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The Fortune is in the Follow Up

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

I love that Podcamp exists. When Chris Brogan and Christopher Penn birthed the unconference back in 2006, I doubt even those visionaries knew it would touch all four corners of the globe and still be going strong six years later.

This is my third time hosting a session at Podcamp. This year I’ll be heading a panel about the third largest social network, Pinterest, with friend and lawyer Stephen Zralek who knows a thing or 60 about internet, copyright and social media law. Joining us is the second most followed man on Pinterest, Daniel Bear Hunley, who, in addition to being a “southern gent” is the social media coordinator at Powell Creative in Nashville, TN.

In fact, I actually cut my “speaker” teeth at Podcamp in 2010. Since then, I’ve spoken at events and to organizations nationwide, so I owe a lot to the format for helping me gain confidence, leverage, community and clients.

One of the most important things to remember about conferences, conventions and events like Podcamp, is that the fortune is in the follow up. These are amazing opportunities to network. However, the last thing anyone really wants at a conference is to be sold to.

Jason Falls, who is actually in town Friday for social media conference Explore, always says…

“Don’t sell. Give people opportunities to buy.”

this, but with biz cards

Now, I’m not saying that if someone comes up to you and is ready to buy your services and become your new bestie client that you shouldn’t run the credit card through your fancy Square app device and iPad. What I am saying is that you’re not there on a scavenger hunt to see who can collect the most business cards and then do nothing but make a castle out of them when you get back to your office.

Spend time with the people you exchange cards with. Find out what they do. Find out why they do it. Discover what’s coming up for them — a new launch, new partnership, an event, etc. Figure out if there is anything they are currently struggling with. Really listen. Chew on the information and take notes after you part ways so you can remember them. Then make sure you actually follow up with them. I can not tell you how many people I know who don’t do anything at all with new contacts they’ve made at events — not even an email.

I’ll say it again — the fortune is in the follow up. After Podcamp has closed the bar and turned out the lights, that’s when your work should really pick up steam. Reach out to those you met on the phone. Yes, I said on the freakin’ phone. This is your time to help. Perhaps your contact with them becomes nothing more than a new friendly relationship in the industry right now, but at some point down the line, one of you may need each other or may be able to refer someone.

I’ve gotten clients, conducted interviews for my blog, made referrals, and most importantly, enriched my business and my life by expanding my network through events like this. And you can do the same.

What other tips do you have for remembering and following up with people you meet at events? Let me know in the comments.

Tags: pcn12, podcampnashville, podcast, Social Media, unconference
Posted in Podcamp, social media, Start-up/Entrepreneur, technology | 1251No Comments »The+Fortune+is+in+the+Follow+Up2012-04-11+08%3A00%3A13janet

Facebook Events Series: How to Create One

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

I take for granted sometimes the social media knowledge I’ve acquired over the years. I was talking to someone the other day who has a Facebook personal profile and a business page, but didn’t realize that you could create events in Facebook, invite people, remind people and promote on multiple pages and profiles. She’d even been sent invitations to events and still hadn’t made the connection.

I forget that what is second nature to me now is still a new opportunity to another. And there’s nothing I love more than helping others discover new opportunities, new ways to spread their message and build their businesses using social media.

So, with that in mind, I’d like to show you not only how to create an Event in Facebook in this post, but I’ll share what qualifies as an event, when to create them, as well as where to promote them in an upcoming post.

How to Create an Event in Facebook:

There are a couple ways to start:

1. Go to http://www.facebook.com/events and click the Create an Event button

2. Go to your Facebook business page and click on Events in the left-hand menu under your picture.

If you click on Events from within your business page that makes your business the host of that event.

For purposes of this tutorial, I’ll use this example — of creating an event from within your business page.

So, you’ve clicked on Events under your profile banner. You will see this next if you have not created an event recently…or ever:

Click on “Create an Event.”

You will be taken here:

The rest of the steps should be fairly self-explanatory. Set your date, time, end time if there is one, Name of event, Location of event, Description of Event.

Add a nice photo, logo or other image to make your event look legit and enticing.

When you click on Select Guests: the pop-up window let’s you pick friends from your Personal Profile to invite, which is nice, but odd considering you’re creating it from your business page. Never fear, there is a way to let fans of your business page know. Hold tight.

You’ll see that you can decide whether or not to let the attendees be visible on the event page (recommended) and you can decide whether or not to let attendees comment on the event page (also recommended — you want that to post on their walls!).

Click “Create Event” button when you’re satisfied. You can always invite more people and edit the event after you have created it, but I highly recommend having your ducks in a row in terms of time, date, location and info before pulling the trigger. You don’t want to look unprofessional or unprepared.

After the event is created it will look something like this:

You can see that in the “Created By” section it links to my Social Deviants page, which is what you want so that the opportunity of increasing Likes to your page goes up.

Again, you can Select Guests to Invite After event creation by clicking the button beneath the event photo.

You’ll notice that there is an area where people can comment on the event because I left the settings so that non-admin folks could do so. This spreads the wealth.

[SIDE NOTE: If you have an an ongoing Event -- say a weekly free call series like mine or a photography group that meets every month or something. There's some good news. If someone has already said they are attending, whenever you edit any of the content it will send them a notification in the upper left of the Facebook header under the globe]:

Back to the newly created event. Creating it from your business page gives you the opportunity to tell your fans about it:

Click the Button in the upper right that says “Update fans of (your page here).

You’ll be taken here:

I like that Facebook gives you the opportunity to craft a custom message and subject line to your fans.

You also get the opportunity to Target the update, which you might want to consider if it’s a ladies-only event or a location-based event that would be difficult for your fans in Japan to visit:

After you have clicked “Send,” your fans should get a message notification from Facebook.

And that is the How.

In an upcoming post, I’ll share the rest of the Facebook Events story — When should you create an event, Where should you promote it and What qualifies as an Event. Stay Tuned.

Did you find this tutorial helpful? Share in the comments.

Tags: event marketing, facebook events, Facebook marketing, social marketing
Posted in Advice, Facebook, Facebook events, How to, marketing, social media, Social Networks, Start-up/Entrepreneur, technology | 7881 Comment »2011-08-24+19%3A11%3A48admin

The Slippery Slope of Facebook Phonebook

Thursday, August 11th, 2011

Did you know that you have a Facebook Phonebook in your personal profile? Before you decide that you’ve hit the marketing jackpot, beware. Most of those people don’t know they are in your Facebook Phonebook, nor have they given you permission to start marketing to them on their phones just because you have their number now.

First off, let me show you where the Facebook Phonebook is.

Log into Facebook.

Click on Account in upper right of your screen.

Click on Edit Friends.

Click on Contacts (there’s a phone icon next to it). Yours will look similar to this…

Not everyone you friended will have phone numbers listed. This isn’t everyone who you have put into your phone either. Yet you’ll see on the right that Facebook says you imported the numbers from your phone. What’s more accurate is that when you synched Facebook with your phone, other people who also synched Facebook with their phone and who are also your friends, were then added to your Facebook Phonebook.

Facebook claims that this is to improve the quality of Friend Suggestions. Really, Facebook? Are you sure? I thought my friends suggested friends.

This list of contact numbers represents those people who have either entered their phone numbers into the mobile section of their profile, or they have opted to sync this feature, probably unknowingly, thereby giving their digits to their “friends” on Facebook.

I think this would have been safer back when that’s really who we friended — friends and family. However, now we friend potential clients, partners, employees, colleagues, etc. So this is where the slippery slope part comes in. Will your so-called friends abuse the privilege and start sending you mobile messages through Facebook? My guess is that some will try, but you still retain the power over your account, your phone and who your friends are.

You have a couple of options.

You can remove the numbers from your contacts list. This can be done by clicking on “this page” link, which can be seen in the picture above in the right-hand column of your Facebook Phonebook Contacts page.

When you click “this page” you will be sent here:

Remember that this does nothing to protect your number, though. At this point you’re really just doing your “friends” a favor by removing their number. You could always ask for permission from them, though, to send them messages to their mobile through Facebook.