The Blog Studio

It’s an exciting time to be a geek in Toronto! Social Media Week Toronto is headed your way, and of course The Blog Studio will be right in the thick of things. We’d like to invite all our old friends, new friends and friends we haven’t met yet to join us for a good time on at our offices on February 1, 2010.

Leave your pom poms and megaphone at home! We aren’t hosting a panel, we’re not giving a talk and there definitely won’t be a slideshow. There will be good eats, cold booze and Toronto’s smartest people (that’s you!) having an honest discussion about what is actually going on in social media. We aren’t selling anything, we don’t have an agenda, and social media ‘gurus’ and ‘mavens’ will be stopped at the door.

I’ll be your hostess with the mostess, while we all sit down for a chat about our industry that might end up anywhere. Submit your questions and RSVP beforehand to . I really hope to see you there. There are some more details below, and keep your eye on Social Media Week site to find out what else is going on during Social Media Week: Toronto.

No Cheerleaders Allowed: An Honest Conversation About Social Media

You ever get the feeling that the social media ‘experts’ are only telling half the truth? Do you get the distinct impression that the Big Time social media mavens and gurus are painting a pretty picture because it benefits them directly? We do to.

Join Managing Director of The Blog Studio, Lucia Mancuso, for an intimate, no holds barred discussion about the on the ground state of affairs in the wired world. Submit your questions anonymously beforehand. Then join us February, 1. 2010 at the The Blog Studio space in downtown Toronto for apps, booze and a rollicking discussion about what’s really going on. No punches pulled, no smoke and mirrors and no self-proclaimed experts. Just a diverse group of smart people who engage the social media space talking about their ideas and concerns.

Afterwards we’ll compile a list of the sharpest, wittiest, nastiest and most useful answers to see if we can make sense out of what social media is, and what it might become.

Please RSVP as soon as possible. Space for this event is very limited.

RSVP to

2010 is upon is. We’d like to thank all of our clients, co-workers, friends, freelancers, geeky colleagues, fellow tech workers and everyone else that we’ve met and worked with in 2009. You’ve made the last year absolutely wonderful for us, and we’ve enjoyed every interaction. The great people we talk to everyday are what makes everything worthwhile. We’re extremely proud of the work we’ve done in the past year, and we’ve had some brilliant successes. Thank you, thank you and thank you again.

We’re looking forward to the upcoming year. Thinking about our plans for the future, we realized that there is always room for improvement. We want to share some of the goals, ideas and improvements that we’re going to make happen immediately in the upcoming year. Everything we want to do comes down to one thing: providing you with best web presence to make your business successful.

Put You First
The most important thing we can do is improve our customer service. You, our clients are the sole reason we exist, and we want to treat you even better than we do now. We want to get things done more quickly, do them better and create the best sites that we can. We want you to be happy with us. In order to help things along, we’re expanding our team so there is more of us to go around. Your project always comes first. This is a promise we take seriously, and if something falls between the cracks let us know and we’ll make it right.

No Agency BS
We’re not an agency, and we’ll never be one. What does that mean exactly? We’re a boutique size business with small to large size clients. You won’t get your project passed off to an underling after we win your business, because we don’t have any underlings. We’re a team. We’re proud of every project we’ve done, and take it personally if something isn’t right. We don’t care about running up billable hours, that isn’t how we work. We’ll quote you for your project, and we’ll stick to that quote. Since everyone at The Blog Studio does a little bit of everything, you don’t have to pay for a bunch of unnecessary management costs. There aren’t a bunch of overpaid executives sitting in our office that need to keep the Lear Jet gassed up. We all get our hands dirty, so all the hours you pay for get your project closer to perfection. We’ll never pad your bills, we’ll never give you the runaround, we won’t bill you for vapor work, and we’ll make sure the work is done right. In short, we’ll treat your business the way we like people to treat our business.

Adding New Services
After we finish a site, many of our you have asked us for help getting the word out, creating content strategies, advice on copywriting and how to get a PR program started. We’ve got you’ve covered in 2010. We’re happy to say we’ve expanded our menu of offerings in these areas, and we’ve brought in some new staff with loads of experience in these areas. So whether you want to learn about how Twitter can help your business, what taglines work the best for your site or how to get your business featured in a big name magazine, we can help you build a program to expand your brand.

Offering More Advice
We’re very proud of our blog, and the most popular posts are the ones where we share advice on how to get things done. In 2010 we plan to post more how-to’s, more software reviews, and more of the methods we use to get things done. We love to share our ideas and working methods with you, so you can make your business better. The ongoing conversation in our comments section teaches us a lot about what you want to know more about. From WordPress to Google Wave, we’ll try our best to cover it all. If there’s something you’d like to hear more about, please drop us a line and let us know. We’ll also be offering more advice and continuing to answer your questions on Twitter @TheBlogStudio, so stop by and say ‘Hello’ anytime.

Keeping Up With the Joneses
Technology wise, things are moving faster than ever. We keep up with the newest of the new, so you don’t have to. In the coming year we plan to work even harder to ensure that every site we build is compatible with the new best of breed browsers like Google Chrome. Our improved cross browser support and testing will make certain you don’t miss a single slice of your online audience. We’ll be extending this testing to all the software, plugins and code that we use. We want every site built by The Blog Studio to work flawlessly in every situation, every time. 

Thanks for making 2009 a great year, and here’s to 2010.

Cheers,

The Blog Studio

Twitter is a great tool for finding new ideas, meeting the digital hoi polloi and spreading the word about your business. A new, potentially powerful feature has just made the scene: Twitter Lists. Lists allow you to create and share groups of people centered on a common topic. It’s a simple way to find new people that share your interests, or work in the same media sphere that you do. We’ll admit, it can be somewhat overwhelming digging through Twitter to find the gems, so here’s three of our favorite lists for tech savvy Twitterers to get you started. Lists are a wholly new feature and frontier, so expect to hear more from us as Twitter Lists begin to mature. 

@Scobleizer’s Tech People - We all know Robert Scoble, one of the best known and most reasonable, knowledgeable voices in the tech community. He’s created a list of his favor Twitter tech folks. This is a great place to start if you’re new to the world of Twitter, or need to make sure you don’t miss a beat in the geek-a-sphere.
http://twitter.com/Scobleizer/my-favstar-fm-list

Tech Bloggers - If you’re looking for inspiration, ideas and content you can use to improve your own blogging, thics list by @CourtenayBird will be extremely useful. There’s some big names, and some people you haven’t heard of, but I’ll well worth your time to interact with.
http://twitter.com/courtenaybird/digital-and-social-media

Designers - @Grainedit has a well curated list that’s a who’s who of designers of all type who tweet. If you’re looking for eye candy and visual web innovation, you’ve found the right list. http://twitter.com/grainedit/graphicdesign

If you need a step by step on how to use twitter lists check out Freelance Folders post on How to Get Started.

Stay on the lookout for @TheBlogStudio list of web design favorites coming up shortly.

Developers. Those mysterious folks hiding behind the dual monitors, drinking Mountain Dew and performing mysterious functions we can’t comprehend.  They’re the backbone of the modern way we do business.  It can be a challenge effectively communicating with developers on a project. Let’s face it, it isn’t easy to manage someone who’s performing a task you may not fully comprehend yourself.  Here’s a few guidelines that will help your projects run smoothly from beginning to end, and make your developers love you.

1. Get it all out in the beginning - Let your developer know the features and functionality you’re looking to create right from the beginning. It’s much easier to set the course correctly in the beginning, than it is to change directions midt-sream. Clarifying objectives in the beginning, allows for planning the big picture, so dropping in new ideas at later stages in the project can really slow things down.
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2. Answer the phone - There will be times that your developer needs clarification, or wants to check a specific detail with you. It’s possible they can’t continue working on your project until you provide this information, so being prompt about providing the data they need will keep your project rolling along.

3. It’s a bad idea… - You may have a great idea, that your developer shoots down.  There’s probably a good reason for this. Listen to them, they’re probably saving you from making a big mistake, or helping you avoid a problem down the line. Are developers infallible? No, but if you don’t trust their judgement you should be working with someone else.

4. Fast or Good - Deadlines are always a sticking point. Everyone wants their project completed as quickly as possible. The reality is that good work takes time. It’s important to create a development schedule that is realistic for your needs, and also for the developers schedule. They may have other projects, and every developer hates rushing.
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5. Detail problems - At various points during the development cycle, you’ll run into snags, bugs and corrections you need fixed. The key here is to provide as much detail about the problem as you possible can. Don’t just send an email stating, ‘Hey, something is broken on this page.’ Send a clear description of the problem, including links, screenshots, the operating system and browser, and anything else that seems relevant. You can’t provide too much information in this situation. Most importantly, explain how the function should work when it’s operating correctly. Your devs will love you for this.

Clear communication, and speaking the language of development is what will make your project launch on time with minimal hassles. We also hear bribes, including micro-brews, ergonomic chairs and Warcraft gift cards are effective at solving problems. Remember, your developer can only work as hard as you let them. 

I’ve been spending a bit of time each day helping people with their WordPress, blog design, and template questions on Twitter. It’s really fun, and it’s already led to some new work. Deb from Aligned Structures sent us a direct message over Twitter two days ago, and we’ve already wrapped up a bunch of tweaks and changes to her site.

If you’ve got questions, I’d love to help if I can. Follow @theblogstudio.com, and address your question us using @theblogstudio. I’ll do my best to answer any and all comers!

Twitter is an amazing tool. Much like blogging, it can help you find people interested in the same topics as you. Try using twitter search to search for keywords relevant to your interests or your habits, and I guarantee that you’ll find something you didn’t know before.