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.

Tags: Alyssa Fraser, Baron Group, Carly-Anne Fairlie, Chris Hamoen, Damned Heels, Deborah Weinstein, DuetPR, Erin Bury, Frank Abrams, Geothermal Installers Blog, Hailey Coleman, HumberPR, Jennifer Love, Jonathan Samahin, Ken Seto, Kunal Gupta, Michael Cayley, Paul Riopelle, Polar Blog, roberrific, Salesways, Sarah Prevette, Smojoe Events, Steve Hamoen, Strategic Objectives, training, WeGoWeGo, zenPeak

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 15th, 2010 at 6:32 pm and is filed under Actually sharing secrets, Friends of Smojoe, Queen West Girl, Social Media, Social innovation, Toronto. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.