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 feel sorry for Tish Harkus, Manager at Canadian Club Whisky for it’s obvious she has a real passion for this beverage, and a powerful gift for communicating the essence of the Canadian Club experience, but sadly, even her professionalism and compelling stage presence couldn’t cut through the lunacy of the Apr 18 tasting event. On April 18th 2013 Praxis PR invited me to join the Canadian Club Chairman and share his Whisky Whisdoms at the inaugural #CanadianClub national meeting in the Great Hall at Hart House. It was a boondoggle. Honestly, I would like to report nice things, and ‘give back’ to the PR community, but it was like this gathering was organized by people who had never thrown a party before. There were so many rookie mistakes. The huge Twitter wall was impressive, and I liked the Prezi style presentation. Congrats @TheDanLevy who won a nice prize for composing… Read more »
Posted in: Friends of Smojoe, Interactive, Personal Blog, Photography, Toronto, Video
Taged with: #CanadianClub, Canadian Club whisky, Chairman, no common sense, Praxis PR, rookie event mistakes, Tish Harkus, Whisky Whisdom
Post by Robert Campbell on Mar 06, 2013 On Saturday Feb 23rd 2013 I was at Podcamp Toronto. The first familiar face that greeted me as I walked in the door at 9:30am was Karim Kanji co-founder of Third Ocean. “Rob Campbell” Karim announced as he shook my hand. “You showed up early, and you wore a suit!” he said, suddenly suspicious of me. Karim was helping organize Podcamp Toronto 2013 because, like a moth to a flame, he must love the excitement of being an inside man at these things. Taking it all in over two days you can sort the facts out later – identifying new and old trends and most exciting, using new information to conceive new possibilities. Yes I felt a little overdressed right at that moment, but you know, as the day went on I came to believe again that you can’t dress up too… Read more »
Posted in: Actually sharing secrets, Friends of Smojoe, Personal Blog, Search Engine Marketing, Smojoe Clients, Smojoe Events, Web Marketing
Taged with: #PCTO2013, Karim Kanji, Laurie Dillon-Schalk, marketing, Podcamp Toronto, Rob Campbell, search engine optimization, SEO, Smojoe
Famous all over the world for their high quality, air tight, glass and stainless steel food cans, Onyx Containers recently asked Rob Campbell of Smojoe to put together a rich media content marketing strategy to help them launch their new retail website e-store The Tickle Trunk . Now anybody, anywhere in the world can buy Onyx Containers and have the units shipped to their homes! Watch below how Rob Campbell sets up keyword targets, and then creates useful, contextual media, business stories, that will put his clients on pg1 of Google where they will enjoy traffic and sales for free, for the rest of time. TheTickleTrunk.com website is well stocked to sell Onyx’s signature air tight food containers, lunch containers, steel popsicle molds and ice cube trays direct to the public. Starting Jan 1st 2013, Rob’s primary goal is to increase traffic and sales at this brand new property. Smojoe… Read more »
Posted in: Canada Blog Friends, Friends of Smojoe, Search Engine Marketing, Toronto, Uncategorized, User Submitted Content, Web Marketing
Taged with: airtight glass containers, bloggers, content marketing, discussion forum posts, ice cube trays, Meme Weaver, Miss Teen Canada, Onyx Containers, popsicle molds, stainless steel, The Tickle Trunk, Toronto Zombie Race
Earlier this week I reported on the 2012 Say Media Christmas Party on the Distillery District blog. The event was held inside The Fermenting Cellar on Thursday Dec 6th 2012. It started at six pm and carried on until well after midnight, and the walls were indeed red with cheer. Say Media is a digital publishing company that creates cool media brands. Through its technology platform and media services, the company enables content publishers to build passionate communities around key consumer interests such as Food, Technology and Lifestyle. Say Media provides an easily measured means by which the world’s biggest brands are best equipped to engage with influential audiences. Content is social currency. It’s what most brands use to build their identities, and it’s what we all trade and share in social networks – good content gives us a reason to communicate with each other. Follow Paul Coulter on Twitter… Read more »
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
I visited the 2012 Zoomershow on Saturday Oct 27th with an open mind. I’m close pals with some exhibitors and so was emailed some free tickets which I used to get myself and a friend in the door at the Direct Energy Bldg. On that autumn morning most of Toronto stayed home; the weather was awful. Oct 27th was just two days before Hurricane Sandy blasted the city and the preceding wind and rain made driving difficult and waiting in line to pay for parking at Exhibition Place was particularity painful. But once inside the venue, people were surrounded by warmth, luxury and a best-of-the-best vision of their possible futures. There were doctors, lawyers and dentists, cosmetic surgeons, investment bankers, travel agents and pet food manufactures all giving away stuff in their booths. I wrote about visiting the 2012 Zoomershow on Travelblogs and I published a similar account on Socyberty… Read more »
Posted in: article marketing, Canada Blog Friends, Fashion Blog, Friends of Smojoe, Future Technology, Smojoe Clients, Web Marketing
Taged with: ARTA Gallery, Distillery District, Look Good Do Good Feel Good, Megha Sandhu, Miss Teen Canada, Steve Levinson, US election, Web Marketing, Zoomers magazine, Zoomershow
The annual Pikto Top Pick photo contest is now officially open and taking submissions. Contest participants must register for membership on Pikto before submitting fifteen pictures to be judged by experts after Nov 2nd 2012 This is a great opportunity to get discovered – there is no entry fee and each participant’s work will be seen by thousands of people visiting the contest photo gallery. There is comfort and honesty in Pikto photo books. Photo books are physical art pieces and still the most tangible way to show off your art work and leave a legacy of your journeys, experiments and masterpiece images. How would you like to have your pictures on display inside the front gallery of the prestigious Pikto photo printing shop? The photography service headquarters in the heart of the Distillery District is home to all manner of art brokers, buyers and business agents, designers and decorators and… Read more »
On Monday April 16th 2012 there will be a third Search and Social Rank Symposium held at Archeo restaurant in the Distillery District of Toronto. People like this event because it’s easy to come here and eat and drink and talk and learn a bunch of helpful new sites and new tools they can use in their own homemade marketing solutions. You can get $30 tickets for #SSRS3 here, or check Facebook for even more details. Search and Social Rank Symposium #3 will be both mental and physically nourishing. Attendants will get a tasty HOT meal from a buffet table with lots of selection, alongside a delicious alcoholic beverage of their choice. Most importantly, they get a nice cushy seat at a long wooden table surrounded by peers. Wireless internet access will be available, of course and indeed some folks open their laptops and take perfect notes, and some even… Read more »
Posted in: Actually sharing secrets, business storytelling, Friends of Smojoe, online business, Search Engine Marketing, Smojoe Events, Social innovation, Social Media, Toronto, Web Marketing
Taged with: Alex Blom, Brad Gosse, City Events, Deb Lewis, Distillery District, search engine optimization, SEO, social relevance, Symposium, Toronto, Web Marketing, webmaster
On Jan 23rd 2012 myself and David Shephard from Jib.ca along with Deb Lewis of Toronto City Events and some other principals organized another better Search and Social Rank Symposium at Archeo in the Distillery District of Toronto. $25 ticket bought hot food, cold beer and fresh ideas (and not just sales pitches, although there were a few of those). We invited everyone we knew, and used the occasion to promote our brand of science. I debuted a rather sticky piece of content called Who to Follow on Twitter in The Distillery District which I had just posted on The Distillery District blog. This in my mind exemplifies SEM and SEO because sharing the document spreads my links. I went about a rather backward route to explain this to the audience and ended in kind of murky water with a question about canonical script. People came from miles a around… Read more »
Posted in: Actually sharing secrets, Friends of Smojoe, Future Technology, Interactive, Queen West Girl, Smojoe Clients, Smojoe Events, Social Media, Toronto, Web Marketing, workshop
Taged with: Alex Blom, Archeo, Benjamin Allison, Craig Backman, David Shephard, Geoff Whitlock, Joey deVilla, Search and Social Rank, Symposium
