Inspired by Mashable’s 100 Upcoming Social Media and Technology Conferences list, we cracked open our planners and decided where we could invest our time in learning this fall. We decided on a few national conferences, opted for a few marketing, technology, and PR meetings, but when we got to the topic of social media, we were nearly crushed with the options. While we’d like to go to BlogWorld and APPNation, we needed to consider just how much time we could spend out of the office and our carbon footprint (Jenny’s traveling to speak in Houston at IS Conference and in San Diego at LavaCon). To save on time, we considered only social media conferences and events in Atlanta. To our surprise, we found a dozen* social media conferences and meetings in Atlanta happening before the calendar flips to the new year. What’d we find? Take a look:

 While we’re narrowing down our options, reviewing speakers, and the value we’d get for our time out of the office, tell us how you decide on what conferences to attend? If you are coming to any of these conferences or headed to Atlanta for the first time, let’s be social and connect while you’re here. (Know about a conference we missed? Send us an email and let us know.)

*Thanks to Scott Lockhart (@scott_regator) for sending us the info on Mashable’s Atlanta event on Sept. 30.  And to Lane Bailey for sending us info about REBarCamp on Oct. 1. We knew this town was busy.

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With the fast pace of sports – an industry with ever-changing leaders, teams, athletes, seasons, sponsors, opportunities – it’s no wonder that keeping up with the rapid pace of social media can be a challenge. This week, the Atlanta chapter of Women in Sports and Events, invited me to present a social media primer for sports and event professionals.  Having worked in the several areas of sports, I jumped at the chance.
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You’ve heard about Twitter right? You join about 87% of Americans who’ve heard of it, but maybe you’re part of the 93% who haven’t ventured to try it for personal or for business.  While there are lots of case studies to show innovate ways to use Twitter and proof it leads to sales, you just don’t know how to start or if you should.  You’re not alone.

We frequently present on Twitter for business. It’s so important to help people get started, especially businesses, that Twitter posts a Twitter for Business Guide on its homepage.  But before you get there, let us help you with the first steps. 

This presentation was given at Atlanta’s Freelancer’s Forum last week.  While a lot of learning happened off the screen, these are the basic steps to get start in and understand more about the world’s most popular short-message platform.

Let us know if it helped you!

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If you haven’t experience the phenomenon of Twitter chats, you’re missing out on excellent crowdsourced learning and sharing.  There are nearly 80 chats happening each week in topics ranging from agriculture to web journalists. We’ve put together a list of Twitter chats relating to our worlds – marketing, PR, social media, and business – all noted with their days and times.* While we’d love to list things like DesignChat (Wednesday, 8pm CT), we’re trying to stay focused and not list every chat we’d like to follow. 

 If you’re running your own business, or just trying to learn more about marketing/social media/pr you can follow the conversations, pose questions and participate. You can learn a lot to apply to your business.

Oh, and if you miss a chat at the time listed, you can also search by its hashtag for past conversations; many chat hosts will post summaries on their own blogs.

Feel free to share what chats you find worthwhile. If you just can’t get enough, you can find a full list of chats, by checking here.

*Times for chats are based on US time zones: ET is Eastern Time; CT is Central Time; PT is Pacific Time.

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Since we work with clients in the sports field, and our past includes work at the collegiate, Olympic, professional and amateur levels of sports, we frequently get asked about the best places to find a job in sports. While we could post all kinds of tips, info, networking musts and more about the world of sports, we’re going to keep this simple. Below are our top 10 online resources for job in the sports field:

10 Resources for Jobs in Sports

1.      www.sportscareernews.com

2.      www.workinsports.com

3.      www.teamusa.org

4.      www.ncaa.thetask.com/market/jobs/browse.php

5.      www.sgma.com/jobs/

6.      www.teamworkonline.com

7.      www.creativejobscentral.com

8.      www.ncaamarket.ncaa.org

9.      www.runningusa.org

10.  www.jobsinsports.com

So tell us what resources we missed?  What links would you add?

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On the heels of the recent research released by UberCEO that CEOs are social media slackers, I was making a social media presentation to a large group of CEOs last week… a bunch of folks with the same questions that my clients ask, “Is social media a fad?” and “Why should this matter?”  Even though UberCEO’s report provided great insights into the current adoption of social media by Fortune 100 CEOs, I kept coming back to a more basic need to build understanding of how consumers have shifted, from passive to active, to get their attention.

How did I start the social media conversation with this group of CEOs? Well, I started by asking a series of questions:

·          how many had smart phones – about 80%

·          how many have been on Google in the last 48 hours – nearly 100%

·          how many had seen one video on YouTube in the last 3 months – 100%

·          how many have read news or a news article online in the last 24 hours – 100%

·          how many had used the internet to snoop on a competitor? or make a purchase? or find the latest links schedule? – nearly 100%

·          how many had used a ratings review service, like for a car, movie, or restaurant – about 30%

I didn’t ask how many were on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or other social media spheres – my main point to this group was that how they use the internet on a personal basis is similar to how their customers are using it.  And while some of these questions are related to search and not social media, it’s the behavior and the channels that I wanted this group of CEOs to focus on. 

And with those initial questions and a few comments on my end about the rise of the active consumer as the intro, you could see a few a-ha moments happening. I went on to share an interactive presentation on just what is social media and why its influence is important and growing (including the latest numbers from Neilsen).  When I wrapped up, I got a lot of thanks and plenty more questions which reaffirms that these business leaders want to understand this without the pressure of being early adopters or prolific users.  But for the first time, for many of these executives, they “got” why social media matters because I started the conversation with them as consumers and not CEOs. And that understanding may be the start of something more.

What do you think?

There's no need for the social media conversation to lead to chaos.

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If you cannot define something, can you really master it?  I often ask companies, clients and even marketers what their definition of marketing is, only to met by hems, haws, or lengthy explanations.  A couple of year’s ago, BrandWeek asked for my definition of the craft for their article on Inside the Mind of a Marketer: 

“In today’s environment, effective marketing requires the right product (or right service) with the right messages delivered in the right channels at the right time.  Miss one of those and say hello to the netherworld of failed products and services.”

It’s the same definition I use today.  As landscapes, channels and opportunities change, shift, arise, and close, the fundamentals of marketing must still be addressed if a product is to succeed.

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