StyleLabs - Calgary Marketing | Calgary Focus Groups | Calgary SEO | Calgary Web Design |

COMING NEXT FRIDAY: How gamification can supercharge an online community.

2012-05-05T00:00:00-06:00

Check back next Friday.

WestJet

2011-01-14T00:00:00-07:00

This one I'm especially proud of.

West Jet hired our organization to design and facilitate usability groups to determine how customers would feel about the launch of their new site. Our responsibilities were:

1. Constructing a discussion guide.

2. Designing use cases for usability, advertisements, esthetics, calls to actions, etc.

3. Ad testing

Ideally, usability testing should be done in 1 on 1 (IDI format). In such cases, you're able to facilitate the use of eye trackers, timers, screen cameras, etc. to quantify error rates, completion times, etc. However in this particular instance, we were mandated to extrapolate data in a group setting (n=12 for 8-10 * 2 groups). As such, we developed a hybrid methodology that involved respondents performing an exercise, filling out an electronic form and finishing the component with qualitative discussion. It was important to us that respondents completed the individual component first so that feedback was provided with little to no influence. In the end, we received positive feedback from our clients and have been able to replicate this methodology is several usability and new product testing scenarios. Thanks West Jet in your confidence in us and for the incredible working experience. We look forward to working with you again soon!

Almin Kassamali is the Chief Imagination Officer of StyleLabs Marketing Group. StyleLabs offers full service business and marketing solutions for entrepreneurs, musicians, athletes and small/medium business. http://www.stylelabs.ca

SEO Is BULL$H*T

2010-12-10T00:00:00-07:00

SEO is defined in Wikipedia as:

...the process of improving the visibility of a website or a webpage in search engines via the "natural: or un-paid search results.

An entire industry has been built around this concept. Organizations charge hundreds of dollars promising top spot on Google, Yahoo, etc. Interestingly, people like you, fork out hundreds of dollars, convinced by the mirage of “back-linking” and “tags”.

Our approach is a little different. There is definitely a science behind optimizing your site. However, the technical side accounts for 20, maybe 30 percent of what is required to be relevant online. We believe that there is an intricate formula that must be followed in order to attain sustainable, high ranking relevance online.

This means:

Write/Podcast/Blog/Vlog Outstanding Content. Stuff that’s useful to people.
Comment on other people’s posts, forums, blogs with useful feedback and reference your site.
Update your website regularily.
Establish accounts on the Top 39 Social Media sites.
Social Bookmarking!!
Build an interactive community through newsletters, forums, contests and feedback mechanisms (comment/suggestion boxes). Community = Future Clients & Referrals. Bottom line.
Exchange links with other Google friendly sites.
Connect it all. The website, the social media accounts, the blogs, etc.
Ensure compliance with the sitemap protocol.
UNDERSTAND; fancy links, tags and code is not going to magically bring people to your site. Your ability to communicate your business and passion in useable format, applicable to your audience will.

When you ask us to optimize your site, we develop a cohesive roadmap of the aforementioned to get you to your customer and keep you on their radar.

Sticky Blogs

2011-09-25T00:00:00-06:00

Hope everyone had a great week! Last week was fantastic for us! Had some incredible meetings in Edmonton, signed some exciting deals and have several opportunities lined up!

I’ve written today’s article in my head so many times. So many people DECIDE, that becoming 2.0 friendly means writing 3000 word blogs and assume that Google will magically send traffic their way. Get real.

The reality of it is, nobody really cares about the uncut tour of your store (insert motion sickness here), your six page essay on quilting, or anything else you’re going to write with a stoic, vanilla tone. Oh, you know the quotes you write on your Facebook post to position yourself as intelligent or sophisticated? It’s getting boring. Stop subscribing to “quote of the day emails” and start posting things that actually mean something to you and that you can explain (or defend)

I read an excellent article by Shane Snow,that captured Stylelabs’ blogging philosophy quite well in seven points. I’ve compressed it into four and added my 2 cents!

Mix Stock and Flow Content. Stock Content, is exciting, insightful articles/pieces that you write that position you as a key opinion leader (“KOL”) in your field. This is generally longer in form but captures and holds your readers attention through clarity, authenticity and wit. Flow content (quick hit aggregation; LOVE THE TERM) , are curated links and excerpts you feel are relevant to your audience with commentary. Offering the two on your site, fan page, twitter and portal will firmly engrain you in your client’s evoke set (top of mind), increase conversion (sales) and foster an environment of trust based selling.

Personalize. Shane and I have different perspectives on what this means. He suggests smart widgets on your blog that will “make suggestions” on behavior. However, realistically, you’re not amazon and you likely don’t have libraries of content. To me, personalize means developing between 2-4 core segments (or personas) and categorizing each client into those containers. In my case, although everyone will see this article, many of you might get tig bits from me via email as I see things that I feel would benefit you. This hybrid “personalization” allows me to have dialogues with all of my clients, based both on their individual needs as well as on a macro level.

Let Your Content Spread! The article you’re reading right now, will be repackaged into three forms. An email newsletter, a Facebook note and a blog from my website. I may then break it up into four or five chunks and offer it as a tweet or status updates with a “read more” call to action. I’ll probably find other blogging articles, comment on them and offer my article as a link for further elaboration. The other absolute NON NEGOTIABLE for me, is empowering my readers to share and comment on my articles. Depending on medium, my weapon of choice is Add This and Facebook Commenting. It allows for two way discussion between the Facebook universe and your site and easily allows for distribution to over 300 social media platforms. And, it’s free!

Once people subscribe to my site, become a fan, friend or connection, you have now permitted me, to interact (market) to you for free by offering you my expertise. Kind of a “try before you buy.”

Create Anticipation! If we’re connected, you’ll notice that on Friday (or maybe it was Thursday) I posted/tweeted the title of this article with a call to action; Sticky Blogs! Look out for my new article on Monday. Email subscriptions went up 20% and this morning, I’ve already received four emails inquiring about status. Wicked!

Email is Your Friend It’s a lot easier to dismiss a status update than it is to delete that same article you get in your inbox every Monday. Recently, I did a focus group for a post secondary institution that reaffirmed my theory that people prefer communication through email, rather than social mediums. Although Qual research is not statistically viable, I believe this to be true. Besides, its easier to forward this article to contacts and flag to read later. Emails can also be filed in the “supplier folder” for future consideration ;)

Break it Up! Remember I told you that nobody cares about your 3000 word essay? What if it was robust, humorous “how to” segments? I believe, that this will both cater to people’s unfortunately short 30 second attention spans as well as pique their need for more.

Wiki-Link Throughout Have you noticed that when you look something up on Wikipedia, there are links throughout the article that will lead you on an endless journey of new information? That’s awesome! Not only does this do incredible things for your site’s SEO, but it also offers your audience a greater depth and appreciate of your subject matter and the point you’re trying to make. How does this work? Well, you’ll notice the term “SEO” has is hyperlinked. Clicking that will take you to a site that explains SEO or another article I wrote on the subject. Linking usually doesn’t (or shouldn’t) have a call to action attached to it. The intention is to offer information to whoever would like it, without disrupting those who wouldn’t.

Love the way he closed the article. He says:

“Stickiness is one of the best metrics of content’s success. Of course, everything here hinges on the idea that your blog is worth reading. And that only takes time and practice. The good news, however, is that while writing a compelling blog may be an art, stickiness is a science.”

984 words.

Yikes!

Steve Jobs: Farewell to the world's GREATEST Marketer

2011-10-05T00:00:00-06:00

Apple.com is my default landing page when I open my web browser. Why? Because what Apple has done with technology and marketing, inspires me daily, about the possibilities of innovation and entrepreneurship. What popped up today was expected, but yet still quite sad.

Today, Apple lost its visionary. The man who made it all happen. Steve Jobs.

The man was meticulous. His vision cutting edge. I heard that when they were putting together the first concept store for Apple, he had the marble flown into his office so he could inspect the veining for imperfections. Its only with that attention to detail, building a team of world class professionals and unparrallel marketing, was he able to build one of the world's most valuable companies.

Here are some excerpts I picked up:

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple. APPLE

Jobs was known and respected for his business acumen and an almost mystical ability to predict where tech trends are headed. CBC

Beyond his measurable successes, though, Steve Jobs claims one spot in history above all others: He realized what we wanted before we understood it ourselves. REUTERS

Was he inventor? Salesman? Entertainer? Visionary? Those questions miss the point. Like his devices, Steve Jobs was a medium that led us to other destinations — the ones of our own choosing. That's what made him different. He's gone, but the future he saw is still, quite literally, in our hands. TED ANTHONY

Here is an insightful video by Steve at the 2005 Stanford Commencement:

Thanks for the inspiration Steve! Rest in Peace.

Exceptional User experience

2010-12-10T00:00:00-07:00

I'm a big fan of Robin Sharma. In the last 10 years he's climbed the "leadership guru" ladder and positioned himself as very new age/old wisdom. Like most of his peers, Robin doesn't really tell us anything we don't already know (like a lot of undergrad marketing courses) What makes Robin (and yes SOME of these courses) special is his ability to communicate these points with practical application and in a cohesive framework that allows us to better rationalize and internalize what we "know" to be the right away to run our business, deal with our customers and grow as people.

I was pretty stoked that I'll be in Toronto when he's launching his new book at the Manulife Indigo. I think meeting him in person would be pretty kick ass! Like a lot of my clients, Robin lives the lifestyle. He talks about physical, mental and spiritual mastery. Ritualization, etc... It'll be a great experience.

What's great about Robin is that he doesn't give you the opportunity to zone out. His messages are quick, compressed and concise.

Recently, Robin posted a VLOG titled "The New Level of Treating Customers." Watching this post created an explosion of thoughts in my head. Here are some points that stood out for me:

If you deliver what you are expected to, give customers what they want, you're in a very vulnerable position.

(my initial reaction) What the hell? So we bust our a$# trying to give the customer what they want/need, some of them being SO high maintenance and picky and yet we're vulnerable? That's bullsh#$!!! (deep breath) It's actually SO true. I moderated some focus groups a couple weeks ago for an ad agency. The design, recruiting, moderating all went off without a hitch. Fantastic feedback, full shows, a great night. As the second group came to a close, I noticed 6 happy faces and one lady huffing and puffing. I don't know where she placed on the totem pole, but she was hella pissed that the backroom had M&M's instead of Smarties. I mean she was livid!!! Really?? I think Robin's right. There are so many other companies that could do the same job we do that "unnecessary consultant abuse" is accepted and tolerated.

PS. The next day, she did apologize and we are running their next campaign.

2. Deliver GENIUS levels of value to your customers. Make the user experience so exceptional that people are breathless every time they do business with you.

Be the game changer! As management and business owners we get so caught up in administrative and operational CRAP, that we forget about how to do our jobs. From experience, I can tell you that spending time on innovation and marketing is what separates world class from mediocrity. The Malibu's from the M3's. But hey, we've built these companies from nothing. We're tight fisted and want to run the shop lean and mean. What if the economy takes another kick in the butt and we fall short on rent? We're CHEAP and we're frightened! Ugh... Dilemma. What we fail to understand, ESPECIALLY small businesses, ESPECIALLY YOU, is that by investing in competent resources, you empower yourself to grow the company's brand equity and bottom line. As the owner, what you will produce will differentiate you. AND you will have the resources to mobilize your vision into reality. BUT, my absolute favorite... Small business employees and suppliers are famous for holding their employers hostage. Remember Calgary's labour boom? I think that I used the term "self entitled little sh#^" at least two or three times daily. By arming yourself with the right people and treating them well, you'll discover that there are people out there who will treat your company like it's their own and give you the breathing room to mega size your business model.

Check out the video:

Great insight. But only can this fully be effective if you like what you do. If it drives you. If you're not looking at your watch ten times a day waiting to get the f&^k out of here!

I'm a big fan of Eli Stone. I've always wanted to be a lawyer, I wrote the exams, but gave up my dreams to be an entrepreneur. In the last year, the mundane things have really started getting to me. I thought about going back to law and giving that a crack. Watching Eli fired me up. A lawyer who made money helping people. Revolutionary! I flip flopped for a while. My biggest barrier to entry was the unfortunate reality of articling. Taking a 1000% pay cut, running around gophering to "pay my dues" was not my idea of deflecting monotony. Approvals, bosses, politics, egos,... Screw that. I am, and always will be an entrepreneur. Then I had my eureka moment! I call it StyleLabs.

I realized that with my market research company I was in the right industry, just too tightly niched. With StyleLabs, I could help other organizations brand and position themselves, build business models, revitalize and most importantly grow and succeed. 12 months in, my clients continue to remain "breathless" every time they do business with us. Our market research company, locked and loaded is growing at a breakneck speed and we're finally achieving a culture of growth, success and high octane performance.

The best part of it is that I got the validation I needed. Everything in my head, with passion and client focus, can be translated into win win scenarios for everyone we transact with. My shit works!!!! Stay tuned and I'll tell you all about it.

To your success!

________________________________________

Your Take Away -

If you're not passionate about what you do, I mean butterflies in your stomach, spring out of bed passionate, ignore the next two points, they are not for you.Meeting client expectations is not enough. Surpassing them holds your position. To grow, differentiate and hold a advantageous position, you MUST take your client's breath away. Every time. Non Negotiable.

Invest in resources. There's a reason they call it a company and not a proprietorship. By splitting up the role, you empower yourself to focus on the big picture and still have peace of mind that the little details are being executed well.

Canada Talent Search - Our Champions

2011-10-03T00:00:00-06:00

It all started with a pitch...

One of my clients wanted us to prove to them that our contesting technology worked. They didn’t believe that with an incredible website, social media and passion a community could be built and grown in a short period of time.

Thanks to Paul Anthony, our first client (over a year ago), we’ve had the opportunity to work closely with athletes, trainers and models in the fitness industry. Of all the campaigns we’ve worked on, one thing remains consistent; personal branding is key to succeeding as a competitor and trainer.

I had the opportunity to go the the WBFF worlds, have conversations with industry leaders and understand its success at a very molecular level...

Work super-hard, intend to contribute and leverage social media to optimize and distribute your content.

The intent of this contest was two-fold:

First, to prove that what we do works. We attracted over 12,000 unique visitors, ranked 1,2,3,7 and 8 on page 1 of Google and had close to 100 contestants submit profiles (we only accepted 24.) What we do works and this contest helped us prove it.

Second, and equally important, was to help people, who were already helping themselves. These were people who work tirelessly at sculpting themselves to a point of near perfect condition and then market their passion and knowledge to promote their personal brand and inspire others. People we consider to be Key Opinion Leaders. People that can be looked up to!

Every contestant on Canada Talent Search blew us away!

Whether it was Chelsea’s transformation, Sarah’s entrepreneurial fire, Meghan’s fundraising or Beverly’s passion, each one of you inspired, motivated and touched somebody through your entry in this contest.

Judging was not easy. 50% was based on voting and the other 50% on our panel of judges. What the votes showed us, was that you made an effort to promote yourself and call your personal/professional/extended network to action. The judges, based their decision on the quality (and completeness) of your entry, how you’ve positioned yourself online and your ability to communicate your passion. Thank you all for your participation.

When all the votes were in and the judges submitted their nominations, five contestants prevailed. We announced this earlier today. Of the five, three outstanding individuals were evidently all winners. So we did some shuffling, spoke to the contestants and awarded three prize packages to our three winners.

Congratulations and the utmost respect to:

On an incredible campaign! You all deserve this win and infinite success in your endeavors!

A sincere thank you to all of our sponsors:

Without your generous contributions, this contest would not have been possible.

I’d also like to acknowledge our Stylelabs branding/development team:

Sinan Ghareb
Matt Kuypers
Doug McLean
Alana Thorburn-Watt

For an extraordinary job, hours of technical support, innovation and attention to detail invested into this project. It is a privilege working with you all.

See you all next year!

Almin Kassamali

Chief Imagination Officer - Stylelabs

Second Life

2011-01-13T00:00:00-07:00

Last year, StyleLabs started exploring virtual environments (specifically second life(“SL”)) in an effort to build an international panel for eStyle.

As part of our due diligence/exploratory exercise, two of our researchers (myself included) developed avatars and familiarized ourselves with the SL environment. What we found was that doing research in Second Life is a lot like fieldwork in the real world.

You must:

Establish a reputation as being a credible organization.Advertised eStyle as an online market research company that paid “lindens” for your opinion.
Develop infrastructure and collateral. Built a virtual facility and online office space in Garman district.
Advertise in high traffic areas. Built kiosks in high traffic spaces.
Capture traffic Developed virtual kiosks that redirected to an online “sign up for focus groups” form.

Once we had a sufficient panel, we picked a low incidence segment (HIV Patients) and developed a screener for the first Global Second Life Focus Group with HIV patients and high risk groups. The objective of the research was to test extremely sensitive HIV prevention advertisements and gauge effectiveness, sensitivity, objections, etc.

The SL facility was robust enough to upload the stimuli (Video, Print and Online) and each respondent piggy backed a translator so that the moderator (myself) could freely communicate with each respondent in their own language via chat. Specifically, whatever I wrote them would be translated to them in their native language, and whatever was written to me was converted back into English.

In one group (english speaking) respondents were permitted to use microphones, facilitating verbal conversations between avatars. For the 4 groups we ran, the honorarium paid out per respondent was the equivalent of $15 US dollars for 90 minutes.

Using Second Life is extremely useful for specific types of qual and quant research. We ran parallel groups in 3 Canadian cities (sponsored by our client) and found that in the SL environment, people were more honest, transparent and less susceptible to group think. Furthermore, the data is transcribed real time, making reporting substantially easier. There’s also the cost factor. Considering advertising and programming costs, facilitating groups in virtual environments and extrapolating (in my opinion) richer data (greater breadth, broader perspective and a less intimidating environment to provide feedback), is at only a fraction of a cost of even online focus groups or virtual round tables (asynchronous).

The Power of Twitter, Blogs and Respecting Your Customers

2011-09-15T00:00:00-06:00

Last night, I was reading a book on my iPad (very cool by the way). The premise behind the chapter I was reading, was to emphasize the importance of listening to your customers. The author provided the example of Boloco, a Boston-based burrito chain. One of the things that CEO, John Pepper frequently does, is search the company name on Twitter with the intent of engaging with customers. He caught somebody complaining about the volume of the store's music. Right away, he called the manager, had the music lowered and instructed him to approach the customer and ensure that the level was set to a more comfortable volume. The customer was so happy, she Tweeted about her experience right away. Many of her followers shared the story. She wrote a blog about it. It was retold in the Thank You Economy book. I just sent this email to you. WOW!!

Make no mistake. The virility of this situation was not with Twitter. Twitter, the Blog, the Book and my Note to you were simply enablers. What catalyzed this incredible testament to Boloco's detail to customer satisfaction was John Pepper's finger on the pulse and immediate remedy to his customer's discomfort. Telling your customer you care is one thing. Showing it is another. The success of your business lies in three words. ULTIMATE USER EXPERIENCE. Attract new clients through great collateral (websites, fan pages, cards, ads, etc.) and testimonials. Retain existing clients by over delivering and mitigating cognitive dissonance. And here's the big one... actually continue speaking with clients (socially or professionally) even when you don't want something from them. The supplier/client model has been replaced with partnerships and alliances. The sooner we come to terms with that, the sooner we can facilitate win win.

Boloco has written an awesome article on how they use Social Media For Success. Check it out!

Social Marketing

2011-01-31T00:00:00-07:00

When you sign with our agency, we have one objective. Deliver the ultimate client experience.

We define this as:

Empowering clients with cutting edge marketing and web technology supplemented with thorough consultation and actionable insight.

The StyleLabs concept was architected with the same intent, but a very different philosophy than conventional agency models. We believe that there is an evolutionary shift toward Social Marketing.

Our framework is based on a Social Marketing Feedback Loop. At one point in time, when a consumer wanted to make a purchase decision, he/she had three main sources as basis for evaluation; referrals/feedback from immediate peer group, manufacturers and resellers/wholesalers with a vested interest in the sale. This is what the feedback mechanism used to look like:

In today’s environment, consumers have the power to search within their network to third or fourth degrees, scan user forums, read blogs as well as a multitude of pipelines online previously unavailable. Here, business’ ability to influence purchase has substantially decreased. As you can see, community feedback is the greatest influencer both for the purchaser and the manufacturer. Business’ are leveraging the gamut of data generated by consumers to participate in conversations and cherry-pick user feedback. Organizations considerate of this dialogue leverage the opportunity to keep their finger on the pulse of their target market, respond promptly and develop greater awareness by collaborating rather than dictating to their applicable segment(s). Here's how decisions are now made.

StyleLabs provides you with the tools you need to facilitate a better dialogue with your consumers and their networks. When shopping for an agency, we invite you to consider that a critical success factor to you is access to the most recent tools, methodologies and strategy on the forefront of this dynamic market.

The rules have changed. Business has changed. Reach out and start a dialogue with consumers, suppliers and members of your industry.

Facebook Jungle

2011-06-21T00:00:00-06:00

Hi Everyone!

For my innaugural blog, I had thought about writing about taking a technical subject and trying to make it manageble for the non-technical, but I'll save that for another time. I think instead, I'd like to talk about Facebook Fanpages. What are they? And more importantly - How do you make them outstanding.

Facebook Pages: What are they?

To those users who've been with Facebook for a while, a Facebook Fanpage may seem like a replacement for a Facebook Group; however, the distinction isn't so linear. Here's a nice chart that I found:

We can get into what the various rows stand for in more detail later; but the point is to see that a group doesn't have a smaller set of features than a page, but instead, they have commonalities and differences.

One of the biggest differences that I've been in love with lately is the "Support for Applications" - I'll get into this below.

The other difference between Groups and Pages is the strategy underlying how you will use these. We recommend to our clients to use a Facebook Group as a forum for discussing, organizing or giving feedback. The ability to mass messages to your membership is only available for groups, so, when you're organizing an event, the group is ideal. Facebook Fan Pages can also be used to promote events, but it's only a group which can have an event that allows mass messaging. A strong Facebook Group may be ideal for those who are hosting events regularly.

As a developer who is taken as a Facebook Expert, Our clients and friends often say things like this to me about their facebook development experience:

"I learned how to use them once, but now it's different, and I just don't have the energy to do it again"

"How does such and such do this and that with their Facebook Page"

There have been numerous seemingly fundemental changes to the Facebook page infrastructure making it quite difficult to keep up. The worst part about these changes is that your page might look great under one revision from facebook, but it may have overlapping text or mismanaged content in another revision. Here's an example:

This looks great right! When this page was first picked up and went viral on gizmodo, it was a heavily blogged about item. But what about now? If you take a look at Alexandre's current facebook page, it doesn't look nearly as impressive because facebook disturbed the order of the top photos of the page which form Alexandre's eyes. It's interesting that they changed this, and one has to wonder if it was on purpose or just part of facebook's design - that's another topic.

Facebook Pages: How do you make them outstanding?

So, up until now, I've writen about a lot of complications regarding Facebook Pages; it's true that they're combersome; however, they're also one of the most valuable tools for talking about your organizations products and services.

Here's a couple of ways to use them effectively:

Assume the identity of your Facebook Fan Page to write on other people's walls

If you want to appear professional while also being social, you can become the identity of your facebook page. This means that when you post on someone's wall, the posting will be made by your organization with your oganization's profile picture. Since you can allow multiple members of your company to be administrators of a page, with this strategy, you can appear as once cohesive message rather than a collection of members. This is a distinct advantage of a page over a wall.

Install Applications

It's really exciting for me to create new Facebook Applications, and it's even more exciting when clients install these applications on their pages.

As a case study, we created a website http://canadatalentsearch.ca which allows visitors to vote (by using the facebook like button) on candidates for a crazy amount of prizes in a contest of personal branding. In order to make this campaign go viral, we decided to make a Facebook Application for this page.

With this application, the user can vote, leave comments, and support their friends to the top. Moreover, all of the sponsor’s of the event can install the application on their Facebook Page. It’s a great way to integrate a campaign into any collaboration.

Add Content From Your Own Site

As I was saying earlier, one thing to watch with the Facebook Fan Pages is that Facebook will change their standards, and your page could get messed up (just like with Alexandre above). Imagine Malaysia’s surprise after they spent $100,000 on 6 Facebook Fan pages only to have Facebook change the code and their money be worthless. At Stylelabs, we have a strategy around this. The old method of building a Facebook Fan Page with custom content was to use the FBML standard – I urge you, do not invest in this technology.

I just want to throw another thing in here before I give my pitch: Since Facebook has been under scrutiny from privacy watchdogs, they’ve started making an important option available. In your privacy settings, you can force Facebook to use an SSL (secure connection). The trick with this is that every piece of content sent over an secure connection must be secure as well – failure to do this sets of warning bells and scares away visitors. With Stylelab’s Facebook Fan Page technology, we have solved this issue without expecting you to buy an expensive SSL Certificate (about $150 per year extra).

Where do we go from here?

It’s no surprise that I’m writing this blog because I’m really happy with Stylelabs’ Facebook Fanpage technology. It’s quite incredible how well we can make a page look. Here’s an example:

A few other sites to look at are: Kellogg’s Pop Tarts, Red Bull Sports Drink, or American Express. At first these sites almost look as good as ours. When we first saw them, we were intimidated (through special industry knowledge, we knew how much some of these companies had paid). Once our lab brought out their web inspection tools, we saw that these sites were built on only images and didn’t use proper SEO building tools. The regular rules of SEO still apply to Facebook Fan Pages, and it appeared that these big players had forgotten the rules.

Not only do our sites look amazing, optimize better, and provide for collaboration with other partners, but they’re also affordable. Please contact us at info@stylelabs.ca to find out how to get your Facebook Page taken to the next level.

Doug McLean is the Vice President of Research and Development at Stylelabs

Case Study: Heather Robertson

2011-01-05T00:00:00-07:00

The face of Samurai, Heather Robertson is invading newsstands this month! Heather will be featured in Oxygen Magazine!

I met Heather a year ago through Paul Anthony "She's phenomenal" Anthony had said. "I expect BIG things from Heather in the next little while." Coming from Paul, that was a quite a statement.

Having worked with several people in the fitness/fashion/modelling industry, what stood out about Heather (to me) was her drive, focus and humility. The absence of narcissism. Heather came across as very soft spoken, but made impact when she needed to. And that's exactly what she did on location at our Samurai infomercial shoot. I remember Heather walking in, game face on, ready to work. She was resilient, adaptive and radiated presence. Inspiring!

When Heather hired Stylelabs to help manage her branding and marketing, she was very specific about her vision (down to the wood grain texture) and what she expected. So far, working on her campaign has been fantastic. Every meeting is a learning experience! We exchange and build on incredible ideas and architecture best in class plans. Heather was one of the first campaigns we powered with our Samurai technology. Like with every proprietary technology, we've made minor tweaks along the way, today, we were able to successfully launch the BETA version of heatherrobertson.net. Here's the crazy part! Heather built most of the site herself.

All the content, videos, pictures, news and articles you see on the site was written, sized and administered by Heather. We designed the site (Esthetics, Logo, Branding, Skeletal Structure,...) and powered it with the Samurai Brain. At that point, Heather logged in, posted her blogs, created her tags, uploaded pictures and videos and started sharing it on her social media accounts. Like every other Samurai site, Heather's comes with Full Social Media Integration, Automated Optimization derived from Aggregated SEO Best Practices (no I'm not contradicting myself), "Facebook Easy" Back End Administration and Marketing Inspired CMS coding. Wicked!

In my article SEO Is BULL$H*T I stated that SEO is useless unless you're posting OUTSTANDING content. Working with people like Heather, I've realized that without INCREDIBLE People and Passionate Businesses, we've got nothing. If our client was a dud, our website or branding would be like a pristine Aston Martin sitting on a driveway idling without a driver.

Heather's mind blowing presence and insightful comment allowed us to put an marketing gloss on a spectacular brand.

Congratulations Heather on your milestones. Your hard work and relentless resolve is definitely paying off. Keep up the great work!

1. Website

2. Social Media

3. Branding, Communication and Collateral

4. Development of Online Training Platform

Viral Marketing

2011-01-12T00:00:00-07:00

We live in a society soaked in self-absorption. Everyone seems to think their status updates, tweets, and blogs have people hanging on every word. Guess what?

They don’t.

Your friends will follow what you say, sure. But you’re competing with a few hundred other friends on Facebook and their idols on Twitter, so it’s pretty tough to hog the spotlight. What does all this have to do with Michael Oliveira’s column on the definition of the word viral?

People have acquired an expectation today that others will find their videos as enjoyable to watch as they were to create. This is unrealistic, selfish and egocentric. But it’s come by honestly, in that online, today, you can post a few words and you know for a fact that you’ll have an audience of some size, guaranteed. It wasn’t too long ago that it just wasn’t that easy.

Now it is.

But there is nothing so arrogant as thinking you can create a “viral” video on a whim. There is no magic formula which makes a video go viral. The cause is an x-factor. Even if you create a video that is subjectively, objectively, qualitatively and quantitatively amazing, there is no guarantee it will get the credit it deserves. Sometimes genius goes over the heads of the mainstream. Other times, worthless trash becomes a phenomenon (see Shore, Jersey).

There is a galaxy of creativity and a universe of content out there, and as the article says, even a ton of hits doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve gone viral. For example, if AC/DC comes out with a new video and gets a million views, is it really viral, or did people just want to check out AC/DC’s latest song?!!

When making a video, don’t be so self-aware of the possibility of going viral that it detracts from your work. Take a hard look at what you’re doing from a cold, unfamiliar set of eyes. Why should anyone care? Ask yourself: Is it hilarious? Does it make me think? Does it make me happy? Is it incredibly intelligent? Is it incredibly stupid? Does it target a large and specific cross section of the public? If the answer to at least three of these questions is truthfully yes, then you’ve likely done a good job. But viral? That’s not for you to decide.

Good luck.

Chris Flook is the Director of Sales for StyleLabs' CMS Samurai in Western Canada. StyleLabs offers full service business and marketing solutions for entrepreneurs, musicians, athletes and small/medium business. www.stylelabs.ca

Welcome to Stylelabs Blog

2010-12-09T00:00:00-07:00

2 years after I finished school, I remember sitting in my office at my 9-5 job thinking to myself, do I want to work for the man or do I want to be the man?? The next day, I resigned and became an entrepreneur.

The reason you're on this site, is because you've made that same decision. You want control over your destiny You've got BIG PLANS and you need to unleash ultimate creativity! We can help!

StyleLabs is dedicated to every organization small, medium or large with that entrepreneurial itch to establish, position or rebrand themselves in the new 2.0 Business Environment. Through the benefit of our experience, passion and our SWOT Team of Marketing Specialists, we deliver a toolbox of marketing and business strategy that will empower you to showcase your brand and talent with pride. Regardless of your advertising budget.

Since the first time I wrote this blog in January, so much has happened.

Our client roster has grown exponentially! Extraordinary people like Charly + Shaun Kelly of Energy Life Science, Life Coach Ken V Welch, Real Estate Expert Keith Crawford and Body/Mind/Spirit consultant Emma Lovino have signed with our agency.

We successfully launched the DreamBody Brand and Community www.paulanthony.ca
We acquired Innova Marketing Solutions and a breathtaking new partner, Monica Arora.
And so much more!

What an incredible year its been. Although our organization is new(er) our actionable insights and dynamic campaigns come from years of experience, hybrid models and aggregation of best practices.

The Journey Begins...