Time to ask Stephen Harper some questions!

Here’s your chance Canada. In less than one hour you will have the opportunity to use YouTube to submit a question directly to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The Prime Minister’s response to the Speech from the Throne will be broadcasted live onto YouTube at approx. 11am on Thursday, March 11th. From March 11th until Sunday March 14th, you will have the opportunity to submit questions (text or video) on YouTube and also vote on which questions should be asked directly to the Prime Minister in a live interview on Tuesday, March 16th conducted by Google CFO Patrick Pichette, which will also be posted to YouTube. I’ll likely be posting one about the need for open data unless someone beats me to it.

Here’s a link to the YouTube channel where you can submit and also vote on questions for Prime Minister Harper. His speech and interview will also be streamed on this channel:
http://www.youtube.com/talkcanada

And also here is a link to a YouTube blog with more info about the initiative:
http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/

Special thanks to Geordie Hyland for the heads up.

Social Media Experts, Gurus, Consultants & Strategists

Here’s my take on the brief history of demand for social media expertise:

• Back in late 2007, proactive organizations started frantically searching for someone to help them with all this social media “stuff”. They searched for the first thing that came to their mind, “social media expert“. “Surely, there must be an expert out there” , they though.
• Then in early 2008, the real rush came in as the field became more legitimate and the term “social media consultant” emerged.
• Mid-2009 saw a sharp rise in search for the term “social media guru” as certain powerful personal brands emerged that apparently knew everything at an almost enlightening level.
• Late 2009 witnessed a demand in search for “social media strategist” , as certain people realized that the preceding three terms were often being used (with a few exceptions) by hobbyists capitalizing on this trend.

Modern computer proficiency training for non-techie marketers & communicators

A few weeks ago our organization (CEPSM) sent out an e-newsletter to our database gauging the level of interest for a new workshop we are thinking of offering. We’ve received some pretty positive initial feedback so I figured I’d test this out a bit further with you, my blog readers ( if you don’t already subscribe to the CEPSM newsletter that is).

Here’s the scoop: