Paul Peic runs Paddleboard Addict I’ve known Paul a long time. I took that picture of him above by snapping a shot of my own TV screen using an older model digital camera set to record night shots. Paul was on CBC Dragon’s Den at the time, a groundbreaking venture doc series in which he appeared in 2009 alongside three other entrepreneurs in a clever cell phone contract crowd-sourced program engineered to lower rates called MyCellMyTerms, which was years ahead of its time, but ultimately failed to make any money. Today Paul runs stand-up paddleboarding school in Toronto from his floating house in the Brimley Marina on the east lake shore. Paul is a serial entrepreneur with a hard body and a big heart. He made quite a name for himself in the early 2000 as home renovations and house flipping TV star for a couple of different DIY television… Read more »
Posted in: business storytelling, Personal Blog, Social Media, Web Marketing, workshop
Taged with: fitness training, paddle boarding, Paul Peic, Stand Up Paddleboarding, SUP night classes, SUP yoga, Toronto, Yoga for kids
I got a new job. Last week I accepted a role in the marketing dept of a tech company called Transparent Inc. They’re located in the King Dufferin corridor, and like so many other companies down there its hard to tell exactly what they do for a living. I’ve been here a week and still don’t know. This firm is part of another enterprise called LAUNCH!, an experiential advertising agency. I have new responsibilities, input into the design of some really interesting things being built, and a clean window overlooking the shifting digital landscape in Canada; the company chair gives me a fresh perspective and a lofty perch from which to study the art and science of web marketing in the early 21st century. I’m the Content Manager at Transparent I came up with the title ‘Content Manager’ myself. They wanted to label me the Social Media Manager but I… Read more »
Posted in: Actually sharing secrets, corporate social responsibility, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media, Toronto, Web Marketing
Taged with: Andrew Dick, dog app, King Dufferin corridor, Mike Smith, Toronto, Transparent Inc
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
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
Story Funnels to Buckstops for Bar and Restaurant Owners, looks the same as it would for mining companies or fashion magazines or fruit beverage vendors. Every online business in every niche can use this basic model to build relevance and increase traffic and conversion on their websites. Once again I got a chance to explain this diagram above to a room full of curious people. My only reward was the sound of their ballpoint pens scribbling notes on paper as I passionately imparted the wisdom of building incoming links as part of a prolonged SEO campaign, manifesting itself as warm and fuzzy social media stories. I filled the talk with web URLs they can visit and little tips and tricks they can use to improve their search engine rankings while telling their own informative and emotional stories. I crammed three hours of tactics into a forty minute talk in the… Read more »
Posted in: Actually sharing secrets, business storytelling, Smojoe Events, Social Media, Toronto, Web Marketing, workshop
Taged with: Buckstops, CRFA, presentation, Rob Campbell, SEO, Social Media, Story Funnels, tactics, tarde show, tips, Toronto
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
On January 23rd at Archeo restaurant in The Distillery District, 55 Mill St, Toronto, there is to be held another Search and Social Rank Symposium. Visit here to GET TICKETS! On this evening Rob Campbell of Lenzr Corp, and David Shephard of Jib.ca will have gathered together some of the brightest thinkers and builders in Toronto’s internet technology community to share their thoughts and ideas on ‘social rank’ and how it affects search results. This is what we mean by ‘search and social rank’, how social media is now skewing search engine results, and vice versa. Guest speakers include Joey DeVilla (the Accordian Guy) from Shopify.com, Geoff Whitlock of Click Clip Deals. Craig Backman the president of McLellan Group , Benjamin Allison, myself and one more speaker, To Be Determined . You can see all their faces and read their biographies and subject lines on the Search and Social Rank… Read more »
Posted in: business storytelling, Canada Blog Friends, Future Technology, Interactive, Lenzr, Search Engine Marketing, Smojoe Events, Social Media, Toronto, Web Marketing, workshop
Taged with: Accordian Guy, Benjamin Allison, City Events, Click Clip Deals, Craig Backman, David Shephard, Deb Lewis, estore, Geoff Whitlock, Google Algorithm, Jib, Joey deVilla, Lenzr, McLellan Group, Rob Campbell, search engine, Shopify, Toronto
Posted in: Canada Blog Friends, Photography, Social Media, Toronto
Taged with: Abode nightclub, Andrew F Stewart, Blogger, Boardwalk Empire, Canadian Club, Casie Stewart, HBO, John Leschinski, Lauren ONizzle, PraxisPR, Whisky
There is a new page on the Lenzr Blog entitled, How To Get Votes? that explains the art and science of soliciting votes and earning a Top Ten ranking (to be considered by Judges as winner for prizes and permanent honour with blog links to user profile page). Not content with simply posting my thoughts on the subject, and reflecting on years of experience, I have placed a thread in the Lenzr discussion forum. How To Get Votes? in the Lenzr Forum to ask the membership for their ideas. (The Promote section of the Lenzr Forum is incidentally one place where you can get votes), Referrals and ‘Vote Exchanges” are allowed, and encouraged when they are communicated and acted upon in a manner that perpetuates a germ of the sponsor’s story. Carolyn Wilman, Contest Queen and Lenzr Judge Carolyn Wilman has volunteered to be one of eight current Lenzr Judges!… Read more »
Posted in: business storytelling, Canada Blog Friends, Interactive, Lenzr, online business, Social Media, Toronto, Web Marketing
Taged with: Carolyn Wilman, Contest Queen, Interactive, inventory management, Lenzr, limiting script, organic ingredients, photo contests, production planning, Social Media
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
