SMOjoe.com

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. I’ll talk turkey with anyone who emails 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.

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.

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 there, and try make it a visual blog and more FUN.

Smojoe charted their future in his crystal ball. On Thursday Feb 11th, I both diagnosed maladies and prognosticated on the success of a bold new path… for in the fog I could see one schematic for success.  I told them that I hoped they would continue to encourage comments… and grow a readership. Then one day without fear they might implement a vBulletin discussion forum to grow a community within a readership and then start a newsletter. Grow the permission based email newsletter to 1000 subscribers by hosting real life singles events and condo parties, then gradually over time, evolve the content portal into an interactive dating website and then ultimately a sophisticated dating service for executive women.  Elapsed time: three years.

Should Ontario Fund Single Gender Education Schools?

Earlier this month, with the help of school staff and borrowed photographs from St. Andrew’s College I wrote an article on Orato that details the advantages that single gender education over co-education models. The piece chronicles Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty considering the idea of funding some all-boys schools in the future in response to the problem of declining male academics. The very idea has outraged some folks who see it as a giant step backwards in the battle for equality of the sexes. But when I was in grade school in Percy Centennial Public School in Warkworth Ontario, I lived in fear of a black leather strap that was contained in a drawer in the school Principle’s desk. I saw the strap once, and Jamie Jenny showed me his hand after it had been struck with the strap - just once. It was red.

So now there’s an new idea floating around that all-boys schools are friendlier places where boys can be boys without fear of corporal punishment. I started a discussion on my favourite discussion forum to poll the Greater Toronto Area and find out if the public thinks private schools are actually any better, and if so why? Toronto Forums: Are private schools better than public schools? Do you think kids enrolled in all-boys, or all-girls schools think co-education public schools are better? Are single gender education schools better for kids? I wrote that on Blog.ca

Do Over Day is coming up, Feb 26th is the day, once again…

Last year was the first ever Do Over Day and Smojoe helped spread the word. I went on a couple dozen blogs and discussion forums and asked folks to “…picture yourself re-experiencing the fabulous meals you’ve eaten, the exotic lands you’ve visited, the epic raves you cannot recall attending. Conversely, visualize yourself making amends for your life’s imperfect moments – the time you made a pass at your wife’s sister (and got caught), or the night driving home from the pub when you accidentally ran over your neighbour’s pet…” Hahaa that’s good web copy. I didn’t write it, but rather, I found it on the DoOverDay.ca website along with a whole lot more light hearted easy reading.

Three Lenzr Photo Contests Come to an Exciting Conclusion on March 1st 2010

Three very engaging Lenzr photo contests are approaching a predetermined temporal mark that’s the official finish line. I write it that way because most contests continue to get submissions long after the time period expires… not sure exactly why, but it could have something to with drugs and alcohol.  Should be interesting to see who wins in this batch of photo battles. The first two challenges are pretty much locked up now, but the Best Gourmet Food photo contest is still wide open and The Wine Ladies have put up an amazing prize, an eastern Ontario Locaboire wine tour vacation, to help promote their own wine blog. This challenge could be because its a late addition to the series; the contest just launched last week.  Already Mommakoala and Satsuma are both actively promoting their pictures on other social networks, and it makes for a fun morning of watching Google Alerts.

Last week I asked London Ontario Phronk to post on Lenzr photo contests because I absolutely love the way he approaches a paid post, and the total transparency he exudes, and because Lenzr pretty much writes itself.  Stay tuned to see what’s up for March / April; I think you’re gonna love it.

There really is no proper update on my Jan 20th presentation at the Centre for Social Innovation.
Nobody took any pictures! All parties, including Deb Lewis of City Events totally forgot to get any images of Smojoe presenting ‘story funnels to buckstops’, and  I blame Billie Mintz as he distracted me by pointing a video camera  at me.  When I asked Billie for screen grabs he politely postponed me, and so I guess he’s really busy too.

Smojoe Speaks Again Feb 4th, 2010

On Feb 4th, Smojoe will be appearing alongside Faith Seekings in an event co-produced by Bill Tibbles and Terri Carson at the National Yacht Club. There’s details on Rapport Communications website, and the Rapport blog, and why not  follow @FaithSeekings on Twitter.

A blog is the cornerstone of good social media marketing because it’s the cheapest and best place to tell the whole story.

Business bloggers, event marketers and brand managers are strongly encouraged to register and attend a comprehensive discussion on how they can make their blogs more enticing to readers and search robots.  In this session I’m really going to drill down on what works, what search engines want, and why blogs are the most powerful media distribution tools ever invented by man.

How to make money with a blog?

Yes I’m going to answer the most popular question of them all, ‘how bloggers make money online?’

Which sidebar widgets are best for your blog?

After I demonstrate how Smojoe binds keyword rich images and text, I will illustrate with examples how blog sidebars can become content catalysts for building premium social capital.  I put Flickr, Twitter and MyBlogLog what’s new with me? widgets in my sidebar to legitimate my expertise, and leave clues for detectives that want to dig deeper en route to my buckstops.  During this chapter I’ll be sure and include insights on what you can do to help your blog post find wider audiences.  Unlike other speakers I don’t share statistics or bullshit affirmation stories, I get down and dirty and actually demonstrate the specifics.

Toronto Dentist Scrutinizes Smojoe’s Smile

Late last week the Kids in Action photo contest launched on Lenzr and already there are ten great photos and over 100 votes in the system.  Sponsored by Toronto dentist Dr Natalie Archer D.D.S., the youthful photography theme should help remind kids to play safe and take care of their teeth. Or maybe it will inspire parents to preserve their white smiles alongside images of their kids at play… whatever.  You know I actually wanted the contest to be “Jobs Without Dental Plans” but other Lenzr staff members thought that theme might produce overly abstract results.

Located a few steps south of the Sherbourne St Subway station in Toronto, Dr Archer and the other dentists at Rosedale Family Dental Care will do everything from cleanings to fillings, right down to root canals.  My own mouth was scrutinized and extreme close-ups were obtained for a ‘before and after’ series to showcase Dr Archer’s skill at cosmetic dentistry.

The prize is a premium tooth whitening system, the NiteWhite tooth whitening kit is at the core of the prize package offering; the gift basket also contains a year’s supply of toothpaste, toothbrushes, dental floss and mouthwash.

Sean Turrell is a humble Toronto television director and overall cool guy.

Sean Turrell is a Canadian television director and hipster. He’s one of my oldest friends in Toronto, and yet we barely ever see each other and never make plans.  In the past we used to find ourselves together at events, or upstairs at the Drake, but those days are over now and all we have are good memories.  I remember the camera tests we shot together at York University, and the half dozen rock videos we made in 1996 and 97 in which I was chief lighting technician, and Sean was Art Director. Dave Greene was D.O.P. and Brad Walsh was director at Projecktor.  After a quick search I found Sean Turrell on SHOT magazine in connection with Spy Films.  I didn’t know he directed Michael Buble in the ‘Everything” video, and Sean is far too humble to say anything about it. That video probably really helped his career.

SHOT: Michael Buble - Sean Michael Turrell, director

Spy Entertainment director Sean Michael Turrell with Michael Buble on-location at a downtown L.A. factory for the “Everything” video shoot.

artist: Michael Buble
song: “Everything”
label: Warner Bros.
director(s): Sean Michael Turrell
production co: Spy Entertainment
DP: Adam Marsden

Its Christmas time, and Smojoe is busy.

My weekdays have become a parade of sales meetings and training sessions. Evenings and weekends are when I work,  completing the orders, writing proposals and reports, and generally keeping my promises.

On Tuesday Dec 15th, Smojoe met Molson Ferg

Ferg Devins is a master storyteller on Twitter; @MolsonFerg is the real time hero of a three adventures a week.

That’s how we happened to come together, again.  I was sitting at my desk on a hot afternoon and spotted a tweet from @MolsonFerg in which he described himself ‘enjoying a cold Molson Canadian while watching the air show from a boat in the Toronto harbour’. It sounded divine, and when I messaged him back we chatted about our mutual friend Billie Mintz, and his corporate social responsibility expertise, and then how Smojoe markets Canadian charities, and finally how to promote and reward contributors in user submitted content web marketing.

I really wanted to impart the mechanics of my Lenzr photo contests on him, but there wasn’t enough time and this wasn’t the right conduit. So I sent a power point document later that afternoon. Next week Ferg contacted me and we set a date for a meeting… which I missed.  So he set another date and that was Tuesday Dec 15th 2009 at 1pm, at Molson.

Together with Tonia Hammer and Adam Moffit we convened in the Heineken Room and used the overhead projector to look at a dozen different social media properties and blue sky advanced internet marketing tactics for big brands.  Then I got specific about life in the trenches.

After some brief introductions,  I directed the conversation with a detailed look at the processes by which I propagate brand stories with links.  I lectured on exactly how Smojoe distributes sponsored content in articles, blogs and discussion forums. Twenty minutes later, I arrived at Chapter 3, the mechanics of Lenzr. My dissertation included a sneak peek at the link building ritual that perpetuates the contest’s remarkable keyword acquisition abilities.

Then Ferg described his challenges and the concepts they cherish and it was my turn to listen and learn and finally see their approach from the treetops. Above is a snapshot of Ferg encouraging me on at Molson – taken by Tonia Hammer.  And here is a picture of the gift I received at the end of our visit. I haven’t cracked this 12 pack or Molson 67 yet because I’m waiting for friends. Christmas is coming.

SE Telecom signs up to sponsor Lenzr photo contest

On Weds October 16th I journeyed north of the City of Toronto with Chris Binet of BCommunications.ca . We zipped up to 231 Amber Street, Markham Ontario, the headquarters of SE Telecommucations and there talked with a smart young CEO named James Stortz. I was impressed with his knowledge. He at once demonstrated the courage and thought power necessary to blog and share valuable insights on business phone systems. I have no doubt he will grow a popular portal and become a trust agent for all manner of mobile technology. I’m going to help him. Its official.

Will Webb of Innate Media Group has also been contracted, and will perform surgery on the website.  Improvements will include a white hot Wordpress blog with plenty of well integrated 3rd party widgets to build and harness a telecom savvy community and position SETelecom as market leader with valuable experience and plenty of wisdom to share. Look for much more on this subject, including direct links to the new SE Telecom blog in the days and weeks to follow.

Melani Chong is Soy Based Cosmetics Expert

Melani Chong of Soya Boutique is almost ready to launch her new ecommerce website.  She’s still soaking up the last pieces of knowledge she needs to craft a comprehensive strategy that will best disseminate her advanced skincare offering.

Her challenge is to link soy and cosmetics together in everyone’s minds and then dominate that niche on the web with great content.  Her ideas have to be catchy and unforgettable, to be super bookmarkable.  She can offer local perspective on Chris Binet’s new Health and Beauty Toronto ning community, which is still an infant. Keep an eye on that portal and watch it grow in 2010.

I asked Melani to think up some hooks. Perhaps, how the miracle of soy can be used as an anti aging ingredient? or in anti wrinkle creams? and I discovered she’s a natural. When I asked her if she had an anti aging story, she said ‘how about Ways to get rid of the scrotum under your eyes? Is that catchy enough?’ I laughed and she kept on talking about ball skin, and how to tighten away this testical-like skin .. anyway  Smojoe found that hook very compelling. But until she actually launches her soy based cosmetics website and e-store, you should join and follow Melani’s SOYCULT on Facebook

On a sunny Thursday Dec 17th 2009 afternoon

Smojoe had the pleasure of watching Richard Carmichael of FRANK Ideas and Execution meet Dave Dingle of Shrinkray in the wooden environs of Boomboat located at 220 King St West.

Dave is very excited about the recent release of the Shrinkray which allows users to create a mobile browser as easily as they might otherwise draft an email. The system is very straightforward in the manner by which it allows business owners to import elements from their website into a custom field that becomes their new mobile website.

On Friday I trained staff at Wellpath Clinic.  My presentation was directed at the new office manager as I outlined the A,B,D’s of marketing an ecommerce business.  I also showed Richard Porter and Dr. Kathryn Nobrega Porter how to cultivate link opportunities simply by being experts in one or two (or ten or twenty) facets of natural medicine.

The lesson centered on the proper execution of one story funnel. To make a perfect example, I wrote and published an original article entitled Wildcrafting Medicinal Herbs in Ontario and I showed the team how to do basic article marketing and social bookmarking which is the top of the story funnel. Then I discussed how to blog about this new Wildcrafting article and link up to the featured article, and down to the Wellpath website, creating a story funnel.

I wrapped up the lesson by showing how to write discussion forum posts that link to the article - including my favourite thread on Mulberry Trees in Urban Toronto.ca and if you visit this thread please know I’m quite serious about creating a Toronto Mulberry Forager mobile application for the benefit of all humanity.

Last week, Smojoe built a beautiful Wordpress blog for TellOscar.com.

If you haven’t heard about this place yet, let me explain Canada’s first user driven complaints website. This web destination might be better described as a customer service reports index, and by that I mean a place that lists both good and bad stories; both compliments and complaints can be recorded.

But very few people bother to write nice things or record pleasant observations here.  No, this site runs on complaints and preserves warnings to consumers researching specific goods and services.

How does TellOscar work?

If you owned a business, and suddenly found your beloved establishment written up in TellOscar’s archives, you’d do whatever possible to get the problem resolved. Am I Right?  You’d pay whatever fees necessary to access the forum and respond to the complainer, personally one on one.  I’m certain you’d pay money to make them happy (or at least keep them quiet), and that’s exactly what Tell Oscar wants you to do: That’s the business model.  When this website gets busy, all of Canada’s biggest corporations will pay a monthly access fee to be able to respond one on one with their unhappiest customers.

Why TellOscar works?

As a savvy consumer, I get frustrated with cut rate customer service departments, foreign call centers and automated telephone messages. People who naively write emails to managers, or letters to head office should not be surprised if their correspondence vanishes into a corporate chasm. TellOscar works its wonders because the complaint is so public it embarrasses the subject into action.

What about Twitter? Isn’t that already the world’s largest complaints website?

Unlike Twitter, which limits each entry to a 140 characters, TellOscar.com lets writers enter pages of details.  There is no limit, and no expiry date. The system preserves each submissions in the vault forever, until they’re resolved, and even that data is archived for perpetuity.  Also noteworthy is TellOscar’s primary focus on Canadian consumers - they have representatives who deal directly with Canadian manufacturers, merchants and service providers and are positioned as impartial advocates for conflict resolution.

Introducing the TellOscar Blog

TellOscar’s new blog is what every customer service blog should be - its the primary conduit for communicating new information and insight into the particulars of a business, and reflections on an industry in general.  This simple Wordpress blog will digest news media, profile other authors and experts and showcase some of the more vitriolic complaints that have been submitted to the site. There’s lots of very interesting content on this website, and the blog can bring even more attention to the best of the best user submitted complaints.

Check out these remarks filed under bad customer service. These are heartbreaking stories.  I want you to look at this alleged assault at McDonalds. Imagine if you were the general manager, and you became aware of this story by reading about it online, what would you do? It’s interesting to learn how two different managers at that franchise became more and more eager to find resolution. They fired the employee, offered coupons, and finally asked what else they could possibly do to get the issue resolved…

Creative complainers are every corporation’s worst nightmare, and with its spiffy new blog, TellOscar.com has just become an even more powerful place to complain.

This is a victory cry.

As of October 2009, the keywords ‘miss teen Canada’ will always return www.MissTeenCanadaWorld.com as the first result in organic Google search.

The MTCW blog written by 2009 Miss Teen Canada- World, Siera Bearchell is in 2nd position.

Miss Teen Canada- International is now third, forevermore

Today we celebrate the Miss Teen Canada-World website as the first most socially relevant return for the keywords ‘miss teen Canada’ on Google, eclipsing at least four other contenders in that surprisingly competitive search category. Bounced completely from the first page index is Miss Teen Canada Global, Miss All-Canadian, and Miss Teen Galaxy and others; I don’t know all their names, but I do know the number one rival and previously dominant Miss Teen Canada – International now ranks third.

These folks fought a good fight. The MTCI organization’s top ranked position was finally overcome by the sheer volume of media and incoming links from the MTCW ‘blog army’, of the fifty four 2009 Miss Teen Canada-World contestants.  Without a similar strategy, the MTC-International pageant site cannot hope to be first again. Indeed, when I examine their site today I see that their main page is ‘under construction’. Perhaps they’re spending money, building a powerful response?

Miss Teen Canada –World deserves to be first in all SERPS.

Michelle Weswaldi, the pageant’s executive director is quick to remind photographers and staff that her organization deserves to be atop the first page results in this busy niche because, “The Search for Miss Teen Canada-World is the only teen pageant that conducts provincial competitions all across the country to select national finalists and has the rights to send its winner to represent Canada at the Miss Teen World Pageant.” In Jan 2009 Michelle Weswaldi assembled a dream team of marketing experts and skilled media publishers like Ellen Smith of EnCourse Business Development and Deborah Knight of dkpr. These professionals hired Richard Carmichael of Frank Ideas and Execution and Rob Campbell of Smojoe Social Media Marketing.

The Miss Teen Canada World website itself is the biggest part of this success story. This is a slick destination all readers really appreciate, and the administrators like that it comes complete with full CMS integration and extensive database management software to customize newsletters and email bulletins.

Each website’s inherent quest to be first in SERPs is like a mini pageant, where Google is the judge.

For teen beauty pageant websites, the struggle for organic first place listing on Google is really a quest for legitimacy, and as such it’s like a mini beauty pageant. The winner is the organization that most deserves the crown, and the prize is 80% of all organic search traffic. How many visitors is that? All across Canada those keywords yield approx 1000 unique searches a month.*

The MTC-W Contestant Blog army

The Miss Teen Canada- World beauty pageant has come out on top because of an innovative social media network of OnSugar blogs, photos and videos.  Our electronic community now shares the adventure of being in Toronto and competing in pictures and stories. This media has very high usability and is 100% original, created by the competitive energy of fifty young authors.  Essentially, our blog network shares the experience better than our competition’s website could ever hope to accomplish. We have provided a digital venue for photo sharing and experience digesting as measured in our low website’s exremely low bounce rate.

Sabrina Eldridge Advances The Future of the MTCW Blog Army

In 2010, MTCW finalists from all across Canada will be using a custom MissTeenCanadaWorld.OnSugar template made special by Sabrina Eldridge @SabrinaBot, the community manager at OnSugar and author of The Daily Sabs. She loves that we decided to go forward using the On Sugar blog platform and has stepped up support to offer the exclusive template design and widget implimentation.  BONUS the new template has built in Google analytics that will record stats from all across our blog network.

The ever expanding MTCW Blog Army combined together with teen celebrity Siera Bearchell, Miss Teen Canada – World 2009 who blogs right on the website creates a staggering amount of stimulating content that makes mountains of media and hoists the MTCW flag ever-higher over the landscape; the system implemented by Smojoe cements the pageant’s online reputation and builds ‘social capital’ because of the blogs.

Check out the squidoo lens, http://squidoo.com/missteencanada where you can find a complete list of all 2009 bloggers and a full introduction to Siera Bearchell, Miss Teen Canada - World 2009 and here’s links to Siera Bearchell on Twitter and Siera Bearchell on Flickr.

WarrantyElephant is an online memory business.  The site is built to help consumers manage different expiry dates on warranties covering the new products they buy for their homes and businesses.

In today’s golden age of disposable electronic gadgets and junk this safeguard seems like a no-brainer, and the service will no doubt grow more valuable as the quality of our crap continues to deteriorate.

One or two warranties is probably something anyone could manage, but ten or twelve or twenty six warranties is beyond the average homeowner’s and apartment dweller’s abilities, and yet statistics show this is approx how many warranties different types of North Americans accumulate in one year.  So Warranty Elephant is an intuitive easy-to-use free service that helps people better manage their resources and hold manufacturers 100% accountable for shoddy work.

The Warranty Elephant logo is a good brand, and most people over thirty years old know the elephant never forgets.  Sadly, here in Canada, kids under thirty weren’t told much about elephants when they were young and don’t seem to associate the animal with having any special memory skills. This is something Smojoe is bent on correcting using an array of social media tools, starting with a Wordpress blog.

Smojoe helps Warranty Elephant build online presence and brand personality starting with the Warranty Elephant Blog . The Cordobo Green Park 2 theme template by Andreas Jacob structures the blog and sends it on its way to becoming the best place to learn about warranties and the reminder service industry. Readers will learn what comes standard and what’s unusual as there will be interviews with customer service experts, and lawyers and legislators and even letters from Warranty Elephant users will be included in the weekly offerings. The blog mission statement reads like this:

Warranty Elephant Blog details friends and experts, and communicates contests and events and chronicles the growth of WarrantyElephant.com, the best warranty expiry reminder service on the internet.

For this client, Smojoe uses the blog to focus a diverse community of friends into ’story funnels’ that propel readers down into the ‘buckstop’, in this case the user registration page on the WarrantyElephant.com website. This is accomplished through all manner of sidebar tools and advanced brand storytelling.  See the Roy Tanck Flickr Widget above the MyBlogLog ‘What’s New With Me’ widget?  Those are Smojoe favourites because of the way they compel readers to click through for further investigation. On an array of strategically selected 3rd party user submitted content portals, curious readers will find brand stories that showcase Warranty Elephant’s free service.

The challenge here is not structuring the social net, so much, as it is writing content with personality.  Smojoe advocates whenever possible to create real experts and brand champions that are humans, because they are more accountable and easier to write about.  However…

Cartoon elephants can also have great personality! Look at Dumbo, and Babar, and don’t forget Elmer the Safety Elephant. All three characters lend positive associations for Warranty Elephant, who I see as a clumsy chum that’s a pain in the bum for ten minutes, but he will remember all your information no matter what or wherever you are in the world or whatever calamity befalls your home or office… Warranty Elephant wont forget your data, and will always remember to email you periodic reminders of upcoming warranty expiry dates.

There’s been lots of good Smojoe in September 2009. Here’s a long mash up of this month’s best memories and media.

Let’s start with Siera Bearchell and the terrific writing she’s been putting up on the Miss Teen Canada– World blog.  Her work deserves recognition and more readership because of the admirable manner in which she’s taken the reigns and responsibility from Katie Starke.

Gone but not forgotten, Katie has started her own blog Katie Starke OnSugar this month. This portal is starting small but will grow and mature in the network to keep all her fans updated with reports on whatever she chooses to do with her life.

After a well deserved Mediterranean vacation, Michelle Weswaldi is back as Pageant Director of MTC-W and is now prepping the Ontario finals as part of the 2010 Search for Miss Teen Canada– World.   Just this morning, much to my surprise, I received the first ever MTC-W newsletter. I was impressed with the creation made by Campaigner software, which contained nine pictures with interesting captions. Anyone looking for more information about the MTC-W 2010 Ontario finals can find more data on the website, and more conversational stuff on the MTC-W Facebook group.

Smojoe is proud to announce that Sugar Inc and the Miss Teen Canada -World pageant now have a formal relationship. After a four emails and one phone call Sabrina Eldridge and Rob Campbell agreed that OnSugar will give custom template solutions and support to the growing army of MTC-W bloggers.

Sabrina Eldridge and her staff will work with OnSugar designers to customize an exclusive template that only MTC-W contestants can use. The design will have built in analytics, custom headers and sidebar widgets that link them and even show off the latest posts in the network. The template will be exclusive (we hope) so that administrators alone can control and modify functionality and affect display changes across the array from one master site.  What that means is that I’ll be able to make modifications to the template and those changes will manifest in all the blogs in the network at once. So for example I can update the list of sponsors, and change the outgoing links to sponsor websites all across the network with the click of a button.

In return, Miss Teen Canada - World will make each girl’s OnSugar blog part of the official competition and worth 10% of each contestant’s final score.  We will encourage participants to make their blogs their ‘campaign headquarters’ and use the exclusive template to show judges and give readers an inside look at their lives as they prepare to travel to Toronto in the summer of 2010 to compete in the Miss Teen Canada - World pageant.

Smojoe really admires Jeannie Lottie and how well she’s using her Jeanne Lottie Blog to promote her Pink Bedroom Party on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009, at the Berkeley Church at 315 Queen St. East at Parliament Toronto. Tickets cost $55 in advance, and $65 at the door.

Here’s Jeanne Lottie with superstar Cheryl Tiegs. The timeless Ms. Tiegs is the spokesperson for the sponsor Cambria, and proud owner of a Jeanne Lottie black vintage Bead Framed Bag because deep down Jeanne believes that “every blond should have a sparkly little clutch to stash her lip gloss, cards and evening essentials.” Honestly I love the attitude of the writing on her blog now, and the personality that’s starting to appear in this portal. The stories have links to fashion merchandise available in the Jeanne Lottie catalog.

*
The myCELLmyTERMS guys have every reason to be excited these days. They’re building something, and people will come, especially after October 21st 2009 at 8pm.

Keep your eye on The Cell Phone Blog this month for insights and updates on the myCELLmyTERMS entreprenuers and their upcoming appearance on the hit CBC series Dragons’ Den. Their story has been filmed and is scheduled to be broadcast to millions of Canadians on Oct 21st at 8pm depending on where you live. This is the kind of media that can really fertilize a start-up business and grow a big customer base. They just have to be ready for the spike…

So folks can now join myCELLmyTERMS on Facebook, and follow myCELLmyTERMS on Twitter and of course read The Cell Phone Blog to get a good inside look at these guys and their business.

In truth they are a fascinating quartet of serial entrepreneurs and their idea is quite unique, which is saying something in the cell phone game where everything is derivative and cliche.  myCELLmyTERMS.com has a genius idea; they let each customer detail their dream cell phone plan (including how much they’re willing to pay each month), and then they shop the offer to all different carriers in Canada so he or she gets the best deal.

For those of you that don’t know, Smojoe met these guys in connection with Lenzr.com and through Stephen Rouse of Maverick PR.  The firm sponsored the Summer in Toronto photo contest which was won by Snickerzmom who chose the iPhone 3gs when she could have had any smart phone in the world.

Here’s Ducourt…

This guy won the Best Ontario Skyline photo contest on Lenzr and has since taken possession of a Pentax Optio P90 camera.

Best Toronto Skyline had 46 photos submitted, including some amazing shots with lightning and ducks and vintage shots of the skyline that have all together gathered up over 2500 votes.

The winner is DuCourt, who describes himself in the third person in his Lenzr.com profile, “Thomas is a long-standing freelance film technician in the Toronto film industry who is attempting to transition into an on-set photographer”.

I meet Thomas Care downtown and we talked about his life. Tom is a dolly grip in the Toronto film industry.  His job pays well because there’s a special skill to accomplishing complicated camera moves and the relationship between the camera operator and the dolly grip is quite unique.  However Thomas tells me that he yearns to be an on set photographer and hopes his new website (which I will link to here when it’s done) will help him get more recognition. For this reason he’s out building profiles on websites like Lenzr.com and elsewhere in social media hoping that such participatory investments will help him influence producers and production managers and enable help him to better find employment in this exciting vocation.

Ontario Tourist Attractions photo contest launched on Lenzr on September 1st 2009 and is  a huge success with over forty images uploaded into competition and almost 1400 votes in September. The contest has captured some fantastic images. A half dozen local bloggers have written about the photo contest and the best posts are Alexandra Highcrest, Snapping for Swag and… more to follow.

Ontario Tourist Attractions is a photo contest on Lenzr.com thats open to anyone who’s ever been a tourist in Ontario Canada and still has the pictures to prove it.  But of course you have to be Canadian to win the prize and sorry that excludes Quebec and anyone younger than 13yrs old.

This web challenge is sponsored by Kanetix.ca insurance & mortgage rate quotes and has become a search for images that glimpse Ontario’s most interesting travel destinations. So far this month forty pictures or assorted beaches and bars, towers and temples, museums and music festivals have appeared on the site.

Ontario Tourist Attractions photo contest ends at 12:01 am on the morning of November 1st 2009. On Lenzr the membership rates the submissions and the highest rated image wins the Prize, a $200 gift certificate for first place, followed by $100 for second.

There are even more big things happening at Smojoe in October.  I call this picture Lemon and Honey. It was taken in the Foggy Dew the day I first rapped with Jax.  I know there’s goin to be some level of developmental cooperation between myself and the girl with the Smojoe honey. Stay tuned for more details on her and the sweet citrus she brings to the table.

It has been a long time coming, and it’s still not done yet, but Deborah Lewis of Toronto City Events has a handsome new Wordpress blog at DebLewis.ca

It’s pink of course, and has some bells and whistles. Darryl Cheung of Deezilla.com skinned the Brian Gardiner Revolution Lifestyle template that was downloaded by Smojoe over a year ago.  I paid sixty bucks for the files, and made QueenWestGirl.com (which I sold earlier this spring), but those same files are free now, open source available here.

Anyone visiting DebLewis.ca will see Smojoe’s fingerprints in the content and fossilized in the sidebar.  The Lenzr blog widget runs in the bottom corner, three links in the Blogroll, and my own pretty face graces two Featured Content windows.

The layout and design of DebLewis.ca was selected because of those dynamic featured content windows, those big sliding pictures on the homepage are very compelling. But learning how to make them display properly was the principle cause of our delay.  Anyone struggling with these issues should look for conflicts between other third party widgets and applications. Darryl Cheung revealed that Deb’s own upload custom calendar was somehow affecting the featured content display; developers should look for those kinds of problems.

Deb Lewis is the owner, founder of and principle planner at Toronto City Events. This new blog was a lot of work to build, (not much money but a lot of time) and it will no doubt be a lot of work to maintain.

However her blog debut shows how she has embraced web share and is now keen to post her info and grow seven different communities at once, each filled with the people of Toronto, her target market.

This is probably a good time to reflect on my own belief that even now in the age of Twitter and Facebook status updates, blogs have never been more necessary.  That’s because the blog is the perfect place to showcase the other more spontaneous media.  Like myself, Deb runs the MyBlogLog ‘what’s new with me?’ widget in the 300x sidebar as this displays her Flickr images, tweets and social bookmarks. This makes her blog destination the perfect place to get up to the minute insights on the woman that is Deb Lewis, and witness in real time her expertise in action planning and promoting concerts and live events in the City of Toronto.

More Smojoe / City Events Seminars on Horizon

Look for another co-presentation in September 09 called How To Market an Event in Toronto using the Internet for Free. This is something I’ve been kind of obsessed with after pioneering procedures and gaining new insight into the Canadian teenscape in regards to the Miss Teen Canada World pageant. During the July campaign I was real proud of the widgets I’d made on Eventful.com (which many of the 54 contestants in the 2009 MTC-W Blog Army speedily added to their OnSugar blogs), and the hooks I’d sharpened to leave as bait on other local TO events indexes; in the next presentation I’ll spend time showing folks just exactly how I concoct more compelling Craigslist advertisements.

Bret Patriquin went to High School with Deb Lewis

Smojoe lunched with Bret Patriquin at Amsterdams (King St at Portand) in downtown Toronto sometime on Aug 20th 2009. We shared our brains on the state of search marketing in Canada and profited from each others’ perspective.

Bret Patriquin is perhaps ‘the most well known unknown’ internet marketing consultant in the city of Toronto. I’m keen to solicit his advice and help spreading the word about my photo contest that helps business sponsors target keyword driven organic search results. At lunch I ate a chicken Gouda sandwich with red melon balls; this picture I offer in homage to the local bloggers I emulate.

Just last week I had a beer with native actress and model Rachelle Whitewind at a curious cafe on Queen St East just past the bridge and before Broadview Ave. Didn’t get the name of the place but it was super cute and the beer was cheap. Rachelle is fresh back from Los Angeles where she experienced first hand the American film and television industry. For two years. She told me now she really appreciates all that Canada has to offer artists and performers. Rachelle is friends with Urban Native Girl and we talked about Lisa Charleyboy’s success helping showcase the lives and achievements of Canada’s aboriginal people online.  Rachelle is inspired again.

Also in the month of August and also totally unrelated to Deb Lewis, or her blog or Bret or Rachelle, is a young woman named Brandy. She is the blogger behind Artistic Tendency. Last week she came to listen and learn from Smojoe. This very talented artist and designer, blogger and business woman is centered in Barrie Ontario where she works to promote an artists cooperative that will soon be a major tourist attraction for the area.

Smojoe and the Miss Teen Canada beauty pageant have just recently extended their business relationship.  Now social media training is part of the package.

One Weds Aug 19th 2009,  Smojoe met Siera Bearchell the 2009 Miss Teen Canada- World winner, three days before her flight to Houston Texas to compete for the Miss Teen World crown.  The subject of newspaper stories and TV appearances it’s become clear that Siera is going to be a very popular beauty queen, and Smojoe has been retained to help transfer some of that buzz into the blogosphere.

At 12:30 pm we walked and talked in downtown Toronto near the Adelaide St and Jarvis offices of EnCourse Business Development. It was a super hot day and instead of sitting in a sweaty cafe I decided we’d get some pictures in the park and relax in the shade. Well it was a very busy park, and people were staring and that sure makes it hard to relax…

As an official beauty queen, Siera is required to wear her sash the entire time she’s in Toronto, esp when in public on official meetings.  She doesn’t need it though.  I swear if she didn’t have it people would probably still stare at her and know she’s special for some reason.  Indeed it was a little weird because as we sauntered along just about every single person we met on that narrow concrete path was somehow affected by our passing.  Some folks in the distance pointed and called loudly to nearby friends while others ventured closer and snapped cell phone pictures and jeepers it was odd. Is this what its like being a teen celebrity?

- Moments after winning the crown 25th July 09.

Siera was selected by a panel of Judges in front of an enthusiastic live audience in the John Bassett Theatre of the Metro Toronto Convention Center on Saturday July 25th 2009.  She came out ahead of fifty three other contestants that night and its no wonder why; Siera captured the hearts and minds of everyone because of her strong presentation of self.  Her story resonated right along with her abilities and poise and tremendous stage presence and all of this impacted the judges, and the audience.

Smojoe would like to believe that Siera Bearchell’s OnSugar contestant blog was a big part of her victory; its a fact she scored high with me because she used the magic of story. Specifically, Smojoe was moved by the unhappy tale of how Siera Bearchell overcame the trauma of living through a house fire and the resultant devastation and subsequent rebuilding of her life that occurred thereafter. She hooked me and branded me right there in that one blog post.

Siera Bearchell is a golfer and that’s another big part of her life and personal story. Oh I jumped on that element and soon insisted that she write and submit a golf course review for a high end Canadian golf ezine.   If she embraces this popular online sports community, her MTC-W blog will grow more and more popular after every game.

Here’s a girl that’s good with a club, and that’s an intriguing combination. That dichotomy would make interesting reading in so many niche golf zines. I told her that being a good blogger could allow her to play free golf at any course in Canada. Think about it.  What golf course wouldn’t pay her expenses and let her play with other VIP members to get in the center of her online popularity? It would be hot content and premium social capital.

As we walked back to the office I described story funnels and how to use three or four different online platforms to communicate  tiny bits of the same first person adventure.  Siera’s Flickr will soon be full of the images chronicling her quest in Texas and some of these bits should link to the MTCW blog platform, the former home of Katie Stark.  Siera Bearchell’s Twitter and the official Miss Teen Canada- World Twitter (updated more frequently by Michelle Weswaldi) accommodates official news bulletins and links. Siera’s comments on other blogs, her stories in the press, and other photo sharing sites will all hopefully link out and back to her blog. Her own skills using social bookmarking services (Digg, Delicious, Reddit and StumbleUpon) will help reinforce incoming links and highlight her best content as she creates the ultimate Miss Teen Canada- World blog.

Siera Bearchell, you are Canada’s most celebrated teenager, and your star is set to rise even higher in Houston Texas at the Miss Teen World competition. Good luck and don’t forget to write.

On Thursday July 23rd 2009, Rob Campbell, the social media director for The 2009 Search for Miss Teen Canada - World was invited to judge The Preliminaries at the Betty Oliphant Theatre.  At 9pm, fifty four girls got off a charter bus outside with dresses, fancy shoes and all their costumes.

Betty Oliphant Theatre is cute little venue on Jarvis Street. It’s one of only a half dozen non union theaters left in Toronto, and has a friendly and accommodating staff that still love their craft and are keen to show visitors and trespassers like myself exactly what’s possible in a modern venue. Smojoe was treated to a preview of the lights and sounds of the upcoming pageant preliminaries, an hour before they actually happened. And I should NOTE the show went seamlessly. Great work guys.

Anyone familiar with the Miss Teen Canada- World beauty pageant knows the pageant director Michelle Weswaldi is the benevolent ‘boss of all aesthetic things’.  She bought or licensed the World title a few years ago, and has been growing the pageant ever since. Unknown to me before I accepted this contract, a national beauty pageant is a year long activity, with regional pageants all across the country in every province; the MTC-W pageant culminates in a week long event in Toronto Ontario at the end of July.

This year, the final moments of The Search For Miss Teen Canada World will occur on July 25th in the John Bassett Theatre in the Metro Toronto Convention center at 8pm, and I’ll be sure and post a detailed account of that evening in upcoming dispatches.

Michelle Weswaldi runs a tight ship, like someone that’s organized a fashion event once a month for three and a half years.  Earlier in the week I had the pleasure of watching her interact with some of the young contestants. She has the ability to focus on each one individually all at once. She listens just long enough to determine what’s important, and then interrupts with the answer before the girl is finished describing any of the symptoms of her problem. You get the feeling Michelle has heard it all before, and doesn’t play favourites.

What should the judges actually be judging in a teen beauty pageant? I know the answer to this now.  Beyond physicality (tall thin pretty etc) and whatever strikes them as beautiful, judges look for style.

Michelle Weswaldi, seen wearing an orange dress and shuffling pens in the photo above, was carefully to elaborate on exactly what Judges should look for when ranking performances, and she tried to describe the special confidence she seeks. Its personality, and stage presence.

Thinking back on it all now, there was one contestant (I don’t rememebr which one) that walked a little slower than the beat, but still in time if that makes sense, and she gave the entire catwalk a special charm. And there were girls who were obviously very nervous and gave it nothing. During this experience Smojoe gained insights and a new understanding into the origins of personal style.

The show started at 9:15pm and was done by 10. The first girl to emerge from the curtain was Wendy Huang and she rocked it.  A petite girl,  her performance set the bar pretty high, for me anyway.  She has a bounce and a nice bright smile, and she walked to the very extremes of the stage and waited the precious moments that the audience needs to absorb the full ensemble.  I gave her an eight and I was still watching when she disappeared, with a final wave,  backstage. Wendy had style, and it showed in her walk and her charisma as she presented herself on stage.

And there was applause. Every girl had their fair share of applause, but some of the contestants had personal cheering sections! This was quite effective.  Unlike other sporting events, beauty queen contestants are affected by audience reactions, and having five or eight friends sitting in the audience loudly cheering your performance really helps. It clearly made each of these contestants more confident and sub consciously it plays on the judges too - it lets them know that these girls are somebody’s favourites.

This is Brittani Gray, one of the youngest contestants in this year’s pageant. Her blog is good and full of pictures of herself and she writes with the skill and ability of someone much older. Her performance in the preliminaries was strong, especially her evening dress, which was spectacular.  I include this photo here because its the only one of any swimsuit model that wasn’t blurred or red eyed or badly under exposed, but of course its all of those things.

The Judges marked the papers with numbers that represent ‘beauty’, an intangible something that each contestant strives to possess, both inside and outside their bodies.