Social media’s greatest power is in connecting you with people you may never have met otherwise. Just look at my good friend Randy Clark and me. We work on opposite sides of town, him as an in-house marketing guy at TKOGraphix, me as an agency chick. He’s into playing classic rock and roll, I’m into curling up with a good book. He’s an inveterate extrovert while I’m a curmudgeonly introvert. There’s also a smidgen of age difference.

There’s no reason we ever would have met, let alone become friends, except for social media. But because of a connection made online, we’ve become peers, referral resources, mentored each other and become friends.

Using our own experience as a framework, Randy and I will be discussing how to take those precious social media relationships from the digital world to the real one for fun and profit. We’ll be presenting for the Richmond Social Media Club on January 13, 8:00 a.m. at the Community Room in Whitewater Hall at IU East. We hope some of you can join us there. Click here to register. I promise to bring the snark, and can assure you that Randy will have more corny jokes than you can shake a stick at.

The Indiana social media community has created a number of powerful business and personal relationships, tell us about yours.

It is a new year, and time for new resolutions. How about making yours to whip your website into shape? We can help. At Roundpeg, we believe in empowering our website design clients to maintain and tweak their websites, continually improving their content and SEO.

Keep your resolution by joining us for Press Refresh. Press Refresh is a series of seminars offered on the third Tuesday of every month. These courses are open to all Roundpeg web clients. If we built your site, you’re more than welcome. It’s our way of helping you continue your web education.

January’s class will be a refresher on the basics of WordPress.  So if it has been awhile since you logged in, or if you have new employees who were never trained,  this is a great session to attend. You’ll be reminded how to update your website, edit text and add pages and posts.

There’s no charge for past web clients to attend this WordPress basics refresher on Tuesday, January 17 at 4 p.m at Roundpeg, 1003 E. 106th St, Indianapolis.

Already a WordPress pro? No problem. Next month we’re talking blogging strategies, so join us then.

For more information or to register, click here. We hope to see you soon!

Ever had the sinking feeling you forgot everything you just learned? At Roundpeg, we hear this a lot, so we thought of a great solution: Press Refresh. These seminars are offered on the third Tuesday of every month, beginning in January. So mark your calendar now!  They are open to anyone who has had a website built by the Roundpeg crew. They’re our way of helping you continue to take control of your website and keep you accountable to update and renew your website.

Roundpeg’s Press Refresh 2012 schedule will include classes on WordPress basics, new plugins, blogging strategies and implementation, website maintenance, design trends, multimedia uses, social media integration, search engine optimization, email marketing, analytic tools, and even round table sessions. You’re able to pick and choose the classes with topics you want to catch up on and skip the ones you don’t need. Best of all? They’re free forever for all Roundpeg web clients.

Free entertainment may be provided by the office cats, Clyde and Maybee, but we can’t make any promises because they set their own schedules.

For more information about the sessions, please give us a call.

We hope to see you soon!

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn–from the outside, it can all seem like a confusing jumble. But social media is a critical marketing tool for keeping in touch with your current clients–and bringing in new ones. With social media, you can keep customers and potential customers informed, engaged, and educated about your company and your industry.

Want to join us? Click here to find out when the next session will be held!

No one designs a website to deliberately turn off clients, prospects, and search engines, but all too often that is the end result.  In this intimate workshop, we will review the most common mistakes web designers and small business owners make.  The working session will include general tactics and a review of your website.  We will evaluate: navigation, copy, animation, pictures, page titles, keywords, and much more.

Want to join us? Click here to find out when the next session will be held!

We all know that huge companies like McDonald’s, Chrysler, and Delta are using social media for PR, advertising, and customer service. But what about the little guys? How are your neighborhood butcher, baker, and candlestick maker using social media to promote their own business?

Indianapolis Social Media and Small Business

That is going to be the topic of my presentation at this year’s BlogIndiana Conference.   I will be combining data gathered from a survey of small business owners on how they use social media  with case studies featuring success and lessons learned with some of small business clients.  We will look at both consumer and B2B applications of blogging and social media strategy.

When:Aug 11 & 12

Where:  Fishers Conference Center

To Register: http://www.blogindiana.com/2011/ Take advantage of the early bird discount and buy your ticket before June 14.

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Also, we are still collecting data and would really appreciate the input in our survey.  It will only take a few minutes.

Last fall I just spent three days traveling throughout the Midwest teaching marketing seminars for groups of HVAC contractors.  In each market I met business owners running profitable companies which do not have a web presence and  do not check their email regularly.  Talking to them about social media as a marketing strategy was like speaking a foreign language.

As I get ready for another round of seminars, including one on Saturday, May 21 in French Lick, how do I get them to take a second look and seriously consider the benefits of social media?

My approach is to create a comparison of a marketing budget based on mass advertising vs referrals and word of mouth.  These are concepts they will relate to as I use them to form the foundation of my argument for expanding into social media.

Will they all sign up for twitter on Monday, probably not, but a few, more progressive will give it a try opening up new pathways to connect with clients.

Over the last few months, Allison and I have been talking about age and social media.  We have discussed how easy, or hard it is for folks over 50 to adjust to the new communication style and whether or not folks under 25 know how to use social media tools to drive bottom line results.

This was the subject of a blog post by Allison not too long ago, and now we are taking the conversation off line.  Interested in hearing what we have to say and adding a perspective of your own?

Join us for the Social Media Club After Hours on May 10th from 5:30 – 7:30.  We will be the warm up act and heckling will be encouraged as we fill the room at the Jazz Kitchen.  Come for networking and conversation, then join us for Dinner at Yats afterward.  There is no charge to attend, but reservations are requested: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1575904573

We are collecting food and toiletries for Gleaners, so be sure to bring a box of tissues or a roll of paper towels with you.

http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1575904573

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn–from the outside, it can all seem like a confusing jumble. But social media is a critical marketing tool for keeping in touch with your current clients–and bringing in new ones. With social media, you can keep customers and potential customers informed, engaged, and educated about your company and your industry. 

This will be the subject of a special presentation for BNI members that Allison Carter and I will be presenting for a  BNI members on May 4th.  At the invitation of Hazel Walker, we will be bringing our popular social media stew seminar, to the Referral Institute on May 4th from 3:30 – 5:00.

So if you are looking to get your feet wet in social media, Register now.  Space is limited to 35 people.  Discover how you can use Twitter and Facebook to drive your business.

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For a taste of what this program is like: Check out the video below:

From the outside, real estate investing looks easy.   Buy a property, put a for rent sign on the front lawn, and take the money to the bank!  But there is much more to successfully running a real estate investment business.  Matt Griffith and Selinar Stoller of   www.myreiadvisor.com have invited me to teach a session of BusinessMap to a group of realestate investors on April 30th.

The presentation is part of a day long program designed to help real estate investors sharpen their skills Some of the topics I will be covering include:

• What are the biggest mistakes biz owners make when they are planning.
• I have a very unique product, do I really have competitors
• What are the most important parts of the plan?
• If I talk about risks, won’t that raise issues with investors?