A Few Good Seats Still Open for this Week’s Communicate BIZ Roundtable
Hampton Roads) Creating Awesome Social Media Marketing Campaigns for events, product launches, referral programs, and more…
Strategy for social media is often overlooked when we are ready to promote an event or any new product, service or business. How many topics do you need to keep interest and volume for posts? What visuals or videos can you implement or incentives? How can you better build “likes” and “followers” in the process and get more sharing of your messages? Be ready to get creative, think deeply, and network with people who can validate your strategies!
Join us for great networking, share your successes, and learn some new tips for your social media marketing campaigns. We will take a look at:
Engaging your team to evaluate current products and services with creating marketing campaigns
Identify key messages, visuals, and language specifically appealing in social media
Understand how to develop a mini-strategic plan for a social media campaign
When: Wednesday, July 23, 8:30 to 9:45 a.m.
Location: Simply Fresh Café & Market, Town Center, Virginia Beach
Fee: $15 includes Continental breakfast. Reservations required by check or credit card. No shows will be in-voiced. Includes complimentary coffee and sampling.
Pre-registration Required: Call Susan Long-Molnar, 757-513-8633
8:30-8:45 Networking and Introductions
8:45-9:05 Presentation
9:05-9:30 Interactive practicum
9:30-9:45 Sharing results and Q/A
And you will receive…
Opportunities to network
Chance to win a complimentary 1 hour marketing consulting session
List of attendees and contact information for future relationship building
Communicate BIZ Roundtable is a monthly seminar series for small business owners and professionals responsible for marketing, PR, sales and internal communications within their companies. We want you in the room if you are responsible for increasing revenue and/or engaging others to bring success to your organiza-tion in 2014! Monthly sessions are facilitated by Susan Long-Molnar, President of Managing Communications Consulting, who will often partner with another expert on the topic.
The 10th Anniversary of my 1st Father’s Day by Michael Camden
Every June, we celebrate Father’s day. It is an opportunity to honor our dads. Some people may call it a Hallmark holiday that has evolved into an attempt to cash in on our love and devotion of our fathers. Maybe it is, but I’m a lucky dad, so bring on the celebration.
According to Wikipedia, Father’s Day was not created by Hallmark. Instead, it was founded in Spokane, Washington at the YMCA in 1910 by Sonora Smart Dodd. Its first celebration was in the Spokane YMCA on June 19, 1910. Her father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, was a single parent who raised his six children there. After hearing a sermon about Mother’s Day in 1909, she told her pastor that fathers should have a similar holiday honoring them. Although she initially suggested June 5, her father’s birthday, the pastors did not have enough time to prepare their sermons, and the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday of June. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father’s_Day)
This June is the 10th anniversary of my first father’s day; the first one playing the role of father rather than son. Thanks to my very first father’s day gift 10 years ago, my daughter honors me 365 days a year. That gift was something we have since come to call “Daddy Tree”. In fact, every one like it is now called a daddy tree. These trees have not always been indigenous to the Hampton Roads region. Thankfully someone realized there was a market for them this far north.
I will never forget my first Father’s day. Ten years ago, I returned home from a trip on Father’s day for a photo opportunity with my little girl in front of our daddy tree, a 2 foot tall palm tree in our front yard by the mailbox. It was so cool! Ironically, I had just returned from sunny Florida, where no one would think twice about daddy trees. A few years later, on our first family trip to Disney, I’ll never forget her reaction to the trees in Orlando. Daddy trees were everywhere and my daughter was in heaven. We had not even seen the Magic Kingdom yet. But not in our yard, there is only the one. Today, it towers over our driveway and stretches to the power lines. It has grown taller from year to year, just as my little buddy has matured and blossomed.
The tree has served as a symbol of our family’s love and of our recognition of father’s day. It is a lasting and living memory reminding me, daily, of the joy and blessings of fatherhood. Every year, we return to the foot of the daddy tree for another photo op; my daughter and the tree – each taller, and me – another year older with a little less hair.
I would not have anything to celebrate or to write about if it were not for my father (and mother), my loving wife, and of course my little girl. Thank you, sweet Caroline, for 10 awesome years. Happy father’s day dad and to every dad out there. Go spend some time making lasting memories with your kids. Perhaps you can plant your own daddy tree.
Michael Camden, MBA (father, husband, and son) is the Enrollment Coordinator for the Hampton Roads site of Troy University. He may be reached at 757-451-8203 or michael.camden@troy.edu.
What will you be doing over the holidays for your employees or like in my case, contractors?
What will you be doing over the holidays for your employees or like in my case, contractors? Remember to be flexible on other people’s ideas for decorations around the office. If it doesn’t impact budget or make some horrible impression of the company, keep a positive perspective or you may disengage employees. If you want to make changes in the way to you celebrate the season at work, get employee input. Try not to make too many changes at once. For example, don’t decide to switch from a bonus check to a turkey, do away with the White Elephant gifts, and change a traditional venue all in one year! Lastly, be sure to communicate effectively in advance. What’s in advance? During the season, people are already stressed so try to plan communications to begin at least two weeks out. Follow up frequently and give employees room to accept the changes.
What else should you do?
Avoid the negative talk about the economy. Try stressing experiences verses money. What could you do as a team that would be so much fun nobody will even notice that it didn’t cost as much as last year.
Sincere compliments go a long way. What can you say now that you have not said enough throughout the year? Everyone on the team has contributed in some way, whether they led the way or influenced others. Oh, and most people like recognition in front of their peers and management.
Surprise! On a slow day, unless you are in retail, how hard would it be to surprise everyone with an extra couple of hours to leave the office early? Another idea is to have a Festive Siesta! Tell everyone that from 11-2 for one day they can’t do anything but eat and rest. Encourage then to share how the rest of their day was–New Ideas? More productive?
None of this takes a lot of work or planning. And one of my favorites? Find a non-profit to help with and engage the whole team!
I would love for you to share appropriate office activities in regard to the holidays! Please visit our Facebook company page (Managing Communications Consulting) and like us? Send us a post, and we will share your company’s celebration of the holidays.
Marketing with Company LinkedIn and Facebook Pages!
Filed under: Marketing Communications
We can never learn enough about LinkedIn and Facebook company pages so please join us for a look at how to get more out of yours! We are talking about building reputation, identifying ways to promote your products and services, and staying relevant for all those potential clients and referral sources. Most of you have a profile and maybe a business page, but are they designed effectively and what are you doing with all those connections you have made? We will also check on results from October attendees to share your progress and answer more questions. Join us for this action packed morning! Handouts will help those who are still setting up their pages, and you will get a better view of how to …
Expand your company pages with valuable content
Use LI Answers to establish your credibility and make new connections
Promote your pages by cross marketing
Identify ways for you to contribute to your clients and other company pages
And…Integrate LinkedIn into your overall marketing plan
When: Tuesday, December 4th, 8:30 to 9:45 a.m.
Location:
Stellar One,4505 Columbus St., Suite 100, Virginia Beach’s Town Center
Presenter: Susan Long-Molnar, President of Managing Communications Consulting, a marketing and PR professional with 27 years experience in this market.
Fee: $15 includes Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, donuts and bagels. ($10 for Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce members) Reservations required and pre-payment by check or credit card.
Pre-registration Required: Call Susan Long-Molnar, 757-513-8633
8:30-9:00 Networking and Introductions
9:00-9:30 Overview of LinkedIn fast pace marketing techniques
9:30-9:45 Sharing additional LinkedIn best practices
And you will receive…
? Opportunities to network for beginning new relationships on the right foot
? Drawing for gift cards/certificates to help with holiday shopping!
? List of attendees and contact information for future relationship building
Communicate BIZ Roundtable is a monthly seminar series for small business owners and professionals responsible for marketing, PR, sales and internal communications within their companies. We want you in the room if you are responsible for increasing revenue and/or engaging others to bring success to your organization in 2012! Monthly sessions are facilitated by Susan Long-Molnar, President of Managing Communications Consulting, who will often partner with another expert on the topic.
In Your Face: Perception is Your Reality
Filed under: Marketing Communications
Have you ever entered a networking event late, only to find several small groups of people in conversation, and you don’t know anyone? This can certainly happen, and the way we react, from our body language to how we approach a group, can have a tremendous impact on how people relate to us. Situations like this can catch up off guard on our communications.
I can’t tell you how many times as a female business owner that I have been at a networking meeting and felt like the silent security guard at the door or the immigrant who doesn’t speak English when two or more men only make eye contact with each other. Guys, I am sure you have experienced the same kind of situation with a group of women.
Who gets noticed the most at business meetings and social networking events? Is it always the person who requests business cards from everyone in the room? Is it someone who has that elevator speech memorized to perfection? Is it always the politician or enterprise CEO? NOT. I firmly believe that anyone can make an impact with the right attitude about communications, attention to the discussions they lead or engage in, and have a good sense of business etiquette. With training and attention to your communications, you can make significant differences in how you are perceived in groups, whether your goal is to build new relationships for your business, pursue job interviews, or just have a good time in a community you enjoy!
If you are in Hampton Roads on March 22nd, we hope you will join us for dialogue with substance about communicating effectively in business events. This month’s Communicate BIZ Roundtable is going to explore how to connect face-to-face and leave a positive perception of you and your brand. How do others perceive us as entrepreneurs and professionals in our fields during those fleeting moments at events? This is not just for novice networkers or connectors. We will look at how to bring your communications to the next level while interacting at networking, social, and business events, from the visual image you portray to verbal communications, body language and sheer business etiquette.
When: Tuesday, March 27th, 8:15 to 9:45
Location: Town Point Club, 101 W. Main Street, Norfolk
Presenters: Susan Long-Molnar, President of Managing Communications Consulting, is a communications, marketing and PR professional with 27 years experience in this market. Susan assists clients to manage face-to-face networking and is a national and regional presenter on communications topics including The Etiquette of Business Communications. Guest Presenter: Internationally-acclaimed Image Consultant Sandy Dumont is the founder of The Image Architect. She is also a founding member of the Professional Speakers Association (U.K.), and a member of the National Speakers Association (NSA). Sandy is past President of NSA Virginia, and Past President of the SE Virginia chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO. She consults with individuals and corporations and also conducts corporate and individual image makeover workshops.
Fee: $15 includes continental breakfast with fresh fruit, bagels, muffins, pastries and beverages. Reservations for this month are required with pre-payment by check or credit card.
To Register: Call Susan Long-Molnar, 757-513-8633 or e-mail
susan@managingcommunications.com
Our Agenda:
8:15-8:35 Networking and Introductions
8:35-8:55 Sandy Dumont on managing your image
8:55-9:15 Susan Long-Molnar on key messages, listening and transitioning, and communications etiquette
9:15-9:30 Q/A and group discussion on setting priorities for networking
And you will receive…
? Handouts of improving and managing perception
? Door prize drawings
? List of attendees and contact information for future relationship building
? Managing Communications’ April Business Calendar with Networking Tips for specific events
Sponsored by Managing Communications Consulting, Communicate BIZ Roundtable is a monthly seminar series for small business owners and professionals responsible for marketing, PR, sales and internal communications within their companies. We want you to join us if you are responsible for increasing revenue and/or engaging others to bring success to your organization in 2012! Monthly sessions will be facilitated by Susan Long=Molnar.