I Commit to Practicing What I Preach

I have been invited to run a series of social media workshops throughout May at the Peabody Chamber of Commerce in Peabody MA.

The first session this past Friday was an information overview of social media marketing (SMM) for business, and the first 2 hour workshop will be about Twitter on May 1st. During that workshop we'll set up twitter accounts, customize the background and colors and discuss the finer points of communicating in 140 characters of less. At a future workshop we'll cover blogging using blogger.com/. Meanwhile, during each of the workshops, we'll also talk about linking all our SMM tools together: twitter with blogging, blogging with facebook, linkedin with blogging and twitter and so on.

So here's the thing: I can do all these SMM things, and I have participated occasionally for awhile for the benefit of my own business. However, I'm more likely to do this for my clients rather than for me. Since I believe that experience is the foundation for teaching, I believe I need to practice what I preach. Yes, it's good that I do blog for others, but blogging for my own business helps to put me back in my own shoes, my own world, and to speak from more personal experience. (e.g. It's time consuming!)

The commitment I must make (and I admit I have an SMM commitment issue) is to blog on a regular basis ... to practice what I preach ... to demonstrate how it works from my own experience.

One of main objectives of the work shop series is to help people choose a couple of SMM tools that will work best for them. Some people will have a blogging commitment challenge similar to mine. And if that's the case, then blogging may not be the right tool for them. Considering that blogging is very beneficial for search engine marketing (SEM), and that frequent blogging is required for that strategy to be successful, there's a pretty good chance that time-tapped business owners won't have enough time to add this to their overall marketing strategy. There are then two options: don't do it and participate in another way, or enlist/hire someone to do it for them.

These are the options we'll discuss for each workshop actually. Meanwhile, it's my job to do what I advise others to do. Today is the first day of my umpteenth commitment to blog on a regular basis.

Why such a problem with blogging you may ask? Good question, after all I do this for a living, right? Well that's just it ... I do this for a living and because I'm the primary producer in my company, wearing all the hats and doing most of the client work, I have little time for my own SMM. That's all about to change, for I've made this committment to start my day with my blog etc.

I usually start my day checking news and priming my brain for the work day well before the emails and phone calls start, so I'll just extend this to my blog ... the blog that will be followed by work shop participants. I now must hold myself accountable. I need to prove this commitment and then share the experience during the blogger.com workshop that's coming up in 3 weeks.

Let's see how I do.

Twitter Workshop at Peabody Chamber of Commerce

Starting May 1st, I'll be conducting a workshop series at the Peabody Chamber of Commerce in Peabody MA.

The first workshop session is about Twitter: what it is, who's tweeting, why tweet. Workshop participants, who attended an introductory session today, will learn how to set up an account, will find some people to follow and will follow each other as we continue through the series. We'll also learn how to craft a useful tweet in 140 characters or less. Additionally, we'll discuss using Twitter as a search engine, a research tool and how to manage online reputation using this popular tool.

The upcoming social media marketing sessions include setting up a facebook page for business, utilizing Linkedin as a business networking tool and blogging, and each workshop will include setting up accounts, modifying settings, working with templates and more.

Participants will become part of the SMM Club, which is a great way to business owners to compare, consult and communicate with each other has they learn how to harness the power of social media marketing.

http://www.peabodychamber.com/