Katie Maximick

By KATIE MAXIMICK

Behind the black goatee and white smile of Karm Sumal is a brilliant entrepreneur with a heart of gold, and it was this heart of gold (and his longing for Canada to win it) that launched his blog, vancitybuzz.com, into local prominence.

“At first, Vancity Buzz was started for pure fun,” Karm said. “Then the momentum built and we continued to get inspired.”

“The negativity that surrounded the Vancouver Olympics fueled our fire, so we began highlighting the positives, as we felt they far outweighed the negatives. And here we are today.”

When Karm began to write positively on the Olympics, traffic to his website doubled and ultimately established Vancity Buzz as a go-to site for Vancouver events. Unlike some businesses around Vancouver and Whistler, Vancity Buzz’s success continued to grow once the Olympics were over, and a lot of that has to do with the man behind the website.

Karm uses his site and social media accounts to connect to his audience, rather than post strictly self-promotional content as some prominent bloggers tend to do. This means Karm’s audience is as unique and as personable as the man behind the website, and if you’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting Karm (perhaps at a Canucks Tweetup) you know he’s pretty charming, not to mention humble.

“In terms of popularity, that’s subjective,” he said about his rising fame. “The blog and Twitter are pretty much an extension of my personality, and I think it shows in my reach and demographics.”

And I’m sure a lot of Karm’s demographics must be male after the popularity of his weekly (and sexy) Humpday Hotties posts.

By the way, Karm’s Twitter account now boasts close to 12,000 followers, and has 2,400 connections on his Facebook page.

Vancity Buzz and charitable promotions

Rising popularity has its price. Because Vancity Buzz is so successful in terms of garnering attention for local events, Karm has to filter through a lot of emails on a daily basis.

“We get pitched, a lot,” he said. “Honestly if I said yes to everyone I’d have six postings a day on events alone. However, one thing we don't say not to are charity events."

And there are many small charitable organizations that get lost in the blinding limelight of big fundraisers and well-funded galas. Karm believes that it’s those little events that deserve the promotion on his website.

“It’s our way of giving back to the community. We can’t always donate financially or donate our time, but spreading the word is our way of giving a little back.”

"That’s what we provide – free exposure for charity-related events.”

On social media's ability to raise awareness

To gain exposure for deserving events, Vancity Buzz takes to Twitter, Facebook and their website to Tweet, link-out and profile them.

“I think social media has expanded the reach of [charitable] events,” Karm said. “Tweetups for charity are an amazing tool to raise funds or awareness for causes. I think the most recent example of that is the sled dog tragedy.”

Vancity Buzz uses all aspects of social media to promote its own quarterly charity event called The Buzz Entrepreneur Event where partial proceeds go to a chosen organization. The last event raised donations for Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver.

The next Buzz Event is on March 24^th at the Joseph Richard Lounge on Granville, hosted by VanCity Buzz and Reach Magazine. Partial proceeds will go to the Sunset Community Centre Daycamp for Kids.

So aside from a great smile, a humble personality and a big heart, what else makes Karm Sumal stand out above the Vancouver crowd?

How about drive?

“Our success is quite amazing thus far,” he said.

“However we aren’t satisfied yet, and don’t think we’ll ever be.”