Archive for the 'Events' Category

This morning I attended a monthly breakfast meeting of professionals using social media to market their product, service, or ideas in Waterloo Region. This month’s topic was a debate on the role of Return on Investment (ROI) in social media decisions. Arguing the position that every business needs to consider ROI in every marketing decision was Chris Eh Young, a business consultant and strategist, and arguing that a unicorn dies every time we talk about ROI in social media, and that there are other equally important benefits, was Alan Quarry, CEO of Quarry Integrated Communications.

Both sides made excellent points, and indeed were not far apart in their positions. The debate seemed more like fun than anything else. But there were some differences. Chris argued that social media use must start and end with analytics, meaning that you know your baseline before you run a campaign, you monitor the clicks, and the transfer of clicks to an increase in sales. You must figure in the time spent by yourself or employees as a value and be looking for a return on that value. Alan, on the other hand, sees value in increased exposure and an increased awareness by the public/market of your company and/or product. Marketing is dead, says he. Nonsense, says Chris. Social media builds on traditional marketing.

One extremely valuable point that Chris raised was about knowing who your customers are and not straying too far from your base. Chasing after smaller markets and neglecting your base will only lead to trouble. He also said that if your customer demographic is not using social media, it’s not smart to try and reach them that way. Lots to think about.

For his part, Alan Quarry believes the roles have changed. No longer is there a place for top-down marketing in which a company makes a product and sells it to the consumer without including the consumer in that experience. By which he means more than ever the consumer is a participant in the process, a partner, a member of the team. Involving your customers and forging relationships with them on social media platforms is crucial to success in today’s world, he says. Equally important is internal branding, team-building within companies rather than a traditional hierarchical approach.

Questions raised over breakfast and on Twitter centred around social media use for organizations that don’t necessarily sell a product, such as not-for-profits, municipal services, charities, and so on. How can we apply these tenets to our audiences? One answer is that you need to know your audience, of course, and to clearly articulate your goals. And next month’s Social Media Breakfast will focus on not-for-profit organizations and expand on their particular issues. Watch their website for details.

As a member of the academic community and also engaged in selling a product, we as an academic publisher also need to think about who our core audience is and use our time appropriately. As more and more academics move to a social media platform and use twitter, blogs, and personal pages to disseminate research to their audience, we need to be in that space as well. The trick of course is to balance that with tried and true methods of reaching people in ways they have come to expect. We thank the organizers and speakers this morning for providing some tools to explore these channels further.

Team Unicorn (Alan Quarry) won the debate, by the way, but it was a narrow victory. There was certainly value on both sides of the floor.

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Last night I attended the first “meetup” of people organizing or interested in the 140 Character Conference taking place in Kitchener on September 15, 2011. What is that, you ask? Well, it’s the first Canadian conference based on the 140conf held recently in New York. The 140 Character Conference explores the state of NOW, how the real-time internet is making an impact on how we communicate and how we do business.

The first Canadian conference will be held at The Tannery in Kitchener, a repurposed heritage building that now houses Google, Desire@Learn, Communitech, and numerous smaller start-ups in the region. It’s a happening place and a fitting place to hold this ground-breaking event. There is a Call for Speakers out now, and with 10-minute rule on talks it looks to be a day that moves as fast as your Twitter feed.

Not convinced yet? Follow the #140confON hashtag on Twitter and keep up to date on speakers and meetups as they happen. Me, I’ve got my ticket already and am looking forward to showing off what Waterloo Region is up to.

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Paul Heinbecker

Cupcakes!

Terry Copp

Wilfrid Laurier University is celebrating its 100th year in 2011, and many celebrations with the Laurier100 theme are happening around campus. Last week, WLU Press and the Laurier Bookstore teamed up to celebrate Laurier authors, whether faculty, staff, alumni or otherwise connected to our institution.

In the morning we featured two members of the faculty, Thomas O. Hueglin, author of numeral scholarly books on political science and recent author of We All Giggled, a memoir about his family roots in Germany; and Tanis MacDonald, author of four books of poetry, including her latest, Rue the Day. The readings were interesting and enjoyed by all who attended.

In the afternoon we featured two fiction authors, Andrew Kauman, Laurier alumnus, who read from The Waterproof Bible and his latest, The Tiny Wife, and Roy MacSkimming, author of Laurier in Love.

And lastly, in the evening we focused on politics and history. Paul Heinbecker, Director of the Laurier Centre for Global Relations, talked about his latest book on Canadian foreign policy, Getting Back in the Game, and Terry Copp, Director of the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies, read from Cinderella Army, his latest book about Canadian troops in the Second World War, and showed clips from the upcoming Battlefield Guide on the First World War.

It was a fantastic day. Thanks to all who came out and enjoyed our Purple and Gold cupcakes and helped to celebrate the 100th anniversary of this great university. Be sure to check out the centennial website for more celebrations throughout the year.

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One recent release and a couple of books from earlier in the year stand out to me as gift ideas for this Christmas. Of course, if you have an academic on your list, many of our books would fit the bill. Please look through our catalogue for more ideas.

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The topic at the next Waterloo Region Social Media Breakfast (Nov. 23 at the Kitchener Market) is community. The panelists are all local community builders and each brings a unique perspective to the idea. This is the third breakfast I will attend, and although I enjoyed the first two, I haven’t yet met as many people as I’d like to. After the presentation I think I need to be forced into a personal meet and greet (perhaps some small-group mingling) or I may forever flee to the safety of my computer. So that’s something for the organizers to think about: enforced community.

All this talk about community got me thinking about Edna Staebler, the author and subject of a few of our books. A well-known writer from Kitchener-Waterloo, Edna certainly understood about community. Everyone who ever met her became her friend and many became regular visitors at her (later) home on Sunfish lake. When she was preparing to write the famous Food That Really Schmecks cookbook, she moved in with a Mennonite family so that she could absorb their culture and become part of the community. Those relationships endured for the rest of her life. The cookbook is filled with stories of family and friends and almost every recipe talks about how she first experienced the food, and who she was with.

A few years ago, when WLU Press was publishing Edna’s diaries, she granted us the rights to the first cookbook, which had long been out of print, with the stipulation that it would always be “in print.” Although it sold thousands and thousands the first time around in the late 1960s and ’70s, we’ve had great success with this edition, mainly because the next generation wants their own copy, not having been able to pry it away from their mothers’ kitchens.

I can’t help thinking that if Edna was alive today she’d have over a thousand friends on Facebook and as many followers on Twitter, and she’d faithfully follow back. In that spirit, WLU Press will donate two copies of Food That Really Schmecks at the next Social Media Breakfast for the door prizes. If you’re in Waterloo Region and you haven’t already registered, perhaps you should.

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