I am an entrepreneur. I'm new to social media and virtual customer relationships. How will an online community help my business? How much will it cost? What is the ROI? How will it affect other parts of my business? How do I get started? Who can help me?

I am excited to announce a new training class, How to Build a Community of Raving Fans. This class helps you to maximize the online presence of your business using social media and online communities. Your time and resources are limited — turn this challenge into an opportunity! Find out how to engage prospects, clients and industry influencers.

Price: $79.00 (early registration through Jan 19th, $89 after)
Date: January 26, 2012
Time: 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Location:
1600 Range Street / Suite 100 / Boulder, Colorado 80026
Map and Directions

Save an additional $10 through Jan 19! Enter LOU into the Discount Code field.

1. Find Your Readers

While writing your book is important, your first job is to tune into readers and find where your book matches their need. Do your market research to answer questions like:

• Who is the book for?
• How do you reach them?
• What are the tools?
• How do you get them? 

If you want readers, you have to work for it. Put as much energy into finding readers as creating the book, and do this before you write the book. Check out The Book Designer blog by Joel Friedlander for a sample marketing plan and other useful advice. Hot tip: Joel recommends writing the back cover copy before you write the book.

2. Hire an Editor

You need an editor. You need an editor. You need an editor. While much of the book-creation process is in your own hands, recognize you need help developing your manuscript and fixing errors. Objective feedback on your writing is invaluable, says Robin Martin of Two Songbirds Press. A former literary agent, Robin warns that "feedback from family and friends is not objective." Better to get help from the pros:

• Professional Readers - evaluation and critique
• Developmental Editors - develop the manuscript, find the hook
• Substantive Editors - eliminate problems of crafting (heavy copy editing)
• Copy Editors/Line Editors - identify and fix inconsistencies and technical errors

Find an editor using these organizations:

• Editorial Freelancers Assocation
• National Association of Independent Writers and Authors
• American Society of Journalists and Authors
• Bay Area Editors Forum
• Publishers Marketplace

3. Use a Literary Agent Service

A literary agent service provides self-publishers with essential tools for accessibility and discoverability. Accessibility means getting your book off your laptop and into a usable format like print or ebook format. Discoverability is where readers find your book in popular ecommerce sites like Amazon.com.

Smashwords works with independent authors to sell books on the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony Reader Store, and others. Using Smashwords is easy. Upload your perfectly formatted Microsoft Word document, and it generates HTML, ePub, and doc formats, suitable for web use, plus Android and iPhone devices.

CreateSpace is an ideal service to publish your book on the Amazon.com Kindle Store. It too provides easy-to-use tools and services to get your book in the hands of millions Kindle device owners.

4. Distribute via Print-on-Demand

Print-on-Demand (POD) is an economical distribution method used for books favored by independent publishers and authors. Books are printed only when orders are received, avoiding pricey printing runs and inventory costs. Printing full color books using POD is expensive, and it is not recommended for photo books. POD is an economical alternative for most other titles. Experts recommend authors target POD first, then eBooks. Both Smashwords and CreateSpace support POD.

5. Build Your Community

Invite readers to be part of the story using the social web. Tips to create a base of raving fans for your book:

• Promote yourself – tap into social networking sites to build your fanbase
• Engage your audience – interact with readers using your website, blog, Facebook page, twitter profile, and more
• Post frequently – invest at least 5 hours per week updating your friends and followers and posting to your blog
• Experiment with media – podcasts, videos, interactive web sites are effective storytelling tools.

You will be rewarded with higher search rankings leading to more book sales.

Summary

Whether your aim is to reach potential clients or employers, or to fulfill your dream of being an author, publishing your book is within your reach. Carla King helps authors overcome self-publishing hurdles, like accessiblity and discoverability. Pick up her excellent Self-Publishing Boot Camp Guide for Authors eBook, or better yet, sign up for a workshop.

1. Boost Facebook Fans Instantly
   
   Get Facebook Fans immediately by converting a profile to page. It gets better. You can merge more than one profile for even more followers. Kudos to @ozskier for this fabulous tip!
   
   
2. Why Social Media Matters for Business
   
   Relationships drive transactions that businesses love, like quoting, ordering, and buying. To build relationships, listen to what people in your demographic are saying in social media venues like twitter, and their learn pain points. Be a useful resource — serve up the answers, advice, and knowledge they crave. And, reward them for sharing your brand. Thanks, @bizcoachdeb and @ryanamirault.
   
   
3. Best Kept Secrets for Social Media ROI
   
   Do you struggle with ho-hum "so what" responses to your social media metrics reporting? Make 'em say "WOW!" with compelling and exciting facts about your awesome campaign. These tools can help: Simply Measured, Get Clicky, goog.gl, Chart Beat.
   
   
4. QR Codes - Dos and Don'ts
   
   DO:
   • Ensure destination links in QR codes are mobile-optimized.
   • Use unique QR codes and track usage, with a tool like goog.gl.
   • Know that the QR means Quick Response and impress your friends.
   
   DON'T:
   • Overuse QR codes (like placing one on the back of your business card, like I did).
   • Use a QR code with explaining what it does, and why it matters.
   • Take your eye off Near Field Communication (NFC). For radio-enabled phones, it will crush QR codes like a grape.
   
   
5. Podcasting Secrets from the Masters
   
   • Create a pre-flight checklist for audio, computer, and recording settings. Trust me, you need this.
   • Buy a pop filter! They are cheap, and eliminate "popping" noises in your recordings.
   • Engage your listeners with a chat room. Lots of people in your chat room is what you want.
   • Slow down, and enunciate.
   • To grow an audience, you need luck and engaging content. And, a pop filter.
   • Downloads suck to measure engagement. Look for better analytics soon from Callisto.fm.
   
   These tips courtesy of @tapeleg, @davetaylor, and others.

Huge thanks to Paul Merrill, LeVar Battle, Kia, and crew for their hard work and make Denver Podcamp 2 a success. Man Made Media Productions generously hosted the event, and a bevy of sponsors contributed funds, give-aways, and goodies. Here are a few: Callisto.fm, Colorado Native Lager, Popchips, Rise Bar. And, thanks to Que Publishing, for the useful Social Media ROI book on I won in a raffle! Most of all, the new media community deserves thanks for sharing their collective expertise, wisdom and knowledge.

Read more and vote for From Listening to Action: Social CRM

STA International

Companies that engage with customers using social media enjoy increased customer satisfaction and loyalty. Are you ready to apply social CRM techniques to your business, and earn more credibility, trust, and profits?

STA International is hosting an event on CRM and Social Media. I will be presenting at this event — hope to see you there!

Date: June 8th, 2011

Time: 9:00 am

Place: Doral, Florida

Download (.png format)

Huge thanks to Steve Wilton for his brilliant work capturing our stream-of-consciousness ideas.

Let's face it — keeping the doors open for your community and paying the bills (including your salary) means convincing decision-makers they are getting their money's worth. Nothing speaks louder than data that shows contribution to top line growth or bottom line savings. The key is following a strategy that enlists stakeholders to describe what success looks like, and using KPIs to keep you on course.

Your community lives in an ecosystem — the social networking (relationships) and social media (content) the community generates touches everyone in your organization, and beyond. A simple act can have far-reaching consequences. For example, the engineer who blogs about product fixes reaches customers directly. Over time, he builds a following, and his blog evolves as the source of record for the product. Customers consult the blog first, bypassing traditional support channels.

What just happened? The product support model has been up-ended. Resources spent on high-touch and low-touch customer support are now in question. Does manning a contact center and maintaining an online knowledge base still make sense?  This example may seem far-fetched, but a successful organization spots game-changing trends early on and adapts quickly.

To get people on your side, describe the benefits they derive from the community in terms meaningful to them. They will tell you their pain points, but here are a few examples to get started:

• Sales — close more business and find the people who have the means, need, and urgency to buy
• Support — reduce customer calls and increase customer satisfaction leveraging social media
• Marketing — find new leads and develop opportunities by building trust in the community
• Finance — improve business performance and quantify the community ROI with real-world data
• Engineering — innovate faster with community input and reduce time to market by developing only what is needed
• PR — build brand awareness and influence perception in the marketplace by amplifying community voices
• Management — nail the vision, mission and leadership by listening and interacting with influential community members

Why enlist stakeholders? None of your efforts in measuring and analyzing the impact of your community will matter unless you can effectively communicate the value to these decision-makers.

What happens outside of your community matters. The challenge is filtering through the noise and finding the person, organization, or system that can help make or break your community, and vice-versa. For example, customers are quick to adopt new tools if they are a) easier and b) save time and c) convenient. That's why many are bypassing traditional ways to contact a company when they have a problem, and using twitter and Facebook to post problems and complaints. Companies are listening and leveraging these platforms to support their customers, and many are encouraging customers to "friend" them on social networks.

Smart companies are going a step further, and integrating customer data collected on social networks with existing information held in private customer relationship management systems. This knowledge enables them to gain a much better understanding of the customer — likes, dislikes, habits, and so on — which gives them a competitive edge.

Think about customer touch points, or the interfaces where customers, prospects, and employees come together, and ask yourself if your community plays a role. Examples:

• Company Web Site
• Contact Centers
• Social Networking Sites
• Trade Shows / Conferences
• Listservs
• Search engines

Reach out to the people who run these touch points, and collaborate with them. For example, how can the in-depth knowledge of support engineers benefit the community? Could the community contribute to driving traffic to the company web site? Can the SEM campaign be augmented by seeding key words on the community? Should new members be encouraged to friend the company on Facebook and twitter? The synergies may surprise you!

Ask yourself, what does success look like? What will change? How will you know you are progressing — or not? Working with your stakeholders, paint this picture and set goals (general intentions) and objectives (tangible, precise) for the community. To track progress, you'll need key performance indicators, or KPIs (metrics are the things you measure).

Think of a KPI like the steam pressure gauge on a locomotive. The needle rotates in a circle, with green, yellow, and red zones. The engineer adjusts variables like fuel and air to keep the engine running in the optimal green zone. Your task is to come up with the KPIs, or "big dials," for your community, and to identify what you can change to keep the needles pointing in the right direction. Here are a few to get you started:

• Customer Satisfaction — average survey rating
• Member Loyalty — percentage of members signing on each month
• Number of New Members — people joining the community
• Percent Questions Answered — number of questions on discussion forum awaiting an answer
• Pages Created — number of new community-contributed documents 

Tracking KPIs over time also helps you to spot trends that may affect your objectives,. When the "needle swings to the red" and stays there, the KPI alerts you to conditions that require your analysis and attention. For example, if member loyalty is falls over a three month period, it could mean any number of things — a seasonal drop-off, a lack of fresh content, a competing new web portal, and so on. You at least know where the problems (or opportunities) exist, and that is half the battle.

Companies are waking up to the business value of online community and social networking, and many are still wondering how to go about this. You can guide them through uncertainty using what your community is telling you everyday — you just need to know where and how to listen.

Start Early

The 80:20 rule applies for events. Most of the work — meeting, scheduling, planning, writing, communicating — happens beforehand. Give yourself plenty of time to make the event successful. It's not uncommon to begin the process several months in advance. You'll be less stressed and in a better position to make choices by not waiting until the last minute.

Gather the Team

Reach out to the people who have a vested interest in the success of the event, and include them in the planning process, especially those who control the purse strings. Because of the costs, many events are subsidized by the company, organization, or sponsors. The core team should include advocates who have established themselves in the community. Be sure the voice of the community is represented, to keep  business realities like selling and marketing in check.

Decide Your Objectives

What do you want to accomplish at this event? Hard, fact-based results such as the number of attendees and survey scores are easy to measure, but often it's the less tangible outcomes that are the most important. Your goal is to make the gathering memorable for attendees. For many, that means networking. Structure the event so people can network informally and formally. Allow time for spur of the moment conversations such as breaks between sessions. If you have the budget, providing refreshments in a relaxed atmosphere such as bar will get the crowd buzzing with talk. Simplify one-on-one conversations with key individuals by scheduling appointments.

Build the Agenda

Allow time to analyze and refine the topics that will tip registrations in your favor. Your theme will catch people's interest, but it is the content (including the venue, speakers, and activities) that gets them to sign up. Research the "hot" topics using surveys and interview with stakeholders and your membership base. Search for people inside and outside the community who can speak to the issues intelligently and with authority. Examine feedback from past events — find what worked well, and consider repeating it. Allow for team input building the agenda, but watch out for "design by committee." The most famous cars in the world are usually designed by one individual, after all.

Choose the Venue

Pick a location that is most attractive to your audience and not most convenient. For example, if your event is held in the dead of winter and your membership base is geographically located in colder climates, a place with plenty of warmth and sunshine fits the bill. On a smaller scale, a local meetup at a restaurant with a patio area for social hour but also a separate meeting room beats the popular but noisy and crowded bar.

Promote the Event

Think like a marketer — how will you attract people to your event? The pay back for the attendee's time and expense must be clear and compelling, and answer the question, "what's in it for me?" To grab their attention, find the words and phrases that trigger action and response. Create eye-popping images, designs, and attach recognized brands that add authenticity. Decide where and how to promote your event — based on the habits and preferences of your audience. Use the theme and artwork consistently, such as signage at the meeting place, in emails, on t-shirts, and so on.

Practice and Rehearse

Force preparation by requiring rehearsals for everyone speaking at your event. Get to know your speakers, and make them feel comfortable ahead of time. Setting mutual expectations and addressing gaps beforehand helps to avoid unpleasant surprises for everyone. Help your speakers to be successful by answering their questions about the venue, and give honest and direct feedback about the suitability of their material. For panel discussions, have the moderator / interviewer prep the panelists with questions and topics to be covered.

Solicit Feedback

Collecting feedback before, during, and after the event will arm you with data you need to improve. While surveys are a convenient tool for gathering responses, you can learn a lot by simply asking people directly. Besides standard questions about the venue, quality of the sessions, speakers, and activities, ask the participant if they plan on attending the next event, and if they would recommend it to a colleague.

Report Results

To measure the success of your event, start with the data you collected using surveys and map this to your objectives. You'll also have anecdotal, "seat of your pants" results — be sure to share these too. Organize a post-mortem meeting for your sponsors and stakeholders to review and discuss the results. Everyone should leave the meeting knowing if the event was a success, if it should be repeated, and if the scope should be increased.

Follow-Up

The most loyal people in your community will attend your events regularly. Encourage repeat attendance by staying in touch throughout the year. Immediately following the event, thank the participants and give them a little something extra, such as access to the sessions archives. Periodically send out "save the date" announcements for upcoming events. Remind people about a memorable speaker, session, or activity from the event they attended, to generate interest and excitement for your next gathering.

Summary

Whether you are organizing a simple meet up or a user group conference, the key to a successful event lies in the planning stage. To give yourself an edge, consider hiring a professional event planner. These pros will handle the myriad of logistical details involved in face-to-face meetings, including budgets. And, you will be able to focus on content, and deliver a memorable experience to your participants that strengthens community ties.