A more serious tone ...

Can you name all of the above famous people

and better yet, be able to write down their name?


If you are Canadian, can you? Do you even

know what they're famous for? Need a little

help?


But first take a pause and have a listen to this

great Canadian band. Cool and hip to anyone

born before 1985, I'd guess. Less likely to the

20 somethings I'd bet. Well, open your mind, or

just get closer .... from far away ...

GREAT Canadian musical group Nickelback ~ a Cdn TREASURE

#Canada #music #keepitCanadian

As a Canadian and foremost a Canadian, I want to speak ... or write rather ... about what has been brewing for quite some time. The issue jumps out at me at the most inopportune time. I don't grasp it, it's fleeting, yet fills me with not quite rage, disappointment is too soft, to rant would be pointless.

It was jolted just now drifting through my friends posts on Facebook or whatever Facebook was tossing my way. It was an image of CostCo and for what reason, I can't even recall? Oh, yeah, free makeup or something trashy like that.

I cannot support Costco which is an American company. If I have to, I will only shop Shopper's Drug Mart, Loblaw's, Superstore, Sobey's, Canadian Tire to protect Canadian jobs. But don't get me started on WalMart, who is trying to change the rules of buying by denying VISA usage, trying to closet consumers into revealing their habits, their medication, their size, their appetite, their needs, their desires: gadget grabs, mud packs, makeUP, musical taste. Credit cards are the most revealing side to any consumer.

I would like to head up a Consumer Group that is like a Canadian watchdog for #keepitCanadian ::.... a movement to hold Canadian companies to buying Canadian, supporting Canadian talent, all which is unique to being a Canadian.

I would even work as a Canadian Ambassador of Social Media for free if I really have to. Expelling the wonders of all that is Canadian. To make accomplishments on protecting our people, our jobs, or livelihoods.

We should take the cue from our American neighbours political politic'g about protecting US jobs. Heck, that supposedly big movie star fell into the pit along with Leo Dicaprio who thought just by being here, he could exude American wisdom. How arrogant.

I will have to scout and sleuth faithfully to find that clip at the Democratic National Convention, when, yes, even I, had tears in my eyes during the unveiling of Hilary Clinton as the first American Presidential Candidate and quite possibly, the first woman President.

What I heard from Bernie Saunder's pulpit, Donald Trump's lectern, and Hillary Clinton's microphone was how, as new founded governments, their critical first actions is to pursue which companies are evading taxes owing in their country, where they house most of their headquarters, executives with hefty bonuses in the country of origin.

Or they offshore jobs, employ foreign workers before national citizens by driving down minimum wages to protect profits.

Doesn't sound very Canadian does it? And to hear that the same thing
is causing a political revolution. We, Canadians, should take heed.

As a coalition of #keepitCanadian activists, we will amass Corporate names, executive bios, of companies that have and continue to expand outsourcing of jobs to foreign companies, not even of our soil, contribut-
ing on our high taxes, paid by us, so that our consumer dollars go to buy those very things being made somewhere else, or a job done by someone else, someplace else.

As I gather the information, depending upon contributors, we'll have to see what develops, if anything. If something does, then it should be handed personally to Justin Trudeau to see if he is the man he wants us to believe he is that wants to improve Canada, help Canadians. Don't tell me, he said: "Let's make Canada great ... again."

Well, we're already great if that group of people identified were to tell it. After all, so many of us idolize those of fame, but not always by accomplishment. That is just not the Canadian way.

I will post the answers on the first image. If you want to give it a whirl via commenting, that would be great. Only rules, top left to right; back to left and then to the right, and so on.

I look forward if anyone takes a shot.

attraction TRACTION :

Measuring SoMe efforts


Do you monitor your traction? I do sometimes. The 

most revealing are those that have been invited to like

 my page and haven't responded. Seeing that this is 

"social networking" to me, it communicates who my 

supporters are from those who would rather have me

 like or share their stuff. Social Media is a reciprocal 

business it needs to be said. I am not going to go on

 about it other than just carve back who I follow so 

that I can add more value to those who support 

me back. 

http://www.pinpuff.com/how-much-do-keywords-still-matter/

How Much Do Keywords Still Matter?

Back in the 1990’s or early 2000’s if you were a part of the SEO scene you know that keyword density reigned supreme as the quickest method of making money. People made a fortune literally overnight and many a webmaster feverishly calculated the keyword to total word count ratio in an attempt to hit that perfect keyword density per page. The belief was that when a particular page reached this ratio it would have a better chance to rank for that keyword. It was a simple scheme that made it easy for almost anyone to start ranking. READ MORE ...... 

Self promotion NOTIONS

Some people certainly have been able to create a 

niche for themselves on social media.  And, there are

a TON of wannabes like me.  Those that want to 

REALLY quit their day jobs and be able to blog and

post professionally.  Say whatever they want and 

people will be attracted to that.  

For sale:  the official car of optioneerJM (wish:  MiniCooper convertible)

MINI owes much of its incredible longevity and success to the quirky and timeless appeal of its iconic outline. Since joining the BMW Group in 1994, the brand has steadily evolved from a niche vehicle for “enthusiasts” to become far more mainstream—all the while gaining a reputation for creating eye-catching guerrilla marketing and offbeat campaigns.

The brand is set on solidifying a reputation that goes beyond buzzworthy marketing, and has been hard at work to ensure that it remains relevant. In the first nine months of the year, BMW sold more than 246,426 MINI vehicles globally, and in the U.S. alone, year-to-date MINI sales were up 14.8 percent from 2014. But the brand isn’t done yet. Earlier this summer, it unveiled the 2016 MINI Clubman, a six-door estate that marks its entry into the premium compact segment, an area predicted to grow to make up 27 percent of global car sales by 2020. The Clubman signals its realigned strategy for MINI to “concentrate on five core models with strong characters.” To that end, a redesigned and simplified logo was rolled out midsummer, and two of the brand’s models—the Coupe and the Roadster—were retired.

From Brazil with love

What a crazy thing happened... here I write about 

attraction traction and why it is always a cool 

revelation when you take a look at who you may be

attracting to your blog, twitter feed or content 

everywhere.  The surprises never cease to unfold.  My

own discovery this evening when I saw a dramatic 

spike in readers from Brazil.  Maybe I am going to 

win a free trip and be hosted to visit all the hotspots in

preparation for the RIO games right around the 

corner.  What a dream to see, feel and share what it

may feel like for visitors to the Olympic Games in 

Brazil next month.  (I'll take it!!)

My fellow Canadians must be out celebrating Canada Day and US starting early

The next best trend

Would be where people pay MOI to be able to have 

an ad on my site.  As the legend grows and readership

goes, the page views, subscribers, followers will 

increase, then so will be the rates to be able to 

advertise in a few prime spots.  Only a couple of 

banner ads and a handful MAX of ads to the right.


 
 


 
 


 


 


 


 





 


No. 3 Brand:  Coca Cola according to Rankings.com
When the celebrated TV series Mad Men wrapped up earlier this year, viewers were left with an iconic moment of marketing genius: Coca-Cola’s “Hilltop” ad. The 1971 commercial, which features a multicultural mix of youths singing “I’d like to buy the world a Coke,” speaks to a simpler time for America—and for the brand.

Now, the world’s biggest beverage brand is trying to recapture that magic for millennials through its “Share a Coke” campaign, a global marketing initiative that began in Australia in 2011. The personalized bottles were so successful in the U.S. in 2014 that the campaign was expanded this year. In September 2015, Coca-Cola teamed up with Twitter to create a custom emoji—two Coke bottles clinking—that appeared in tweets bearing the hashtag #ShareaCoke. The result: a record 170,500 mentions over a 24-hour period. 

Few companies can harness the emotional horsepower that Coca-Cola can. The challenge, instead, for the 129-year-old beverage giant is that sales of cola and its carbonated cousins have been declining over the past decade amid health concerns. As a result, the company has broadened its array of lower-calorie and lower-sugar sodas, introduced smaller container sizes, and added healthier beverages to its brand portfolio, ranging from iced tea to coconut water. READ MORE ..... 

The voice of a generation

Can be channeled at one origin.  Initially, not sub- 

scriber based.  Where people of similar interests hang

out.  The bygone product being the founding fathers 

of social media as interest-based content is where the

moola or cashola will be had.  Any and every brand

has read (and for the most part ignored) the value of

having a blog.  Yet, seriously, how many heed?  Let 

me check.

Google:  No. 2 according to Rankings.com

Who are the top 10 brands globally?

This awesome website granted me my wish.  (Isn't it

stunning how easy it has become to find exactly what

you're looking for when you look on Google?  A 

while back, (dreams of an assistant editor who can 

these nuances for my blog, on where I say or predict

something as it relates to:

• advertising
• business
• consumer spending
• leadership
• companies
• policies
• trends

According to Rankings.com the biggest brand is:

APPLE
 

“If you don't cannibalize yourself, someone else will,” Steve Jobs once notably remarked. In the past year, Apple has again held true to this belief, as it continues to outdo its existing products and launch all-new ones. The Apple ecosystem expanded exponentially throughout 2015, along with its customer-centric focus, as reflected by a 43 percent rise in brand value this year. 

 “

If you don't cannibalize yourself, someone else will,” Steve Jobs once notably remarked. In the past year, Apple has again held true to this belief, as it continues to outdo its existing products and launch all-new ones. The Apple ecosystem expanded exponentially throughout 2015, along with its customer-centric focus, as reflected by a 43 peralue this y

A one person promotion

Jeannette's background has success written across operations management, new business development, service delivery, service management, solution sales, team leadership, major accounts management, project management, brand & content development, web page creativity, change management, social media, enterprise IT, content curation and loyalty/retention.  She has been effectively been coached by executives, clients, mentors & stakeholders of distinguished global leading organization: IKON, Xerox, HP, Telus(Canada)

In 2010, Jeannette got fired up when introduced to social media and thought :: it's the next BIG thing!  Creating a pseudonym @optioneerJM she sought to seek out & research information to answer an insightful question :: could she apply this knowledge to create a unique identity online?  Leaning on her advertising, business savvy and creative mind emerged a name:

  "If the Internet is the information highway, then Social Media is the bullet train."                   ~Jeannette Marshall as @optioneerJM #Quote

The excitement Jeannette has created has been contagious. Her refreshing enthusiasm merged with expansive knowledge gained from curiosity is widely embraced by her global audience & following.

Her originality is dispensed by content curating, resourceful writing and keen visual optics applied with a unique business savvy:::awarded Top 1% online influence by KRED (yes, compared to whomever is trending today), Klout Score  77% (by 3rd party talent who apply algorithm metrics to emerge brands::to score influence, assign credibility, access a larger audience::she recognized instinctively the eventuality that online influence, beyond fame, will become a currency to attract traditional brands clamoring to gain recognition averse to traditional means, minus SEO, to land on honesty.

Perhaps she can help you?  Some have tested her to see their scores double (credibility with brand enforcer ) discovering that :: if you stay consistent to your passion, goals and beliefs, you will emerge glorified as a visionary.

Very very very few have been acclaimed visionaries.  Jeannette is one.

When honesty hurts

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

I’m thankful I ran across the story afire on Twitter to draw me  to MEDIUM to read what the fuss was all about for myself.  It made me want to comment, respond, and say a few words.....

If I were her mentor, I would have advised Talia to stay away from broadcasting her frustration with her company and employer so publicly. It has ramifications that one may not have anticipated, such as losing a job, as it did happen. Many organizations have Code of Ethics with social media rules that protect themselves from this very thing, which would state “loss of employment” if you violate the rules.

Having said that, let me applaud and share my respect for the courage that it must have taken to publish this not-so-secret plight. It is a sad state of circumstances that many 20 somethings are dealing with: not being able to afford a living while working: often called the “working poor” or forced to live at home.

If she had asked me, which she certainly didn’t. I would have recommended that she reach out to HR to ask for advice so that they may have guided her on what extras could be done to move up the ladder. (However, these same advisors are usually people who are hired fresh out of university themselves, without life wisdom, because they will accept a lower wage with the same optimism that they can work their way up the ladder to a better paying job). 

Or, she could have asked her direct manager, what skills she should focus on to become a higher valued contributor in order to be promoted within the company. (Which those same managers may not be equipped for career mentoring while to juggling high turnover from the constant revolving door of employees who get fed up or luckily are snapped up by a competitor or another company willing to pay a little more for all that training and experience that the former company cast aside).  Thanks for training your competitors?  Huh?

Steve Jobs was certainly known for NOT keeping his opinions to himself.

There are a lot of remarkable examples the world over who were often  considered rebels: think Steve Jobs … getting hired and fired, committed to his beliefs and passionate about perfection, who ended up paving a way to a career on his own terms. Difficult to imagine when you don’t know where the money for groceries or having to turn off the heater to save on costs.

Talia was very brave in her expression. However, being as smart as she is, she may have anticipated that she could lose her job over self-expression: telling it like it is. She is a lesson and champion for her generation, even if it doesn’t feel like it right now. She had the tenacity and realization that it isn’t a plight of hers alone, but of many similar in age who are saddled with student debt, not finding a good job because you need a good job in order to get the experience to get a better one, or still living at home which destroys any self-confidence or optimism you may have once had. Forced to accept minimum wage for an important role: speaking to customers.

I suggest she continue to be passionate about her beliefs even when the world seems to be knocking her down. We don’t always know where we’ll end up, but having integrity and passionate about injustice, is a character trait that should serve her well in your future. Someone WILL recognize someone who is prepared to go the extra mile for their customers, their career, their company. Sometimes true honesty is a thermometer of what is really going on. It is not rocket science that happy employees create positive experiences with customers. Society and the corporate world don’t always recognize that although the truth can hurt, it may foreshadow a downward turn in their good fortune. It often appears in the end, with executives scratching their heads, revolving disruptive CEO or executive turnover who make change for the sake of making impact, without asking the frontline people if it makes sense. We know them as media darlings who are constantly being broadcasted about their demise, their layoffs, their diminishing shareholder value.

Yes, it took guts. But the ramifications are indicative of the world we live in: it is safer to take your grief to your employer-sponsored benefits to a counselor, who may be better equipped to help you handle it.

I hope others will recognize, as I did, that if you ignore a problem or keep quiet about it, doesn’t necessarily mean it will go away.  Typically, it masks a much bigger problem. The company is simply doing what is acceptable practice: protecting their reputation so that they don’t lose customers or shareholders. The same companies that hire juniors, train them for responsibility, and then hope that it will turn out in their favor …. all at a much lower wage than they could hire someone with greater experience who can’t afford to start all over again.

Many employees keep quiet about how they feel to protect themselves

Many quality organizations promote honesty and create platforms to voice complaints about a manager, express how they really feel.  Yet, many employees are frozen with fear that the same manager or situation will get flagged and travel back to them, causing more undesired issues, ramifications and sometimes retaliation.   

At least, they try:  often,  they are the bigger corporations that have accountabilities to shareholders, if not always employees.  Then, there are the smaller or mid-size family run businesses where staff can be fired on a whim or a bad day.... with little to no fear of ramification.  At least, some companies hold their entire organization accountable and are known for firing executives for  violating behaviors.   

Above surface: what the world sees; below surface: what is really going on

That is a slippery slope of discussion best not expressed by an employee who could be misunderstood or misperceived that they're talking about their own organization when they are not.    Safer to keep away from slamming former employers or a nasty former boss unless one doesn't care that they could be held accountable.

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." 

~Albert Einstein

How many organizations, I wonder, evaluate employee turnover and examine if there are trends?  Are managers with higher results or performance forgiven more frequently for high turnover because they may be perceived as driving results when the real reasons may be disguised?  

 I like my job, I love my company.  I consciously stay far away from writing about or participating in corporate politics.  I have a focused decision to do my best to write positively and help others be more optimistic while improving their skills .... a more constructive way of moving ahead ... in my opinion.

Thank you for your honesty, Talia, it is precious. As a mother of four 20-somethings it isn’t anything I haven’t heard before …. although albeit a lot less publicly.

 +Jeannette Marshall (mother of four 20-somethings aka Millennials)

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."

~Albert Einstein