Twitter is quickly becoming a mainstream communication tool used by hundreds of brands and thousands of companies to connect with customers and colleagues, and to create brand awareness. In the age of Web 2.0, creating conversations online is key. Twitter helps facilitate the opportunity to communicate with customers, clients, colleagues, prospects and more.

The true value of Twitter is that is provides the ability to build lists with the power of instant messaging. Understanding how to take advantage of this is key for organizations looking to market themselves.

Getting started with Twitter is simple: sign up for an account at www.twitter.com. You can also deploy desktop tools, as mentioned above such as Twhirl, Tweetdeck, Nambu (MAC) and mobile tools such as Twitterberry for Blackberry which allow you to post tweets from your mobile device. This way you can tweet from anywhere.

The benefits of Twitter are vast. Here’s a short list of reasons why you must add Twitter to your business toolbox:

- it’s quick: with an upper limit of only 140 characters, updating your account daily (if not more) is achievable. The beauty is brevity – short, concise status updates are easily achievable in your busy day, and easily digested by those reading them. The ability to embed hyperlinks allows you link to longer thoughts. You’ll have to use bit.ly or tiny url to shorten the hyperlinks.

- it’s relevant: by sharing information about yourself and your company you are relating to people following you in a unique, and intimate, way. A touch of personal information lets people identify with you better and get you know you/your organization.

- syndication: you can use Twitter as a channel to promote your blog, so that everytime you post something to your blog you post the link on Twitter for promotion.  This isn’t recommended as the norm, as the very idea of Twitter is your status at this moment. But it’s okay to cross promote these types of things

- conversation building: the new way of marketing is focused on conversation building which facilitates relationship building. The Internet has dramatically changed how we access information, and the manner in which we receive it. Twitter is the perfect conversational tool. Tell follows what you think, your ideas, opinions, articles you have read, people you have met, achievements you have made, conferences you are attending, links of interest, tools of interest…all of this is what makes you interesting to your followers.

- PR: sending out press releases and communiques can be offset by updating the status on your Twitter account and watching the power of y0ur followers retweet the post and spread it virally.

- customer service: use a tool like Twitter’s Search feature to find out what people are saying about your company, product or service. Use twitter to monitor these conversations and respond. Set up a customer cares account and talk to those customers who are having trouble with your product/service.

- audience: every tweet you send goes out your entire list of followers, who have followers, who have followers, who may see your tweet.

- repeat: retweeting on Twitter is huge. Users will take an interesting tweet and retweet (repeat it) on their account, thereby expanding the number of Twitter users who see it. It’s like forwarding an email but to a whole community of people, as opposed to just one person.

- everybody is doing it: seriously, everybody is doing it. And I’m not referring to tweeners and text messaging. That’s not the demographic. Rather, Twitter is being used by business professionals and corporations to connect and stay informed. Where else can you be on the receiving end of a “thought train” by someone like Barack Obama and see who associates with and follows. Or Evan Mathews, Bill Gates, Oprah, Sarah Milstein…whoever you find interesting

Using conventional email, it’s not appropriate to email a list of business contacts a message about a movie you saw the night before. But on Twitter it’s perfectly acceptable. And although that doesn’t seem “business oriented” doing so simply acts as another mechanism for sharing with your followers. Allowing them to get to know and trust you.

You can keep your tweets completely business oriented and formal, or you can filter them with some less business news such as a corporate retreat, bar-b-que or weather status.

The idea is to get talking. There are people out there that want to know about you and this is your forum to tell them. Corporate press releases do little to generate a connection with people personally. Twitter allows this opportunity, because much like blogs, they are letting people in, but in a far more digestible manner. They are letting outsiders get a peek in your organization at things you may not normally mention. It is this subtle, yet highly effective, transition that makes Twitter unique.

For example, something as simple as tweeting about a conference the night before and thanking attendees for their participation goes over huge on Twitter, but isn’t something you would normally send a press release about. It is these little things, little messages, that create loyalty with your followers and provide insight into your organization.

In an age when email open rates are low, Twitter can be more effective at reaching target audiences. Installing a desktop client means you can be notified when new tweets are posted. And, at 140 characters, you can read the whole tweet instantly. You can scan a scrolling list of tweets in the same time it would take to read only one email. You can gather a lot of information in that time frame.

I use Twitter to stay informed. I follow a number of people I respect and admire and then learn from them. Their tweets are mostly relevant and informative, yet sometimes simply entertaining. I find articles worth reading, tools worth downloading, conferences worth attending and more Twitter users worth following. All of this helps me stay “in the know”. Something that is obviously very important in my industry.

I am also a huge believer in using Twitter to ask questions. You can generate considerable traffic and awareness by asking questions and answering questions on Twitter.

The LA Times used Twitter in Oct 2007 to send updates about the status of the wildfires in California, as did the LA Fire Department and Red Cross.  Fort-seven members of US Congress have Twitter accounts, and often tweet from behind closed doors meetings with President Obama.

Sarah Milstein talks about an organization called Crowdvine who monitored their activity on Twitter and found many a customer. One of the founders saw this messages and immediately responded, prompting a customer service channel that allows Crowdvine to receive and respond to these issues immediately. Interestingly, in between the tweets between the customer and Crowdvine,  a tweet appeared from a competitor telling the customer to use their organization instead of Crowdvine.

There are many examples of organizations and businesses using Twitter. This article touches on only a few. But it is intended to illustrate that Twitter isn’t new, it’s now. And you must start using it.

Once you get started, you will become familiar with Twitter Search, Twellow and other directories for finding people to follow, as well as retweeting, hashtags and more.

For a great overview of how to generate traffic via Twitter and Twitter tools, such as BubbleTweet, Tweetlater, TwitterHawk and more,  I recommend reading the following article called Twitter Traffic Tips Revealed.

Interestingly, as I was finishing up this article, the following article was released that might be of interest – Nine Twitter Tips for Business.

Now, go get started.

@FenixSolutions

]]> http://fenix-solutions.com/blog/2009/05/07/twitter-for-the-business-executive/feed/ 3 http://fenix-solutions.com/blog/2009/01/12/state-of-the-web-2008/ http://fenix-solutions.com/blog/2009/01/12/state-of-the-web-2008/#comments Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:15:24 +0000 Jennifer MacKinnon http://fenix-solutions.com/xtra/?p=51 John Allsopp has put together the data from his extensive State of the Web 2008 survey. In it you will find details on who was surveyed to set context, the browser / os usage claimed, and answers on the use of technology such as:

1. Markup usage
2. CSS and other presentation technology
3. JavaScript, Ajax, and the DOM
4. Flash, Silverlight and embedded content
5. Backend systems

John and Scroll Magazine have a nice conclusion: In this first of its kind study, over 1200 web professionals from across the globe, in a broad range of industry sectors and organization types, were surveyed on the browsers, operating systems, development technologies and practices they use when building web sites and applications.

Some surprising results from the survey include:

• nearly half the respondents use Mac OS X Leopard, and over half use a non Windows Operating system. Windows XP still outweighs Windows Vista among these users by a factor of 4 to 1 as their operating system of choice
• just a small majority, less than 5%, use any version of Internet Explorer as their primary browser, while Firefox dominates as the browser for choice, with over 60% market share. Safari 3 follows with 21%, and the much talked about Chrome on just 4%
• only a tiny handful use Internet Explorer 8 beta as their browser of choice
• despite the hype of the iPhone, less than 20% of respondents use the mobile web, and a similar number develop sites optimized for mobiles

Web Development technologies
When it comes to web technology use, standards based and open source technologies dominate.

• Only 3% of respondents say they never validate their sites while 70% say that they frequently or always do.
• Only 10% of respondents say they use tables for layout, while well over 90% use CSS for styling their pages.
• 35% of respondents say they use microformats in their markup.
• 95% of respondents use JavaScript, and of these, almost all use libraries.
• JQuery is the dominant library used by some way, with 60% of respondents saying they use it.

With plug-in technologies, Flash continues to dominate, with a market share of around 60%. Silverlight still has a lot of work to do to catch the long time industry leader, with a bare 2%, little more than the Real format. Apple’s Quicktime has a surprising 20% of the market. Java applets have all but disappeared from the toolset of these early adopter developers.

On the back end, open source accounts for the majority of technologies used. Among server operating systems Linux at nearly 60% is used more than twice as often as Windows at 28%, with Unix also well represented at 17%. Even Mac OS X, which is usually far down survey lists for server OSs, is used by 5.5% of respondents. Apache at 70% is the dominant web server, with IIS at 23%.

Over 90% sites are database driven, with the open source MySQL at 70% and PostrgeSQL at 10% together accounting for the significant majority of sites by respondents. Microsoft’s SQL Server at 22% and Oracle at 9% were the other widely used database systems.

When it comes to server side programming languages, PHP is the most commonly used, at 63%, with JavaScript at 55%, ASP.NET at 17% and Python at 15%. Despite its flavor of the month status, Ruby comes in at 14%, with Java at 12%, indicating that the language which came to prominence with the rise of the web is well and truly being challenged from all sides when it comes to web back end development.

Transcribed directly from: http://www.webdirections.org/the-state-of-the-web-2008/

What tactics should you focus on during this time? The ones that give you the most “bang for your buck.”  And the best bang is anything online.

1. Update your website often during this time to reflect accomplishments, client acquisitions, major awards, investor announcements or any type of news that is important for your organization to share.  You already have a website, be sure to use it to convey information to stakeholders. The first place users go to get information on a company is their website. Rule 1: Keep it up to date.
2. Avoid the costs of printing and distribution and use email marketing instead to deliver important messages to clients and prospects.  It’s cheap and very often free.  With the ability to track open rates, bounce backs, click-throughs  and forwards, you’ll wonder why you ever used print before
3. Develop RSS feed capability to allow users to subscribe to updates on your site. That way, as you make changes to your site (Rule #1) subscribers get updated automatically. You’ve just completed two tasks with this one initiative. Your boss will be proud!
4. Use podcasts to convey important corporate information to stakeholders with a personal touch. Instead of organizing a press conference or meeting where people have to commute and travel to attend, get out your digital video camera and prepare an online presentation that can be easily emailed, put online and downloaded to portable devices
5. Use Youtube. Post your video content online for free and watch how many hits you get
6. Increase your reach by integrating viral marketing features on your website, e-newsletters and e-communications to allow others to pass along your message. Word of mouth is terribly powerful and the online version has a global reach.  By adding an e-newsletter sign up function on your site, and deploying an e-newsletter with a viral marketing component (send to a friend), you have just completed 3 tasks with one initiative. Multi-tasking at its best!
7. Update your keywords and metadata to reflect relevant information and search terms to increase your SEO
8. Use free online tools such as Google Analytics to monitor your web traffic and keyword searches which affect your efforts in item #6 above.  Monitor and adjust monthly or bi-monthly to optimize listings
9. Deploy a blog as a way of communicating with stakeholders and increasing your SEO. Contribute to both your blog, and others, to increase back links. Create a Twitter account for all the same reasons. Then use a free tool such as Radian 6 offers to monitor and manage all your online social marketing activities
10. Be active on relevant online sites and communities such as LinkedIn by answering questions and using connections for networking, business development and marketing purposes
11. Create a contest or game online that encourages interest, usage, forwarding and buzz
12. Use Ad Sense to specify the criteria you specify keywords that trigger ads and don’t pay for ads seen but not responded to
13. Give free samples to generate interest in your product (if applicable). Create an online contest, or form, include viral marketing features and capture information about recipients for later communication opportunities. Ask people to post comments on your blog about the sample and now you’ve got online buzz
14. (search engine optimization). Ensure your content and keywords match, create alt tags on all images and ensure your keywords are ones that users actually employ to search your company listing. All free. Other free tools to help you in your SEO efforts: http://www.google.com/insights/search/#, http://www.google.com/trends, http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends

Blendtec is famous for its bevy of inexpensive “Will It Blend” videos posted on YouTube and shared by millions.

Adobe maintains a list of interesting company related websites and conversations on the social bookmarking site Delicious.

Best Western sponsors a blog,“On the Go with Amy,” where the author travels the country writing about her experiences.

Cadence recently relaunched its website that now prominently promotes the company’s community.

Cisco hosts 12 blogs addressing a variety of audiences for their global business.

Coca-Cola Conversations is a blog written by company historian Phil Mooney that focuses on Coke collectibles.

Dell leverages a variety of social media platforms for customer engagement, including an island in the virtual world of Second Life.

Ford publishes news releases with lots of multimedia content and employs a social media news release format to display them in their newsroom.

Fujifilm recently launched a social network to build a community of photo enthusiasts around its newest camera.

GM uses blogs to communicate directly with its customers around topics ranging from design to green tech.

H&R Block created a Facebook fan site to aggregate its social media activities, engage customers and offer tax advice/resources. HP used Twitter to power a scavenger hunt at a recent conference.

HSBC built the HSBC Business Network to connect entrepreneurs using blogs, videos and forums.

IBM was the first large enterprise to embrace employee blogging and now boasts thousands of blogs related to every facet of its business.

Intel has also developed many social media touch points with its software communities, which includes blogs, Twitter and virtual worlds.

Intuit sponsors the Tax Almanac wiki, where anyone can find and contribute to this resource for tax information.

Jeep connects with customers via a community page with links to photos on Flickr, the company’s MySpace and Facebook pages and a list enthusiast groups.

JetBlue employs social media as part of its training for JetBlue University, as this video explains.

Johnson & Johnson uses this blog to show another side of the company, with frequent video posts and interviews.

Lenovo launched “Voices of the Olympics Games” to aggregate posts from the athletes competing in Beijing.

Marriott CEO Bill Marriott posts regular updates and stories from his travels to Marriott properties around the world to fuel the content for this entertaining blog.

McDonalds maintains a blog to highlight the company’s corporate social responsibility efforts.

National Geographic uses Google’s new virtual world, Lively, to bring people together around its new show, LA Hard Hats.

New York Times is beta testing a Firefox add-on that allows users to share and comment on stories through a decentralized social network.

Nike started a social community on Loopd to connect athletes interested in surfing, BMX bike racing and similar activities with the brand.

SAP sponsored a global survey of social media professionals to learn more about social media worldwide.

Sears partnered with MTV to create a social network around Back to School shopping.

Southwest Airlines employees share their stories and communicate directly with customers through the “Nuts About Southwest” blog.

Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz’s blog is the example most often cited for what the CEO blog can be.

Starbucks started MyStarbucksIdea so that customers can submit ideas for the company which are then voted on by other users, the best of which will be implemented by the company.

Toyota started its own virtual world to promote its products in Japan (site is in Japanese).

Visa launched The Visa Business Network application on Facebook to connect small business users and to help them promote their businesses to a larger community.

Wells-Fargo blogs target two audiences; one examines the company’s history and the other is for students interested in getting their finances in order.

WWE has a Facebook application, among other social networking tools and widgets, to bring fans closer to the action.

Xerox blogs address several of the company’s core B2B constituencies.

Zappos uses Twitter for employees to communicate with Zappos customers about their shared love of footwear AND the CEO has his own tweet

Source: transcribed from Mashable July 2008 article, author Aaron Uhrmacher,  located at: http://mashable.com/2008/07/23/corporate-social-media/

Interestingly, the use of video by corporations has been largely influenced by a “grassroots” video movement. The mass popularity of YouTube, a site whose content is generated by a community of users, is one motivating factor in this trend. This online community has launched discussions concerning the corporate use of video in boardrooms across North America and the world.

To be clear, I am talking about the use of online video . Shooting a video and putting it on DVD for distribution or broadcast at conferences isn’t where it’s at. The opportunity to put video online is the real opportunity.

Example
Consider the Will it Blend? series by Blendtec. Terribly clever and frighteningly popular, this is a super example of a corporation using video as a means of marketing their product, reaching new markets / audiences and expanding their brand. We assume this translates into increased revenue, but that has yet to be confirmed.

The Will it Blend? series is its own campaign. You can still visit the corporate BlendTec website for information on their blenders, recipes and more. But it has an obviously more corporate feel.  By launching a separate campaign for the Will it Blend? series BlendTec has used video in a masterful manner. Spoofy, funny, relevant, professional – these videos are engaging, informative and support the brand. They continue to be of interest to people as they use relevant events to create new video segments (i.e. blending the iPhone, blending Seth Godin’s book).

It’s worth noting that the Will it Blend? segments also appear on YouTube and are posting 5+ million hits per segment.

It is also worth noting that the segments are professionally produced. As “spoofy” and grassroots as they may seem, these are nothing less than professional productions.

How do you determine whether video is right for you? Let’s consider some of the best practices around online video coupled with some historical data:

- video on the web is not new but is experiencing a surge of interest due to demographic shift (younger audiences are demanding video format), technology and the emergence of sites like YouTube

- historically the main issues that have impacted the use of web video included plug-in issues and bandwidth. These have both been alleviated with: 1) Flash video being the de-facto standard which does not require a plug in to view when using Windows XP, MAC OS or Vista and 2) hi-speed internet availability and adoption by web users

- the onset of sites such as YouTube have made video more and more popular for communicating messages of all kinds – corporate, comical, musical, political and so on. The sound byte is still by far the most powerful communication tool, and video offers this capability and more. What YouTube has done is made the “sharing” of video content ubiquitous, so more people are apt to see your video message. By ensuring millions see your video, millions are now becoming increasingly expectant of this type of message delivery. This bodes well for corporate use of video

- video works well when conveying virtually any type of content. It allows the human element to be at the forefront and it is perfect for the communication of emotionally compelling content such as testimonials, personal stories, corporate / VP level messaging, successes and so on. Using video in this capacity makes the content more “real” to the user, which in turn makes them identify and relate to it better than other mediums

- as opposed to DVD or VHS delivery, web video is global in reach and has a shelf life that is virtually endless. Historically corporate video was placed on DVD or VHS which limited its viewing reach. As mentioned, sites like YouTube along ,with improvements in technology and bandwidth, have allowed corporations to make full featured video content available online and to the masses

- while there are instances where production values can be equivalent to consumer levels, audiences are far more accepting of professionally produced materials. The use of professional talent, professional lighting and video recording equipment specifically impacts the overall general impression of a video piece

- Web video is becoming a powerful online communication vehicle. The use of web video by the political party leaders leading up to the recent election was unprecedented. Postings on YouTube channels, and party websites showing recent campaign visits, party messages, political ads and more had never been accomplished until this election. The NDP site allowed a tool that would let you embed their video pieces into your website. All illustrating the growing ubiquitous nature of web video

When planning your marketing strategy for 2009 consider the use of video and the power it has to convey a message like no other medium.  Whether it is a corporate overview, a product demo or a spoof campaign, the use of video can touch an audience in a manner an email, e-newsletter or whitepapers cannot. Consider using video as a means of distributing a press release, news release or e-newsletter.

But remember, to be successful you have to put your video online. The DVD sitting on the bookcase behind you isn’t helping your business. Online video is King.

Source: thanks to Pat McGowan of inMotion for his contributions to this article. Article developed by Jennifer MacKinnon and Pat McGowan.

There are many factors to consider when selecting a Content Management Solution. Obviously the first question you should be asking yourself is “do I need a content management solution?”

At the very least, if you have content that requires updating on a regular basis, then the answer is yes. And, with the emergence of Web 2.0, social marketing, online communities and online business automation, most of you are likely doing a whole lot more (or what to do a whole lot more) with your website than simple content updates. Choosing the right CMS can not only make the tedious task of publishing content to your website easier, it can also become the platform on which you can unify and integrate all aspects of your online business.

So, you need a CMS. Where to start? In order to make the right decision you have to consider a number of key criteria including what type of functionality you need both now and in future. Ask yourself the following questions to start:

What type of content will you be managing? Do you require dynamic content? (i.e. News, Events)
What type of site updates do you need to undertake routinely (content, layout)?
Is there user generated content? Does it require moderation? (i.e. Discussion Boards, Blogs)
Do you need to manage multiple databases? (i.e. product catalogs, mailing lists)
Do you need/want a blog, RSS feeds, e-newsletter, other social marketing tools?
Do you have an external database that you need to connect to?
Do you require a secure area for member/client access? (i.e. Extranet, Channel, Intranet)
Do you need personalized content?
Do you need to integrate forms/leads/data into a 3^rd party application (i.e. Sales Force)?
Do you need business automation?
Would you like to unify your web environments?
Do you need to manage an online community?

Once you’ve answered these questions, presumably you have scoped out what features/functionality you require from your CMS. If you’ve answered yes or maybe to most of these, then you no longer need only a CMS. You require a platform on which a CMS sits that is customized to allow for additional functionality (rarely does an “out-of –the-box” CMS do everything listed above).

The next set of questions helps you determine which type of content management solution is right for you. There are a number of different options available. We have categorized them into 4 types:

1) Single feature content management solution: these solutions are generally tailored to serve a very specific need – like publishing an image gallery, blog, podcast, forum, etc. (i.e. WordPress)

2) Off the Shelf solutions: a collection of functionality generally tailored to serve a particular industry. This category is wide and includes products that are inexpensive (i.e. Ektron, Marqui, Contribute) to more robust, but pricier products (RedDot, Sharepoint, Team Site). Proprietary solutions from individual web technology companies also fall into this category.

3) Open Source content management solution: Similar to “off the shelf”, but have the added benefit of low (or no) up front cost, and the ability to custom tailor the features and functionality (i.e. Drupal, Joomla, Plone)

4) Custom CMS solutions: commonly built on web application frameworks (such as Ruby on Rails, CakePHP, Django) and provide total flexibility since the application will be customized specifically for your organization. Obviously, these are the most cost intensive options.

Single purpose solutions are typically used when publishing a specific type of content. These solutions are typically used for blogs and give the user a WYSIWG through which they can update content and allows for content categorization as well. These solutions are typically low cost or free and are fairly easy to setup and maintain. A common pitfall with using these systems is that they operate in a silo – if you add more single purpose systems to your website down the line, they commonly don’t know how to talk to each other which often forces your users to remember multiple usernames and passwords to access the different sections of your website.

Off the shelf solutions can provide more features such as dynamic content, password protected areas, unique user content and more. These tends to be a great industry specific solution and are a good fit for small organizations that are looking for a dynamic website, a user friendly interface and do not expect to require more customized features. These tend to come with a monthly or annual fee and could require software installs on your organization’s network.

Welcome to Webjam and Ning two of the more popular,  free, online services that allow you to create your own personal space on the web and connect with your friends, family, colleagues. You select the topics and resources that interest you and build your very own website or network. Whether you want to:

• manage a hockey team
• share your passion about a subject
• write a professional blog
• showcase your creativity
• talk about issues that concern you
• share your life with family and friends

These services let you express yourself and connect with others. They let you do literally anything online from discussion forums, photos, video, blogs and widgets to adding members, friends, events, groups and managing your profile.

Everything you do can be consolidated into this one environment  – your own personal network.

Webjam has taken this one step further with their Branded Service which allows you to create a branded environment for your members. Example: Cosmo Wedding Communities which lets anyone planning a wedding sign up and create their own wedding site, featured on this brand.

What’s the difference? I
f you’re wondering how this differs from something like Facebook that answer lies in the “custom” nature of webjams. Instead of joining a large, already established online community with millions of users, Webjam and Ning allow you create your own custom experience – your topic, your friends, your content, your groups, your photos, your videos….you get the idea.

Facebook is a one-size fits all solution. Ning and Webjam are best described as the ability to create your own MySpace, Facebook, or Youtube — but around any topic you want, with whatever set of features you want, and as public or private as you want

The Stats
In March 2008 Ning surpassed 200,000 social networks on its platform. With 1000 new networks per day being added, Ning expects to have hit the 300,000 mark already. Ning calculations are based on 0.5%+ day-over-day growth of number of new networks on Ning.

That’s just the networks.

In terms of users, Ning is seeing  a 1.0%+ per day increase.  Over 70% of Nings networks are active (used within the last 30 days) and there are more social networks on Ning than there are on the Internet as a whole.

Summary
For most of us, managing our corporate online environment is part of our daily tasks. Companies invest in their web presence and have the money and financial ability to purchase products and tools to make their websites effective business tools. But for those of you who actually leave the office at a reasonable hour, and have a life outside of work, the opportunity to use the Internet to share your passion is often limited due to financial constraints and segmented into either a blog, or Flickr, or Youtube, or Facebook.

Not anymore.

Go ahead and start your son’s hockey team site or your daughter’s science club online. Communicate with family across Canada and the world, promote your band or save the earth. Share those wedding plans with everyone!

So, what are the news media doing differently for the Oct 14^th elections? Let’s take a look at a few examples:

Toronto Star: looking to deliver the news in as many possible ways to readers, the Star developed the Canada Votes 2008 portal featuring details on the 47 GTA ridings (via interactive map), an issues page that organizes content by topic area, a federal poll tracker, and voter guide.

Star columnists will blog throughout the campaign and allow commenting (for the first time) on all Star stories. They plan to continue using the success of Twitter during the Olympics for this Election.

“That way we have three main types of content: we have just the headlines (Twitter), we’re blogging the colour and then we’ve got news in normal articles,” says Marissa Nelson, senior editor of digital news at the Toronto Star. User Generated Content (UGC) will not be available on the Portal.

CTV: on the contrary, UGC will play a large role in CTV’s online push due in large part to the need for two-way communication online. Mark Sikstrom, executive producer of CTV.ca says they are using “a new feature called My Vote  which allows users to send in their thoughts in video format to be posted to the 2008 Election main page . As well, Sikstrom says, “CTV.ca is blogging in a much bigger way (including Robert Fife and Craig Oliver) and providing a more extensive polling tracker online.”

Globe and Mail: the Globe and Mail has launched their political page and have promised increased interactivity.

CBC.ca: the CBC site launched its Canada Votes initiative which provides full commenting on articles, audio and video content and its Political Bytes blog focused on bringing colour and insight to the campaign and key issues.

These are only a few high level examples, and although they aren’t groundbreaking, it’s the start of a trend toward User Generated Content and two-way communication by journalists on important issues and events.

Sources: in part, or in whole, via the following references www.j-source.ca

The use of social media by Barack Obama in the US Presidential elections is setting the stage for our Canadian candidates. With everything on the line, and the Prime Minister’s job at stake, let’s check in to see who’s doing what online.

And more importantly, who’s winning the Web 2.0 race.

(Note: this article does not supporting any Party or Campaign. We are simply stating which candidates are using Web 2.0 tools. These comments do not reflect any political affiliation by Fenix).

The Conservatives

Stephen Harper is pulling out all the stops with this election and is using every social marketing tool available to send out his message. He has accounts with Facebook, FriendFeed YouTube MySpace, Flickr, not to mention two twitter accounts (English: @pmharper and French: @premierministre).

He’s got videocasting and podcasting features on the site, as well as the ability to watch videos and ads.

But is he winning the race? Not by a long shot.

Stephen Harper is using Web 2.0 features in his campaign, but he is treating them simply as a means of pushing his message to constituents. The problem? Social marketing dictates that these mediums are intended to encourage dialogue, interaction and communication. They are a two way street.

Stephen Harper is using social marketing tools as another medium to simply present his message – the conversation part of social marketing is missing. The idea is to engage users and not simply push messages to them.

Even his My Campaign site only offers the ability to write letters, fundraise and recruit supports. There are no blogging or online community tools, just the same tactics candidates have used for years.

The NDP

Jack has something to offer., he has all the bases covered, and then some.

Jack has a Twitter account and is using a friendly style with his tweets. His tweets are also posted on the homepage of his campaign site showing a nice tie-in and cross-promotion of his social media activities.

The NDP website is, well….awesome. There is a whole section devoted to “blogging tools” which includes everything you need to promote the NDP in your blog and on your website. There are logos, photos from the official NDP Flickr account, banner ads and promotions – all available for you use and distribute. You can even use their nifty video tool that lets you post and share NDP videos online.

The NDP have a Facebook account with a decent following, but also have a Facebook app that you can install to share videos and gifts and get involved in Jack’s campaign. They are also using YouTube to feature their campaign ads.

AND, users can upload content to the Campaign site the Orange Room! This is the whole premise of social marketing – user generated content and two-way communication. In fact, the Orange Room is the NDP’s user generated hub for the campaign. Nice.

There was even talk in some media circles (CBC to be exact) that Jack’s team had scored major SEO points by ensuring any search for keywords including “conservative” and “Stephen Harper” among others landed on an ad for the NDP. I didn’t see this when I tested it, but perhaps the Conservatives sat up and took notice once they realized what was happening. In any event, I thought this was very clever.

If you’re a fan of the NPD, Jack is making it very easy for you to promote his cause and recruit more followers. AND he’s doing it the right way by using the power of the community. He’s making his information available to the community and letting them spread the word.

The Liberals

The Liberals campaign online, up until only a few days ago, was dismal. With only a Facebook page and a dated YouTube channel , they were falling fast behind the other the NDP and the Conservatives.

Since September 8th, the Liberals have upped their game and have added a Twitter account, Flickr gallery and a MySpace page with a Blog entry feed. They have updated their YouTube Channel ensuring recent video posts. They have also recently added a “Dwnloads” section to the main Party site that allows you to copy video code and feature Liberal video on your own site, along with Liberal banner ads and logos.

At www.thegreenshift.ca, their website dedicated to their main platform, offers little with respect to social marketing aside from the traditional “send to a friend” feature.

It is encouraging to see a shift in recent days by the Liberal party to make better use of their online environments and available Web 2.0 tools.

The Green Party

Green isn’t doing…anything. Elizabeth May is recently Twittering, but not in a useful, friendly, effective manner. And, she isn’t actively following anyone. The Green Party does have a Facebook group .

The Green Party site doesn’t actually incorporate any social marketing or Web 2.0 tools, which is odd, considering May won her right to debate based on social marketing tactics (specifically one very powerful Facebook group).

Bloc Quebecoise

The Bloc is also doing …nothing. Again, Gilles recently started twittering apparently due in large part to Buzz Bishop’s encouragement, but this is not published to the Bloc site, nor promoted anywhere. Elizabeth May’s Tweets are also not published on her Party’s site, but at least the visual layout of the Green Party site is pleasing. The Bloc site …isn’t. AND it’s only offered in French.

The Bloc does have a Facebook group, as do all other parties.

Miscellaneous

Although they don’t necessarily fall into the category of social media, the following illustrates other “cyber campaigning” web tactics being employed by the Parties:

Liberals vs Conservatives: the Liberals have launched Wikipedia inspired Scandalpedia.ca; an anti-Conservative site

Conservatives vs Stephane Dion: the Conservatives have set up www.notaleader.ca; a Conservative driven attack on Liberal leader Stephane Dion.

Final Thoughts:

Where all parties fall short, in my opinion, is in the area of online community. Online communities have proven to be powerful and effective forces for engaging users, connecting individuals and sharing information. If you don’t agree, or are partly skeptical, think Facebook. An effective online community can harvest hundreds and thousands of like-minded users, and can become legitimate and credible mediums for swaying public opinion. None of the parties are using an online community approach, perhaps due to the time-constraint of the election. But this is where the opportunity lies to engage followers and persuade constituents, and set up a community that lives beyond the current elections.

Editor’s note: This article is not intended to act as a political stance by Fenix, or the employees of Fenix. We are simply stating what we see with respect to the leaders and their Web 2.0 initiatives. The Party sites may have evolved and changed since this article was written and published.

Sources: in part, or in whole, via the following references www.buzzbishop.com/blog, www.mynameiskate.ca., www.nowpublic.com/world/canada-votes-2008-campaigning-web-2-0-world.

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