I'm a web strategist and aspiring know-it-all with a passion for all things digital. I've worked in PR, advertising and not-for profit industries, and now I run a creative agency. These are the things I think about, and am sometimes compelled to write. More...

Communications Planning Ebook

Aug 07 2008

For the past few months, I’ve been watching Dave Fleet develop his Strategic Communications Planning series with interest. He recently finished the series, and with some goading from the Twittersphere, he’s now turned it into a free eBook.

The book takes you through the context of the strategy all the way through to budgets and evaluation, and Dave provides suggestions for best practices along the way.

If you’re new to strategic communications planning, this is a must-read. The amount of information might be a bit overwhelming, but it’s an excellent framework for anyone who needs to write a detailed communications plan.

Thanks for a great resource, Dave!

Social Media 2015

Jul 30 2008

6am – your alarm goes off. You awaken to a song streamed over the web, and based on your musical preferences and the day of the week. You fumble, reaching for the skip button, to listen to the day’s top headlines from your news aggregation application. The clock gives you the weather report for the day, makes suggestions for what to wear, and reminds you that your first appointment is at 9:00.

In the bathroom, you shower and shave, and add a note to your family’s collective shopping list via the bathroom computer that you need more toothpaste. In the background, an application has already sent electronic coupons to your phone. As you step onto the scale, your weight and body fat percentage are sent to your lifestream, altering your online workout schedule slightly to accommodate a slight weight gain over the past couple of weeks.

You head down to the kitchen for breakfast, and add a few more items to your shopping list. You read the rest of your news at the kitchen table on your e-book reader, wirelessly sync your laptop and phone, and head off to the office.

When you get in the car, you find notifications that your friend has sent you a new playlist of songs he thought you’d like, and a crowdsourced website tells you where the best time and place will be to fuel up that day.

When you arrive at the office, you check your communication timeline, a conglomeration of personal and professional messages sent to you from your social graph through any medium. You notice that a friend has an art opening that night, so you check your wife and children’s calendar, and seeing that they are free, you add the event to yours and notify them.

Your job is different that it was a few years before. You collaborate with larger teams, most of which are spread across the world. Projects are managed through an online system, and all documents are stored within the system. Software is almost exclusively web-based now, with the exception of high-processor applications like video production and 3d rendering. You communicate with colleagues through a video instant messaging system that allows group meetings, one-on-one exchanges or broadcast messages that will be added to a timeline. Email is still part of the organization, but it is primarily used for contracts and purchase orders.

At lunch, you leave the office to run a few errands. As you walk down the street, your GPS enabled phone alerts you that a friend of yours is in the neighbourhood. Since you both have your status set to “available,” you call him to meet up for lunch at a nearby cafe which was recommended through your mobile device.

On your way back to the office, your phone once again notifies you that one of the items on your shopping list is available for well below regular price at a store you’re near. Checking the price, you decide to stop in and pick it up.

After the day is done, you head back home, but first you need to pick up something for dinner. Before you left work, you checked into your online meal planner, and selected a few favourites based on your mood and how much time you had to cook. You sent the suggestions to your wife, who narrowed it down to salmon with asparagus and rice.

Knowing that you were out of salmon and low on rice, your shopping list automatically added the ingredients to your list on your mobile, and based on your location, route, best prices and user reviews of quality, directed you to the best store to do your shopping quickly before heading home.

Later that evening, at the art opening, you tell your network via your mobile device that you’re at the gallery, and find out that one of your friends has a colleague in the same business as you at the same event. He introduces you remotely, and you meet in person and talk about the exhibit. When you part, you add each other to your respective networks wirelessly, and you tag him as a friend of your friend, and a potential business partner. This tagging system lets you control the flow of information, separating your personal and professional life seamlessly.

When you return home, you unwind in front of the television for a little while, selecting a couple of shows to watch before bed. Broadcast television is still around, but you watch most of your television on-demand through your internet connection. You select one network show, and an independent comedy show from Australia produced by a couple of writers in a small studio. While you watch, you discuss the show with a number of other loyal fans, some of whom you’ve added to your network. Your personal ratings and feedback on the show actually affect the content of the episodes, so you always make a point to watch and discuss it. Since the user feedback module is through your remote control, your wife, a recent convert to the show, gives her feedback along with you.

Your ad experience is the same through all shows, and streams information and commercials based on your profile, and what you’ve requested. Since you’re planning a trip to Italy in the summer, ads for luxury travel packages are common.

Before bed, you head to your computer to pay a few bills. The system has identified a cheaper banking plan for you, and noted that you keep going over your mobile minutes, and suggests a better plan. You click ‘accept’ and it deals with all the paperwork for you. You check your account where you’ve been saving for a new boat, and read some suggestions from fellow bankers on how to save money faster. One of the members is a chartered accountant, and makes a suggestion that will help you reach your goal a month earlier. You contact him through the network to say thanks, and to set up an appointment for financial planning.

Before bed, you set your alarm and wakeup preferences, updating your status to “away,” and taking you off the grid until the next morning.

This was a bit of a thought exercise for me, but I don’t think that it’s a social media future that is too far off. In fact, most of this technology already exists, at least in some asynchronous form. Here, the recurring themes are a single, unified social graph, ubiquitous access to that graph, integration across all platforms, location-aware services, and above all, non-intrusion. From a marketing point of view, the ads were all served to an individual as information, not as a mass message. As a result, they were accepted, and not filtered out. Above all, the entire experience was unobtrusive and simply part of life, rather than another thing to do or website to check.

Social media has a long way to go before it’s a part of everyone’s life, but as the technology for mobile, entertainment and home computing continues to improve and become more connected, a future of social media as an enabling tool in our daily lives, and as a means of connecting in real life is very likely.

Fat Canary gets a logo

Jul 28 2008

One of the main reasons I opted to name my company “Fat Canary” is the visuals element of the name. Luckily, a friend of mine felt this way as well and designed a new logo for me.

James is a software engineer so it may not be the “typical creative,” that we’re so used to seeing, but I think it captures the name quite elegantly.

Thanks James. Who says engineers and designers are separate disciplines?

Who does social media own?

Jul 28 2008

The question of who “owns” social media has been raised a number of times, by a number of very smart people. Mitch Joel of TwistImage believes that it’s the digital agency who needs to educate themselves and take ownership of the social media landscape. Jeremy Pepper – one of the most intelligent voices in the PR community, believes that PR will lose social media to the advertising world for the simple fact that agencies know how to sex things up and charge for it. Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester lays out the organizational difficulties of social media being stuck in a single silo, and argues that who owns the program depends on the organization and the nature of the program.

This is a question I’ve been thinking about a lot lately since I’ve left the agency world to go off on my own, but the more I think about how the media landscape will look in the next 5 – 10 years, the more I think we’re asking the wrong question.

As it stands, social media programs are attempted by agencies, PR firms, contractors, and the odd social media firm. Some big agencies on all sides of the fence have tried to build up expertise in the area, but for the most part they have been unable to move the needle or get through the levels of bureaucracy at the top of the food chain necessary to really establish social media as a viable offering within the organization.

Perhaps I’m drinking the social media Kool-aid a little too much here, but I think the real question we should be asking – if not now, then soon – is “who does social media own?”

Right now, the answer is “no one.” In terms of marketing budgets, social media only represents a small fraction of budgets, but when you boil it down to the core strategies of openness, transparency, engagement and consumer participation, it’s the key linchpin that links all other disciplines to the strategy. When you consider the integration of social ads, online video, event and PR activation, and the creative that goes along with it, social media needs to be the leader, or you’re left with a situation where the tactics are leading the strategy instead of the other way around.

At the end of the day, this is about strategy leading the game and pushing creative into a supporting role. As much as marketers like to think that social media was created by us, or that we somehow have ownership of it, the reality is that it’s merely and enabling social change, and not simply a communications vehicle. As consumers continue to change their actions and expectations based on the technology that is available, and that will be created down the road by the next Facebook, the next Twitter or the next iPhone, the importance of making strategies social will be all the more important.

Over time, social media won’t be clamoring for a spot at the table with television and interactive – it will be deciding the involvement of all the players – assuming they fit the strategy, that is.

Every day I write the book

Jul 22 2008

Starting a new chapter in one’s life is always a bittersweet experience. The feeling of leaving something behind is often a difficult one, but the knowledge of continual growth and evolution more than makes up for the wistful feelings of nostalgia of turning the page.

As of this week, I’ve moved on from my position at Fuel Industries. Over the past three years, I’ve been a part of some amazing projects, worked with some insanely creative people, and learned a lot about the industry and about the importance of pushing the boundaries of creativity in everything I do. I enjoyed my time at Fuel, but the time has come to keep moving forward.

I’ll be unveiling the details of my evil plans over the next few weeks, but I’ve decided to return to the entrepreneurial ranks and launch my own company under the name Fat Canary Communications. For now, I’ll be focusing on developing web and public relations strategies for a core group of clients with some help from a few colleagues, with the goal of growing the team as things progress.

Anyone who has ever left the safety of a full-time job with benefits to build a new company from the ground up will tell you that it’s as terrifying as it is rewarding… but in the end, nothing good comes without risk. Now that I’ve begun a new chapter, the excitement of filling the pages ahead is a great feeling.

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.

- Walt Disney

No matter what you do, always keep moving forward.

Social Media Breakfast returns

Jul 09 2008

After a stupendously successful first time bringing Social Media Breakfast to Ottawa, we’re doing it again, and this time the founder of the entire movement will be making the drive from Boston to Ottawa to join us.

This month’s speaker is Rob Lane, CEO of Overlay.tv – an Ottawa-based startup that allows producers to customize and monetize their videos by overlaying contextual information. Rob will be discussing three case studies in online video ranging in size from a multinational advertising agency to a teenage boy. He will also discuss how social media helped build the Overlay.tv brand and its product.

Social Media Breakfast Ottawa 2 will be held Tuesday, July 15 at the Offices of Overlay.tv – 80 Aberdeen Ave, Suite 401. As always, the breakfast is free, but you’ll need to register at http://smbottawa2.eventbrite.com. The day starts at 7:30, and is a great opportunity to network and get your questions about social media answered.

Those who remember the EventBot from the previous breakfast (or from the Fringe) will be happy to know that it will be back at SMB2, and you can ask it specific questions about social media that we’re planning to turn into a video podcast after the event.

In the meantime, feast your eyes upon the video of last month’s talk at Social Media Breakfast:

Event Details:

What: Social Media Breakfast Ottawa 2
Where: Overlay.tv, 80 Aberdeen St., Suite 401
When: Tuesday, July 15 at 7:30am

Fringe 2.0

Jun 17 2008

As many of you know, I’ve always been involved with the local arts community. Sadly, with the demands of a day job being what they are, I’ve not had as much time to devote as I would like – but the one piece of involvement that I have held onto is being on the board of the Ottawa Fringe Festival.

The Fringe, for the uninitiated, is a theatre festival where local, national and international performers converge, and over 10 days, put on over 300 performances (many, many more in some markets) and 100% of their box office takings go to the artists themselves. The festival itself serves to organize venues, schedules and publicity, but the actual content of the shows is left completely up to the groups that are lucky enough to be selected.

Now, you may think that a not-for-profit theatre festival taking place in Ottawa where all of the box office proceeds go to the artists must be rolling around in thousand-dollar bills and diving into silos of gold boullion. The reality, however, is that any charitable organization needs to squeeze every last cent they can out of a dollar, and reaching new audiences by buying full page newspaper ads is not even a consideration.

That’s why this year, the festival will be making a major change in focus to include a number of social media marketing initiatives to reach new communities, make new friends, and build the visibility of the festival both locally and on the international circuit.

Blogging. It’s a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at how many organizations don’t blog about what they’re doing. We made the conscious decision this year to hire a community manager who would blog not only about what we’re doing, but about what our performers are doing, what our sponsors are doing, and what our audience thinks of the shows. We have two community managers manning the blog this year, and no doubt other staff and volunteers will get involved as the festival kicks off.

Commenting & Feedback. We started allowing comments on individual show pages last year with some trepidation. We were afraid of companies trying to sabotage one another, performers complaining about bad reviews… and there was not one issue. This year, audience members are free to review shows directly on the site, for all the world to see.

Facebook. We’ve had a Facebook group and fan page for a while, but this year, thanks to Refresh Partners, we also have an application that allows users to search for shows they want to see, share it with their friends, and buy tickets directly. When you select a show you want to see, it sends a notice to your newsfeed, letting friends know the shows you’re attending and when.

Flickr. When you’re dealing with an event that is fairly hard to explain in words, photos are a powerful way of conveying emotion. As always, we have an official Fringe photographer, but this year, we’re lucky enough to have a photographer who is doubling as community manager and reaching out to local photography enthusiasts to set up a public photography contest for the Festival. Every day, a winner is chosen from the public Flickr pool, their photo printed and posted at the Fringe tent, and linked online – and the photographer submitting the best photo of the festival, as chosen by our judges, is awarded a gift certificate for dinner at a local restaurant.

Video. A few years ago, wrestling with the idea of video was next to impossible. Connection speeds, technology, processing tools and know-how was far out of reach, but now that it’s trivial to take a video on a cell phone and upload it to Youtube, there’s no reason for organizations NOT to integrate video into their web strategy. This year, in addition to gonzo interviews from the festival we’re partnering with local startup Eventbots to place a speaker’s corner-style video booth at the Fringe Courtyard. Videos are going to be posted on the Ottawa Fringe site, on Facebook and on Youtube to give people a first-hand account of what the Fringe is about.

Real Life – the ultimate social network. At the end of the day, the festival is about art and people – and that’s something that can ultimately only be experienced in person. Our goal this year was to put ourselves out there, and make some friends. To solidify those friendships, we’re holding a Social Media Wine and Cheese on the first Saturday of the festival (June 21), where we can meet with members of the community, discuss ways that we can better engage with local communities and improve visibility for the upcoming years. If you’re an Ottawa blogger, and want to attend, just shoot me an email to ryan (at) ryananderson dot ca, and I’ll give you some more details.

In theatre terms, what we’re doing is a bit of a social media dress rehearsal. Some parts have been sloppy, some have been surprisingly polished, but the organization has learned every step of the way and sometimes, that’s the way you have to do things. At the end of this festival, we’re hoping to have a block of clay that we can shape into something that will last for years to come.

If you’re in Ottawa, I hope you’ll join us at the Festival, running June 19 – 21 in the heart of Downtown Ottawa.

Emphatic ignorance is a difficult stumbling block

Jun 13 2008

Regardless of the field you work or live in, ignorance of what you do or the community you participate is maddening, depressing and disheartening. It’s what causes rifts in organizations, and is why communicators don’t get along with lawyers, why creatives don’t get along with suits, and why engineers don’t get along with… well, anyone.

Even more infuriating than ignorance, however, is when that ignorance is coupled with opinion and backed up with insistence. For some reason, I’ve been coming across this type of person more often recently. Any rational argument I could respond to with examples or statistics, but the ignorant insister doesn’t deal in such sundry as data and proof. This is the type of person whose line of argument is based on unsupported opinion and anecdote.

“Social media doesn’t work.”

This phrase is like nails on a blackboard to me, because it’s the first warning that I’m going to have to have a conversation with someone who doesn’t understand the first thing about the thing that they want to argue about.

Usually, when I dig deeper as to the meaning behind this broad generalized statement, that lack of understanding comes out very quickly. First of all, to say that social media “doesn’t work” shows that they’ve already missed the point, fully and completely. Social media works by virtue of the fact that I’m writing this and you’re reading it – that I’m connected with like-minded people on Twitter and that I make plans with friends on Facebook. What they mean to say, of course, is that social media isn’t an effective way of creating value for a company, and once I can guide them to this much more rational thought, it’s much easier to point out why they’re wrong.

More often than not, their reasoning is based on one of two things. Either a) they don’t use social media, and therefore believe that no one else does, or b) they’ve heard people complain about being spammed on Facebook or something of the like, and have extrapolated that to mean that everyone hates every kind of social media campaign through any technology.

As social media “early adopters,” it is, of course, our duty to educate others on community, technology and the culture that pervades it, but sometimes, when faced with a case like the ones I’m describing, it’s best just to walk away. Sadly, I lack whatever gene it is that would allow me to walk away from a baseless argument, and it causes me to engage in more angering conversations than I care to admit. Call it a character flaw.

In many way, these arguments are like someone who walked through Chinatown in the summer on garbage day and then spent the rest of his life convinced that the Chinese are “a smelly people.” As human beings, it’s in our nature to make snap judgements based on little information. If cro-magnon man spent too much time wondering if the sabre tooth tiger was an enemy or a friendly kitty we probably wouldn’t have made the cut for natural selection.

Of course, it goes both ways. Assuming that a social approach is key for every business because of your own personal success or affinity for blogging is of equal ignorance. The wise man knows what he does not know. The people I have the most respect for are those who admit their lack of knowledge and approach social media from a neutral standpoint and a desire to learn. They will be successful because they don’t come into something they don’t understand with preconceived notions, and can therefore be objective about how to integrate social media into their business practices, if they do at all.

Both obstinance and zealotry are dangerous traits, and both are derived from ignorance. Be wary of both, in yourself and others, and you’ll have a better chance of arriving at “understanding” with whatever you do.

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