SMOjoe.com

On Thursday March 18th 2010,  I journeyed to 156 Augusta Ave and paid cash to see three Toronto bloggers talk about themselves and their blogs.  It was worth $20 cost of admission, and trust me I’d tell you if it wasn’t. Twenty bucks was a bargain actually; for me, listening to these people is pure inspiration.

Yes they are self proclaimed blog stars, and no, it has nothing to do with their traffic or ecommerce sales, or even the quality of their information – it’s more about style and ’state of mind’, and how well these self promoters can project their own identities on their readers.  There’s an art and science = alchemy

But today I failed them. My own pictures of the Blogstars are terrible, and I’m twenty hours too late with this post. How can I be a citizen journalist about something as important as this, and not deliver original content minimum twelve hours of the event?  Fifty five minutes is prime delivery time btw.  Answer: Smojoe isn’t an event blogger, but rather I digest the experiences for myself, other humans and search bots who will forever index my account of this evening as page one search result for their names and blogs.

Casie Stewart, Sean Ward, and Raymi the Minx are now represented by Carly-Anne Fairlie and the Fairlie Agency

Carly-Anne Fairlie should be aware that some advertising people are watching her social media agency experiment, and keeping an eye on her network of local Toronto bloggers; I think most folks are wondering how it all works. And indeed I myself came to the event hoping to learn more about Carly’s business model and maybe even get a rate sheet that spells out the deliverables. How do marketing people and agencies ethically hire Toronto top bloggers? Nobody likes pay per post schemes, and everyone has trouble defining the true value of blogs. Just what are the metrics of a good conversation?  And Smojoe wonders aloud here, will it help define a new PR service to have one company represent a dozen local bloggers? I believe it will be a huge success, and its no secret that last summer Smojoe sought to unite Toronto’s top bloggers into a turnkey ‘blog marketing solution’ to build support for Lenzr photo contests.

Casie Stewart opened the evening

Casie Stewart went first and introduced herself, her twitter name @casiestewart, and the twitter hashtag #blogstars, before displaying a password protected blog post that was the codex of her discussion.

Casie Stewart is a pretty girl that isn’t scared of looking goofy. Her blog is built primarily for her – it’s an online journal in which she preserves her memories. Her presentation dispensed equal parts wisdom and inspiration.  She led with her own mother’s sage advice, ‘you can’t soar with the eagles if you roost with pigeons’ after which Casie segued into how blogging has changed her life. It was because of the new people that she met through her blogging and tweeting that she shed her old relationships; the new people she has met, and the opportunities to which she has been exposed have changed her life.  Now she does indeed soar with the eagles.  Because Casie was a blogger she now has a dream job at MUCH.  Smojoe would say because she harnessed her passion and created the necessary social capital to impress the ‘fifth floor’ management at MUCH music, she managed to land a dream job blogging and tweeting full time for this youthful TV station.

Raymi the Minx is still Toronto’s most popular diarist.

Raymi the Minx introduced herself as Lauren White, which is her real name.  It shocked me to hear it spoken aloud and I won’t repeat it again. To me she’s Raymi the Minx because that’s the brand I follow.
True to form, Raymi was impulsive, condescending and hilarious. I filled a whole page of my notebook with her original quotes. She is so casual and shockingly honest – there is no filter.  She just talks over her handout, which was the same one she used for Deb Lewis City Events, How to be Famous on The Internet - May , 09 and she didn’t refer to it while speaking then either.  Raymi just talks to the crowd about herself and her blog, much like she would gossip with a girlfriend that had just come over to hang out (and try on clothes in front of the mirror).

Raymi opened by admitting that she wants to be famous because she wants to be rich and appreciated as a blog artist, unlike other people, who simply want to be famous for no good reason.

Raymi started blogging in the year 2000 on Blogger, before it was Blogger. It wasn’t possible to leave comments or even post pictures like today.  Her first laughs came with one liners like ‘I’m a f^%&ing dinosaur’ and, ‘we can talk about my tits in a minute.’   She takes full credit for starting the Raymi blog style; her informal posts mix pictures with text in a stream of consciousness flow much like a drunk girl at a party will sometimes snap twelve pictures in a row.  So each photo sequence is as spontaneous as the text around it and its either bunkum or brilliant, and her readers get to decide and leave their opinions.

Still innovative, Raymi demonstrated how she recently polled her readers using a multiple choice question widget that asks ‘Do you masturbate to my blog?’  Even more interesting was the revelation that over twenty percent of her readers checked ‘yes’.
But the best part was when she just scrolled down through her website and talked about the pages as she descended down through the last few weeks of her life. As the content sailed up the wall In front of everyone’s eyes she narrated what she thinks other people are thinking. It was fun. She pegged me perfectly. I did wonder if she was sleeping with the guy on the motorcycle when I read that post, last week.

People like watching other people change.

Recently Raymi ended a long term relationship with her finance. This was major media news at the time and ironically it helped rejuvenate her blog career because it refreshed her single status. And I wonder about that too… If sex appeal is an important part of your blog strategy, then is being locked up in a monogamous relationship bad for your brand?  The kill switch is the Facebook status update.

Sean Ward

Sean Ward is a very stylized blogger. He has to be, he’s a cartoonist.

Sean Ward writes Sean Ward’s Super Party and in the last portion of the evening Sean shared style tips related to three different aspects of personal brand building.  He discussed Persona, Visual Identity and Unique Positioning and how and why to be unique.  He talked about selling comic books at bars, bus stops and hotel lobbies instead of comic book conventions.  He quoted stats to present the current overcrowded dimensions of the blog world, and then brought home these numbers by pointed to a picture of rain forest canopy and saying, ‘right now you’re not even a tree. Right now you’re just a leaf on a tree somewhere there in the back and the only way to stand out is to define yourself.’  His ideas on Visual Identity are original. Much like Casie’s idea of going to parties with stickers, and your @twitter name on your shirt, I liked Sean’s idea of wearing something like a silver sheriff badge atop every outfit for a year.
The evening wrapping up with mingling, and networking both inside and outside the Kensington Market venue. I shared a moment with Lisa Charleyboy and Keri the Canadian Explorer. It was a great night and time well spent with a room full of local blog celebrities.

It’s always a big day when you speak in front of a lot of people, but today was easy. I was backing up Christa Jean the Petite Fashionista, and Raymi the Minx, two of Toronto’s most famous bloggers.

The Smojoe social marketing event How To Be Famous On The Internet was a big success and I got lots of cards, handshakes and smiles.  Thank you Deb Lewis of TorontoCityEvents.ca , it was a smart decision to relocate to ICON home design, and although I fumbled the ball a few times getting the address right, and the chairs didn’t show up until two minutes before the presentation, we carried it home.

Our amazing guest speakers, Christa and Raymi rocked the house - it was awesome to behold how two totally different approaches could both yield such success. Christa talked about how she grew her influence by doing charity work for Save The Whales and related details of how she auctioned off dresses worn by Hayden from Heroes. Then Raymi showed us her approach, and what I like most about Raymi is how she gets specific about her stats. Much to my amazement Raymi put up her numbers on screen and left no doubt in anyone’s mind about just how many people she entertains daily (about 3500).

The more I get to know Raymi The Minx the more I like her. She says exactly what’s on her mind and I think being so amazingly candid on her blog has made her so refreshingly bold in real life.  She swore a few times during her talk, and although I cringed, I saw other folks smiling and so I think it might have actually added to her presentation - she’s real.

Toronto Local Bloggers

Its not everyday that I get to picture nine Toronto Local Bloggers together.

From left to right,  Raymi The Minx, Ted Healy from Dead Robot, Casie Stewart, Sean Ward, Sass Zucket, Meredith from OhMistletoe.com, Stefania from Torontotextstyles, Lisa Charleyboy from UrbanNativeGirlStuff, Andrew Louis from Hyfen.net

Standing behind me, Glen Rostie an internet marketing guru at Your Virtual Butler was there, and Julian Brass of Notable.tv

We all met and talked and maybe gave birth to a very potent local blog squad.

I just used my Roberrific Twitter account to update my 114 followers that tomorrow’s Smojoe Social Media Marketing event has been moved to 533 King St West because of high demand for seats. The seating requirements have already exceeded the capacity of The Spoke Club gallery.  Its a nice problem to have, but a problem all the same. With just twenty four hours until the start of the scheduled event, Deb Lewis and her team must now race to get the word out about the venue change, rent chairs, buy beverages, and set up a digital projector and screen at ICON home design (533 King st West) which is on the south west corner of King and Spadina - I pray to God that the internet connection will work flawlessly and so I’m importing Will Webb from Innate Media Group as an insurance policy.

How To Be Famous On The Internet is actually focused more on the business of blogging, and features guest appearances by Raymi the Minx and Petite Fashionista, who are certainly two of the most influential bloggers in Toronto with large international followings. Its so great to have them both together in the same room actually, as they have very different styles and approaches to web journalism.

Date: Weds May 27, 2009

NEW Location due to high demand, ICON Home Design, 533 King Street West SW Corner of King and Spadina) www.iconhomedesign.com
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Networking
For tickets go to: https://secure.gettickets.ca/?event=15051
Cost: $45

Raymi The Minx Vs Petite Fashionista

As discussion forum moderator, I hope to glean from these two local bloggers exactly how they’ve used their blogs to create online community and hype. The event highlights the idea that every successful business in the 21st century will blog out of necessity, but the best will profit from the activity in many different ways. I hope to get specific about the fundamentals of online marketing and demonstrate exactly how Smojoe uses blogs and bloggers like Raymi and Christa to build social media marketing campaigns that win Google searches.

This is another great event by Deb Lewis of Toronto City Events and I sure hope I see you there.

Who are they? That’s what everyone wants to know. And what do they do, exactly?

Raymi the Minx and I have been talking about the way blogging has evolved for the last ten years and where it will go in the next decade.  She has been writing and posting her photos online since 2000, and has seen the trends. In the last nine years she has made quite a few friends, and has a thousand stories. She can tell you about all the brand managers, event marketers,  recruiters and link farms that have contacted her over the years, looking for blog love and trying to imagine new incentives. She can wax poetic about the history of banners and buttons and affiliate marketing - but after nine years of actually doing it, Raymi understands the utilitarian web empowers the user and offers hard rewards.

Zucket has lots of energy. She has championed this idea from the start and wrote about it today. I noticed when my traffic to Canada Blog Friends jumped this morning because of her link.

This is Dom from Queen West Girl which is still a bit of mystery right now… more on that later.

But what do they do exactly?

Just like an art movement, Raymi’s local Toronto blog movement is a chorus of well trafficked voices that can be solicited to showcase important messages, particularly to promote interesting events and tell ‘multiplayer’ local branded stories.

Specifically,

They share widgets that link them together like WebRing used to do, and perhaps display the most recent headlines from individual member blogs. Ritualized visits and comments and they bookmark each other’s blogs on StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious and Reddit.  They are, everyday, a tweet-up and share pages on Flickr and songs on Last.fm and etc etc; over time the collective will evolve a signature style and be easily recognized on an international stage.

Toronto City Events + Smojoe Social Marketing are holding a special event With Raymi and Petite Fashionista

Raymi the Minx and Christa Jean of Petite Fashionista will share secrets at the Spoke Club on May 27th from 1:30 pm to 5:30 pm on the subject How To Be Famous On The Internet. Tickets are available here for $45 and there’s a mixer afterwards so people can finally meet Raymi and Christa and pose for photos for their blogs no doubt, that’s what I’ll be doing.