Photo credit: Jeremy Lim

On April 5th, I had the opportunity to share my story as an immigrant and professional at #NETCulture: Stories of Culture and Diversity in Social Media. The turnout was incredible! Over 200 people showed up to discuss multiculturalism in the digital space and throughout Canada. Not only did I have the opportunity to share my story, but I also learned a lot about other cultures and how other newcomers have been sharing their journey in the social space. #Netculture has the potential to become a 2-day unconference, I have no doubt about it! Our audience held it together for two full hours. When the time for the Q&A arrived , ten minutes was not enough. It was a great experience for me. After a lot of hours planning and rehearsing, the presentation itself came out differently from the original plan below. Enjoy!

I first arrived in Vancouver in October 2006, but I consider February 25th, 2007 my second date of arrival in Canada. It was the day that my husband and I got married and we decided to start a life together here. With this decision, I had to reassess all my expectations. From international student to full time immigrant, my priorities also changed. To feel that I could stay in Canada, I felt that had to achieve three goals: to have a career, to feel that I was part of a community, and to feel that I actually had a future here.

Immigrant Services Society of BC, ISSofBC for short, was my first employer in Canada. I was the first employee of the Mentoring Connections program. For those of you who are not familiar with Mentoring Connections, the program is responsible for matching skilled immigrants with experienced Vancouver-based professionals in a career-focused mentorship.

I was as new to the city as the program’s clients, I had no professional network and I didn’t know where to start. At that time, social media seemed to me as the easiest way to reach out to the volunteers that I needed to attract to the program.

ISSofBC was also reinventing itself when I first started with the agency. Mentoring Connections was the first program to develop a digital strategy during the re-branding period. As part of the Mentoring team, I had the opportunity to start a blog, expand the program’s reach on Linkedin and maintain a strong presence on Twitter. Mentoring Connections allowed me to polish my skills in the digital space and also gave to our clients and volunteers a platform to broadcast their experience with the program. At that point, I felt that I had built a strong online presence for my employer, but no one knew Veronica Heringer in the digital space.

Often people ask me if I had a plan. My answer is yes and no. At the beginning, after reading a bunch of articles about self-promotion through social media, my twitter feed looked very career-focused and professional.

But then, we had the Olympics and everything changed for me. I was completely absorbed by the party and started to weigh into the discussions giving my point of view. And because I am not from Canada, I often compared what was happening here to what I knew from Brazil.

It was during the Olympics that I also decided to write my blog primarily in English. My first blog post was published on February 12th, after walking around Downtown Vancouver. It was the first time that I’ve seen Canadians so excited about something in Vancouver. During the Olympics, I blogged, I filmed things that were happening around me, volunteered, and of course, tweeted about it.

But then, I had to start to manage my previous audience expectations. In an attempt to make everybody happy I wrote bilingual posts for a while. Today, I keep the section “Fridays in Portuguese” as a way to acknowledge the readers that come to my blog looking for content in Portuguese.

I started to look around to find a place where I could apply my skills and the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival seemed to be the best place for me to experiment. I worked for the festival in 2009 as a Media Relations coordinator and last year I assumed the coordination of the festival’s social media channels.

The 2010 VLAFF was the first social media campaign that I’ve led. By making the festival more sharable and accessible to the festival’s audience, we were able to more than double the number of Facebook fans without spending any money on advertising.

One simple initiative that we brought to the festival last year was the VLAFF red carpet, where we took pictures of our audience and made them available on Facebook and Flickr. Not only did we attract over 500 new fans to our page, but we were also able to reach out to our community, attracting the real fans, people who are interested in the festival even during the off-season.

So, if you are looking for a way to build your online presence. Here are my three takeaways:

Start with “something.” My starting point was Linkedin, then I moved to twitter, and then I started blogging in English. Just start!

Once you start interacting in the space, be there for us! Don’t start, forget about it and then say that you’re unable to establish connections online. Be yourself and be persistent! It will take time, but it will pay off!

It’s important to come to events like this one and talk with the people that you’ve met online. If I hadn’t gone to Northern Voice last year, I wouldn’t be here today. If I hadn’t made an effort to meet the people that I was a fan of online, I wouldn’t have landed my dream job at DDB Canada.

I know these steps sound simple, but that’s my way to establish a career, be part not only of the Latin American and Brazilian communities, but also the local digital scene. I not only feel that I have a future in my new country, but I am also excited about making it my new home.

The 8^th edition of the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival (VLAFF) is rapidly approaching and the final touches are being made on this year’s festival. Even though opening night is only happening on September 2^nd, VLAFF organizers are accepting design ideas for VLAFF’s 8^th edition poster only until this Friday, April 30^th .

The contest is open to all British Columbia-based artists. Submissions are limited to three entries per person. Design concepts will be judged according to their public appeal, content and marketability. The winning artist will receive a $500 prize and exposure on VLAFF’s website and newsletters.

Click here, for more information about the VLAFF 2010 poster contest.

Good Luck!

A vida está boa, muito boa! Em agosto tive chamego de mãe por um mês inteiro. Foi bom demais! Deu até tempo de fazer essa sessão de fotos com a minha amiga Lili Vieira de Carvalho.

Setembro começou na loucura do Sétimo Vancouver Latin American Film Festival. Pela primeira vez tenho a honra de trabalhar com uma equipe sensacional e aprender muito sobre o cinema latino-americano. De quebra fiquei também com vontade de aprender a falar espanhol de verdade e assumir o meu alter-ego Beronica!

Enfim… a vida continua! Espero que meu próximo post não seja tão belo e meigo, neste estilo descomprometido “meu querido diário” de ser.