All posts in “Savethebou”

Social Media Roundup for November 13, 2009

It’s the Social Media Roundup, and SMG is a year older, wiser, and awesome…r.

That’s right, SMG celebrated 3 fan-damn-tastic years of awesomeness last week, with special guest – the endangered caribou!  I’ll let the stars of the video kickoff for the week say it better than I:

So now that THAT’S stuck in your head, on to the news.

Authenticity vs. Transparency, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Toplessness
Augie Ray has written a great post about the recent trials and tribulations of CEO Chip Conley of Joie de Vivre hotels.  Chip posted a picture of himself topless at Burning Man (with…something on his head) on Facebook and some of his employees took offense.  What followed sets up a nice case study for the distinction between personal authenticity and transparency.  (Seriously, what IS that on his head?)

Sign Up Now to Enter…But Not on Facebook
Last week, Facebook made revisions to its Promotions Guidelines which dramatically restrict the methods by which companies can run contests and the like on their fan pages.  Among the restrictions: you will only administer the promotion through an app, you must submit materials for review by Facebook at least 7 days in advance, and the prize may not include dairy products.  The lactose intolerance lobby has some clout, it seems.

Rupert, Rupert, Rupert
Rupert Murdoch is making headlines (and getting plenty of free advertising, to boot) by threatening to remove all NewsCorp properties from Google within the next few months.  To which Google responded: meh, alright. Now, if this is a ploy to fire up the search wars again by selling exclusivity to Bing or Yahoo! then I say interesting play, Mr. Murdoch.  Otherwise, I’m in Google’s camp.  Meh, alright.

My blog is better than your twitter!
Joel Postman has a post up on Social Media Today that sums up most of my thoughts on the value of twitter vs. blogs.  The one other advantage in the blog’s corner that I’d add is the permanence factor.  The twitter stream is so quick and broad that your tweet is swallowed up and downriver before you know it. The search options are coming along, but dollar for dollar, I’d put my money on something that I know will be findable and there until the ablogalypse hits.

SMG Turns 3 – Saving the 'Bou

www.Savethebou.ca

The last few months, SMG has been working with a coalition of environmental groups (Forest Ethics, David Suzuki Foundation, Greenpeace and Canopy) on a campaign to help save the Woodland Caribou and protect their habitat –Ontario’s Southern Boreal Forest.

Last week a couple of tweetups were held in order to draw more awareness for the issue and drive people to www.savethebou.ca to voice their opinions and ask Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to enact the legislation to protect caribou habitat.

In London @BillDeys was so kind to include the ‘Bou during the monthly Geek Dinner meetup at the Black Shire Pub.

In Toronto, SMG celebrated our 3rd anniversary party with a Save the ‘Bou Tweetup at the Pilot Tavern. The ‘Bou Bash included DJ set by @modermod and the infamous @RannieTuringan Photo Booth (Photos from the night will be available on the photojunkie photostream soon, we promise!)

Thanks to everyone who attended and tweeted for the ‘Bou! We all loved reading all of the tweets on the big screen and catching up with some of the best folks in the social media space in TO!

SMG’s role was to set the groundwork for the campaign and after a successful event in Toronto, we have passed the baton back to the groups to continue on in the fight for the right for the ‘Bou to party. To continue following the progress check out the ‘Bou on Facebook and Twitter.

As of today, we have just over 1100 emails sent and every single one counts! So if you have friends and family who you think this cause would be important to, please pass along the site and let’s Save the ‘Bou!

@CollinDouma

"Rudolph, Imma let you finish, but the Caribou is the best animal (shrug) @savethebou" via @collindouma

Social Media Roundup for November 6, 2009

Hello again, boys and girls.  It’s the Social Media Roundup, brought to you by the letters S, M, and G, and the number 3.

In honour of Sesame Street’s 40th birthday, I’m taking a page out of Google’s book and tossing up one of my personal favourite sketches to start off the roundup.

Yipyipyip…uh huh.

Party. Party. Party.
In SMG news, our 3rd anniversary party and #savethebou tweetup last night was a rousing success!  More on that next week in a full blog post, but thanks to all who attended and to @photojunkie and @modernmod for providing photo ops and bangin’ tunes.

Better Blogging through Pet Worm Ownership
Sonia Simone at Copyblogger has a great post this week on how Oscar the Grouch makes a great blogger role model, and it’s hard to argue with. I know that’s a blog I’d subscribe to. Slimey doesn’t actually feature in the article, but he’d probably make a decent editor.

Lists, Trends, and Retweets, oh my!
In Twitter news this week, Doug Haslam has a great analysis of the Lists feature rolled out last week, including a ringing endorsement for personal ego-surfing.  Not content to rest on its laurels, Twitter began more focused efforts to curate its Trending Topics and started rollout of its new retweet feature, which Mashable is doing a great job of unboxing on the fly.

nth Life?
Second Life has taken the wraps off the open beta of their Enterprise product, allowing businesses to operate their own private virtual world behind the firewall.  The office dress code just got a whole lot weirder, and catching a flight to a meeting has taken on a whole new meaning.

SNCR Always Satisfies
The 4th Annual Society for New Communications Research Symposium & Awards Gala kicked off this week, and has already generated reams of conversation. Congrats in advance to all the award winners to be announced tonight.