What the #1 Google search in Canada says about how people use the web

I'm a big fan of using search data to gain marketing insights so when I saw the most popular Google searches for Canada in 2011 come out, I couldn't wait to see the news.  When I did, I was somewhat shocked. 

If you haven't seen them yet, here they are:


1. www.census2011.gc.ca
2. Skyrim
3. Canada Post Strike
4. Rebecca Black
5. Ryan Dunn
6. Japan Earthquake
7. Game of Thrones
8. Jack Layton
9. Royal Wedding
10. Google Plus

Other than the fact that Rebecca Black is so high (btw, she's #1 worldwide) I was really surprised to see a web address at #1.  While I wouldn't be surprised to see a web address in the top 5 because I see this often with some of the websites that I manage, I was taken aback to see a web address at #1. 

This highlights a few important points about web marketing and usage:

1. Not everyone is as web-savvy as you are.  I NEVER type web addresses into Google but this tells that many other people do.  
2. If you're monitoring your organic search volume you MUST remove any branded searches from your analysis.  If you don't do this, you'll think you are doing way better at organic search than you really are because your organic search results will include people who already know your web address and would have been direct traffic if they typed the address in the right place. 
3. If your web address isn't a trademark, be careful that competitors aren't outbidding you for paid traffic that you could be getting.  However, even if it is, you should watch this anyways as Google may not catch it and prevent somebody else from bidding on your trademark. 

 Pretty interesting stuff isn't it?

It was 35 years ago today...

Today is an important day because it was 35 years ago today that The Band held a concert at the Winterland in San Francisco called "The Last Waltz". 

The Last Waltz was so much more than a concert or a film directed by Martin Scorsese.  It was more than a Thanksgiving feast where the 5,000 people in attendance were treated to dinner and dancing prior to the show's 9pm start.  It was also much more than The Band's last concert together (except for reunions shows with various formations).

The Last Waltz is an important milestone in the history of rock and roll and a key moment in the history of Canadian music. 

I suspect many people aren't aware of The Band's connections to Canada, in fact most of the Band was born in Ontario.  Robbie Robertson was born in Toronto, Garth Hudson was born in Windsor, Rick Dank was born in Green's Corners and Richard Manuel was born in Stratford.  Only Levon Helm was born in the USA, having been born in Arkansas in 1940.  The band spent many of their early years backing Ronnie Hawkins, playing clubs up and down Yonge Street in Toronto.  They had strong connections to other Canadian musicians and those are evident in The Last Waltz.  In fact, many other Canadian musicians including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell performed with The Band during The Last Waltz.  Here's a great example of that, Acadian Driftwood. 

The Last Waltz deserves to be remembered today for a number of reasons:

1. It was a celebration of the impact Canadian musicians had on rock and roll from it's ascent in the 1950's to the mid 1970's. 
2. It showed that bands could to go out while still on top and do it with grace and tact instead of fiery theatrics and sub-par music.  
3. Many of the performances recorded at The Last Waltz are some of the best versions of those songs ever recorded.  (Who Do You Love with Ronnie Hawkins in particular and Van The Man's Caravan to name a few)
4. It spawned a concert movie that is still today thought of as the best concert films ever made.  

I own a copy of The Last Waltz on vinyl and listen to it often.  I also own the original concert film.   If you're interested in the The Last Waltz, I'd suggest picking up the 4 CD box-set that includes the concert in its entirety.

Why Marketing People Need to Understand Communications/PR

In case you haven't noticed, the world of marketing is changing and if you don't change with it, you risk finding yourself in a real bind the next time you need to find a job.  And given the state of the economy and the high-level of economic uncertainty we face, I think it's a great time to rethink marketers plan on "winning the future".

I say that marketers need to understand is the world of communications/public relation better and here's why

1. As budgets shrink, companies will not be able to afford seperate marketing AND communications departments so as they look to do more with less, resources in both departments may be called upon do to both sets of tasks. 
2. In case you hadn't noticed, marketing people and communications people are switching sides.  If you think the competition for your role or any job your are applying for is only going to come from people in your specific field, you're kidding yourself.  Read any marketing job description these days and note the requirement "Degree in Marketing, Communications or any related field..."
3. The importance of social media is bringing together marketing and communications roles as companies struggle to figure out who owns what and how it is best managed.  If you understand what everybody touching social media does, you are well positioned to help your company tell its story. 
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) might be a primarily marketing function but media coverage is a great way to get high-quality back links to your site.  Also, if you are employing an effective listening strategy (something communications and PR people are good at), it's easy to find stories about topics that relate to your company/product/customers and join the conversation and get high-quality back links. 
5. Having great writing skills is important and you learn many things about writing great content from communications, public relations and marketing writers. 
6. I believe our future is going to be determined by how successful our entrepreneurs will be at growing companies that hire people.  To me this means that we all need to get better at wearing more hats and doing more than just one thing.  In short, I think the day of the one-trick pony is over.  

What do you think? 

My next post is going to cover a few tips and resource that I think are great for marketers looking to understand communications/PR better. 

image credit: bgottsab

Is it OK to promote ____________ through my personal social media accounts?

One of my least favorites things about social media is when people mindlessly promote things through their personal social media accounts.

I know what you're thinking "Danny, isn't this exactly what social media accounts are for?".

The right answer is "not really".  Social media are for connecting and helping people but this isn't a post about what social media are/aren't good for.  Sometimes the best way to help people and make connections is to promote things, but everyday I see people who seem to have to no idea when it is or isn't appropriate to promote things through their personal social media account.  On a bad day, Twitter looks like a bunch of people promoting whatever it is they are doing at that moment.  I have lots of theories on why this happens but I'll save those for another post....

I hate to answer a question with more questions but I think people need to ask themselves a few things before they promote anything through their personal social media accounts?

1. Is anybody listening? If you have no followers, no connections or no fans, then you are simply wasting your time.  
2. Is anybody going to care? Think about your audience.  Who are you connected to and who are they connected to?  I often see people promoting events for their company when all of their connections are friends.  If you aren't sure if people are going to care, why don't you put some thought into what social media platforms you select and how you present your offer.  
3. How often am I doing this?  Look at the ratio of your promotions vs. interactions.  If you're the digital equivalent of a person standing on a street corner with a megaphone then maybe you should reconsider. 

I'd like to suggest that if the answer to either of the first two questions is "yes" then you shouldn't promote whatever it is to your personal social media connections.  If the answer to the last question is "more than once a week", I'd also suggest you seriously reconsider.  There are people who can get away with it more often than others but chances are you're not one of them.

Thoughts?


image credit: ehnmark

My Tips for Creating Killer Marketing Videos

My company recently went through the process of creating a short marketing video to help prospects understand why they need our product and what they need to do.  We worked with Simple Story Videos and here's the video:

I learned a few important lessons during this project and I'd like to share them here. 

1. Understand your goal: This goes without saying but invest the time up front to make sure that everyone on your marketing and management teams are clear about what the goal of the video is so that you can focus your efforts and feedback.  For us, the goal was to motivate people to download the product and try it.  By taking the time to understand what our call to action was and how we wanted the audience to feel after watching the video, we were able to stay focused because you can create many different types of videos. 
2. Keep it short: The shorter the video, the more likely the viewer is to watch it.  I hate seeing people invest time and money in long videos assuming the audience is going to watch it.  Creating a short video is really difficult because every word and image is critical in helping to convey your message but you need to be very strict during the development of the script and storyboard in order to pull this off.  Always ask yourself "is that really necessary?  Can I do that with images instead of words?  Is there an easier and clearer way to get that same message across?".
3. Know your audience: Be very clear on who the audience for your video is and be sure to always look at the content from their point of view.  If something isn't going to make sense to your audience then you need to deal with it ASAP.  Always critique your video from the point of your of your audience and what you want they to do or feel. 
4. Work your script and storyboard: Script and storyboard development are the most important aspects of the creative process so be sure to spend the time working and refining your script and imagery during storyboarding.  Doing so will help you make sure your don't waste time and money changing something later.  I also recommend making sure you document everything during these phases and that you take the time to make sure your feedback is incorporated into each iteration.  

 Have you ever created a marketing video?  If so, what did you learn?

Why I Voted for Yasir Naqvi in Ottawa Centre

Gary Vaynerchuck talks about passion and hustle in his amazing book "Crush It!", btw I reviewed it recently, and I think that this post is about both of those things more than politics.

On Sunday, I took about 15 minutes out of my day and voted for Yasir Naqvi (Liberal) because I think that you aren't going to find a better candidate or somebody who works harder for Ottawa Centre than Yasir.

When deciding who to vote for in this election, I could have cast my ballot on the basis of political party platforms (I tend to lean Conservative) but in the end, I had to vote for the candidate I knew would be the best for person the job. 

We are in a period of intense economic uncertainty and the task ahead is daunting, regardless of which party wins and what kind of government they form.  The truth is that there is lots of hard work to be done and I know firsthand that nobody works harder than Yasir.  

Yasir has probably knocked on every door in Ottawa Centre, twice.  I know this because when I canvassed for him, most people I spoke to had already met him. When did phone canvassing, most people said he had just been to their door.  That's the type of person Yasir is. 

I care about making Ottawa Centre a better place to live and so does Yasir.  I volunteer my time with Computers for Communities, a non-profit that refurbishes computers and donates them to people who can't afford them.  Last year, Yasir showed up unannounced to an event we were holding at 8:30pm on a weeknight because he wanted to meet our volunteers, hear about what we were doing and offer his assistance.  He has continued to support C4C, helping us make important connections with other volunteer organizations and enabled us to amplify the good work we are doing. 

This is what Yasir does. It is what he will continue to do if you vote for him on October 6^th.

He works tirelessly for our community and has a record of delivering results. People will often say – Candidate X has worked hard and deserves your vote, while that is undoubtedly true about Yasir, more importantly, our community deserves Yasir Naqvi as our advocate.  

If you want to know more about how you can vote in advance of October 6th, visit the Elections Ontario website.  

4 Easy Ways to Find Great Content

Everybody loves to find great content.  The problem is that finding the good stuff is hard because there is so much stuff out there.

Here are 4 easy ways for you to find great content: 

#1: Use and follow Twitter lists:  I am finding that people aren't sharing as much content on Twitter as they used to but my biggest recommendation for finding great content on Twitter is to use lists.  Curate your own lists but more importantly, follow the lists curated by others and create a column for the list in Hootsuite or Tweetdeck.  If you're in marketing/advertising, a great example of Bob Knorpp, host of The Beancast,  curates a list of show guests.

#2: Read great blogs and watch for curated link posts:  There are some amazing bloggers out there who put up weekly posts of that lists amazing content.  I'm sure that there are blogs about the topics you are interested in that take the time to curate posts with great content.  Here's a selection of blogs and bloggers that I know do this: 

Mitch Joel:  Shares great content form his network in a post weekly of links worthy of your attention. 
John Jantsch (Duct Tape Marketing): Shares great stuff every Saturday.
Mediastyle: Does the same each week on their blog with their weekly Style Guide.

I would also like to point out that blog projects often provide great sources of content because you will often get viewpoints from many different sources you might have otherwise heard about.  My friend Jackson Wightman has a great example over at his 52 week blog project on local food in Montreal called Ici et Here.

#3: Visit curated content websites: There are also websites that curate, aggregate and share great content.  Here's a few that I pay attention to: 

Say100: A collection of online voices that help shape conversation by curating and sharing content.
PSFK:  The place to go for inspiration and design ideas on just about everything.
Brain Pickings: Maria Popova has written for many influential magazines and knows what's cool and what is happening.  

#4: Follow people in RSS: If you aren't already into RSS, then I would suggest you check it out immediately using a RSS reader like Google Reader.  One of the best features in Google Reader is that you can easily share items in your feed with people who choose to follow you.  More importantly, you can follow others.  One of the people I follow is Christopher S. Penn, who always shares great content. 

What are some of the ways that you find great content?

Why You Should Be Using Video During Your Job Search

Almost two years ago, I wrote about using social media as part of your job search.  Today, I'd like to take some time to discuss the use of video as part of your job search.

If you are not using video as part of job search or how you market your skills, you're missing out an a huge opportunity, and here's why:

Employers and recruiters want video: Let's face it, potential employers and recruiters are even busier than we are, and video helps them see who you are really quickly.

Nobody is doing it: If there has ever been a way to separate yourself from other applicants, it is video because nobody is doing it.  I keep asking one recruiter if anyone has sent him a video and he keeps saying "no", so there aren't many people using video for their job search. 

It's not rocket science: This doesn't mean it is easy, but doing a video takes nothing more than a camera (you could use your laptop cam) and some decent sound and a clear, well-written script that you can deliver with confidence.  You don't need to create an Oscar-winning film. 

You can paint outside the lines:  With resumes, you are mostly constrained to a few different formats and the standard conventions that will help you get noticed (no mistakes, focus on achievements and highlight specific skills relevant to the job).  With video, you have the opportunity to show some of your personality and what makes you unique. More importantly, it gives you an opportunity to show how your would present yourself in an interview. 

BONUS: Here are tips for creating good videos:

1. Prepare: spend lots of time writing a script, practicing and figuring out where and how you are going to film your video.
2. Test: spent the time to do some tests of your video.  Record and then play back and refine.  Trust me, you will learn a lot by doing this.  
3. Sound: I believe that you record something that looks good with your laptop camera and some good lighting but you need to be sure that you can heard clearly.  
4. Keep it short: The shorter your video, the more likely people are to watch the whole thing.  
5. Hire a professional:  If you don't think you have the chops to pull a video off by yourself, considering hiring a professional.  It might not be as expensive as you think and really, isn't getting an awesome job worth it?

2nd BONUS: Video ideals - because there are lots of different approaches you can take.  Why not do more than one of these?

1. Video resume: Provide an overview of who you are, what you've done and where you want to go.  Considering picking a story or something that isn't in your resume/cover letter and talking about it.  
2. Book review: Read a book and do a quick review of it and why it's relevant to what you want to do.   
3. Hire me/Recommendation video: I have to give props to DJ Waldow we created the best video of this type I have ever seen.   
4. Interview: Connect with somebody interesting or influential in your field and ask them 3 questions.  

Have you ever used to video to find a job?  What did you learn?

Why no recent posts

Meet Murray, our new puppy and the reason why I haven't posted lately.

Why being a marketer is like being a 35 year old bachelor

I have always felt that people who don't really understand marketing have problems grappling with a few of the important concepts that should form the basis for everything that you do in marketing.

At the same time, being 35 years old and unmarried has also taught me about the importance of understanding these same concepts.

You need to manage expectations
In marketing, it is important to understand the expectations of your potential customer and either meet or exceed them.  You never want to promise something to your customers and fail to deliver it.  

The 35 year old bachelor needs to make sure that his mother doesn't think he's going to marry every girl that he dates.  Every girl that you meet doesn't need to think you're going to marry her.  That not to say that you shouldn't treat a woman well, it's just that you have to manage expectations properly if you plan on developing any sort of trust, which is key to every relationship you will ever have. 

You need to know who you are and why you are special
As a marketer, you need to know what your brand is, what it stands for and what your unique selling proposition(USP) is.  You need to be constantly working to refine your USP is and how you communicate it but you should never lose sight of it and you should be communicating it as often as possible.

The 35 year old unmarried bachelor needs to know who he is, what he stands for and why he is special because you need to believe in yourself and what you're doing in order to feel like you are truly worth spending the rest of your life with.