Find out answers to all of the above and more at the Social Media Workshop sponsored by Network Solutions in Richmond, VA. Key learning points from this half-day FREE workshop include:

• Advantages of social media marketing over traditional tactics
• How to start blogging with WordPress?
• How to turn Twitter into a customer service tool?
• How to increase your Google ranking with Search Engine Optimization tricks?

Speakers to include:

• Doug Meacham Managing Consultant – Retail Delivery at IBM
• Shashi Bellamkonda, Social Media Strategist, Network Solutions
• Randall Windsor, Web Marketing Manager, Network Solutions
• Priya Ramesh, Director, Social Media Strategy, CRT-tanaka

Event Details:

• DATE: Friday, Nov 20th, 2009.
• VENUE: CRT-tanaka, 101 W Commerce Rd, Richmond, VA 23224
• TIME: 8:30AM – 12PM

Agenda:

• 8:30AM – 9:30AM: Light breakfast and Networking
• 9:30AM – 10:00AM: Intro to Social Media Best Practices (Doug Meacham)
• 10:00AM – 11:00AM: Maximize Customer Satisfaction Via Blogs and Twitter
• 11:00AM – 11:30AM: Importance of Search Engine Optimization
• 11:30AM – 12:00PM: Q&A

Sign up today! Limited seating available. Don’t forget to bring you laptops to take your first steps in blogging. Attendees will learn how to use the Network Solutions WordPress Hosting package for free!

What is INNOVATIONS 2009?

INNOVATIONS 2009 is an event designed to educate attendees on how to grow their opportunities and enhance their skills by gaining a better understanding of how to leverage today’s new and emerging technologies.  Attendees and exhibitors will have the opportunity to connect with technology experts and prospective teaming partners, clients, investors, employees, educators, and service providers.

Promoters: The Chamber, GMU, Media, Exhibitors, and S&T Council members

Registration: You can register on eventbrite and it is FREE for all attendees

AGENDA

2:00 – Open Doors

2:00 – 2:15 – Attendees Assemble in Bull Run Hall to Network and Explore Displays

- Exhibitors may man exhibit or send in materials ahead of time to set on their table

2:30 – 3:15 – Workshops Round One

1. Using Social Media to grow your business (Shashi B, Network Solutions)

2. Understanding the benefits of Cloud Computing (Carl Tidwell, ATCC)

3:30 – 4:15 – Workshops Round Two

1. Cyber Security, protecting your most important asset – your company data (Joe Yanda, Websense)

2. Current and Future States of Regional Advancements and Opportunities in Biotechnology

(Panel moderated and opening remarks by Ron Carmichael, GMU PW Campus Administrator)

- Dr. Chip Petricoin, Co-Director of Applied Proteomics & Molecular Medicine at GMU

- Thomas Seoh, former CEO of Faust Pharmaceuticals

- Joe Reilly, of Theranostics Health, LLC (tentative)

4:30 – 5:00 -  Keynote Address

4:30 Welcome by Chair – Purpose of the S&T Committee – Thanks all sponsors and volunteers – Introduce Platinum sponsor

4:32 Platinum sponsor introduces Keynote speaker

4:35 Keynote Address (Roy Dunbar, CEO of Network Solutions)

4:30 – 6:30 – Exhibits, Networking, and Cash Bar

- Exhibitors displaying their technologies and intern matchmaking station (GMU staffed)

Attendees are directed to approximately 20 exhibitor tables in the main entrance hall lined up with the front window.  Also present shall be light fare and high top tables with stools.  S&T Committee Ambassadors will be floating about assisting attendees, soliciting feedback/comments, and snapping pictures. One business card shall be drawn for the door prize and an award shall be presented to one exhibitor at the end of the program.

6:10 – Last call for cash bar is announced

6:15 – Draw one business card for door prize and present award to best exhibit

In case you hadn’t registered, here is the page to sign up. See you there!

What is INNOVATIONS 2009?

INNOVATIONS 2009 is an event designed to educate attendees on how to grow their opportunities and enhance their skills by gaining a better understanding of how to leverage today’s new and emerging technologies.  Attendees and exhibitors will have the opportunity to connect with technology experts and prospective teaming partners, clients, investors, employees, educators, and service providers.

Promoters: The Chamber, GMU, Media, Exhibitors, and S&T Council members

Registration: You can register on eventbrite and it is FREE for all attendees

AGENDA

2:00 – Open Doors

2:00 – 2:15 – Attendees Assemble in Bull Run Hall to Network and Explore Displays

- Exhibitors may man exhibit or send in materials ahead of time to set on their table

2:30 – 3:15 – Workshops Round One

1. Using Social Media to grow your business (Shashi B, Network Solutions)

2. Understanding the benefits of Cloud Computing (Carl Tidwell, ATCC)

3:30 – 4:15 – Workshops Round Two

1. Cyber Security, protecting your most important asset – your company data (Joe Yanda, Websense)

2. Current and Future States of Regional Advancements and Opportunities in Biotechnology

(Panel moderated and opening remarks by Ron Carmichael, GMU PW Campus Administrator)

- Dr. Chip Petricoin, Co-Director of Applied Proteomics & Molecular Medicine at GMU

- Thomas Seoh, former CEO of Faust Pharmaceuticals

- Joe Reilly, of Theranostics Health, LLC (tentative)

4:30 – 5:00 -  Keynote Address

4:30 Welcome by Chair – Purpose of the S&T Committee – Thanks all sponsors and volunteers – Introduce Platinum sponsor

4:32 Platinum sponsor introduces Keynote speaker

4:35 Keynote Address (Roy Dunbar, CEO of Network Solutions)

4:30 – 6:30 – Exhibits, Networking, and Cash Bar

- Exhibitors displaying their technologies and intern matchmaking station (GMU staffed)

Attendees are directed to approximately 20 exhibitor tables in the main entrance hall lined up with the front window.  Also present shall be light fare and high top tables with stools.  S&T Committee Ambassadors will be floating about assisting attendees, soliciting feedback/comments, and snapping pictures. One business card shall be drawn for the door prize and an award shall be presented to one exhibitor at the end of the program.

6:10 – Last call for cash bar is announced

6:15 – Draw one business card for door prize and present award to best exhibit

In case you hadn’t registered, here is the page to sign up. See you there!

Along with traditional entrepreneurs, in this economic climate there have been a bumper crop of unintentional entrepreneurs — people who, through circumstance, have found themselves on their own, and are using this as an opportunity to unleash their talents and create their own businesses. (I, myself, kind of fit into this category, although I don’t really think of myself as an entrepreneur — maybe it’s a mental block.)

The DC event (well, actually in Rockville, Maryland, at the Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus, a site that’s hosted several social media-related events we’ve written up here) was the penultimate stop in the 5-city tour, so you can see a lot of material and coverage from the other cities at the Unintentional Entrepreneur site. Which is a good thing, because I got to the event kind of late (I blame traffic). Again, though, we can fall back on the crowdsourced note-taking via the Twitter hashtag #uedc.

I snuck into the room just as Shannon Nash was finishing up her talk on accounting, tax and legal advice for small businesses (including answering the ever-popular question, “What structure should I use: Sole proprietor, LLC, S-Corp, C-Corp, Hybrid, Partnership?”). The room was pretty full, and everyone was paying close attention:

(I took this photo, though you can see others at the Unintentional Entrepreneur Flickr set.)

Next, NetSol’s own Shashi talked about the benefits and how-to’s of establishing a presence for your business online. I have to admit I’ve heard Shashi give variations of this presentation a bunch of times, so I perhaps didn’t pay as close attention as I should have. Fortunately, the Twitter feed comes to the rescue: He covered the key points to picking a domain name for your business (keep it easy to remember and easy to spell), exhorted people to set up Facebook fan pages (if potato chips can have fan pages, you can too), and to explore other presences that could be useful (like Etsy.com for crafters and artisans.)

The last presenter was Bob London, on Marketing Your Small Business. He led off with a cloud of previously-submitted questions, and in rapid-fire fashion:

* Advocated using info from Dunn & Bradstreet to help vet potential clients.

* Said that social media was primarily a listening tool, not a revenue generator.

* Burst a few bubbles by saying that an 80:20 ratio of doing “actual work” vs. marketing and feeding the pipeline was way too high, and that the actual effort for marketing was 30-40%

* Advocated using GeniusRocket for creative

* Suggested that the pendulum may be swinging back on the effectiveness direct mail, since we get less of it now, and get more spam in e-mail.

For the rest of his presentation, he covered how for companies that aren’t Coca Cola, IBM, or GEICO (with huge marketing and advertising budgets), the best branding you can have is a solid product and customer service you can get behind. Also, instead of the elevator pitch, he advocated getting your prospective client’s “elevator rant” — their primary complaint and challenge (as they see it).

Also, he covered a few guerilla marketing techniques (like timing a newsletter to piggyback on bigger events); advocated “cloud marketing” (pushing your message out through multiple channels to create ubiquity); the value of opt-in newsletters to nurture and maintain relationships; and the best sales pitch is asking for reactions, ideas, and feedback, combined with doing your homework and getting the proper context.

In summary, the event (well, the parts I was able to catch) was well-received by an audience that ran the gamut from prospective startups to serial entrepreneurs, covering a variety of businesses. I know I’ll be delving into the hashtags and other resources to fill what I missed.

Were you at the workshop (or one of the previous ones)? Leave a comment and let us know what you thought.

Here are some of my thoughts on email subject lines and I am not the first to write about this – see the other pioneers mentioned below :

• Your email is your subject line :  If your message is short why not just add it to the subject line and forget about the body. Have you ever done that?
• Customize the message every time : have you been part of a email trail that goes on and on and no one bothers to change the subject line? You may be saving others time by customizing the subject line to indicate what the conversation is about?
• Categorize the email subject lines.
The late Marc Orchant suggested these tags for the work place
• RR: Reply requested
• RRAL: Reply Requested At Leisure
• URG: Urgent
• NRN: No Reply Necessary
• RAL: Read At Leisure
• IMP: Important (but not requiring action)
• INT: Internal (generally used for policy or procedure announcements)
• SAI: Strategic Awareness Info (industry news—read as time permits)
• FYI: For Your Information (no action required)
Marc Orchant’s Manifesto : Work is Broken: Here’s How We Fix It can be downloaded at ChangeThis
Chris Brogan wrote a good post about email Subject lines and my response in the comment section was :
• ACT : need an answer ASAP
• ARTICLE INFO: Something that I saw online read at your leisure.
• INFO : CCing you on something that u have a choice to read or ignore
• BREAKING NEWS: All hell is breaking loose we need to talk
• JOKE: Sending you a PJ please do not read in a meeting.

Usually ACT and Joke gets me the quickest response

Twitter trains you very well for composing short messages.  Can we use that to make our emails wordefficient? What about thank you messages ? Thanking people is common courtesy yet if your message is delivered to someone who is already struggling with 443 unread messages maybe the way to do it is to make the Subject line – Thanks, Steve Good job ! If you want to get away from email you can sign up for Jared Goranik’s Awayfind solution.

There are many others thinking of the email efficiency, here are a few sites  I am aware of – if you know more please comment here :

City College Norwich : An Email manifesto

Chris Brogan: Writing More Effective Email

Tim Ferris : The Low-Information Diet: How to Eliminate E-Mail Overload & Triple Productivity in 24 Hours

Change This : Tyranny of email

Have you read the  The Gilbert Email Manifesto (GEM) ” which said  ”Email is more important than my web site!” and published in April 10, 2001, wow that seems so long ago.

Three habits of effective Pirates

1. Look outside of the market: Matt mentions William Fox and Hollywood movies. Before Hollywood started making movies there was no market for them. Before the Ipod did all of us think we neededa mobile device  ? “Pirates look for gaps outside the market”
2. Create a vehicle: Remember Marshall McLuhan’s “medium becomes the message” , Did we think we would be reading Blogs or creating them even 10 years ago ?
3. Harness your audience: When pirates do something valuable then the community supports them. Use your audience to support yoiu specially by doing something that benefits them

There are lot of comparisons made to pirate radio stations specially in the UK in the book. The Pirate radio stations stood for a symbol of change in culture and  apitalism.  Matt’s recipe for a “mouthwatering concept”:

• Big idea ( even if borrowed)
• Who else is on your dance floor
• chop a handful of other people’s idea
• a pinch of originality

Read the book for the full recipe.

I  learnt a new term “blowback” which as a fan of spy novels I should have known. In this case this is the Graffiti war in New York. Another gem from the book ” Good fences make good neighbors , but take the fence away and you have a bigger lawn” . I agree with this, my house does not have a fence so i imagine the tot lot adjacent as part of my house

How to look after a virus: ( nurturing viral campaigns)

• Let the audience make the rules
• Avoid the limelight and talk only to your audience
• Feed the virus according to the size
• Let it die

As I write this post I am tempted to write all the tips that I marked down in the book  ” The Pirate’s Dilemma – How youth culture is reinventing capitalism” but in the interest of time and helping Matt sell more books I highly recommend you read this book.

It is apparent that they are mining the domain WHOIS system to get the contact information and expiration dates for these domains, in what appears to be a clear violation of WHOIS policy.  They also risk running afoul of the Federal Trade Commission, which has been kept up to date of their activity.

Customers are advised to log into their accounts at Network Solutions to check the status of their domains and to renew if needed.  And put this kind of correspondence where it belongs, thrown out with the trash.

As always, we will continue to work to take measures to prevent these and other types of technical issues caused by third parties that may impact our customers.

Here are links to two articles that explain what a DDOS attack is in case our readers are interested.

http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST04-015.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack

June 26th : 8:15:22 pm. : Please stand by while we are mitigating a DDOS attack on our servers.  We will update here as soon as we  have more info Thanks.

Please disregard these checks. Also please fax us any documentation you receive that you believe is a scam or is fraudulent and appears to be from network solutions. The fax number is 570-708-3077. We have and will continue to send examples of fraudulent checks to authorities for investigation.

]]> http://blog.networksolutions.com/2009/consumer-advisory-beware-of-check-fraud/feed/ 1 http://blog.networksolutions.com/2009/announcing-new-growsmartbusinesscom-event-for-the-legal-minds-of-dc/ http://blog.networksolutions.com/2009/announcing-new-growsmartbusinesscom-event-for-the-legal-minds-of-dc/#comments Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:00:08 +0000 Shashi Bellamkonda http://blog.networksolutions.com/?p=2294 Every industry is gearing up to get into social media, whether it’s to promote good customer service, establish a personal face to a brand, or become a great thought leader. To help those in the legal industry better understand how they can use social media, growsmartbusiness.com is proud to present a series of events aimed at law firm marketers and communicators, lawyers, and others who are interested in learning more about social media and law firms.
The first event will take place on Wednesday, June 24th from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM at the law offices of Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein and Fox, P.L.L.C. The focus of this event will be an introduction to social media and explore reasons why law firms should engage in social media and establish an online presence. Our own social media swami, Shashi Bellamkonda and Sr. Director Legal and Business Affairs, Raj Malik will be on board to give an overview and share how Network Solutions stepped into the social media space.

The second event will be held July 22nd and features discussion for lawyers and practitioners on how to counsel clients who are using social media for business development and in times of crisis. With an emphasis on crisis communications, social media, and navigating the legal world; Levick Strategic Communications’ Dallas Lawrence and TMG Strategies’ Gayle Weiswasser are teaming up to tackle the discussion. Gayle has practiced transactional law as well as intellectual property litigation and Internet law, so her perspective is especially unique.

The final event in this series will be in August, and will discuss social media ethics and is scheduled to feature CRT-Tanaka’s Geoff Livingston speaking about astrofuring and what law firms need to know about company guidelines and behaving in an ethical way and adhering to the “laws” of Web 2.0.

Please sign up today for our first event in June and spread the word!
http://growsmartbizlaw1.eventbrite.com/
More details:
How and why should a law firm engage in social media? What are the benefits and the risks? What kind of employee policies need to be implemented? And what is Twitter anyway? Join us for a lunch meeting as we share information on the various online tools available to venture into the Web 2.0 world (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more) and different ways that law firms can engage their current employees, prospective clients and employees, partners and other stakeholders. Network Solutions’ Raj Malik, Sr. Director Legal and Business Affairs and Shashi Bellamkonda, Social Media Swami, will be available to lead the discussion and share insight into how Network Solutions took the plunge. Lunch will be provided thanks to our sponsors (http://growsmartbusiness.com/).

Special thanks to Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein and Fox for hosting the event.