Sometimes things happen for a reason. When I last visited my parent’s farm, they insisted I remove a stack of glass jars that I’d been warehousing in their garage. Four years earlier, I had purchased 40 cases of 8oz glass jars for packing honey, only to discover they are the wrong size. The eight ounce jar is perfect for olives, pickles, sun dried tomatoes and hot peppers, but not pure Canadian honey. Little did I know when I bought them, this odd size is actually illegal for food producers to use (in Canada) because its not on the list of approved sizes. There are six different sizes for producers to use. This is because consumers get confused and cannot shop for honey in all different size jars with different volumes and prices. So anyone selling honey in Canada has to do so in one of six different sizes, and this… Read more »
Posted in: Charity Event, corporate social responsibility, Friends of Smojoe, Personal Blog, Photography, Social innovation
Taged with: 28 dozen jars, Bleecker Wellesley Activity Network, breaking isolation, BWAN, food safety, glass jars, green living blog, Toronto, Vicky
I got a new job. Last week I accepted a role in the marketing dept of a tech company called Transparent Inc. They’re located in the King Dufferin corridor, and like so many other companies down there its hard to tell exactly what they do for a living. I’ve been here a week and still don’t know. This firm is part of another enterprise called LAUNCH!, an experiential advertising agency. I have new responsibilities, input into the design of some really interesting things being built, and a clean window overlooking the shifting digital landscape in Canada; the company chair gives me a fresh perspective and a lofty perch from which to study the art and science of web marketing in the early 21st century. I’m the Content Manager at Transparent I came up with the title ‘Content Manager’ myself. They wanted to label me the Social Media Manager but I… Read more »
Posted in: Actually sharing secrets, corporate social responsibility, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media, Toronto, Web Marketing
Taged with: Andrew Dick, dog app, King Dufferin corridor, Mike Smith, Toronto, Transparent Inc
Sometimes in politics there comes along someone so remarkable that you just KNOW he or she will be the man someday I feel that way about Justin Trudeau. The federal Liberals will choose a new leader in April, after Michael Ignatieff stepped down following the party’s disastrous showing in the last election. Bob Rae, who has been the party’s interim leader since Ignatieff’s departure, announced in June that he would not be running for the permanent job. This was a wise move for Mr Rae. On January 12th and 13th, Liberals will come together to vote in local Leadership Election Meetings (LEMs) to be held in each riding across Ontario and Justin Trudeau will emerge as Leader of the Liberal party shortly thereafter in April 2013. If you become a member by Nov 23rd you can participate in this process, but I really don’t think it be a close race,… Read more »
Posted in: business storytelling, Canada Blog Friends, corporate social responsibility, Friends of Smojoe, Social innovation, Web Marketing
Taged with: 2015, Bob Rae, federal election, justin Trudeau, Liberal Party, Prime Minister
Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m not a complainer by nature, but I will not hesitate to stand up and point out injustice. Such is the case here in my new domicile, a brand new freshly erected glass and concrete condominium building at Dundas St. E. and Parliament. In this building, unfortunately for us, the underground parking garage is ruled by trolls! That’s right, trolls live amongst us, and they do exact a heavy toll from unsuspecting visitors to our homes. This is their business logo. Here’s the skinny: if you drive a car when you come to visit me, then you’ll definitely want to park it somewhere, and left to your own volition you’ll probably use the blue circle P parking garage under the condo building. Driving down the ramp, you will enter the realm of the trolls. Be sure and pay the $5 parking fees down here,… Read more »
Posted in: corporate social responsibility, Personal Blog, security, Social innovation
Taged with: complaint, Daniels Corp, developers, Jeff Zanardo, parking garage, Precise Parklink, profit, property management, scam
One of the best parts of my job as Managing Director of Lenzr Corp is walking to work in the morning through the Distillery Historic District in Toronto. Located at 55 Mill Street, south east of Front and Parliament, this is one of the oldest parts of the city and was originally the busy lakefront up until the 1870s. I used to work as a grip in the film business, and I’d get called to shoot movies here in the 1990s, which was before it was restored to its present glory. Today the compound is still filled with cinematic old buildings and beautiful cobblestone streets, but also accommodates a thriving community of artists and theatre workshops, cafes, galleries, stores and specialty markets. The area has been preserved as much as possible to accommodate museum quality historic artifacts and tell the life story of a large Canadian distillery, Gooderham and Worts… Read more »
Posted in: corporate social responsibility, Interactive, Lenzr, Photography, Toronto, User Submitted Content, Web Marketing, Web Resource
Taged with: Christmas Market, Distillery District, Electronic Engineering, Gooderham & Worts, historic buildings, Lenzr photo contest, mortgage broker, reed switch, Toronto
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… Read more »
Posted in: article marketing, corporate social responsibility, Interactive, Lenzr, Search Engine Marketing, Social innovation, Toronto, User Submitted Content, Web Marketing
Taged with: aerial photography, Bill Watson, Debbie watson, Lenzr, Mommakoala, photo contest, portable toilet rentals, Rockton Worlds Fair, Ve3bnw
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… Read more »
Posted in: Actually sharing secrets, corporate social responsibility, Fashion Blog, Friends of Smojoe, Interactive, Smojoe Clients, Social innovation, Social Media, Toronto, Web Marketing
Taged with: 2010, beauty pageant, Blog Army, blogging, case study, Casie Stewart, Miss Teen Canada World, Social Media
Pro Bloggers know that some subjects are really hard to write about, and it takes mad skills to subtlety broach sensitive topics, especially in 3rd party social networks, blogs and discussion forums where you can’t completely control the reaction. Now let Smojoe show you two women who make it look easy… Enter two creative writers Skye Blue and Elizabeth Rose. These girls write good content on tough topics, like disease, bad sex and heartbreak. Believe it or not, there are lots of women out there who can’t talk about sex, even with their lovers, and they’re ashamed of getting personal and can’t communicate important emotions. Met Another Frog is a dating blog, a catharsis? an therapy with a feminine perspective that tackles tough questions and comforts readers. Unfortunately at this time the site is almost completely void of pictures, and my first piece of advice was to get images in… Read more »
Posted in: corporate social responsibility, Interactive, Lenzr, online business, Photography, Smojoe Clients, Social innovation, Toronto
Taged with: Lenzr, Locaboire, Mommakoala, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, Orato, Phronk, single gender education, St. Andrew's College, The wine Ladies, Toronto Forums, wine blog
Try as they might, Canadians cannot stop CanPages from delivering their obsolete advertising product to their homes and offices. There is no mechanism on the CanPages website to allow consumers to opt out of the delivery scheme. On Thursday Jan 28th, 2010 two nice people from CanPages visited the 2nd floor hallway of 176 John St and left behind five pounds of rubbish in eight tiny piles outside everyone’s door. I told them to stop and to please remove the debris, and I personally tried to give one unit back – the deliveryman said nothing, smiled and took it down that hall. He left it on a stack beside the stairs. That’s when I vowed to do something about it, and to write this resource page demanding action, and accountability and CHANGE. CanPages is pollution, and because I have a microscopic carbon footprint I really don’t want to be associated… Read more »
What is social capital? I saw Julien Smith on December 1st 2009 inside the Berkley Church in downtown Toronto and he talked about Trust Agents and how to value social networks. He waxed poetic about advice his father had given him concerning perspectives on friends and potential employers. His script was pretty flat actually, and there was no deviation from the template – a couple times he paused for laughs and there werent any and I suspect he was used to laughs in those places and missed them. In my humble opinion, Julien mislabels social events as Social Capital. These things Smojoe considers to be ‘social currency’ which can build capital. But that’s me being knitpicky … The only thing that kinda bothered me in this presentation was that Julien did not once define social capital in the plainest terms, and so most of the audience is still mesmerized by… Read more »
