Joins us for a Hands-on Business Social on Social Media

Featuring Bernie Borges, Author of Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap between Seller and Buyer through Social Media Marketing.

Including hands-on interactive sessions that will get you and your business into social media in minutes!

Get Social at our Business Social on Social Media!

When: Tuesday, April 12, 4:30-6:30 p.m.

Where: Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall, Grand Lobby

What: Meet author Bernie Borges and get hands on training in popular social media programs and learn more about how you can use social media to promote your business. You will also learn how you can help use social media to bring valuable jobs to Lee County.

Register today and get a free copy of Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap between Seller and Buyer through Social Media Marketing.

Available to the first 200 registrants!

Hosted by Blase Ciabaton of Naples Print Source and Michelle Salater of Sūmèr, LLC.

This is a FREE event, but seating is limited so you must register soon!

Thursday, September 16, 2010, at 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Everbank (Community Room)
1185 Immokalee Road
Naples, FL 34110

For event information, and to register, please click here

Kids and computers often go hand in hand. Online skills are invaluable in modern education but this boon to the learning experience can be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It’s impossible to watch your child’s every online move, so how can you keep them safe?

The next event of the Social Media Club of Southwest Florida, offered just ahead of the back to school hustle and bustle, will provide this essential information. Sergeant Stephanie Eller, of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, will offer an important presentation created by the Florida Attorney General. She will also discuss her personal experience as a detective dealing with Southwest Florida crimes involving online predators, sexting and cyberbullying.

Also presenting will be Chrissie Scelsi, a steering committee member and entertainment lawyer in Port Charlotte. Chrissie will broach virtual worlds for children and the privacy issues they present. Parents will learn about the mechanisms that online services employ to protect users and the laws that govern online privacy. She will also discuss issues that have arisen as a result of the exchange of goods online, treated as gambling in some states.

Although the event is free, advance registration is required.

Sponsor opportunities are available starting at $250 or be title sponsor for $500. Perfect for companies who provide products or services to parents, families and kids.

Sponsor: Elemental Stone and Waterworks, Inc.

For the next Social Media Club of Southwest Florida event, learn the nuts and bolts of online networking. If you don’t know a tweet from a blog – or if you’re looking to fine tune skills you already have – you’re sure to learn many helpful tips and tricks.

The format is going to be a little different. Instead of the usual lecture and panel Q&A, expect to engage in lively interactive “speed learning” roundtable sessions, each facilitated by a different SMCSWFL steering committee member. You may bring a laptop if you wish, and feel free to roam from session to session to get the most out of this dynamic educational event. Be ready to ask plenty of questions. It’s all about you and your specific needs.

Each 20 – 30 min session will focus on a particular online platform. Each is listed below, along with its facilitator:

LinkedIn – Gail Lamarche, Director of Marketing at Henderson Franklin Starnes & Holt, P.A.
Twitter – Michelle Hudson, Social Media Editor at the News Press
Foursquare – Chris Silk, Social Media Editor and Theater Critic at Naples Daily News
Facebook (advanced) – Michele Lorito Chase, Owner of Ghost Executive Group
Facebook (basic) – Susanna Wohlpart, Creative Director at WGCU Media
Posterous (microblogging) – Dean Piccirillo, Principal and Senior Financial Advisor at HBK Sorce Financial LLC
Hootsuite/Seesmic/Tweetdeck – Kerri Goldsmith, Administrative Assistant at HBK Sorce Financial LLC
WordPress (blogging) – Sara Fitzpatrick Comito, Communications Director at Elemental Stone and Waterworks, Inc.
Online branding – Brian Yerkes, Owner & Creative Director of Brian Joseph Studios.
Email Marketing – Brad Dohack, Realtor at the Dohack Group of Absync Realty

To further our mission to advance media literacy and because of the generosity of our sponsor, it’s all offered free of charge. However, space is limited and we expect a high demand for this informative event, so please register early.

The sessions will be held in the restaurant lounge area of the hotel and appetizers will be served, including Oasis wings, crispy calamari, chips and dips, and pretzel dough sticks. Happy hour drink specials will also be offered throughout the event.

Now what?

You probably would like some visitors, comments – activity in general. Your blog doesn’t live in a vacuum, right? Or, at least, it won’t for very long unless you just like to hear yourself type. One important step is to register with blog directories, such as the one hosted by Technorati. Simply sign up for an account there, create a profile just like you would at any social networking site then file a “blog claim.” You’ll see this option as you set up your account. You will be able to furnish a description of your blog along with keywords and categories that will help readers find you.

Technorati will tell you it will take “some time” to investigate your blog claim (and it will! It took them a month to verify the Hot Tub belonged to me) – don’t worry, they won’t send a claims adjuster to your office or anything like that. You will, however, receive an email with your Secret Squirrel instructions. You’ll be given a “token code,” which you will put into a blog post. Then hit “publish.” When you tell it to go ahead, Technorati will crawl your site, find the code, and verify you are a human blogger who actually owns that blog. That’s it.

Yes, you will have a weird bit of code in your post. Mine is: 7E3NX6A3VE53  You can get rid of it when you get confirmation. Or just write about your experience and help other people with this handy household tip.

Don’t you love learning together?

What is your blog, and what is it all about? When did you start it and why? Tell us in the comments for this post.

When:

6 – 6.30 pm : Registration and networking, appetizers, cash bar
6.30 – 6:45 pm : Opening remarks by Michelle Hudson
6.45  - 7.30 pm : Keynote address: Turning Social Media Contacts into Actionable Relationships – **update – view the recorded stream
7.30 – 8:15 pm :  Executive panel
8.15 – 8.30 pm : Closing Remarks

Where:

Holiday Inn Airport at Gulf Coast Town Center

Cost: Free

Florida Weekly
Henderson, Franklin Starnes & Holt, P.A.

Featured speaker: Deborah Shane

Panelists:

Suzanne Boy, Attorney at Henderson Franklin Starnes & Holt, P.A.
Sarah Owen, CEO at Community Cooperative Ministries, Inc.
Dean Piccirillo, Principal and Senior Financial Advisor at HBK Sorce Financial LLC

Moderator:

Pason Gaddis, President and Publisher, Florida Weekly

Event description

Is there room for social media in the boardroom? At the next Social Media Club of Southwest Florida event, discover the opportunities social media provides for professional people in leadership roles.

A recent study by UberCEO found that in the Fortune 100 companies:

* Only 2 CEOs have Twitter accounts
* A mere 13 have LinkedIn profiles
* 81 percent do not have a Facebook profile
* Not one Fortune 100 CEO has a blog

The surprising lack of tweets in the C suite offers enterprising leaders a chance to differentiate their company by becoming the face of it, even — maybe even especially — if it’s not part of the Fortune elite. However, social media does present that “yet one more thing” to learn and manage, and many executives may have to break down long-existing silos in their corporate culture in the process.

Enjoy an in-depth overview of the time management and implementation issues that face busy professionals who decide to become the public face of their business, as well as the brand loyalty and corporate goodwill social media can facilitate. Explore the objections professional-level employees may have when embarking on a social media campaign, along with best practices and the opportunities for timely customer service intervention.

Keynote address:

Deborah Shane will present “Turning Social Media Contacts into Actionable Relationships”

Social media makes it easy to meet lots of like-minded people. Once you’ve harnessed the power of the social networks to gain all those followers, then what? The point isn’t simply to gain a huge list of online friends. However, many users haven’t learned the all-important next step: bridging the gap between online networking and real-world results. So, how do you turn those contacts into actionable relationships?

Deborah Shane will help us discover the fine art of social media contact conversion. She is a dynamic speaker and professional trainer who devotes her energy to helping professionals realize their full potential. Explore how and why “to put yourself out there, bring value to someone’s day, and get personal!”

Following Deborah’s presentation, stick around for a spirited panel discussion featuring local professionals who are also experts in social media relationship management.

Deborah Shane is owner of Train With Shane. She spent 20 years in broadcast media (radio) in sales, management and training in corporate America with Cox Radio and Clear Channel. In 1994, she began training and mentoring sales professionals both through continuing/adult education programs and broadcast media. She has designed and developed several original sales and professional development curricula. The expression you only come this way one time” has always motivated her to follow her dreams and take some risks along the way. TWS is an expression of all of her skills, passions and gifts. Find her on Twitter at @DeborahShane.

Executive Panel

Suzanne Boy is an Associate at Henderson Franklin, Starnes & Holt, P.A. She concentrates her practice in employment law and is the lead writer of Southwest Florida HR Law & Solutions, Henderson Franklins employment law blog. Suzanne also speaks to businesses and professional groups on various employment matters. In addition to her employment law practice, Suzanne also handles a variety of commercial litigation matters including contract and business disputes, foreclosures and bank-related litigation, landlord-tenant issues, and estate-related litigation. She serves as general counsel for several of her corporate clients. Suzanne also has an active civil appellate practice.

Find her on Twitter @suzanneboy.

Sarah Owen is Chief Executive Officer at Community Cooperative Ministries, Inc., the umbrella agency for The Soup Kitchen, Meals on Wheels, Faith In Action Senior Transportation, Hands & Hearts Montessori Preschool, and two United Way Resource Houses. The agency is dedicated to providing food to the hungry and transforming the lives of those in need through partnerships, collaborations and innovative social service solutions.

Her journey into the non-profit arena came by way of a career in public relations and corporate communications. Sarah has worked in investor relations, public relations and corporate communications for publicly traded companies on the New York Stock Exchange as well as private companies throughout the Southeastern United States.

Find her on Twitter @hungerfighter

Dean Piccirillo is a Principal and Senior Financial Advisor at HBK Sorce Financial LLC. Dean has been practicing for 20 years, working closely with families to help them plan for their long-term goals and with businesses and other institutions to help them establish or enhance retirement plans. He leads HBK Sorces Retirement Plan Unit, working closely with all of the firms corporate clients sponsoring qualified retirement plans. In addition to the Certified Financial Planner certification, Dean also maintains the Chartered Retirement Plans Specialist certification and the Accredited Investment Fiduciary Analyst certification. He was recently named as one of the Top 300 most influential retirement plan advisors in the U.S. by the 401(k) Wire.  Mr. Piccirillo writes online regarding pension and retirement planning matters on his professional blog at www.deanpiccirillo.com.

Find him on Twitter @deanpiccirillo or on his blog at www.deanpiccirillo.com.

Moderator

Pason Gaddis, President and Publisher, Florida Weekly

Pason Gaddis is President and Publisher of Florida Weekly. He is a 15 plus year newspaper advertising sales veteran. Prior to Florida Weekly, he served in a variety of sales and sales management capacities from 1998-2007 with Gannett, Inc. and successfully launched several new newspapers and magazines.

He is heavily involved in several local charities including the American Heart Association along with serving on the board of directors for the Lakes Park Enrichment Foundation, Great Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce and the Florida Press Service.

Florida Weekly on Twitter: @FloridaWeekly

Dean Piccirillo offers insurance products through HBK Sorce Insurance LLC, investment advisory services are offered through HBK Sorce Advisory LLC and securities are offered through Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments (PKS), Member FINRA/SIPC. PKS is headquartered at 18 Corporate Woods Blvd., Albany, NY 12211. HBK Sorce Insurance LLC and HBK Sorce Advisory LLC are not affiliated with Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments. Mr. Piccirillo is not able to transact business in a state that he is not licensed or registered.

NOT FDIC INSURED. NOT BANK GUARANTEED. MAY LOSE VALUE, INCLUDING LOSS OF PRINCIPLE. NOT INSURED BY ANY STATE OR FEDERAL AGENCY.

Let us know your thoughts on the event – quick survey

I've recently started to notice the results of my search inquiries in Google sometimes include a section at the bottom of page one in titled, "Results from people in your social circle".  It appears to use information that Google gathers from my known social circles such as the social networks that I've included on my Google profile along with information on the content that I've linked to on some of these same services.  Interestingly (and I guess not surprisingly), some of the most useful search results come from my "social circle" information that Google gathers on me.  This is on one level scary that this company knows so much about me, and on another level, an extremely powerful tool that continues to create more meaningful search results and I assume more efficient ad placement for Google…

Posted via email from Dean Piccirillo’s Posterous

Speakers: Carlos Cardona
Carlos Cardona is a one-of-a kind talent; a visionary with over 15 years of Web experience and proven success in creating and leading companies to include an Internet portal and search engine he invented and sold to Microsoft. Carlos has been recognized by Hispanic Magazine with both the Hispanic Entrepreneur Award as well the “100 Most Influential Hispanics” distinction in 1999 and 2000 respectively.

Register Here for free

Event Description

The Social Media Club of SWFL is partnering with Hodges University and the Southwest Forida Hispanic Chamber for this wonderful event. With 21 million Hispanic Internet users projected by this year, Hispanics are adopting social media as their primary source of communication, news and entertainment faster than any other group. The Hispanic community’s buying power is projected to reach $1.3 trillion by 2013. In order for businesses to connect effectively with this huge demographic group as it moves online they will need to understand how Hispanics are using these tools.

With 21 million Hispanic Internet users projected by this year, Hispanics are adopting social media as their primary source of communication, news and entertainment faster than any other group. The Hispanic community’s buying power is projected to reach $1.3 trillion by 2013. In order for businesses to connect effectively with this huge demographic group as it moves online they will need to understand how Hispanics are using these tools.

To help educate the local professional community about how the Hispanic market is growing on the Internet, the Social Media Club of Southwest Florida has teamed with the Southwest Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Hispanic Institute at Hodges University for a workshop on Monday, January 25th from 7:00 to 9:00 PM Holiday Inn Fort Myers Airport at Town Center. For meeting will include a presentation that by Carlos Cardona an entrepreneur and web strategist followed by a panel discussion including local Hispanic professionals experienced with or experimenting with social media in their businesses.

Carlos Cardona is a one-of-a kind talent; a visionary with over 15 years of Web experience and proven success in creating and leading companies to include an Internet portal and search engine he invented and sold to Microsoft. Carlos has been recognized by Hispanic Magazine with both the Hispanic Entrepreneur Award as well the “100 Most Influential Hispanics” distinction in 1999 and 2000 respectively.

Carlos currently he serves as Chief Social Media Strategist for Welltok, Inc where he is in charge of reinventing how healthcare companies use social networks to help individuals better their lifestyles. Prior he served as the Chief Social Media Strategist to Newlink Groups a public relations firm where he managed social media strategies for clients such as Oracle, Pionner, Smirnoff, Skype Latam, Tourism board of Mexico and others.

Carlos also served as a Project Lead & Development Manager for Microsoft for several years and was the founder of Yupi Internet (now MSN Latino, and part of the global MSN network) a leading web-portal that targeted the Latin American and US Hispanic market, which attracted more than 10 million unique visitors with over 200 million page views per month in less than 3 years, which was subsequently acquired by Microsoft.

Location

Holiday Inn Fort Myers Airport at Town Center
9931 Interstate Commerce Dr.
Fort Myers, FL 33913
Phone: 239-561-1550

ALTHOUGH THERE IS NO COST AND THIS EVENT IS FREE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, SEATING IS LIMITED AND YOU MUST BE REGISTERED TO ATTEND

What better way to kick off the holiday season than to celebrate with the Social Media Club of Southwest Florida? Please join us on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. and sample delicious dishes from four outstanding Southwest Florida eateries that are using social media:

- Bubba’s Roadhouse, Cape Coral
- Chef Murray Young at Holiday Inn Fort Myers Airport at Town Center
- Simply Cupcakes, Naples
- Naples Smokehouse, Naples

Best of all, we all can lend a hand to make Southwest Florida children a little happier by donating an unwrapped toy to benefit Toys for Tots. Typically admission to our meeting is free, but we hope you will understand this month’s “cover charge.”

This meeting is possible thanks to the generosity of our sponsors:

We welcome D3 Services and CPR Tools to Southwest Florida. Those who attended the networking reception in October meeting at Blu Sushi may have had the opportunity to meet Andy Crawford.

We also appreciate the generosity of Holiday Inn Fort Myers Airport Town Center!

Holiday Inn Fort Myers Airport at Town Center
9931 Interstate Commerce Drive
Fort Myers, FL 33913

RSVP here

so our vendors can plan catering and staffing appropriately.

It is understood that about 50% of Fortune 500 companies currently ban Twitter in the workplace, with many small businesses following suit.

Twitter seems to be mentioned in almost every entertainment news show these days, and there doesn’t seem to be any signs of them letting up. More recently, the professional sports world is now seeing some negative effects of Twitter usage among professional athletes.

A few days ago, Jozy Altidore of the US Men’s National Soccer Team, and Hull City Football Club (England), sent out a tweet that read: “Apologize to all of you. I showed up late. Made a big mistake I’m very very sorry.” Hours later, Jozy’s name wasn’t listed in the Hull City squad for that day’s game, as it normally is.

Jozy arrived late for work that day, and the manager, Phil Brown disciplined him by dropping him from the squad. In addition to that, the club also decided to fine the player for tweeting about what happened. Hull City FC clearly don’t want their internal affairs being posted to the world on Twitter.

“That for me is information that stays in house. The reason he wasn’t on the bench was our business.” said Brown. This isn’t the first time a professional soccer player in England has come under fire as a result of an active social media presence.

Darren Bent, formerly with Tottenham Hotspurs, sent out a twitter rant about the club chairman during the negotiation process as Bent was being transferred to Sunderland FC. Bent was forced to apologize for his angry tweets, but eventually the deal was done.

In August 2009, during the run up to the US Open, the Tennis Integrity Unit posted a notice inside the locker rooms with the heading “Important. Player Notice. Twitter Warning.”. The notice continued to state; “Many of you will have Twitter accounts in order for your fans to follow you and to become more engaged in you and the sport — and this is great,” the notices read. “However popular it is, it is important to warn you of some of the dangers posted by Twittering as it relates to the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program Rules.”

Andy Roddick responded with a tweet calling the notices “lame”.

The NFL has also had it problems with footballers using Twitter, and most teams publicly state that they do everything they can to discourage it’s use. Ocho Cinco of the Bengals is definitely not listening to this discouragement; he is talking, and talking a lot, in a lot of different ways. Ocho Cinco is fast turning into a human social media platform.

Perhaps he knows more about what to say, and what not to say on Twitter unlike some other social media active sports professionals.

Further reading related to this story:

Funny Business – The Social Media Super Bowl: The NFL vs. Twitter, Facebook et al

ITBusinessEdge – NHL Follows Lead of NBA, NFL in Banning Twitter

Article Author:

Brian Yerkes ( @brianyerkes )

Owner and Creative Director of Brian Joseph Studios, Southwest Florida’s leading web development, branding and social media firm.