La SQPRP dévoile son calendrier d'activités 2007-2008

Lors de son cocktail de la rentrée hier soir, la SQPRP a dévoilé son calendrier d'activités de formation pour l'année à venir. Il y en a pour tous les goûts.

Des nouveaux partenariats avec l'UQAM et McGill

Un grand nombre de formations en administration

Médias sociaux avec Charles-Henri Guillaume (TP1) et Mitch Joel (Twist Image)

La recherche marketing avec Christian Bourque (Léger)

La communication au carrefour du marketing et des RP avec Louise Desjardins (Guidaction)

L'évaluation avec Guy L'Italien

Relations de presse avec Stéphane Prud'homme

L'étude de marché avec Sylvie Laferté

En j'en passe.

Félicitations à Abdellah El Mzem et à son équipe : ayant oeuvré au sein de ce même comité pendant 2 ans, j'apprécie le temps et l'énergie qu'ils y mettent. Bravo!

Retour sur YULBiz

Soirée YULBiz intéressante, hier. Je regrette seulement d'avoir été obligée de quitter plus tôt que prévu afin de visiter un ami qui était rentré d'urgence à l'hôpital en fin d'après-midi. Vous comprendrez qu'il le regrette lui aussi, le pauvre.

Malgré tout, j'ai pu profiter de conversations intéressantes avec :

Pierre Bellerose, Tourisme Montréal, sur la délicate balance qu'un carnetiste doit maintenir entre son image privée et publique.

Louise Desjardins, Guidaction, sur le cocktail de la rentrée de la SQPRP, l'importance du réseautage stratégique et son atelier de formation, La communication au carrefour du marketing et des relations publiques.

Marc Snyder, sur le réseautage stratégique (pour décrire notre conversation de façon délicate :)

Sylvain Carle, sur sa maudite bonne nouvelle.

Geoffroi Garon sur la très belle campagne qu'il mène sur Facebook, faisant la promotion du service de covoiturage Amigo Express - 1 073 membres en quelques jours seulement!

J'ai pu saluer, de passage, Pierre Bouchard, Philippe Martin et Michel Leblanc. Always a pleasure, gentlemen.

Et, bien sur, d'autres gens sympatiques, dont on se souvient des visages le lendemain mais dont on a malheureusement oublié les noms. Quel défaut... Je me reprendrai à la prochaine YULBiz, promis.

Ah, merde! Je viens de me rendre compte que je suis partie avant de répondre à la Question du mois!

Nouveau blogue québécois sur les relations publiques

Décidémment, mon mentor a du vent dans les voiles. L'autre jour, je vous ai parlé de son blogue sur l'Arizona. Voici qu'à peine quelques jours plus tard, Alain Charbonneau se lance dans l'aventure des blogues RP.

Le thème? Gestion de Crise 101. Ça promet. Et le connaissant, ça sera même surprenant, par moments. Alain n'a pas la langue dans sa poche.

Je vous invite à y faire un p'tit tour.

Blogue ici.

Podcasting seminar today : Leesa Barnes booklaunch

To celebrate the launch of her new book, Podcasting for Profit, Leesa Barnes is offering a live call, where she promises to answer questions about monetizing podcasting. She's also providing two chapters of her book for download.

Call in times are 2:30pm EDT or 10:00pm EDT.

Signing up requires you to submit your email address (Leesa assures us it is for internal use only) and a question about podcasting.

More information here.

Leesa Barnes is CEO of Toronto-based Caprica Interactive Marketing.

CNW et SNCR appuient l'évolution des médias sociaux au Canada

CNW et SNCR s'associent à Joseph Thornley et Third Tuesday, une série de rencontres mensuelles sur les médias sociaux qui se déroule à Toronto, Ottawa et, depuis un mois, Vancouver. Ayant assisté à des événements (gratuits) à Toronto et Vancouver, je peux vous dire qu'il s'en passe des choses au-delà de nos frontières. Des discussions intéressantes et des échanges dynamiques. La possibilité de réseauter avec des pairs. Et, toujours, des invités passionnants et passionnés.

Détails ici

... pour quand le Québec, vous dites? Il suffit de s'organiser, comme l'a fait le Rest of Canada. Joe m'indique qu'il serait très heureux qu'un chapitre de Third Tuesday soit lancé à Montréal.

Il nous faudrait une équipe de 5-6 afin d'assurer le succès de nos démarches. Si vous désirez contribuer à la réalisation de ce projet louable, je vous inviterais à communiquer avec moi.

La présence de conférenciers fait en sorte que la formule Third Tuesday diffère de celle d'autres initiatives, comme YULbiz et YULblog. Personnellement, j'assiste aux trois.

Et en attendant, faites donc un petit tour à Ottawa demain (mardi) pour le Third Tuesday du mois de septembre. Nos confrères ontariens reçoivent le Montréalais Mitch Joel.

Autrement, je vous invite à vous joindre à moi et les autres membres de YULbiz pour un p'tit verre au Café Mélies. On pourra trinquer au succès de Joe, Mitch et Third Tuesday. Ensemble, on trouvera une belle traduction. Voulez-vous?

Paparazzi anyone?

Lancé il y a un an, Scooplive propose aux internautes de profiter, littéralement, de leur nouveau statut de citoyen-journaliste, en vendant leurs clichés aux médias par le biais du service Internet.

Scooplive a été créé pour répondre à toutes ces questions de la manière la plus simple qui soit. Il s'agit tout simplement d'une place de marché qui a pour objectif d'améliorer la relation entre les particuliers et les professionnels des médias EN TOUTE TRANSPARENCE.

Le photographe participant doit s'engager à ne pas vendre ses photos ailleurs pendant une période de trois mois. Il doit également se conformer aux termes d'un code de déontologie (qui exclu les documents à caractères pornographiques, trop violents etc..) et à une ligne éditoriale (doit être considéré comme "suffisamment" intéressant).

Selon Le Figaro, les records de vente de revues 'people' ont été battus en 2007. Figaro va jusqu'à dire que : Vu le manque de scoops croustillants cet été, ce succès est déconcertant.

De quoi faire rêver les paparazzis amateurs, qui pourraient être tentés de faire du fric sur le dos de leurs vedettes préférés. Quel enfer pour le couple Cassel-Bellucci, pour ne pas parler de la pauvre Keira !

Et au Québec? Les stars peuvent respirer un peu mieux. Quiconque a déjà travaillé comme relationniste auprès de nos bien-aimés peut en attester : le star-système a du vent dans les voiles depuis des années, et une complicité entre stars et médias québécois règne. Dans un tel contexte, risquer de se faire 'blacklister' par Véro, Marc ou René/Céline, c'est un pensez-y-bien.

Blogue tout chaud - l'Arizona à votre portée

Mon mentor, un homme que je respecte énormément, se lance dans l'aventure des médias sociaux ce matin. Ancien journaliste et relationniste, Alain est non seulement très intéressant, il est super généreux avec moi. Chacune de nos rencontres est hautement édifiante et encourageante.

Nous nous sommes vus l'autre jour et il m'a parlé de son nouveau projet : passionné par la région, Alain devient accompagnateur pour Québécois cherchant à découvrir l'Arizona.

Pour souligner le lancement de cette nouvelle aventure, il vient de publier son premier billet. Il a choisi Mon blogue / Branchez-vous pour l'hébergement.

Vous trouverez son carnet, tout frais, tout neuf, dans mon blogroll et ici.

À suivre de près!

Video of the day : Mr Rogers and authenticity

RSS feeds are wonderful things - so are Facebook apps for Google Reader. Thanks to that application, I was able to pick up on an important lesson Mitch Joel chose to share with his network. He picked it up through John Kinde's blog Humour Power.

In 1969, Fred Rogers of Mr. Rogers' Neighbourhood fame, appeared before a Senate Subcommittee to advocate the continued funding of children's educational programming. His speech is a powerful demonstration of the intense sway of authentic and transparent discourse.

I feel like Mr. Rogers in saying it, but just being yourself is fundamentally the best way to go. Passion for a cause is contagious.

It's worth reading John Kinde's blog posting before moving onto the video.

Blog here

Video here

Thank for finding this post and sharing it, Mitch.

"I feel the greatest gift we can give to anybody is the gift of our honest self." --- Fred Rogers

Praise for Praized

Fanastic news for Praized, a young Montreal start-up run by YULBiz-er and YULBlog-ger Sylvain Carle and his colleagues : funding has arrived, in the form of Garage Technology Ventures. Sylvain had slipped a word in about this imminent announcement at last week's Geek Dinner. It's an exciting time.

Praized Media is a startup company working on a web-based application that will enable you to find and discover local places and merchants with help from people you can trust. It's also a tool that will structure local conversations within blogs and a new platform for local search providers to generate leads from the untapped social media market.

And why not? A little francophone media coverage here and here.

I'll be following Praized closely.

Félicitations, Sylvain! C'est bien mérité.

Article of the day : Facebook Marketing Primer

The now is gone blog offers up a good overview of Facebook for marketers, with links to other sources that I'm sure I'll get around to reading eventually. So much to read, so little time.

A little taste:

Facebook has some true marketing potential for some companies. The question is which companies, and what’s the right way to use Facebook?

Blog post here

Geek dinner digested

Last night's Geek Dinner was its usual successful self : a plethora of web 2.0 freaks (and I use the term affectionately) gathered around one very long table at Café Mélies chatting about this and that and iPhones and Facebook. There's that F word again.

Our guest of honour was CBC's favourite geek son and blogger, Tod-with-one-d Maffin and our charming host was, as usual, Mitch Joel. Between the two of them and their various speaking gigs, I think they have the globe covered. We should probably make the next Geek Dinner a fundraiser to cover their carbon emissions.

Had great conversations with :

Evan Prodromou - of Wikitravel fame

Casey McKinnon & Rudy Jahchan - the Web's Third sexiest geeks and producers of Galacticast

Maki Papadopoulos - former Greek national team water-polo athlete

Marko Kulik - photographer, pet expert and improvised-taxi-driver extraordinaire

Michel Leblanc - the eternal man-on-a-mission, sporting a Calder sculpture t-shirt

Joe Thornley - all the way from across the border (the Ontario border) for the occasion

Sylvain Carle - with good reason to be excited about Praized

Robert Mendelson - who, at last report, was still trying to unload his Genesis tickets.

Any takers?

Anita Roddick, R.I.P.

Anita Roddick, head of the Body Shop empire, passed away yesterday at the age of 64.

This lady knew a little something about branding, PR, and the importance of good corporate citizenship, I tell ya. And while her angelic aura became somewhat tainted over time, as her critics accused her of misrepresenting the extent to which her products were indeed environmentally friendly and attacked her for selling her empire to L'Oréal, I'd venture to say that, all in all, her public image remains quite strong to this day. It'll be interesting to see how her legacy will be defined in the coming days and years.

Quote from her obituary:

She regarded the fact that Body Shop had no marketing department as some sort of moral statement, yet with her as its public face it never needed one.

According to Wikipedia : By 2004, the Body Shop had 1980 stores, serving over 77 million customers throughout the world. The Body Shop was voted the second most trusted brand in the United Kingdom and 28th top brand in the world.

Obituary here

Audio of her last interview with the Daily Telegraph here

Wikipedia et les communications d'entreprise

Les eaux de Wikipedia sont parfois pénibles à naviguer. Il est facile pour les relationnistes de succomber à la tentation de s'en servir pour passer des messages clés. Certaines modifications apportées par les entreprises sont supprimées par la communauté qui considère qu'ils n'y font que de la pub.

Pour ma part, j'ai toujours conseillé à mes clients de surveiller, mais de se tenir relativement loin de Wikipedia et ce même avant l'arrivée de Wikiscanner. Je prône la transparence et propose qu'ils ne s'avancent pas à modifier quoi que ce soit au niveau des informations publiées, autre que d'ajouter des documents officiels et clairement corporatifs en hyperlien dans la section prévue. Et ce de façon très 'straight', sans ajouter de commentaires. Il s'agit des mêmes documents qui se retrouvent dans mes dossiers de presse : communiqués, fiches d'info, cartes, photos, biographies etc. Le logo de l'entreprise y est clairement. Les informations sont publiées ailleurs et sont donc publiques.

Et ça s'arrête là.

Pour ce qui en est d'informations erronées ou de propos diffamatoires, je propose à mes clients de passer par la section discussion de leur Wiki.

Question de transparence. Question de respect pour la philosophie, le protocole et la communauté Wikipedia.

C'est clair. Nous ne sommes plus à l'époque du 'push' marketing, et nous devons nous adapter en conséquence.

Miss Teen South Carolina grows a very long tail

It's the stuff of urban legends. Or National Enquirer headlines. Or PR nightmares.

Much to her dismay, I'm sure, Miss Teen South Carolina is sporting a long ... very long .. tail. As in the Chris Anderson variety. But does this go beyond a simple dim-lightbulb moment? My PR-sense is tingling, Spidey.

The clip of this beauty pageant contestant's faux pas (that's French for roadwreck) has not only hit You Tube with a vengeance, it has inspired dozens of satirical response videos and, I'm sure, a Saturday Night Live sketch. Not only is it buzzing loudly already, but thanks to the new realities of social media, it'll have a long life, coming up every time a prospective employer or eventual grandchild Googles the name Caitlin Upton (long life to Google!)

A small sampling of what's out there:

Miss Teen South Carolina Calls 911

Parents of Miss Teen South Carolina

Miss Teen South Carolina vs. Bush

But what, beyond nervousness, was behind this horrific disaster? A lot of bad PR-style training with abusive use of key messages, I suspect. Can you hear the poor girl's coach whispering in her ear? Can you imagine the months of preparation, sleep deprivation, even torture by flash card, all in an effort to get her ready for this nerve-wracking Q&A national television moment? Did you notice the same spin giveaways I did?

Mention Iraq. Check.

Mention South Africa (?). Check.
Asian countries (is that a tsunami reference?) Check.

U.S. number one. Check.

U.S. can do no wrong. Check.

U.S. saviour of the world. Check.

I'm surprised she didn't mention children, puppy dogs or apple pie.

I suspect that when Miss South Carolina blanked out, rather than pull an answer out of the logical part of her brain, the prepwork kicked in and went into overdrive. She relived the flash cards and months of training like an unlucky parachutist whose life flashes in front of his eyes before he hits concrete. It all came tumbling, miserably, painfully, out.

To paraphrase the words of another infamous public speaker, in the name of practicing our love with women all over this country let's give this particular one a break, shall we? Not everyone is a born public speaker. We all know that it ranks up near, if not at, the top of lists of things people fear most in life. Those of us who actually enjoy it, and do it without blinking or hesitation at every possible opportunity, are probably missing some kind of gene in our double helix or something.

And the next time someone tells me that beauty pageants are more about personality than the swimsuit competition, I'll remember that despite the quality (or lack thereof) of her response, Caitlin still managed to place 3rd runner up. I bet the other 47 contestants were just thrilled about that.

I have to end this post with a link to my favourite PR-bashing clip, courtesy of Andy Dick. A work of brilliance, imho. Available here.

Hey. If you can't laugh at yourself ...

Keep smiling Caitlin.

Blogroll adjustment : Fleet Street

Adjust your bookmarks : Dave Fleet's excellent blog has changed names .. and addresses.

You can now find him at Fleet Street PR (dot) com

A true gentleman (not to mention a mad marathoner), it's sweet of him to give me the credit for inspiring the rebranding of his blog, but combine that name with that accent and the choice is obvious.

Happy reading!

La rentrée

Bon, c'est officiel! Malgré les températures records et l'humidité, c'est la rentrée. Les clients me le disent, mes collègues me le disent. Il faudrait maintenant que mon corps le comprenne. Je suis toujours dans le beat relaxe qui est propre à Vancouver, mais j'en sors, tranquillement. Il le faut bien, un jour.

Une fin de semaine de travail avec bon mélange de plaisir en perspective. Quelle joie retrouver les amis autour d'une table lors de ces dernières belles soirées d'été, dans le jardin chez nous!

Tel qu'espéré, je ressens les vibrations de plus en plus frénétiques des médias sociaux à Montréal depuis mon retour. On en parle plus fréquemment qu'il y a même 3-4 mois. Les collègues m'approchent pour se renseigner. Même ceux qui, il y a de ça quelques mois seulement, étaient sur leurs gardes face à tout ce qui ressemblait à blogue/podcast/Facebook/ Twitter et al. ne semblent plus nier l'influence grandissante du phénomène et cherchent à en savoir plus.

On me solicite maintenant en tant que conférencière. Super, ça.

En parlant de conférenciers, Infopresse en fait venir un grand. Chris Anderson, auteur de l'incontournable The Long Tail, sera à Montréal le 9 octobre prochain.

Détails ici. Si vous avez les sous, ça vaut la peine.

Geek Dinner, Mitch Joel? On ne peut faire autrement que se croiser les doigts. Et merci d'avance, en passant, pour celui pour Tod Maffin - ça devrait être génial.

Article du jour : Caveat Facebook Emptor

O M. Moffitt - comme je compatise! Moi qui a reçu dernièrement un (ou deux) avertissement(s) anti-spam de la part de nos amis de Facebook (quand, en réalité, je tentais justement d'éviter toute accusation de spam en passant par les administrateurs de groupes intéressants avant de m'adresser directement à leurs membres, mais enfin).

Article intéressant élaborant quelques limites de Facebook - disponible ici

Comme le dit si bien M. Moffitt : Caveat Facebook Emptor - let the Facebook social networker beware, always have a back up plan and always know, you're not the one in charge when your on someone else's network - no matter how complimentary or influential you are.

Vidéo du jour : YULBiz

On se fait parler de nous!



Également disponible sur le site montreal.tv ici

Article of the day : Facebook campaign prompts HSBC turnaround

HSBC has been forced to implement an embarrassing U-turn regarding its planned overdraft changes on graduate accounts, following a campaign spearheaded by social networking website Facebook.

Article here

Podsafe travels

So I'm on the prowl for good podsafe music for my client's podcast (launch date now early 2008). Primary criteria : quality, Canadian content. Have been pleasantly surprised by how open Canada's independent artists are to going podsafe. Should be a good mix. Can't wait to unveil the collection.

The hunt has been fun. But I tell ya : if only podcasting and iTunes had been around when I was in high school. I might have spread my suburban-bound wings beyond the Duran Duran and Wham that permeated my school like a festering sore and that I hated with a passion. (Why O Why wasn't I hanging around with the punk kids?) Chris Anderson is bang on.

But I'm indulging beyond our borders (how to resist?) and I have to say I'm blown away by Anji Bee's Chillout Music Podcast. Wow!

Stumbled on it tonight, surfing on the atmosphere69 site. What a voice this girl has! And her music selection has me in a veritable tizzy.

Life's good. Anji's got me feeling groovy.

Bee's singing is a perfect counterpoint, a blend of classic mid-century jazz-pop flow and a bit of '60s cool in a French or Brazilian sense -- some low-key scatting here, some warm, playful crooning there. -- Ned Raggett

Like having a cocktail of lovely tunes and honey poured directly into your ear. Well-chosen music, voice links that make you feel cosy inside, it all adds up to an essential weekly download. -- David McCandless, Good Podcast Guide, Nov 2006

Video of the Day : Bloggers Beware

I was otherwise (very happily) occupied on August 16th, so missed this piece by the National. Thanks to CBC archives, it can be today's video of the day.

As PR professionals, we have a responsibility to provide counsel to our clients.

As Canadian citizens, we have a responsibility to speak up when we feel laws are unjust.

As a sympathizer of the underdog and supporter of freedom of speech for the ordinary man, I know which tone the letter I'm about to write to my M.P. is going to take.


Video here

Zeke's Gallery
1997ish-2007
R.I.P.

Survey of the day : Blogging goes mainstream in U.S.

Mainstream. The rebel in me isn't thrilled by the idea, but the PR consultant in me certainly is.

According to a new survey by Synovate/Marketing Daily, blogging has officially gone mainstream. "8 out of 10 Americans know what a blog is and almost half have visited blogs." It would appear that what was once the purvey of a small subculture has hit the radar screen of Mr. and Mrs. Smith and their 2.3 children in the midwest.

But let's take a closer look at the stats, shall we?

80% of Americans have their own blogs

Huh? Was Tom Mularz, senior vice president at Synovate, misquoted? I'm really not buying this figure. Maybe 80% of lemmings want to sound like they hang with the cool kids, so say they have blogs. Maybe (and I'm stretching it) 80% of them stumbled on Blogger, chose and template, spent 2 minutes thinking about a title and typed test as a first (and last) entry. But there's no way 80% of people in America have blogs. According to Internet World Stats, although the United States ranks first in Internet usage, it does so with only a 69.7% penetration rate. Sorry folks.

Hmm .. credibility crash. Let's move on.

90% of those aged 25 to 34 know what a blog is

Was that a yes or no question? Or were they tested through a response? Still, this stat I can accept as semi-plausible.

65% of those aged 65 and over know what a blog is

This is presented as a negative. If it's true, I'd say that's not too bad, actually. Ten years ago, my then-55 year old mother (a.k.a. my barometer for this demographic) thought you hung up a cellphone by placing it upside down on the table, as it if the receiver were going into a cradle. That said, a decade later, she has a pretty good idea of what a blog is. Her profile? Urban, upper middle class, bilingual, educated, culturally and socially aware, reads the paper and watches the news nightly. Middle America? Maybe not so much.

78% of those aged 18 to 24 who are aware of blogs say they have visited a blog

Sounds right. The rest just think they know, I suppose.

45% of older Americans who are aware of blogs say they have visited a blog

Ibid.

46% of blog readers saying that they visit the same blogs regularly. 54% usually surf for new and different ones.

Which means, I suppose, that the majority of Americans are using blogs like they do the Internet : to surf. Google is God. RSS feeds need better PR.

More women than men are bloggers, with 20% of American women who have visited blogs having their own versus 14 % of men.

Now that's interesting. Is this a Venus/Mars thing? With blogging being driven by the same impulse as journal recording was 20 or 100 years ago? When I look around, there are many more male PR bloggers than female ones, although women overwhelmingly dominate the industry. Is this typical across the board? Are women using blogs for personal expression, leaving men to occupy the 'expert' space? Gloria Steinem wouldn't be pleased. I'm going to keep my eyes open.

Though the majority of blog readers (39%) view them less than once a month, another 28% visit them monthly, 15% visit them daily and 5% read them several times a day

There you go. That 39% probably visits a blog cited during an Oprah show or while googling some recipe for low-fat cranberry sauce. Do I sound like a geeky snob? Maybe. I'll do some introspective analysis and let you know.

43% of blog visitors indicated that they had noticed advertisements on blog websites, rising to 61% among those aged 18 to 24. Almost one-third of consumers have clicked on an ad while reading a blog

Oh god. Save us all. (That's the rebel in me speaking)

PR chick? She still maintains that good pr beats a pop-up ad any day.

13% of blog readers say they spend less time with other forms of media (newspapers, television, radio) since they’ve started following blogs

The conversation I had with a member of the Gazette staff the other day leads me to suspect that this figure is way higher in Canada.

When asked about the types of information they get from blogs, 65% said they get opinions, while 39% get news and 38% get entertainment. The main reason people read blogs? Almost half of those surveyed say it's because they find blogs entertaining, and another 26% read them to learn about specific hobbies or other areas they're interested in. 15% of blog readers say they do so for news

Perez Hilton is laughing all the way to the bank.

The study was conducted online with 1,000 adults in the US using Synovate eNation from July 30 to August 1 2007.

Ok well. There's your answer right there. Key words : conducted online. Not to mention the small sample. My credibility meter has suddenly gone flat.

The sad thing is that these stats are going to show up on Good Morning America and USA Today for mass consumption without proper analysis. Just goes to show you can make stats say just about anything.

About Synovate
Synovate, the market research arm of Aegis Group plc, generates consumer insights that drive competitive marketing solutions. The network provides clients with cohesive global support and a comprehensive suite of research solutions. Synovate employs over 5,700 staff in 118 cities across 52 countries. For more information on Synovate visit www.synovate.com.