Kyle Thomas

The Website of Kyle Thomas (KyleWith)

I could be College-Approved Social Media Certified!

But I’m not going to! It seems that the Algonquin College over there in Ottawa is try to capitalize off the boom that is social media. In their description of a new program they claim there is a high demand for professionals with Social Media experience. Maybe so, but I certainly don’t think it is worth $1750.00 to become certified in something I already know in and out.

Lately I haven’t been talking a lot about Social Media and admittedly I have lost some klout in the area, but that doesn’t mean I’m not still following it and practicing it. So when I looked at this course – that caused some heated discussion on twitter – that Algonquin College has started offering I was a little annoyed.

When I looked at their course outline I was a little surprised to realize it is exactly the same as what I use for clients and at workshops.

  • Introduction to Social Media – What is Social Media, how is it in our lives today.
  • Developing a Social Media Strategy – Best way to implement it into your business, goals, time mgmt, etc.
  • Monitoring and Measuring – Basic ROR, following the stats, etc.
  • Digital Communications – Etiquette and best practices, it isn’t traditional marketing
  • Applied Social Media in Business – What works best for your Business or Organization.

All of these topics are things that I, myself, have learned over time and things that anyone can learn. I have listened to several Audiobook on Social Media and its Marketing abilities. I also follow many of the big names in the industry, Chris Brogan, Jay Baer, Gary Vee, Amber Mac, Etc. They all offer this information, general free. You aren’t of course going to learn everything from these people, you also have to do it for yourself. See how it works. Use it for your needs, get out there, build relationships, measure what you are doing and learn how to do it better.

Now I’m not claiming I know it all, because I don’t, but I’m constantly learning more. What annoys me about this program and others like it, is that I have worked really hard to gain the knowledge I have in the industry and I work really hard to help others understand it and use it properly, but I don’t have a piece of paper that says that. So I’m put on edge as to how this may affect me in the future. I’m certainly not going to pay $1750 and go through a course that may only teach me a couple little things just so I can say I’m certified. When it comes to Social Media I believe a persons accreditation should be based on their network, those they have worked with and what people say about them.

I’ll be honest, I’m a little threatened about something like this, but I don’t think it will affect me. I am curious about what others who don’t necessarily work directly with Social Media think about programs like this?

The Explanation

I guess I owe some the explanation of where I am and what I am doing.

Let us start at the beginning, where I was down at school in the little town of Dawson Creek, BC. School wasn’t going that great. I was there for business and even though I was finding some of it interesting, I began to feel it wasn’t what I truly wanted to do. On top of that the college’s campus I was at was not a very populated one. There were only 2 other people in all 5 of my classes and almost no student life outside of those classes. I think some of this lack of student life apparent to me was because I didn’t live in the residence. I lived in a nice, little, newly renovated apartment downtown only seconds from a very modern Cafe. The Internet was also 100x more reliable than what the residences apparently had, which I needed. So due to the lack of interaction with people I was starting to go nuts.

On to the other determining factor, which would be my other blog, YkOnline. It seems I have stumbled upon something and I am afraid of it! Turns out I love Yellowknife, who knew. Most of my life I have wanted nothing more than to leave the place, but that has all changed. Having lived in Yellowknife all my life I have gained a lot of knowledge about the place and am constantly seeking to find out more about it. So with that and my passion of Blogging I create YkOnline in May of 2009 and at the end of August of the same year it started to grow and fast. At that time I was just about to start school, which I was excited about and didn’t know what YkOnline could become. Thinking back now and I’m sure most people will agree with this that the turning point of YkOnline was the Municipal Election that just wrapped up. That and the Dump Fire links. The hits on the site went from 30 unique hits a day to 130 overnight and they haven’t come back down. In fact they have grown, I am now receiving around 200 unique hits a day with over 2000 this month. Granted more hits come when I post an article that day. At that point I knew I had something and I ran with it. I kept updating as frequently as I could from down south. I used Google Alerts, the local paper, CBC, and friends online as my sources of information and it worked quite well but it was still difficult not actually being there.

At the beginning of October I hit an interesting point. I was desperately lacking interaction with people in real life. Sure I talked to people everyday, people who were online Yellowknife and else where, but some would say I was border lining on depression. 80% of my time was spent hiding away in my apartment staring at computer screens. I had decided weeks before any of this to come back to Yellowknife over Thanksgiving, to 1. see family and 2. to attend 2 social media gathering and meet with a couple people about YkOnline. But when I came back I made the very tough decision to move back. Although in this post it seems pretty clear but it definitely not.

I feared people would think I was giving up and would think less of me. That and I, myself thought I was giving up and if I couldn’t handle this, how would I ever get anywhere in life. I also had to amazing friends who lived 45 minutes outside of town. They had once lived in Yellowknife and I really value their friendship and knew going back to Yellowknife would mean I wouldn’t be able to see them very often.

On the flip side here as some positive reason for coming back. Family would be one and I guess I’m obligated to put that in here, as I know my father reads this blog. One of the others and a big one would be YkOnline. Like I explain above, that little site I created because I’m passionate about this place grew and gained momentum. I have so many ideas and am so excited about the site I felt I couldn’t continue it unless I was back in Yellowknife and the majority of that is true. I hope to explain more about what I have in store for that site in the next couple days.

So here I am in Yellowknife, ready for a fresh start. I should maybe reread this and make sure it all makes sense but I’m just going to “Go with it” today.

More will be uncovered about what I will be doing over the days to come. Just need to make that clear, haha. Smile.

Must be Friday

Here I am again, so that must mean it is Friday.

Seems every week that passes by I do less and less. Lets start with last weekend, where once again I ended up out at East Pine. Go figure. All day Saturday we tried to clear a football field behind the house.  We were hoping that when people come out to visit we can have a full on football match. No, don’t believe me. Smart, you have learned well. We were clearing trees though, lots of tree. What we were trying to do was strengthen the satellite Internet signal. Did it work? I have no idea.

On Sunday we had plans to go quading but do to an incorrect part for one of the quads we were unable to go. So what did we do instead? No really, I can’t remember. I am trying to think about it very hard and I just can’t seem to pull it out of my memory. All I seem to be able to remember from Sunday is that I drove home late in the evening. Lets just move on to Monday where I had my first economics class. Ugh. That is all I have to say about Economics, ugh!

The rest of my school week went swiftly. I am enjoying most of my classes. Although it may take me a bit to understand Accounting I really enjoy listening to the instructor. He has definitely been around for a while and has many stories to tell and wisdom to share and is also my Principles of Management instructor. For years he was a local journalist and I would love to pick his brain about what that was like.

I guess that brings us to today. I have once again found myself in Cafe Europa. It is definitely my new hang out spot, I seem to be coming here several times a week. The food is good, the service great and the atmosphere wonderful.

Until next Friday, have a good week. Remember if you want to read my more focused writing you can check out YkOnline and Dawson Online

Doing that Write-ing Thing

Been a couple days since I last posted a post or a video. School started on the 1st and I have been a little all over the place because of that.

One of my major plans is to get into a routine for everything. I have about 4 hours total of classes Monday – Thursday and then no classes Friday. So I want to dedicate 4-5 hours towards class work on Friday or try and have all class work done during the week. Leaving weekends and evenings open for website stuff and recreational time. Yes I call my free time recreational time.

So far school is going well although it is only the first week and we have not gotten into anything quite yet.

Will try to update more this weekend.

Quickly Now, Quickly

Quick post I want to do before I head out to the Yellowknife/NWT Bloggers BBQ happing tonight.

Just some personal things I have been up to lately. So for those of you who couldn’t bare watching my video because of that stupid noise (I don’t blame you, hell I have only seen it once through) I will fill you in on what I said on it. I am no longer going to Fort St. John for college in the fall. I quit, gave up, will peruse begging. No Kidding. I’m actually going to a different campus, the one in Dawson Creek. Dawson Creek is about a hour south of Fort St. John and about 8000 people smaller making it only about 10,00 people. The reason I switched is because when I first started coming to the area it was to Dawson, so I am much more familiar with the town and would have preferred to go there all along but they didn’t offer my program there. They didn’t offer it there until 2 weeks ago when I was checking the schools website before officially registering for my courses, so when I saw they offered it now I was e-mailing and calling the school frantically to see if I could transfer. Finally I got through and did. Oddly enough about the time I found this all out I also found out that my friends that live about 45 minutes out of the town would now be working in town as well. Which is a wonderful surprise. I can now say I truly am looking forward to going to school, I just need a place to live…….

All of that was finalized yesterday right before I went out to Yellowknife’s “in town” campground for the night. For the last ten years I have always gone camping on May long weekend at least one night of the weekend. I wasn’t going to break that cycle. This year I had my little 12ft camper out there and even though it doesn’t have heat either it was much nicer than sleeping in a tent in the -10 weather we have been having. I try and recall when it has even been this cold on May long weekend but I simply can’t. We have fun sitting around the fire talking, but I think it was clear that we would be happier when it is warmer.

The reason I’m not going back out there tonight is because of the Bloggers BBQ that will be happening shortly, so I must go get ready.

See you all on the flip side.