Chicago FREE Social Media for Business Workshop: Twitter, Facebook, Blog

City of Chicago Treasurer's Office

Feb. 16th: FINAL FREE “Social Media for Business” Workshop on Feb. 16th

 

Feb. 28th: DEADLINE TO ENTER ON-LINE MARKETING CONTEST

 

Stephanie D. Neely

Treasurer
City of Chicago
In This Issue

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Join Our Mailing List
Capacity Crowds Flock FREE “Social Media Secrets for Small Business Owners” Worshops
ONLY ONE DATE REMAINS- 2/16
Secrets of E-Mail Marketing and Social Media for Small Business Owners. HURRY – REGISTRATION FILLS FAST!
REGISTRATON FOR 2-16 (FIRST 300)
contestlogo
“Social Media and E-Mail Marketing Contest” for Chicago Business Owners

Entry deadline is Feb. 28th

 

We hope you enter our contest to find the best business use of social media and e-mail marketing in Chicago! Over $10,000 in cash and prizes will be awarded. Click Here for complete details.

*Information from:

Office of the City Treasurer

Stephanie Neely Treasurer Contact: Public Affairs

(312) 744-8122

**InovediaMarketing.com is proud to be 2009 & 2010 ambassador for the City of Chicago Small Business Expo. Follow @inovedia on Twitter for updates and information and daily Social Media Marketing tips for business!

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Richard A. Bouchez | Social Media Specialist | New Media Production Richard Bouchez is a certified Inbound Marketing professional specializing in Social Media Marketing & New Media content development. Richard’s web, audio & video work has been honored with Emmy, Promax & CBA awards.

DAILY SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING TIPS FOLLOW @INOVEDIA ON TWITTER!

 

PROMOTE YOUR TWITTER & FACEBOOK!>>>

Social Profile Card > "We're @" on front &  Twitter, Facebook & Linkedin on back!

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ru following me? Twtr/FBblu Dble sided skinny profilecard
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add your Twitter name!

Richard Bouchez is a certified Inbound Marketing professional specializing in Social Media Marketing & New Media content development. Richard’s web, audio & video work has been honored with Emmy, Promax & CBA awards.

InovediaMarketing.com named City of Chicago Small Business Expo Ambassador: Now you can get a link too!

InovediaMarketing.com is proud to be announced a 2010 ambassador for the City of Chicago Small Business Expo! It’s our second year in a row and, because we are passionate about helping small businesses improve their marketing efforts, we are happy to help announce that you too can become an Expo Ambassador! Just follow the instructions below from the City of Chicago Treasurers office.

Stephanie D. Neely

Treasurer
City of Chicago

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Join Our Mailing List

The Small Business Expo is less than 30 days away – become an Expo Ambassador Today!

The City Treasurer’s FREE 9th Annual Small Business Expo on Friday, July 16th at the UIC Forum offers an amazing day of FREE Expert Small Business Workshops, 130 exhibitors, and networking with over 1,500 attendees.Announcing an innovative program for Businesses, Chambers of Commerce, and Community Groups to connect and link into one of the most viewed small business website in Chicago. www.chicagocitytreasurer.com

Receive a FREE link on our Expo Ambassador Page until April of 2011 if you…ACT FAST (Within 2 days)
Add our Small Business Logo and a link to your home page by July 1st and send out at least one notice on the expo to your contact list.
(An excellent example would be our partnership with the Chicago Innovation Awards www.chicagoinnovationawards.com).
EMAIL the word AMBASSADOR to sbe@cityofchicago.org and we will send you our Small Business Expo logo.
ACT SLOWER (During the July 16th Expo)
If your company drives 10 or more people to the Expo, we will add your LINK after the Expo to our Ambassador Page. (Determined by our on-site researchers).The 2010 Top 10 Business Plan Finalists and their business summaries are posted at
www.chicagocitytreasurer.com
Disclaimer: The City Treasurer’s Office reserves the right to reject any ineligible business as defined in the rules of the annual business plan competition.

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PROMOTE YOUR TWITTER & FACEBOOK!>>>

Social Profile Card > "We're @" on front &  Twitter, Facebook & Linkedin on back!

Social Profile Business Card tf 2.0 Back logo profilecard

ru following me? Twtr/FBblu Dble sided skinny profilecard
ru following me? Social Media Profile Business Cards by twitterfunny

add your Twitter name!

ATTENTION SMALL BUSINESS! Google just told you to get on Facebook!

GOOGLE + FACEBOOK = SMB EDGE!

Google announced on its Twitter account that public status updates from Facebook are now showing up on Google searches via the company’s new real-time search feature, first announced in Dec. (Updates that aren’t tagged for public consumption will not show up.) The algorithm now pulls in real-time blog postings, tweets and MySpace updates.
~from Cynopsis.com

Remember, Google is heavily taking location into account! Combine that with this announcement and you’ve just dramatically elevated your online presence if you’re posting on Facebook AND you’ll increase your visibility exponentially if your Facebook friends share your stuff! *Just remember to tag your biz related updates as “Public.”

Good luck,

@richardbouchez

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Profile / Note Card! AnalogTwtr yelbkinfo by twitterfunny>>>>

—————

Social Profile Business Card tf 2.0 Back logo by twitterfunny Add your logo & links on back>>>

Social Profile Business Card tf 2.0 Back logo profilecard

Richard Bouchez is a certified Inbound Marketing professional specializing in Social Media Marketing & New Media content development. Richard’s web, audio & video work has been honored with Emmy, Promax & CBA awards.

Big idea? Itching to execute? Now what?

You’re sound asleep in the middle of the night. You wake in a cold sweat because you’ve got it! There it is, the golden marketing idea that will bring the masses to your door! So, where do you go next? Who’s going to execute it? Is it even realistic?

I’d like to introduce you to mFormer.com because I think their concept could help a lot of people get started on marketing projects big or small. Their new online resource for locating a wide range of marketing services and vendors could be especially helpful for business owners and marketers who lack they’re own marketing departments. mFormer.com also offers a free referral service, you can submit your project and they will get you started with vendor suggestions. If you’re a marketer you can create a free listing in their directory here.

SHOP AROUND: Whether you want to start at Facebook community, flyer a neighborhood or spread viral videos, don’t be afraid to schedule face to face or phone interviews with numerous marketers. Even seasoned marketers learn more about  projects just by requesting bids and occasionally you may find out a project is more affordable than you thought! If you  can’t hire out an entire project it’s a great idea to hire an experienced marketer as a project manager. They can help shape your idea, evaluate the folks you want to involve or simply layout guidelines and directions for you follow.

AVOID “DIY” MARKETING PITFALLS: Like many projects, marketing projects are often more complicated that initially thought which makes them more expensive in time & dollars! Let’s face it, everyone’s trying to save a buck and most don’t have a choice, but many projects are better not done than done “on the cheap.”

avoid marketing mistakes

Try to avoid:

  • Taking on too much. Whether it’s you or your staff, everyone makes this mistake and it’s an opportunity killer! You can get sloppy, distracted and so can your staff. Be fair to yourself, can you really make this project a priority?
  • Recruiting your sister, cousin, uncle or the next door neighbor’s kid for “skilled labor.” Even if they are Photoshop experts, for example, “free labor” tend to miss the big picture. Designs tend to lack brand consistency or worse.
  • Handing over Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn accounts to interns! This is your identity & reputation we’re talking about. It’s also an opportunity for you to listen to your customers!

What’s your story? Got a horror story from a project you should have hire out or tips on hiring the right company for the job? Please share in the comments.

While I have no direct affiliation with mFormer.com and I have not used their services myself, in the spirit of “transparency” I want to point out that you will find InovediaMarketing.com listed on their site in the Social Media Marketing category. We offer new & traditional media marketing services such as  multimedia project management.

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Good luck!

Richard (@richardbouchez)

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*Mall questions photo by Wok on Flickr here

*Pen mightier then sword photo by feastoffun on flickr here

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What would they write about you?

This morning I ran across a nice article pointing out creative ways small businesses are “unique and different” which prompts me to ask “What would they write about you?”

Let’s finally admit that we’re often too geeky about our product, ads and ideas to see that the differences we’re selling may just be too subtle to be noticed by average Joe Public. Other times we may fall into the trap of putting  a lot of effort into selling product differences that, unfortunately, few folks care about. Write down a couple of your products / businesses differentiators and email them out to your colleagues, staff and friends (not your family – let’s not try to sway the vote). See what they have to say. You might just find some new unique and different facets about your own business.

So what would the local paper, a blogger or trade magazine write about your business? If they’re not writing anything… write it for them and send it to them! Well, I’ll save that advice for another day, another post.

Check out Small Hands Big Ideas here to see how some small businesses are actually standing out from the crowd. I ran across it on BackRoadsBusiness.com, which has great marketing information for and about Mom & Pop shops. Photo by Gonzalo Barrientos

-Richard

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