"If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there." - Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Last weekend, I had the privilege of being the Breakfast Keynote speaker at the BConnected Conference in Toronto. I promised attendees that I would upload my presentation by the end of the week.
The Future of Influencer Marketing (BConnected Conference).
With all my thanks to a wonderful audience.
As promised to all the wonderful attendees at my session at BlogPaws last weekend, the PDF of 10 Principles for Successful Professional Blogging.
Thank you all for attending and being such a great group.
As promised, I’ve finally uploaded the slides from the Media Kit workshop at BlogHer Pro last month: BHPRO MEDIA KIT Workshop (pdf). You may also be interested in the slides from last summer’s Pathfinder Day, Pathfinder Day 2012 FINAL (pdf).
This past Thursday, I delivered my workshop on using social media and blogs to build your brand and professional profile at the Pennsylvania Governor’s Conference For Women. I was honored — pleased — amazed — gratified — excited by the reception given to the workshop, both at the event and afterward.
Quite simply, it reminded me why I love what I do for a living.
The 500 or so women in the audience were very engaged. I had about 6 or 8 questions at the end, and I’m sure there would have been more had I not gotten “the hook” from my timekeeper, because I was mobbed at the podium at the end. The best part was afterward, though, when folks stopped me in the exhibit hall or came to my book signing to talk more about the topic or get my advice on a more personal level.
And my book! I don’t know how many copies of Professional Blogging For Dummies the conference bookstore had on hand, but I do know that the Pennsylvania ladies wiped it out. My book was sold out by 2pm.
What do I do for a living? I help:
But really, what I do is help people and brands tell their stories. And so many of the women at the conference had wonderful stories to tell. I truly hope they start blogs because I want to hear from and about them.
That’s why the very best thing was the thank-you note I got on Facebook today from someone who attended my session and bought the book. She wrote that I inspired her to get moving on her business and a blog.
That makes all the difference.
Because I know that I made a difference.
I love what I do.
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If you are in Houston or Boston, don’t miss the upcoming conferences in these states. I’ll be doing the social media workshop at both, and look forward to meeting you there. In fact, I am giving away a pass to each. All you have to do is leave a comment on my September 25th post for your chance to win.
Good friend Morra Aarons-Mele’s company Women Online is a sponsor of the conferences, in good company with firms like Citizens Bank and State Farm Insurance.
Last week I attended the AARP Orlando@50+ Conference. Snide remarks from friends on Facebook aside, I was not in Orlando as an attendee to plan my post-retirement life, although had I been, there was plenty of information on the show floor and in the sessions to help me. I’m still a couple years shy of the calendar milestone, and as for retirement, that’s at least 20 years off.
I was at the conference to present two workshops on Connecting and Communicating with Social Media as part of Kaplan University’s educational track within the conference. The room was full both times – about 280 capacity – even though the room was as far from the front door as you could possibly get and on Saturday it was one of the last sessions, competing with all the entertainment Orlando offers.
It’s impossible to introduce folks to “everything” social media has to offer in an hour session, so I focus largely on blogs and Facebook. Even then, people – especially in beginner audiences – tend to have very specific “how do I do this…” questions, and there is no way to get to all of them. That’s why I am particularly glad that as part of its deliverables for the AARP attendees, Kaplan has created reinventyourself.kaplan.edu, a site dedicated to expanding on the topics presented at the conference with self-paced in-depth courses on each topic. The site launches October 7. I’ll add a link here once it is live.
I helped develop a course based on my workshop, and got a sneak peek Saturday. The online course developers did a great job translating my concepts to the online interactive format. It is a great start for anyone dipping their toe into social media for the first time, at any age. It’s also free!
Of course, if you want to delve more deeply into blogging, and especially making money on your blog, my book Professional Blogging For Dummies is also a good choice! Links in the sidebar to your online bookseller of choice.
The workshops I am doing for the Conferences for Women in Pittsburgh, Houston and Boston use a similar outline, with a slight shift on focus to women and how these tools can help them personally and professionally. I’m giving away tickets to Houston and Boston; all you have to do is leave a comment on my post Using Social Media to Build Your Brand for a chance to win.
For more on technology use by older Americans, check out this post on the AARP blog ShAARP. I was honored that they included the story about my mom that I use in my workshops to make two important points about technology and the Internet. First, there is no age requirement or limit. Second, don’t think – or let anyone tell you, that you can’t do something. We learn how to do the things that let us accomplish our goals. Even if it seems – or even is – hard.
I’m really looking forward to speaking at the upcoming Pennsylvania Governor’s Conference for Women (10/14), the Texas Conference for Women (11/10) and the Massachusetts Conference for Women (12/9).
At each conference, I’ll be teaching a workshop on Using Social Media to Build Your Brand. Here’s the abstract:
In this tough economy, it’s more important than ever to develop a brand and set yourself apart from the rest of the masses. Whether you have a job and are looking to advance, in the midst of a job search or working to build a business, social media provides the skills, network and energy to create a serious career advantage. This interactive workshop will explore ways to master social media to help create and reinvent your brand, reputation and thought leadership. Attendees will learn how to utilize social media to:
- Establish access to new networks
- Leverage Facebook and Twitter as a practical professional tool
- Create a blog to align with and help you achieve your short-and-long-term professional goals
- Break into new industries, professions and business opportunities
I’ll be arriving in each town the day before the conference and generally taking off sometime in the late afternoon of the conference, but would love to connect with as many folks as I can while I am in town. If you are planning to attend one of the conferences, or just live locally, please email or dm me and let’s see if we can’t get a meet-up/tweet-up going the night before the conference.
The exception to this is Boston. While I hope to have a home base in Connecticut by then, we’ll still be living in Mass. as well. The plan is to see the calendar year out here, and then transfer my son to his new school after the December break. So I won’t be scramming after the Boston conference with quite the same speed!
I’ve already given away my pass to the Pennsylvania Conference, but I have a pass to give away to each of the other two conferences as well. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post. Be sure to let me know which conference you’d like to attend, Texas or Mass. I’ll use a random number generator to pick the winning comments. The first comment number generated will get the pass for her conference of choice, and then I will generate numbers until I get a comment for the other conference. Please post your comment by midnight EST Sunday October 17, 2010. I’ll pick the winners early the following week.
Also, if you have a copy of Professional Blogging For Dummies and you’d like me to sign it, please feel free to bring it with you. I always have time for that!
Update 8 October: I will be doing book signings at the Conferences for Women bookstore so if you don’t have a copy yet, you will be able to buy one there.
Back on the speaking circuit…
Tuesday April 6th is the Blog With Integrity webinar on best practices for blogger outreach. We’ve got a great blogger panel who will share their experiences working with brands — Beth Blecherman from TechMamas, Michelle Madhok from SheFinds and Tim Hurst from ecopolitology.
Saturday April 9th I will be at BlogPaws in Columbus Ohio speaking on a panel about best practices for doing reviews on your blog.
April 20-23 I’ll be out at New Comm Forum in San Mateo California. On the 20th, I’m teaching part of the full-day Intro to Social Media for Business pre-conference workshop, and later in the week, I’m doing two conference sessions — a panel on Social CRM and a session on the impact of the FTC Guidelines on Endorsements and Testimonials on businesses. Added attraction: Dave Carroll of United Breaks Guitars fame will be speaking at lunch on Wednesday!
I’ve got discount codes for all three events. Drop me a note at sgetgood@getgood.com or @sgetgood on Twitter with your email address and the event you are interested in.
Between the book, travel and work, my blogs have been a bit neglected this year. So, I’m really glad that I can finally take the wraps off the Blog with Integrity projects we’ve been working on since the beginning of the year.
Advisory Board: We are honored to welcome Liza Barry-Kessler, Gwen Bell, Isabel Kallman, Lisa Stone and David Wescott to the team as members of the Blog with Integrity Advisory Board.
New website: We’ve updated the website with more information about the team, our mission and upcoming events. We also added an Organizational Pledge so companies can show their support for the principles of the pledge.
Bridging Brands & Bloggers webinar: We are very excited about this webinar for PR, marketing and advertising professionals to be held on April 6th from noon to 1:30 eastern. We’ll talk about best practices for blogger outreach and the impact of the FTC endorsement guidelines on brands and bloggers. Plus an exclusive panel of influential bloggers will share their experiences working with brands. More details and registration information are on the website. Please spread the word!
Bridging Brands & Bloggers is sponsored by the Council of Public Relations Firms, and we are very grateful for their support.
On the road: We’ve been taking the Blog with Integrity message on the road. In February, I spoke at BlissDom about best practices and disclosure, and at Mom 2.0, my colleagues Liz Gumbinner and Julie Marsh were on a panel about the FTC guidelines. In the coming months, I’ll be on panels at BlogPaws, TBEX and BlogHer talking about disclosure and ethical best practices. I’m also doing a session for for marketing professionals about the impact of the guidelines at New Comm Forum.
I have a discount code for BlogPaws so drop me a note if you are planning to attend. For New Comm Forum, register here using discount code NCF117.
And then there’s the book. Professional Blogging for Dummies (Wiley, July 2010). As my Facebook page says: “I used to have a life. Now I have a book.” If you have a few minutes in the next few days, I would so appreciate it if you would take the blogger survey for the book. I’ll probably close the survey next week. Here’s the link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8GY3Z2F
