Welcome to BetaKit, a new online publication reporting on emerging technology and innovation around the world.

At BetaKit, we care about providing the what, but we’re also committed to explaining why it matters. Breaking news is important, but so is relating news to larger industry trends, and telling you why you and your company should care. Built by our team at Sprouter.com, BetaKit draws upon an established community of over 80,000 emerging technology founders who are building the next big thing.

I’m also excited to share that I will be acting as Managing Editor for BetaKit, shaping the content direction, writing about emerging technology and managing a team of writers and global contributors. I’m excited to draw on my journalism background, and will continue to write a regular column about startups for the Financial Post.

We’re thrilled to have a venue to showcase some of the incredible startups we see every day and we hope you (the reader) finds it valuable.

Read more from founder and Editor-in-chief Sarah Prevette about the launch of BetaKit.com in our press release, and learn more about why we launched it at betakit.com/manifesto. I’m also excited to announce that Darrell Etherington will be joining us as a Senior Writer at BetaKit. Darrell was most recently a technology writer at GigaOM and an editor at The Apple Blog.

Have a news tip? Share it with our news team by emailing tips@betakit.com. You can reach me directly at erin[at]betakit.com.

We’ll be announcing news about Sprouter shortly. I hope you’ll check out BetaKit and find a new source for emerging technology news – I’m excited for this new chapter of the Sprouter journey.

I passed with flying colours (I read 29 books in total), which is quite possibly the first time anyone successfully completed a New Year’s Resolution. So how did I do it? Well, one of my secrets was being unemployed for the month of August, though I wouldn’t recommend that to anyone else Being off work for a month was a great way to catch up on reading (I read about 9 books in August/September alone). But I also joined two book clubs mid-2011, which guarantees I’ll read my 24 books going forward. I’ve absolutely LOVED being a part of these book clubs, which may as well be called Cheese Club, Wine Club or Talk-About-The-Bachelor Club. I also decided to spend a lot of my free time reading instead of watching TV, which has really helped, though I’m watching The Biggest Loser as I write this so I’m not sure I’m completely succeeding on that front. Add in reading on the beach, the subway, my couch, and pretty much anywhere else I can grab 5 minutes.

Here’s a list of the books I read in 2011, divided by category, along with a short review. Happy to discuss any of my picks at length in the comments!

Fiction

Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts – Sarah Prevette’s favourite book, which she gifted to me last Christmas. It took me a while to get through the almost-1000 page epic about an ex-convict living in India, but it was worth it. Great book, but still not as good as my favourite book of all time, Rohinton Mistry’s India-in-the-70s epic A Fine Balance.

A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan - Recommended in pretty much every publication out there, I thought I’d love this book. Instead I was neutral. I didn’t love it or hate it – I liked that each chapter was from a different character’s perspective, but hated the gimmicks like the section comprised solely of a PowerPoint presentation. Great for rock music junkies though.

One Day, David Nicholls – Loved, loved, loved the story of Emma and Dex. Refuse to see the movie, since the book was just so great. A perfect romantic novel, and I won’t spoil it but I bawled my eyes out at the end. For a good hour or so. To the point that I think Kev thought I was seriously deranged. Also great for book club discussion.

Bel Canto, Ann Patchett – 2011 was the year I discovered Ann Patchett. An amazing writer with lyrical prose, she weaves fantastical, imaginative stories around memorable characters. This story of hostages bonding with their captors was a true pleasure to read.

State of Wonder, Ann Patchett – Another Patchett book, and another mainstay on best of 2011 lists. This story of a pharmaceutical researcher deep in the Amazon jungle was unbelievable at times, but you don’t care because you’re spending most of the book trying to imagine their surroundings. Implausible yes, easy to put down? No way.

Room, Emma Donoghue – One of the most unique concepts for a novel I think I’ll ever come across. A haunting tale of a kidnapped young mother and the son who believes the entire world exists in the one room that is his prison. Couldn’t put it down for the first half, and then the pace slows, but still one of my favourite reads of the year.

The Help, Kathryn Stockett – You’ve probably either read the book or seen the movie, so I’m sure you’ll agree that between Aibileen’s stoic determination as the main character, Celia’s flighty housewife, and Minny’s sassy maid, this book was a gem. And it’s rare, but in this case the movie was just as good as the book. But don’t skip the read – it’s much more detailed and hilarious/touching.

Sarah’s Key, Tatiana de Rosnay – The concept is chilling. Nazis in Paris clear out all the local Jews into concentration camps, and one little girl locks her brother in a bedroom cupboard while swearing she’ll be back for him. You know his fate is doomed, but you keep reading in earnest all the same. A fantastic and equally horrifying read (and historically accurate to boot).

Before I Go to Sleep, S.J. Watson – Probably my favourite read of the year (I’ll probably say that about five times). About an amnesiac who wakes every day not knowing who she is, and who must piece together the mystery of her life – think 50 First Dates but a thriller. Chilled me to the bone, and couldn’t put it down. I woke Kev up at 3am to tell him the entire plot in detail, and then forced two of my friends to read it. It was that good.

The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins – I’m not a Harry Potter or Twilight fan, so I was extremely wary of these teen thrillers. But the concept – teenagers fight to the death in a future colony located North America stands now – was too good to resist. I devoured all three books, although the first two are way better than the conclusion. I don’t know what my favourite part was – Katniss Everdeen’s strength, the love triangle, or the view of the dystopian society. Can’t wait for the movie version in March.

The Imperfectionists, Tom Rachman – Another of my favourite reads of the year. About an English-language newspaper in Rome, and the cast of characters who are involved. Standout chapter is from the Corrections editor – his examples of the paper’s past mistakes are laugh-out-loud hilarious. Charming and delightful read (yes, delightful).

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer – The story of young Oskar dealing with his father’s death on 9/11 is touching, imaginative and at times hilarious. This boy genius is one of the most likeable characters I’ve come across in a while, though I could have done without the lengthy (and odd) backstory of his grandparents.

The Forgotten Garden, Kate Morton – This book was one of those stay-up-until-2am, can’t-put-it-down books that I absolutely loved. The century-spanning family saga-cum-mystery novel is rich with detail about 20th century England, and the end is so satisfying that I wasn’t even sad it was over…I just went to the bookstore to get her other books right after I closed it.

We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver - An amazing, amazing book from the perspective of a school shooter’s mother. You know from his birth that Kevin grows up to be a monster, but a heart-wrenching twist at the end just makes you feel for his mother even more. Nature vs. nurture indeed.

*Warning: the next book is embarrassing and I don’t care.

Sweet Valley Confidential, Francine Pascal - I was absolutely addicted to the Sweet Valley series when I was a kid, and wanted to grow up to have Jessica’s love life and Elizabeth’s smarts. Needless to say I read this as soon as it came out, and it was just as satisfying as I thought it would be. And I’m not even sorry…and I still like to think I have a little Jessica & Elizabeth in me.

Fresh Lessons, Ellen Sussman - An average read about three people taking French lessons in Paris. Not exceptional, not horrible. Read it on the beach in Mexico, and it was light and fluffy enough for poolside entertainment.

Heart of the Matter, Emily Giffin - I promised myself I would stop reading chick lit sometime after the 7th Shopaholic book. So when someone picked this I was wary, but it was actually a good read. About two suburban women who fight over the same man – I found myself taking the side of the mistress, which provided for great book club discussion.

Where are You Now? by Mary Higgins Clark - I tend to avoid books which display the author’s name in font twice the size of the book’s title (see: John Grisham). So when this was selected for book club I begrudgingly downloaded it on my iPad. But it was a breezy, engrossing read – I love a good mystery, regardless of who wrote it.

Biography/memoir

Unbearable Lightness, Portia de Rossi – This book makes you realize that all your eating and weight issues are trivial compared to people who have severe diseases like bulimia and anorexia. It’s an eye-opening look that even for celebrities, appearances can be deceiving.

Bossypants, Tina Fey – Who didn’t read this book in 2011? It was on pretty much every top 10 list, and for good reason. It’s a hilarious (though random and with really no complete narrative) look at Tina Fey’s upbringing. I laughed out loud about 732 times, especially at the transcript from her Sarah Palin SNL sketches. Perfect summer cottage reading.

Wanderlust, Elisabeth Eaves – I started this book on the plane home from Italy, as I was lamenting the end of my dream vacation. I loved this travel memoir because it allowed me to live vicariously through the author’s jaunts around the globe, while also affirming my belief that she like a little bit more adventure than I do on my vacations. Oh, and the men – you’ll have to read it to find out…

Business

Delivering Happiness, Tony Hsieh – I asked the Zappos CEO to do an interview for Sprouter and Hsieh responded that all the answers to my questions would be in his book. So I read it, and then devised an entirely new set of questions. Loved this book for two reasons: it explains why culture is so important to a company’s success, and it shows how even successful millionaire entrepreneurs will never stop thirsting for startup success. I also love that he wrote it himself instead of hiring a ghost writer.

The Now Revolution, Amber Naslund and Jay Baer - Review of this book here on my blog. Great for big companies trying to integrate social media into their 2012 plans.

Personal Finance

Note: I used to be really bad with money and am now as anal about personal finance as a reformed smoker is about other people’s cigarettes. I devour personal finance books, blogs and TV shows.

The Automatic Millionaire, David Bach – I read this on the plane to the Dominican Republic and by the end I was convinced that I was going to be a millionaire by retirement. I’m still convinced – it gives you amazing, easy ways to pay yourself first and take temptation out of the equation.

The Wealthy Barber, David Chilton – my mom had bugged me to read this for years, so I finally did. Pretty basic (both the principles and the writing), but interesting to see how nothing had changed since the ’80s.

The Wealthy Barber Returns, David Chilton – I didn’t love the first one, so I don’t know why I felt compelled to read the sequel. As it turns out, it was a mistake – while the first one had a narrative tying it together, this book was a random collection of Chilton’s thoughts, and other than a few relevant points about today’s economic climate, wasn’t very useful. Sorry if you’re reading this David…

Debt-Free Forever, Gail Vaz-Oxlade – I have an obsession with this Canadian money guru – I watch her shows Princess and Til Debt Do Us Part religiously. Didn’t love the book since I don’t have much debt (which is better than the alternative), but it would be a great read for someone with a pile of unpaid bills.

—-

As for 2012, I’ve already read one book (The House at Riverton by Kate Morton) and started my next one, Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot, tonight. You can also follow me on GoodReads to see what I’m reading throughout the year!

And in case you’re wondering, my top favourite books in no particular order were The Imperfectionists, Before I Go to Sleep, Room, State of Wonder, Sarah’s Key and The Forgotten Garden.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday came and went, and the holidays are fast approaching. That means a few things are guaranteed – busy malls, festive parties, and holiday cheer in the office. The holidays provide a great opportunity to reward your team for a year of hard work. Here’s how to thank your team during the holiday season – hopefully it keeps them focused on the tasks at hand right up to Christmas Eve:

Throw a holiday party, no matter how small. As soon as the snow starts falling it’s inevitable that you’ll get a barrage of holiday party invites in your inbox. Most of them involve hundreds of people, open bar, food passed on silver trays, and hip venues. But when your team is small and resources are limited, it’s not always possible (or plausible) to throw a holiday bash. If you have a small team consider having a team holiday night where you have dinner and drinks, or do something fun in your city like catch a comedy show or sporting event. It’s a great way to celebrate and make employees feel valued without spending thousands of dollars on a holiday bash. Just remember to offer employees a taxi ride home if they’re planning to have any drinks.

Open your office doors. An inexpensive way to celebrate the holidays with clients and employees is to throw an office open house. By spending a little bit of money on drinks and snacks, you can plug in your iPod and have people drop in and out all night. It’s a great chance to talk about 2012 planning with clients, thank your loyal customers, and give your employees a chance to mingle and celebrate. If your employees have children, consider holding it on a weekend and giving away toys.

Get creative with employee gifts. One advantage of having a smaller staff is the ability to get creative with holiday gifts. You don’t have to buy a branded umbrella or coffee mug; rather you can buy things specific to your employees’ tastes. Last year Sprouter’s founder Sarah Prevette decided to get our three employees her version of Oprah’s Favourite Things. She gave us each a tote bag filled with things she loved and knew we would too – a season of our favourite TV show; her favourite wine and glasses; her favourite book; etc. It was thoughtful, creative, and I still use many of the items today (especially the season of Glee).

Give a chance to give back. Many employees have favourite charities or causes, and the holiday season is a perfect time to support them. Since an employee charity drive won’t necessarily raise thousands of dollars with a small staff, give the gift of time instead. Give employees an afternoon off to volunteer with their favourite charity, or plan a team outing together at the local food bank. Or take a different approach and attend a holiday charity event like HoHoTO as a team – you can support a great cause (the Daily Bread Food Bank) while getting down.

Give employees flexible time off. The holiday season is busy with family get-togethers, vacations and events. With a smaller business there’s an opportunity to be flexible with the time you give employees off. Consider shutting down the office between Christmas and New Years and allowing employees to work from home for specific days, or give each person a certain number of days off during the holidays and let them plan accordingly. There’s no better gift than the gift of a lazy day by the fire drinking eggnog.

The holiday season doesn’t mean you have to shut down for weeks at a time, it just means you have to respect employees’ personal commitments and schedule. Find a way to balance time off with company priorities, and above all remember that at a small business your team is everything, so thank them in any way you can.

This post is brought to you by American Express Canada. Check out their new Amex for Business Canada Facebook page here for the latest news, information and resources for Canadian small business owners.

Image credit: thevibeagency.wordpress.com

That’s when I realized that we don’t need any more things (mom, if you’re reading this, I still need a new vacuum cleaner). We’re in the generation that’s always pining for the newest, best, shiniest thing, and sometimes it’s good to sit back and realize how lucky we already are, and that if I put one more dress in my closet it might spit it back out at me. So when The Heart and Stroke Foundation approached me to help promote their Calendar Lottery with the Pay it Forward campaign I thought it fit in perfectly with my desire to forego the material for the charitable this holiday season.

They’re launching their Calendar Lottery again this year – the calendars are only $25 each or 3 for $70, and 100% of the net proceeds help fund life-saving Heart and Stroke foundation research. You have a chance to win three daily cash prizes of $5,000 all year long, while supporting heart disease. It’s a cause that affects 1 in 3 Canadians, and a cause close to my…well, you know. Heart disease and stroke is also the number one killer of women, taking more women than all cancers combined. 

The idea behind the campaign is if you get a calendar you give a calendar and pass it on. It really is the gift that keeps on giving! Oh and the calendar features photographs taken by 12 amateur photographers from across Ontario, so you’ll actually want to hang it on your wall. I have five sets of two calendars to give away – one for you, and one for someone you think deserves to have their day brightened, or someone who has touched your life in some way. To enter the contest either send a Tweet with @theHSF & #Giftandwin (with my Twitter name @erinbury at the end so I see it) or leave a comment on this blog post telling me who you would Pay It Forward to with a calendar if you won, and why.

For anyone who doesn’t win a calendar, and even if you do, consider supporting The Heart and Stroke Calendar Lottery further by buying a calendar at heartandstroke.ca/calendar. And since I know you want to help support The Heart and Stroke Foundation raise as much as they can this holiday season, help get the word out about the “Pay it Forward” campaign by Tweeting using @theHSF and the #GiftAndWin hashtag. You can also support them on Facebook. 

And for the record, Kevin and I have decided to donate to several charities and spend time volunteering in December instead of giving each other gifts. Hey, if the Heart and Stroke Foundation can pay it forward, so can we. 

*Note – all winners must be residents of Ontario.

There are certain brands you just grow up with. Barbies and Disney come to mind, but usually coffee companies do not. But for me, one of my fondest childhood memories was taking my dog Shadow for a walk with my dad, a Tim Hortons coffee in hand. No, it wasn’t my coffee (kids can’t have coffee silly) but rather my dad’s candy-like concoction with four creams, three sugars. Back then I thought all coffee tasted like dessert – boy was I in for a shock when I tasted a black cup of coffee…and I still have to have it with copious amounts of milk and sweetener, the slightly healthier alternative to my dad’s favourite.

Now that I’m older I think it’s only appropriate that I’ve remained fiercely loyal to Tim Hortons. After all, it’s Canada’s brand, as patriotic as beavers or Bieber. I used to go to Tim Hortons after the bar when I was home from university for late-night sandwiches (it was the only place open late in our small town); I once ate nine Timbits in a sitting before I realized just because they’re small doesn’t mean they’re zero calories; and I regularly grab an extra-large coffee on the way to work. I defend against people who say Starbacks, or as I call it “tar,” is better, and I regularly try their new menu items – and yes, the lasagna is good. I promise. 

So when Tim Hortons approached me (little old me! Fan since I was seven years old!) to hold a contest promoting their new specialty coffees I was excited. I was more than excited actually…in a sad and likely misguided way I feel an executive at the company has been following my loyalty over the years and is now finally creating the role of “Official Timbit Tester” just for me, and this is my first initiation into the company. 

But back to the specialty coffees. They’ve added lattes, mocha lattes and cappuccinos made with premium espresso starting at $2, available now in Ontario and December in the rest of Canada. You can also get shots of espresso (I’m looking at you entrepreneurs who are addicted to caffeine), tea lattes, flavoured lattes, and flavoured latte supremes.

The best part is, I have two $25 Tim’s gift cards to give away, and I want you to win one. Since it’s my contest on my blog, I’m not doing a random draw. No way, I’m making it more interesting. I want you to tell me your favourite Timbit/donut flavour in the comments, along with the new specialty beverage you most want to try. The first two people to list the same fave donut flavour as me win. Unless you are related to me or live with me, in which case you are disqualified for having inside intel. Hopefully you have good taste…and good luck!

Also, since I know you’re all huge Tim Hortons fans like me and Tweet about them on a weekly basis, they have a new official @TimHortons Twitter account. Follow them and they’ll DM you a Timbit…okay maybe not, but a girl can dream.

*I learned a great Tim Hortons fact today: it serves eight of every 10 cups of coffee sold at quick service restaurants in Canada, and two billion cups of coffee a year in North America. 

**No, I wasn’t paid to write this post. I just really, REALLY love Tim Hortons. 

In the past few years it’s become a necessity for small businesses to use online tools for their business, regardless of whether it’s a web-based company or not. Social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogging have become the new pillars of a company’s marketing plan, supplementing or even replacing traditional marketing channels like direct mail.Today, your company is judged more on its website or reviews on sites like Yelp and Google Places than on your advertising efforts.

Your company probably already has a Twitter account, a Facebook Page, and a blog (and if not, what are you waiting for?). But those aren’t the only tools that will amp up your marketing plan and keep you on top of online trends. And it’s not all about marketing – it’s about optimizing your website and making sure your customers have a streamlined purchase process. Here are a few sites and tools you should be using that can make your online efforts more effective, and some suggestions on how to make them work for your business:

Instagram – Sure, you’ve heard of Flickr, and you probably shared photos of your last vacation on Facebook. But the newest trend in photos is real-time sharing. Instead of snapping a photo, uploading it to your computer and posting it to your social sites, app Instagram lets you do it all in one fell swoop. Available on the iPhone, you can snap a photo, add filters and immediately cross-post to Facebook, Twitter, your blog, etc. The app also has social features – you can follow other users and like/comment on their photos. If you have a product with a great visual, or you just want to share pictures of life around the office, Instagram is a great way to do it quickly and easily. 

99Designs – When you’re first starting your business, you can’t always afford to have a web or graphic designer on staff. But it’s important to have a well-designed logo and website – no 90’s style graphics allowed. That’s where 99Designs comes in. It’s a crowdsourced design marketplace that connects you with designers around the globe for affordable design services. You can use 99Designs to source designs for print and packaging, WordPress themes, web design, logo design, banner ads, and more. It’s an affordable way to get custom designs for your website, blogs, or social profiles without hiring someone full-time or on contract.

Unbounce – You probably have Google Analytics installed on your website to track your visitors – where they come from, how long they stay, and the bounce rate (how many visitors immediately leave). If you’re looking to increase your conversions, Unbounce is a DIY landing page platform that can help you create, publish and optimize landing pages. Whether you’re looking to A/B test your homepage or create pages for specific campaigns, Unbounce provides a template that allows even the most non-tech savvy business owner to create landing pages in minutes. It provides analytics so you can track campaigns, and plans start at $25/month. 

Square – The idea for Square came from watching an artisan turn away a customer because he wasn’t able to accept credit cards. The Square Card reader allows anyone to accept credit card payments on their iPhone. The reader and application are free, and it charges a 2.75% fee per swipe for all credit cards. While it’s not a marketing tool, it does mean that you can accept payments for your products wherever you are – conferences, the bus, walking down the street – using only the application and reader. The tool isn’t available in Canada yet but will be shortly – until then, Payfirma is a great Canadian alternative. 

Marketing your small business is important, but so is making sure your website and purchase process are streamlined and effective. These online tools will make sure that you’re a leader, not a follower, when it comes to adopting online tools for your business.

This post is brought to you by American Express Canada. Check out their new Amex for Business Canada Page here and stay tuned to catch the finalist stories in the Take Off with American Express contest.

Thanks to Dharmesh Shah for letting me write a guest post for OnStartups about our recent experience with Sprouter. I’ve been a loyal reader of OnStartups for years, so it’s humbling to see my post published there. Read for lessons from our “deadpool to acquisition” journey…and a little Canadian humour. 

Whether you’re bootstrapping or not, keeping costs down is essential to building and growing your company. Some costs are unavoidable – office space if you don’t want to work from home; new hires to grow the company; and administrative costs like business setup costs and computers for your staff. But in the past ten years, the barrier to entry to starting a small business has drastically lowered. Now if you have a computer and a corner of your parent’s basement you can start a successful business without incurring many costs at all. This isn’t a realistic scenario for most small business owners, especially those who aren’t starting web companies.

But regardless of what your product/service is, there are several ways to manage your startup’s costs using new online tools, all without compromising customer service or quality. After all, according to the quarterly American Express Small Business Monitor 47% of small business owners would rather reduce profitability than risk losing customers due to price increases, proving customer loyalty is just as important as short-term financial gain. Read on for some effective ways to cut costs without compromising quality:

Grasshopper – Want a professional phone number and directory but don’t want to pay big bucks? The perfect solution is Grasshopper, a virtual phone system designed for entrepreneurs. It allows you to choose your 1-800 number, record a custom main greeting, add departments and employees, and receive calls, voicemails and faxes anywhere (to your cell phone, office phone, home phone, etc…). And best of all, you don’t have to purchase any expensive hardware – you manage your account online. Pricing starts at $9.95/month, and the most popular package is $49.95/month.

GetSatisfaction – Most companies have a customer service person available 24/7 to answer questions, but when you’re a startup you can’t always afford someone to do that. GetSatisfaction provides an affordable customer support solution that allows you to listen to problems and solve them quickly and easily. Once you’re signed up, you get a devoted brand page where customers can submit questions, issues, bugs or praise about your company. They can also use a “Feedback” widget on your website to submit their comments. Every time someone submits feedback you immediately get an email and can respond to their question, and the responses are public so other community members can browse topics and find answers to their own questions. Plans start at $19/month.

Olark – If you want to provide a real-time customer support person to help visitors on your website, Olark is a great solution. It’s a live-chat tool that allows any staff member (from the founder to the intern) to live-chat with visitors about their experience and answer questions. You chat inside your IM client instead of using a new tool, and you can customize the message when staff is offline. For CRM integration and four chat operators,it costs $44/month, but there’s also a basic plan offered for only $15/month.

Dropbox – Dropbox provides an affordable solution to storing your company’s files in the cloud. Once installed on your computer you can save files to your Dropbox folders and they’re immediately saved to your computer, your mobile device (using the Dropbox mobile app), and stored online in case you need to access files from another computer. You can add shared users so some or all files are shared with your staff members. The basic 2GB version is free, and 100GB of storage is $19.99/month.

Freshbooks – The tagline for Freshbooks is ‘focus on your work, not your paperwork.’ The time-tracking and invoicing tool helps you organize your expenses and invoice your clients, all from a convenient online account. You can create professional-looking invoices, send them automatically via email or snail mail (they’ll stamp and address the envelope), and get paid via PayPal or one of 11 other payment gateways. You can also set recurring invoices, and pull time and expenses into your invoices. Signup is free, but you require a paid account to add more than a few clients. 

These are just a few tools that can help you organize your books, manage customer service, and share and protect your files. While they may not help you get a deal on a talented developer, they can help keep your costs down, so you have more money for hiring and growing your business. After all, according to the American Express Small Business Monitor nearly 75% of small business owners believe their companies are financially flexible enough to weather another recession – and these tools will help them do just that.

This post is brought to you by American Express Canada. See how YOUR business can soar to new heights in the Take Off with American Express contest. Check out the new Amex for Business Canada Page here.  

The day we announced the shutdown was really difficult for our team. We loved the company, and it wasn’t an easy decision to make. I was blown away by how supportive everyone was, and was even more surprised at the desire from the community to keep Sprouter alive in some way. But the day we cleaned out Sprouter’s office space, I realized it was real and our team went separate ways.

I planned a trip to Europe in the fall, and decided to take August off to enjoy the summer, sleep in, and do nothing productive at all (although I did read about 14 books, which I count as productive). I frequently joked with Grant, Vince and Sarah about our new leisurely lives, and never thought I would soon be back working with them. 

But today it’s with so much pride and excitement that we share that Sprouter has been acquired by Postmedia Network Inc. Our team of four is returning, and I’m happy to say that I’ve been promoted from my role of Community Manager to Director, Content and Communications. We will be working out of our own office downtown, and we’ll be working closely with the Postmedia team to leverage their resources and amp up our features and offerings. 

For anyone who is wondering, no this wasn’t a big PR stunt. But I’m thrilled that everything turned out the way it did – I get to continue working with a team I love, to execute a vision I believe in, and now with the resources of an amazing company behind us.

I can also wholeheartedly say I loved my time off. I don’t think loved adequately describes how much fun I had over the last couple months. I slept in every day, explored every nook and cranny of Toronto, went to cottages, read just about every book on my reading list, caught up on TV shows, and soaked up the sun in Mexico. The time off was amazing, but I’m looking forward to getting back into the daily grind.

As for my trip to Europe? It’s still on, albeit shortened. I leave for Italy tonight for two weeks, and I can’t wait – it’s my dream trip and I plan on eating my weight in pasta. And yes, I realize the timing isn’t great to leave the day we announce our acquisition, but that should further reinforce that it wasn’t a PR stunt.

Thanks to everyone who supported me and Sprouter over the last couple months. The support from the community was overwhelming, and I truly appreciate it. You can read more about the acquisition on the Sprouter blog – there’s a post from Founder/CEO Sarah Prevette, as well as FAQ.

A Community Manager is the face of your company, the person who builds the community (whether online or offline) and ensures your existing community is supported, and cultivates a new group of evangelists for your brand. They’re much more ubiquitous now, and are increasingly showing up everywhere from three-person startups to multinational corporations. In fact, it’s no longer rare to see a team of Community Managers working to manage larger brands or in an agency environment, or even as a startup grows.

If you’re contemplating hiring a Community Manager to represent your company and to increase your brand equity in Canada or abroad, here are some reasons why they should be next on your hiring list:

They’re your eyes and ears. CMs attend events in your community, attend industry conferences, organize events to bring together your customers and audience, and monitor and manage your online social media channels. They see what people are saying about your brand and your competitors, and they talk to your community to get a sense of their needs. This kind of on-the-ground insight can help you focus your marketing efforts and product direction, and provide a constant flow of market research.

They’re the face of your brand. Often times a company’s founder will be too busy running the business to go out and network, take advantage of speaking opportunities, or create content for the company blog or newsletter. A CM is the public face of your brand, and becomes recognizable to your community through their interaction online and in person. A good CM is synonymous with your brand, and will become your company’s biggest public-facing evangelist.

They’re your 1-800 number. Larger companies like Zappos have Community Managers, but they also have large customer service departments. At a small business, you often don’t have the luxury of hiring a full-time customer service rep, and this is where a CM is extremely valuable. I handled all customer service inquiries for Sprouter in a variety of ways – through an online forum (GetSatisfaction), over the phone, via email, and sometimes even in person. Since a CM handles all complaints or issues, they can react quickly, recognize trends and suggest steps to improve future experiences. 

They know it’s not a 9-5 job. Often the hardest part of hiring for startups is finding someone who’s as passionate about your company as you are. Community Managers have to be passionate about what you do, because they live and breathe the brand. They also know it’s not a typical 9-5 job – there are evening events, weekend conferences, and late-night development crises that mean they’re always on call. But if you find someone who’s passionate about your business it won’t just be another job – it will mean they’re helping to build your business. 

Their role changes with your company. The person you hire on day one will progress as your company grows, and their role will change accordingly. If they’re hired pre-launch, their time may be consumed with a pre-launch social media marketing plan, or beta testing. Then their focus may shift to launch publicity. Then to customer service as the community grows. A good CM can quickly handle whatever project is thrown at them, and adapt as priorities change.

A Community Manager is a great way to help build your company’s brand, but it all comes down to hiring. Don’t settle for someone unless you know they’re going to represent your company in the best way possible. Look for someone with resourcefulness, online prowess, writing skills, and an outgoing personality. And above all, remember that the strength of the community is often what makes or breaks a small business.

—-

This post is brought to you by American Express Canada. Check out their new Amex for Business Canada Facebook Page here for the latest news, information and upcoming promotions for Canadian small business owners.