Today I spoke to a chamber of commerce group in Westlake, Ohio about how small business owners can generate more sales, leads and publicity. If you are at all interested in learning how I and many others spend absolutely nothing on advertising and how we generate success online… you need to watch.

Below is the video. I start speaking a few minutes in.

Listening… It’s the first step really. Even if you’re only dipping your pinky toe into the social media waters, at the very least, you need to listen first. If you don’t listen… how do you know what people are saying about you? You can’t. And guess what? They are talking about you…

I had the chance to interview Dan Neely, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Networkedinsights.com. Dan’s company makes a product called Social Sense, which is a listening platform…

SocialSense improves your aim by giving you customer-driven insights. We help you answer questions about the who, what, where, when, and how so you can make better decisions. SocialSense mines the social web, uncovering and discovering insights that can be used and acted upon by marketers and advertisers.

Dan and I talked about the business of social media “listening” and about how businesses are afraid to jump into the social media scene. We also talked about how small businesses should be monitoring the social media landscape, and how to generate a return on investment from the data gathered.

If you’d like to test out Dan’s software. Contact them and drop my name.

Will you be in Cleveland on June 3rd? Join me and Lewis Howes in this exclusive 2-hour social media and online marketing workshop event. (10 spots left at the time of my posting this).

Me and Lewis, and you, all in a room together showing you, not telling, SHOWING YOU how to be a social media master. Not theories… real examples and instructions.

Social Media and Online Marketing Workshop (Cleveland)

Join Cleveland native, Award Winning Blogger and ultimate Business Web Coach, Jim Kukral and myself as we walk you through a two hour training workshop to help you increase your business profits through social media and online marketing. This event will be in the morning before the Cleveland Business Networking Event at Rock Bottom on June 3rd.
During this workshop we will teach you:

* How to get started with online networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter
* How to utilize these sites to find your target audience
* How to generate quality leads
* How to monetize your online efforts
* How to build a following of raving fans for your product or service
* How to save and manage time with advanced online tools
* How to build a positive brand image online
* How to create an online plan and maximize your time

Book now before it’s gone!

I’ve been meeting so many people nowadays who have lost their jobs. It’s horrible to see this happen in this poor economy. Friends, family, you name it… it’s tough out there.

So I’ve been meaning to do a podcast where I talked about ways to find a new job or boost your career, and that’s just what I did, with a little bit of motivational stuff thrown in just to get your blood flowing. Sign up for the free recording here. I do believe you will find it inspirational.

What will you learn on this free podcast?

• Getting a job is about selling yourself. Do you have the right pitch?
• How to do something memorable
• Want a better career or do you want to be an entrepreneur? You should choose
• No more slacking. No more laying on the couch and video games, sorry
• Examples of how I have gotten past jobs and how others have (beyond resumes)
• How to use social networking to get a job

Sign up for the free recording here.

In my presentation called “Beyond the Website” (watch here) I have a slide that says this.

“The Internet is for kids and geeks, and MY customers will never be online.” – Unnamed 1990’s executive.

I don’t remember where I found that quote online, and I have no idea if it’s real or not (I bet it is). But I love it because it illustrates the short-sighted approach that many people take when emerging trends and technologies grab the hearts and minds of the world.

The thing is, people are still saying that quote, but today they’re inserting social media in place of “the Internet”. You know, things like Twitter, and Facebook and Myspace and all the rest. All of those things are just for kids and geeks… right.

Let’s redo the quote for effect. You know you know somebody like this.

“Social media is for kids and geeks, and MY customers will never use social media.” – Unnamed executive.

At this point I could go on and on about how that’s a big fail waiting to happen, and most surely a pink slip for the person who said it down the road as their business lags behind competitors who didn’t think that way.

However… let’s not do that. Let’s prove them wrong. On another slide in my presentation I point to a BusinessWeek piece that defines the 6 types of social media users.

BIG Image of above graphic

If you could really dig into this slide you would see that it’s not just kids that are using social media. The scale skews to younger, sure, but in fact, this data (which is two years old btw) does indeed show a major trend toward “older” people using social media in all kinds of facets.

Ignore social media at your own peril. This is your last warning!

Over at my coaching site, TheBizWebCoach.com ($1.00 Trial), I’m constantly interviewing the movers and shakers and experts in the online marketing world. Here’s another interview you will enjoy. Please leave a comment.

Justin Levy knows social media marketing. He’s been using it to create leads and sales for his businesses for years now, and he’s willing to share his secrets with you, if you’re ready to listen.

Please enjoy this podcast where Justin and I talk about specific examples of how businesses are using social media to market themselves and to generate a return on investment.

Listen to the podcast with Justin here.

The Biz Web Coach wanted to find out more about how businesses use social media to market themselves. Justin Levy runs a restaurant near Boston and promotes it primarily through social media marketing. Find out how by listening to the podcast.

About Justin R. Levy

Justin began his career in the restaurant industry at the age of 15 when he began cleaning tables at Paisano’s Restaurant in Southampton, MA. He quickly moved through the ranks and learned every aspect of the restaurant under the mentorship of owner and successful restaurateur Constantine Sierros.

After moving away to college, Justin left the restaurant business while focusing on his studies and involvement with various philanthropic ventures. Following college, he became back involved with the restaurant industry working with Chili’s in Simsbury, CT. Justin also took on website development for Joe and began helping his friend learn how to market the restaurant to help it become as successful as both had envisioned.

Justin now focuses on rapidly exposing Caminito through organizations, affiliates, networking opportunities and events. Levy has taken the quality that Gionfriddo has created and now is introducing the Northeast to it.

I just finished putting my latest presentation online entitled “Beyond The Website – How your business should be using “the whole web” for more sales, leads & publicity”. You can view it below from Google video or click here to watch it on my site at a bigger size.

Here’s what you will learn:

• Why we use the Internet, past, present and the future
• How to go “beyond the website” and how a complete strategy is the best practice
• Defining and reaching goals of more sales, more leads and more publicity
• The tools of the trade in use today. How they work and more importantly, “why” they work
• Demographics of today’s online customer & social media user
• How marketing & sales function together online
• The expectations of today’s online customer/browser

Well, that’s what they are all saying at least. See below for some stats and trends on social media in 2009.

But let’s do our own study. So I ask you, the small business owner. Are you going to spend a lot of money to learn how to do social media in 2009? If not, why?

I know I get calls daily from businesses that need to figure it out. Which is why I offer coaching and training on how to do it.

Mediapost.com

Marketers are directing their 2009 budgets toward content, custom media and social media initiatives, according to a new study from online marketing resource and vendor-matching tool Junta42. More than half–56%–of marketing and publishing decision-makers plan to increase their content marketing spending next year, Junta42 found after surveying its community of corporate marketers and publishing/agency professionals. What’s more, a full 31% expressed their intention to increase spending on content significantly, while 25% said they planned to increase it slightly.

Here are some trends from some top “gurus”.

Face it. If you’re a PR or advertising agency, or corporation or anything like that, the time has finally come for you to learn about all this social media stuff.

Sigh, I know, I know. You thought maybe it would go away. You thought maybe your clients would stop asking you about it or your boss would forget that you were supposed to research it. The truth is that social media is here to stay and right now, with this poor economy, there is simply not a better way to not spend money than to market with social media.

Yes, I said “not spend” money. Because that’s what social media can do for businesses. It’s a way around buying those television ads that keep going up in price but bring less results. It’s another, better option to those magazine ads that are great for branding, but bring poor results.

I get 2-3 calls every single day from people asking about how they learn more about social media. Either from public relations agencies or executives at corporations looking for guidance.

Are you a PR or advertising agency?
Are your clients asking you how they should use things like Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed and you don’t know what to tell them?

Never let a client leave you because you couldn’t serve their needs! Now’s the time to educate your team and form a social media plan you can sell to your clients that works. Read more.

Are you a corporation in need of a social media trainer?
Now’s the time to educate your team and form a social media plan that can generate more leads, sales and publicity for your business.

Your team can do it, and do it well… If they have the right road map to success and the knowledge and tools they need to get the job done. Read more.

I’ve met a lot of people who say they “know” social media. But do they really know what they’re talking about? Look, this is all pretty much brand new in the grand scheme of things. So I wanted to find out what social media marketing is all about. I mean, is this really something that can be done professionally?

So I went straight to the top of my list of people who I trust. My friend Lena West owns a social media marketing agency (Xynomedia) so I cornered her on the phone to see if I could get her to spill her guts. She did.

Lena gives up answers to some of my toughest questions that I believe you’ll find helpful in your quest for learning more about marketing socially. Here are some of my show notes:

What is social media marketing?
Is selling social media as an agency hard?
Can you show roi in social media?
Can you go into social media halfway? What if you pull out early?
What exactly do you do as an agency?
Lena says, “Social media is a study of people. Once you understand sociology you understand social media.”
How can I start doing social media without hiring an agency?

Lena is a smart cookie. She also writes for Entrepreneur blogs, check her out!