Job posting for social media strategist.

Social SignalMy friends at Social Signal, the company who created ChangeEverything.ca, are hiring a Social Media Strategist. Here’s what they’re looking for:

We’re looking for a social media strategist who can work with a team to create innovative visions for online community and social media projects, and turn those visions into reality. The right person is great with people, words, technology and details.

Social Signal is run by Alexandra Samuel and Rob Cottingham (who creates the phenomenal Noise to Signal cartoons), two amazingly creative and strategic people. Could be quite an incredible opportunity for the right person, and I wanted to pass it along to my readers.

Interested? Read the full job description, or apply now.

The posting closes on January 16th, so act quickly. And make sure to tell ’em I sent you…

Three years of Resolutions about change.

Viva la resolution!It started in 2006, the year we launched ChangeEverything.ca.

We began what would become an annual tradition: our Viva la resolution! contest where anyone could come to the site, name the change they want to make about themselves, the community or the world and blog about that change at least three times.

The winners would be selected partly by user selection and partly by the moderator, Kate. The three top choices would receive a Vancity Visa Gift Card worth either $1,000, $500 or $250.

It has generated some great content for the site over the years, including the truly amazing EnviroWoman and her pledge to live plastic-free.

So this year, we’re doing it again! If there’s a change you’re interested in making, come to this site by February 28th and dig in!

It’s been fun, but I’m not speaking for a while.

It started in Arizona. At Net.Finance in April of 2007. I pitched myself as a speaker after attending the conference the previous year and finding it immensely valuable. I presented on ChangeEverything.ca, why Vancity launched it, and what made it successful. I adapted it from an internal presentation explaining what it was to our executives.

At that conference the unbelievably nice Ted Josephson tapped me on the shoulder on our way into a vendor dinner and told me that I was officially “on the circuit.” I laughed it off, not totally sure what he meant. In the ensuing year and a half, I presented at 15 conferences and events across North America, focused on marketing, banking, online or corporate social responsibility.

The Finance 2.0 SummitIt is unfortunate that my last scheduled conference in this run, The Finance 2.0 Summit, was cancelled, falling victim to the lack of budgets among FI marketing professionals. But with this cancellation, I now make a clean break from my two years of speaking.

I have to admit, my wife, Amy, found it very odd that I travelled more working for a local credit union than I ever had before. But she was extremely supportive.

As were my boss and colleagues, even though I’m sure some of them wondered how the hell I got to go to so many conferences, even though our budgets to attend them were fixed. Speaking was my way to learn a ton and connect with peers from all over.

And now that experience is behind me. With enhanced responsibilities at Vancity, and a desire to be around more for my team and my wife and son, I have decided to take at least the year of 2009 away from the conference scene.

Here’s the way I worded it on my speaking engagements & interviews page on this very site.

In 2007 and 2008 I had the great privilege of speaking at numerous financial and marketing conferences across North America. In the process I met some amazing people, engaged in transformative discussions and learned from top-notch thought leaders. It has been a rewarding and humbling adventure.

In 2009, I feel very excited about all the things happening at Vancity, and will focus on my work here in Vancouver. As a result, I will not be accepting speaking engagements for the duration of the year.

The hardest part of this whole thing is that I likely won’t see my good friends whom I only get to see in person at these conferences. You know who you are, and I have no doubt we’ll keep in touch via our blogs and other networks through which we’re umbilically attached.

What does this mean to you? Mostly that it’ll be at least a year until I drone on and on about where I’m speaking next, what my scores were and how many LinkedIn connections I added. No biggie…