Yesterday I had the pleasure of delivering a social media seminar to The Trade Association Forum, part of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in London. We were supposed to do it at our offices but due to a big demand it was moved to Centre Point which is a skyscraper (kind of) in central London. This made the whole experience more interesting for me as my presentation had to compete with a nice view of the royal capital as per my iPhone image above.

This is the first time I have ever trained trade associations and their management teams. Their marketing efforts on social media and online in general aren't that straightforward as you would think. Yes they have to recruit new members and tell existing member about how useful the association is, basically what value they can add to the member companies' business. Then they also want to communicate with the press, basically putting out stories about the industry and hopefully getting some good write-ups in traditional media (which is where most of the end-customers consume news still). Finally, they want to use social media as a lead generation tool for their member companies. This means they can pick up leads and enquiries from social media and distribute to relevant companies perhaps based on location. To sum up, trade associations have a three-pronged approach to social networking and we addressed a number of their challenges and how to overcome these.

"Too many tweets make a twit" - David Cameron, Prime Minister.

If you are as confused about Twitter as our Dear Leader, you should consider coming along to our Social Media for Business Success workshop! David Cameron is of course invited as well but it's unclear whether he will make it due to G8 commitments.

Event Details

What is happening?

For anyone likely to be in London on the 27th of May – do not miss the Social Media and Personal Branding seminar Laurent Brouat and yours truly are putting on. It’s a three hour live and interactive session filled with case studies and how-to instructions.

What will we learn?

We will look at your business goals and create an effective online strategy that mirrors these. We will uncover your personal brand, what makes you unique and why clients would want to choose you over the competition.

Once we have established your strategy and brand positioning, we get into the technical side. This will involve social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter) as well as blogging to reach out to your target audience.

Who should go?

The workshop is aimed at freelancers, consultants, entrepreneurs, small business owners - anyone that can benefit from having a strong online presence.

Who is presenting?

Presenter bios:

Laurent Brouat is a career consultant and an expert in social networking

Jorgen Sundberg is a personal branding consultant and blogger

More Information

Venue :

ESCP Europe – 527 Finchley Road
London NW3 7BG – Room G22
Tube station: Finchley Road or West Hampstead

Details:

- Thursday 27/05/2010 – 6.30 pm till 9.30 pm
- Price: £95
- Book your place today at Link Humans training page

Hopefully see you there!