Smojoe is helping promote SPOTLIGHT Unplugged this month, the Up Close and Personal music event fundraiser at the Berkeley Church, 315 Queen St E is to benefit Fife House and support their efforts to provide secure and affordable housing for those living with HIV/AIDS. This is good cause and the event promises to be memorable as it features ‘candid’ acoustic and piano performances by notable Canadian talents. Spotlight Unplugged. Up Close and Personal Thursday September 30th at Berkeley Church, 315 Queen St. East, Toronto The musical line up includes, Hayley Sales, Mark Masri, Kellylee Evans and Micah Barnes. There’s a silent auction and some very small portions of fancy food is also provided. Tickets are $75 each. For more information, or you can get tickets to SPOTLIGHT here. For even more reading on this subject, Tina Rogers has authored an excellent article about the upcoming SPOTLIGHT charity event for Fife… Read more »
Posted in: Charity Event, Friends of Smojoe, Lenzr, Smojoe Clients, Social Media, Toronto
Taged with: Cheryl at Chocolicks, Fife House, Hayley Sales, Kellylee Evans, Lenzr photo contest winners, Mark Masri, Micah Barnes, Mommakoala, Tempo Toronto, Tina Rogers
On July 1st 2010 the Lenzr serial photo contest website was officially one year old. Today it’s stronger and more popular than ever before as each session helps mature the site into a more effective web marketing tool. In the last year there were seventeen successful contests that collected just over five hundred pictures with headlines, tags and comments from about three hundred and seventy registered members. You can see all seventeen challenges in the Lenzr category on Toronto-Forums. Each sixty day contest period attracts about 4000 visits to Lenzr, with just over half of them unique. The average visit to Lenzr spans seven pages, and lasts over three minutes. Usability of Lenzr is continuously being improved On August 1st 2010 four new photography challenges were launched inside newly fashioned countdown-mechanism-equipped contest pages . Four Lenzr photo contests end Oct1st, 2010 and there’s more good information about all four August… Read more »
Posted in: Actually sharing secrets, Analytics Software, Friends of Smojoe, Lenzr, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media, Toronto, Web Marketing
Taged with: conflict photo contest, Lenzr, Rob Campbell, social media marketing Toronto, social relevance producer, upgrade
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
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… Read more »
Posted in: Actually sharing secrets, article marketing, Friends of Smojoe, Lenzr, Photography, Toronto, Web Marketing, workshop
Taged with: battery powered, grass cutting, lawyers, Lenzr, Ontario private school, Order of Canada, PEZ, photo contest, prize, Wikipedia
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… Read more »
Posted in: Actually sharing secrets, article marketing, Friends of Smojoe, Interactive, Lenzr, Search Engine Marketing, Smojoe Clients, Smojoe Events, Social innovation, Social Media, Toronto, User Submitted Content, Web Marketing, workshop
Taged with: article, IABC, Jane Reeves, Ontario, portable toilet rentals, pr agency, seminar, Toronto
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… Read more »
Posted in: Actually sharing secrets, Interactive, Lenzr, Smojoe Clients, Smojoe Events, Web Marketing, workshop
Taged with: IABC, iPhone application, Lenzr photo contest winners, May 10, May 12, Oakham House, PIC, search engine marketing strategies, Stabathon, storytelling
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… Read more »
Posted in: Canada Blog Friends, Charity Event, Friends of Smojoe, Lenzr, Social Media, Toronto
Taged with: Canada Blog Friends, John Leschinski, KarmaCake, Lauren ONizzle, Marie Nicola, Mark Graham, Right Sleeve, Stephen Crooks, Tryst nightclub, TwestivalTO, wind mobile swag
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… Read more »
Posted in: Lenzr, Personal Blog, Smojoe Clients, Smojoe Events, workshop
Taged with: Brighton Ontario, Caroline Granger, Closson Chase Vineyards, Dan Sullivan, Dave Dingle, Locaboire, Ontario, Prince Edward County, Rosehall Run, Shrinkray Mobile, The Grange Winery, The wine Ladies, Timberhouse, wine region, wine tour
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… Read more »
Posted in: Future Technology, Lenzr, Photography, Smojoe Clients, Web Marketing
Taged with: business phones, Fire and Ice, Geoinstallers, geothermal, grass cutting, How Green Are You?, lawnmower, Lenzr, modern office, Neuton CE6, Obsolete Office Equipment, solar power, Steve Hamoen, sustainable lawn care, tent rentals, Toronto party rentals, ZoneLife
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… Read more »
Posted in: Canada Blog Friends, Friends of Smojoe, Lenzr, Photography, Smojoe Clients, Toronto
Taged with: Bariatric Medical Institute, Dr Natalie Archer DDS, Dr Yoni Freedhoff, Kids in Action, Lenzr, photo contest, Seattle Dredge, teeth whitening, Toronto dentist, Weighty Matters