As I recall there were even organisations that would match you with an appropriate pen pal: someone with whom you shared interests. And then you wrote to each other. Some people had pen pals in Japan. Some had pen pals in the same country, like me.

You shared silly things, sent stickers and photos to each other and wrote letters on cute Hello Kitty paper. Most of my own correspondance was mundane – the latest single I’d bought for example or what the weather was like.

The thing about a pen pal was that you never actually met in person.

Of the 400 friends I have on Facebook, I’ve never met at least 130 of them.

We know each other only through the computer. We comment on one another’s status updates, we share photos, we ‘like’ things.

Twitter is even worse. I’m not going to count up who I’ve never met out of my 1,500+ followers but I’ll take a guess that it will be the majority number.

We’re living in the era of the digital pen pal – sure folks try to attach fancy names to the whole process such as ‘networking’ and even ‘social media marketing’ but what it ultimately boils down to is that same simple notion of a pen pal. The only difference is that our communication is more frequent and done electronically – oh and lots of other people get to see it.

The beauty of the pen pal was always that you shared things with each other that you might not tell your friends. Or you revealed more of yourself because it was easy to do (or you made up stuff cos you knew they’d never find out it wasn’t true).

Today people are still doing that on Facebook and Twitter.

I know I probably reveal more of myself online to my Facebook and Twitter friends. Why? Because I can. Because typing is easy and because the feedback is instant.

I realise I’ve simplified the idea here – there are plenty of online gurus ready to explain the science of it all. But it all leads me to believe that the more things change the more they stay the same.

We’re all just collecting pen pals.

This full-time job includes managing and producing content for their website. We redeveloped the site several years ago – which is when I started this blog so I could keep a diary of the project (hence, Diary of a Webgal).

I don’t work hard for accolades. I work hard because I love my job and I work with a bunch of brilliant people at the National Screen Institute.

Which is why it was extra sweet to hear that we’ve been shortlisted for two awards for our website and our annual report.

The PR News awards recognize the top nonprofit PR campaigns of the year and set the industry benchmark for excellence across all areas of nonprofit PR.

There are lots of people that have made the NSI website what it is today. Tactica Interactive Communications built the wireframe and the final design based on initial work by Doowah Design. Tactica help maintain some of the technical stuff. I manage the content with the excellent support of many of the NSI team and bloggers who contribute their expertise.

I’m super proud that NSI’s website is shortlisted. It’s not everyday that your work is recognised in this way.

And *cliche alert* I don’t mind if we win or not – we’re up against some excellent websites. I’m just kind of in awe and that’s enough for me.

I’m obsessed with finding new and beautiful WordPress themes. I usually check at least once a day to see what’s new in the world of themes.

There are a lot of very badly designed free themes. When I find a great theme, I usually download it and check it out on one of my test sites.

For these reasons I’ve decided to write a regular theme roundup post showing the latest themes I’ve found. I can’t be the only one obsessed with this stuff so hopefully you’ll get a kick out of it too – and maybe a new theme for your blog.

There are lots of premium themes (paid) that I fall in love with but I’m going to focus on the free stuff.

Typominima

Demo | Download

Artarius

Demo | Download

Simplex Magazine

Demo | Download

Speaky

Demo | Download

UltraLight

Demo | Download

Sodiumific

Demo | Download

Bonus theme – Château

This beautiful theme isn’t entirely free but at 99 cents it’s practically free.

Demo & download

This is one of those times.

A colleague sent this link to me and if you have ever been a client of a web designer or you, yourself, are a web designer, I guarantee this is essential reading.

I can only post an extract. After you’ve seen it, you have to visit The Oatmeal for the full comic strip. Then you must buy the poster.

Go on. Check out the The Oatmeal for the full comic strip. Your sides will split.

This post comes from fellow Winnipeg blogger Kyla Roma.

Oddly, we’ve never met in person but continue to connect online.

I adore Kyla’s blog and admire her committment to great content and connecting with her readers.

For this guest post, I asked Kyla to share some of her blogging secrets with us. Here’s what she had to say.

Starting a blog is easy enough, but after the honeymoon period of finding a look and a voice that’s just right, maintaining a blog and drawing in new readers can be a daunting task.

I’ve been blogging about my life, photography, and DIY for two years and my blog has always been a project that I love, but keeping it fresh and new while keeping it from taking over my time has been a challenge.

Liz kindly asked if I could share some of the things that have worked for me, and these are a few of my favourite strategies:

1. Put high value, unique content first

No one is an island and being in touch with your community is vital, but the only thing that will get people coming back to your blog is excellent content.

Stay on top of trends and news in your community and find a way to speak to them that demonstrates your strengths. From an ability to build a strong narrative to unique presentation, finding a strength and an angle that gives you a unique position inside your community is a great way to get noticed and have people looking forward to what you bring to the table.

2. All blogs are personal

Personal blogging has a funny reputation but with huge companies changing gears from having One Consistent Impersonal Corporate Message to having a number of distinct, trusted individual voices, all of our social media is at least a little personal.

This can be scary territory for small business owners, especially because so many seem to equate a blog with an avenue to vent about bad days, but pulling back the curtain (even just slightly) gives clients someone to connect to, and that feeling of being an “insider” can go a long way toward building an invested client base.

Even just showing a collection of your favourite things, or linking to your favourite inspiration sources gives people a sense of who you are – no dredging up family drama or venting about bad days required.

3. Choose your weapons

I get hit with inspiration at odd times, and I found out quickly that feeling like I have to blog every day is more of a stress than anything.

Now that I blog five to six times a week, I’ve started exploring more tools that let me take back my time and ramp down my stress.

Some of my favourites for WordPress are Twitter Tools, which tweets your posts when they publish, Dashboard: Scheduled Posts, so I can see my next set of scheduled posts at a glance when I log in, and Editorial Calendar for a monthly at a glance view of my posts and the ability to drag and drop them in any order I like.

My favourite offline tool is simple and probably my most useful: a notebook that I keep with me for when I have ideas for posts.

4. Jump into the conversation

If something is going on in your community that you have opinions on, speak to it. If you’re on Twitter but aren’t starting conversations, start talking to people!

No one is involved in blogging or social media because they’re looking to build walls- everyone wants to feel noticed, valued, and part of something. Simple acts of inclusion can go a very long way.

5. Try making a plan

This one isn’t right for everyone, but I love having a rough idea of what my blog content will look like in a week or two.

I find it takes a lot of (self inflicted) pressure off me, and it helps make sure everything flows nicely from one post to another. A plan could be as simple as starting a series that you post on once a month, but planning in advance can help you to pull together beautiful, insightful posts that you might not feel up to if you only blog after a long day of work.

Kyla Roma is a 20something lady living in the Canadian Prairies under the biggest sky she’s ever seen.

She’s a life-long vegetarian, blogger, black tea aficionado, photography nut, knitter, puppy mama and wife. Her beautiful blog is a collection of stories from her life and things that make her swoon.

I’m no saint. My blog might look pretty but I don’t put in as much time as I should writing regularly or with great purpose.

A couple of days ago I was reading a post on Adam Singer’s blog. In it he talks about how most agency blogs are crap. That’s right. The folks that you pay to develop and implement your marketing and PR campaigns can’t walk the walk.

In fact it’s not just agencies that are to blame.

I see plenty of folks who call themselves ‘experts’ in marketing / communications / PR / ALL THAT STUFF who clearly aren’t practiced at what they preach. Now, that doesn’t mean to say they aren’t to be trusted but, come on, faced with two ‘experts’ one with an up to date blog and an active Twitter account with a healthy following versus a blogless, Twitterless dude – which one are you more likely to trust?

Back to Adam’s post.

One of Adam’s readers challenged him to expand on the reasons that many agency blogs fall short.

In response Adam wrote a second post highlighting some key things that I think apply to all blogs. Not just those written by agencies.

If your blog is kinda crap, then this might be why.

I’ve taken Adam’s main points and sort of re-interpreted them for all bloggers.

1. Your posts are wishy-washy

2. Your writing lacks passion

3. Your blog has no personality

4. Your content fails the ‘so-what?’ test

5. You haven’t written a blog post since 2001

6. You’re. Trying. Too. Hard.

7. Your blog doesn’t stand out from the crowd

8. You’re scared of upsetting people

9. Oops. You have no focus so your posts are over the shop

10. You don’t make an effort to connect with other bloggers

There are lessons for us all in this list.

Now you’ve got no excuses for having a crap blog or no blog at all.

Need some help to get motivated? Watch the video I recently posted in which Seth Godin and Tom Peters tell why you should blog. Then study Adam’s article.

Your blog should be ship-shape in no time.

What is this dude on?

It doesn’t take a genius to see that the internet is well and truly not over. In fact, I would posit that the web has only just begun.

But like I said, it doesn’t take a genius to work this out which is why I’m so surprised at Prince.

Here is an artist so entirely out of touch with 21st century communication that I’m astounded he still has an active fan base – I guess we have Purple Rain to thank for that.

His comments left me wondering if dementia had set in.

Honestly.

No rational human could say things like: ‘I really believe in finding new ways to distribute my music,’ and in the next breath completely diss technology. What is he thinking? Carrier pigeons will fly copies of his CDs around the world?

Get with the times little man.

Since moving to Canada seven years ago I’ve managed to keep up with it every year.

Clearly, Twitter has grown and more Big Brother fans use it than ever before.

2010 is a major year for Big Brother in the UK; this is the last series. Channel Four are cancelling it.

Last night was the first eviction – if you’re not familiar with the Big Brother format then all you need to know is that a bunch of strangers get put in a house for a couple of months and get to nominate each other for eviction every week. The whole thing is shown on TV and the general public vote to decide who leaves. In the end, the last housemate wins a major cash prize – like $100,000.

Channel Four broadcasts a highlights show every night of the week and Friday is always eviction night.

Eviction night is a major event for Big Brother fans.

So it was with nervous excitement that I ‘tuned in’ to the internet late yesterday afternoon to check on which of the three peeps up for eviction would leave.

I was on Twitter and also a Big Brother forum which I regularly check – obviously I can’t watch the eviction show live on TV because I’m in Canada so I’m relying totally on the internet to keep me up to date.

I’m scanning everything for clues about who will leave the house. That announcement is always made live on TV by presenter Davina McCall.

Until last night.

Someone at Channel Four messed up on Twitter by announcing the name of the person being evicted before it was announced live on TV.

In some cases this type of reveal is intentional – breaking exclusive news on Twitter. This was not one of those moments.

In addition to the main Big Brother show there are several supplementary TV shows which cover news, gossip and behind-the-scenes. Big Brother’s Big Mouth (presented at one time by Russell Brand) is one of them. They even have their own Twitter account.

Moments before the TV reveal Big Brother’s Big Mouth tweeted:

SHOCKER!!! Tell us what you think of Rachael getting evicted. Say what you really think!!!

Seconds later the tweet was deleted. I didn’t see it but what I did see were dozens of angry Big Brother fans on Twitter bemoaning the slip up.

But Big Brother’s Big Mouth did good.

Sure there were plenty of folks on Twitter proclaiming that the tweeter responsible would surely lose their job. I hope not because Big Brother’s Big Mouth did precisely what you should do in a crisis situation.

The listened. They acknowledged. They apologized.

The result?

Reactions like this one.

Honestly it didn’t bother me one bit but what it did do was underscore an important issue about handling yourself publicly when you mess up.

In the ‘olden days’ the PR approach was to act as if it didn’t happen, cover it up, not comment or comment with an excuse. I’ve lived through that – back in England as a press officer.

And that’s why I love the social web in 2010.

It forces you to be open, honest and genuine. I hope!

People will love you all the more if you can be those things. Even when you mess up.

Social media and old school PR approaches don’t mix.

This is something we can all learn from.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to attend one of my presentations, check out my most recent which was filmed by the wonderous James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot of Blink Works -  a Winnipeg boutique production studio.

This video was shot during my presention for PechaKucha Winnipeg.

Note: some strong language.

We’ll be sharing our experiences, from the techie bits to the creative stuff of choosing a theme, deciding what to write about, how to format a blog post, and why it’s important to post regular content.

Join us on Tuesday, June 8 (at 6 p.m. if you want to nosh on the delicious food at EAT! Bistro in Aqua Books or 7 p.m. if you just want to feed your mind.)

While the title of the event might be a bit girl-biased – boys are totally welcome.

Everyone is invited; if you plan on attending, please RSVP via Facebook or Eventbrite.

Really hope to see you there.

About us (the gals doing the talking)

I moved to Winnipeg from London, UK seven years ago and work as the digital media manager for the National Screen Institute – a film and TV training school. I author two blogs: Diary of a Web Gal and Hi, I’m Sadie Shih Tzu (nominated for a Canadian Weblog Award). I’ve presented workshops about the social web for the National Screen Institute, On Screen Manitoba, Canadian Women in Communications, the National Film Board and more. I also do web consulting to help develop and improve websites. My passion is the internet and how to best use it as a communications professional. Catch me on Twitter @lizhover @nsicanada @sadieshihtzu

My pal Polly moved to Winnipeg from New York over 10 years ago. She’s a film and digital media producer, owner of the production and consulting company Positron Media. She provides consulting and training in production and web marketing. She’s currently producing three feature films, a couple of shorts, a collaborative online digital media project, an iPhone app and an augmented reality game. Oh and if that wasn’t enough, she’s just launched a new blog ScreenLiving to examine content creation and distribution in a world where screens are both converging and proliferating.  Catch Polly on Twitter: @pollywashburn