My Name is Kate

links for 2008-04-30

• Pixelfumes Flash Blog: Creating an iTunes Wish List
  Easy solution, once you think about it, but not intuitive when in the app. Can't iTunes do something about that? Thank heavens for Google.
  (tags: itunes wishlist)
• 5 Items Your Blog Sidebar Must Have
  Via mhamburg
  (tags: blogging tips)
• 10 Articles All Bloggers Should Read (at least once) | Performancing.com
  Via mhamburg
  (tags: blogging tips writing)
• eCommerce - Top 20 must have features (part 1)
  List of the first 10 features any self respecting ecomm site must have. Focus on higher conversion rate and lower cart abandonment.
  (tags: ecommerce tips onedegree)
• TwitterSnooze! v0.13
  "Hit the snooze button on your verbose Twitter friends".
  (tags: twitter tools web2.0)
• Skribit: Blog Topic Suggestion Application
  Skribit provides bloggers with the ability to receive real-time, user-generated suggestions directly from their readers via an east-to-install blog application. Not only does Skribit help bloggers understand their readers, but Skribit also helps facilitat
  (tags: blog widgets suggestion community)

links for 2008-04-28

• CommunityNorth
  CommunityNorth is a project to profile Canadian communities and the best examples of community marketing, social capital, building meaningful relationships and evangelism practices.
  (tags: canada community socialmediamarketing)

links for 2008-04-27

• SEOmoz | Widgetbait Gone Wild
  Wow. Amazing case study of link building gone badly awry. Kudos to Matthew for sharing this info.
  (tags: SEO linkbait google links linkbuilding seomoz widget)
• The Link Spiel: Usurp Wikipedia And Build Authority. Cool. Link Building and Link Training Blog by Debra Mastaler
  Discusses Encyclopedia Britannica's new widget program.
  (tags: widgets content encyclopedia+britannica)

links for 2008-04-25

• Popgadget: Let's celebrate women in tech
  Some good links to women tech writers.
  (tags: women technology)
• Trendpedia - What's hot online? | The Multitasker
  Trendpedia seeks out trends in the blogosphere. It’s basically a simple search engine which scans for trends in blog posts and then composes graphs, called Trendlines, giving you a clear visualization of what’s hot on the internet.
  (tags: trends search resource)
• How Blogs & Social Media Are Changing Crisis Communications « The Engaged Consumer
  In response to Am Airlines. Some of the best stuff is in the comments - as part of your social media plan, make sure you are monitoring what people are saying! Via bhodgson
  (tags: crisis+management socialmedia)
• Reuters/Second Life » Second Life Sketches: Drive My Car
  "I have always felt that there’s really only one way to properly see and understand the mainland. Drive." This is something I have never tried in SL. Will put it on the list!
  (tags: secondlife warrenellis metaverse)

links for 2008-04-24

• Crisis Planning seems to be big–but how do you know if they are any good? « Crisisblogger
  Article on evaluating crisis planning plans. Some good considerations esp wrt social media and ongoing communication. Via bhodgson.
  (tags: corporate crisis+management)
• Ten Ways To Clear Bad Press From Search Engines | IMAGEX MEDIA
  Some great ideas from Linda Bustos for trying to get good press to outweigh negative in the search engines. Via speechpoet.
  (tags: pr search)
• Privacy Disaster At Twitter: Direct Messages Exposed (Update: GroupTweet Is Likely Culprit)
  Two thoughts out of this: apps must get better at being clear about privacy AND we're going to have to educate on privacy & security literacy better.
  (tags: twitter privacy security socialmedia)
• How To Pitch Techvibes (or Anyone)
  Hear, hear! I get so many of these requests for MNIK and One Degree. I'm beyond flattery. Just give me the goods and the links. And make it easy!
  (tags: onedegree pitch pr blogs)

Mass to Grass Returns June 12 - WOM Conference in Toronto

Smoke 'em if ya got 'em - it's that time again.  That's right - time for From Mass to Grass, CMA's Word of Mouth Marketing Conference.  This time, it's personal.  Because I was on the committee :)

So, here are the important bits:

When: Thursday, June 12, 2008, 8:30 - 4:30
Where: Atlantis Pavillion at Ontario Place
Who: Over 20 business and not-for-profit leaders in WOM, Social Media and Viral Marketing (including WestJet VP, Richard Bartrem; author, Douglas Rushkoff; TD Bank VP, Su McVey; Exec Director Zerofootprint, Deborah Kaplan; and Managing Partners at Mabel's Labels, Julie Cole and Tricia Mumby)

This year, the agenda includes more B2B, more metrics, more measurement, more not-for-profit and more ethics - all based on feedback from last year's attendees.

It's really a fantastic collection of folks - Canada's best and brightest from across the country.

And you know what's going to make it the best conference ever?  You!

So register for From Mass to Grass and spend the day with us.  But first, hop on over to Facebook and become a fan.  Because Fans get a $50 discount on the price of registration!  But only til May 1st.

And keep an eye out.  We have several buzz-generating activities scheduled for the next few weeks, including some video, some experience stuff and a contest where you can help your fav not-for-profit and small business win a complimentary ticket to Mass to Grass.

And on that personal note, this was the first CMA Conference Committee that I've served on, and it was a pretty good time.  Whether in person or on a conference call, it was great to spend time with this group of folks.  Kudos and thanks to:

Mirabel Palmer-Elliott, Rogers Publishing
Allison Daisley, Cake Beauty
Minnow Hamilton, Savvy Mom
Kiran Balladin, CMA
Cathy Landolt, CMA
Sean Moffitt, Agent Wildfire
Mitch Joel, Twist Image   
David Jones, Hill & Knowlton
Michael Seaton, Thornley & Fallis
Peter Coish, XY Media Ventures
Baron Mannett, Ariad Communications
Steve Osgoode, Harper Collins 
Jay Moonah , 58 Ninety 
and me, Kate Trgovac, LintBucket Media

Update:  Check out the great posts from my M2G Colleagues:

• Sean Moffitt - "From Mass to Grass" Marketing Conference Launches ... and an Early Bird Discount Sean has the low-down on every speaker and moderator.  How does he manage to write so much? That's why he is co-Chair of the conference and I'm just a lowly member.
• Dave Jones - Psst…$50 off CMA Word of Mouth conference…pass it on
• Mitch Joel - Gets the word out about M2G earlier this year on his podcast

links for 2008-04-22

• Creating an Insight & Information Department - Advertising Age - Small Agency Diary
  Tom Martin wants to create an outsourced Insight & Information dept for small agencies to share. Interesting idea!
  (tags: advertising marketing research innovation)
• COVERITLIVE.COM - Home
  "CoveritLive's web based software takes your next live blog to a new level. Your commentary publishes in real time like an instant message." Anyone ever used this?
  (tags: blogging web2.0 tools)

Mark Kingdon from Organic to head up Linden Lab, creator of Second Life

Wow ... via the Reuters Second Life News Center and the Second Life blog: Mark Kingdon, former CEO of Organic, is going to head up Linden Lab.

Mark will be known as "M Linden" in Second Life (yes, the Bond jokes have already started).

I am oddly hopeful as a result of this announcement.  SL has taken a beating over the last year from fickle marketers and media alike, plus they have been plagued by technology problems and resident unrest over issues like content protection and copyright.  I'm a firm believer in the power of virtual worlds; while SL is not the marketing panacea that it was made out to be - there is a place for it in some marketers toolkits and a place for other VW's in others.  I'm really excited that LL has brought on a smart, savvy marketer from a respected shop like Organic to lead them.

Well done, LL.  Congrats to Mark and the whole crew at LL.  With Mark coming on board, I'll expect great things.

Image Credit: Reuters Second Life News Center

Canadian Marketing Blog Discoveries

For some reason, I don't talk a lot about what's happening over on OneDegree, the best source for digital marketing and social media marketing info in Canada.   I'm not really sure why, perhaps it's because I'm such a private person ;P or maybe it's just that I like my life very compartmentalized.

In any case, I did want to mention this ... we started the "Great Canadian Marketing and Communications Blogroll" (I know ... that's some good namin').  We've been rolling (haha, ROLLING) along for a few weeks now, sharing great Canadian blogs with the unsuspecting marketing community.

I'm pleased to note that about half  of them I wasn't familiar with.  You have to actually submit your own blog - so I'm thinking that some of the usual suspects didn't bother, but some folks who are just starting out wanted to get some link love and we're happy to give it.  New voices are always welcome!  These are a few of my new favs ...

• one little cog by Ehren Cheung - Ehren's blog is such a pleasure to read.  He writes really well and has a number of interesting topics he discusses - not just marketing.  He also makes great diagrams of standing density in subway cars.
• WebTarget by Stéphane Lagrange (Blogroll) - Stéphane has some really great insights into ecommerce; I've been able to use a number of his articles and tips to help my retail clients.  I only wish he were posting a little more frequently.
• The Multitasker by Corby Fine (Blogroll) - Corby is writing from a business perspective on Internet marketing.  His posts are generally short and pithy plus he's not sharing the same old "me too" stuff that a lot of people do.
• Mint Birdy by Véronique Desrosiers (Blogroll) - Mint Birdy is a VERY new blog from Montrealer Véronique Desrosiers.  She's only posted a few times, but I think she has a great voice.  I hope she finds her blogging groove - especially if she keeps digging up great diagrams like the one in her post about the death of the microsite.  Note: Véronique is posting en francais.

So, if you have a few minutes, check out these blogs, give 'em a read and maybe add them to your reader.  Also, if you want to have your blog considered to the GCMCB, read our original post on how to submit!

links for 2008-04-19

• Firefox Tip: Shift-Delete mistyped autocomplete suggestions
  This works in both the address bar AND other autocomplete fields. Awesome tip!
  (tags: firefox howto tip autocomplete delete)