The following is a summary recollection of what happened at BlogWorld 2009 in Las Vegas. In this post, I will look at the activities in Day 1.

The bloggers have invaded Las Vegas. There was no stopping it. For the third straight year, thousands of bloggers, twitterers, and affecianados converged on sin city to hear from some of the best and brightest in the industry and learn from their experiences.

This was my first year at Blogworld and I must say that it lived up to its hype of one of the largest conferences in the technology and social media scene. It was also the first year of Blogworld ever since it merged with the New Media Expo. You wouldn’t think that the conference was that large since there were only about 10 rooms and a giant exhibition hall, but most of the time it was packed.

To my dismay, I thought there would be more empirical data and facts that I could take away. However, when I’m listening to the panelists and even some of the keynotes, I don’t think that I got anything like that to write about – but there was more valuable information that would be useful from a personal level.

The 2009 conference kicked off with Laura Fitton talking about how to be awesome that had a close tie-in with Gary Vaynerchuk’s upcoming book “Crush It”. Her address helped provide a good impression on what to look forward to during this three day conference and also motivated the audience to be better than they are and to strive to be rockstars. But, of course, she couldn’t get away without mentioning Twitter during her keynote…more than a few times.

Then panel discussions were had until the lunch keynote that featured Wall Street Journal writer Kara Swisher interviewing Scott Monty about the social media work that he does for Ford Motor Company. While a great value, the dismal audio system made it hard to hear and, combined with, the incessant noise of chatter by people interested in networking instead of learning, made the whole affair rather meaningless.

More panels were held until the NEXT keynote – stay with me here…we’re only on the third keynote of the day. This time it was a panel discussion with Altimeter Group’s own Jeremiah Owyang leading the talk on whether sponsored conversations were any good. It was a bit of a lively debate and what helped this panel was the fact a genuine lawyer was on the dais to help explain the recent FTC disclosure guideline to everyone. Still, I had hoped to see more of a combative nature to the topic which would have made it more entertaining to observe.

Day 1 ended with the comedic and marketing stylings of Chris Brogan who left us with the message that bloggers need to get out of our own way and to be more helpful to others. Nothing really mind-blowing but always good to have a reminder of the potential we have to make a change in our community. I found it a great way to end the day especially since it was very much like a reality check.

To me, day 1 seemed very much like a source of inspiration. There was a lot of information passed through and that’s what people were expecting. Panelists shared their experiences and success stories, not necessarily facts and figures that you can take back to work and share it with your boss. This is probably one of the biggest things that I’ve enjoyed about Blogworld…it adds a very different feel to it and lets you just sit there and absorb the knowledge and then you can write your own success.

Photo Credit: All photos shown here were taken by Kenneth Yeung.

I’ve heard the philosophy behind what Chris Brogan and Julien Smith write about in their new book Trust Agents at least twice – one after reading the book and the second time at the most recent edition of Gnomedex in Seattle. If you don’t know what a Trust Agent is, it’s a person within a company that has helped to create a productive relationship with current and prospective customers. Simply put, it’s the individual who you believe in that you think is most genuine that you trust their opinion for help to solve a problem.

According to Brogan & Smith, there are six parts to becoming a Trust Agent:

Make Your Own Game: This is the first step. Sure, it’s great to follow the same process that everyone else is, but in order for someone to really consider you as trustworthy, you’re going to need to stand out. What are you doing that makes you unique from everyone else? In order to create a value differential, you’re going to need to find a way to be different. Brogan and Smith suggests that it’s best to take advantage of areas in the existing system that no one has chosen to exploit.

Become “One of Us”: An example most commonly cited in this part is Greg Cangialosi, founder of a successful email marketing service companies, Blue Sky Factory. There’s a reason why people have flocked to Cangialosi and his company for email marketing assistance. It’s because he’s one of us. He understands the industry and he’s also there for us when we need him. He’s become a trusted source. I particularly like this quote from Trust Agents which explains why Cangialosi first this mold:

We tend to buy from people who are like us. Becoming One of Us means being dedicated to nurturing a relationship. It means being the customer advocate, and sometimes the advocate before someone is even a customer. Greg Cangialosi…was a friend long before Chris was his client and long before Chris passed on two more sales to him. He was there, and he was One of Us. Cangialosi’s company is successful…because he is always around, being friendly.

In being One of Us, you’re an insider. It’s perfectly acceptable for those on the inside to make mistakes – you’re forgiven because you’re in the “circle of trust”. For those not One of Us, you’re an outsider and it’s harder for people to accept your insights.

Brogan & Smith suggest that you find what they term as “Agent Zero” – a person who can connect you with other insiders – a professional matchmaker of sorts. They also think that in order to be considered One of Us, you need to be everywhere and work on creating & maintaining the bonds of professional friendship.

Understanding Archimedes Principle: This is all about leverage. Find some way to leverage your existing networks and programs so that they’re not all operating in their own silos. It’s all about integration. As Brogan said at Gnomedex: “Don’t ever rest on your ass.” Always find a way to build off previous success. An analogy would be like gambling: the winnings you make at one table are going towards the next game for you to play.

Agent Zero: As alluded in being “One of Us”, this is where the idea of building a relationship is where it truly matters. Become the relationship before the sale.

Human Artists: In order for you to be a trust agent, Brogan & Smith says that you need to have the skill of being a human artist – someone who they say understands how to communicate with people in “a real and thoughtful way”. By this they mean that stop treating people as niches. If you think of people as “out of the ordinary”, then they too will think of themselves as being “out of the ordinary”.  It’s all about the new form of customer service – answer the phones, acknowledge, apologize and act on problems, and understand that customers now have a voice to complain about your product. Practice simple touch points of loyalty.

Build An Army: You can build relationships and gain influence just by yourself. In order to truly have influence online, you’re going to need to learn how to create a group – this is where you build yourself an army. It’s the step where you try and find evangelists who will help spread the word and tell people how good you are and that you’re trustworthy. Brogan and Smith both think that one person can’t scale beyond certain limits. An example that they give is the recent presidential election with Barack Obama and John McCain. One candidate chose to reach out to their supporters with traditional means (e.g. phone, mail, etc.) while another chose to use more social forms – reaching out to where the voters were and as a result helped win him the election. What’s most important in this step is that you need to not help the clients/army. Rather, it’s the old adage “give a man a fish and he eats for a day, but teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.”

When it’s all said and done, these are some really important steps that you need to take in order for you to be considered a trusted source. From carving out a niche for yourself to building that image into something where you can have an army of evangelists promoting your good name, there’s a lot to be said about Brogan and Smith’s philosophy of trust agents. More information can be found about these individual parts in their new book Trust Agents out in stores now.

Chris Brogan got me riled up…

…in a good way. His post “Backwards Work” stuck with me for a solid day, because he’s absolutely right. You’ve got to know the rules to break them, and you need to know what you want your end result to be before you start swinging for the fences. As Chris said, “know what it is you’re shooting at before you draw back.”

So without rehashing everything Chris wrote (its damned fine blog post on its own so go read it), I want to talk about the one thing that will help secure success…excitement in marketing your own company.

Excitement in your company period. Because, if you aren’t excited about your own business…no one else is going to be!

If you really want a good example of what passion and excitement for your product, brand, service or what it is that got you to start your own business, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better example than Gary Vaynerchuk. When I’m getting frustrated in what it is I do for a living, I go to YouTube and check out his talk from Web 2.0 Expo NY from September 2008 on “Building Personal Brand Within the Social Media Landscape,” and I get pumped all over again.

Now calm down, Sparky. I’m not telling you to go out and be Gary, but you can take a few things away from that talk that will help you. Gary’s passion for the things he loves (like wine, personal brand, and the New York Jets) is empowering. He loves what he does, and it pays off in spades? Take a lesson from that, and apply it to your own business. Whether it’s plumbing, coffee, design, legal work, the medical field, or, hell, even turning? paperclips into life size replicas of the entire 1969 winning Super Bowl team. In his talk Gary says, “if you love it you will win,” and that’s something I’ve always believed in.

Whatever it is…you started a business for a reason right? I mean, you didn’t start a business because one day you woke up and said, “I’m really good at (insert your whatever it is you want to do here), but I really don’t care about it…maybe I should go into business for myself doing that.” No. Something inspired you to shuffle off the 9-5 coil and strike out on your own. Now I’m saying this, and I am making the assumption you didn’t have a large bank roll behind you. I’m assuming you stepped out into the cold dark unknown of self employment, looked at the horizon, and smiled like a Cheshire cat. I’m assuming you looked out at whatever it is you wanted to tackle as the boss of a new business and said to yourself, “I can do this… and I want to for the rest of my life.”

You’re going to fail sometimes, but it’s that excitement for whatever it is you’ve decided to get yourself into that pulls you through to the next achievement. If you don’t have that, go back to the 9-5’er, lick your wounds, figure out what went wrong, and let someone else worry about where the monies coming from for a while.

If you’re on the fence about whether you’re excited about what you do or wherther the shine has worn off… pick a side and go there. It’s going to suck at times. It’s going to be exhausting at others. There are going to be days where you look at your loved one, friend, employee, or business partner and think, “What the hell did I get myself into?” The answer to that question is the very same thing: “I love what I do for a living!”

Chris Brogan wrote in his post: “Someone had to hunt the first mammoth. Oh, and that poor bastard died a bloody death.”

Bring me that mammoth and my rock. I’m ready to go down swinging. I’m willing to put in the hours, the time, and the effort to move forward regardless of the obstacle. I’m ready to get called crazy, loud, determined, passionate, and…a success. I am going to fail, and I look forward to it so I can get back up, dust myself off, and attack whatever knocked me down in a different direction.

I am a Small Business owner, and I’m excited to wake up every day and say that.

In Gary Vaynerchuks’s talk. he says, “if you love it you will win.” That’s something I’ve always believed in and something that, even before hearing Gary say it, has been the key to all of my successes.

Until next time…stay wicked.

* Photo courtesy of istockphoto.com