Capulet Communications

I'm looking forward to joining the 'Leveraging Social Media for PR' panel at this year's Massive Technology Show on April 1 at UBC Robson Square.

Want to incorporate social media into your PR strategy? Join us as we cover topics including:

• How to use social media to build a brand online
• Managing relationships with customers and online influencers
• Potential risks to running a social media marketing campaign

Check out a complete overview of the panel.

Hope to see you there.

We're at South by Southwest this week, a huge web, music and film conference in Austin, Texas. The next few posts are some of thoughts from the conference...

I feel like a luddite. Not compared to 'normal' human beings who don't work in the tech sector, but certainly compared to my fellow SXSW attendees. I have an iPhone, I have two blogs, I'm on Facebook and LinkedIn, and I tweet when I come across some interesting tidbit to share. But, am I falling behind?

In almost every SXSW session, people around me are multi-tasking on multiple devices. They're live blogging/live tweeting the session, organizing lunch with friends or just trying to keep up with the 'statosphere'. I, on the other hand, take notes with a notepad and pen. I feel like a dinosaur.

I can't help but wonder if we can really parse so many inputs at once? For instance, I met fewer people at SXSW than I expected because most people were focused on their iPhones instead of chatting with the people around them. Social media is meant to enable relationships, but I wonder if it fractures our attention so much that we're less able to engage in the real world? 

As you know, we've been busy this year making Getting to First Base: A Social Media Marketing Playbook into a real, grown-up, hard cover book. We're pleased to announce that we've finally titled the book, with the help of our publisher No Starch Press. The title is...

Friends With Benefits:
Online Marketing with Blogs, Facebook, YouTube, and More

We're pretty happy with that title. Plus, you know what they say about sex and sales.

Now it's on to the cover art and we're soliciting ideas from all you creative folks out there. If something fun, compelling or creative pops to mind, please let us know!

We're pleased as punch to be speaking at this year's Canadian Public Relations Society's conference, On the Edge, in Vancouver June 7-9, 2009. We'll be covering tips on how to avoid online blunders when marketing to bloggers and online communities.

Here's our session blurb:

Everyone wants to have a strong social media presence but no one wants to commit one of the seven deadly sins of marketing on the social web. Learn how to fool-proof your online marketing campaigns from real world case studies in this session by Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo. Save yourself some sorrow by learning from the mistakes of others. Julie and Darren will help you avoid campaign killers and online faux pas.

Check out the conference site for more info. If you're going to be there, let us know!

Five years ago, Darren got the idea for Northern Voice in the shower. A handful of Vancouver bloggers got on board and Canada's first personal bogging and publishing conference came into being.

Five years on the conference has continued to grow in numbers and caliber. Last weekend's conference highlights included keynotes by CBC's Nora Young and Stewart Butterfield, the cofounder of Flickr. As a marketer I was also pleased to see sessions that touched on keeping corporate blogs fresh.

For those of you who missed Northern Voice or couldn't get tickets because the event sold out in just three days, all the sessions have been recorded and will be available online for free. We'll give you the heads up when the video is available.

Thanks to the rest of the volunteer organizers and to everyone who attended and made Northern Voice such an exceptional event.