When I heard about the free Solutions Stars video conference that’s coming up this week, I knew you would want to know more about it. This post covers details, highlights from the sneak preview, what I like about this concept and wraps up with suggestions on how you, too, can produce an event like this.
Video Conference Solutions Stars Details
Who: 32 online business and marketing leaders chatting with people like you
Registration: none required, free to attend
Hosts: Social Media Swami Shashi Bellamkonda@+ and Now Is Gone Author Geoff Livingston@
What: Internet Broadcast via Oovoo
When: October 29 from 1-3:30p.m. EST
Where: Solutions Stars Video Conference
Why: Learn about and share ways social media can benefit small businesses and entrepreneurs
For updates, check out Solutions Stars Video Conference event pages on Facebook and Upcoming. Track Solution Stars talk on twitter #solutionstars
Online Marketing Content Areas Covered
- Building Web Presence
- The Social Opportunity
- Start with Listening
- Strategy Drives Outreach
- You Need Social Networks
- To Blog or Not to Blog
- Visibility Through Search
- Rising Above the Noise
- Time Demands
Online Small Business and Entrepreneur Speaker Line Up
Here’s the list of speakers. I watched the Solutions Stars video teaser and and pulled out highlight notes for each of the featured speakers. Then, I developed a code for the ways I know the speakers: *heard them speak at a conference, @follow on twitter and +met in person.
- Tim Ferriss, Best Selling Author of Four Hour Work Week*@ – Go to conferences: first get offline, meet credible people and companies who can vouch for you at conferences ,then go back online and connect with them
- Guy Kawasaki, Co-Founder, All-Top@
- Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos@
- Darren Rowse, Author, ProBlogger*@+ – Find your niche: establish your expertise in that space, ask other bloggers if you can guest post to get your content out there
- Chris Brogan, Vice President of Strategy, CrossTech Media*@+
- Rohit Bhargava, Author of Personality Not Included – Turn up the power of Word of Mouth: customer referrals are the number of source of new business, word of mouth is cheap and it’s viral
- Wendy Piersall, CEO of Sparkplugging.com*@+
- Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger, Dell
- Brian Solis, Author of PR 2.0, CEO of FutureWorks (FutureWorks)*@+ – Grow your community around you: direct access to people who help businesses grow and become more influential
- Steve Hall, Publisher and Editor of Ad Rants*@+ – Broaden your circle: get to know who people you want to know and spread a gigantic happy network that grows over time
- Scott Monty, Global Digital and Multimedia Communications Manager, Ford Motor Company@
- Liz Strauss, Social Web Strategist, Successful Blog*@+ – Be irresistible: know what your goal is and be aware of the three kinds of people you need to know about
- Toby Bloomberg, CEO, Bloomberg Marketing*@+ – Scale from small to big: social media helps small business build expansive relationships
- Lee Odden, CEO of TopRankMarketing.com *@+
- Jason Billingsly, Co-Founder ElasticPath
- Robyn Tippins, Community Manager, Yahoo! Developer Network@+
- Brett Tabke, CEO of WebMaster World
- David Alston, Vice President of Marketing, Radian6 – Build your brand in a highly targeted way: find people who like to talk about you and your product in your space
- Jason Falls, Blogger, Social Media Explorer*@+
- Mari Smith, Relationship Marketing Specialist*@+ – Find people to celebrate with you: goal is to have people excited about seeing you all over the place
- Jennifer Openshaw, president of WeSeed.com
- Matt Dickman, Vice President, Digital Marketing, Fleishman-Hillard
- David Berkowitz, Director of Emerging Media and Client Strategy, 360i
- Ryan Anderson, Community Relations, Overlay.TV – Create customer conversations: social media bypasses filters to go straight through to core customers
- Becky McCray, Author, SmallBizSurvival.com@+
- Warren Whitlock, Book Marketing Strategist, BestSellerAuthors.com @+
- Chris Baggott, CEO of Compendium Blogware
- Lorelle VanFossen, Author, Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging*@+
- Dave Taylor, Head Strategic Marketing Director, Intuitive Systems*@+
- Paul Chaney, President of International Blogging and New Media Association – Blog your story: take lessons from a sign maker in New Hampshire who blogs about the story behind each custom-made sign
- Linda Bustos, Blogger, ElasticPath
- Jay Berkowitz, Author , Podcaster, and Keynote Speaker, Ten Golden Rules
Key = * heard them speak, @follow on twitter, +met them in person
Whether or not you take the time to watch , you can learn something from the Solutions Stars video conference concept.
What I like about this concept . . .
Channel: Video and live discussions with small business and marketing experts
There’s something about watching these people speak about their passion that engages and intrigues – me, anyway. Reading blogs is one thing. While most of the people interviewed publish top-notch information, seeing them and hearing them talk about what they do validates the relationship and information exchange in a way that reading alone can’t match.
Format: Essential insights about how to be successful online
When you’re doing a brief interview, you have to focus on the key points. There’s no time to set up a story, show some slides or take questions. What you watch is an executive summary in action, basically a line up of interviews that took place at a conference where everyone was excited about sharing their views.
Process: Various viewpoints and consolidation of business thought
Each person brings their own expertise and while they may all agree on an approach, they would probably all interpret and design strategies in their own way. It’s worth taking some time to select a group of experts to follow. Get to know them and find out why they think what they do. Read their book. Take it with you to a conference where they’re speaking. Ask them to sign it and give them a written testimonial about how their book changed your life. Follow them on twitter and become an active participant in their twitter community.
Action: Take steps to online business success
Each expert presents ideas for how to achieve small business success. The key to making them work is to take action. Study how they have become successful: read their works, follow their ideas and see how they’ve achieved influence.
Suggestions if you decide to host an event like this on your own . . .
Name your event – choose a name that attracts attention and buy the domain name right away. Try to avoid confusion with another event or business that has a similar domain name.
Set a date for delivery and write your strategic marketing plan. Then, stick to it.
Schedule video interviews with leaders at a conference you’ll all be attending; mix well-known names with people who might not be as well-known, but are as, if not more, successful. Think: case studies. You can also video people who represent the biggest challenges and have your speakers respond to them.
Buy Google AdWords for the name of your conference and the top speakers to run a few weeks before and a week after.
Distribute a news release for the event and give each speaker a template for their own release.
Collect a database to build a community around the topic.
Title each speaker’s presentation.
Make videos available online after the conference.
Your Turn
If you could ask any of these experts a question who would you ask about what?
Matthew Watson, who writes 
