Chris's passion for all things interactive combined with his analytic capabilities and thoughtful approach are an asset on projects ranging from complex website development through to corporate blogging and tweeting.

Mary-Lynn Bellamy-Willms
CEO, Suburbia Advertising

bWest Interactive Blog

A Guide to Managing the New Facebook Timeline

Screen shot 2012-03-20 at 4.54.58 PM.png Facebook is at it again, changing the user interface (UI) for both individual users and Facebook (Business) Pages. If you're a user you will already be aware of the new "Timeline" and layout.

If you have a Businesss Page you would have seen the notification at the top of your page indicating that all Facebook Pages will be moving to the new format on March 30, 2012.

Facebook Timeline

Posted on Mar 20 2012 0 Comments Permalink

How To Pay Your Customers to Complain About Your Service

The other headline I considered for this blog post was "Beware the power of the promoted Tweet".

Of course no business knowingly sets out to pay to have their customers to complain about them. However, that's exactly what Rogers did today with their promoted tweet for "#Rogers1Number".

What are Promoted Tweets

Posted on Mar 16 2012 0 Comments Permalink

LinkedIn for College Grads

I have received a lot of support, encouragement and good will from the local Victoria community including businesses, individuals and institutions like Camosun, Uvic and Royal Roads. So when I have the opportunity to give something back I jump at the chance and take that responsibility very serioulsy, especially when it comes to students as they are the future of our community and country.

Posted on Mar 15 2012 0 Comments Permalink

Meet Dave...

Screen shot 2012-03-20 at 2.55.13 PM.png An awesome little video I sometimes use in social media seminars to demonstrate how the average consumer uses social media in the purchase process.

social media training

Posted on Mar 1 2012 0 Comments Permalink

Facebook Parenting: For the Troubled Parent

Screen shot 2012-02-20 at 4.21.40 PM.png On February 7th Tommy Jordan of Albemarle, N.C. posted an eight-minute video to YouTube of himself chastising his 15-year old daughter because of a rant she posted on Facebook cursing out her parents and complained about having to do chores (apparently her second offense).

Posted on Feb 20 2012 1 Comments Permalink

Wordcamp Victoria 2012

I attended, and spoke at, my third Wordcamp Victoria this weekend. I missed the morning sessions due to kid's hockey games, but got there just in time for a nice Ambrosia lunch.

Photo: Rebecca Bollwitt (Credit: YYJ Pics)

Posted on Jan 15 2012 0 Comments Permalink

Social Search - Google Search, Plus Your World

Google made a major announcement yesterday that totally changes the search landscape in terms of what how natural (organic) search results are displayed and more importantly what gets displayed.

Google has transformed its search engine so that it understands not only content, but also people and relationships. They call this "Social Search", and today they introduced three new features:

Posted on Jan 11 2012 0 Comments Permalink

Year of the Social Dragon

MMXII is “The Year of the Dragon” according to the Chinese calendar – a powerful year. The last 'Year of the Dragon' was Y2K. It’s also a leap year and includes three Friday the 13th’s in January, April and July.

I have a few social media predictions for 2012 but first lets take a look back at what happened in 2011.

Posted on Dec 31 2011 0 Comments Permalink

Early Adopter Advantages for SMB Google Plus Users

Many small businesses already feel that Google+ is an important social platform because Google, one of the most influential sites when it comes to web search site referrals, developed it.

Here are some of the advantages to being a Google+ early adopter.

Posted on Dec 29 2011 0 Comments Permalink

Out with the Rabbit, In with the Dragon

The year of the Rabbit lived up to its billing as a creative, compassionate creature demonstrating strength and intensity (according to the Chinese Zodiac calendar).

It was a pretty awesome year in all respects. I continue to feel blessed to be part of the Victoria social media community, one of most connected and progressive cities in Canada.

Here are a few of the highlights…

Posted on Dec 26 2011 2 Comments Permalink

Google Plus for Business

Google Plus (G+) is not only another great way to connect with people on a more robust engaging platform, now with the launch of their "Brand Pages" it's also an effective way to market your business, with some significant differences.

Posted on Nov 25 2011 1 Comments Permalink

WordCamp Victoria 2012

WordCamp Victoria 2012

I have had the pleasure of speaking at the last two WordCamps in Victoria and was thrilled to be asked to submit a proposal for the next one on January 14th, 2012.

Posted on Nov 24 2011 1 Comments Permalink

Christmas Gifts for Geeks

Guest Post by Kim Perkins

Is there a geek on your Christmas list this holiday season?

Sometimes it can be hard to find gifts for the tech people on your list - or to find something that they don’t already have!

Here are some gift ideas to check out for the geek on your list.

Posted on Nov 14 2011 0 Comments Permalink

8 Reasons Your Social Media Campaign Failed

There are plenty of successful social media campaigns out there, but alas there are just as many (more actually) that are not successful.

I used to cringe when I saw them but it is becoming too common. Odd to see that even the big guys (CPGs, and the like) are still making rookie mistakes.

There are lots reasons social media campaigns fail, here are eight:

Posted on Nov 10 2011 0 Comments Permalink

Google Plus Plays Its Trump Card

It's a competitive industry, and we all know that Facebook, Google and Twitter don't really play fair, right? Well, Google is now playing its trump card!

With the launch of Google+ "Brand Pages" and a new feature called "Direct Connect", Google is firmly integrating + into its web-dominating search platform.

Posted on Nov 8 2011 3 Comments Permalink