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Columbus

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Tom is so sadAs a small business owner, sometimes you feel like you’re being tossed by the waves.  I had every intention of heading down to sunny Austin this year for the Rockin’ SXSWi festival.  All my favorite Peeps and Tweeps in my Twibes are going to be there.  But sometimes life bites you.

After losing two major deals in my pipeline I had to make the excruciating decision to ditch SXSW this year.  The fact is, I just couldn’t justify playing and spending the cash when I should be working.  Even when you own a company, you don’t get rewarded when things go south.  Instead you throw off everything that may get in your way, pull your boots on and get busy…working.

Tough Business Decision - No SXSW for me this year from TOM WILLIAMS on Vimeo.

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One of the things I am involved with in Columbus is the American Marketing Association Special Interest Group on Social Media or AMA SIG - Social Media for short.  Instead of doing our usual speaker / Q&A format we mixed it up a bit with Round Tables!  Watch the video for how it went.  You can check out photos from the event on this Flickr Set!

AMA SIG Social Media Round Table Discussions from TOM WILLIAMS

Here are a few of the take aways from the Different Round Tables:

Using LinkedIn for Business - Hosted by Nate Riggs:

  1. Think about LinkedIn outside of your profile. Focus on how your updates reach other people’s profiles across the network
  2. To get the most out of LinkedIn, you need to engage. Get in the habit of checking LinkedIn for updates 4-5 times daily in short interval
  3. Make the most of using applications like TripIt, Answers and SlideShare to augment your network with more valuable content

Twitterlicious - Hosted by Cheryl Harrison

  1. Be real, be personal
  2. Tweet interesting content, not just stuff about you
  3. Tweet regularly

Getting your Net Worth from your NetWork - Hosted by Jason Velliquette

  1. Come prepared. Understand what value you are seeking from a new contact, and what value you have to offer in return.
  2. Use a targeted approach. It is often more important to hone in on the quality of new contacts, than the quantity.
  3. Develop a follow up strategy. Find a hook, a reason to meet again. Establish upfront a follow up time.

Facebook for Business - Hosted by Christy Williams

  1. The conversation has already been started on facebook. Go to other fan pages and answer people’s questions.
  2. With so many cooks in the kitchen on a campaign (brand strategy, web, social media, the client), pick your channels carefully when measuring results. Are facebook fans the goal of the campaign? Are conversions on the corporate site the goal? Everyone needs to know what the goal is and work to the same end.
  3. Before you build up your fan base with a special promotion, have a plan of action on how you’re going to engage them once they’re fans. Engagement needs to start immediately.

Blog Table - Hosted by Tom Williams

  1. If you’re unsure you can pull it off for your business, try a personal one first.  Get through the learning curve when the stakes are low
  2. Don’t blog about “me, me, me”.  Write about what your audience is interested in
  3. Mutli-person blogs are more desirable than single-person ones but you need to get the C-level Execs on board and past their “fear” of what employees might say.

Stop talking at them and Engage! - Hosted by Andrew Spott

  1. Driving users to become fans/followers of a brand/product page is most effective when offering something of value to the user. Abbott Nutrition gave a free sample Zone Bar to each person who fanned their facebook page. Their page went from 1k fans to 30k fans almost overnight!
  2. Engaging users requires a lot of time and effort. The bigger the brand or user following, the more humans it takes to keep up with your customers.
  3. Large brands or ones with a huge amount of feedback from users need to devise a strategy to identify the keywords and crisis scenarios that require personal responses and engagement, and others that are more “rhetorical” and can be left alone

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Power of Twitter - Meeting up with Jeremiah Owyang from the Altimeter Group

February 26, 2010

Jeremiah Owyang Meetup and the Power of Twitter from TOM WILLIAMS on Vimeo.
You know the problem with social media?  It can take you down the rabbit hole.  So, why do we shuffle and re-shuffle our work and why do we keep an eye on the social media channels?
Because you never know when lightening may strike.
Lightening [...]

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AMA Social Media SIG Presentation

November 19, 2009

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to co-present at the American Marketing Association Special Interest Group on Social Media (AMA SIG for short).  I worked with Steve Bell, Founder and Principle at Strategic Marketing Innovations Consulting.  It was so much fun working with Steve, who is one of the smartest guys I’ve ever [...]

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Toot, Toot!! Woah - was that MY horn?

January 22, 2009

Yes, I am about to toot my own horn here, so if you can’t deal with that, you may want to look away.
I am very proud to announce that InnoGage was nominated and is now a finalist for the Best Start-up Company at the Innovation Awards sponsored by TechColumbus.  The winner will be announced at [...]

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Tom Williams Interviewed by Columbus Tech Life

October 27, 2008

I was recently interviewed by Ben Blanquera, blogger for Columbus Tech Life.  Not only is the blog a great write-up but I am very excited about what Ben is doing to spur growth and innovation in the IT and Social Media community in central Ohio.
Link to Ben’s blog:
http://columbustech.blogspot.com/2008/10/interview-with-entrepreneur-tom.html

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2.Ohio Event in Columbus This Friday!

October 9, 2008

This Friday (10/10) at 5:30 pm, there is a very cool event taking place at the Columbus Hilton-Polaris.  Reid Hoffman (founder of LinkedIn) and Judy Estrin (author of Closing the Innovation Gap:Reigniting the Spark of Creativity in a Global Economy and former CTO of Cisco) will be speaking at a 2.0 technology event in Columbus [...]

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