Hot off the press: BSL's latest issue of Brainstorm

It's that time again! Another issue of Brainstorm ready for your consumption. This issue takes a look at the hot summer we've had--of course we mean the projects we've worked on, awards we've won, and new staff...
Read all about it in the latest issue of Brainstorm:

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An “extreme” social media strategy

What I find special about social media is that it’s a form of storytelling in the moment.  We can share our insight as something happens - whether it’s about a newsworthy event, a life milestone or a popular photo/video. And this is what, I believe, has contributed to the massive popularity of this online medium.

When putting together a social media content strategy for a company, the story’s theme often revolves around its products and/or services. What is so unique about working with our client Iridium – a global satellite communications company – is that their products can, at times, become part of the strategy. We get the opportunity to go beyond our terrestrial limits and plan a strategy for the people doing something extreme and adventurous.

The strategy is then framed by the tools we decide to use – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, etc – and we determine how to best tell the company’s story on these platforms in a way that’s appealing to their audience.

We recently worked with Iridium employee, Walt Everetts (Executive Director, Satellite Operations and SCS development), and his friend, Al Lepore, on how we could best tell their story of hiking Mount Everest – a lifelong goal for the two men. Iridium provided Walt & Al with an Iridium Extreme satellite phone for communications as they were out of terrestrial range.

We wanted these two men to be the primary drivers of this story for authenticity; therefore, we worked with Iridium to determine how we could tell this story on social media with only the phone. And here’s what we discovered:

• They could tweet from their Iridium Extreme via SMS
• They could create live podcasts during their trek

This framed our content strategy as we created a Twitter profile for Walt & Al to share their progress and an account on ipadio for followers to hear the excitement in their voices as they were living this dream.

To supplement these live updates from the mountain, Walt & Al sent us photos and videos from their training and during their expedition. To house all of these assets, we created a webpage on Iridium.com as their hub, so people could learn about Walt & Al and track their progress.

What could have been perceived as a challenge – telling a story on social media from a region without terrestrial coverage – became a strength for this campaign. The combination of an extreme expedition and Iridium technology allowed followers to stay up to date with Walt & Al as they shared their experience of reaching Everest Base Camp while in the moment.

Confessions of a Pro(fessional)crastinator

I can’t believe I finally completed this article! I'm excited! I’ve been looking forward to writing down my thoughts on this topic for a very long time. As long I can remember in fact. 

But for some reason, I just kept putting it off… and putting it off… and putting it off… 

I think you get the point. What I’m talking about here is 'procrastination.'

You see, I’m what you call a pro(fessional)crastinator. And believe me when I tell you that I left the ranks of amateur “crastinators” a long time ago. I'm a lean, mean, easily-distracted machine! 

But don't get me wrong. For me, “waiting until the next day” to do something – whether it is a house chore or a blog post – is not really a bad habit. Or an obstacle to greater achievements.

Procrastination is a skill, a gift even! And I’m only half joking…

The Pros of Procrastination

When it comes to procrastination, the key in my opinion is not to pay too much attention to what’s not getting done. Rather, you should focus on what is getting done instead. 

If what you’re doing while procrastinating is of greater value to you than what you’re temporarily putting off, then you’re definitely not wasting time. In my case, as a creative strategist and writer, I see occasional daydreaming as way more valuable than, say… doing the dishes or filling my taxes, for example. It’s an exercise in imagination and problem solving, both of which are assets in my job. 

Procrastination can even have benefits for the task you’re postponing (that's right). Since it leaves you with a shorter amount of time to complete it, your survival instincts are forced to kick in and you start only paying attention to what’s crucially important. 

When everything goes well, the last-resort burst of energy produced can help you be more focused and efficient, and even come up with better, more creative ideas and solutions. It also helps that you’ve had more time to collect information and think the situation over before getting started. 

The Cons of Procrastination

Of course, there are also limits to the virtues of procrastination – eventually everyone has to pay their bills and clean up their apartments. We can’t just put this stuff off forever (or can we?). 

As you’ll no doubt have noticed, when you procrastinate, you’re more likely to feel stressed out and anxious, to cut corners and overlook details, and to do a poorer job on the task at hand than you would have if you spent more time on it. 

It’s easy to understand why most people try to avoid it.

But ultimately, I truly believe that there’s a productive way to procrastinate, if you’re willing to put up with a bit of uncertainty every once in a while. 

My advice is to take notice of what you do during “off” time and to try to become really good at it. And to only tap into your source of last-minute magic when you absolutely need to – otherwise, it’s bound to eventually run out. 

You’ll see, when used in moderation, procrastination can do wonders for all aspects of your life! 

How do you feel about procrastination? 

Do you have a success (or horror) story about procrastination? Or any tricks for making the most of your tendency to put things off? 

Please share them in the comments section (like, right now… not tomorrow… or later this week… NOW!).

Get ready to socialize: Social media expert Kelly Rusk joins Banfield-Seguin

Kelly Rusk recently came into the Banfield-Seguin fold, and that’s great news for our clients.

With her strong background in public relations, social media research and analysis and community engagement, Kelly really knows how to make social media work for businesses.

At agencies and on the client side, she’s created social media strategies and communications plans for local and national clients in both public and private sector. In fact, Kelly is a sought-out social media speaker and has presented at events in Ottawa, Edmonton, Toronto and Miami. She’s also President of the Ottawa chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators, in which she leads the board of directors in fulfilling the association’s mission to be the voice of communications in Ottawa.

And now she’s ready to put all those awesome social skills to work for Banfield-Seguin clients. Want to find out more about Kelly? Check out her blog, her tweets, her Facebook page, her Linked In profile... you get the idea.

Banfield-Seguin: our company profile video

As a full service marketing communications agency, we sometimes feel like the cobbler's children--we are so busy creating great work for our clients that we don't have time to do it for ourselves.

Fortunately that was not the case with our company profile video. Our video team worked hard between client commitments to tell the story of our agency--from our beautiful stone heritage building in hip Ottawa neighbourhood Hintonburg; to our dynamic leadership team and working style; to the personality of our nearly 40 full-time employees.

This is Banfield-Seguin: