Posts Tagged victoria

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 Life As A Modern Rock Radio DJ, Part Deux

Posted by Paul Holmes in music on June 21, 2010

I was on The Zone @ 91.3, Victoria’s finest modern rock radio station on June 4th, for a cool little Friday night segment they call My Turn. It’s where they let a knob like me take over the radio (thankfully for their listeners, this only happens for an hour).

Unlike regular DJ’s, they actually let you pick your songs (an ode to you Tom Petty).

So I picked a bunch, and off I went.

(Link)

I met with Pol Plastino, a rising star in the world of radio. I’m pleased to report that he’s as funny in real life as he is on the radio, but somehow he manages pulling off being a serious professional and music expert in the same stroke.

Pol patiently recorded all the spoken segments for the show (I had previously pre-written, re-written and unceremoniously disposed of several drafts, which I re-re-wrote again redundantfuliphically while in the studio).

I also got a chance to meet Jeremy Baker (who is much taller than I guessed), Bryan Capistrano (who still refuses to follow me on Twitter), Dave Sawchuk, and Sara P.

Anyway, here’s a skim of how it sounded… Click to Listen. Seriously, do it! Right here. Please, Mom!.

In case you were wondering about my introduction to the first song, you should definitely watch the video – Beastie Boys, Intergalactic.

british columbia, canada, music, radio, victoria

3 Comments

Social Media Club, Victoria, British Columbia

Posted by Paul Holmes in events, social media on September 24, 2009

Not very long ago, as we were delving into the intricacies of the social media revolution unfolding before us, my long-time friend, and now colleague, Catherine Novak and I decided it was time to launch the Victoria chapter of Social Media Club.

If somebody had told us then what this would lead to today, we would not have believed it.

After only 7 monthly meetings, we now have over 145 signed up on Facebook, 93 on LinkedIn), and 218 followers on Twitter. Turnout at our last meeting broke all previous records, and it continues to grow each time.

Now, before SMC Victoria came on the scene, there were many Tweetups already happening. These are great events – usually small gatherings, and often, but not always, informal and social.

The idea with introducing SMC to the mix was to identify and build a much larger community of social media enthusiasts within Greater Victoria, and to draw together a great deal of talent and information sharing, both within the community, and from abroad.

While SMC Victoria has attracted some amazing speakers, it has done something else. It has become something of a “hub” of activity, a catalyst in organizing and promoting many other great ideas.

Earlier this month, Twestival Victoria raised nearly $5,000 for a local charity, Power To Be. Despite Greater Victoria having the 15th largest metropolitan area population in Canada, we raised more money for Twestival here than any other city in Canada, save Toronto (which, by the way, is the 1st largest). Much credit for this is due to the boundless energy of one Janis Lacouvee. This said, part of the inspiration for Janis was coming to, and being part of, the Social Media Club. SMC was also a great venue through which to promote the event, as well.

Now, Victoria is also getting it’s own WordCamp, in November, and there is talk about bringing other charitable and community-oriented events to Victoria.

I feel very honoured to have had a small part to play in all of this, and will continue to work hard to promote Social Media Club, here and elsewhere, as an educational and inspirational hub to the community.

british columbia, canada, social media club, tweetup, twestival, victoria, wordcamp

2 Comments