At Freelance Camp Vancouver 2011 (September 10th, 2011), I will be speaking on my 6 Key Elements to Thriving and Managing Myself as a Project.

At Social Media Camp Vancouver 2011 (September 19th, 2011 and September 22nd, 2011), I will be speaking on Pitching Bloggers/Influencers (Social Media Blogging Summit) and Public Policy 2.0 (Government Summit).

I can’t recall where else I’ve been invited, but I’ll definitely let you know where I speak next!

Related posts:

1. Upcoming event – Climate change talks organized by VTACC (Vancouver)
2. May 2010 – a month filled with talks by me
3. My Social Media Camp Victoria 2011 recap #smcv11

The highlight of the conference for me, I will have to selfishly admit, was (in addition to Derek K. Miller winning the Most Inspiring Social Media User ‘Westie’ Award) realizing how much more I have matured as a speaker. Admittedly, this is my job, right? I’m an educator. I teach, speak and give keynotes and talks for a living. Yet I knew I needed to refine my presentation skills. I procured the help of Janice Tomich (Calculated Presentations). Janice has been working with me for the past few months on both sides – academic talks and social media talks.

And yes, my delivery is improving dramatically. I noticed in the way I led both of my talks, the first one that I shared with Janni Aragon, and the second one on my own, on a topic I know well but that could be dry – reputation management and digital identity. And another highlight is – the friendships I maintain online stay alive just as well when we see each other offline.

Overall, it was a wonderful conference. I felt again amongst friends, and I tested a few ideas that I had wanted to explore in the field of social media. Congratulations and thanks to Paul Holmes, Chris Burdge, Yukari Peerless, Katharine Holmes and the hordes of amazing volunteers, sponsors and attendees.

Related posts:

1. Mission accomplished at #smcv10 Social Media Camp Victoria 2010
2. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria
3. Upcoming speaking engagement – Social Media Club (Victoria, B.C.) May 2009

UBC Professional Development Communicators

(03/01/2011)

  

Close

9:18	Raul:  This is a liveblog created with Cover It Live. I pre-programmed it so that it will save all tweets that are marked (hashtagged) with #CommsUBC. The livetweetage starts here. Tuesday March 1, 2011 9:18 Raul

10:28

lazarus7:  @hummingbird604 Good luck with your demo! ( twittering from East Mall on #ubc campus ) #CommsUBC [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 10:28 lazarus7

10:28

mojann:  @hummingbird604 Hi professor tweeting from the SUB. #CommsUBC [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 10:28 mojann

10:28

Odin195:  @hummingbird604 ~ Good morning Raul (and class) tweeting from The River Rock #CommsUBC [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 10:28 Odin195

10:28

billytwitty:  @hummingbird604 Greetings from my bath, where I spend my time every morning catching up on social media. #CommsUBC [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 10:28 billytwitty

10:37

RitchieTrev:  @raulpacheco Hello professor! POLI 350 and POLI 375! #CommsUBC [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 10:37 RitchieTrev

10:37

HopeBCca:  Hi Raul! Rudy from Yale BC in the Fraser Canyon. #CommsUBC Just finished shoveling snow. A.G.A.I.N. [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 10:37 HopeBCca

10:37

elswis:  @hummingbird604 Hi, #commsUBC [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 10:37 elswis

10:37

alisonjoyy:  Tweeting from downtown #YVR at @SauderISIS, hello friends in #CommsUBC [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 10:37 alisonjoyy

10:46

inqualicum:  Greetings from Qualicum Beach! #CommsUBC [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 10:46 inqualicum

10:46

TrendsVancouver:  #commsubc is now trending in #Vancouver http://trendsmap.com/ca/vancouver [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 10:46 TrendsVancouver

10:46

alexishinde:  @hummingbird604 Hi there – tweeting from downtown Vancouver. #CommsUBC [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 10:46 alexishinde

10:55

scottthran:  Greetings from my PJs #CommsUBC [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 10:55 scottthran

11:14

jonchiang:  @raulpacheco Hey professor. I hope this isn’t showing up in a live tweetfeed! #CommsUBC [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 11:14 jonchiang

11:14

msjuliashepherd:  @raulpacheco hello Dr. Pacheco!! #CommsUBC [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 11:14 msjuliashepherd

11:42

qbchamber:  Happy Tweeting. #CommsUBC [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 11:42 qbchamber

11:42

hummingbird604:  Thanks everyone who tweeted for the #CommsUBC demo – it really helped. [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 11:42 hummingbird604

12:01

polisKennedy:  @raulpacheco Hello Professor – looking forward to our lecture on Thursday! #CommsUBC [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 12:01 polisKennedy

12:10

mdawmack:  Thanks @hummingbird604 for the great Demystifying Twitter workshop this morning #CommsUBC [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 12:10 mdawmack

12:19

hummingbird604:  Glad it was valuable! RT @mdawmack: Thanks @hummingbird604 for the great Demystifying Twitter workshop this morning #CommsUBC [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 12:19 hummingbird604

12:28

TrendsmapCanada:  #commsubc is now trending in Canada http://trendsmap.com/ca [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 12:28 TrendsmapCanada

12:28

hummingbird604:  My workshop is trending in Canada: awesome RT @TrendsmapCanada: #commsubc is now trending in Canada http://trendsmap.com/ca” [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 12:28 hummingbird604

5:38	hummingbird604:  Thank you! RT @sfupamr: Well hello from the Public Affairs team at SFU! (We’re kinda fond of @hummingbird604) #CommsUBC [via Twitter] Tuesday March 1, 2011 5:38 hummingbird604

7:47

 

 

Related posts:

1. The strange life of a Geek-In-Training
2. The Twitter lost followers
3. On the Twitter 101 for Business guide from Twitter

Ah, the re-tweet (RT). That good ol’ friend. I would say “long time, no see” but truthfully, I can’t stay that. My stuff gets re-tweeted all the time, and I am extremely grateful for that. That people will think of my stuff relevant enough to share it with their own networks makes me happy. The way I have thought about retweets has evolved quite a lot, though. I am pretty sure that’s this evolution is result of the fact that my 5th year of blogging is soon over (April 2011) and that I have thought about this topic quite a lot.

In my two most recent speaking engagements in the field of social media (WordCamp Fraser Valley and the Canadian Public Relations Society Student Chapter in Vancouver Social Media 101), I indicated that one of the easiest, fastest and best ways to contribute to building your own community online was retweeting people’s stuff. I often do that, intermingling my own tweets (pre-scheduled, for the most part) with retweeting stuff from other individuals.

But the interesting thing is, not everybody thinks this way. The reason why I retweet what I read, mostly, is because either (a) I find it valuable (b) I agree with it and/or (c) I think there’s a reason to share it with my broader network. I retweet Translink’s stuff because my own online network is fairly large and well connected. I would (and probably will) do the same for the Vancouver Police Department (which is now on Twitter, and YouTube – and apparently Second Life?).

I look for ways to make my relationships bidirectional, and I think retweeting other people’s stuff is one way. But some folks might disagree with me. What is YOUR take on retweeting?

Related posts:

1. Build online relationships, promote others as you do yourself
2. Retweeting, contests and social media etiquette
3. Is measuring real influence in social media possible?

As someone who is an academic and an educator but at the same time a power user of social media, I felt it was important that I volunteer my time to this type of events, because it is by spreading my thinking on social media to other folks that I’ll be able to enhance and further the field (a goal of mine since I arrived into the social media scene in Vancouver).

You can read tweets associated with our conversations by following the hashtag CPRS101SM on Twitter. I will try to do a series of screencaptures as I know that tweets are rather ephemeral and I did not live-blog the event (as I was speaking). I hope everyone found our insights useful! And thanks Nick Seliwoniuk for the invite.

Related posts:

1. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria
2. Social Media 101: A Conversation with Vancouver’s Top Influencers (CPRS Student Event)
3. Does retweeting build community online? Twitter as a real social media platform?

This past Wednesday, February 3rd, I was invited by Sara Pereira (Pereira PR) to join Jenn Lowther (6S Marketing) and Curt Cherewayko (Business in Vancouver) to share my thoughts and experiences from the blogger perspective to The PR Group (a meetup Sara has been organizing)

This group has been meeting since last summer, and it’s geared towards public relations folks. The idea of Wednesday evening was to engage in a conversation through a question/answer period on how PR folks can conduct better blogger relations campaigns.

I recall 2008 as “the year of blogger relations”. At least, that’s what I saw from my liveblogging of several events where other influential bloggers spoke about how they got pitched (and in some cases, the strategies they used to pitch other bloggers). I have been on both sides of the fence. I’ve conducted blogger relations campaigns AND I have been sent pitches. In the past couple of years, as my readership has increased, I’ve been sent more and more press releases, getting to the point where I receive up to 100 PR-type emails a day (thank you GMail for your filtering and labels features).

I shared a few of my own thoughts/insights and given that I wasn’t feeling all that well (this week has been challenging), it’s kind of difficult for me to re-summarize them. But from what I can recall I said at the event, I spoke about my pitching policies and a recent post I wrote about how to pitch me (and what mistakes to avoid).

One element I emphasized is know your client’s audience – I was making the case that for theatre companies, it is probably more relevant to get a blog mention than it is an ad on a newspaper or a review on a weekly. People go online to find tickets to the events they want to go to. The same applies to restaurants, everyone looks for online reviews. For example, I *know* for a fact many reviewers in traditional media and I disagree on our assessments of restaurants. So, I pretty much never read those reviews.

Another element I emphasized was build a real, offline relationship with bloggers. I told the audience that (as almost everyone knows), I’ve decided to dramatically reduce the volume of my public appearances to focus on my own development (and obviously, my teaching/research/consulting). The reason I accepted to speak at The PR Group meetup was because I knew Sara in person and we’ve had a good working relationship as well. Given my super busy schedule, I could have said no, but the pre-existing relationship I have with Sara mediated my decision.

The third element I touched on was make the blogger’s job easy. I receive dozens of pitches that are so bad I could publish a whole blog with examples of failures. Lack of personalization/customization, PDF versions of press releases, etc. This is particularly true in the case of boutique PR companies, which by definition are based in more client-focused.

I was asked to provide some suggestions as to what to do/what to avoid. From my pitching policies post and my “Pitch Me” post, here’s a compilation (a little bit blended from both posts).

- Read my blog. That means, read at least a few entries (5-8). Realize that I write about a very broad variety of things (restaurants, local businesses, environment, theatre, dance, my personal life, product reviews).

- Don’t pitch me with a generic “Hello” or “Dear Hummingbird604″. My name is Raul. It’s clearly written on every entry. Try to personalize it as much as you can. You may even want to use the first paragraph of your pitching email to customize it and make me feel appreciated and read.

- I have Acrobat Reader, but given the volume of requests I receive to write about stuff, you’d make my life 3 times easier if you provided me with text that I can just cut-and-paste. Easy peasy.

- Photos – it’d be fantastic if you could send me links to Creative-Commons-licensed photos from the get-go. Makes it easier for me to insert in my entry.

- I receive hundreds of emails a day. If I tell you “yeah, I’d love to write about this but I may forget” – please follow up. I won’t get mad if you send me three emails. Trust me, I’m way more understanding than people think. And don’t be disheartened or disappointed if I don’t write about your play/event/dance exhibition/performance/resort/restaurant/etc. I do keep a file of those things I do want to write about and things that I wish I had written about but didn’t have enough time to do so. One of these days, you’ll score a home-run!

- Pitching me via Twitter works only if you send me a personalized email to follow up. I receive hundreds of @ replies every day. I can’t recall everything even if I want to.

- Pitching me usually works well when you email me on a day that I will be having some time to write. For example, Tuesdays are usually my flexible days when I do book time to blog. So, pitches that I receive by Monday night, are usually well received.

- Ticket/freebies/giveaways are great ways to promote your client’s business. I am always more interested in giving tickets away than receiving complimentary tickets myself. Of course, if you invite me to review your play, it does help to set aside tickets for my review, but I find that my readers love freebies, and sponsoring a contest usually is a very good promotional tool within my blog. Full disclosure – I will be disclosing ALWAYS who sponsored the ticket giveaway.

- Make sure that you understand that I’m very transparent and open and keen on disclosure. I write fairly long paragraphs about who pitched me, what I’m giving away, who sponsored the giveaway, etc. (for a couple of examples, see my reviews of the HP Canada printers and my printer giveaway). Even though the FTC regulations only apply to US bloggers, I’m a big overdiscloser, so be aware of this.

EDIT – Another key point I just recalled that I made was to give every blogger you pitch a different angle. This is particularly important if you pitch several influential bloggers who may share a bit of the same audience. So, for example, pitching me environmental stories is a good idea, as that’s what my research and teaching are about. Pitching me new restaurant openings, theatre/dance/arts performances is also good. When a film festival approaches me, I usually pick the environmentally-focused films. That way, I can provide a different angle to my fellow bloggers.

At some point, within the next week or so, I think I will be publishing a refined version of this post as My Pitching Policy. Jenn and Curt also shared very good points from their own perspective, and overall it was a great event. As always, feel free to contact me if you have any questions, or drop a comment on this post.

Related posts:

1. My guest lecture on Pitching Bloggers (Simon Fraser University PR program) #sfuPR2011
2. 4 additional thoughts on pitching bloggers and online influencers
3. Build online relationships, promote others as you do yourself