Successful Blog

More Stars to Shine at SOBCon09!!

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I’m over the top excited about SOBCon09!

SOBCon09

32 Days Away!

 Can’t wait to see you again!

Look Who Else Is Bringing Their Brains to SOBCon09!!

We’ve added a keynote panel on Saturday. Wow!

 
 

and the spectacular news that
 
 
Rajesh Setty will launch
his book "Upbeat Now!" at SOBCon09!!
 
 

AND even more is happening behind the scenes. 
I’m SOBCon serious about that.  

 
 

Be There Before the Sale

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The theme of SOBCon09 is the ROI of Relationships. To underscore the importance of relationships in business and to have a chance to make and celebrate a few while we’re doing that, I’ve opened up this series by successful and outstanding bloggers like you.

Be There Before the Sale
by Chris Brogan

Greg Cangialosi is one of the very best salesmen I know. He hasn’t sold the biggest dollar product ever (I think that would be David Bullock). He doesn’t sell thousands of accounts a day. Instead, he gets the title from me because he taught me a powerful sales technique, so powerful that Julien Smith and I wrote about him in our upcoming book, Trust Agents. He taught us to be there before the sale.

Greg was one of the very first confirmed sponsors of PodCamp, long before anyone knew that we’d have an international success story on our hands. When we called Greg, we had never run an event, didn’t really know what sponsors wanted, and had no idea how to communicate professionally about the give-and-take that is event sponsorship. Greg was kind, friendly, and supported our event. He didn’t ask for anything unreasonable in return.

Since that point, I’ve run into Greg at several events. He uses another trust agent move, be one of us, quite often as well, by hanging out at our events, by creating content and contributing to our space. He’s not some company owner; he’s a guy who spends time with us, has drinks with us, and who we know and care about.

The ROI of Relationships

Greg also gets the sales. I am personally a customer. I bought another account for my company. PodCamp co-founder Christopher S. Penn is a customer, and has sold the service to his company as well. Both of us refer Blue Sky Factory to anyone asking about email marketing. We love the service, and it’s cost-effective and all that, but most important to us, we have a relationship with Greg, and his service is the product of record for us with regards to email marketing.

Given Chris’s audience, my audience, the people who will buy Trust Agents, and all the time between now and the end of his business, Greg gets free, passionate advertising all the time from a growing legion of fans. For the price of a few beers here and there, Greg has an army.

If that’s not a return on investment, I don’t know what is.

Chris Brogan blogs at [chrisbrogan.com]. He is president of New Marketing Labs.
His twitter name is: @chrisbrogan

Register for SOBCon09 NOW!!

Hear Chris Brogan speak in person!

Would You Do a Working Weekend with a Dream Team in Social Media?

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150 People Looking in the Same Direction

TIME.

It’s only resource we can’t get more of.

Suppose you could take a weekend retreat away from the noise

  • to focus entirely on your business
  • to work with the support of a team
  • to get quality time to interact with the best names in social media
  • to get the best information AND time to dicuss how you’ll apply it
  • to work with sponsors in the social media space
  • in a room that only holds 150 people — all focused in the same direction
  • without worry because the food and the wireless are outstanding.

A weekend learning with Chris Brogan and Julien Smith
Brian Clark Liz StraussBrian Solis Kali Evans-Raoul KD Paine Geoff Nelson and Chris Aarons Denise Wakeman Wendy Piersall and David Bullock Stephen Smith and Michael Martine Glenda Watson Hyatt, Karen Putz, and Stephen Hopson
Saul Colt and Terry Starbucker Glenda Watson Hyatt, Karen Putz, and Stephen Hopson — 150 person dream team.

Would you invest in your business to experience that?

Thank You, Buzz Corps!!

I’m delighted to announce that Geoff Nelson and Buzz Corps have stepped up to make it easier.

Because They Invested in Us We Can Invest MORE in YOU!

We’ve had great response to the discount we offered last week, almost more than we could afford. With the help of Buzz Corps, we’re able to keep our promise bright and shiny in every way. Thank you, Buzz Corps!!

The BlogIt EarnIt Discount

It’s called the “Blog It, Earn It” discount. We’d like to hear from you about what “The ROI of Relationships” means to you. Tell us why relationships matter. How they affect what you do every day and how you do it. Maybe you can tell us how you see them changing the face of tomorrow’s businesses. We want to know how relationships and personal connections shape your world.

Heck, you can even write a love letter to a sponsor you’d like to have a relationship with. Pick a company that’s done something great for bloggers in the past and tell them why you think it was important and valuable that they did what they did. Propose an idea for how you might do something a SOBCon sponsor already listed on the SOBCon blog.

Blog your thoughts, share it, link it back to this post, and broadcast it on Twitter (hash #blogitearnit). We’ll also link to you on the SOBCon blog for others to see and learn. And as a thank you for sharing your story, we’ll send you a special code to take $200 off the $795 FULL conference rate – that’s over a 25% savings!

Or, if you can’t make to SOBCon09, you could “pay it forward” and pass the discount on to one of your friends — or offer it back to us as a gift for us to pass on for you.

We’re doing everything we can to bring you all the value, the experts and expertise, and the time to work and network that you need to make your business outstanding and extremely profitable in 2009.

What could you do with a weekend of the time, expertise, and support you need to focus your business?

We’re all coming for the same reasons.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Register for SOBCon09 NOW!!

Make the investment.

The FIVE Ps of Irresistible Social Marketing

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Last year at SxSW, I told Richard at Dell that I thought the time of Brand You was over and the time of Product You had begun. What I meant was that brand is an interpretation of the “specs,” whereas product was the actuality. My point was that to build a career on concrete we have to build on the values and traits that are truly and always our own.

Now I’m thinking of traditional marking — the Four Ps: Product, Price, Place, Promotion — and in social media I’d add People.

In social media marketing, the view has shifted campaigns are about people not products. So lets start with the people.

People

It used to be these beings were outside a company. They were studied, feared, occasionally consulted, targeted, but considered “other” than the enterprise. Called buyers, customers, clients, eyeballs, users, and some terms less dignified, their value was often best understood by how they showed up on the bottom line. Many companies actually spoke of “customer proofing” their products, because they thought of their buying public as not too nimble or clever.

Now it’s people that we want to attract, connected and engage. It’s people who provide our best ideas and our most interesting content.

Product

It used to be that the product was what drove campaigns and the brand. Just putting a cool product in front of people hardly attract any more. Creatively featuring it, hardly makes enough single to get a mention if more interesting, informative, or intriguing conversations are nearby.

Now the product sits alongside to the ideas and actions the product enables or represents. Those ideas and actions are what connect people in conversations to form communities of fiercely loyal fans. The connection to has to be meaningful … the conversation has to be both intelligent and worth our time.

Price

The price was once derived solely from the cost of delivering a quality product into the people’s hands. Now the price is value. Value is based on the experience of being able to participate in the community, being able to meet with folks who can answer questions and who share the stardards and values the product represents.

Place

Place used to be where the product was offered — the footprint and location in relation to of ther products of the same ilk and kind. Now place is more about where people find the product helping other people and how we help customers find a place for the product in their lives.

Few of us need much more than we already have. What we’re looking for are things that give us more time and make our lives more efficient and meaningful.

Promotion

Promotion has turned inside out. It’s about showing and attracting, not telling and pushing.
Make a product that connects people with meaning and value that fits easily in their lives and they’ll it irresistble — so irresistible that they’ll tell their friends about it.

That’s social marketing.

How do you make your social marketing irresistible? What’s irresistible to you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Share a SOBCon weekend learning with Chris Brogan and Julien Smith
Brian Clark Liz StraussBrian Solis Kali Evans-Raoul KD Paine Geoff Nelson and Chris Aarons Denise Wakeman Wendy Piersall and David Bullock Stephen Smith and Michael Martine Glenda Watson Hyatt, Karen Putz, and Stephen Hopson
Saul Colt and Terry Starbucker Glenda Watson Hyatt, Karen Putz, and Stephen Hopson
The value — priceless.

The New World of Online to Offline Relationships

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The theme of SOBCon09 is the ROI of Relationships. To underscore the importance of relationships in business and to have a chance to make and celebrate a few while we’re doing that, we’re talking about online and offline relationships in blog posts like this.


In the wee hours one morning, while finishing up a task, I left a message on Twitter that sparked a chain events that became quite a story. One of the people I met as the chain of events progressed is the editor of the 1to1media blog, Ginger Conlon. It only takes a look at their blog to see the quality person she is.

Our conversation covered friends we have in common, the art of publishing, the world of social media and our blogs. By the end of an hour, Ginger gracious invited me to write a post for her publication. I accepted and it’s there today. Click the link to the title, it’s called:

Speed, Trust, and the ROI of Relationships

I’m pleased to introduce you to the 1to1 media blog in this way. Would you stop over to say hello and to let Ginger know what you think.

Thanks!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

IttyBiz, Walmart, and You: The Secret to Serious Sponsor Love

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This week was a great week for learning and a great week for SOBCon09!

It started with an email from Naomi Dunford, CEO of IttyBiz. The subject line was “Sponsorship info, please?” About 6 emails later we had a full-company sponsor deal that means a win for everyone:

  • funding to help the conference — allowing us to better serve participants (more on that below)
  • visibility for IttyBiz and direct sampling of new products to key influencers
  • Naomi’s participation — a chance for participants to find out how she built her business so quickly to a full sponsorship level.
  • about $700 worth of solid value for every attendee

The very next day, I enjoyed a call with John Andrews of Walmart. We extended the relationship we’d started at BlissDom09. In a short 9 or so minutes, we put together a package that included value in more directions than first meets the eye.

  • funding to help the conference — allowing us to better serve participants (more on that below)
  • visibility for Walmart
  • John’s participation — a chance for participants to find out how Walmart is connecting their vendors with their blogger evangelists.
  • and some other surprises

Because They Invested in Us We Can Invest MORE in YOU!

Why Sponsor Love Is Good for All of Us

How can I say it better than this?

Love makes the world go round, but my landlord wants bankable currency.

Conferences are expensive events. We all know that. We’re doing all we can to make this one as valued packed and affordable as we possibly can. One huge way to do that is to form solid working relationships with sponsors who have the same goals as SOBCon — to learn more about business on the social web and to form long-term, working relationships that make our lives better, smarter, and more fun.

Conversation becomes relationship and respect. We set goals in the same direction. They invest. We invest back. We all commit to the plan. When they invest — funding, time, valuable product, and expertise, we get to pass that love to you.

Want to get sponsor attention? Show that you’re invested too!

The BlogIt EarnIt Discount

It’s called the “Blog It, Earn It” discount. We’d like to hear from you about what “The ROI of Relationships” means to you. Tell us why relationships matter. How they affect what you do every day and how you do it. Maybe you can tell us how you see them changing the face of tomorrow’s businesses. We want to know how relationships and personal connections shape your world.

Heck, you can even write a love letter to a sponsor you’d like to have a relationship with. Pick a company that’s done something great for bloggers in the past and tell them why you think it was important and valuable that they did what they did. Propose an idea for how you might do something a SOBCon sponsor already listed on the SOBCon blog.

Blog your thoughts, share it, link it back to this post, and broadcast it on Twitter (hash #blogitearnit). We’ll also link to you on the SOBCon blog for others to see and learn. And as a thank you for sharing your story, we’ll send you a special code to take $200 off the $795 FULL conference rate – that’s over a 25% savings!

Or, if you can’t make to SOBCon09, you could “pay it forward” and pass the discount on to one of your friends — or offer it back to us as a gift for us to pass on for you.

Like I said, was great week for learning and a great week for SOBCon09!
We got the chance to pass on sponsor love on in the form of a price discount — Thank you, Naomi and John.

The Secret to Serious Sponsor Love

Here’s the secret to getting serious sponsor interest and support for your goals … find sponsors with goals you’re seriously interested in and take every opportunity to reach out, talk about, and support them.

People don’t care about what you know until they know you care.
People notice when you value them.
Sponsors are people too.

If we do this together, we could make a powerful noise.

SOBCon09 is only picking sponsors who get what we stand for and then “we’re loving them to death.”

Join in. Would you? — C’mon! Blog, Tweet, Talk!! The more we talk about SOBCon09, the more we talk about sponsors who participate, the more potential sponsors everywhere will see value in supporting all of us in more and more ways.

Sponsors notice you when you love them.

Love the good sponsors loudly and proudly. Love loud enough to be heard by the sponsor’s boss.

Do that and you can bet reluctant sponsors will notice who gets the love … and where it’s coming from.

You already know, I notice the good things you do.
And I’m thanking you.
Sincerely.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Register for SOBCon09 NOW!!