{original post at socialmediatoday by Sarah Hartshorn on 05/04/2010}

The differences between social media and social networking are just about as vast as night and day. There are some key differences and knowing what they are can help you gain a better understanding on how to leverage them for your brand and business.

1. By Any Definition

Social media is a way to transmit, or share information with a broad audience. Everyone has the opportunity to create and distribute. All you really need is an internet connection and you’re off to the races.

On the other hand, social networking is an act of engagement. Groups of people with common interests, or like-minds, associate together on social networking sites and build relationships through community.

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{original post at Acuity Forums}

Executing Social Media Vancouver
June 15 – 16, 2010

Empire Landmark Hotel

Attending Executing Social Media Vancouver will be the most important thing you can do for your organization this year!
This may sound like a big, bold, ballsy statement, but it’s true. The “buzz” about your business is now online, measurable, searchable, and permanent. Come to learn why you must and how you can participate in the conversations that influence your market. Explore how your organization can boost employee and customer engagement, increase brand loyalty, market share, and corporate reputation. Hear and engage with leading social media pioneers and practitioners. Walk away with practical plans and resources to help you develop, implement, refine and measure outcomes of social media strategies. This is the premier event for CMOs, Social Media Managers, Online Community Managers, Corporate Communications, PR, Sales, Marketing & Brand Managers, Advertising, Internal Communications, IT and HR/Recruitment Professionals.

Read agenda and register here

{original post at Mashable by Barb Dybwad}

As @SilentClark, Clark Harris is communicating solely through social media channels during the month of May to raise money and awareness for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Harris started the experiment as a tribute to his mother, Ruth Harris, whose 10-year battle with cancer ended last February. Thinking back to a more traditional fundraising campaign he participated in in 2006, Team in Training Century Ride, Harris began “looking for a bigger challenge to accomplish in her memory.” How could a cause campaign in today’s social media-enabled world compare to a primarily direct mail campaign from only a few years ago?

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{original post at WordCamp Victoria}

WordCamps are informal, community-organized events.  Everyone from casual users to core developers participate,share ideas, and get to know each other. WordCamps are open to WordPress.com and WordPress.org users alike. WordCamp Victoria offers you the chance to hear exciting speakers discuss topics that are of interest to anyone using WordPress. WordCamp is being held at the Victoria Campus of University Canada West on Saturday May 15th, 2010.

There are workshops, presentations, and discussion groups on every WordPress-related topic imaginable for beginner, intermediate, and expert.

Saturday May 15, 2010
Register: 8:30 am
Event: 9 am – 5 pm
University Canada West
950 Kings Road
Victoria, BC

VISIT WEBSITE FOR REGISTRATION AND MORE INFO: http://www.wordcampvictoria.ca/

Featured Speaker – Rebecca Bollwitt – “Miss604″

WordCamp Victoria is very pleased to welcome Rebecca Bolwitt as a featured speaker at the upcoming WordCamp on May 15th, 2010.

In case you’ve been living in a cave for the past few years, here’s Rebecca’s profile:

Rebecca Bollwitt - Photo by Nordica Photography

Rebecca Bollwitt has been blogging about life in BC since 2004 onMiss604.com, and she has been podcasting since 2005.

Listed among Vancouver’s most visible on the web, Miss604.com was voted “Best Vancouver …

CON TINUE READING

ORIGINAL POST: Matt Hartley, Financial Post Published: Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Twitter’s new service may be called @anywhere, but the plan is to help Twitter be everywhere.

Yesterday at the South By Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference in Austin, Tex., Twitter Inc. chief executive Evan Williams announced a new service, which will allow third-party websites to integrate Twitter into their online operations.

The new service, dubbed @anywhere, will enable Websites to use Twitter simply by adding a few lines of code to their properties. Twitter said that sites operated by Amazon.comInc., Yahoo Inc., YouTube and The New York Times will be among the first to offer new Twitter-integration services. “Imagine being able to follow a New York Times journalist directly from her byline, tweet about a video without leaving YouTube, and discover new Twitter accounts while visiting the Yahoo! home page — and that’s just the beginning,” Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wrote on the company’s official blog.

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Original post by Patrice at Snoitulos Ten, January 27, 2010

FOR OUTLOOK 2007 USERS

I frequently get asked how to put the little Twitter and Facebook icons into an email signature with links back to their respective accounts. If you are using Outlook 2007, here are some basic instructions for how you can add these icons to your signature.

1. Open Outlook
2. Click on Tools
3. Click on Options
4. From the tabs, click on “Mail Format”
5. Click on Signatures
6. Click on the New Button
7. Give your signature a name (Company name will do)
8. Then in the Edit Signature section, type out everything you want included in the signature. My signature has my name, title, logo, address, phone, email, web address and Twitter/Facebook icons.
9. To add the images to your signature (we have attached the Facebook/Twitter icons to this post for you to save and use in your own signature) click on the “picture” icon (which is the 2nd icon from the right)
10. After you click on Picture, a browse wizard will pop-up and will allow you to browse your hard drive and add your twitter/Facebook icons to the signature.
11. Once you have the images in the signature, click on one of the images to highlight it. Then click on the “hyperlink” button (it should be the last button on the right)
12. In the address field at the bottom of the hyperlink window, type in your Twitter or Facebook address (depending on which image you are linking)
13. Click ok
14. Repeat that until you have all your images linked to the right web addresses.

It takes a few steps to get all the icons loaded in the way you want, however, not having to type in your signature each and every time will save you lots of time and save your recipients time if they are trying to look up your contact information. Promoting your Facebook Fan Page or Twitter Account in a signature is a great way to get your Social Media efforts in front of everyone that you touch base with via email.

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Original Post by Dani Babb: The Online Professor @ Entrepreneur.com

Group, Fan Page or Both?

Make sure your Facebook strategy is the one that works best for your business.

Original article by Jennifer Van Grove at Mashable

Today Get Satisfaction is bringing their popular social CRM tool inside Facebook Pages with Social Engagement Hub. The new app, created by Invovler using the Get Satisfaction API, gives brands and businesses the ability to integrate the entire support experience into Facebook.

That means the Ask A Question, Share an Idea, Report a Problem, and Give Praise functionalities are all present and commingling with the service’s intelligent question database so both customers and brand representatives have the ability to collectively tackle queries.

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Greenway Carpet Care Blog | http://www.greenwayclean.com/blog/

Greenway Carpet Care provides earth friendly carpet cleaning in Victoria, BC, using a combination of technology, plus non-toxic cleaning agents to ensure your home is a clean and healthy environment to live in.

Greenway Carpet Care already had a website, but they wanted to take advantage of blogging and social media marketing. Star Global created a blog and linked it through the navigation bar of their existing website, and provided a live feed from the home page so clients can easily read new blog entries, and access links to social media websites like Twitter and Facebook.

In order for Greenway Carpet Care to increase usage of the website by providing relevant new information to the public on a regular basis, Star Global recommended Wordpress CMS (blog software) in order to maintain an ongoing and active posting of current industry news and information. This encourages people to return often. To help the Greenway Carpet Care manage stories, media information, and build a resource centre with articles, conference material, publications etc., Star Global also recommended using a blog to catalogue publically available, industry related information.

An RSS feed is provided with any blog software. Articles can be syndicated throughout the Internet, and users may subscribe the news feed using their preferred software or service.

Star Global designed the blog with a modern spin on their existing marketing materials, and when Greenway Carpet Care is ready to replace the website in future, the blog will already display their most recent marketing efforts.

Lasertech Floorplans | www.lasertechfloorplans.com

Lasertech Floor Plans services the Commercial Real Estate industry, with accurate, CAD based, As-Built Floorplans for sales and lease marketing, or architectural/interior design/space planning base drawings, or computerized facility/property management data, with a uniquely developed technology and a range of services meeting the needs of this industry on a cost effective, nationwide basis.

Lasertech needed a new design for their website, and the ability to update the website in-house. Star Global first reviewed and catalogued the website pages and architecture. Star Global then redesigned the site with a new look & feel, revised the navigation, and created a playbook by reorganizing the site to build more unique headings and revamp front line messaging.

Star Global programmed the website into Wordpress CMS with integrated blog functions to direct traffic to current information, build a resource centre with articles, trade show material, publications, and connect to social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Youtube. The project also included a functioning website search, integrating the existing Knowledgebase (built by Star Global in 2008), plus porting and consolidating over 75 pages of text.

The website also has a contact page for multiple office locations, Google map, and Request for Quote form.

The end result was so well received that Lasertech is using the website design to influence other marketing, and trade show materials.