Their foundation goals  are guided by their views that:

• The private sector must involve itself in a meaningful way with development initiatives and goals
• Individual philanthropy at any level is essential to supplement private and public sector efforts
• Beneficiaries (country partners or communities) of projects should be ‘partners’ and should contribute to the process so they have active ownership and responsibility
• The foundation works are particularly focused on issues affecting children and young adults. The foundation is guided by the UN list of children’s rights and the United Nations’ Millennium goals.

The foundation website was recently launched, and we encourage you to be inspired by their works and follow them on facebook.

The Centre For Business has a mandate to help develop and diversify the local economy through investment in small business, provision of business counselling and strategic planning for the communities they serve. They lend money to businesses that have been unable to get loans from their financial institution, and work with these businesses to make them bankable for the future.

The Centre For Business is located in Collingwood, serving the Georgian Triangle and Dufferin County. Because their area is so geographically large, they know that most of the information about their services is accessed through their website. After almost 10 years, it was time for an update!

We have delivered in a very tight timeframe a fresh look for their website, repurposed content, and a Wordpress framework so that they can update and manage the content themselves. Congratulations to Tillie Macdonald and the Centre for Business team in Collingwood!

Kids in the Hills is an online community for parents, grandparents and caregivers living in the Headwaters region. Read Bethany Lee’s introduction to the website here, and her first column for In the Hills magazine here.

Through the Kids in the Hills website, our community will be able to

• Stay up to date on local activities for children and parents,
• Enjoy web-exclusive content, commentary from moms and dads, child-themed features, audio and video extras, healthy eating ideas
• Learn how other parents cope with the work/family balance
• Connect through Facebook and Twitter
• Find local goods, services and events for kids in our categorized listings.

Bethany Lee and the Kids in the Hills team will be adding fresh content every week, including events listings, tweets on kids’ happenings, contests and writing from local moms and dads. The Shopping & Services will continue to grow. Keep your eye on www.kidsinthehills.ca and watch it grow!

We’d like to thank you all for attending this morning’s seminar. We hope you found it helpful and informative.

You can access all of the links used in the presentations and noted services and software at Derrick’s delicious bookmark accout http://delicious.com/dypenburg/social-media-presentation

Below is a link to the PowerPoint presentation:

SBEC Seminar 2 – Social Networking – Mar 24 2010

We wish you all the best with this new-found knowledge. It takes time to filter through all of it but it will all come-together to create a great, and successful, social networking strategy for your business / organization.

Warm regards.

Bethany & Derrick

I’d like to thank Ruth Phillips of the Small Business Enterprise Centre (SBEC), and all of you who attended the seminar today,  for giving me the opportunity to share my knowledge with you. I am aware that this is A LOT of information to digest, but I just had to put it all out there for you to make sense of it over time.

Below is a link to the presentation (in PDF format) as well as the links to example websites that we covered.

SBEC Seminar – Websites for Small Business – Presentation

Videos:

• Social Media in Plain English
• World Wide Web in Plain English

“Cloud” computing

• DropBox
• Welcome to Aviary

Example Sites:

• Etsy :: Your place to buy and sell all things handmade (e-comm for artisans)
• Second Story – the best story-telling company
• The UPS Whiteboard Headquarters – simple and direct landing page

Google Analytics

• Google Analytics

Worpress Rocks!

• WordPress.org

Website Hosting

• http://www.mediatemple.net/
• http://www.parafx.com/
• http://www.canadianwebhosting.com
• or shop around using my best friend Google

Buying a Domain Name

• Go Daddy

Finding out who owns your domain…

• http://www.whois.net/

Thanks again! I hope you found the presenation inormative and useful for the future successes of your business.

Warm regards!

Derrick

Taking place Wednesday, February 24, 2010

We’re pleased to announce that Bethany Lee of Focus on Media has once again been asked back by the Town of Orangeville to speak on web design from her experience in online media, Wednesday, February 24, 2010.

This workshop is targeted to small business owners and will provide you with the basics on why you need a website and how to make your web site work for you. Topics include:

• Importance of websites to small business owners
• Features and benefits of a well designed, professional website
• Planning the website, including research, content and map
• Using imagery, photos, logos, and colours
• Knowing the audience
• Cutting through the jargon
• Project management of the website development
• Hosting
• Costs
• Getting noticed

You can sign up for the 9a.m. – 12p.m. event being held at the Best Western Hotel Orangeville by contacting the Small Business Enterprise Centre (SBEC) at 519-941-0440 Ext. 286, or email: sbec@orangeville.ca.

Taking place Wednesday, March 24,2010

Join us for an interactive session led by Bethany Lee of Focus on Media. This workshop will guide you through the wealth of opportunities to market your business online, utilizing free online resources and low-cost tools.

Major topics to be covered include:

• Defining Social Networking and Web 2.0
• Online collaboration and media tools
• Aggregation
• Introduction to search engine ranking
• Staff roles, participation levels, time allocation
• Setting guidelines and appropriate behaviour
• Offline marketing to support your website

You can sign up for the 9a.m. – 12p.m. event being held at the Best Western Hotel Orangeville by contacting the Small Business Enterprise Centre (SBEC) at 519-941-0440 Ext. 286, or email: sbec@orangeville.ca.

as the best-read, best-loved magazine in the region. In the Hills is a “must read” for everyone who cherishes the Hills of Headwaters, a region north of the GTA, as home.

In fall 2009, Focus on Media assisted in building the improved In the Hills site and now we work to constantly improve its functionality. The In the Hills team wants the site to lead discussion, a source of information, but above all, a place of community.

As Associate Web Publisher, Bethany Lee also contributes to the site through her blog for the magazine.

www.inthehills.ca