next slide was of Steve’s own grandmother, and with her face smiling at us on screen he launched into a breakdown of the classic Tupperware parties. What a great social media networking analogy! The model is similar in some respects – invite people to the party, eliminate friend collectors from the potential buyers, and deliver a targeted message reinforcing the value of the product. And by the way Friend Collectors may not add ROI to the campaign, but they do raise awareness – next time, don’t invite them to the tea and sandwiches portion of the event.

The Speakers Answered the Following Questions

How to get B2B consumer statistics? What brand of tech software do you use to measure conversation? Should I use an avatar or my real name in social media campaigns? How does a corporation launch multi faceted social media campaigns? re: social media privacy issues…or something like that. How do you market social media to certain companies that don’t want to be left out, but don’t really want to be social? like erectile dysfunctions etc

The answers were as varied as the questions, and this final information dessert propelled a very fruitful networking session that lasted until 9pm and even later upstairs in the lounge.

On Weds 14 April 2010, Rob Campbell gained thirty new twitter followers @roberrific after I journeyed to Humber College and put on two ninety minute presentations for two groups of eager Public Relations students. My speeches spelled out exactly how Smojoe uses social networks to rank higher for keywords in search engines.

There is no deck or paper program for this show, it’s all performed live.   I try to make it as entertaining as possible by asking questions and telling funny stories as I project screengrabs and spreadsheets, and visit the URLs of my articles, blogs and discussion forum posts.

These Humber PR graduates are web savvy scholars who paid nothing for my presentation, and so they got no sympathy from me as I spewed forth anecdotes and talked too fast – I packed their heads with too much information all at once and deliberately bounced from concept to case studies and back again. I even stuck in the occasional metaphor to really mix things up.  After the seminars, I told Michael Cayley the author of the Social Capital Value Add and the Memetic Brand blogger (and the professor who has almost single handedly modernized the Humber Public Relations program by adding intelligent events, assignments and speakers around an excellent HumberPR ning social site), that if I was to ever asked to do it again, I’d give the whole presentation in allegory. He thought that might be a good idea! so I explained how I’d put messages in medieval diction whereby all bloggers are peasant farmers, but while some are feudal share croppers, others are freemen, owners of their own domains. The keywords they plant mature into ears of corn, in fields of ripe content. Search engines are windmills, gristmills powered by the fickle winds of our curiosity searching for the best and most delicious corn flour … oh I could go on like this for some time.

A big shout out to @ZackSandorKerr who emailed me personally to thank me (and get version 4 of the Smojoe social media manual, Story Funnels to Buckstops). And to Kiel Hume @KielCulture for asking great questions and being so enthusiastic.

Carly Anne Fairlie of the Fairlie Agency introduced herself to both Humber PR classes, and stayed to listen and tweet about the #HumberPR event. She’s such an interesting person. Much like her social media talent agency, she’s completely unique. And it’s so cool how her pink hair always matches her fashionable clothing ensemble.

A big wow came when Carly Anne Fairlie revealed that she once worked at Strategic Objectives, and was in fact Deborah Weinstein’s personal assistant for a few years. Reflecting back on the job experience, she has nothing but good things to say about Deb and all the people working at this legendary Canadian PR company; it was an essential part of her own empiric journey to entrepreneurship.

Is Queen West Girl in the room?

I mentioned to both audiences that QueenWestGirl.com is for sale (.ca too) and any interested party could easily acquire this property from me for a measly $500, today.
If executed correctly this property will make somebody (probably an attractive young female) good and famous in one year, and quite wealthy in five.  How? Are you kidding? As a blog portal the property is perfect. It has a perfect sexy name that perfectly represents one of the most fun and fashionable streets in all of Canada. Go to Calgary or Vancouver or even Montreal and tell folks you shop on Queen West, and they will know you are talking about Toronto. The entire nation will read this girl’s stories to get daily updates about her daytime excursions, dates and all dimensions of her existence. We’ll read about friendly bouncers, bartenders and signature drinks, health beverages, clothes, clubs and cake shops – the entire world will experience life on Queen St. west through this girl’s storyful blog.

Smojoe Listens and Learns at SproutUpTO

Wednesday April 14 2010, from 6 to 9pm at The Pilot (22 Cumberland St), myself and Will Webb of Innate Media Group sat along the front wall of at SproutUpTO, as evidenced by the rather uncomplimentary angle of these pictures. Frank Abrams of zenPeak was beside me.  We listened and shared thoughts as the leaders of four local start-ups talked about their businesses. I saw @Romanz in the audience making videos of SproutUp

Hailey Coleman @damnheels was a great first speaker. Damn Heels is a business that designs, manufactures and sells collapsible footwear. Her web copy defines her product as ‘sexy, fold-up flats tucked into an expandable bag, small enough to pop into any clutch, desk or suitcase’. Hailey was super confident which was kind of remarkable considering the audience was almost entirely men, web nerds who would never buy her product. Some of us don’t even have girlfriends.

While writing this blog I noticed that Alyssa Fraser and Jennifer Love at DuetPR represent Damn Heels; they even share the contact page right on the website. I suppose that’s because these pretty girls are executing a hero driven marketing strategy and blogging, tweeting and writing press releases for the firm; no doubt they use / wear the product at every function they attend, all of which would result in considerable exposure. In the question and answer segment that followed I played Kevin O’Leary and asked about her intellectual property, and learned about her patent applications. Other folks asked better questions and it was a good preparation for her upcoming CBC Dragon’s Den appearance.

Next, Martin @wegowego grappled with the differences between Mac and PC and we all experienced some awkward moments inside an otherwise excellent presentation that successfully demonstrated the superior search functions of WeGoWeGo for live events in the city of Toronto. He used the example of a heavy metal music lover coming to the city looking for a metal bar and suddenly being able to execute a search using such variables as region, ticket price, size, and even atmosphere. Later Martin connected with Jonathon Samahin at Byron Capital Markets who advised him to look for allies with other more established local search providers. He specifically recommended seeking out someone at Multiplied Media’s Poynt (which is a start-up that Smojoe wrote articles for in the summer of 2008).

Next on stage was Ken Seto @endloopstudios who made a big impact showing off iPad applications that I didn’t understand at all. I’m not going to lie, it went over my head entirely (and I don’t deserve any sympathy either). As everyone else followed along, Ken demonstrated his alchemy on a brand new iPad. He made a lot of laughs too by handling the device much like a spoiled child would handle chocolate cake at fat camp. His application and slide show was super dynamic and intriguing; the 35 second video at the conclusion of his presentation was the icing on the cake and earned a hearty round of applause.

The keynote speaker was Kunal Gupta @kunalfrompolar, CEO of mobile platform solutions provider Polar Mobile, the company behind the popular Food Network and Toronto Maple Leafs mobile applications. He was candid about his company’s climb to success and told the story from start to finish. He was rather sedate and refined; Kunal wasn’t there to sell anyone, which was refreshing.

Erin Bury @Erin_Bury must be congratulated for how well she moderated the evening, shepherding speakers to and from stage and repeating the audiences’ questions into the microphone so the people in the back of the room could make sense of the answers. She’s got great people skills, and so does Sarah Prevette seen here after the speeches.

The meet and greet after the presentations drifted upstairs to the patio of The Pilot where we mingled, which is one of my greatest skills. I reconnected with Christian Dion @ChristianDion of eBlink Marketing and met his friends Jean Marc, and Paul Riopelle of Baron Group which is a new age digital media company working with iPad applications in hospitals and medical centers. We talked about medical tourism among other things. Christian Dion confessed to me later in the evening that he remembered visiting my website (this blog) and he revealed to me that he was frustrated because even after spending ten minutes clicking around my site he still had absolutely no idea what I did for a living.

It was good to see Chris Hamoen @Salesways again. This co director of the SalesWays sales training organization is pretty funny and I owe him a big thanks for introducing me to his brother Steve Hamoen, the President of Zonelife Inc.

Steve Hamoen is a geothermal installation expert and sponsor of the Lenzr Fire and Ice photo contest.  Right now he’s just settling into a freshly pimped out blog portal worthy of his expertise in the Geothermal Installers Blog. This is a good example of how Smojoe builds a custom blog portal that will frame an expert. My blogs will greatly increase the probability that my clients will be recruited by radio and TV producers to share their expertise with the rest of the world.

ASTROPRENEURS NEEDED ON THE MOON!
Earth’s space agencies are colonizing the moon. Robots have made circular platforms that support agricultural, commercial, industrial, and residential lunar modules. There are one hundred and fifty two empty lots ready to be ‘claimed’ in this Lunarsphere, and investors on Earth are waiting to build units.

Lunar Real Estate Brokers are needed to facilitate private investment on the moon. Forty three Contracts and twenty two Blueprints are available, and all twenty-four Moonrail station sites are empty, ready for purchase.

The first developer to link the Lunarsphere to the moonrail system will be forever remembered as the ‘Colony Founder’.

Lunarsphere is a moon colony board game. Developers match contracts with blueprints as they race to buy land, build modules, and be the first to construct four Moonrail Stations.

The year is 2014 AD. A new breed of pioneer is migrating to the next frontier. Your request has been accepted. You have been chosen to help colonize the moon!

As a ‘Lunar Real Estate Developer’ you will collect and match lucrative contracts with high tech blueprints to build a self-sufficient moon colony one module at a time.

Homesteader corporations are waiting for a functioning Lunarsphere to provide investors with new opportunities for profit. Universities are funding the moon colony’s space academy, hoping to collect commercially valuable scientific data. Capitalists are investing in low gravity manufacturing plants to make superior fiber optic routers, circuit boards, ball bearings and flawless mineral crystals. Many travel organizations are interested in building hotels and promoting the Lunarsphere as the ultimate Honeymoon vacation destination. Still more shareholders are working to harvest payloads from moon dust. The dense reagolith contains plenty of aluminum, copper, iron, magnesium, and carbon silicates. These metals will be refined and finished into the wire, steel beams, cinder blocks and glass that will someday give rise to a moon metropolis.

The most precious element found in the lunar soil is He3. The discovery of this rare isotope of the helium has spawned a ‘moon rush’ as Earth bound physicists race to discover the secret of fusion power. He3 is the missing ingredient needed for a Fusion Reactor, and one shuttle load of this stuff could power Earth’s industry for a whole year!

There is no time to lose. After touch down you’ll find yourself standing on an empty grid that will one day contain ten thousand settlers living and working in four different zones. At the outermost edges of the circular lattice you’ll see the proposed moonrail station sites and the mono-rail tracks of this friction free transportation system.

You and five other competing real estate agents will race to install four Moonrail Stations each (at great personal expense) to allow the shipment of goods in and out of the future colony. You will do it for fame, and outrageous profits!

The first developer to build a Moonrail Station in all four zones of the Lunarsphere will control the colony’s flow of goods, and that astropreneur will certainly become wealthy, politically powerful, and famous; that foremost pioneer will be forever honoured as Lunarsphere’s Colony Founder.

On Weds April 7th 2010, myself Rob Campbell, Will Webb, Brandi Blackler of Artistic Tendency, and Michelle Webb of MuskokaGirl.ca played Lunarsphere at Will’s condo in Toronto.

Smojoe didn’t go to WordCamp because it was too far away.

I was going to go, and I’d even purchased a $35 ticket earlier in the week, but on that Saturday as I sat reading everyone’s tweets I had critical second thoughts, and so I skipped it.  I stayed home all weekend and wrote content for Lenzr, and my own Smojoe Social Media Manual.

The Smojoe Social Media Manual is an easy to read, straight forward handbook that shows exactly how I use advanced social media marketing practices to put my clients on the first page of Google for any keyword they choose.  Its broken into five chapters, each module is a stand alone presentation.

Together they comprise a learning program called Build Social Capital with Smojoe, and in the near future, I will do graphic rich webinars on the following subjects,

Bloggers are Farmers - how to plant, fertilize and harvest your keyword crops.
Your Path to Online Personality - how to start, market and monetize your online enterprise
How to Write Stories for Humans and Robots - secrets to Google page one ranking
How To Make Keyword Sandwiches - secrets to planting keywords in articles, blogs and forums.
Multi Platform Brand Storytelling, Story Funnels to Buckstops - putting it all together.

I also envision a semi-permanent office / classroom setting somewhere downtown, but this is proving difficult to actualize. I will however be presenting this material April 14th, 2010 at Humber College to Michael Cayley’s HumberPR students. If you would like to attend just let me know. It is possible.

Lauren O’Nizzle profiled on Canada Blog Friends

Lauren ONeil, also known as Lauren Onizzle, is profiled on Canada Blog Friends this month. She is competing for a summer job at AXE, which is a deodorant company here in Canada. Yes I know that sounds ridiculous, but there it is. The job market here is very competitive.

Smojoe believes that freelance media manufacturers like LaurenOuLoud are the future of modern entertainment. Although she is a TV blogger and pop culture maven today, I believe she will soon be recognized as helping lead the trend away from mainstream television programming. There will come a time, and its not too far away, when we all make media and entertain each other, and TV is just wallpaper at Taco Bell.

Smojoe talks Toronto ezines with Karmacake Mar 25th.

Here’s me listening to a very smart woman whose real name is Marie Nicola discuss her own web strategies and how she has grown @karmacakedotca on Twitter to almost three thousand followers.

We first met last spring at WordCamp09 where we discussed how to solicit and manage user submitted content, and how social media is changing business. Its esp changing entertainment, fashion magazines and beauty pageants. Marie herself is a beauty pagent winner; she was, not long ago, the Miss Teen Toronto title holder.  We discussed the future of Toronto ezines and how she is positioning Karmacake.ca as ‘vice light’.

Smojoe was at TwestivalTO at Tryst Nightclub, March 25th

And I have pictures to prove it.

Here’s me beside Stephen Crooks and a super friendly Julia Corcoran, Business Development Manager at RightSleeve which is a Toronto based design agency that uses promotional media and technology to deliver outstanding marketing results. Much like the Wind Mobile sponsored TwestivalTO gift bags that are visible on the shelf behind us - they contained books and pens.  The TwestivalTO 2010 gift bags are the subject of an in depth blog post by Mark Graham, the CEO of RightSleeve which was not the service provider btw, or in anyway connected to the offering. Mark wrote about the promotional media because it was excellent. And I was fortunate enough to be sitting beside him when he first opened the swag bag. We had a great talk before the club got busy, and now I’m following him as @Rightsleeve on Twitter. He remains a bright light in my murky memories of the evening.

My only other photo that turned out half decent was taken outside in the smoking area at Tryst.  Sadly, I don’t know the first two social media sorcerers here, and so I hope someone will be kind enough to leave their names in the comments. The guy on the right is John Leschinski of Leschinski Design. He’s a new friend that I like hanging out with at these events, because he teaches me things I wouldn’t otherwise know or even think to ask about. The best part is that he doesn’t even know he’s teaching me, or care, he just talks tech and I listen like a thief.

April Lenzr link building and promotion updates,

Roberrific published fresh content on e zine articles called Design A Family Tent Party in Ten Easy Steps that is build and shaped to promote Absolute Tent and Event Services as the best destination for Toronto party rentals. In another recent exercise, Arob put a brief description of the March Lenzr photo contests on Digital Journal blog, and we were all relieved to find that it passed the moderator’s scrutiny, and has been accepted as ‘news worthy’ by this discriminating body of citizen journalists. It was a site just like this on which I recently discovered a primitive yet powerful photo hosting social network with a forum and journal space on which I extol Lenzr photo contest sponsors in April 2010.  The Lenzr photo contest website has been steadily accumulating accumulating votes and visits since March 1st.  The website analytics report 2550 visits in March, which is up 44% from February totals. So things are good there too.

On Thursday March 18th 2010,  I journeyed to 156 Augusta Ave and paid cash to see three Toronto bloggers talk about themselves and their blogs.  It was worth $20 cost of admission, and trust me I’d tell you if it wasn’t. Twenty bucks was a bargain actually; for me, listening to these people is pure inspiration.

Yes they are self proclaimed blog stars, and no, it has nothing to do with their traffic or ecommerce sales, or even the quality of their information – it’s more about style and ’state of mind’, and how well these self promoters can project their own identities on their readers.  There’s an art and science = alchemy

But today I failed them. My own pictures of the Blogstars are terrible, and I’m twenty hours too late with this post. How can I be a citizen journalist about something as important as this, and not deliver original content minimum twelve hours of the event?  Fifty five minutes is prime delivery time btw.  Answer: Smojoe isn’t an event blogger, but rather I digest the experiences for myself, other humans and search bots who will forever index my account of this evening as page one search result for their names and blogs.

Casie Stewart, Sean Ward, and Raymi the Minx are now represented by Carly-Anne Fairlie and the Fairlie Agency

Carly-Anne Fairlie should be aware that some advertising people are watching her social media agency experiment, and keeping an eye on her network of local Toronto bloggers; I think most folks are wondering how it all works. And indeed I myself came to the event hoping to learn more about Carly’s business model and maybe even get a rate sheet that spells out the deliverables. How do marketing people and agencies ethically hire Toronto top bloggers? Nobody likes pay per post schemes, and everyone has trouble defining the true value of blogs. Just what are the metrics of a good conversation?  And Smojoe wonders aloud here, will it help define a new PR service to have one company represent a dozen local bloggers? I believe it will be a huge success, and its no secret that last summer Smojoe sought to unite Toronto’s top bloggers into a turnkey ‘blog marketing solution’ to build support for Lenzr photo contests.

Casie Stewart opened the evening

Casie Stewart went first and introduced herself, her twitter name @casiestewart, and the twitter hashtag #blogstars, before displaying a password protected blog post that was the codex of her discussion.

Casie Stewart is a pretty girl that isn’t scared of looking goofy. Her blog is built primarily for her – it’s an online journal in which she preserves her memories. Her presentation dispensed equal parts wisdom and inspiration.  She led with her own mother’s sage advice, ‘you can’t soar with the eagles if you roost with pigeons’ after which Casie segued into how blogging has changed her life. It was because of the new people that she met through her blogging and tweeting that she shed her old relationships; the new people she has met, and the opportunities to which she has been exposed have changed her life.  Now she does indeed soar with the eagles.  Because Casie was a blogger she now has a dream job at MUCH.  Smojoe would say because she harnessed her passion and created the necessary social capital to impress the ‘fifth floor’ management at MUCH music, she managed to land a dream job blogging and tweeting full time for this youthful TV station.

Raymi the Minx is still Toronto’s most popular diarist.

Raymi the Minx introduced herself as Lauren White, which is her real name.  It shocked me to hear it spoken aloud and I won’t repeat it again. To me she’s Raymi the Minx because that’s the brand I follow.
True to form, Raymi was impulsive, condescending and hilarious. I filled a whole page of my notebook with her original quotes. She is so casual and shockingly honest – there is no filter.  She just talks over her handout, which was the same one she used for Deb Lewis City Events, How to be Famous on The Internet - May , 09 and she didn’t refer to it while speaking then either.  Raymi just talks to the crowd about herself and her blog, much like she would gossip with a girlfriend that had just come over to hang out (and try on clothes in front of the mirror).

Raymi opened by admitting that she wants to be famous because she wants to be rich and appreciated as a blog artist, unlike other people, who simply want to be famous for no good reason.

Raymi started blogging in the year 2000 on Blogger, before it was Blogger. It wasn’t possible to leave comments or even post pictures like today.  Her first laughs came with one liners like ‘I’m a f^%&ing dinosaur’ and, ‘we can talk about my tits in a minute.’   She takes full credit for starting the Raymi blog style; her informal posts mix pictures with text in a stream of consciousness flow much like a drunk girl at a party will sometimes snap twelve pictures in a row.  So each photo sequence is as spontaneous as the text around it and its either bunkum or brilliant, and her readers get to decide and leave their opinions.

Still innovative, Raymi demonstrated how she recently polled her readers using a multiple choice question widget that asks ‘Do you masturbate to my blog?’  Even more interesting was the revelation that over twenty percent of her readers checked ‘yes’.
But the best part was when she just scrolled down through her website and talked about the pages as she descended down through the last few weeks of her life. As the content sailed up the wall In front of everyone’s eyes she narrated what she thinks other people are thinking. It was fun. She pegged me perfectly. I did wonder if she was sleeping with the guy on the motorcycle when I read that post, last week.

People like watching other people change.

Recently Raymi ended a long term relationship with her finance. This was major media news at the time and ironically it helped rejuvenate her blog career because it refreshed her single status. And I wonder about that too… If sex appeal is an important part of your blog strategy, then is being locked up in a monogamous relationship bad for your brand?  The kill switch is the Facebook status update.

Sean Ward

Sean Ward is a very stylized blogger. He has to be, he’s a cartoonist.

Sean Ward writes Sean Ward’s Super Party and in the last portion of the evening Sean shared style tips related to three different aspects of personal brand building.  He discussed Persona, Visual Identity and Unique Positioning and how and why to be unique.  He talked about selling comic books at bars, bus stops and hotel lobbies instead of comic book conventions.  He quoted stats to present the current overcrowded dimensions of the blog world, and then brought home these numbers by pointed to a picture of rain forest canopy and saying, ‘right now you’re not even a tree. Right now you’re just a leaf on a tree somewhere there in the back and the only way to stand out is to define yourself.’  His ideas on Visual Identity are original. Much like Casie’s idea of going to parties with stickers, and your @twitter name on your shirt, I liked Sean’s idea of wearing something like a silver sheriff badge atop every outfit for a year.
The evening wrapping up with mingling, and networking both inside and outside the Kensington Market venue. I shared a moment with Lisa Charleyboy and Keri the Canadian Explorer. It was a great night and time well spent with a room full of local blog celebrities.

On Saturday March 13th 2010, The Wine Ladies traveled alongside some very fortunate Lenzr photo contest winners on a whirlwind Locaboire wine tour of Prince Edward County wineries.

Without going into too much detail about the Lenzr photo contest website, and how and why all this happened, let me just say I had an opportunity to taste a dozen great wines and meet three of most knowledgeable winemakers that are shaping the region. Their wines are grown next to Lake Ontario, which has a moderating effect on the air temperatures. Indeed it was almost balmly this 13th day in March, 2010.

Locaboire is all about drinking locally produced wines and beers

As the white limo streaked through the muddy brown landscape of Prince Edward County in early spring The Wine Ladies thanked everyone for accompanying them on the Locaboire wine tour that was co sponsored by Dave Dingle of Shrinkray Mobile through Lenzr, a serial photo contest website.

Welcome to Historic Eastern Ontario, and down into the heart of a new wine region on the north shore of Lake Ontario near the town of Brighton. Closson road is still peppered with very old buildings on wilderness properties, derelict barns and wild grapes smothering trees and stone fences. I thought I saw some wild apple trees which are all that remains of the orchards that were planted on every farm here in the 1800s. This region boasts some of the oldest settlements in Upper Canada and each lot has a long legacy of owners and entrepreneurial activity.

The vines in this part of the world are young, and they’re on the opposite side of the lake from Niagara. The north side of the lake, where the growing season is just as long, but the winters are colder.

Our voyage visited only three of the thirty wineries that exist here now. Here’s a link to the Prince Edward Co (PEC) wine region index. In addition to these sites, I believe there are at least ten more seedling vineyards that have planted grapevines and hope to establish themselves as PEC wineries in the near future.

Locaboire Wine Tour of Prince Edward Co.

The secrets of Prince Edward County lie in the soil of the region.  Most properties here can find limestone bedrock just 3 to 5 feet underneath the top soil. The best properties have a very gentle slope down towards the lake. For a very good explanation of the characteristics of Prince Edward County wines please refer to this article about the Locaboire wine tour on The Wine Ladies ‘One Sip at a Time’ blog.

Partly because of its soft and friable calcareous limestone soil, and partly due to assiduous care on the part of its winemakers who have learned how to protect their vines each winter to shelter the tender primary buds from killing cold, the vines have endured, and the wines have excelled in tastings all over the world.

At The Grange Wineries, 990 Closson Road. Hillier, ON K0K2J0

Ten minutes into the expedition, our limousine turned off the paved road and bumped its down a muddy side road, over Dorland Creek, and past a 19th century farmhouse to stop outside The Grange winery.

Inside a cozy wooden barn we met Caroline Granger who, along with her father Bob Granger, owns the property and facilities. This family manages six different vineyards, with six different varietals – they harvest 180 tonnes of grapes every year.

Caroline Granger was great and very down to earth considering her name is perhaps most often associated with the area.  She is literally part of the terior of the region. The Wine Ladies really liked her – Susanne and Georgia unpacked their signature huge wine glasses, and all together we shot three segments for The Wine Ladies TV show in three different locations on the property. Here’s The Wine Ladies You Tube video of the lenzr wine tour,  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS84EUY3BFA

The Grange of Prince Edward Estate Winery is a family run business established in 2002 by Robert Granger and his daughter Caroline.  With sixty acres of vineyards, its a breathtaking pastoral setting with a timber hewn tasting room that is the hayloft of a lovingly restored 1826 barn. The set-up of The Grange of Prince Edward Vineyards & Estate Winery has been called ‘the Loyalist version of a French wine estate’ by other notable Canadian wine bloggers and that’s because it comes complete with rich textures, historical outbuildings and old-world ambiance. The vineyards comprise more than 55,000 vinifera and are planted on Hillier clay gravel over calciferous fractured limestone. The vineyard planting began in 2001 and wine production began with the 2003 vintage. Their signature wines include a Riesling, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Rosé

The Lenzr prize / VIP Locaboire Wine Tour from left to right, Rob Campbell, Dave Dingle, Michell Walkau, Susanne and Georgia - The Wine Ladies, Debbie (MommaKoala), Johnny Cochrane and Dr. Sandra Ausma at The Grange Winery - that’s Caroline Granger pouring Trumpours Mill, 2007 Pinot Noir. Photos by Bill Watson (Ve3bnw) check ve3bnw Flickr stream for more pics.

Caroline Granger was very down to earth as she related the history of her property – the farm is two hundred years old and once hosted a chicken canning business which raised and packed poultry under the name Meadowvale farms. The chicken cannery was quite a success in the early 1900s, and printed material from just after WW1show the goods were sold in the market of the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto. Caroline Granger was herself born and raised on the property; she described how she plowed the fields when she was a little girl.  The Wine Ladies were very impressed with her and remarked afterwards on how genuine it is for the proprietor of a winery to be so intimately connected to the property.

Next Stop, Closson Chase - 629 Closson Rd, Hillier Ontario

At 3:30 pm the Locaboire wine tour continued down the road to Closson Chase.

Lynn Carmichael greeted us all inside the unique and beautiful  Closson Chase tasting room.  We sauntered through the space to the far corner of a large wooden barn.  This establishment began back in 1998 on just seven hectares of land. Geoff Heinrick and Deborah Paskus studied the soil of Prince Edward County and speculated that Burgundian grapes could do well in this climate. After producing successful wines, Seaton Mclean and Sonja Smits who had purchased a country home in the area offered financial support to Deborah Paskus so she could open Closson Chase Vineyards in 2004.

Deborah Paskus is one of Canada’s premier winemakers and uses centuries old European traditions to create the exceptional Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays of her brand.  The firm only focuses on two grape varieties because ‘the creation of exceptional wines requires exceptional focus’. Their fine wines are the product of several important factors and the winemaking practices developed by Old world masters over centuries. Their grapes are produced from vines imported from France, from similar soil and conditions.

In the tasting room, Lynn Carmichael explained that Closson has two properties. The grape vines on their farm in Niagara are 30 years old, while the vines grown here in Eastern Ontario come from vines that are less than six years old. We tasted the difference as we sampled the Chardonnay – one glass was from 6 yr old vines, and other from 30 yr old vines and the differences were profound.  All tasters remarked at the contrast, as we came to understand more about the structure of wine in general. It was a good education, and great exercise.

All of the wine we consumed on the Locaboire tour was of course Estate Bottled which means the wine was produced from grapes grown on the farm, or by the estate.

Locaboire Wine Tour ends at RoseHall Run, 1241 Greer Rd Wellington, Ontario

The final destination on our Locaboire wine tour was Rosehall Run at 1241 Greer Rd Wellington Ontario where we met Dan Sullivan who is both the winemaker and vineyard manager. He is a lifetime student of the art of making good wine (in large batches) and has been honing his craft for almost fifteen years. This guy is super passionate about his life’s work and very hands on, eager to discuss the smallest details of his craft. At one point he stood over a pump and explained how the mechanism could move whole grapes to the press without breaking or bruising the fruit. He also lectured on the experience of setting up the winery itself, and the geology of the soil as evidenced in the barrel cellar, which was hewn out of the same limestone that makes the grapes so delicious.

Rosehall Run is a new operation, that just opened in 2006 is located in the heart of the Hillier Wine District, Rosehall Run Vineyards founders are Dan Sullivan, Cam Reston, Lynn Sullivan, Cindy Zwicker Reston.

Dan Sullivan is seen here sharing his experiences operating a twenty five acre vineyard that produces Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Gamay and others.  The famous Hillier Clay soil (clay with limestone gravel/rock over fractured limestone) has many properties. The first vintage was 2004 and now Rosehall Run’s estimated annual production drifts between 6,000 - 8,000 cases.

Dan believes the art of winemaking starts in the vineyard and he maintains a hands on approach to managing the vines and vineyard staff, which allows him to keep a close eye on the resulting quality of the fruit. The walk about Rosehall Run Winery got most interesting down in the barrel cellar where Dan did a great interview with The Wine Ladies.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayB1ycNKwIc
The group tasted several different wines, including 2008 Sullyzwicker rose and red, and a syrah that was made from grapes grown on a neighbour’s property.

We all ended up at The Timberhouse in Brighton Ontario

Lenzr attracts an interesting mix of people, and our assembly was a terrific cross section of contest participants and colourful sponsors; there was great chemistry right from the beginning. By the time the tour ended and we poured ourselves into chairs in the dining hall of the Timberhouse Bed and Breakfast in Prince Edward County, Ontario. The meal was exquisite, especially when accompanied by the many different  wines of the region.  I put the full Timberhouse dinner menu including the Prince Edward County wine list in the story about the Locaboire wine tour with The Wine Ladies in the Lenzr blog.

Lenzr is packed full of photo contests for March and April 2010. They came out of the woodwork to be part of this series, and there’s more queuing for May.  It seems local businesses like the buzz that a properly promoted photo contest can deliver, and the price is right. If you’re interested in promoting your business on Lenzr email rob at smojoe dot com, or you could message Lenzr admin but it all goes to the same place. The buckstop is here.

Toronto Party Rentals Company seeks Backyard Party Events photos on Lenzr

Backyard Party Events is a photo contest for the DIY party people who would rather host friends than be guests.  The sponsor is a Toronto party rentals company that wants to see pictures of people who stay home and do it themselves, renting tables, chairs, tents, wet bars, stages and fences for their own world class bash. I’ve been to few benders like that. We all have. But do you have any pictures? The photo contest is designed to immortalize the people that have rented the big stuff and made a big splash, a memory that will stand the test of time.

The sponsor is a Toronto tent rentals company that’s absolutely stuffed to the rafters with everything required to make a massive bash. This place is a party bomb waiting to explode on somebody’s backyard. Here’s a link to Laura on the Absolute Blog.  She’s standing by to write about the best photographs in the contest that includes tents, staging, folding chairs, tables, event lighting and much much more.  All of this is detailed in the Toronto party rentals sponsor profile on the Lenzr blog.

The prize for the Lenzr member that uploads the highest ranked picture is a spiffy new 10×10 Popup Tent, and $500 Gift Certificate * for anything in Absolute Tent and Event Services catalog.

Geothermal Installation Company Sponsors Fire and Ice photo contest on Lenzr

The Fire and Ice photo contest on Lenzr is probably the coolest theme, and will be no doubt be the hottest competition on the index as photographers show off their skills.

The back story here begins on Saturday Feb 27th 2010 when I journeyed down to the National Home Show and met Steve Hamoen of ZoneLife.ca in the Better Living Centre in Toronto.

I spent two hours talking to Steve and hangingout with him at the show. I enjoyed watching him answer questions and set minds ablaze with every explanation of exactly what’s possible these days with geothermal heating and cooling systems.

Steve Hamoen is a geothermal installer who stamps out common misconceptions about this new energy source.  Firstly, the heat doesn’t just come up out of the ground in easy to use levels, but rather in units that are commonly referred to as low grade energy - the source needs to be ramped up into more viable residential or industrial heating (or cooling) strengths using boilers or coolers as the case may be. This usable low grade energy also needs to be distributed from the source to the areas that require heat or cooling, and all of that sort of thing also requires electricity. Overall the system is part of a bigger, better planet saving solution.

Geothermal power is cost effective, reliable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly, but has historically been limited to only a very few areas of the globe, like Iceland. Recent technological advances have dramatically expanded the range and size of viable resources, especially for applications such as home heating, and in particular floor heating.

The Prize is GeoAir PCO air purifier

Photo Catalytic Oxidation (PCO) is perhaps the most advanced air purifying technology available today.  And unlike existing air cleaning systems that rely solely on ultraviolet light, the GeoAir PCO device integrates a titanium dioxide semiconductor to leverage photocatalytic oxidation allowing it to vaporize indoor air pollutants, including those that cause odors, and break them down into non-toxic products like C02 and H20.

Bacteria, viruses, mold spores don’t stand a chance and are destroyed when they come into contact with the system’s 187 square-inch Ti02 grid.  All volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) are destroyed. The system is cost-effective, maintenance-free and provides maximum energy efficiency with negligible resistance to airflow.

Toronto Grass Cutting Company asks How Green Are You? in Lenzr Photo Contest

The How Green Are You? photo challenge hopes to collect one sentence stories and snapshots of eco friendly notions submitted by Lenzr users that could be readily adopted by society in general.  The photo contest should become a repository of green ideas and inspirations. Already we have men making ‘half fuel’, clotheslines, compost piles and gardens, and we’re certain that even more sophisticated images will be uploaded before the contest ends, May 1st 2010.

Photographers are asked to be generous and share wisdom inside environmental theme images and art.

The How Green Are You? photo contest is sponsored by a solar powered grass cutting business in Toronto Ontario that has trucks and trailers festooned with adjustable solar panels.  They offer a sustainable, organic service that is also a relatively silent; their Neuton battery powered lawnmowers are very quiet.  This service is just finding its legs in the GTA and needs public support to achieve its true potential.

This sponsor is competing in the 2010 Green Innovation Awards.  Every year the Toronto Community Foundation donates up to $50,000 to help green businesses get established in the competitive Toronto marketplace. Green ideas may include any new technology, product and/or service that helps make Toronto a greener and more liveable city. Successful applicants are invited to present green ideas and funding requests to a panel of experts sometime after the submission deadline of March 12, 2010. The good news is that the Award recipients will be announced at the Green Toronto Awards Ceremony in April. 

How Green Are You? photo contest prize is Neuton CE6 battery powered lawn mower.

On May 1st the highest ranked image as decided by the members wins Neuton CE 6 Battery-Powered Mower with DURACELL® battery technology. There is no gas or oil to spill and no engine emissions to pollute the air. The 360 watt-hours of battery provide plenty of power. The Neuton CE 6 mower can cut about 1/3 acre (approx 15,000 sq. ft.) on a single charge. If you need more time, just swap in another battery and keep on mowing! Approx retail value $489.00 + shipping.

Toronto business phones installation company issues a challenge for Obsolete Office Equipment

Obsolete Office Equipment is another dynamic challenge centered on the workplace. The contest hopes to uncover the antiques that are still being used in today’s offices. Show us the obsolete objects that are still relied upon by frontline staff and backroom employees and the people who manage them.  Show us that much hated office things that slows everyone down.

This photo contest is a vision quest, a nostalgic look back at how business used to be conducted. Show us rotary dial telephones, punch clocks, obsolete measuring devices and things we used in the 1970s. Submit shots of call center switchboards and data centers.  Can you believe how far we’ve come in just ten years?

What will offices be like ten years in the future?

The contest sponsor is a business telephones system design and installation company that believes understanding your business needs is the most important part of choosing the right telephone system, as the closer your chosen telephone system comes to meeting your specific requirements, the greater the value it will add to your business.

The Prize is a 4 Line office telephone AT&T Model 1070. This state-of-the-art communication device has 4 line speakerphone & answering system capability. With Caller ID / Page / Intercom / Call transfer / Expandable to 16 stations / 32 # speed dial / 3 party conference / 6 number redial,  it has so many wonderful functions!

Yesterday I wrote two blog entries, back to back, two hours each, from 7am til 11am in the morning. Then I spent the rest of the day leisurely bookmarking and promoting the posts in a ritual that has evolved over the years to include Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, and Reddit and I tweet the links on @roberrific and have recently begun to use Zoomit.

Toronto Dentist on the Lenzr Blog

I started writing this piece by hammering out my recollections of the exact moment when Toronto dentist Dr Natalie Archer DDS of the Rosedale Family Dental Care office at 600 Sherbourne St unit #808 met a 22yr old female York University student named Seattle Dredge, the winner of the Lenzr Kids in Action photo contest, who already has lovely teeth btw; her smile is today far whiter whiter than my own teeth will ever be.  While writing the blog I remembered that Seattle didn’t take the toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss and mouthwash that was available for her consumption - a year’s supply of dental products. Let’s make sure she gets that next time.  Seattle had her camera at the scene of course, and I cant wait to see her pictures and understand her perception of the event. Read all the details on how Toronto dentist rewards Seattle Dredge on the Lenzr blog.

Dr. Yoni Freedhoff profiled on Canada Blog Friends

Here is Dr Yoni Freedhoff profile on Canada Blog Friends.

Dr. Yoni Freedhoff is the author of Weighty Matters, a food science and health blog that shines a bright light on the soft underbelly of Big Food.

Canada Blog Friends is an index of Canada’s most culturally significant bloggers and Yoni is a valuable addition the collective. His blog probably should be required reading for parents of overweight children, or anyone looking for insight into proper dieting, and how to exercise and lose weight effectively. Also what so called ‘health snacks’ you should  avoid buying for yourself or your family.  But that’s not what makes Yoni’s blog special.

Dr. Freedhoff isn’t afraid of publicly waging war with Big food, and he attacks the advertising agencies and marketing executives that print health jargon on their packaging without substantiating their claims. Or they print false claims, or make impossible statements that are essentially fraudulent.  The most fascinating things happen when Yoni publishes his blog posts, and you can almost hear his sentences echo through Big Food boardrooms all across corporate Canada.

The biggest offenders include the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Health Check which Yoni calls a “misinformation program”, and Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating which Dr Freedhoff feels is better described as, “Canada’s Food Guide to Unhealthy Eating”.

Years ago, Dr Yoni Freedhoff founded the Bariatric Medical Institute in Ottawa, a multi-disciplinary, ethical, evidence-based nutrition and weight management center.

As the Weighty Matters blogger, Yoni is now a respected trust agent. He prints the ugly truth about processed food products and their manufacturers and marketing departments. This is important because such editorials will not get printed in mainstream magazines, newspapers or radio, and will never be mentioned on any TV network that relies on these same food companies as sponsors for programming.

I have a habit of taking pictures of the television, esp when my friends appear and share themselves with the rest of the world in some reality show or real estate program as the case may be.

Gary Puppa has a very interesting company.  He is the President of ePixome, a pictures marketing company that he started in 2000 just the whole tech industry was collapsing. As a result, he wasn’t fortunate enough to find any investors to support his business plan, angel or venture, but since then he has taken his idea and developed it into a $250K / year business.

Gary Puppa Braves the CBC Dragons Den

Gary describes his 40+ minutes pitching to the panel of Dragons as ’surreal’.  The morning of his taping he was calm cool and collected. Joking with his producer, the audio techs, hair & make-up, it was looking like it would another typical business presentation he does so well. Things changed as he walked down the stairs and set up his gear centre stage. That’s when it hit him that 20 odd cameras were taping his every word, every breath, focused on every bead of sweat and probably the pulsing vein in his collar.

It took him a few minutes to gather his composure, focus his thoughts, and then he started in…
“Hello Dragons! My name is Gary Puppa and I am from Burlington Ontario and I am president and founder of ePixome! I am here today seeking $125,000. in exchange for 20% equity in my business.”

Unfortunately Gary walked away without any Dragon dollars, but he still considers himself richer from the experience as he was fortunate enough to have his pitch make it to air to the 1.5 million CBC Dragons Den viewers across Canada.

It may have only been 1 minute of fame, but that just leaves him with 14 more somewhere in the future.

Sunday Feb 28th, minutes ago Canada won the gold medal in Men’s Ice Hockey and my Twitter feed erupted with mostly one word tweets. Truly amazing - no other event could so singularly dominate that space except perhaps an alien invasion. I follow two hundred souls @Roberrific and fifty more and mostly different folks @Lenzr but it would seem that everyone who matters in my Twitterverse is 100%  Canadian.

Speaking of Lenzr, tonight, the international ice hockey event was just the opening act. Tonight all three photo contests will end at midnight! Who will win  the Locaboire wine tour? The automated scoring system leaves no doubts about the prize winners.  I’m very curious to see who will win the Best Gourmet Food photo contest because that person will share a Locaboire escapade through eastern Ontario with The Wine Ladies (and myself) in the middle of March.

Last week Smojoe had some fun at Fastlane at Dermatologica watching the ladies go crazy over cosmetics and creams, drinking protein shakes and wiped their fingers every ten minutes with all natural hand sanitizers.

There was a real push to get men into the chairs, and all the clinicians had this strange and powerful obsession to put product on boys. As soon as I entered the venue I was ushered (past the bar and) into the white room.  Oh their eyes lit up when they saw me.  My pasty white skin needs help, and they wanted at it… But the white walls and white tile floors scared me. Yes I fear the cruel knife. Lots of stainless steel in here told me this was also an operating room, despite the crowd of laughing people drinking cocktails and nibbling on fruit I wasn’t comfortable and instead held court in the reception area (beside the bar).

Earlier that same day,

Deb Weinstein mentored with Rob Campbell at Personal Brand Camp 2

Deb Weinstein, President of Strategic Objectives is a fascinating person, and someone I should probably study. Here she is lurking behind me at Personal Brand Camp 2 at The Church on Berkeley, Feb 23rd.  We had a few moments before the crush of eager Humber PR students came to gather our knowledge, packaged and sold as Question #16: What are simple but effective social media practises that I can adopt?

My answer was never really defined - there are so many possibilities, and its different for everyone. But Deb brought a flip chart and had ten sheets of wisdom to bequeath. And of course I learned a great deal from her presentation too, and benefited from hearing it three times in rapid succession. My favourite part was when she asked the students to define themselves, because I could never guess exactly what they were going to say… and they were always so different.

Anyway I was so terribly inspired by the whole affair, and the quality of the ‘experts’ and the genius of Michael Cayley and his Memetic Brand that I blogged about Smojoe at Personal Brand Camp 2 and recorded my experience and observations (mostly about Deb W) for posterity right on the Humber PR Ning website.

Elizabeth Verge of Brain Possibilities

Earlier this week I explored the dark areas in my own brain with Elizabeth Verge of Brain Possibilities. She has invested time and money into the practice of mapping the human brain and studying brain activity as recorded by electromagnetic energy which is captured and observed as brain waves with EEG amplifiers and computers. Elizabeth’s computers process the brain wave information and translate the brain waves into an optimized pattern in the form of sound.

Brainwave Optimization with RTB™ encourages some brain waves and discourages others so the brain will begin to function differently - it will create a balanced condition. Basically her patients accept that harmonizing their brain waves can balance them into optimized patterns.

Do you believe this is true? I do.

As far as we know all human brain activity functions through tiny cells called neurons which interact and connect with each other forming neural-networks. These grids are activated based on stimuli. When given new stimuli they might be trained to behave differently, or use different routes to create different networks. Elizabeth claims that her clients have recognized the benefits of her unique treatments after just three sessions, but she likes to schedule 30 sessions to make the benefits permanent.

Brainwave Optimization with RTB™ is a completely non-invasive, individually tailored process of balancing and harmonizing the brain. Elizabeth and her system work to balance brain activity from the lobes of one side of the brain to the other, and from the front of the brain to the back.  Harmony refers to the way energy patterns function together from low to high in the various regions of the brain. The sole objective of brainwave optimization is to establish balance and harmony in the brain.

Do you think I should continue to explore brain wave technology?

Chris Binet has mass experience doing public relations for health and beauty companies in Toronto.  He has helped improve media awareness for spas, skincare and soy products.  Chris writes really strong press releases which are distributed through an expanding array of news media publishers and TV producers.  Do you want to get your health /beauty product or service mentioned in the newspaper? or promoted on daytime television? or mentioned on the radio? Chris Binet is your fella.

I met Chris Binet last summer in connection with the Miss Teen Canada - World pageant.  Chris, accompanied by Ellen Smith of EnCourse, attended the very first web marketing seminar that Smojoe offered. The April 09 event was promoted by Deb Lewis of Toronto City Events, at the Spoke Club.

Heath and Beauty Toronto is a Ning Community site that Chris created, and I have pledged to support and grow to prominence. Its a two fold assignment - creating content and recruiting more content creators. Eventually the hub will become the first and best place on the web to find all Toronto related Health and Beauty offerings and events.

At the Center for Social Innovation on Spadina Ave, I had two business encounters with the following notables.

Downstairs in the Dark Horse coffee bar I met Tina Rogers who is the brains behind a content portal for people over 50 yrs of age called Tempo Toronto. It was a very casual discussion as I couldn’t get the internet on my laptop again - I message Beanfield and leave my phone number, but they don’t ever call or text me back with the PIN. I must be doing something wrong.

Ana Matica of Matica Design is a doll. She is so kind and relaxed, humble and accommodating, and she’s real easy to talk to; she coaxed one hour’s worth of Smojoe tactics out of me for a white paper she is writing on the subject. I will include a link here when she’s done.