M2O Blog » YVR Connections http://blogm2o.com Social Media from the M2O studios Fri, 09 Jul 2010 18:53:28 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Teach a client to blog… http://blogm2o.com/2009/09/teach-a-client-to-blog/ http://blogm2o.com/2009/09/teach-a-client-to-blog/#comments Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:17:08 +0000 Tris Hussey http://www.blogm2o.com/2009/09/teach-a-client-to-blog/ When I started off in the web world as more of a consultant than a teacher (my Glaxo days if you’re wondering), we worked by the old agency mindset of keeping the clients away from being able to update things themselves. Our premise was simple, we wanted our clients to be completely dependent on us. Learn HTML? Oh no, you don’t need to learn that, and it’s really hard too, Tris is always working on fixing bugs….

I kept this mindset for many years, then it finally hit me–I hate doing little text updates for clients. At the time I was kinda stuck, blog engines hadn’t really matured to a point that you could run a “website” with them. A really spiffy blog, sure, but a “website” with a static front page and such. Yeah that wasn’t working out so well (not that I didn’t try). Now things are different and for the better. Very much for the better.

One of my favourite examples of teaching the client to blog is YVR Connections:

The folks in the YVR Communications team had a problem. The Olympics were coming and they really wanted to not only tap into social media, but also be able to shorten the time it took to get a message out, and finally be able to do it all themselves. They didn’t want the world, they just wanted to tap into the latest technologies to make it easier for them (the Communications department) to communicate with people (seems like a good idea to me).

What we did for YVR was to build YVR Connections for them. After we seeded it with content and the latest social media goodies, we sat down and showed them how to use the site and …

We let them.

Yep, for the most part they run the site. Sure I do the server updates and such, that’s cool I’m usually in the servers anyway working on other administration, but that’s pretty much it. They write their own content, take their own pictures, and post everything up themselves.

And it’s fantastic.

When YVR calls us it isn’t for a “could you update these three words on this page…” it’s for something much cooler.

Honestly I think letting the client blog was one of the best business decisions we made.

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]]> http://blogm2o.com/2009/09/teach-a-client-to-blog/feed/ 1 YVR gets social with YVR Connections http://blogm2o.com/2009/05/yvr-gets-social-with-yvr-connections/ http://blogm2o.com/2009/05/yvr-gets-social-with-yvr-connections/#comments Fri, 15 May 2009 17:24:35 +0000 Tris Hussey http://www.blogm2o.com/?p=389 We are so pleased that we can finally let the cat out of the bag about a project that we are very, very proud of: YVR Connections. Yes, YVR is our local airport and we often take it for granted, but it is to be one of the first places that people encounter when they come to visit BC. When the Olympics hit next year, well it’s going to be the gateway to the Olympics. Tens of thousands of people are going to be traveling through YVR and the people at YVR want to make sure that travelers coming here know all about our airport and what it has to offer.

Did you know there is a dentist at YVR? Did you know that almost all the hot water at YVR is made with solar panels? Did you know that YVR has one of the largest collections of First Nations art in Canada?

Yeah, I didn’t either until I started working on this project. I could wax poetic about the architecture (it is all inspired by land, sea, and air), but I won’t (you can watch the video about it though).

The people at YVR love what they do and want to share that with all of us. Yes, YVR will be blogging. Yes, we’ll get some of the cool tips and FAQs about the airport (did you know that you can park your car have the oil changed, detailed, and have groceries left in it when you come back home?).

I’ve been spending a lot of time with the YVR folks getting to know them, teaching them about social media, and getting them ready for the site to launch.

So be nice to Alisa and the team.

Welcome to the world of social media.

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