Archive for the ‘IIMA’ Category

On June 25, 2009, after months of planning and development, we launched our new website, albeit softly and with little fanfare. With the help of the folks at Engine Digital, we’ve been able deploy a site that breaths some life into the brand, while providing tools that make it easier to connect with the community and our members.

The impetus for the site’s redesign was a familiar one – “Out with old and crusty, in with new and shiny”.  While the old site met the basic needs of the association, it didn’t score many points for modern design. Several years looking at the same ‘business guy’ image in the header will tax anyone’s patience. When we finally decided to move on the refresh, all the other pieces powering the site came into question: CMS, Content, Event Management, Social Media Integration, Email Management, eCommerce, etc.

As our ideas for the site unfolded, we realized the best approach was going to be a hybrid of Web 2.0 tools, custom app development, social media integration and 3rd party tools. Here’s what percolated to the top:

• WordPress: Well supported, great developer community, tons of plugins: the defacto standard platform for custom blogs and a surprisingly decent CMS
• Event Management: A custom flavor of Engine’s Transmission CMS. We wanted something that looked good, which could easily integrate with our ecommerce platform.
• Email Marketing: Exact Target, an enterprise level emarketing solution used for email that is one of the best in the business. In the interests of full disclosure, Exact Target is a sponsor of IIMA. There, duty done.
• Social Media: Flickr, Twitter, Facebook. Don’t really think think this needs explanation, though we’re not done with Twitter integration yet.
• eCommerce/Membership: GiftTools – local company that specializes in providing non-profits with transaction processing and membership management services

You’ll see some changes over the coming weeks as we refine and improve a few features on the site, but what you see before you is the basic framework. We’re hopeful that you can find what you’re looking for and are intrigued enough by the site’s content to consider joining the association or attend one of the approximately 10 events we hold annually.

Thanks again to Engine Digital for their patience and support. This would not have been possible without your help. Feel free to provide your feedback or contact us directly at info at iimaonline.com

IMC & IIMA on YouTube. A very quick synopsis of IMC Vancouver and an excellent plug for IIMA membership.

Liveblogged by Guacira Naves (The Online Strategy House)

Shortly, we’ll be liveblogging Richard J. Goossen’s presentation on “Harnessing the power of a crowd”, CEO of MakeGood and author of “E-Preneur – From Wall Street to Wiki: Succeeding as a Crowdpreneur™ in the New Virtual Marketplace.”

If you’re livetweeting this event, feel free to use #IIMA in your updates.

Ean Jackson is introducing Richard Goossen and his book, “E-Preneur”. Richard is on the faculty of Trinity Western University. You may follow him on Twitter through @make_good.

A couple of things that Richard is pointing out on the outset: the world of the Internet is fascinating because things change so quickly. He’s done this same presentation in April, and Facebook had 100 million users. Now, it has 400 million. Eventhough things change, somethings stay the change, such as principles related to how innovation happens that have worked for hundreds of years.

Richard is referring to Peter Drucker (the father of entrepreneurship), and that his principles still apply nowadays.

Richard’s introduction to the context to the principle of crowdsourcing: he’s mentioning John Harrison, from England. He’s relevant because he was involved in the one of the original concepts of crowdsourcing, and in managing the principle of longitude. The parliament in England at the time used the principle of crowdsourcing to come up with a solution to the longitude problem, in 1714. At the time, Cambridge had been around for approximately 400 years, and yet, they couldn’t figure out the problem.

John Harrison was a cabinet maker in West Yorkshire, and sickly as a young lad. He retired as a millionaire after solving the issue regarding longitude by using crowdsourcing as the solution. So, if John Harrison was able to achieve such advances in a time where communication was so more challenging and technology was not where it is now, imagine what can be done nowadays.

Richard is now speaking about the Generational Test and is showing a slide of Bonanza as a generational test, and how, in conferences, most people 25 and under cannot make the reference. There’s a generational divide. Richard is showing a classification of Gen Z as the generation that comes after Gen Y (born after 1981, until now). Gen Z doesn’t even know a world where Facebook doesn’t exist. At the rate of how technology changes, generations should be classified in gaps of 5 years.

Global brands – circa 100 have taken hundreds of years to become established – such as Ford, etc. Now, in 1990s, brands like eBay (established in 95), Google (98) and Napster (99), the pace of change keeps going faster, are some of the top brands in the world, and have only been around during the last couple of decades. Wikipedia (2001), Facebook (2004), Twitter (2006) – all these brands are now so ubiquitous. This illustrates how quickly things change.

The New Virtual Marketplace

Going from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0

• Web 1.o is static, unidimensional – where as 2.0 includes user generated interface, where we’re co-creators.
• Network effects: the more connections there are, the more important a social network becomes.
• Long tail (expanded by Chris Anderson’s book). Most retailers can’t stock all the books that the audience is interested in, but Amazon is probably able to. Companies can now make $ off micro-niched markets.
• In the Cloud (pushed a lot by Google): your computer will not have any software on it. All programs you need will be online. Just log into the cloud and programs will be available. The concept of having a computer with your own program in it might be outdated for the next generation. Akin to “when I was your age, I had to walk 20 miles to go to school”.

All of this means a lot to today’s businesses.

The Madness of Crowds

One might think that the crowd is a mob. Key thing to think about is a point in “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds”, relating to tulips. Tulips were a reference to a person’s worth at one time in Holland.

How do we get to the wisdom of the crowd? Can the crowd be wise? “Under the right circumstances, groups are smarter than the smarter people in them”. Three types of problems where the crowd wisdom can be helpful:

• Coordination problems
• Topics like “who will win the Superbowl”
• Cooperation problems – motivating people to fix the problem

“The wisdom of the crowd is best when individuals are acting separately, but addressing the same issue”. (paraphase from the book that Richard is referring to). We have been wired to be collectively smart. How this influences business:

• Open Innovation (for e.g., Firefox)
• Collective Intelligence (term used by Tim O’Reilly. There’s an interview w/ Tim in Richard’s book, e-Preneur).
• Crowdsourcing (coined by Jeff Howe, from Wired Magazine) – throwing a problem out to a group of people who will respond independently to the problem.

The Crowdpreneur

Crowd Power + entrepreneurial application = crowdpreneur

How do we harness crowd power for an entrepreneurial application?

Companies currently using crowd power: Cambrian House / VenCorps, Chaordix (the crowdsourcing engine for companies), Threadless, whereto you can “submit an idea for a chance at fame, friends and twenty-five hundred dollars!”. Simple concept: “when people tell you what they want, you give it to them”. Another example: NowPublic: the crowd determines what news will show on their website. It’s “Crowd Powered Media”.

Now, Richard is using Fluevog as an example of crowdpreneur & shoes – crowdsourced shoes! But you need to have a crowd to launch a project like this. It worked for Fluevog because of their number of followers. This ties back to John Harrison’s time in England, but technology allows for crowdsourcing to happen a lot faster. In addition, Fluevog can take this risk, because even if there weren’t crowdsourcing, they would still succeed.

The Crowdpreneur & Good – Make Good

Make Good:

• A community that is “good for business”
• Crowdsourced ideas for giving
• Changing the nature of doing good

It’s an unbiased way of advertising of what the company is doing that is good. This related to crowdsourcing because they’ve been looking at which causes should be supported by going to the wisdom of the crowd.

Takeaways

6 Principles of Crowd Power

• If want to be the room where the conversation takes place, give them good drinks!
• Vetting vs. Creating: there’s a big difference.
• Give credit to people who are the experts.
• Give people recognition
• Reward! Make it worth people’s while to participate. Now Public is an example.
• This is not 18th Century French Court! The language on a site, for example, should not sound like a brochure from an accounting firm, etc. Make it engaging!

Crowpreneur – Business Model

• It reduces risks
• It expands resources (NowPublic, for e.g.)
• Fosters Brand Loyalty (e.g. Fluevog). Now it’s no longer an unidimensional transaction. When there’s a sense of ownership, there’s a sense of loyalty
• Increase in revenue/sales (Threadless)

The Future of Crowdpreneur

• Shift Worldwide
• Cameesa – Crowdfunding Tees (www.cameesa.com). Different from Threadless, because through this site, the idea is that you put the concept out there, and people come together to make the shirt happen.
• www.Indiegogo.com – a collaborative way to fund ideas & innovation

“The future is here; it is just not evenly distributed yet”

J. Craig Ventor, Genomic Research Scientist, Web 2.0 Summit, October 2007

Liveblogged by Guacira Naves (The Online Strategy House)

Shortly, we’ll be liveblogging Richard J. Goossen’s presentation on “Harnessing the power of a crowd”, CEO of MakeGood and author of “E-Preneur – From Wall Street to Wiki: Succeeding as a Crowdpreneur™ in the New Virtual Marketplace.”

If you’re livetweeting this event, feel free to use #IIMA in your updates.

Ean Jackson is introducing Richard Goossen and his book, “E-Preneur”. Richard is on the faculty of Trinity Western University. You may follow him on Twitter through @make_good.

A couple of things that Richard is pointing out on the outset: the world of the Internet is fascinating because things change so quickly. He’s done this same presentation in April, and Facebook had 100 million users. Now, it has 400 million. Eventhough things change, somethings stay the change, such as principles related to how innovation happens that have worked for hundreds of years.

Richard is referring to Peter Drucker (the father of entrepreneurship), and that his principles still apply nowadays.

Richard’s introduction to the context to the principle of crowdsourcing: he’s mentioning John Harrison, from England. He’s relevant because he was involved in the one of the original concepts of crowdsourcing, and in managing the principle of longitude. The parliament in England at the time used the principle of crowdsourcing to come up with a solution to the longitude problem, in 1714. At the time, Cambridge had been around for approximately 400 years, and yet, they couldn’t figure out the problem.

John Harrison was a cabinet maker in West Yorkshire, and sickly as a young lad. He retired as a millionaire after solving the issue regarding longitude by using crowdsourcing as the solution. So, if John Harrison was able to achieve such advances in a time where communication was so more challenging and technology was not where it is now, imagine what can be done nowadays.

Richard is now speaking about the Generational Test and is showing a slide of Bonanza as a generational test, and how, in conferences, most people 25 and under cannot make the reference. There’s a generational divide. Richard is showing a classification of Gen Z as the generation that comes after Gen Y (born after 1981, until now). Gen Z doesn’t even know a world where Facebook doesn’t exist. At the rate of how technology changes, generations should be classified in gaps of 5 years.

Global brands – circa 100 have taken hundreds of years to become established – such as Ford, etc. Now, in 1990s, brands like eBay (established in 95), Google (98) and Napster (99), the pace of change keeps going faster, are some of the top brands in the world, and have only been around during the last couple of decades. Wikipedia (2001), Facebook (2004), Twitter (2006) – all these brands are now so ubiquitous. This illustrates how quickly things change.

The New Virtual Marketplace

Going from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0

• Web 1.o is static, unidimensional – where as 2.0 includes user generated interface, where we’re co-creators.
• Network effects: the more connections there are, the more important a social network becomes.
• Long tail (expanded by Chris Anderson’s book). Most retailers can’t stock all the books that the audience is interested in, but Amazon is probably able to. Companies can now make $ off micro-niched markets.
• In the Cloud (pushed a lot by Google): your computer will not have any software on it. All programs you need will be online. Just log into the cloud and programs will be available. The concept of having a computer with your own program in it might be outdated for the next generation. Akin to “when I was your age, I had to walk 20 miles to go to school”.

All of this means a lot to today’s businesses.

The Madness of Crowds

One might think that the crowd is a mob. Key thing to think about is a point in “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds”, relating to tulips. Tulips were a reference to a person’s worth at one time in Holland.

How do we get to the wisdom of the crowd? Can the crowd be wise? “Under the right circumstances, groups are smarter than the smarter people in them”. Three types of problems where the crowd wisdom can be helpful:

• Coordination problems
• Topics like “who will win the Superbowl”
• Cooperation problems – motivating people to fix the problem

“The wisdom of the crowd is best when individuals are acting separately, but addressing the same issue”. (paraphase from the book that Richard is referring to). We have been wired to be collectively smart. How this influences business:

• Open Innovation (for e.g., Firefox)
• Collective Intelligence (term used by Tim O’Reilly. There’s an interview w/ Tim in Richard’s book, e-Preneur).
• Crowdsourcing (coined by Jeff Howe, from Wired Magazine) – throwing a problem out to a group of people who will respond independently to the problem.

The Crowdpreneur

Crowd Power + entrepreneurial application = crowdpreneur

How do we harness crowd power for an entrepreneurial application?

Companies currently using crowd power: Cambrian House / VenCorps, Chaordix (the crowdsourcing engine for companies), Threadless, whereto you can “submit an idea for a chance at fame, friends and twenty-five hundred dollars!”. Simple concept: “when people tell you what they want, you give it to them”. Another example: NowPublic: the crowd determines what news will show on their website. It’s “Crowd Powered Media”.

Now, Richard is using Fluevog as an example of crowdpreneur & shoes – crowdsourced shoes! But you need to have a crowd to launch a project like this. It worked for Fluevog because of their number of followers. This ties back to John Harrison’s time in England, but technology allows for crowdsourcing to happen a lot faster. In addition, Fluevog can take this risk, because even if there weren’t crowdsourcing, they would still succeed.

The Crowdpreneur & Good – Make Good

Make Good:

• A community that is “good for business”
• Crowdsourced ideas for giving
• Changing the nature of doing good

It’s an unbiased way of advertising of what the company is doing that is good. This related to crowdsourcing because they’ve been looking at which causes should be supported by going to the wisdom of the crowd.

Takeaways

6 Principles of Crowd Power

• If want to be the room where the conversation takes place, give them good drinks!
• Vetting vs. Creating: there’s a big difference.
• Give credit to people who are the experts.
• Give people recognition
• Reward! Make it worth people’s while to participate. Now Public is an example.
• This is not 18th Century French Court! The language on a site, for example, should not sound like a brochure from an accounting firm, etc. Make it engaging!

Crowpreneur – Business Model

• It reduces risks
• It expands resources (NowPublic, for e.g.)
• Fosters Brand Loyalty (e.g. Fluevog). Now it’s no longer an unidimensional transaction. When there’s a sense of ownership, there’s a sense of loyalty
• Increase in revenue/sales (Threadless)

The Future of Crowdpreneur

• Shift Worldwide
• Cameesa – Crowdfunding Tees (www.cameesa.com). Different from Threadless, because through this site, the idea is that you put the concept out there, and people come together to make the shirt happen.
• www.Indiegogo.com – a collaborative way to fund ideas & innovation

“The future is here; it is just not evenly distributed yet”

J. Craig Ventor, Genomic Research Scientist, Web 2.0 Summit, October 2007

Training Day Schedule – September 21st

Training Day will consist of a minimum of 4 tracks:

1. Social Media: covering the latest marketing strategies & tactics to use Twitter, Facebook,LinkedIn, YouTube & other Social Marketing media
2. Mobile Marketing: how Mobile Marketing now integrates into Web Marketing, Print Marketing, Video Marketing and more. Applications will get a lot of attention.
3. Search Marketing: is Google out of tune? Is Bing turning around into the preferred choice? The Search Marketing Training will cover all the latest trends from the world of search. For example, how to deal with Google’s preference of showing maps as results.
4. Analytics & Optimization: from tracking to testing into creating the most effective landing pages. Tracking is standard, but are you using the data to test different alternatives? Are you effectively creating the most successful pages for your website marketing efforts?

IMC will feature world-class trainers in all of the above topics. Trainers will be announced soon.

Conference Day Schedules – September 22nd-23rd

Both conference days will feature up to 4 tracks running simultaneously. We will also feature Keynotes from Guy Kawasaki, as well as from companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter & when all attendees are assembled into one room.

The 4 tracks will have the following themes & topics:

1. Content

• Creating outstanding content; both text, images & graphics as well as video
• Writing for the web; learn from the masters on how to produce compelling copy
• Taking beautiful pictures & mastering video; what signifies great imagery on the web?Banners; how to produce the most effective banner ads
• Text-ads; what signifies great copy-writing for short text ads?
• Compelling Twitter-updates; how can you in 140 characters describe a situation best?
• Linking; where to put links, how to put them on a page, and what to think of?

And more to come!

2. Traffic
Where do you get the most traffic from in 2010?

• Twitter:
  • Learning how to use your own Twitter business account for best traffic.
  • Understanding how you can leverage your networks Twitter traffic for your own benefit.
  • Followers, followers, followers; how many followers should you have? What distinguishes quality followers?
• Facebook:
  • Fan Pages, Get many who ’Like’ you, as well as News optimization
  • LinkedIn; learn how to use Q&A, LinkedIn Groups, Network updates & more
• Search Optimization; learn the latest optimization techniques for Google, Yahoo & Bing
• Search Marketing; understand how to get the most out of your Pay Per Click campaigns
• Intelligent Banners; how do you create banners that are infomercials, not commercials?
• Mobile traffic vs. “other traffic”; what is the difference?

And more to come!

3. Tools

IMC’s popular tool track will feature the hottest & coolest tools for:

• Content Management
• Web Analytics
• E-Commerce
• SEO
• Social Media Management
• Network Updates
• Application Marketing

And much more! We anticipate over 20 tools to be showcased during the two conference days.

4. Tying it all together

At IMC Vancouver 2010, we will introduce a fourth track which focuses on cases & ideas that combines Tools with Traffic, Content with Tools & Traffic etc. This will be example from a wider range of Industries covering:

• E-Commerce
• Travel
• Business to Business
• Lead Generation
• Retail

In Case Studies we’ve got for example Natalie Baudoin, Mountain Equipment Co-op’s Marketing Director confirmed as a presenter and she will be followed by up to 10 different case studies.

In total, over 75 speakers from a range of interesting backgrounds are expected to participate at IMC Vancouver 2010, making it the most exciting and informative IMC ever!

Get your tickets for IMC Vancouver 2010 now!

Training Day Schedule – September 21st

Training Day will consist of a minimum of 4 tracks:

1. Social Media: covering the latest marketing strategies & tactics to use Twitter, Facebook,LinkedIn, YouTube & other Social Marketing media
2. Mobile Marketing: how Mobile Marketing now integrates into Web Marketing, Print Marketing, Video Marketing and more. Applications will get a lot of attention.
3. Search Marketing: is Google out of tune? Is Bing turning around into the preferred choice? The Search Marketing Training will cover all the latest trends from the world of search. For example, how to deal with Google’s preference of showing maps as results.
4. Analytics & Optimization: from tracking to testing into creating the most effective landing pages. Tracking is standard, but are you using the data to test different alternatives? Are you effectively creating the most successful pages for your website marketing efforts?

IMC will feature world-class trainers in all of the above topics. Trainers will be announced soon.

Conference Day Schedules – September 22nd-23rd

Both conference days will feature up to 4 tracks running simultaneously. We will also feature Keynotes from Guy Kawasaki, as well as from companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter & when all attendees are assembled into one room.

The 4 tracks will have the following themes & topics:

1. Content

• Creating outstanding content; both text, images & graphics as well as video
• Writing for the web; learn from the masters on how to produce compelling copy
• Taking beautiful pictures & mastering video; what signifies great imagery on the web?Banners; how to produce the most effective banner ads
• Text-ads; what signifies great copy-writing for short text ads?
• Compelling Twitter-updates; how can you in 140 characters describe a situation best?
• Linking; where to put links, how to put them on a page, and what to think of?

And more to come!

2. Traffic
Where do you get the most traffic from in 2010?

• Twitter:
  • Learning how to use your own Twitter business account for best traffic.
  • Understanding how you can leverage your networks Twitter traffic for your own benefit.
  • Followers, followers, followers; how many followers should you have? What distinguishes quality followers?
• Facebook:
  • Fan Pages, Get many who ’Like’ you, as well as News optimization
  • LinkedIn; learn how to use Q&A, LinkedIn Groups, Network updates & more
• Search Optimization; learn the latest optimization techniques for Google, Yahoo & Bing
• Search Marketing; understand how to get the most out of your Pay Per Click campaigns
• Intelligent Banners; how do you create banners that are infomercials, not commercials?
• Mobile traffic vs. “other traffic”; what is the difference?

And more to come!

3. Tools

IMC’s popular tool track will feature the hottest & coolest tools for:

• Content Management
• Web Analytics
• E-Commerce
• SEO
• Social Media Management
• Network Updates
• Application Marketing

And much more! We anticipate over 20 tools to be showcased during the two conference days.

4. Tying it all together

At IMC Vancouver 2010, we will introduce a fourth track which focuses on cases & ideas that combines Tools with Traffic, Content with Tools & Traffic etc. This will be example from a wider range of Industries covering:

• E-Commerce
• Travel
• Business to Business
• Lead Generation
• Retail

In Case Studies we’ve got for example Natalie Baudoin, Mountain Equipment Co-op’s Marketing Director confirmed as a presenter and she will be followed by up to 10 different case studies.

In total, over 75 speakers from a range of interesting backgrounds are expected to participate at IMC Vancouver 2010, making it the most exciting and informative IMC ever!

Get your tickets for IMC Vancouver 2010 now!

Training Day Schedule – September 21st

Training Day will consist of a minimum of 4 tracks:

1. Social Media: covering the latest marketing strategies & tactics to use Twitter, Facebook,LinkedIn, YouTube & other Social Marketing media
2. Mobile Marketing: how Mobile Marketing now integrates into Web Marketing, Print Marketing, Video Marketing and more. Applications will get a lot of attention.
3. Search Marketing: is Google out of tune? Is Bing turning around into the preferred choice? The Search Marketing Training will cover all the latest trends from the world of search. For example, how to deal with Google’s preference of showing maps as results.
4. Analytics & Optimization: from tracking to testing into creating the most effective landing pages. Tracking is standard, but are you using the data to test different alternatives? Are you effectively creating the most successful pages for your website marketing efforts?

IMC will feature world-class trainers in all of the above topics. Trainers will be announced soon.

Conference Day Schedules – September 22nd-23rd

Both conference days will feature up to 4 tracks running simultaneously. We will also feature Keynotes from Guy Kawasaki, as well as from companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter & when all attendees are assembled into one room.

The 4 tracks will have the following themes & topics:

1. Content

• Creating outstanding content; both text, images & graphics as well as video
• Writing for the web; learn from the masters on how to produce compelling copy
• Taking beautiful pictures & mastering video; what signifies great imagery on the web?Banners; how to produce the most effective banner ads
• Text-ads; what signifies great copy-writing for short text ads?
• Compelling Twitter-updates; how can you in 140 characters describe a situation best?
• Linking; where to put links, how to put them on a page, and what to think of?

And more to come!

2. Traffic
Where do you get the most traffic from in 2010?

• Twitter:
  • Learning how to use your own Twitter business account for best traffic.
  • Understanding how you can leverage your networks Twitter traffic for your own benefit.
  • Followers, followers, followers; how many followers should you have? What distinguishes quality followers?
• Facebook:
  • Fan Pages, Get many who ’Like’ you, as well as News optimization
  • LinkedIn; learn how to use Q&A, LinkedIn Groups, Network updates & more
• Search Optimization; learn the latest optimization techniques for Google, Yahoo & Bing
• Search Marketing; understand how to get the most out of your Pay Per Click campaigns
• Intelligent Banners; how do you create banners that are infomercials, not commercials?
• Mobile traffic vs. “other traffic”; what is the difference?

And more to come!

3. Tools

IMC’s popular tool track will feature the hottest & coolest tools for:

• Content Management
• Web Analytics
• E-Commerce
• SEO
• Social Media Management
• Network Updates
• Application Marketing

And much more! We anticipate over 20 tools to be showcased during the two conference days.

4. Tying it all together

At IMC Vancouver 2010, we will introduce a fourth track which focuses on cases & ideas that combines Tools with Traffic, Content with Tools & Traffic etc. This will be example from a wider range of Industries covering:

• E-Commerce
• Travel
• Business to Business
• Lead Generation
• Retail

In Case Studies we’ve got for example Natalie Baudoin, Mountain Equipment Co-op’s Marketing Director confirmed as a presenter and she will be followed by up to 10 different case studies.

In total, over 75 speakers from a range of interesting backgrounds are expected to participate at IMC Vancouver 2010, making it the most exciting and informative IMC ever!

Get your tickets for IMC Vancouver 2010 now!