With Spring arriving early in most parts of Canada, the 2012 London Olympics are just around the corner. CTV has the rights for this year's summer games and they've already been very active in profiling Canadian athletes and their journey to the Olympics.
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In 2011, Canada held the number one rank for the most social networking users in the world on a per capita basis, according to research conducted by eMarketer.
China and the U.S. have some of the biggest populations to set the largest overall number of social networking users. Although China outnumbers the U.S. by nearly two to one with 256.5 million social networking users, a better examination would be to look at the percentage of the country’s total population, seeing countries like the U.S. and Canada take the top rankings.
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Alexandra Samuel is the Director of the Social + Interactive Media Centre at Emily Carr University and co-founder of Social Signal, one of the world's first social media agencies. Earlier this week, she spoke at the Women in Film and Television (WIFT) luncheon in Toronto about strategies and tools for online branding, and reaching broadcasting audiences through social media.
Samuel explained to the WIFT luncheon attendees that “the audience dictates the success of a film or television show—even before it is made.” She gave the example of a Finnish-German-Australian sci-fi comedy called Iron Sky, which raised roughly one million Euros via crowd funding from internet audiences. Because the film was promoted heavily online to seek audience funding, it generated so much buzz that it sold out at the Berlin International Film Festival premiere.
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Most experts agree: the return on investment from social media activity cannot be quantified. But this owl at least wants to try.
HootSuite has announced a partnership with Adobe that will see the Vancouver startup enable users to calculate the elusive social media ROI. Leveraging the technology of Adobe Genesis, HootSuite will be able to offer actionable data to business that answer questions such as, "which message types result in the most conversions?" and "which platform is providing the greatest return?"
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The biggest newsmaker from the power of social media in recent memory has been the campaign to make Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony famous for his atrocities. That hasn't come without criticism toward the charity behind the unprecedented 55-million plus views the half an hour long video has garnered on YouTube since Monday.
Called Invisible Children, they were forced to explain their actions because of a controversial past that includes questionable financial records as only 32% of their funds went to direct services last year, ABC News reported. But the online virality is incredible: this tweet has received an earth-shatterng 265,000 retweets in less than three days.
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Toronto and Montreal-based startup SocialBungy believes that every digital marketing campaign should be unique on its own - without seeking the help of custom development or breaking your wallet.
When the company launched two years ago as a social media marketing shop, their customers, like Steam Whistle and Lindt Chocolate, were always asking for custom campaigns. But not all companies can afford the cost that comes with customization. To meet those market demands, SocialBungy plans to launch a socially-enabled contest and sweepstakes platform this spring.
“Ultimately our goal is to eliminate the high cost of launching a professional and brand-tailored campaign. In fact, most of our campaigns will run along the same price range as our cookie-cutter competitors, with campaigns starting at $249,” says Mike Barwick, Founder of SocialBungy.
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Three months ago, INcubes opened their doors to seven new companies for incubation in Toronto. INcubes evaluated the market potential of these startup ideas, and then off the startups went into a three-month qualifying curriculum program.
In the third month - after business plan refinement, expert advice, market research and development facilitation, resource procurement, third party qualification, and product plan refinement - five of the seven selected startups created an investor package presentation and practiced their pitch before going live Tuesday at the Royal Ontario Museum before an audience of interested parties.
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As Google continues to shove its social network, Google+, down users' throats, the concept of engagement—a rather crucial component of a social community—seems totally lost on the seemingly socially inept company. While it boastfully claims nearly 100 million users worldwide, mostly drawn from those inadvertently signing up while using other Google products, Google+ remains a virtual ghost town.
There seems to be one common theme in Stephen Harper's Conservative government: give them a piece of technology, even as simple as a landline telephone, and they will find a way to create a nationwide scandal.
There's no shortage of drama either—new information says that a Liberal staffer created "Vikileaks" to demonstrate what it would be like to have your personal privacy exposed on the Internet after controversial remarks from Vic Toews about passing the bill that would allow greater access to your personal activites.
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TVRecaps says that 200,000 Canadian households could cancel cable in 2012. According to media and communications research firm