By Leo Valiquette
Government, particularly Canada’s federal government, isn’t known for being a bold early adopter of new technology and certainly not an entity eager to play the role of guinea pig.
But earlier this week, six Ottawa-Gatineau technology companies were awarded contracts through Public Works’ Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program (CICP), ranging in value from $71,500 to $565,000. Four other local firms had already secured contracts through the program since its launch in 2010, in addition to a host of others across Canada.
Read More
By Alexandra Reid
The International Olympic Committee is launching a host of programs with the goal of making the 2012 London Games the “most social and tech-savvy Olympics ever,” but restrictive social media guidelines reveal the organization’s inability to move beyond its old and broken command-and-control communications model.
In its Social Media, Blogging and Internet Guidelines the IOC states that it “actively encourages and supports athletes and other accredited persons at the Olympic Games to take part in ‘social media’ and to post, blog and tweet their experiences.” However, such activity must respect the Olympic Charter and comply with a confusing and contradictory set of rules that tightly controls what they can share.
The program’s centrepiece, The Olympic Athletes’ Hub, will let Olympic fans track athletes’ activities across multiple social channels including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Google Plus. The IOC is also launching a host of Tumblr blogs and a virtual Olympic Village where fans can discuss the events with athletes and former Olympians in real-time. A gamification element called the Olympic Challenge — a game that’s integrated with Facebook and Open Graph – will encourage fans to compete with friends and other fans in predicting the outcome of the Olympic events. Foursquare check-ins are also encouraged, so long as they are at off-site venues.
Read More
By Tony Bailetti
Conventional approaches call for a technology startup to gradually internationalize from local to home continent markets before entering the global market. Unfortunately, these conventional phased approaches take too long, cost too much, increase stakeholders’ risks, and waste the passion of many talented people who develop innovative products and services for startups.
While many founders talk about making their new technology firms global, they act as if the local market is the real home for their products and services. The reality is that only a few entrepreneurs invest in projects designed to use resources and sell products and services in multiple countries within the first three years of their technology firms’ life cycles.
Read More
By Alexandra Reid
As a regular feature, we provide our readers with a roundup of the best articles we have read in the past week. On the podium this week are Joe Pulizzi, Social Media Examiner, Memeburn, Peter Shankman, and Fast Company.
5 critical content marketing tactics to consider now
As part of its audit and to set new goals, Content Marketing Institute is focusing on a number of key areas where it wants to improve. In this post, Joe Pulizzi shares five key content marketing tactics that are standing out for the agency.
Read More
By Jesse Rodgers
Seeking out customer feedback and using it to build a great product is not a new concept. Great designers have been doing it for a long time as have great companies. The Lean Startup manual (or startup bible to many) talks about involving the customer while developing that minimum viable product (MVP): “The minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.”
Where that generally leads people is straight to building a simple application that might not be sexy in its design but it is functional or a landing page about a new product that might not exist yet. Using Google Analytics and collecting email addresses along with some “conversion” points becomes what you focus on. However, if you forget to actually talk to customers as well you could be wasting a lot of time. Especially when you are moving past your MVP or have a product that people are paying for.
Read More
-
Where is Ottawa’s International Startup Festival?
July 18, 2012 by Leo Valiquette
On Monday, Francis shared some highlights from last week’s International Startup Festival in Montreal, which of course raises the obvious question, why do we not have these kinds of events in Ottawa? […]
Read more... -
5 qualities of a great ghostwriter
July 17, 2012 by Alexandra Reid
While content marketing has been around for a long time, content marketing through digital channels is becoming increasingly important in many of today’s marketing programs as social media and blogging continue to rise as influential channels where […]
Read more... -
-
The best time to start a business
July 16, 2012 by Francis Moran
To hear many of the speakers at last week’s International Startup Festival in Montréal tell it, there has rarely been as good a time as the present to start a new business. “Now is awesome,” said technology industry watcher Chris Shipley. “Resources for startups are […]
Read more... -
Great articles roundup: Content marketing, stupid metrics, investments, innovation, and corporate pitches
July 13, 2012 by Alexandra Reid
As a regular feature, we provide our readers with a roundup of the best articles we have read in the past week. On the podium this week are Joe Pulizzi, B2B, Mashable, VentureBeat, B2B marketing, and Business2Community.
Read more... -
-
Managing perceptions and product at RIM like Apple did
July 12, 2012 by Jesse Rodgers
A tweet by Peter Mansbridge brought a lot of people’s attention to an article entitled Steve Jobs’ Lesson for RIM: Power of Perceptions, Turnaround 101, which focuses on how Steve Jobs changed the perception of Apple. That perception shift was driven a lot by product […]
Read more... -
Your audience will judge you by your cover
July 11, 2012 by Leo Valiquette
Earlier this year, I had the honour of being involved with Northern Lights 2012, a four-day conference that showcased economic and business development opportunities in Canada’s north, along with the social, cultural and environmental considerations that must be part of any commercial activity up there […]
Read more... -
-
7 reasons why people hate your B2B business blog
July 10, 2012 by Alexandra Reid
As a content marketer, I read a lot of blogs. I subscribe to 201 blogs and have another two-dozen or so outlets saved as links, which I monitor daily. I monitor streams on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook and plough through Google news for hours every morning […]
Read more... -
Trademarks for small businesses in little towns
July 09, 2012 by David French
I visited a wine-tasting opening event for a make-it-yourself wine business in Shawville, Québec recently. While reclining in comfort, I considered the question: “Do Intellectual Property rights matter for small businesses in little towns?” IP rights refer to patents […]
Read more... -
By Leo Valiquette
Twitter
Tweets by @FrancisMoranRecent Comments
The Future of A&R – Walabe : [...] http://francis-moran.com/marketing-strategy/top-10-questions-every-strategic-communicator-should-ask... [...]
Traditional Marketing is Dead – Long Live Bikini Waxer Marketing | Scalexl : [...] pointed out by Alexandra Reid on the Francis Moran website content marketing is becoming more and more like journalism. So, it is not just about the content, [...]
It’s Summertime…and the Networking is Easy? | THE MERRAINE BRAIN : [...] In fact, summer is perhaps one of the times least used to network, yet at the same time has shown to be the most productive time to network. People tend to be in a brighter mood compared to during the gloomy winters-especially where I am from in England! Networking needs to be fun and not approached as another chore, like mowing the lawn. (http://francis-moran.com/marketing-strategy/social-media-strategy-why-meeting-in-the-real-world-matt...) [...]