Fake News is part of the New Fourth Estate: The Queen is Dead, Donald Trump takes Super Pills, and Pizzagate is Real

Like many Canadians, I woke up this morning, poured a coffee, and checked my phone for news. The first article, claimed a fake news story announced that Queen Elizabeth II had died. The story was published, distributed, discredited, and damage control counter stories published. Those stories are distributed throughout the Internet, and the main stream media picked up on the “buzz” and began playing...

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Like You Said Rick Mercer

Thank you Rick Mercer for bringing light to something close to my heart.  I too remember when the Internet "happened", and the idea of a virtual debate was first suggested.  I was part of it, helping to make it happen. Online comments were never suppose to be this way. I remember long discussions with my fellow web youngsters about the possibilities associated with the concept of the virtual debate.  Greater cooperation, knowledge sharing, education reform and on and...

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Is posting a link always the best way to go?

Content marketers have a well established technique to drive traffic. Publish a social network posting containing a link to further content, and hope the viewer finds the opening paragraph interesting enough to select the link. But it doesn’t work all the time. Not even close. And it’s only going to get worse. The proliferation of content writers and marketers has created a diluted stream of...

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Over-the-Virtual-Counter - The New Business Engagement Model

I have worked the counter at restaurants, retail shops, trade shows, and even an arcade back in the day when pinball was all the rage. And I can tell you from experience there is no better way to engage with your contacts, and cultivate rewarding relationships, than having that face to face "over-the-counter" discussion. Because they are expecting it. Over-the-counter is such an established engagement...

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Influence Marketing Strategies - The do's and don'ts

An old concept is being re-invented by the modern on-line community. Influence marketing has arguably been around since the birth of society, when someone first had something to sell. We called it "Word of mouth". Today, social networks make word of mouth far more reaching, faster, and if you're smart about it, the most effective influence marketing strategy ever witnessed. The key is to be smart...

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And the Scams Just Keep on Coming

One of the things you get a lot of when you're a freelancer, and you've been working the social media markets and forums, are proposals for partnership and revenue earning. Yesterday I received a "Make Money From Home" offer that presented me with the pitch, "All you have to do is Like our postings". Followed by an outrageous claim of making up to $1000 per day. This of course is just a complete...

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When is a Poll not really a Poll? When just asking, alters the results!

I worked in politics for a few years. As part of that effort I designed and managed the on-line portion of a few provincial election campaigns in Ontario. |In each campaign I was involved in, "the Team" would pay particular attention to the ongoing polls. And each time, after the election was complete, the result didn't reflect the ongoing polling at all. Why? It's likely because the polling methods...

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