It’s easy to get excited by numbers. Unfortunately, numbers only tell one story. Take, for example, Éric Grenier’s piece in today’s Globe and Mail (see Liberals trump Tories on Twitter and Facebook, but Harper rules the Google roost). The article is prefaced by the phrase “Crunching numbers”. In my view, Mr. Grenier is simply sharing [...]
Creative people need to do three things today. Start a new creative project Pick up the book Free Play (if you don’t already own a copy) Watch the incredible TEDtalk (below) by brain surgeon, musician and researcher Charles Limb
Newspapers have historically managed the public feedback system through “Letters to the Editor”, a feature which allows members of the public to attach their opinions to their names and general locations. At least the media print a full range of opinions — from support of the stories and their characters, to frustration with the articles, [...]
Holy cow! Who’s that fine young fellow on CTV’s Power Play? That’s right. They invited me to the national airwaves (or, cablewaves) today to talk about the BC NDP’s leadership questionnaire which asks candidates to disclose the usernames and passwords of their social media accounts. It only occurs to me now that, on top of [...]
While reviewing some documentation on communications, ad creative and calls-to-action (though written as “call-to-actions”), I was struck by the author’s approach to getting site visitors to click a link. The example provided suggested people are more likely to respond to incentives with charitable or clearly-described user benefits. The example used dated marketing language… “incentive.” The [...]
One of the cornerstones of relationship building is the time and attention afforded for connecting with other individuals. This is true of developing personal and professional relationships. In fact, many people will tell you that the foundation of a marriage is communication; actually taking the time to connect and maintain a strong connection with your [...]
Social media has brought about a number of buzzwords, expressions and ideas. I’ll spare you (and me) the list. However, a new one occurred to me the other day during a lecture I attended. The presenter talked about nanotechnology. I was struck by the idea of nanocommunication which I decided would be the hundreds and [...]
MPs who were early adopters of social media could be described as the Wayne Gretzky’s of the House of Commons; they went to where the conversation was going to be. The online conversation is now well established. Canadian’s have been debating politics and public policy issues among themselves on digital channels for years. It’s where [...]
I’ve been accused of being a gear-head; a person who collects cool gadgets because, well, they’re cool and they’re hooked in to my interests. That means a musician collects several instruments, bigger and better amplifiers, more effects than they need, some really cool accessories and the latest and greatest home studio software to record and [...]
Try as they might, very few teachers were able to inspire me and make learning interesting. I frustrated easily and was more interested in socializing than cracking open a book and doing exercises. More significantly, I realize very few worked from an interesting script, or were willing to stray from the script to energize education. [...]
Bob and I are starting to put our ideas together for PAB2011. Which probably means I’ll be blogging regularly about it as we gear up for the event. Here’s a video of Andrea’s JOLT at last year’s conference. It speaks to the importance of the connections we make through our creative projects, the impact of [...]
Social networking is great for opening doors to new connections as well as sustaining and even growing existing personal and professional relationships. A popular feature of new technology is time and place shifting digital-social interactions; you can be anywhere, anywhen. Of course, real-time communication is also possible through text chats and services such as Skype. [...]
While there are plenty of relationships that serve as the exception to the rule (some might say prove the rule), a vast majority of marriages, particularly the long-lasting ones, move through a series of stages. Each stage builds on the previous until the happy couple becomes, well, happy. An astute metaphorist applied baseball terminology to [...]
The terms network and community are often used interchangeably in social media, which is probably why some people struggle in their effort to make an impact online. A network is an interconnected system. It functions as a channel through which information, ideas and opportunities can travel, reaching tuned-in members along the way. A community is [...]
Social media folk have long seen through the idea of ‘viral’. It’s most often used by the inexperienced and media to describe the rate and reach of a story that spreads very quickly. Which, of course, makes a story about the story. The debate about the word (which I’ll try not to repeat) picked up [...]
Canada closed out 2010 ahead of the US and UK as the most actively engaged with video content. This is important news for the political and public affairs community, particularly those who haven’t yet exploited video for communication and engagement. eMarketer published summarized data from a few surveys just last week. They show Canadians lead [...]
A belated happy new year! I took a refreshing vacation from most of my online activities over the last week and a half. The result is I haven’t yet participated in the usual year end wrap-up new year posts. I’m not sure yet if I’ll take the time to jump in on those or if [...]
