As we move into building a sales team for Artistic Hub, we have been analytically looking at sales channels. We have been evaluating which markets we want to go after. Then we look at each market and see if we should diretly sell into that market or work through another channel. Charities for example we will approach directly, but to land large brands we plan on working through advertising agencies. Finally we asked ourselves what can we do to create leads and position ourselves as experts in a new market niche.

The question and idea that lead to the answer: “What if we ran social media workshops in the major US markets this next year training people how to use blogs, Linkedin, twitter, etc? This would position us as experts and also create referrals and direct leads.”

The idea didn’t just pop out of thin air. I was invited to speak at the Aim Institute by Dr. Gerald Wagner in conjunction with the University of Nebraska. The initial panel was about building multiple revenue streams with social media. The panel went so well that I was asked to come back and run a one day workshop March 27th.

What I found interesting that sparked this idea were the questions after the panel.

No one asked “What’s next?” or “Where is social media going?”. They asked “How can i use Linkedin more effectively?” and “How do i start a blog?”

Afterward, I thought what if we ran paid workshops and trained business people and professionals around the US to use the simple but effective tools that are available. This is where the idea began.

A key point is we are calling them workshops not conferences. These are hands on events. We are not going to just talk about the tools but we are going to teach people to start accounts and use the tools on the spot. We found that most people just need help getting started and they will take it from there.

Our #1 goal is to give people the tools to build their business and career not ours. If we accomplish that, I know we will be successful as well.

We are launching our first workshop with the Aim Institute at the Gallup campus in Omaha, NE. We are then going to have a follow-up workshop in San Diego in late April and we are identifying other markets for late summer and the fall. Our goal is to run at least one workshop a month by the end of the year.

Our format is going to be: one-day, university auditorium with wireless access, hands on, in-class homework, students and business owners that want to leverage social media to build their business or career.We will be managing the event, but plan on having local social media experts run small portions of the workshop.

Here is the agenda we put together for March 27th.

Using Social Media and Web 2.0 Tools to Build Your Business and/or Career (bottom of the page)

9:00 – 9:15 Introductions

9:15 – 9:45 Opening Talk: Building Social Capital

10:00 – 12:00 Build a Foundation through Blogging

· Purpose

· Power of blogging

· How to setup a blog on WordPress.com

· Writing

· Management and tracking analytics

· Reading and feeding (Using RSS feeds)

· Commenting and growing your traffic

12:00 – 1:00 Lunch

12:20 – 12:50 Facebook Lunch (Optional breakout)

· Setting up a Facebook account

· Overview of pages and groups

· Using Facebook advertising

1:00 – 2:00 Linkedin

· The power of Linkedin

· Using groups

· Building your network

· Using it effectively

2:00 – 3:00 Ning

· Building a social network

3:00 – 3:15 Break

3:15 – 4:00 Twitter

· What is it good for?

· How to use it?

· Brand monitoring

· Good tools

4:00 – 4:30 Wrap-up: The path to expert

6:00 – ? Social and Networking Mixer at a local bar/restaurant

We get so wrapped up in what’s coming and what’s going to be the next big thing that we forget about the tools already built. I think the next big thing is going to be smart business people building revenue models by combining or evolving existing tools.

If you have ideas, want to be involved, or host a workshop please email me.

Read Full Post »