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

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.

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...

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.

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

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.

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.

Calgary Alberta Real Estate Agent, Facebook Seminar

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

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.

Edmonton real estate agents

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...

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

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.

Edmonton, Alberta Business Link

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...