Sell Hamilton!

Located in the Greater Hamilton Area in Southwest Ontario, we are a network of professional bloggers, social media influencers, photographers, videographers, and tradespeople who specialize in local expertise and sharing the right content with the right people. See more at SellHamilton.com

[rawfoodfeed]

Check out Raw Convenience for some vegetarian goodness.

[rawfoodfeed]

“Ever since telling about my road to healing I have been inundated with emails from people wanting to heal themselves and wanting to know what I recommend. So I put together the following list. These are all things that I believe assisted in my own personal healing and transformation. The list is...

[sellhamilton]

Dear Apple... Leave Samsung Alone.

Dear Apple, Your hipster fanboys don’t skateboard anymore. Improve your business apps or compatibility with Windows apps… Actually, don’t. Brand bullies should lose!

199.

[sellhamilton]

Apple... Leave Samsung Alone.

Dear Apple, Your hipster fanboys don't skateboard anymore. Improve your business apps or compatibility with Windows apps... Actually, don't. Brand bullies should lose!

[sellhamilton]

Marketing training is increasing, but why? And where is it learned?

Companies plan on increasing investment in learning how to do marketing according to the CMO Survey conducted by Duke University and the American Marketing Association.

The nature of marketing is changing rapidly – that is no surprise. Chief marketing officers (CMOs) report in the August 2012 survey that their spending on traditional advertising will decrease by an average of -1.9%. Spending on internet marketing will increase by +11.5%, which is a slight deceleration over the increase reported 6 months earlier. At the same time they report that new service introductions will increase by +6.4% and customer relationship management will increase by +9.0%.

Companies are like little countries... The ones that educate their citizenry, provide things like social assistance (heard about an agency with an in-suite laundromat a few weeks ago), and all-around broadcast a humble yet skilled and hard-working proletariat will be respected by other countries and their citizens. Entire governments of developed nations are failing because they are not agile enough to meet the needs of their citizens due to an unpredictable economy, aging demographics, and technological disruption. If employees in a company collectively know how to think about how their job relates socially (within the company, as a skill or inspiration for hard work, humour, creativity, organization, environmentalism, etc.), they can communicate these acts or traits better to their marketing team. I think the most successful viral marketing campaigns showcase how things are made (like leather clothing or a cardboard bike. This video about the making of the Sheridan College outdoor marketing campaign is a great example). Collaboration and teamwork are tandem to a very successful social media campaign at least. I'm not sure if those are credits in marketing training programs.

If you find yourself ever asking how to market yourself, start with answering why you deserve to be marketed in the first place. The answers and evidence should flow right into your marketing proposal or RFP.

[sellhamilton]

Internalize your social media efforts by engaging your very own employees.

Although it is convenient for businesses when customers create their own social media about a business, customers alone cannot be depended on to give a consistently valuable source of organic social media growth. It is the duty of the business to engage its employees so that they present a personal, "lifelike" vision of a business. In his book, UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging, Toronto social media strategist and marketing professional Scott Stratten explains his experience at The Wynn Hotelin Las Vegas. While walking through the lobby, one of the employees stopped cleaning a carpet and went out of his way to greet Stratten. “His welcome changed my entire perception of the Wynn. Almost $3 billion went into making this megacasino resort and it was one guy who made me want to stay there. This gentleman, who made me feel welcome at his place of employment, was not only exceptional, but he was extremely rare.” And it’s these exceptional people who get us talking. Not only do we tell family, friends and co-workers, we might also tell our Twitter followers, Facebook friends and YouTube subscribers. Smart business owners are joining these online conversations, connecting with prospective customers and converting current customers into fans through the power of engagement. Read more about how you can increase social media engagement with your business here.

[sellhamilton]

Pick one: construction boom or environmental collapse

The Construction Labour Council of Canada has released its forecasts of the provincial construction labour markets from 2012 through 2020. In Ontario alone, 120 000 new jobs are forecast in the construction industry, primarily in non-residential sectors such as mining, energy, and heavy equipment operations.

In the same newspaper I read this morning, Order of Canada recipient journalist Gwynne Dyer warns of the sacrifices global civilization will have to make in order to avoid collapse. See his warnings here.

[sellhamilton]

Despite the perception that swearing online is unprofessional, sometimes marketing depends on it.

People often experience anger and frustration in the home. In fact, most people save there grumpiness for the home because expressing oneself in the workplace could land the person in trouble.

It probably depends on the brand you are managing. If your business is selling content, you will have to show if you can do it in all cases (for example, without swearing).  Just like advertisers can't use scantily clad women all the time to sell products anymore, they can't just post content with swearing or vulgar images to grow traffic organically.

[sellhamilton]

Google kicked off April with a commercial celebrating the release of its new app, Google Tap.

Before I bought my phone I knew, I knew I’d have a hell of a time typing on the touchpad keyboard.

No matter. Google has answered my prayers and come up with a solution.

Here’s the commercial:

[sellhamilton]

Own your privacy. Get penny wise.

This made me think of the way I do things as "privacy, the free version." Google lets you link many different accounts, including http://plaxo.com. What is the difference between Google and Plaxo? Branding, price. Security?

<![CDATA[// <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ google_ad_client = "ca-pub-3037818272884348"; /* sellhamiltoncontent */ google_ad_slot = "6079785923"; google_ad_width = 336; google_ad_height = 280; // ]]]]]]><![CDATA[><![CDATA[> // ]]]]><![CDATA[>]]><![CDATA[// <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // ]]]]]]><![CDATA[><![CDATA[> // ]]]]><![CDATA[>]]>

Another form of evil genius - credit cards - are secured by the same types of firms as the ones that nickel and dime people with crummy software. Cell phone companies are rubbing their hands together while banks and technology companies fight each other. They all want to be be the best mobile payment solution. Save your money!

[sellhamilton]

Create an online business card

One easy way to get yourself promoted online is to create an online business card. It can be very simple, and you can design it by modifying another simple site's CSS and HTML to suit you, or you can start from scratch. The important thing is for you to have an attractive page that displays your name and occupation prominently (or contain content related to your expertise). Simplicity is key. If you write about a bunch of random topics you will confuse your visitors and they won't leave with a clear idea with what you do, or what you want to do. Your website should contain simple instructions about how to contact you along with some links to other projects you have worked on that are online. That way, visitors can contact your employers or previous acquaintances. My personal business card resides at Dan Watkins. Another good thing about having an online business card is being able to backlink to it using your name in your various social media profiles. You're more likely to end up being #1 in search engines when you type in your name.

[sellhamilton]

Get MP3, Multimedia Support for Fedora

http://bit.ly/eA8V8J Since there are misleading articles all over the place I’m going to start collecting useful notes I ended up finding that for some reason were not ranked #1 in Google Linux is fantastic once you get the hang of it.  I was having issues with my Lenovo Z575 (apparently newer laptops can be annoying to [...] from Sell Hamilton http://bit.ly/H7IVan

[sellhamilton]

Cool new web tools can always be found.

http://bit.ly/eA8V8J New and cool web tools are always being developed, but sometimes it requires a bit more than reading Mashable’s newsletters to stay ahead of the curve. I found this one by browsing around on Geeklist and checking out what projects people were working on. I stumbled upon a backend developer for The Endless Mural and decided to [...] from Sell Hamilton http://bit.ly/Audrao

[sellhamilton]

I am watching The Cartel

“Great documentary. The economy has evolved past you.”

Check-in to The Cartel on GetGlue.com

[coryschmitz]

Anamanaguchi Canada tour poster (by cory schmitz)

Collaboration with Maré Odomo.

[sellhamilton]

Ekaterina Walter is a social media strategist at Intel. She is a part of Intel’s Social Media Center of Excellence and is responsible for company-wide social media enablement and corporate social networking strategy. She was recently elected to serve on the board of directors of WOMMA. QR co...

[sellhamilton]

I am listening to Aphex Twin

“Awesome...”

Check-in to Aphex Twin on GetGlue.com