In this video, we get to know Jaica Kinsman, the designer, the beauty, the social media savante..also known as the co-founder of Social Media FTW. Jaica reveals what topic she will be presenting on at this year’s conference and of course Spiderman crashes the set again!

Today we interview flyte new media president and Social Media FTW co-founder Rich Brooks. He demanded he go first, and who are we to argue?

If you already have a blog and you want to take your blogging to the next level, increase your online visibility, generate more leads and grow your business, this is the session for you.

Don’t forget to register for the conference! Space is running out. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!

Rich Brooks will be one of the presenters at the Social Media FTW Fall Conference on 9/22/2010. He’ll be presenting on Advanced Blogging Techniques. Last year’s conference sold out, so be sure to register now!

To generate online leads, you need a steady stream of new, qualified prospects to your web site. These days, that means strong search engine visibility coupled with an active presence in social media.

And there’s no better tool to help you in both categories than your business blog. But like any tool, it doesn’t work by itself, it just amplifies your own efforts. Here’s how to maximize your efforts to increase your online visibility, drive more qualified traffic to your site, and convert that traffic into leads for your sales team.

1. Spend time crafting a keyword-rich title for each blog post. Every blog post creates a new web page; each web page is another opportunity to rank well for one of your targeted keyword phrases in Google and other search engines. Your blog post title becomes your web page title, and titles are the biggest variable in the search engine algorithm, so don’t short-change yourself here. Make sure your best keyword phrases appear in the first few words in the title for maximum exposure.
2. Keep those titles compelling. Leverage the “sharing power” of social media by creating compelling titles. People will often “Like” or retweet a blog post based solely on the title, even without reading it first! Although the tool may be tongue-in-cheek, check out the Link Bait Generator for ideas on how to create a compelling title.
3. Blog for your audience: your prospects and customers. Too many business blogs appear to be where press releases go to die. Although there’s a place in an active blog for company news, for most businesses that’s not what will attract customers. Instead, keep the focus of your blog on your customers’ pain points. Every time you get an email or phone inquiry asking you for your expert advice, turn it into a blog post. If one person had that question, probably a dozen, a hundred or a thousand other people had the same question. Answer it before your competition does. Eighty to ninety percent of your blog posts should be addressing problems that your prospects face on a daily basis.
4. Blog regularly. Don’t fall into the “I don’t have time to blog” trap. Blogging is marketing, and every business needs to make time to market their services. Get up an hour earlier, stay up an hour later, don’t watch “Project Runway” one week (unless of course you have a fashion blog. Then watch it twice.) You should really be blogging at least twice a week, three times when you’re just getting started.
5. Reach new audiences through guest blogging. If you have the opportunity to blog at someone else’s blog, you are immediately introduced to a new audience. If you get another blogger to contribute to your blog, very often they will promote the post to their faithful readers, who will check out your blog. In either case, the cross-promotion is valuable to help you reach an audience who may never have heard of you otherwise.
6. Actively market your blog. If a blog is such a great marketing tool, then it should market itself, right? Well, it needs a little help from you, especially at the beginning. Leverage your social media presence by promoting your new blog posts through tweets and status updates. Use tools like Pingoat to push your post to news aggregators. Use social bookmarking & news tools like Digg, Delicious and StumbleUpon as appropriate. Leave (intelligent) comments at related blogs and make sure your name links back to your blog post.
7. Funnel blog traffic to your web site. Once you start attracting new traffic to your blog, it’s time to convert those visitors into prospects. You can do this through keyword-rich links to areas of your web site where you offer more information, or directly to a lead generation form. Consider offering a free download from your blog (at flyte’s blog we offer “The 11 Biggest Mistakes Small Business Bloggers Make”) that requires an email registration for collecting leads.

Now it’s your turn: what techniques do you use on your blog that generate leads and get people to start doing business with you? Share your ideas in the comment field below…and who knows, maybe some later readers will follow your link back to your blog!

Rich Brooks is president of flyte new media, a web design and internet marketing company. He writes flyte’s company blog, is an Expert Blogger at FastCompany.com, and contributes to the Social Media Examiner. He teaches courses on web marketing and social media at the University of Southern Maine, and is the “Tech Guru” on 207, an evening news magazine on the NBC affiliate in Maine. You can stalk him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/therichbrooks.

In our second video Chrystie, Rich & Jaica announce the speaker lineup for this year’s Social Media FTW Conference.

In our debut video, Chrystie, Rich & Jaica explain what Social Media FTW is, why it was started and what’s to come! Tune in weekly to see what’s happening in the world of Social Media.

Last year tickets to the Social Media FTW Fall Conference went fast and furious and we ended up with a long waiting list of unfulfilled business owners and non-profiteers.

Don’t let this happen to you!

We’ve just opened up ticket sales, and now through August 6th you can get your full-day, $149 ticket for just $99! Here, let Mark explain it to you:

He makes it so clear, doesn’t he? Unfortunately, there was a little misunderstanding about who was supposed to be in the ad.

Whatever. I’m over it. The important thing to remember is that there’s only a limited number of early bird tickets, and they all disappear after August 6th.

Get yours today!

Presentations at Social Media FTW

The Call for Presenters for the Social Media FTW 2010 Fall Conference is now open!

If you are an experienced presenter with quality information to share on any aspect of social media, we want to know about it!

Topics might include:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• YouTube and Online Video
• Flickr and photo sharing
• Search and Social Media
• Social Bookmarking
• Location-based apps
• Social Media ROI
• Community Building
• Podcasting
• Blogging
• or…surprise us!

The call for presenters is open through July 1st. You can complete the call for presentations form here.

The Social Media FTW 2010 Fall Conference will be held at the University of Southern Maine, Portland, Maine.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Activity on the Floor at FTW09

If you’re interested in engaging hundreds of businesses hungry for social media knowledge, you have to check out our sponsorship opportunities for Social Media FTW 2010.

We have opportunities for all different sized companies that are eager to get in front of business people throughout New England and beyond. Whether you’re interested in sponsoring the entire event, or lunch, or our eco-friendly water bottles, there are still plenty of opportunities. If you don’t see something that interests you, be sure to check out our Roll Your Own option where you can tell us how you’d like to be involved.

If you’d like to become a sponsor, or have some additional questions, please contact the FTW team today!

See you on 9/22/2010!

Photo credit: Angela Coulombe

Mark your calendars! Block out the day! Get a babysitter!

Whatever you need to do to make it to the 2nd annual Social Media FTW Fall Conference, do it!

We have an official date of Wednesday, September 22, 2010. We have an official space: we’re back at the University of Southern Maine.

We’ve looked at the surveys last year’s attendees, and although they were overwhelmingly positive, we are making some changes to this year’s event:

• Beginner and advanced tracks, so you can learn at your own pace
• We’re bringing back some of last year’s best received presenters, but we’re also bringing in a couple of nationally recognized speakers on social media for an outside perspective
• We’re going to have water. (What, coffee and Red Bull weren’t enough for you people!)
• It’s going to be an all-day affair, lunch included. (Yeah, go ask your boss for the day off for professional growth. Have her come talk to us if she doesn’t see the value in it.)

As before, we’ll be talking Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, blogging, mobile apps and so much more. In fact, I’m sure we’ll have a few topics that we haven’t even thought about yet.

Although we’re doubling down on the amount of content we’re providing, we’re still looking to keep prices low so everyone can afford to attend. In addition, we’ll be announcing some early bird special discounts shortly.

If you want to be alerted to the early bird specials, or if you’re interested in speaking opportunities, or if your company would like to exhibit or become a sponsor for FTW2010, make sure you join our mailing list below. More information to follow shortly!

Can’t wait to see you this September!

–Chrystie, Jaica & Rich

I still can’t believe it’s over. [Rich speaking here.]

Jaica, Chrystie and I have been talking about, planning and promoting the event since March, an incredible amount of hours and sweat equity went into the FTW conference, and now it’s over.

We’d like to just take a moment and thank all the people who made it possible. (What, you thought we did this by ourselves?)

First off, the sponsors, who helped keep the event affordable for the attendees. MaineBusiness.com, the Business School at USM, and flyte new media.

Next up, we’d like to thank the exhibitors who kept people engaged in between the sessions and during registration: The Maine Marketing Association, Reliable Networks, Digital Research, Inc., and JobsInME.com, as well as booths from our sponsors.

We certainly want to thank all the speakers, who kept their cool despite NO A/C! Fred Abaroa, Jason C. Blais, Greg Daly, Justin Ellis, David Jacquet, Candace Karu, Mike Lewis, Franklin McMahon, Carl Natale, Amanda O’Brien, Jeff Parsons, Kyle Pouliot, Sarah Wallace, and Lynnelle Wilson.

I also want to thank the Department of Conferences at USM, and specifically our contact Sherry Phillips.

Let’s not forget Bard Coffee and Red Bull for keeping our attendees well-caffeinated throughout the day.

A special thanks to Lisa Valentine who gave us some priceless insight and advice for promoting the event.

I’d also like to thank all of our attendees for taking time out of their day to attend our first–but certainly not last–FTW conference. We were just overwhelmed by the interest in the topic, and felt terrible that we had to turn so many people away. (Those of you on the wait list will get an early head’s up on the next one.)

On a personal note, I’d like to thank the flyte crew who all pitched in to stuff badges, man the kiosks, handle registration, deal with the broken A/C, help out when the parking lot filled up, dealt with the evaluations, and did a million other things that I was kept blissfully unaware of during the day. Admittedly, they were “on the clock,” but we couldn’t have done it without you. Lindsay Babayan, Cybele Brooks, Dave Cousins, Ryan Goan (who we tricked into joining Twitter yesterday), Nicki Hicks, Gloria Maher, and Andy Woznica.

Thanks also to Angela Coulombe who was our official photobug for the day.

I’m almost afraid to hit “publish” because I know I’m forgetting somebody MAJOR, but that’s the beauty of a blog: you can just hit update.