5 reasons you should be at the Social Capital Conference

We started Social Capital because we wanted somewhere close to home where we could bring the incredible social media community in Ottawa together.  In two years it has grown farther and bigger than I ever could have imagined.

Social Capital is primarily about connecting and learning but I will now summarize 5 reasons you shouldn’t miss this year’s conference!

1) Amazing experts

The folks who join us each year for Social Capital are always amazing.  This year we have so many names that are the experts Karen and I follow to keep up to date on all that is happening in the world of social media. Names like Gini Dietrich, Danny Brown, Susan Murphy, Bob LeDrew, Mark Blevis, Martin Waxman and so many more.

These experts know SO MUCH and we get to spend some time in person with them. 

2) Learn

I’ve been to some great conferences but the one thing I felt like I often was missing were things to come home and action.  We’ve asked all of our speakers to outline the actionables they’ll be sharing during their sessions and we really think you’ll leave the conference with new things to DO when you get back to the office or home.

3) Produce

The workshops are an opportunity to learn and produce.  In 3-hour blocks, experts will be working with groups of 20 people or less on specific topics and actually creating and doing what is being taught.  Topics like podcasting, mobile video, Wordpress, research, storytelling, webinars, and creative social campaigns! I can’t wait to get into some of these topics and the hardest part will be choosing which ones to go to because so many are applicable to me!

4) Ask your questions

The roundtables are one of my favourite parts of the conference because small groups get to chat about the topics that really interest them.  In groups of 5-15 you get to ask all the questions you have about a specific topic, and we’ll have 20 topics you can choose from!

5) Be social

Social Capital was started because of the amazing social media community that exists in Ottawa.  Social media is about being social online, but we actively encourage in-person interactions as well!  The conference is an opportunity to get together with people and build on the relationships started online or build new relationships you maintain online when you get back to your computer.  Social media is about relationship building and doing that in person is one of my favourite parts.

I really hope to see you at the conference.  We’ve got some great ticket promos going on, including a contest and a buy 3 get one free ticket option.  I truly believe almost anyone working with social media can get something from this conference and I hope to see you there!

Buzz and Brilliance: Week ending May 11

Over the week we go through a lot of content - news and blog posts, how tos and conceptual posts on the state of the internet.  Every Sunday we share some of our favourites with you.

Check out the links and let us know in the comments if you have any questions or if you read any great posts this week!

***

Lara

I often see people complaining about ads on Facebook and Twitter but they don’t bother me.  Why?  Aside from the fact that they are tools I want to use for my own business, I also know as a business owner that businesses need to make money, and Facebook and Twitter are businesses. These are free services we enjoy, most of the other channels we have to deal with ads on we pay for! (newspapers, tv, etc)

How will we ever create all the content that seems to be demanded of us to build a good online presence?  Re-use and recycle, and plan for it right from the start.

Video video video - it’s a big buzzword this year and I can’t disagree with it.  Video is important, but it needs to be done well.  James Wedmore is an expert I’ve recently found and his videos have a ton of useful content to help you figure out where to start and what to talk about.

Karen

I don’t like to say that there are rules when it comes to using social media, but it’s certainly good to know the etiquette or best practice guidelines. 

It’s ridiculously easy to use any old image you find online. But it doesn’t make it legal and you can get in a lot of trouble. In fact, often it isn’t and you’ll want to know how to use images in a way that won’t get you sued. (We have a whole session at Social Capital about this!)

Social media is about building relationships, which is why I really like the ideas in this post about having fun with your blog readers. Would you like to interact this way with your favourite blogs?

If what you write helps just one person, it’s valuable. Viral is overkill and not necessarily all it’s cracked up to be. (We’re going to have a session at Social Capital that touches on “viral” videos, too.)

SOCIAL CAPITAL

Social Capital is quickly approaching (it’s May 31 and June 1). Join us this Tuesday for our second #socapott Twitter Chat.  We’ve also announced a lot of great speakers that you won’t want to miss, including Gini Dietrich and Danny Brown!

THE MEDIA MESH

Making a case for Google+

Happy Mother’s Day!

As mothers ourselves, we know the work that you do every day. Today, we celebrate you and everything you do for your family. Enjoy this ad from Google:

Making a case for Google+

For many small business owners, staying on top of social media can be challenging at times so the thought of adding one more social network to the mix may seem like a daunting task. However, the benefits of having a Google+ business page and community may outweigh the drawbacks of having to set one up (which really isn’t that hard anyway).

Google+ is owned by Google, so what happens on G+ can actually impact your standing in search engine ranking and improve your search engine optimization (SEO). The reason for this is that Google gives a great deal of weight to the social behaviors and recommendations from your connections on Google+, especially at the local level.  In fact, Google treats Google+ pages as regular sites. You can check this out yourself by doing a search and see what pages come up. Often, information from G+ pages is ranked higher than other, non-Google sites.

As a small business, having a Google+ Business page and working to increase your connections (circles), by sharing reviews, posting YouTube video, images and posts, you can actually increase your visibility in search results. Another bonus is that by analyzing those in your circles, Google will be able gather more and more targeted information about what your customers are looking for. Google will incorporate recommended and shared sites from people you are connected to on G+, which can go a long way in ensuring that their friends and circles will be more likely to find your business in a search.

For your customer, this is a good thing. It means that they may actually be presented with search results that not only are they more interested in but with endorsements from trusted friends and colleagues who have vouched for the business/product/place etc. 

Let’s look at it this way.  Say you do a search for the best local restaurant.  In your search results, you see that your friend has shared a great review of the restaurant and vouches for the restaurant’s cleanliness. Can you think of better validation than the endorsement from a trusted friend? 

By creating a page and reaching out to other G+ pages to increase visibility and connections, you will not only help establish yourself in the local community where you do business but you can engage with other, complementary businesses to become a local referral source. Using reviews, +1’s and discussions on group pages, you will be able to continue to build your community, and your brand.

So, what are you waiting for? Go claim your spot on Google+! We’d love to connect with you. We could even Hangout!

Buzz and Brilliance: Week ending May 4

Over the week we go through a lot of content - news and blog posts, how tos and conceptual posts on the state of the internet.  Every Sunday we share some of our favourites with you.

Check out the links and let us know in the comments if you have any questions or if you read any great posts this week!

***

Lara

E-newsletters and Facebook ads are two things that I’ve been really concentrating on lately - there are so many interesting things to learn about how to use them to grow your business.

One of the most important things to remember when sending newsletters is to have a good subject line. If your subject line is boring, who is going to open your email? Here are 25 tips for great subject lines.

Amy Porterfield is my go to Facebook expert and she shared a lot of interesting information on Facebook ads in one of her recent podcasts. The podcast itself as well as the step by step Facebook ad pdf she created explain how and why to try out Facebook’s power editor and how to target ads in the newsfeed only instead of also in the sidebar.

Spin Sucks has a weekly post called Gin and Topics I check religiously every weekend and whenever I see a video I think is hilarious I send it to to Gini in the hopes she’ll include it. This week she did! Corn chips are hilarious.

Karen

Ellen DeGeneres makes me laugh. A lot. She’s also using social media brilliantly to promote her show and be funny for us for longer than an hour a day, five days a week. The story of the game app she’s launched is really interesting to me. It’s wildly successful (understandable given her fame) and is tied to her show only in that she plays the game on the show. Businesses can apply this kind of thinking to their own new media strategies by looking at ways to connect and stay on the minds of customers (and it doesn’t necessarily have to be an app).

It’s easy to make missteps when you first start out using social tools or setting up your website. Darren Rowse (ProBlogger) laid out his own mistakes regarding domain names. I’ve made some of these mistakes and the news is good from Darren’s perspective: they don’t mean you can’t be successful!

One technique for getting traffic to your blog/website is to be controversial. However, as a long-term strategy, it truly isn’t sustainable. I’ve written posts expressing my views about various controversies before and it’s draining. I will only do that if I feel very strongly about something. Otherwise, it’s not worth my time or energy. However, as a business user, it’s important to think about the points Mark Schaefer made, as well as the possible impact on your business.

Though it may be tempting some days to walk away from the internet for a good long time, it’s not something I am likely to do. It was so good to read Paul Miller’s conclusions about how it went when he stayed off the internet for one year.

It’s not social media related, but this article with 10 ways to stay happy as an entrepreneur is one for any business owner to read.

SOCIAL CAPITAL

Social Capital is quickly approaching (it’s May 31 and June 1). Join us this Tuesday for our second #socapott Twitter Chat.  We’ve also announced a lot of great speakers that you won’t want to miss, including Gini Dietrich and Danny Brown!

THE MEDIA MESH

Does everyone hate getting newsletters?

Why Instagram is good for your business

To tweet or not to tweet during tragic breaking news

Does everyone hate getting newsletters?

This isn’t the first time I’ve written about the fact that I think newsletters are important, but I think it’s worth saying again. 

I’m a huge fan of newsletters. In fact, I’m that annoying person who is always asking everyone if they have a newsletter and trying to convince them to start one if they haven’t. The reason I hear most often for not having a newsletter is:

“*I* hate getting newsletters”

So if that’s you, here’s what I want to say:

That’s totally fine. You can hate newsletters and I have no issue with that! I KNOW you think they clog up your inbox and that they feel like sales pitches to you. I know you would rather go and find your own information and you’re tired of everyone and their brother asking you to sign up to their newsletter. I know. I sympathize. I do. :)

But here’s the thing. You’re not everybody.

Believe it or not, there are a lot of people who WANT to get newsletters. They don’t want to go looking for information, they want it right there in front of them to choose to read or not.

They don’t go on Facebook or use RSS to find their content. They check their email 10+ times a day.

They are happy to open emails they asked to receive.

Does it really work?

Sara McConnell of Sara McConnell Photography wasn’t convinced when we first talked about her starting a newsletter.  I pushed pretty hard and it now has a direct impact on her bottom line.

There are several reasons why I didn’t want to create a newsletter: I don’t like reading them when they’re emailed to my inbox and I felt that with twitter, Facebook, and blogging, that I had all my bases covered.  What I realized though is that I don’t represent my typical customer (with my social media habits) and that I was missing out on an opportunity to reach out to clients as well as offer them exclusive deals and information, something I couldn’t do through the social media platforms I was using.  Seventeen newsletters later and I’m clearly a convert!

So, does everyone hate getting newsletters?

The simple answer is no. Some people really do like getting newsletters, and some people are happy to get specific newsletters sometimes. The key is to provide value.  

Sara provides early access to sessions in her newsletters so opening her newsletters gives you the opportunity to get the best possible timing on your photoshoots.  

Wellman Wilson’s newsletter recaps the top content from the previous two weeks for those who can’t make it to the blog on a regular basis and we also announce new programs there first (sign up in the box below!)

What can you provide your audience that would make it worth their time to open your newsletter to see what you have to say?