Blogging and social media are such new areas that they are continually changing and growing. Conferences associated with such are also trying to find a comfort zone. And there are so many different types of people using social media: to market, to network, as an outlet, just for fun. The same goes for blogging. And that’s why it’s easy to discount the conferences associated with them, when so many people use the tools as a hobby rather than a profession.
But if you want to grow your business, your reputation, and your contacts, you must treat conferences seriously and act accordingly. …read more

If you attend a conference as a professional, you are probably marketing either yourself, your company, or your product. As you probably know, there are many ways to go about said marketing. Talking to attendees, handing out business cards, paying for a booth, or maybe even sponsoring a portion of the event. All of these can be appropriate in the right context.
What you don’t want to do is interject yourself where you don’t belong. For instance, if you introduce yourself to a group of people, do you wait to see what the conversation is about and add to things when …read more

Online, many people are known by their screen names, rather than by their first and last names. Most people (myself included) use a single screen name for everything from Twitter to AIM to MySpace. And that’s fine…if you only use social networking for your business.
But most people don’t. I have friends that I only contact through social networking and instant messaging, and they have nothing to do with my writing business. While some people are able to use one online identity and keep communications separate, many make the mistake of forgetting that clients and business associates have their screen names. …read more

Picture this: You’re having a conversation with someone at a networking conference. Things are going well. You’re talking about the weather, politics, the school system, blah, blah, blah. Then all of a sudden, they ask you your opinion about the local business down the street that went bust because they couldn’t pay their back taxes. You give an answer that is not only unprofessional but also “fifth-grade” sounding. But, it’s too late to retract your statement. It’s out there and your networker-friend is looking at you like “what??”. So, what do you do now?
A while back, I wrote a post …read more