Archive for category events

WordCamp Victoria 2012

Posted by Paul Holmes in blogging, events on November 14, 2011

I have had the absolute pleasure of hosting WordCamp Victoria for the last 3 years, and we are set to have another one on January 14th, 2012. Unlike the last 2, I am going to speak at this one.

My topic is Social Comment Systems: Integration and Comparisons.

To make it easier for people to comment on your blog, there have been numerous social integrations in the past few years. The goal is to make it easier for people to authenticate themselves, and make it easier to login. So, rather than creating an account at every blog you post a comment on, you can login using Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo!, Google, using your OpenID or other networks where you already have an account.

There are numerous ways to integrate WordPress with various social platforms, including Facebook, Disqus, IntenseDebate and more. I will explore the pros and cons of these, talk about some features people should be looking for, and demonstrate the integration and configuration for Disqus.

The target audience for this talk will be bloggers, web developers, community managers, etc. I will cover the basics, but will also cover the integration, as such I have listed it as an “Intermediate” skill level.

Want to learn more about my speaking, click here.

Still haven’t registered for WordCamp? Click here to register now.

blogging, disqus, facebook, google, IntenseDebate, OpenID, speaking, twitter

2 Comments

Social Media Presentation in Vancouver

Posted by Paul Holmes in business, events, social media, speaking on November 7, 2010

On October 18th, I was invited by the Cambie Village Business Association to speak about social media for businesspeople in their organization and community. Many in attendance were retailers, but there were several other types of businesses represented too.

I often speak about social media, so that’s not the particularly interesting part.

What was very cool was that it was in an old restored movie theatre – The Park Theatre on Cambie Street. They have a fabulous new projector, and have done a phenomenal job updating the old theatre.

Its also the largest screen I have ever projected PowerPoint on!

A few folks asked for my slides, which are not terribly self-explanatory without the dialog. Here they are:

Cambie Business Presentation

View more presentations from Paul Holmes.

Next time, hopefully, my name will be in lights!

business, Cambie Village, social media, speaking, Vancouver

No Comments

My Crappy E-Book – DELIVERED!

Posted by Paul Holmes in business, events, personal, social media on July 13, 2010

Want to get 10,000 followers on Twitter!?! BUY MY E-BOOK!

Want to get 10,000 followers on Twitter!?!

No, I’m not going to charge $0.99 (or 2 for $1.97), as promised, and the first 1,000 people to retweet it will not get a free copy.

This advice is free – for everybody:

The number of followers you have on Twitter means absolutely nothing.

Remember the old analogy: it doesn’t matter how big it is, it matters how you use it.

If you engage with others in a spirit of community (you know, helping your neighbours…), you win and your followers win.

Twitter is an amazing channel for communication, but there are a few things that make it awkward, or even annoying and counter-intuitive. Add spammers to the mix, and the whole experience gets a bit hairy.

So, here’s how I got to 10,000 followers:

1. I stopped caring about the “Home” feed.

The home feed is an age old dilemma for serious Twitter users – once you start following more than a couple hundred people, your home feed becomes effectively useless.

The old answer was to start a “secret” account where you secretly follow the people you really want to? Today, this is much simpler – build a list of the people you truly want to follow.

I use many lists and searches to find who and what I’m looking for on Twitter.

The home feed is dead to me.

2. I discovered the best ways to alert people to your existence is to follow them or list them.

Most people start on Twitter by writing stuff. Intelligent, informative or witty tweets don’t mean anything if nobody is paying attention. Some people get bored and quit; others learn about tagging posts, searching, retweeting, following people, and replying.

I am most interested in connecting with people in my geographic region – Victoria, Vancouver Island, Vancouver, Seattle. This is both natural, and a business decision (my main business, IdeaZone.ca, serves clients primarily in Victoria, and I organize events to serve the region, like the upcoming Social Media Camp).

So I find people I want to connect with, I follow them, and I list them. What have I noticed? Many of them tend to follow-back, and often they send a message.

Many people don’t follow-back.

This is totally fine, and I will eventually unfollow these people. Does that mean I don’t like them anymore? No. It doesn’t matter to me? Remember, I don’t read my home feed, I keep them on my lists, and they still show up in my searches. Some of the best interactions I have are with people who don’t follow me.

I unfollow them simply because Twitter won’t let you follow more than 110% of your followers, so they are using up a notch in my ability to discover and connect with new people by alerting them with a follow.

3. As a policy, I follow people who follow me.

I do this for two reasons: (1) I don’t have time to filter through and find the good or bad accounts, and (2) people cannot send you a DM if you don’t follow them.

The latter is important (for me, not everybody). I’m in business, if I prevent somebody from sending me a DM, I might be preventing them from sending me business, or a referral. I don’t want to risk snubbing a potential client.

I’m fairly certain this policy means I’m “following” some pretty sketchy accounts as a result, but remember, I don’t read my home feed, so all the sketchy people in the world could follow me, and it means nothing to me.

And this, my friends, is how I got to 10,000 followers on Twitter, probably half of them are real people I want to connect with, and the other half are spammers. To the uninformed, it might look pretty to have 10,000 followers, but I can assure you it means nothing – but the several hundred or so folks I have had the privilege of connecting with on Twitter have made a huge difference in my business, and my life.

Thanks for connecting with me!

And thanks for reading My Crappy E-Book.

seattle, social media, social media camp, twitter, Vancouver, vancouver island, victoria

11 Comments

Victoria British Columbia Officially Proclaims “Social Media Day”, June 30th

Posted by Paul Holmes in business, events, internet, social media on June 25, 2010

Victoria, British Columbia, the Capital city – for visitors, there are lots of great things to see and do. But did you also know it’s the capital city for technology and social media?

It was big news when the technology industry eclipsed tourism in 2007. But what about social media? Well, the industry here might not be colossal, but it’s growing, and there is plenty of expertise for a small city, not to mention the power users.

Here’s a sample of our accomplishments…

Victoria was the first city in Canada to form a Social Media Club chapter.
Victoria is hosting the first Social Media Camp in Canada on October 3rd, 2010.
Twestival Victoria raised the second most funds in Canada (after Toronto), and was the 15th most successful city in the world!
Victoria is home to Flock, the social browser.
And now, Victoria is the first city in the world to proclaim June 30th Social Media Day!

Here is the wording of the proclamation:

CITY OF VICTORIA

PROCLAMATION

“SOCIAL MEDIA DAY”

WHEREAS Social Media has made it easier for people to communicate, locally, regionally and globally, and

WHEREAS Social Media has offered people with critical illnesses and disabilities a tool to communicate more effectively, and

WHEREAS Social Media is an amazing communications technology, and technology is a critical and growing component of Victoria’s economy, and

WHEREAS June 30th is being celebrated in over 400 cities around the world as Social Media Day.

NOW, THEREFORE I do hereby proclaim the day of June 30, 2010 as “SOCIAL MEDIA DAY” in the CITY OF VICTORIA, CAPITAL CITY of the PROVINCE of BRITISH COLUMBIA.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I hereunto set my hand this 24th day of June, Two Thousand and Ten.

DEAN FORTIN
MAYOR
CITY OF VICTORIA
BRITISH COLUMBIA

I picked up the official City of Victoria proclamation today, and will bring it to the party on Social Media Day, June 30th.

The historic Fairmont Empress hotel, which uses social media regularly and effectively, was quick to pick up on the event, offering their luxurious Bengal Lounge for the party.

A special thanks goes out to the Victoria City Councilor Chris Coleman, and the City staff who worked on finalizing the proclamation. Mr. Coleman was very enthusiastic when I suggested the idea, and saw the process through to the end.

british columbia, canada, social media, social media day, victoria

7 Comments

My Turn!

Posted by Paul Holmes in events, music on May 26, 2010

Did I miss my calling as an ultra-hip modern rock DJ?

Yes.

Yes, I did.

Now my favourite local radio station, The Zone at 91.3 has offered me a chance to fulfill my dream, and be discovered by all those famous voice talent agents that roam the airwaves to find the next superstar of radio.

I’ll be doing My Turn on June 4th at 7pm. Please tune in, cheer me on, and tell all your friends (especially those talent search buddies of yours … you know who I mean).

They’ll see! I’ll show them that I truly have a face for radio!

Anyway, part of my job is to pick 15 songs to play. Given such a simple task, I have done what comes naturally – I have picked 32 songs.

So, let’s see if we can do a bit of crowd-sourcing here. Help me out by adding a comment with the songs I should definitely cut from my list. If you want to complicate my life even more, please suggest songs to add to my list, too.

Here’s the list (bold means it’s non-negotiable):