Question for You While Preparing for 2009

December 18, 2008 · Comments

I’m launching several New Marketing Bootcamp events to help give people keyboard level skills in social media execution. This intensive, one day training experience will help business communicators learn what goes into building new online marketing efforts. I’m looking for your help to make sure I’m not missing parts of the training curriculum. Want to glance over what I’m doing?

Part 1: The Landscape of Social Media – this is the section showing case studies and explaining the larger strategy.

Part 2: Examples of Good Marketing – showcasing some of the great business success stories out there.

Part 3: The Down and Dirty (here’s where I need the help).

I’m going to show participants in these events how to:

  • Register a domain with a host.
  • Install WordPress or Movable Type application.
  • Add plugins, themes, and other customizations.
  • Implement basic SEO improvements, and use Website Grader to test and re-test.
  • Register the blog in the appropriate directories.
  • Implement Google Analytics.
  • Claim the blog on Technorati.
  • Build a simple listening station using Google Reader. (add appropriate sources to it).
  • Build “passports” on the appropriate networks and sites (digg, stumbleupon, twitter, flickr, yelp, etc, etc).
  • Find the right “complementary sites” for that blog using services like Alltop. Compile contact info for such.
  • Basics of profile building for social networks, including best practices, relevant business information, linking/outpost strategies.
  • Build one or two profiles to start the company off on the right track.
  • Tagging and metadata usage across platforms (diff between tags in Twitter and Flickr, for instance, and for blogs).
  • Basic blog technical skills, including how to link appropriately, how to add pictures, how to embed 3rd party information like YouTube videos.
  • Perform basic online etiquette, including the importance of commenting, the value of linking back, the conversational nature of Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks.
  • Content marketing basics and starting strategies.

What am I missing? What else haven’t I touched on that I’m just assuming people know, or that I haven’t given enough credit in this layout?

More to come on the Bootcamp events.

Thanks for your help.

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  • Chris - At first glance it feels like you have everything. One of the things I'm certain you're planning on doing, but to keep in mind regardless (and I know this bootcamp is on the basics) is to briefly interject why many of these are important in the large scheme of things as you teach them.

    I suspect you're three steps ahead of me here, but there's plenty of people out there that can teach many of these things. What separates you is that you're so good bringing them all together and making them relevant in the large scheme of things.

    In the things you mention as basic etiquette, I definitely think there will be room for you to emphasize just how important those aspects are and why they matter to the person attending the bootcamp.

    Best of luck with this project!
  • It sounds like you assume one should create his/her own blog.

    You might want to offer ideas of group blogs that accept contributions.

    Also, don't discount LiveJournal as a blogging platform. Or Facebook, for that matter, via its "Notes" application. I know many who do both, none of whom care to go with a Wordpress or other solution.

    And... keep in mind many people in the bootcamp may have no idea what RSS is, so before launching into Google Reader, show them a sample of what a feed is and why it's important to read from a feed reader (or in email) than bookmarking sites on a browser.
  • What about the basics of community management, as it pertains to blogging and social networking? If a business is going to jump headlong into blogging and social media, then it might be helpful for them to realize the importance of having a dedicated community manager to manage and maintain ongoing efforts.
  • How about tips on monitoring and measuring the impact of your social media efforts beyond what's available in Google Analytics, like counting comments, inbound links, social bookmarks and more?
  • Chris,

    One thing you might want to add is a module on "time management" with social media. Helping folks idenitify the "biggest bang" areas in their social media.

    John
  • Okay, you are a machine. Are we up to 4 posts today?
  • Hey Chris -

    I wish I had more insight into working with hosts at the very outset of creating a blog. There are a lot of options out there for hosting, and for people who have never gone down that road, it can be daunting to choose the host, let alone work within it, using CPanel for instance. Also - beginners need to know about upgrading. I made the mistake of upgrading Wordpress without backing up the site and I lost any work I had accomplished on my site. Those are some suggestions from my experience, hope it helps.
  • I think this should be done in a two or three part system, it seams like you have part one looking good. but after the basics are set up more Boot camps will probably be necessary. We are launching a similar product geared towards a very specific client. Time Management is definitely something that should be implemented in to the first part, you can waste a lot of time being "Social"
  • I think this is a great list Chris - don't get too caught up in showing the specific steps on how to setup on those sites - it is EASY. Just show them the path/bigger picture =)
  • Chris - I think it would also be super helpful to weave in for folks how to find other blogs of interest within particular industries or demographics, as well as the best way to find people to follow on Twitter or other social networks. Once all the technical tools are in place, I find folks get stuck on how to find other people to talk to, blogs to read, etc. Can't wait to see all of this take shape.
  • Wow! IWhat a great list. I know folks still trying to figure out a FLIP camera. I love the suggestion about finding people who are relevant.
  • Hey Chris-

    How about a section on how business owners can manage your time within your social media outlets?

    I get questions all the time from business people saying they have an interest in using social media, but they think they have to be on every SM site and dedicate hours to each one.

    If there was a way you could show them how to pick the best 2-3 for their situation, and then how to maximize their time investment on those sites I think that would be a winning session.

    Matt
  • You have some really good content here, i will link you back to my blog at http://www.danbriffa.com so my readers can come see what you have going on!

    I’m currently creating an online business from scratch and im sure your content will come handy.

    Thanks, keep up the great work!

    Dan
  • Sheesh, Chris, how long is this? One day? Your list is far too long. If some of your audience is unfamiliar with basics such as RSS feeds, you will leave them in the dust if you try to present all this, IMHO. I say make three or four categories of what your list and these comments mention and teach those as broad strokes, mentioning the sites & skills involved, but not trying to teach any how to. Your Parts 1 & 2 will be enough to spark Q&A for the rest of the day anyhow, most likely. You need Part 3 for a 'handout,' an actual skill, a great take-away, but .... Social media, I suspect, is a lot more than one day's learning, even if you confine the topic to basic concepts.
  • Good point made by Mary about not wanting to overwhelm people though I'm sure you don't want to hold back either. I'm sure you'll find the right balance and be able to serve a broad range of experience levels.

    As was already mentioned above, I agree, definitely cover your "Workflow" process and along with different scenarios.

    Maybe consider adding "reply responses" to the commenting part.

    Maybe also consider covering Blogger since that is so much quicker and easier to get started with and can be migrated to Wordpress once they feel more comfortable.

    Overall, great list!
  • I think similar to what Amber mentioned, perhaps advice on how to find like-minded people but in different niches/industries, and why they'd want to/need to do that?

    Looks like a lot of fun here, should be a great day for all involved.
  • I am there! This list makes me thirst for the knowledge. One thing I would add is that before a company dives in heavily, they need a good visual design strategy. I have seen brilliantly woven company social networks (which I envy) with splashpanes and themes that kill the whole experience or contradict their niche. Dress for the party.
  • Jayfader
    Some basics on measurement/metrics might be helpful too - google analytics and a bit beyond, for folks who need to report ROI, etc. especially on a first project. Great list!
  • I'll lead my thoughts with a quote:

    "Networking is always important when it's real and it's always a useless distraction when it's fake. What the internet has allowed is an enormous amount of fake networking to take place." -- Seth Godin

    I would opt for emphasis here:
    "Basics of profile building for social networks, including best practices, relevant business information, linking/outpost strategies." -- Chris Brogan

    I say that because I still see a great disconnect between how people tie all the parts of the whole together (making Seth Godin's statement ring true). Fake networking takes place when what we're really looking for is to build social capital that translates into trust and hopefully, closed sales at some point.

    I'd want to know how to identify what networks are going to derive what value for me. And then, I'd like to know how to maximize my use of those networks ("Best Practices") and how to tie all the pieces together to maximize my time on-line so that I can still focus on the business-side of my small business (the day-to-day paperwork, the client calls, etc.).

    Anyway, those are my thoughts Chris. I hope you find them helpful!
  • Wow, that sounds like an awesome series! Can't wait til it launches and can't think of anything to add yet, besides explaining why something should be done as said before. Great idea!
  • A basic primer on writing copy and/or journalism would be a good addition to this mix.
  • Chris,
    As several comments have pointed out, while this is an awesome list, seems far too much for one day, especially if you intend to dwell on the nuts & bolts. Recently I had the (mis) fortune of trying to help a prospective customer with real (ol') world marketing who didn't have even the basics covered. So I found myself using the analogy of building a new house moving into it (getting permits, planning & the grunt work), and being a valued neighbor (well behaved, participatory) and community member (contributing, sharing and in turn being valued). This applies equally to your list I realize upon perusal
    [a] hygiene factors - mandatory stuff [the first 10 items in your list] - a checklist and links to (numerous) online sites that can walk the user through the steps, might be more useful (depending on how many folks in the audience) [b] good neighbor - the study of what's worked that you mention and specific actionable stuff will help folks figure how to apply to their own world valued member of community - as ricardo & mary pointed out authenticity and focus is critical - there is no magic bullet - and coming from you that might be a message worth reinforcing

    keep 'em coming
  • Hi Chris,

    On the etiquette issue, perhaps a big emphasis on those integrity issues, such as edifying other bloggers and honestly trying to help other people out via your blog, without the expectation of anything in return. You've done such a great job of conveying this culture.... please include it in your presentation.

    Best wishes,

    Richard :)

    Chief Deal Weaver
    www.BlackWidowNetwork.com
  • Hi Chris. Great list but I agree with a couple of other people that you may be in danger of getting tangled up in the weeds and missing the view. You jump right into registering a domain, but maybe it would be helpful to preface this by talking about how your blog is your brand. Perhaps you can add more on the importance of your blog name, what it communicates, the need to integrate the elements of name, look, tone and content when building a blog brand, etc. All basic branding stuff. Good luck with it!
  • As previously said, a great outline for a workshop. You might ask people to come to the workshop knowing or having an ideas about why they want to market online and what their goals are for online marketing. This will help them be more clear about why they're doing this and help them think through how they'd implement what they'll learn at bootcamp instead of just learning a lot of cool stuff. They'd get to learn how to actually apply it to their marketing strategy and goals.
  • There are going to be more social media jobs out there in the coming years. How about career advice to them? Like "Traits of a good community manager"
  • You might want to add the importance of LinkedIn and how to use it and connect with people.
  • As a grateful alumni of your bootcamp who is now implementing what I've learned in the workplace for our leadership team, I'd add how you can tie your activity together with backtype, friendfeed, twitter, etc... Helping folks realize how they can implement these tools from their mobile access has also been very powerful for newcomers. Finally (I think your hitting it in your reader listening station above) I'd emphasize the power of crafting specific searches in google blog search and twitter search and feeding them through rss into the reader.
  • michael Durwin
    Chris,
    I agree with a few above that it may be a bit much for one day, especially considering that many attendees will be real virgins. You might want to have a 1 day seminar hosted by someone else who can just cover things like "what is an RSS feed, what are the different blog platforms", etc.
  • stevenmilstein
    I have to agree with many of the comments above. Personally, I'd take a whack of those bullets & make them perquisites for the bootcamp. Why not blog a Prerequisite To-Do List with Chris' Preferred Bookmark and let folks go off on their own to get them done? Maybe even give them an estimate of how much time they could expect to spend on each task. Personally, I think this approach is not only more scalable and containable, but it also ensures participants that you'll get to the good stuff.

    For me, that good stuff would not be the technology behind Chris Brogan but the classic Chris Brogan we read everyday. That would be the value add for me.

    And speaking of Classic Chris Brogan stuff, it would be very much in your persona, and your curriculum, to link to some of your contributors. As I comment here, I'm number 26. That means there's potentially 25 links ahead of me who could make that list. IMO, of course :-)
  • michael Durwin
    p.s. Perhaps dividing the bootcamp into 3 day long sessions:
    1) The Basics
    2) Tactics
    3) Strategies
  • Wow, what a great list. The only thing I would add is even with the technical knowledge, it's so important to keep the human side to it.

    For example, many people know how to use Twitter, but aren't human about it. As soon as you follow them, they send you a DM asking you to click a link, or plug a product. You are the one who taught me that online trust and relationships are a key ingredient, so knowing the technical aspect is definitely a necessity, but everyone is a person first........................:)
  • Ladee K. Rickard
    I found a need to understand the basics of setting up Google Ads and a simple payment/PayPal account. Present a basic outline of what the tools are and how to compare to determine what is required.
  • Hi Chris:

    One thing I think is missing here - is community. Many, or most categories have large, vibrant, existing communities. Everyone should become a valued contributor to their own community. For example, http://howardforums.com gets >8 million posts per year about cellphones. If you have ANYTHING to do with cellphones, you need to be reading, contributing, helping people over there.

    Figure out where the energy is and go there. Don't try to create it all by yourself.

    Tom O'Brien
    MotiveQuest LLC
  • Chris, I would suggest a schedule-or a daily blueprint on what they do daily and how long it takes. We have instituted that and it gives a structure of work, flow, and accomplishment as well. Great idea and so badly needed. Rocking Hot!
  • The one big omission that I see is content.

    Without great content, it doesn't really matter how good your network or social media profiles are. Copywriting, writing for the web, and basic journalism skills are key.
  • Assume you're going to do this but you might want to add setting them up on Feedburner with accompanying optimizing/publicizing etc, setting up feed and subscription options, then feeding through to outposts like FB and LI.
  • Sounds great! I agree with #michael Durwin; there's so much you could say there. Would it make sense to divide it up into more days? Or, put together one of your eBooks to assign homework?
  • Great stuff! What about teaching them how to capture subscriber/registrant data and build an email marketing list? So much of monetizing your blog or Web property is about building a following and proving you have a captive audience to up-sell/cross-sell and/or just communicate to when needed. (If you want to include an email 101 module I can help you - or send people my way if they need that!).

    Also, what about basic setting up new products/offer pages and shopping cart basics?
  • Hi Chris,

    Great list, I love reading your blog! It's so informative for a relative newbie and small business owner like me. A discussion about how to integrate the basic building blocks--website, blogs and social networks--would be useful. People have such varying degrees of experience...perhaps you might query attendees as to their experience with webs, blogs and various social networks to help you have an idea of their experience prior to delivering the marketing bootcamp.

    Thanks!
  • Patty Dominguez
    Chris - will this bootcamp series be done via the web - or in a physical location?
    Via the web, would be great for those of us with limited funds but a strong interest to learn about what you have to offer - this list (and relevant comments included) sounds like actionable for marketers who are looking to implement, but need a roadmap on what to do from a social media standpoint.

    Cheers!
  • Chris, how do you choose between wordpress.com or a wordpress install. For many of my smaller clients I have them start with wordpress.com. Then I find it difficult to transition them because I don't want to lose any momentum they have built.

    Your thoughts?
  • Tim,

    The thing with wordpress.com is that you cannot advertise. If you want to blog for business, it's much better to use WP install. Of course, if you want to make things simple, bBogger might be a good place to start.

    Hope this helps!

    C
  • I think this is a great list and, having a new website myself, I can envision how useful a one or two day bootcamp would be. The only other things I can think of are: delicious, DMOZ, copyrighting, and creative commons.
  • Hi Chris-

    It looks like I missed the boat to reply in a timely fashion (vacation will do that), but I was curious to see if there is any way to make these bootcamps interactive with your audience? I know bootcamps usually have a lot of talking at and not so much talking with your audience, but why?

    For instance, can you send a few website addresses (of really good and some not so stellar) to participants BEFORE the bootcamp for them to review with some pointers? This way, when you go through Part 2 and talk about what's good about some of the websites you're showcasing, people will have already seen them and may be able to add to the conversation? You can also highlight some websites that are "almost there" that you can then throw to the audience to see how they would proceed?

    This way you're keeping your audience engaged on different levels and forcing them to utilize what they're learning in your bootcamp at that moment. It may lessen the "in one ear and out the other" syndrome...

    Best of luck with Brogan Bootcamp, it sounds wonderful!
  • Sloane Wood
    Chris -

    Wow! A lot of great stuff! A smorgasbord!

    Will there be any follow-up after the boot camp? Say in a week, then in a month, then 2 months, then 3 months, then 6 months.......? After completely showing everything to them at the boot camp, follow-up would be gradually backing off over time until they are flying on their own. In education we call it "scaffolding". This guided practice would ensure that all of your great tools would "stick" for the long haul.

    Would there be people at your company who could do that kind of follow-up? If the boot campers knew that they were getting good tools & that there would be follow-up afterwards, it would initially make them feel more confident as well as hold them accountable for implementation later on. Your boot campers would grow into enduring success stories.

    Your curriculum has great value. Best of luck to you!
  • One important ingredient to add - how to wrap a strategy around all of these activities.

    Good luck!
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