Life at Oak Grove

Some of you might be wondering what I am talking about. So before I explore the numerous possibilities with this innovative social media board, I will tell you what Pinterest is. Simply enough, Pinterest is a vision board sharing website (and app) where users can create and manage theme-based boards. Essentially, think of it as a corkboard where you pin you notes and photos but visualize it as going global. Being on Pinterest permits you to discover other people around the world who has the same taste as you.

Now how can Pinterest be interesting for a homeschooler. This website has gigantic possibilities for someone like you and I. By doing searches on a specific subject you can discover numerous sites and other homeschoolers who have already pinned/studied/explored the said subject in the past. You simply re-pin it on your own board for future references. It is as easy as saying your ABCs but way more addictive – ask anyone who are on it already!

Thanks to Pinterest I can now transfer all the homeschool sites I had included in my favorites and that I always forget about in a specific board and have them under my eyes if needed be. Having the link and an image together is very helpful for a visual person like me.

Once you are on Pinterest (whether by requesting it or getting an invitation from someone…) I would suggest that you think about how you want to be organized. I saying this because at this point in time, I am rethinking and reorganizing my own boards because I found that they were too – how should I say this – vague. For example, I had a board called recipes and one called homeschool (I have since decided to name my boards in French for personal reasons). But everything linked to recipes or homeschool would go there. Now when I wanted to find the recipe for Starbucks Pumpkin Scones or an activity in mathematics, I had trouble finding it in the board. So I decided to split my boards so now I have my bread recipes in a separate board and all my links for mathematics in a different one.

Every now and then, I spend a little bit of time on Pinterest to discover new ideas for homeschool, new French links, new recipes, new social media awareness, new activities for the kids depending of the period of the year and more.

And now when I make a new recipe my husband would ask where I got it and I usually say – Pinterest. It permits me to explore new tastes with my family as well as have some blogging ideas.

You can find everything for anatomy, science lessons, English, French, art, astronomy, Bible lessons, mathematics, geography, history, and more. I recently found a link on how to make worms out of Jello and straws, how to make your own superballs, found templates for super heroes logos (which I suspect will be a BIG hit in our household) as well as learn to optimize a garden (which I hope to have one day!).

There are numerous homeschoolers/teachers on Pinterest and you will definitively find something interesting for your taste/homeschool/kitchen/… I would strongly suggest that you explore the possibilities with Pinterest and let it provide you numerous ideas to explore with your children.

Oh! And if you decide to join Pinterest, feel free to follow me - https://pinterest.com/canadianladybug/ !

Recently while being on Facebook, I discovered a new marketing online offer from Kraft Canada. The from Kraft Food offered a samplicious package which contains full size samples of their new products on the market. More the 15,000 sample boxes were available.

Anyone could sign up but you had to pay 9.95$ of shipping charges to get the box. At first I was wondering if this was a scam but someone took the initiative to call Kraft Canada to ask them if this was true. It sounded too good to be a real deal. But it was!

I jumped on the offer, shared it on facebook and twitter. Then I waited for my package to arrive.

Within a week and half, my doorbell rang. Outside the door my postman was holding my Samplicious package. The first question he asked me was: “Can you tell me what’s in there because I have four of those in my van?” I laughed and told him that it probably won’t be the last ones either… I told him what it was and immediately he said “Where can I get one of these?”. I had to inform him that it was sold out at this point in time. I suspect that
these packages were gone like hotcakes.

I opened the box in front of him and we were both impressed with the full size products.

My postman went on his way to deliver the other samplicious packages and the rest of the mail and I brought the box for the kids to see. They couldn’t believe their eyes. Usually when we get a sample of a product, we receive a sample which is a few to taste it. But this time it was full size boxes in the box. Also included in the box were three coupons for full size products at the grocery store for the cheese products. The only items that didn't stay in our house were the gums as we are not chewers of gum. I kept one of the new Trident flavors but I gave the rest to my mother-in-law when she was visiting. The other product that might not find supporters in this house is the Kraft Whipped Cheese Dill flavor. I figure the kids can eat it... *grin*

The fact that many Canadian sites are promoting the daily deals found everywhere on facebook and twitter, helped Kraft Canada to spread the word on this out-of-the-box offer.

Though we loved our package and I think it was an original way to promote new products, I think Kraft Canada would have been wiser to use only coupons to exchange at the grocery store for full size items. It would have cost less money for everyone I think. Though as a stay-at-home mom who also homeschool my four kids, I appreciate the fact that I didn’t have to run around for each of these products. But I think it would have been fun to go with the kids to get the products at the grocery store.

Now I suspect that this strategy is to stir the consumers to purchase the products they have loved from this package. Though we loved them some of these products are so expensive that I will never consider purchasing them on a regular basis.

Take the amOOza twists cheese snacks for example. This is one of the products I had to go to the store to get. The snacks are fun to look at and delicious while we eat it but the price tag attached to them is over 6$ believe it or not. When I was at my local Loblaws, I had found two of the three products that I had received a coupon from. Well with the amOOza! alone I had reached the maximum of allowed coupons from the register. My cashier had to call a supervisor to allow my next coupon to be keyed in. I thought it was hilarious!

I would be curious to see if the strategy of creating the Samplicious packages will created a love affair between the customers and the products offered.

What do you think of this out of the box offer from Kraft Canada? Do you think it will encourage customers to purchase their new products? Would you have paid for the shipping charges or would you prefer to only receive coupons to exchange at the grocery store?

Note to me readers:  This was a post done for the course Applied Social Media in Business that I am currently completing to get my Social Media Certificate. 

For this specific blog post, I needed to answer one of the questions asked in the article "Do People Know Your Story?" from John Jantsch for one of the courses I am taking to complete my Social Media certificate. I decided to answer the question: What about your childhood shaped you for this moment?

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Recently, while doing an earlier assignment for the Digital Communications course I am currently doing to complete my Certificate in Social Media at Algonquin College, I realized that a specific experience in my life had prepared me somewhat to become an online journalism doing reviews.

While I was in high school, I was part of the student newspaper called “L’Informateur” back in 1985-1986. I was responsible of the middle section of the newspaper which consisted of the numerous news of what was going on at the school during that particular week. As a reporter I would meet with the various teachers/nurse/event organizers and so on to ask them what news would they want to see in the next edition. I would then organize the information so that it would be easy to read in the middle section of the newspaper. Sometimes there was so much information to post that I needed to include another page. Here’s an example of the page I was responsible of. The scan is not perfect but in case you are wondering yes I still have all my copies of “L’Informateur” from the year I was part of the writing team. What can I say… I am sort of a packrat!

At one point during the year, we also created a weekly story called “Super Gaétan” and everyone was responsible to the story line at one specific time during the year. The highlight of my participation to the student newspaper was definitively our visit to the headquarters of La Presse in Montreal during the printing of the next day’s paper. We learned quite a bit on how a newspaper was produced (The arrow indicates me in the picture!).

But after high school, I concentrated on my studies and worked as well. It is not until I was a stay-at-home mom and starting to consider homeschooling that I renewed my interest in writing but this time via a blog post. Before that every now and then I would write in a journal about what was going on in my life. But blogging was different… and when a friend of mine encouraged me to participate to the new viral marketing project of a homeschool magazine in the US I discovered reviewing products was interesting. Once my nine month commitment for that first year was completed, I started reviewing novels. During my third year with the TOS Crew where I reviewed numerous homeschool products, it dawned on me that I could do this for other products as well like toys for example.

In a way I am still informing other about products/books available out there and give them my honest opinion about them. Though the way of doing it is different – after all I am doing it online now, the idea behind it is similar than when I was responsible of the middle section of the student newspaper. Essentially, I test the product at home and give the positive and negative on the said product. If it is a book, I say what I honestly think about it and how it touched me in some ways.

So in a way I consider myself as a digital reporter who is involved in the product testing and reviewing of products and books. Who would have known that being involved in a student newspaper would have opened doors later in life in doing something that I enjoy.

How about you? What childhood activity has shaped you for whatever is going on in your life right now?

Note to my readers: I am currently doing two courses to complete my Social Media Certificate. One of the course is Digital Communication. This is my second blog post assignment. I will post my assignments here.

The author of this blog also post regularly on Canadianladybug Reviews!

As part of my course Developing a Social Media Strategy, I have to write a post that incorporates and connect to an article I have recently read or something current I’ve seen in the news.

One day about two weeks ago, my husband emailed me an article that he had read on ctv.ca – Grown-up Facebook users similar to young people: study .   After reading the article, I thought it was an interesting subject for my course.

Apparently adults are not much better than teenagers to protect their privacy while on social networks.   Ah!   Really?     I could have told you that without going through a study just by the things I read sometimes….

Nevertheless, I think that having a study on the subject will make people realize about the kind of information they put on facebook and other social networks.  

According to the article, one of the authors of the study says

You should treat anything that you post on facebook like you’re posting on the front page of a newspaper, so you want to be comfortable that you’d be OK with your employer seeing that, your family member seeing that friends, children,…

As I read these words, it reminded me how sometimes I have read some posts on facebook that got me wondering why in the world someone would put that up.   Honestly, I must admit that it drove me mad at times because somehow it affected me quite a bit – like becoming mad of the people and judging them.   I quickly realized that I was not on a good path and this was affecting me more than I would have thought.    I took some steps to reduce the amount of reading from some people.   

Did you know that nowadays numerous employers will check out your facebook page before proceeding to hiring you?    And that if you don’t get a job, it could be because of something you had posted on facebook?   Unfortunately, if this is the case, you are more than likely never know about it as the potential employers will not divulge the information.

The study has compared the habits of two groups – a young one composed of young people ages nine to eighteen (288 facebook users) and an older one where the ages were ranging from nineteen to seventy-one (285 facebook users).  

According to the research, the younger users would be more likely to reveal more information simply because they are spending more time on the social networks.  However, whether the younger generation is not as foolish as we first thought or that the older generation are more foolish concerning the protection of their privacy the study has not revealed this.   Generally speaking

there is this belief that younger people, especially teenagers, are somewhat foolish when it comes to privacy and social media, and as people get more mature, older, they become more careful and more protective of their privacy.

However, the study has identified a trend that the younger generation would be more likely to do – ‘friend collecting’ which is simply to add people they do not like or do not know personally.

After reading this article, my first reaction was that I wasn’t surprised by the results.    I tend to agree that people should be more careful about the kind of information they post on facebook or other social networks.  In 2011, I have already a number of friends who had some sort of virus that has spread on their friends on facebook as well as been hacked (not by family members).

I personally am somewhat protective on the kind of information I would put on my tag line on facebook.    I try not too vent too much to the whole world when something is not going well or if someone if frustrating me.   Oh I am tempted at times… but I remind myself that it is not a proper behavior and that in the end it could cause more problems than anything else.    It is like pouring fuel on a fire – close your eyes and picture a fire to which you add some gasoline in it… what would happen?  Exactly – an out of control fire.    

Complaining and posting your own frustration on facebook can have a similar effect on a relationship – it can get out of control…

So be wise.  Think twice before posting.    Is it necessary?  Is it putting someone down?   Is it adequate?   Is it out of taste?   

Same goes with pictures, videos, comments and so on.

Always think about the consequences before acting.

To come back on the study for one last time, I was surprised to see that kids as young as nine years old were included.    Honestly it is beyond me to understand why parents would allow their kids of that age to use social networks.   Honestly, I am reticent to let my own ten years old boy to navigate these sites just yet.    I don’t think he has the maturity to make wise decisions while using them.    Maybe I am ‘old school’ for that matter – yes coming from someone who has a master degree in Information Technology.   But I want to protect him and his siblings as much as possible against damages that could affect their whole life in the future.

In the meantime, I am planning to become wiser while using social network and be very careful of the kind of information I will post.   

What do you think about the article?   How do you protect yourself while being on facebook?   Are you careful about the type of information you post?

I just discovered an interesting new social media site called Shweet! What is Shweet? Well simply put you have a change to win something every time you share a link with your friends. Every day, you can include links on twitter or facebook to funny videos, trailers, stores and much more. Once you have shared the link with your contacts in facebook or twitter, you have a change to win something.

The site is pretty easy to use I find. One column is showing you the prize to win and the other one is giving you the link which you can share on facebook or twitter. How do you win? Apparently when enough people have shweeted a link, the swwepstakes is closed and a random draw is made. You can only shweet once through facebook and once through twitter. That's it!

Also every time you shweet, you earn points. What the point are for I currently have no clue whatsoever since they have not explained this on their site just yet. I think they are trying to figure it out.

I suspect that some people will go overboard and shweet about anything and everything. Me? I am the kind of person who will pick and choose the post to shweet. For example as my first shweet, I decided to pick the one to promoto CoolCanucks and I have now a chance to win a 25$ Starbucks gift card.

The idea is original and very creative I find. A way to encourage people to spread the word on products, sites or other things and give them a chance to win something for their efforts. It feels like have a carrot in front of you to use a French Canadian expression... The funny part is takes literally two clicks to get two chances to win something.

Shweet can be found at http://www.shweet.com , on their tumblr blog, on facebook and on twitter.

What do you think of this innovative way of helping to spread the word on something?

Would you be interested in signing in? Why or why not?

What kind of prize would interest you?

As I go through the 100 Personal Branding Tactics article that is included in my Social Media course, I started thinking about the numerous companies who are using the social media for promotion.

Take Aunt Jemima for example. Everyone has seen it on the shelves at the grocery store. Personally, I don’t recall trying it but it has been an icon for many families for years. In this time of technological advancement, the company has recently decided to launch a social media campaign on facebook and twitter. The campaign involves a series of videos where employees describe the homemade process of creating the product. Talk about making the product personal for people. The word homemade is probably the key ingredient in this whole campaign.

Other companies are following suit. I have heard/saw many campaigns on the facebook world in the past few months. Mostly limited to the US. But in the past week, I have heard of two Canadian campaigns going on.

Swiss Chalet has launched his Rotisserie Channel on facebook and on Rogers Channel 208. Based on the fireplace channel where you could watch a fireplace all day long on television, Swiss Chalet has decided to create a Rotisserie Channel where you watch chickens getting cook for a period of time. If you are patient enough to wait longer, you will receive an offer code which will give you …. But beware a new offer code is released each day and an expiry date is attached to the offer. So if you feel like watching chickens turning in front of you for 2 minutes or more. Hop over to the Swiss Chalet website and get your offer code.

The other campaign is from a very popular chain of restaurant for the promotion of the Free Coffee campaign. McDonald’s is at it again. All you have to do is like their facebook page and follow their instruction! It is as simple as the click of your mouse...

I suspect that more and more companies will take advantage of instantaneous marketing with the social media.   After all, offering offers like rebates or free samples on facebook will attrack consumers and is definitevely cheaper on the marketing budget than spending thousands of dollars to put advertising on billboards.   Mind you, I don't see the day where a company will only advertize on the social media just yet.

My question today for you is: What do you think of these new initiative of marketing that Canadian companies are putting in place?   Are you finding this interesting or will you stay away from it knowing that facebook might share your personal information with these companies?

For the past week, I have put many thoughts on personal branding.

Not only because of this specific course titled Introduction to Social Media but because of an email I received this past week from Mom Central.

Last Fall, Mom Central Canada has decided to put a Blogger Grant Program.   Bottom line is that they are awarding grants over the next year to Canadian bloggers in their network.    The first grant program was about a post that you would like to write.     In January 2011, I learned that I was one of the ten recipients of this first grant of 250$ from Mom Central Canada.  My application was the following:

The blog post I would like to write about would be RVing with young children‚.   In it I would give tips on how to choose an RV for a young family as well as tips and tricks on travelling long distance with young children.   We ourselves are rvers and we have 4 kids ages 3 to 9.     We learned a lot over the past three years about travelling with children and how to have fun as a family.    I would also suggest some fun activities to do together on the road or while visiting a new place.

Turns out that the post was a bit longer than I thought and I decided to split it in two different posts.   If you feel like reading them here they are:

Buying an RV. Are you ready?

RVing with young children

Where am I going?   Well I knew that the new grant will open up soon and I was starting to think of the next subject I would like to write.   Imagine my surprised when I received a Mom Central  email last week – about personal branding…

The Mom Blogosphere is brimming with talented, smart, passionate and ambitious women. We feel so grateful and want to do our part in helping take Moms' personal brands to the next level: be that a broader audience, getting media exposure, becoming a spokesperson, starting a small business, or better monetizing your platform. The possibilities are endless, and tie inextricably to the vision you have for yourself. So whether $2,000 could get you media training, graphic or technical help, a site redesign, shared office space, some intern hours, new business cards, let you self-publish a book, launch a new blog, or attend a key conference - we want to pitch in to provide the support it takes to get to the next level. So tell us what inspired you in the first place, your journey to take, and what you aspire to do next - because we care, and we want to help!

We know you do what you do for a reason, with a mission and vision behind it.

We love that.

We want to jumpstart more successes to come.

We want to support YOU!

And there would be five winners of 2000$ each.

So I started thinking seriously about the personal branding.

The questions linked to the application are all geared toward the personal branding theme.   What is the vision behind my personal brand, what do I aspire to do next, how will I use the grant to better my influence and personal platform, what I have done already to achieve my goals, what are the biggest challenges in achieving the goals for my blog and personal brand,   what are the top three things I learned along the way in building my brand and platform, and more.    In total I need to write a proposition of over 5000 words!

And to spice up the competition, the votes will be done on facebook of all places!
So I decided to embark on this new adventure.   I will try it again and see what will turn out of it.   I am fortunate to have my social networking course to help me discover aspects that I can explore with the personal branding and where I could expand my influence in the blogosphere.

On a bright note, I got offered to join the Woodall’s blogger team.  The past two weeks were all about thinking about the offer and filling paperwork.   The involvement will be for a period of six months with a post per week.    I had to submit some previous work I had done before.    Apparently I would be a great voice for the Woodall’s Family Camping Blog and they have been searching for a blogger to carry the torch for Canada.

Honestly I am not sure where all this is going but I am excited of the new opportunities opening up for me.    This afternoon I will have training with Woodall’s on how to use their platform.  Should be pretty straightforward…   Soon I will be able to post my blogs on their site. 
Do you have any suggestions that you would like to share with me on how I could make my application for the grant stand up above the other ones?   Please note that this application will be for my review blog – Canadianladybug Reviews!.

Let me know I am curious!

As I was reading the lesson for the next few weeks in my social media course, it got me pondering on how the social network has been used in the past to promote something. I remembered stumbling on a book last year titled Historical Tweets (http://historicaltweets.com) . They even have a twitter account - http://twitter.com/historicaltweet.

Then suddenly I came onto the news that Barbie and Ken were back together… If you remember correctly back in 2004 it was all over the news that they broke up and such. Well imagine my reaction when I read that Mattel is using the social media world to promote their back together. There’s talk about engagement which means there’s might be a wedding in the horizon. Ah!

Not only the Ottawa Citizen caught the news but even the blog world… And believe it or not but they are using facebook and twitter as well as an online dating site to promote it.

I think Mattel is using the social media world in a wise and innovative way to make people talk about Barbie and Ken. My daughter is too young to understand all the buzz going around. She has been introduced to Barbie only recently. But having grown up with Barbie and Ken, I wonder where this marketing will be going and how little girls everywhere will react to this news.

For more details go to http://barbieandken.com/ - Yes they even have their own website....