My Name is Kate

New blog design on MNIK

September is really the new year for me - not January. Perhaps it's too many years of purchasing school supplies (mmmm ... shiny new binders). So, when I wanted to refresh my blog, I decided to do it for the fall.

I am thrilled (THRILLED!!) that my friend, Shannon Chiarenza (she's @ShannonC73 on Twitter), did a custom illustrated header and footer for MNIK. Shannon is a triple threat - she does web design, is smart about the online space (her piece on why people won't follow you on Twitter is very popular) and is starting to focus more on illustration with an upcoming fall launch of a kid's book that she illustrated.

I wanted a different look than what I had before and the illustrated design that Shannon created is definitely different. I'm hoping it will inspire me to write more regularly.

So, if you're reading this in the feed or email, please take a swing by to see Shannon's great illustration!

Two Delightful Things - CupCakeCamp and SeekingSimone

Every once in a while I still miss Toronto and all its *happenings*. Vancouver is delightful, but smaller, so we generally don't have the variety of activities here as there.  In particular, I was recently very jealous of Toronto's CupCakeCamp. Sure .. BarCamp is great and DemoCamp .. also good.  But CupCakeCamp?!?!  Who wouldn't want to attend CupCakeCamp?

Well now, thanks to enterprising cupcake-lovers Stephanie and Victoria, CupCakeCamp YVR is happening! Friday, July 10, 2009.  Tickets just went up "for sale" (they're free, but a donation is encouraged).  You can also follow CupCakeCampYVR on Twitter.

Speaking of cupcakes ... my wife, Rosemary, and her friend Renee (and then a bunch of their friends) have launched a new web series called Seeking Simone.

Seeking Simone is a new lesbian web series about online dating. Follow the adventures of Simone Selkin as she dates her way through gay Toronto!

"What's so great about meeting 'in real life' first anyway? That's how Ava Braun met Hitler and look how that turned out."

Simone Selkin is single and in no way ready to mingle. Her excuses? Well, she's new to Toronto, she's trying to make the most of her big break on CSIS:ForensicSWAT and, if she's honest, she's still getting over her ex, Rebecca, who was a total skank. But back in Vancouver, Simone's best friend Audrey has a plan to get Simone back on the horse. And that plan is "online dating".

Don't fret, hets - Seeking Simone is not just for homos. It's a comedy for anyone who's ever dared to date - and lived to cringe forever over the tale.

Episodes 1 and 2 are ready and watch-able.  And I hear their editor is working furiously on the third.  Below is the trailer, to give you a taste of the show.  I, of course, think it is charming and funny.  But I acknowledge I'm biased.  Still, give it a view - I'll bet you like it too!

Northern Voice Update - We're Speaking! and Win a Free Ticket!

Just a quick update on Northern Voice 2009 that I blogged about last week. First, Rose and I are speaking! W00t! This is the first time that we've co-presented at a conference. Our topic is "Social Media Mores and the Modern Couple" - the idea for it originated in the same idea pot as this post along with Rosemary saying that "Blogging for Couples" would be a cool topic. It's likely our session is morphing into a panel that will be moderated by the smart and savvy Julie Szabo of Capulet Communications - so stay tuned; I plan on asking all of you for some of your relationship advice about social media.

Oh, for those of you who haven't gotten your tickets yet, well, you may be out of luck. The Saturday of Northern Voice is sold out; there are a still a few tickets left for the Friday. You can also send an email to be put on a waitlist.

BUT if you're a neoLuddite, you might be in luck! Ruth Seeley of No Spin PR is holdinga social media neoLuddite contest for a free ticket to Northern Voice. She's looking for the best (worst?) neoLuddite who wants to start to *get* social media. She has the full deets over on her blog. Contest closes January 31, 2009.

Walking the Red Carpet

So, it seems to be that time of year - where everyone is handing out awards or naming their best of.  Well, the blogosphere is no exception.  I'm quite delighted and humbled to have been nominated in three separate events:

Canadian Blog Awards
MyNameIsKate.ca is a finalist in the Career/Professional Blog category

Best of 604
MyNameIsKate.ca is a nominee in the Favourite Company or Business Blog category

Canada's Influential Women in Social Media
I've been nominated as one of Canada's influential women in social media.

Lists and awards like these inspire a lot of discussion and debate.  I try to find a balance of  being grateful that someone took the time to put my name down and not-believing-my-own-press. :)

I tend to agree with Rob Cottingham when he says that possibly the chief benefit of awards like these is the discovery of other blogs or people you didn't know about (Rob's fantastic Noise to Signal cartoons are nominated in both the CBA and Bestof604 in the humour categories).  And also the delight that some of my favourite bloggers and socmed women  are getting some well-deserved recognition.

So ... it would be wonderful if you took a minute and voted for me :)  And doubly so if you take another minute and choose a blog or a person you'd never heard of before and visit their square of the red carpet.

Photo Credit: akav

FYI: My email *seems* to be back

I seem to have webmail access to all my domains now - but may not have historical email and some stuff will likely take a day or two to trickle through.

I know this is tedious as a blog post, but needed to let people know :)  Thanks for your patience.

So you have something nice to look at, here is a cool photo I found - by ShamsD.

What's a LintBucket?

A number of you have asked, "Uh, Kate, what's a LintBucket?  And, what happened to Reinvent!?"

Thank you for asking! 

Reinvent! Communications has officially "reinvented" itself as LintBucket Media.

Your next question, I imagine, is "Why?"

Well, there are a number of ways to tell the story, but the most expeditious comes down to a truism that  I think should replace the age-old mother's lament "are you wearing clean underwear?".   And that is "do you own the .com?". (And yes, the irony of posting about this on my .ca blog is not lost on me.)

If you really want to hear the gory details, you can take me out for a martini, and I will happily tell you.

And your final question is likely, "Why 'lintbucket'?  What's the story there?"

My lovely partner (both in crime and in business), Rosemary, came up with that one - almost 2 years ago actually.  It was originally a response to a friend's ridiculously memorable blog name (ahem, craphammer); on a lark we purchased the domain. 

When we decided to rename Reinvent, after researching over 200 reasonable names/domains for a boutique marketing firm that specialises in social media marketing and community building and not finding any .coms, we realised what Dorothy realised (that she never needed to look any further than her own backyard) and decided LintBucket Media is a perfect name.

I like it because it's fun to say.  I can't say "lintbucket" without smiling - and that is a good trait in a company name, I think.

And as an anonymous colleague of mine says ...

It fills me with an irresistible urge to pick my belly button.

And that's saying something too ;)

Word of Mouth Marketing for Non-Profits - What Would YOU Want to Know?

Next week, I'm moderating a panel at the From Mass to Grass WOM conference called "Building Buzz for Good" - focusing on the use of WOM marketing by non-profits.  To me, WOM is a perfect fit for non-profits (as well as small businesses) because it can be done on a shoestring budget with some simple smarts and elbow grease.

I'm lucky to have two delightful panelists to engage in conversation: William Azaroff from Vancity/ChangeEverything.ca here in Vancouver and Deborah Kaplan from Zerofootprint in Toronto.  They are going to be sharing case studies of what they've been doing at their respective organizations, on and offline, to get the word out.  I've gotten a sneak peek and they have some great stories to tell!

But part of the fun of a panel is asking for their insights beyond their own projects.  So, if you are attending From Mass to Grass (whether in reality or spirit), what would you want to know?  As a non-profit marketer, would you be more interested in a practical discussion or a more philosophical one?  What's preventing you and your organization from using more WOM tactics?

I'd love your input!  And I'll report back with session notes!

Also, I'm starting a page of resources on WOM marketing for non-profits.  I've started bookmarking a few things on delicious, but I'm also including some other things on this page.  What resources would you recommend?

Photo Credit: chotda

1564 Reasons I Love Squidoo - Dedicated to Jason Calacanis

I've been using Squidoo for well over two years now. Squidoo is a great service that lets you create single web pages, focused on a particular topic, to show off your expertise.  It was started by Seth Godin back in 2005 and is run by a small, passionate team.  Some more facts about Squidoo ...

1. Squidoo has more than 450,000 hand built pages.
2. Squidoo has been reviewed by the New York Times, Mashable, BoingBoing and sites and papers around the world.
3. Squidoo is one of the 300 most popular websites in the US.
4. Squidoo generates hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual royalties to charities and to users.

It's this last one I want to call attention to.  I received an email last week from Megan Casey, Squidoo's Editor-in-Chief.  She was playing around with some new widgets that she had in her master control panel.  One of them showed cumulative charitable donations from Squidoo lensmasters.  She emailed me to let me know that over the life of my account, I was on the top of the list with $1,564.09 being donated from the earnings on my lens.

I thought that was pretty amazing.  Not because I'm at the top of the list (I was a beta tester on Squidoo, so you'd hope I'd be somewhere near the top simply from a longevity perspective), but because I've been able to generate significant revenue on an ongoing basis for a charity  simply by doing something I like on a semi-regular basis. (Sure, it's not Warren Buffet size donations, but it's a start!)

On Squidoo, I write reviews about laptop bags.  I also write reviews about laptop sleeves and iPod cases.  And I post weekly updates on the books that Jon Stewart and Steven Stephen Colbert review on their shows.  Mercifully, I don't write anything about marketing :)

And yes, I benefit from writing these lenses.  I keep a portion of the revenue from each of my lenses.  Plus, I get sent laptop bags and sleeves on a fairly regular basis for my review. Most of which are subsequently given away to friends and colleagues.

And the designers I write about benefit from these lenses.  The most notable was written up in Inc. Magazine in February - Pinder Bags had a 30% jump in sales after I reviewed their bag.

And my readers also benefit from writing my lenses.  Designers regularly offer special deals, giveaways and/or discounts to my readers.

And, most importantly, as mentioned above, my charity of choice - Room to Read - benefits from my lenses.

So this post is for Jason Calacanis.  Jason has railed on Squidoo several times over the last two years (in particular, criticizing my lens for having the #1 spot in Google search for "laptop bags" (it currently fluctuates between positions 1 - 5)).  And certainly, some of his criticisms are not without merit.  I hate the spammers on Squidoo, too.  And the people who post fake profiles or who promote crappy products.  They're the same people who post fake blogs using Blogger or other free services and scrape content from my sites in hopes of getting cash for little work.  I hate those spammers, too.

But I'm not one of them. 

And the majority of Squidoo lensmasters aren't them either.

So, thank you, Seth, Megan, Gil and Corey!  For enabling me to take my interests and share them on a platform that benefits both me, my readers and my charitable causes!

Self-promotion - Letting you know about a few upcoming speaking gigs

I've got a few speaking gigs coming up that I wanted to mention.  Not just because of me, but because, as usual, I'm privileged to be sharing either the stage or the agenda with some great folks.

Canadian Marketing Association's National Convention, May 12 - 14, Toronto
My talk is on Lessons Real-World Marketers can Learn from Virtual Fashion Designers.  As I've made no secret of here, I'm a big fan of virtual worlds - whether Second Life or any of the numerous others.  And there are opportunities for marketers to enter them appropriately, making sense for both them and the virtual residents of the world.  I also think there are some very smart marketers within virtual worlds who are using online marketing tactics, social media in particular, to reach their customers.

Convergence 2008, May 22, Vancouver
This is a new conference this year, sponsored by Cossette and part of Digital Week Vancouver.  I'm on a panel discussing Blogger Relations with Darren Barefoot and Rebecca Bollwitt (Miss604).  We'll be moderated by Darren Roberts of Optimum Public Relations.  I'm really looking forward to this one.  Darren Barefoot is the architect behind some of the most talked about blogger relations programs, most recently the much-lauded program for ThoughtFarmer.  Rebecca is one of  (if not THE) Vancouver's blogging and podcasting luminaries.  I saw her most recently at Northern Voice where she moderated a fantastic panel on Sports blogging and podcasting, using The Crazy Canucks podcast as the case study.  Great stuff!

From Mass to Grass (Canada's WOM Conference), June 12, Toronto
I'm super-excited about M2G.  I sat on the organizing committee (a real eye-opener) and am also moderating a panel: Not-for-Profit WOM - Building Buzz for Good with William Azaroff from Vancity's Webby-nominated ChangeEverything.ca and Deborah Kaplan from Zerofootprint.

The early-bird discount for M2G has passed, but, you still have an opportunity to win a free ticket to From Mass to Grass (a $745 value per ticket).

ITWorld Canada Names Top 10 Technology Bloggers in Canada

Shane Schick, editor of ComputerWorld Canada, has put together a list of the Top 10 Technology Bloggers in Canada:

• Mark Evans
• Rob Hyndman
• Maggie Fox
• Mark Goldberg
• Stephan Ibaraki
• Michael Geist
• Alec Saunders
• Kate Trgovac
• Jevon McDonald
• IT World's blogs

I'm quite delighted and honoured to be on the list.  Not just because of the great company, but because of ITWorld Canada's rationale for putting this list together:

ComputerWorld Canada editor Shane Schick compiles a list of the online voices that could change the way IT managers do their jobs for the better.

Let’s make this absolutely clear: this list is subjective. But isn’t that what an IT manager would want — someone who’s already browsed around a lot to tell them where they should be adding an RSS feed or a favourite to their browser?

One of the reasons I keep blogging is that I do believe it gives back to the community and helps people, who are much less geeky and possibly more time starved, by doing (at least a first pass) at separating the wheat from the chaff.  It's gratifying to be acknowledged in this capacity. 

Also, while I may not code (much) anymore or admin unix servers (thank heavens), I believe that experience and background has made me a better marketer ... the evolution of marketing is technology driven.  Yes, marketing shouldn't be *about* the technology, but you can't deny it has been driven by technology.  My background has enabled me to bring appropriate new services and opportunities to clients ahead of what traditional agencies have been able to do. 

The challenge with lists, of course, is that people get left off (for example, I would have wanted/expected to see Sandy Kemsley on the list) and no one agrees with who is on them. 

BUT, ITWorld Canada is holding a contest to find the next great Canadian technology blogger - so you have the opportunity to get listed :)  ...

Every week, our editors will choose a topic for reader contestants to write about, which will be critiqued by our judges in the comments area of the blog. Readers will use the ratings feature to choose their favourites. We’ll be recognizing the top ratings winners as well as the Blog Idol who earns the most traffic overall. We will be offering $1,000 cash, a Nikon Coolpix digital camera and lots of other great prizes.

So, if you're a geek but haven't started blogging, or, are a lapsed geek blogger and want a kick in the pants, head over to blogidol.ca and sign-up!

Congrats to my fellow Top 10!  And thanks again to Shane and ITWorld Canada for the recognition.

Update: The cool kids over at aideRSS (another great Canadian startup!!) have created a merged feed of the Top 10 Canadian Tech Bloggers.  Thanks, aideRSS!