I’ll be speaking at UnSeminar 8 coming up in Austin Texas.

There is plenty to learn from the speakers, but the best reason to attend events like this is the long term relationships that develop from interacting with other attendees.

As I go through my preparation to network, I thought it would interesting to document some of the way the networking with speaker and attendees works so well for me.

Know Who Will Be There

As soon as I book a trip, I look for social media connections.

Let’s start with a list of speakers

• Joe Vitale
• Pat O’Bryan
• Wendi Friesen
• Erica Douglass
• Connie Ragen Green
• Bill Hibbler
• Jeff Crilley
• Tony Laidig
• Mindy Audlin
• Colin Joss
• Lawrence Ball
• Warren Whitlock (I know you’ll want to meet this guy

I have been doing this for a while, so most of the speakers are already friends on and off Twitter. For the few that I couldn’t recall, I used a Google search. Here is the syntax I use do find a user on Twitter using Google.

twitter.com “warren whitlock’

This all goes in the search box.

Google searches for occurrences of the text between the quotes on Twitter. Usually, you’ll get only the most active use with that name. You click on the link, see the profile and FOLLOW the person.

While on Twitter, be sure to read their recent tweets and click through to their blog and bio links.

Making a List and Checking it Twice (a day)

I created a list of these user handles to follow. I use PeopleBrowsr where I’ll keep a stack (column) open between now and June 20th to see what others are tweeting about. I’ve found that PeopleBrowsr is the fastest way to add people to a group and it allows me to keep it outside of Twitter, where the limit to lists is only 20.

You can use a Twitter list (if you do, let me know and I’ll refer others to it) or a group in almost any Twitter client for this. The Twitter search tool has improved, you may be able to find, follow, and list people as fast as the method I described.

Or, just follow this list I created Unseminar 8 Speakers

I’ll add other attendees to my PeopleBrowsr list as I find and follow them.  The speaker list above will likely be left as is to help you get started.

I use this for people I want to know better. I do not wait for them to start talking about the event, and actually prefer to find out what they are talking about besides UnSeminar since I want to have a relationship before and after that event.  I already know we have that in common, so I look for what else we can connect on.

Building Relationships Before the Event

Using the links I get from Twitter feeds, I’ll find links to blogs post about whatever expertise the person has, along with other interests on Facebook, LinkedIn and anything else they talk about. 

What I’m looking for is their passion. I’ve learned that it’s best to put off my interests for as long as possible and focus on what the other person needs and wants. Many of the famous people I network with are more interested in a charity, cause or avocation than you might think. Some might spend all their time talking about their niche or making money.. that’s okay, but what I’ really want to know is what passion they would follow if they had all the money they ever need. That’s where the real connections lie.

Attack With a Preemptive Love Strike

Here’s where the real fun begins.

Once you have spent a few minutes getting to know a person and their passions, you’ll find at least one thing to love about them. Now we get to put my listen and love marketing strategy into play.

Look for a question asked, a poignant comment, a shared life story or desire from the person you want to know better.  I rarely need more than a few minutes to find at least one question or something to provoke a positive comment.

Now do something nice for them. Instead of reading and thinking “that’s nice”  TELL THEM in a comment, tweet, or message. Please don’t settle for “nice post” or “I’m a fan (I use that when I’m nervous.. it rarely gets a positive reaction). Take a couple of second more and think of something specific and personal that you can say. It doesn’t need to be long, but it has to show you really mean it.

My friend Dr. Ben Mack is calling the a preemptive love strike which means that you don’t wait for others to reach out to you, you look for ways to show love.

Since I’ve used Twitter and social media to help me show love and appreciate to others, I’ve learned to do it much more often… and now find ways offline to do the same.. handwritten notes, a book from Amazon with a note enclosed, a phone call when it’s not expected.. I can’t imagine ever running out of opportunities.

This works. I just set up a joint venture from sending one post card, I have sold consulting to someone who watched how I tweet positive ideas and made new friends while strengthen bonds with many others from using these love strikes.

Watch for the HashTags

Attendees to UnSeminar 8 will be encouraged to tweet and talk about the event and add “#UN8” to the end of each post. This will trigger a link in their posts and allow others to click and see a stream of every tweet with that tag.

You can view this on the web using cool tools like TwitterFall

You can click on the photo to see the current stream for #UN8 or use this site to set up your own instantly updating stream with whatever search term, list of people you want to see.  It’s great for projectors or monitors at events.

Using the hashtag, you can also set up a stack or column in nearly every Twitter client. On the web you can follow us from any browser with Twitter Search

Attend the Preview Webinars

Anyone can attend the free preview webinars to spend time with Pat and the Speakers before the event. Listen to what they teach, but watch for ideas of where you might send a preemptive love strike.

UnSeminar 8 previews are available free online. Most other events offer similar pre-event training. When we do this, it’s a preemptive love strike on attendees and many others who won’t be able to make it.

Event promoters tell me that this doesn’t hurt attendance. In many cases, attendance as the following event goes up due to people hearing the training and deciding they want to get in on the best part.. the live networking.

Come to the Tweet Up

Many events have pre-events the night before the official start time. This is often the best way to get a leveraged fast start on meeting speakers, promoters and experienced attendees for a head start.

Austin Tweet Up expert Kate Buck will be setting up a Tweet up on Thursday June 17th for Austin locals, UnSeminar 8 attendees and you. Follow @KateBuckJr on Twitter and watch for announcements. When you see the invite, you’ll be able to access a list of attendee and follow them.

By the time you get to the Tweet up, you’ll already be seeing friends you met online.

Help Promote the Event

When you tweet about the event, you’ll be doing a preemptive love strike on the promoter, the speakers and other attendees who will benefit from meeting you network.

This can be done even if you can’t make it to the live event.

When you tweet about #un8, point your follower to http://UnSeminar8.com and let them know the handles of the cool people who are speaking or attending. When you tweet something like this:

you know that Pat will see it and appreciate you. This preemptive love strike is about as direct as you can get.

Keep in Touch After the Event

As you begin to use these tips, you’ll find that it takes a lot less time that you might have though before you start. Pretty soon, you’ll have new friends and connections, a network of people that will remember your preemptive love strikes and be looking for ways to help you.

It’s natural to think that you have to sell something to them or perhaps it might be a waste of time. Actually, the reverse is true. The more times you can reach out and help (love) your contacts, the more apt they will be to ask you how they can help you.

When they do, be ready to engage them and move into whatever you need.

Of course you want to keep your goals and desires in mind. I know we can’t do an individual love strike on every contact every day, but I have doubled, doubled again and still increasing my capacity to do this. So far, I can’t see any time that I will want to love less.

These are just a few of the quick steps I take when attending a seminar, and every day. I know each of these work because I’m using them. Do you have other ideas? Please share them with me. Leave a comment, Tweet about this post and let’s discuss what works and what hurdles you see. When you do, I feel your love

Imagine a time when you’ll have so many asking to engage you, wanting to reciprocate for the love you’ve show and anxious to see you do well.

Listen and Love.. it’s as simple as that.

I’m an optimist.

I refuse to believe that there are problems in the world that can’t be solved or resolved in ways we have not yet considered.

Some men see things the way they are and say “Why?”

I dream of things that never were and say “Why not?”

George Bernard Shaw

Change of attitude is what my college mentor Clyde Johnson would teach us in every class If you don’t like the answer, change the question.

Barry Nalebuff, co-author of Why Not? How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big And Small  strikes me as an optimist. Watch this video, and I promise you’ll be thinking of him every time you see a banana for the rest of your life

My prescription for positive emotions.. a DANCE video every morning.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

I’ve been putting off doing a “page” on Facebook for as long as they’ve been around.

Fist off, I hated the term “fan page” from the start. I don’t want to be seen as a guy looking to get “fans” or establish myself as a guru.

Trouble is, the limits to connections on Facebook have kept me for interacting with more people and the “page” technology is perfect for allowing the loose connections with good stuff that I support and promote for authors and businesses.

Why I’m Setting Up a PAGE on Facebook

I’ve been playing with a page for the listeners of Profitable Social Media radio for the past few weeks and advises clients to set up page for every book and business.

After all, Facebook as over 400 million readers, pages have grown from 5 to 20 million in the past few months. This is where your readers are expecting to see you.

Today, I logged into Facebook and saw this at the top of my page:

Introducing the Like button

Starting today people will be able to connect with your Page by clicking “Like” rather than “Become a Fan.” We hope this action will feel much more lightweight, and that it will increase the number of connections made across the site

I like being liked!

Watch for the announcement and links to my page here. I’ll be sure to put gobs of great new information on that page.. that’s the best way to grow a community.. GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT.

In the mean time, if you haven’t got a page already.. got get one. If you are technically challenged, let me know and I’ll direct you to some of the wonderful people we have doing Facebook pages.

Do you have a page? Comment below and let me know.

Froe Mashable: Google Energy: Google Can Now Buy and Sell Electricity

Google’s ever-expanding empire has added another branch: subsidiary Google Energy has been granted an order by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to buy and sell energy at market rates.

Does this mean Google is set to become your power company? Not yet — instead, Google wants more control over the high energy costs of its many data centers, and also aims to become carbon neutral. A Google spokesperson told CNET: “Right now, we can’t buy affordable, utility-scale, renewable energy in our markets. We want to buy the highest quality, most affordable renewable energy wherever we can and use the green credits.”

Google has been working toward energy autonomy for years. Green power, nuclear discussions, geo thermal and more.

Google has become a major user of power, and a powerful force in the world.

Will they now buy and sell electric power too?

I’ve been experimenting with a couple of tools that bridge databases to make it easier to reach friends and contacts where they want to be reached.

We’ll have an update on this weeks Social Media Radio Show.. including some stats on what social networks have the best connections and how one site promises to get 43% of your email list to open an email (unheard of on some mailing lists today).

With Facebook opening profiles to the search engines by default, this is going to get easier. I think that soon we’ll be able to talk directly to a contact in exactly the way they want to hear from us.. Text, Tweet, Post or Email. In the mean time, let’s make it easier to show where we want to be reached.

BusinessCard2 is trying to do that. I just updated my entry. You can get your own there free.

I read all the comments from this site. Some people don’t know that and still not sure how to reach me.

So I add this cool connection form. It should appear from time to time on posts and pages now. I just add a short code inside a post.

Send me a quick note and let me know it’s working.

We’ve been talking about the social media changing the speed at which we do business.

I say that when you can get real time information, the value of aged information is greatly reduced. That’s why people like Twitter, Facebook and other social media.

Now Google takes the next natural step with real time results from the social media above the older listings:

Now more than ever, we need to know what our customers, readers, friends, fans and foes are saying about our brand

I’m told that the big corporations provide jobs for millions of people who like to believe they are secure there. That’s not been my experience, but what do I know? I’ve been an entrepreneur for most of my life and never set policies for thousands of employees.

From my limited point of view, all employees of any sized company are people.. I do know a few things about people. 350 million of them are now on Facebook, with about a million per day joining. You got to figure that your employees, your customers and the public have found Facebook by now. I suspect that most employees with a computer know about it.

Yet today I’m reading Advertising Age (sorry no link.. I’ll explain below) and read that as many as 70% of companies surveyed are banning social media in the workplace. The article goes on to show how this is a dumb policy (duh) and suggests that “social media is like recess” and that happy employees will be more productive.

Recess?

To be fair, the lower ranking bullet points suggest that an employee may be able to keep up with information about their field and that maybe “brand evangilize” .. then concludes that we ought to consider letting folks use social media at work.

I was amused at the baby steps the author of this article was taking. I decided to leave a comment and suggest that “social media in the employee benefit package” is behind the times and that we should be pushing our people to use social media more to give better customer service, speed up communications and advance the goals of the company.

I wanted to leave a comment.. but Advertising Age still requires a login to participate.

I guess they think that commenting on their articles is recess and a privledge that I have to earn. No problem.. I’ll just log in and.. Wait! What’s this, you need me to confirm? … I can do that, Fire up the email window and click a link. DONE!

OK.. back to the article, scroll to the bottom, smile at the discussion about security issues and employees wasting time (so 2005).. there it is, the comment box. Typed in my 2 cents worth of added value and my user name and password and hit SUBMIT.

A new surprise.. another log in page. DRAT.. I’ve probalby lost my comment… no wonder I seldom comment on old media sites.. but I’m determined and log in for the 4th time.

That’s when I see this message:

This comment will cost you 1 credit. You have zero credits

That’s when I decided to put my comments here. No need to take on the old media, I’ll just bypass them… all I need is a link to that article. But first, let me reread it to make sure I’m quoting them right.

Oops. Can’t do that either. Seems my log in has alerted the system that I’m more engaged than a casual reader.

Access to this article is restricted to Advertising Age subscribers… click here to order

Advertising Age… the voice of the 20th Century Corporate Communications Paradigm (and quickly becoming irrelevant)

I’ve been hearing a lot from one of my favorite companies.

I purchased their product a couple of years back, used it, and been very happy with the outcome.

However, in the past few weeks, my email IN box has been flooded with special offers and announcements. Multiple items in each email with links to buy or give the product as a holiday gift. Special offers for new purchases but nothing that would enhance my use of the product or relationship with the company. Nothing to help me use the product better.

When I see nothing but “special sale” emails.. I begin to wonder “Is this company in trouble? Why are they so desperate?”

Today being Cyber Monday, I decided it was a good time to remove myself from a few of these mailing lists. I scrolled down to the bottom of today’s 23 offer email and found some fine print disclaimers and a few links.  I squinted to find the link that would unsubscribe me and noticed a button just above the fine print that invited me to become a fan on Facebook

Nothing for the fans who already bought?

Despite being there to drop my connection with this company, I must say I found it interesting that they were willing to pay $15 if I were to click on a button on Facebook.

I had to look.

I clicked through to the “fan page” and found 5 unanswered comments from customers using the product. All were politely asking for help with some small problem… no sign that anyone at the company saw them, let alone responded.

My first impression was that the company didn’t get social media (the professional way of saying “this sucks”).. so now I wanted to know: Is there any communication going on here?

Scrolling down, I found an ad for the $15 bribe and videos and photos posted by users, including an graphic with the word “PORN” .. but no comments on any of the wall posts.

Back to the email…

Preparing the post, I went back over a few emails to make sure I wasn’t missing anything that spoke to me as a user instead of just a person to help them get more sales… I had skipped to the bottom of today’s email and had missed this juicy headline:

we want to hear from you
review a product and help your fellow fans make the perfect choice

..followed by photos of their product line

(I’ve removed the product name before the word “fans”)

We have the tools today to segment our databases and provide a unique experience for our fans or customers.. speaking to each of them in a voice that makes sense and initiating a real conversation.

Just a couple of years back, a sales flyer from a company was expected.. and I believe still useful as one form of communication. However, when you decide to get into social media, and use terminology like you want to have a conversation.. you best be ready to have that conversation.

When you do engage your customers you will be adding real value and reap the benefits.