Archive for April, 2008
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 29th, 2008
Spring is still threatening to visit us in Vancouver, the birds are chirping and new media moves along at a swift pace. This months reasons to be cheerful also include:
Plaxo Pulse – I’ve avoided Plaxo like the plague since using it a few years ago on a client project and having it constantly crash so I was skeptical when a friend invited me to join Pulse. I have to say though it seems that the Plaxo team have been working away to develop a real alternative to professional networks like LinkedIn and to integrate other social media sites.
Ever on the search for the right accounting package, I recently met with LedgersOnline a local firm specializing on online bookkeeping solutions. Could this be the one?
Goodboog is another local offering that provides an on-line catalogue designed to facilitate the promotion of products and services online in 25 different languages.
Send e-mail to the future with Time Machiner.
Okay the last one is rather whimsical – it is spring after all.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 28th, 2008
The Canadian Women in Communications recently hosted a workshop on negotiation for women. Hosted by Rodger Harding, a former diplomat, the session honed in on difficult issues we have to deal with in the workplace and the tools we can use to effectively negotiate for the best results. Here is a quick recap of some of the tips Rodger recommended:
1. When entering a negotiation situation, always know in advance what you want to get out of it, what your objectives are and ensure that these goals are realistic.
2. Not only should you know what you want to get out of it but you should know in advance what concessions you are willing to make to achieve your goal. Ask yourself, what is the absolute bottom line.
3. Take some time to consider who you are dealing with and any background issues that may come in to play.
4. Prepare a compelling argument as to why the opposition should agree to your proposal. Make it attractive from their perspective.
5. Ask – is it worth it? If the answer is no or if your heart just isn’t in it then your negotiation position is weakened from the get go.
6. Always be rational and do not let emotions get the better of you. If you ‘re in a negotiation session and this happens, ask for a time out and get things under control before returning to the bargaining table.
The session was a great opportunity to brush up on negotiation skills and (for me) to be reminded of one of the reasons I founded Out-Smarts – so that I could be in control of my own negotiations and mitigate my exposure to office politics. Thanks Rodger!
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 25th, 2008
The concept of personal branding is de riguer these days and being the in thing, its getting a lot of coverage. Personal branding is, in essence, a means to self package yourself in such a way as to present a particular image for career purposes. Its the way you market yourself to your peers and prospects.
The idea of having a professional image is not a new one – uniforms have been standard for many occupations for centuries. The difference with personal branding is that the concept is not to make you look like one of the crowd rather to make you stand out from it.
When considering your Personnal brand you should look at many factors: the way you speak, the way you look, the car your drive, your character but the single most important aspect to consider when building your brand is that it has to be real. It has to reflect the real you. A personnal brand that portrays a false image will be apparent to everyone you come into contact with and will do more harm than good. For example, there’s no use trying to talk in a sexy foreign accent, people will just laugh at you.
I am fortunate to already have a sexy foriegn accent (or so I am told) so rather than try to North Americanize my vocabulary, I emphasize my Scottishness – its part of my brand and something that makes me stand out from the crowd.
Identify the unique aspects of your personality or the way you look and use those to make you stand out from the crowd. By building on a personal brand that it true to you, your efforts will be more rewarded and your image will be more realistic and authentic.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 23rd, 2008
Business cards need to stand out in order to get noticed and creativity is key to achieving this. Odee highlights some great examples of unique cards that make a statement and stand out or even “grow” your business.
Whilst your at it you might as well check out their hilarious typos too.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 22nd, 2008
Collaboration is the key mantra these days. It started out with web 2.0 on the Internet and is now spilling over to encompass both advertising and marketing approaches.
By engaging your audience and involving them they become more aware of your offering, they are more likely to buy and they return to your site frequently further entrenching your brand loyalty as well as increasing your site traffic.
Here are some examples of great interactive viral campaigns. BoConcept, the furniture retailer based in Denmark is currently running a competition called “No More Ugly Furniture”. They ran print ads in local papers to promote the competition which encourages participants to upload pictures of their hideous furniture for a chance to win $7000 towards new Bo Concept furniture. At this time over 1000 photos have been uploaded. Winners will be decided by public vote online. Each person who votes is also entered for a prize. Check it out and while you are at it please vote for my crappy banker box audio stand 
).
Another great example of collaborative campaigns is being run by Kokanee beer campaign. Ranger Live or Die campaign gives the audience the opportunity to terminate the “ranger”. The park “ranger” has been a feature in Kokanee ads for years now as he hunts down sasquatch. The audience can go on line and vote to keep or kill the ranger – whilst you don’t win anything by voting the site you visit does a good job of brining to your attention all the other Internet hubs you can visit Kokanee on and as well as links to competitions.
The last one is for the movie, Forgetting Sarah Marshall. A series of ads went up in public locations with phrases like “I am so over you Sarah Marshall” prompting word to spread debating whether they were the retaliatory tactics of some jilted lover. In true viral fashion, even radio stations began to debate the story.
The beer one doesn’t interest me so much but I’ve been back to BoConcept every day since I uploaded my audio unit (if you can call it that) and I visited the movie site, watched the trailer and might even go to see the movie.
The key is to attract the right target segment with a meme and once you have them, give them a good reason to spread to word and interact.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 14th, 2008
Its tax time again and with the deadline looming the online tax tools like QuickTax are getting slower and slower as more people log on to get the inevitable done and filed. What better a time to consider some Canadian on-line tax tips:
- All income should be recorded and reported even Second Life income – if you sell property or make money on any of the virtual worlds remember to record it
- To speed up processing, use Netfile and or Corporations Canada online to file your taxes online.
- All expenses incurred to promote and grow your company on-line should be included in your returns.
- If your business is solely an online entity, be aware that tax rates are the same in the virtual world as they are in real life. Remember to claim expenses for your home office if applicable.
For more information on the tax considerations for e-commerce and the Internet go to CRA and Canada Business and if in doubt contact an accountant.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 10th, 2008
I’ve been Twittering for a while now and find it interesting to see how the way people use the micro blog has evolved. Here are a few different applications I have seen Twitter used for.
1. To establish expertise.
2. To spread the word about product and services offered.
2. To enhance customer service offerings.
3. To drive traffic to a blog post or web site.
4. To illicit feedback for product and market research.
5. To expand or reinforce your brand.
6. To collaborate with remote partners in short blasts.
7. To give product update and enhancement information.
8. To blatantly sell – I wouldn’t advise this but I have seen it done…..
9. To find the applicable business partners.
10. To keep up to date with goings on in your market.
Obviously all of these depend on your followers and following but once you have these in place, watch the Tweets and you will see for yourself some of the innovative ways people are using this tool.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 08th, 2008
I bet you’ve been dying to find out how I finally managed to get the podcast up last week. It was no easy feat let me tell you….
I got several responses to my request for tips. One very intuitive one was to use iTunes to reduce the size of the file. Choose Preferences and Advanced and Importing (click on custom to set the rate) in iTunes should get you there then Advanced and save as to complete the process. Too simple perhaps – alas the file was too gargantuan.
The final resolution? I ended up using ftp to post the podcast directly on to the website server and then link to it from there. And I claim to not be a propeller head…
Along the way I also learnt that iChat can be very useful for supporting podcasts over the Internet. And received some great tips on how to make the podcast experience better for the user: more juicy stuff for you to look forward to in future New Experiences in Podcasting as I put these suggestions into action (or try to at least).
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 07th, 2008
A recent article by a local Vancouver writer Sheena Daniels, in Blitz Magazine debated the benefits of newsletters versus blogs. A blog and newsletter are two totally distinct tools marketers can use to grow their business. Each should be aimed at an entirely different audience and used for different purposes.
The article points out 3 important considerations should you have to choose between the two:
1. Audience you are trying to reach;
2. Internal resources available;
3. Message you are trying to communicate.
Unless limited by the 3 above, why choose between the a blog or a newsletter at all? Each can and should be used for distinct purposes to enhance marketing communications and by using both you can hone in on 2 distinct audiences with distinct marketing messages and increase effectiveness of each.
A newsletter, unless you’re a spammer, is aimed at adding value to existing contacts, partners and customers (people that have already “touched” you) and should be used to keep your company at the forefront in the minds of those important in your network and to reinforce your presence with them.
An blog is aimed at a wider audience many of whom are unknown entities. It should be used to bring attention to what you do, spreading awareness and establish expertise with new prospects or new markets. They key difference is that a blog is a collaborative medium aimed at supporting on-line interaction between interested parties via comments. Its a two way street whereas newsletters are a one way push.
Both are complementary technologies and as the article points out, you can blog a newsletter via RSS allowing your efforts to reach people the way they want to be reached. But consider this, if you intend to focus on newsletters and use RSS you cannot call this a blog as the article suggests, not unless your newsletters go out at least once a week. A corporate blog, to be considered effective and established should be updated once a week at the very least.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 04th, 2008
Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing Todd Sieling an interaction designer and web strategist with a focus on social web application development, based in Vancouver BC. Todd is perhaps best known as a founder of Ma.gnolia, the popular social bookmarking site. He talks about how Ma.gnolia came to be, ways the technology can be used and has a big announcement about Ma.gnolia.
Out-Smarts Podcast – Todd Sieling of Ma.gnolia
Podcast: Download
