Community Divas

Welcome to episode eleven!Run time: 23:32Community Divas on iTunesA podcast about communities and social media toolsIn this episode: - Eden interviews Ali de Bold from ChickAdvisor- We talk about Podcamp Halifax- Introducing the Twitter Song by Michelle Yogis - We have an addition to the community calendarAli de Bold is a third-generation entrepreneur. In 2006, she and her husband Alex launched ChickAdvisor as a solution for Ali's constant search for the perfect hair salon. Since then it has become a thriving online community where women share reviews about their favourite stores, products and services. 00:01 Intro by Jay Moonah.00:09 Eden Spodek and Connie Crosby.00:15 Summary of this episode. 00:26 Eden introduces Ali de Bold00:51 Eden welcomes Ali de Bold to Community Divas01:00 Ali explains what ChickAdvisor is and how it got started01:45 Ali and her husband Alex de Bold created ChickAdvisor01:50 Ali explains her role now. Mentioned: ChickChat TV video series, their Product Review Club and local events such as shop crawls and movie nights03:05 Bridging on-line and off-line communities03:31 Plans to expland off-line events to places outside of Toronto04:21 Online community tends to take place in the forums and also the face to face events04:59 Ali speaks about the geographic location of ChickAdvisor members05:48 The product review club started when Ali started receiving a lot of products to review07:02 How the product reviews are conducted07:36 Eden and Ali discuss how advertisers feel about honest reviews by ChickAdvisor members, and how this builds credibility08:24 Eden has been part of the product review club08:44 How is ChickChat TV enhancing ChickAdvisor? Mentioned: Where'd You Get That, Slice, Rogers Media10:23 Have community members been featured on ChickChat TV? 10:52 Are people watching episodes directly from the website? Mentioned: Rogers Pizza Pizza network; see also press release July 8, 200811:19 Has ChickChat TV been driving traffic to the website?11:39 Eden asks what the relationship is between the blog and the main site12:41 Recently launched re-design of ChickAdvisor to give it a more sophisticated look to better suit its demographic and make some things more user-friendly13:24 Thoughts on building a community for women14:09 How many people are using the site - currently just over 100,000 unique visits a month14:35 Are site visitors staying loyal?14:50 Keeping visitors on the site - all about the content Mentioned: Google Analytics15:38 ChickAdvisor plans for the future - movie night in February to see Shopaholic and shop crawl in April featuring Canadian designers    16:35 Eden wraps up the interview16:38 Eden and Connie discuss Podcamp Halifax mentioned: Third Wednesday in Halifax (see also @thirdwednesday on Twitter), Halifax Public Library17:45 Connie was interested in how the sessions were held in the library18:38 Michelle Yogis is someone who we met 19:05 The Twitter Song by Michelle Yogis (thanks, Michelle!!)21:12 Community Calendar - Podcamp London has been added to the list21:42 Eden wraps us up22:00 Podcamp Toronto promo by John Meadows Community Calendar:

1. Podcamp Toronto  - http://podcamptoronto.org/ - February 21 & 22, 2009
2. Mesh University (meshu) - http://www.meshu.ca/ April 6, 2009
3. Mesh conference; - http://www.meshconference.com April 7 & 8, 2009
4. Podcamp London, London, ON, - http://podcamplondon.com/ April 25, 2009
5. Podcasters Across Borders - Kingston, ON http://www.podcastersacrossborders.com/ June 19-21, 2009

Our cool theme music "Get Out of My Face" is by Uncle Seth and is from the Podsafe Music Network. We hope to hear from you! Send your comments to [email protected] or post them on the blog at communitydivas.com. Follow us on Twitter, our Facebook page or our FriendFeed room. Some registration may be required.

We're at PodCamp Halifax today. Last night we met Michelle Yogis (aka @myogis) at the pre-PodCamp Halifax Tweet-up. When she mentioned she wrote a song about Twitter we were intrigued. She gave us a copy and we'd like to share it with you. Cheers from PodCamp Halifax,Eden and Connie

We're taking a break from podcasting this week to prepare for our visit to PodCamp Halifax next weekend. We hope you can join us and if not, we'll have at least one episode from PodCamp Halifax when we return.Cheers,Connie & EdenCommunity Divas

Happy New Year & welcome to episode ten!Run time: 24:02Community Divas on iTunesA podcast about communities and social media toolsIn this episode: - Connie interviews Dave Brodbeck about his podcasts - Eden has a question about community builders receiving swag for blogging - We update the community calendar We know Dave Brodbeck as a podcaster, but he is also Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Psychology at Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Algoma is considered to be one of Canada's northern universities. Dave podcasts at: www.thunderbirdsix.org, www.brocasarea.ca, people.auc.ca/brodbeck/blog, tangentialconvergence.blogspot.com, and whysciencepodcast.blogspot.com. 00:01 Intro by Jay Moonah.00:09 Eden Spodek and Connie Crosby.00:19 Summary of this rockin' episode. 00:45 Connie welcomes Dave Brodbeck to Community Divas. 00:58 Dave talks about his podcasts: Broca's Area which he does with his wife Isabelle (hi, Isabelle!). He also does Tangential Convergence with his buddy, Algoma librarian Ken Hernden. Why is a science podcast for kids. Thunderbird Six is an interview show which he does for the university, and he podcasts his psychology classes at people.auc.ca/brodbeck/blog. 02:31 Dave talks about how he got started podcasting his psych classes, who are listening to his classes, what the university's reaction is to his podcast. He mentions: East Meets West podcast. 06:40 Reaction of his students to having the lectures podcasted. 07:30 Dave talks about his science podcast for kids, Why.  He mentions: K7 numbers, Scholastic Magazine. 10:24 Who have been inspired by Dave's podcasts? He mentions: Podcastra (now defunct), his presentation at Podcasters Across Borders 2008 (a must-listen!) 12:27 Dave riffs on the benefits of the podcaster community. He mentions: Scarborough Dude who does the dicksnjanes podcast, Tom Merritt of CNet, Real Deal podcast. 14:10  Eden has a question about community builders receiving swag for blogging. The question arises following Chris Brogan's recent blogging on Dad-o-matic in which he received money to spend at K-Mart (that blog post is here). Should someone known for community building be accepting gifts for the purposes of blogging? Eden has done similar things to try out products for her personal blog Bargainista.ca. Connie has only received books that people have hoped she would blog about on her law librarian blog http://conniecrosby.blogspot.com. Where is the line? How does one maintain balance? How do you maintain the trust of your readership? Eden and Connie mention: Ford Flex posts, Bargainista post on post on TaB energy drinks, a Molson beer tasting event.  We are interested in your opinion!  See also Chris Brogan's blog post Advertising and Trust. 22:26 Community calendar. Please feel free to send us your events to add to the calendar! 23:10 Eden winds up the episode.Community calendar:

1. Podcamp Halifax -  http://podcamphalifax.ca/ - Halifax, NS, January 25, 2009
2. Podcamp Toronto - http://podcamptoronto.org/ - Toronto, ON, February 21 & 22, 2009
3. Mesh conference Apr 7 &8  - http://www.meshconference.com - Toronto, ON, April 7 & 8, 2009
4. Podcasters Across Borders - http://www.podcastersacrossborders.com/ - Kingston, ON, June 19-21, 2009

Our cool theme music "Get Out of My Face" is by Uncle Seth and is from the Podsafe Music Network. We hope to hear from you! Send your comments to [email protected] or post them on the blog at communitydivas.com. Follow us on Twitter, our Facebook page or our FriendFeed room. Some registration may be required.Photo credit: Bob Goyetche (made available under Creative Commons).

Welcome to episode nine!Run time: 16:02Community Divas on iTunesA podcast about communities and social media toolsIn this episode: - Eden interviews Amrita Chandra of tinku gallery - We talk about community building events - Have a bit of a community calendar Amrita Chandra is the Founder of tinku gallery, a contemporary art gallery in Toronto, representing emerging and mid-career artists from across Canada and the U.S.Her website is http://www.tinkugallery.com/ and she blogs at http://tinkutales.blogspot.com/.00:01 Intro by Jay Moonah00:09 Eden Spodek and Connie Crosby00:15 Summary of today’s episode00:36 Eden welcomes Amrita Chandra.00:44 Where did the idea of tinku gallery in Toronto came from?01:31 Why is community building important to the success of an art gallery?02:19 Building relationships with customers and artists. Amrita talks about the blog she created to start.03:08 Other online tools she is using: Twitter and Facebook. She has found that Twitter and the blog have been the best tools for buildingcommunity.04:00 On Facebook she started with ads and a page.04:45 How long did it take to build awareness for the gallery?05:22 Word of mouth has been important to her.05:35 Comparing on-line and off-line community building, she has found them to be similar. With on-line she has been able to reach people further afield geographically.06:24 She has not seen a lot of commercial art galleries doing this kind of community building yet.06:57 She has learned from the past that you need to be yourself, you need to be authentic.  You also need to be a very good listener. People who are listened to and given a voice tend to have the most engagement.07:53 Her plans for the future: using the gallery to still make art accessible to those who would like to purchase it; holding more salon type events at the gallery in which people can talk, making it a focal point for the neighbourhood.08:48 Eden winds up the interview08:59 Eden and Connie discuss using face-to-face events to reinforce online communities.  Eden uses HoHoTO, a party created by the mesh guys which is also being used as a fundraiser for the Daily Bread Foodbank, as an example (see the HoHoTO Facebook page).  Eden mentions Viigo as one office using it as their annual seasonal party. Connie talks about a question that came up at Sustainability Camp, whether on-line social networking tools can replace in-person interaction. 14:13 Community calendar15:07 We would like to hear how you are keeping connected between events.15:17 Eden winds up the episode.Community calendar:

1. HoHoTo - Toronto - Dec. 15 , The Mod Club 7 p.m.
2. Podcamp Halifax -  http://podcamphalifax.ca/ - January 25, 2009
3. Podcamp Toronto - http://podcamptoronto.org/ - February 21 & 22, 2009
4. Mesh conference Apr 7 &8  - http://www.meshconference.com - April 7 & 8, 2009.

Our cool theme music “Get Out of My Face” is by Uncle Seth and is from the Podsafe Music Network. We hope to hear from you! Send your comments to [email protected] or post them on the blog at communitydivas.com. Follow us on Twitter, our Facebook page or our FriendFeed room. Some registration may be required.

Sun, 23 November 2008Episode 8: Simon Chen and Melany Gallant of Ramius Corporation discuss Ramius' web-based community platform: Sixent.Welcome to episode eight!Run time: 15:29Community Divas on iTunesA podcast about communities and social media toolsIn this episode:- Connie interviews Simon Chen and Melany Gallant about Ramius Corporation's web-based community platform: Sixent.- We talk about Sustainability Camp- Community calendarSimon Chen is a consultant and Melany Gallant is the director of marketing for Ramius Corporation, a firm based in Ottawa, Ontario. Ramius designs and develops online social technologies and is perhaps best known for CommunityZero, an online community platform. Most recently, they launched an beta test for Sixent, a social networking platform.00:01 Intro by Jay Moonah00:09 Eden Spodek and Connie Crosby00:15 Summary of today's episode00:50 Connie welcomes Simon and Melany and asks them to explain their roles at Ramius Corporation.01:04 Simon explains his role at Ramius and how it's grown over the past six years. The current focus is helping clients build online communities.01:47 Melany explains how she helps market Ramius' web applications and expertise to consumer side and on the enterprise side. The current focus is similar to Simon's with respect to Sixent and building relationships.02:16 What does Ramius Corporation do? Simon and Melany explain that Ramius is a developer of online community platforms including CommunityZero and Sixent. They go on to describe Sixent.05:30 Simon explains how they are using feedback from the community of Sixent's beta users to help them bring Sixent to market.05:59 What is a white-label network? Simon explains how companies can customize and brand Sixent social networks for use inside their organizations and behind their firewalls. He compares it to brining features from Facebook and MySpace inside the organization.07:21 What types of organizations are interested in bringing these types of features inside? Some organizations want to freshen up their existing use of technology. Others are looking to see what they can do with these systems to improve current processes. Simon shares examples of how companies, associations, colleges and universities might use online communities to engage with stakeholders and members. 11:43 How does Sixent compete with other white-label community applications and what makes it distinct? The hope is that Sixent and white-label communities will overlap in the future. 12:59 Wrapping up the interview.13:10 Community Divas presentation at Sustainability Camp, November 16, 2008, organized by Tamera Kremer, listeners are invited to visit our presentation wiki13:34 Community calendar:Podcamp Halifax, January, 25, 2009 - Craig and Ryan - interview on Canadian Podcast Buffet Podcamp Toronto, Feb. 21 & 22, 2009Mesh conference, Apr . 7 &8, 200914:44 Connie and Eden wrap up the episode.Our cool theme music "Get Out of My Face" is by Uncle Seth and is from the Podsafe Music Network. We hope to hear from you! Send your comments to [email protected] or post them on the blog at communitydivas.com. Follow us on Twitter, our Facebook page or our FriendFeed room. Some registration may be required.

Welcome to  episode seven!Run time: 22:19Community Divas on iTunesA podcast about communities and social media toolsIn this episode:- An interview with Cameron MacLean and Josh Freeman about their Online Journalism course- Discussion by Eden and Connie about a comment from Keith Burtis of Magic Woodworks.Cameron MacLean and Josh Freeman are students in the Master of Arts in Journalism program at the University of Western Ontario. We interviewed them about the Online Journalism course they are currently taking with instructor and social media consultant Wayne MacPhail. 00:01 Intro by Jay Moonah00:09 Eden Spodek and Connie Crosby00:15 Summary of today's episode00:27 Introducing this week's guests Cameron MacLean and Josh Freeman00:58 The Divas welcome Cameron and Josh01:10 What does community mean to them? Cameron and Josh talk about both online and in-person communities.02:38 Building rapport between class members and people from outside the class, for example Bill Deys and Picard102 (John Leschinski). Some are auditing the class via the web. Wayne MacPhail uses livestreaming video to include others in the class.04:39 Other tools used successfully in the class:  Ning and Twitter05:48 Ning is being used exclusively for this class. Other classes use Web CT for chat and file sharing.06:24 How online community tools have allowed the students to get to know each other. In addition to Ning and Twitter, the students first got to know each other using Facebook to talk before they met in person. UWO Journalism 2008-09 Facebook group (Facebook registration may be required to view).08:24 Other tools they have discussed in class: Seesmic, Ustream.tv, Delicious, the onlinewestern tag on Delicious.09:44 How do they learn to apply these tools to journalism? The tools can be used to gather information. Twitter feed regarding Hurricane Gustav with updates from people in New Orleans acting as citizen journalists.  They also discuss use of Twitter by people attending a political rally for Stephen Harper. 12:40 Use of blogs by newspapers13:59 Does the use of blogs help newspapers build readership and community? Maclean's magazine - Andrew Potter's blog versus Rabble.ca's election blog.  BBC.com  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/default.stm16:48 Wrapping up the interview.16:59 Comment from Keith Burtis from http://www.magicwoodworks.com/blog/: how can he use social networking tools to bring experienced woodturners who are inside a "walled garden" to interact with younger woodturners not inside that social networking space. He mentions Seth Godin's latest book Tribes. Eden and Connie discuss Keith's comment and Eden has a suggestion for Keith. 21:29 Connie and Eden wrap up the episode.Our cool theme music "Get Out of My Face" is by Uncle Seth and is from the Podsafe Music Network. We hope to hear from you! Send your comments to [email protected] or post them on the blog at communitydivas.com. Follow us on Twitter, our Facebook page or our FriendFeed room. Some registration may be required.

Welcome to  episode six!Run time: 18:49Community Divas on iTunesA podcast about communities and social media toolsIn this episode:- An interview with Adele McAlear about video tools- Discussion by Eden and Connie about the interview with Adele- Community NewsAdele McAlear is the principal at McAlear Marketing and she blogs at Marketing Monster - http://www.adelemcalear.com/. Adele was in town recently and organized a Tweet-up, a real-life get together for some of her twitter friends. After the tweet-up, the three of us went to a nearby restaurant  and recorded the interview so please excuse the background noise.00:01 Intro by Jay Moonah00:09 Eden Spodek and Connie Crosby00:15 Summary of today's episode00:21 Introducing this week's guest, Adele McAlear01:08 Introducing Adele01:24 What video tools Adele is using?01:41 Seesmic has just hit the 100,000 user mark with 5,000 active users currently02:14 Seesmic going through a "belt-tightening" period02:24 They are about to release a new version. Currently they have a "black version" http://seesmic.com which is a flash-based site and a "white version" http://seesmic.com/home which is easier to run but has less functionality.04:03 She is also using 12seconds.tv; what can you say in 12 seconds?04:49 She is using 12seconds to tell stories from her life05:20 Phreadz.com is in closed beta - see also podcamp.phreadz.com - only 200 people in the community so far 07:20 Phreadz is distinguished from other video tools because you can have channels by topic, or your own branded channel.07:50 What is the barrier to entry in using Phreadz? How difficult is it to use?08:47 Is it the same group of earlier adopters across the various platforms?10:05 Are these tools being used to build community above and beyond the community of early adopters?11:40 Would these tools be useful to libraries?12:41 Adele discusses Utterli and YouTube.13:48 Wrapping up the talk with Adele.14:03 Eden and Connie discuss the communities that have sprung up around the video tools.17:19 We would like to hear from listeners about using video tools for building community.17:30 Community News: Podcamp Toronto - Feb. 21 & 22 at Rogers Communications Centre at Ryerson University, sign up on the wiki at http://podcamptoronto.org18:05 Connie wraps up the episode.Our cool theme music "Get Out of My Face" is by Uncle Seth and is from the Podsafe Music Network. We hope to hear from you! Send your comments to [email protected] or post them on the blog at communitydivas.com. Follow us on Twitter, our Facebook page or our FriendFeed room. Some registration may be required.

Welcome to  episode five!Run time: 15:03Community Divas on iTunesA podcast about communities and social media toolsIn this episode:- Eden interviews Kathryn Lagden about community building at PTO Today, we discuss one of the issues raised in the interview and we have some community news.- We discuss Kathryn's concern about managing multiple tools within one community website.- Community News: Podcamp Toronto - Feb. 21 & 22 at Rogers Communications Centre at Ryerson University, sign up on the wiki at http://podcamptoronto.org~~~The Avon Breast Cancer CrusadeIn support of breast cancer research, Avon Canada begins the 'Call for the Cure,' a grassroots awareness campaign raising funds for the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance.A call to 1-900-561-PINK will automatically donate $2 to breast cancer research (land line phones only). For more information on this and other related Avon crusades: Canada - http://avoncrusade.ca/U.S. - http://www.avoncompany.com/women/avoncrusade/U.K. - http://www.avoncrusade.co.uk/~~~Kathryn Lagden is Director of Web Operations for School Family Media. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with her about community building at PTO Today . She also blogs at That Kathryn Girl. ~~~ 00:01 Intro by Jay Moonah00:09 Eden Spodek and Connie Crosby00:15 Summary of today's episode00:27 Eden introduces Kathryn Lagden00:43 Kathryn explains what  PTO Today is - School Family Media is the umbrella organization, and  PTO Today is a main media property. Help parent group leaders of parent groups (PTO or PTA).01:22 She discusses her role in community development.02:36 How do subject matter experts know when to jump into the conversations when there is no designated community manager to suggest they do so?03:38  PTO Today has had an active community for a very long time, starting with a message board. Kathryn discusses the different ways the community interact with the community website.04:30 How the different tools are similar and overlap in content. It is difficult for someone new to see where all the content resides. Kathryn talks about how they redirect people to other parts of the site so they can find the rest of the discussion.05:54 Getting members to move to another tool by directing traffic over.06:51 The PTO File Exchange is a feature created to allow parent groups to share documents and hopefully therefore solve similar issues.08:04 They are tracking usage of the File Exchange with two metrics: number of page views and number of downloads on each document. They have incredible usage on some of their documents; these are very popular.09:20  File Exchange includes a rating feature. Kathryn explains how this works.09:58 Has  PTO Today been successful in moving free community members into paid level members? They have a lot of free content on the site including their magazine which brings a lot of people into the site. They have some programs and tools that are paid services and link to them from the appropriate places on the free site.11:24 Eden thanks Kathryn for joining us.11:39 Eden asks Connie about Kathryn's challenge of  migrating community members from one tool to another when the conversation is suited for another area. 12:57 Eden invites our listeners to give your suggestions.13:10 Community news13:18 Podcamp Toronto 2009 announced13:45 Avon Breast Cancer Crusade announced14:16 Eden wraps up the episode.Our cool theme music "Get Out of My Face" is by Uncle Seth and is from the Podsafe Music Network. We hope to hear from you! Send your comments to [email protected] or post them on the blog at communitydivas.com. Follow us on Twitter, our Facebook page or our FriendFeed room. Some registration may be required.

Welcome to our fourth episode! Run time: 20:47Community Divas on iTunesA podcast about communities and social media toolsIn this episode:- Daniele Rossi talks about his podcasts, particularly building a niche community for his Stuttering is Cool podcast. - We discuss Jane Rowe's question about building a community in the business-to-business area where one doesn't (quite) yet exist.Daniele Rossi is a website designer, brilliant artist and illustrator,  and podcaster. Daniele blogs at DanieleRossi.ca and SuperSpud.com. He podcasts at Stuttering is Cool, SpudCast and The Laughing Podcast. 00:01 Intro by Jay Moonah00:10 Eden Spodek and Connie Crosby00:15 Summary of today's episode00:23 Eden introduces our interview with Daniele Rossi, apparently having listened to The Laughing Podcast beforehand. Also mentioned: Podcamp, PAB (Podcasters Across Borders) and Podcamp Montreal.00:48 Interview with Daniele Rossi.00:56 Daniele talks about how he first got into podcasting.01:22 His original podcast is  SpudCast, about creativity.02:24 He has just launched The Laughing Podcast.03:20 Daniele tells us about the Stuttering is Cool podcast, how and why he started it. 07:10 Daniele tells us he also meets others through a stutterers' Toastmasters group.08:15 He has started a social meet-up group called Stutter Night which met recently for the first time.09:17 He finds many people don't understand the concept of a podcast, thinking it is a radio show that runs at a certain time on the website. They don't understand the concept of an RSS feed. 09:57 How Daniele finds Facebook useful for finding other stutterers.10:48 What the Stuttering is Cool podcast has given him.11:38 Being part of the podcaster community has brought him opportunities he previously wouldn't have had. 13:15 Social media tools such as webcams, Utterli, Skype, Seesmic and ooVoo have helped to change the stuttering experience.15:00  Eden and Connie thank Daniele for the interview.15:34 Question from Jane Rowe (http://movingstationery.wordpress.com) about less-developed groups in the B2B industry and using social media to bring them together. How can she engage their customers? How can they test and learn?16:50 Connie draws a parallel with work by people in her industry, librarians. She suggests reading the book and working through the website Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. Rather than starting with Twitter and Ning as mentioned by Jane, Connie suggests using Facebook instead to start.18:39 Eden mentions Jane's interview on the For Immediate Release podcast, and applauds the idea of a contest (or was it an event?) for getting customers involved in creating content.19:18 Connie also suggest having people rate products, and Eden chimes in with the example of Threadless having people rate T-shirt designs.19:51 Connie wraps up the episode.Our cool theme music "Get Out of My Face" is by Uncle Seth and is from the Podsafe Music Network. We hope to hear from you! Send your comments to [email protected] or post them on the blog at communitydivas.com. Follow us on Twitter, our Facebook page or our FriendFeed room. Some registration may be required.See you next time!