2009 September

What I learned at the Midwest Internet Marketing Super Conference

September 13, 2009 By Wendy Soucie Leave a Comment

As you can see from my twitter update this week I spent some time at the Midwest Internet Marketing Super Conference investing in Internet Marketing and Social Media education. I attended because the CEO and VP of Integrated Alliances were presenting on “How to Make Money Using Social Media with LinkedIn.”

Mike O'Neil and Lori Ruff of Integrated Alliances during their presentation

Another reason that I wanted to attend was to hear one particular speak named Joel Bauer. The benefit I got this weekend was also hearing Perry Belcher talk about Twitter and his approach as well as Dr. Harlan Kilstein talking about NLP Copywriting. This was my first opportunity to tweet live during a meeting about key points. By following the Twitter hashtag #MSC I could follow what points others were making as well.

I can see where some of the new Twitter conference applications coming out can really make this more of a social experience and let the group attending exchange even more thoughts before during and after a conference of this type. Recently OmniPress in Madison introduced Conference 2.0 – a community conference Web 2.0 introduction that should bring an improvement to the conference circuit on a communication level.

I recently had the opportunity to view a demo of this new software and was impressed with the feature that lets you connect with the speakers ahead of time as well as to ask questions afterward. The benefits of that feature are pretty obvious. Have ever been to a large conference with multiple presentations that you feel you must attend? Plenty of times I have been unable or unwilling to wait in the line to ask a more private question of the speaker. This would give me the chance to send it later, or for those of us who might bring our laptop, Iphone, or smartphone to the conference – email, tweet or post a question for the speaker immediately.

Back to the conference, and of particular interest to me, were the variety of approaches and ways to incorporate social media tools into a particular business strategy. The top point everyone made was absolutely to have a strategy that fits your business goals, pick the tools that help you, and build your network in a meaningful way.

Filed Under: Business Development, Inbound Marketing, Internet Marketing, Linkedin, Marketing, Social Media Tools, Twitter, Web 2.0 Tagged With: Conference 2.0, Linkedin, Social Media Tools

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-13

September 13, 2009 By Wendy Soucie Leave a Comment

#msc #iasocialmedia listening to fellow WI native @timschmidt talking about how he succeeded with his membership sites. #
#msc #iasocialmedia waiting for @joelbauer to step to the podium to talk – #
RT @socialmediatek: Implement Social Media Guidelines, Now http://bit.ly/o3ibS Guildlines make executives more comfortable on social media #
RT @77square: Matt and Kim make a joyful noise http://ow.ly/15OLoM Madison WI Rocks #
RT @smmguide: RT @RositaCortez: Don't miss this: "Gear Up for Giving" social media tutorials #nonprofits http://bit.ly/Rwao0 #
RT @Wisconomy: Why not eliminate Wisconsin’s corporate income and franchise taxes? – "An Economic Legacy Worth Leaving" – http://ow.ly/oCp4 #
#msc #iasocialmedia only 5% of your tweets should be about business – @perrybelcher #
RT @mikeoneildenver: Social media is like working the room at a party@perrybelcher #msc impressive to watch it actually happen. #
#MSC #Iasocialmedia twitter points from @perrybelcher advice to get education and pay more attention to those beside you #
#msc @loriruff & @mikeoneildenver gave best info session with plenty of takeaways on first day of conference. Set the bar of education! #
RT @QuadMedia: 10 reasons to use NING for marketing events http://bit.ly/pIb9a Interesting perspective on community use #
#msc #iasocialmedia hotseat session at Midwest super conference. Review of websites and critiques. Do I dare step up to the podium? #
#iasocialmedia #msc so much info I will have to buy the workbook to get my profile up to par with @mikeoneildenver & @loriruff advice #
RT @jtiffanyrice: The Business Case for Praise :: Women on Business http://bit.ly/2Tn5W #
#iasocialmedia #msc it takes 3 recommendations on Linkedin to complete a profile – be an over achiever . @loriruff as 40 Milestone! #
RT @smmguide: #Video Added pls RT : Social Media Marketing for Chiropractors http://bit.ly/9PWvg #
#iasocialmedia #msc adding picture to Linkedin profile very important to make it personal. Make it professional with no one else #
#iasocialmedia #msc don't go to the prom in a bathrobe and plan to dress at the dance. Complete your profiles on LinkedIn first. #
On social media it pays to have someone proof read before you hit "update" #
How do you know when a consultant is an expert on social media – try a google search and just see what site they pull up on as a start #
#iasocialmedia @mikeoneildenver over 25,000 linkedin connections #
#msc #iasocialmedia @loriruff & @mikeoneildenver about to take the stage. Lori is cute 1 in red if you can't tell on the video streaming #
#iasocialmedia @loriruff up next at #msc conference. #
RT @MinneapolisFeed: [#mpls] #soma Black Diamond @wendysoucie attending #msc Internet mktg conference in Minneapolis – Gl.. http://bit.l … #
Glenn Dietzel #msc #iasocialmedia power full message for intellectual property and selling it at high value #
#msc @wendysoucie attending Internet marketing conference Glenn Dietzel about to speak #
#iasocialmedia at Midwest Super conference on Internet Marketing – Minneapolis super duper. #
RT @techpr: Like: RT @MarketLikeAChik: RT @SmartWoman: RT @erinassist: Angel Funding for Women and Minorities http://bit.ly/CGRbu #
http://icio.us/uamoa1 #
RT @socialmediatek: Links Top List of Search Engine Ranking Factors http://bit.ly/17b2dI . So much to do so little time #
RT @AxelS: 284 picked up press release #BlackDiamonds @wk4coffee @rmarkmoore @wendysoucie @CateSherwood @g2m @zemlak @boughtycanton http … #
RT @AxelS: 284 picked up press release #BlackDiamonds @wk4coffee @rmarkmoore @CateSherwood @g2m @zemlak @boughtycanton http://su.pr/6Z43BP #
Social Media Academy establishes global consulting network, Black Diamonds http://digg.com/u1CDkE for small business social media help #
Social Media Academy establishes global consulting network, Black Diamonds http://digg.com/u1CDkE #
RT @tweetmeme The National Networker (TNNW) Blog: Understanding the Networking Revolution http://bit.ly/6pXON social capital value note. #
New research on social media and its reflection of user identity – http://shar.es/1ay8K #

Filed Under: Twitter Tagged With: Social Media Tools, tweets, Twitter

Who wants to block our social media sites?

September 5, 2009 By Wendy Soucie Leave a Comment

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The comment by Twitter Watchdog – Tim Carron on September 3, 2009, who found some info on companies blocking social media access by employees has caused a stir. Some of the ones listed include Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Censure has been happening in the public sector and public schools (not colleges and universities) for a while. The reaction of employees to this action and the actual action by corporate execs perhaps shows a lack of planning and strategy creation by those businesses.

Social Media Sites – Blocked more than online shopping

Tim mentions that,

“ScanSafe saw a 20 percent increase in the number of customers blocking social networking sites in the last six months and according to their data, 76 percent of companies are choosing to block social networking and it is now a more popular category to block than online shopping (52 percent), weapons (75 percent), alcohol (64 percent), sports (51percent) and Webmail (58 percent). “

Further in the article, which was published on Networkworld.com, Spencer Parker stated,

“in recent months, employers are obviously wising up to the dangers and negative impact on productivity linked to certain sites and more and more customers have chosen to block social networking, online banking and webmail.”

Get Your Social Media Strategy in Place

In my opinion, if you approach use of social media tools as components of a social media strategy – and that strategy is targeted to achieve business goals – you as a business owner will know the reasons why any department or employee should be on a social media site. With a action plan around programs you will also have measurement in place to track the success. C-Level management won’t have to wonder what everyone is doing, they can see reports, quarterly monitoring, audits and results such as increased sales and reduce customer support.

Should you block social media sites or create a social media plan instead?

The key is strategy, action plans, resource allocation and a budget that are defined to achieve your business goal. Along with that creation of guidelines for posting, resource designation for problem escalation and internal knowledge resources so those designated “social media team members” know how and why they move forward in the conversation.
This will make executives comfortable in participating in social media and where necessary, stop others from using their work time to converse on personal issues. Social media is about people and people talking, we should just want them to do it with guidance.
To shut every social media site down by blocking, is like cutting your nose off to spite your face.
What’s your take on this?

Filed Under: Business Blogging, Linkedin, Small Business Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Strategy Tagged With: Linkedin, Social Media, strategy

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