Oh Very

Uptown Downtown girl! She’s been living in her uptown downtown world…

This morning, we at Digital Cement said goodbye to our Liberty Village office and moved to our new downtown location. Check out my awkward pose and sweet view!

We’ll miss the Liberty Village community, but our more transit-friendly location means more shops and far, far more restaurants. (We’re right near the St. Lawrence Market…and Cruda Cafe!)

Okay, that’s all. I mostly wanted to brag about this view. Man, oh, man. Stoked.

It’s August, people. Almost mid-August at that. What happened?

This summer has really whipped by for most of us. For me it was because last summer featured a ramped-up social calendar, and I met a ton of great people. This summer hasn’t involved anything especially exciting, and many of those great people from last summer have, oh I don’t know, moved temporarily to Ghana or quit their jobs to travel across Canada.

I’ve spent this summer stepping up my SEO consulting/freelance work and now have a number of fantastic clients. I’m proud to say a lot of the money I’ve earned from that work has gone toward a PR Certificate Course I’m taking at the University of Toronto in September! Knowledge is power!

Why PR? Well, I’m a journalism major, and despite my lack of blogging consistency, I do love to write. Also, the role of an SEO is no longer cut and dry; it involves a mix of content creation, social media and straight-up smart website promotion. PR, too, is rapidly adapting to the digital world, as much of a company’s success and ability for promotion lies in its website’s design, functionality and visibility in search engines.

SEO and PR – Here’s to a happy marriage.

Wish me luck! Man, I need to hit up Staples…

Tonight Iwas privileged to attend the WordPress for Community Organizers workshop by my friend Sidra Mahmood (@SidraSidra).

She’s (first and foremost) a cool lady and a talented web developer who specializes in WordPress customization. Most attendees were there to learn the ins and outs of setting up a WordPress site, from domain hosting to finding the right plugins.

What I took away were some tricks and a whole lot of motivation to get my personal domain, shaynaburns.com, up and running. (Don’t bother trying the URL; GoDaddy.com is holding it captive until I get my act together.)

For those of you who don’t know, I work in search engine optimization (SEO) in Toronto at a digital marketing agency. I also do freelance work, with an emphasis on grassroots organizations and small businesses, on my spare time.

A huge part of my soul yearns to help people regularly in some capacity. I truly hope my upcoming site will reflect and nurture that.

P.S. If you missed tonight’s workshop, be sure to connect with Sidra to find out details of her next Toronto event, likely to take place in late July.