Last month I had the opportunity to attend the Digital Media Summit- Canada's Premier Social Media and Interactive Marketing Conference at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto. Infinity had the privilege of working with the Digital Media Summit since December of 2011, running their social media campaign, along with traditional PR and media relations. Now I'm not just saying (notice the clever pun) this because we were involved with the event, but it really was an amazing two days. Got to hear from lots of amazing speakers, make some great network connections and top it all of with a closing keynote address from Arianna Huffington. 

I wanted to share an interesting thought with you that I picked up at DMS courtesy of Facebook's Steve Irvine, who was definitely one of the highlight speakers. Steve talked a lot about how social media has the power to take a brand that may seem very disconnected from the human experience and capture those special moments in life that the brand has always been a part of. 

Take something as basic as nails: boring, cold, come in assorted cases at your local Home Depot for a couple of dollars. How could 'Example' Nails, as a brand have any sort of resonance with everyday life? What's the point in creating a Facebook page for nails- it's not as if people are nail enthusiasts or take great pride in the brand of nails they identify with. Yet nails can be a part of many special moments throughout our lives. The first time you built something with your dad or grandpa- hitting those nails into the wood and loving it no matter how crooked they were, that time you built a bird house as a gift for mom on mother's day, your first house- and how you and your friends renovated it on your own because you couldn't afford to hire a professional to help,the volunteers that come together to rebuild houses that have been destroyed by floods, tornados and fires and that tree house you built for your grandkids just because you could. (Are you teary eyed yet?)

I apologize for making the last part read like a bad Disney script, but this was just a short list of the many plausible "story" scenarios where something as bland as couple of nails become a part of a meaningful and memorable life experience. The brand now has power to project those moments via social media by creating a space where the stories can come to the forefront and remind the audience how that given brand now fits into their story. 

Just a thought. Until next time*

David Siekanowicz

There are many trending topics happening this week.  I could discuss this year’s best Super Bowl ad.  The return of Ferris Bueller – hands down, am I right?  Seriously... I think I’ll just watch FBDO for the 1,000^th time on Sunday instead of the Super Bowl.  Why aren’t my days off half as glamorous as that one?  Must be the car…

Anyways, today I’ll be talking about Infographics.  Infographics are everywhere.  Just go on Mashable and every other entry contains an Infographic.  There are Infographics about what people look up on Facebook, how we use Twitter, the economy, the election…there are even infographics about infographics...lots of them

Wouldn’t all this information be better presented in a list?  I know you’d love that Dave….

Some people just love Infographics.... here's what Blue Wheel Media says about them:

"Infographics have the ability to transform a boring collection of statistics, facts and figures, into a stunning masterpiece that you won't be able to keep to yourself.  Upon finding a great infographic, the reader is overcome with a thrill of discovery - almost like an adrenaline rush, triggering desire to share."

So if this is true, how can you apply this latest trend to your business and have the biggest impact with your documents?  If I had any design talent, I would create my own infographic with pie charts, symbols, squiggly lines and shiny colours, but I’ll just have to do a list

People respond to visuals – so don’t be too texty.

Keep it short

People are busy, we have lots of things to do and we get distracted easily.  So if you want us to read your quarterly sales report, keep it short…because after page 1, I’ll be bouncing over to YouTube or checking out Perez Hilton.

And it the same vein:

Keep it simple

Avoid jargon, fancy abbreviations or acronyms.  Don’t use 4 words when 1 would suffice.  Forget complicated – use simple, direct, easy-to-understand words that every single one of your audience will get.  No one wants to feel condescended to when reading that ubiquitous sales pitch. Indubitably!

Don’t just dress it up, back it up

See what I did there? Very tongue in cheek (if I do say so myself). 

This blog is a combination rant,commentary and airing of grievances all in one. As part of my daily research to keep up-to-date with all things social, digital and PR, I go through a bookmarked list of blogs that feature the latest posts related to said areas of interest. I then check my Twitter lists to see what the important people are Tweeting about. Since Twitter is a great sharing platform I figure any worthwhile stories, blogs and articles will eventually be tweeted. 

And I must report that I have noticed an annoying trend. Let me know if you see it:

• 5 Tips for First Time Managers
• 5 Ways Social Media is like a Networking Event 
• 5 Facts You Didn't Know About Facebook Edge Rank
• 7 Reasons Every Job Seeker Should Have a Blog
• 11 Things That Annoy Journalists and Bloggers

I thought for my inaugural blog post as the newest Account Manager at Infinity Communications, I’d talk about something that I find absolutely fascinating, especially in light of some recent events that happened this weekend: #trending.

#trending might sound a little complex but not to worry, it really isn’t.  It simply means that many people are talking about a given topic through Twitter at a greater rate than other topics, so the topic becomes singled out…and trends. 

Twitter has changed the communication landscape.  People can get breaking news the second it happens, as long as they are on Twitter.   Nobody has to wait for it to be reported in that evening’s news broadcast or in tomorrow’s newspaper (I can’t even imagine waiting that long to get news anymore).  Everything is instant.  Then people talk about it and then more people will talk about it and before you know it, the topic is now trending.

These days, trending is now a goal.  I get inundated with twitter messages asking me to retweet something to get it trending.  Sometimes I participate, most times I don’t.  To me, it’s the same thing as spam.  Once in my news feed, there was a message about a girl who had passed away and her wish was to become a trending topic, so pls RT! – hashtag sad.  Obviously they didn’t read the rules about Trending Topics from Twitter’s Help Centre:

This past weekend, we had two big trending topics in the Twitter-verse, #tebow and #BlueIvy.

#tebow was trending in a big way this weekend after Tim Tebow’s and the Denver Bronco’s game-winning OT performance in Sunday’s NFL game.  Twitter exploded with everyone talking about this game…to the point that it made records.  It became the 2^nd highest Tweet Per Second topic ever with 9,420 tweets going out each second about Tebow and the game.  That is over 565,000 tweets per minute! 

(FYI the highest Tweet per second topic was ‘Castle in the Sky’, a Japanese anime movie that had 25,088 tweets per second… I can’t even wrap my head around how many tweets per minute that is – over 1.5 million!)

Now Tebow has become a bit of a social media phenomenon, with his touchdown stance of kneeling to thank God becoming a trend in itself.  All you need to do is google #tebowing and you can see all the websites, the blogs, the YouTube videos, the t-shirts and all the photos uploaded with Instagram of people copying the stance.

#BlueIvy... In case you haven’t heard, Beyonce and Jay-Z became parents this weekend!  Beyonce gave birth to her daughter and named her Blue Ivy Carter.  It’s worth noting that when Beyonce announced her pregnancy, she placed third in the Tweet Per Second record books with 8,868 tweets per second on the topic, so it’s well established that Beyonce has a powerful brand and a heavy following. 

Within seconds of the birth announcement, #BlueIvy was trending and with that came all of the critiques and conspiracy theories about the baby’s name.…in the past 48 hours since she was born, several more trending topics have emerged: #B.I.C., #Glory – after the song Jay-Z released commemorating the birth, #whatIwouldnameBeyoncesbaby.  This baby is already famous and she’s only two days old!

Now it’s all in good fun talking about the latest pop-culture topics in social media, but what does this mean for your business?

Well first of all, if your business isn’t already set up on Twitter, DO IT NOW!!  Get your voice out there, connect with people and start conversations with your target demographic and key players in your industry! 

Get people talking about your business by posting relevant, engaging content and interacting with your followers.  Talk about your business' products and services, promotions, calls to action.  Keep your eye out for the negative and do your best to diffuse any situation and turn your foes into fans.

REMEMBER– be strategic and careful with the messaging that you post.  As easily as positive messages can go viral and trend like #tebow and #BlueIvy, the not-so-positive messages can trend just as fast and just as much.  And the last thing you want is to be associated with a controversial, trending message.

Leverage the power of your brand and your followers will become your advocates and ambassadors.  Odds are you won’t see trending numbers like #tebow and #BlueIvy are getting, but positive word of mouth will only drive your business forward.  So get out there and get #trending!

Alana Seale

In my previous post we established the nature of this ‘weird devil’ known by many names but living under the umbrella term of “Social Media”. Our attempt at managing the digital strategies that go into a successful social media plan concluded with something that looked like an evil math equation (yes, yes- I know, ALL math is evil; but this equation is super evil!): Over 1000 “known” SMS+ less than 1% matter to your business+ that 1% also matters to 95% of your competitors= high risk of getting lost in the clutter.

In hopes of cutting through everyone else’s clutter (because of course your business is the only one that matters), it’s crucial that you manage your 1% at 100% capacity. But wait, where is YOUR 1% located? It’s easy to hop on the popularity bandwagon and do what everyone else is doing, but what if that’s not what’s best for your business? Sure Facebook is important to most businesses, but if you’re located anywhere in Brazil or India then forget about Facebook and focus on Orkut. This Google owned platform has exploded in Brazil since 2004, where it is now the top social networking website. What better way to reach your Brazilian audience then by switching to a Social Media platform they have embraced?

No biggie, after all you are located in Canada right? So you should go ahead and put all your effort on Twitter, but wait- your business is a restaurant. Well if you’re a restaurant then you will find that your 1% should focus on Yelp! Yelp, is a food/restaurant review social media website that encourages user generated content. Your customers can post reviews, highlight favourite menu items, post videos or pictures of the food and most importantly connect with other foodies via a platform that is popular in the foodie community.

One more? Alright, your business is a high-quality boutique film production studio interested in showcasing the highest standards of video to an exclusive community that can appreciate the work, effort and quality you put into every project. You had the bright idea of putting up your vides on MySpace, STOP- oh I jest, no one uses MySpace anymore. You had the idea of uploading your videos to YouTube, alright that’s pretty good- or maybe not. How about Vimeo? Vimeo is a video based social media platform that has less ads than YouTube, features higher viewing quality, nicer branding/graphics and most importantly has a community of passionate film makers who feel they are too good for YouTube. Boom- there’s audience. Vimeo it is.

The moral of the blog- to maximize your 1% don’t necessarily go running with the wolves. Instead find out which pack your audience is running with and go there (wow that’s a terrible analogy). Sorry about the length of this one, join me next time for Cutting Through The Clutter: You’re Supposed to be Social, SAY SOMETHING!

Dave Siekanowicz  

The Social Networking page of 5 years, passed away peacefully after a courageous battle with designers.

Beloved child of Jack Dorsey and predeceased by the new version of Twitter.com, as well as marketers, brands, companies, and users who announce what they're having for dinner. The Old Version of Twitter is now resting peacefully beside its devoted cetacean The Fail Whale.

A memorial gathering will be held online in various Facebook groups and Twitter feeds. The Old Version of Twitter is perhaps more familiar and will be missed, but we will adjust. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to charity. To share an on-line condolence, visit the new Twitter.com