**Click here and please subscribe/rate/review the show on iTunes!**
The LIVE show started 20 minutes late because Meg was late, and Zach was not happy about it! DMX was the original host of Reading Rainbow! Bonnie says hello! Hey, there’s a quick Bill O’Reilly impression! Zach went to see Avenue Q on the weekend and had some interesting takeaways. Todd Akin and how to cure homosexuals… (At the time Zach was under the impression it was a real story… however it has turned out to be a fake.) Speaking of politicians… 23 year old wife of 69 year old senator arrested for disturbance! And then on to the Canoodling CTV coworker!
Then we brought in the CEO of Spinzo Emmanuel Elmajian with some great intro music! Dynamic pricing explained! The more people interested, the cheaper the price! Spinzo will launch very soon! A bit of talk about the Apple-Samsung battle…. reminiscent of the VCR battle with Sony. Spinzo is giving away a VACATION! The draw for the contest… (however, the winner was accidentally added to the names and wasn’t actually supposed to… so we’ll be REDRAWING on next weeks show! Sorry Aly.) Who is Captain Spinzo?! Unmask him! The Zach Bussey Show Pirate and Spinzo team up?!
Then we laugh and dissect Zach’s first ever radio appearance back when he was about 15. What a voice! 10 minutes of goofing on 15 year old me. Then Zach switches topics and starts talking about dating in highschool… or the lack thereof. Small town stories and a three city tour?! This Foamer is passionate about trains! A whole rant on spiders and centipedes and birds and snakes! And then the thought of the day!
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As a blogger, it seems the only time most of us post anything positive about a company is when we’ve been given something. I don’t know why that is… the opposite is also true, whenever we have a bad experience we’re immediately on our blogs complaining about it. It’s some sort of entitlement culture we’ve all been encouraged to believe in I think… Oh well, that’s not what this is supposed to be about.
I’ll preface by saying, WIND has not given me anything for free. About a year ago, I purchased my cellphone in store, the same price everyone would pay. I signed up for a promotional plan at $29 a month for unlimited local calls, texts and data. (Yes Data! Enjoy your $60 6GB plans Rogers users). The promotional price was going to expire one year later and go to ~$50 a month. Each month I pay for the bill like the majority of other cellphone users. Nothing special here besides the great price. Today, I get an email from WIND, displayed below.
Needless to say I’m thrilled! I’ve been a Bell, Rogers and Telus customer in the past and NEVER did they ever offer me an extension on a promotional plan. When I did try to get it extended, first I had to navigate their customer service and then when asking to keep the promotional price, they would say no and just offer me 25-50 extra minutes a month, or a bigger voicemail inbox. Essentially, it was a no, but here’s some scraps…. meanwhile WIND has sent this email out to a bunch of other people I know who were on the plan.
So WIND, without asking, extending the plan and continuing to give me a great deal is HUGE. As a customer, this essentially has confirmed my ongoing loyalty to your company. You treat your customers like people. You want to make the customer happy. You have great prices, significantly less than competitors at your normal rate, and EVEN THEN go out of your way to extend promotional pricing indefinitely. It’s major. And it’s how it should be!
So, the questions always turns to this whenever I tell people I’m with WIND… “What’s the service like?” And while they don’t mean the customer service, it alone should be reason to bail on horrible providers like Bell, Telus and Rogers. But here’s the honest truth… when I first signed up with WIND, the service was okay. However, they have been expanding their coverage and improving their towers in current markets so fast… they seemingly add new cities every single day. And the service now is BETTER than I’ve had with others. Rarely have a dropped call. I tether my phone (use about 5-6GB a month) and the speeds are always fast (I’ve played Diablo 3 online while tethering). The calls are clear. Texts always go through, and you can use it in a ton of different markets… last month I used it (again unlimited) in Vancouver… it’s just a joy! And the icing on the cake is the price! $30 for unlimited everything!
So, I just wanted to write this to say thank you… It’s very rare that we speak out to thank a corporation for running their business without throwing a party, without sending me a phone or a product, without doing anything other than what you normally do… and it’s refreshing and impressive. Keep this up WIND, you’re going to continue to grow as more people wake up, sick of paying $60-$100 for a cellphone and shitty customer service.
PS. That said, my phones screen is cracked… so if you DID want to send me a phone, I wouldn’t object. Haha. Had to.
Haha, oh man I spent 5 minutes working on a silly alliterate title for this and came up with that… clearly I’ve been writing way too much lately that my brain is drained! But that has nothing to do with why I’m writing this post. Actually, the reason I am writing this is because I wanted to thank Spinzo for being the FIRST sponsor on The Zach Bussey Show! (PS. Thank you to GoBanana.ca for sending in the pirate ship logo! We love it!)
When Meg and I started this podcast 10 weeks ago, we had decided early on that in order to be able to do a lot of the things we had in mind (and boy do we have a list of ideas coming up!), we were going to need some help from some sponsors. Believe it or not, but a podcast is not really an inexpensive venture… the equipment is only a small part of it (and compared to a lot of podcasts and the equipment they use, we’re pretty top of the line), but the invested time in it is big and the hosting of the podcast is another expense. We hoped to have a decent number of listeners by end of year and be able to lock down some sponsors then… well, we’ve already beat our initial goals by a huge margin, and hit #62 on the Top Comedy Podcasts in Canada on iTunes a couple weeks ago! And things aren’t showing any signs of slowing down. Our most recent three shows are definitely our best so far, and we have so many great, wacky, fun and probably slightly insane things coming up!
Let’s get back to Spinzo! I really want to thank them for their support of the show, so let me take a second to talk a little bit about what they are. For those who haven’t listened to the show yet, Spinzo is a new website that’s going to be evolving the group deal concept to be more about what you want. Already, I’m sold on the idea because really… how many dance classes, yoga passes and laser eye treatments do we really need?! What do you need a deal on? New headphones? Lunch with the guys? A brand new pair of Louboutins? Spinzo is determined to save Toronto money!
So, now to bring it all back to the show… Spinzo is going to hook one listener of the Zach Bussey Show up with a brand new Nexus 7 tablet computer! How do you win? Well, listen to the first 10 minutes of the show and we explain it very simply (and then listen to the rest of the show because we’re told it’s entertaining!) Hint: You can win by going to the Spinzo Toronto Facebook page, and commenting about something you want savings on… let them know you heard about it from the Zach Bussey Show (or here) and you’re entered!
On the next show, (Tuesday, August 28th), we will have the CEO of Spinzo on air live to announce the winner! So tune in and find out if you’ve won! Again, thank you immensely for being our first sponsor Spinzo!
PS. Spinzo is going to be hooking someone up with a vacation too. Details will be shared on the show on the 28th!
**Click here and please subscribe/rate/review the show on iTunes!**
Streaming live again this week after last weeks computer problems. Dell came through big time on that one. As always, please rate and review the show if you haven’t already! Oh and Pirate Ship #zbshow tshirts/stickers coming soon! Zach didn’t show up to PartyPeopleTO.com, because he thinks he was date rape drugged!
This weeks show is brought to you by Spinzo! And you can win a Nexus 7 tablet (exclusively through this show) by going to the Spinzo Facebook page, tell them what you want and let them know you heard about it here!
Expendables 2 is the best movie of the year. Meg Button hate mail?! Stars and Stripes and the unfortunate stereotype that keeps confirming itself? What exactly is legitimate rape?! These guys are terrifying… is there actually a doctor who said this?! Then a listener sent us the “Legitimate Rape Song“. Biden, says they’ll put us back in chains?
Zach then talks about being a black man… but not the black penis to go with. Polanski’s birthday. Then we covered a bunch of the Canadian Club Cover Contest songs and we judged each of the tracks. The Facekini… scariest thing ever. Then GANGNAM STYLE! Later Zach complained about the people who comment on the words he uses. White Cab Drivers and why you shouldn’t trust them. The war on condititioner. No Meg sex life talk… and then the thought of the day!
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We didn’t broadcast live like we usually do. So just the podcast… due to technical issues argh! Our guest Bianca Teixeira, @BeeLauraTee said hello. We wrapped up Zach having lost Best Blogger Canada… then we called our special celebrity guest! The Governator! And he said it all. Talked about the movie set, women and his future!
Then we talked about the #FakeFollower controversy Zach likely created and Meg Button gave a great run down of her thoughts on the issue, and the @OakleyInc video. Make sure you listen to what she has to say! Amok Time! A brief talk of Pabst and then we moved right into bringing Bianca back into the fray.
Bianca had a game for Meg and Zach where we had to figure out who knew more girl stuff… she had a list of items for us… Meg and Zach decided to bet their bill from the night. In the end the winner was…. _____!
Make sure you check out #MOCCRocks on Thursday at Shoeless Joes Spadina (720 Spadina)… and then #PartyPeopleTO at Cheval on Friday (606 King Street).
Thought of the day and the show ends.
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Once upon a time there was a boy. Today we will call that boy Pabst. Pabst’s last name was Canada, named after the great land where he was from… Pabst Canada was an average boy. He was popular with a group of guys, between 20 and 30 who were uber trendy. So trendy that they knew all the cool spots you never heard of. And Pabst Canada was right there with them all the way. Pabst had a difficult time getting girls though… maybe once in a while a hipster girl might put her lips on him… but that was rare. It made Pabst upset at first, but then realized that this was his crew and that was unlikely to change. Heck, all his friends back in Brew School (Labatt Blue, Bud Weiser, Kokanee, and others) all often had the same problem. Bud Weiser was lucky though, cause his sister was becoming popular with the girls and that gave him some additional time with them.
One day, Pabst Canada was being silly and saw something something he though was funny. He figured his hipster friends would find it funny too, so he shared it on Instagram/Twitter. It wasn’t really that funny, but whatever… he only had 610 people following him anyway. No Fat Chicks! it said.
Then, the big bad social wolves who don’t like Pabst, don’t follow Pabst, and often only mention Pabst to make fun of him decided they were going to use this against him because they don’t like anything that’s a joke from any brand. “Brands are not people, they should not act like one,” snarled the social wolves as they licked their lips in anticipation of the brutal beat down they were now going to orchestrate against Pabst Canada. They were going to have their dinner today, and boy was it going to be delicious. A new piece of social media flesh to sink their teeth into.
‘Yum, yum, yum,’ the social sheep following the wolves exclaimed as they all decided to take a bite. They told Pabst he was stupid. They told him he should never be heard from again. They told him to go find a job. They said he was a sexist. They told him he was the worst. Pabst’s dad down in the United States even sent him a message scolding his son for making a mistake. (Also also giving a backhand to Sleeman in the process).
Pabst Canada felt really bad. He deleted his tweet and apologized to people. He thought people would find it funny, but he was mistaken. He accepted his error and promised to be better, hoping that would make the name calling and yelling at him stop… but he was wrong! Wolves aren’t happy until their meal is a dead, rotting carcass… once they have had the sweet taste of social blood, they are consumed with their madness until there is no more. So they kept brutalizing poor Pabst. They told him his apology wasn’t good enough, that he was stupid, that he was worthless. Pabst quietly sat there and took the beating. There was nothing he could do. He only hoped that the next day, his boss at work would accept his apology… it was a learning experience and we all make mistakes right? The snarling wolves wouldn’t be happy if that was the case… but fortunately some other brand would make a mistake soon and they would be able to feast on something new! But until then, Pabst was going to keep them satiated for a couple days.
While the story of Pabst ‘the Blue Ribbon’ Canada isn’t finished yet, the moral of the story is… Social Wolves are out to dine, getting enraged about everything. They don’t accept that bad jokes are bad jokes, but instead believe them to be serious things that they share with us like fortune cookies. Rather than going “Hmm, yeah that’s not that funny, but he apologized so it’s okay,” they take on the mentality that mistakes are not for brands. So the real moral of the story, or the takeaway we all should grab from this… is that people make mistakes. Jokes are sometimes just jokes, whether in good taste or not. No one is perfect, and everyone is entitled to a second chance (having learned from their mistake).
PS. Pabst is bottom of the barrel anyway… if they decided to market themselves as the “No Fat Chicks Beer”, they would probably sell more beer! That said… lighten up folks!
Buying Twitter followers has been something people have been talking a lot about in the last 6 months. With it being easier and easier to do, and some people basing their entire careers on their supposed influence, the allure of double, triple or quadrupling the amount of Twitter followers someone has is too much to handle. This is evident by the growth in followers some people have had, in many cases, overnight. And while everyone suspected as much, there was never any true proof of it.
Until @StephanieFusco blogged about a website that actually makes a pretty accurate deciphering on what is real and what is fake. It also checks who is silent. Then it provides you with a score, how many are fake, how many are inactive, and how many are real. With these scores in mind, it’s easier to see who’s real and who’s fake.
This is where it gets exciting… obviously I checked a bunch of people out that I suspected of having bought followers, and no surprise… 30-50% of some common people’s followers are fake. No big surprise to me. I knew it was only a matter of time before these fake people were exposed for their bullshit behaviour and corporate abuse by lying to companies and saying they had a larger network than they truly did.
But, it gave me an idea… the idea of buying followers… where were people buying them? What did these fake followers look like? How quickly could you accumulate them?
So I set out as of about 8PM last night to test it out. I set up a new account @REALzachbussey and started buying followers. Overnight the account has grown to 26,000 followers with accounts that sorta look real, but not really… they have a real name, and a photo… but most of their usernames are a jumble of letters…. @laleks825 @nylacgugo etc. None have any tweets, no profile… and none have any followers. As I suspected.
Here’s where it gets interesting though: If you check out who these fake follower accounts follow, you learn some of the names of people who are paying for followers… and it’s a LOT of celebrities. Check for yourself: https://twitter.com/#!/nylacgugo/following,.. and according to StatusPeople….
Sean @iamdiddy Combs (his 7,300,000 are 25% Fake)
Actor @JimmyBennett (his 1,074,000 are 83% Fake)
Singer @MarquesHouston (his 851,000 are 85% Fake)
Whatever he does @JeffreeStar (his 432,000 are 63% Fake)
Rapper @RedCafe (his 394,000 are 79% Fake)
Sr VP of Shop.com @LorenRidinger (her 374,000 are 81% Fake)
Rapper @ThatsShawtyLo (his 203,000 are 81% Fake)
That’s bombshell in and of itself!
That said… there’s one other thing everyone needs to be aware of… buying followers requires no permission from the account. Essentially, you can buy followers for anyone. With or without their permission. As I’ve just experienced… just about an hour, I started getting mass followed by the same spam accounts that followed @REALzachbussey. Whoever bought these followers did so intentionally to try and lump me in with those in Toronto who have paid for followings… Fortunately with some quick action, I was able to stem the flow of follows. Here’s how…
1. Put your account on private.
2. Go to twitblock.org to quickly block and report for spam every account that managed to follow you.
3. Click ‘decline’ on every other follow that tries to come your way from the spam accounts… as you can see I have some work to do…
(UPDATE: I’ve learned that for all the followers you have that are ‘waiting to be approved’ when your account is private, disappear entirely if you set your account back to public.)
This exposes some major holes in Twitter. One’s that they will really have to start exploring. Back in the early email days, there was something called an email bomb which would overflow someone’s email inbox with emails. It was/is a serious issue and forced email providers to rethink how email functioned, and how to prevent it. Twitter now has this same issue, and they need to take it seriously.
1. If someone like Marques Houston has 851K followers, but only 128K are actual people – there is a problem with how many Twitter users the service actually has. Or Sean PDiddy Combs with 7.3M but there’s 1.8M fakes.
2. If anyone can go out buy anyone thousands of followers without any safeties in place, it can be very damaging to be portrayed as a faker (and time consuming for someone trying to fix it). This is the equivalent of a social media nuke.
3. Clearly, current safety measures to prevent fake accounts from being created are insufficient. Twitter needs to explore new ways to prevent spam, perhaps even examining the idea of a one time buy-in. $5 one time buy in FOR ALL USERS may prevent spam accounts from even being created. How many people have $125,000 around to set up 25,000 fake follower accounts?
I’m going to continue to explore this dark side of Twitter and the paid for followers and as I become aware of new issues, causes for concern or insight, I will certainly continue to add new blog posts on the issue. One thing is for sure, this is a problem that is only going to get worse unless Twitter acts now.
I’ve been decorated with titles before… Canada’s Best Male Social Blazr, Top 5 Toronto Twitter Influencer, Top 5 Blogger in Toronto, #62 Comedy Podcast in Canada, Top 4 Business Plan Writer in Ontario, and a ton of other rankings. Well I have one more to add to the list!
I came in second place yesterday in the BiLLe, Best Blogger in Canada… which means I won a silver medal in Blogging in Canada! A pretty incredible accomplishment if I do say so myself. Here’s a photo of me accepting the silver medal award!
Yes, after a month of effort, time, nerves, anxiety, and putting together some magic… magic I would have continued to deliver, I was not picked as best in Canada. But a silver medal is pretty awesome anyway.
Quite frankly, I don’t think they made the right decision. But maybe I’m slightly biased (THOUGH I had my friends at some social analytic companies run the numbers, and the results are incredible… If you match up our social media stats, blog readers in Canada, true engaged follower counts and about a dozen other metrics… I’m better in all but one category). But whatever, what’s done is done. And the decision is final.
I’m happy with the title of Second Best Blogger in Canada and look forward to the next thing in my life… something bigger and better! If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that every time I have a set back, I stand up again and move faster than I did before.
So thank you to all who supported me, all who were rooting for me, sending positive vibes, well wishes, good lucks and everything in between… Your support is truly appreciated and you have my unending thank you for everything.
PS. Yes this blog post was just an excuse to share that photo I created. Haha.
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Zach just got out of the washroom feeling accomplished. What’s the best way to die? And is anyone watching the Olympics still? The Canada-US soccer game and the controversial ref! Bonnie from Shoeless Joes says hello! Back to the Olympics as we talk about all the Gabby Douglas controversy – Hair, Broke Mom + (not really) Racist Ad. We’re oversensitive to any little thing and it needs to stop!
The BiLLe Final is upon us. (Today) I find out if I won! (UPDATE: I did NOT win. Boo!) Zach gets mad about people takling in Shoeless. We landed on Mars! Lil Wayne quit music. Snoop Lion. Oh my! Zach’s awesome Instagram picture. Interview with the beautiful Laura Armstrong of A Work of Heart (http://facebook.com/aworkofheart3). And go to her show on Thursday (Painting a Better World).
Chickfila needs to stick to making chicken! The Rosanne roast is coming out this week and we told a Jeff Ross joke that was cut from the special… it’s one of those ‘too soon’ jokes. Funny, but too soon. PartyPeopleTO event coming up on the 17th, http://PartyPeopleTO.com. Zach is making the show his dating platform. Thought of the day involved aliens and how we need to help each other.
We’re also looking for men/women straight/gay for the dating game! Email us at show@zachbussey.com
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During the opening ceremonies I put out a challenge to my Twitter followers… the challenge was simple, guess how many medals Canada would win at the 2012 London Olympics. Tons of people made a guess, and I figured it only made sense to lay out the predictions here along with a current medal count to see who’s in contention for the prize… and the prize is a $25 Starbucks Gift Card. I’ll also award the two runners up with a $10 Shoeless Joe’s gift card – something you can use if you come down to sit in on the Zach Bussey Show live! Price is Right rules are in effect, which means it’s closest to without goign over!
45 medals – @masteractor
29 medals – @alexconde
28 medals – @rubeneds
26 medals – @snymed
25 medals – @swaych
23 medals – @carrrlymcg
22 medals – @leftbanked
21 medals – @leafsweetie
21 medals – @davidpylyp
19 medals – @todd_w
19 medals – @kadikaljuste
19 medals – @superflashphoto
17 medals – @cyrsr
17 medals – @kevinkcodes
16 medals – @robsarj
13 medals – @casiestewart
13 medals – @babyface2842
13 – Current Medal Count
12 medals – @jahmcc
11 medals – @alyssahurst
10 medals – @angelustor
9 medals – @julesinfleurs
8 medals – @jewelgurl
(In event of a tie, there will be a playoff between the people who tied.)
Average Guess: 19
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What a fun episode of the show! @ShawnHawaii stopped in for a few minutes to say hello, then we got right into it. Meg spent time at a cottage, Zach is a finalist in the BiLLe Blogger contest. Then the show crashed! SECRET BONUS CONTENT! We played some hilarious porn clips… HUP. THERE IT GOES. HUP. OH YEAH. HUP! Afterwards we talked about the Olympics including how to make it better… two different ways to spawn a better competition! Also, what’s with all the lame sports? Afterwards, we talked about movies… 2 Days in New York and Lockout. And, of course, the thought of the day.
Next week, Laura Lynn-Armstrong, A Work of Heart
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