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September 2010

Central Wisconsin Social Media Conference

by JimRaffel on September 30, 2010

Next week Thursday is the Central Wisconsin Social Media Conference. The conference will be attended by many small and mid-sized manufacturing firms. As an early adopter of business-to-business (B2B) blogging, I’m looking forward to jump starting some small business bloggers.

Small Business b2b blogging by Jim RaffelCloser than you think.

Wausau, WI is closer than you think (depending where you live). you can be there in about three hours from Milwaukee or Minneapolis. Green Bay and Madison are even closer.

Great event at a great price. This is an all day event with breakout sessions most of the day. Each breakout time slot has four options to pick from so you can tailor the conference to your unique needs. All this and a lineup of great regional presenters for about $100.

If you don’t believe me that it’s a good deal – read what Erika Napoletano thinks about investing in yourself by attending conferences.

“We go to Target and walk out with $100 worth of crap we didn’t need (but it was ON SALE), and you complain about a $30 (or $300, for that matter) investment in your business? Shut…the front door.”

You can read the rest of Erika’s post The Bitch Slap: You Whiny Little “Freelancer” by clicking here. I will warn you that Erika is strongly opinionated like her language.

I hope to see you at the Central Wisconsin Social Media Conference!

If you can’t make this event please keep an eye on my Public Speaking page for future opportunities to see me speak and meet me face to face. You can also contact me with opportunities to speak at your event.

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Continue Reading 8 comments }blogging, conferences, education, Marketer, new media, public speaking, social media, WordPress

Inspire Me Project

by JimRaffel on September 29, 2010

I was recently interviewed for the Inspire Me project. Take a peek at the video below and then head on over to their site for some more mid-week inspiration.

Katie has come up with three fun, yet insightful questions.

1. What inspires you?

2. What makes you smile?

3. What super hero would you like to be? (You’ll have to watch to the end for my answer to this one.)

I love the idea of this project and the number of people who have already contributed. Watching the short videos is somewhat addictive, however, so grab a cup of coffee  before heading over to the site.

You may have also noticed the recent tag line change here, “Stories and Inspiration, small business CEO Style.” I think that makes four tag line changes this year. I have a feeling this one will stick. Reading back through the past several months of my writing and your comments convinces me that this is in fact what I do, tell stories that inspire.

What do you think?

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Continue Reading 2 comments }motivation, new media, personal development

Moderating a speakers panel

September 28, 2010

I recently moderated a social media speakers panel for the Wisconsin Publishers’ Production Club. Because of the club’s meeting structure, moderating the panel actually means you run the meeting for the day. It turned out to be a relatively easy task that amounted to supporting four great speakers. A successful speakers panel doesn’t happen, it’s planned. Step [...]

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Yelp!, Groupon and Trolls

September 27, 2010

You may have heard the “statistic” that a happy customer/client/business partner will tell one person while a dissatisfied one will tell ten. In my experience, this is pretty close to accurate and we aren’t going to change it no matter how hard we try. What you can try to do is change the feelings of [...]

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Ideation ideas

September 26, 2010

Two quick ideas to keep your mind moving forward and thinking. When making a numbered list always add one number at the end and leave it blank. By doing so you encourage your mind to keep thinking. Instead of the “that’s done” mentality, your thinking will be “what else?” When sketching or taking notes (even [...]

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Focus on you

September 25, 2010

Why? Because you can’t change anyone else. Don’t be jealous. You don’t want to be like them. You want to be like you. Find your own way. Your unique approach to the world is what people find interesting. You’re doing it right. Yes, you are and keep the focus on you by helping others. When [...]

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Grow your business

September 24, 2010

If you are like me, one of your goals is to continually grow your business. You probably also struggle with finding growth that is real, authentic and sustainable. Business growth comes in three flavors Increase market share in the market you are already in. A restaurant owner could expand his facility in order to serve [...]

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Small business hats

September 23, 2010

If you own or work in a small business you are probably going to wear many hats on any given business day. While at times this will be a frustrating part of the small business condition, I’ve come to realize it’s where much of our true competitive advantage stems from. Here’s is a list of [...]

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My business changed me

September 22, 2010

In January of 2009 I visited my friend Rick Littrell in the Boston area. We talked printing, social media, variable data, personal URL’s and all sorts of other fun stuff recovering printers in the social space talk about. World Changer. Over lunch at a cool, small town New England pub, we agreed that social media [...]

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The Customer Testimonial

September 21, 2010

The unsolicited customer testimonial is both social capital and brand equity. Two of the most valuable forms of capital, that while not economic, can be leveraged to achieve significant economic gains. Getting unsolicited customer testimonials It’s really easier than you think. When you are doing good work people will recognize that fact. All the testimonials [...]

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