Canada's First Site for Discounted Gift Cards

CardSwap.ca is like Ebay for gift cards connecting people exclusively across Canada who can save on their favourite retailers or redeem their unwanted gift cards for cash.  CardSwap.ca launched this holiday season to serve savvy shoppers who are looking to save money before heading to the malls, up to 40% off face value; and gift card holders who would prefer to have cash. CardSwap is providing Canadians with a way to save money and redeem money during difficult economical times which is especially nice this time of year. With a great easy to use site and a long list of retailers such as Starbucks, The Body Shop, Toys R Us, Aveda, and Sunoco just to name a few, it's no wonder they are off to such a good start and attracting so much attention.

In 2007, $3.5 Million was wasted in the gift card industry and it is estimated that 10-19% of gift cards are never redeemed. It's basically an untouched market in Canada. This Toronto based company plans to make use of the $3.5 Million unused cards. ALthough the first in Canada this type of e-commerce site has been proven by several successful sites in the US such as PlasticJungle.com.

So how does it work? If you have an unwanted gift card, simply register then post the (verified) gift card and you'll be notified by email when the card has sold. The seller has full control over the price of the gift card and is charged 6% (minimum $4.50) of the sale price. If you're a buyer, you can expect a card to be posted at a 10-40% discount and a full guarantee. To ease the fear of fraud, along with the guarantee is a no credit card policy as CardSwap uses INTERAC online as their sole payment provider which allows the buyer to complete the transaction with their own financial institution. 

One of the features I like along with the aesthetically pleasing and easy to use site is the ability to create a Wish List of favourite retailers to be notified when gift cards from these retailers become available via email. This makes it easy to find out when gift cards from your regularly shopped stores are for sale without having to constantly visit the site. The only downfall is the seven store limit on your wish list. If you're anything like me, I had about twenty selected. But registration is a breeze and navigation and usability is easy. You can even find them on Facebook and Twitter for information and notifications on new available gift cards and exclusive contests.

CardSwap has already attracted thousands of registered users who have enthusiastically embraced this new online site. Just a couple weeks ago @CardSwap tweeted "CardSwap hits 2000 registered members in only 2 months!" And it's no wonder in an economy dealing with hard times that we'd be drawn to an easy to use site providing a peer-to-peer online market for discounted gift cards for all our favourite stores.

Erin Bury on the Role of Community Manager at Sprouter

 

Erin Bury

What does the role of Community Manager at Sprouter entail?

The online Community Manager role is a growing and developing profession. People in this position are working to build, grow and manage communities around a brand or cause.-Wikipedia.

The Community Manger role is becoming more demanding and I wanted to know more about what that role entails and how important it can be to a startup. So I turned to the best Community Manager I know to pick her brain. Erin Bury is the Community Manager for Sprouter in Toronto. Sprouter is an online network that facilitates collaboration between entrepreneurs globally and has been called the Twitter For Business by Mashable. Anyone who has had the pleasure of chatting with Erin on or offline knows she is very approachable, dedicated and passionate about what she does and she was more than willing to answer all of the questions I had for her regarding her role as Community Manager at Sprouter.


There are a lot of misconceptions regarding the role of Community Manager. How would you describe your role at Sprouter? What is a typical day like for you?

 One of the best things about being a Community Manager is that every position is different - it depends on the size of the company, the type of community you are interacting with, and the goals of the company. My role at Sprouter is very multi-faceted - I am in charge of social media strategy (including running the Twitter/Facebook accounts and writing the blog, among other things), public relations, community relations & support (running our Get Satisfaction page, responding to questions/feedback), events & event planning (attending events, sourcing speaking opportunities, speaking at events, and organizing our Sprout Up events), engaging with entrepreneur associations around the world, and most importantly engaging with the community on Sprouter - welcoming new members, answering questions, and writing our weekly newsletter that goes out to the community. A typical day is kind of an oxymoron at Sprouter - my job is very different depending on what our focus is that week (public relations, throwing an event, preparing for a speaking event, etc). But I typically arrive at the office around 8:30am, work & meet with local entrepreneurs/associations during the day, and attend entrepreneur-focused events at least 2 or 3 nights of the week.



What in your opinion is the most rewarding part of your job? What is the most challenging?

The most rewarding part of my job is seeing the Sprouter community grow as a result of my efforts, and the efforts of my team. Whether that's through getting a great piece of media coverage, or throwing a successful event, or getting a great response to a speaking engagement. The most challenging part of my job is getting to all the tasks at hand! As you saw above I have a lot of responsibility, so I'm constantly prioritizing and figuring out where to spend my time - I wish there were 40 hours in a day so I could spend more time on certain aspects of my job. Thankfully I have two amazing interns, one helping out with events and one helping with public relations, who make my job a little bit easier.


Why do you think having a Community Manager is important for a startup like Sprouter?

Most startups don't have a ton of budget for traditional advertising and marketing, and it's often not the most effective way to reach an audience. Having a Community Manager allows you to reach people in a genuine and personable way - whether by attending events, contributing to blogs, or engaging with them on your site. It allows you to harness new and inexpensive online tools - and even if you're not an online business you can still benefit from a Community Manager who engages your audience in both traditional (public relations) and non-traditional (social media) ways. The only cost is a salary and some fees like premium accounts on social media sites and registration fees for events - still much less than a cross-platform advertising campaign, and likely more targeted. Also, people are talking about your brand or industry online already - why not have someone who is devoted to responding and engaging with people's opinions? You'd be surprised how receptive people are to hearing a human voice representing a company.


How do you see your role evolving in the future?

As the community on Sprouter grows, I see my role evolving into more of a community support role. Whereas right now we're focused on spreading the word about Sprouter and talking to as many entrepreneurs as we can, in the future it will likely be more about engaging the existing site membership, and providing valuable content through the blog and newsletter. And who knows - maybe we'll have two Community Managers!


What should companies look for in a person when hiring a Community Manager? What experience and traits are crucial?

I think there's a traditional focus on the importance of experience when hiring. Although experience (schooling, work experience, experience with social media tools) should play a role, more importance should be placed on a person's character and passion when hiring a Community Manager. CM's need to be passionate about what they do - this isn't a 9-5 job, nor one you can do in a lackluster way. You need to be willing to devote some nights and weekends to your job, and you need to be as excited about your company as you want your community to be. I think traits of a successful Community Manager can include being extroverted (you need to be able to walk into a room of strangers and strike up a conversation), having good writing skills (if you're in charge of creating content like a blog), having great communication skills (you need to be able to communicate your company's pitch concisely and effectively), and having great time management and juggling skills (you'll likely be working on a multitude of projects at once). Of course having experience in social media is great, but more important than that is someone who is a fast learner and wants to immerse themselves in new tools. When I started at Sprouter I barely knew what Twitter was - everything is a learning curve, and it's people who are open to adopting new tools who will thrive. And the #1 question people should ask themselves when hiring a Community Manager is "Do they fit in with the company culture?" CM's are very common at small startups - and when you're one of three employees (like I have been for the past year) you need to get along with the other employees, and embody the culture and ideals of the company.


Anything else you would like to add?

Community Manager is an emerging title in the workforce - I didn't really know what it entailed a year ago, and now I'm positive that it's an absolutely perfect position for me. I encourage people who are interested in communications, social media, or technology to seek out CM positions and apply (regardless of how much experience you have). It's a position that allows you to learn, grow your network, and contribute relevantly to a company and its presence, both offline and online.  


You can follow Erin and Sprouter on Twitter and also be sure to check out Sprouter.com

See other Techvibes posts on Sprouter here and here.

Twitter and LinkedIn unite.

Twitter-In is what Biz Stone refers to as the teaming up of the two platforms Twitter and LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a business oriented social networking site used for professional use and with Twitter being used more and more for business and professional reasons and with our online networks becoming more integrated with our resume, the fit seems natural. The new features intended to make LinkedIn and Twitter more powerful for the user has been launched today and will be rolling out within the next few days. You will now be able to sync your accounts so that when you update your LinkedIn status you will be tweeting it to your Twitter followers and vise versa. The set up is very easy, on LinkedIn you can simply select the Twitter icon under your networks update box on your home page. For Twitter you have the option to send all tweets to LinkedIn or select specific ones using the hashtag #li or #in so that only selected tweets will be sent to your LinkedIn which is a good feature to have. It also seems that you add multiple Twitter accounts to your LinkedIn page.

The partnership could prove to be very useful for those with accounts on both sites and will make updating both these networks that much easier. The following video features LinkedIn Co-founder Reid Hoffman and Twitter Co-founder Biz Stone talking about the partnership. This quick video demonstrates how easily the accounts can be synced and talks about the integration between the two platforms being like peanut butter and chocolate. Updating just got easier.

 

Sprouter takes Sprout Up events for entrepreneurs on the road

If you're an entrepreneur, you've probably heard about Sprouter. If you're not already on it, you should be. Sprouter is a Toronto based social network that connects entrepreneurs from around the world to network and collaborate within and beyond their community. Check out our recent post on Sprouter here.

Sprouter hosts monthly free Sprout Up events to bring together entrepreneurs in a face to face setting to learn, share and network with others in their community. The events consist of excellent guest speakers, startup presentations and lots of networking and idea sharing. And now, these great events are going on tour. Sprouter recently announced their fall Sprout Up tour which will be taking place in five cities globally through November and December and promise to be just as valuable and exciting as the previous events. Two of the stops, in Montreal and Toronto, are part of Global Entrepreneurship week, and one in London is for the official launch of Gary Vaynerchuk's new book Crush It!

Here is a listing of dates and cities of the Sprout Up tour. Click on the links for full details and RSVP information.
 
Sprout Up Montreal: Tuesday, November 17th at Brutopia from 6-9pm. This is part of Global Entrepreneurship Week. Featuring guest speaker Saul Colt and local startups including SmartHippo.

Sprout Up Toronto: Wednesday, November 18th at The Pilot from 6-9pm. This event is part of Global Entrepreneurship Week. The theme is student entrepreneurship. Featuring guest speaker Matthew Corrin from Freshii. All presenting startups are student entrepreneurs.

Start Up Boston: Tuesday, November 24th at 28 Degrees from 6-9pm. Featuring guest speaker Saul Colt and local startups (TBA).

Sprout Up Chicago: Wednesday, December 2nd from 6-9pm (location TBA). Guest speaker Saul Colt and local startups GiveForward. 

Sprout Up London: Tuesday December 8th from 6-9pm at the Waterpoet Pub. This will be the UK launch of GaryVee’s book Crush It! Every ticket includes a copy of the book. 

 

You can follow Sprouter on Twitter @Sprouter and

Toronto video goes viral

It's hard to get away from technology nowadays as a 62 year old Toronto women found out when she somehow parked on top of another car in a Toronto gym parking lot and then drove away. The whole thing was caught on surveillance camera and soon went viral and dubbed the Worst Parking Job Ever by Mashable. Here is the video:

 

The 62 year old women was arrested and Todd Jamison was presented with a brand new car by a representative from Hyundai Canada. Hyundai took the opportunity to use the video to their advantage as a way to show consumers that 'at Hyundai, we like a story with a happy ending'. One of the marketing advantages to the new era of user created content is that if the company is smart, they will jump on something like this and turn it into a positive brand experience such as  Hyundai did. They even took it to the next level and instead of putting out a press release, they created a video to capture the moment and ensure the caring message from Hyundai was well received with the viral video itself. This is what people are talking about when they tell companies to be listening. Hyundai saw an opportunity in the viral video and acted on it. Hyundai didn't have to do anything at all but they did and the video they produced has had 92,522 hits and counting. That's great publicity for them and puts them in a good spot with consumers.

 

 

A few things about this intrigued me. Videos like these catch on like wild fire, such as the one about the baby surviving getting hit by a train a few weeks ago. That incredible video saw millions of hits in a matter of days. People love stories like this. Real content from real people and brands and companies have been catching on. We see a lot more marketing veering towards compassion, engagement and customer experience. The shift is happening because people now have control of what they want to see and hear about and companies have to adhere to what they want or get ignored. You can become the hero like Hyundai did, or the bad guy. People like it when a company goes out of its way to make a consumer happy so I'm sure they will be getting a lot of positive feedback from the situation.

Design the Future at Lift@Home Toronto and DemoCamp

You have the opportunity to design the future. An event for all designers, developers, entrepreneurs, marketers, creative thinkers and innovators. Lift@Home Toronto and DemoCamp 2019 promises to be packed with new ideas and innovation. The Lift conference is based out of Geneva with events in Switzerland, Korea, and France but this year, for the first time, the invitation has been extended to Toronto and Toronto plans to make it worth their while. It’s all happening November 17th.

This event has an exciting twist to it. Lift@Home has teamed up with the Toronto DemoCamp community to ensure this event is anything but usual. They are asking that design teams expand their imagination to foresee the technologies of a decade from now, for the year 2019. Participant are asked to anticipate what the world will be like in the near future; the environment, society, technology, things that are unimaginable for today but the big thing of 2019. That shakes things up.

Of course there will also be a couple choice guest speakers as well as a few open spots and great prizes.

Lift is more than just your typical tech conference in that it aims to reveal major shifts and new technologies before they happen so you can anticipate and turn change into opportunity.

See here for more information about the event, application forms, venue and tickets.

TELUS Announces Possible iPhone Pricing Plans

TELUS today announced that on November 5th, it will be launching new clear and simple pricing plans with no System Access Fees or carrier 911 fees. This includes a revamp of their current plans to make a 'what you see is what you get' appeal and will be available to both business and consumer wireless rate plans (including Mike and Mobile High Speed).

Current customers will have the option to stay with the plan they are already on or switch to the new clear plans after November 5th. It's not the plans themselves that are changing, but the pricing model, and by taking away the extra fees, a current $25 plan will actually cost less more than the new clear $30 plan. TELUS says they recognize that plans and pricing can be confusing for the consumer and want to introduce pricing transparency to adhere to the needs and wants of their consumers.

Visit TELUS for more information.

FreshBooks Latest Addition: The Profit Loss Report

If you use FreshBooks, an onlince invoice and time tracking service, you'll be glad to see the latest addition, The Profit Loss report which determines your gross profit, net profit and total expenses which can be found under the 'Reports' tab. Along with that, comes a FreshBooks reporting first: Cost of Goods Sold, or COGS. There are two ways expenses can become a Cost of Goods Sold: First, any expenses you rebill to a client will be included in your Cost of Goods Sold and second, you can edit your Cost of Goods Sold and add expense categories you want included in your COGS on your Profit & Loss report. To ensure smooth efficiency, FreshBooks will remember the categories you have as COGS for future use. This is just one of the many improvements FreshBooks has made so far.

FreshBooks is a fast and simple online invoice and time tracking service providing professionals with an easy to use and professional system. FreshBooks is based out of Toronto, serving over 100 countries.

GameON: Finance 2009 goes this week

If you’re a game developer, innovator or investor, you don’t want to miss GameON: Finance 2009. Two days packed with keynote speakers and panelists, gaming and networking for the interactive games industry happening Oct. 27 - 28th at The Design Exchange at 234 Bay Street in downtown Toronto ON. The event will showcase case studies and panels providing insight into the prospect of economic, cultural, and technological growth within the gaming landscape.

You’ll definitely want to hear this line up of excellent keynote speakers from Mark Skaggs, VP and GM of Social RTS and Zynga speaking on Social games: The hottest trend in gaming right now, and Yannis Mallat, Chief Executive Officer Ubisoft Montreal & Toronto on Innovation pipeline: feeding our growth with breakthroughs. Accompanied by a long line of influential speakers like John Albright, Dante Anderson, and Jennifer Blitz. You can check out the full schedule for panels and speakers here. There’s something for everyone with an array of topics from business models, funding and networking to future development. If you’ve attended previous years you’ll be excited to know that new this year, attendants are given the option to sign up for one on one consultations with legal and tax experts to have all your questions answered in private, confidential sessions. Jump into the business of games and register.

As an official media sponsor, we’ll be getting all the scoop for you. And just in case you can’t make it be sure to follow our tweets and blog posts during and after the event.

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