BarCampTTW kicked off its flagship event at UofT on Saturday May 26, 2007. The event brought out technology buffs from all walks of life. We had marketers, PRers, Coders, Designers, Consultanters, etc…. Nonetheless, the mash up of industries led to great conversations that further led to plans of future meetups!

As a consultant to media companies, the session at the unconference that stood out the most in my eyes was the session led by Will Pate entitled ‘Building Community Online’. As any marketing and PR consultant will tell you, “How do I build an online community?” is the number one question asked by clients today.

Will Pate gave a great talk and broke down his ideas of building community into 12 concise points.

1. Go where the community is.
2. Listen attentively to feedback from those seen as the community.
3. Find the champions in the community and engage them for feedback.
4. Be a good host.
5. Be real. Be true to how you are. If not, others will be able to tell.
6. Don’t Astroturf.
7. Be honest and own up to your mistakes.
8. You cannot buy real friends.
9. Forget the word vertical – think more about people and individualism. Don’t try to lump your audience into a ‘group’.
10. Viral marketing is not sustainable.
11. Have a thick skin. When engaging others to gather feedback you may here some things that can be hard to swallow.
12. There is no such thing as short-term community.

Whether you adopt the Will Pate’s advice or not, given what is happening with new media, traditional media, if they’re aware, should be looking to create their form of social media and community.

written by Beverly Crandon

So far, I think I have heard my neighbor complain, my yoga instructor, my brother, my mother, the other day a clerk at Wal-Mart – well heck… I think we’ve all said it. They’ve gone way too far with the price of gas!

Interestingly enough, a report comes out from a big think tank on Wednesday, stating that Canadians were being robbed at the pumps. Then what happens on Thursday (yes the next day)? The price of gas goes up by three cents.

It cannot get more obvious than this. The oil and gas industry really doesn’t care about what we have to say, because we, as Canadians, step back and pass on the upper hand, time after time. We still continue to patronize, while they patronize. We continue to turn the other cheek, while they pilfer.

I remember a few years back, Canadians complained about loosing money when airlines were going out of business it seemed fast and furiously. What happened as a result of the complaints? The Air Travel Commissioner took note and created documentation for improvement. The complaints however, would not have been taken seriously if Canadians didn’t also show their dissatisfaction through commerce. The number of Canadians using air travel for leisure, dropped considerably during the 12 months preceding the report for improvement. – Couldn’t this formula be applied to our current issue surrounding the price of gas?

In trying to find other solutions for my fellow man, I am strongly considering hiring a professional complainer - this is exists you know. This way, we designate someone else to look like the bad person, while we sit back and passively cheer from the sidelines – like we always do, because that’s the Canadian way.

On a serious note, something needs to happen. We cannot have oil companies continue along on this cavalierish feat. I have worked too long and way too hard to be taken advantage of like this. Canada stand up and unite! We will not go unheard any longer.

Reality Check…

But heck, what do I know? I drive everywhere and need to fill up once a week – I even have an Esso Extra Card!

I am that passive Canadian, through and through just - like – you.

Now where did I put my car keys?

written by Beverly Crandon

Very refreshing to see ‘technologists’ get it!

I am referring to Yahoo’s latest marketing campaign for Yahoo! Answers. Bridging the Internet to real life - that for me surmises Yahoo’s “Be a Better…” campaign.

I know in the past we have been pinned to pick sides in the Google vs. Yahoo wrangle, but I feel that credit should be given where credit is due. All too often, we see aficionados in the technical world forget whom they are making the technology for. They forget who the audience is. Let me tell you something, the mass populous is not the coder, the programmer, SEO chief, the developer, nor are they all the ‘online engineer’ as some like to call it. They are layman’s who have adopted technology and the internet to build upon the conveniences related to their lifestyle, occupation, likes, hobbies, and watched trends. Therefore, if this is the profile, it only makes remedial sense that companies communicate accordingly, so everyone recognizes that the advertised product is inclusive and can be adopted by him or her, easily.

With Yahoo’s “Be a Better…”campaign, they have cleverly created interactive media online and very catchy print, television and film ads to promote their Yahoo! Answers product, as something of value to everyone. To give you an example of this cleaver weave to reality, one of Yahoo’s TV commercials is coined “Be a Better Explorer”. It shows two friends out for a hike in the woods. The activities that follow show their inspecting a flower using a static guidebook and nearly being attacked by the man-eating bloom. Then the hike is portrayed again, but this time the hikers are using Yahoo! Answers and encounter a safer and more enjoyable hike. A similar scope was used for their “Be a Better Handyman” commercial.

After reviewing the commercials, all I could say was ‘brilliant’. Yahoo has taken their immense product and shown how it could be so many things to so many people, yet still personalizing it to the common individual.

Some may say this Yahoo product is very similar to that of Ask.com, but when the two are analyzed, you see that Ask represents an aggregate serve of related links and topics, where as Yahoo! Answers provides solutions taken from a peer-to-peer approach. The Yahoo product is more similar to LinkedIn and their relatively newly added ‘Answers’ section of their site. LinkedIn’s challenge however, has been its lack of emphasis on guiding the viral marketing many depend on for growth. The LI buzz seems to be diminishing quickly, as other social networks become adoptable to a larger demographic. The only way LinkedIn could potentially win the answer game is to play on their quality of responses in comparison to Yahoo! Answers. With such a large and varying community on Yahoo, the answers received may need to be weeded to find the best suit, where as with LinkedIn and the pool that congregate there, you would be more likely to find appropriate sources much faster.

Nonetheless, the styling and base of this campaign, keeps Yahoo in the position as one of the leaders in reaching their mass public, with an appropriate, pointed but yet entertaining message

Bravo Yahoo, for speaking directly to the people!

written by Beverly Crandon