Wild About Weaver: A (nearly) WYSYWYG CSS Wrangler

Do you want to make some tweaks to your WordPress site, but pale at the thought of editing the CSS stylesheet? Try using Weaver as your basic template. Based on the current basic theme (right now, Twenty Eleven) it then layers its own child pages onto the base, and gives you literally hundreds of ways to customize the appearance. Using its easy-to-understand administration tabs, you can make big or small changes, add snippets of code, and never have to worry about what the curly brackets { } mean… unless you want to. You may even find using Weaver helps you to understand CSS better!

My first reaction was, “Drop out, then. Nobody says you have to use Twitter, and if it isn’t fun, it isn’t worth doing.” I’ve certainly had days where I felt like I’ve had nothing to say to Twitter, and vice versa. In fact, I had a whole burn-out year where I rarely went near Twitter, and basically stepped back from all social media activities except some personal use of Facebook.

Ultimately, however, I’ve decided that there is much in Twitter that is worth keeping, and there are some simple ways to get rid of the parts that annoy you. Here are a few things you can do on a Sunday afternoon to make Twitter suck less, 7 days a week.

1. Use lists to improve the “Noise to Signal” ratio
If the tweets in your twitter stream are more annoying than edifying, you need a way to filter out the junk. I’ve classified people into lists through third-party Twitter management decks (like TweetDeck, HootSuite and Seesmic) and Twitter started this function a couple of years ago, as well. With lists, you can group the tweeps you follow into whatever works for you – close friends, news sources, music, fitness – and just look at Twitter through those filters. Much better than trying to wade through hundreds of tweets, some from people you followed back months ago and you can’t even remember why. That brings me to my next point.

2. Unfollow annoying twits.
If you aren’t getting value from the tweets that show up in your stream, turn down the volume. “Unfollow” is just a click away. If you take the first step, above, and put your favourite Twitterers into a list, you might get so used to the customized view that you never have to unfollow because you don’t look at that home stream anymore. But frankly, I still look at my “main” stream often, so it’s nice to just not have to deal with incessant marketing messages or self-centred drivel.

3. Spend less time on Twitter – while still posting to Twitter.
I’m thinking of the terrific, engaging posts this friend puts onto Facebook, and how they would work equally well on Twitter. Linking the two is only a step away, in her Facebook account settings. Better yet, she can choose which Facebook updates to share with Twitter by using one of those management tools I mentioned above. I like the ones with multiple columns for your favourite lists and search terms, with scheduled tweets so you can have a creative thought at 2 am that people might see at 8:30.

4. Don’t try to stay on top of it all
One of the most potentially annoying things about Twitter is when you try to read everything that comes across your screen. Can’t. Be. Done. What’s more, it’s way more input than anyone needs. Cut back to a couple of times a day, for just long enough to see if there are any good posts to your lists, and to respond to any mentions. If Twitter only takes 5- 10 minutes a day, it’s far less likely to annoy you. And on those days where the communication is better than you expected, you can take longer, much as you would an important email or phone call.

That’s not so bad, is it?

What if, for 30 days in November, you experimented with a new look? One that goes against the current fashions, and sets you a little bit apart? What if, for doing this, you raised money for a good cause? Does it sound like Movember? Exactly – but what if you, like most women, are challenged in the facial hair department? Then how about going without makeup?

This is actually Janis Lacouvee‘s idea, but I think it’s a good one. Like the guys with their moustaches, you can put the money toward charities working on men’s cancers – it could even be the money you save because you haven’t had to replace that colour-match foundation or the extend-a-curly-lash mascara. That’s my plan, since my father won a battle with cancer last year. (Actually, I’ll give more than the money I save – I only occasionally wear makeup at the best of times!)

So many women can’t imagine facing the day without their “face”. This is a challenge to present yourself as you are – perhaps professional, well-groomed – but unadorned. And if anyone asks what you are up to, you can always use “November – no makeup” as the reason.

With only days to go until November, I don’t expect that this idea will cause a groundswell of women to pack away their MAC and Mary Kay. In fact, now might be considered a “pilot project”, to be tweaked and rolled out in style next year. Maybe it would be best coupled with a different charitable focus. I think the idea is worth consideration.

So please, comment, share, and tell me if you plan to take up the November/No Makeup challenge.

Netscribe's "Twavel" app

Tomorrow is my second “official” day at Netscribe Web Communications.  I think I said on Twitter earlier that I’m doing happy dances on the inside.  Between Netscribe and my work with Melinda Harris at Go West Design Group, that puts me firmly back in the land of social media/interactive web.

I think my favourite aspect of this turn of events is that I actually have worked at Netscribe already – five years ago.  At that time, I was newly back into the full-time work force, having spent 8 years mostly with very small children, though I always kept a bit of contract writing work on the side.  Netscribe was a much smaller company a few years ago, and I was on contract.  So at some point we gave each other hugs and kisses, and I went to seek my fortune elsewhere… and where I went in the meantime is a whole other story that doesn’t matter much right now.

Jump to 2011 – Netscribe is a thriving web apps firm, bursting at the seams with desks, computers and smart staff.  And Steve and Stella were looking for a social media person.  They managed to track me down at Social Media Camp Victoria, and I feel like we just picked up where we left off.

I’ll be doing writing, social media consulting and training work for clients in government, as well as managing the social media for Netscribe itself.  I guess I’ll have to set up a Twitter account for me with my Netscribe hat on – it’ll be very transparently me at the keys though.  Should I change my user name from Wordspring to NetscribeCath?

Above is a picture of Ben back when he probably should have had some comprehensive testing.  At that age, we knew he was a fantastic storyteller, a valiant soul, a keen athlete, and an extremely loyal brother and friend.  We saw some troubles with numbers and letters getting reversed, and he was slower than his older brother at catching onto reading, but it was ok at the time.  I also knew that he would fall apart if we said “hurry up now – clean your room”, and that if we said “put on your socks and shoes and get in the car in the next 15 minutes” none of that would happen. When Ben was upset, the whole world would be black – it didn’t matter if the lego design wasn’t going together right or if he had a sewing needle embedded below his kneecap. Both were equally horrible to Ben (which made it easier to cope with the embedded needle, ironically).

Years passed, and it became more apparent that something was amiss in Ben’s schooling.  Reading was hard – really really hard.  Writing was even harder.  Homework was “forgotten” all the time.  Worse, school was BORING.  Things went downhill when, thinking that it would be a good challenge for his bright mind, we enrolled Ben in late French Immersion in Grade 6.  Now he “couldn’t write” in two languages (though he can certainly speak French now, and frequently helps his friends with word meanings).  Self esteem plummeted.  Everyone felt guilty. Ben nearly gave up on school altogether.

It was especially hard when his school peers started applying to the Challenge program (for gifted youth) at the local high school.  A number of them said “why don’t you apply, Ben?” After all, he could keep up with them in the conversations and in his interests. But Ben felt like he wasn’t nearly smart enough.  If you can’t copy notes off a board, well – you must be stupid, right?

We hadn’t been ignoring the problem all this time – in fact, at the end of elementary school we put Ben on the waiting list for educational testing.  It’s just that it took 3 years to happen.  The health care system isn’t the only one with long waiting lists! And we could not afford private testing.

So finally, on just about the last day of middle school, we met with the educational psychologist and the vice-principal.  Turns out that Ben, like the rest of the family, has cognitive abilities that put him into the “highly intelligent” bracket.  But when it comes to processing and output, he is S-L-O-W.  So his brain goes 140, and by the time his hand gets around to forming letters, the thoughts are long gone.  Talk about frustrating.  In fact, the ed psych said she had never seen such a discrepancy.

What does this mean for his education?  It means 1) voice recognition software on a computer 2) notes supplied, so they don’t have to be copied off the board.  3) no timed tests 4) recognition that a fabulous mind is trying to function, and can with a bit of help.

I am so proud of Ben for managing to make it this far with the obstacles he has been facing.  Now I hope that with these aids, he’ll be able to run like the cheetah he is.

photo by Brenda Anderson

I got an email today from someone I’ve just started to get to know on Twitter – she’s starting a business writing and editing (sound familiar?) and wanted to know why I haven’t blogged in so long.  So it’s time to come clean.  Below is my nutshell response to why I stopped.  It’s as honest as I’ve been in a very long time.

As a summary, I don’t go into detail here about what it feels like to lose my mental health, and what hard work it is to come back.  I want to write about that too, but not right now.  I hope this helps all of you who wondered why they didn’t see @wordspring around very much in2010.

My thanks to Lisa for asking me about blogging.  This probably wasn’t the answer you expected.

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Thanks for the note!  Thanks as well for the question about my sadly neglected blog.  Blogging need not take very long, and it’s a wonderful way to show what you know.  In my case, it wasn’t lack of ideas or lack of time that stopped the posts.  A lot of people stop blogging when they run out of ideas, or when they don’t see it as a priority for their business.  Others barely get started because they are perfectionists, and feel that whatever they do won’t be good enough!  I think I blogged about that – you can help them get over it.

As a writer and editor, this is can be your best form of advertising, and so long as I was running my business, it was a central piece of my marketing.  It could be for you, as well.  I stopped because of a personal crisis, that saw me change direction 180 degrees.

As you can see, I was blogging very regularly through 2009, when I was newly 100% self-employed as a writer and social media consultant.  I kind of threw myself into the deep end of the pool and started swimming madly to stay afloat. Unfortunately, it turns out I’m not well suited to being a one-woman show.  I’m a great teacher, salesperson, motivator, explainer, and a crappy administrator.  So by the end of the year, I was falling apart trying to do everything myself, and too afraid of failure to bring anyone in on a potential trainwreck.  Self-fulfilling prophecy?  Yeah.  By the end of 2009 I had to stop what I was doing for my own mental and physical health, and to save what was left of my relationship with my boyfriend and children, as well.  So I stopped, cold turkey, for months.

That’s my 5-minute story – with that out of the way, I’d love to meet for a coffee, talk about YOUR story, and get you excited about blogging.  Don’t worry, blogging is a lot of fun, so long as you are not having a nervous breakdown .

Has the Vancouver social media community considered starting a chapter of the Social Media Club? I know it’s “yet another thing” for many people, but its whole mission is to have these conversations, both in person and online. It has benefited the Victoria community enormously for these reasons:
1) The larger organization is a wonderful space to share local discussions and “lessons learned”, and the arrangement is reciprocal, with wider discussions seeding the local level too.
2) It encompasses the full spectrum of social media – not just blogging, not just the “flavour of the month” – and many of our discussions are applicable across platforms.
3) It is becoming a recognized brand in itself. As a communications professional engaged in social media, I’d like to visit chapters in other towns. Are there great people visiting Vancouver who are missing connections because they don’t know where to look?

Since Paul Holmes and I founded the Victoria chapter (the first in Canada!) six months ago, I have been continually amazed by the quality of discussion and the building of community that takes place when we meet.  We’ve gone from 15 people to nearly 40 at the last event, and the momentum keeps building. We’re preparing for a very big event Sept 22nd, when we welcome n2y4 award winner Joe Solomon to talk about “Movement Building in a Connected Age”.  That deserves its own post, so expect to see more here about that talk this week.

At the same time, meetups, tweetups, an Open Coffee group and DemoCamp all add to our knowledge base and our contact files.  (For people who spend a lot of time behind screens, we sure like to meet!) At each event I’ve been to, I’ve come home feeling like I’ve shared a lot and learned far more.