Do you know what a vanity URL is?  The person running the social media campaign for a candidate didn't in my riding. 

Have you heard of a facebook fanpage?  The same person who did not know what a vanity URL also decided against the advice of experts to use a profile instead of a fan page.  The excuse I got was people were not liking the fanpage which is what someone who clueless says.  A smart person understands that you have to train people on how they can support you other than a cashbook. 

Have you ever had a politician respond to user comments in youtube, facebook or blogs?  A different candidate in my riding started doing videos on youtube.  I asked more than one question and not once did that candidate or anyone working for him bother to answer my question.  Sincerity in social media is judged by how much effort you make in the comments.  In terms of views on youtube, the number of comments you get correlates to the number of views. 

www. :  the "www." is four extra steps not needed by any browser.  When I see a campaign poster with www. I think out of touch. 

Election posters:  Why do you think movie posters link to a facebook fan page now? Why do politicians link to websites?  The answer is because those who do social media in hollywood know what they are doing.  They understand that for 99% of businesses online the facebook vanity URL is the most important online. 

geo:  Geo based apps are huge right now in the tech industry.  If you have to google foursquare, facebook places and gowalla you should not be running a social media campaign.  During an election politicians are all over the place.  Checkins would be a natural evolution to the whole election process.

qr-codes:  On each campaign poster you could put a little qr-code or at each event which would then pull up a mobile app allowing the user to checkin or get more information on a candidate.  Meaning I could be walking home.  I see a poster for some candidate in my riding who I don't know about.  I take a snap of the qr-code and bam I on a mobile app telling me everything I need to know about the candidates. 

twitter:  If those you follow is greater than those who follow you on twitter, you are considered spam.  

time:  everything in terms of social media should of been prepped and standardized long before elections.  There should be both a short term goal relating to the election and then the long term goal of getting people to like, follow or sub because that is how you win people over time.  Meaning if I am new to a riding and likely will lose then my goal should be to get a large following in social media to help with the next election. 

volunteers:  Why would you let an idiot handle the most important aspect of your campaign going forward?  Each party should hire one individual who will build each MP or potential MP a social cobweb and train them how to use it.  The cool thing about social media is it really does not have to take up a lot of time.  You could run a blog with an email once a week.  You could power your facebook fanpage with just pictures.

That said you can't really be too hard on politicians for not understanding what most businesses don't understand.  How long did it take the Edmonton sun to include twitter links in its paper?  Even then I have to laugh because who actually reads twitter streams?  I still think every single reporter should have a facebook fanpage.  The reason being is when you like a newspaper you end up getting way too many updates about stuff you don't care about.  If reporters were to have a facebook fanpage it would allow me to like them and only get the stories I want.

Not that it matters because there is nobody to vote for.  None of the leaders inspire anything in me.  That is what all the election ads are telling me.  All I hear is reasons to not vote for the other person and I am tired of people trying to scare me into voting for them.   If you have to use fear how good can your policies be?  They all use fear based marketing.  

Sorry for the long email.  I suppose you hit a nerve. 

Cheers,

Ivan

PS:  When you have a chance take a look at how many candidates put christian or catholic down as religion.  Then look at how quick those same people are to jejoice in the flaws of others even though that directly contradicts "don't point out the spec in your brother's eye when you have a board in your own."  I am not religious and think most religious people are brainwashed idiots who are afraid to think for themselves.  I just find it amusing. 

Cheers,

Ivan

Shaun,

Imagine what type of person would end up googling for a website on hemp.  Say they have some grand idea to make your own hand lotion out of hemp.  http://benicetocats.com/friction-burn (may look bad in IE.)  Lets call that person bubba.  Now bubba decided to click on the link to your website which made it to the first page of search results.  Kudos to you for doing that.  hemp oil bulk are the terms.  Sadly not everything in life has a good ending my friend. 

bubba was an excitable sort.  When he clicked on hempoilcan.com the sight of no favicon startled the poor man.  To some it is just a 16x16 pixel image, that takes maybe 5 minutes to add to your website and any idiot who can google, can learn to do it.  To bubba it was a way to quickly identify the desired tab within tabbed view which really is the most efficient way to browse online.  Sites without a favicon made bubba read which gave bubba the worst headaches you can imagine.  I know you did not mean to give bubba an instant migraine by forgetting to put a favicon on your site.  From a branding perspective the favicon gets seen more than the bigger logo.  Meaning it becomes the way people identify with your company.  You are busy so it likely just got missed while you were checking on the hemp growth. 

Nothing would make me happier than being able to end our email here.  Life is rarely so kind because when your website loaded there was this autoplay sound that interfered with bubba's bach.  What I am about to tell you might be hard to hear.  The lack of favicon and then the autoplay sound was too much for poor bubba.  the pencil was just sitting there.  Most people would just of turned down the sound.  bubba was not most people and instead jammed a pen into his ear and that was the end of bubba. 

How many people listen to music while they surf?  How do you feel when people screw with your music?  If google and facebook have a favicon so should you when it is so easy to do.  favicon.cc  Spam sites don't have favicons.  Anyone who uses the web a lot will likely think no favicon, no good. 

They call me Ivan :)

BTW bubba is not real... in this reality.

2.  Your facebook profile is for friends and family.  For people who are trying to show support you need a fan page.  Not a group, not a profile, a facebook fan page.  It gets archived in search and has all these really useful apps which allow you to really engage people. 

3.  When people follow me on twitter the first thing I check is your follow-follower plus minus.  If someone is following more people than following them, then I instantly dismiss them as spam.  You are -300 which is a bad number. 

4.  Almost every movie out there will include a facebook vanity on their movie posters, why aren't you? 

5.  qr-code:  If a person was walking by one of those big signs and wanted to get more information on you they would have to type in your URL.  With a qrcode I just take a picture of the code on your sign, it pulls up the mobile version of your website. 

6.  foursquare, gowalla and fb places:  When people come to hear you speak they could easily checkin via facebook or foursquare.  You could even add the option to the QR code where before it took you to the mobile site it asked users if they wanted to checkin via facebook or foursquare. 

7.  You should of picked Ken Dryden. 

They call me Ivan. 

The really cool thing about getting it on to sites like amazon.com is they have really good affiliate programs.  I could take an affiliate link from amazon which links to your product.  Run it through a bit.ly customize option and then say do a video on youtube.  Link to the product through that URL to Amazon where if anyone buys I get 4 to 6%.  You don't really do anything.  Of course you have to figure out how to get a US address so can sell on Amazon.com. 

They call me Ivan.. who am I.. I am ghost man.. bouncing around the web trying to stop people from making my web ugly.. which means you need you to get a favicon.. I have a saying.. no favicon, no good.  favicon.cc  It should look something like this.

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/yi/r/q9U99v3_saj.ico" />

There are some variations.  

<link href='http://www.blogger.com/favicon.ico' rel='icon' type='image/vnd.microsoft.icon'/>

google it.  if you can't figure it out find a place online where someone can help you.  It isn't rocket
science.  I am not trying to be a dick.  The idea with the web is you just have to be willing to fail and keep trying.

Yes I am crazy..

That said there are two things that make me pause about the ads.  The first being people with money to invest likely don't watch TV online cause the quality sucks.  The second being how many times do you have to see an ad before you start to hate it?  The reason I ask this question is because I must of seen the same ad set over and over and over and over again.  Sure it got the name dynamic.ca in my head.  At first it was a positive thought but after seeing the ads too much it turns negative fast because you start to hate having to see the same crap again.  See how the ads when from good to crap with too much exposure. 

No I don't blame the actual company but instead those who create the ad script to overlay on the videos.  It should know who I am using cookies and thus should never show me the same ads too many times.  Frankly it shows a complete lack of understanding of the web.  That shit might fly on TV but online you either bring it or you die a slow painful death in social media. 

Cheers....

Bobs your uncle...

Ivan

BTW thanks for your answers from before.  The one thing that has stopped me from using it for blogs is on blogger they have the ability to search and ad amazon products.  For doing things like reviews this is a really handy tool.   Still overall love what your doing. 

Cheers..

a fan

These all blogged.. I do this when I like a site.. been fun.. gebalish..

Cheers. 

Ivan