Mitch Joel and the Media Hacks Must-Listen-To-Podcast

Mitch is a published author (Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone. affiliate link) and runs Twist Image, a Marketing firm out of Montreal. Mitch produces some of the best marketing and tech content out there, his blog: http://www.twistimage.com/blog/

My favourite content that Mitch produces is a podcast called Media Hacks (free to download from iTunes or listen to from his site http://www.twistimage.com/podcast/ - make sure you look for the Media Hacks casts...). He now has three different podcasts, but Media Hacks is my must-listen-to-cast.

Media Hacks has five core individuals (Mitch Joel, Chris Brogan, C.C. Chapman, Hugh McGuire and Julien Smith) that join a conference call, and they essentially have a “fire-side” chat about what is happening in marketing and tech. Watch out though, this is not necessarily a cast rated for the whole family, depending on who’s on the call there can be a stream of (often hilarious rants by @julien) curse words.

Mitch will be in Calgary on June 14, 2010 at the Art Of Marketing “Innovation and Marketing Conference” at the Epcor Center. http://bit.ly/aRsmCX

Hope you enjoy it all,

by Shannon (aka: SBK) Twitter: @sbkelsick
contact me: sbk@MondayMarketingTools.com

The Art of Marketing Event in Calgary

The Art of Marketing Event in Calgary
Presented by Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Full Day Marketing / Social Media Class

Okay Calgary, we have been asking for it....more Marketing and Social Media conferences. The Art of Marketing is coming to Calgary! A line up of influential marketers will be in Cowtown on June 14th, 2010.

It is a one day conference that features six different speakers. Tickets are $399 or $499 for preferred seating.

I was sold on the event when I saw that Gary Vaynerchuk and Mitch Joel will be speaking. If you haven't read Mitch's Marketing blog check it out, it's one of the best: http://www.twistimage.com/blog/, and his book: Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone. (affiliate link)
And check this video out on You Tube of Gary Vaynerchuk: http://bit.ly/9uHPsk , and Gary's book: Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion
(affiliate link) I prefer the Audio Version, his voice, and he talks a bit more than just what is in the book.

Here's the full line up of speakers:

• Mitch Joel - Digital Marketing & Social Media http://www.twistimage.com/blog/
• Sally Hogshead - Persuasion & Influence http://sallyhogshead.com/
• Chip Heath - Strategy & Communications http://heathbrothers.com/
• Gary Vaynerchuk - Personal Branding in the New Media Landscape http://garyvaynerchuk.com/
• Max Lenderman - Branding & Experiential Marketing http://www.experiencethemessage.com/
• Sir Ken Robinson - Innovation & Creativity http://sirkenrobinson.com/skr/

I hope the conference is as good as I am expecting it to be... see you there.

Follow @TheArtOfEvents on Twitter
www.theartofmarketing.ca
Twitter hashtag: #taom

by Shannon (aka: SBK) Twitter: @sbkelsick
contact me: sbk@MondayMarketingTools.com

photo from Flickr Creative Commons

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Is Your FACE Important To Your Blogging Success?

Is it important to put a face and a personality to my business and blog? Should I use a logo or picture for my profiles on Blogger and Twitter? The word on Twitter is that it is highly recommended to have a picture on your profile - and that if you don't people won't trust you as much as they would with a real profile picture along side your name. So personality and your mug shot do count right?

I often feel the need to like the author of the blog that I am following. And I have found myself straying away from blogs where I am beginning not to like the person - even though these people have very good blogs with very relevant and useful information.

Getting people to like you is important for your blog.

I have felt a bit special when Mitch Joel (Six Pixels of Seperation @mitchjoel) sent me a DM (direct message on Twitter), and when Liz Strauss (www.successful-blog.com @lizstrauss) mentioned (thanked) me on Twitter for mentioning her articles and blogs - I even sent her a message asking what time is a good time to post blogs - and she replied (to little old me!) quite quickly. I don't think I would have had that interaction without Twitter.

And what that interaction does is make me feel closer to Liz and Mitch, it makes me like them more, and it makes me more loyal to thier brand, and yes I feel that I like Mitch and Liza as people, even though I have never met them - I like their brand.

Social Media has changed the way we commit to brands. The shift in branding has put faces to brands and accessibility to these people that makes us feels like you can reach out and touch them.

So do we want our customers or fans to feel like they can reach out and touch us? (you know what I mean!). That is what Social Media is all about today.

Yes you can build a business and a brand that is at an arms length from customers, but if you are embracing social media as a marketing tool let down your guard and let people get to know you.

Mixing our personalities with our online brand

It feels imposturous not to inject personality into my blog, as I type along censoring out anything that relates to my family, or my "business learnings" (aka: failures), or what I am wearing while blogging. Would you discredit me because I am writing this in sweatpants while drinking orange juice from a short yellow kids cup? I sure hope not!

Some may believe that your personality is your brand. So here's to embracing our personalities and injecting them into our blogs. Don`t be shy - people might just like us.

SBK (Shannon) contact me: sbkelsick@shaw.ca

Photo by Scott Prince www.inthepitchblack.com

Blogging Perfects Your Craft

This week as I listened to a Media Hacks Podcast by Mitch Joel of Twist Image (www.TwistImage.com), I realized that writing a blog is a task that hones your skills, knowledge and mind.

When chatting with a friend today (can I say “chatting with a friend” even though we were emailing each other?) I told her that blogging was like therapy. Although my blog is not really a personal journal of my life like some great blogs are, the writing of my articles makes me stop, be silent (it’s the one time I turn my ipod off) and I get grounded to what is going on around me. I stop reading tweets, emails, answering the phone and I close IM.

The silence then turns into sounds of the keys on the keyboard (lots of sounds as I hit the backspace button more than anything) as I write my next blog post. Blog posts looks easy (I bet some are) - just like chocolate chip cookies look easy to make, but there is thought and effort that goes into each post or batch of cookies. Writing and blogging perfects your craft - whatever your craft or passion is, be it cooking, politics or ant farms. It’s like we have mini essays that are due everyday - we think... do some research... draft.... redraft then POST!

The learning that each blogger gets from the writing experience is why bloggers blog - well maybe not for everyone, but I am sure that bloggers that blog for fame or other reasons have also learnt a lot from the hours they spent writing.

So continue to blog, followers or no followers, and if you are not blogging but you are thinking about it - just jump right in and figure it out as you go. The learning awaits you!

SBK (Shannon) contact me: sbkelsick@gmail.com

Picture by Scott Prince www.inthepitchblack.com
For great info on Blogging check out: Liz Stauss http://www.successful-blog.com/