Yesterday I attended Social Media’s Impact on Training & Education sponsored by Milwaukee Education & Training Organization held at the Manpower Offices in downtown Milwaukee.

As I’m not a daily driver in downtown Milwaukee and I usually get a bit nervous when I must deal with city driving, I was grateful for the last minute email with driving and parking instructions. I did miss my turn because I happened to be driving east at the worst moment when the sun was not my friend and because city street signs are a bit hard to find and read in that area. But I got myself back on track easy enough and parking was a breeze.

The pleasant experience continued when I was greeted at the door with a warm welcome (Wow!) and lasted throughout the morning. My only complaint about the whole event was that it didn’t last long enough and I had to choose between various sessions. I could have easily continued into the afternoon and atttended all the sessions, however it was nice to drive back out of Milwaukee while traffic was light.

The whole event was well organized with top-notch speakers and I feel my time was very well spent.

Thanks to everyone who organized the event and the speakers and host. Also thanks to John Rogers at Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce for sending me information.

As the name suggests, the seminar was geared toward trainers and many attendees were from larger companies who will be training co-workers on social media. That worked out perfectly for me because I am teaching small business people.

I was hoping for an event that would go beyond some of the social media topics covered in previous seminars and webinars I’ve attended and I was not disappointed. To top it all off, I met some great people! So I’m very glad I ventured into the big city for a day.

Today is Day 16 of the Blog Challenge – yes we are halfway there! I know I can go the distance. If I’ve learned anything in the last 3 weeks (for the record, I’ve learned a lot!), it’s that I have much more to write about than I ever imagined. In fact, I struggle much more with time to write than with content. All the work for the challenge gives me the confidence to encourage others to start a blog and share their knowledge and that is very exciting!

Today’s challenge is to solve readers’ problems. Most bloggers write for that very reason, as do I, so this one was really quite easy. Except what problem would I write about specifically today? In the e-book that we have been using for this challenge, Darren Rowse gives several suggestions for ways to determine problems to write about. You may like to do a poll on your blog, ask a question on twitter, check out what keywords users are searching for when they come to your site or blog, use another blog post to ask a question, or simply ask family and friends.

I sort of did the latter today, although unintentionally. I was chatting with a friend when the topic turned to social media and how she could use it for her photography business. I often find small business owners need a little coaching in this area, so I offered up my expertise. I suggested she remember the 80/20 rule; 80% helpful/knowledge sharing content and 20% ‘selling’ content. In other words, I advised her to share her knowledge of photography and graphic design in order to gain a following, and then trust and confidence in her knowledge and ability would grow among that following. The key to any business owners’ success, whether online or face-to-face networking, is to build trust, comfort, confidence, and friendship.

What problems can I address for you?
Please leave a comment below or email me – laura at lauragwagner.com

I’ve been following Jeff Bullas for a while now; I’m subscribed to his RSS feed. Usually I don’t get the time to read his posts as often as I’d like, but I guess this was just what I needed this morning so it caught my eye. When I saw the title “10 Social Media Mistakes”, I thought it was going to be serious and I better read so I don’t do these things. Not to worry, I don’t think I’ll be doing any of them, especially no. 2-Facecrook.

For all you Wisconsinites out there, notice 2 of the 10 cite others from our fine state. We do seem to be in the national news more lately so I guess that explains that.

I will share my favorite here and then you can go out and read Jeff’s full article. Tweet it out to your friends, if you like. I’m sure Jeff spent a good amount of time putting it together and would appreciate the tweets.

2.  Facecrook
The draw of social media is compelling–even when you’re burglarizing a home. The Journal, a West Virginia newspaper, tells the story of how Jonathan Parker, a 19-year-old, was busted for felony daytime burglary after leaving his Facebook account logged into his victim’s computer. He had apparently used the computer to check his Facebook status.

10 Social Media Mistakes by Jeff Bullas

Do you have any stories to share?

Have a great day!

Building on yesterday’s task of creating a list of at least 10 blog post ideas, I’d like to suggest you setup a blogging calendar. I know, I know, when I first heard someone mention they use a calendar to keep track of topics for their blog, I thought that sounded like a crazy waste of time. But today’s blog challenge task was just that; I was instructed to setup a calendar. I chose to do it with a Google calendar and I think it was a good choice. I actually did this several days ago (I cheated and worked ahead) and it’s working out pretty slick. I even get an email to remind me of what I should be writing about. How cool is that?

I’ve used Google calendars in a few websites so I’m familiar with how they work but it really doesn’t matter if you’ve never used one. It’s quick and easy to get up to speed. To setup a calendar, go to google.com and find the More link at the top. From there, you will find Calendar in the More drop-down menu. If you already have a Google calendar, you can simply add another for this purpose or perhaps you can use the same calendar. If you don’t yet have a calendar with Google, follow the basic steps to setup an account, do a bit of reading and exploring and you’ll be set to go in no time. You can setup a calendar with any email address. You don’t need a gmail account. So check that out.

You might still be shaking your head and wondering why you want to take the time to setup a calendar, so let me give you a couple good reasons, according to our Pro-Blogger author friend Darren. When you glance at your calendar, you may realize your blog has become lopsided; you may be writing about the same subject too often. Gee – do you think I’m guilty of that the last couple weeks? I have an excuse right now, don’t you think? But I will try to mix it up a bit soon and I thank you for your patience.

You may decide you want to write on a particular subject each week. I’m thinking I might do something like writing about Facebook on Mondays, Linkedin on Tuesdays, Twitter on Wednesdays, Blogging on Thursdays, and good copy-writing on Fridays. I said I might – I have to noodle on that a bit. It’s just a thought at this time but it might be a really neat way to keep my blog more interesting and help my readers know what they can expect from me. You could do the same. Of course, you don’t need to write every day. Perhaps you have a subject for Mon, Wed, Fri. Be consistent and your readers will be satisfied.

That’s just a couple reasons to use a blogging calendar. Have I gotten you interested enough to give it a try? Set one up, and have fun with it. I know it will help you organize your thoughts and better prepare. Remember the calendar is just for you. You can move things around and change it up whenever you want. Nothing is set in stone. I’ll report back after I’ve been using mine a few months.

See Do You Call Them Sneeze Pages?

Believe it or not, we are on Day 11 of the 31 Days Blog Challenge. 1/3 of the way through and it will be October before I know it. In my opinion, September and October are the best months of the entire year so I don’t want the days to go by too fast. I have to make a conscious effort to treasure them and get outside as much as possible before the snow flies.

Today is about ideas; blog post ideas to be exact. I suppose I could write about how much I love fall but I think I’ll stick to social media and blogging as my main subject. The challenge today is to make a list of 10 blog post topics. At first glance, I thought oh my, how on earth will I come up with 10. But then something wonderful happened; I began writing and it took me less than 2 minutes to come up with 12 (not 10) ideas. Now mind you, all I was instructed to do was come up with the ideas. No need to elaborate or find information on any of the topics. That will come later. I even have a couple series on my list. I’d like to do a series of posts on writing better copy for your website or blog, for example.

Speaking of better copy, I have also been participating in Online Copywriting 101, a series of 10 webinars plus printed materials focused on, you guessed it, copywriting for the web. As I’ve been writing for the web for 10 years, I feel like I do a pretty good job of getting the message out while keeping my text succinct. But with Copywriting 101, I’m learning a whole new way to look at the text I put on a website for my clients or myself.  After I finish the blog challenge, perhaps a series on better copywriting will be in order. Please feel free to remind me if I go astray.

Now go out and make that list of 10 blog posts and get in the habit of doing it once a month. If you need inspiration, search the web for your niche and find a couple articles that interest you. Remember you can use articles written by others as your starting point, just be sure to give credit where credit is due. If you try to find a subject that no one has written about, you’ll be thinking long and hard unless you like to write about the most boring, unpopular topic on earth. I’m not sure what that would be but, perhaps that’s a blog post – The 10 Most Unpopular, Boring Topics on Earth and Why You Won’t Need to Worry About Plagiarism!

See Do You Use a Calendar to Organize Blog Posts?

While we are learning about linking to posts of other bloggers, let’s not forget about our own amazing articles. Day 8 of the Blog Challenge has taught us how important it is to link to our own posts. Before I knew about this challenge I wrote  a couple posts about blogging, so it would make sense that I would link to those posts today. As I mentioned earlier, when all is said and done (or maybe before) I will make a separate link for all the posts about better blogging.  My earlier posts will fit in nicely with all the challenge posts. So I went to work tonight and linked the 2 older posts to the blogging challenge posts. It’s now a nice little chain of ‘See See See’. Start with Three Blog Writing Tips and you will know what I mean.

Somehow August has turned to September but left me behind. I am writing this on Thursday which is actually day 9 of the challenge. And by the time I actually hit the Publish button, it may have turned into day 10. So yes, I must confess, I have fallen behind with the challenge and blog writing because of our trip to Iowa. Have no fear, I will catch-up over the long weekend. Indeed, I will be laboring on Labor Day. Considering last year I was cleaning ALL the carpets in my house Labor Day weekend, I am confident this year’s weekend will be less wear and tear on my muscles and a bit more fun than last year’s.

So why is it good practice to link to your own articles? It’s a well proven fact that search engines like links. They especially like links to other sites but links within your site are appealing as well. Links within your own blog also keep visitors on your site longer, giving them more chance to get to know you and your writing.

But the best reason to link to your own articles is to give your readers added information and that is what your blog is all about, is it not? You want your readers to value time spent on your site and wish to return. You want to make your site ‘sticky’.

Take a look at your posts to find possible links. There are plug-ins that will do some of this for you but that’s another blog post subject. Nothing can replace the manual method. It will be easier for me now that I have caught up. If you get started right away, you will be in the habit of linking and you won’t need to go back. Always think of how you can make reading and navigating easier for your readers.

Hey – I can hit Publish before midnight!

See The 10 Most Compelling Blog Post Topics – Day 11