Last night we attended Third Tuesday Toronto, one of Canada’s biggest social media gatherings. The speaker this time was Nora Young, host of the CBC Radio One show (and popular podcast) Spark.

As we announced on Monday, Zoompass supported this Third Tuesday Toronto by offering to Zoom the price of admission to attendees.

Attendees last night were treated to a great presentation on the impact of social media on the mainstream media, from the perspective of an early adopter.

A couple of points from Nora’s presentation stood out in relation to what we’re doing with Zoompass. Both relate to things she believes traditional media can learn from social media:

Transparency

Nora noted that transparency is a key component of social media, both from an ethical and a philosophical point of view.

We have made transparency a key part of Zoompass’ approach to communications. For example, disclosure is central to our work. Our team is present throughout a number of online forums, but always with a clear note explaining who we are, or a link to more information about us.

Jumping down from the pedestal

Nora noted that journalists in the mainstream media are not used to scrutiny from others. They’re used to being in a position of commenting on others but not necessarily being on the receiving end themselves.

For a long time businesses have been in that same position. However, social media tools have changed that. People have always talked about companies that are important to them, but now those companies can listen.

Right now Zoompass is in a beta phase. That means we’re looking for feedback from the community. In fact, we think it’s really important to build an on-going dialogue with our customers so that we know how to improve..

We are present on a lot of sites including Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, Flickr and more (plus the Zoompass blog, of course). Connect with us there, and let us know:

What do you think of Zoompass? What can we do better?