http://www.dind.com/blog/community/ en-us Fri, 18 May 2012 19:32:37 PDT Fri, 18 May 2012 19:32:37 PDT SiteCrafting.com GearBox 1.1 (beta) http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/sitecrafting-dances-against-domestic-violence/ We here at SiteCrafting like to volunteer in our community. It gives us a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. Especially when our volunteer efforts help our non-profit clients. SiteCrafting has been working with the Tacoma Pierce County YWCA since 2009. We originally partnered with them for their "It's Time!" campaign, building a website that would inform the public about the campaign to open a new shelter, as well as track their fundraising efforts. The campaign was a huge success and the new shelter opened in October 2010.SiteCrafting has continued to support the YWCA through volunteer efforts. For the past two Decembers, the SC team has helped wrap Christmas presents for the shelter residents. Some of our employees have also helped YWCA transitional housing clients move from one location to another, as well as participated in walks/runs to raise money for the Y's programs. Last Saturday Sarah Champion and I decided to support the Y by shaking our booty. Sponsored by Studio 138 in Parkland, the YWCA hosted a 2-hour Dance Against Domestic Violence Zumbathon (Kelly McDonald, The Y's Director of Marketing & Donor Relations, also happens to be a fantastic Zumba instructor). All proceeds from the event went to the YWCA's domestic violence prevention programs. Sarah and I learned that shaking your groove thing for a good cause definitely makes you feel warm and fuzzy (and kinda sweaty).If you'd like to get involved with the YWCA, they have a half marathon (or 10k) fundraiser September 18th as well as a 5k fun run/walk on October 22nd.How do you make a difference in your community? Mon, 29 Aug 2011 09:39:00 PDT http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/my-sitecrafting-sabbatical/ Tacoma is a mid-sized city situated on the waters of the Puget Sound in the Pacific Northwest. There's a great balance here between plenty to see/eat/do while still feeling like a small town where social circles constantly overlap. Once I became conscious of these local nuances my personal blog started reflecting as such in all the Tacoma-focused posts I increasingly wrote. Around the same time I became aware of a handful of other bloggers with a similar lean towards independently covering our City of Destiny. I realized Google searches for events, restaurants, businesses and more frequently hit our sites first and realized we were a force subtly shaping what our friends, family, and neighbors learn about Tacoma. The thought that this responsibility should rest on any single casual blogger's shoulders seemed right out. Enter: FeedTacoma.com. Testing FeedTacoma on various devices FeedTacoma is a community website I put together that helps relieve that individual burden on bloggers by pulling together each Tacoma-centric piece we put out into a central place for everyone to get at it. What started with 5 contributing blogs has grown with local events calendars, discussion forums, blog writing tools, free e-commerce tools for local business, and even locally-focused comic strips. It's become a repository via the search function where anyone can mine from among 26,000 blog posts, 52,000 comments, 630,000 #Tacoma tweets. It's been a labor of love I enjoy to which I could only dedicate my continued effort where time and energy allowed. My SiteCrafting sabbatical was a departure from that norm that allowed me to make this community side project my top priority for a month. The temporary tech corner at my beach place I packed up my computer and cat and headed for my cabin on the coast where I carved out a little corner to work. I'd recommend anyone change up their scenery for a sabbatical. For me it meant the distractions of normal life were minimized and I could let my mind and body work and relax on their own schedule. During the day I'd enjoy walks, taking photos, or skimboarding and, in between and [uncharacteristically] late into the night, I'd work on FeedTacoma. My routine felt somewhat luxurious but in those weeks that seemed to pass too quickly I was able to hammer out a new design and applied it to every nook and cranny of the site, feed in new types of content to the homepage to bring in more Tacoma perspectives, setup email conversation notifications, add new features to encourage interaction, re-vamp our mobile site and even setup a few local webcams for the community here and Tacoma and out at the beach to enjoy. Everyone deserves a sabbatical where you can have lunch in a place like this The case for corporate sabbaticals may not always be an easy one for a company to make but the impact is clear to me. I returned to the office refreshed with some great experience via my community web development and excited to see what other eligible folks here at SiteCrafting decide to do with their sabbaticals. You can follow some of my adventures over on my personal blog, take a look at my sabbatical progress posts over in the FeedTacoma forums, or see the first [of hopefully many] Tacoma webcam and Tokeland's new webcams. Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:55:00 PDT http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/using-social-media-to-promote/ Last week Kevin and I spoke to the UW Tacoma Marketing Society about how to use social media to promote yourself and (hopefully) land a job. We had a great audience that asked a lot of thoughtful questions. Here are the main points we made to the group. Tip #1 NO DRUNK PICSWe've all heard stories about people not getting hired (or even losing their jobs) because of inappropriate pictures on Facebook. If you have a public profile lock those pictures down or delete them. It only takes a moment to make your photos available to "Friends Only". You can also disable the ability for friends to tag you in photos.  Tip #2 Build Your Personal Brand OnlineOne of the best ways to get started is to make your body of work available online. Build yourself a website. There are plenty of free or cheap website building tools out there such as Squarespace or Blogger. Buy a domain for $10 (yourname.com) and point it at your site. Make your resume available on your website and on LinkedIn.Keep your information current. Post writing samples or write about topics relevant to the industry you want to get into. Share that writing on Twitter and Facebook.Get recommendations from coworkers, teachers, and people you volunteer with. Ask them to post their recommendations on LinkedIn. It's much easier for a potential employer to read online recommendations than track down your "references available upon request". Make it easy for people to read positive things about you. Tip #3 Do Your ResearchLook up the companies you want to work for. Research their culture. Find out if this really is a company you want to work for and that you would do well at. Don't be afraid to do a bit of cyber stalking. Going into an interview knowing about a company's core values, clients, and even their employees can be a big help. It shows that you've taken the time to do your homework and that you're invested in your job search. Tip #4 Connect OnlineStart engaging in online conversations with your potential employer. I'm not saying you should like every Facebook a potential employer posts (spamming them with Likes shows insincerity), but pick a couple posts and leave thoughtful comments. If you read something relevant to their industry, share the article on their wall. Let them know that you have something to bring to the table. If you have an opportunity to volunteer or intern with that company, do it! Get your foot in the door and see if you can turn that experience into a job offer. Even if they're not able hire you ask them for a recommendation on LinkedIn.Once you've established a dialogue, put it out there that you're looking for a job. Don't spam, just inform. Hopefully these tips help with your job hunting efforts. Good luck! Tue, 08 Nov 2011 10:40:00 PST http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/going-local-or-how-we/ For this year's company retreat out near Ellensburg I made it my mission to source as much of our food locally as possible without breaking the bank. My thought was, as a company of 28, the idea of going local and enjoying it stretches farther than before within our ranks. And if was easy and tasty? Well, that's just a win-win! Here's a list of what we got where: Cheryl the Pig LadyTacoma, WA- sausage- ground beef- kabob beef Smith Brothers FarmsKent, WA- eggs Vinman's BakeryEllensburg, WA- sandwich bread- various pastries Carlson's Quality ProduceEllensburg, WA- fruits and vegetables Wilcox FarmsWashington (via Costco, also technically a WA company)- more eggs Some things were delivered and some picked up on our way to the retreat so convenience was, I'd say, high overall. Everything above accounted for about 85% of what we ate on the retreat and we averaged about $4.30 cost per person per meal. We cooked up burgers and kielbasa one night, pancakes the next morning, sandwiches for lunch, skewers the next night, then indulged in pastries the morning we left for our our homes in Spokane, Seattle and Tacoma. Not being much of a cook myself I was more than pleased because the reviews that came back as the team cleaned their plates were great! Going local isn't just a mantra but a method that, given just a little thought, can easily weave into life and even business. How do you or your company try to go local? Wed, 09 Nov 2011 11:05:00 PST http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/social-media-for-business-tagging/ Last Friday I spoke to the Wake Up University Place/Fircrest business group about social media and why you should be using it for your business. This is a series of three presentations I'll be giving over the next couple of months. Since many businesses are relatively new to social media, I gave a brief overview and then explained the basics of creating a Facebook page for your business.About half the group already had a Facebook page for their business and were more interested in how to properly utilize it. One of the questions asked at the end of the presentation was what "tagging" was and why they should be using it.Most people with a personal Facebook page are familiar with the concept of tagging. You start typing the name of a friend and a little box appears below your status with that person's name and profile picture. If you select that person's name, their name turns blue and you've tagged them. That person will then be notified that you tagged them in a post. This is a valuable tool for businesses if used properly. Tagging online is similar to name dropping during a face to face conversation where the person you’re talking about is close enough to overhear you. If you’re saying something positive, that person will be appreciative and hopefully return the favor in one of their conversations.If you’ve never tagged a business before, it's very simple:1. “Like” that business. Make sure you’re using FB as your business page (as opposed to your personal page). Go to their business page and click the "like" button.2. Start mentioning them in your posts, but do it deliberately. Don’t tag them just to get their attention. Make sure there’s value in your post. Thank them for a great meeting, mention something interesting they’re doing as a business, or share an interesting and relevant news article with them. If you’re on Twitter, make sure you’re tagging businesses as well. Many businesses actively search for mentions in order to monitor the online conversations being had about them. Mention them in a positive way and you’ll probably get a thanks (or even a retweet).  Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:22:00 PST