An afternoon helping James with his hyperlocal website

Last week I popped into the @talkaboutlocal office to meet up with James from It's Happening In Bulkington; a hyperlocal blog that James set up in April 2011 with talk about local's help.

James felt he needed a little more support and guidance with feeling more confident with his blog, so we spent a couple of hours answering his queries and showing him some aspects of this blog that he didn't know about.

 Some of the things I helped him with:

• Blog post layout, inserting images and adding descriptive text to the photographs
• How to copy and paste text from elsewhere into a Wordpress blog post
• What categories and tags are; how and why to use them
• Ideas on how to tell the local community about his blog

Afterwards I grabbed James for a quick chat about why he started his hyperlocal blog and how he found the Wordpress help. 

 

I subtitled the video, so I might as well make use of the transcription and include it in this post. By the way, I use Universal Subtitles to subtitle youtube videos. Universal Subtitles have made a few little changes recently and have made it even smoother to use.

Anyway, here's the transcript!


Karen: Okay, so I'm here with James from It's Happening In Bulkington.And James has come to visit us at talk about local today for a little bit of extra help with his hyperlocal website that we initially helped him get started about a year ago, wasn't it James?

James: That's right. Yes.

Karen: Today we have gone through some practical things like laying out a blog post with pictures, how to copy and paste words into a blog post, using categories and tag to help with the google juice, and also how to insert links so you can link out to other websites.

How are you finding running a hyperlocal website? Can you tell us when you started and why you started it?

James: Yes, the reason for my starting my hyperlocal website is my way of trying to come back and say 'Thank you' to the people of Bulkington. I've lived in Bulkington since 1979, and it's a small village on the north side of Warwickshire. It's recognised as one of the largest villages in England and the people themselves are more than village. They are a warmer kind of people. I felt as if they welcomed me to the village and because of this I find myself going round and taking note of how they have accepted me.

I see the village, and they will know how outsiders come into the village and they would be able to recognise how  outsiders recognise them, and the beauties that they've got there.

Karen: So, in a way, blogging about how your were welcomed to the village, and what it is like for a new person to move to the village and be welcomed by everybody else who lives there already?

James: I also find that they village itself is the gateway to some of the more known but less talked about areas, such as the George Elliot, being part of the George Elliot countryside. We are close to Bosworth the battlefields, for people for interested in history. But living in Bulkington has got tremendous outreach for people. I think that's the right word you use. I do love to boast about my adopted village and hence the reason again for the blog. It'll say the village; how I see it which even surprises me, the beauty that is around here.

Karen: What kind of feedback have you had from the residents of the village that have seen your blog and what you have been writing about, and your brilliant pictures as well?

James: Yes, they have been very complimentary and most of the people that I've spoke to do recognise that I'm unbiased in the way I speak about the area is refreshing to them, that's how they see it. We know that there is negative things everywhere and I can touch upon them as well with a view of perhaps betterment. I am not politically driven, I just feel as if the village offers a lot. And the village people do recognise that I love to see a lot of people showing an interest.

Karen: That's fantastic. Well, your blog is going from strength to strength and we have been talking about the number of visitors it's had and we've had a look at the stats and how it's grown over the last year. With the technical side of running a hyperlocal blog, say, on the platform your using, Wordpress, we've gone through of the aspects of that today as I've mentioned.

How have you found the tutoring that you've had this afternoon? Is it something you're going to be able to put into place easily yourself when you get back home again?

James: First of all, when I was introduced to Wordpress that was about 12 months ago. I have little or no knowledge of computers, but the assistance I've had did help me and when I showed signs, hiccoughs I would call them, I got in touch with Karen, who I'm talking to now, and Karen welcomed me to Birmingham and she went out of her way to show me extras ways of widening expectations of views, such as...

Karen: All the things you can do on there...

James: Yes. It's lovely. I spent a good hour in her company and it was definitely well worth my trip.

Karen: Well, thank you very much James and I hope that you are going to go away now a bit more confident about the wordpress platform and in it's use and you can get stuck into you blog.

James: I know I will. I definitely know that the blog will have a wider field because the  events that takes place will be highlighted, when I've put on all the tags like you've told me.

Karen: Yes, tags and categories. We've discussed that a lot today. Thank you ever so much for coming out to see us. Much appreciated James and we look forward to continuing reading It's Happening In Bulkington!

Thank you very much James!

Say hello on twitter @karenstrunks

Announcing talk about local unconference 28th April in BIRMINGHAM!

It's been a busy month so far, and one of the things myself and the talk about local team have been working hard on is........

TAL12!

What is TAL12?

It's talk about local's unconference! 

This is an annual event that's been running since 2009. The first one was held in Stoke On Trent, 2010 was held in Leeds, last year it was in Cardiff, and this year we are bringing it talk about local's home city of Birmingham!

When: Sat 28th April from 9am

Where: Maple House, Corporation Street - Just a few minutes walk from New Street Station.

Cost: Free! And we'll be providing tea/coffee/drinks and lunch to keep you going! Get your ticket here. 

Who: Are you a hyperlocal blogger? A community activist? A journalist? A local government employee? Interested in ways to talk about your community and issues online. Want to meet like minded people? Then this is for you!

What's an unconference? An unconference has no set agenda for the day, until the day itself. Attendees come along and at the beginning of the day there's the opportunity to pitch and idea for discussion. Then the idea gets allocated a room and a time slot and attendees go to the sessions they want to go to. It's a very fluid day in that if you don't want to stay in the session you are in, then you are free to wander in/out of other sessions too - there might be two sessions on at the same time - so you can catch a bit of both!

It's a relaxed, informal day and we will all be going for drinkies afterwards!

And not only that.....! There will be the talk about local unawards!

This is where expense spared prizes are given out to members of the community who have done outstanding work during the year. This is not to be missed!

Check out the unawards from last year. Some worthy prize winners, not forgetting the awesome *ahem* prizes. (I won a Michael Jackson alarm clock in 2010!)



You can connect with talkaboutlocal on twitter @talkaboutlocal

See some of you on the 28th! :)

September reviewed - Part 2

Part 1 is here....!

What else did I get up to in September....

Birmingham Mail's Your Communties Day

I was invited to the Birmingham Mail's Your Communities day along with some other local bloggers. The Birmingham Mail have been working along side community bloggers in Birmingham for a while now. They have established a good working relationship with the bloggers and feature the hyper local blog updates on their Your Communities page, and weekly in the Tuesday edition of their newspaper.

The event was held the the Birmingham Mail's offices in Fort Dunlop (where I cut my teeth as a photographer), and we were given a tour, got to meet some of the staff behind the paper and swap some hyper local blogging social media tips.

A worthwhile day and it was great to meet the people behind some of the other hyper local bloggers in Birmingham!

And I even got a bonus roof top tour of Fort Dunlop (video). Thanks Steve!

Imagining I'm at the Empire State Building's Observation Deck :)

Millennium Point's 10th Birthday Party

I got an invitation to Millennium Point's 10th Birthday party! I've never been to a building's birthday party before! Of course MP is more than just a building, it is home to a huuuge cinema, and the Birmingham Science Museum and Think Tank.

I felt like I was 10 again! There were clowns, and cakes, and birthday cards and candy floss, and food and drinks, and clever science experiments involving flames.

The Weasley Twins from Harry Potter made an appearance.



Tall, colourful people!

Birmingham Vintage Festival

I missed the first Bham Vintage Festival so was keen to make it along to the second one. It didn't disappoint with some fabulous stalls selling all sorts of delicious vintageness. I wish I had taken more photos, but you can check out their website and see who there's and what's on offer. There's going to be another event coming up, so if vintage is your thing, you'll love it!

I picked up a vintage lady in red broach

Debra gave me a 'tattoo'! Red of course. It stayed on for nearly a week!

Social Media Training

St Basil's is a Birmingham charity that help young homeless people and they needed some guidance on how to make the best use out of free social media tools to help the people they work with, and engage with communities online as well as raise their profile.

I did a fair bit of research before me and Nicky held the workshop on how other charity and homeless groups are using social media and found some outstanding examples, but my overall observation is that the USA is really embracing social media to talk about what they are doing, sharing stories, making connections, offering help and resources, more so than the UK.

I'm not going to say too much hear as I've written a really lengthy blog post about the day for the talk about local blog which will be published on Friday, so do keep your eye's peeled over there!  

St Basil's head office is actually in an old church!

Career interview

Sharon Howard from the 'Day in the life of a busy girl blog' asked to interview me about my creative career, and you can read all about it here!

I answered questions such as:

How did you get into your career? What are the challenges? What's you favourite thing about your work? What advice you would give to others? I hope you enjoy the read!

BBC WM interview

One morning last week, I had barely woken up properly and the phone rang. "Can you come and comment live for BBC WM on Lonely Planet's comment that the Selfridges building in Birmingham looks like a peanut with acne?"

It was for Joanne Malin's breakfast show. Lonely Planet likened the store to a peanut with acne and the news ran with that. Lonely Planet also recommended it as a must-see building, so it wasn't all bad!

I've taken quite a few photos of the Selfridges building over the years (the one below is my personal fav) and so I was asked about what I thought about Lonely Planet's comment (it was a bit silly) and what do I think of the building (I like it). Well, I said a bit more than that, but you get the gist!

The 'peanut with acne' - much more beautiful that that in reality!

With James Bovill, BBC WM reporter

Birmingham Social Media Cafe

It was a fab event! (And I'm not just saying that because I organise it!). It was the BSMC's 3rd birthday and there was a great turn out from Birmingham's creatives and business and some Birmingham City University's student who are just embarking on their MA in Social Media!

talk about local kindly sponsored coffee, and birthday cakes were provided by BAKE.

Dave Harte made a brilliant video (mixing photos with audio) and captured people's thoughts on why they come to the social media cafe. It's really worth a watch.

The next event (it's FREE!) is on Friday 28th October at Birmingham Town Hall. I hope you can make it!

Last, but not least! The best meal in a restaurant this year

I've got to rave about this place. After a lot of moans this year about eating out and gluten free choices I have finally found somewhere that has wowed me!

After the social media cafe, we (some of the talk about local crew and twitter friends) went to Bodega, a south American restaurant on Bennett's Hill.

They had a really great gluten free menu. I chose the slow cooked pork, sweet potato fries and spicy coleslaw. I haven't enjoyed a meal out so much for a long time! It's really made me want to go back (and it very rare that a restaurant will make me want to do that!), and I've booked a table for my birthday (I can't wait!)

And that's brought the best of September to a close! Whew!

What's in store of October?

I'm glad you asked!

Last weekend I went to Ludlow to Storycamp. It was a day long event organised by Nicky that was based around digital story telling. Why tell stories, how to tell stories, what social media tools can be used, the fun, the ethics, it was all covered! There's a brilliant round up of the day over on the Storycamp blog. Thank you for a great day Nicky!

This weekend I'm off to the Women's Institute's Tech Fest day with talk about local to do some social reporting. This will be my first encounter with the WI, so I'm looking forward to meeting some of the ladies.

AND...

...in case I haven't mentioned it before.... ;)

It's going to be my 40TH Birthday soon! On the 15th October. I wanted to have a party, but I haven't had the chance to really think about it properly or plan anything. I should have started working on it bit by bit at the beginning on the year. But I will be spending the day with my two favourite people in the whole wide world, my mum and my best friend and I know it's going to be a good one!

Do I have to grow up when I'm 40? I hope not. I have absolutely no intention of that! :)

Say hello on twitter @karenstunks

New Year, New Blog - Here's the plan!

Hello! And a Happy New Year to you!


Isn't it exciting taking the wrapping off a brand spanking new year? It's like a big blank canvas for us colour in with life! Perhaps placing the canvas of 2010 proudly in a prominent place, or if 2010 wasn't the best year, sticking it under the bed, or throwing it out with the left over turkey and brussel sprouts.




Anyway, welcome to my new blog! It's kind of a replacement for my tumblr blog I've experimented with this year. Though I'll still keep tumblr ticking over due to it's usefulness at auto posting RSS feeds to twitter/facebook etc, I won't be hanging out there much. I'll be here instead!


So, this blog is more of a 'life' blog. A more casual place that I've been seeking to write about this, that and whatever. It'll be more personal rather than professional, though there will no doubt be a crossover at times.

Hello 2011!


I can't tell you how overly excited I have been about meeting and greeting this new year. I've realised I get more excited about the prospect of a new year compared to Christmas, despite the festivities, present giving/receiving, films and frolics of the season. New Year's Eve doesn't have the same build up or hype as Christmas. The shops don't start displaying New Year presents or food in October, and if you search around you might just find a Happy New Year card amongst the Christmas cards. New Year's Eve is over so quickly!


Really it's just a second of time as we say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new. But I relish that second. I treasure it. I try and stretch it out to more than one second and savour it. That's one of the reason I love to stay in on my own on new years eve, so I have the (mind) space to enjoy it, to reflect on the old year and make plans for the next. That's just what I did last night. It was perfect.


I spent the hours before the change of year plotting out my plans for 2011. These are made up of ideas I've been mulling over for a while, so there aren't really any spontaneous decisions in there, not that there shouldn't be!


I should really acknowledge 2010. It was pretty bliddy good.


Well, it did get off to a not so good start with my Dad passing away in Jan, which I blogged about here if you fancy a depressing read. I will write more about that subject sometime as it will be a year since he passed away in the next few weeks. It was awful and traumatic and I wish he was still here, yet it has also brought a change in me in that I am even more determined than ever to squeeze every drop out of life and make the very most of it.


Highlights of 2010 include the 4am Project going from strength to strength and securing funding from 4ip & Screen West Midlands, giving my first lecture at Birmingham City University about the 4am Project and social media, taking part in my first debate (also at Bham City Uni) on the subject of photographer v terrorist, spending a month in New York city, and in December securing a role at Talk About Local! And between all that I have dipped my toe into a consultancy role with regards to social media and was also offered a place as a consultant for a very big project (which I had to decline due to timing), been interviewed about what I do and how I do it, photographed my first wedding, and I'm sure there's more that is escaping my mind at the moment. Anyway, it's all been good.


So what does 2011 hold in store? Um. A lot! I don't know if I've been a tad ambitious with my plans, we shall see what I can fit in! And as I like to say, and really believe, if you write things down, you get things done! Here we go...


Work


For the next 5 months I'll be working 4 days a week with Talk About Local. I'm still over the moon to be working there and the team is really great (and I'm not just saying that because they might read this! :D) I'm looking forward to getting stuck in more to the hyper local world and contribute to it as well as add to my knowledge. I was in New York when I saw the position pop up on twitter and set my heart on it.


Photography: I am keeping this running albeit on a downsized scale. It is a passion and one that I don't want to drop. I've been thinking about wedding photography for the last couple of years and dipped my toe in the water last year. Having tested the water, and enjoyed it, I want to roll out wedding photography this year. It will also fit in very nicely with my Talk About Local work as most weddings occur at the weekends! Perfect. So, now is a good a time as any to make this announcement. I'm working out the finer details at the moment, but whilst I get established as a wedding photographer I will be offering a super duper priced package, of which there may be a limited number. So if you, or anyone you know are beginning to think about your wedding photographer for this year, give me a shout and let's talk!


Consultancy: People seem to like what I do and want to know how to do it, and I have been getting more requests this year for help. This is an area I would like to develop. Tell me what you need and I'll tell you if I can help you.


I'm thinking about setting aside a day every month or every two months for free consultancy. I've had help in the past and I'd like to be able to 'pay it forward' so to speak. However, this would be for individuals rather than big businesses. As a one woman enterprise I know how hard it can be to get things off the ground and up and running when you are doing everything on your own. If you have an interesting project or idea then let me know and we'll see what we can make happen.


So, that just about sums up work. The priority will have to be paid work. Time will be of the essence this year and I simply won't have the free time as I have done. That might sound obvious to some but as a 'free'lancer there's a lot of requests to do work for free (and I've stopped using the word freelancer now). My priority is practical, we all need to keep the roof over our head. There's only me bringing in the bacon in this household. I quite like the idea of skills swapping, but that has to be mutually beneficial and both parties have to have something the other person wants. When I didn't have the cash when I was starting up I paid for one of my websites in gifts that valued about £400 as I had lots of amazon vouchers saved up. That worked out well.


Which leads me to the next goal...


Time!


There just isn't enough of this is there?! I don't think I know anyone with too much time on their hands. I feel lucky in that there is only me I have to think about, no partner/husband/kids but even then I could do with a 10 day week and it still probably wouldn't be enough.


I think I'm a pretty good time manager and this year I want to perfect it. I'm quite literally aware of every hour that passes that I could be putting to good use. I hate wasting time, and can even get quite resentful of sleep sometimes lol.


So, I'm setting myself a time table this year. This might sound really regimented and maybe it is, but if I want to fill this year with all my plans, or at least have a good attempt at it, I need to be disciplined and organised.


Social Life


Hmm, I've not been brilliant at this in 2010. I've had my nose to the grindstone. Though that's the thing, when you are doing things you love and that interests you the time goes by so quickly and it doesn't feel like it's work - it's fun! So this fun stuff has kept me from having fun with friends. I just need to tweak the balance a bit here. I never get bored of my own company or get lonely but I know it's healthy to be social too! And I never regret going out or seeing my friends so that will be scheduled into my diary.


Decision making


I don't dither too much in making decisions, and I can't think of a bad one I've made this year. Nothing really stands out. So, I'm going to go with my instinct more (it's there for a reason!) and become a more efficient decision maker. This will include not being hesitant in saying no, and only saying yes to things that are of real interest to me.


Self Development


For some reason I've got a hankering to know more about websites and how they are designed and built. What goes on behind the scenes to make a website work. How do the websites work with the hosts? How's it all connected? Can you host websites yourself and not via a website company? I can do bold and italics and embed a bit of html - whoop! But I would like to know more. So this will be a 'spare time' activity and I'll probably start playing around with it around the summer time. It's not a priority but something I'd like to do. I've had some offers of help with this (thank you!) and a skills swap offer too, so that'll be brilliant.


Play


So including the improving my social life bit, I need some more 'play' time. I'm thinking holidays and short breaks here. I want to spend a long weekend with my best friend around Easter time. I also want to spend a long weekend with my cousin, aunt and uncle in the spring. I'll be liaising with BMI Baby about possible press trips and destinations. And my absolute can't miss trip will be New York again.


Going to New York for a month was one of the best and worse things I've done. I can't describe my love for that city. I pine for it. I had the best time there, felt so at home, loved the attitude and energy. It was very liberating, and I simply must go back there. I can't not. Everything I will do this year will, in some way, contribute to me returning to the city that has stolen my heart (damn you New York!).


Must buy


There's only one thing that I can think of that I really want to buy this year, which will also help towards work, and that is an iPad.



Personal



With a full on year ahead I need full health. I eat well enough and (usually) get enough sleep, but I could do more.


I went for a tentative few runs in December which I enjoyed, and then the snow came and I lost the urge. But I need to move more. I'm actually going to try hula hooping class soon (don't laugh!) so maybe I'll get that bug. But in some ways it's not the will that is lacking but the time, and exercise gets pushed to the bottom of the list. So that's going to be scheduled in somehow!

I've managed to lose about 30lbs since last August. This was motivated by my upcoming trip to NYC as I wanted to be in good health to enjoy the experience and all the walking around I knew I would be doing. I still have more weight to lose, so I want to continue with this. I do feel better for it and can feel the benefits. I initially set myself a goal of 40lbs but I am already looking beyond that. Keep up the good work Karen! ;)











I seem to have developed some food intolerance's to wheat/gluten/dairy. I still haven't figured this out and will no doubt blog the progress here. I've always been able to eat what ever I have wanted, now it seems I can't. I have been to the doctors and I'm not too happy about their suggestion of just eating what I think makes me ill. So it's going to be a long, tentative process as if I am to eat what makes me ill, I need to have the time set aside to actually be ill as the 'attacks' are quite severe and make me good for nothing.


Sundays will be 'me' day! Yep, I'm going to schedule a day just to chill out and relax and not make any plans. I might be a little flexible with this depending on the alternatives on offer and I may find that every other Sunday is enough to recharge my batteries. 'Me' day will pretty much consist of simply relaxing, catching up on films/tv, painting my nails and putting my feet up with a glass or two of wine!


'Life' blogging. I've got my professional websites and I've been wanting a space just for everything else and this is it. As I mentioned, I've tinkled about with tumblr, but it hasn't met all my needs, so here I am. I'll update this as sporadically or regularly as I feel like, but I am happy I have a place for 'everything else'.


And I think that's all!


Whew! So basically work hard, work smart, get a social balance, work on health and continue self developement and get back to New York.


Who knows what 2011 will bring! There might be things that throw me off course, I might change my mind about a certain area. Or think of more things!


And now is a great time to say THANK YOU to everyone who has supported me, given me advice, believed in me (especially my mum!), and commissioned me for their work. Thank you for making 2010 a great year.


I'd love to hear what you have planned for this year! Have you blogged about it? Do you bother with New Year resolutions or goals?


Drop a comment, or tweet me!


Wishing you all a wonderful 2011 xxx