Social Media Marketing moved to alphonseha.com

Social Media Marketing

All my Social Media Marketing discussions are now moved to my new website.

Thank you Blogger but it is time I spread my own wings!

Please join http://alphonseha.com for more SEO and Social Media Marketing related discussions.

2008-07-28

My wordle

As of today, July 28th, 2008, this is the wordle of my blog:

I personally love the concept of it because although 90% of communication isn't based on words, I believe that being precise on words is very important. Especially when speaking about metaphors, frames and context because specific words trigger certain frames, thus words ARE important!

Moving Story

Finding the Flexibility to Survive

Although the original idea of my blog was to post everything I find it interesting, this blog post is a little different from the topics I usually write about. My father sent me this story via e-mail. It is quite moving.
When shopping at the grocery store became too expensive, Brighton Earley and her mother started getting their food at the local Chevron, where the cashier gave them discounts on leftover produce.
The author (I am unsure if the author of the article is also the storyteller), learned to be humble and to essentially "let go". Anybody who have known me pretty well know that I have recently understood how to be dedicated to something without being attached to the outcome. I still have a hard time abiding by that concept, however I have been life changing to a degree for me and I find that this article is a great reflexion of this mentality.
I remind myself that grocery shopping at a gas station is just a twist on the normal kind of grocery shopping. I remind myself that we won't always have to shop at Chevron — that just because at this point in my life I am struggling does not mean that I will always struggle.
She named this mentality "flexibility". I don't believe that is the right word but it doesn't matter. The outcome is that it gives hope and provides a more positive outlook, especially in tough situations. I believe hard times are only a matter of perception and by keeping the right attitude, a positive attitude, everything does get better.

2008-07-16

How to Play Tetris Theme with Empty Bottles

I have been very busy lately with a big project at work so here is a little something to just keep the blog alive. enjoy!

How To Play The Tetris Theme On Bottles

2008-07-11

Sales 2.0

What People Aren't Saying About Social Media

Great article by Jennifer Horowitz

Social media helps you connect and establish trust. Any one social media activity may not lead directly to
a sale in any given moment, but it helps you establish a presence online; and in your prospects mind. If you
get yourself out there and share information, you will improve your following and have a base of people that
trust you that you can market to.


I think the more the Web 2.0 develops the more selling will be about conversations. Rather than "pitching" to the public, effective sales and marketing will be the ones who take the time to establish a connection and that will be done via conversations. Isn't it the basics of sales anyway?

2008-07-10

How many Facebook Profiles does it take to...

The professional vs personal profile on the Internet is becoming quite popular. I think it is logical that with the expansion of the Internet, there are more ways one can be portrayed. Accordingly, in life (offline), our image is simply how we are portrayed as well. Thus, it is only a matter of time for offline and online personal image to clash.

I have a secret. Yes, I have two Facebook profiles. I did not want to make this public but I think this is a great opportunity for me to explain. I have my private profile (that I will not disclose) and I have my public profile: Alphonse Hà.

My comments on LinkedIn Evangelist Mario Sundar's blog: Marketing Nirvana regarding the issue of having 2 online social networking personas vs just one promted this blog.

Here are my comments to his post (I must admit that I am quite happy to see that he created a new post to draw more attention to my comments!):
I have just graduated from college and I have been on Facebook for over 2 years now. When I was in college it didn’t really matter to me what pictures were tagged of me. However, now that I have a job in Marketing in a small placement Agency, I had to create another Facebook profile because I refused to use my personal Facebook profile for testing different recruiting methods on Facebook. This new profile is great because it allowed me to add over 100 people I knew (and counting) that I did not want on my personal profile because they are acquaintances and I did not want their updates to trump the updates of my friends I wanted to know about. However, having an empty profile (no tagged pictures or any other activity besides adding friends) is not beneficial to the recruiting I want to do. So I ended up having to spend time to develop that profile as well and I have to say that is quite time consuming.

Moreover, I am now in a silly dilemna, there are a category of people that I know that I don’t know if I want them on my professional profile or on my personal profile and I must admit that it is quite a waste of brain space. I think that Mark’s idea of having one social networking website that allows different faces would be a great idea and I also agree that whatever is on the Internet stays on the Internet however the Internet is so large that certain things tends to get lost and that could be a good thing.

The reason I created two profiles was mainly for work, I am testing how to recruit on Facebook (I will get into that some other time) and since social networks such as Facebook are based on transparency, having an empty profiles with no wall posts, no pictures and no friends (basically no activity) will not be beneficial to what I want to accomplish. So with time I saw that this profile was great because it allowed me to add a bunch of acquaintances that I did not want on my private profile because I did not want their news in my news feed to take over the news of the people I really want to know, the ones who are close to me. However, the professional or public profile allowed me to reconnect with a lot of people from high school or to keep in touch with classmates from university. We all just graduated or on the verge to graduate thus it is nice to know what they are doing and it is also great for networking.

All this to say that basically, I strongly believe now that having two profiles is nothing to hide. Just like I have a public life and a private life. What I do in my private life is none of your business unless I decide to divulge it to you and if you are unhappy about that then that is not my problem. I have the right to decide who I allow in my private life just as much as you do.

PS: If it bothers you so much that somebody does not allow you in their private life, connect with them. If it doesn't click then it just doesn't click!

2008-07-09

Breakin' Lynx ... Leaked???



In my research in SEO, I used myself as an guinea pig and I found something quite interesting yesterday that prompted a mix of emotions. I was shocked, surprised, please, intrigued and a little displeased (I am aware that I just listed pleased and displeased).

Let me explain.

I typed "Alphonse Ha" in google.ca (French) and what did I discover? My name and my biggest video project to date: Breakin' Lynx, A documentary of B-boying or Breaking (or commercially known as Breakdancing) in Montreal through B-Girl Lynx, was listed on a MySpace page of Gros Méchants Films as his film's interests.

I sent him a Myspace message yesterday and, of course, added him to my MySpace friends (hey! He's like my first unknown fan!). I have not heard from him yet but am very curious to know how the hell did he get his hands on my video.

I am glad that the video is nowhere to be seen on the web yet (I couldn't find it). I wanted to finish working on the sound, create a mini trailer and have a "web premier" date for the video's official launch and hopefully submit it to festivals as well.

"Alphonse Ha" SEO success!

Today is a great day! After typing my "Alphonse Ha" into google.ca, the top for results are to my Facebook Profile, my LinkedIn Profile, my Blog's July archive, and my post about Jaiku. I have 7 results in the first result page of Google after working on my SEO experiment for a week. If you noticed, I have not started blogging consistently before my July 2nd post. It is a shame that I don't remember when I started to inter link my profiles for SEO. I wonder if there is a history of my profile changes in blogspot?

In order to celebrate, I will not post my most popular video on the internet (who appears twice on the first google results page):

a.d.i.d.a.s.: all day i dream about shoes



Disclaimer: I am not aware that this post will contribute to my SEO success /sarcasm

2008-07-08

Apple Supports the small Canadians (sorta)



Spat With Rogers Leaves Canadian Apple Stores Without iPhones

I Am VERY glad to hear this. I am happy to see that consumers can make a difference. I have been very angry at the mobile oligopoly in Canada. Ever since Fido was bought, experts were right, cell phone services have been costing Canadians more. City Fido was an amazing plan and I saw that as the light at the end of the tunnel. However, since Rogers bought Fido, what happened? City Fido was changed to a horrible plan that I doubt many customers purchased (I should actually look into if it is still available, I wouldn't be surprised if it was removed).

I am a supporter of the consumers' voice and I hope to see more outcry so that cell phone plans drop. I was glad to see Koodo enter the market and I hope there will be more. Perhaps we should make a petition for Apple to make a CDMA version of the iPhone so that Bell, Koodo, Virgin and Telus can offer the iPhone as well. I know I want it!!!

2008-07-07

Exposed: Digital camera blonde who became Facebook phenomenon is an X-rated model

Viral Facebook Marketing
Viral Facebook Marketing
This is hilarious, definitely a must read. A porn web site developped a very clever way to gain members.
The porn site has admitted that it was all a "clever viral marketing campaign".
The Facebook plea read: "We are trying to track down the lovely lass in these photos so she can be reunited with her lost digital camera. She certainly knows how to use it!

However, the funniest things about this story are the responses from the men around the world responding to the plea/buying into the campaign:
Men up and down the country posted messages of support.
Yu-San Chan, from Birmingham, wrote: "This is probably the most wanted woman in the country right now."

And Martin Farrell, from London, said: "I thought I saw her today in Chiswick but it was a false alarm, the hunt continues."

Another Londoner, Darren Gormley, commented: "Poor girl, I hate losing things. Not surprising she lost it though - no pockets!"

but even more hilarious are the response from the readers of the post:
They certainly are getting more sneaky. You can tell from the poses though that she's a professional and not some amateur. We all just have to beware the little ploys they keep throwing at the public.

- Zach, Los Lunas, USA, 05/9/2007 19:09

Come on now, was this guy born yesterday? There are plenty of non professional girls who pose that way. With the price drops of digital cameras and all the websites where you can post your pictures online such as Facebook, Flickr, Myspace, Hi5, Hotornot, Ratemybody ect. People, girls specifically, learn how to pose quite quickly. Give a girl who likes attention a camera and a hotornot.com account and see how quickly she learns to pose!

Here is a photo gallery for your eye's pleasure:

Wendy's photogallery
(Safe for work pictures)

Law of attraction

Very inspiring article from Secrets of the Job Hunt:

How to Attract Your Dream Job
by Laura Whitelaw of www.bestchoice4resumes.com

Your next step is to take inspired action. So, if you get a feeling that you should connect with an old friend that you haven't spoken to in a while - follow that instinct. You never know where a phone call might lead. You might decide one day to take a different route to work and pass a company that you were not aware of and find out that they have an opening there. The point is to be open to the possibilities of where this dream job might come from while still keeping up with your traditional job search methods.

2008-07-04

Why do you like Facebook?


Just a quick quote:
Facebook users love to be informed about where their friends are and what they’re up to
Isn't that the truth? A lot of people around me are saying they do not buy into the hype of Facebook but the reason why it is so popular is because it helps us keep updates about our friends' life.

On the other hand, you have people who just adds everybody and everybody's grandmother and gets upset that you don't accept their friend request. I don't want to know about your life just as much as you don't really want to know about mine!

I will admit that having 98 friend requests is flattering but I know as much as the next Joe that it is almost meaningless.

I think I am going to go delete some facebook friends now...
:P

And then there was... Jaiku!


So in my hunt for social media slash web2.0 slash social networks slash interesting stuff, I stumbled on something that sounds like the 872th pokemon (how many are there now by the way?): Jaiku. I haven't had time to take a look at it yet but it seems like a Twitter but not as simplified. I'm sure it is a play on words of "Haiku"... whatever.

It uses mobile technology, sms or smart phones capabilities and it can also be used via websites... I wonder what is more popular... Twitter or Jaiku. I think Jaiku is older.

Looks interesting...
Jaiku: Your Conversation

More about Dodgeball and Twitter


South by Southwest: Twitter vs Dodgeball
A nice discussion about Dodgeball and Twitter. I wish Dodgeball was in Canada... would be fun.



I like this quote from Twitter, it sums perfectly why Twitter is so popular.
My family uses twitter to stay abreast of what is going on… we are spread out over the country. My MOM (79) twitters daily to the rest of the family. It was easy for her to do as opposed to email or joining another social service. She can see what her grandchildren are doing (college exams, soccer practice, homework help) I can have more insight to her day to day (she plays a lot of bridge). In a small way it makes us feel more involved with each other. From a business model view I would pay keep it private and to keep it simple. So maybe that is where they could go. and maybe not.

As for these sms services I think that they one use could be community safety. I signed up about ten people on my block as part of a safety program for getting walked from their car late at night (live in the city)… Also there could be text 311 (non emergency requests) …

Scam? Or is he just an /$%?

So I have a bone to pick...

This dude created a website to show how to use SEO effectively. He created a project named: Social Dominator to show how to use SEO effectively within days so that you can have huge traffic on your web site.

My problem is that he looked like he was genuinely going to show what he had up his sleeves and kept telling people to subscribe to his website/blog. I should of seen it coming when he was telling people to subscribe to his site ten times in 2 minutes. I subscribed and did not received any info. I e-mailed him and did not get a response and his blog hasn't been updated since May 29th, over two months. So I figured, perhaps he used to send the information out. Once I subscribed, why can't he just send the information again? /$%?&*...

I am aware that linking him will make his SEO better but whatever. Screw him.

2008-07-02

University work with PR firm to create a Facebook Application

Facebook Application for College Recruiting
“It is a nice, sort of low-risk, reasonably low-cost ... way to reach out to those audiences,” said Jim Sciancalepore, Media Logic’s senior creative director.

Good read, the University worked with a PR firm to create a Facebook application to create a viral effect within Facebook rather than going through the Advertising route which does not evoke a lot of trust in the target audience.

It is kind of cool but also frustrating in many ways to see all my ideas have been done in one way or another. I guess the good news is that as long as they are not mainstream, I can still execute my ideas.