Always on the lookout for publicity opportunities for client's projects and media relations workshops participants, I thought I'd spend some time with over the Christmas holidays reviewing the promotional opportunities offered by ShawTV. I was pleasantly surprised. I started watching ShawTV Edmonton, also known as Channel 10, in earnest, on Wednesday, December 23, 2009. Read more about how to pitch your story to ShawTV in Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer and beyond.

This project calls for the training a future webmaster how to create a website in a content management system for a Paralympian athlete about to compete at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. The majority of my time on this project has been spent training the webmaster how Joomla! websites are put together.  This project is most interesting for three reasons: one, the client, though legally blind, is a downhill skier competing in the Paralympics; two, Carrie, the person I am training to update and maintain the website after I have framed it in, the roommate of the athlete, is also legally blind and; three, Carrie is the most enthusiastic student I have worked with in the four years I have been building, training and consulting on websites built in Joomla! She is also a web accessibility consultant for Athabasca University. 
See Viviane Forest's two week old website so far

This project calls for the creation of a new website and an electronic newsletter program to support the launch of the capital campaign WELCA is about to announce in early 2010. I had worked with the Centre over the past three years in creating and distributing their news releases. Part of the project calls for the creation of an online newsroom so they can post and distribute their own news releases. Other parts of the project call for training in social media such as using Flickr to as a tool for compiling and managing archival photos online. I've installed a program on their new website that will pull these photos from Flickr and display them in a slideshow gallery on their website. All they have to do is to continue to add photos to Flickr and these photos will also appear on their website. See the first issue of their enewsletter

This project calls for the creation of a new website for a magazine publisher in Edmonton. The website will also herald the fact that the ten year old magazine, formerly Edmonton's City Palate, is changing its name to The Tomato Food & Drink. Working with Mary, an experienced print magazine publisher and Jan, the long time graphic designer for the magazine has been a delight. So has the advantage of being able to work with well written and edited text and terrific images ready to optimize for the web. We will launch the new website with the last issue of City Palate and then archive it when she uploads the first issue of The Tomato at the end of January. As a result of what I discovered with this project, I'll be looking for more of this kind of work. See the magazine's new website.  

This project calls for the creation of a new website for Hades Publications to promote the company's four imprints. My client Brian, is Canada's largest science fiction and fantasy publisher, who also has an on-demand printing division. So I can have regular design meetings with this Calgary-based client, I use Skype and an online meeting service called Go to Meeting which I also use for individual tutorials and webinars. I have set up a temporary domain on a server at my web host where I am building the site. When the new site is completed, we'll replace the old files now on the domain he wants to use at www.hadespublications.com with the new site files. I've installed all the software and the template. The navigation and menu systems are in place and the top level articles are sketched in. The site is now ready for content. The new website is scheduled to launch mid-February.

 

This project calls for the creation of a social media campaign to promote the Edmonton stop on the forty city wide North American tour of the Grammy award winning Soweto Gospel Choir. Working with Terry Wickham, the general manager of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, my task is to devise a promotional campaign to be directed to their newsletter mailing list and their Facebook fans. I'll also be scouting out other social networks to find members that share an interest in world music with a gospel perspective. My challenge is to localize the campaign so that the result is increased ticket sales for their Edmonton stop on March 16. See more about this concert

This project for the Writing Works Program and MacEwan calls for the development of a workshop on the topic of how writers can blog their book. it covers the range of developing writing styles while building a fan base of supporters and contributors, to sending out newsletters and converting the blog content to a printed book. Over the years, I've given a number of workshops to Alberta writers and even organized one of the first community blogging workshops in Edmonton (after which, I am proud to report Ken Chapman began his blogging career and then became rich and famous).  The workshop is scheduled for Saturday, January 30. See more about this workshop and register by calling (780) 497-5000.

Last year, I ran initial trials for a social media webinar series I had planned to offer in 2010.  This year, I am continuing the series, beginning with a webinar on February 23, 2010 from 10:00 to 11:30am on Presenting, Promoting and Protecting Your Reputation Online. This webinar is designed especially for the members of the Community Learning Network and is offered free to mediamag ezine subscribers until January 31, 2010. As a subscriber to mediamag ezine, I invite you to attend as my guest. Register for this webinar by selecting the registration link below and inserting cln2010 into the coupon code so you won't be directed to the payment page. You'll be sent the login instructions two days before the webinar.

 

See more information about the Repuutation Management Webinar
See the other webinars in the social media series

See some of the resources we use in our social media webinars

Increasingly, I have been asked to advise individuals and organizations on special applications of online social media tools. I've set up Facebook pages, got them hooked on Twitter, arranged to compile their archival photos on Flickr and installed online donation software on their websites so they can raise money from their grassroots supporters. In a session with the program director of the Edmonton Chamber of Voluntary Organizations, I recommended that they rebuild their website in Joomla! and that they install an online jobs component to provide a benefit of high value for their membership at little or no cost.

 

I have worked one-on-one with many newsletter publishers showing them how to create and make effective use of print and electronic newsletters. Notable recent instances include the Horizon Stage, Cross Cancer Institute, and the Odyssium. More recently, I have been offering hands on training on building Joomla! websites. Currently, I am helping to build a website for a Paralympian about to compete in Vancouver in 2010 and completing the design of websites for a book and for a magazine publisher. I'll be looking for more website publishing projects in February.

 

All this to say, if you're interested in updating your communication skills for the next decade, especially when it comes to the internet, you might want to consider booking some time together. I am not expensive, I have a lot of experience, and I love to share ideas. My greatest pleasure is to show people how they can effectively present, promote and protect themselves online with websites, enewsletters and social media tools.

 

Call me at (780) 695-5675 and we can talk about how I can help you enhance your media, social media and website and newsletter publishing skills.

 

See feedback from other participants 

My favourite tool for writers, publishers or anyone who works with words and text, is a wiki. I find the idea of refining content on a topic submitted by and accessible to multiple authors over a period of time without losing track of the original, fascinating.

 

I've often recommended using wikis as a solution for information gathering projects to many of my clients. No one has taken up this solution yet. They seem scared. So that I can demonstrate the usefulness of wikis to my clients, I am preparing to publish a wiki in support the media relations workshops I offer. I wrote an ebook on Mega Media Publicity four years ago, when I first started offering workshops. It's not bad but needs updating. I am going to post this content to a wiki and invite the 400+ workshop participants I have had the pleasure to meet over the past four years as well as future workshop participants to correct any errors and help me keep it updated. You're invited too. Watch for the Media Publicity Wiki to launch in the next month or so. If you haven't already, sign up for my newsletter and you'll receive an announcement when it's up and ready for your input.

 

Here's what Theresa Agnew, Manager of the Writing Works Program at MacEwan had to say about her first experience with a wiki when we worked together on a project...

 

 

The 2010 edition of the Alberta Media Directory is almost ready to print. It includes phone, fax and email addresses for the 750 or so media outlets in Alberta as well as for the key editors and reporters at  218 newspapers,153 magazines, 115 radio stations and 24  television stations. Final tweaks are scheduled to take place the last week of January. It goes to the designer the first week of February and will be ready to ship by the middle of February. As soon as the print version is sent to the designers, the online version gets its update. Both print and online versions of the Alberta Media Directory will be ready for delivery at the middle of February.  

 

I hope you like the new direction of mediamag ezine and find it informative, thought provoking and inspirational. If you would like to know more about the Alberta Media Directory, or training opportunities and consulting services I offer in media relations, social media, electronic newsletters and website development, contact me. I'd be happy to have a conversation with you about your project and perhaps help you get the word out about your organization in Alberta and beyond. You can send me a note via the contact form in the Contact Us section of the website detailing your project along with your phone number or better yet, call me at (780) 695-5675.

 

All the best to you and yours throughout 2010 and beyond.

 

Sincerely,

 

www.rivercityproductions.ca
www.mediamag.ca
www.mediainalberta.ca

 

 

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