Here’s a New Year’s treat from Noise to Signal: the past year’s social media high- (and low-) lights in cartoon form. Enjoy!
(You can find the individual cartoons at Noise to Signal’s new home. And not to worry – we’ll keep posting the most social-media-y of Noise to Signal here on SocialSignal.com.)
To all of our friends, family and supporters out there, happy holidays and a spectacular, successful and peaceful new year.
In the dying days of last winter, Alex – who was sifting through applications for our social media strategist position – showed me one that filled her with unbridled excitement.
The cover letter was written extraordinarily well (and believe me, you don’t appreciate quite what a treat that is until you’ve posted a job opening). And the resumé – a decade of non-profit program and funding development; launching a sexual health education project for Montreal youth; promoting human rights in Europe; writing a kick-ass blog – was stellar.
Can I admit now that I was just a little skeptical? It wasn’t until we were well into the hiring process with her that I realized I was right: Channing Rodman wasn’t as good as she looked on paper.
She was much, much better.
We asked her to complete a test assignment as a short-term contract, so we could pay her for her time. I fully expected to have to rewrite everything she turned in – after all, she was completely new to the project and, for that matter, to us. Surprise: we got a well-written, comprehensive document that moved the project forward and earned kudos from our client.
And that’s been the story since we all took a leap of faith, and Channing moved here from Poland to take the position. She’s consistently delighted clients, leapfrogged the learning curve (yes, she’s good enough do drive me to mixed metaphors) and offered insights that send stalled conversations flying in an unexpected, productive new direction.
But more than that, she’s become a good friend. It would be far too much to expect so much talent to come with a warm, engaging personality – not to mention an encyclopedic knowledge of geek culture – and she manages to pack that in. Channing’s a big part of what we look forward to every day at Social Signal.
So that means some deeply mixed feelings over the fact that our transition to a new stage in Social Signal’s life comes with the news that Channing will be taking up a truly cool new position at National Public Relations (whose Vancouver office has some pretty great people in their own right… so she should fit in nicely).
For Channing, it’s a chance to combine those social media chops with her innate talent for communication strategy – and for direct, honest conversation – in some very interesting projects. And National, for its part, is gaining both some serious Web 2.0 smarts and a terrific new member for their team.
We’re looking forward to great things from them both. And to Channing, our fond best wishes for a superb new chapter in an already impressive career.
Social Signal regulars will know that we’ve (and by “we”, I especially mean “Alex”) put a lot of effort into finding the perfect solution to our project management needs. We’ve tried web apps like Basecamp and Remember the Milk, desktop apps like Daylite… but nothing has met all of our needs.
Which, frankly, doesn’t surprise us too much. Every organization has its unique demands and idiosyncrasies, and short of a tailor-made solution, no off-the-rack suite is going to drape every bump and curve in the most flattering way.
But we came remarkably close with a combination of project-management upstart Manymoon and Google Apps. (You may remember Manymoon from such blog posts as this one, and such podcast episodes as this one.)
And now the nice people at Google are telling the story of how we did it, as part of their series of customer profiles. (To see Social Signal’s article, selected “Professional services” and “Small business”. Or view it as a Google Doc right here.)
It’s boggling to realize how recently you would have had to pay thousands of dollars for tools like these – mainly because they were only being built for enterprises, if at all. Yet the no-charge edition of Google Apps is more than enough for most organizations… and Manymoon is almost shockingly affordable.
And therein lies an untold story. How big an impact has the arrival of new, no-to-low-cost business applications (and their open-source counterparts) had on the creation and growth of small businesses and non-profit organizations? So many of them run with such tight margins that I’d be surprised if it isn’t substantial, but I haven’t seen any research on the question. Anyone else?
If you’ve ever accidentally soaked your shoes in a puddle on a freezing day, you’ll appreciate how miserable the experience can be… and how desperate you can be to get to your home, school or workplace to change into a spare pair.
When you’re living on the streets, though, it’s more than just discomfort. Cold, wet feet can quickly become agonizing to walk on – adding a big barrier to finding a job, food or shelter for the night.
And I’m going to let Kate Dugas from ChangeEverything.ca take it from here:
A few months after its launch, ChangeEverything and the people that make up the community here, made a difference in the lives of some people living on the streets of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside with successful drive for warm clothing during a particularly bitter cold snap. Since 2006 we have used ChangeEverything.ca to collect thousands and thousands of items of warmth for folks living in the DTES of Vancouver.
Cold wet feet are a huge reason people living on the street get sick and even die in the winter. Getting clean dry socks to local shelters is a great way to help alleviate this problem. So this year we are focusing on socks!
So start looking through your closets and drawers. We’ll take mis-matched socks that are clean and in good condition. But even better, we’ll take ones that you went out and bought especially for this purpose. Reply with a comment on this post if you have leads on enormous quantities of socks, or if you just have a few pairs or even one pair to give. Each pair will totally make a difference. It’s true. Believe it.
I am also working on having a Vancity “Got Socks” account opened. Watch this space.
Kate
PS -oh and please spread the word. tweet this. add it to your facebook. emai your friends about it, heck post it to your fridge! see if your kids want to take up a collection at school for socks. whatever you can think of, the wackier the better.
Just leave a comment on her blog post to tell Kate you have socks to donate. And click here to pass the word along on Twitter!
Since we launched in 2005 – a social media firm at a time when the term “social media” had yet to be coined – we’ve evolved constantly. No big surprise: this is a field that’s changing rapidly too.
Last month, we told you we were refocusing on capacity-building: helping other organizations, agencies and individuals to make the most of social media. We expected that would mean we’d support our clients through trainings and Concept Jam strategy workshops, while reaching a larger audience through blogging, cartooning and other media.
But no sooner had we decided to head in this new direction than Alex was approached about a position at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Emily Carr had received a major grant from NSERC to fund a new applied research on digital media, and they wanted someone with both an academic background in tech research, and real-world experience in the tech sector. For Alex, it was a perfect convergence of many of her passions… and the result is she’s the new Director of the Centre for Moving Interaction. (You can read her blog post about it here.)
Alex’s position at Emily Carr will bring a fresh dimension to her work as a tech capacity-builder, but Social Signal remains the hub for both of our efforts. I’ll be leading Social Signal and managing our day-to-day operations, client services and sales; Alex will partner with me to deliver Concept Jam workshops, group trainings and to provide advice on other projects as needed. Morgan will continue to support both of our work, working at Social Signal as our Operations Manager and as the new Partner Liaison at Emily Carr.
On projects that require additional expertise or more hands on deck, we’ll continue to draw on our great network of colleagues and partners. Whether it’s Natasha’s technical prowess and project management chops, Aaron’s Drupal prowess and community animation skills, or Channing’s social media strategy insight and sharp eye for entrepreneurial opportunities for organizations, we like to know we can turn to the extended Social Signal family for a wide range of skills and expertise when the demand arises. (On that note, I’ve recently started working with David Eaves on our second engagement together. And between his grasp of negotiation strategy and keen understanding of organizational dynamics, he lends a whole new facet to what we can offer clients.)
We’re excited about this new structure, which focuses on assembling the best team for each specific project, as an extension of the trajectory we’ve been on for the past four years.When we first moved from doing all our development work in-house, to partnering with great developers like Affinity Bridge, Work at Play and Agentic, we discovered that we got better results – and the bandwidth to take on a broader range of projects – by selecting the best development team for each specific projects. Now we’ll have the flexibility to build the perfect all-around team as well.
Most crucially, this new structure gives Alex and me the flexibility to focus on the work we’re most passionate about: the teaching, brainstorming, training, inspiring and creating. Growing and running a company is its own full-time job, and as Social Signal has grown, that part of the job has become bigger and bigger. Instead, both Alex and I want to be working with our clients, their stakeholders, and the fascinating ideas, insights and discoveries that social media can offer. It’s been a great four years for Social Signal… and they’re just the beginning.
October’s cartoon-blogging at the Real-Time Web Summit was a well-received experiment in innovative event coverage. The response was overwhelmingly positive, the Twitter stream showed people appreciated the added dimension to the event, and the organizers were more than pleased.
Now, two things:
First, the ReadWriteWeb report, The Real-Time Web and its Future, is now on sale. Edited by Marshall Kirkpatrick – one of the smartest guys I know – the report sells for $300, and distills interviews with more than 50 real-time web honchos along with insights from the over 300 folks who attended the summit. Plus there are 10 case studies, 20 profiles of leaders in the field… and a package deal on the report plus RWW’s guide to online community management. Details (and a free sample chapter) here.
And second, I just came across some notes I took on the experience, and I thought they’d be worth sharing. As with most experiments, this one held a few surprises for me – and some useful lessons. Since I want to offer cartoon-blogging as one of our Social Signal offerings, those lessons take on a special significance.
Here’s how it unfolded, and how I’ll fine-tune my approach next time:
Now, what I’ll do differently:
The fact I took away some important lessons doesn’t mean I didn’t have fun, of course – I had a great time, learned a lot and, I think, contributed something of real value. And I can’t wait for a chance to do this again.
Looking for advice on public speaking, speechwriting and leadership communications? Here are some of my most comprehensive posts, on topics that people ask me about most often.
