Nothing will stand in our way of spreading GOOD news! On Tuesday morning at T-Bones Pier 11 in La Porte, we at LaPorteCountyLife held another Social Media Boot Camp. The Greater La Porte Chamber of Commerce was our host and they made LIFE part of their monthly Chamber Membership meetings. Since we have gotten such positive feedback from those that attended our other boot camps it only seemed right to keep the positive momentum going.
So bright and early, people arrived and were seated in a large and inviting room in the restaurant. T-Bones Pier 11 is a restaurant in La Porte that specializes in cooking up great steaks and seafood. It was too early for a steak dinner, but we still got fed! An excellent meal was served to all who attended that helped give us the energy to conquer the boot camp.
"We want to welcome LaPorteCountyLife. Recognizing that non-profits are doing a world of good, and often have difficulty telling their stories, [Chris Mahlmann] used technology to expand their reach exponentially through online communities," Jay Pouzar, Senior Associate Broker at CB Richard Ellis and former Board President for the Greater La Porte Chamber of Commerce, said. He was citing the great article that The Society of Innovators recently wrote about Chris's service to his communities as well as that of Judge Julia Jent. "Nonprofits have free access and businesses are advertising partners. Once called a 'goofy' idea, he started the firm over his garage with three employees, and now has 30!"
We've made positive differences in many lives thanks to that "goofy idea".
There were familiar faces as well as new ones in attendance. Darlene Cohn, owner of D. Cohn Communications made the trek from her home in Valparaiso to be part of our morning.
"I always like to come to the boot camps because even though I work in social media already, I always learn a lot," Cohn said. "I think we all have different perspectives and I like listening to Chris because he is a very dynamic speaker and he gives lots of good advice in a way that's easy to understand."
After we finished our breakfast, Chris stood and began his presentation. He touched on topics that many who are unfamiliar with social media would consider iffy and angled them so that they could be better understood. As he spoke, people were taking notes, nodding their understanding when familiar issues to them were mentioned, and giving thoughtful looks and utterances of, "Oh, I see," and "That makes sense now," as Chris shed light on shadowed social media muddles.
"Social media is the type of thing that you are doing in your everyday life -whether you are going to a coffee shop, cocktail party, or Chamber meeting- that you just happen to be doing in a digital sense rather than physical sense," Chris said. "And when you are thinking about how to get the word out often you are thinking in traditional media...and you are thinking, 'How do I craft my message and put it into that medium?' This is generally a broadcast medium where you figure out your message and communicate it to people. It's a one-way communication. Digital media, social media specifically, is geared to be a two-way communication."
Topics tackled were: understanding how to best use social media; knowing the difference between Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+; which outlets will work best with what type of business entity; and predictions on what will be popular in the future and what is on its way out.
"When you think about digital marketing and what it is, it's really every form of communication that you have; it's just stored on a little memory card or on your hard drive or in you email, You have it stored as a photographic file, a video file, a logo, a press release, an email newsletter, an article that you write – all of those things are really digital assets," Chris said.
Afterward, the floor was opened for questions. Attendees picked Chris's brain with questions and queries that were relevant to them as well as the group as a whole. He provided detailed answers and allowed Cohn to add helpful tips and insights of her own to help wrap up an informative boot camp.
Be on the lookout for our next Social Media Boot Camp!
Click here to see more photos!
The presentation from the event is below. Click the Play button to watch the slides change automatically or flip through using the Left and Right arrows.