Who are the Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers? According to last week’s top story on Forbes’ website,  the fifth most influential person wielding social media power is none other than kitestring client, Scott Stratten, President of @UnMarketing!

The first time I met Scott, I remember thinking he was a nice guy with a smart message that encourages marketers to have higher ethical communication standards and reminds us all not to be passive consumers. At the time we were working with him on the design and development of his popular blog and website, I couldn’t have fully comprehended how poignantly influential and ultimately contagious  his manifesto would become.

The last time I saw Scott, he brought some Starbucks Christmas cheer into the studio. I was grateful and a little star-struck

Keep up the great work, Scott!

The third annual kitestring Christmas Spectacular received glowing reviews on CHCH News television and the I Heart Hamilton Tour, one of our favourite blogs that captures the wonderful things to see and do in our city,  

There’s nothing more spectacular than seeing the year close with a play-by-play raving account of each and every friendly detail that went into our best party yet! A big THANK YOU to the urban explorers at I Heart Hamilton Tour for your post. And it’s true, the party did raise over a final total of 350 months of after school arts programming for deserving local kids through Culture for Kids in the Arts (CKA). We’re going to have to think of a word with more magnificence than “spectacular” to top this year’s event in 2012.

Children’s Aid Society of Hamilton – Christmas Family Sponsorship from Jay Perry on Vimeo.

This year, my partner and I spent a few weeks tossing around ideas of what we should get the other for Christmas. Maybe it’s part of becoming an adult, but the more I thought of what I “wanted”, the more that I realized that I didn’t actually need anything. So, remembering what fun the kitestring crew had a few years back when sponsoring a family through the Children’s Aid Society, I thought we’d channel our efforts into making this a holiday to remember for another family.

In November I thought I’d share the thought on twitter, encouraging others to give the idea a try. To my surprise, lots of people responded, including one amazing local photographer, Jay Perry. He took spreading the holiday spirit to an entirely new level by involving his peers and friends. Wow! The beautiful video above documents his experience. Amazing job, Jay!

I hope Jay’s video encourages many more people to get involved with giving locally this holiday season. It’s too late to sponsor an entire family through the Children’s Aid Society, but you can get involved by buying a new toy for their holiday toy room and dropping it off at their office location at 26 Arrowsmith Road. Contact Jennifer at christmas@hamiltoncas.com for more information.

Hooray! kitestring’s Real World 101 Video is featured as this week’s webPICk video on commandN.tv.

commandN.tv is a twice-monthly video series covering technology and social media with hosts Amber Mac, Lara Killian, and Jeff MacArthur. Segments include tech news and analysis, product reviews, mobile tips, web picks, and more.

The kitestring team was all a-buzz this morning over the theatre premier or their Real World 101 video and the launch fof the kitestring happy-appy, presented to a live audience at #Tweetstock6! The video, which was produced in collaboration with Atomic Spark, was received with a tweet wave of positive feedback and entertained laughter.

Want to watch the video that opened #Tweetstock with a bang? Check it out below!

The Real World 101 video was followed by a “live studio broadcast” from Ben the Intern, announcing the launch of the kitestring happy-appy! Woo hoo! What a morning =D

Ben also recorded a video announcement for those who are not lucky enough to be at Tweetstock today. You can see this video, learn about the kitestring happy-appy and download our new, free and fun mobile application for Apple and Android at kitestring.ca/happyappy!

Our very own client bedazzler, Margaret Lintott, was just in the Hamilton Spectator as this week’s featured young professional!

My favourite part of the article is when they quote Margaret’s suggestion for making Hamilton a better city saying, “Less Talk. More Action.”

Watch the announcement video for a little fun with Margaret’s new found celebrity and check out the full article, filled with wise words from the coolest YP in town, here!

Ben the Intern is growing a Movember ‘stache in support of Prostate Cancer Canada. To find out what colours and styles Ben the Intern’s moustache will grow to be, sponsor him with a pledge on his MoBro Page here.

Help Ben the Intern grow his ‘stache with by sharing it! Tweet (@Ben_the_Intern) and link on Facebook to encourage others to get involved!

Watch this video: Ben the Intern’s Movember: Day One

It’s time again for kitestring’s holiday  pageant and after party: Christmas Spectacular!

Everyone is invited for all the fun! New this year: A festive holiday pageant!

Come share holiday greetings, gorge on goodies and be entertained by a super fantastic show featuring local artistic talent! Performers will be announced as the date gets closer! Ooo, exciting isn’t it?!

Our goal is to have 100% of the ticket sales go towards benefitting Culture for Kids in the Arts, a wonderful, local non-profit that makes arts education accessible for so many children in Hamilton! Tickets will be available online soon!

One ticket to Christmas Spectacular pays for eight weeks of after school arts programming for one inner city child in Hamilton! Pretty awesome to know how you’re helping out, eh?

Hey, everyone! The whole team at kitestring creative branding studio just got back from a great morning of bisque painting fun at Crock A Doodle in Dundas! We each painted another team member a mug inspired by their personality! So much fun!
(Brandon and I are obviously stoked about getting ready to paint^)

(Margaret did a wicked job of a #fail whale for Chris!)

(Josh and Ben had a great time, but were kind of sad to leave)

So, the mugs are going to go in Crock A Doodle’s kiln and then the colours become really vivid and the pottery is glazed, so what we’ve painted can be used to drink coffee at the studio! Awesome, eh? Crock A Doodle has all kinds of pottery to paint, like doggie bowls, huge serving platters, and Christmas decorations. All the more reason to to head back again soon!

kitestring loves Twitter as much as Ben the Intern loves Ketchup Chips. That’s a lot.

Chris from kitestring is going to be presenting at the Tweetstock Social Media Networking Conference in Brantford on Thursday, November 10th.

All the twitteratti will be there including a surprise virtual appearance by the entire kitestring gang! I was going to tell you more about it, but then it wouldn’t be a surprise!

Atomic Spark did a wicked job on the above promo video featuring a duet with Chris and Ben the Intern in front of the kitestring studio.

Tweet, tweet!