fusedlogic

The End!

2008-08-30T11:42:00.001-06:00

Well, not really, just a shift to a new blog site. I, along with the team are working on putting together a new corporate site/blog based on the Wordpress platform.

The new location will be www.fusedlogic.com and we'll be launching this coming month, in Sept 2008.

We're crazy busy and that's why we're not giving a precise date other than the month...

This is the last post for my little blogger blog, (sniff...)

Thank-you for your support and we look forward to serving your content needs at the new site shortly...

Twitter community gives!

2008-08-22T17:14:00.001-06:00

Help Me Send Leng Sopharath Back To College in Good Health!

Reads Beth Kanter's headline on her blog. Then in a stroke of brave genius while at Gnomedex, she suggests that the Twitter community should contribute US$10.00 to send Leng Sopharath to college. $2500.00 was raised in 15 minutes online using a donation widget. I was part of this fun and was happy to support the cause. Non-profits in general have a lot to learn from this. Of course, balance is important and too much of a good thing can be bad. Today however, this was good, really good.

Great job to Chris Brogan for promoting this "ask" on Twitter live from Gnomedex in Seattle.

Technorati Tags: Chris Brogan, Beth Kanter, Gnomedex, Twitter, Chipin

Your marketing value - not what you think...

2008-08-22T16:16:00.000-06:00

Branding today could be defined in terms of the amount of conversations being held about it. Anyone talking about you? In the same way, your marketing influence and value is no longer just solely attached to the truckloads of cold hard, grubby cash you can throw at it. Rather increasingly, it's your influence and respect in a social media context (Social Media Respect - "SMR") or for still the vast majority, the lack of said SMR. Back in March of this year, Charlene Li (still with Forrester at the time) wrote about this in her groundswell blog post.

I was reminded today of this series of thoughts by a response written by Lynne d Johnson, senior editor for Fastcompany to a question about social media and blogging convergence.

The convergence question is cool to ponder, however, I found the measuring and defining future marketing influence more compelling today.

The SMR gap continues to get larger for many, as social media isn't going anywhere. The journey I'm on regarding the building of my own social media value bank and that of my company fusedlogic inc. is really at the beginning stages still, this whole industry is still so young and ever evolving.

Fun times ahead, that's for sure...pardon my Friday afternoon ramblings but the day's pretty much over now and the weekend is ahead so hopefully you can cut me a bit of slack.

Technorati Tags: Branding, social media, Forrester, Charlene Li, Walter Schwabe, fusedlogic

For Immediate Release...

2008-08-20T13:10:00.003-06:00

Social Media is Flawed, Imperfect and Unique

Sherwood Park, AB - August 20, 2008 - Walter Schwabe, fusedlogic inc's Chief Evolution Officer, is helping Canadian businesses understand social media and how to leverage it to better understand and communicate with customers.

Schwabe admits that "social media is flawed, imperfect and unique, just like all of us. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work." He goes on to explain that this is the reason why businesses need to understand social media and develop a social media strategy to generate a return on their investment and avoid common pitfalls.

The McKinsey Quarterly reports in the results from a recent survey that “the Companies that are deriving business value from these tools are now shifting from using them experimentally to adopting them as part of a broader business practice.”

Most social media strategies consist of launching blogs, wikis, flickr photo streams, Facebook groups, MySpace profiles, LinkedIn profiles and the like. Unfortunately, social media is not an exact science, and many companies are struggling with their respective strategies. The great thing however, is that a growing amount of research that fusedlogic inc. continues to accumulate suggests that with the right plan, businesses can generate a return on their social media efforts. However, the return may not be what one would commonly expect.

What businesses are finding out, however, is that social media success is, first, not that simple and second, they’re not sure “what” social media success looks like. At least not consistently enough to say there’s one secret formula. Reality is, there isn’t “one” secret formula. Rather, there is a set of engaging elements that should be a part of your strategy. Key elements, such as the ability to share content, communicate with others, scrutinize the content or brand openly, a way for the participants to take ownership of the brand, are just a few. Schwabe adds, “Scrutiny, as well as brand ownership, is what often-times has organizations running scared. Taking left hooks online or giving up control of their brand typically isn’t in their DNA. But being brave is a necessity for success.”

In addition to his social media strategy work, Walter Schwabe is a Technology Columnist for the just launched today, Propel Magazine and Troy Media Corporation. Watch for his four article series on social media including excerpts from personal interviews with thought leaders Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki.

About fusedlogic: fusedlogic inc., one of Canada’s leading social media strategy firms, was incorporated in 2000. fusedlogic matches Web 2.0 and social media strategies with client dreams to SHIFT markets. They accomplish this by educating organizations on how to effectively engage the online community.

For more information, please contact:

Jen Schaefer
fusedlogic inc.
780-640-2331
jen[at]fusedlogic.com
www.fusedlogic.com

Cool images....

2008-08-15T20:29:00.001-06:00

A guy who knows how to take photographs...some very interesting images and perspectives...

My mini-saga

2008-08-13T12:34:00.000-06:00

Imagine identifying your life's purpose and then being able to write a very short story about it. The level of understanding about who you are, what you're really about, why you're doing what your doing while on this planet. Too often, we are constantly bombarded with the routine of life and we all too often forget to stay true to ourselves and live life simply. All those who scoff at this type of thinking I consider to be truly lost, I know because once....I was one of them.

How about you? Do you really understand who you are and why you're here? Do you care?

Suggestion: Write a mini-sage today about your life's purpose. The rules are simple: 50 words "exactly." Must have a beginning, middle and end.

It would be awesome if you shared your mini-saga here too but of course you don't have to.

My mini-saga:

My life was defined by business, failure, struggle, success, all permeated deep into my soul. These emotional experiences no longer define me. I've learned to float above the roller-coaster in quiet air, where thought and contemplation transcends routine. Learning, sharing, impacting human beings is today, my life's purpose forward.

Technorati Tags: business, life, success,

Leaving the monolithic leadership model...

2008-08-12T09:21:00.004-06:00

Can government actually leave the monolithic leadership model behind? Wow, that's a big question. One that has no easy or simple answer. Government is aware of the changing world of social media and Web2.0, there are even signs that this is starting to infiltrate the halls of power across North America today.

My hope is that large organizations and governments alike recognize that Web 2.0 is really more about a shift in culture rather than the tools. By recognizing this key fundamental, the already collaborative approach that is the Social Web will begin to further influence the coming together of all levels of government, (or all departments within a large organization or business).

Improved service delivery, improved collaboration, improved communication can all be a result of embracing a culture shift. The question still remains, can government embrace the deep rooted change required to be successful?

I'm an optimist in general and for that reason, I believe that not only can government embrace this change and shift its thinking, but further I believe that government is starting to realize it has no choice, the citizenry demands it. This isn't a matter anymore of "if" we should. This is a matter of it's Those nay saying voices that still echo in the halls of power are fast being drowned out by those who are saying "yes we can!"

Big Corporations are AFRAID!

2008-08-11T16:24:00.002-06:00

Yes that's right, the dinosaurs are afraid. Many are running scared. Why? Simple, they want to "manage or control" the conversation and their corporate structure is less than transparent. Not to suggest that they're hiding something illegal, but most internal corporate environments are filled with political turf wars, that many corporate cultures are less than open, empowering and engaging.

Culture is extremely important in the context of developing a winning social media strategy, especially for a large corporation. If the culture itself enters the social media world with doubt, fear and barriers, it's my opinion that the overall strategy will most likely reflect these same elements.

Do you think "corporate culture" plays a key role in the development of a social media strategy?

Follow me on Twitter to keep in touch and let's talk more about the issue above. Also, the first of my (4) articles on social media came out today, if you'd like a copy don 't hesitate to ask.

fusedlogic is on the Twitter Brand Index

2008-07-31T13:39:00.002-06:00

Johnathan over at Fluent Simplicity was kind enough to add fusedlogic to his Twitter Brand Index. We thank him kindly for that and I think you'll find it interesting to see all the various brands currently on Twitter, I mean beyond us of course. No doubt you'll recognize many of them.

Also, stay tuned, I'm currently writing a series of (3) articles on social media for Troy Media's technology beat news. Troy Media has well over a hundred thousand subscribers with the overwhelming majority being media and journalists of all shapes and sizes throughout North America...

To that end, as recently as this morning, I finished a phone interview with a world renowned author and entrepreneur...this is going to be a great story.

My next interview is with yet another world renowned author and entrepreneur on Monday...so this becomes an even bigger story, if that's possible. (Tooot, there goes my horn!!!) Toss in a top business executive from a large enterprise in my home province of Alberta possibly and a couple of bloggers and we've got ourselves a ball game.

I feel especially blessed today to say the least...

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Twitter Brand Index, fusedlogic, Troy Media, bloggers

Twitter, LA earthquake and my family...

2008-07-29T16:14:00.009-06:00

A few days ago I commented here on a blog post related to the fact that people on a plane in Bangalore were using Twitter to communicate about what was happening to their plane. I was a taken aback by the near real time reporting of something like that.

Well, I'm working today and I see someone mention an earthquake in LA on Twitter. My wife and daughter and other family members are in LA today. They were in fact at Disneyland at the time of the quake. My wife and sister-in-law were in line at Space Mountain when the quake hit. My daughter was with her grandmother in line to see Goofy. She, thankfully doesn't know what happened being only 3 yrs old, she moved on to the next ride she wanted to go on pretty quickly as I understand it...the evacuation shut that down of course.

I was attempting to get in touch with my wife while watching the various "tweets" on Twitter about the quake.

I've officially lived through a world event on Twitter today where my family was directly involved...quite an experience. Social media has all sorts of benefits to it and there are drawbacks too but in this case I was happy to be able to ascertain the severity of what happened in near real time and without a CNN producer deciding what was being told. Further, I was able to combine both CNN coverage with Twitter to get a more complete picture.

The great news is basically everyone in LA is ok, including in this case, MY FAMILY and that's the main thing. A pretty nerve racking hour to say the least...

Jeremiah Owyang and a proper thank-you...

2008-07-26T10:17:00.005-06:00

Yesterday, I complimented Jeremiah Owyang on his blog post by providing my own post here and also publicly on Twitter, he responded with a "Thank-you."

We're all busy and still, I believe that's no excuse for poor manners. Jeremiah demonstrated that even though he has thousands of followers collectively in "his" community on Twitter and elsewhere online, he is still able to take the time to thank someone specifically for something they've said or done.

Like my wife and I say to our daughter, "manners never go on a holiday."

Of course, we all get to choose who, how and if we want to respond to someone online or offline. That said, I believe that just like a general lack of ability to effectively and properly follow-up in a business context when opportunity knocks, there also seems to be a general lack of "manners," on the Internet today as well.

Call me "old-fashioned" if you like but I believe it proper to "thank" people when they take the time to respond to anything I've done, regardless of the intent or comment being good or bad. This is especially tough when someone is saying something less than positive about you, your company or the work you're doing. This is the true test of the Internet today. We continue to see large companies running and hiding because they don't want to stand up to the scrutiny.

Welcome to a general test of our morals, philosophy and character, how we respond or don't respond says something about us as human beings. To me this is at the core of who I am, it guides me and my business dealings every single day and I don't ever waver from it.

So to everyone who cares to make contact with me or my company, know that I will always "thank-you" for your time and comment regardless of its content, as long as, you're being respectable. I respect your opinion, I may not always agree with it and I understand that you are entitled to it. The fact that you took some of your valuable time on this planet to communicate with me in general says something positive about me and/or my company.

Thank-you for reading this post and I hope you have a profitable day.

The power of Twitter - Bangalore

2008-07-25T22:46:00.001-06:00

I was at the Edmonton Indy today and had a great time. Took some great video track-side and met some great people too. That said, today's post from Jeremiah Owyang is today....more important!

Just read this!

Not on Twitter yet? Start by following me.

Technorati Tags: Bangalore, Jeremiah Owyang, Twitter

Business on a silver platter...(shakes head)

2008-07-24T17:22:00.005-06:00

One thing that really annoys me is when I attempt to land quality business right on the doorstep of others and they don't even acknowledge the email, tweet, plurk, or phone message I may leave or a combination thereof in some cases...

Yes it's true, I may smell...

That said however, it may be likely that "they" are the ones smelling up the joint. Smelling of arrogance, rudeness and possibly incompetence. There's no doubt I'm better off, I certainly wouldn't want to put my clients within a country mile of someone so ignorant. In this day and age of multiple ways of communication and notification...there's simply no excuse.

I was just chatting with a client about how brutal some business people have become at actually following up.

So, the status of which firm will be getting the video/portal/seo work on one of my projects is, simple. That nice piece of business will now be directed to a competitor.

Want more business? Learn to be nice and to follow-up effectively...

What's the point of using micro-blogging, if when someone reaches out to do business, you ignore them to talk about BS instead? It makes little sense to me...

Acknowledging me would have taken 3 seconds on Twitter...this girl is well-known on Twitter and Plurk and else where...even Guy Kawasaki and the gazillion emails he gets has returned my emails...class act.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, plurk, Web 2.0, social networking, micro-blogging

When will social media be profitable?

2008-07-19T10:11:00.010-06:00

In many boardrooms, top exec's are struggling with questions around social media and Web 2.0, at least that's what I'm being told...if, and if so, how, why and what to implement are questions of the day.

The tendency to jump in with both feet as part of being a forward thinking organization (or at least to have the appearance as such) is great and why not? After all, there is potential value everywhere. Research, ability to respond to, and engage with, customers, innovate regarding products and services, shift markets with new strategies, the opportunities for value generation are immense.

Unfortunately, quite often the wrong questions are being asked. In the context of a large organization that can be really scary and expensive. For example: When trying to justify the investment of a social media strategy, its development and implementation, a CEO might ask.

"When will this social media initiative be profitable?"

Not an entirely unreasonable question in many cases, however, CEO's and their executive teams need to understand something fundamental about this entire space, culture and community. This isn't a new marketing event. Social media success is a long-term immersing of cultures. The corporate culture with that of the Web 2.0 or social media culture. Clearly most are starting at an obvious disconnect if you consider the question stated above. This will eventually permeate throughout the organization if it's not addressed early.

Social media and Web 2.0 IS innovation. It's innovation related to how we communicate with our customers, innovation in how we engage in commerce related activities with our customers, how we build and grow business models, in this case highly focused on our customers.

For example, micro-hacking sessions are going on as we speak and will be done in an hour or two from now, and as a result, large amounts of caffeine and/or pizza will be consumed. I'm also willing to bet innovation has taken place and a new micro-app will have been launched. The Internet is the raw and real "focus group" of today, if the app is cool...it spreads, if it isn't cool the team will know quickly. No discussion about profitability or break-even points, no business plan constructed or spreadsheets compiled. Talk about innovation on the fly. Now do you have to take into consider the legal ramifications of these moves, in some cases, more than others the answer is yes.

So, how does a slow moving oil tanker of an organization react to that mentality? Should they? Ahh, YES! Large industries are being impacted one micro-app at a time and many of them have no idea at this point. For example, micro-financing. The rumor is that Twitter will soon integrate a micro-finance application called Tipit.to. Is the banking industry aware of the potential impact here? Maybe. We'll see.

The overwhelming majority of CEOs and execs have yet to experience this and still these situations are producing new opportunities for business (it certainly has for my company). Social media is changing the way people are living, growing, engaging and yes "profiting" within the social media and general business spaces.

So where am I going with this? Simple. CEO's and their exec's need to answer their own question regarding the potential profitability of a social media strategy. They need to better understand what the experience is like at least from an observation perspective and when they've done that, their question most likely won't be...

"When will this be profitable?" Rather, "how can we continue to effectively immerse our divisions in this new customer centric philosophy and continue to have more 'meaningful' customer conversations and engagements from which to learn from?"

Technorati Tags: social media, Web 2.0, Canada, branding, strategy

Bank of America fails at social media.

2008-07-16T12:06:00.003-06:00

As a thunderstorm pounds away this morning, I have to admit that I've not been to my Flickr account in sometime. I mostly share pictures on Facebook these days and Flickr was really not about business for me. Sure there are a few shots of business stuff, like travel. That said, it certainly wasn't designed to be a component of any particular event, just a visual representation of activities in my life and that of my family.

I frankly haven't had the time to express my passion for amateur photography lately. You know, the kind of shots you take early on a weekend morning when the lighting is just right and you have no other place to be at that moment in time.

That said, I was looking at how brands are using Flickr. I came across some interesting groups, one that struck me as orphaned was the Bank of America photostream. When you dig deeper you see that they've started a promotion to coincide with the Beijing Olympics called Americascheer.com. It's clear this is about getting people to sign-up for a high-interest Visa to support the team.

Now at first glance, one could argue that this is maybe a decent idea to many mainstream corporate types. Unfortunately from my perspective this needs to be chalked up as a miss. A clear lack of commitment and understanding, even down to the Flickr profile thumbnail icon being blank.

Here's where I think they're going wrong.

Clear lack of commitment overall - Their photostream is left for weeks at a time...the Olympics are just around the corner are they not? More activity, engagement and discussion is needed as part of a larger strategy online. This still feels like a big bank going "here you go little minions, have fun..." at least to me.
Who are the Bank of America customers brand evangelists online and are they involved in the campaign? It doesn't appear so to me.
Sure people are cheering for the U.S. team, but does anybody really "love" the Bank of America?

This is more about B-o-A pushing as a faceless corporation. The real human aspect of this frankly is the profile of the group's contact. Photo's of a happy family, NOT a faceless corporation allowed me to feel positive about something related to this discussion and it had little to do with the bank...that's the richness that the campaign is lacking in my opinion.

I believe Bank of America could have went further with a more complete overall strategy...that said it's probably a good thing they didn't since this small effort is dismal at best. Oh well, another case study to use and teach others with...

Is Guy Kawasaki/Alltop about "meaning" or "money?"

2008-07-10T07:16:00.005-06:00

Back in February, Jeremiah Owyang updated (he called it an analysis, and as you'll read in his post, even Forrester Research analysts make mistakes like the rest of us) he had previously written about Guy Kawasaki's new (in his words - "gimmick" site) Alltop.com. The overall reviews from Owyang's twitter followers (follow me here) of Guy's site were mixed at best. Alltop.com was criticized for being a non-innovative "clone" of existing sites like popurls, originalsignal.com. Many did compliment Guy (including Owyang) on his ability to market the site (the Influence model). Citing for example his leveraging of existing "A-listers" in his ego topic section for example to garner attention for Alltop. Further, that "Techcrunch took the bait." Many concluded the attention was really more for Guy, than Alltop.

However, some time has passed now and we all recognize Guy's motivation here is to like most other sites make money. I know that many of you have seen Guy talk ( in person or on video) about his preference for sites or businesses that are about "making meaning "as their core purpose as being the ones that win over those who just want to grow and be acquired from the outset.

So my question to the readers of this post is. If you could only pick one answer: Do you think Alltop.com is about "making meaning" or "making money?"

A second question may be: Has Guy won you over with Alltop yet? It seems that if you search those who have made one of his various lists, that seems to be a proud moment for most... How about you "B-listers" out there...does making an Alltop topic list make a difference? Enquiring minds at fusedlogic want to know...

Distributed Social Networking

2008-07-09T00:59:00.002-06:00

Here's a great article explaining something I personally believe cannot happen fast enough "distributed social networking"...being able to take your profile, contacts and information with you from one social network to another, something that really works for me...

Friendfeed is an aggregator, so is Ping.fm...more of these types of consolidation technologies will become more prevalent...there are people watching these sites and services closely and designing better ways to get the job done. Specifically, listening to the audiences and learning about the good and the bad of each service, there's a lot of these statements being made today on twitter, plurk, identi, friendfeed and elsewhere...usually that means that you and I win because competition breeds innovation.

The next three years will see this trend towards aggregation, mobility and being able to see entire personal social network connections at a glance continue to advance...I suspect that today's leaders in this space will be the hot acquisition targets with strong communities in the near future having finally worked out all the kinks...

Human nature at work on Twitter and Plurk

2008-07-08T11:35:00.003-06:00

So as you can see to the right of this post I've added something called the "Plurk Timeline," this is in addition to my twitter account and Identi.ca account, I'm fusedlogic there too.

Anyway, this is part of my research on micro-blogging and how people use it. For example, Guy Kawasaki, provides regular updates regarding his site Alltop.com, the new topics he's added and requests for feeds to add from the twitter community. Such as his most recent question.

"I want to build the equivalent of twitterati.alltop.com for Friend
Feed. Does anyone have a good starting list?"

Others such as lead strategist Jeremiah Owyang, Forrester Research uses Twitter to keep people thinking about the social web in general. He directs people to new "lists" on his blog, new trends he sees happening, events he's attending and articles where he's quoted, typically in the San Francisco Gate...

Many others use twitter as a way to engage in conversations related to their business interests, some still just let us all know about their favorite foods and the activities they're doing at that very moment in time...

Out of all of these various content entries, I most enjoy those that drive the conversation to innovate. Guy Kawasaki is looking for a list for his new topic on twitterati.alltop.com because of a suggestion made on twitter by Christine Lu, someone who has collaborated with Guy on China.alltop.com

Frankly, the twitter community in many ways is building Alltop.com, as Guy listens engages and asks questions...the "twitter crowd" is responding through ideas, traffic and objections from time to time...now Guy doesn't take every piece of advice or suggestion, that's not feasible and he's stated in an interview with Christine Lu that all he's looking to do is make $750K a year from Alltop.com and keep things simple...

That's obviously a great plan and there's no doubt that he'll easily achieve that.

In future posts I'll talk about how the "twitterati," or in other words (in many cases, not all but many...) the "unapproachable snobby elite," think very highly of themselves.

You can always tell who they are because when on twitter if you direct a comment or question to them they selectively decide whether you as a little twitter nobody deserve a direct response... This is an interesting experiment in watching human nature...sure we're all busy but some of us respect human beings and others....not so much.

As my Canadian social media strategy company fusedlogic continues its modest growth globally...I will always continue to approach business like "The Great One, Wayne Gretzky" treats others, fans, players etc... No matter how successful you are...one always needs to respect other human beings regardless of their status in life.

Enhanced Aboriginal Education

2008-07-07T22:23:00.003-06:00

Here's a PR from one of long standing my clients today...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Randy Morse, CEO (250) 353-2011 (office); (503) 545-8930 (mobile)

ENHANCED ABORIGINAL EDUCATION - ABORIGINAL PUBLISHER RESPONDS TO THE CALL

Siksika First Nation, Siksika, Alberta, July 7, 2008 –

The Indigenous Learning Company (ILC) announced today that it is committing to assist British Columbia school districts, First Nations, and other Aboriginal groups in bridging the learning gap, promoting cultural and linguistic pride among Aboriginal students, and ensuring that B.C.’s non-Aboriginal students gain a positive new understanding of the histories, cultures and contributions of B.C.’s Aboriginal peoples.

To-date over 40 B.C. school districts have joined with B.C. First Nations and other Aboriginal groups, and the Ministry of Education in signing Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreements, designed to help the province’s Aboriginal students succeed academically, taking into account the importance of traditional languages and cultures in ensuring student success in the classroom. The Agreements also call for programs and materials that will assist B.C.’s non-Aboriginal students in better appreciating the cultures and contributions of the province’s Aboriginal peoples.

ILC is Canada’s first, and perhaps only, Aboriginally owned and operated, fully professional web-based educational publishing company. ILC intends to draw upon its extensive experience in working with indigenous communities and educators elsewhere in Canada and around the world to bear on the educational challenges facing all British Columbians. The company intends to work closely with B.C. First Nations and other Aboriginal organizations, school districts, and the Ministry to build unique Aboriginally-focused, web-based educational learning materials that fully support the educational and cultural goals of existing and future Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreements.

“B.C. can and should be a world leader in developing educationally rigorous, culturally appropriate, 21^st century learning solutions for its K-12 students – all its students, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal alike. The world will be increasingly focusing its attention on our province as 2010 approaches,” said ILC CEO Randy Morse. “We want to work with our Aboriginal and educational partners to showcase the advancements called for in the Education Enhancement Agreements by the start of the 2010 Winter Games, to the ultimate benefit of all British Columbians,” Morse concluded.

About ILC

The Indigenous Learning Company is a Canadian corporation, with offices on the Siksika First Nation, Alberta, in Kaslo, British Columbia, and in Airway Heights, on Kalispel Tribe of Indians land in Washington State. ILC’s purpose is to deliver leading edge, culturally appropriate, curriculum-specific, web-based K-12 learning materials to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students & teachers in B.C., across Canada, and around the world.

###

When big brands miss, they miss big...

2008-07-04T20:54:00.003-06:00

More and more large brands are taking on the social net and more and more brands are missing their targets...and some are winning and exceeding expectations, (low or cautious expectations I suspect).

When a large brand spends cash in the online world it's typically enough to buy a small country with a two-bit dictator. So missing the point in this arena hurts. Central to the problem is strategy or lack thereof and approach.

Complex organization + Old Marketing Attitude + New Social Media = Complex Expensive Failure

Understanding the social animals and online society or "creative class," "digital generation," "generation now" can be daunting. So seek first to listen, learn and participate by adding value...not ad dollars...

Using analytics to target demographics and audiences is fine to a point, but typically it doesn't tell the whole story. I think it's important to analyze online behaviors, living breathing trends, attitudes, needs...and combine that with understanding who's influencing the discussion. Having the proper strategy is absolutely key.

Just ask GM about whether they like Youtube or not...I talk about this in my presentations all the time...it's the core to everything else...

Does your brand actually matter?

2008-07-04T00:02:00.003-06:00

So...does anyone actually care about your brand? What is the relevance of your brand? Could your brand change the world? If so, are you?

Is your brand growing in terms of reach? Sure you're spending all this time and money, how are you measuring your reach and success. Do you have a methodology for measuring this success? If so how accurate is it? How does your brand currently affect the hiring of top talent? In this age of the "creative class," is your brand communicating in the right language?

This is a common story today...these questions although common also are often overlooked...

That said, I mostly just wanted to ask brand questions today...

Why not hold a "listening lab" and go find out what your customers think of your brand...

Guy Kawasaki isn't really against "Web 2.0 wannabes"...

2008-06-28T21:11:00.003-06:00

So Guy stopped by the blog to hold me accountable for my last post and to clear a couple things up regarding the "tweet," in question. (It's all explained below.) Apparently, despite the way it reads, it seems as though Guy really wasn't trying to suggest the overwhelming majority of us suck or further that we should be honored to be in his online midst, like I first thought, interpreted or should we say "ass-u-med?"

In fact, he pointed out that he's placed himself on the "ego" list at Alltop, which I agree is appropriate. I have to admit I've been busy doing other things and haven't really dissected every list on the site, although I did take a brief cruise by the VIP one in question.

Anyway, if Guy really is a "good guy" then I may just consider following him on Twitter again at some point in the future.

Now, if only I can get him to address the endless transparent promotion of the site on Twitter...Well, maybe Guy will engage in a conversation to explain that on his next breeze by the blog...thanks again Guy for stopping by and providing your comments.

One final thought...Guy, maybe you could create a new hybrid list on alltop that I can be on...maybe "egotistical, aggressive lover of hockey and yes Web 2.0 wannabe." No just kidding, everyone knows that about me and so I'm fine as is...

Guy Kawasaki against "Web 2.0 wannabes..."

2008-06-28T09:00:00.015-06:00

As I participate in various social media activities (and literaly build my business on and around them) Twitter being one of these, I've come to recognize things about people within "the social media community." This is the brilliant part and the allure of the social web for me. The richness of human personalities shining through the technology. You're able for instance to determine whether someone is simply out there to push a product or service or if they have something more significant and valuable to offer the world.

Like many, I've been watching, following and observing Guy Kawasaki since his early pre-dot-com crash days. Actually, Guy is much more well known today then he ever was prior to the crash. I admired his witty, calm and confident approach to educating all of us on how to properly "pitch" VC's using PowerPoint. As well as, watching online videos of his canned presentation and the part about why he's a "bozo." I think we're all "bozos," from time to time, certainly, I have my "bozo moments."

Well, over the last several weeks, years if you include blogging, I've been watching Guy's "tweets" on Twitter.com - a micro-blogging site. Guy's comments or "tweets" can be summed up simply as go to my new site, ALLTOP.COM! GO TO ALLTOP.COM, have you heard of ALLTOP.COM? Hey new stuff happening on ALLTOP.COM! ( There you go Guy, the sentence you'll most appreciate in this entire post.)

To be fair, he's been this transparent from the very beginning regarding this site. Pretty obvious and straight forward. Sure, at times it's been under the guise of offering some obscure news flash about something completely useless, (my opinion) and it works from him I suppose. Ignoring what merits there might be to his site itself and if he wants to push it in the manner he does that's certainly his prerogative, but Guy has lost my respect today for comments made that go way beyond the "push" marketing, salesy act. Specifically, it's the one below that I think shows a side of him that I don't hold in high regard or appreciate.

We've discussed that Guy is doing little more than flogging another web property as if it was 1999, with the exception that the technology used to do the flogging wasn't around then. However, more importantly beyond that used car sales approach is an "elitist" attitude. This definitely exists among certain elements of today's Internet crowd.

Often people talk about "brand erosion," well when one takes the length of observation of Guy's routine and couples it with a comment like below, it's safe to say with me at least "erosion" has happened in this case.

Whether you're a small outfit like ours who really has little, if any real influence in the world or you're a world renowned somebody of something, the bottom-line is...one doesn't have to act and treat others with such disdain and lack of respect like that of an arrogant elitist. Treating people with respect and being humble is something I expect of myself and of those who I respect in the world. Guy...you may think you're on the "inside" and part of the elite crowd, but with comments like the one below, it's obvious to me you're really more on the "outside." I'm referring here of course to what's truly important beyond money, business and yes Web 2.0 and I find that really unfortunate.

Here it is. There have been other posts like "if you have to ask, then you shouldn't be on it," referring to some other Web 2.0 elitist alltop list...

Read the Twitter Status blog for updates about the service.

guykawasaki http://vips.alltop.com/ Using Filtrbox, an intelligent news monitoring service, to deliver news re: VIPs--real VIPs, not Web 2.0 wannabes about 16 hours ago from twhirl

Now you can interpret the above statement as benign except, once you get beyond understanding the technology itself, what you're left with are more ways to observe and learn about human nature. You get to witness people showing their true colors, attitudes, philosophies; the things that really matter. In fact, this effect has never been stronger than in today's Internet. Understanding that we are typically associated with a brand is also key. Learning to harness that power of understanding can help you make decisions, such as, who you may want to do business with in the future, who really resonates with your value set AND who doesn't.

So Guy, this is one lowly "Web 2.0 wannabe" you won't have to worry about following you from here on in. By the way Guy, without "Web 2.0 wannabes," you, me, any number of people who sit all day on Twitter wouldn't have an audience, without "Web 2.0 wannabes," there wouldn't be an industry for any of your sites to exist and live off of...it wouldn't survive solely on the elitist minority you deem so superior to the rest of us average Internet using ilk...

There's a saying I know you're aware of, "treat others as you yourself would want to be treated."

For example, being a hockey enthusiast Guy, you'll no doubt recognize that what makes Wayne Gretzky the greatest player to ever play hockey is not only the fact that he rewrote the entire record book through his "elite" play, he was always amazingly gracious (and remains so to this day) regarding his talents, accomplishments, fame and recognition. He understands that the weekend warrior hockey player although vastly inferior to his own skill is still worthy of respect as a human being and fan.

Such a shame Guy, you truly disappoint me, you've seemingly forgotten what's actually important in life and it seems the above "tweet" is representative of how you'd like to be thought of by at least one small segment of the world...you can now count me out of that segment.

The next time I speak at some lowly conference filled with "Web 2.0 wannabes." I'll be sure to use you as a case study on what NOT to do and how NOT to treat human beings...

It's one thing to design an aggregation site because it's servicing a need we all have to save time, it's another to design an aggregation site because you believe the lists on it are about people who are better than the rest of the pee-ons in the world...

Targeted traffic is the key...

2008-06-22T11:08:00.002-06:00

I get lots of emails asking me how to improve website or blog traffic. You see most translate increased general traffic with increased sales. Unfortunately, it often doesn't exactly work out that way. To be truly effective, your company or organization should ask the question "Why do we want increased traffic?"

The precise answer to this question will help you better define your traffic generating activities. Once that is determined you'll want to identify the key influencers within that target group or demographic. These are typically the blogs, social networking groups, websites who others look to gather information from.

Another great way to identify influencers is on Twitter. This is just one example of being able to observe conversations with folks who may be talking about things related to your market space. They will also most likely provide you with insights that can be helpful to improving your knowledge base on emerging trends keeping you ahead of your competition. Use twitter as a tool to build your level of understanding regarding targeted traffic, it's what I suggest to all our clients.

Rural leadership continues to scratch heads...

2008-06-20T08:02:00.007-06:00

Are they speaking the language of Gen-Y? Quick answer...No. This "digital native" generation is leaving their rural homes for all sorts of reasons. Lack of broadband, lack of engagement, old school mentality, you name it. The first chance these kids get they're history and off to the big city. An age old story about rural life? Sure, but not to this extent.

The long-term effect of this issue is actually a crisis today. Brain drain doesn't just happen across borders with our doctors, it's also affecting the populations of young people in places like Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, Stettler, Three Hills, HighRiver, Hinton...the list goes on and it's of course not just here in Alberta, it's rural Canada and rural America as well.

Talk with any business owner on main street and hear that there's no one to work in these small towns, business owners can't get away during lunch to go to a Chamber luncheon because there's no one to watch the store. Why the local Chamber hasn't figured this out I don't know...more evidence of being asleep at the wheel maybe.

The on average Baby Boomer councils in these towns tend to be good hearted, salt of the earth type people and they're all simultaneously scratching their heads...all victims of the "old school" mentality, lack of general understanding of today's Web 2.0 ecosystem and culture, not to mention the considerable opportunities within it. To top it all off, often they're supported in some cases by bureaucrats who fear change will lead to more work and stifle cool ideas from within. Whether that's actually "support," is up for debate. I hope they realize soon that the issue requires more than just another feel good website. This is a multi-faceted problem that requires a multi-faceted plan.

Solution: Open your minds to the fact that you're competing in a "global economy," power through the fear that generates in your heart and embrace change. Do it today, before you live in a ghost town that ends up as a story in a coffee table book that no body will read. A sad state of affairs for cool communities with awesome people, awesome histories and much to offer the world...

Customizable World...

2008-06-19T08:00:00.004-06:00

As I watch my daughter Sydney watch Elmo sing with Andrea Bocelli their own counting version of "Time to say goodbye"...she's mesmerized by his signing...(Andrea's singing)...well OK maybe Elmo's too and really who can blame her. I refresh my thoughts about her generation that only knows the world as an always on, always connected, all digital, all the time world.

A customizable, changeable world has always existed. The difference has only been the pace and the amount of those contributing in a meaningful way. So, as I use this world changing technology to communicate to you now as an example, clearly the pace has not always been as fast as in the last few years. The pace has definitely quickened.

And so, I'm asking to what end and are you as a company prepared for what's next?

Sure, most of us view technology advancement as cool, but my head space is all about results and so like the late nineties where designers designed websites that were "cool" with mystery nav and flash intros that did little more than waste our time with all business fundamentals going right out the door. I'm wondering how many are really changing the world for the better.

We know that a rare idea properly cultivated can change the world. However, I used the word "rare" for a reason. Are our kids going to be more a capable of "rare" ideas? I say yes, under the right definition of what "rare" is. There is still much to be discovered, that said, I think that our kids are more likely to vastly improve upon some of the things that generations past have created, identified or thought up. Of course the "World is Flat" and so there provides many opportunities for collaboration that have not existed before. My company leverages this every day, that said, it's not that common place outside of the Internet world of business.

Does COOL TECHNOLOGY + AVERAGE COMPANY = CHANGE THE WORLD CAPABILITIES or just recognition that they're using cool technology? I would argue no. For me this is obvious, it's based on human beings rather than the technology and how the people behind the company process, adapt and leverage that technology based on their philosophy of doing business that really determines results. Still companies don't get it and expect technology to be the holy grail answer to why they're sales numbers are down. Technology is still simply an enabler and for really cool people it's more than that it's massive power. This generation is and will be evidence of that.

My point, in part, is that, this generation's philosophy and outlook is vastly different than my grandparents, parents and in many ways possibly even me. This is both a blessing and a curse simultaneously. This generation is also said to be much much larger than the Baby Boomers, and with way more wealth and buying power to go around. So how are businesses preparing for this? It will take more than hoping into the fast paced stream of technology just to prepare. This is mental more than anything else. This transition between the Baby Boomers still working old school business methods and fearful closed door management styles will continue to end up just like the dinosaurs (Sears). You might be able to save yourselves now if you open your mind to what's happening or simply step aside, it's inevitable as none of us lives forever and these kids are coming quickly and they're highly capable.

This disjointed rambling of thoughts brought to you by a lack of coffee and emotional reflection while watching the most beautiful daughter in the world and simply worrying about providing the very best for her and her friends.

Alberta Rural Broadband Report

2008-06-17T16:36:00.003-06:00

The Alberta Council of Technologies (fusedlogic is a founding member) has just released their report on the status of broadband in rural Alberta. You can download it here.

Happy Father's Day Everyone...

2008-06-15T09:14:00.006-06:00

It's a wonderfully bright Sunday morning and I'm just enjoying my coffee out on my porch, listening to the birds by the fountain and thinking about how very fortunate I am. Fortunate in so many ways, starting with my wonderful family, I love them very much. Fortunate to have my business and to have found my purpose on the planet. Fortunate to have my health and that of my family's as well. I am extremely thankful for every single breath of life I get. Too often we take it for granted. Cherish this and every day you get because there aren't many...Thank-you to my wonderful daughter Sydney for a great day...

Alberta tech commercialization gets $178 million

2008-06-12T20:02:00.017-06:00

Alberta's new action plan Bringing Technology to Market is a $178 million dollar plan to promote a series of key actions within the tech business maturity cycle. Starting with research, development tax credit programs (out of Iris Evan's portfolio), while also increasing investment capital for home-grown technology specific businesses, thus, directly impacting the start-up community. Yep, that's right boys and girls in Palo Alto, San Fran and the greater Silicon Valley, Alberta is open for business. We're not just about your oil anymore.

Of course, when I say that we have a strong tech sector in Alberta, but that it's just "underground", people mistakingly always think I'm talking about the advancements made here in Oil and Gas. To suggest anything otherwise is laughable. That said, what I am actually referring to is the guy in his cubicle in the basement at the U of A pounding away on a laptop with busted keys building semantic search bots...who basically nobody knows about...or the advancements in nanotechnology that will continue to change our world, or the world beating non-destructive testing process of chip wafers in a way that doesn't destroy as many, or the sugar substitute made from all natural products, or the nanofluid guy who can take iron out of blood, or the nano spray guy who can dramatically improve the functionality of any electronics board with a "spray" or the mobile development guy or the...I could go on...

So does it make sense for fusedlogic to pursue some of these new dollars in some way? Hmmm possibly, although don't expect a fresh funky start-up to appear with my name on the directors list in the near term submitting an application to IVAC. Nope, fusedlogic's own action plan is already in place and being implemented...and that's another story.

Some were talking at the event about now being faced with being in competition with the government and how that's a bad thing for them. People who may have looked to generate a living from the VC realm, positioned either up stream on the consulting side (as I used to be) or somewhere down stream... Frankly I don't subscribe to that perspective. I would argue that Minister Horner's portfolio is going to need a lot of increased capacity AND FAST. So instead of whining, these guys should show they're worthy of being considered for work and step up. That said, I would have preferred that they had continued to munch on their sandwiches instead of asking me what fusedlogic did, sheltering me from their lack of vision and creative business skill-sets.

Please Doug, don't put this cash in the hands of these apple heads...(sorry small prayer in the form of a rant there)

Overall this announcement is recognition that the government has been listening to those (and I include myself in this group) who have been saying for years that there hasn't necessarily been a shortage of funds in this province, (although we can always use more) it's out there for sure, if you know where to look and are discreet.

Rather, that money was constantly complaining about a shortage of companies "worthy" of funding. I remember that many adopted a 2 hour rule, they wouldn't consider a deal more than 2 hours flight time away from their home base and yet were being forced to because of the above complaint. I will also offer that there still tends to be more of what I would call "uneducated" money...not that these sources were or are stupid in any way, just that they were from a different business background and didn't understand many of the tech business models as well as one would prefer. Imagine going to these same sources today and saying "Ok, our model is to give everything away for free for the foreseeable future." Sorry, old school cash doesn't get building a community, never mind old school angels, this goes for others like muni governments too, folks in many cases who need this help most, they're still dominated with...well...I'm not going there...

Luckily anyway for the ICT or in particular social media guys there's plenty of successful models out there to leverage in the name of "educating" the money.

So as of yesterday, now in Alberta there is (theoretically) both, very public funds AND very public expertise to properly prepare these hot entrepreneurs and their companies for the REAL WORLD. Granted, if you compare this announcement to the boys and girls down on Sand Hill Road...this is petty cash and yet a much needed boost nonetheless. I'm more excited about the spirit and intent behind this announcement rather than the cash itself actually.

My only hope is that these up and coming Alberta stars heed these next few words well. When someone presents you with a term sheet worth $5 Million dollars over 3 years for a 40% equity stake of your business, and they understand your market and can provide an immediate impact...TAKE THE DEAL. Put your greed under wraps along with your egotistical belief that everyone thinks you're a superstar as much as you do and take the deal. There most likely won't be another one coming your way, just ask those who've pitched relentlessly to get to that point only to have some bone head quash the deal because of the reasons previously stated. You can argue the merits of this statement with me later once you're on the cover of INC. as the hottest CEO on the planet of a billion dollar Alberta company...which is when you should still be representing Alberta at your most humble...

By the way, want to know what the status of rural broadband is? Simple, there's a market and a flawed business model combined with misinformation...Rural municipalities can't give this stuff away for free, no muni can or should. You must charge for it to be sustainable and it must reach the outskirts...the technology easily exists for long distances and to cast a wide net.

And actually, the question shouldn't be about the "status of rural broadband"...rather it should be the status of rural leadership...the last mile is more about that than the technology to service rural communities on a sustainable basis...

Want to know more...get invited to watch Motorola show off their technology during the upcoming Indy race and I'll see you there...

The Premier's Big ICT Announcement Tomorrow

2008-06-10T20:31:00.007-06:00

I've been invited to attend a big announcement by Alberta's Premier Ed Stelmach along with the Minister of Advanced Education and Technology Doug Horner, (whom I've met with not long ago) tomorrow. The area of focus is ICT. Specifically, in the diversification of our economy to involve and support the ICT sector. Many in the Alberta tech sector have been waiting for this announcement for years and finally there'll be something to hang our hat on collectively. (I hope)

This is pure speculation (well ok maybe a little birdy suggested something very vague to lead me a tiny bit...) but I'm predicting that the announcement will have something to do with attracting venture capital, possibly even some sort of new fund to take the lead in that regard. Also, I suspect that looking to the future there will be a need to cultivate this sector long term so some sort of element related to that in the area of education seems reasonable.

Anyway, look for tweets during the event and also a full run down here after the fact. I'm going to try to take some video too so look for youtube clips too if possible...

Social Network User Demographics

2008-06-04T16:27:00.001-06:00

Here's some interesting stats...sorry I'm crazy busy today and this is the best I can do...

Edmonton Linkedin Business Event

2008-05-29T12:30:00.009-06:00

I was invited to speak yesterday evening to a local group of Edmonton area business people who primarily belong to the same online network. The Edmonton Linkedin Business Network, a group started by Stephen Lau, a self-described workaholic professional in the commercial real estate industry, specifically with "Barclay Street Real Estate Ltd. | ONCOR International" Stephen is also a director with the Hong Kong - Canada Business Association, and if that wasn't enough, he's also an Executive Recruiter with Summit Placement Services.

Anyway, the primary rule to the group is that in order to join you must have a Linkedin profile so that others can connect with you online, thereby growing our networks. I was part of a three speaker event with the others being Evita McConnell, owner of Evita McConnell Graphics and Joe MacKay of Revo Video.

Each of my co-presenters provided a unique perspective and human touch to their message which I really appreciated.

Almost all of the meetings take place at Lau's family restaurant, the Golden Rice Bowl and the food is ridiculously amazing. I had a wonderful sesame lemon chicken last night that I'm still dreaming of. Getting something with sesame seeds on it these days due to allergies is rare so for me it brought me back to sesame seed bunwiches as a kid...

Anyway, if you want to grow you network offline as a result of your online activities this is a great model to follow. You need to have the energy to commit to organizing it, which Stephen has shown a clear talent for as it's hard work to be sure...

By the way if you look "right", you'll see a button to my linkedin profile, feel free to look me up...

Also here are some pictures from the event...notice the great gift the speakers received from Mari-lyn Hudson of Heart @ Work, a local artist and marketer.

Twitter Raises $15 Million in VC Cash

2008-05-22T05:55:00.003-06:00

The timing couldn't be better to raise this round of VC financing as Twitter needs tweaking. You can find out more about the cash specifics here at Gigaom.

There is currently a cascading effect happening on this site. The uptime isn't of late, so...."up" as it is "down". This means that people who require the need to update the world on the bagel type they're having at this very moment (I use twitter but not for bagel updates), are quickly looking for other solutions to their need for micro-blogging.

So what is that solution, well Jeremiah Owyang (and a few others) has been mentioning the fact that there is a bit of an exodus to a new social media aggregation service called Friendfeed.com. This is a site where you can keep up to date on almost all of your social networking habits (er channels) and that of your friends and colleagues. What this means for twitter, a company that despite the new cash is scrambling to save itself from the lack of apparent scalability capability is that they are in serious damage control mode...this may all be the fact that they're a victim of their own success and the technology is breaking down. This also means that the "pre-money" valuation of $80 million for twitter may not stay there for long if they continue to lose twitter enthusiasts in the droves they currently are...Everytime someone like Jeremiah says Friendfeed another group takes off. This is an "early-adopter" technology to say the least and the early-adopter crowd is fickle (like everyone else online I guess), keep em happy and perform or they're "outta here" and in many cases gone for good...

Oh the pressures of a near $100 million dollar tech company eh???

DemoCamp Edmonton 2

2008-05-20T21:18:00.010-06:00

Well, DemoCamp Edmonton was a great success. Excellent turnout and some great companies and presentations, more on that later. Not having been at the first one I was at a bit of a disadvantage in terms of knowing a lot of the crowd. That said I was able to chat with a number of folks who I'll no doubt have on going conversations with over the coming days...

That said, I'm going to spend some time with someone who's still willing to call herself my wife even though she hasn't seen more than a few minutes of me over the last while...then I'll post more details about tonights event. Oh and watch for new youtube vids from tonight at the fusedlogic channel of all the presentations going up soon. Also a couple of interviews, one with a local blogger, here's Mack's twitter profile and here is Mack's blog post about tonight that focuses on the presentations (notice yours truly in the picture:) Also, had a great interview and chat with John Bristowe, a brand evangelist from Microsoft...

Just a reminder, come out to listen to Martin Bryne of Yahoo! Canada over lunch. RSVP. I tried to get John at Microsoft to come out but it was way too short notice for him...maybe next time...

Edmonton Realtor Kerri-lyn Holland

2008-05-20T13:08:00.005-06:00

Kerri-lyn Holland is a new client and we're very proud to be working on her web 2.0 campaign. She is a top Edmonton Realtor and her tagline is "Redefining Real Estate". Below is one of her new videos, we're working hard also on her blog. When we're all done setting up channels for Kerri-lyn Holland, she'll start to dominate the Edmonton Real Estate market in terms of general recognition, traffic to her web site and listings. What I really like about working with Kerri-lyn is that it's very evident that she cares about her clients. They're job number one, she lives and breathes their real estate needs and works tirelessly to see that her real estate customers are always happy. You'll see from the video that unlike many other Realtors, Kerri-lyn Holland's style can be described as a quite confidence. Enjoy the video and watch for more posts on client projects in the future...

DemoCamp Edmonton

2008-05-19T09:14:00.004-06:00

Well I'm looking forward to tomorrow evening. In the late afternoon I'm doing a short presentation at the Business Link and then I'm off to DemoCamp Edmonton at the Billiard Club.

Here's the list of attendees, some I know, most I don't and I'm excited to meet and see everyone...There's quite a nice sized group of local tech enthusiasts showing up by the looks of it. Now showing up means that I'll miss story time with my daughter and that's tough to take but hopefully she and her co-pilot Mickey Mouse still learn to fly without me...

Name	Email	Web
Cam Linke	cam.linke@gmail.com	http://camlinke.typepad.com
Reg Cheramy	rcheramy@gmail.com	http://www.zigtag.com/
Mack Male	mack@paramagnus.com	http://www.mastermaq.ca
Aaron Lambie	aaron.lambie@spatialq.com	http://www.spatialq.com
Don Riep	Don@ProTraining.com	www.ProTraining.com
Derek Ball	derek@tynt.com	http://www.tynt.com
Dayton Foster	dayton@tynt.com	http://www.tynt.com
Jack Newton	jack@goclio.com	http://www.goclio.com
Michael Best	michael.best@gmail.com	http://www.pendragon.org/
Shawn Murphy	smurp@smurp.com	http://www.smurp.com/
Eric Warnke	eric@ericwarnke.com	http://solicitingfame.com
Lea Alcantara	design@lealea.net	http://www.lealea.net/
Walter Schwabe	walter@fusedlogic.com	http://www.fusedlogic.com
Sean Healy	sean@odil.ca	http://odil.ca
Lino Ramirez	ramirez AT aranducorp DOT com	http://www.aranducorp.com/blog
Boris Djordjevic	boris@frontech.ca	frontech.ca
Sarah Blue	blue@cambrianhouse.com	http://www.cambrianhouse.com/blog
Peter Urban	peter at smibs dot com	http://www.smibs.com
Mark Bennett	mark@burmis.ca	http://blog.burmis.ca
James Matsuba	james.matsuba@gmail.com	http://www.matsuba.ca/
Anh Nguyen	anh@oomphevents.com	http://www.oomphevents.com/
Kevin Jewell	kjewell@cs.ualberta.ca	http://www.aicml.ca/
George Watts	george.watts@gmail.com	http://www.chartreuseconsulting.com
Will Zaichkowski	willz@Cranialinteractive.com	www.cranialinteractive.com
Craig Hicks	craig@craighicks.com	www.craighicks.com
Mike Totman	barcamp AT mike DOT totman DOT ca	http://www.totman.ca
Dale Hagglund	dale.hagglund@gmail.com
Branden Shortt	branden AT cellphones dot ca	http://www.cellphones.ca
Jock Mardres	jock@awna.com	http://www.awna.com
Wade Muri	wade DOT muri AT gov DOT ab DOT ca	www.innovation.gov.ab.ca
Kyle Fox	kyle.fox at gmail
John Bristowe	john.bristowe@microsoft.com	http://blogs.msdn.com/cdndevs/
Jarett Hailes	jarett period hailes a gmail period com
Jon Smelquist	jon DOT smelquist AT gmail DOT com
Alain Saffel	alain@clearpathseo.com	www.clearpathseo.com
Adam Wolfe Gordon	awg@xvx.ca	http://blog.xvx.ca
Spencer Ord	sord@deloitte.ca	www.deloitte.ca
Scott Francis Winder	scott@beingboreal.com	beingboreal.com
Brant Coghlan	bcoghlan@cs.ualberta.ca	www.aicml.ca
Ken Gordon	kgordon@loapowertools.com	www.loapowertools.com
Your Name	youremail@email.com	yourwebsite.com

Here Comes The Pain!

2008-05-18T11:02:00.007-06:00

Growing pains that is. For many who know me the fact that I've decided to "grow" fusedlogic will come as a bit of a surprise. Why? Because for nearly a decade now I've stuck to my business plan which has been to keep my company small. Seems weird doesn't it? A corporation who uses the term "accelerate business leaders" in its tag line to represent the "growth" that we enable our clients to experience has itself been focused on staying small. This for me has always been a life-balance and harmony issue.

This has also been an internal struggle of mine, again those who know me well also know I'm aggressive and business growth is in my DNA. I've been fortunate to come across great projects that have afforded fusedlogic the ability to stay a boutique firm. That said, now that my daughter is 3 and we're on to bigger and better things like training wheels and still the odd potty training episode...I'm ready in my heart and so is my wife, it's time to turn up the heat on fusedlogic. I'm feeling frisky these days, actually "amazingly excited" is a more accurate term. The opportunities for fusedlogic to grow like crazy are EVERYWHERE and have been calling out to me for a year now...

REINVENT ITSELF: That's exactly what I've done. The NEW PLAN is in place and really since early 2005 I've been researching, studying and experimenting with Web 2.0, social media and all the widgets and online apps I could possibly stand, researching traffic generation etc...I've been watching Google, Yahoo, MSN, and watching for gaps that my clients could exploit...Well I've found more than just one. I continue to search for key people around the world from whom fusedlogic and I can learn from, align and work with. That list is ever growing and it's very cool as it sits today. This reinvention has been in the works for years now...

GAPS: We have and will continue to take our knowledge, our growing global team and bring it to bear on our client's dreams. Applying Web 2.0 strategies and online marketing tactics that work for them, positioning them ahead and away from their competition. fusedlogic is now solely focused on Web 2.0 work moving forward, even though we have sparked growth for many companies doing what many people have tried to describe as the traditional management consulting approach, that's all changed now. We were never really traditional in anything we did...we were always renegades.

STILL RENEGADES: As more projects come in and I expand my team of collaborators with smart, capable and creative minds, our culture will be that of never say die ground breakers...I'll set the tone by pushing hard to keep us brave and mobile, slippery and sleek. There have in fusedlogic's past been some hard times, when I was in a car accident and couldn't work, when my daughter was born, my wife had to spend three months basically in the hospital with hypertension...but we've come through those difficulties and we're stronger than ever...2007 was a record year and 2008 well there's lots of real estate left in this year but so far..."we happy."

OUR CLIENTS: Our clients are awesome human beings and have always been willing participants in new directions, open to suggestions, change and challenges that push their limits of bravery. Growth will come for all of us because in our hearts we're ready, we're ready for the road ahead and even though there will be some bumps, sharp curves and construction zones, we're ready. The growing pains will be something we can and will handle...

So I say, "bring it on boys and girls...let's rock!"

By the way, don't forget to come out to our Yahoo! Canada luncheon on May 21st. RSVP here

You can also register with the Edmonton LinkedIn network as well...

See you there...

Fusedlogic Teams Up With Yahoo! Canada

2008-05-14T20:54:00.002-06:00

Yahoo! Canada

Media release – For immediate release

Sherwood Park, AB – May 14, 2008 - how can you connect and generate business leads from 84 million searches a day in Canada?

One of the easiest and most powerful online tools out there today to help businesses market themselves virtually is through Search Engine Marketing . “fusedlogic’s Walter Schwabe, Chief Evolution Officer is extremely proud to present this rare opportunity to learn strategies related to online marketing and Search Engines in particular.from Martin Byrne, Head of Yahoo! Search Marketing Canada.

“We get more than 4 million searches a day from Canadians, it’s a high volume business and very interesting.” said Martin Byrne, Head of Yahoo! Search Marketing, Canada. “It’s really important for businesses to leverage Search Engines within their country and yet still be able to advertise to the entire world from their office.”

Consider that there are over 84 million searches performed each day in Canada alone. How does your business benefit from that? Fusedlogic and Yahoo! Search Marketing have teamed up to bring businesses owners from the Greater Edmonton Region this exciting opportunity to learn more about this issue over lunch.

The presentation will focus on how you can use Yahoo! and search engine marketing to increase your brand recognition, credibility and business leads. You will come away from the event with new insight on how to effectively leverage search engines

When: Wednesday May 21st, 2008

Time: 11:45 AM – 1:00 PM

Where: Golden Rice Bowl Restaurant, 5365 Gateway Blvd., Edmonton

Investment: $25.00 per attendee pre-registered, dim sum lunch included.

For more information and to pre-register, please contact:

Walter Schwabe 780-909-9787

seminar@fusedlogic.com

http://www.fusedlogic.com

About FusedLogic

Fusedlogic inc. is one of Canada’s leading Web 2.0 consulting firms, specializing in developing business growth strategies that include Web 2.0 technologies and social networking channels. The eight-year-old Alberta company is owned by Walter Schwabe and is located in Sherwood Park, Alberta.

About Martin Byrne
Martin has spent the last 15 years of his career building online business for a wide variety of Canadian and international organizations.

Initially Martin worked for several Canadian internet presence agencies building websites for TD Bank, BMW Canada, Bank of New York, Deutchbank and more. Martin eventually moved from building online businesses’ to managing them as Director of The National Post’s online news business, Director of media sales operations for Sympatico/MSN Canada and most recently taking on the role as National Director for Yahoo’s Canada’s Search Marketing operations. Martin also holds an executive MBA from the Rotman School of Business.

Rogers Communications, Bell Canada and Net Neutrality

2008-05-02T14:11:00.005-06:00

Well, low and behold Mr. Rogers has had a great year. Why? Well, in part because Rogers along with Bell are restricting the flow of bandwidth. Picking and choosing which content, sites and in effect businesses get bandwidth priority. If Rogers doesn't like you, your content or access to your content moves "slowly"...same goes for Bell. The end result is that you and I are dictated to by these telecom "dinosaurs". There's nothing hip about being a billionaire dictator Mr. Rogers.

Want to know what Net Neutrality is? Here's a cool video by Amber Mac.

TAKE ACTION: Time to mobilize the mob...send these guys a message or better yet a million messages. In fact, if you're a Rogers or Bell shareholder you may want to sell those shares. I've been a Rogers cellular client and now I'm on the lookout for a package elsewhere...good-bye Rogers...go to Bell and chat with them online...

By the way, nice work Amber.

Twitter, Guy Kawasaki, recommendation

2008-04-28T10:44:00.004-06:00

So I've been really engaging in twitter these last couple of days and have taken the opportunity to follow Guy Kawasaki and his comments. He recommended a new site just a bit ago called alltop.com, a company he has an affiliation with. I referred us to another blog and after a quick review it seems to be kind of cool, both the blog and alltop. I'll let you make your own judgments.

The State of Web 2.0 in Edmonton, Calgary, Sherwood Park, Alberta

2008-04-18T11:35:00.004-06:00

Recently, I've been asked to write an article in a quarterly magazine called "Propel", a Web 2.0 focused publication about to launch this coming June here in Alberta. First of all, I'm honored to be a part of such a cool project and second I'm excited at the prospect of having further opportunity to communicate my ever growing affection for this "Internet revolution" as Seth Godin calls it. My passion lies with explaining to you the small business owner that if you as a business haven't yet figured you should be paying attention to this phenomenon, you're so far behind now it's....well....sick. There's already large 2.0 dot coms being bought out like crazy that's an indication of the maturity of those communities and general state of trends to come.

Another exciting happenstance is that June will be about the time my new book should be launching. Resulting in what I think will be even more excellent opportunities galore as a result of this alignment of the stars. I can literally feel the energy converging in a positive way, things are clicking, falling into place and flowing nicely.

That said, I'm under a steep deadline now like so many other writers. This means I gotta go folks. Have an awesome and profitable day.

Calgary Alberta Real Estate Agent, Facebook Seminar

2008-04-10T00:11:00.004-06:00

Jeff, a Calgary Alberta Real Estate agent attended our Disruptor School and was nice enough to send us a video recommendation. Thanks very much Jeff, we were very happy to host you in Edmonton to talk about branding, social media and facebook.

Edmonton Alberta Real Estate, Facebook Seminar

2008-04-09T13:08:00.006-06:00

Here's just a bit of tooting our own horn at fusedlogic inc and ClearpathSEO...

Yesterday morning was our Disruptor School Facebook seminar for the Alberta Real Estate industry and Edmonton and Sherwood Park area small business. In the audience we had folks up from Calgary, members of the Sherwood Park and District Chamber of Commerce, Edmonton Chamber of Commerce members, Realtors, Real Estate investors, property managers, the Edmonton Journal, mortgage specialists, McDonald's, sales people from the print and sign industries as well.

Disruptor School Seminar Satisfaction Ratings:

1. A Disaster

2. Forgettable

3. A Good Job

4. Terrific

5. Excellent

RESPONSES:

1 = 0

2 = 0

3 = 9

4 = 42

5 = 70

AVERAGE: Overall feeling of attendee satisfaction: 4.5 out of 5

Every single respondent said "YES" they would recommend this seminar to a business colleague.

92.9 % of respondents said they would attend another seminar.

Alberta Business Link, ClearpathSEO presentation

2008-04-03T12:04:00.006-06:00

David, is talking about search marketing, search engine optimization and the differences between the two of them. Pay per click versus strategically positioning campaigns.
Talking about sponsored listing where you purchase that search phrase. Google commands nearly 80% of all search in the Canadian search market. Yahoo is only about 13% by comparison.

80% of all B to B offline sales is researched online first. More people use Google to find business coordinates than the Yellowpages...

Think about searching local listings and you as a business can subscribe to those local search result, this is a free service for page one listings.

So how do set up a online search marketing campaign?
Step one: Know and understand your customer
Step two: Pick keyword phrases that your customer is going to understand.
Step three: Pick and customize your landing page for each phrase. Every page should be treated as if they're a landing page.
Step four: Pick your demographics.
Step five: Write an ad that will entice targeted clicks but eliminate unecessary clicks. Be specific.
Step six: Pick key word phrases that specifically match the ad campaign.
Step seven: De-select the "content network"...this is the section of ad's on the side. You'll blow your budget quickly if you don't do this.
Step eight: Create as many ad campaigns as you have keyword phrases and land them on unique landing pages.

Now we're going to www.adwords.google.com to walk through setting up a campaign. We're setting up a campaign for Grant Macewan College.

We're setting up the demographics and locations associated with this campaign. Pick the type of ad, such as text, image, mobile, local business ad etc...

The headline is "Summer Business Schedule" with the description "Advance our education at work."

Google pulls in keywords, be specific and you may not find the ones you want...in this case all the keywords are about "grants" which is not what we want to target. We can use geographic locations as a starting point. We're picking "business education" that are tight selections, "continuing education" is also selected. You may even misspell your search criteria just to expand your reach.

A question: How do you do your keyword research? Use your toolbar or search "Google suggest" punch in your keyword phrases to do some research. Google trends works too but it's older information, type in two competing phrases to see which will be more effective for your campaign. Cool graphs. Google.com/trends is the location for this service.

Does google tell you how many people are using the same key words? Answer: yes, check out the key traffic estimator. This is how you test your predicted budget and pay per click results...picking the keyword phrase that will allow you to stay within your budget.

To monitor your campaign, use google analytics and insert your analytics code right in your website. If your adword campaign isn't getting you business then why do it...kall8.com

Now we're moving to Facebook (here's my page feel free to join.) to take a look at the ad word system there.

We're looking at how to set up a Facebook ad campaign. Click "business" at the bottom of the page to see all the different opportunities for you as a business owner.

We're going through the targeting system on the ad campaign system. We're targeting over "35 yrs of age in Edmonton". We're playing with the targeting elements, keywords, ages and so on...

There are ways to watch and measure your Facebook ad program with their internal analytics...

Also, make sure you set your budget and a low one per day budget.

Now we're out of time...email David[at]clearpathseo.com

My friend David Cree, ClearpathSEO

2008-04-03T11:44:00.002-06:00

It is with pleasure that I mention to you that I'm a friend and business colleague of David Cree, he's the owner of ClearpathSEO (among other ventures soon to be announced). I'm currently sitting in the crowd here at the Business Link and waiting in anticipation for David to start his presentation on SEO and online marketing. He and I are collaborating as many of you may know by now on the Disruptor School seminar series.

The room is filling as we speak and David is saying hello to everyone...

We've been brainstorming on new ideas and certainly David has some great ones as the coming weeks will prove. I find that he and I get along really well despite the fact that we're both creative leaders and take action types...there is much more to this story moving forward.

The exciting thing will be when we match his Russian development team and my guys from around the world to collaborate on some really cool ideas...really bright times ahead to be sure...

Ok, I'm going to listen now...I'll report back later...

Edmonton real estate agents

2008-04-02T20:59:00.002-06:00

Opportunity for Edmonton real estate agents

Facebook, marketing and you: How to do it

Media release – For immediate release

Edmonton, AB – March 27, 2008 - Everyone seems to be talking about Facebook these days and it seems like everyone is on it, but how useful is it as a marketing tool? How useful could it be for your business?

Right now, Facebook is almost untapped as a marketing tool. You have the opportunity to get into this growing advertising medium and learn why it and other forms of social networking are very important ways marketing will be done in the future, and are being done now.

“Facebook, bar none, is the most effective marketing tool available today,” said David Cree, owner of Clearpath SEO. “We know there are approximately 90,000 Albertans in the market to buy a new home who are using Facebook on a regular basis.”

Consider that one million Albertans use Facebook and log in an average of 2.6 times per day. Of those users, 29 per cent are in the 25-34 age range and 26 per cent are over 35. How old are your typical customers?

Clearpath SEO and Fused Logic have teamed up to bring Edmonton real estate agents this seminar on using Facebook as a marketing tool, but the principles apply to any business.

The seminar will focus on how you can use Facebook and other forms of social media to increase your brand recognition, credibility and business. You will come away from the seminar with many leading edge marketing ideas and a guide full of tactics and strategies.

When: Tuesday April 8, 2008

Time: 9:00 AM - Noon

Where: Greenwood Inn and Suites, 4485 Gateway Blvd., Edmonton

Investment: $99.00 per attendee booked in advance, online or $149.00 at the door. ***(max 60 people)

For more information and to register, please contact:

David Cree 780-233-0360 david[at]clearpathseo.com, or

Walter Schwabe 780-909-9787 info[at]fusedlogic.com

http://www.disruptorschool.com

About Clearpath SEO

We can improve your online marketing efforts by getting your sites higher ranking, more traffic and better results. We specialize in pay per click Google Adwords campaigns, Facebook marketing and search engine optimization, as well as web analytics, link popularity, site audits, conversion consulting and website architecture consulting.

About Fused Logic

fusedlogic specializes in developing business growth strategies, which include Web 2.0 technologies and social networking elements such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing. The eight-year-old Alberta company is owned by Walter Schwabe and is located in Sherwood Park.

We will be reserving several seats for media who would like to attend this seminar.

Please contact us in advance if you would like to attend.

Comscore report says integrate video...

2008-03-29T11:39:00.007-06:00

ComScore released an eye-opening report that shows that nearly 1 billion search results each and every month now contain an "Universal Search" result. Universal Search results are defined as anything other than a standard web result or paid search result, such as video, maps, local information, news, weather, etc. And its clear that video is playing a large part in those results.

From Small Business SEM:

of 1.2 billion queries, 220 million contained a universal result
16% of total clicks involved a universal result
87 million people searched, 58% saw a Universal result (38% of people saw video, 34% news, 19% images, 10% maps/stocks/weather)

This change in search results bodes well for local advertisers that take advantage of video as part of their online marketing strategy. By leveraging video local business has a better opportunity of appearing higher in universal search results. Video can also be included in map results and local results making video a multi-faceted search improver.

In addition to inclusion in Universal Search video remains a powerful branding and direct response medium for the web for small businesses. As Universal Search becomes more prominent video benefits will continue to grow as a vital part of online marketing for small businesses.

Here's a link to the Turnhere blog where the above post comes from, please excuse my laziness on a Saturday. However, the fact remains that if you're a small business owner, Realtor or any organization for that matter who wants to increase your exposure....video is here to stay. Our push at fusedlogic in this area is paying dividends for our clients and ourselves. View the fusedlogic youtube channel here.

This post brought to you by Disruptor School

Edmonton Alberta Real Estate Developer - Mark Martel

2008-03-28T22:39:00.002-06:00

Mark Martel, an Edmonton Real Estate developer and member of my Facebook group agrees to talk to me about Facebook, social networking and Real Estate, also mentioning that he's looking forward to attending our seminar on this subject too. This is a good chat despite the low light conditions.

Alberta Business Link Testimonials...

2008-03-28T00:45:00.004-06:00

Interesting...whenever you put a camera in the middle of a room, people start to get nervous. Especially, for those folks not used to being in front of one that much. Such was the case at the Business Link the other day. I sprung on the audience at the end of my presentation that I was willing to provide everyone with an opportunity to promote their business.

Of course when it comes time to step in front of the camera even after waiting in line, some folks kind of struggled to come up with what they wanted to say. Hit the record button and they freeze. Even though it seems simple to say something about the event itself and their business , it can still be a challenge.

It was very nice to meet everyone and for the ones who did decide to step in front of the camera, I provided them with a quick reference list of things they might like to mention just to unlock their brains. Things like their name, what they thought of the presentation (good or bad), the company they owned, worked for etc...and anything else they wanted to say...

In Nancy Chan's case she was very excited with being offered the opportunity to speak in front of the camera, that said, English is a second language for Nancy so imagine putting the above described pressure on top of struggling a bit with the language and I think Nancy did extremely well. Yes, she did take a minute to collect her thoughts and write them down and I wouldn't for a second fault her for that, even the most polished of speakers work with scripts. She is no less genuine and in fact really surprised me with her enthusiasm...she's terrific as was the entire audience.

But thank-you "Anonymous" for your positive good karma feed back and comments...some people I guess just insist in being negative, skeptical and just generally rude...what is it with people anyway?

This post brought to you by www.disruptorschool.com

Edmonton, Alberta Business Link

2008-03-26T23:29:00.003-06:00

I had the pleasure once again to present at the Business Link yesterday and there was a great crowd from all walks of life. Here's what a few of them had to say...

Walter Schwabe Featured in Singapore e-zine

2008-03-25T10:37:00.004-06:00

A small but interesting case in point that relationships can be built via social networking, if done properly. Awhile back I joined xing.com and through that and other social networking sites i met a really great lady from Singapore - Ange Teo. (By the way, email Ange and she can send you a copy of the e-zine). One of her business ventures, (she's very busy) is all related to "cross cultural consulting". To further her cause, she recently launched a new e-zine (very good idea and social object) and asked me if I'd like to be the inaugural feature, flattered, I of course said "yes". You can watch the two part video interview here.

This ongoing exchange with Ange is a also a tremendous opportunity for both of us to pursue other business related opportunities. In fact, we're currently talking about several ideas that make sense for us both...stay tuned you never know there may be a fusedlogic blog post coming from Singapore soon, right Ange?

Edmonton Alberta Real Estate Agent Judy Clare Packer

2008-03-23T10:55:00.003-06:00

In this youtube video, I had the opportunity to interview Judy of Edmonton's leading Real Estate team ReMax Excellence and ask her some questions regarding her profession. As well as, questions regarding social networking and whether she thought that social networking, facebook were gaining importance within her industry. This video is 7+ minutes long...and it's informative...

Calgary, Alberta, Real Estate, Facebook, Social Networks

2008-03-20T17:44:00.002-06:00

How many of you manage more than one social networking profile? How many of you manage more than one profile in addition to being on facebook? Here's some interesting findings on the fact that many of us have multiple personalities.

Alberta Real Estate, Edmonton, Facebook, Social Networking

2008-03-20T03:25:00.002-06:00

The overwhelming majority choose facebook as their definition of social media.

Edmonton Alberta Real Estate - More Targeted Buyers

2008-03-19T01:23:00.003-06:00

After having visited edmontonrealestateblog.com I was able to identify some stats on the Edmonton housing market. We talk about how Real Estate pros should generate interest from targeted buyers rather than simple leads.

Alberta Real Estate Association, facebook, more business

2008-03-18T17:24:00.003-06:00

There are many reasons to attend this impactful seminar on April 8th in Edmonton. Here's another.

Facebook, Real Estate, Alberta

2008-03-17T12:57:00.003-06:00

Join this fusedlogic facebook group too.

On Business in Idaho, USA

2008-03-14T14:28:00.002-06:00

The Curvature of the Earth

2008-03-11T16:11:00.002-06:00

A flawless full-day of travel is essentially over and now I'm skyping a bunch of people to ensure that tomorrow's presentation goes as planned. I love Skype, this is where it really shines...

It's also very cool to look out the porthole of the airplane and see the curvature of the Earth at 34,000 feet...very cool and I never get tired of that...reminds me that we're really very small, that the Earth is pretty large despite being on a business level much, much smaller than in the past...

Web 2.0, social networking and tourism

2008-03-09T11:31:00.005-06:00

A whole new level of opportunity to promote a region exists when a tourism department embraces social networking.

Here's how:

Here is a blog focused on widgets and 2.0 travel sites, there is an ever growing amount of online tools to use for travel, the consumer and corporations in the travel industry are aware of these, I'm wondering about your local government tourism department or agency.
Web2.0 traveling enthusiast - this is a person who travels to various conventions and conferences on the subject. Tourism departments have to love these and tap into them if they can. Imagine if you're the head of the tourism department for my family's favorite holiday destination. A place where we like to...vacaciones en busca de sol y relajación. Imagine if PV tourism got together to attract a major conference on the subject to truly be successful they'd have to become experts in Web 2.0 technology and social networking techniques to reach the audience.
Power for smaller locales exists because IF they can better understand what tools travelers are using to book trips and investigate getaways they'll be in a position to, well, position themselves better. For example, pay attention to these sites for geotagging - wikimapia - geotagging the world. Here's my flickr profile - admitedly I've been ignoring it because facebook is now the place I share pictures - largest picture sharing site on the internet by their stats.

There's much more on this subject but it's Sunday and I'm headed to the Shriners Circus with my family, that said, one final note. If you were part of this agency...wouldn't you want to ensure your 2.0 strategy was in full force?

This post brought to you by Ange Teo of

e²m expatetiquettementoring URL: e2m expat etiquette mentoring

Web 2.0 viral marketing for beer...

2008-03-07T13:21:00.004-07:00

I enjoy this video for several reasons...you can all speculate as to what those are...

This post brought to you by: Stealth Money Maker

Send me 1 Million Free Visitors!

Big Announcement...

2008-03-03T09:48:00.003-07:00

Have you ever been curious about those "affiliate programs"?

Over the last year or two I've been fielding the occasional question regarding affiliate programs...Are they real? Do they work? Are they scams? How do you do it? Does it take a lot of time? My answer has always been pretty much the same, I've never worked one of these programs and so I don't really know, it's really all about driving traffic and selling information though, so it's quite possible they do work.

And there sure seems to be a lot of various types out there. Someone must be making money but is it happening on a legit basis? Is there value there? Can you really become wealthy using these systems? Are they scams or legitimate online businesses? My personal reaction has always been one of "slickster", "amateurish" and non-credible when I come across one of these sites.

So as is the case many times in my consulting life, I've decided to investigate further and turn it into a project. This issue is now an adventure and case study with me as the "lab rat". I will publish the majority of the results for free for you to follow and learn from should you care.

I say majority because afterall this is going to take some of my money, time and effort and that has value. So, the portion that I will charge for will be two fold. Obviously if you want to use the same system as me there's a very small fee that the system charges. Second, I'll be charging again a small fee for a large video series and support material that I'll be producing which will involve the step by step happenings in much more detail for those who are serious about the idea and concept but want to study it more before they commit this series will be available for download. There will be no hype with this program just the straight goods, filled with accountability along with any improvements, if any, that I've made along the way.

Regardless everyone will be well aware of the overall results on a pass or fail basis and to what extent this "online home business" has performed. You'll see me win or you'll see me lose.

Yesterday was DAY ONE and as the first step, I've selected a program. For those risk-takers in the audience you can download this large body of information immediately for....wait for it.....US$50.00, which is called the "Stealth Money Maker". If you want to start it up as a business like I did you'll have to pay an additional one time fee of US$27.75. I considered this to be very reasonably priced for what I saw was very good value. After having seen the amount of material, I was pleasantly surprised. Bare in mind that I haven't yet read, watched or listened to all the material because it's going to take awhile just to download every zip file included in the package. Which can be done at my own pace with no time pressure.

I picked this system because of the massive amount of value built into it in terms of information you can purchase, not because of the name or the website design, which by affiliate standards is pretty much just as cheesy as most of them and again, that said, they seem to work.

So far, I can report that the Stealth Money Maker has delivered exactly as promised.

Also, I've taken the opportunity to learn more about wordpress as a blogging platform and have set up a new blog specifically just for this project. Quick short posts I promise.

This is where I'll be revealing all of my progress day to day...so come along.

sicktraffic.wordpress.com

Everyone Just Stop For A Moment...

2008-03-02T13:38:00.005-07:00

Originally at the behest of my wife Tracy, I began reading a book she bought for me called A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life's Purpose written by Eckhart Tolle. Yes this is the recent book made famous by Oprah's Book Club.

I'm currently on page 14, so it's very early and that said, already I'm inspired to write about a thought that has come to mind. Tolle talks about transcending to a new level of consciousness, leaving the "mad mind" consistent with our "normal" state. This is the dark element that starts wars, fights, crime etc...and he is essentially correct in saying that it is a dysfunction of the human condition, because as humans we are also capable of such beautiful things and acts of wonder.

I was struck by a similarity between the "mad mind" and those inner struggles that business people confront everyday. Fear of the unknown, fear of not being able to survive, succeed, make something as simple as a deadline, battles with their egos, their self-confidence, their belief system and the constant pursuit of that source of bravery that everyone has in abundance but rarely if ever taps into. We expend so much energy in this state of mind. I know not only because of my own battles here but also because this is where I spend a great deal of my time with my clients. Tough to move forward with the right business strategy if we have all this baggage underneath.

We forget while in the rut of the daily grind that what we really need to do is rise above that unproductive white noise...it's kind of like not sweating the little things so much. I could go on here for sometime re this train of thought but instead, I want to challenge you the reader.

Take a "zen day", reconnect with what's really important, establish a new level of calmness about your business and yourself.

I believe success is a choice, I choose to be successful each and every day, this is a good reminder that I also choose to be at peace while achieving that success. So many others don't and it shows in their results and general happiness.

Your next level of success will require a new state of consciousness.

Send me 1 Million Free Visitors!
This post brought to you by Yikesite.com "I Yike It!"

How to Crash the Internet, Religious Sensorship, Pakistan and Youtube

2008-02-25T21:16:00.006-07:00

Was this yet again another example of religious intolerance and fear that led to a cascading effect on the Internet on Sunday?

In my opinion absolutely. Further, Pakistan, by deliberately blocking access to Youtube has most likely had the exact opposite reaction that Pakistani government officials wanted. The controversy surrounding Youtube cartoons posted by Dutch Politician Geert Wilders related to the Islamic prophet Mohammad are now most likely more popular then ever with Pakistani Muslims and non-Muslims from around the world alike...not "popular" as in necessarily agreeing with the subject matter but rather due to the fact that the "viral marketing" nature of the Internet is now if full effect on the issue. It's like a horrific car crash, you simply can't help but slow down and rubber neck. Proof is in the pudding that this is a very powerful medium and with the advent of social networking now more powerful than ever.

My recommendation: just try to get along and be tolerant of others, so we can all get back to making money.

Question: Would you ignore something that upset you on the Internet or would you engage, thereby most likely bringing even more attention to it?

Traffic is Rocketing, Facebook, Youtube, Blog, Walter Schwabe...

2008-02-22T17:41:00.008-07:00

If you've been paying attention to this blog and my company for the past 7-10 days you've noticed a transformation taking place - in fact, you've been a big part of it. 2008 is the year of Global Micro-branding fusedlogic and as we are coming off a record breaking year last year, I've set our mandate to surpass that success. Happy to say we just added another new client today and that completely rocks!

We intend to accomplish the task of generating another RECORD BREAKING YEAR by way of first, creating a strategic plan for fusedlogic that will help us transition from a pure street level business acceleration firm with active project work in many locations throughout Canada, the US and elsewhere around the world, to one that is a hybrid. DONE! Now it's time for ACTION.

Further and without going into great detail here regarding the strategic plan, step two is to convert and move our knowledge capital and assets developed over our nearly (8) year history into consumable formats for purchase by those of you online who would want access to this highly unique and very valuable documentation, stories, brainstorming sessions, case studies, exercises, courses, interviews, etc... That's in progress.

Also as mentioned and in progress is an aggressive global micro-branding campaign for fusedlogic and if you're reading this right now, that's one indication our efforts thus far are beginning to pay off. Thank-you for your attention and time. In the last week we've increased our readership, subscribers also our traffic to the corporate site to be the best ever since we launched it almost (8) years ago, over 110 thousand ad impressions on Facebook, (here's our group - come join) youtube (go watch the whales) traffic steadily climbing, our ranking is climbing when you search for fusedlogic or Walter Schwabe.

Here's why you'll want to subscribe and come back often. As we revamp the corporate fusedlogic site we'll be adding great features and changing the content format a lot. I've always wanted the content to be very consumable and easy to navigate and that will continue, however, look for more video coming your way...in fact, I'll be adding more video everywhere so you'll have to get used to my mug showin up all over the place...I hope to keep all our videos below the (5) minute mark as much as possible to respectful of your time.

Finally, we're growing in terms of people. On our team right now we have writers, designers, programmers, illustrators, project managers, consultants and SEO experts that on occasion will work on a per project basis - this is the fusedlogic DISRUPTOR TEAM you've been hearing me talk so much about the past videos on the blog and elsewhere...these guys rock and if you need to generate more revenue over a short period of time...we may be the answer you've been searching for.

How would you engage us in a monthly coaching or micro-branding project? Well that's easy, as we've added AlertPay to our arsenal and it's cool...all you need is a credit card and an email address...bingo bango you're golden! We're super excited about being able to share this expertise with you in the effort to drive your success for you like a getaway vehicle at a heist...so you may not be ready to engage us in a coaching project today and that's ok, however, we would love to hear you're opinion and that doesn't require any commitment other than a bit more of your time.

Speak up, speak out...speak easy....

Send me 1 Million Free Visitors!
This post brought to you by Yikesite.com "I Yike it!"

facebook blocked this video on their site.

2008-02-22T02:25:00.002-07:00

Facebook, forced invites must go!

2008-02-21T15:35:00.002-07:00

If you're on Facebook, join this group to send a message to stop "forced invites". If you don't know what they are, it's simple. When you as a Facebook member sign up for a new application, typically you are asked to invite 20 of your friends to sign up as well. In many cases the application won't let you proceed or holds back information that you want until this task is done. Frankly, I and many others are tired of it.

TrafficJam.com - Who freakin cares????

2008-02-20T21:30:00.004-07:00

I received an email today from the guys at Blogrush announcing today's launch of TrafficJam.com, as their answer to "information overload". They call it a "headline testing machine" in their email, I suppose we'll see about that. My opinion goes as follows. First, I find that the Blogrush app does deliver as promised, it's simple, it works and I use it, more over I believe that everyone who installs it uses it too. This thing is fast becoming highly viral. The same for example cannot be said about YouChoose.net. I've uninstalled that app.

So based on this company's short history, TrafficJam.com should deliver as well. At first glance, I believe that everyone of the Blogrush members, myself included are really pumped and very excited about TrafficJam.com. Hopefully there are plans to integrate some cool analytical overlap from Blogrush and TrafficJam to go along with this cool destination.

So to answer the question - Who freakin cares??? I believe the answer will soon be millions of bloggers...way to go guys, I can't wait for the traction to grab - I'm lovin it!

Yikesite.com - "I Yike it!"

5 Critical Web 2.0 Questions ...

2008-02-19T12:20:00.010-07:00

I consider myself a moderate "techno-geek/entrepreneur" (someone comfortable with technology and this is probably you too).

However, it's also possible that many reading this are not "uber-geeky" and therefore not up on the latest proven technologies available for your small business; specifically in this case, those technologies related to Web2.0. Of course, even if you are a "techno-geek/entrepreneur" it's nearly impossible to be super familiar with all things massively cool on the Web2.0 tech and apps front. After all, everyone needs to save a minute or two during the day to actually run their businesses and generate revenue right?

That said, regardless of your level of understanding or for that matter enthusiasm re this "MASSIVE Internet revolution" "I'm gonna need you to go ahead and..."ask yourself (4) critical questions regarding your use of technology in your business..."mmmK?"

1. If we leveraged Web 2.0 technology more effectively, could we shift the market and gain a credible advantage?

2. Are "we" number one in our market space in terms of Web 2.0 technological capabilities or levels of appropriate adoption?

3. Are we working to ensure we're positioned as number one two years from now?

4. What consideration if any, have we put towards recognizing innovative ways Web 2.0 can be used to improve how we generate tremendous customer experiences?

5. What role can Web 2.0 play in our business to dramatically strengthen customer loyalty?

Contemplating the above questions may help you to generate new ideas that will help you position yourself away from your competition while simultaneously strengthening your relationships.

I would further recommend engaging your customers in this process, ask about their habits as it relates to Web 2.0 or social networking activities. (Another reason to speak with them in a meaningful way) Are they on Facebook, myspace, LinkedIn, youtube etc...? Correspond this information with your existing demographic data related to your target market to see if there's a match in the making. Pay close attention to women and the baby boomer markets particularly (good advice regardless) and recognize that they ARE adopting these tools at an alarming rate...here is an interesting set of articles by Ray Knight for reference.

This post brought to you by Yikesite.com - "I Yike it!"

fusedlogic Catalyst Moment - Communication

2008-02-18T14:03:00.001-07:00

From the Desk of Walter Schwabe...

2008-02-18T02:18:00.003-07:00

Blogrush versus YouChoose.net

2008-02-17T20:45:00.004-07:00

I've been noticing lately that as I use these two cool technologies that Blogrush seems to have considerably more action, it's easy to navigate and works well. I find the YouChoose widget interface not as clean, the flash expansion sizing element is actually kind of annoying...there also seems to be far less activity...I think thus far I have to give the edge to Blogrush over YouChoose.net.

By the way, apparently Jeff at Yikesite.com is having nightmares about "CAPITAL LETTERS re the fact that I, up to this point, have chosen to not use capitals where things should be capitalized in my posts. So, in order to show Jeff that I'm listening to his concerns, look for that to change...at least until I get lazy some night at 2 in the morning and revert back...rest easy Jeff, rest easy...

social networking - does it suck???

2008-02-16T05:50:00.004-07:00

many complain that social networking wastes their time, generates little to no results, isn't secure...your thoughts? does it suck or not? my opinion is that to do it well it does take time, the right strategy and approach...a thick skin too sometimes...however, i like the technology and how user friendly it's becoming for a non-programmer like myself...social networking affords me the ability to build my network really quickly on a global basis and as i continue to cultivate it, opportunity increases...so my answer is social networking doesn't suck...

an article on helium...

2008-02-16T04:56:00.002-07:00

Too often business people overlook the power of these simple rules.

Stop and ask yourself why? Why did you start this particular business? Was it because it was the only thing that you could afford? You thought you were smarter than the boss? Whatever your reason, if you didn't start by aligning it with your "soul purpose" for being on the planet, chances are you may not achieve "true" success. The kind of success most people only dream about. You may make some money, it may last more than a few years but it would be like eating food that isn't your absolute favorite but happens to fill you up. Even worse, eating food put before you that you can't stand but don't want to offend the person who made it.

Rule #1 - Only start businesses that are true to who you are as a human being, your true purpose in life. Put all other contributing factors secondary.

Rule #2 - Control your inner thoughts to reflect confidence, positive energy and your belief in your ability to be ultra successful.

Rule #3 - Make decisions quickly, procrastination kills a business.

Rule #4 - Give back to the universe. What goes around comes around.

Rule #5 - Utilize experts, the good ones will make all the difference in your abilities and results. They will save you massive amounts of time, money and frustration

disruptor team...

2008-02-15T13:08:00.001-07:00

my vote for the coolest software...

2008-02-09T13:17:00.000-07:00

if only my blackberry could take video...

take precise action today - dream

2008-02-09T12:51:00.000-07:00

Bit Gravity ROCKS!

2008-02-09T03:54:00.001-07:00

microooo or yahsoft

2008-02-07T13:49:00.000-07:00

either way you slice it...i hate the deal.

microsoft's $44 billion dollar bid for yahoo will end up destroying yahoo. true the house that yang and filo built has fallen from grace a bit since google's search algorithm began to vault them to the top in 1998...and yet yahoo i feel, is still a decent company for a lot of reasons.

microsoft will poison this company. microsoft since the days of windows 3.1 hasn't been able to design a truly user friendly piece of software since. win 3.1 wasn't elegant but it was at least disruptive technology.

since then it's been about world domination and positioning of lousy software...

Yahoo will die on the vine an ugly hated death if they accept this deal. the only reason this gets approved is out of "pure 61% per share increase" greed.

whales in banderas bay...

2008-02-05T10:50:00.000-07:00

behavioral targeting: coordinate online and offline...

2008-01-31T10:37:00.000-07:00

many of you know from reading my blog that i was just on a family vacation down in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. (PV, and by the way, i'm not attempting to rub this in but we had a great time.)

during the fun and sun i was lucky to be able to meet up with an old friend from high school - Andy. he and his family are doing really well down there, so well in fact, that he has decided to start a brand new business in Nuevo Vallarta, (which is a hot new development area 15 minutes north of PV.) - a water taxi/fishing charter/tour business...

over a starbucks we talked about all the opportunity that exists for this exciting new venture and that the key to success will be his ability to put tourist bums in seats on his boat on a consistent basis. the discussion progressed to tourist behaviors and how he should look to analyze and correctly target them...

now in the "offline" world, behavioral targeting means knowing things like foot traffic, preferred activities and shopping patterns once these folks step off of cruise ships. for example, Andy went to interview some customers of a rival water taxi service that morning. we talked about the fact that cruise ship tourists are just as likely to check out the destination port prior to arriving as guys like me who fly down for 2 weeks is important...so there exists the need to coordinate his marketing efforts online as well. we also talked by the way about the fact that his being Canadian may also play a key part for some tourists on the trust front. cultural differences also affect behavior, and as a good friend of mine Lori Colborne of LSL Marketing always says, "we like to do business with people we know, like and trust."

behavioral targeting "online" means for example that Andy will want to ensure his company makes as many lists like this as he can - tripadvisor.com. general targeting online also means consistently updating his soon to be developed web presence and cool content of his boat, tours and all that fun to inspire those customers who haven't left home yet.

by the way, i could get much more technical here on the subject of "behavioral targeting" regarding "amazon" type technology that provides examples of other products that you are encouraged to purchase which are based on the behavioral patterns of others who purchased the same book as you. this technology continues to be key due to the massive online media convergence that's happening but for now let's keep things at a higher level.

so when thinking of your business, consider a coordinated effort including strong positioning of not only his street corner presence and army of sales people but supporting that with better understanding the online habits of your preferred customer too.

knowing not only the habits of tourists on the ground but also those habits online will help Andy's new company better position itself to be the water excursion company of choice. in his case, this is a major advantage because for the most part the habits of his competiton include primarily beach vendors and street corner shacks to drive business...pretty two dimensional thinking - giving Andy a key early step up, at least for now.

facebook ad play...

2008-01-30T21:42:00.000-07:00

as of november of last year, facebook officially entered the ad game. some of you who are members of facebook may have noticed the ad's popping up on the side of your facebook page applications as well as in your news feeds. to test the waters and potential power of the facebook network i've launched a new facebook page for fusedlogic inc. further, i've also initiated an ad campaign that should run shortly once approved to be within the facebook guidelines.

the key here will be to measure response rates of this ad, (facebook has some level of analytics as part of their program) and also whether the fusedlogic facebook page will become what i hope will be a hub of communication on various business topics by all of you...

when thinking about your web 2.0 or social marketing strategy it's important to coordinate many different elements and to cross-pollinate the content your creating. sure, it takes effort to set these elements up initially and certainly to maintain these elements as well. i'm still of the opinion that these efforts on behalf of fusedlogic have paid dividends to our branding, exposure in general and also with better informed inquiries about our services.

reach out and add me as a friend on facebook, join the newly started discussion at the fusedlogic facebook page and/or here, i'd love to hear from you and what you have to say...let us know about your blogging efforts, web 2.0 and social networking experiences...

loyal customers or an evangelist army?

2008-01-29T10:26:00.000-07:00

i've written about customer loyalty before, specifically when referencing Kevin Roberts book lovemarks. in his book, Roberts talks about generating "loyalty beyond all reason".

never in human history has there been the ability to truly unleash the power of brand evangelism as one can today...web 2.0 has changed how the world communicates with each other about all sorts of topics - including brands.

as an organization, if you don't have a solid strategy for creating brand evangelism, well then, you're ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL my friend.

i encourage you to learn how to inspire and challenge your loyal followers (it only takes one to get things rolling) in some way to have fun explaining the virtues of your company, your brand or your products...if you are truly as i wrote yesterday the "ideal supplier", then you should have enough brand loyalty points to generate a wonderfully powerful evangelist army of one or more...

if you're struggling with how to engage your customers in such a way as to motivate them to talk about your brand, i can sympathize. one thing is for certain, there isn't a single answer or silver bullet...this closest i can come to that is "emotion". we as human beings live to have our emotions rocked. we want to laugh, cry, scream, argue, be challenged, be inspired, be empowered, bedazzled... those who disrupt our lives with opportunities to either participate or at least observe emotional disruption or turmoil in some way get the most attention, and by attention, i mean "compensation".

don't be afraid to push the limits, if you don't push the limits, you don't grow and frankly people won't pay attention...that said, if you're in the commodity production business, that's a different kettle of fish altogether. most people will never really care about your shoe lace factory enough to talk about it on youtube. even if you're employing 12 yr olds to slide the cotton lace through the plastic tube end - unfortunately even then, most won't care. why do you think Seth Godin named his book Meatball Sundaes and talks about that exact issue? here's an interesting interview by Hugh Mcleod of gapingvoid.com on that subject (a bit off topic here).

take a look at a couple of videos done by evangelists for heinz and chick-fil-a

a simple contest has inspired creativity on behalf of their brands. the other important aspect to this concept is that it's a two way conversation with customers, critically important, should you want to know more about how your company is doing.

so be disruptive today, inspire and create an evangelist army for your brand, be real and for goodness sake be brave!

did you like this post? inspired? bored? let me know by commenting...

ideal supplier?

2008-01-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

if you've been in business for any amount of time, there's no doubt been much discussion regarding "who" your ideal client is. you may have went through a long ordeal to identify this information or it may have been very obvious.

however, i believe the tougher question is "what makes you, the ideal supplier?"

you may be in a very crowded market space or you may have found a highly cool untouched niche market...regardless, how often have you turned the spot light on yourself and that of your business?

you may be familiar with the term "value proposition", this is consultant mumbo jumbo for "where's the beef?" What are you offering that's so great that your customers will fall all over themselves to get? small business owners are notorious for getting into the head down and butt up rut...spending more time on running everything operationally on a daily basis meanwhile overlooking their strategy to maintain their competitive edge.

evidence of this practice shows up when a competitor stomps onto the scene with a product or service that beats yours but that could have easily been offered by your company had you been paying attention...

matching up with your ideal client is more than being innovative and cutting edge, it's also ensuring that you deliver on promises to create the most amazing experience possible...

continually ask yourself, "Why would customers choose us?" put yourself in the moccasins of your customer and walk many many miles in them...only then will you be able to anticipate the finer details of what they expect and how you can continue to be the "ideal supplier".

too often in the tech space, software programmers are notorious for being arrogant and out of touch, resulting in programming that reflects their perspective. they truly believe they know best and end up building software that misses the usability mark, leaving you and i to curse and suffer with their crappy software...

be humble, listen, experience life through their eyes and give your customers the respect they deserve...they'll reward you by continuing to come back and if you're lucky they'll bring their friends...

buenos dias from puerto vallarta....

2008-01-13T09:35:00.000-07:00

well, the trip is going well...my daughter is loving the beach and we are really enjoying ourselves thus far. this is numero dos en es locacion and we´re very happy...

i hope to get a bit of work done on a very special project, i´ll keep you in the dark on that for now however, it should be spectacular when completed...

enjoy the day everyone, we certainly will too.

adios amigos!
walter

off to mexico...

2008-01-10T21:27:00.000-07:00

well the family and i are heading south to puerto vallarta for a couple of weeks, i'm back in the office on jan 28th...if i have some time i'll keep you updated while down there but ummmm don't hold your breath.....:)

Tom Peters

2008-01-03T17:19:00.001-07:00

How to Avoid the Meatball Sundae

2008-01-03T11:38:00.000-07:00

Dinosaurs die...it's what they do best!!!

I just attended an online seminar by Seth Godin at marketingprofs.com and he was terrific. This was in reference to his latest book Meatball Sundae and the idea that commodity companies are screwed. In Seth's words, "they're not organized for the net". They're dinosaurs, he spoke about Gillette and how Gillette could build the flashiest website in the world and people still won't care...

I agree. They build razors...a commodity or "meatballs"...and no matter how many batteries, blades and cool words they use to describe they're meatballs, no amount of whip cream is going to fix that reality...would you really spend more than 3 seconds at this site??? The fact that I'm talking about it at moment notwithstanding, who cares? My question is not the 3 seconds at the site...my question is who do they expect will go there and for what reason...to count blades...more likely this is a tired marketing team trying to validate their existence along with their flash guru buddies...waste of time and money! AND precisely what dino's do...don't get me started on Sears, GM, Ford...oh the list is long and notorious...

In fact, Dell was on this path too. A "new economy"company fell into a pit of dinosaur goo and today, right as we speak, is still struggling to find it's way out...to their credit they have begun to trudge out of this sticky mess by adopting things like crowdsourcing at ideastorm and blogging like crazy, but most importantly ideastorm provides a place for connecting people and not just any people, their admirers and haters. i myself had a Dell staffer comment here the last time I mentioned them...the first thing is "they're aware" and for a big company that's the place to start. They used to be fast, slippery, slick and mobile, hip and happin...then Michael and team got too big for their expensive britches and forget what got them there...awesome customer service, great prices on great computers built to order REALLY REALLY FAST...now they over charge for memory and upgrades and are struggling to maintain or in most cases re-ignite relationships with their customers...

Remember what happened to Microsoft when Bill didn't buy into the net??? Even the richest man in the world missed the boat...now he's all about connecting people anytime anywhere on any device...

Someone from Rogers asked Seth the question, "how should broadcasters respond to youtube?"

I jumped in and offered that "rogers should look to participate very creatively rather than look to push a traditional marketing tactic on the community..." Rogers may be slightly better organized to respond to this current business revolution than the average dinosaur but marginally in my opinion. They're slightly sexier because of phones that download music for kids but that said, behind the scenes, services, response times things that matter beyond the whip cream on the meatball etc marginally better...this by the way is really where Telus has truly sucked for years and it's why i will never do business with them ever again. Big is usually NOT better.

Here are some really cool examples of guys who get it and I've mentioned them before and Seth mentioned them today.

37signals - brought to my attention sometime ago by my good friend Jeff Ward - his product by the way is cool too. yikesite. threadless is another really cool company that has changed with way people design and buy t-shirts.

So the overarching message of today's presentation from Seth was fairly simple:

Organize for communication
Organize for communication at breakneck speeds...
and don't ask people to call you for example if you can't handle the call volume...
lead creatively by telling great stories rather than pushing tired old last century (TV ad's) marketing tactics via the web with flashy graphics...gillette.

Lead by finding ways to connect people with each other, having them tell a great story, preferably yours...the power has shifted drastically into the hands of the community, what Web2.0 is all about really. The really successful companies today are doing just that.

If you're in the commodity business, i and many others much smarter than me have been saying for awhile now...you're in trouble unless you wake up and reorganize.

For example, newspapers are dead, the old way of waiting for the ink to dry before you find out what's going on in the world.....DEAD and has been for awhile some of them just don't know it yet. Sometime ago i had the opportunity to speak with the owner of a small local in scope type publication and commented about the fact that she was missing a massive opportunity online...she replied that her tech advisor, a writer for the publication didn't see it that way, that he had traveled all over the world and interviewed many people. His conclusion, "there was no money to be made online for this type of business", REALLY, REALLY, (DINOSAUR LEADING A DINOSAUR COMPANY) REALLY WRONG...recently this publication has lost a substantial amount of its key distribution points and now her many decades old business unfortunately is in a tail spin. Unfortunately, this reporter was applying the old school "gutenberg" business model to the online space, of course, he came up short.

I hate to say I told you so...

Dinosaurs die, it's what they do....

Welcome to 2008!

2008-01-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

Well, 2007 was tremendous in many ways and challenging in others...this year i fully expect to be massive and even better.

Here's how i intend to make it so:

More speaking engagements abroad, in fact, I'm really looking forward to working with an agent of sorts regarding this.
Follow-up on the constant evolution of the Internet and how that relates to small business.
Launching of unique business courses related to the above topic available for all.
Continuing to serve our clients with the highest level of intensity and professionalism possible.

What are your plans for 2008?

Merry Christmas to all...

2007-12-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

i've added a thank-you to our site...have a massive 2008 everyone...

lifehacker...web apps list...

2007-12-17T12:46:00.000-07:00

found a great little web apps list at lifehacker and thought you'd like to see it...i haven't tried all the suggested software listed there, feel free to make a few suggestions of your own if you know of something more effective...

to be clear...

2007-12-17T09:44:00.000-07:00

i'm not at all adverse to people choosing to be environmentally responsible. the point of the last post and rant was to express my lack of respect for government who simply feel it's their duty to grow, tax and fine the population in order to look like it's proactive...

how about reduce in size, become more effective with less and motivate and reward rather than the current standard of tax and fine? red light cameras and photo radar as examples of the cash cow mentality...

i understand it's necessary to create new laws because our world is ever changing and sometimes we aren't responsible enough ourselves, such as turning off our vehicle while in a drive-thru for example or during extended periods of idle time. we shouldn't need a law for this type of commonsense, that said, we're lazy in many ways and so to effect any real change rather find a non-bylaw solution to motivate the population, they opt for a lack of creativity, write a poorly constructed bylaw and the result, well that varies from ridiculous to ineffective.

it's against the law to speed, vandalize and do all sorts of much worse things - all for the most part commonsense...yet every day there is a lack of motivation and general accountability enforcing these rule breaking behaviors in many and the police are kept very busy.

i suppose that what i'm asking for here is much more difficult than simply creating a new bylaw and then let the police handle enforcement...i probably shouldn't ask too much of our governing bodies...if they stray off the beaten path too much then the non-creative segment of our community will question as to why they didn't just simply pass a bylaw and be done with it...

i'm clearly speaking about a much bigger issue than a anti-idle bylaw...that was really my point.

time to rant...

2007-12-15T16:37:00.000-07:00

RESPONSE: Putting a stop to idle time

Victoria Handysides
News Staff
Friday December 14, 2007

As a private Sherwood Park Chevy Tahoe driving resident, I’d like to comment on this issue from another perspective. Regardless of whether this is a good environmental idea or not, let’s take into consideration the potential collateral impact of this idea “when it comes down the road” here in Strathcona County.

First, drive-thru revenue is crucial to those businesses that have them…cutting that puts people, including the elderly and others on fixed incomes (whom often take these jobs out of necessity due to things like a 9% tax hike) out of work. Secondly, look at this from a family perspective, mothers use the drive thru option. Why? So that they can get a cup of coffee, lunch for the kids or remove money from a bank account and they so don’t have to unpack all the kids and stand in line for lunch on the way home, many of our councilors are well past those years now and may have forgotten what it’s like.

Further, here in Strathcona County, we’re very unique in the region, we have a considerable amount of large industry paying taxes to help with our high standard of living and “we” (including myself) am very happy to invite and welcome billions more in investment of this type, (investment that both the City of Edmonton and Strathcona County are willing to fight over by the way.) We could balance this by focusing on attracting clean technology businesses but our Mayor thinks we’re already very well diversified on that front and so we don’t have a strategy for that, but that’s another story. By the way, during the past election she referred to in part the very businesses that would be directly affected by a bylaw of this type as part of that strong diversification. On the downside of those positive press releases stating another upgrader investment to locate here, comes a certain amount of pollution, not a surprise to this community, since that’s been its bread and butter for decades now, regardless of whether “they’re diligently operating within accepted air quality parameters” or not, that’s a fact, just look outside your window. So, who is adversely affected by this fancy new environmental stewardship? Well, almost everyone but certainly the elderly segment of our steadily aging population whom are still able to drive. Many whom are suffering from poor circulation or arthritis for example, which is a larger issue in -20 to -30 weather and requires a very warm vehicle to help alleviate the affects, I guess we should just say that all elderly should stay home in the cold or be prepared to shut off their cars, get off their lazy polluting duffs and quickly hop into the store…And should they fall and break a hip while being strong environmental stewards and obeying the law? I guess in the name of environmental stewardship we should accept that resulting increase in healthcare costs, how many beds does our soon to open new hospital have? How many elderly care facilities do we have here in Strathcona County?

I’ve got an idea that will actually address the “cut emissions during rush hour” issue…pass a car pooling bylaw, all residents traveling to and from the City of Edmonton must car pool or take public transportation unless you’re driving a hybrid. In the name of environmental stewardship, “let’s tax em and fine em”…I can hear the battle cries in the halls now…

But by far my favorite lead by example idea, another bylaw may state that all of Council must use Strathcona County public transportation to travel within County limits and when traveling to the City of Edmonton. That might actually be feasible if this Mayor and the last Council hadn’t lost touch with the needs of the citizens.

I suppose the positive irony out of all of this is that once our aging council decides to finally retire they’ll still be subject to their own law. May we be greeted by them at a fast food drive thru sometime soon, oh wait a minute, I forgot about those great pensions…

dell has the guts to see it through...

2007-12-15T14:31:00.000-07:00

i was cruising by horsepigcow.com and came across a video post regarding dell's blog and social networking strategy. i commented on the fact that i don't believe the story to be that unique, many large companies have experienced a loss of direction and fallen out of touch with their customers which has adversely affected their bottom-line (example below).

however, dell is probably unique in the sense that they had the guts to follow through with the strategy properly through the bad and the good. by the way, it should be noted that i've been to dell's Canadian hq when conducting business with them and found the people i was doing business with very friendly and ethical, unlike the experience this guy had some time ago, actually i found a lot of these types of blog posts...

one final note, i have in the past purchased a dell machine, an inspiron was my first laptop, i have not went back to them because of a few reasons but mostly because i have a client Alan Wong, owner of honor computer systems who sells computers locally and i choose to support him whenever possible.

open source marketing???

2007-12-14T11:24:00.000-07:00

my new facebook friend Jeremiah Owyang - web strategist and all around good guy has a video on his blog where a group of guys talk about the need to develop a more aggressive open source marketing strategy, that would include more corporate like action. (my comment is on his blog). i mention that i like the idea in spirit, however, i've worked with programmers who "rage against the corporate machine", all i can say is good luck boys...

POST method report...

2007-12-13T08:50:00.000-07:00

i dropped in on Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff's blog this morning, the first time in a while and found some interesting work their doing as part of their role at forrester research. i've wanted to for sometime now move to the next level of discussion with respect to how to truly maximize one's efforts regarding social networking etc...

and this morning it seems as though Josh and team are zeroing in on that very subject...cheers guys...

POST stands for "people", "objectives", "strategy", "technology", everything a growing social networking neophyte should consider before launching the big blog...i've put in my request for a look at their recent report and hope to get a response and the report so that i can report to you and back to them my thoughts...

think before you drink...

2007-12-12T10:10:00.000-07:00

having just been traveling, i wish i would have seen this video prior...UNBELIEVABLE!!!

road warrior...

2007-11-22T04:39:00.000-07:00

i've been traveling a lot lately...honolulu, hawai'i in late october and many trips down to southern alberta these last few weeks...back on the road to the US on sunday...i hope that most of the US thanksgiving air travelers will have returned home by then...that said, these are exciting times, filled with many exciting projects...

honolulu...

2007-10-22T16:23:00.000-06:00

i'm almost all packed as i'm heading to honolulu for a week or so on business and it's going to be terrific, lots of business to be done. i may, over the next few days include a few pictures and comments on the goings on, if i have time...i take off at 6:40am tuesday to seattle (a town i've come to really enjoy and like, nice airport too) for 1.5 hours before heading to the islands.

i've been to oahu and almost all of the islands over the years but haven't been for sometime, so i'm looking forward to it...

Aboriginal Women's Professional Association

2007-10-20T14:36:00.001-06:00

today i had a wonderful opportunity to present and speak with a group of women entrepreneurs as part of a conference put on by the Aboriginal Women's Professional Association at Norquest College who wanted to know more about how to leverage the internet for their businesses.

i chose to make it all about them today and answer as many questions as I could in an hour, there simply wasn't enough time for the subject. that said, my hope is that everyone learned something new today and will take on the task of launching a successful website for their business soon. the power point presentation that i had prepared for today is now available for download on our website at fusedlogic.com. good luck to all the women in their future endeavors and please don't hesitate to contact me at any time...