By Alexandra Reid
I know what you’re thinking because it’s what I was thinking before I went to Social Media Breakfast yesterday: “What the heck does the gaming industry have to do with marketing?” Coming out of the event, I am not only intrigued by the psychology of “gamification,” the tactics of engagement and how it could be incorporated into a marketer’s communications strategy, I am also convinced that it will play an increasingly important role in how businesses attract, cultivate and retain brand enthusiasts over the coming years.
First, what is “gamification?”
According to David Nicholson, former VP of product development at Power Change and host of yesterday morning’s event, “Gamification is all about modifying people’s behaviour.” Incorporating this tactic into a business strategy can increase retention, virility and engagement of a community around a brand.
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By Alexandra Reid
To break the ice at a recent IABC Ottawa event that dealt with measuring online marketing, Alex Langshur, President of PublicInsite, displayed the Google homepage on an overhead and asked the audience what it was. People shouted out the obvious answers like, “That’s Google of course,” and, “It’s a search engine,” but no one was able to provide Langshur the answer he was looking for. “Google is your home page,” he said. “These days, it is all about search.”
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By Alexandra Reid
Throughout his career, both in Canada and the U.K., Bryan J. Watson has been a champion of entrepreneurship as a vector for the commercialization of advanced technologies. As demonstrated by his concurrent roles as executive director of a number of non-profit emerging-growth venture-fostering organizations including the National Angel Capital Organization, CEO of Fusion and a director of Precarn Inc. and the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance, Bryan takes an active role in the entire entrepreneurial spectrum from idea-generation to financing to liquidity event.
How are entrepreneurs currently using social media to get their startups noticed by angels?
In general, entrepreneurs are using social media such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook for outreach both to angels and to the wider community. More specifically, they are using these channels to share information about their ventures and to generate buzz. Mostly, it is the web-based companies that are the early adopters of social media as an outreach tool, I find.
For startups, social media encompasses a wider range of online platforms, such as AngelList, Tech Crunch’s CrunchBase, and StartupIndex. These platforms are social in that they allow entrepreneurs to share information about their ventures with investors. On the investment-opportunity-intake side of things, sites like AngelSoft, unlike widely used social media platforms, are secured and closed systems involving only individuals in the angel capital community. Entrepreneurs and investors are using these platforms to share and receive business information and manage deal flow.
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By Alexandra Reid
Sometimes, a dash of painful irony is enough to provoke a serious discussion.
I flew to Vancouver this past week to reunite with my Dad and two brothers who have all moved to opposite areas of the planet over the last few years. My younger brother, Austin, who flew in from China, promised his Chinese girlfriend a Starbucks mug with “Canada” on it when he returned. We all went to Starbucks with Austin to purchase the mug, but when he checked its bottom for the price, we couldn’t help but stare at it, utterly flabbergasted.
The cringer: The mug cost $12.99.
The kicker: The stamp next to the price said that the mug was “Made in China.”
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By Alexandra Reid
There has been a lot of discussion about the blurring lines between personal and professional use of social media. Many questions have been asked and proposed solutions have been fiercely debated: Should employees be restricted on how they use social media both personally and professionally? Should there be restrictions on how they speak about their employers or places of employment? Should corporate social media accounts be used for personal interaction, and what determines if a conversation has become too personal? Should employees even be allowed to use social media during work hours? What should the ramifications, if any, be if an employee speaks ill of his or her employers or place of employment?
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