Recap: Social Media Breakfast Ottawa 1

Canada’s first Social Media Breakfast in Ottawa, the Nation’s Capital, is now one for the books! The inaugural Breakfast, sponsored by Overlay.TV, was held this past Tuesday. Over 60 guests braved the early hour and sauna-like weather to gather for a morning of social media talk over coffee at the headquarters of Ramius Corporation.

Our inaugural speaker was Adrian Salamunovic, Co-founder of DNA 11, an Ottawa-based company that creates the “world’s most personalized art” based on a sample of their customers’ DNA, fingerprints or lips. Adrian recounted the story of how he and his business partner Nazim Ahmed started their company by each investing $1,000. Just a few years later, they are today earning annual revenues in the seven figures. A key success factor? Social media. According to Adrian,

“DNA11 was incubated from social media exposure. Bloggers were the first to pick us up and this started a ’spark’ that eventually turned into a social and traditional media inferno.”

Wanting to showcase the coolness of the DNA 11 brand and product early on, Adrian initially focused on developing relationships with five trendy luxury and design blogs: ThisNext, Stylehive, MoCo Loco, Josh Spear and Luxist. Mentions there helped DNA 11 get the attention of editors at magazines such as Wired and GQ which they leveraged into TV product placements on NBC’s Today Show and CSI: NY. This propelled the awareness of the DNA 11 brand into the stratosphere. Consider some statistics Adrian mentioned:

• DNA 11 has appeared in over 200 publications and hundreds of TV and radio programs

• DNA 11 has over 5,000 incoming links from over 20,000 web page mentions

Adrian was quick to caution that while the ’spark’ of social media has benefited DNA 11 positively, one bad customer experience that’s blogged about can also spread similarly but with negative implications on his firm’s brand and reputation. In addition to ensuring quality products and great service, Adrian spends a significant amount of time monitoring what is being said about his firm, its products and services.

Some takeaways? Adrian summed up his experience with his ‘10 Rules for Social PR Guerillas’:

1. Have an interesting product or story. Be creative.
2. Know your target. Stay focused.
3. Understand which blogs influence your target (demographic).
4. A little bribery never hurts. (i.e. providing samples selectively to those who will genuinely review product, not to those that want a freebie)
5. Be authentic.
6. (If possible) let the evangelist do the pitching.
7. Be persistent (not annoying).
8. Build real relationships.
9. If you get into the ‘big’ blogs, the little ones will follow.
10. Measure and monitor.

For a true flavor of the event, I recommend checking out the following links:

• Mark Blevis’ podcast and blog post
• Andrew Alexander’s photos
• VideoBot’s (by EventBots) VideoBytes

Thanks again to everyone for supporting us in getting our first Breakfast kicked-off. Stay in touch with us at our SMB | Ottawa Group (or, feel free to contact Rob, Ryan or Simon) We look forward to seeing you at our next Breakfast, Tuesday, July 15th - save the date!