4 PR/Communications Events to Attend in Ottawa

Summer has (finally) arrived, and the temptation is high to ditch all responsibilities to have fun in the sun. Just because the heat is here, it doesn’t mean you can’t mix business with pleasure! Check out the following four public relations and communications events happening right here in your city this summer. Whether you are a public relations or communications professional or student, you might want to consider checking out these amazing networking and professional development opportunities!

Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) Ottawa-Gatineau... AGM

The Ottawa Chapter of the The Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) will be hosting their Annual General Meeting on June 13th from 5:00-7:00pm. This event is important because new members to the board of directors will be elected. They will also provide a presentation of their annual reports on the student program, professional development, and their financial position. Whether or not you have been involved with this CPRS chapter before, attending their AGM will give you a great idea of the benefits of being a member. This event also doubles as a great networking opportunity with local public relations professionals. The event will be held at Alt Hotel Ottawa. Get your tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cprs-ottawa-gatineau-2017-annual-general-meeting-assemblee-generale-annuelle-2017-de-la-srpc-ottawa-tickets-34910309676

IABC Ottawa AGM

Similarly, the Ottawa chapter of the International Association for Business Communicators will be hosting their Annual General Meeting on June 20th, from 5:30-8:00pm at the 3 Brewers on Sparks Street. Voting for their new executive board will take place, as well as some awards. There will be time to network and connect with communications professionals over cocktails during the evening. Reserve your ticket here: http://ottawa.iabc.com/events/celebrate-ottawas-communications-community-at-the-iabc-end-of-season-event/

Additionally, if you want to help IABC Ottawa build their strategy for their chapter, you’ll want to attend one of their focus groups. There will be a focus group for non-members on June 15th from 5:30-7:30. For members, the focus group will be held on June 22nd from 5:30-7:30. This is a great opportunity to make an impact on IABC Ottawa’s next year, and network with communications professionals. Reserve your spot through this link: http://ottawa.iabc.com/events/youre-invited-to-help-us-shape-the-future-of-iabc-ottawa-for-communicators-in-the-capital/

Local Talks YOW: The Art of Self-promotion

Local Talks will be hosting a panel around the theme of self-promotion on June 15th. You definitely want to make it out to this event because it is their one year anniversary in Ottawa! Not only is the location at Maker Space North extremely unique, there will be donuts and prizes on this evening. Kristen Ritchie, Talent Acquisition Specialist at Climax Media will be the moderator. The Local Talks panels spark a great conversation around each theme, and attracts a great crowd. This is a great event to attend if you are looking to connect with local entrepreneurs and professionals. For more information and tickets, visit their Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1139366279500586/

TEDxOttawa

We have all seen multiple amazing TED Talks online, but have you ever considered that you could hear one live? That’s right, TEDxOttawa is happening here on September 28th. This event will be held at the Algonquin Commons Theatre, from 6:00-9:30pm. With a theme of “Who knew?” you can expect a range of speakers and topics. This event is a few months away, but tickets will go fast. Make sure to secure yours here: https://tedxottawa.ca/tickets/

Are you a little shy or somewhat introverted, or simply new to networking? Check out our blog post The Four C's of Networking for Introverts for tips and trips on networking best practices.

Will you be doing any professional development over the summer? Are these events up your alley? Share your thoughts and experiences with us!

The Mystery Behind Facebook Business Manager

Benefits of Facebook Business Manager

Most businesses are active on Facebook, aiming to reach a portion of their one billion+ daily users; and many of those companies have been switching from using a personal profile as a business platform, to a Facebook Page because if not, they risk losing the page entirely. It is against Facebook Terms to use a personal account to represent something other than yourself, so they have the right to deny access to that account. If you manage one or more pages for a business, company, or organization, you have probably heard of Facebook Business Manager.

What is Facebook Business Manager?

It is a free tool, released in 2014, for agencies and organizations to manage access to their Pages and ad accounts without divulging their account passwords, and giving full access to each user. Facebook has been asking anyone who shares login information with others for their pages and ad accounts to change the way they sign in. This has become almost mandatory, unless you have a small account and have the option to choose to link your Pages and ad account to your personal profile.

The initial setup the Business Manager is actually very simple. However, it can take about an hour to figure it all out. I would caution you to make sure that the personal account you are using to get to https://business.facebook.com/ is the CEO of the business, or the main admin as they will have the highest power when managing all of the Pages and contributors on this account. What kinds of benefits are there to Business Manager? Here are a few:

Business Manager keeps you focused and efficient

You can keep your work and personal life completely separate with the use of business manager. Your Business Pages login is not the same as your personal profile login, which means that you are brought directly to the timeline of your projects, and your pages. This tool brings all of your pages and ad accounts to one centralized location, which you can easily flip through using the tabs provided. There is no more need to log into different accounts for multiple platforms, they can all be accessed through the same account.

This tool has made managing multiple Facebook Pages much easier and less daunting. It is more simple now to request access to a client’s page, and you can specify what kind of access you need, such as ad analyst, or editor. The client receives an email and can approve the request with just one click.

Assigning roles

One of the best features of business manager is that you can easily assign roles. This means that you can grant people access and tasks to different pages and ad accounts. There is a tab that allows you to easily see who is working on what page, whether it be an individual or a group. The master admin has the power to remove people easily, and grant specific access based on each project or task.

The beauty of this is that you do not have to be friends with someone to grant them access to a page. You simply need a coworker’s work email, avoiding seeing photos of their new dog on your personal timeline.

Recommended improvements

As mentioned previously, Facebook Business Manager was released in 2014. Since then, a number of bugs and technical difficulties have been erased and improved. We couldn’t help but notice a few ourselves, like the difficulty to comment or like posts from pages in business manager from a mobile device. Additionally, the steps to access a page’s newsfeed seem to change often, however Facebook does not provide this update information to its users. Please keep us in the loop, Facebook! Overall, it seems that Facebook Business Manager is a great tool for managing pages and ad accounts, but less ideal for interacting as a page.

The mandatory switch may feel harsh, but take the time to explore the benefits of Business Manager. Have you used Business Manager? How is your experience with it? Let us know in the comments below!