Posts Tagged ‘Opinion’

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Tweetindipity

I love Twitter.

Like everyone else, it took me a period of adjustment to “get it” but once I did, I fell in love with Twitter wholeheartedly. Why? In part because of it’s immediacy. It can also lead you to so many different places; down the rabbit hole, as it were. If you’ve ever spent an evening at home clickling your way through “if you like this artist, you’ll like…” links in iTunes, you’ll know what I mean. But mostly, I love Twitter because of serendipity. In my opinion, it is by far the most serendipitous social network out there. Let me give you an example.

This morning I was scanning through my Twitter list when I came upon this tweet from C.C. Chapman: “One of my favorite views…”. Naturally curious,
I clicked through to see a picture taken from his perspective in the back of a canoe. His son is paddling in front of him, his daughter sits squarely in the centre and his wife is at the front. The canoe floats quietly on a lake covered in lily pads and the scene is very peaceful. As an outdoorsy guy myself, it inspired me to look into canoes at Mountain Equipment Coop (MEC).

Upon landing on their home page, I spied a link to MEC Paddlefest, an annual celebration of canoeing and kayaking. I clicked through to discover that the event will be in Toronto, in our neck of the woods, in two weeks. I called to check the availability for the Canoeing for Parents and Kids program and $11.30 later, we were booked.

I then returned to my Twitter client—Hootsuite—and tweeted: “Inspired by cc_chapman’s photo, I’ve signed up for Canoeing for Parents and Kids as part of MEC’s #paddlefest. Can’t wait!” He responded with: “Awesome! It is a great family activity and SO peaceful. Hope you guys enjoy it.” and then re-tweeted my original post adding “This made my morning.” Indeed, and my morning too.

How has Twitter opened up the world for you?

Posted: June 1, 2010 by mcharbonneau | View Comments
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Frazzled

We’re coming off another busy week, getting ready for launch of the Canadian International AutoShow. In addition to the usual amount of work (think traditional marketing), we’ve been doubly busy monitoring and engaging in a variety of social media channels as well as exploring new ones. Which explains the relative quiet around this blog over the past week. This, for me at least, brings up an interesting question: where do other folks in marketing—who write such frequent, insightful and often long blog posts—find the time?

There are a few possibilities, of course. One, they’re not as busy. Two, they’re in a big enough shop the workload is better distributed. Or three, they just work a hell of a lot more than I do. Then there are the possibilities I haven’t even thought of. As I see it, such is life in a small agency where everyone wears so many hats and you can only accomplish so much in a day. I’d love to use the excuse that I’m new at blogging, but the truth is I’ve been maintaining a personal blog for more than 4 years. Granted, this blog is different. I could work longer hours but as it stands, many of my evenings are already filled with work for a non-profit organization. I’m not complaining, mind you; this helps push me forward and compliments our business.

If you find you’re juggling many tasks in a day, how do you do it? More importantly, how do you do it all and do each thing well?

Posted: February 5, 2010 by mcharbonneau | View Comments
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The “Up To” Promise

by Mike Charbonneau

A Speedtest.net test of our internet connection.

A Speedtest.net test of our internet connection.

Our recent efforts in the world social media multimedia have revealed (or, I should say, brought back to our attention) an issue with our internet connection. It’s slow. Really slow. Looking over our contract confirmed we have a high-speed connection which should give us “up to” 6 Mbps of download speed. Now, I understand the whole “up to” promise and how it’s dependent on where you are and the type of wiring that exists; it’s akin to achieving those theoretical gas mileage numbers but only if you drive at 20 km/h on a new road, with no wind, with optimum ambient temperature. But having checked Speedtest.net more than a few times, we rarely hit download speeds above 2.5 Mbps. Not what you’d call speedy.

So I called Bell to ask if there was a better option and apparently, there is. It’s called Optimax and it promises to deliver download speeds of 8 Mbps. Not up to but specifically 8 Mbps. And all for $10 a month more than what we are currently paying (on a 3-year contract and with a $125 installation fee). We expect the service on Monday, so I’ll keep you posted on the difference.

But the truth remains, we would have gladly paid the difference to get the service we required from the get go. I have to wonder why Bell couldn’t have looked at our service (which they can do), ascertained that it would never reach the ideal target and offered us a different option. I mean, think of it. They get more money, we’re happy with the service and now, we’re thinking of their company in a positive light for having given us with a solution.

I can see how it would require too much time and effort to look at each case individually. Perhaps “up to” is the easiest way to deal with everyone. But as I watch and participate in communications between brands and consumers, I have to wonder, is the easiest way the right way to go?

Posted: November 24, 2009 by mcharbonneau | View Comments
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Super-Scrutiny and Another Hero Fallen

I apologize, my French is showing*; both through the usage of the word “super” and my long-time support of the French national team. But, I trust that you’ll understand how upset I am after having to watch another one of my football heroes fall from grace. I’m talking, of course, about Thierry Henry’s handball in the World Cup qualifier between France and Ireland. But this isn’t an entry about who’s right and who’s wrong, it’s about how we find out the answer.

We’re big soccer fans here at the office, so a fair amount of time was devoted to scouring the web for footage, then replaying these videos frame by frame. On the heels of yesterday’s post which illustrated a shift from television to the internet, today’s post is further proof that we, as consumers, have changed the way we consume news. Hence the “super-scrutiny” part of this entry’s title.

A decade ago, you couldn’t review an event such as this with so much scrutiny. You could watch the proceedings unfold live, catch the highlights on your favourite news or sports channel, then pour over the details in the following day’s newspaper, complete with still photos. You can still do this, but today of course, you’re your own editor. Dig up as much information as you like. Write about it in your own blog, create a mashup or simply link to the source. It’s all about information. Find it, create it and by all means, share it.

* Tongue-firmly-in-cheek.

Posted: November 20, 2009 by mcharbonneau | View Comments
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A Change Around the Water Cooler

My partner John brought up an interesting observation earlier today. There was a time—not so long ago—when we would huddle around a table, or hang out in a doorway and ask if someone had seen the latest TV spot for Brand X while watching CSI the previous night. But that hasn’t happened in a while.

For one, I personally PVR (record) almost everything I watch because a) I’m short on time and have a young family and b) why would I want to watch commercials if I don’t have to? A couple of the other staff members here watch their favourite TV shows on their computers. That leaves one guy forced to watch commercials, that is, if he’s paying attention and not surfing the internet or off in the kitchen getting a snack.

But the talk of great creative never went away. Like everything else, the delivery has simply shifted. We now send each other links to cool videos, relevant information and yes, great creative ads that we’ve gleaned off the internet. The computer, it seems, has become the new water cooler. And if, per chance, I did see a spot on TV that piqued my interest, well, why try to describe it when I can simply and quickly share it on the web?

Posted: November 19, 2009 by mcharbonneau | View Comments
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