Sorry everyone, while I was fully planning on doing a show, I'm not going to be able to make it this week. :-(
While I've got you... I also want to send along thoughts and condolences to the families who lost their loved ones on this day 18 years ago. I still remember exactly where I was when I saw the news of "nine-eleven" and ask that you take a moment to do something nice for someone else - even a stranger.
After a couple weeks with no show, I'm sorry to keep pushing off but life calls. Next week I'm off to Wyoming for their Bank Lending Conference, so not sure if I'll be able to swing a show or not, but I've got my fingers crossed (and hope flights are in my favor). Thank you for your understanding, looking forward to the next show!
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About Free Webinar Wednesdays
Free Webinar Wednesdays was created as a community building tool to bring professionals together to share pertinent business development information, provide subject matter experts with a platform to open a learning dialog, and inspire small business owners to reach their professional goals.
Free Webinar Wednesdays is sponsored by WSI Digital.
No show this week, as I'm in Seattle teaching a full week of classes for the Pacific Coast Banking School. My course is all about Digital Marketing and Social Media and as part of the week, I'm running the fourth annual PCBS #HashtagBattle. Each of my two sessions (8 am and 10 am) select a unique hashtag on Monday, then use it throughout the week to build conversations and engagement via Twitter (and other platforms).
To follow along, hop over to Twitter and search for #PCBSFamily19 (8 am session) and #PCBSRockStars19 (10 am session). You can also follow the PCBS Twitter account directly at @thePCBS - or your's truly at @EricCook.
We're also measuring activity using a cool tool called TweetBinder and you can check out the live reports for the 8 am and 10 am classes online!
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If you are not yet registered for the Free Webinar Wednesdays series, click here to register. We look forward to seeing you online!
About Free Webinar Wednesdays
Free Webinar Wednesdays was created as a community building tool to bring professionals together to share pertinent business development information, provide subject matter experts with a platform to open a learning dialog, and inspire small business owners to reach their professional goals.
Free Webinar Wednesdays is sponsored by WSI Digital.
This week’s show has a bit of a unique feel to it, as I start off talking about some new technology I’m using (loving my Google Pixelbook) and the pros - and some cons - of the Chrome OS. With me using it as my daily driver for the past week+ and being without my Macbook Pro, it’s got me thinking about my fallback process if a primary piece of technology I’m using fails - and you should too. Certainly something to think about before you “have” to think about it (meaning something failed and you don’t have a Plan B to fall back on).
For my next topic of discussion... and this is where the “bamboo underwear” reference in the title comes to play, I share two great, and one not-so-great, personal customer service experiences to get you thinking about what sort of a culture you’re creating in your business or organization. While I’ve talked about my experience at the Fort Wayne International Airport on past shows, I recently had an even better experience with the Cariloha company stepping up and honoring their lifetime guarantee. They produce amazing bamboo products (yes, like underwear) and started wearing their briefs many years ago. Listen in and you’ll hear what makes them so awesome, and why the next time you see me there’s almost a 100% chance I’ll be sporting their bamboo briefs.
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If you are not yet registered for the Free Webinar Wednesdays series, click here to register. We look forward to seeing you online!
About Free Webinar Wednesdays
Free Webinar Wednesdays was created as a community building tool to bring professionals together to share pertinent business development information, provide subject matter experts with a platform to open a learning dialog, and inspire small business owners to reach their professional goals.
Free Webinar Wednesdays is sponsored by WSI Digital.
Sorry y'all, I'm going to be at the Midwest Independent Bank's Community Banking Conference this week and unable to pull off a live show. Plan is to be back next week and see you all then!
~Eric
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If you are not yet registered for the Free Webinar Wednesdays series, click here to register. We look forward to seeing you online!
About Free Webinar Wednesdays
Free Webinar Wednesdays was created as a community building tool to bring professionals together to share pertinent business development information, provide subject matter experts with a platform to open a learning dialog, and inspire small business owners to reach their professional goals.
Free Webinar Wednesdays is sponsored by WSI Digital.
This week I am joined by yet another WSI team member, Madison Barner! Madison will share her personal background and how she got involved with WSI these past couple months. As part of the WSI team, Madison has taken on the role of gaining exposure and brand awareness for our agency, primarily through social media tactics. As part of her efforts with the company, she recently attended the Facebook ‘Boost Your Business’ conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. This week she dives into all the new and exciting features she learned, and how they can be applied to your company!
The Facebook ‘Boost Your Business’ event focused on gaining awareness and exposure for your brand through the many outlets Facebook and Instagram Business provides --sounds like a good match with her role on the team, huh! Madison talks about how to engage your audience through video content creation, as well as how you can track the progress and success of your posts through Facebook’s analytics platform, called Insights. Facebook gives you the ability to track demographics, and Madison shares how you can properly utilize this information to target your intended audience. To wrap things up, she explains the importance of the Facebook Pixel function that can be used to gain insights on your customers as well.
If you are looking to expand your reach or knowledge on the Facebook Business Profile for your company, tune in this week to hear all the great tips she will share! If you are not able to join live, check back to the website and view the recording of the webinar!
Register Today
If you are not yet registered for the Free Webinar Wednesdays series, click here to register. We look forward to seeing you online!
About Free Webinar Wednesdays
Free Webinar Wednesdays was created as a community building tool to bring professionals together to share pertinent business development information, provide subject matter experts with a platform to open a learning dialog, and inspire small business owners to reach their professional goals.
Free Webinar Wednesdays is sponsored by WSI Digital.
Hey all... Sorry to say no live show this week. I'm away at the Graduate School of Banking in Madison, WI this week and unable break free at our normal time. however, next week we are "good to go" and will be introducing you to another awesome member of our team - and talking about a recent Facebook event that she attended. Lots of great ideas for small businesses to be thinking about, so be sure to join us on August 14th!
~Eric
Register Today
If you are not yet registered for the Free Webinar Wednesdays series, click here to register. We look forward to seeing you online!
About Free Webinar Wednesdays
Free Webinar Wednesdays was created as a community building tool to bring professionals together to share pertinent business development information, provide subject matter experts with a platform to open a learning dialog, and inspire small business owners to reach their professional goals.
Free Webinar Wednesdays is sponsored by WSI Digital.
First, a bit of an important announcement… From the beginning of Free Webinar Wednesdays way back on April 1, 2009, myself (Eric Cook) and my good friend Jeff Simpkins have been conducting weekly (for the most part) webinars to help educate business owners and professionals on all things digital, strategy, productivity, etc. As you may have noticed, this past year Jeff has been absent from the live shows, as his business demands and other commitments have caused him to put FWW in a back-seat role.
Today it’s bittersweet to announce Jeff’s “retirement” a co-host of the Free Webinar Wednesdays series (but I still consider him as a co-founder, and a super friend)! With that being said, I want to personally thank him for all of his contributions and hope to have him on in the future as a guest!
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This weeks episode I welcome a new guest from the WSI team, Elle Humphries! Elle shares her background and all that she does here with our team at WSI over the past past three years. Recently, she has been working with a video content creation platform called Wave.video to create our “how to” videos, and working closely with clients to build engaging content. I’ve asked her to share how she puts these videos together, the best way to communicate video generation to the client, and how she pushes these videos through to each social media channel using one of our posting platform tools called Cloud Campaign. Elle touches on the different functionalities in Cloud Campaign, everything from content creation to scheduling to analytics.
Finally, the episode wraps up with the discussion of Google Data Studio, a free service from Google that helps the visualization of data to better recognize trends and measure digital performance. Together, we discuss the capability of the platform, how you can link multiple social media channels your business, and track web analytics, making the process of communicating results to a client (or your boss) much easier!
As you can tell, this episode shares a ton of crucial information related to your digital marketing strategy. So if you are looking to increase your visibility online and better track your results, this is a great episode. Also, a big thanks to Elle for being part of the show. It was great to have you on as my guest!
Register Today
If you are not yet registered for the Free Webinar Wednesdays series, click here to register. We look forward to seeing you online!
About Free Webinar Wednesdays
Free Webinar Wednesdays was created as a community building tool to bring professionals together to share pertinent business development information, provide subject matter experts with a platform to open a learning dialog, and inspire small business owners to reach their professional goals.
Free Webinar Wednesdays is sponsored by CBCi and WSI Digital.
You’d never go on a road trip without a map (or let’s be honest - you’re likely using the GPS on your phone, right?). So why try and navigate your business online without one? In the world of digital marketing, there are few places you can find a written “how to” on the challenges of navigating the many options that are out there - but it’s hard to know where to start. This industry is one that is often inherited or learned through the many experts in the field sharing their experiences, successes and failures. As an expert in the field, Eric Cook from WSI discusses the road map to digital marketing using the 2nd edition of their book ‘Digital Minds: 12 Things Every Business Needs to Know About Digital Marketing’.
The 12 chapters of this book are available individually for free as PDFs, so you can get access to the full content at no cost. During today’s session you’ll hear about everything from conducting competitive research, the power of Google Analytics, tips for improving email marketing, the key elements of a landing page, and more!
Join Eric, where he actually joins the show from the comfort of his RV while spending time Pennsylvania - on his way to teach at the PA Bankers Advanced School of Banking. There’s a good chance as soon as the webinar concluded he was off to the trails with his mountain bike - check out the WSI Cycling site for even more details on how . Be sure to share your comments or questions regarding this webinar and any past shows below!
Register Today
If you are not yet registered for the Free Webinar Wednesdays series, click here to register. We look forward to seeing you online!
About Free Webinar Wednesdays
Free Webinar Wednesdays was created as a community building tool to bring professionals together to share pertinent business development information, provide subject matter experts with a platform to open a learning dialog, and inspire small business owners to reach their professional goals.
Free Webinar Wednesdays is sponsored by CBCi and WSI Digital.
Have you ever wondered why ads are popping up on your browser for things you were looking at yesterday? Maybe the shopping cart that you have open on tab 12, is shly giving you a reminder that you NEED those items? The reality is, advertising technologies have changed a lot over the years, so in this week’s episode, Eric talks about how your business can understand and utilize the tools of consumer tracking programs to maximize relevancy and the effectiveness of your online advertising efforts.
Much of the power of online advertising is powered by cookies, and we’re not talking about a website is sending you a cookie basket in the mail for visiting their site (although that would be a tasty surprise). While the tracking knowledge can make some people uncomfortable, this episode’s underlying theme is “using our powers for good” when it comes to leveraging tracking data to be as effective as possible when it comes to your online advertising message. Good data optimizes success, both for the customer and your business and we’ll dive into the three steps that you need to take in order to fully take advantage of this tracking (known as remarketing) technology.
This week’s episode also highlights Search Engine Marketing, known to many as “SEM”. The first step in any marketing plan is to produce a Situational Analysis: the who, what, where, when, how. Answer the questions for your business, determine your target audience, and adjust to their preference of communication channel. There are three main areas within a Situational Analysis; under this term you have demographics, geographic areas, and positioning strategies. From there, you can develop an advertising campaign to get your message in front of the right target audience!
If you are looking to increase your customer engagement and retention, learn more about browser tracking programs, and delve deeper into the different advertising channels, you need to be sure to watch this week's episode. If you’re still feeling overwhelmed, that’s ok. There’s a lot to know, but the good news is that there are agencies out there (like WSI) who are here to help and partner with you to help achieve success online.
Register Today
If you are not yet registered for the Free Webinar Wednesdays series, click here to register. We look forward to seeing you online!
About Free Webinar Wednesdays
Free Webinar Wednesdays was created as a community building tool to bring professionals together to share pertinent business development information, provide subject matter experts with a platform to open a learning dialog, and inspire small business owners to reach their professional goals.
Free Webinar Wednesdays is sponsored by CBCi and WSI Digital.
In today's online world, there are few things that you cannot purchase digitally at the snap of your fingers (and most of the time, it’s on Amazon). This global marketplace is creating increased competition and a multitude of consumer choices, making it even harder to differentiate yourself online.
Knowing this, how are you positioning your brand/business to stand out as a strong competitor among those in your industry? On this week’s episode of Free Webinar Wednesdays, Eric joins from Wichita, Kansas where he is delivering a keynote presentation based on the ‘Amazon Effect as it relates to the community banking sector. He breaks the strategy down into five categories, all of which could serve as advantage points to your business (yes, even if you’re not in banking).
This week’s episode also highlights some of the new features on Twitter, as they are updating the desktop version of their website, making it a cleaner and more “mobile-like” experience for users. Eric discusses the importance of the Lists functionality and how you can use that to improve your engagement by sorting those you want to follow into organized groups (so you don’t miss important updates). In previous webinars, Eric has emphasized the need for engagement among your followers/website users, and this function is one way to accomplish that goal.
He also hops over to TweetDeck, an optional interface to use your Twitter account, with the ability to create separate columns with feeds of key tweets, Lists, Mentions, etc. and see even more from one screen to work smarter (not just harder) when building your brand on Twitter. Whether you work on your mobile, the new desktop version or give TweetDeck a try, you’ll discover the platform offers an abundance of opportunities to obtain and retain followers, use these to your advantage and push the limits of your industry to stand out among the crowd. So if you’re looking to increase engagement and learn more about the tools Twitter provides, be sure to check out this week’s webinar with Eric Cook!
Register Today
If you are not yet registered for the Free Webinar Wednesdays series, click here to register. We look forward to seeing you online!
About Free Webinar Wednesdays
Free Webinar Wednesdays was created as a community building tool to bring professionals together to share pertinent business development information, provide subject matter experts with a platform to open a learning dialog, and inspire small business owners to reach their professional goals.
Free Webinar Wednesdays is sponsored by CBCi and WSI Digital.