David Parmet of Marketing Begins At Home recently spoke at a PRSA tech function in NYC.  David was struck by the difference and or savyness or lack thereof in the audience in NYC vs. his week long visit to SF where he attended the SuperNova conference. 

Well, yes, I agree there is a difference (who could disagree) but I want to make another observation.  When I started putting together the Business Smart Tools Conference it came out of complete frustration because no one that I was interfacing with on a professional level was having a conversation about social media and what it could mean for their business hence the birth of the conference.  This forum was a way to start companies talking, especially the local ones.  Well it worked but it wasn’t just this conference.  There has been a plethora of information on TV, newspapers (check out Sundays NY Times), magazines and more on blogging, podcasting, video online, games…the list goes on and on.

I believe companies are beginning to listen, to question and to feel the pressure to participate. 

It has been interesting to see the movement from “that’s for kids” to “how do we begin to take part in the internet game,” it has been exciting to be a catlyst for some and a guide for others.  Can’t wait to see what the future holds…whatever it is, we at Creative Concepts are ready to go for the ride!

One of the things that I find interesting when I go to other blogs is not only the expertise that the blogger brings to life through blogging but after awhile, it’s the details about their lives that continues to pull me in.

Robert Scoble of course brings a lot of experience and knowledge to his blog….life at Microsoft, having dinner with techie stars and exposing their casual and riveting conversations, reviewing new products that have just come out…but what also brings life to his blog is that Robert mixed personal details into the blog recipe.  We heard about his mother dying and all the steps he took as a son to help her through her last days, we witnessed Robert taking his life apart and assessing what he should be doing as an employee, a father, a husband. 

David Pogue recently did the same thing when mentioning a study on Blackberry users: does using a Blackberry take more or less time away from the family?  I don’t think we got an answer from him but we did get to hear about David’s life and how he works in his attic and when his kids come home, he can hear about their day and how he can make trips to piano class.  By the way this particular study showed that the majority of Blackberry users do get back to their families faster.

I personally feel more connected to these two bloggers and because I feel connected, I trust them more and because I trust them more, then I believe more in what they say.  Call me crazy, but this is how human beings work.  It is word of mouth, it is gut instinct, it is the neighbor theory that you only do business with the person next door, so to speak.  Blogging is our word of mouth and our next door neighbor lives in the U.K. thanks to the internet.

This is why blogs work:  if presented honestly and you reveal who you are, then the readers (potential clients) will trust you and your products more…you have a strong base for when things go wrong with a product or service, you have a strong base for acquiring more clients!

Connection is everything…it always has been and it always will be!

Now I have to run because I have little time to do my work because this is the last day of school and my kids, all 4 of them, will be taking me away from the office for the rest of the day!

Stay connected,

Valorie Luther

Well, we did it.  The Business Smart Tools Conference went off not only smoothly but grandly as the speakers did what I thought they could do which was to educate a diverse business oriented crowd on why emerging technology has to be taken seriously. 

Ron Stevenson from GE said it perfectly when is said that all content at GE is now created so that it is “liquid” or can slide between many mediums: podcasts, blogs, TV, video, mobile….

Mike Dunn said that if a company is not paying attention to the new media/technology then they may not be around for long.

David Parmet, Matt Kain and Reena Jana also echoed the same thoughts which you will be able to catch on the Business Smart Tools site by the end of the week.

Applause goes out to all of the speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors for making the 1st Business Smart Tools Conference a big success!  And thank you to Sabine for blogging about it live!!

Stamford, CT will never be the same!  Business Smart Tools Conference has found its home!

Look for more information and news about our next conference at www.BusinessSmartTools.com

 

Yes, it’s still Sabine, live blogging from the conference.
David Parmet is speaking on blogging at the Business Smart Tools conference.

He’s been busy live blogging, too, and uploading pictures as well.

What is the internet now? The internet is a physical space, a read/write web, social media. Tools are cheap and easy. It’s all about the aggregators (where you’re watching your media — computer, ipod, mobile devices).

Hugh Macleod came up with the phrase the Global Microbrand. A blog is a communications channel, not a sales channel.

With blogs, small companies can become global brands.

Big compies can talk with a human voice. Microsoft, Boing, GM, Sun.

He showed us the example of English Cut, the blog by Saville Row tailor Thomas Mahon. This blog has enormously increased his business.

People like to talk, and the internet gives them a venue — blogs, podcasts.

Also places like Amazon, where you can put in user reviews. Social media is not about the content as much as about connection.

The long tail: is a demand curve. In the traditional retail model, can only afford to stock the hits, the most popular stuff. But, Amazon has infinite shelf space, and found that they were selling as much of the non-popular stuff, in the aggregate, as the popular stuff.

Sabine again, bringing you Matt’s talk.

Matt is VP Sales, 24/7 Real Media USA.

The challenge for marketers is addressing audiences when media is getting increasingly fragmented. Look at kids — watching tv, on the internet, IMing, sending text messages, all simultaneously.
Idea is to put advertisers brands in the path of user’s behavior.
Yahoo has paid inclusion in the organic search results.

There are 2 basic ways for getting found in search engines:

1. have website rank naturally and optimize your site

2. search engine advertising and paid inclusion
24/7 Media has a set of tools to help advertisers and publishers connect to their audiences.

Looking at search results:

How to improve results in organic results.

Example: Vivapop.com

What phrases might a potential customer search on: scheduling calendar. There’s already a lot of results.

Search engines don’t look at the user interface of a page, they look at the source code. When Matt searches for the phrase in the source code — it’s not there. So this page will never be found for the phrase scheduling calendar.

For good SEO, avoid flash and other elements that don’t add content for search engines.

You also have to be careful not to use “black hat” techniques.

Looking at 24/7 site source code, can see metadata, such as title and keywords, which will help in search engine optimization.

How to use paid-for keywords.

Example: phrase “trout fishing.” In the month of april, over16,000 searches for that phrase.

For the word “fishing” 260,000 searches.

Next: look at how much it might cost. For Trout fishing, the top bidder is willing to pay $2.01. All of this data is available — Mike Kain can see every bidder on Yahoo for trout fishing.

He gave a quick demo on Google adwords.

SEM is the business of connecting to people who are already searching for you.

Sabine again: LiveBlogging from Business Smart Tools conference.

Next up is Mike Dunn. He’s a VP of Hears Interactive Media. They are a venture and enterprise technology group.

He’s been blogging for 5 years. His blog now is nomadic audio, which he started when podcasting first started.

Why podcasting appealed to him:

He manages projcts and resources globally, he needs to evaluate emerging technology and media trends, he’s drawn to change agent roles. he has a strong belief in social media tools, and he saw potential in the new media distribution model.

He commutes daily from Stamford to NYC, and in a crowded train, listening to audio is a lot easier to do standing up.

He asked the audience how many read via RSS (5 out of about 60). How many have heard about podcasting? 20 out of 50. About the same number know about iTunes.

He gave the history of podcasting and showed iTunes.

He also showed us his iRiver which he used to record part of David Pogue’s speech. Maybe he’ll put it up.

The San Fransciso Chronicle (owned by Hearst Interactive Media) invested in high-end technology for creating podcasts.

You can view the slides of his presentation on his blog.

He entered the term “Podcasting” in wikipedia on October 2, 2004, when he noticed that the term wasn’t there.

Yahoo has gotten into podcasting, also.

Podcasting really taps into the dynamic community aspects of the web.

Podcasting is easy. Corporations can do it with very little initial outlay of funds.

Why podcast? Podcasting allows for time and location shifting. It’s available 24 hours of the day.

SFGate.com does podcasts giving the behind the scenes look at a story.

I’ll have to look at his slides — he’s got some interesting ideas on ways to use podcasting.

David’s on and giving us a sneak peek at Thursday’s column. Should I tell?

In his speech, he’s telling us how he went to Times Square to interview folks to see if they’ve heard about blogs. Over half of them knew what a blog was, but very few actually read them.

A blog is a web page, frequently updated.

Blogosphere is a giant bell curve. On the left, amateurs who found out how easy it is. Many amateur blogs are created every minute.
He’s giving an example on how to create a blog on Blogger, which is what people do who have personal blogs.

Take home on blogging: Had the blog for a year and a half, with no comments, no images. No one noticed it. Finally the Times got a good blogging package. “Suddenly, people are reading this thing!”

On the other end of the blogosphere are the commercial blogs.

Meanness of the blogosphere:

He gets free items and services for review purposes. After he’s done the article, he has to return the item. Once, he wrote about someone fixing his hard drive for free. Bloggers took what one person wrote and turned it into “David Pogue accepting bribes for good reviews.”

This spun out of control — he was a victim of a blog attack.

People who read blogs, tend to be media people, influencers, “movers and shakers.” They amplify what they hear in the mainstream media.

He feels that there are two worlds of blogs –”innocent and gentle amateurs” and “mean, commercial” blogs.

He talked about podcasting and showed us his funny video about podcasting.

He ended by attaching a keyboard, and doing a song spoof: “Hello, voice mail, my old friend.” (Take off on Sound of Silence).

Update: I love David Parmet’s comments about David Pogue’s talk.

Sabine speaking here: Well, I made it to Stamford, CT, for the Business Smart Tools conference. It’s about to start. I made the rounds of the exhibitors, before the rush. There’s some cool technology out there. Some of the folks I talked to are:

• Vivapop (interactive web and voice accessible calendar)
• Conversagent (automated customer service agents)
• MarketWire (search engine optimization through press releases)
• Dial-a-Note powered by CiviCom (hands-free notepad)
• 24/7Real Media USA

I’m sure I’ll find out more as the conference progresses. I’m looking forward to the speaking part of the program, which will start at 2 PM.

I saw part of David Parmet’s presentation on blogging as he tested the projector, and it looks great.

He’s also started a Business Smart Tools Flickr photo set.

Well, as we are nearing our date of June 13th, the Business Smart Tools Conference is ready to go.  The speakers are set, the exhibiting companies ready to go, the Marriott is organized and Creative Concepts is ready to hit the stage. 

This whole process has been amazing and exciting.  The speakers who said yes, see the site for details www.BusinessSmartTools.com, set the tone.  David Pogue, Mike Dunn, David Parmet, Matt Kaine, Ron Stevenson and Reena Jana are professional, smart, wise, and kind and are a draw for any community unto themselves.  The exhibiting companies are cool and innovative (Clearlight, Remembrix, TVEyes, Ingenio, Dial A Note, Multivu, ZoomInfo, Marketwire, Vivapop, Conversagent and Podisite) and jumped on board right away which set the second level of excitement! 

An undying level of gratitude goes out to my biggest sponsors Remembrix and Clearlight Pictures who created the website and will oversee the video podcast of this event among other contributions.  They have supported this effort every step of the way and I am very grateful.  We have the Stamford Marriott whose undying professionalism is very much appreciated.  We have multivu and marketwire who have also been very suportive of this conference.  Press releases hit the country and announced the BST conference in a variety of ways…thank you thank you.  We have David Parmet of Marketing Begins at Home who has not only taken care of the media expenses but has been a supportive cast member in this play called Business Smart Tools and finally a big thanks to Podsite and to Michael who took time out of his day, and at the last minute, to create the beautiful program.  Another undying gratitude thanks goes out to my gang at Creative Concepts, Michelle Walker and Sabine Kirstein for helping to make this conference and our business going forward a big success!  And finally a thank you to all of those people who have registered who are ready to learn how the social media can enhance their marketing ane internal communications efforts in any size business!

Wow, I think I just wrote my opening speech.  Thank you Thank you to all!

Hello all.  It has been awhile.  I have been working hard (day and night) on the Business Smart Tools Conference which takes place Tuesday, June 13, in Stamford from 1-6 (cocktail party included).  Go to www.BusinessSmartTools.com for more info.  Learn about the basics of blogging, podcasting, search engine marketing and more.  Network with the experts in these fields.  Check out the tech companies who are doing a demo of their products…very cool stuff.

Companies attending so far are GE, Hearst, BusinessWeek, 24/7Media, Digitas, McGraw Hill, Equity Office, Ryan Partnership, Pepperidge Farm, Bigelow Tea, Boots Retail USA, Pirro & Church and more!

So, had a great blog example yesterday that I am dying to share.  Had a vendor that I went to and asked for a proposal.  He said sure and I never heard from him.  I then wrote about him in my blog (I have another blog: www.EntertainingNews.blogspot.com) and talked about him specifically and how I couldn’t trust him because of not following through with a simple proposal. 

Now the purpose of this blog is to share the dos and donts of entertaining and of course to share my experiences so others can learn.  This guy got wind of my blog (probably through a google search) and called me.  He couldn’t believe that I had written about him.  This was his business he said.  He said he sent me the proposal (via email…first time it got bounced back..do you think this would be a call to follow up?).  He said I should not have mentioned him until I called him first (why so I could threaten him into action…I don’t think so even though I know people who have done such things with great success).

Wow, very interesting.  I said that I could write about him and that is what blogging is all about (you know…free speech and all).  I said that I simply shared my experience and the fact was he never followed up.  I said he was lucky to learn a lesson via a blog before his cash register is hit and he doesn’t know why.

The power of blogging is good for all business.  It is an immediate venting tool for the customer and it is a forum for companies to learn first hand what is on the mind of their clients. 

Tell me again why more companies aren’t invovled in the blogging world?  Oh yes, they haven’t come to the Business Smart Tools Conference yet.  Reserve your spot today, www.BusinessSmartTools.com

See you in Stamford!