There’s a lot of content out there competing for our audience’s attention, more than there ever has been. How do you manage to get noticed in the increasingly crowded world of content?

Today it’s not just about sending out content to media and hoping they’ll put it in the newspaper. Now it’s all about generating a decent amount of fresh content that your audience will find enjoyable.

I loved this quote:

“As zombies are to fresh brains, search engines are to fresh content”

Your users will find your good content if they’re looking for it and it relates to them… and if you keep it fresh.

How do you ensure your content is fresh?

Learn what your audience wants and develop content that speaks to them.
Use keywords that relate to the types of things your audience is looking for.

And use this tool to evaluate whether your press release has decent keywords that will work with search engines: http://www.pressreleasegrader.com

The London chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators held its Virtuoso Awards this month recognizing the very best of professional communication work in London.

I was thrilled to be recognized with three awards of merit:

• Two for my work redeveloping the hospital websites and creating an interactive story-sharing website
• And one for my work developing a social media campaign for It Gets Better London

Also at the awards night, a new “people’s choice awards” competition took place. Guests voted for their favourite short video produced by local pr pros.

All of the videos had to do with a thought-provoking theme: The Evolution of Communication

• check out the three one-minute videos that capture thoughts on how communication has evolved

Including this absolutely ridiculous “evolution of dating” video that my friend Sonya Gilpin and I created:

Read about my thoughts on volunteering and the potential of London’s emerging leaders to help our city achieve its potential.

My profile in Snap London: at work pointing on the map to my office and where I was born

Today, Canada votes!

And I’m super excited to be playing a part in London’s coverage of the election… I’ll be part of a social media team supporting London’s /A\ News, tonight.

Tonight during the election coverage, /A\ News will be incorporating social media into broadcast. Several London social media experts and I are part of the team that’ll be at the Covent Garden Market studio all night monitoring and reflecting the collective consciousness of the “online world” during the broadcast.

FOLLOW ALONG!

Twitter: Use the following hash tags if you’re chatting about the election in London: #anewsvote, #elxn41, and/or #ldnont.
Also, follow @atvnewslondon and the London social media team: me @ImpressionOne, @JayCMenard, @phronk, @StuartClark, @JamesWilk, @billdeys, @brian_frank, @carmilevy, and @3oh6.
@taraoverholt will be broadcasting from the market and @DanMacLellan will be anchoring.

Facebook: Like Canada Votes and post to the wall tomorrow. We’ll be following along there.

Tumblr: We’ve got a group tumblog rolling: /A\ London Election Internet Cafe.

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But don’t just follow along and participate in the social media dialogue. Be sure to get out there and VOTE!

I felt compelled to help fight back, to support others in their fight. I decided to raise funds and run in the Brain Tumour Foundation’s Spring Sprint. I also asked my rowing group to support me.

That’s when I learned that one of my rowing teammates, Vanessa, is herself a survivor fighting a brain tumour. Our team came together with Vanessa to start a strong team effort to run together in the Spring Sprint.

We’re now raising funds for a second year and preparing for our second Spring Sprint this Saturday. We’re inspired by Vanessa and her fight… and doing what we can to take a personal challenge to run and help.

My rowing team and I are pulling hard to help fight brain tumours

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The Londoner profiled our rowing team’s efforts to fight brain tumours in today’s edition. Read about us!

If you want to make a difference you can sponsor our team.

That was the case with a project that touched me, my friends and my city very profoundly - a project that I had the privilege of helping a good friend with… It Gets Better London.

In late 2010, the world was shocked to hear tragic cases of young people in the States who committed suicide because they were harassed and bullied for being gay. To help spread hope, American podcaster Dan Savage and his partner recorded a video to show young LGBT people that a happy adulthood is waiting for them if they can make it through the challenging years of their life. They created a campaign, It Gets Better, that went viral: more than 10,000 people have shared inspiring videos including President Obama.

My friend James Wilkinson had a brilliant idea: spread the hope in London with local people telling local LGBT youth “It Gets Better.”

***** It Gets Better London *****

James created a spectacular “It Gets Better” video for London:

I lent my support by building a social media campaign: using Twitter and Facebook to help expose as many Londoners to the video as possible (almost 1900 views). The social media campaign grew into a community of people who heard the message of hope and spread support throughout the city.

And so a second video was created, profiling community members telling LGBT youth in London that they have support. I was proud to lend my voice to the video:

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The local campaign has sort of drawn to a close - but it’s been exciting to watch how the social media community grew and how the videos went viral in London.

More so, it was powerful to watch the positive impact on the local community of supporters - to know we were making a real difference.

And communication helped to make that difference even greater.

I am currently writing about my two-week journey across Canada on board VIA Rail’s The Canadian - their flagship transcontinental rail journey. My travels included a visit to Winnipeg, two days in Jasper and five days in Vancouver and Whistler!

Check it out, and subscribe to my travel blog… I’ll be keeping it going with travels near and far; not just one big journey around the world, but rather the everyday journey full of the exploration I see throughout life.

Some foundations do a great job with their online messages; others kind of suck at it.

Here are a few that I’ve read over the last year from two healthcare foundation twitter accounts: @BloorviewPR and @sickkids. These are my favourite tweets because they catch my attention, tell a story and get me to read more. They’re powerful short messages that create a connection.

1. Are you a “SickKids Kid”? Four people have already shared their stories. Read them and then share your own!
2. Joey has an infectious spirit and a rare gift for making others feel at ease. Read all about Joey’s SickKids story.
3. Giving: ‘The greatest feeling you’ll ever have’
4. On the BLOOM blog: ‘Your shoes drive me crazy’
5. Sticks and stones might break bones, but words cut deeply too.
6. Nick’s time at Bloorview inspired him to pursue work in neuroscience.
7. Learn how Greg pays it forward.
8. Bloorview helps Claire reach her full potential with state of the art prosthetics.
9. For disabled youth, cooking or doing laundry can be overwhelming. Bloorview helps kids adapt
10. Having a disability won’t stop these kids from making music. See how Dr. Tom Chau’s innovations make it happen
11. Becoming a pilot is more than just child’s play for Melanie. See how Bloorview has made this dream come true
12. At Bloorview it’s family first! See how Adam’s sister is involved in his care.
13. It’s not all work & no play at Bloorview. Read about the impact of therapeutic clowns.
14. Justin Hines fell in love with music & performing for his class at Bloorview. He now performs internationally
15. Bloorview is creating a World of Possibility for kids with disabilities.
16. A tragic car crash left Holly a paraplegic and brought her to Bloorview. Read how therapy helped her move again

What do you think? Are these tweets effective? What about them do you think makes them effective?

I’m touched to have been nominated, honoured to have been accepted last night and excited to serve and learn - this is my first board experience.

It’s a pretty darn exciting time to get involved with this as well: Guelph is starting an ambitious and super-cool development project: The BetterPlanet Project. Copying from their website: “…the BetterPlanet Project is our vision of how teaching and research achievements at the University of Guelph can spark positive change in the world.” I love the way that it’s about advancing the way the university can have a positive impact on the whole world; and how timely as our world is on the cusp of very positive and urgent change.

I graduated in 2006 from the University of Guelph-Humber: an innovative concurrent degree/diploma partnership between Guelph and Humber College. It’s exciting to connect more closely with Guelph as an alumnus and also further the profile of Guelph-Humber alumni.