Last Summer, the editor of Entrepreneurial Woman Magazine, Cathy Watters, reached out to me to do an interview of my mentorship with Cathy Kuzel. I’d met Cathy W. at an event hosted by Cathy K. We ended up talking about business in general, and she included some business “tips” – a great recap of my history in business, how my mentorship benefited me, and some to-do’s… that even I need to revisit!

Check out the article on Entrepreneurial Woman Magazine here.

Oh, how I love Hootsuite. It makes our lives so much easier – the messages across all of our social networks, the scheduling of tweets, all of our mentions and private messages and the lists we like at a glance in separate columns… Hootsuite is indeed a great thing, and bonus that it was borne right here in our fine city of Vancouver.

The other great thing about Hootsuite is it allows us to Tweet across several Twitter accounts. But is this always a good thing?

Over the last year or so I’ve seen duplicate messages simultaneously going out from personal Twitter accounts and business accounts. I get that perhaps a CEO doesn’t mind sharing his/her personal news to followers of his/her company as well. As they say, you want to show that your business is run by a person, right? I can also understand a company with several departments (@VancouverSun or @GeorgiaStraight, for example) with different followers on these accounts who may all want to hear the news. Sometimes those 5 tweets at a time get annoying, but I understand.

But I’ve seen some really bad tweets out there… whether followers recognize it or not, I’ve seen very obvious personal tweets going out on company accounts… or individuals who perhaps didn’t want to reveal that they were tweeting for the company they work for (Interns? Hello, I see you!). I tried to find an example right now, but no one’s tweeting for business at night…

So while Hootsuite (or Tweetdeck, or other similar socmed tool) is a great timesaver tool and makes business and personal life much easier on social media, if you’re not careful with those thumbs and mouse-clicks, your double tweet might cost you.

After trying out the auto tweet-on-Facebook feature (I rarely like to use @ references on Facebook), and the Facebook post-on-Twitter features, my personal preference is still to think about the message, and whether or not it’s appropriate for each network. And I’ve done my share of tweets that weren’t meant to go out, but always try and rectify them by deleting right away.

Have you ever been burned by a Hootsuite mishap?

If you hadn’t noticed already, the old Granville Magazine online has a new facelift and is now part of the BC Living brand. Style writer Taraneh Ghajar Jerven wrote a piece on 5 must-have winter workout gear items, including Nibz Bandanaz and founder Sara Niblock. Check out the blog here or see the image below.

It’s a good week to shred on the mountain… wish I were up there myself! Mountain Life Magazine tested out Nibz Bandanaz on the slopes and did a little post on it. Check out the blog here.

Sara Niblock’s Nibz Bandanaz was mentioned in the Whistler Question Newspaper’s business briefs this week – check it out here or in the image below.

After today’s media tour hosted by IABC BC, I came to a realization today, as did many of the other attending PR practitioners, I assume: the future is online.

The ladies at IABC know how to do it. In the course of about 4 hours, we visited the Vancouver Sun, CKNW, CBC, and were treated to lunch with Global TVBC’s Wesla Wong. There were some common messages that have been clubbed into my head over the years, which the gracious media hosts were still asking us to do: be relevant… be newsy… understand our programs… don’t blanket pitch. But the standout message of the day was that, at the end of the day, media aren’t just covering for one outlet anymore. They’ve evolved to include online.

Vancouver Sun newsroom meeting

This was not huge news to me, but when I sat down at Vancouver Sun’s first editorial meeting of the day – focused on their WEB content – I think that did it for me. To my knowledge, CKNW hasn’t quite evolved to the level of showing video on their site, but the other three all have separate web staff. The CBC is so organized now – physically – that their entire multimedia news team works on the same floor and the stories that go on radio and/or TV are almost guaranteed to go online. It made me think about all the stories I might have lost for my clients if I had not even thought of pitching for online exclusively. (Because yes, no matter how good you think your story is, it is rarely applicable to all three media types.)

CBC Vancouver Newsroom

Case in point, my boyfriend Leo, who writes on VancouverBeerBlog.com. He isn’t a web expert, and is too modest to even call himself a beer expert. I helped him set up his WordPress blog in October of 2010 and taught him how to use Twitter and keywords in his tags, posts, and categories. Though he certainly isn’t the only beer blogger in the city or province, his traffic is quite substantial (according to his interpretation of Google Analytics) and he reached over 1,000 followers faster than I did (two years). At last weekend’s Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) Annual General Meeting, he was given the first Gold Award for Best Beer Blogger/Writer for 2012. My boyfriend, who, when starting the blog almost couldn’t tell the difference between your and you’re, won Best Beer Writer of 2012.

Leo explained that he was told that he was one of the top 3 writers voted among members. But the members actually didn’t choose the best of the 3; they had to choose randomly, which means that people knew of his blog more than they did of all the other beer writers and bloggers around town. This meant something interesting: that it doesn’t matter who’s been writing the longest, who’s the best writer or who wrote for the most distinguished media outlet; it mattered that people saw him online. I know how much hard work Leo has put into the content of his blog, and now I rarely see him out without his camera. But, he’s only just scratched the surface when it comes to online reporting. He’s not on Facebook like I am (though his blogs will often get posted there), and doesn’t post any video reviews. So imagine what his traffic and exposure might be like if he did?

Global BC’s producers love interacting with people on Facebook (they have 3 different pages!) and Twitter. While it might not guarantee media coverage, the retweeting and interaction may certainly work in a client’s favour, especially with public events.

I am dead serious about video now. I always encouraged my clients to have it on hand, but now I’m going to start to demand it, even for the less obvious cases. Because they don’t know what I know now… they might still want that “front page” story or that 3 minute broadcast interview, and I will still try and get that for them. But if I can get that photo or video on an outlet’s website too, then the better for us both.

This is somewhat of a test post, but even apart from the practice of Public Relations, I think that developing and nurturing a website and the way in interacts with visitors and blog readers is an extremely important part of the Marketing and branding process.

I was sitting with a former colleague (thanks Leon!) last night about how much we love to use WordPress. I learned about some security features that can cut down on the chance of WP websites getting hacked:

• Don’t leave the Login link on your website.
• Don’t use “admin” as your username. I think WP was encouraging this early on but then now you have the freedom to choose any username, but not to change it.
• Use the WP Security Plugin. I couldn’t find this one in a first search, so maybe someone can help me out with this one.
• Use the Captcha plugin to avoid comment spam. This one is a no-brainer; I implemented it on my review site already, but seem to be having problems with it on this website.

Second, I have learned that plugins are amazing. While I was under the impression that some plugins would only work on WordPress hosted websites, it looks like the upgraded version allows self-hosters like myself to use them. I have just installed three social media plugins for all of my blog posts:

• WP FB Like – Places the “Like” button in each post.
• Plus One – Adds the Google +1 button in each post.
• Tweet This – Adds the Twitter “Tweet This” button in each post.

While I’m sure there are variations of these, they seem to look and operate fine so far. Any other great (or better) plugins you swear by?

One of the great talk shows here in our city is Studio 4 with Fanny Kiefer, where she delves deep in conversation with worldly experts about issues important to our communities and beyond.

Yesterday Fanny spoke with Tracy Lydiatt, the Green Families Guru, about simple ways to go green this year.

Elevate Magazine, Canada’s premier magazine on body enhancement and wellness, published the ZO Skin Health line in their January-February issue. Click here to read the issue online, or see the image below.

As negative as my last blog might have been on the way people do business in Vancouver, this one’s going to be a bit different. I came across the stories of two women taking how business is done into their own hands.

1) Annching Wang, AVERY

Since I have been trying to get clients in fashion, I’ve discovered that the industry in Vancouver is very much like the film industry. Small. Small-scale brands, few big names, and tiny budgets. So I was refreshed to see a designer out of school taking things into her own hands and starting a crowdfunding project. Indiegogo.com is a site that’s been used mostly by filmmakers trying to get funds to create their project. So why not use it for a fashion line?

What I love about AVERY is that it’s 80% sustainable. And Wang has done her homework and figured out what incentives she’s going to give to her contributing donors, which is key. She has a great eye for branding already – I was blown away by her intro video and she’s already got over 1,000 followers on Twitter and 83 Facebook fans, and counting. When Wang reaches her goal of $6,000 by March, she’ll have only a 4-piece collection, but the revenue will likely be used to fund a bigger collection that will follow. I’m dying to see what each of the pieces looks like.

I’m totally on the same wavelength that having a great wardrobe doesn’t mean you need a lot of stuff. Fewer, better quality items are what creates a wardrobe with longevity, and reduces waste. Wang is so much more ahead than some designers who move so fast that they find themselves in the hole when they start their businesses without a clue of how they are going to make sales. So what a great way to launch and build brand equity with consumers than to crowdsource?

Check out the AVERY collection campaign here.
AVERY: www.averybywang.com
Twitter: @AnnchingWang
Facebook.com/AverybyWang

2) Shannen O’Brian, Karma Exchange & Create Change

While the cover of the WestEnder this week reads “THE END OF THE WORLD,” I’m looking forward to 2012 being the start of something BIG for my personal life, my business, and in turn, the world. So I was stoked to read about philanthropist 29 year-old Shannen O’Brian, founder of Karma Exchange and Create Change Now.

I had heard of Karma Exchange before, a social enterprise that partners with real businesses to offer products and deals. Consumers buy things like Vida Spa’s Karma Massage or a treat at David Hawksworth’s Bel Cafe, and in turn 100% of proceeds go to O’Brian’s charity Create Change, in which she video documents all the projects going on. O’Brian created the charity after working and volunteering with NGOs around the world and seeing where our donations to large charities were going to: Land Rovers and expensive meals. Reading the Create Change website, I loved how she said that the images of starving children that we see on TV weren’t necessarily the reality; impoverished people are willing to work hard, but it’s the infrastructure of the country that often prevents them from getting the basics they need to survive. O’Brian is instantly one of my heroes, able to use local business to fuel donations and make the world a better place without beating us over the head with guilt.

Karma Exchange: www.karmaexchange.com
Create Change Now: www.createchangenow.ca
Twitter: @Karma_Exchange
Facebook.com/KarmaExchangeVancouver