This is another post that I wrote for TEDxOttawa – which is coming up in less than 3 weeks!

I can’t help but think about Thanksgiving dinners and seeing my family when the weather starts turning from the hot summer days to the brisk evenings that come with the Fall season. The colours are changing all around us, we get to gather with friends and family that we may not see all year and reminisce about the many things we should all be grateful for.

What a perfect time of the year to be hosting TEDxOttawa, am I right? In what I consider to be one of the most creativity inspiring seasons that Canada has to offer, TEDxOttawa will be making its mark! The colours, the smells, the transformation from lively summer flowers to the gentle cool rush of leaves falling to the ground; it all just screams transformation, change, and creativity!

So what is it that inspires your creativity? For me it’s the beauty in the changing of the seasons. This is the season where I want to take pictures of it all, hike through Algonquin Park to take in the sights and admire the beauty around me.

As much as I would like to get into how social media has played an interesting role in the riots we’ve seen in Egypt and London, I want to focus on the genuine global, and local, good that can come from this ever evolving phenomenon.

When leaving for University, I was set on entering the world of Non-profits and Social Work. After 4 years of kind of hard work, I got that very expensive piece of paper and set off to enter the “real world”. There were so many things that I loved about working in the Social Work field, but I always had this nagging feeling that it wasn’t for me. Things didn’t happen quickly enough (I’m told that’s something to do with with “my generation”), the bureaucracy of it all was getting to me.

So, naturally, after 4 years in Sociology and Psychology I found my true passion; Marketing! Here I am doing what I love, but I still love social change and advocating for a cause. How do you combine the two? Simple, utilize the tools that you use everyday to make your voice heard and advocate for the causes you truly care about.

If you’re wondering how you can be part of a change, here are 3 tools that I found helped me help a cause:

We all know what’s going on with the Groupons, the Livingsocials and the Dealfinds, right? This isn’t some new genius idea, rather, a technologically advanced model of an old favourite: Price Promotion!

Price promotions are great for attracting new customers. It’s the “get them in the door, sell the shit out of them” approach. This can work, if you really have something to offer AND if you target the right audience. You won’t be selling high end Rolex watches to Grouponers, for example (unless it’s at 98% off!).

The beauty of social coupons is that it gives people the opportunity to try something new at a fraction of the cost. Businesses using these price promotions are hoping to get quick sales but also to retain some new customers, converting them to a lifetime customer. Price promotions can be great for loyal customers too, revitalizing their love for your business by rewarding them with a discount.

Then we find a problem (well more than one). What about the business? How does this severely discounted price play out for them? The major problem that I find with the social coupon is the devaluation of the business, its services and/or its products. Once a coupon for 50% is bought, and given in the form of a gift card, we then equate the price of the coupon to the quality of the product or service. That amazing mani-pedi and massage spa package’s worth now sits at half price, how can you expect returning customers to pay double?

Throughout college and your career you won’t even be able to count the number of times you hear “you learn from your mistakes,” or “you need to fail if you want to realize success.” It really is true, but sometimes it’s hard to embrace it when it happens. Your mind can trick you into believing it’s a failure, and that it’s all that it will ever be.

It’s funny, tonight I had one of those moments, where it jumps out right in front of you and says “See, I told you!”. What was this moment of epiphany-like clarity?

I bought a new couch, things are great, I officially can start decorating now that I’m out of student life. So we get the couch all set up and I happened to buy some wine glasses today too. New couch? Celebrations are in order, I pour a glass of red wine and enjoy (Wolf Blass Shiraz, yum!).

Here’s my blog that I wrote for TEDxOttawa! I’m so excited to be a part of this amazing event! Our theme is Creative Actions and the event will take place October 22nd, 2011 at Algonquin College.

I’ll start off by saying that I’m a bit of a Social Media junkie.  I fought long and hard for days to get my Google+ invite and when I finally did, I was extremely stoked, to say the least. When the opportunity to be involved with TEDxOttawa as a Social Media TEDxer came up, you better believe it was broadcasted to Facebook and Twitter pretty darn quick.

So what’s the deal with Social Media these days anyway? To me, it feels like there are 3 types of Social Media personas: