Social Media Breakfast Thoughts

I recently attended the Social Media Breakfast Toledo meeting on the morning of Friday, June 5th. The Social Media Breakfast is a national group. The local Toledo group holds monthly events that consist of 45 minutes of networking time, a half hour talk, and fifteen minutes of Q & A. The topic for this particular day was the "Do's and Dont's of Business Blogging" by Dave Rigotti.

I have to admit that I expected a lot from this session since it does require a payment of $15 to attend. I think that is a lot to pay for a half hour talk, especially when I am used to attending excellent programming conferences for free. Even though I expected a lot, I was a little skeptical. I'm always skeptical with "social media" events. I knew that the networking would be worth the price of admission though and I was right as I met some great people (@mikebrice, @scottradcliff, @8thLopez, @7son75, @kfish29).

After the talk by Dave Rigotti was over, my suspicions were correct, I was afraid. The talk was good, well prepared, and well presented. My issue was with the content. The content was accurate and very clear but my issue was that it was focused on the HOW of blogging instead of the WHY. I thought that the audience would of benefited more from a talk on the why rather then the how. The how can be found on the internet within a few hours of some searches.

At one point, someone asked, "If my company started blogging, what should I expect my ROI to be?". It was at this point that I was sure some of the audience members did not grasp why blogging was important and could of benefited more from a talk on why you should be blogging. Dave answered this question well but it was very political in my opinion. I don't think that got the point across to the person that asked the question. That person needed to be told that hustle gives you return on investment. Don't expect more customers cause you put out a 300 word blog post one afternoon. You need to put a lot of work into the post, create great content, and listen to the feedback and respond to your audience. I think that there should of been at least 10 minutes of time spent to answer that question. The answer should not of been "it depends".

I feel a lot of companies, especially local companies, do not get the reason why they blog. I think they just do it because they see their competitors doing it. Dave gave some great case studies of blogs that work. He gave the examples of Freshbooks and 37 Signals, both of which I have been following for a long time. His points about why these companies have great blogs was a little misleading in my opinion though. He gave examples about layout and other extraneous reasons on why the blog is great. The only reason I follow their blogs is not because of their layout, or anything else on their physical site (I just get their content via RSS). I follow them because of their content. They have excellent content which showcases their beliefs and their work. Dave did touch a bit on their content but I think it should of been the focus of the case studies. Your content showcases your company beliefs, what is important to you, and what type of customers you want to serve. If you agree with your vendor views, you will likely turn into customers.

I hope that the SMB Toledo gives us attendees a little more advanced topics for future events for our money. I think this event was well prepared for but I feel it was a starter topic and I was expecting something more advanced. I would like to see more opinionated topics covered. I would like to hear from people who have strong opinions on various topics. I find the opinioned talks are a lot more engaging, even if I don't agree with the speakers.

Dave will be joining Microsoft on the Bing team in the near future. With the recent success that the Bing search engine has been having, I look forward to hearing what he has to say about Microsoft and the service in the future. It's going to be hard work when you are a competitor to Google.

Comments

[Mike Driehorst]

Jamie,
I'm one of the members of the SMB-Toledo organizing committee. That doesn't necessarily impact my $0.02 on your post, which was very detailed and thought-out. You make some great points, and items to consider for future events. And, I agree with you on a few of your points above (but, no presentation can fully satisfy everyone in the audience).

First, thanks for attending the SMB-Toledo event. I believe we met (or, at least, I think I saw your name tag?).

Having attended the first couple events, it seems the audience is a mix of newbies and those who are more familiar with social media marketing. We're trying to appease both audiences, and saw Dave's talk as a more 101 format.

You probably would have more enjoyed Aaron Newman's presentation at the May event. Aaron is president & founder of Techrigy, which has a great social media monitoring tool (I use it). His preso is at smbtoledo.ning.com.

For future events, we have some high-level speakers as possibilities -- as well as more 101-type social media topics and speakers.

Ideally, we want to get where we can have a schedule of the focus of events at least a month or two out, so you and others can better plan if you want to attend one or sit one out.

We're definitely open to ideas for topics and speakers (as well as sponsors). Okay, that last part about sponsors was impacted by my SMB-Toledo involvement.

Take care,
-Mike

[Jamie]

Mike,

Thanks a lot for your response. It's great to know that you guys and gals are listening. It's clear that your goal is to always improve and help out the community. That's awesome to see.

I will check out Aaron's presentation. This was my first SMB event but it won't be my last. I think the community is great and I will continue to go.

I guess I would love to hear from people that are opinionated and have great ideas. There are several local people like Mark Pannell (@7son75) and Sara Lopez (@8thLopez) who have great ideas for building community.

I think that building community would be a great topic in general. I would suggest moving outside "social media" topics that focus on tools (like Twitter) and more on concepts, opinions, and ideas. I have seen Gary Vaynerchuk several times before at conferences (a lot more on the internet) and would love to see local people get a chance to hear from him. That may be too expensive but he is definately at the top of the list.

[Mr. Bildo]

Interesting. Someone actually asked what their ROI would be? A lot of this sounds like the same mentality that got us into trouble back in 2000 where too many people lacked the vision and passion for what they were doing and were only concerned about hitting a big IPO.

[Dave Rigotti]

Hi Jamie –
Thanks for the feedback and I’m glad the planning committee has already had a chance to view and respond to your post. I felt we adequately covered the content part in the other social media breakfasts, especially in the first one. I intended for this one to focus more on the “how” and if that wasn’t clear in the description, I’m sorry.

In terms of cost to attend, the fee goes directly to pay for the venue, food, projector screen, video camera, etc. I’m sure the committee would be open to suggestions you have in getting it lower.

I’m glad you’re still going to come back and that you you’ve been able to judge the event on a holistic scale. There are some really, really great people behind (and attending) the event.

Thanks for the feedback; I really appreciate it. Best of luck!

Dave

[Jamie]

Dave,

Thanks for your response. I'm not saying that your talk mislead anyone, I am simply stating that I hope to see more talks in the future on the why and opinions on what is important.

I know that it costs money to run these events and I think that they are run very well for $15 per attendee. I just hope that the attendees get their money's worth. I think we may be able to reduce or eliminate this cost with some sponsors. How about Cake in a Cup for breakfast? How about a local Tim Hortons? How about a local Panera? I think there are plenty of opportunties for local companies who would love to be involved. Maybe for an exchange of 10 minutes of talk time. I know my company would be interested in that for advertising.

I hope I get a chance next time to meet and shake your hand along with the other people behind these events.

Talk to you soon.

[Dave Rigotti]

Jamie,
No problem. I know they are reaching out to for sponsors - send the planning committee and email. If you don't have it, let me know. It's also a registered non-profit now, so I imagine some people /companies might start donating as well.

Take care,
Dave