Dude, Blog Your Business!

A few weeks ago Tom and I did an impromptu interactive social media seminar at the 3000 Club Friday networking meeting.  It went so well that we decided to get together with our friend, Christine Springer, an expert and teacher on all things  LinkedIn, and create a seminar series on social media.

The first of that series – ‘Social Media Idol‘ starts on April 20th. Jasper is the seminars’ Simon Cowell character and the event and series have been designed to be interactive – in other words, you do all the work and we stand there and give our critique!  Only kidding –  don’t worry, Jasper isn’t nearly as harsh as Simon Cowell can be!  This first seminar is based on the premise that you need to know what the job is before you choose which tools you are going to use, and covers lots of interesting subjects like ‘purple cows‘, ‘buyer personas‘,  ’inbound marketing‘ and Web 2.0! 

This first seminar provides the groundwork for the later seminars in which we look at some of the specific tools of social media, such as Blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, and Video Blogging – yes, even the video blogging will be interactive!  

Join Christine, Tom Hinchey and myself on Monday, April 20th OR Monday, April 27th from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. at Catch 22 Sports Grill in Phoenix . (Food and drink specials will be available!) The cost is $34 in advance for the initial seminar – register here or at Christine’s site  www.LinkForSuccess.com.

April 26-28, 2009, San Francisco, CA: The Nonprofit Technology Conference is THE place to engage around the technology issues that face the nonprofit sector. “Nearly 1200 people will come together from across the country and around the world to connect with our peers, learn from our heroes, and change the world. It’s true that our sector will face remarkable challenges in the coming year. Joining us for the 2009 NTC will put you among those poised not only to meet those challenges, but to rise above them”.   Thanks to Mashable’s events guide for the story – Note: Mashable readers can get the NTEN rate ($200 off) when using code Mash09NTC to register!

Tom and I have a particular interest in this event because we persuaded The 3000 Club to enter three of the videos that were created for their blog into this year’s NTC video competition – one of which was our spoof e-Harmony ad  (above), aimed at highlighting the business networking opportunities that  3000 Club membership provides.  The winners get an all expenses paid trip to the conference – that would be nice!  We’ll let you know if we win anything – or not!  The other entries can be seen here – A moving endorsement by Anna Gonzales, and Founder, Lon Taylor tells the 3000 Club Story.

Dave and I and Tom Hinchey  went to the SEVRAR Tech Conference yesterday at the Mesa Convention Center. I have to say it was a great event and well attended – a big thanks to the organisers with a special nod to our friend, Robb Gibbs for putting this event on. We shall definitely exhibit there next year.

This is a game-changing year for the real estate industry and, from what we observed, social media is going to be one of the big new marketing tools for connecting property buyers with property sellers. The two speakers we saw had some useful insights into the emerging trends of technology use in the real estate industry. The first, John Peckham (pictured above) of the Real Estate CyberSpace Society   documented the progression of technology use from the days of the typewriter and provided two great quotes which are worth sharing and are relevant to any business -

“Without promotion something terrible happens – nothing“. PT Barnum

and

“The principle mark of genius isn’t perfection but originality” Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple

Social media, and video blogging in particular, especially for the real estate industry can answer the needs of both those quotes.

The second speaker we saw was Jay Thompson – the PhoenixRealEstateGuy  - who has probably the best know blog in real estate circles, especially in Phoenix. He gave a superb insight into what blogging can do for a business but also highlighted the commitment that it takes. Indeed, it can do – but for those who want someone to do it all for them, or at least would like a nicely designed blog and the tuition to get them going, there is Dude Blog Your Business.

Like we say – customers buy more from people they know, we help your customers get to know you.

We have a particular plan for real estate blogs, one we would be happy to share with any real estate companies that are interested in finding out more.

For all you Phoenix locals who really want to find out what blogging and social media is all about, you might want to head down to Mesa on January 27th, 2009 for the SEVRAR / BlueRoof360.com Technology Conference. Although the focus of the conference is on social media for the real estate industry there is a lot here for any business looking to get into social media marketing.

This is a free, all-day conference (which is a treat in itself – usually these things are expensive), and there are going to be a lot of good speakers there, including Chip Lambert – LinkedIn Master Instructor and Bill Austin – our local ’social media guru’. Anyone who wants to find out more about Blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn, Search Engine Optimization, & Other Social Media will have the chance to talk one-on-one to the experts.

Myself (Jasper Blake of Dude Blog Your Business) and Tom Hinchey (Hinchey Studios) will both be there and are happy to discuss what we are doing in terms of video blogging. It should be an interesting day all round.

For the full program and sign-up details (you need to book lunch if you want it) – click here.