SMOjoe.com

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.

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.

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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.

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.