Baby Boomers: trends and opportunities in social media for businesses, organizations and individuals' careers: Digital Wagon Train™

Do You Want Your Business To Become A Social Media RockStar?

This is cross-posted at FunnyBusiness.

On Tuesday, a client called, completely exasperated. Seems like his boss read some statistic earlier that day that commerce is migrating to Facebook. Instead of saying, "We need to develop a social media strategy and see if Facebook is the right fit  for our objectives," the boss walked into my client's office at 3:45 p.m. and  said, "We need a Facebook page up by end of day!"

It didn't help that my client needed to get to the daycare center by 5:30, and he was completely frustrated by his boss's tunnel vision. My client values making good, strategic business decisions, and cares deeply how customers and associates perceive the quality of his work and the public image company.

Unfortunately,  his  boss's knee jerk reaction is not unusual. Far too many business people think that simply having a Facebook page, a LinkedIn presence, or 400 people following them on Twitter will result in increased sales and loyal customers.

In an effort to help small businesses understand that there is much more to social media than  merely the "tools", the Center for Economic Vitality at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA is hosting its second social media conference for small businesses on March 25, 2010.

This one-day conference provides small business professionals with the fundamentals required to become social media rock stars. Participants will have an opportunity to hear case studies from leading social media marketing professionals and practitioners, who are successfully using social media for marketing, customer service and PR. Participants will be able to attend small breakout sessions to learn why it is important to participate in social media conversations, and how these conversations can help businesses achieve their strategic business goals.

Due to a business conflict, I won't be able to attend the conference. However, I had the opportunity to sit down with three of conference presenters and chat about business, social media and what they plan to share at the conference.

Aaron Booker, Founder and President of Varvid
Anne-Marie Faiola of Bramble Berry
Ethan Yarbrough of Allyis

This year's conference builds on the success of the Center for Economic Vitality's 2008 conference, which attracted over 200 business professionals from all over the United States.

Do you think your business is performing like a  Social Media RockStar?  The conference wants to know who you are.   If you think you are a Social Media RockStar be sure to enter the conference's Social Media RockStar contest.It's open to everyone who registers, for details go to www.socialmediaconference.com/rock-star.

For more information and to register for this year's conference, go to socialmediaconferencenw.com or call 360-733-4014.

You can join the conversation on Twitter at #smconfNW.

Healthcare Reform... Give a Little Bit

In anticipation of President Obama's bi-partisan healthcare summit tomorrow, last night I attended a pre-healthcare summit forum hosted by Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) and Kerri Miller. A big shout out to Kerri Miller who did an excellent job facilitating a diverse panel represented by Mayo Clinic, Health Partners, Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, and Fairview Hospitals and Clinics.

The audience was as diverse as each opinion in the auditorium. Multiply that times 300 million people and 300 million opinions and we might begin to understand the complexity of this issue. What I learned is that there really isn't one model or one answer. With all due respect, everybody needs to "Give a Little Bit" so that we can begin to move closer towards the middle and towards something that gives the American people what they deserve: healthcare that is accessible and affordable to all.

Education came up, but only briefly. For 8 years I was directly involved in diabetes education. I understand the value of a team-based approach to educating groups of people. It works. Not easily, but as my Mom always told me, nothing worthwhile comes easily. Just about everything, especially these days, requires motivation, dedication, an open mind, a little creativity and perseverance. And of course documenting those ever important outcomes.

We'll save healthy living and healthy choices... i.e. food in the schools for another day. As Scarlett says in Gone With The Wind, "tomorrow is another day".