Brightwhite Design is now Kula Partners Inc
December 08, 2009 | 5:24 pm
In the last few weeks you may had heard about some big changes coming up at Brightwhite. I’m happy to report that these allegations are completely true. We are changing Brightwhite Design Group Inc.
Over the past few years, I’ve seen the promise and the rewards associated with social media. Through my engagement in Twitter and my blog , I’ve been lucky to become involved in conversation with countless wonderful people, many of whom have become great new clients, partners and friends. One of the greatest relationships I’ve forged is with Carman Pirie, former VP of Social Media at Colour. Over the past year or so, Carman and I have worked on some amazing projects together for clients like Dalhousie’s Faculty of Management, Killam Properties, the Province of Alberta, Atlantic Lottery and many others. Over this time, Carman and I found our respective skill sets to be very complementary to each other. His marketing knowledge and strategic focus on social media has won awards, accelerated our client’s marketing and pushed boundaries across Canada. Combined with our interface design and development prowess, we’ve formed an exceptionally progressive team.
Today, I’m pleased to announce that Carman and I are launching Kula Partners Inc. Kula is a multidisciplinary marketing agency built for our hyper-social world with core expertise in Social Media Marketing, Design and Development and Content Creation. What we are doing is unique in Atlantic Canada and we intend to grow our business as much outside of the Maritimes as we add exceptional clients within our region.
Our name is based on the Kula Ring, a trading custom in the Papua New Guinea, where people connect with one another by trading bracelets and necklaces known as Kula. The way social capital is advanced in the Kula Ring via the exchange of Kula speaks, in many ways, to how social capital is advanced and community is built via the sharing and spread of ideas and information online.
We want to be the agency that grows brands by creating marketing that connects people to each other.
In the interim, this site will remain in place as is, but it will eventually transition into my personal blog space as we flesh out what Kula is to become. I invite you to check out the Kula Partners site and let me know what you think.
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I don't want a 'real' job
November 19, 2009 | 1:40 pm
In response to a recent tweet, I thought I'd take some time and write about why I prefer to work for myself. As I've blogged about in the past, I started this company out of necessity following the loss of my job just after my daughter was born. However, I kind of always knew I wanted to be a freelancer. I just never really grew the pair I needed to make the leap until the choice was right in front of me.
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On corporate vs personal blogs
November 06, 2009 | 12:23 am
I've been doing a great deal of thinking about this and I'm wondering what everyone thinks about this. Although this blog is primarily my opinions and understanding of subjects related to design, social media, marketing, branding, technology and the web, I think the posts that are the most successful are the ones that show a little bit of me. Like when I blogged about our five year anniversary or things we could do better.
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Rural Nova Scotia gets a taste of new media
November 04, 2009 | 1:42 am
So, last week and the week before, I had the opportunity to visit five of Nova Scotia's most beautiful little towns to speak about the web and social media.
We left on Sunday the 18th of October and drove to Baddeck to stay at the Inverary. The drive up was beautiful. In all these years of living in Nova Scotia, I've never been to Cape Breton during the Autumn season. Fall colours were in full effect and my travel mate Steve Lionais and I had a great trip up. It was my Mini Cooper's maiden trip beyond the city limits and I have to say she really loved being able to get opened up on some of Nova Scotia's scenic highways. Have I mentioned what a car geek I am? The best part is that despite our quick pace, she still managed to net 35 MPG. Amazing!
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Join me in growing a Mo for Movember
November 03, 2009 | 2:40 pm
I've always wanted to grow a moustache. No really. I've had a beard (all through university and much of my early career days), goatees, soul patches (god, what was I thinking?) but never a Mo.
To be truthful, my wife hates the idea. And I can't grow a beard any more without feeling ridiculously itchy. I don't know why.
But, the whole concept of growing a moustache to raise money and awareness for Men's colorectal cancer is both awesome and potentially hilarious at the same time.
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Speaking: Social Media for Small Business
October 14, 2009 | 3:01 pm
Next week, along with our friends Rob Swick and Peter Sickles from AlphaSearch and Steve Lionais from ISL, I'll be presenting a talk entitled Social Media for Small Business. The talk will focus on practical ways of implementing blogging, Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube into your overall marketing plan. This will be a more pragmatic talk than I normally give on social media and interface design and will focus on real techniques rather than the theory of these subjects.
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On SEO, good content and quality design
October 14, 2009 | 12:05 am
Yesterday, Derek Powazek, a designer and writer who I have always admired, posted an article about SEO called Spammers, Evildoers, and Opportunists. As expected, the SEO pundits came out swinging.
Interestingly, I agree with both sides on this one. Yes, content is king. Yes, doing something well, having people talk about it and doing that again really is the single best way of gaining credibility in the marketplace. This is what @pirie and @joelkelly are always talking about and exactly what we've done with one of our latest co-projects.
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Thankful
October 09, 2009 | 1:40 pm
This is Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. We like to do things a bit earlier than our neighbours to the south.
Today is also my son's second birthday. Two years ago today, I got a call from my wife who was out shopping for hats for my two girls and she said "I think my water just broke, do you think we should go to the hospital?" I said "Are you crazy? Of COURSE we should go the hospital!"
She replied, "OK, I just have to go to one more store."
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If you're not using social media, you shouldn't be selling social media
October 04, 2009 | 8:52 pm
I was recently scanning the annual Top 101 issue of Progress Magazine (or is that monthly--it seems like every issue is the Top 101?!). I noticed a few ads for local agencies and development shops. I've also been checking out the sites of other agencies while planning for some upcoming changes at Brightwhite. Most everyone these days is claiming to offer social media consulting services.
Here's the thing:
Next to none of these companies actually use social media. Those that do use things like Twitter or their 'blog' to promote themselves. They retweet the same accounts that everyone else is already following (mashable, scoble, techcrunch and digg). They offer nothing of value and they don't engage the community, their followers or anyone at all.
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Writing the User Interface
September 22, 2009 | 9:38 pm
I have to apologize in advance. The great Jeffrey Zeldman gave a talk with this exact title at the Event Apart conference a few years ago in Boston. His talk was much more in-depth than this post will be, but it was the impetus behind this post. Since seeing that talk, I've been on the lookout for good examples of written user interface and try to incorporate it into my work as often as possible.