The Unknown Studio

I had a few wonderful conversations this evening, involving some wonderful people who are so replete with wonderful ideas that it’s hard to believe the planet isn’t a better place JUST BECAUSE OF THEIR EXISTENCE. Yeah, they both smell great.

I spoke with my dear friend @andrealown over Skype tonight about the re-purposing of a blog we created last fall in Toronto, this time with a sharpened focus and eventually visual identity and branding. But that’s not what I want to talk about in this post, because I also met with @scottybomb at Next Act for a beer and a discussion about the creation of a loosely-Edmonton-focused podcast which would feature local guests, and topics that we enjoy and think others will too. Read the rest of this entry »

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Pal ‘o mine and blogosphere titan Dave Cournoyer was once told to govern [himself] accordingly when he was rather hastily threatened with all kinds of legal mumbo jumbo over the fact that he owned the domain name edstelmach.ca (read about the controversy here and here). It’s a phrase that gets kicked around hilariously still, every now and then, and one I used the other night on Twitter to chide the Alberta Legislature during the third reading of the much-publicized Bill 44. Read the rest of this entry »

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Working for Ignition Media‘s been really exciting and extremely eye-opening. I started in January with the title Account Manager. However, it’s a small shop — only five employees plus the owner — so we all sort of wind up doing a bit of everyone. I’ve been trying to carve out my niche in new business and social media.

We’re trying to find innovative new ways to increase brand impressions for current clients, as we cultivate new ones. Of course, this has meant a lot of research into using Twitter, Facebook, and online games to try and increase traffic and enhance the overall user experience for client websites. We’re looking into the creation of interactive microsites for some clients, and just additional features on current sites for others. Read the rest of this entry »

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A few of my dub5 colleagues and I regularly give Mack the gears for the way he signs off from Twitter every night. “Sleeping,” he says, and we’re meant to believe that this is actually what he’s doing. Mack’s a pretty neat dude, and I’ve been fortunate enough to get to know him a bit better over the last six months. That’s why I’m fairly confident in saying that he’s probably a cyborg (not to be confused with a Cylon). Read the rest of this entry »

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About a month ago, Nissan Canada undertook a rather unusual marketing strategy for the launch of the Nissan Cube. Rather than access their typical advertising channels — TV spots, radio ads, etc — they set out to do try and build buzz in a rather novel way: entirely by word of mouth. Viral marketing using social media tools like Twitter, Facebook and other social web tools isn’t entirely unusual. However, it’s the scope and scale of this campaign that’s really remarkable. Read the rest of this entry »

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Most everything I say, tweet, or write is designed to elicit a specific reaction from people — often shock or laughter. I’m usually quite satisfied. But sometimes I’ll say something without thinking (OK, oftentimes) and the results exceed my expectations or go off in an entirely different direction. That’s what happened this morning on Twitter when I suggested #yeg tweeps create an Edmonton Twitter Boys Calendar for 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 2% [?]