Forecast from my social media barometer

PodCamp Toronto is an unconference at its best – a volunteer planned two-day event every February on the campus of Ryerson University – where URL meets IRL with equal parts learning and socializing. The casual atmostphere takes you back to days when social media was mostly outside the status quo.  Of course PodCamp, like social media, is more mainstream but that entropic start-up energy is still very much at its core.

This year, I gave a talk called 'Social Media Barometer' – my take on some of the recent trends and changes happening in the social communications space. It's by no means exhaustive; more of a roundup of some of the developments and tools that have caught my attention recently.  And it's all new material, so to speak.

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Blog turns five…Where did the time go?

I find it hard to believe, but next week is the fifth anniversary of my blog.  Over the past 369 posts (chapters?), I've gone from being a neophyte on Blogger to a WordPress pro with a site hosted on my own domain.  I've imported and exported, uploaded, commented and moderated and eventually added visuals after eschewing them at first because I felt this blog would be about writing alone and didn't need 'pictures'. As some of you know I used to feel the same about standup comedy and realize the importance of combining words and delivery in order to get your story across. 

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Presenting my social media class 2011

It's that time of year… my McMaster University social media course is in full swing and I want to introduce the class and their blogs.

This is the third time I've taught the course and as before, topics can be anything the students are passionate about.  Because the group is from communications and marketing, the writing is strong and you can hear people's voices come through.  And because they range in age from recent grads to boomers, you'll find an eclectic array of subjects.  (more…)

I have some news…

A little over a year ago, I co-founded energi PR. I was looking to start something new.  What I didn’t realize then was that my dream was to work pretty much exclusively in social media.

I wanted social to be the core.

So, after many sleepless nights and lots of deliberation, I’ve decided to make a change. A big one for me both professionally and personally. (more…)

Counselors Academy 2012: call for presentations

I’ve said this before: my PR highlight of the year is PRSA Counselors Academy conference, which features some of the smartest agency leaders you’ll ever meet.

In fact, it means so much to me that I’m chairing the 2012 event in New Orleans, May 6 to 8, 2012. We have an amazing and talented committee of volunteers putting it all together, including my co-chair, Dana Hughens and the folks at PRSA. (more…)