Organization 101 – Lesson 2: Managing Your Inflated Inbox

Being organized is a lot like getting in shape: most of us fantasize about it but very few actually make it happen. Luckily, it’s a skill that can be learned - by anyone, in any profession - and that usually shows results pretty quickly. My mother was an organized person, so I was fortunate to learn a few tricks that have served me well over the years.

In this article we tackle a big source of stress… The inflated email inbox!

As mentioned in my previous post, the key to organization is to be in control, aware and proactive. This is especially true if you are to keep emails from getting in the way of your other day-to-day responsibilities. Here are my 4 steps to success:

1. Write efficiently
Always try to be precise and to the point when answering emails - without sacrificing clarity or basic courtesy, of course. You can also save time by copy-and-pasting relevant parts of past messages. No one will notice, don’t worry…

2. Folders are your best friends
I personally create folders for everything: paper folders for hard copies, digital folders for soft copies. Everything gets its own place. Folders can even be used to separate work that needs to be done right away from less urgent projects.

3. Do it NOW!
Emails that stay in your inbox for more than a few days will often end up staying there for much longer. This then forces you to write an uncomfortable "I'm so sorry to get back to you so late" message (we’ve all been there).

My rule is: if an email is opened, it must then either be a) replied to, b) filed away, or c) deleted. And if I can’t act on one of them right away, I always make sure to keep it marked as “unread” – just to keep the pressure on...

4. Tomorrow is another day
Take some time at the end of each day to review and clean up your inbox. File every email into the appropriate folder, highlight the items you still need to address and delete the ones you don’t need anymore. If possible, I try not to leave the office without deciding which unanswered emails I will commit to taking care of the next day.

I hope this helps! Stay tuned for the third installment of Organization 101: Orderly Work Space = Productivity

BSL Live at CES 2012: What Happened in Vegas…

It’s not true what they say. Sometimes what happens in Vegas gets posted on YouTube shortly after. That was certainly the case when BSL joined high-profile clients Alcatel-Lucent and QNX at the Consumer Electronics Show in Nevada last week.

The CES is the largest show of it’s kind in the world. There were some truly spectacular things on display, and — with over 150,000 visitors — you can imagine things got pretty crazy!

ALU and the ng Connect program were there to show off some innovative new service concepts driven by broadband and cloud-based services — and to demonstrate how these can enhance consumer electronic devices and the end-user experience. Their impressive booth featured the Connected Service Vehicle, Gametime Media Table, and physical fitness solution called The Avatrainer.

BSL was there to produce daily Live at CES videos and to support ALU’s social media presence for the event. The videos take viewers behind the scenes to provide a dynamic insider’s view of the show.

Sean Cusson, our Motion Graphics Director, went beyond the call of duty with an intense production cycle that saw him shooting with host Jason Collins in the morning, editing and assembling footage during the day, and having final video produced and ready to push out the next morning. Rinse and repeat. Two videos in two days, with another on the way.

If that didn’t keep us busy enough, we also shot a video for QNX. The software company put one of its powerful, feature-rich real-time operating systems to work in an innovative partnership with Audi.

All in all, an action packed outing in the desert for us. We shot four videos and a heap of photos, met some amazing people, and did some great work that excited our clients. Have a look for yourself.

Cat’s Officially Out of the Bag: NAC Presents Launch Event

Some of Canada’s best-kept secrets are about to get exposed for all to see.

NAC Presents is an exciting new initiative showcasing some of the nation’s most vibrant, relevant and fresh performers. It gives emerging artists and established icons alike an opportunity to shine on the national stage.

On September 22nd, the NAC officially launched the all-Canadian performance series. The inaugural season features the likes of Rufus Wainwright, Jean Leloup, Gordon Lightfoot, Dala, Sarah Slean, Dan Hill, Sam Roberts Band, The Sadies, Sophie Milman, 7 doigts de la main, and many others.

In preparation for launch, BSL developed the season brochure, event signage and an energetic launch video. (The video’s paper animation was created by BSL’s very own emerging artist Megan Turnbull.)

So far, so good! Response to NAC Presents has been enthusiastic.

BSL continues to work with the NAC in marketing all individual performances.

BSL Wins Three Davey Awards

BSL is very pleased to announce that we have won three silver 2011 Davey Awards*, in the category of Online Video. The first video that was recognized is the Iridium Extreme video, which won in the categories of ‘Graphics’ and ‘Other’. These honours come on the heels of the Iridium Extreme launch just over two months ago, and serve to affirm the many days and nights of hard work that went into the final piece. The third award was given to the ng Connect Solution Concept videos, an exciting three-part series that was the result of an extraordinary team effort in late 2010. We are tremendously proud of both videos, and are truly grateful to our clients for giving us the opportunity to produce such award-winning work.

*The Davey is sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from a "Who's Who" of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms. IAVA members include executives from organizations such as Condè Nast, Michael Kors Inc., Disney, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Microsoft, HBO, Monster.com, MTV, Polo Ralph Lauren, Sotheby's Institute of Art, Victoria's Secret, Howcast and many more.

A Simple Force

I love this ad! And I am not the only one, having been watched close to 44 million times on youtube I don't think I am alone. It has garnered tons of hype and praise from industry people and audiences alike. It is clean, simple and memorable, contrasting the traditional high production and special effects that dominate this advertising market. It takes one of the most iconic brands and one of the biggest movie series in the world and through humour and emotion it shows off one clear selling point to the car. Advertising doesn't get much better.

How To Create Your Own Mayor - Foursquare for Businesses

By now you've heard of the basics of Foursquare, from a user standpoint.
Now it’s time to review the platform from a business perspective. More specifically for those who have a brick and mortar type of business. Sorry e-businesses, this part of Foursquare is not for you. There is an option for Brands, but more on that another time.

This nifty little video explains the basics but the process is fairly simple: With an account set up you just need to a) claim your venue b) create one or many specials, and then c) monitor your results.



Claiming your venue
Go to the Foursquare page of your business by finding it in the search, or adding your location into the system and then follow the link that says "Do you manage this venue? Claim here." It’ll walk you through the rest of the steps to confirm that you are who you say you are.

Creating specials
Once your venue has been confirmed, you can start to craft your specials, there are many types of specials available but they fall under two main categories: Attract new customers to your business and Encourage loyalty among your existing customers. Both have their advantages depending on what results you are looking for. See the images below for more specifics.

Monitoring your results

As the venue manager you have several real-time statistics available to you:

• Total daily check-ins over time
• Your most recent visitors
• Your most frequent visitors
• Gender breakdown of your customers
• What time of day people check in
• Portion of your venue’s foursquare check-ins that are broadcast to Twitter and Facebook

The trick is to use the information that you gather to help tweak your specials to help with your marketing goals.

With a few simple steps, you can be well on your way to attracting new customers and rewarding the loyalty of those you already have.

Have any of you already created a Foursquare special? Let us know about it in the comments.

BSL Gets Reel

Over the last two years BSL has been rapidly expanding its capabilities in video production. So much so that we now have an official in-house video department, equipped with some of the best talent in the city, and the state-of-the-art tools to go along with it.

From original concept development and scriptwriting, to talent sourcing and location scouting, to shooting through to final editing and production – there isn’t a whole lot we can’t do here at BSL. And we’ve got the hardware to prove it! In the last two years, some of our top video projects have won us two Telly awards, two Communicator awards, a Davey award, a W3 award and a Platinum Creativity International award.

Video is more than just a communications tool. It is becoming the communications tool, and we can’t get enough of it. Check out our new demo reel for some highlights of what we can do now.

BSL Helps Iridium Dawn a New Age in Communication

Anthropologists used to judge how far a civilization has come by the sophistication of its weapons. While this is still a primary meter stick for our progress, there are other, more relatable categories of measure that have emerged – proving that we’ve come a long way, baby.

Nothing says progress like the way we communicate. Communication is a vital part of our lives, our jobs, and even our safety. The more progress we continue to make, the more possibility lies ahead for what we can do next.

BSL is fortunate to have a client that is at the forefront of this kind of progress, and we’re celebrating a pretty awesome milestone this week: the launch of Iridium’s new communications powerhouse, Iridium Extreme. While it may look like just a simple satellite phone – news is traveling fast that this thing is truly revolutionary.

Iridium Extreme is the first satellite phone EVER that can track your location online, from anywhere you are on the planet. And since this is Iridium, we do mean anywhere. As the world’s toughest, most rugged satellite phone, it lets users keep their family, friends and employers up to date under virtually any conditions, all over the world.

On top of being a reliable satellite phone and a mobile tracking device, Iridium Extreme also has accessories that create instant Wi-Fi hotspots, anywhere. This means never having to say goodbye to your smartphone, tablet, or laptop – even if you’re scaling a mountain, crossing the desert, or just in a dead zone at the cottage.

Iridium Extreme marks the dawn of a new age. An age with fewer limits, and greater possibilities for what we can do and how we can interact. And for communications junkies like us – we see nothing but extreme potential.

Check out the official Iridium Extreme video, created by BSL.

Canadian Geographic Teaches Some Carbon Footprint Fitness

I can’t predict who will actually read this post, but I can say with a fair amount of certainty that most of you should probably go on a diet.

Now hold on – before you get offended – I’m not talking calorie consumption. I’m talking energy. The gas in your car, the oil in your furnace, the number of appliances you have, the amount of electricity you use – for most of us, energy is our largest expense. With the increasingly ominous threats of climate change looming over all of us, the importance of cutting back on our carbon emissions is becoming harder and harder to ignore.

In an effort to help, our clients at Canadian Geographic have decided to put six Canadian households on an Energy Diet, and pit them against each other. Each household will spend three full months taking all kinds of steps to slim down their consumption. While they learn effective ways to cut down their energy use they will keep the rest of the nation updated on their progress by blogging about their experience – complete with photos and videos to increase the excitement. Also to keep things interesting, each household will be participating in a few ‘mini-challenges’ organized by Canadian Geographic.

After entries were submitted from coast to coast, the final six competing households were chosen, and off to the races on September 1st, 2011. BSL was responsible for the design and development of print ads for Canadian Geographic and Geographica, to promote the various stages of the Challenge, as well as the official Energy Diet Challenge Guide and foldout poster featuring over 100 tips and tricks for you to start your own energy diet. Canadian Geographic and their partners at Shell have also developed a website with helpful online resources anyone can use, which includes a carbon footprint calculator, and personal energy dashboard.

While technically we all win when anyone makes an effort to help the environment, the Energy Diet Challenge will indeed have a champion. The household that shows the most enthusiasm and commitment to finding creative and efficient ways to reduce their consumption, in combination with receiving votes from viewers across the country, will be crowned the winner.

Follow the Energy Diet Challenge and start trimming some of your energy fat right now!

Generating Content for Your Business Blog

Now that you have your blog up and running (if not, you might be interested in the previous post: Get Your Business Blogging (Successfully)), you may be experiencing the common struggle of content generation. A lack of content makes maintaining regularity in your posts quite challenging. This is a hurdle for so many business bloggers, leaving them asking the key question: Where do we get the content?

It can really be quite simple and here are a few suggestions:

Repurpose stuff you already have

As a business, you very likely have an abundance of content, it just may not be written in a suitable style for a blog. But tailoring it to appeal to your online audience will be the easy part. Do a thorough audit of existing content and internal communications, and choose things that you may be able to adjust for a blog post. For example, disclosing the inner workings of your business can be a very successful approach that attracts great interest, because it’s not something expected or common. The story of your company, business or industry may be familiar and perhaps even boring to you – but to someone on the outside, it could be new and highly intriguing. Invite contributors from different parts of the organization to post from their own perspective and see what kind of feedback you get.

Watch for current news and trends

If you post items that are trending in social media and search spaces, you will attract interest from your readers. Try to provide something fresh, new or cool that people will want to share. And do it with personality. If you are flexible in your content creation process (writing posts quickly as news or trends arise), you will be rewarded by search engines and see an increase in traffic.

Use a variety of bloggers

As mentioned, generating content is a major struggle for so many business blogs, however if you enlist the help of multiple people in the organization, you may be surprised by the ideas that emerge. You will not only have more contributors, but also more diversity. And diverse voices mean you can attract more types of audiences.

I came across a post by Social Media Examiner, ‘11 Ways to Find New Content for Your Social Strategy’. It shares some great tactics to ensure you never run out of content:

#1: RSS Reader: Scan It Daily

#2: Make Every Employee a Marketer (get employees in all areas blogging)

#3: LinkedIn Groups (join based on the most active, listen and participate)

#4: Forums (check out discussions to see what people are talking about)

#5: Make a Tag Cloud (find relevant online content – ie/ tweets about your product or industry and drop them into a tag cloud application to find unexpected keywords)

#6: Eavesdrop (listen in on conversations online and offline)

#7: Crowdsource (ask your audience for content topics)

#8: Audio Books

#9: Google News

#10: Attend Industry Events

#11: Frankenblogging (combine your half-written posts to create one full post by finding the common link)