I recently had the honor of presenting a seminar to local job seekers in my home town of Tampa Bay. I presented five strategies for social networking that I truly believe can turbo charge a job search. Here’s a summary of the five strategies I presented.

Develop the Mindset of a Triathlete

Triathletes are elite athletes. Most are amateur, which means they juggle work and family while training for triathlons. What makes triathletes so special is their devotion and discipline to their training. The mental side of their sport is as important as their physical game plan. A job seeker would be well served to study the mindset of triathletes and adopt it. Having a documented plan, an accountability coach and a commitment to working on techniques are all part of the mindset of a triathlete.

Social Networking Basics

For many people social networking basics are, well, just that….basics. But, for many some of the basics are surprisingly overlooked. Simple things like having a profile picture in all your social networking accounts…Having your profile in LinkedIn completely filled out, not just partially filled out. Seeking new connections on an ongoing basis (as in everyday). And, following companies of interest and making recommendations of people you’ve worked with in the past. Too many people (surprisingly) think that just having a LinkedIn profile constitutes social networking. I advise job seekers to update their LinkedIn status every day. And, I advise job seekers to develop their professional and social credibility through social networking.

Advanced Social Networking

For those who have their basics covered, I offered several tips to accelerate their job search. First, I urge all job seekers to actively engage with like minded people in LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. I emphasized being active in all three social networking platforms. Overwhelmingly, many job seekers only think of LinkedIn as the social network of choice.  I advised that connecting with like minded people on Twitter and Facebook should also be part of the plan.  Friending people on Facebook who are business colleagues and building lists so you can segment your notes between personal and business relationships is advisable. Following companies of interest on their business (fan) page and engaging with those companies is advisable. Sharing your expertise on Facebook and Twitter is also advisable. And, selectively promoting others across all three social networks to build relationships is advisable. Another tip I offer is to seek out and attempt to connect with influential people in their industry. Then, don’t hit on them. Rather, let your content paint a picture of you. Post intelligent comments about their content. All in all, the concept of building both your professional and social credibility is one that many job seekers have not considered. But based on feedback I received from many seminar attendees, they got it.

Become an Entrepreneur in Your Job Search

For some job seekers, their industry is in decline and demand for their skills are just not enough in comparison to supply. Regardless, all job seekers are advised to become entrepreneurial. In fact, I go a step further and suggest job seekers should become opportunistic. I advise job seekers to pursue an area of interest outside their work history and create a blog, write an e-book, a physical book, produce video or podcast or all of the above. Essentially, I advise job seekers to monetize their passion by becoming content creators and using the availability of affiliate marketing aggregators or Google Adsense to monetize their content. In many cases, this can result in redefining the meaning of a “J O B” for job seekers.

Good Enough Isn’t

For too many people, a habitual routine of a job search plan can create the illusion of a good job search plan. In a tight economy where competition is so fierce, it’s often not good enough. I shared the results of a recent survey from Cross Tab that shows that 84% of U.S. recruiters believe that your online reputation is critical to your job search. I advise job seekers to commit to producing ten pieces of intelligent content per week and sharing it with their network. I advise job seekers to use LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to build both their professional and their social credibility. I advise to set up a dashboard through an RSS reader to get fed relevant content from blogs and research queries. I advise job seekers to “mine” people’s profiles and company profiles in LinkedIn to uncover golden nuggets of insights about people, new connections and job opportunities.

Download a copy of my presentation on Social Networking for Job Seekers.

Personal Branding Advice from Dan Schawbel

I recently interviewed Dan Schawbel on my podcast show. Dan is the best selling author of Me 2.0 and widely recognized as an expert in personal branding. Dan is also Managing Partner of Millennial Branding.

Me 2.0

In his book, Me 2.0, Dan offers a four step personal branding process: Discover, Create, Communicate, Maintain. Whether developing a brand for a company or individual, it’s all about figuring out who you are and what you represent before you can create your online presence. Dan stresses the importance of setting goals and developing a personal brand plan where you communicate through online media, network and constantly work at maintaining your reputation. You must be involved in relevant conversations. As you grow, your brand must grow along with you.

Social Media Position

Dan worked at EMC for about a year. He met fifteen people over eight months to get his job at EMC. Dan had created a blog on personal branding. Fast Company wrote about him. Google invited Dan to speak at their headquarters. Once he built his personal brand, and EMC created the social media position, Dan was the obvious choice for the position.  Dan’s success from his book and media engagements snowballed his career as a personal branding expert.

Twitter as a Communication Channel

Dan used to use to his Twitter profile as a marketing platform. People would often retweet his content. He noticed that as his followers increased, engagement decreased. He likens Twitter to a public forum where everyone has a level playing field.  But, Twitter allows you to move people to other forms of online relationships such as email, or a phonecall or in person.  Now, Dan uses Twitter it as a communication channel. But, he’s now investing more of his time in Facebook. Dan also has a popular LinkedIn group on personal branding.

Native Strengths of Online Channels

Dan recommends the use of each online channel in relevant ways, and to bring people back to your blog. Depending on your goals, Dan suggests you figure out your marketing funnel. Take people through the online touch points where they can get exposed to your products or services in ways that meet your goals. To emphasize this point, I borrow from Wayne Gretzky; “skate to the where the puck is going.”

Digital Immigrants

Those of us born before 1985 are digital immigrants. The public Internet as we know it was created during our lifetime. On the other hand, digital natives grew up using the Internet. For digital immigrants, we must figure out which tools work best to build our personal brand. We must be willing to experiment over the span of months. It’s a huge process. There is no simple answer. There must be a mindset shift to leverage both the technology and cultural evolution of the Internet for personal branding value.

Personal Brand Example

I asked Dan for a good example of personal branding. He told me the story of Joel Backaler, who is an American fluent in Chinese. He developed a blog called TheChinaObserver.com. His focus on China has earned him recognition from The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, BusinessWeek and other prominent media outlets. His career has taken off as a result of his focus and content on China.  Dan makes the point that small opportunities often lead to larger opportunities. But, the hardest thing to do is to get the first hit.

Millennial Branding

Dan’s Millennial Branding consultancy is his attempt to create a personal branding world with four integrated business divisions.  The Media division includes blogs, a magazine, online television and a newsletter. The Consulting division helps individuals and companies build their personal brand.  The Community division is all about building his community by connecting with people online on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. And, the Education division produces books, conferences, webinars, etc. Despite the name of his company, Dan acknowledges that most of his clients are not millennial, but rather people and brands beyond the millennial phase in search of a personal branding strategy.

How do you mix personal and company branding?

My good friend Chuck Palm asked me to ask Dan this question. Dan’s advice is to build your name before your company name if possible. If you already have a company, then build both at the same time by connecting the two together. When people think of you, they can think of your company.  For example, ChuckPalm.com is synonymous with IPN.

Me 2.0 Second Edition

In October Dan is releasing the second edition of Me 2.0. It will contain another chapter called: Social Networking for Job Seekers. It will provide a step by step plan for job seekers to build their personal brand using social networking.  This is a topic which is very near and dear to me, as I am speaking and delivering education on this topic.

My podcast interview with Dan has more on personal branding. Just click the play button above, or listen to it in iTunes.

You can connect to Dan Shawbel and visit him at his various online properties including:  DanShawbel.com and MillenialBranding.com.

What are you doing to build your personal brand? Share your story in the comments below.

Social Media Marketing for Chiropractors

Dr. Patrick MacNamara is a licensed chiropractor.  In this podcast, Dr. Mac shares how his chiropractic education didn’t prepare him for the business world. Early in his practice, he struggled with marketing.  He learned about Affordable Management Consulting, aka, AMC. He hired them and his practice exploded. Eventually, AMC asked him to join them to help other chiropractors explode their business. Dr. Mac was inspired by a report from Richard Telofski.  It said that less than 1% of chiropractors blogged. And, only one third of them were effectively using their blog to grow their practice.  That’s when Dr. Mac realized that chiropractors needed help with their social media strategy.  He began studying social media by following podcasters and bloggers like me and others. He read my book, Marketing 2.0, and has been a loyal listener of my podcasts since the beginning. He launched his Next Generation Chiropractor blog in April 2009. His blog targets the next generation of chiropractors, comprised of those just coming out of school that will more likely embrace marketing 2.0. Dr. Mac is also active on Twitter.

One-to-Many Effect

Dr. Mac fell in love with the idea of helping the chiropractic profession. Dr. Todd Osborne inspired him when he said that when you treat patients, you can only impact the patients you treat. But, by teaching chiropractors to market themselves more effectively he can impact more patients than he could ever impact in his own practice. It’s a one-to-many, rather than one-to-one effect.

Marketing to the New Generation of Chiropractors

As chiropractors have become more aware of social media, they are finding Dr. Mac through his blog. But, there’s a long way to go. The new generation of chiropractors spend more time online than more established chiropractors.  He’s trying to bridge the gap between the traditional marketing mindset and the new marketing mindset for chiropractors. His blog is the primary bridge for Dr. Mac. He quickly points out that the marketing that worked in the past for chiropractors (Yellow pages, direct mail) doesn’t work as well anymore. Dr. Mac has stepped up to the plate to help other chiropractors make the transition to Marketing 2.0.

Those Who Get It Never Go Back

Dr. Mac shows empathy for his peers in chiropractic care. He views his role as helping them expand the way they think. Once they expand their thinking, they can never go back to the previous way of thinking. The mindset shift for chiropractors is imperative. Dr. Mac does 4 to 6 hour presentations on how to market a chiropractic practice, then provides a webcast version as a follow up resource. He’s also available as a resource to chiropractors to answer questions.  The chiropractors that embrace the new marketing mindset come to understand it takes work and commitment. Many chiropractors have seen other chiropractors succeeding with inbound marketing, which inspires them to keep at it.

Success Stories

Dr. Jon Heins was one of the first that interacted with Dr. Mac on his blog. He developed his blog and within about three months he experienced a 20% increase in his business by sharing his blog content and using his Twitter account to engage with the local community. He followed all of Dr. Mac’s advice including techniques such as using hashtags and creating SEO friendly blog content.  He has moved full speed ahead down the Marketing 2.0 road.

Dr. Todd Sullivan is found online primarily through his blog. He has worked hard at consistently creating content, and being a good listener. He’s a young chiropractor, just five years out of school. So, the Internet is native to him. He also uses video marketing. His organic SEO works well from his online press releases and article marketing. His number one source of patients is referrals from medical doctors. His second highest source of new patients is from his blog, i.e., his inbound marketing strategy. His patients are likely to share his content and spread the word because so many of them are online.

After doing a presentation in 2009, Dr. Mac was approached by a chiropractor who said he didn’t fully understand all the Marketing 2.0 techniques. But, he was slowly implementing a strategy through his Facebook fan page. He had already experienced an influx of college students coming in from Facebook. It turns out his office is located across the street from a college campus. Traditional marketing wasn’t bringing in college students. But, his Facebook fan page brought the college students in the front door.

Dr. Mac’s Advice for Chiropractors

Dr. Mac advises chiropractors to develop a strong presence online. Get out of the 1.0 web world. Become interactive through a content hub starting with a blog. Share your blog content through other channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Identify the demographics you target.  Refine your content to appeal to the niche of your target demographics, e.g., young patients, older patients, etc.

Dr. Mac quotes Steven Covey: “Technology is a wonderful slave, but a horrible master.” Dr. Mac’s purpose at his Next Generation Chiropractor blog is to train chiropractors how to use this wonderful technology available at our fingertips to increase their practice in order to use it to treat more patients.

I hope you’ll listen to the entire podcast recording above. Just click the play button, or subscribe to my podcast in iTunes. Dr. Mac received insights and inspiration in part from my book, Marketing 2.0 and my podcasts. I am very humbled by that. If his story inspires you, let me know in the comments section.

SEO has evolved since the mid 1990s from a cookie cutter method (pre-Google) to a set of best practices that are anything but simple. Many companies still get SEO wrong even when they think they’re doing it right. Often, a webmaster informs the IT Director, who informs the Marketing Manager and the CEO that the website “has been SEO’d.” Even the verb tense is wrong. It implies that search engine optimization is a one time process like upgrading a copy machine. Nothing is further from reality!

SEO is a Marathon

SEO is anything but a one time process. I liken it to training for and running a marathon.  If you’re serious about running in a marathon, you better start training at least six months before the race. After the marathon event, unless you have no plan to ever run another marathon, you must continue to train. As long as you are a marathoner you’re always in training – ALWAYS. SEO is the same. It’s like every other aspect of business that needs ongoing care and feeding. Sure, you go through different phases of an SEO plan, but it’s never done. If you believe that, you’ll make your competitors very happy.

Simplifying the Mystique of SEO

While SEO has certainly evolved over the years, I seek to boil it down to three key points.

Site Architecture

Your website must be friendly to search engines. It starts with the code that lives behind the front end which humans see at www.yourcompany.com. For non-techies think of website code as the plumbing, wiring and brick or wood structure of a house. While, the human eye sees furniture and decorated walls, without a solid infrastructure a house is not functional.

A website’s code should be “lean” which is the opposite of bloated. When a website has a bloated CSS or long scripts, the content on your website simply gets lost in the eyes of search engines. Literally, the search engines have difficulty finding your content because it’s so buried in a bloated code environment. The solution is to have a web developer clean up the code by consolidating it (optimizing) so that the content is easier for search engines to find and index it in their search engine (database).

Another important aspect of site architecture is the meta data. This is the data that speaks to the search engines about each web page. The title tag is very important because it identifies the central theme of the page. It’s also the title which is displayed in a search engine listing. The description tag is also important because it’s the snippet or summary of the page in the search engine listing. A well written title tag and description tag can make or break click throughs from your listings in a search engine.

Keyword Strategy

Developing a keyword strategy is also critical to a sound SEO strategy that delivers results. There is no way getting around the fact it takes work. At my SEO services agency we use a keyword strategy approach that is very effective. I’ll share it here for companies and competitors alike with no reluctance. We identify the products or services of our client and the buyer personas of each one. Then we conduct keyword research by putting ourselves in the shoes of each persona. We create tables to list each persona and their pain points in order to think the way they think. Whenever possible we interview the personas or, at a minimum the people who know the personas very well inside a client’s business. Below is a sample of buyer personas used in keyword research:

This method of keyword research sets up a keyword strategy that drives the content strategy. The SEO results increase greatly for being found in search engines by each of the personas that buy the target product.

Content Strategy

It’s been said that content is king. I once had a friendly debate with my friend Andrew Davis at Tippingpoint Labs about the role of content in SEO. His viewpoint was that all you need is great content to get good SEO results. It’s true that great content can provide good SEO results. But, the keyword strategy should drive the content strategy. The keyword strategy will guide what content you produce, for whom and the writing style. For example you may need content written for a management audience and some content for a more detailed worker. If you’re writing a page about a software product, the management level page and the data sheet page should be different to address each audience. The persona tables will help define how to write each content page.

Another important aspect of a content strategy is diversity. Text based web content is very important. But, search engines score all your content. By offering a good mix of content including images (with text tags), video and audio you please the search engines. Spreading your content across the web through social media including social bookmarking sites also contributes greatly to getting good SEO strategy results.

Lastly, the best benefit of a good content strategy is that it will result in getting inbound links. That means that people will link to your content and those links are the currency of search marketing. The more relevant inbound links you have, the better you’ll score with search engines.

It’s All About Conversions

I hope these three SEO tips were helpful to you.  But, the truth is this is an incomplete plan. A solid SEO plan will get you found in the search engines, but you need a strategy that converts visitors to your website into sales prospects or members of your community. I’ll get to that in a future blog post.

I invite you to add more tips below or comment on my three tips. I hope this blog post delivers on my goal of 3Es of content marketing, as I have preached in my book, Marketing 2.0.

I recently vacationed in the Blue Ridge Mountains of northern Georgia with my family. We had a wonderful time hiking, exploring, fishing, white water rafting and just being adventurous. As I reflect back on this vacation, it occurred to me that I also experienced parallels between our vacation and successful marketing.

Southern Hospitality
Everywhere we went my family and I were treated with courtesy, respect and warmth. And, I’m not referring to how the employees of business establishments treated us (although they were consistent in their treatment). We found the citizens of the community to be genuine, helpful and giving. More than once, people went out of their way to answer questions or offer assistance with sincerity and a smile, or just greet us with a sincere “hello” and have conversation about anything.

Content Marketing Parallel
In contemporary marketing, we speak of the importance of providing great content to your audience to build trust and relationships online. Our vacation planning was easily facilitated by the ease of access to information about the area. Before we scheduled our vacation in the Blue Ridge Mountains, we did plenty of research. We found an abundance of useful information including things to do and places to stay. I was particularly impressed with the consistency of the information we found online, and the experience we had with human interaction offline. This experience is effective content marketing. It was the total experience that made it effective. It was the integration of an online and offline experience that made it a good one. This total experience is what I am willing to talk about. And, that’s called word-of-mouth, the most valuable kind of marketing.

Social Media Parallel
For years now those of us that have embraced social media in business have been stressing the importance of producing great content that delivers on the 3 Es and building a strong community online comprised of authenticity and transparency. Often these words aren’t understood in a business context because so many people in marketing roles are used to doing marketing differently. Authenticity used to mean being truthful in advertising. Building community used to mean building your mailing list. Trust used to mean having a track record of product quality. And, customer service used to mean being accessible to customers and answering their questions.

But, this experience made me realize that social media is really just a human extension of how people want to behave naturally. I am convinced that “southern hospitality” (as it’s known in the U.S.) is a global human phenomenon.  A business is made up of people. The technology tools at our disposal enable people to build communities online with authentic human interaction to create experiences both online and offline that build trust and authentic engagement resulting in positive experiences. Of course, no one is perfect and negative experiences can occur. But, a strong community can deal with anomalies.

I’ve spoken a lot about the risks of social media. As I continue to ponder these risks it occurs to me that they are really risks of doing marketing wrong. Some of the examples I’ve provided of mistakes made by companies are marketing mistakes, not social media mistakes.  Businesses need to develop a strategy of southern hospitality and carry it through in their online and offline channels. Perhaps most important, the people in the business must have a southern hospitality mindset. The tools used to execute on this mindset may vary, but the consistency of the mindset is what’s most important.

14 Social Media Risk Factors to Avoid

I recently gave a presentation at Tech Summit that was very well received. Here is a link to my slides for this presentation. Additionally, I recorded a podcast to share it with you. Below are the highlights with more detail covered in the podcast.

Social Media is Mainstream
Businesses are jumping in with both feet. But, there are risks in social media marketing.  You should know what they are and how to minimize these risks. Here is a list of 14 of the top risks.

No Strategy
When a business says let’s just dive into social with no objective and no strategy, that’s a big risk. You can expect limited or poor results, if any.

Wrong Strategy
If sales improvement is your goal but you have product problems, maybe your strategy should be improved customer service. Align your social media strategy with the current circumstances in your business.

Lack of Executive Support
If you want to achieve any social media success, executive support is a must. Otherwise, it will be a skunkworks project. Some companies can pull this off, but not many.

Wrong Staff
The staff must embrace social media. If they are resistant it could undermine your social media strategy. Assess if the current staff has what it take to engage in social media.

Not Measuring Progress
It’s important to measure progress.  For example, measure customer successes, downloads, comments, reach, subscriptions, etc. These can be “first downs” along the way to scoring touch downs (results).

Measuring the Wrong Stuff
What and how you measure depends on your objectives. If improving customer service is an objective, then measuring growth of fans on Facebook is only important if they are existing customers. Set measurement strategies that align with your objectives.

Not Using Available Tools
Measuring progress and results can be achieved through many available tools. Some are free and some are fee based. Here is a partial list of tools to measure your social media progress and results:  HubSpot, Website Grader, Twitter Grader, Facebook Grader, Facebook Insights, Unilyzer, Raven, Hootsuite, SocialOomph, Manage Flitter, Google Alerts, Google Trends, Social Mention.

Unwilling to Experiment
You must be willing to try different ideas. That’s why executive support is so important. If you don’t experiment, you won’t know what is effective.

Expecting Overnight Results
Results vary according to a business, industry, people, and circumstances. Set expectations with executive management that results usually don’t happen overnight.

Trying to Maintain Control
We have little or no control over of our markets. We can influence our markets, but we can’t control them. You can build your reputation but you can’t control it in social media. I offer two examples in the podcast of brands who tried and failed to control their community.

Employee Abuse
All employers have this risk, but large employers have more risk just based on the numbers. In the podcast I describe the experience of employee abuse at Domino’s Pizza in 2009.

Responding Slowly to the Community
The social web is 24/7/365. We now live in a world where we must respond in minutes, not hours, days or weeks. In the podcast I provide an example of how Comcast has done this successfully.

Shorting the Effort
Not applying enough resources. If a new social media strategy is added to someone’s job, in the beginning it may make sense but as it evolves you’ll need to allocate more resources to be successful. Don’t under resource your social media marketing plan.

Underestimating the Influence of One Person
United Airlines learned this lesson the hard way. Band leader Dave Caroll wrote a song and produced a video viewed over 8 million times on YouTube when United Airlines ignored his complaints due to mishandled luggage which broke his guitar.

These are 14 of the most common risks in social media marketing. The way to minimize your risk is to have a well defined strategy, get executive support, allocate resources, get the right people, be responsive in a timely manner, be willing to experiment and use tools to measure progress and results.

Do you have any other risk factors to add to this list?

BTW, I cover this topic in my book, Marketing 2.0. Have you picked up your copy?

LinkedIn has become the defacto standard in business social networking. It has over 70 million members from over 200 countries including the Fortune list of enterprises. Unlike Facebook and Twitter where many use it for personal social networking or business or both, people use LinkedIn exclusively for business social networking.  The general idea behind LinkedIn is to build connections, then nurture them to create opportunities. Many sales and marketing professionals who actively use LinkedIn have produced measurable business development opportunities.

Since there is so much content and education around how to get the most out of Facebook and Twitter, I thought I’d put together a partial list of ways to get the most out of LinkedIn for business social networking.

1. Complete your profile 100%. The LinkedIn meter tells you how far your profile is completed. Many people overlook this simple tip.

2. Add a recent photo to your profile to humanize your profile. Likewise, many people have no photo in their profile.

3. Include links to your company website and new blog in the “my website” and “my blog” section. Note: use keywords like: “My internet marketing website” and “my internet marketing blog” which you can link to each respective site and create SEO value.

4. Build your connections methodically and consistently. You can send invitations to people based on recommendations from LinkedIn, your own professional network and even by uploading your contact email list.

5. Add a short note that personalizes your invitations to connect. The extra touch can make an impression.

6. Visit the LinkedIn application directory (under the More tab) and connect applications of interest to your profile. Applications give others insights into your interests and professional activities. Some applications to consider are:

WordPress application: In the set up, insert the RSS feed URL of your blog if you have one.  Each time you publish a blog post it appears in your LinkedIn profile.

Slideshare application: Likewise, each of the presentations you’ve uploaded to Slideshare will appear in your profile.

Amazon Reading List: Displays the books you choose to display. This allows your network to see your reading list.

Twitter: Displays your Twitter stream and allows you to isolate your LinkedIn network’s Twitter stream. You can also post directly to Twitter from LinkedIn.

There are many other applications to consider that can give people insight into your business interests and activities.

7. Update your status in LinkedIn frequently. It’s advisable to update it daily, but not more than once or twice per day. I wouldn’t use LinkedIn the same as Twitter with frequent updates. People will see your updates in their stream.

8. Visit the Answers section (under More) and search out questions being asked in your industry and contribute with your answers. You can uncover people asking relevant questions. Get involved in those conversations.

9. Join Groups in your industry. Search for groups by keyword and find relevant groups to join. Visit the discussions and get involved with your contribution. Add value to these discussions. Don’t sell.

10. LinkedIn has a “recommendations” feature. People can write recommendations about you and vice versa. Write unsolicited recommendations about people you’ve worked with in the past. It will be appreciated.  Your recommendations will show up in the stream of updates from LinkedIn.

11. Follow companies of interest to get updates from them. Consider following your customers or prospective customers. Just search out companies and click “follow.” You’ll receive updates from LinkedIn about these companies’ activities. And, you can keep track of new hires and former employees.

Above all, consider LinkedIn a professional networking environment. Use common sense. Do NOT be salesey or spammy. Be useful. Offer value to your network. You can find opportunities if you engage with your network and if you mine the data to uncover intelligence about people and companies.  Just be wise about how you use that data.  Consider the parallel common sense rule of offline networking at an event. You wouldn’t approach a group of people and slap your business card at them and give them a sales pitch. LinkedIn is all about making connections and building online relationships through professional credibility. LinkedIn can be a very valuable online tool for business development if you use it wisely regardless if you’re in B2B or B2C.

Do you have a LinkedIn social networking success story to share? Add it in the comments section below.

Internet & Technology Summit Special Edition Podcast

I recently attended and spoke at the Internet & Technology Summit, (aka TechSummit) June 22nd and 23rd in Orlando. I managed to connect with nine of the speakers for this podcast. I asked each of the speakers to summarize the key points from their talk. When you listen to the podcast, I’m sure you’ll agree that each speaker did a terrific job of sharing their key points very succinctly. Here’s what you can expect to hear on the podcast from each speaker.

Jody Haneke, President, Haneke Design

Jody provided examples of how some companies are deploying strategic mobile applications, such as a pharmaceutical company sharing info with doctors. He explained how one mobile app allows the doc to enter height and weight of a patient and a dosage calculator will calculate proper dosage to prescribe. He explained the growing importance of creating user experiences that allow the user to access an app from any device they use whether it’s a mobile device or a desktop device.

Carol Cox, Founder of InterMedia4web and Chair of Internet Marketing, Full Sail University

Carol articulated four ways to reach your customers online by leveraging the newest internet business models. 1) Social shopping. People spend a lot of time in social networking sites. Brands can integrate shopping in Facebook, allowing browsing and  purchase. 2)Virtual goods is estimated to be a $1B industry in 2010. Examples include avatars, a digital rose, etc. Brands should consider creating a digital equivalent of their product. 3) Virtual currency.  Place ads and allow the consumer to earn virtual currency they can actually spend. 4) Going beyond the browser. Through smartphones, iPads, Facebook applications and other mobile apps a brand can engage consumers where ever they are. Be available where your customers spend time, engage them and keep them coming back.

Alfred Goldberg, President of Absolute Mobile Solutions

Alfred spoke about how Europe is ahead of the U.S. in the use of mobile technology because they adopted mobile faster than the U.S. Alfred is quick to point out that most businesses adopting a mobile strategy do so without a strategy. They don’t do the research up front. They don’t put the user at the center of the experience, which Alfred believes is stifling innovation. When asked for a good example of a brand using mobile, he mentioned Kraft Foods. They allow us to see the content of food by scanning a bar code. He also referenced location based apps like FourSquare. Alfred optimistically points out that most businesses can harness mobile by creating an SMS app, a mobile website or a mobile application that serves their user community.

Mary Spio, Co-Founder & President of Vidaroo (formally Gen2Media)

Mary opens with the compelling point that over 86% of online users are engaging with video! Wow! As Mary says, brands shouldn’t ignore almost 90% of internet users by ignoring video. Mary explains in her presentation that a company doesn’t have to be a media company to produce video. Just leverage your expertise in your industry and create videos about your products, your company, your industry. Share your videos with your website visitors. Find a way to communicate your product benefits through video.

Tony Greco , CEO of TekGiants

Tony’s presentation took all the mystery out of cloud computing. He explained the three types of cloud computing: public, hybrid, private. A public cloud is a company that builds their own cloud and extends it out to the field for rent. Examples include Amazon and Google Apps. Anyone can rent computing access from them.  In business, the most common cloud is private. The business benefits of cloud computing are many. Among the biggest benefits are cost reduction and lower risk. Cloud computing can considerably reduce IT expenses. Other significant benefits include availability, scalability, affordability, zero footprint, green friendly and less resources are needed to run systems in a business that run on a cloud infrastructure.

Mike Volpe, SVP of Inbound Marketing at HubSpot

Mike gave the keynote on day two. He gave a very inspirational talk on tools and hiring strategies used by HubSpot to fuel their growth. Summed up in four words: Treat employees like entrepreneurs. HubSpot uses a hiring strategy called: DARC. Digital, Analytical, Reach, Content. The idea is that each new hire should have these qualities about them. It turns out that about one third of the key initiatives at HubSpot started without management authorization. That’s pretty darn entrepreneurial. HubSpot prides itself on maintaining an entrepreneurial culture due to their DARC hiring practices. As Mike says, HubSpot uses  modern tools and practices to be a modern company.

Guy Hagen, Founder & President of Innovation Insight

Guy gave a very insightful presentation on social media tools. He cites two excuses that people use to not do social media monitoring. One excuse people give is that tools are too expensive. Guy’s entire talk referenced free tools. The other excuse is many people simply don’t know which tools are available. The result is that many people are ignoring the conversations in social media involving them. He shared simple tools like alerts from Google and Social Mention as well as more advanced tools like BlogPulse and Yahoo Pipes. Social Mention also includes some stats such as sentiment.

David Glass, Publisher at Florida Technology Journal

David is the founder and co-producer of TechSummit. David’s vision behind the TechSummit is to educate companies on the latest strategies, tools and resources to help them grow. The speaker slate was comprised mostly of local Florida based entrepreneurs, showcasing our local technology and people. David is passionate about showcasing local talent as much as possible. His next event is the Tech Venture Conference on November 19th in Orlando,  showcasing early stage and growth stage companies.

Steve Tingiris, CEO of Enthusem

Steve shared his experience building a new technology company and the importance of building relationships. As great as tools and technology are, building solid relationships at every level is the most important thing according to Steve. It’s the people that will create the outcomes. The tools will help the people, but the people will create the outcomes. The relationships with employees comes down to “can you imagine working somewhere else?” Ask your customer, “can you imagine doing what you do without (fill in your business name)?” Relationships ultimately drive cash flow, profitability and growth. Technology should reinforce relationship building. Lots of food for thought here…

Michelle Malott, Co-Chair TechSummit, CEO HDYI

Michelle moderated the event, and did so with great charm. She worked closely with David Glass to organize and produce the TechSummit event. Unfortunately, my podcast interview with Michelle got corrupted. But, I will have Michelle as my guest on the Find and Convert podcast very soon where she’ll share her wisdom and insights on innovation with us very soon.

Lastly, I spoke at this conference on the risks of social media marketing. My presentation outlines some of the most common risks in social media to be aware of and how to avoid or mitigate them. These risks include no strategy, the wrong strategy, lack of resources, expecting overnight results, not measuring results, underestimating the influence of one person and the risk of employee abuse.

I hope these interviews have delivered on my commitment to the 3 Es of content (educate, enlighten, entertain). Hopefully you’ve been educated or enlightened, and maybe a little entertained.

There are plenty of pics and comments from the event on the TechSummit Facebook page.

I hope you’ll listen to the podcast to get a feel for the energy at TechSummit and to hear these great speakers firsthand. Just click the play button above or subscribe to my podcasts in iTunes.

Special edition podcast: 3^rd annual coolTECH in Tampa, FL, June 4, 2010.

I roamed the exhibit floor at coolTECH 2010 where I interviewed several of the entrepreneurs, inventors and existing companies showing off their cool technology.  coolTECH is one of three signature annual events hosted by the Tampa Bay Technology Forum, aka TBTF, of which I’m a proud member.

My podcast opens with an interview with TBTF CEO Amy Norman and 2010 Board Chairman Anand Pallegar. Amy explains that TBTF’s mission is to grow and promote Tampa Bay’s technology ecosystem. Through events, education, networking, advocacy and philanthropy programs, TBTF provides targeted forums that bring all the constituents of this ecosystem together to advance our industry and member objectives.

Anand Pallegar brings a new level of energy to TBTF. Anand is passionate about the vision to make Tampa Bay a top 10 technology market by 2015.  One of the ways TBTF will achieve this lofty goal is by working closely with peer groups throughout Florida such as the Suncoast Technology Forum in Sarasota, and by helping the Orlando area, which is already a rich technology area, to forge a tech forum similar TBTF. The result will be a statewide tech community where members  can connect and help one another. A natural by-product of a stronger tech community in Florida will be a renewed brand strength for Florida as a hot bed of technology companies and talent.

coolTECH is an annual event that offers a platform for entrepreneurs and existing tech companies to display their wares and network. As I walked the floor at coolTECH I was impressed by the sample of products, people and even inventions represented at coolTECH which exist and flourish in Tampa Bay.

Another TBTF signature event is coming up in August. TechJam is the annual fund raiser for the TBTF Foundation which serves at-risk and disadvantaged kids to get them interested in STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math through outreach programs such as CompuTer-rific, and an alliance with Boys & Girls Club. This year’s TechJam will bring back the battle of the bands. TBTF members will able to showcase their bands at the event. It is sure to be a huge party with a purpose!

Amy Norman and Anand Pallegar bring a visionary leadership, tireless energy and passionate devotion to being a servant organization in central Florida to benefit the tech community throughout the state.

The pics below are a sample of the cool people and products I discovered at coolTECH. Please give the podcast a listen to meet them. You just might learn about a product you’ll soon be using and you can say; “hey I learned about that product through coolTECH!”

Book Bernie Borges for Your Next Event

Thanks for considering me as a marketing speaker at your event. I’m truly humbled. I thoroughly enjoy speaking to a business audience that wants to hear from someone like me.

My presentation style is very down to earth. I always prepare my marketing presentations for my audience. You and your audience will know that I’ve done my homework to make my marketing presentation relevant and interesting for your group.

Choose Your Event Style

I can speak to a private group in an auditorium or workshop manner. We can work together on a format that will meet the needs of your group.

Whether you’re looking for education, strategy, vision or a workshop on Internet marketing and social media topics we can put our heads together to develop a content plan that will leave your audience satisfied. This partial list of testimonials will offer some insight into my speaking credentials.

The best way to get together on this is to provide me insight into your event so I can give you an intelligent response to your inquiry in a timely manner.

Please answer a few short questions, to get the ball rolling. But, don’t worry, there is no obligation until we both agree we have a match between your event and my speaking qualifications.

Bernie is also available for Live Webinars, Podcasts, Video Tutorials
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