Over the weekend, I attended my fifth SOBCon, the successful online business conference. With only 144 people in the room, the two day conference is about as transformative as it gets. To see what I mean, you’ll find links to prior SOBCon coverage at the end of this post.

Were you at SOBCon 2012, too? Please share links to your posts and images so that we can keep expanding!

Much of the magic comes in the way of mastermind time with small groups. On Friday, I interacted with Drew Marshall, Debba Haupert, Will English IV and two representatives of a digital marketing firm in Mexico. That’s me with my Saturday small group: Andy Crestodina, Laura Fitton aka @Pistachio, and Marc Pitman. Gary Goldstein is not pictured. Along the way, conversations at lunch and during breaks kept the SOBCon synergy flowing.

So good to experience SOBCon with Chris Garrett, Becky McCray, Sheila Scarborough, Barry Moltz, Beth Rosen, Connie Burke, Steve Hall, Lennie Rose, Michelle Damico, Jeannie Walters, Jeff Power, Jeff Willinger, Jeff Shuey, Sean McGinnis, Shashi Bellamkonda,Amber Cleveland, Justin Levy, Molly Cantrell-Kraig, Kim Eierman, Ric Dragon,Derek Overbay, Mark Horvath, Lori Holton Nash, Nick Kellet, Phil Gerbyshak - and everyone else in the room! One person many of us really missed this year: Lorelle Van Fossen.

It’s amazing to me how Liz Strauss and Terry “Starbucker” St. Marie can keep the conference feeling so comfortable and familiar, yet so fresh and inventive, year after year.

Equal parts reunion, revival and reawakening, SOBCon is an experience that everyone needs to have at least once a year. I agree with Shashi Bellamkonda who compared the conference to an annual oil change.

SOBCon 2012 focused on mastering the 7 crucial steps of strategy and execution — Vision, Mission, Position, Conditions, Decision, Networks, and Systems — to create and leverage opportunity that is uniquely tuned to your business, its competencies and its goals.

Every year, my SOBCon experience is different. After the first one, I got off the train in Glen Ellyn literally buzzing with positive energy. And, I always say, “This was the best SOBCon yet!” Although, this year I really mean it. Here’s why.

People

For me, the people in the room are a good barometer of the quality of a conference. Are they smart, creative, friendly? SOBCon is all of these and more. The culture is invisible, yet indelible.

Throughout the room, tables of six to eight or so discuss models in a mastermind session that forces/inspires you to make progress based on the input of the brilliant minds around you.

Then, there is the speaker line up: all excellent and best in class who present at a high level, yet interact at the same tables as peers. The program is built around a presentation that introduces a model with smaller talks woven in. Here’s what we covered.

Vision & Mission: Setting the Intention and Getting the Attention, How to Claim Your Quest and Attract the Best to Join You: Tim Sanders

Position: Assessing Where You Stand and What You Value, How to Use Two View of Position to Build a Solid Value Proposition: Rick Turoczy

Conditions: Working with Trends, Cycles and Change, How to Find the Profitable Opportunities: Les McKeown

Decisions: Raising Bottom Line and Improving Influence, How to Use Decisions to Reach Goals, Motivate People and Attract Opportunity Panel: Carol Roth, Laura Fitton, Gary Goldstein, Angel Djambazov

Networks: Connecting with the Right People, How to Build Your Community and Forge Strategic Relationships: Steve Farber

Systems: Processes the Run the Business, How to use Metrics, Such as Net Promoter, to Keep Customers: Terry “Starbucker” St. Marie

How can you balance better?

Liz Strauss, big thinker that she is, opened the program by asking us if we were unbalanced. Um, yes, we are. At times, Liz speaks as a poet – or my notes from her presentations come out that way.

Balance is form and function.

Architects, strategists know about balance.

Balance helps us experience trust.

If you’re not balanced, there comes a fear that you might fall over.

If you can’t trust, you will experience fear. Fear is the mind killer.

How can you balance better?

Are you building a birthday cake or a business? Liz Strauss

Think about it: are you following a recipe or are you being fluent, flexible, original and elaborative?

What is your higher purpose?

Tim Sanders challenged us to think higher and more purposefully. Your base purpose is about you: you have a family to feed and a business to run to do that. Your higher purpose is either your secret sauce or your missing ingredient and there is zero gray.

You have to have three things for success:

1. a higher purpose
2. passion for the purpose
3. focus to put the purpose in the center so you always know the why behind the what

Real enthusiasm comes from a sense of meaning. Enthusiasm drives purpose and engagement.

Your purpose doesn’t have to be original, but it must be organic, it’s gotta be in your DNA as an enterprise.

Tim’s grandmother says, “When you get on lost something, play Bible bingo. It’s your fortune cookie.” Here’s the verse he found when he was looking for his purpose.

“Promote good works and acts among men, especially as we gather in public and encourage others to do the same.” Hebrews 10:25

Never forget you have to apply more purpose to get more engagement. True happiness comes not from self-gratification, but by defined focus on a purpose.

“If you believe in something and you translate that into hard work, you’ll find an audience that believes in you,” said Brian Solis, a surprise SOBCon guest speaker who dropped by for a 15 minute chat.

What position are you in?

Rick Turoczy says your position is where you are now. Are you being brutally honest about it?

Position helps you commit your vision to action.

There is no weak position. There is only weak positioning.  There is strength in every position.

Think about your position and spin it positively. Think about where you are and where you go from here. Positioning is each step and changes constantly. Every opportunity or failure can change your position in new and interesting ways.

Pivot or Persevere?

Pivot, yes you may take a drink, was SOBCon’s most frequently used theme word. There’s something about the word that resonates and gets people to respond. Is it easier to pivot than to change? Here’s an example of pivoting.

Instagram started as an app called bourbon.com and was supposed a competitor of foursquare. It was one of the first apps to do future check-ins, but the only thing people used it for was photography.

What the developers wanted didn’t matter as much as their position with the people who used their app did.

So the founders did what’s called a “Zoom In” pivot where you take one feature from an existing product, and retool the entire product around that one feature. Source

Patterns and Decisions

Les Mckeown says every organization goes through 7 stages: early struggle, fun, white weather, predictable success, treadmill, the big rut and death rattle.

Early struggle is the search/race for a profitable, sustainable market.  Going bust is bad. Typically takes a business three to five years to go through the early struggle phase and 80% of all businesses don’t make it. What stage is your business in?

How easy is it for you to make a [good and decisive] decision?

Carol Roth did an excellent job of moderating a panel discussion about how to use decisions to reach goals, motivate people and attract opportunity. Here are a few quotes, for more see the “Most Memorable Things Said at SOBCon list” at the end of this post.

Laura Fitton: People see a brick wall and stop. Being an entrepreneur is running into the brick wall confidently. The vast majority of people stop themselves. If you’re trying to make a decision, turn away from fear. Respect that some decisions do need to be put on the back burner.

Gary Goldstein: Scary times are simply an expansive of capacity. Make a decision that you’re going to be proud that you make because of the outcome.  Relationships trump results. Collect excellent people.

Carol Roth: Make decisions that are right for you, not for other people. Have a very, very clear lens on what you want, based on your own circumstances and objectives. What’s at your core is what matters.

Angel Djambazov: First make a decision list – write them down. Schedule a time to make decisions. There is such a thing as decision fatigue. Confront decisions when you’re not fatigued. Always ask: who can help you work through this decision? When it’s all stuck in your head, it’s hard to focus. Figure out what information you need to get to a decision point. Go for a drive and get pie. If you don’t have a decision making model, every decision is harder. Having a yes/no framework will drive your business growth.

Love, Love, Love

“The act of leadership is an act of love.”  Steve Farber

In his presentation, Steve said we’re all the business of building a body of work [BOW] and then broadcasting it: this is who I am.

When you start to broadcast your body of work, people are going to respond. When they do, pick up the phone and contact them personally. Then introduce them to each other and ask how you can help them.

Steve says every major business opportunity, for him, started with one phone call.  He’s hosting an Extreme Leadership Conference in August in San Diego.

Continuing with the theme of connecting and relationships, Chris Brogan interviewed his father, Steve Brogan and his mother, Diane Brogan, about building an online community.

Process Systems

Terry  went over the keys to great customer feedback.

1. do it consistently – schedule it

2. do it personally – get feedback short and to the point

3. ask the right questions – the raw materials of the right question: experience with the product or service, experience with the people behind the product or service, the overall brand and company experience [through the Ultimate Question]

4. get feedback that would make the experience better and identify things that are of less importance to the customer

Ultimate Question

On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely would you be to recommend this product or service to a friend or a relative?

0-6 Detractors – people out there saying bad things about you

7-8 Neutrals – neither ready to bail or jump for joy

9-10 Promoters – those literally telling you they are ready to shout to the rooftops for you [the evangelists]

Other inspiring speakers: Charlie Gilkey, Sammy Haroon and the Empire Avenue team.

Karaoke

In all the times I’ve been to SOBCon I’ve always skipped the Karaoke part. By the time Saturday night rolls around, it seems like I’ve been on a three-day event party wagon – and I have! This time, I decided to go and check it out after Shashi’s dinner party at the Star of Siam, also a first for me.

Even with much urging from Xan Pearson, I didn’t sing, but Miss Lori, Pistachio, and many brave others did. Phil Gerbyshak was the first to take the stage with an amazing group of back up singers. Don’t miss SOBCon Karaoke in 2013!

Can’t wait until May 2013 to go to SOBCon? Check out SOBCon Northwest “Starting up Strategically” in Portland, happening on September 28-30.

SOBCon Blog Post Archive

SOBCon08 Notes David Bullock: Business Development Action Plan

SOBCon08 Notes Chris Garrett: More Bang from Your Blog

SOBCon08 Notes | Liz Strauss How to Be Irresistible

SOBCon08 Notes Wendy Piersall | When Your Business Takes Off

SOBCon08 Notes | Chris Brogan: New Media Communities

SOBCon08 Notes Brian Clark: The Triple A Model for Social Media Success

SOBCon08 Notes Anita Bruzzese: Managing Your Online Reputation

SOBCon09 Biz School for Bloggers – Prelude, Postlude, Futuredude

Trust Agents – Chris Brogan and Julien Smith – SOBCon 09

David Bullock: Barack 2.0 SOBCon09

Brian Clark: Power Positioning-Get a Personality SOBCon09

The Image Studios-the Importance of Presence-SOBCon09

SMC Chicago SOBCon Event 2010

Royalty Leadership and Loyalty

SOBCon 2011 Models Teams and Tables

Disclosure: Thanks to SOBCon for providing Social Media Club Chicago board members, including me, with complimentary passes in exchange for the opening event planning and promotion.

Keepers – these all are. In late December, I cull through all wiredPRworks blog posts looking for the best of the best to share. Here’s the 2011 lot. You’ll find inspiration, ideas, trends, news and stories. What’s missing? What would you like to see here in 2012?

Rocks and Ripples

Although this post does not directly address social media marketing or PR, it is my top choice for a number of reasons: it features my son [with his permission], it tells a story, it responds to an inspiring story and it features a video. Everyone I send it to writes back about how they like it. I hope you will, too. Thanks to my son and Tim Sanders for the inspiration.

“You’ve got to go create a ripple.”

Those words came to me as our youngest son and I tromped around the woods. Early in the evening or late in the afternoon, depending on how you measured it, we were doing what we do best: an adventurous young man now, once a boy, coaxing a mom to overcome her trepidation to explore nature and life without boundaries. Where would he lead me if I said . . .

Best Picture Goes to the Social Network

Ending the discussion about whether or not social networks have a lasting place in popular culture and real life, The Social Network won four Golden Globe awards, including best picture.

Best of CES 2011 Innovation Electronics and Connections

Business Week found the 2011 show to be The Most Innovation-Filled CES in Years “The technology at the Consumer Electronics Show was more diverse, more connected, and in some cases just plain weirder than ever.” I enjoyed covering the show as one of five Sears Blue Blogger Crew members.

Personal Branding for Affiliate Marketers

Recap from a panel discussion about personal branding for affiliate marketers at Affiliate Summit West 2011 in Las Vegas. Panelists included Marty Fahncke, our moderator, Jim Kukral, and Geno Prussakov.

Social Media Twigs from the CES Tweet House

Tweet House speakers Angela LoSasso, David Armano, Jeffrey Hayzlett and moderator Steve Broback focused on social media tools and techniques for organizations.

Recovering from Being Hacked Off of Facebook – Now Back On

After two weeks and three attempts, my account was restored. Here’s how to get back on after being hacked off.

Atlantic City the Real Jersey Shore Travel Tuesday PR

When the offer came in to fly away for a girlfriends weekend, I erased my former memory files and eagerly said yes. After all, most of my friends would be away at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin. I wanted to get away, too.

SOBCon 2011 Models Teams and Tables

Deciding who to sit with can affect your SOBCon outcome. Your table is your group. This year, I got really lucky. I enjoyed sitting at the conference media production table with five amazing people, including the world-famous Lorelle Van Fossen who writes the blog Lorelle on WordPress.

3 YouTube & Video Marketing Tricks You Should Not Miss

Everybody’s making videos, but who really knows how to marketing them? For the answer to that question, I passed this topic over to a talented guest author, Bob Tripathi.

LinkedIn Checklist for Getting Your Next Job or New Client

No matter where your profile is in its stage of completeness, this LinkedIn checklist can help you not only get to 100%, but also truly present your professional credentials in the most accurate and attractive way possible.

7 Things Service Dogs Know About Love and Social Media

What do dogs know about service? What does service have to do with social media? Maybe the answer is as simple as: they know how to find somebody to love. That’s why dogs have one of the best jobs in the world.

Cloud Computing Business Basics for PR Folks

When Illinois Institute of Technology’s School of Applied Technology, invited me to attend a cloud computing workshop, I was curious. Here’s what I learned.

12 Ways to Rock Your Speech, Your Audience and Your Event

This is a post about how to be a rock star speaker – inspired by Tony Robbins.

25 Thoughts re: Google+

Thanks to Chris Brogan for the suggestion to blog about what you think about Google+.

How Gray is Social Networking

Fully 65% of adult internet users now say they use a social networking site like MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn, up from 61% one year ago. This marks the first time in Pew Internet surveys that 50% of all adults use social networking sites. Source: Pew Research on Adult Social Media Usage

37 Tweet Size Writing Tips

If you only have time to read one of the 37 tweets, read #22:  Empower writers. Because the writer runs the show. Quality content gets you where you want to go. Thanks to Ragan Communications for the ticket to the Corporate Writers and Editors Conference in Chicago.

How to Pick My Brain

Ever wished you had an on-call marketing consultant, but didn’t think you could find someone who was willing to give you the answers you need to get to increase your visibility, influence and profitability? Here’s how to pick my brain.

Guest Blogger Guidelines How to Write at Somebody Else’s Place

Writing for a popular blogger with a fanatic following online is even tougher. It’s not just their space, it’s their readers’ communal gathering zone where they can and do talk back. Here’s a quick how-to guide along with an invitation to be a contributor to wiredPRworks.

Image: Taken on a family hike at Amnicon Falls, this one got several Big Faves at my photography site over on flickr. copyright 2011 by Barbara Rozgonyi

Which of these posts/topics interest you the most?

We all have them. Stories about how long it took to get paid. For creative business owners it can take months and months to see receipts come in long after a project is complete, in the clients hands and active.

Lucky for me, knock on wood, every single client has paid their invoices in full. Although, not all necessarily with 30 days. But, other creatives aren’t so lucky. And, not being paid on time is not restricted to creative service firms only. When Gary Bohringer, of Bohringer Creative, mentioned to me that he’d written a book about how to collect outstanding invoices without using a collection agency, I was intrigued.

Because Gary’s book, Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Collection Agency, covers how to do that, I won’t give away all of his secrets. But, being the clever creative person he is, Gary’s come up with a way to identify the outstanding debt in a way the whole world [hint: search engines] can see.

Did you know collection agencies can keep up to 50% of the amount owed to you?

When Gary realized hiring a collection agency would only recover half of the outstanding invoices, he decided to test out a new approach. He wrote down everything he did, illustrated the system and packaged it like a graphic novel into a book you can buy online.

Gary even includes example emails and site templates so that the project is simple and foolproof. I must admit it would take some bravery for me to undertake this method, but it works. At least it has for Gary – three times!

To give you an idea of what’s in the book, here’s some information from the site.

Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Collection Agency is designed for any business owner who is frustrated by deadbeat clients not paying their bills and

• Can’t get clients to pay through normal channels, such as repeated follow-up and adding interest charges to overdue balances.
• Does not want to hire a collection agency, which often requires you to reduce your fee and give a percentage of the collected balance to the agency for their services
• Cannot repossess the item that was sold to the deadbeat client, such as a business owner who provides professional services

At $27, Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Collection Agency, is an investment worth making – anytime you need to get your outstanding invoices paid.

FTA Disclosure: Links in the post are affiliate links, which means my company will receive compensation if you buy this product. I only recommend products and services I believe in and trust. Before you make any purchase, please consider the value and relevance of the product to your business.

Question: How about you? How much time would you wait before considering using a collection agency to get your invoices paid? 

Coming up: the last days of summer. I don’t know about you, but even though the weather is still nice after Labor Day,  the summer season feels like it’s over. So, it’s time for one more summer social. And, if you’re in the Chicago area, I’d love it if you could join DIF DuPage on Wednesday night.  RSVP via Eventbrite: http://difdupage0811-efbevent.eventbrite.com/

DIF DuPage Invites YOU to Summer Sunset Social Round Two
Share YOUR Social Media Stories

Free Admission. Cash Bar.

The last time we got together to socialize, in June, it took four hours for everyone to get to know each other. Wow! This group LOVES to network – how cool is that?

This time, join us and share your best of summer stories.

- Have some vacation pictures you’d like to share on your phone? Bring ‘em.

- Got a great summer social media success story? Let’s hear it.

- Did you learn a Facebook lesson here or there? Share it.

- Maybe you read a great book you’d like to pass on. Exchange one, get one.

One lucky winner will get tickets for two to Matthew Stella’s performance of “At 5’2? and 125 pounds, a featured presentation at the Chicago Fringe Festival.

We’d also like to request that you hold this date:

September 29 and time: 1:00-5:00

to celebrate DIF Day in DuPage County. Our theme is “Circle Up with Social Media” and we’re working on rounding up the program now. Stay tuned for details.

Convene. Connect. Converse.

It’s new. It’s now. It’s DIF.

Mixing socializing with programming and a live learning lab, Digital Innovation Forum [DIF] breaks the traditional networking world mold into a 3D [digital, dynamic and direct] experience.

If you’re looking for a place to connect with other social media enthusiasts where you can:

1. exchange digital innovation ideas

2. learn more about how to get social media to work for you and your business, and

3. grow your community connections in 3D

DIF is it.

DIF DuPage is a community think tank that focuses on content and community development via social media, mobile and interactive platforms.

Learning Location
Illinois Institute of Technology School of Applied Technology 201 E. Loop Road Wheaton, Illinois

Producer
DIF is proudly brought to you by CoryWest Media, LLC, a DuPage County business since 1996. Thanks so much for your interest and consideration in attending this event! For more information, contact Barbara Rozgonyi at 630.207.7530, email connect@corywestmedia.com or follow @wiredprworks on
twitter.com.

Image credit: Thanks to our youngest for obliging his mom’s request for a sunset picture on our family vacation in Door County. Take a look at that sky!

Tomorrow I’ll be doing my “BarbWired” report for Chicagonistalive, a live internet show. We’ll be broadcasting online at 2:00pm cst from Willis Tower Skydeck, at 103 stories up [updated location]. TechWeek Chicago is my feature story.

As a #TeckWk VIP, I got complimentary admission thanks to a Klout perk. Disclosure: http://cmp.ly/2/va. Although TechWeek events and sessions spanned several days, due to speaking engagements and other commitments, I only attended the opening party and most of day one.

So, if you’re looking for complete coverage, this isn’t it.

My goal, here, is to give you a sense of the depth and diversity of topics – all with a light touch.

Did you go to TechWeek? Please share your comments or links to your coverage so we can exchange ideas.

If you were one of the 2,000 or so folks there and you saw me there, but we didn’t talk – let’s chat soon. The Social Media Club Chicago members in the crowd stood out. We were the ones hugging each other.

It was great to see Social Media Club co-founder Chris Heuer at TechCocktail’s Fifth Anniversary Party on Thursday night. Chris flew in just for TechWeek.

To leave more room here for content, check out this post from ChicagoNow.com on TechWeek and the Merchandise Mart atmosphere. For more details on Chicago’s biggest tech event ever, check out this preview post from TheNextWeb.com

Congrats to MidVentures on achieving their mission of connecting as many people, places and things with the span of TechWeek.

Here’s a quick rundown of the TechWeek speakers and sessions I enjoyed.

J. B. Pritzker Keynote

From jb-pritzker.com . . .

Throughout his business, philanthropic and political involvement, Jay Robert (J.B.) Pritzker, has built a reputation as a strong leader, an innovative entrepreneur and a champion of charitable causes. His businesses include New World Ventures – a venture capital firm – and The Pritzker Group – a private investment firm. He is also a principal owner of Hyatt Hotels Corporation and TransUnion Corporation.

J.B. Priztker of New World Ventures talked about three things that have changed for the better on the Chicago tech scene:

1. Quality and experience of start-up founders who are now magnets for talent and capital

2. Capital – venture investments have leaped in Chicago

3. Talent pool – It takes a village to raise a start up and there’s no other city with as rich of a talent pool as Chicago. More Nobel prize winners come from Chicago than anywhere else. We have the second largest business district in the United States.

Need hi-tech connections? Join Built in Chicago, a social network of over 4200 members, is dedicated to “promoting digital innovation in the world’s greatest city.”

Chicagoans have a long tradition of giving back.

“We’re nice, but we’re tough.” J.B. Pritzker

Want to exchange ideas? Check out Chicago’s Idea Week coming October 10-16

Aneesh Chopra, U.S. Chief Technology Officer

From the TechWeek progam . . .

Aneesh Chopra is the United States Chief Technology Officer and in this role serves as an Assistant to the President and Associate Director for Technology within the Office of Science & Technology Policy. He works to advance the President’s technology agenda by fostering new ideas and encouraging government-wide coordination to help the country meet its goals from job creation, to reducing health care costs, to protecting the homeland. 

Aneesh, who is on twitter @aneeshchopra, referenced Startup America and Startup Illinois, as two places entrepreneurs can go to build their businesses.

Working together, technology teams can design, develop and deliver incredible projects. Watch how fast the first crowd-sourced military vehicle, designed by Victor Garcia [an IIT grad] and built by Local Motors, goes together in this video.

Democratizing Data Liberation

Data liberation, which may be a new term for some, is a way for users to access,  interpret, share and keep data. The Indian and U.S. governments are working together on an open government project that enables global data liberation.

Do you do project research?

Then, you’ll love what data liberation does. Check out data sets for the city of Chicago. Or, research individual landmarks in Chicago.

The “Blue Button” program liberates individual health care information for veterans.

“There’s never been a better time to be an innovator in health care,” Aneesh Chopra

Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist and Craigconnects

Disclosure: Last summer, Craig Newark and I were on Barry Molts’s Business Insanity radio show on the same day! I also wrote a press release about Craig keynoting a conference and I posted a few ads on craigslist. That’s the extent of my Craig Newmark connections.

Craig talked mostly about Craigconnects – here’s the mission from the site:
craigconnects helps connect people of good will for the common good by highlighting nonprofits that are making an impact in Community Building, Journalism Integrity, Middle East, Open & Accountable Government, Service & Volunteering, Technology for Social Good and Veterans issues.

According to Craig, most non-profits don’t know how to tell a good story.

[We’re happy to help them with that.] The more polished their story is, the more bogus Craig thinks their guidelines are. Do you agree?

[The same could be said in business. Sometimes, the company with the best advertising is not the best in the industry. But, BestAd may be making more money than its more accomplished competitors. Do you agree?]

Craig suggests checking out charities on charitynavigator.org and greatnonprofits.org.

He says his number one power is cutting through bullsh*t.

It’s not coding. But, he loves to code. Whenever he tries to code, his staff pulls him back.

[This is a great lesson for entrepreneurs who distract themselves with doing work others could do much better, faster and cheaper. For example, when I finally admitted that someone else would do a much better job than I ever could on redesigning my blog, I invested in freeing up more time, activating a new brand and relieving all the frustration I would feel from this type of project.]

“If you want to make the world a better place, get engaged with social media. Social media and its effectiveness is not new. Guttenberg didn’t know what to do with it, but Martin Luther did. When good stuff happens, get the word out on social media.” Craig Newmark

[That’s why we work to match up businesses with non-profits that can leverage each other’s social media presence and connections. ]

Fireside Chat with Jory Des Jardin, co-founder of BlogHer

From the TechWeek program . . .

Jory Des Jardins co-founded BlogHer, Inc. in 2005 with Elisa Camahort Page and Lisa Stone, and serves as the company’s President of Strategic Alliances and lead evangelist to top revenue partners. With Jory’s leadership, BlogHer has developed its own distinctive brand of strategic partnership, helping to facilitate constructive dialogue between some of the world’s major brands and women who are social media leaders and their readers.

“If you want to come into the blogosphere to make money, don’t do it. “ Jory Des Jardins

Jory says the top reasons women like to blog are to express themselves and to meet people like them.

With 25 million unique views every month and 2,500 bloggers in the BlogHer network, Jory knows what she’s talking about.

If you’re a woman who blogs, you may submit your blog to be considered for the BlogHer ad network. They’re not selective based on a blogger’s traffic, they’re selective based on an advertising match. “We look up to traditional media, we’re not trying to replace it. We’re symbiotic.” Jory said.

BlogHer also creates events that springboard to life from the network to connect brands with bloggers.

Asked about her favorite blogs, Jory mentioned RedneckMommy, SimplyRecipes and Pioneer Woman by Ree Drummond, one of the largest female bloggers. Jory also said there is no “top 5.” The top blogs differ based on brands, readers and organizations.

Jory Des Jardin’s Suggestions for Bloggers

Read as much as you write. Link out for good blog karma.

Make your posts digestible –easily and quickly – and something people can connect with.

Jory said she used to spend hours writing a 2500 word post that would get a few readers. But, people want bite sizes, not five course meals. [I can relate to that. Can you?]

When I asked Jory about social media and blogging, specifically Google+ she said women will really like it because it’s easy to segment. “We like Google+ and we think it’s going to be someone some day.”

After her fireside chat, I met up with Jory to thank her for coming back to Chicago – where I attended BlogHer 2007 and 2009. In 2012, BlogHer moves back to NYC.

Exhibits for Startups and Entrepreneurs

Browsing the exhibit area, I stopped by the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership at Illinois. My marketing degree is from the College of Business at the University of Illinois. How exciting to hear about the work they’re doing with companies like Intelliwheels.

Recruiting for Start-ups

With so many sessions to choose from, I decided to cap off the day with two. Recruiting for start-ups shared insights on how to hire and fire, quickly and correctly.

Each panelist’s personality influenced their company’s hiring practices. A few of the top takeaways for me . . .

~ The head of HR is a hidden gem in every company and is more important than the CFO

~ Have a process and hire in teams – leader plus technicians

~Funding can slow the hiring process, a good thing

~ Hire slow and fire fast, especially if there’s no culture fit

~ You have to be crystal clear about your culture

~ When you’re interviewing, give people Legos and see what they create

Managing Digital Reputations

Barbara Mald0nado covered the TechWeek online reputation panel for TeckCocktail much better than I do here.

Because our clients come to us for expertise in reputation management, this was a particularly relevant session for me – and probably you, too.

A few thoughts that stuck with me . . .

Your digital reputation is everything about you on the web. What comes up when you Google your name on page one?

That’s where 90% of people will stop. Only another 4% will keep looking.

The more important to commerce you are, the more people will want to know about you. The reality is: as information transfer becomes more efficient, more of your life is on the line.

Here’s coverage by @interactiveamy on a session I wanted to go to, but couldn’t. Social Media Magic: A Woman’s Touch with Amy Korin and Hope Bertram.

Remember to watch Chicagonistalive online at 2:00pm cst on August 9, 2011 with MJ Tam, Nancy Loo, Beth Rosen, Duong Sheahan – and me!

Main Image Credit: Merchandise Mart Chicago TechWeek 2011 via instagram by Barbara Rozgonyi

Invitation: If you got this far, why not share a few thoughts? We’d love to hear what you’re thinking!