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
Once again in 2013, Canada’s top professional hair school, AVEDA Institute challenges young people to step up and prove they were born to style on home video. They did this last year too, and it was very well received; I went to the showdown in Toronto. Making a User Generated Media UGM challenge around hair school is a great way to share the creativity and sell the dream of being a professional stylist and this is a smart social media engagement from many different angles. Here’s Winnipeg’s 2012 Winner, Robyn Thompson with a cheque symbolizing her full ride scholarship awarded last year. The Aveda Institute blogger did a good job just recently summarizing her last year in Catching Up With Winnipeg’s #BornToStyle 2012 Winner, Robyn Thompson. Are you Born to Style? Prove it. 2013 Born to Style Hair School Scholarship Contest is now accepting submissions from Canada’s next top hair… Read more »
Posted in: business storytelling, online business, Photography, Search Engine Marketing, Smojoe Clients, Social innovation, Social Media, User Submitted Content, Web Marketing
Taged with: Aveda Canada, best hair styles, Devin, hair stylists, Jen McNeely, judge, She Does The City, training, win your tuition
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
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
A hundred years ago, the first filmmakers built their own movie cameras and recorded the world’s first motion picture images. These pioneers correctly predicted that their business would change the world. Making the ‘dancing shadows of light’ on the silver screen would soon be regarded as the highest art form, a powerful new communication tool called cinema. Storytellers from around the world experimented with length, dialogue and genres, and eventually a common narrative form appeared, and an entire new industry emerged to repackage man’s archetypal myths on silver nitrate. Human brains need emotional narratives the same way our human bodies need nutritious food. Today we live in another great age of change – web media is a powerful new tool that’s quickly transforming our lives and changing the way we do business, and the way we tell stories. But the more things change, the more they stay the same. All… Read more »
Posted in: article marketing, business storytelling, Future Technology, Interactive, Personal Blog, Photography, Social innovation, User Submitted Content, Web Marketing
Taged with: Battleship Potemkin, constructing meaning on the web, Rudolf Arnheim, Soviet Constructivism, storytelling
Saturday August 27 will see a great many blog friends and social media marketers gather behind CSI in the parking lot south of Honest Eds at Bloor St and Bathurst in Toronto. Word11 has been conceived as a 24hr blog media event, and hopes to be the first in a long series of annual 24hr events. It emerged from a minor kerfuffle between Cg6 and WordCamp, the details of which remain unclear. Some refunds were issued and are still the subject of excellent blog discussions and tweets. The event was preceded by something called Prefix which took us all by surprise. I ask you… Will WORD11 be the first occurrence of an annual social media festival? or will this be the only one? Whatever the case I’m sure we’ll make memories, and I reckon it will be rather historic day and night and day again. I intend to use this… Read more »
Posted in: Actually sharing secrets, business storytelling, Interactive, Lenzr, Search Engine Marketing, Smojoe Events, Social innovation, Social Media, Toronto, User Submitted Content, Web Marketing, workshop
Taged with: itinerary, party rentals, portable toilet rentals, property maitenance, Rob Campbell, social media marketing Toronto, speakers, tickets, Word11
MILESTONE This blog now has 100 posts. I just crossed the line. I’m reminded of a conversation at WordCamp09 where a guy said ‘You’re not a blogger until you have 100 posts.’ I started this portal in June 2008 to help sell my intangible goodness. This 100th blog post affords me the perfect opportunity to reflect back on my own progress as a freelance writer, blogger, web content producer and thinker / organizer that specializes in helping others find a marketing path in the age of earned media. I taught myself and learned empirically the Smojoe Code of compound link building and ‘how to make keyword sandwiches’. Readers of every description have watched and read along as Smojoe gave birth to Lenzr and everyone can see what that business is becoming… This blog is one of the best places to glean rare inside looks at traffic stats and issues. Will… Read more »
Posted in: Actually sharing secrets, business storytelling, Friends of Smojoe, Lenzr, Personal Blog, Search Engine Marketing, Smojoe Clients, Smojoe Events, Social innovation, Web Marketing
Taged with: A Counting Exercise, Bell Globe Media, Deb Lewis, Greenwashing, Jadac, LifeCapture Interactive, Nestle Pure Life, Peter Miskimmin
Inside the 2011 Search for Miss Teen Canada World Saturday July 9th was a very special Registration Day for at least seventy five participants in the 2011 Search for Miss Teen Canada – World, as one by one teen girls age 14-18 from all across Canada checked their luggage into the sponsor hotel in downtown Toronto to start their week long adventure. One at a time they met each other in the lobby and corridors the massive historic hotel complex at the base of the city. In the antechamber of one of the enormous ballrooms, they found Michelle Weswaldi and lined up there to present her with their head shots, and CDs filled with pictures, videos and audio that they recorded at home in which they demonstrate their acting, singing and special skills for the upcoming talent show. After a brief question and answer with the Pageant Director they went… Read more »
Posted in: Friends of Smojoe, Interactive, Smojoe Clients, Social innovation, Toronto, User Submitted Content, Video, workshop
Taged with: 2011 Search, ballroom, banquet dinner, blog network, bloggers, doentown Toronto hotel, friends, July 15th Talent Show, Michelle Weswaldi, Miss Teen Canada World, particpants, Registration Day, Video, volunteers
Somebody put me on the list and I got invited to the YYZ LIVING magazine second issue launch party at Ultra Supper Club on Queen St West on Thursday 16 June 2011 evening 8pm. It wasn’t hard to get invited to this event, everyone was there. The evening started at 8pm upstairs on the white paint of the Ultra patio which had just come into shade cast by taller brick buildings west on Queen St. The food was tasty. The free drink was orange juice and champagne w strawberry The two bartenders on the south bar were overworked from the start. It was a nice night that actually got warmer when the sun went down. It was downright steamy later. This highly anticipated party did indeed bring out some interesting people from the world of fashion art and media, and this really was an almost perfect evening for an outdoor… Read more »
Posted in: Actually sharing secrets, Canada Blog Friends, Fashion Blog, Friends of Smojoe, Personal Blog, Search Engine Marketing, Smojoe Clients, Social innovation, Toronto, Video
Taged with: bartenders, Lisa Charleyboy, Mario Miotti, patio, rooftop, The wine Ladies, Toronto, Ultra Supper Club, YYZ Magazine, “FREE”, “PB $TYL$”
