We are pleased to offer an affordable and customized social media workshop that addresses your business’s specific needs and wants. These group sessions are being offered for $240 plus hst. Yep, do the math – that’s just $30 per hour per attendee – an AMAZING deal!

Who: You and 3 of your colleagues or fellow business owners.

What: A 2 hour social media/online marketing workshop that addresses your individual questions. Refreshments provided.

Where: October 17 Media – #217, 119 West Pender Street, Vancouver BC.

When: We’re flexible! Pre-book at least 2 weeks in advance and we can likely accommodate your desired date and time.

Why: Learn valuable tips, tools and techniques to help your business make best use of the social media and online marketing tools available today. Come with questions!

How: Contact our office with the names of your 4 attendees and your desired workshop date to get started!

Park Royal Village in West Vancouver was definitely the place to be yesterday evening, for the official launch of Pinkberry’s first Canadian location! October 17 Media did not miss this event, we were there!

Spotted: Cory Monteith from Glee!

Yes, the Glee star was there – rocking out on the drums! Bonnie Dune played six great songs and spent time greeting fans, taking photos, signing autographs and answering questions. There was love all around!

“Froyo” with amazing toppings

Pinkberry frozen yogurt tastes light, fresh and AMAZING! They have endless premium ingredients and topping; it’s pretty much irresistible. More importantly, Pinkberry is proud to make a product that is made with hormone-free milk, daily fresh hand-cut fruit and a one-of-a-kind yogurt masterpiece. There was still a huge line-up of people waiting for samples as we were leaving, and who could blame them?

Pinkberry even has groupies. It’s true! You can visit their Groupies web page and share your Pinkberry experience. You can also create a “Groupie” profile, participate in polls, keep up-to-date with events – all kinds of fun stuff!

Great job Pinkberry on creating great online interaction! I have converted into a Pinkberry Groupie! Were you at the big launch party? We want to hear about your experience! We will be uploading more pictures of the event on our October 17 Media Facebook Page very soon!

Do you want to create fun and creative strategies to engage with people through your website? We can help, it’s exactly what we do! Plus, if you’re getting ready to throw a big event, we have some social media tips for you! Give us a call or send us an email!

Big Sisters of BC Lower Mainland work to match volunteer mentors with young girls who are facing challenges and are in need of someone to look up to and spend time with. The paths these young girls start on are critical to the future successes in their adult lives which is why it is so important that these girls are matched with an appropriate mentor who will help them get started in the right direction. Matches cost roughly $2,000 to maintain for one year and as a primarily privately funded not-for-profit organisation, it takes a lot of work and community contribution to mentor a child.

So please join us on May 5th at Society in Yaletown for the 4th annual Grape Juice Wine Auction. Come bid on unique and exclusive wines from around the world while enjoying hors d’oeuvres for a worthy cause.

Event Details:
May 5th, 2011
Location: Society
1257 Hamilton Street
$100 ticket includes hors d’oeuvres & wine tasting
(a tax receipt is available for a portion of the ticket price)

Visit Grape Juice to purchase tickets or make a donation.

And follow GrapeJuice on Twitter @GrapeJuiceEvent.

We’d like to thank all our lovely friends, family and team members that came out to support us and wish us well.

Here are a few photos but you can see the entire 3rd birthday album on Flickr.

Getting ready for the party by blowing up some helium balloons.

Tamara cutting the cake.

We just think it's cool that we had our very own sign.

Strategy and New Happenings @ Twitter

At Kicklabs, the innovation incubator where the “fireside chat” took place, Evan gave us the down-low on what to expect for Twitter in the near future. He emphasized the importance of “cutting down on the layer of information overload”. Evan’s long term goal is giving Tweeters the best tweets they care about most, keyword: relevance. This means incorporating what has always been Twitter’s strength of being “on location” and “real time” at events (a prime example being how Twitter has been used during natural disasters these last few years).

They also hired their first marketing guy! Did you know that after all these years, they didn’t have anybody specifically on Marketing? He’s been working on keeping the branding consistent for Twitter…so don’t use the wrong logo or bird! …a warning from Evan What’s more, they are starting a new university recruitment, called Class of Twitter. From their “Meet the Class of Twitter” and “New Twitter” videos, it’s clear which bird they want you to use.

“How do you keep a fast-growing company feeling like a small company?”

“People have to talk!” According to their blog, Twitter went from 20 to 300 employees in 2 years (not to mention a growth of 3 million to 165 million registered users too). Evan mentioned that the problem with big companies is “tribalism” and the lack of trust in each other. His solution? Something that we value and instill at our own company: October 17 Media‘s core value of Open Communication. Ask our intern and they’ll tell ya just how important it is! Evan combats the lack of trust by instilling an attitude of transparency and sharing at Twitter: along with new hire orientations and indoctrinating employees with company history, staff share notes, hopes and goals with each other regularly.

Successful Startups

The most resonant part of the whole evening was hearing Evan’s view that the “most successful companies come from within”. It’s good to analyze and do market research, but if the company is driven entirely out of that, no wonder it fails! Following trends means entering a category that has already been created…that’s what Evan did with Odeo, which he admits wasn’t driven out of passion and became “boring”. Don’t conform and be like everyone else!

I got advice along the same lines just the day before from Brian Wong, CEO of Kiip, an exciting new mobile advertising platform that is still in its stealth mode. It’s sure to be explosive, so “kiip” your eyes out @kiipme. He is an advisor at Kicklabs, where Evan Williams was interviewed after his talk here.

Blogging > PR

And where to hear the latest Twitter news? When they have any announcements, Twitter prefers to post on their blog. “Blog posts are a better way to promote and announce….less so with PR,” Evan said. And lo and behold, he likes to follow up the announcement with tweets. Sounds a little like something we do, huh? BTW, do you follow us on Twitter?

We are firm believers that blogging can help improve search engine optimization (it’s tried and true). Twitter, aka “microblogging” to some, is also a must-have social media tool to communicate and engage with your clients and customers. We can help you create, manage and get the most out of your account…give us friendly wizards a shout @oct17, on Facebook , or on our website. We’d love to share the latest social media and online marketing news, because duh, that’s what we do!

*Thumbs up* for spontaneous event crashing and for Ev! (Like button below )

Written by:
Priscilla Ho {Profile}: Online Marketing Wizard @ October 17 Media
———————————————————————————————————–
» ‘Like’ us on Facebook
» Follow us on Twitter
» Subscribe to our quarterly E-newsletter
» Contact us