We talk a lot about our passion for social media, and for many of this passion extends well past the end of the work day.

If you were listening to Ottawa Morning on CBC Radio today, you may have heard High Road’s Jessey Bird talking about her passion for blogging and content marketing.

Jessey’s personal blog, Local Tourist Ottawa, was named one of the Top 26 Essential Ottawa Blogs on OttawaStart earlier this week, so CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning show invited her and another local blogger to have an on air discussion about her project, the Ottawa blogging community and content marketing strategy in general.

Her blog encourages encourage Ottawa residents to “live like tourists in their own city” and submit guest posts to the site featuring their favourite people, places and things in the Nation’s Capital. It has grown to  40+ contributors since it started in November and has a regular stream of once a day posts from a variety of online influencers.

 We’re really proud of Jessey. Take a listen to her great interview on the Ottawa Morning site.

On Monday, February 14, 2011, Canon Canada launched a new national print and broadcast campaign that’s uniquely Canadian – for Canadians by Canadians. The campaign, developed by JWT, aims to deepen Canon’s emotional connection with their consumers through the telling of important shared moments in life.

The new tagline, “Because It Counts”, emphasises Canon’s already strong reputation for quality products and affirms that for the moments that really matter in life, Canadians can trust and rely on the quality of Canon products.

We’re excited to be working with Canon on  the launch of their new brand campaign.  Watch their new  commercial here and join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #BecauseItCounts.

In Mia’s latest column, she wrote about the importance of engaging with your brand’s online influencers.

“Scoring positive media coverage has long been one of the key indicators of a strong public relations campaign but, for the past few years, marketing and communications professionals have been balancing their efforts to include a new powerhouse of influencers: bloggers. In the early days of blogging, many were hesitant to give these writers the “cred” they deserve: They often weren’t perceived as journalists, which, in many cases, meant they were not taken seriously. Even more important, many businesses did not expect the audiences these writers spoke to would grow as large and committed as they have.”

“But today, good marketers know the value of a popular blogger that speaks to a brand’s subject of interest,” Mia continues. “A nod from an online influencer offers something you simply can’t get anywhere else: authenticity.”

In conversation with Rob Ostfield, CEO of Canadian pop culture site andPOP, he hits the nail on the head: “When people are writing blogs, the subject they are writing about are their passion,” he says. “They’re not always doing it because it is their jobs, they are doing it because they are genuinely excited about what they’re writing about.”

Mia then offers five key tips for brands interested in getting connected with their online influencers:

1. Do your research;
2. Be unique in how you reach out;
3. Provide something of value;
4. Work together; and,
5. Have reasonable expectations.

“The great thing about online influencers: With their passion and talents, they have already done a lot of the work for you,” Mia writes. “They have established a connection to a loyal following that just might be your exact target audience.”

Click here to read the full article and expanded tips from Mia. Her column every Thursday in the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business.