The End!

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!

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...

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...

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....

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

My mini-saga

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...

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!

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

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...

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...

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

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)

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?

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.

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.

1. 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.
   
2. Who are the Bank of America customers brand evangelists online and are they involved in the campaign? It doesn't appear so to me.
3. 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?"

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

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

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

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...

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?

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"...

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..."

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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

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

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

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

Edmonton Linkedin Business Event

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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.