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In today’s News, we begin looking at amalgamation in Greater Victoria Part 1 of 5, Page A6
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News staffers honoured National awards added to B.C. nominations
Paul Seal, in his tiny downtown Victoria office decorated with a poster of the iconic Johnson Street Bridge, has generated more than 20,000 “likes” for his Facebook page, I ♥ Downtown Victoria. The social media page is generally stocked with aggregated material and submitted items, but Seal also sells posting space to merchants. Daniel Palmer/News staff
Lovers of Victoria take notice Introducing the man behind the city’s most popular – and lucrative – Facebook page
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assing Paul Seal on the street, you’d never guess the 40-something consultant has his finger on the pulse of Victoria. But from inside his 78-sq. ft. office in the Maynard Court building on Johnson Street, Seal wields the sort of clout most of the 4,000 Daniel Palmer Greater Victoria businesses Reporting on Facebook can only dream of. “People are 20 times more likely to like a page than unlike a page,” he says, displaying the latest data from his curated “I ♥
Downtown Victoria” Facebook page. Seal’s page recently reached the 20,000 likes summit, becoming the first Victoriacentric page to do so. Almost 160,000 people saw posts from the page last week alone. To put that number in perspective, the Downtown Victoria Business Association has about 4,000 likes, while the City of Victoria has 8,000. The second-largest local page is Tourism Victoria at 18,800 likes. But what does Facebook influence really mean? And more importantly to Seal and those clients who pay him to post their business information, what is it worth? “There’s no such thing as an all-commercial TV or radio station,” he says. “If all you’re posting is advertising on your
page, people tune out.” I ♥ Downtown Victoria relies on aggregated and submitted content: breaking news stories, lost pet photos and multiple photographers who gladly offer their shots of the Inner Harbour and other Victoria landmarks at no charge. Interspersed with these water-cooler posts is advertising – plenty of it – from real estate listings to restaurant and event promotions. “People who work in social media and public relations will often do this,” says Gil Wilkes, a communication and culture professor at Royal Roads University.
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Banking on social media, Page A6
The Victoria News earned some well-deserved recognition at the Canadian Community Newspapers Awards gala last week in Toronto. Roszan Holmen received a second-place award in the category of Best Business Writing for her detailed look at the operations of the Victoria Conference Centre. As well, Ole Heggen earned a second-place nod for Best Local Cartoon, with his humorous depiction of how the Victoria Police Department could take the success of their bait car program and use it to combat purse-snatching. In all, Black Press newspapers in Greater Victoria captured 12 awards in the national competition. Holmen’s feature story is also a top-three finalist in the Business Writing category for the B.C. and Yukon Community Newspaper Awards, to be handed out April 20 at the River Rock Hotel in Richmond. Also chosen from the News as a finalist are Kevin Laird in the Special Publications category (over 25,000 circulation), for Progress 2012; and Laura Lavin in Photo Essay for Day in the Life of Esquimalt. editor@vicnews.com
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