Episode 11: Ali de Bold

Welcome to episode eleven! Run time: 23:32 Community Divas on iTunes A podcast about communities and social media tools In this episode: - Eden interviews Ali de Bold from ChickAdvisor - We talk about Podcamp Halifax - Introducing the Twitter Song by Michelle Yogis - We have an addition to the community calendar Ali de Bold is a third-generation entrepreneur. In 2006, she and her husband Alex launched ChickAdvisor as a solution for Ali's constant search for the perfect hair salon. Since then it has become a thriving online community where women share reviews about their favourite stores, products and services. 00:01 Intro by Jay Moonah. 00:09 Eden Spodek and Connie Crosby. 00:15 Summary of this episode. 00:26 Eden introduces Ali de Bold 00:51 Eden welcomes Ali de Bold to Community Divas 01:00 Ali explains what ChickAdvisor is and how it got started 01:45 Ali and her husband Alex de Bold created ChickAdvisor 01:50 Ali explains her role now. Mentioned: ChickChat TV video series, their Product Review Club and local events such as shop crawls and movie nights 03:05 Bridging on-line and off-line communities 03:31 Plans to expland off-line events to places outside of Toronto 04:21 Online community tends to take place in the forums and also the face to face events 04:59 Ali speaks about the geographic location of ChickAdvisor members 05:48 The product review club started when Ali started receiving a lot of products to review 07:02 How the product reviews are conducted 07:36 Eden and Ali discuss how advertisers feel about honest reviews by ChickAdvisor members, and how this builds credibility 08:24 Eden has been part of the product review club 08:44 How is ChickChat TV enhancing ChickAdvisor? Mentioned: Where'd You Get That, Slice, Rogers Media 10:23 Have community members been featured on ChickChat TV? 10:52 Are people watching episodes directly from the website? Mentioned: Rogers Pizza Pizza network; see also press release July 8, 2008 11:19 Has ChickChat TV been driving traffic to the website? 11:39 Eden asks what the relationship is between the blog and the main site 12:41 Recently launched re-design of ChickAdvisor to give it a more sophisticated look to better suit its demographic and make some things more user-friendly 13:24 Thoughts on building a community for women 14:09 How many people are using the site - currently just over 100,000 unique visits a month 14:35 Are site visitors staying loyal? 14:50 Keeping visitors on the site - all about the content Mentioned: Google Analytics 15:38 ChickAdvisor plans for the future - movie night in February to see Shopaholic and shop crawl in April featuring Canadian designers 16:35 Eden wraps up the interview 16:38 Eden and Connie discuss Podcamp Halifax mentioned: Third Wednesday in Halifax (see also @thirdwednesday on Twitter), Halifax Public Library 17:45 Connie was interested in how the sessions were held in the library 18:38 Michelle Yogis is someone who we met 19:05 The Twitter Song by Michelle Yogis (thanks, Michelle!!) 21:12 Community Calendar - Podcamp London has been added to the list 21:42 Eden wraps us up 22:00 Podcamp Toronto promo by John Meadows Community Calendar: Podcamp Toronto - http://podcamptoronto.org/ - February 21 & 22, 2009 Mesh University (meshu) - http://www.meshu.ca/ April 6, 2009 Mesh conference; - http://www.meshconference.com April 7 & 8, 2009 Podcamp London, London, ON, - http://podcamplondon.com/ April 25, 2009 Podcasters Across Borders - Kingston, ON http://www.podcastersacrossborders.com/ June 19-21, 2009 Our cool theme music "Get Out of My Face" is by Uncle Seth and is from the Podsafe Music Network. We hope to hear from you! Send your comments to [email protected] or post them on the blog at communitydivas.com. Follow us on Twitter, our Facebook page or our FriendFeed room. Some registration may be required.