Canada's first ever social media e-magazine, giving you all the latest in Social Media News

1. EPISODE2

2. Tables of Contents
02
09
11
Feature Of The Month
04
Creative Driver
Guy Kawasaki on Social Media
#DoingItRight:
12
13
14
How to be a Successful Blogger
Jeff Bezos: $250 Million
New Clients
Letter From The Editor
Thank You!
16
17
The Youzus Report
• Social Media Advice •
• Interviews with Social Media
Rockstars •
• Creative Articles •
Your one stop shop for all things
social media.
Kuya Productions discuss
the relationship between
music and social media

3. v
2
There is not a day that does not go by that I don’t
think about what I can doto make Youzus better
than it was yesterday, and sometimes I get extreme
anxiety in those moments I don’t feel as though I’m doing
enough. And then there comes those moments, just minutes before
we are about to execute this magazine for example, that I get goose bumps. To think
that I have a team that cares about the vision, mission and passion of this company
as much as I do leaves me speechless....no....breathless.
They say it takes a village to raise a child, but I say it takes a solid team to raise a
good boss. A few days a go a friend of mine said something interesting, “Rather than
always trying to ‘manage’, ask to be ‘managed up’. Interesting right? It basically
means that your team should be teaching you as much as you are teaching them.
Just as a child can teach a parent about humility, your team can also do the same.
Thus that being said, I would like to encourage all of you leaders, founders, CEO’s
and managers out there to commemorate your team, because without your team
there would probably be no business.
To my team: You Rock. (Why thank you)
Sonya Gill

4. IN
TER
VIEWSAMMY A ND B OBBY
GERONGCO
G r a m m y n o m i a t e d , m u l t i - p l a t i n u m
music product i on du o f rom Toron to
v
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5. Q. Q.
When people hit you up, how
do you pick and choose who to
work with?
What are your major turn
offs when it comes to up and
coming artists?
When people reach out to you, how do you
choose who to work with?
There are 2 ways really, I’ve been looking
for their commitment. When we get emails
through Twitter, Facebook, or direct emails,
I look for how much they are investing in
their career, we can see the difference
between people who have just recorded
a couple covers, versus someone who has
already gone into the studio recorded their
own demos and are already gaining experi-
ence on their own and have a thirst for suc-
cess, ultimately how invested they already
are. How far they are in terms of creating
their audience, how active they are on twit-
ter, do they have the drive.
“I like to find artists who are
hustling already.”
I also like finding raw talent. Artists just
getting started, that have a unique tone
or interesting songs , that makes a huge
difference for me as well. Song writing is
especially attractive since it comes across
authentic when the songs are an actual ex-
pression of their lives.
1. I hate looking at social media that seems
fake, like artists that are constantly brag-
ging, saying they’ve written a smash every
day on Facebook or Twitter. If you’re going
to spend all this time branding your content
online make sure the product is amazing
and that you are working on your craft rig-
orously.
2. If they have a lot of friends but not a lot
of material that’s a good sign they are not
authentic. Too many artists will spend mon-
ey to make it look official.
3. People hitting me up all the time, every
hour, daily all the time. We do check our
emails and messages and we usually get to
each of them at our earliest convenience. I
know it can be difficult to sit back and be
patient, but negative or demanding com-
ments won’t help either. The internet is a
fantastic way to meet new artists so good
communication is key.
4. Young artists are mentioning us on their
page as if we have been friends forever as
a way of promoting themselves. This really
bothers me, because they falsely use our
name to try and promote themselves.
SAMMY A ND B OBBY
GERONGCOG r a m m y n o m i a t e d , m u l t i - p l a t i n u m
music product i on du o f rom Toron to
Q.
What are some qualities you
think an artist must have to
be successful?
Things are moving so fast, you have to be
knowledgeable in everything.
There are 2 different types of artist, ones
that are exceptional and have undeniable
talent that speaks for itself, real vocalists
and songwriters... real artists. They don’t
need to hustle on social media, because
once they have a product to release every-
one is already excited. For instance I don’t
go online to look for information on Adele.
She has great music and really you want
to buy her CD and hope to see her one day
live in concert.
There’s the other type of artists called en-
tertainers. For entertainers social media
can do wonders. Artists like PSY that create
big videos and new dances for online view-
ers to watch over and over again because
they want to learn the dance moves. Artists
now need to be able to do a bit of every-
thing, if they can write and sing, produce
and direct their music video, they are al-
ready ahead of the game.
“You can really see the success of
these younger artists now because
of their social media presence.”
Soulja Boy is an example of a YouTube sen-
sation. Drake also really capitalized on that,
he really embraced social media and put
out music that the world could get with a
single click.
5. People sending friend requests over
Facebook with no message.

6. Q.
Q.
What are some out of the box
ways to get noticed, and go
viral?
What are some of your top
avenues for the most current
information?
It really comes down to the music first, it
should really speak for itself. Make sure you
have something you are extremely proud
of; strong music. And how does your brand
connect to the music and vice versa.
If it’s a mix tape then you should have some
professional visuals that go with it, once you
have an online campaign you can use those
pictures maybe even create lyric videos.
Anything that brings added value.
There’s many ways that are effective. If you
are an artist who is great live, you can con-
tinue to do YouTube videos, if that works
for you. Some people are great at putting
up videos and can get people to keep com-
ing back. Like Karmin and their Chris Brown
Look At Me Now cover. Or like the Weekend
was all about mystery, but the music was
exceptional. The thing is that its not going
to connect if the music isn’t that good.
But sometimes you might need a co-sign
like Drake and Lil Wayne. But when you
have the support the music better be good.
Billboard music, that’s me trying to get
information on the music industry, Twitter
feeds, Facebook feeds, that’s where I get
most of it. Various music bloggers.
What sound is viral right
now?
How do you think artists
should use social media com-
pared to the average person?
An average person usually says everything
on their mind. Artists need to be strategic
with what they are putting out. But at the
end of the day if an artist wants to put out
personal stuff and connect with their audi-
ence, there’s nothing wrong with that. I like
how Rihanna is out there, it seems real. I
feel like I get glimpse of who she really is
and as fans you want that.The media grabs
every little thing out there so careful what
you put out there.
In general, you do want to roll out slow and
effectively. Little bits of info sent out in an
interesting way will definitely make me stop
and check out an artist page.
House music has been the thing recently, I
also feel things are changing and is more
of an organic style. Pop music is really big
right now, anything that’s pop is going viral,
dance has gone pop, and Hip Hop went pop.
Disco seems to be in right now also.
Q.
Q.
JRDN
Canada’s #1 R&B/pop Artist
The first act to be released under the Kuya
Productions label.
We Believe in Celebrating our Milestones!
As a growing company, sometimes it’s hard to see your progress and we highly suggest
you take a moment and look back at your achievements. So... mid month, our team took
a field trip to Toronto Island and snapped this awesome picture of the city skyline.
...stop and smell the roses
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7. Guy Kawasaki is social media gold dust. In
1984 he was responsible for marketing the
Macintosh at Apple and in the 30 years
since has published a series of tech-relat-
ed books, founded a venture capital firm
and launched news aggregation service
Alltop.com. He has 1.3 million followers on
Twitter and 210,000 on Facebook, all glued
to his updates.
He explains how he organises profiles that
connect with large audiences: “When it
comes to Twitter, my success stems from
providing interesting links that people
share. These ‘retweets’ put me in front of
new people who follow me too. There is
a group of sources that feed my account,
including Alltop, a website I founded to
aggregate and summarise great stories,
linking to the original source. “I also repur-
pose posts from Google+ and Facebook
for tweets and I use Tweetdeck to respond
to ‘@-mentions’ of @GuyKawasaki and
direct messages; these are always me and
never ghost written in my name. “Google+
is the core of my social media existence.
I see it as the Macintosh of social media,
it’s better, used by fewer people and con-
demned by ‘experts’. My posts here are di-
verse and, like Twitter, I call on a range of
sources. “I have three main tips for build-
ing a community on Google+: only post
when you are cogent.
I wake up in the night and check the ‘What’s
Hot’ feed from Alltop, but I don’t post until
the next morning when I’m alert and able
to write an engaging post. “The second tip
is schedule your updates so they are well-
spaced. You can do this through ‘Do Share’,
an extension for Google Chrome.
Lastly, get rid of trolls. Think of your Google+
account as your swimming pool; if people
pee in it, throw them out. “I have two perso-
nas on Facebook, one is my personal profile
and the other is my brand page. I operate
them differently. My assistant monitors my
Google+ account and manually adds many,
but not all, to Facebook. Some are not ap-
propriate for Facebook and there’s no way to
tag ones that are. “I monitor comments and
respond to them as time permits; my assis-
tant never acts as me so I either respond or
there is no response at all. I do the same for
LinkedIn, but I rarely respond to comments
as there are fewer here. This could be self-
fulfilling, but I have to draw the line some-
where.
“In total, the above plus managing my Pinter-
est account is the work of one full-time per-
son. In addition, I spend three to four hours
per day creating my own posts, commenting
and responding. This is how I manage my so-
cial presence as of June 2013, but stay tuned
because my procedures are ever-changing.”
Following Social Media
INTERVIEW: How does a social media superstar
perfect his profile? Dan Matthews finds out
This article is property of the Raconteur
written by Dan Matthews.v
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8. Increasing consumer interaction by 110% is
not easy. It’s damn right gold medal wor-
thy if you can pull it off. That’s why for this
week’s #DoingItRight list we are highlight-
ing the genius behind Oreo’s Marketing
campaign. They have taken their brand to
entirely different social level, a powerhouse
if you will, with some of the most innovative
marketing campaigns in the industry.
Here are some the reasons why Oreo is
#DoingItRight:
They don’t sleep!
Well at least it seems that way. Oreo’s mar-
keting executives took full advantage of the
power outage at the Super Bowl this year
with a tweet that was recognized glob-
ally for its timing and wit. While most of us
were bantering about the power outage or
gossiping about Beyoncé’s performance,
Oreo marketers wasted no time in gather-
ing up the team, and creating a simple yet
effective tweet on a dimes notice.
This kind of real time marketing is what
makes their strategy hard to beat.
Exceptional.
They are current and relevant!
This is one the golden rules of the market-
ing industry… actually, scrap that, it is the
golden rule. Last year Oreo created a Daily
Twist Campaign from June 25th to October
2nd , everyday a cookie would be designed
to show the significance of that day.
Their ability to reach a mass audience dem-
onstrates the simplicity and effectiveness of
this campaign. The company states that this
campaign alone boosted 5 million likes dur-
ing its run. Whoa!
They twisted out some fun!
The main purpose of social media is to en-
gage, and it’s even more engaging if you’re
making people laugh. The deal breaker for
us would have to be the sheer enjoyment
we get from reading the stuff!
Oreo’s campaigns literally made us laugh
out loud!
On Twitter, they wouldn’t limit their engage-
ment with just their followers, tweets that
would ruffle the competitor’s feathers were
also skillfully and tastefully done. You can’t
help but giggle at the responses they gen-
erated!
Oreo’s social media mastery should be used
as an example of being sharp, timely and
engaging. I’m excited to see how they will
inspire even more creative runs at tapping
into the unlimited potential of the social me-
dia landscape.
Oreo’s definitely #DoingitRight!
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9. t’s an old belief that by studying
every book, paper and post-it writ-
ten about one particular topic will
catapult you into success. It’s the
reason why people spend years in school to
master one particular subject, in hopes of
a job waiting for them on the other side. It
doesn’t usually happen that way.
In the world of social media, just knowing
one thing won’t guarantee you success in
reaching the masses. It’s frustrating, we
know. But you have to take a step back and
honestly ask yourself “am I able to adapt
quickly and with ease” most will answer yes,
but are not ready. Here are some tips for
those of us with an academic background
and are itching to share it with the masses!
1. You’re Not Writing A Paper
One key thing in academia is the ability
to write what you know. The hardest part
about getting into blogging is to adopt a
particular style of writing that will draw in a
bigger variety of readers. We’re not saying
to write your blog in a conversational fash-
ion, like most. However, you want to keep
your language borderline academic but not
chaotic with complex language.
For example, you see the difference: The
epitome of deep sea diving and its psycho-
logical weight OR How Deep sea diving ef-
fects a diver’s ability to mentally function?
Why “Just Knowing Your Stuff”
Won’t Make You successful Blogger
2. Keep It Short And To The Point
I know you’re passionate about what you’re
writing about and everyone has to know
every detail and blah blah blah blah blah!
STOP! LOOK and DELETE!
The average attention span of today’s
generation of computer users is 8 seconds,
and if they use that 8 seconds to figure
out what the blog is about, there’s a fat
chance that they will read it. Sadly, it could
be the best written, clearly articulated and
thought provoking blog ever, but if you
can’t get people to read it, it might as well
be a banner ad that no one pays attention
to.
Keep it under 500 words MAXIMUM, but
300 is better (ain’t no body got time
for’dat!)
3. You’re Not Competing
Don’t think of blogging as a competition,
and don’t treat your readers as such. Don’t
be ice cold. Invite your followers for a beer
(figuratively speaking), talk about their
lives, gossip a bit, and make them feel wel-
come. You want them to feel as if they are
interacting with a real person, not many
people get turned on by a textbook.
Do all of this virtually and you will grow
your following organically.
I
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10. Hence why this shocking move to buy out
the Washington post could be seen as an
act of mental instability to most.
However, Bezos is no stranger to market-
ing techniques that capture audiences,
Amazon.com does it beautifully. Amazon
was able to develop a culture of e-books,
they strategically moved with the customer
when book sales were suffering. Re-invent-
ing how we consume literature electroni-
cally. As Bezos puts it, “you are planting the
seeds” that is to say that some will sprout
with proper nurturing, did the Kindle.
So the question is, how will this experi-
enced internet conglomerate turn around
the Washington post?
As speculation builds, it will be interesting
to monitor the changes to come in the Post,
as they will be imperative to the papers
survival in this digital age. With increased
competition, perhaps a new innovative way
to relate to the news content is hiding un-
der Jeff Bezos’s blazer sleeve.
Jeffbezos“$250 Million...in Cash”
That’s how much American internet
entrepreneur Jeff Bezos paid for the
Washington post. Cold. Hard. Cash.
And that’s the way to do it.
But why the Washington post? It’s not sur-
prise that with the rise of the internet came
the fall of the once “conventional” methods
of information transmission, more notably
Newspapers. Newspapers fell to the back-
side when it came to providing the most up
to the minute information compared to the
internet. Therefore it’s not surprising that
newspapers are lacking when it comes to
addressing the constant shift in audience
needs.
The Washington post, and newsrooms
around the world have been described
by journalist Robert J. Samuelson as “job
graveyards”, newspaper revenue has been
on the sharp decline since 2003, falling
from 44.9 billion from print adver-
tising to 18.9 billion in 2012, ac-
cording to Pew Research Centre.
new
clients
Omar Borkan Al Gala
Kicked out of Saudi Arabia for being too
sexy... we’re proud to add him to the Youzus
lineup.
Derrick Rutledge
Make Up Artist of Oprah Winfrey is proud to
annouce his new line of salon care product,
called OOH Lifestyle
KPMG Enterprise
One of the biggest accounting firms in
Canada. Helping entrepreneurs and small
business owners grow their business.
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11. Apps That Make
Your Life Easier
Mint.com
CardMunch
Airdroid
Jott
Instapaper
Editor-in-Chief
The wonderful thing about
being surrounded by cre-
ative people is that your mind
is always blown! It has been an
incredible experience working with
the team to stay up to date on all the
latest trends in social media.
Many think that social media skills are uni-
versal, well one th ing you should get from
this issue is that like everything, success takes
time, hard work, and persistence; this includes
social media. We are here to offer you all the
tools and tricks to be successful, ones that work for
us.
"Be the change you want to
see in the world." - Ghandi
We are diligent in scoping out the most current and effective ways to
grow your social media and become successful. We are on the way to be-
coming the go-to resource for personal and business development.
This issue has grown from the last and will continue to grow, we are happy to
have you along for the ride.
Success is a state of mind, get on that and ride it out to the stars.
Courtny Vaz
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12. Editor-in-Chief
Courtny Vaz
~
Creative Director
Lisa Tyldesley
~
Publishers
Sonya Gill
Kristen Rubisch
Special thank you to Sammy and Bobby Gerongco
for being our feature this month.
It’s better than
Christmas for us and
it’s just around the
corner! Ladies and
gents, Social Media
Week! We’re excited
and we hope to see youthere :)
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