The Virtual Bee: how quilters connect online by Michele Foster

couple of weeks ago, I was putting together . Here are the most popular ones: a mini top when I came to a stand-still, • http://blogger.com/ stuck on what I should do for the borders. • http://wordpress.com/ or http://wordpress.org/ WhatA did I do? I posted a few photos on my blog with (a self-hosted solution) a couple of ideas I had for possible fabrics. Then I • http://movabletype.com/ posted my dilemma to and Facebook, linking • http://typepad.com/ to the blog photos. Within 15 minutes, I had several If your main reason for blogging is to communicate great suggestions and happily returned to my sewing. with customers, then I recommend posting 3-5 times Never before have quilters around the world been a week. Keep it friendly and informative, but leave out able to connect so easily with each other. Every day the politics. You want to encourage readers to visit your is a virtual, non-stop quilting bee. We're connecting, blog on a regular basis. sharing and inspiring each other with blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, mailing lists, chat Some tips for successful blogging: rooms and more. • Blog on a regular basis, especially if the blog is part of your business. BLOGS • Reach out and comment on other people's blogs. Blogs, or weblogs, are personal journals. They • Share tips, tutorials, techniques and advice freely. are a wonderful way to share your quilting and life • Make it easy for others to subscribe to your blog via experiences. They are a great idea for quilt shops and RSS, email, FriendConnect, etc. quilting professionals to easily and inexpensively • Reply personally to all comments left on your blog communicate with customers. if you have an email address, as well as directly on Quilters use blogs to share their quilting journeys, your blog. This fosters communication and helps show off accomplishments, share patterns, host build community. challenges and swaps, etc. Each and every blog is • Be kind to others. Don't leave unkind or inappropriate different. Reading blogs is like having a 15 minute comments on another person's blog. If you disagree conversation with every member of your quilt guild. with the author, just go somewhere else. If you decide to jump into the blogosphere and create • Keep your blog friendly and focused. While it is your your own blog, have fun with it. It's a wonderful way to space to write what you like, is it really the best place make new friends, and a great creative outlet. Your blog to vent about your marital difficulties? can be about whatever you like – use it to share family • Respect copyright. If you blog about something you photos and videos, express your opinions, share recipes, found elsewhere, ask permission before using their or publish free quilting patterns and tutorials. What and images or content. how often you post will depend on your own goals. • Join the Quilting Bloggers directory To get started, you'll need a blogging platform or [http://quiltinggallery.com/quilting-bloggers/]

quilter’s connection magazine • FALL 2009 29 BLOGS BY CANADIAN DESIGNERS something in the “What's on your mind” box, your friends will see what Dorothy Baker (Ontario) you posted on their own Facebook http://dorothybakerdesigns.blogspot.com/ home page. Likewise, you'll see what they are sharing on your home page, where you Marlene Biles (Manitoba) can easily add your own comments. http://sipiweskequilts.blogspot.com/ Some tips for using Facebook: Cori Derksen and Myra Harder - Blue Meadow • Create groups of your friends to easily Designs (Manitoba) streamline your home page. http://bluemeadowdesigns.blogspot.com/ • Hide quizzes, games and other items you are not Daphne Greig (British Columbia) interested in from showing up on your home page. http://daphnegreig.blogspot.com/ • Share photos, videos and web links you find interesting. Horizons: Valerie Hearder on the Art and Soul of • If you have a business or are a designer, you might Quilting (Nova Scotia) want to create a Fan Page to allow your customers a http://www.threadlink.typepad.com/ place to chat and share. • Never post items you wouldn't want a potential Lorraine Lefort and Lydia Quigley - The Rabbit employer to find. Factory (Ontario) http://therabbitfactory.blogspot.com/ Facebook is the second thing I do each morning Lisa Michelle Design (British Columbia) after checking email. Aside from my own blog, it's the http://lmdandmyworld.blogspot.com/ number one way I keep up with my quilting friends around the world. Pippa Moore (British Columbia) http://kitambaa.blogspot.com/ TWITTER http://twitter.com/ Twitter is an excellent way to communicate and Dale Anne Potter stay connected with friends, family and customers. http://www.daleannepotter.com/blog/ It's micro-blogging based on the premise of answering Susan Purney Mark (British Columbia) one simple question, “What are you doing?” in 140 http://susanpm.blogspot.com/ characters or less. Once you join Twitter, you can use the search to find others that are talking about quilting, read their tweets FACEBOOK http://facebook.com/ and decide if you would like to follow them. The tweets Facebook helps you connect and share with family, from those that you follow will appear in your stream. friends, co-workers and customers. You can post photos, Another great way to find other quilters to follow videos, web links and snippets about your daily life. You on Twitter is to join a quilting-related Twibe [http:// can join groups and fan pages for products and people. www.twibes.com/]. A twibe is a group of Twitter users You can also use Facebook to organize events and interested in a common topic who want to communicate campaigns. It's a powerful tool with many options. with each other. Once you've joined Facebook, search for friends Similar to Twibes above, Wefollow [http://wefollow. or groups of interest. There are lots of great quilting com/] allows users to search for like-minded people and groups and fan pages for you to join. When you enter join virtual groups.

30 quilter’s connection magazine • FALL 2009 To communicate with someone specifically on OTHER SITES AND TOOLS Twitter, use the @ symbol in front of their username. Mailing Lists: MapleLeafQuiltGuild is a Canadian- For example, posting “@MishkaOttawa I like your web based online quilt guild. is dedicated to site” will flag the message directly to me, as well as share contemporary art quilters. http://groups.yahoo.com/ it with all of your followers. group/MapleleafQuiltGuild/ and http://quiltart. If you wish to send a private message, add dm in front com/ of the username, e.g. dm MishkaOttawa. (Of course, Pen Pals: Benita Skinner maintains a list of quilters keep in mind that while the message is private, Twitter looking for pen pals. http://victorianaquiltdesigns. is not secure; never give out your password, credit card com/VictorianaQuilters/Sharing/Sharingwith info, etc.) Quilters.htm Quilt Shop Locator is part of my Quilting Gallery site. Some tips for using Twitter: I created it to help quilters plan excursions and find • Get a tool that works for you; I've listed a few of the new quilt shops and quilting professionals near and popular ones below. far. http://quiltshoplocator.com/ • It's OK not to read all of the tweets that come your Flickr allows for easy sharing of photos. It's also great for way. You'll become an expert at skimming. creating groups so your quilting friends and customers • Don't spam Twitter. Remember it's about can share their creations. http://flickr.com/ communicating, sharing and developing YouTube allows you to upload and share videos. It's a relationships. Yes, it's fine to tweet about your new great way to learn new quilting techniques too. Just blog post, or a fabric sale you’re having, but don't search for quilting, or a specific technique, make that the only thing you do. to find videos of interest. http://youtube.com/ • Avoid, like the plague, any site that says it'll get you StumbleUpon helps you discover and share great hundreds of followers in one day. They are spam and websites. When you Stumble, you'll see pages will take over your Twitter account. that friends and like-minded stumblers have • Don't cross-post your tweets to Facebook. It's recommended. http://stumbleupon.com/ annoying for those that are connected to you in LinkedIn helps you connect with like-minded both places. professionals from around the world to share information, ideas and opportunities. I know several While you can tweet and follow Twitter from the web quilt artists that use LinkedIn to their advantage. site, these desktop tools make it much easier to http://linkedin.com/ keep in touch with your followers: FriendFeed offers a fun and interactive way • Twhirl - http://www.twhirl.org/ to discover and discuss information among • Tweetdeck - friends. http://friendfeed.com/ http://tweetdeck.com/ is a browser that allows • - you to easily share, publish, discover http://iconfactory.com/ and communicate with software/twitterrific sites. http://flock.com/ continued on the next page...

quilter’s connection magazine • FALL 2009 31 Google Friend Connect makes it very easy for others and how/ if it could be harmful if the wrong person knows to join your site and discover other members. it. You really don't know who it is behind a computer name. http://www.google.com/friendconnect/  Backtype is a conversational search engine. They index and connect millions of conversations from blogs, social Michele Foster is an Ottawa-based, networks and other social media so people can find, quilting web developer. She's the follow and share comments. http://backtype.com/ creator of the web site Quilting Technorati is a blog search engine. http://technorati.com/ Gallery that is dedicated to bringing quilters together from around the I have become a much better quilter since I started world. The site features the Quilting connecting with other quilters online. I've participated in Bloggers directory, the Quilt Shop Locator, free patterns and tutorials, swaps, tried many new techniques, learned of new products guest bloggers, swaps, give-aways, and received invaluable advice and encouragement when videos, and many new features coming needed. I've had the pleasure of meeting several quilters this Fall. Michele can be found at: in-person at various shows that I first met online. It's been a Quilting Gallery blog and web site - http://quiltinggallery.com/ wonderful experience. Facebook - http://facebook.com/michele.foster While there are many web sites and tools that make it Twitter - http://twitter.com/MishkaOttawa very easy to connect with others, always keep in mind your Email - [email protected] safety. Think about what personal information you divulge

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32 quilter’s connection magazine • FALL 2009