Friday Breakthrough: Clotaire, Conan, and Stephen

The Friday Breakthrough is Ottawa's weekly roundup of some of the Internet's best marketing and social media articles for a less-than-intense day at the office.

1. Clotaire Rapaille is a fascinating character in the world of marketing. He is currently working for a "completely neurotic" "sadomaschist[ic]" client with a "primal reptilian core"... aka Quebec City. His words, not mine, I assure you. The Globe and Mail reports that Rapaille is getting a $300,000 paycheque for his analysis of the city and a resulting strategy to give its image a facelift. That's a whole lot of money, but apparently this guy gets results. Some happy customers include Dubai and Signapore. The website for his company "Archetype Discoveries Worldwide" describes his "Archetype Studies" approach: striving to find the answers to the question "why do people do what they do?" by combining "a psychiatrist's depth of analysis with a businessman's attention to practical concerns". Want more of an explanation? So do I. However, according to the Globe and Mail's article, "it can cost as much as $135,000 to get information contained in the studies has has already done". Fascinating.

2. The Internet is a buzz due to the fact that Conan O'Brien (@ConanOBrien) is randomly following one young lady named Sarah Killen (@LovelyButton) on Twitter. Her world has been turned upside down in a very short time for simply being the only person this very famous person is following: "she [now has] nearly 19,000 followers, a new iMac, a free wedding gown, wedding rings, $2,600 in donations for her cancer walk, and the chance to meet Ludacris". As you read this blog post, I believe her 15 minutes are just about up.

3. Stephen Harper is taking a page from Barack Obama's book, reaching out to younger voters and interacting with them using using social media. The TalkCanada YouTube channel enables Canadians to submit their questions for the Prime Minister. He will answer a selection of top-voted questions on YouTube next Tuesday. So far there have been 65,080 votes on 873 questions from 2,496 people.

Friday Breakthrough: Wiki, Wicked, and Web 2.0 Wizard

The Friday Breakthrough is Ottawa's weekly roundup of some of the Internet's best marketing and social media articles for a less-than-intense day at the office.

1. Ten Word Wiki may provide you with a few minutes of enjoyment on this Friday afternoon. Pretty self-explanatory, this site describes random things in exactly ten words. For example, here's the entry for Canada: "Similar to America, except more laid-back, worse at hockey." Whooooa! Them's fitting words. Someone needs to remedy that entry, stat!

2. Just when you thought getting dumped the old fashioned way was depressing, just wait until you hear about Bradley Laborman's company IDUMP4U. Not feeling up to being a decent human being and ending your relationship yourself? Well, you're in luck. For a measly $10 fee ($25 to end an engagement and $50 to initiate a divorce), Mr. Laborman will take it upon himself to call your significant other and break the news. He then uploads audio from the call to the IDUMP4U website, a "therapeutic" act, according to him.

3. Finally, a shout-out to Paul Chaney, the fabulous keynote speaker at the very successful inaugural Ottawa Web Marketing Club event yesterday morning. Check out his blog for some key insight into social media: The Social Media Handyman.

Internet Fad of the Week: Chatroulette

Haven't you heard of Chatroulette? All the plugged-in web-savvy peeps out there have. It's no surprise that Mr. I-Have-Over-Four-Million-Followers-On-Twitter, Ashton Kutcher himself (@aplusk), has been caught in the act. Chatroulette is a website that connects users with one other random user at a time, for communication via webcam and text. Apparently, its appeal crosses borders and even species (see: Catroulette).

According to good old Wikipedia, the site was launched in November 2009 by a 17 year-old high school student in Moscow. It will certainly be interesting to see how this service evolves or if it's just the flavour of the week.

I can't bring myself to try it, even in the name of The Daily Breakthrough, because I just don't want strangers popping into my home via my computer screen. Thanks, but no thanks. All this talk of webcams and invasion of privacy reminds me of a terrifying news article I read recently. Check out this unbelievable story about a Philadelphia school that spied on its students using webcams on school-issued laptops, in an attempt to find a few missing computers. Welcome to 1984, ladies and gents.

Google's New Onomatopoeia

Did you know that Google's mantra, as a company, is "don't be evil"? Does it scare you that they're so powerful that they need to remind themselves to be virtuous? Well, they're taking one more step towards world domination with the introduction of Google Buzz. It has similarities to social networking giants Facebook and Twitter, but there are some distinct differences.

According to the Official Google Blog,

"Google Buzz is a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting. It's built right into Gmail, so you don't have to peck out an entirely new set of friends from scratch — it just works. If you think about it, there's always been a big social network underlying Gmail. Buzz brings this network to the surface by automatically setting you up to follow the people you email and chat with the most. We focused on building an easy-to-use sharing experience that richly integrates photos, videos and links, and makes it easy to share publicly or privately (so you don't have to use different tools to share with different audiences). Plus, Buzz integrates tightly with your existing Gmail inbox, so you're sure to see the stuff that matters most as it happens in real time."

It will be interesting to see how the power play between Facebook, Twitter, and Google Buzz turns out. My hunch is that they will continue to try to one-up each other, taking on commonalities that work, discarding elements that users don't like, and continually evolving.

Say Cheese, Ottawa! Social Media Hits the Capital!

Call me a geek, but it truly warms my heart to see people using social media in unique ways to generate mass awareness. It warms my heart even more to know its being embraced by our very own city hall!

The City of Ottawa is running their first major social media campaign/contest called: Picture it downtown. The concept intends to draw awareness for all eight of downtown Ottawa's beautiful communities (Bank Street, Byward Market, Chinatown, Downtown Rideau, Preston Street, Sparks Street, The Glebe, and Wellington West).

Go downtown. Snap a picture. Share it online. It's as simple as that!

The recent recession has resulted in the City of Ottawa looking for a way to keep the city's economy humming by keeping citizens interested in Ottawa's downtown's core. What better way to showcase all the great sights, sounds, and excitement of Ottawa than to create a contest that interacts with the people?

It's brilliant!

The contest runs from October 15, 2009 to November 19, 2009 and incorporates the use of some of the Internet's most popular social media tools.

You can see the contest's pictures on: Flicker
You can watch the contest's videos on: YouTube
You can join the conversation about Ottawa's downtown on: Twitter

What's great about the content being produced is it shows real people in Ottawa interacting in some of the city's most exciting venues. With an extensive list of contest sponsors providing some great daily prizes, there are plenty of chances to win. Including nine grand prizes consisting of gift certificates, or prize packages, with a minimum value of $500.

I'd like to think the City of Ottawa was somewhat inspired by our good friend Luigi during the successful Catch Luigi Contest this past summer. Either way, it's great to see people, businesses, and city hall recognizing the marketing power of social media.

Say Cheese, Ottawa! Get out there and snap some pics!

For more information, visit Picture It Downtown.

Hockey 2.0

My boyfriend, like many hockey fans, is very excited about this whole possible-relocation-of-the-Phoenix-Coyotes-to-Southern-Ontario thing. As he was telling me the whole story over dinner last night, my interest was piqued by his mention of makeitseven.ca. Jim Balsillie (pictured here wearing a silly hat), the man behind the scheme to purchase and move the team, initiated this website, designed to be an "online community to help promote bringing Canada its seventh franchise". If you check it out, you'll see that right now there is just a splash page with messaging and the option to sign up for updates. What's interesting to me is that Balsillie has taken this web 2.0 approach, reaching out to hockey fans for support. I think it's a really smart move, considering he has a big battle with NHL bigwigs ahead of him.

Today, Balsillie issued a statement to the press, thanking the 100,000 + people that signed up to support his bid. 100,000 people... that's a lot. How can you argue with 100,000 fans??? Now, not only is the NHL battling it out with Balsillie, but also 100,000 other people on his side!

Do you think it will make a difference? I'm pretty sure that social media helped Obama in a pretty important battle last year, so maybe it will help Balsillie, too!

The Power of People

As a marketing blog, we spend a lot of time talking about the latest and greatest marketing strategies and technologies. Twitter, viral videos, and Google are definitely among our favourites. As are social networking and new media in general.

But lets not forget about the simple power of a room full of people. And that power is what the Ottawa International Writer's Festival, running through to May 2, is all about.

Last Thursday I had the distinct pleasure of attending "The Big Idea" session the carbon shift, led by Canadian writers William Marsden and Thomas Homer-Dixon. The topic was at times very tense and distressing, and there was definitely something viral about the way the energy moved through the room.

In the end, however, I left feeling more alert and also more connected than I have in quite some time. I guess my point is this: that while webinars, tweets, and wall posts are all well and good (and, sometimes, the most effective way to communication), there is still something to be said for the energy that can only be created by bringing people together.

8 Twitter Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Unlike others on the Marketing Breakthroughs team, I was a late arrival to Twitter. As the new tweeter on the block, I am always on the lookout for interesting insights into the my new world, particularly how to avoid making rookie mistakes.

This morning I stumbled upon this neat article "The Secret Sauce of Twitter, 8 Lessons Learned From Being A Publisher On Twitter." A good piece for any company looking to use Twitter and other social network marketing tactics to woo consumers and deliver a message, this article not only discusses the common mistakes but also how to fix them. It's also perfect for those who, like myself, are looking to boost their social network marketing savvy.

New Report Tackles Social Network Marketing

A new white paper, "Social Media Marketing Industry Report - How Marketers are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses," has just been released.

The concise 26-page report by Michael Selzner, founder of WhitePaperSource.com, addresses topics such as the 'Top 10 Social Media Questions Marketers Want Answered' and 'The Benefits of Social Media Marketing. Here is an interesting quote from the opening pages:

"If you're in charge of marketing your business, you'll want to closely examine what's on the following pages. My team turned over every rock, looking for the 'not so obvious' findings among this content-rich data.

We set out to uncover the 'who, what, where, when and why' of social media marketing with this report. Nearly 900 of your peers provided the kind of insight that previously has not existed"

Love how the marketing expert is marketing his report. It's not even a veiled attempt, but then again, why should it be? Regardless, it's certainly got my attention.

Stelzner ends off his introduction by reminding the reader that "the nature of social media is to 'share,' so if you find value here, please let your peers know about this report."

Done and done.