2008 – A year in review – social media

Many people may think that it’s a little bit too early to be thinking about an End-of-the-Year review but I’ve been thinking about this for a long while now, and it’s better to publish it now that it’s fresh in my mind rather than when I hit December 31st, 2008 and I will not really remember what the heck I wrote this post for. Particularly because I will be publishing a series where I write about what I’ve accomplished this year.

Blogging is my hobby and the Internet is my playground. I don’t do this professionally, although I am lucky that I’ve been getting some freelance writing and consulting gigs out of blogging for fun, which is nice! I started blogging as a distraction and I now do it with such regularity that I sometimes check my blogging GMail before I check my research or personal email!

So here is a summary of the things that I have accomplished so far in 2008 with respect to the social media/blogging world:

- I moved from Blogger to WordPress.com (after much prodding by everyone, particularly Rebecca) and I’ve enjoyed the rewards ever since.

- I gave my very first non-academic talk to a geeky audience (WordCamp Fraser Valley 2008), on moving away from Blogger on to WordPress. I had a wonderful time and had an opportunity to meet new friends that had only known in online life, including Tyler Ingram, Gary Jones, Jeremy Latham, Gregg, Tom, and a few others I had befriended before, including Liam, Jodi Hamilton, Lorraine Murphy, Kulpreet Singh, Andy Peatling, to name just a few.

- I recently went self-hosted, which was something I should have done AGES ago. But whatever. At least I did it! And I couldn’t have done it without the very capable help of my friend J. Karen Parker. Thank you!

- I started attending regularly-scheduled local tech/social media/PR events, including Third Tuesday, Net Tuesday, Vancouver Bloggers Meetup, Sales Performance Meetup, Young Professionals Meetup, Real Estate Tech Meetup. All this socializing has led to attending even more local techie events and making new and valued friends (who have now become very close, like Gus Fosarolli, Monica Hamburg, Tanya Davis, Airdrie and Derek Miller, Kerry Anne, Degan Beley, Erica Hargreave).

- I liveblogged numerous events throughout the year, something I hadn’t ever done before. Rebecca encouraged me to liveblog even when she was liveblogging an event. To me, Rebecca is an expert in liveblogging, and I’ve taken many cues from her work. She invited me to guest live-blog Michael Geist’s talk at St. John’s College and on Rebecca’s own blog, one of the NetTuesdays on widgets for social change. I also liveblogged Mhairi Petrovic’s talk at Third Tuesday (probably one of my best crafted liveblogs) and, while I wish I had been able to liveblog Rebecca’s talk at Third Tuesday, I only did a recap (but I think it was a good one as well). I plan to write a detailed list of all the liveblogs I’ve done as part of my portfolio (not just now).

- My blog’s Technorati authority increased more than 15=73 points since August 2008 (reaching 273 right now, which situates me in the top 12,500 blogs in the world). I point out to the increase in Technorati authority not out of being conceited, but I am still shocked (and pleased) to have an increase of 150% in authority within three months.

- My readership increased to the point where I can now point out to tens of thousands of unique views Considering that when I started my blog I had 3 readers, I’ve come a long way. On the same note of increasing readership, I finally managed to be able to harness the power of my blog to do good, something I owe to my readers. THANK YOU.

- I did a 24 hour, 2 posts an hour Blogathon, raising funds for the BC Cancer Foundation. I am very privileged for having the friends I do. 18 (yes, you read right, eighteen) bloggers answered my call for guest posts. Thank you all, I raised over $ 400 dollars for cancer research.

- I kept the same tone for my blog all year long. It is still a blog about ME. My life in Vancouver (which includes a lot of tech/social media/PR events), my friends (both online and civilians), the Hellion family and my good friend DMcN (my household) and my research.

- I started publishing a number of posts giving snippets of what I do for a living (research/teaching). These posts have been really well received, and while I do have a professional blog (which I’ll be unveiling soon), I still like to talk a bit about research here on my personal blog.

- The mainstream media has been very good to me in 2008. I managed to appear in the 24 Hrs Vancouver newspaper a whopping three times. Considering I had never been much of a mainstream media target (my research is really interesting, but I never actually have sought publicity or MSM coverage), it was a very pleasant surprise. The three 24Hrs articles had to do with SteakCamp, Blogathon 2008 and my involvement in the local blogging community as the organizer of Vancouver Bloggers Meetup. Furthermore, The Georgia Straight did a fantastic piece on local bloggers that gave a wonderful overview of my role as a Vancouver blogger, something I’m very proud of.

- I’ve been approached several times to do paid advertisements on my blog, which is also very very cool. I’ll be dealing with those soon, as this year has been a total blur.

- I’ve covered many local events as a media outlet. Most of this coverage has been tech/social media/PR events, but I’ve also managed to cover some film festivals and sustainability-related events.

- The social media world has also been very kind to me this year. I’ve been nominated to the Canadian Blog Awards 2008 in three categories (outstanding, as I had never been nominated before) and luckily, I’ve passed the first round, so that was awesome. I was also nominated for the Best of 604 Awards in the Personal Blogs category.

- I became the Top Ranked Blogger in UrbanSpoon and managed to maintain this leadership almost throughout the year.

- I helped organize BarCamp 2008, and although I missed the actual conference, I had a lot of fun at the party.

THE BEST PART OF THIS 2008 IN SOCIAL MEDIA? MY FRIENDS.

I made new friends. Great friends. Wonderful friends. I opened myself to the world of social media and tech, and in return, I was able to capitalize and create wonderful and meaningful relationships that I think will stay with me throughout the years.

Some people have been very kind in telling me that in less than a year, I went from being a nobody to being a cornerstone of Vancouver’s social media/tech/PR scene. While I think those people are being too kind to me, I am very flattered and grateful.

It is, nevertheless, you guys who read my blog who honor me day after day, post after post. Thanks for giving me a reason to keep going, thanks for sharing my life and thanks for making my world so much brighter every day. You rock.

EDIT – Even if I didn’t mention you by name, you all who are my friends know who you are, so no need to mention it specifically

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