Allowing People to Shine Online
30 October 2011
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In addition to writing and editing, after designing and maintaining my own websites and blogs for over a decade, I’ve opened up my design studio to help others shine online.
I am designing websites (for businesses such as LA Hairstylist Paul Perez above) and blogs (for example, the not-profit organization Dufferin Arts Council) and helping people manage their online profiles.
To learn more about these services and how I can take your business to the next level, please visit my Social Media Specialist page.
Great Pumpkin
24 October 2011
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Read my latest column for Poetry of Food. This month it’s all about pumpkins!
Come & Take My New Social Media Workshops in November!
24 October 2011
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$50 per session or take all three for $119
Learn How to Tweet in 1 Hour
Mon. Nov. 14 7:30-9 pm (half hour at end allowed for questions)
Is the only reason that you’re not on Twitter because you don’t really understand it? Did you sign up for an account a year ago and abandon it because you couldn’t get the hang of it? I will show you how to become a Twitter whiz in just one hour. I will break everything down so that you can understand it (it’s not hard, it just takes seeing how it’s done once or twice). I will show you how to tweet, retweet and all the other things that you won’t understand right now (hashtags, favouriting, shortening links) so that you can get in on the most exciting, exhilarating conversations going on right now. I’ll also show you how to link your Twitter account to Facebook, work it on your phone as well as your desktop, as well as a bunch of other fun stuff. I think that once you try it, you’ll be as hooked as I am.
Learn How to Use Facebook in 1 Hour
Mon. Nov. 21 7:30 – 9 pm (half hour at end allowed for questions)
Facebook has become one of the most powerful interactive tools for both personal and business relationships. But it can be confusing – what’s the difference between a profile and a fan page? What does it mean when you ‘like’ someone? In just one hour, I’ll show you all the basics in clear language that you can actually understand. I’ll go over the menu bar, your home page, your profile page, your friends page, your inbox, chat, applications, bookmarks, notifications and settings. You’ll be ‘friending’ and ‘facebooking’ in no time.
Advanced Social Media for Your Business
Mon. Nov. 28 7:30 – 9 pm (half hour at end allowed for questions)
To build upon your knowledge from How to Tweet in 1 Hour and How to Use Facebook in 1 Hour, this class will give you the tools and skills you need to take your business to the next level. I’ll show you how to use social media to market your business. I’ll show you ways in which to create and build a social media strategy for your company or brand by using tools such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs.I’ll discuss how to use these platforms to best spread the word about your product or business and get you noticed! Please note: This is an advanced class – it is best to take Learn How to Tweet in 1 Hour and Learn How to Use Facebook in 1 hour first, if you are not already skilled in these areas.
Find out more at The ArtBarn School.
Lunch Rush
01 October 2011
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Do you need somewhere new to go for lunch? Check out my restaurant reviews every Tuesday in Metro – Toronto Edition and I’ll help you navigate your way through the good, bad and ugly.
Meet Trish Stratus
21 September 2011
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Check out my interview with celebrity and all-around-amazing woman, Trish Stratus!
New Look, New Work
12 August 2011
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Well, as you can see, I’ve changed the look of the website. It’s a part of my whole cleaner, more uncluttered approached. Now that I’m spending as much time creating other people’s site and blogs, I thought it was about time I redid my own.
Also, I’ll be posting more frequently now that I’ve got all of this very exciting news to share with you – new restaurant openings, new chef interviews, new celebrity interviews, cover stories and much, much more. So stay tuned and I hope you enjoy the more pictorial feel of the website.
I’ll Teach You How to Use Twitter!
02 June 2011
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Is the only reason that you’re not on Twitter because you don’t really understand it? Did you sign up for an account a year ago and abandon it because you couldn’t get the hang of it?
I will show you how to become a Twitter whiz in just one hour. I will break everything down so that you can understand it (it’s not hard, it just takes seeing how it’s done once or twice). I will show you how to tweet, retweet and all the other things that you won’t understand right now (hashtags, favouriting, shortening links) so that you can get in on the most exciting, exhilarating conversations going on right now. I’ll also show you how to link your Twitter account to Facebook, work it on your phone as well as your desktop, as well as a bunch of other fun stuff.
I think that once you try it, you’ll be as hooked as I am.
In person (if you’re in the Toronto area) or over the phone – $45/hr.
Email me at writerscramp@stephaniedickison.com to learn how to rock Twitter now.
Qualifications:
See Social Media Specialist Page.
Testimonial:
“In a three-hour consult with Stephanie, I learned more about how to improve the look and functioning of my website, and how to integrate it with social media, than I could have in weeks of hit-and-miss Internet browsing and experimentation. She listened and answered my questions, and zeroed in on my needs to offer insightful, practical suggestions that I was able to implement immediately. Her enthusiasm for social networking made it less foreign territory than I’d imagined.”
– Allyson Latta, writer, literary editor and writing instructor.
Charlie Sheen Might Just Need Some Eggs
27 May 2011
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I know we’re supposed to be celebrating eggs this month, but I’ve gotta be honest – I’m not a fan.
Twice a year, I have a diner breakfast of fried eggs, homefries, bacon and toast. But I cover the eggs up with ketchup and hot sauce and use them as an excuse to indulge in greasy spoon potatoes and fat-laden pork strips.
But otherwise, I don’t eat egg salad, quiche or eggs Benedict. In fact, when I go for brunch, I’m the one person at the table mowing down on steak, chicken, stew, salad – anything but the breakfast items.
But I do appreciate eggs when cooking. Otherwise, my meatloaves and salmon cakes would fall apart and crumble like Charlie Sheen, my cakes would be as dry as Robert DeNiro’s smile, and my Pasta Carbonara would be awkwardly naked like Tara Reid.
The way they bind and glue ingredients together is a sheer miracle. I love watching the thick, silky globs of a beaten egg coat, and then fall off, a piece of veal or chicken cutlet before I dip it in the breading. I am mesmerized by whirling, twirling raw yolks as I whisk them into garlic, oil and anchovies for a rich, envious Caesar dressing. And I do get a little thrill by cracking an egg into a bowl of dry dessert ingredients, watching it sit atop the mountain of sifted whites and creams, and then breaking the yolk with my fork as I combine it ever so carefully.
When I cook, I tend to use kitchen utensils over my hands for many things. The exceptions I make are when I’m mixing ground meat and when I separate an egg. There is something so intriguing about feeling the cold whites run through my fingers while the yolk shifts back and forth like a claustrophe in an elevator. The only scene I remember from Amalie is when she runs her hands through a sack of coffee beans – I think these are very similar things.
Thinking about eggs this month, it’s amazing how often I use eggs without ever actually sitting down to a plate of ‘em.
I couldn’t make Champagne Sabayon, Spaetzle, Greek Lemon Soup (Avgolemono), my famous pork and beef Sliders or Texas Fried Catfish.
Thank you, chickens. I couldn’t do all of this without you.
How Do Celebrities Use Twitter? Interview With @susanorlean
27 May 2011
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By Stephanie Dickison on May 24, 2011 5:00 PM
Celebrities use Twitter for a lot of reasons – promoting a new venture, to praise or complain about something, to share information, to spread news about a good cause. So I thought it would be fun to hear from the celebs themselves about how they use Twitter, to find out what works – and what doesn’t.
Award-winning author, staff writer for The New Yorker and all-around hard-worker bee (she does so many things!), @SusanOrlean tweets about everything from raising chickens to her writing anxieties. No wonder she’s got so many followers/fans!
When you joined: Not sure! Two years ago? 12,000 tweets ago? [It's actually been since Dec 23, 2007!]
Why you signed up: My assistant encouraged me to sign up. At first, I found the whole idea baffling.
Number of followers: 136,000
Number following: 998
Your favourite part of Twitter: Interacting with a huge array of people and, in fact, making friends with quite a few of them.
Least favourite:Feeling guilty if I haven’t tweeted in a while.
Do you have any rules? A few, but I’m not strict. One rule: I usually don’t tweet on weekends because I’m not at my computer the same way I am during the week and I like feeling that I’m not “on duty”, at least for a day or two. Otherwise, I can’t really think of firm boundaries that I keep, except to never forget that this is a very public forum, and to treat it accordingly.
What do you use twitter for mostly – promotion, conversation, etc.? Conversation, and secondarily, to talk to – and keep engaged with – readers.
What have been some of the best tweets you’ve done? Someone else would have to be the judge of that!
Any great stories you want to share? I’ve had several interactions with people on Twitter, and discovered much later that they lived very close by. In one case, one person I was tweeting back and forth with turned out to live literally around the corner from me. It was almost more shocking than if he had lived across the universe.
Whose tweets do you enjoy getting? I don’t follow that many people, and I enjoy all of them, but especially @roseannecash, @ebertchicago, @carr2n and @finslippy.
How often do you tweet? From where ? What platform or social media dashboard do you use? I tweet several times a day, on average. Usually it’s from my computer but often from my phone as well. I use Echofon on my phone and Seesmic on my computer.
Do you try to tweet at only specific times or is it more like, “whenever”? Whenever inspiration strikes…
Do you ever use Twitter as a procrastination tool? Yes, but it is only one of many, many procrastination tools I use.
Will you be retweeting this interview? Hmmm. I might tweet the link. Seems like people on Twitter like reading about Twitter, so this might be quite popular.
(Photo Credit: Kelly Davidson)
New Ways to Get The 30-Second Commute!
11 April 2011
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I am lucky enough to live in the age of the internet and technology, giving me lots of options for ways to offer my book, The 30-Second Commute: A Non-Fiction Comedy About Writing & Working From Home.
Here are some new ways and places to get it:
Kobo eBooks (eBook)
LetsBuyIt,com (eBook)
Lybrary.com (print version)
Recommend the eBook.
Enjoy the cover in English, with a Spanish description from Flickr.
For other ways and places to get a copy, see my Book News page.
Many thanks!
the knack gets a fresh new look
01 March 2011
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the knack is going to be 5 years old this August, so I thought it was time for a little revamp to its look and feel. I hope you like it. Happy Shopping!
Updates for 2011
02 January 2011
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I love the new year. It just feels ripe for fresh starts (and apparently Arianna Huffington agrees!)
So I’m starting off with a bunch of new work, ideas, projects and plans for 2011.
I want to pack as much in as I can. I want to be stimulated and rejuvenated. I want to rock this year like none before it.
So subscribe to my newsletter at the right for all the updates of events to come. I’d love for you to join me.
