Free Webinar Wednesdays

Using Buyer Personas to kick start your Digital Marketing strategy with WSI’s Cormac Farrelly

Date: Wednesday, January 22, 2020 @ 1 pm Eastern

This week’s show is a continuation in a series of shows dedicated to sharing detailed information on the various chapters that appear in WSI’s 3rd edition of the best-selling book, Digital Minds.

It’s virtually impossible to put a successful marketing campaign together if you don’t know who it is that you’re directing your marketing at!

Defining the perfect target audience or market is a challenge faced by brands in all industries across the world.  Assuming you have a great product or service, getting this right usually means success but getting it wrong often leads to failure.

Above: Buyer Persona Empathy Map 

If you try to communicate with everyone, no one hears your message.  This is exactly why you need to understand the specific buyer that you are trying to reach - what keeps them awake at night, what they’re interested in, what they’re not interested in and ultimately what your company’s differentiators are so these unique selling points can be included in your marketing messages.

Can buyer personas be YOUR secret weapon?

For this show I’ll be joined by fellow WSI consultant and Digital Minds author, Cormac Farrelly, and we’ll introduce the concept of buyer personas and how we can use these fictitious representations of your ideal customer to get a clearer picture of your target market and fine tune your marketing efforts to help grow your business in 2020.

Meet our Guest - Cormac Farrelly

Cormac is a Digital Marketing Strategist. He enjoys helping executives and management teams understand how to take advantage of digital technologies to grow their brands online. He runs a WSI digital marketing agency based in Dublin Ireland and directs a team of creative, analytical, and technical marketing professionals to develop strategically relevant digital campaigns for his clients.

Before joining WSI in 2007, Cormac spent 15 years running large scale consulting projects for professional service companies like KPMG and BearingPoint. He also managed Oracle’s consulting practice in Ireland through a period of significant growth where delivery capability doubled to meet and drive aggressive revenue projections. Cormac is a regular speaker on Digital Marketing topics at International conferences.

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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.

 

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.

Generating Demand for Your Products or Services with WSI’s Gabor Markus

Date: Wednesday, January 15, 2020 @ 1 pm Eastern

This week’s show is a continuation in a series of shows dedicated to sharing detailed information on the various chapters that appear in WSI’s 3rd edition of the best-selling book, Digital Minds.

Getting found online is getting harder and harder these days. With so many options to pick from, how do you cut through the clutter and get noticed when someone is going online to search for the types of products and services you offer?

This week on the show, we’ll be discussing the power of online advertising and ensuring your ad dollars are getting the right message to the right person at the right moment. We’ll explore things like how to leverage buyer personas in your marketing strategy, which force you to flesh out what you know about your prospects (and become more relevant to them in their time of need).

Today, a wide variety of digital advertising platforms and strategies are available for businesses to tap into. The best way to select which channel is most suited for the persona you're trying to reach is to start with what you know about the prospect. During the webinar, we’ll show you one of the processes we actually use to help our clients realize they know far more about their clients than they thought - allowing you to generate more demand for your product or service!

About Our Guest - Gabor Markus

Gabor has been a part of the WSI team since 2017 and is based in Geneva, Switzerland (where the World Wide Web was invented back in the ‘90s.) He is a Business Development expert with 20 years in international digital marketing. In addition to being a WSI Consultant, he is also a lecturer of digital transformation for Bachelor and Executive programs at the University of Applied Science in Geneva.

If he had to describe his focus as a Digital Marketing Consultant in a few words, he’d say boosting sales and online reputation for his customers. Through personalized advisory services, he and his team develop solutions from marketing to lead generation to turn leads into actual sales; all with a focus on delivering a strong ROI.

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.

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.

Rethinking the Role of SEO and Social Media in Your Search Strategy with WSI’s Mark Jamieson

Date: Wednesday, January 8, 2020

This week’s show is a continuation in a series of shows dedicated to sharing detailed information on the various chapters that appear in WSI’s 3rd edition of the best-selling book, Digital Minds.

In the early days of the Internet, your prospects may have only opened Google to search for your company or its products and services. But this just isn’t the case anymore. Fast forward to today, and your prospects are now answering their questions directly on the search engine results page, are asking Siri or Alexa for information, or are checking you out on social media to see what others are saying about you.

Your prospects search behaviors are changing rapidly and what worked yesterday doesn’t necessarily work in Google’s world today.

Keeping pace to stay competitive and visible online means you’ll need to adapt your search strategy to reflect the new online landscape and the technologies that drive them, while understanding the smartest marketing game plans are those that recognize search engine optimization (SEO) and social media are best utilized in tandem, working together to create value and provide relevance to your target audience.

For this show I’ll be joined by fellow WSI consultant and Digital Minds author, Mark Jamieson, and we’ll explore how SEO and social media have changed the way you are being found online and what you can do to ensure it continues to deliver your intended results.

Meet Our Guest - Mark Jamieson

Mark Jamieson has more than 20 years’ experience in sales and marketing. Mark and his wife Kimberly are the owners and managing partners of WSI eStrategies, an award-winning digital marketing agency in Ottawa, Canada. Mark specializes in a holistic approach to SEO, strategy development, and LinkedIn social selling training.

He has worked with organizations like the Government of Canada, embassies and large private companies throughout Canada, the US, and overseas. Leveraging the internet and its many unrecognized opportunities, Mark and his team help their clients establish, expand, and excel at business, no matter what the industry.

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.

How to Analyze Your Market, Your Products or Services, and Your Competition with WSI’s Francois Muscat

Date: Wednesday, December 18, 2019 @ 1 pm Eastern

This week’s show is a continuation in a series of shows dedicated to sharing detailed information on the various chapters that appear in WSI’s 3rd edition of the best-selling book, Digital Minds.

One of the fundamental components of a digital marketing strategy is to first “take a look around” and see how you stack up against the competition. Of course, that’s assuming you’ve got a good handle on who your competition is, especially in today’s online world!

But before you begin your online marketing efforts and spend time developing a digital strategy, it’s a good idea to first take a look at what the competition is doing, how your products or services stack up… all with the intent of better understanding the marketplace and what opportunities exist for you to make money!

Joining me for this week’s show is a fellow returning Digital Minds author and WSI consultant from South Africa, Francois Muscat. I’ve known Francois for as long as I’ve been a part of the WSI family (12 years now), and in addition to the excellent first chapter to kick off the book, he’s also my “go-to-guy” for all things LinkedIn. You’re gonna love this show!

Meet Our Guest - Francois Muscat

With 15 years of digital marketing experience, this baby boomer challenges himself every day. Francois is known for his ability to simplify complex digital marketing tactics, and he leads by example when consulting to his clients. He is an established professional speaker and avid blogger and holds a Master’s Degree in Information Technology.

As a speaker, trainer, and consultant, Francois endeavors to remain at the top of his game through continuous learning. He is a subject matter expert in SEO, Content Marketing, and social media. He enjoys fishing, caravanning, and spending time with his family.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

Dear Santa - Eric’s “Good Boy” Holiday Wishlist for 2019

Date: Wednesday, November 27, 2019 @ 1 pm Eastern

Coming off an amazing show all about video marketing with my good friend and fellow WSI colleague, Ryan Kelly, I’m all jazzed up to share with you some of my gift ideas for the coming holiday season!

In case you’ve been living under a rock, I’d like to remind you that Black Friday (and Cyber Monday) are right around the corner! Last year, consumers here in America spent over $6 billion dollars the Friday after Thanksgiving, and chances are this year will meet (or exceed) that amount!

While I’m not a betting man, I suspect you’ll likely be headed over to Amazon (or any other favorite online shopping destination), or maybe headed to the stores bright and early looking for the hottest deals for Santa to put under the tree this holiday season.

To help get you started (and to give your loved ones some ideas when they head out for their shopping spree), I’m going to take this week’s show and share some of the items that are on my “wishlist” in hopes Santa will have them in his bag when he comes down the chimney Christmas Eve.

What are you hoping for? Bring your ideas and suggestions to the show, as I’m always on the lookout for the next cool gadget or gizmo to add to my collection of “cool stuff.” Just be sure that you’re on the “nice” list (not the “naughty” one) or none of this may matter!

Gift List and Links

Below are links to all (and more) of the products that I talked about on today's show. As I mentioned at the start of the show, some of these are "affiliate" links, meaning that I could receive compensation if you use the links below for your purchase. However, I wouldn't be recommending them if I didn't think they were awesome - and I either own one already, or likely will very soon! Enjoy...

Rocketbook Main Site https://getrocketbook.com/ 
Everlast - https://amzn.to/35uMwTe 
Fusion - https://amzn.to/37uKYKA 
Beacons - https://amzn.to/37tTaL8 

Pixelbook Go - https://store.google.com/product/pixelbook_go   https://amzn.to/2OLnubv 

Dog Stuff
Furbo - https://amzn.to/37xpooL
Barkbox - https://www.barkbox.com/ 

Music and Headphones
Sony Headphones WH1000XM3- https://amzn.to/2rq5eMI 
Plantronics Voyager 5200 Earpiece - https://amzn.to/34ntuy0 
Charging Case - https://amzn.to/2KT78g2 
After Shokz - https://amzn.to/2OkcaEv 

Mashable - https://mashable.com/shopping 
AppSumo - https://appsumo.com/r/yz3hr9j/ 
Udemy - https://www.udemy.com/ 

Roku Streaming Stick+ - https://amzn.to/2OINggu 

Fitbit Versa 2 - https://amzn.to/34fBP6I (if my Garmin Fenix 3HR ever dies, I'm getting one of these)

Blink Security Camera System - https://amzn.to/2qEkAgM 
SimpliSafe - https://amzn.to/2QMyjwC 

DJI Mavic Mini - https://amzn.to/2KNha28 (one day I'll own a drone!)
Same with Bundle - https://amzn.to/2L39Ob5 

Felix Gray Glasses - https://shopfelixgray.com/ 

Fuji Instant Camera - https://amzn.to/2OgPnJI 
Same with Bundle - https://amzn.to/2QKupo1 

Ridge Wallet (w/ cash strap) - https://amzn.to/2pLUyrB (because titanium is cool)
MoneyClamp - https://amzn.to/33snFh8 (this is the wallet I use now)

Echo Dot (with clock, 3rd gen) - https://amzn.to/33d2dwJ 
Echo Auto - https://amzn.to/37z85ng 
Kindle Paperwhite - https://amzn.to/2KUOunQ (Mark from our office swears by his)

Portable Chargers (everyone can use one, just be sure to read the reviews and DON’T always pick the cheapest one - or you may regret it!)

Magnetic Cable Wrangler (want one!) - https://amzn.to/37xxJc3

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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.

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.

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.

Keeping the Conversation Going with Video Marketing and WSI’s Ryan Kelly

Date: Wednesday, November 20, 2019 @ 1 pm Eastern (NO show November 13th)

This week’s show is the first in what will be a continuing series of shows dedicated to sharing detailed information on the various chapters that appear in WSI’s 3rd edition of the best-selling book, Digital Minds.

You’ve all heard the saying… “A picture is worth a thousand words,” right? While the inspiration for this famous quote can be found as far back as 1906, the literal use of that exact phrase can be attributed to a 1918 newspaper article from the San Antonio Light - well before internet users were spending countless hours on YouTube or live streaming videos on their personal Facebook profiles.

Video is here (and has been here for a while now) and won’t be going away. Smart business professionals have figured out ways to harness the power of this medium to educate, entertain, inform, and most important of all… build trusted relationships with an audience far beyond who they could ever imagine speaking to in person.

This week I’m super excited to welcome to the show one of my very good friends, fellow WSI consultant, and co-author from the book, Digital Minds, Ryan Kelly. His chapter focuses on how to leverage the power of video in building a conversation online, and over the past year has been busy building his own YouTube channel to do exactly that! 

Meet Our Guest - Ryan Kelly

Ryan has been a principal at WSI Smart Marketing since 2008. He has assisted countless companies throughout the United States in developing and achieving profitable business strategies and goals through advanced online digital marketing solutions.

Although he has a passion for all things related to digital marketing, he especially loves using video to tell stories. You can visit his YouTube channel at “SEO on the GO.” Ryan’s experience in marketing, sales, and training keep him in high demand as a speaker.

Personally, I'm super excited to welcome Ryan to the show and know it's going to be a great conversation. If you're lucky, we may even tell you the story about canoeing together in Canada (while recording video for his YouTube channel). You'll have to tune in to find out!

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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.

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.

WSI’s New 2019 Digital Minds Book Chapter Review

Date: Wednesday, November 6, 2019 

First things first, this week I have to share with you some thoughts from an article I read that talked about the “5 Things to Stop Doing Immediately on LinkedIn”. Some of these may seem obvious to those of you who are familiar with LinkedIn, however for those of you who are just starting out or relatively new… you may want to pay attention. 

1. Posting inflammatory comments (LinkedIn isn’t the place to start a fight or build controversy - and while differing opinions are always respected, remember to keep those comments constructive.) 
2. Sending sales via LinkedIn messaging (#1 PET PEEVE of mine. Do not send mass sales messages via messaging after connecting with someone. While you may think these are effective, they are increasingly becoming seen as spam and could ruin your brand image.) 
3. Tagging unrelated people in posts for exposure (If they are not involved in your post or your life, avoid the temptation of adding others to your post in hopes of getting more views by using their connections. This could easily backfire on your if the other person feels they are being “used” by you.) 
4. Talking about politics (If you wouldn’t get into this with your boss, probably not appropriate for posting on LinkedIn.  While there may be some conversations that may touch on politics, try to avoid anything that would be overtly polarizing.)
5. Circumventing the job application process and going right to senior leadership (Companies hiring on LinkedIn will have a process that’s best to follow. If you do happen to have a good (and real) connection to a senior member of the leadership team, then reaching out to them directly should be fine. But if you are just using LinkedIn to get around the HR process in hopes that you can sneak in the back-door, don’t do it. )

Moving on from the taboos of LinkedIn, I dive into a very special announcement… I'm excited to announce that WSI's 3rd edition of our best-selling book, "Digital Minds," is complete and coming to a bookstore (or more likely Amazon) nearest you! While I was traveling and could not make it to the WSI global convention in Cancun, there was an early release and every author signed autographs on the book

As with the prior two editions of the book, I was again asked to write a chapter and contribute to its creation. You’ll find my thoughts in chapter 7, Shortening the Sales Cycle with Conversational Marketing, and cannot wait to share it with all of you on a future episode of Free Webinar Wednesdays. 

During this week’s show, I walk through a high level summary of all the chapters, and how you can utilize them in your business. Future shows will have fellow WSI authors joining me on the show to share their insights, so stay tuned!

Next week’s show will be canceled due to the fact that I’ll be presenting for the Independent Community Bankers of America at their 2019 Marketing Conference in Dallas, TX. I’ll be spending the entire day with 50+ bank marketers from around the country talking all about digital marketing strategies (some of the most fun I get to have in my business)! But we will hopefully be back the following week to get back on track! In the meantime, scroll down to check out some of the other shows and  listen in on all the other past topics created right here on Free Webinar Wednesdays for your benefit!

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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.

 

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.

LinkedIn Rolling out Some New Feature for Fall 2019!

Date: Wednesday, October 30, 2019 

Have you seen all the new features on LinkedIn? On this week’s episode I’ll walk through all of these new features and chat about how you can put them to work for your own personal (and business) LinkedIn strategy.

First things first, I’d like to share with you a quote that I keep in the back of my head when creating LinkedIn profiles for brands, as well as working on mine. On social media it’s all about getting someone to “Know me, like me, trust me.” Developing relationships on LinkedIn is extremely beneficial, and not only to your sales revenue.

What this really means is your connections need to really know who you are, like what information you are sharing, and trust that the information is authentic and accurate. This personifies your brand and helps you reach more individuals. Through the content you are sharing, you can further this concept of personifying your brand through posting/positioning yourself as an educator and a resource to make the industry (and your connections/followers) better. People will reach out with trust that you can help them rather than selling them on something. 

Getting into the actual features that have recently made their way to LinkedIn, I start with ‘LinkedIn Events’.This feature unfortunately is only available for personal profiles and cannot be used on company/brand pages (yet); however we see that this feature has room to grow and can predict to see this in years to come. I do talk about how you can leverage your personal profile to create an event that will work to benefit your company/brand.

For example, I travel and speak at conventions, marketing forums and banking schools. Therefore, I could post the event to my personal profile, ‘Digital Marketing Forum, Presented by Eric Cook’, share the location, time, and a brief description that includes the host’s information (to help build awareness and maybe even sell tickets for them). This helps positively represent myself as a speaker in the industry, as well as helps to promote the event itself - making it a win-win for everyone!

Continuing on with the new features we see ‘Notifying Employees’ when a post is made to a company page. This gives you, as a company page administrator, the opportunity to push out an article to LinkedIn, and notify your employees it’s been updated, so they can in turn share on their personal profiles as well. This gives more visibility to your post and can bring in new customers or connections to your company! We do this internally here at WSI.

The last feature I will share here in the blog, (trying to keep these short and sweet!) is the ‘Content Suggestions/Status Update’ feature. This feature is really helpful if you are not quite sure what content to share to increase engagement with your connections. LinkedIn has a team of journalist that hand pick articles, pictures, and overall content. What is interesting is they analyze your page, the industry you are in, and the category that you identify with, and this is how they accurately provide content/post suggestions.

Check out the recap of the show to hear a couple more features that LinkedIn has recently rolled out! Post in the comments your favorite - or better yet, let’s connect on LinkedIn and we can chat there. Either way, I look forward to your thoughts.

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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.

Here Comes a New Collection of Google Stuff!

Date: Wednesday, October 16, 2019

This episode of Free Webinar Wednesday we experience a couple hiccups due to an undiagnosed power outage, if you were listening to the live recording you got in on the action… However if you are coming back to listen to the recorded version, there are a couple sections that are edited out due to technical issues with audio. Needless to say we survived and continued on with the show! This week we talk all things new in the realm of Google, and why I think Google products are a good option for you. It should come as no surprise that the world’s leading search engine is well equipped with its own bag of tricks.

Google has released a new platform called ‘Google Posts’. This platform has similar functionality to Facebook or Instagram stories, essentially a slideshow of different images/text. The main difference in relation to stories, is the Google Posts do not disappear after 24 hours. You can decide the duration that you want this feature to run, or you can choose to use this permanently and not remove it from your page/site. You can learn more about this site on the link I shared in the video! It is an amazing way to get ahead of competitors in the industry and become more visible to consumers. 

Like Google Posts being an amazing option for your business, I would also encourage you to take a look at ‘Google’s Family of Products’ page. All Google products on their website has been recently updated and I am going to walk you through the site! First mind blowing product, Buds. You may be thinking they did a little R&D (rip off & duplicate) from Apple’s new ‘AirPods’, however Google has included far more features that will aid your day to day activities. The first addition to the bluetooth speaker that absolutely blew my mind was the access to Google Assistant.

Normal bluetooth headphones upon receiving a notification will ding, or make a sound in your ear to notify you; Buds, if given access to your Google Calendar, will audibly tell you what appointment or event you have coming up. For example mine may say over my heavy metal music, “Eric, you have a call with the team in 10 minutes”. You can also program your contacts and caller  ID. So now if Alicia calls me, it will say “Eric, your wife is calling you”. How cool is that? 

The Buds do not stop there… Google has incorporated “real time language translations”. This means if someone is speaking in a different language to you, the Buds will pick up what they are saying, translate it, and read it back to you. This feature would have been  crazy helpful throughout my travels this summer, instead of me only knowing foreign words for beer and bathroom. 

The next Google Product we chatted about was the Google ChromeBook.This is Google’s edition of a laptop which was released in 2011. The updated version of the ChromeBook is now called the PixelBook. After having issues with my Mac I decided to try out the PixelBook, and was pleasantly surprised. There are increased security measures, it is cloud based so it works offline, and in general a lot of schools and institutions are over to this!

Thank you to all those who tuned in live, and stuck with me through the technical problems! Check back to watch the recording to learn more about all the Google products I chatted about and other platforms I have been loving recently! Also no show next week!

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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.

Conference Planning for 2020 - Join me in San Diego for Social Media Marketing World

Date: Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Social Media Marketing World’s Social Media Marketing World Conference is on the horizon (yes, 2020 will be here before we know it) and this week I am going to give you all of the tips on how to convince your boss that this needs to be in your 2020 budget. March 1-3 of 2020 this event comes to downtown San Diego at the Convention Center. The first time I attended was in 2018, I had no other words to describe it other than I felt like a “kid in a candy store”; that is why I decided to go back in 2019, and already purchased my ticket for 2020!  If you geek out (like me) over anything digital marketing based… this is the event for you. 

The number one reason why I continue to go back every year, other than the amazing content, would be the accessibility to the experts. The workshop instructors, the keynote speakers, and those deemed experts in their field, attend the event just like you and me. They walk through the networking plaza and do not mind if they are shouted out to take a selfie (thanks Mari Smith, Michael Stelzner, Vivika VanRosen, Chewbacca Mom...). For my banking people out there, listen to the recording to hear the advice Mari Smith, an expert in all things Facebook, gave for the community banking industry! 

I urge you to visit the website and look through the different categories in the digital marketing field that the event will touch on. The pillars of the event are mainly the different Social Media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Pinterest and all of the strategies to use them. Learn from the experts how to use these platforms effectively to engage and retain consumers. Once you are browsing on the website to gain more information you will come to the ticket information.

Each year I have been, and 2020 will be my third, I purchased the all-access pass. This pass allows me to attend all of the events and workshops, have networking time with the individuals presenting, and also have access to recordings of each workshop or speaker. This opportunity allows you to go back and listen to any speaker you may have missed, or wanted to learn more, after the event itself has ended.

With that said if you are unable to attend the event for any reason, there is an option to purchase a “Virtual Pass”. This pass gives you access to attend each of the workshops/speakers virtually, while also giving you access to the recordings after the conference. Both amazing options for you depending on your availability and interest in the event. I highly recommend the first option, as you can sip cocktails in the lobby with not only myself… however the experts running the event. 

Go to the website and register for your tickets through this link http://bit.ly/sme-events (affiliate link)! I hope to see you there! 

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