On June 8th – 9th MarketingProfs is having a business-to-business internet marketing conference aimed at business professionals and entrepreneurs who are looking to sharpen their online marketing skills in all areas of the web including social media marketing. This web marketing conference will be held at at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel and will be filled with keynote speakers, workshops and endless face to face networking opportunities to help beef up your business card collection. With classes on how to seamlessly integrate social media in any marketing mix registrants will walk away feeling confident that they can effectively pull all social media marketing aspects into their online business model. Sandy Carter, VP of IBM will be teaching a workshop on how to pull in all this social media marketing elements like Twitter and YouTube and tie it into your daily marketing routine.

MarketingProfs Business-to-Business Forum 2009 will be offering free bonuses to registrants of the conference. Each attendee will receive a complimentary copy of the latest cutting-edge research report “B2B Marketing in 2009: Trends in Strategies and Spending”. Each registrant will also receive access to an unlimited amount of articles, case studies, research reports and seminars for an entire year. Registrants will also be able to schedule one on one time with an expert of their choice to help them with specific situations relating to their business that they would like to talk about. Along with having free meals for the entire conference you will be allowed to instantly network online with attendees on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

The MarketingProfs Business to Business Forum 2009 is an ideal conference for those decision makers looking to take their business online to a new level. With keynote speakers like Steven Berlin Johnson and Barry Schwartz you will walk away with the right knowledge that can help you take your business to a whole new online level. Register today because space is filling up quickly!

Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel
606 Congress Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02210 USA

Learn More About the MarketingProfs Business-to-Business Forum 2009 NOW!

How much time do you spend each day on your social marketing efforts? An hour? 5 hours? all day? How do you know if all the efforts you are putting in each day lurking around on Twitter and Facebook. Are you a Google analytics nuts where you track every visitor to adjust time spent using all the various social platforms? The reality is that is no right or wrong answer when it comes to figuring out if you are spending too much or not enough time trying to communicate and build relationships with others on the various social platforms.

It all depends on what your goals are for trying to communicate online with others. If you are updating your status during dinner you might have a slight problem but if you are a business owner and each potential person you communicate with could lead into a potential client or business relationship than you do what you have to. At some point you might want to ask yourself just how many visitors and sales inquiries you are getting from spending 5 hours on Facebook each day. It is very important as a business owner to be visible on all these sites. Your audience is there, plain and simple so it is important for you to be there also. Even if you think Twitter is just a fad it could be a fad that sticks around for a few years and could potentially generate a great deal of traffic and potential for your growing business. You have to ask yourself how you are using your time. If you are a florist in Boston why are you spending half your day communicating and speaking with people in Alabama> Nothing against Alabama but the chances of a resident there landing in your shop to buy flowers is very slim. You might be able to spend half that time searching for people locally and trying to trigger conversations that way. Just make sure you are corresponding with the right people so you don’t find out down the road that you have been communicating with the wrong people.

Online social marketing networks have become a mega phone for people who have once been timid to be heard. Those who have had trouble speaking their mind or being vocal now have many social platforms to not only be heard but also seen. This has created a whole new way for businesses large and small to be found and explored. Many have had to learn the hard way though, with these powerful communication devices also comes a price to pay if not used correctly.

Many businesses have learned that word can travel very quickly through sites like Facebook or MySpace. So fast that once something is typed and published it is often to late to pull it back before the harm is done. What you may think is worthy of publishing a large group could tear apart online. If you have any irate customer or client trying to reach out to you on Twitter it is very important to handle it the right way. Remember many many people are going to see your response and they will quickly cast judgment on your business or your brand if not handled correctly. You must think long and hard when crafting together an approach for your business on the social platforms. One wrong step or interaction with a potential client or customer and you can quickly have a reputation management issue on your hands. Sites like Twitter where people can retweet responses things can quickly spread like wild fire. If you are a large or small business just venturing into the social platform space it will be important for you to put together a game plan on how you want to approach your communication. It is ok to take it slow at first and get your feet wet. test out various approaches on the various platforms before you find one that sticks with your business style. it is ok to develop different approaches for different social sites. The approach you take on Twitter will be vastly different than on LinkedIn or MySpace. Over time you will develop the right social marketing approach for you.

Have you ever thought about where we would all be without all the various social marketing and social networking websites in everyone’s lives? How would businesses interact with their community? What would people do most of the day in front of their computers? Do you think quality of life would be different? It would definitely get people out of the house a bit more.

Life would certainly be different with Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. Social marketing and social networking websites have created a way for businesses and people to meet others much quicker than ever. Face to face networking events are slowly being replaced with these sites. Think about how many companies and organizations have spawned just over the last five years with the emergence of social marketing. It is amazing just how much it has changed life for many people. In the life cycle of this type of communication it is really only a drop in the bucket and there is no telling where it is heading. To be able to react and respond to large groups of people real time from your phone regardless of where you are. You can be on the back of a camel in the desert and let people on Twitter know. The power of communication has really changed. It is important to know that even though these websites are mammoth and worth billions of dollars they are still in their infancy stages. What would happen if Twitter and Facebook just disappeared? Most likely something new would take their place. The connection and desire for random people to let everyone know what they are doing at any given moment of the day is certainly growing. People want more.

The social networking and social marketing landscape has only begun changing the ways we communicate and also what we communicate. Years ago nobody cared what we where doing during every minute of the day. But now it seems important to know what others are during before work, during work and after work with websites like Facebook and Twitter.

People who normally might be timid and quiet all of a sudden want to let the world know they just walked their dog or that they just ate their lunch. Large fortune 500 companies are conducting business and communicating with customers right through sites like Twitter. People would rather find the cable company account on twitter and vent to them than picking up the phone and calling customer service. A customer service call might be between you and that other person but on Twitter the whole world can see your instant complaint. So it is in the best interest of the company representative that is in charge of that Twitter account to resolve that issue as quickly as possible to not tarnish their reputation. Social networks allow news to spread and travel very quickly. Much quicker than prior forms of communication.

Social networking and communication is moving at a speed that is faster than companies can keep up with. People would now rather communicate directly through an online tool than to pick up the phone. We are only seeing the beginning of this cultural phenomenon. A person can fire up a Facebook page and almost instantly be reunited with people they would never even think about communicating with. I had a cousin halfway across the planet send me a message. I haven’t spoken with this person in over fifteen years. The power of social platforms have been immense and are continually changing they way anyone and everyone interact with each other online.