Last night I attended a “pre-launch” party at Sxip, for their new software program, Sxipper.

It’s an identity management app that makes logins and registrations easier and more secure by storing your encrypted contact information and passwords and auto-inputs it into pre-mapped forms and fields. Or something like that.

Rob and I arrived early, and we were in one of the first groups to sit down in an orientation (beers in hand, can’t forget to mention that) that in many ways resembled a focus group, although they insisted it was anything but. We were asked a series of questions about our browser usage, and how often we login or register for things online. The invite list consisted only of what they called “power users,” so the consensus was that we do it an awful lot. After answering a few questions about how much of a pain it is and how much we’d like to see it fixed, we were set free to mingle again; hot dogs, beer et al.

(Roland uploads his photos on the fly at the Sxipper pre-release party)

As neither Rob or I had brought our laptops, we weren’t able to install it on site and try it out. Instead we were treated to a projected demo, that scratched the surface of what Sxipper does.

From what I could see in the demo, it is something that I would use. Anything that makes my life easier and my data more secure is useful to me, as long as it is indeed easier.

We were specifically asked not to share screenshots of the program, so I can’t show you examples of Sxip’s hip (and very Apple/Fido-centric) interface. And it was also clear that the folks at Sxip didn’t want a flood of users crashing the gates right away, but were rather inviting a few local users to try it out, tell their friends to have a look, and let the buzz grow organically.

As for the event, it was a great. Lots of friendly and familiar faces, and it was neat to get a sneak-peek at a local software product that could just become a mainstay for the average user across many platforms. And the free beer and smokies must have worked, because here I am blogging about it.

For now, it’s optimized for use with Firefox and Safari (I think) and is still a sleeping giant. You can sign up to be the among the first to try Sxipper by signing up here. You can see a video by Roland Tanglao here.

tag: sxipper

What’s this all about you ask? Well, before you jump to conclusions, I must ruin the surprise by telling you that I don’t intend to go a month without the help of some ‘ginch.’

Instead, I use that headline to get your attention, to tell you about my latest side project. I’ve created a blog to chronicle my Dad’s current West Coast adventure from Powell River, BC, Canada, all the way south to Mexico, on his pedal bike with a handful of his friends. This is significant for several reasons, not the least of which is the fact that my dad didn’t even own a bike until a few years ago, and he’s asthmatic. As for the title, you’ll have to click through to the site to read more.

So, here we have this cute blog about six middle-aged guys going on the adventure of a lifetime. But that’s not the whole story. I held back from writing this until I had a chance to get a feel for what the success rate of thing would be, especially since we plan to write a book about their adventures after they return.

(The six heroes of this story. My dad is third from the right)

Well, I can honestly say it has been a tremendous success thus far. This is the true meaning of blogging, I have discovered. We’re getting comments from people as far aways as Australia and France, and from such people as my Great Aunts and my Grandma! Needless to say, these folks had never been on a blog before this.

In fact, people from all over the small town of Powell River, BC are dropping in to comment. Dozens each day (although the photo page is just as popular for commenting as any given post is, for some reason). Wives and kids are leaving messages for their fathers, as a way of staying in touch. New photos are being emailed to me everyday and getting promptly uploaded to the Flickr account I set up. The guys are phoning in their updates and sending emails knowing they are becoming pseudo-celebs in the process. And for me, the whole thing has been a whole helluva lot of fun.

So if I could ask one thing, it would be to drop by the site and leave a comment for these unlikely heroes. They’d love to hear from you, and at this stage of the journey (over half way!) every little bit of encouragement helps. Also, when the books comes out, you can bet I’ll be flogging copies on here, and part of the proceeds will go to benefit the BC Lung Association, their charity of choice. Check out the site, read the about page and some of the posts I’ve written, but most of all, check out the comments that have been pouring in since a few days ago when I set it all up.

This is word of mouth in action, and I’m just thrilled.

Sean Moffit of Buzz Canuck and TheInfluencers.ca has generated a list called The Power 50: Canada’s 50 Brilliantly Crazy & Enlightened Marketing/Media Bloggers. And we’re on the list! This is a huge honour (Canadian spelling today, thank you very much), just as it was to be selected for the Top 20 Canadian Word of Mouth Blogs.

I am very flattered that Sean has chosen to put my blog among this list of Canadian Media bloggers, but I am also just glad that such a list exists. There are a lot of great blogs on the list, and I suggest you click through them and find a few new gems to subscribe to and add to your list of feeds. I know I will.

So here you are; the list of the Power 50, in no particular order:

The Crazy & Enlightened Marketing/Media Canuck Bloggers

• Amber Mac with Amber MacArthur
• Inside PR with Terry Fallis and David Jones
• Student PR with Chris Clarke
• Webwalker with Douglas Walker
• PR Girlz from the femme fatales at Thornley Fallis
• Participation Highway with Dave Carter
• Inside the CBC with Tod Maffin
• Niblettes
• H&K with Lisa Walker
• Networks (H&K) with Ted Graham
• Social Signal with Alexandra Samuel
• The New Pr with Ryan Anderson
• Flack Life with Bob LeDrew
• Green Hat with Julie Giles
• Trafcom news with Donna Papcosta
• Marc Snyder (en Francais)
• PR Measure with Howard Oliver
• Martin Hofman
• Flackadelic with Leona Hobbs
• Brendan Hodgson (H&K)
• Boyd Neil (H&K)
• Ad Hack with James Sherrett
• Chroma with Constantino Demopoulos
• Mutually Inclusive PR with Eric Eggertson
• Profectio with Dave Forde
• Canadian Marketing Association Blog ( A Collective)
• Sweet Mantra with Bill Sweetman
• Steve Hardy at Creative Generalist
• Michel Leblanc (en Francais)
• Experience The Message w/ Max Lenderman
• Blogging me Blogging You with Ed lee
• Horse, Pig, Cow with Tara Hunt
• This Blog Sits at the…with Grant McCracken
• Malcolm Galdwell
• Mark Evans
• Matthew Ingram
• Stuart Macdonald
• Buzz Marketing with Blogs with Susannah Gardner
• Tell Ten Friends with Jordan Behan
• Customer Experience Crossroads with Susan Abbott
• Darren Barefoot.com with Darren Barefoot
• 3i with Tamera Kremer
• ProPR with Joe Thornley
• One Degree with Ken Schafer and Company
• Podonomics with Leesa Barnes
• Home is Where You Hang Your @ with Michael Fergusson
• The Client Side with Michael Seaton
• Twist Image with Mitch Joel
• Canuckflack w/ Colin Mckay
• My Name is Kate with Kate Trgovac
• PR Works

If you’re reading this because you too are on the list, or found us from it, then I am delighted to meet you. Please leave a comment to say hello; I’m always looking for new friends to subscribe to and share comments with in this massive, constantly evolving cooperative marketing conversation of ours. I’m never shy to admit: I get a lot of my best ideas from my fellow marketing bloggers, some of whom are on the above list.
Cheers all, and thanks again for reading!

-Jordan.

I found a great post today via Steve Rubel, at a site called Apples to Oranges.

It lays out all of the best tools for tracking your online buzz. I’ve been asked about this quite a bit, so it’s nice to see a definitive list of tools that can give you a barometer of what’s being said about you online.

It’s a good list, and I was especially excited to discover socialmeter.com. It gives you a total of your website address’ incoming links, and displays it as an overall score. The score for my site is a measly 75, all of the “points” coming from Google and Technorati.

Have a look at the list, and pick your favorite. One thing the post doesn’t mention that I’d like to add is using Google News Alerts to track the mentions of you or your company in the more “traditional” news sources and static sites.

Try them out, and have fun!

Update: Kris dropped by in the comments and proceeded to give me link envy. So in an attempt to save face, I went back and checked the socialmeter score for my old blog. It’s score of 124 means that when you add them both together, I’ve still got a hot cup of jack squat…
So let’s make it a game, commenters: What’s your socialmeter score?

Via the Blogaholics, these wind powered moving structures have word of mouth written all over them.

Update: Embedding YouTube videos still isn’t working, so click the link above to feast your eyes on these great ads from South Africa.

And we just couldn’t be prouder. This is exactly the kind of list that I really want to make. After all, it’s niche, it’s now and it’s, well…Canadian.

Not only that, but being mentioned in the same post with the likes of fellow Vancouverite Darren Barefoot and border-jumpers like Malcolm Gladwell and Tara Hunt is just damned cool in it’s own right.

Let me be the one to say what Sean is too humble to: His is the Number One Word of Mouth Blog here in Canada, such is his commitment to the concept. Glance at the right to my categories and you’ll notice that it’s a topic I revisit regularly, (although the small number of examples since the switch to Wordpress aren’t much of a sample size) but not with the same vigor and attention to detail as Sean Moffitt of Buzz Canuck. Keep up the good work Sean, I’m learning a lot from you, from all the way over here on the West Coast, and I’m glad to know that you drop by the blog from time to time for a read.

Cheers!

And now, I republish Sean’s carefully researched list of the Top 20, in his words, to give us all a bit more Google Juice:

The Top 20 List:

David Jones @ PR Works
Kate Trgovac @ My Name is Kate
Colin Mckay @ CanuckFlack
Mitch Joel @ Twist Image
Michael Seaton @ The Client Side
Michael Ferguson @ Home is Where You Hang Your @
Leesa Barnes @ Podonomics
Ken Schafer & Company @ One Degree
Joe Thornley @ ProPR
Tamera Kremer @ 3i
Darren Barefoot
Susan Abbott @ Customer Experience Crossroads
Jordan Behan @ Tell Ten Friends
Susannah Gardner @ Buzz Marketing with Blogs
Stuart Macdonald
Matthew Ingram
Mark Evans

Canucks Emeritus- well-informed Canucks who’ve fled across the border:

Malcolm Gladwell
Grant McCracken @ This Blog Sits At The…
Tara Hunt @ Horse, Pig, Cow

Of and of course myself, foolish oversight, damn that’s 21 now…

Word of Mouth is alive and well in Canada. Big thanks to Sean for leading the pack.

This exciting new world of Viral (capital V for Mack) marketing, where everybody has a voice, means that business people must remember that technology has made it a lot easier for people to tell ten friends when they are NOT happy with you, too.

From the Church of the Customer Blog: A TV reporter from Tampa, FL is so miffed with his plumber that he posted about it on his blog, and again on Craigslist. Word is spreading, and now when you do a Google Search for Chris’s (sic) Plumbing Service, right close to the top of the results you see his warning about them, on Craigslist. In fact, it’s six results higher than Chris’ own site.

Ouch.

Here’s an interesting story I spotted today at “My Boring Ass Life,” a blog by filmmaker Kevin Smith.

(Smith as Silent Bob)

Twice this week Kevin has hit back at critics, once after Joel Siegel walked out of a screening of Clerks 2, and once today when he was criticized for putting the names of 10, 000 MySpace fans at the end of the credits. As a marketing idea, this one was brilliant, and Smith credits that one to the Weinstein Company. It got people talking and it got press. And it happened on his MySpace, which we should all know by now is free.

The real interesting part of the story is that we’re seeing a real trend here: The critics of the mainstream media are no longer safe. You’re entitled to your opinion, Ms. Critic, but so is everybody else. And in the case of Nikki Finke, she’s being blasted by fans of Smith en masse for her close-minded evaluation of the tactic. Check out the comments on his duplicate post from Myspace.

As Smith notes, not a single industry honcho or guild member has complained, even for one second. (Finke claims that putting fans in the credits is an insult to the folks who work so hard to earn those credits day in and day out) Well guess what Finke? It’s a new world, where the audience is the marketer, and is just as deserving of being honored for posterity for their word of mouth efforts in the credits, which they can then freeze frame for their friends when they buy the DVD. (Because they will. All 10, 000 of them)

Just another example of how the gap between blogging and traditional media is closing. Soon, not only will journalists have to write for their audience and Google (a skill they’re slowly mastering) but now they’re inevitably going to have to accept the fact that they’ll have to open up comments, and leave their writings at the mercy of immediate response from their readers.

I hope Clay won’t mind that I pulled this from an email he sent me much earlier today:

Traditional media is so far behind the news cycle; they report business news two/three DAYS late. By that time, it’s been digested, blogged and commented about by bloggers everywhere. Faddishness? I think not. Of course, we’re not journalists. We’re not the first draft of history. Journalistic media will always hold this place in our society.

What we do is provide the commentary in the margins of the first draft. Once journalistic media can get out of its “Traditional” (mired in print) phase and begin reporting in truly real time… well, that’ll be a different day.

I agree almost entirely, except I want to add that when the mainstream media opens themselves up to instant feedback, the way the blogospere operates, then that “commentary in the margins” will be of as much or more value than what he refers to as the first draft, and writers will be cautious of that fact, to say the least.

It’s a common theme here: Word of Mouth. I love a good word of mouth story, especially when I know that the “campaign” was premeditated and empowered by a smart company. I am a marketer, after all.

Stormhoek is an example of a company that has spent what resources they have on trying to generate good buzz, and as the blogophiles reading this already know, it’s all due to the efforts of one man: Hugh MacLeod.

For newbies, a quick catch-up: Hugh MacLeod is a marketer, blogger and artist from England, who draws cartoons on the back of business cards:

He also has interest in a few companies, Stormhoek among them. Using nothing more than a few good ideas, a bit of free product and marketing to an influential community using free channels (his blog, email, et al) he’s been able to generate loads of word of mouth for this small wine company from South Africa.

But at this point, all of that is old news. The technophiles of Silicon Valley (and the world, really) have already made Stormhoek a success, just as MacLeod always figured they would. And that’s a wonderful thing. This is very Long Tail, (we’ll get to that in a later post, when I’ve read the book!) targeting a small niche market and enjoying “boutique” success in a world of industry giants.

But the reason I write this post today is because this “little wine that could” doesn’t just make for good blog posts and technology conference small-talk fodder, but apparently it’s worthy of being immortalized in song:

The Stormhoek Song, by Rob Lane, aka the Weekend Wino.

This is when word of mouth achieves a level of magic, when the community of users feels so strongly about your product that they pour their heart and soul (and considerable talents) into evangelizing on behalf of your company. And as a customer, who would you trust? The copywriters and creatives paid thousands to craft the pricey print ad, or the fan who wrote a song about how much he loves the product, with no encouragement at all?

Important note: Hugh and Stormhoek have never “led” their community to say anything in particular. They’ve just provided some free product to people they thought might spread the word, and then got out of the way. And now they have a free jingle, with built-in passion and a kick-ass steel drum accompaniment, IMO.

I have GOT to find a bottle of this stuff for my wife! Hugh? When can we expect a Canadian distributor?

(Use of the word evangelist is courtesy of the Church of the Customer Blog)