Stick Business

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Target Closing in Canada.

We probably saw this one coming when the doors first opened and there was only 5 over priced choices of a possible 30 Goldfish crackers. Perhaps the lack of hockey gear and maple syrup lead to this demise as well.

Retail in Canada is tough. It requires innovation, planning, execution and on-going analysis while balancing margins and competitive threats.

Read more about the closure in this CBC article.

Photo from CBC article.

Stick Business is the official magazine of Hockey Science & Technology. News, information, products and services to develop and operate your business. Connect with Stick Business on Linkedin, Twitter and StickBusiness.net.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Social Media Image Cheat Sheet.

Thanks to our preferred email newsletter provider, Constant Contact, you can easily update your social profiles with optimal image sizes using the cheat sheet they have published. Bookmark their blog post for easy reference.

Take time today to go through your accounts from a user perspective on a computer, smartphone and tablet. Do any of the images look too small, blurry, cut-off or out of date? Update them now.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

"Hockey" nets a 40% engagement rate.

One of our Twitter paid advertising campaigns is using keywords to reach the hockey market. When someone searches or tweets with the word "hockey', the ad will likely show up in their timeline.

So far, the engagement rate for 'hockey' is 40%. Meaning, of all the people who saw the ad, 4 out of 10 performed retweets, replies, follows, card engagements or other clicks. By comparison, a Facebook ad campaign that we are running for another client in a different region is only netting 2%-13% engagement rate based on 'hockey' related interests.

So what does this mean for your hockey brand? It's very effective to advertise on Twitter.

Highest Twitter ad impressions is on iOS devices.

We're running a client campaign on Twitter in Calgary and so far 95.8% of the ad impressions are on iOS devices. The rest is on Android devices.

Our platform selection also included mobile web on other devices. We opted out on desktop and laptop computers and Blackberry devices.

Are iOS users more social or is Twitter based apps better on iOS? Or...Android use is from those in Calgary for Stampede.

Saturday, July 5, 2014

It's okay to send email. Get the CASL facts.

Since we informed you about the Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) in a post last April, there has been panic, confusion and compliance.

The Government of Canada's Fight Spam website provides some very helpful information about how and who you can send email to. In particular, you will want to know that implied consent under this new law is in effect during the 36 month transition period.

Fact: You can continue to use email if you have express or implied consent from recipients. During the 36-month transition period, you can continue to use your current email list if

you have previously provided your products or services to them and

they haven't told you to stop.

It's still important to follow best practices and those are built into email newsletters services like Constant Contact.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Advertise in your neighbourhood with Twitter.

If you have used Twitter to advertise your business, you may have noticed that you could only select a province or state to post your ad. Now you can narrow it right down your neighbourhood or postal FSA (forward sortation area).

The screen shot image is an example of where we ran an ad for a client. The ad would appear in timelines of Twitter users in this area based on keyword tweets and searches.

If your business is localized, 'roadshow' based or you want to promote your app in a local area, this is a great way to reach hundreds even thousands of potential customers. We've mentioned before that paid social media will net you better results and quicker than your organic social media efforts.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Dropbox app update 3.2 for iOS

We love using Dropbox for all of our clients' projects. It's easy to gather all of the media files for developing apps, websites, social media ad campaigns and print projects. Productivity increases. No more "I didn't get that file" or "I deleted that email" or "I can't find it".

The recent update includes:

Reorder your Favorites list with a simple touch and hold
Set up Dropbox on your computer using your camera
Dropbox now remembers recent locations when importing files
Accessibility improvements
Support for additional languages: Danish, Dutch, Swedish, and Thai
Lots of bug fixes and usability improvements