Northeast Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce

In my business, it becomes necessary to participate in triage: if I'm spending time out networking I'm spending time I'm not working for a client and vice-versa. Time is of the essence and doing a weekly cost analysis is an integral part of spending that time as best I can.

Even blogging can become cumbersome, so I hope you take this recommendation to heart.

I belong to a couple different networking groups and chambers and just today joined the Northeast Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce.

The Northeast Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce offers many of the things other official "Chambers" offer to small businesses, but the thing I'd like to focus on is their Leads Meeting. It happens every Wednesday at the Clarion off the Fields Ertel exit off I-71.

Delicious! And I don't mean that just because Taz Restaurant catered the meeting today (Lebanese, Greek, and Awesome!).

Any time you get a chance to get in front of other people, tell them what you do, pass some business cards, and network before and after, it's a win. Social media is not meant to keep us in front of our computers but to apprise us of opportunities to meet and shake hands.

As I say, a smile and a handshake is worth a thousand Tweets.

And I just wanted to thank the Northeast Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce for offering such a meeting and say I'm glad to be a part of the organization.

2010 is going to be an amazing year and this is going to be a solid piece of it.

Stop by, say hi, shake a couple hands and see if it offers you the same. I look like the guy in my profile pic :)

Have a great day!

Networking Cincinnati: Do It In Person - Positively!

Those of you who have been reading along have noticed that one of my running themes has been the "in person" aspect of networking (a couple months back I got a great response from an overview of Cincinnati's social networking events).

As I mentioned in a few past posts, a smile and a handshake is worth a thousand Tweets. And then some.

Whenever I encounter someone who bemoans that their Twitter account is not making them money, my first question is: What value do you add to your followers?

Because it's not about what services or products you offer - not right away, and never for some followers - it's about what value you add. Who is going to pay attention to you if all you're doing is tweeting a product and linking to your site 3 or 10 times a day? Who's going to even keep following you?

And it goes further than that. Even beyond the value you add to your readers is: how well do they really know you? After you've done what you can to add value and gain genuine followers and connect to the online community, what are you doing to connect to the local community in person? What are you doing to be the face of your brand, the smile, the handshake in the living flesh?

You need to get out there. In the post above I mentioned several of the in-person types of groups or ways to find groups.

You need to stick it out there, both online and in person, risk flowing into reward. Especially for small businesses, social media almost requires that your face is now a recognizable part of your brand. Brand is not just a logo or the crafted copy of your website; it's the personality you inject into your blog and Tweets, it's your avatar, and it's the attitude you show when you meet someone else. Again: risk and reward.

Plan accordingly. We'll cover some other issues in online etiquette in another post, but if you're a grump in the morning, don't attend morning networking events. If you go to bed at eight or have a personal grudge against anyone who raises a beer, don't attend after-hours events. Play to your strengths, show up your best, and that's what people will remember.

Just remember to smile. And keep that handshake firm.

Inspiration and Social Networking Tie-in: Selflessness

I snagged this quote from somewhere on the internets late last week and it has stuck with me every single day since:

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.

Og Mandino (1923-1996) essayist and pop psychologist

For me, it's one of those bits of wisdom that sticks with you, word for word, and it will influence every day for the rest of my life. It's giving first, a certain degree of selflessness.

And since we missed yesterday, that's today's inspiration point: Worry about giving and the getting will take care of itself.

How does this relate to social networking? How doesn't it?

I attended the Tristate Business Network's Tuesday meeting today and smiled to myself as I thought about that quote, knowing I was going to post about this today. TBN's mantra is: Focus on what you give.

If you enter with the intent to give, to help, to be a resource to others, then everything will take care of itself: others will notice your giving nature as inspiration; others will want to help you; everyone will benefit from a single seed.

So the take-home lesson here is to eschew the tone of the ever-salesman. Granted, if an opportunity to sell your product or services arises, kindly take it. But it's all about attitude. Genuine attitude. Blake in Glengarry Glen Ross focuses on "Always Be Closing." I say Always Be Giving.

Go in giving and that attitude starts a flow. Go in taking and people will take notice. And avoid you.

Be a giver. "Your life will never be the same again."


NOTE: I can't say enough about the Tristate Business Network. I'm a member of probably a dozen different networking groups, and the focus on both networking and giving, reasonable price, and frequency of gatherings is something I've found a real affinity with. All scheduled events are guest-friendly. Get involved!

A Sidenote: Facebook Rant

I like you Facebook. I really do. And I like you, people I friend; otherwise I wouldn't friend you. But as I douse all the pending requests today with Ignore juice, I feel a need to rant:

I don't want to be a farmer. Otherwise I'd move 10 miles east and buy a couple acres and some overalls and a straw hat and a combine. I do not need a cow or a pig or a banana tree (banana tree?). I certainly don't have time to pretend to be a farmer. Please stop the Farmville requests. It's bad enough I have to see your farm snapshots in my feed.

The Godfather trilogy and Goodfellas was good enough for me. Even if I had a time machine to go back in time to when the mafia was a hard core, in-control group of legend, depending on the exact date, I'd end up at Woodstock or a Bauhaus concert. I don't want to be a gangster. Or a gangsta. And I don't want to pretend that part of my lot on this Earth entails fighting mob bosses and offing the competition - or asking my friends to help me complete said tasks. Please stop with the Mafia Wars requests.

See above paragraph as to why I am not interested in being a Gangster Battle participant, which is apparently the redheaded step-cousin of Mafia Wars.

I don't want to fling food, I don't have time to find out what Disney Princess I am, and What Greek God I am equated with due to a fluff quiz put together to sell ad space is of NO interest to me.

I have no L'il Green Patch. No Flair.

Facebook is good and kind and I love it as both a way to keep in touch with others as well as keeping people - those who choose to be a fan - up to date with my business. And maybe it's my lack of free time that turns me against these Facebook flourishes, but the amount of time people spend on these diversions truly boggles my mind.

Get out! Use social media to socially network! Meet up with others, share experiences, network, or just hang out. Do it in person!

I know I'll continue to get them, and really I won't mind hitting that Ignore button once or twice a week. But dang. It would be nice to get a week or two off.

Social Networking in Cincinnati

I've been doing a great deal of networking over the past few weeks and have had some excellent experiences and met fantastic people. Here's a quick guide to some of the events and groups I've been interacting with.

Cincinnati AMA
The Cincinnati chapter of the American Marketing Association has over 600 members in the Cincinnati/NKY region. With about a dozen monthly events planned around SIGs like Business-to-Business and International Marketing, there are plenty of opportunities to get to know people in your niche in both structured learning environments and more social mingling that the Young Professionals group gravitates towards. The fee is reasonable and scaled for business size, but non-members can attend just about every event.

Tristate Business Network
TBN's mission is to bring businesses from all over the Tri-state area together to meet, network and help each other grow business relationships. They have a monthly speed networking event (90 seconds - go!) and daily - yes, I said daily - meeting and networking opportunities in and around greater Cincinnati. With over 200 official members and a constantly changing flow of visitors, TBN focuses on giving first. A modest membership fee is worth the friendships and connections.

New Media Cincinnati - Second Saturday
If you don't know about this one, check out the New Media Cincy site. A relaxed gathering every second Saturday at the Pub at Rookwood organized around new media of some sort by Daniel Johnson, Jr., you can see some of the Twitter traffic by searching #newmediacincy. Event is free, food and drink are attendee's responsibility.

Jelly Cincinnati
This is the #CincyTweetup coworking event that takes place at Crossroads at Ridge and Madison once a month. "The idea here is to have folks who work in many different job functions working together in an open environment. The expectation is that creative juices will flow and new friendships will be forged." Honestly, more networking happens than actual work getting done, but there are people coming and going all day and always someone interesting to talk to and learn from. Was started by @researchgoddess (we'll miss you!) but is now headed up by @hellogerard and @blecount. Event is free.

Market and Profit (MAP)
Twice a month a speed networking event (where you're the only in your field in your group) followed by open networking and a meal. Excellent turnout every time. Very small fee to attend (joining group is free) and another great way to meet professionals and business owners in Cincinnati. Keep abreast of the events through the Linkedin Group. Over 600 Linkedin members.

Social media helps you get out your message and helps to build your presence for your face and your brand online. But nothing substitutes meeting people face to face and growing real-world relationships. Remember: A smile and a handshake is worth a thousand tweets.


So where do you go to network? What groups do you belong to or mingle with? I'd love to get your feedback.

UPDATE!
Thanks to some great feedback through Twitter from @newmediacincy and @hellogerard, we've got some more resources to toss in there, and some things I needed reminding of:

Job Search Focus Group
The Job Search Focus Group of Hyde Park is often lauded in Cincinnati as one of the most extensive "in transition" groups in the region. I was able to attend once and the resources and networking are great; if I ever moved from owning my own business to in transition, that's the first place I'd stop. Follow some of the Tweeting with #jsfg

Cincinnati Social Media
Follow the tweets at #cincysm. And set your alerts! The Enquirer event coming up 9/9 knocked down 50 seats in 45 minutes and the Social Media Breakfast usually goes faster than that.

Resources for Women
I've heard nothing but good things about the Cincinnati Women Bloggers (@cinwomenbloggers), Girlfriendology (@girlfriendology), and the women's publication Cincy Chic.

Additionally, Breanna Gaddie's Networking With Passion blog is always a great read, and Krista Neher created a post a while back that covers some of the items I did not in this post.

Oh, and Thursday, August 20th is networking at the Hofbrauhaus in NKY at 11:30 (thanks @justinrains

Anything else? I'm always up to update!

Podcamp Ohio 2009: #pco09

This past weekend I attended Podcamp Ohio 2 (PodcampOhio Twitter)in Columbus, Ohio. And it was wonderful. (note: this post went up yesterday but disappeared *shakes fist at Blogger*)

Walking into the OSU Geology building set the tone for the whole day. Before the registration table was a large pad of paper propped up on a easel. Someone had hand-written in marker: "Our hashtag for the event is #pco09. Tweet when you arrive!" I'm sure they didn't even need to tell us. As of this writing, almost 800 tweets have gone out with that tag.

Building-wide wi-fi was free (thank goodness - my Pre was picking up nothing in that structure), everyone was hooked into their smartphones, and about half of us had laptops. There were six sessions throughout the day with seven+ talks for each session, so making choices was NOT an easy endeavor.

Yay Free Stuff!

Swag bag was great and contained the official program with descriptions of each talk that was registered before the deadline, trial software from TechSmith (and the sweetest highlighter/Post-it tag dual-purpose pen I've ever seen) and some very informative information about Columbus. And I'd be remiss to skip mentioning the toy racecar, plastic "LOVE" ring, and balloon.

ávitāe energy water was one of the sponsors and we had the simple joy of purified water and caffeine hydrating us for the day. Our delicious lunch was Qdoba. Yum.

Ummm...What's a Podcamp?

For those of you who have not attended or even heard of Podcamp, it was launched in Boston by Chris Brogan and Christopher Penn and is officially categorized as an unConference, meaning speakers aren't there so much to rule the room, droning with slides, as to facilitate a discussion with the understanding that there will be people in the room who know more about the topic than you do. And that's okay. Everyone's a rockstar and the rule of two feet applies: you don't feel you're getting out of it what you want to, get on your two feet and go somewhere else.

I did see a couple reticent posts in post about the content of Podcamp Ohio. It is NOT just about podcasting but the whole of new media. There were talks about social media in general, specific social networking sites, podcasting, podcasting equipment and software, branding, and even SEO. It basically spans anything internet and new media.

What Your Boss Already Knows About You

In the fourth session, I gave my talk with the above title. We discussed how businesses are using social media to screen both potential and current employees, how colleges are using social media to screen potential and current students, and what we can do overall to find a balance between privacy and "being out there."

It was a smaller group, but very engaged in the topic and their stories certainly increased my understanding of the extent that schools and businesses are going today to screen employees.

And while most of the goodness came out of the discussion and starting/ending the talk with www.cursebird.com on the screen (Twitter web use of API, live stream of any tweets that contain swear words with trending graphs), you are more than welcome to a PDF of the slides here.

My Path

I started with Daniel Johnson, Jr. in Session 1 talking about job hunting success stories, including his own. I joined John "Lumpy" Lemke in Session 2 for the Audacity Hands-On Workshop. After lunch I participated in a wonderfully-overcrowded room where Krista Neher was discussing building a strong brand and how it relates to new media. I had to sneak out of that one (it was running long) to get to my own talk but after What Your Boss... I was over to Twitter Tools for Business with Wendy Suto, which I cut short when I saw a live tweet from Daniel Johnson, Jr. that there was an impromptu with Amybeth Hale and Michael Loban about job searches and recruiting. I fired away at the SEO Lightning Session, with Bill Condo as the main speaker. Excellent info shared by all.


Conclusion

My primary take-away from the unConference (which I've already tweeted) is a dichotomy of "Hey, I'm doing okay for my business" and "Holy crap I've got a ton of work to do!" Part of that work is getting deeper in the keyword aspects of my social media and web marketing life. I preach the importance of it and practice it regularly, but I could be and strive to be better myself. Also, in the next 3 months, my goal is to be using videos and audio podcasts to spread my new media gospel and offer my web design and internet marketing expertise to a larger audience.

Conclusion is that it was like being at tech geek social media home. I loved it and cannot wait until next year. In fact, I'm looking at Cleveland's which is forthcoming with a spring 2010 date, as well as Pittsburgh's, taking place in October. And I think I may be talking again.

If you missed Ohio's, check one of those out. If you're half as much into technology and new media and the internet as I am, you will not be disappointed.

Joining the Cincinnati AMA

A couple weeks ago I joined the Cincinnati chapter of the American Marketing Association. It wasn't an easy decision in that joining any organization that requires a monetary commitment requires a great deal of research to make sure the investment is worth it.

By "worth it," I do not mean just making connections that might open some leads and eventually web design or SEO contracts. For me, I was looking for a new networking opportunity that would allow me to meet many people in the Cincinnati area. I want to meet other professionals who are running their own business. I would like to see active groups and enriching experiences. And I want to be a resource to others, to be able to give even before receiving.

After my research into the AMA and the swell of testimonials both online and in person of how "worth it" the AMA is, joining was the easiest decision I've made. It appears that the resources are there and it will become everything I want to make it.

I'll write more about the results after getting involved and attending a handful of events.

Remember that networking in that old-fashioned way of "in person" can be the most rewarding and a smile and a handshake can make your day.

Is Twitter Worth a Damn? Hint: Yes

Whether it's a social media "expert" shouting down from his cloud that Twitter is foolishness or an early-adopter eschewing the micro-blogging site because it's too mainstream and polluted, there are thousands of Twitter naysayers out there, some of which spread their message via Twitter, which is interestingly, simultaneously ironic and hypocritical.

I currently operate a quality Twitter account based on EJM Designs Limited that, at last count, had me following 184, 166 following me, and 216 updates.

I've already addressed the size considerations of a custom Twitter background, and I'll post about the intricacies of Twitter usage and all the side-apps and my own induction in a later post, but the point of this gem is whether Twitter does anything for business other than waste your time.

It depends on how you look at it, how you approach Twitter usage. I recently saw a comment somewhere that stuck with me and rang to the effect of "After 4 days and following 2000 people I can say Twitter sucks." This is the wrong way to approach Twitter usage.

The value of Twitter is the value that can be found in any social network. Technology is by definition sterile: auto-responders, auto-dialers, and auto-direct-messages. If you inject the humanity into it, it can become valuable. But if you jump in without that thought, that ideal, in your head, you end up following 2000 people in a couple days and whining "Where's my money?"

Here's how Twitter can be valuable for a business:

• Open your account
• Tweet at least 20 times about your industry over a couple days
• Follow people in your field locally
• Follow local businesses not necessarily in your field
• Follow people in your business nationally
• If you are followed and the person is relevant to your business or locale, don't be a jerk: follow back
• Be involved in the conversation; reply to others; help those in need.

Now, if you've been paying attention to those you're following, you've set yourself up for information pertaining to real-world meets. If you don't notice any, ask! That's what people are there for. If there is no local meet? Create one! That's what you're apparently there for. Then you meet people in person. Then you trade cards. Then you sign contracts.

The effort you put forth online might amount to a couple hours of work a week, but if you participate and refine those tweets into actual, physical interaction and make yourself available, that's where the magic happens.

So yes, Virginia, there is a purpose for Twitter. But without a little work and a little humanity - like with anything - you probably won't find it.

World's Largest Snowball Fight: Epic Fail

As the Sioux City Journal (?) reported, organizer Mike Basak of the University of Wisconsin-Madison tried to trump Michigan Technological University's 2006 record snowball fight involving 3,600 attendees.

Hey, more than 4,000 people joined the Facebook group! Only it was just a couple hundred that showed up. Reasons given were that it was too cold or there was a basketball.

Of course Mike, a freshman, should've been tipped off by his senior year Facebook group experience where 15 people joined "Hey Totally TP Michelle Oplatki's House Cause She Broke Up With Me" but he was the only one to show up to her house. That's if you don't count Michelle's dad, already on the porch with a shotgun.

The real life lesson here, while not uplifting, is that much of the world is well aware that some people already flaunt verbal commitment. Online gives them even more distance as in "I didn't even say anything, just clicked something on a whim."

Which returns me, yet again, to a theme that is apparently going to - rightfully - run through this blog. Technology is good for us. Web sites and search engine optimization and usability and social networks just...work for us. But it's not just a game. It's not just numbers and avatars and network connections. Every link is a person. And if we don't get off our asses and use this technology as a tool to connect in the real world, we will inevitably fall into a recursive pattern of leaning back, clicking, and occasionally smiling. But only occasionally.

Because quoting "Why's the carpet all wet Todd?" "I don't know Margo!" is just not that great unless you get that immediate recognition and - hopefully - chuckle.

I'm going to have to start a movie blog.