Nice Article in the Telegraph Journal

I was pleased to see myself in the Telegraph Journal this morning with a nice bit of coverage on the launch of the Craig Allen Agency. I think reporter Rebecca Penty (twitter.com/rpenty) did a great job of capturing the essence of what I'm planning for the Agency. It was very interesting how fast Ms. Penty was able to come across the site within minutes of launching it last Friday via Twitter. Chris Nadeau mentioned it in his Twitter feed and I was speaking with Rebecca before I knew it.

Proves the power behind Twitter for sure!

For Those About To Rock

Looks like a great spring & summer of music in New Brunswick highlighted by a rumored AC/DC date in Moncton at Magnetic Hill on August 6th. Apparently the 6th is a full moon so that should make an already wild crowd even wilder. City officials continue to deny the date is confirmed, but let's hope the leaked reports to CTV news are true.

Beyond AC/DC there is a great line-up of acts coming through the province including:

-Neil Young April 11th, Saint John
-Elliot Brood, April 22nd, Saint John
-Joel Plaskett, April 23rd, Saint John
-Black Crowes (with Matt Mays), June 21st, Fredericton

And of course, my favourite show the Canada Day Countdown on June 3oth in Saint John! (Line-up info coming soon).

So after years of not much going on, looks like finally NB is back on the concert circuit. Enjoy! IT might not last forever.

Let's talk about Twitter

Seems lately the hottest topic in mainstream news is Twitter. The groundbreaking micro-blogging site is truly having a major impact on the media landscape. Everyone from Shaq to Anderson Cooper to Crabbe Mountain are blasting out "Tweets". So what exactly is Twitter anyways? How can it work for you? Here is the scoop in "Plain English":



While I think Twitter does have some great applications for local business to communicate directly with their customers, it is worth noting that some people do go a bit overboard and deserve a bit of razing. Check out this video for a good laugh.

Ready to Roll!

I must admit that after a few month hiatus I'm thrilled to be back blogging and ready to launch my own agency, the aptly named "Craig Allen Agency" offering online marketing strategy & service to New Brunswick companies.

After years working in the Atlantic Canadian marketing industry, I've noticed two things that I think people can use a hand with around these parts.

1. Using the web to engage their customers to the max. Most of the good stuff on the web is free now. People just need a hand figuring out how to put it work for them.

2. People find writing & updating web content a pain the butt. Many companies spend time and money on a cool new website and then never update it. It looks stale and leaves customers hanging who want current information. Thankfully, I am great at content creation and happy to help companies stay looking fresh.

The Craig Allen Agency is going to spend our of time helping local companies with those two things. Not a pile of fancy hype and buzz words. Just rollin' up our sleeves and getting the job done.

I'll be using this blog to provide the occasional tip, a little advice and alot of commentary about local marketing and other things that tweak my interest.

Hopefully we will have a few laughs as well, so feel free to tell me what you think of me at anytime.

Welcome aboard and cheers!