Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre : Design for the Greater Good


Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario

This is a site design and execution project that FRANK had the opportunity to submit a proposal and pitch on but despite being shortlisted to the semi-finals, failed to succeed in winning the project. We did our best, but were out bested by another firm.

You can't win them all, but you can learn from the successes of others.

 I like to follow up on these things to see how the client faired in the end. Many times I see the results and say "hey, we could have done better than that!", sometimes we agree that the client made a good call and got good value for the money, even if they decided not to spend it with us.

The Sunnybrook site is one such example: 

Taking a good look at this site will provide you a role model for how social ventures and non profits should be representiung themselves online. Newsy and ephemeral, it appears as though there is a lot of exciting things going on at Sunnybrook. They employed a crisp, clean and modern design sensibility; the navigation is good (easy to find what you are looking for, easy to get around); and the site is overall very positive, friendly and upbeat.

They made an impressive use of video, photographic imagery and a host of social media optimization tools. I would have to say that the people who designed and built this site did a very good job of giving Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre an excellent online presence and a solid basis for a vibrant and engaging community platform. 



While they likely had a pretty substantial budget for this, a smaller, non profit agency could achieve greatness and employ the best parts of something like this for not a lot of money, if you knew people in the right places...



If you are a non profit organization looking to spruce up your presence online, leverage the power of social media to raise awareness and build healthy and engaging community, you may want to consider connecting with us here at FRANK. We would be happy to help you find the language to convince the board, a business case to back it up and provide you the tools to push your cause forward in 2010.

Happy Holidays.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

beta testing the feedburner

The pace of change is rapid and all consuming. In order to be out there on the edge of things, you have to be willing to try and test new things all of the time, and quickly sift through and differentiate between the stars and the dogs.

Today has been a whirlwind as I sample and review some of tomorrow's brightest and most promising technologies. I am interested in seeing if all this works as it should. Please e-mail me back with your comments and feedback.

If you know of anything new and exciting that you want to share, please feel free to drop me a line. If you have any questions about how some of the innovative new social media tools and technologies can help you round out your overall marketing mix, then send us an e-mail, we would be pleased only too pleased to share our experiences and insights with you.

Cheers!

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Never underestimate the social media value of the little black dress



The MTO-W Pageant 2010, originally uploaded by roberrific.

This is a photo from the Miss Teen Ontario - World (MTC-W) pageant, which is a popular event and a prelude to The Search for Miss Teen Canada - World in downtown Toronto in July 2010.

While the idea of the beauty pageant is not new, and has often been dismissed as a thing of the past, in its revitalized format it is as popular as ever in certain circles.

And now, through innovative use of Social Media, the beauty pageant is alive and well and thriving thanks to the MTC-W Contestant Blog Army. In the dog eat dog war of beauty pageantry, it takes an army to come out on top.

In an attempt to take the pageant to the next level, the MTC-W organizers hired FRANK to come up with ways to tap into the power of social media to scan the nation for the country's brightest MTC-W hopefuls and to share the stories, the joys, the triumphs, the egos and the agonies with all who might care.

Our electronic community shares the adventure of the little girl from Smalltown, Alberta being discovered by MTC-W, flown in to Toronto and competing for fame and glory in pictures, video and stories. The genius of FRANK's innovative social media strategy lies in the boost in Page rank (search engine ranking popularity) generated by the competitive energy of fifty-four bright, young and beautiful bloggers. Essentially, our MTC-W blog army shares the experience better than the competition’s websites could ever hope to accomplish on their own. We have provided a hard working digital venue for photo, video and story telling—100 percent original content that you could never buy and the thirst for which never runs dry.

The 2009 Miss Teen Canada-World pageant came out on top of all others in Canada because of an intricate social media network of OnSugar blogs, photos and videos posted by the reigning beauty Queen, plus the 54 contestants in the pageant. In just ten days we signed up over 20,000 members to our VIP database and had over 10,000 votes cast in just a few days for the people's choice awards.

Its not all about swimsuits and glamorous dresses. What good would all of this be without some kind of social responsibility thrown in for good measure. the Miss Teen Canada-World pageant is an excellent and model opportunity for pursuing commerce in aid of social purpose. In 2009 the organizers set a goal to raise $10,000 for Free the Children, an international charity that empowers children in North America to take action to improve the lives of fellow children overseas. Through our efforts in 2009, the contestants collectively raised over $49,000. Wow. Now that is something to be excited about.

Siera Bearchell, the reigning Miss Teen Canada-World is doing an outstanding job representing her title, getting out there and raising awareness for some excellent causes. In this me to we video, Siera speaks out on behalf of Me to We Style to promote the Challenge Your Style Competition—an effort to mobilize youth to help raise awareness and funds for causes of their own choosing. You Go Girl!

The moral of this story?

Never underestimate the power of social media and the little black dress.

We are back at it for 2010, with a whole array of innovative ideas and executions that we expect will deliver a breakthrough performance for the MTC-W pageant in the coming year.

Do you have any stories you can share with us about how Social Media changed the landscape? Feel free to chime in here, share your victories and your defeats. Who knows, you just might help someone else make a difference in the lives of others less fortunate than we are.

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Social Media is the new black

In the course of a day, someone inevitably calls or e-mails to cancel a meeting, someone else misses a phone call, fails to deliver something on time, a project gets delayed and you find yourself waiting...

Aaarggghhh!

It happens. Look at the upside. You just scored some free time.

You can do what you want with it, but in this day and age of "too many things on your to do list and not enough time in a day", this time is valuable and you should think twice before squandering it away frivolously. We all know it is way too easy to sit back in your chair, play around on YouTube, poke your friends on Facebook and at the end of the day accomplish nothing and later feel bad about it.

It’s amazing what we do when the half hour seems free or extra. Instead of letting it slip through your fingers, consider having a pre-prepared list of things you could do instead that might enhance the quality of your life, improve your business relationships and maybe even change the world. You'll thank yourself.

Consider making a top ten list of your own, including one or more of the following tasks:

• Write one or two recommendations on Linked-In for people in your network that you have worked with or for and can vouch for with integrity. Maybe they'll even return the favour.

• Read and comment on five blog posts that are relevant to your area of expertise (especially if they’re up-and-coming bloggers vs the established pros—they need all of the community support they can get and they just might pass along the favour somewhere down the road).

• Go search Twitter, follow up on a few topics you’re interested in, comment on a few posts and engage others in meaningful conversation. Share links to relevant photos, video or blogs that expand on the ideas you are discussing. Get engaged with your community. Be careful not to blow your own horn too much. People will tune you out and all of your efforts will be for naught.

• Go to Technorati.com, Delicio.us, Digg or Stumbleupon and discover some new blogs in a category that matters to you. Save and share bookmarks with your friends and colleagues.

• Seek out and read a few good blog posts from places you have not been before. Share them on Twitter and Facebook, too.

• Think forward. Come up with a list of topics to come up with in coming weeks so you can have time to research and marinate on them over the next little while before you sit down to write about them.

• Reply to some of the oldest emails in your inbox. You may never get to them otherwise.

• Investigate new social media tools or technologies that just might or might not impact you in life and your work. Staying ahead of the curve will be easier if you are out there on the front lines as much as possible. Keep an eye out for the thought leaders. Pay attention to the successes and the failures. What is the value of a disastrous mistake if we do not learn something from it?

• Share one thing you know about innovative uses of social media with someone you care about. You never know when you might spark a revolution of your own or trigger a new idea in somebody else's brain.

• Think about something you would like to do if you had the time and the means to spread joy and make a difference in the world. There are many amazing organizations and communities online that can help you do one little thing that can change the world. Start here at global giving.

You probably have a few ideas of your own for what to do with a half hour. Feel free to post a comment on this blog or e-mail me and let me know if you can think of anything to add to this list.

To learn about some innovative ways that we use social media in Toronto to connect people, build online communities, raise awareness of noteworthy causes and make more effective use of people's time, come visit us at FRANK.

GRGB5YCQRDTV