One thing that’s different with my events than with other events: every sponsor and exhibitor and speaker is someone we think has something to offer you. We pick our sponsors with great intention. We endorse their products. We are users of most of their products. We appreciate their voice in our experiences. Thus, time spent with them is also time spent learning new marketing the way we see it.

So, it’s a 1 day event. There’s no fluff. It’s packed with info. We can hang out. AND I want to give you 50% off. If you use code = CHRIS50 when you REGISTER HERE.

I hope you’ll come for the day. I’m sure you’ll leave with something useful and actionable for your business.

Nothing unique yet, right? Well, our plan’s a bit different. Instead of just asking some bloggers, we picked some dads. Which ones?

C.C. Chapman
Jeffrey Sass (disclosure: I founded Dadomatic.com)
Max Kalehoff
Brad Powell and DadLabs
Michael Sheehan

And the projects? Well, we’re rolling those out in the next little while, but they’ll entail using these products as dads, with their families, and we came up with various content projects for each product. So, instead of just loaning out a camcorder, we thought of ways to use it to document a field trip, and/or a historical tour. We’ve got a great idea for Sony’s new dSLR camera, the Alpha, where we’ll encourage dads and their kids to snap 100 portraits.

What I hope will be different is that the thematic approach of showing how dads use tech as an integrated part of their relationships with their kids. We’ll see how it turns out. If you decide to follow along, Sony has a section of their community platform set up to track the projects and field conversations.

What do you think? More interesting than the typical ad? What do you like and/or don’t you like about these types of outreach projects?

We’re all ears.

My Two Main Focuses

My biggest amount of time and effort goes into two areas: people and ideas. I spend hours and hours each day maintaining as many relationships as I possibly can. I do this across several social networking platforms as well as through email. My research is quite often based on scouring information, trying new software, learning new skills from other disciplines, and comparing what all my various friends, clients, and colleagues are doing. This all gets synthesized into potential useful execution elements and strategy points.

I spend a lot of my time figuring out the way businesses will grow from use of these tools, and talking with people about that, as well as about their own challenges.

You’re Very Passionate, Too

Quite often, I get a very passionate email or direct message from someone who seeks my thoughts on their social media project. I try to respond to as many of these as I can, while still leaving time for working with clients, learning what comes next, eating, visiting with those people who live in my house (you get the picture). More often than not, if I show even a little bit of interest in what someone shares with me, what comes next is a request to partner up and take their cause or project to the next level.

It’s important that you understand where I fit in your ecosystem with regards to this.

How I Try to Help

My role over here (see me? I’m waving over here) is to equip you with ideas, starting points, leads, and potential next steps for your execution. My goal is to build armies. (I told you my 3 words back on January 1: equip. needles. armies.) By that, I mean that I’m educating as many people as I can so that you can do it yourselves. Why? Because you don’t need me to do what you know how to do. The more I show you how, the less you need me. Make sense?

Your role, should you choose to accept it, is to decide whether or not what I’ve given you is useful (part 1), then decide whether or not you want to do that for your organization (part 2), and then decide whether or not you need some professional help taking the strategy further and eventually implementing/executing (part 3).

I do #1 and #2 for free every single day. I helped shepherd in the movement around free and inexpensive events called PodCamp that take place wherever you or someone in your community chooses to hold them. I post blog entries every day. I have a newsletter relaunching in a week that will give you even more information for free.

By the way, know what else you get for free? You get the wisdom of the really smart people who swing by and add their perspective in the comments, and who generate trackbacks to their brilliant posts on their own blog. These people are almost always smarter than the original post, and definitely have ideas that you should follow every bit as much as you do mine.

How I Make Money

Beyond that, if you need above-and-beyond implementation help, if you want a strategy consult, if you believe you require some individual attention for delivering more awareness, lead generation, sales, and ongoing customer engagement, that’s where I make my money.

I love engaging with people and talking about social media. I speak several times a year at different conferences of all sizes. I participate in as many interviews and podcasts and whatever else as possible. I also create as much free and useful media as I possibly can in any given day. It’s the right thing to do on many levels, and it’s because my goal is to equip you to be able to do lots of this yourself.

My company is New Marketing Labs. We are a small online marketing agency, focusing primarily on how social media improves sales marketing and business communications. We work primarily with larger companies like Citrix Online, Cisco, Microsoft, Comcast Interactive Media, and folks like Bresnan Cable, Awareness Networks and more. In every one of those projects, what gets me the most excited is that we strive to find a way that social media and other online marketing technologies can be useful to improved business communications.

Everything Else

Beyond this? I work on one charity a month. I work on keeping up family relationships. I work on building my team at NML so that we can take on new things. I work on meeting and staying connected with friends.

Is it working? Who knows? But I’m having a hell of a lot of fun this year, and looking forward to what comes next.

What about you? What are you working on?

Let’s start with what I do for a living.

A Show of Hands

How many people know what I do for a living?

For years, I’ve heard some really interesting answers to this question. The answer right now is that I’m President of New Marketing Labs, a social media agency and education company, comprised of myself, Justin Levy, and Colin Browning, and backed by CrossTech Media. We work with companies like Citrix Online, Bresnan Cable, Titlelist, and many more on everything from strategy to execution in the world of business communication, community management, listening, and more.

As part of this, I run the New Marketing Summit conferences (yes, the site needs a refresh- and it’s my fault – I’m late getting back my parts). There will be three in 2009 in the US: San Francisco, Dallas, and Boston. We’re also working on an event in Milan, Italy (and no, you can’t come in my suitcase). The theme of these events in 2009 is “strategy into action,” and we plan to work with marketers, PR types, and anyone using the online world to build their company on helping them solve business challenges. That’s right, one plan of our events is that we’ll invite some people to bring their real world challenges to the show for intensive workshopping live and in person.

Another piece of this are the New Marketing Bootcamp events. We’ll be doing one-day intensive training events all over the country. For $395, you’ll get keyboard-level training on all the tools and strategies that you will use to execute social media projects in 2009 and beyond.

New Marketing Labs is how I make about 80% of my money.

I am also a professional speaker. I have spoken at over 50 events professionally over the last few years, and have several more slotted for 2009. If you’re curious, that’s where I make another 15% of my money (the last 5% comes from things related to blog sponsorships).

How the Blog and Other Stuff Fit In

What I do most days is research. I do this by reading, by experimenting, by observing, and by talking with others about what they’ve done. Some of that research I do directly here, on my blog, in plain sight. Other times, I use Dadomatic, the parenting blog I started, which is now run by Paisano. Other times, I do it on social networks like Twitter or Facebook or other new services. In lots of cases, I’m trying new things all the time, experimenting, seeing what works.

The other thing this blog does for me is gives you a big window to walk by while you’re on tour in the plant. If I’m doing lab work, you’re able to swing by and see what I’m cooking up. That might spark your interest in a few ways. You might ask me to share my findings with your organization. You might just share some kindred ideas. Or, you might decide that what I’m demonstrating is something of business interest to your organization.

That’s not unplanned.

My goal is equipping you. Why? Because for everything you can pick up for free yourself, that means fewer hours of giving you the easy stuff. That way, you and I can work on the more unique items specific to your line of work, or to whatever ways you hope to use social media and online communications to change your business.

Ultimately, the more I give away for free, the more time I have to do the more complex work that I really want to do with you.

My Research in 2009

The goal of my business in 2009 is to help put “strategies into action” for people seeking to do something with social media. On one side, that means equipping my clients and event participants with information that they can use in a marked and measured way. On this blog (and throughout my online presence), my plan is to share more and more research in two primary areas: finding obvious leverage points for businesses, and equip media makers with ways to make money via the web.

In the first case, it’s exactly what I’m doing with my clients at New Marketing Labs. For instance, I’m working with Citrix Online (the folks behind GoToMeeting) in understanding how listening technology improves customer response time (as one example).

In the second case, I’m going to learn more about affiliate marketing, about in-line content advertising/sponsorships, about blogger relations campaigns and more. I want friends and family to find ways to make a living off the web, should that be their interest. Why not? There’s plenty of commerce happening here, and more than one model to find it. I’d love to define some of those models. Further, this kind of thinking helps me equip my clients with another line of business, should they seek relationships with media makers in that manner. (Make sense?)

Beyond this really clear and business-minded stuff, I’m forever looking at what my friend Geo Geller would call “social sculptures.” I’m looking at nonprofits (one a month is my goal, don’t forget). I’m looking at new enabling technologies, including more in the world of mobile applications, geo-location applications and more. I’m looking at deeper social software’s integration to the larger organization (especially after a great meeting with David Cutler). But that’s not what I write about as often.

Oh, and Julien Smith and I will be published in August. Our book, Trust Agents, will talk about how people use the web to do business, and how businesses have a shot at rehumanizing themselves in the process.

Now That You’ve Seen Inside the Labs

Do you have any questions? Does this clarify a bit of what I do with my days? Does it change what you get from coming here? Is any of the above even why you come here at all?

What else haven’t I covered that you’re interested in? What are your thoughts? Hey! What’s inside your lab?

Photo credit, Steve Jurvetson

As General Manager, Justin is responsible for the operations and execution of our New Marketing Labs agency work (the social media agency stuff we’re doing with great folks – I’ll be formally announcing some new clients shortly). He’s also my right hand on running our New Marketing Summit events, our New Marketing Bootcamps, and he’ll be doing lots of social media execution in his own right, too.

This is one of several announcements I’ll have in the near future about New Marketing Labs. (We’re rebuilding a website right now, and then I’ll point you there for more details.) In the interim, if you want to know more about NML, there’s a bit on my contact page, and you can always ask me.

Welcome aboard, Justin. I’m looking forward to 2009 with you.

Photo credit, Justin Levy, used without permission. One might say… pirated.

Effective today, I announce the start of my privateer effort. My pirate ship is officially in the water. There’s no flag (official website). There’s no fleet (yet). And I do have the backing of my government (company).

New Marketing Labs

I’ve taken over a piece of CrossTech Media after a conversation with Nick Saber and Stephen Saber. I don’t really know what I should make my title, because really, who give’s a rat’s ass? I’m driving the vision I laid out, backed by Stephen and Nick. That’s what matters.

I have two direct people on my team right now: Mike Lewis, President of the Business Marketing Association of Boston will be my General Manager and delivery partner. Rich Erb will be my sales executive for the events. (I still also have all of CrossTech working with me, and am partnered with CrossTech Partners for solution delivery on platforms and more complex projects.)

The business has two main pieces: education and service.

Education: New Marketing Summit

Flagship of the events I run is the New Marketing Summit. We’re doing four of these in 2009, including Milan, Italy. That’s the plan.

On top of these, we’re doing something to help parents understand the Net so they can better educate their kids. They’ll be one day events all over the place. We’re doing some one day boot camp education events that will be step-by-step and hands-on stuff. If you want that in your city, we’ll find ways to bring it. That’s just the beginning.

Service: Project Dogfood for You

Here’s where it gets crazy. I have worked with marketers, PR types, and social media folks tons over the last few years. Starting now (and based on some advice from Seth Godin and Todd Defren), I’m using New Marketing Labs as a new media agency arm for what I’m doing. What does that mean?

I’m offering my best social media efforts to midsized and larger businesses in a formal and professional manner, complete with execution teams and development support. What kinds of offerings? Out of the gate:

• Reputation Management including listening technology (heavy on the listening)
• New Media Relationships including blogger relations (with some GREAT partners and me)
• Community Projects including platforms and community management
• Email marketing and web design (primarily through my partner network).

You know me, or you know what I’ve shared with you to date. You know how I operate. I work collaboratively, and I build teams, and I deliver everything with the goal of being helpful. So, I’ve decided to get into the game directly and deliberately.

I’m invigorated. I’m excited. I’m nervous, because this is my first pure play effort, so I’m going to have to jump into the world of YOU wondering if I’m praising clients and stuff. Here’s the deal: I will disclose clients every single damned time. I will also list them on my About page.

So that’s the news. I’m starting a new business tied to my existing partners. I’m going to run even more interesting events in 2009. I’m available to work on your social media execution for internal and external projects. If you’re a business in need of such, come get me. If you’re a social media practitioner, you and I can talk about working together, and we’ll talk about how I vet or that.

I’ve got a great team around me, and I’ve got a pirate ship!

Questions? Problems? Ideas? Business opportunities? (A guy can ask, right?)

Photo credit, Mike Baird