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
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
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
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
Something unusual happened on Tuesday 31 May 2011 - I went out after work! I went out to see Keisha Chante and Casie Stewart rock the Pepsi Throwback Event at Revival, on College St. Casie Stewart does it again, and Keisha Chante was there too. They went on stage and spoke to the assembly at around 7pm. Keisha told everyone to get twittering. Casie Stewart thanked all her friends for coming out. Look in the picture, do you see how she’s looking directly at me. You can see that right? Do you follow me on Twitter? @roberrific This is someone else’s tweet and i show it here because its good storytelling – perfect use of twitter – ‘excited for the #PepsiThrowback Retro Party tonight! Looking forward to seeing @TheSpoons, @KeishaChante, and @CasieStewart!‘ Casie warned us about tonight in her blog, then she asked for input in What Do You Think… Read more »
Posted in: Friends of Smojoe, Personal Blog, Toronto, Video, workshop
Taged with: 80s music, Casie Stewart, College St, John Leschinski, Mark Pavlidis, Pepsi Throwback, Raymi The Minx, Revival, The Spoons, Tweetagora
As an interactive story engineer, I’m always interested in learning new ways to communicate business messages in digital media; I like to see companies doing exceptional things that ‘hook me’ and make me want to know more, and thereby bring attention to their products and services through story. There are many examples of how the magic of a good story has moved consumers, most famously, Ted Williams, the homeless man-with-a-golden-voice in Atlanta Georgia, the Old Spice guy, and Susan Boyle surprising Simon Cowell and everyone in Britain’s Got Talent. Susan didn’t win the competition, but her first moments on stage were so special that her fame will forever eclipse the names of the winners. She went on to sell millions of recordings and is living proof of the power of story. Business management consulting uses visual storytelling to communicate complex ideas. Each Lenzr Photo Contest is a Ready Made Story… Read more »
Posted in: Actually sharing secrets, business storytelling, Interactive, Lenzr, online business, Photography, Search Engine Marketing, Smojoe Events, Social innovation, Social Media, Toronto, User Submitted Content, Web Marketing, Web Resource, workshop
Taged with: business storytelling, Click Clip Deals, free coupons, management consulting, printable coupons, social media marketing, Twitter and Facebook, video media
On Thursday January 20th 2011 at approx 4PM, I found myself at The Boiler House in the Distillery District sitting in the back row of an eLATED.ca networking group. The gathering was sponsored by Redwood E-learning Systems and we had the pleasure of hearing Lydia Sani speak on the subject entitled, ‘ Web 2.0 With Redwood E-learning And Four Seasons Hotels’ Lydia Sani from Redwood e-Learning and Chetna Patel from Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts shared their knowledge and experience working together with Redwood’s social media platform, Boost. The event was a practical example of informal learning on the web, and kicked off with a look at their proprietary software in action. The detailed case study that was presented by Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and Redwood e-Learning was full of rare insights and anecdotes. It’s clear the application promotes knowledge sharing and empowers employees in Four Seasons widely distributed… Read more »
Are you looking for an SEO expert to bring search traffic to your website? So is Deb Lewis of TorontoCityEvents.ca, and on Oct 12th she needs your help deciding who to hire. As more and more people shop online, and more and more businesses compete for their dollars, Search Engine Optimization experts are now an essential part of mercantile success. But just who are these guys? Why are these web geeks getting out of limousines in front of bank towers, and taking the elevator to the 65th floor to meet the executives of Fortune 500 companies? Why are these otherwise nerdy smelly socially awkward guys suddenly so special? Maybe it’s cause they’re each rather unique, self taught web wizards – that’s right, they sure didn’t go to school for this lore. No college or university can teach Search Engine Optimization, although some may try. The craft is a strange mix… Read more »
Posted in: Actually sharing secrets, Friends of Smojoe, Interactive, Search Engine Marketing, Smojoe Events, Toronto, User Submitted Content, workshop
Taged with: 9th Sphere, Innate Media Group, internet marketing, Michael Cloke, Paul Coulter, Rob Campbell, Romanz, search engine optimization, SEO, Spoke Club, Will Webb, Wolf21
