Are Paid Social Media Events Still Profitable? That’s exactly what I’m wondering when I realize that the two last paid social media conferences booked in Montreal were cancelled because they’ve failed to sell enough tickets. I cannot say that I’m not concerned because each social media event, paid or not, helps the local social media marketing industry which I’m part of. So is there a market for these conferences in Montreal?

Conférence sur les médias sociaux de l’Institut Canadien (cancelled)
In past September, there were two social media events scheduled in the same week. The first one was free and very successful while the other one, the Canadian Institute’s Social Media Conference was charging few hundred dollards to attend a 2-days conference and got cancelled at the last minute. Is there any explanation why orgnanizers have been doing such conference for the past three years in Toronto but have failed when trying to do the same in Montreal? What’s wrong with Montrealers and paid social media events?

Journée Infopresse sur les médias sociaux (cancelled)
Another big player in the organization of conferences in Montreal is Infopresse Editions. They plan dozens of one day event through the year. Past winter that had a first conference on social networks and more recently they had scheduled another event on social media (page still exists but content has been removed) that was cancelled too. Last time I’ve spoken to Infopresse organization, they told me that they’ll probalbly reschedule that social media day but yesterday, via Infopresse’s Twitter account, I’ve noticed that their 2009 calendar of events contains no sign of any social media day. Since they neither plan any SEO, SEM or SMO related event, I see that as a great opportunity for any group or company to take the lead and organize such an event in Montreal.

BTW, I’ve been interviewed in the latest edition of Infopresse magazine, go grab your copy it’s December issue and it’s a digital communication special edition. They have interesting articles about the future of Web agencies, online reputation management, corporate blogging, online PR with bloggers and more. You will also be able to find all the information related to the latest Boomerang Awards and a full directory of all digital companies in the city.

I do consider myself both very privileged and happy to work with great people such as the ones at Molson. As few of you might know, I do social media strategy with Molson Dry and sooner this year, NVI and Molson (our client) invited few bloggers to have an open discussion on how brands and corporations should behave in the social media space. Following this unusual meeting, our client’s marketing and communications departments came out with this great idea : creating a special event for bloggers and their communities.

More infos on the party the strategy
You will be able to have further information (in French) about the party on NVI’s SEO collaborative blog. Because one of the objectives of creating this event is to reward blogger’s community, I’ll take the opportunity to invite people that have commented on my blog in the past to join us on that special evening. Also, since we have previously presented our experience at Webcom, I’ll be pleased to answer questions that you might have regarding social media consulting and my work.

For the party, we’ve launched the contest last week, the response is very good so far and there is still room available, so I’m tagging Jay, Gab, JF Dubé, Fred, Patrick and Francis. Please read full details on the event at Go-référencement.

Image Credit : slack12

My local chapter of the Canadian Marketing Association was presenting on April 23rd an event on corporate blogging. Louis Delage and Pascal Hébert were leading the presentation which quickly turned into a discussion about the best practices of corporate blogging. Here’s my notes, thoughts and other infos that I’ve added to their presentation:

Few corporate blogging cases worthed to study

blogging business case: Wal-Marting Across America
the story: Fake blog about two people RVing across the States (BusinessWeek’s coverage)
behind the blog: Wal-Mart and its PR firm Edelman.
main mistake: Edelman admits to “failing to be transparent about the identity of the two bloggers from the outset.”

blogging business case: The Zero Movement website
the story: Not only a fake blog, but a fake community supporting Coke’s new product (The Age’s coverage)
main mistake: no mention of Coke’s involvement
more on the topic: Coke does it again and Coke Lies, Misleads With Fake ‘Zero’ Blog

blogging business case: GM FYI blog
the story: NY Times’s columnist, Thomas L. Friedman, wrote that GM is “more dangerous to America’s future” than any other company, is “like a crack dealer” addicting helpless Americans to SUVs…
the right reply: While failing to publish their response in the paper, GM used their blog to push their version of the story
behind the blog: staff and friends of GM, including Brian Akre who wrote the famous post
more on the topic: GM’s Tom Wilkinson Engages In Epic “Battle Of The Toms” and Corporate Blogging Pays For GM

blogging business case: blogs.sun.com
the story: Sun is said to promote employee blogging more than any other technology firm and is the largest company with a CEO who blogs.
the question answered: Q:”Why does Sun’s CEO waste time writing that blog?” A: Because I believe in providing clarity surrounding our strategy and operations – not just once a year in the Annual Report. I believe clarity behind our direction is useful for our shareholders, customers, partners and employees (taken from Jonathan’s blog).
more on the topic: Corporate blogging done right

blogging business case: Dell Hell
the story: A consumer named Jeff Jarvis uses his weblog to expose his own personal problems dealing with Dell. The company ignored the writer until the story became a phenomenon over the net.
More on the story: My Dell Hell (Guardian)and Dell Learns to Listen on Business Week
the results: Dell has now an important place for blogging on their site Direct2Dell for products and services + Dell Shares for investors but more important, the company has opened the discussion with their customers.

As seen, corporate blogging brings a lot a opportunities but surely a lot of questions. If you read spanish I will strongly suggest you to take a look at Siete preguntas antes de arrancar su blog corporativo. Here’s few of these questions that you will face when business blogging: Do I need a corporate blog?, Who should blog?, Is transparency possible when blogging?, Is ghostwritting acceptable? and more. Have a nice post !

Les corporations, leurs produits et services, ont-ils une place sur les médias sociaux ?

Il y a déjà plus d’un mois, dans le cadre de mon travail chez NVI, nous avons été approché par une corporation voulant s’impliquer sur les réseaux sociaux, plus particulièrement les blogues. Sachant qu’une grande partie de sa clientèle cible lisait et utilisait ce nouveau média, il devenait inévitable que les dirigeants de cette société donnent le mandat aux responsables des départements de communications, marketing et relations publiques, d’aller voir ce qui se passait sur le net. Nous avons donc agit à titre de conseiller dans une démarche visant d’abord la diffusion d’un clip promotionnel chez certains blogueurs (Branchez-vous, QuebecBlogue, Sportnographe, Jean-Luc, Mo, Francis , Jean-Julien, Melane) et éventuellement une interaction entre la plate-forme développée par la marque et les blogeurs.

Loin de moi, l’idée de relancer le débat sur la pertinence de l’intégration des marques sur les réseaux sociaux car vous me trouverez très pragmatique dans mon point de vue. De fait, je crois que, puisque les marques y sont déjà discutées, louées, critiquées, associées,.. elles sont déjà bien présentes. Alors la question devient maintenant: comment ces mêmes marques peuvent-elles intéragir de manière appropriés avec les blogs et leurs lectorat. C’est spécialement sur ce sujet que j’aimerais obtenir un feedback. Afin d’en discuter, nous avons décidé de convier les principaux protagonnistes (blogueurs et corporation) à une table-ronde sur cet enjeu ce jeudi 27 Mars vers 17h. Plus d’information devrait suivre dans les commentaires de ce billet. Notez aussi qu’il n’est pas question ici de publicité car il existe déjà des régies pour les blogueurs voulant mettre de l’affichage publicitaire sur leur blog, il est plutôt question de bâtir de réels échanges entre les marques et leurs usagers. Finalement, voici quelques moyens, qui (selon moi) pourraient très bien fonctionner dans le but d’ouvrir une discussion gagnant-gagant entre blogueurs et compagnies.

Concours
J’ai bien aimé l’expérience faite par Jean-Luc et son concours RestoMontreal.ca. Tout était simple, la participation fut excellente (quand même 51 commentaires) et je suis certain que RestoMontréal fut aussi content de la visibilité gagné auprès des blogueurs. Maintenant, imaginez ceci: une compagnie x offre un service y qu’elle désire promouvoir, elle fait un concours ciblé et approche 3-4 blogeurs, seuls les gens à l’aise avec l’expérience participent (aucun bras n’est tordu) et le promoteur obtient une visibilité ciblée. Serait-ce réalisable?

Revues et critiques
Là aussi je crois que ça se fait déjà. Le principe est simple et grandement exploité chez les journalistes, en retour d’un billet on offre une paire de billets à un événement. Mais imaginez ceci, vous avez un blog sur la photographie et recevez un appareil à essayer en retour d’un billet sur votre blog. Encore ici, personne ne participe s’il n’a pas le goût. Intéressant? Réalisable? Dites-le nous.

How long before the Facebook fatigue will go mainstream ?
While online marketers are struggling in order to find a appropriate way to spend part of their budget into FB and other social networks, it seems that being bored of FB becomes more popular than ever. This new Facebook Anthem comes from a agency specialized in creating internet marketing buzz. The clip, another parody of Billy Joel’s song ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’, points out the FB applications as the main reason why people are bored of the network.

Facebook dans un contexte d’affaires
If you are in the area, the Montreal Marketing Association (AMM) is presenting a conference on the ways that we should adopt Facebook in a business point of view. Speakers will be Guillaume Bouchard (NVI) and Guillaume Brunet (Transcontinental). Event is scheduled for April 2nd (more info on FB).

Facebook dans un contexte pédagogique
Pour avoir participé à l’expérience, soit la tentative d’intégration d’un groupe FB dans un contexte d’apprentissage scolaire (avec la classe de MBA électronique du professeur Gauvin). Les conclusions ont été faciles à tirer, la plupart des outils mis de l’avant dans le cours (blogues, agrégateurs de nouvelles, micro-blogging,…) ont trouvés leur utilité dans un cadre pédagogique, Facebook non!

Before leaving Facebook, please read :
Hey, Facebook, just let go of me – Times Online
How to Permanently Delete a Facebook Account

As seen on the RadicalTrust’s blog. I like it

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ginocarrier

I am looking for web2.0 sites made in Montreal (or province of Quebec). Have you heard of any other online communities built in the area or targeting our region ? So far I have:

Social news and video

http://www.quebecbuzz.com

http://www.nuouz.com

http://tontuyau.com

http://www.tagtele.com

http://www.quebecjeunes.com/bulles

City guides and reviews

http://www.monavis.ca

http://www.guiderestos.com

Business related

http://www.agentsolo.com

http://www.standoutjobs.com

http://www.smarthippo.com

Sports, leisure and other

http://www.ilovetoplay.com

http://www.recettes.qc.ca

http://www.tapioka.ca

http://www.bountyfishing.com

http://rollaname.com

http://www.weblo.com

http://www.capazoo.com

Content aggregation

http://yulblog.org

Environment and wealth

http://www.amigoexpress.com

http://www.monplanvert.com

http://www.inpowr.com

Starting with an image taken from the report,

here’s what this reality means for…

Advertisers

• They will have to rethink how advertising is sold, created, consumed and tracked.
  
• Mass geographic targeting will change to demographic or psychographic targeting (micro-segmentation).
  
• They will benefit of the payment switch from commissions (or cost per quantity) to types of payment based on results, but they will have to find new partners to manage their budgets

Traditional agencies

• Shifting from traditional media to internet marketing and digital marketing won’t be an option anymore. They will have to change or disappear. (read also on different models for agency survival)
• Changing their revenue model: the way that they charge for a traditional campaign won’t be applicable to the new form of marketing.
• Be open and accept the fact that they will probably need help to understand master all that digital terminology geeky stuff.

Consumers

• They will gain more power in taking a active part into the communication process which used to rarely consider the consumer’s feedback.
  
• They will become involve into the creativity process of the advertising.
• By writting reviews, appreciations and comments, they will become the first reliable ressource of referrals.

Now who’s the winner ?