Attend any or all! You MUST register for each session that you wish to attend.

Session #1 – Introduction to NetWorks! Boise Valley – 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM – FREE

Without a doubt, and particularly in today’s economy, networking remains the most cost effective method known to increase your revenues. We’d like to introduce you to NetWorks! Boise Valley B2B Networking Groups and to our unique methods for achieving that goal. The best way that we can think of doing this is to invite you to come as our guest to a mock meeting where we will show you how we do it and why it works.

This will be a live meeting. You will meet other professionals from the area and you will also exchange contact information and business opportunities. This meeting will be open to all who wish to attend (up to our meeting capacity) and the only requirement that we have is that your business focus must be Business to Business (B2B) vs. Business to Consumer (B2C).  

Session #2 – Social Business Basics – 10:30 AM – 12:15 PM – $29.00

Whether you are B2C or B2B, becoming active in Social Business (the business related application of Social Media) is becoming more and more of an absolute must! But, where and how do you get started? We will introduce you to the critical basics and provide you with an overview of the four major social networking platforms (Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, & Google+) so that you will be able to make an informed decision as to which, if any, may be right for you. 

We will then direct you to whatever steps you will need to take in order to get started. If you are not sure if social business is right for you, we would strongly encourage you to investigate the potential benefits before dismissing the opportunities!

Session #3 – Beginning LinkedIn – 1:00 PM – 2:45 PM – $29.00

LinkedIn is Social Business! There are over 135 million folks found of  this networking platform and that inlcudes key executives from every Fortune 500 Company! Shouldn’t you be there too? If you are in business, and you are not using LinkedIn DAILY, you are very likely making a critical mistake. It all starts with understanding the basics and the terminology, then creating your profile, and finally connecting with others to expand your business network via your connections’ business networks. We will show you how! Attendance in Session #2 – Social Business Basics – is highly recommended if all of this is very new to you.

Session #4 – Introduction to Nimble Social CRM – 3:15 PM – 4:15 PM – FREE

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) programs have be widely available since the 1980′s. The problem is, they haven’t really evolved all that much since that time. Nimble is changing that! Your customers, and your prospects, are no longer wanting to communicate with you solely via email or the telephone. They are talking on Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, and Google+ as well. Do you want to be a part of this conversation or maybe merely be the topic of it? Yes, your contacts are talking to each other about a variety of subjects including you, your company, and your products or services!

Nimble Social CRM has been developed by the ground up to tightly intergrate all of your social networking activities directly into the CRM itself. It is fast. It is simple. It is … Nimble. It is designed to grow your business! At this session we will take you through a tour of this amazing application whcih is offered for free to single users (some limitations) or at a very low monthly investment for team environments.

Please register separately for each session that you choose to attend! 

Refreshments and complete workbooks/materials will be provided for all four workshops.You will be notified by separate email of things you can do to best prepare for your selected meeting(s). 

Still, I hear this all the time … “My company won’t pay my dues”. Assuming that your compensation is at least partially based on your ability to generate new revenues, I’d have to ask … “Why should they?” Of course, if they do, that’s very nice but, if you can invest $100 (time and money) a week and get $200 back in return and you won’t do it because your company won’t pay for your dues, who’s not the sharpest knife in this drawer? If on the other hand, you are a salaried employee, I would expect your company to pay. Enough said about that.

Now then, since you have made the wise decision to make this investment, let’s talk about how to maximize your return:

1. You attend (you personally, not an alternate) a minimum of 75% off all meetings. This will be dependent on your particular groups’ bylaws.
2. You do a presentation to your group sometime during the first 6 weeks of membership.
3. You contribute a minimum of two written leads per week including those weeks that you may be unable to attend.
4. You meet with 6 other members off-site to get to know each other better and you do this quarterly.
5. You provide the group operator with a full-profile on you that is suitable for the groups’ website within 10 days of your start date.
6. You begin to take advantage of any and all of the group tools and resources that are available to you within 10 days of your start date.
7. You meet or exceed any and all of the other requirements for membership as specified by your group.

Thanks for visiting!

Craig

The following is a research paper recently completed by Boise State University students Angela Butler, Annie Densley, Susie Seltzer, and Teresa Kunz for a communications class. I think that it is well worth your read  and it does share information compiled from businesses in our local community. Susie also runs our NetWorks! Boise Twitter account and manages my Sales Results LLC FaceBook Page. Enjoy!

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of social media. The study focused on Twitter and Facebook in businesses within the Boise, Idaho area, and how local businesses compare to national business’s use of social media.  Additionally, researchers intended to determine if this type of marketing is regarded as effective when compared to traditional methods of advertising locally. Using a detailed survey on social media practices–distributed to 88 college students and local residents– the research team examined the online personal habits of social media users.  The data collected was used to determine how often individual social media users engage with businesses online and what contributing factors would cause them to do so. In addition to the survey data, 20 local businesses were interviewed on their utilization, or their lack of utilizing, of online social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.   The interviewers inquired if the businesses were present on SNS, what sites they used, and how they used them for business purposes. In addition to their presence on SNS, businesses were asked about their monitoring practices.  Further exploration inquired about any future plans the businesses might have with social media. The results indicated that local (Boise, Idaho area) businesses use an online presence with social media sites on average with national businesses.  Unexpectedly, we discovered that despite the use of social media sites locally, many of the business we interviewed were not monitoring their results or engaging with customers online.  The implication of this research is that Boise, Idaho area businesses are not using the sites as effectively as they could in order to gain a significant return on investment and time.

The main characteristic of any successful business is its ability to connect to a target audience and persuade consumers to buy products. Traditionally this was accomplished through advertising, referrals, or direct marketing, but these methods could be expensive, time-consuming and ineffective. The advent of the personal computer, internet, and social media is changing how companies do business. “Suits” no longer sit in a room devising the perfect marketing scheme to lure new customers to their products. In fact, companies are losing their ability to control the content of their advertising, the demographics they target and the image they portray. The masses are taking over; they sit home in their pajamas exerting their influence by “liking” and “fanning” products, services and companies (Bulmer & DiMauro, 2009).

Five billion people connect to the World Wide Web–via internet or mobile phone–to share astronomical amounts of data each week. As a result businesses are finding social media –Twitter and Facebook–to be their weapons of choice in the fight over marketing control (Bulmer & DiMauro, 2009). However, entering into social networking sites (SNS) to interact with customers may yield positive or negative results for both businesses and customers.

By studying social media’s impact on business we will show: how the marketplace is adapting to its insurgence, the payoffs for business growth and sustainability, and the difficult nature of tracking its influence. We believe this study to be both timely and relative to the impact–good and bad–social media has on business success. This study will be beneficial to any business, especially local ones, that would like to understand social media in an industry setting and learn how to embark in this type of customer engagement in a way that will be useful not only to the bottom-line but to the growth of customer relations.

Download the complete report … Social Media and Business

Import BlackBerry Contact Records – I have a BlackBerry 9780 and I also use Gmail via Google Apps. The only way that I have been able to sync contacts is by using the Google Sync application and it sucks. Half the time it doesn’t work and when it does work, it routinely doubles, triples, or quadruples half of my contact records. Even better, it does the same thing on my Google Account Google Sync will sync contact records and/or your calendar. It does a tolerable job with your Calendar (still duplicates some events) but I flat turned it off on contacts. I do understand that you may be able to correct this problem with a free version of  enterprise but that appeared to be a little too complex for my talent level. Cleaning up duplicate contacts on Google is pretty simple but on BlackBerry? There is no great way but, I did manage to find a .99 app called Contacts Cleaner and it rocks!

While Contacts Cleaner is great for cleanup, the problem remains with my inability to keep my BlackBerry contacts up-to date. Enter DropBox. First, install DropBox for BlackBerry on your phone. Go to your contacts in Gmail on your computer and then export the entire file in a .vcf format and then take that file and add it to your DropBox . From your BlackBerry, open your “Contacts” icon and then hit your menu button and you will see an option to “Import Contacts from DropBox”. Select that and it will take you to your DropBox application, find the .vcf file and select that, and you are on your way! It is incredibly fast and it also identified and merged my existing records. The worst case scenario is you still have Contacts Cleaner if needed. While this does not keep my contacts in sync, it is so fast and easy that it takes me a few minutes to update weekly and, as for me, I’m thrilled!

Transfer PDF eBooks to iBooks – I love my iPad2 and I also love iBooks. What I don’t love about iBooks is that there is no way to rename a .pdf file. You need to go to iTunes in order to be able to do that and now with iCloud, this means turning iCloud on and off so that you can sync with iTunes via your USB cable. I might be wrong about that but, regardless, it has to be done in iTunes.  I spent the better part of a day figuring out what I am going to share with you regarding renaming .pdf’s. The problem with eBooks is that while you see what you perceive to be a “title” is actually a “name” only. In a lot of cases the actual “title”, and this is what iBooks displays, can be something totally different. Things like “mytitle”, “slide1″,  or even “fkekksognjdklg”. And guess what? You can’t change those titles. To check, right click on the .pdf file and select “properties”. Go to the “PDF” tab to view the “Title”. If it is blank, the title will be the same as the name. If there is a title in there, and it is not something you want to have iBooks display, you have a problem. Fortunately, I was able to find a cool free utility on CNET called Quick PDF Tools that will give you the ability to change that title to whatever you would like it to be.

The next challenge is getting these files into  iBooks on my iPad and some are quite large which makes email cumbersome if not unusable. DropBox for iPad to the rescue. The first thing that I did was clean out all my existing eBooks. From there it is a simple task to drag and drop your renamed eBook files from your computer to your DropBox, open them on our iPad and then select to “Open in iBooks”. Now, I check the title on all eBook files prior to opening them in iBooks!

Hope this helps someone! I do believe that DropBox may also have some syncing capabilities. I’ll be tackling that next!

Related articles

• DropBox Saved my Data! (futuremusicindustry.wordpress.com)
• Discovering Dropbox On Your Network (tenablesecurity.com)
• Send your Screen Shots Directly to DropBox with CloudShot (beast4romtheeast.wordpress.com)

Like many people, when I first became involved with social networking, I was anxious to connect with as many folks as possible in an effort to expand my reach. While I was, or at least I thought, somewhat selective in my choices, in retrospect I was not. I have been struggling with this question for several months now … “Do I need to cull the herd?” While this might not seem to be such a difficult question to answer, what happens if I do this now and then regret my decision later on? Am I being too short-sighted and I am perhaps not seeing the bigger picture? Maybe but, I’m going to do it anyway (smile). I’m going to approach this much the same as restoring a rusted out antique car. You strip it down to the frame and then build it back up from there.

The simple truth is I need to focus on those platforms where I find my customers as well as evaluate what each platform is best designed for in terms of my personal needs. I break them down this way…

• LinkedIn is where I need to be and, for whatever reason, where I devote the least amount of my attention.
• I love Twitter for the folks I meet, the information I gather, and quick conversations I have with many new and old friends.
• Google+ is now available for Google Apps users and I have to say that there is a lot about it that I like very much! It’s open like Twitter but more conversational like FaceBook. I also like the type of folks that seem to be using it. Google+, for me, is also a blank canvas and I can choose to paint it as I like as I connect with folks going forward.

Above all, I am interested in developing relationships and relationships come from engagement with others. I am just as guilty as the next in not doing my part to be more proactive in reaching out. Smaller numbers will allow me to do a better job at that.  I want both new relationships and better relationships with those I already know. This single goal drives all of my actions.

Likely you will not even notice (and it is less likely that you would even care) that I may have disappeared from your list of friends. If you should feel that  this may have been done in error, please reach out to me. It’s not like I’m tough to find. At least my friends know where I am (smile).

Related articles

• Facebook friends: time to cut back our networks? (guardian.co.uk)
• How To Get Started In Relationship Marketing: Excerpt (allfacebook.com)
• Is it Time to Cull Your Social Networks? (searchenginewatch.com)

Mingly is a social (and more) extension on Chrome that works to bring valuable information to your Gmail inbox. In many ways, it is a similar application to Rapportive and Xobni (Smartr) and it resides on your right side bar of messages that you have opened AND on messages that you are composing. The first steps in getting setup with Mingly is to connect your Google, Twitter, FaceBook, and LinkedIn accounts and then it goes out and imports and syncs this information and sends you a nice email reminder as different portions of these tasks have been completed. Take a look at the screenshot below and then we can discuss …

Mingly has identified the sender based on their email address and has gathered: profile photo, social networks (Twitter, FaceBook, and LinkedIn), identified which Gmail groups I have this contact in, allows me to set a reminder to get back with this person, provides a space for my personal notes (1), has links and excerpts of recent email conversations, and finally provides this contact’s social stream for Twitter, FaceBook, and LinkedIn. Wow! Please also notice the blue bar on the left side bar which takes me to a more dedicated Mingly interface (more on that in a bit).

If you wish to take a closer look at that specific contact, click on their photo to see more detailed info …

That blue bar on the left side bar nestled in with your inbox/outbox controls will take you to the Mingly notification center where you have both “Updates” (birthdays, job changes, changes to social profiles, etc.) and “Notifications (Twitter and FaceBook direct messages and replies)  and a whole lot more. Here is a shot of the Updates section and you can even message that person via email or the social network and send your congratulations or your sympathies as the case may or may not be (smile).

The Notifications area gives you that same messaging capability. I am told that these messages are being taken from the social networks themselves. Why is this important? Well, right now I have Twitter set to send me emails of direct messages. Some people even have Twitter set to do that with replies. Turn those off and use Mingly and reply to those messages without having to leave Gmail. Sweet! I do need to point out that Twitter replies are supposed to appear in this section but they are not doing that for me and that has been discussed with the folks over at Mingly. Here is a screenshot of Notifications …

Mingly is actually much much more but, there are some things it is not. It is not a CRM or a Social CRM that you would find with Nimble. Then again, it does not pretend to be that. There are also certain features that I wish it did have. I’m going to tell you what those are but first I wanted to share something else that left me very enthusiastic about the direction of this product. After I had connected with Mingly and was exploring it, it told me that Mingly Support (I was looking at an email from them from when I signed up) was having a birthday so … I used Mingly to send my congratulations and told them that I liked what I saw so far. They pinged back and asked if they could speak to me about the product. This resulted in a phone conversation the other day that lasted about an hour and involved three of their folks including the company founder. They asked me amazingly good and detailed questions, clarified my answers, and gladly accepted my suggestions. That says a lot and I was flattered that they would take the time to speak with me and I was also excited by their answers!

OK, so what would I like to see? I consider Rapportive to be the gold standard for this classification of application. For me, it still is. I would like to see Mingly …

• Do a better job of connecting Twitter credentials with my contacts
• Allow me to reply and retweet within a contact’s social stream
• Allow me to connect on the social networks with those contacts without leaving Gmail
• Show me profiles of folks based on their Twitter handles
• Show me the profiles of other Twitter folks mentioned within a contact’s social stream
• Allow for multiple notes (time and date stamp would be nice)

Thanks for visiting!

Craig

Related articles

• Rapportive Brings Reply, Retweet and Follow Twitter Features To GMail (blogherald.com)
• Xobni Rebrands Its Product Smartr, Launches Contact Manager For Android And Gmail (techcrunch.com)

I’ve been a member a number of groups over the past 20 years and even with those groups that were poor at best, I always found above average success. It was really pretty easy. I attended the meetings, actively participated, and did both religiously. For the most part, those were all of the tools that these groups offered … a place to meet and a chance to share. At NetWorks! Boise, we offer all of that and much much more. Yet, very few of our members truly take advantage of all that we provide and that’s a shame.

For our existing members, these are my strong suggestions. For our new members, and during your first 90 days only, we are prepared to back these suggestions with a full money-back guarantee. Of course, you have to agree to follow these suggestions.

1. You must attend (you personally, not an alternate) a minimum of 9 out of the 12 meetings in the quarter and you must fully complete the 90 day quarter. You also agree to do a presentation to your group sometime during the first 6 weeks of membership.
2. You must contribute a minimum of two written leads per week including those weeks that you may be unable to attend.
3. You agree to meet with 6 members off-site to get to know each other better during this 90-day period.
4. You agree to provide the group operator with a full-profile on you suitable for our website within 10 days of your start date.
5. You agree to spend one hour with Craig on-line reviewing our tools and resources within 10 days of your start date.
6. You have met any and all of the other requirements for membership as are found on your membership agreement found below.

NetWorks!_Member_Application 2011

Your move!

Craig

LinkedIn was the first, and at the time, only social networking application that held any interest for me when I first began to look into it. This was maybe 3 years ago. Of course, it did not come with an instruction manual so, off to Amazon I went in search of answers. I did buy the only two LinkedIn related books that were available at the time and they were abysmal. My search for answers via Google began. Somehow, I happened upon a site called “Windmill Networking” and this guy, Neal, talked about LinkedIn a lot. I mean a whole lot and, better yet, he seemed to know what he was talking about. Sweet! I believe that this may have also been the very first site where I actually got up the nerve to leave a comment. To my amazement, Neal even took the time to respond! This, of course, ruined me for most other sites where nobody seems to want to actually “engage” (smile).

Fast forward to today and Neal and I still communicate regularly via Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, and email. While his first book was phenomenal, the focus of his new book, Sales and Marketing, is exactly what I needed and it may be that also for you! I am a fairly ravenous reader but, I do struggle with books (attention span of a 2-year old). This is not the case with Neal’s books. His writing style makes for very easy reading. He speaks to you, not at you.

Like many folks, I must admit that despite knowing better, LinkedIn had become the proverbial “red-headed step child” to my social business marketing efforts. While I seem to spend most of my time on Twitter, LinkedIn is where I belong. I am a life-long B2B sales person and LinkedIn is business. I also think that it is important to note that Neal shares this same background. Well, I am now a “born-again” convert and already am at work following Neal’s advice for my profile! What do I like about this book?

• It is written by a sales and marketing person for sales and marketing people.
• It’s loaded with real case studies and practical selling advice. Neal even includes a chapter devoted to prospecting on LinkedIn!
• Neal goes into great detail about all aspects of LinkedIn and how to put its powerful features to work for you today. He also provides step-by-step instructions for all areas of the application. If I were LinkedIn, I’d be negotiating for the rights to use this as my reference guide (smile).
• The book does not preach. Neal gives you your options, the pros and cons of each, and lets you decide what is right for you. Of course, he does provide you with recommended courses of action.
• The book constantly reinforces the goals for social networking and LinkedIn while at the same time stressing that the rules of selling still apply as it relates to creating and nurturing relationships in real life.
• I like Neal’s attitude that “you might as well go big or go home”. There is no middle road and it does require your commitment.
• The book is both timely and up-to-date. What I see in this book matches LinkedIn’s present UI and feature set.
• Neal’s advice on LinkedIn Groups is awesome! I thought that I understood the power and flexibility of groups before I read this book. I was wrong. Not only has Neal encouraged me to evaluate the groups I am currently in, I am putting the finishing touches on creating a new group, “Boise B2B Sales & Marketing Professionals”.
• Like many sites, LinkedIn’s large number of features can be overwhelming. I now have a much clearer understanding of  applications like Companies, LinkedIn Signal, and LinkedIn Today.
• Finally, Neal spends time discussing a recommended daily routine and how to determine your ROI. Who cares about ROI anyway? Well …. I do!

Thanks for visiting!

Craig

Related articles

• New Book Outlines how to Maximize LinkedIn for Professionals and Business Owners (prweb.com)
• Book Review: Maximizing LinkedIn for Sales and Social Media Marketing by Neal Schaffer (verticalmeasures.com)
• Social Media Strategist Neal Schaffer’s Book on LinkedIn Wins Ground Breaking Non-Fiction Award (prweb.com)

We work with any business that needs technology or IT assistance. I enjoy working with businesses and enabling them to use their technology effectively. Our managed services differ from our competition in that we truly manage IT: budget, vendors, planning, operations, escalation, projects and maintenance. SEN Technologies is the cost effective, stress free IT solution.

I’ve been married for 16 years to my college sweetheart. Together we are raising four boys that all love living in Idaho. You can read more about our family at http://familyversuswild.wordpress.com

I look forward to giving you the service you expect for your business.

Rich Hersey – SEN Technologies: Email - rhersey@sentechnologies.com,  http://www.sentechnologies.com. Mobile – 208.250.0742