This week I am heading to Dallas for my second #Optsum conference.  I led a workshop at the one in March, and will be doing so again this week.  I absolutely LOVE speaking at and attending social media/marketing conferences like this one, and I wanted to share some tips that I’ve picked up over the last 3 years:

1 – When in doubt, dress casually.  Social media conferences are notorious for having very relaxed dress codes.  Some, like SXSW, consider attendees to be a bit overdressed if they aren’t in a tee-shirt and jeans.  Now if you are a speaker, you might want to spring for a sports coat, but even then a dress shirt for guys is about as dressy as it gets.  But above all else, wear comfortable clothing.  If you are comfortable in jeans, then wear jeans.  And make SURE you wear comfortable shoes.

2 – Pack all the gadgets you need and remember chargers/batteries!  Nothing sucks worse than arriving at your first big social media conference, then realizing you left your Flip at home.  Or scrambling to find a charger for your cell phone cause you didn’t bring yours.

3 – Confirm the location of the event and bring the address and telephone numbers with you.  This sounds like a no-brainer, but never assume anything.  For example, at one event I was speaking at, the event was at ‘The Hilton Downtown’.  Well guess what, turns out there were TWO Hiltons downtown, and I didn’t know which one.  Thankfully, my Twitter friends bailed me out while I was on the shuttle 😉

4 – Plan out the sessions you want to attend.  Figure out what your schedule will look like, and keep checking the event website to confirm the schedule.  Almost every event I have attended/spoken at has had at least one major schedule change in the week or two leading up to the event.  Which sucks when the schedule has changed to put your two ‘must attend’ sessions opposite each other in the same time slot.

5 – Check to see if the event has a meetup/tweetup the nite before it starts and ATTEND IT.  I am very disappointed that I won’t arrive in Dallas this week till Thurs afternoon, because I will miss the Tweetup happening the nite before.  As a speaker, I love tweetups because it’s a great way for me to connect with attendees and learn more about them and what they are expecting from my session.  As an attendee, it’s a chance for you to network with your fellow attendees, but also to connect with the speakers before the event.

6 – Do your best to figure out who will be at the event.  Almost all events will tell you who will be speaking, and some will also share the attendees.  Know who will be there, so you can figure out who you want/need to connect with outside of the sessions.  For example, I’ve already figured out that there are a few people at #Optsum that I need to connect with about work projects, so I am going to schedule time with them.  And there are a few friends I definitely want to catch up with.  So figure out who you need to connect with, and this might cut into the number of sessions you can attend, so it’s also a good idea to prioritize the sessions in order of importance for you.

7 – Download any session materials beforehand.  Check with the event’s website, some of the speakers will share materials beforehand that they’ll want you to reference during their session.  Doesn’t hurt to check the website before leaving and make sure you have everything you need.

8 – Follow the Twitter hashtag for the event before/during/after you arrive.  This is a great way for me, as a speaker, to tell what the mood of the attendees is.  Are the speakers great or a dud?  What do they like or dislike about the venue itself?  All this helps me plan my session.  And for attendees, it helps you to know beforehand if there are only 2 power outlets per room 😉

During the sessions, you can use Twitter to discuss the sessions as they are happening.  Although I honestly don’t do this as much as I used to.  You can carry on the conversation after the event ends, as well.

9 – Make SURE you get your questions answered.  If you going to spend a thousand or so to attend an event, then you deserve to get your money’s worth, right?  Ask that question during the session, or if you are an introvert (like me), ask the speaker out in the hallway.

10 – Have fun and introduce yourself!  Again, as an introvert I have a big problem with this, but it really is a good idea to connect with everyone you can.  And the more you connect with everyone, the easier it is to enjoy the rest of the event.  Who knows, you might even meet a future business partner!

So those are my tips, those of you that attend social media events often, what are your best tips?  What did I miss?

Hey guys, I wanted to let you know that tonite’s #Blogchat topic will be ‘Writing For Yourself vs Writing for Your Blog’s Readers’.  This topic was suggested by @WriterChanelle, so thank you!  In recent weeks I’ve tried to give a bit more structure to the #Blogchat topics, but with this one I’m going to just throw it out there and we’ll see where everyone takes it.

Also, I wanted to update you on a couple of #Blogchat items.  First, some of you have been interacting with the Twitter account @BlogchatNews.  This is an account that I started to let users know of news about #Blogchat, but I want to also use this account to better highlight #Blogchat-related posts and also posts from #Blogchat regulars.  And unfortunately, with my trying to build my consulting business, I just don’t have as much time as I would like to devote to #Blogchat and its community.  So my sister, @Beth_Collier is going to help me by managing the @BlogchatNews account.  I will be helping her as I can, but for the most part she will be the one interacting with you.  She’s doing a great job and is honestly an even friendlier person than I am, so all of you will love her!

So that’s it for now, and please, if you have any questions or ideas for how I can improve the #Blogchat experience for you, please leave a comment here, or connect with Beth or I on Twitter.  I hope to have a big announcement soon on the #Blogchat schedule for October, including a couple of awesome co-hosts, and hopefully our first #Blogchat sponsor!  See everyone tonite at 8pm Central!

Chris Brogan wrote a post today on a sure-fire way to get more traffic to your blog: Write more posts.  He’s exactly right, I’ve seen it here on my blog, as have many of you if you’ve ramped up the volume of your posts, I am sure.  I also know that in general, the exact opposite happens when I stop writing, that traffic usually falls.

Here’s the thing about traffic and Retweets on Twitter or ‘Shares’ on Facebook and other sites: They can fool you.  Let’s be honest, it feels good when you write a post that immediately gets a lot of RTs and it feels good to see a traffic spike for that day.

It all makes you really feel like you accomplished something, doesn’t it?

But did you?  If traffic alone is how you define the success of your blog, then you’re probably pretty satisfied.  But what if your goal is something else?  What if you don’t need more traffic in general, but more potential clients?   Or what if you are a jobseeker that wants more potential employers to read your blog?

My point is, you shouldn’t be chasing more traffic simply for the sake of getting it.  Let’s go back to Chris’ example.  In his case, he is trying to directly monetize the content on his blog, to a degree.  So more traffic probably helps him.  But if you are NOT trying to directly monetize the content on your blog, then more traffic doesn’t help you unless that more traffic performs some other action.  It may be that you want them to email you for information about your company, or maybe you want them to download your resume, or sign up for your email newsletter.  But simply getting more traffic might not be enough.  Sure, it might stroke your ego, but unless that extra traffic is also helping you meet a larger goal for your blog, then who cares?

BTW this is just on a personal note, but I am growing very weary of blogs that publish multiple posts a day.  In fact Chris’ is one of the few that I still subscribe to that do this (and Chris is great, so I subscribe).  For example, I unsubbed from Mashable for 2 reasons:

1 – I was tired of getting 10 new posts a day

2 – I knew that my friends would SHARE the really good ones via Twitter and Google Reader, so I didn’t need to sub anyway.

Something to think about.  Chasing numbers if fine, if you understand the value of catching them.

The introduction to the book Creating Customer Evangelists tells the story of  Southwest customer Ann McGee-Cooper.  One month after the September 11 terrorist attacks, with the airline industry in complete chaos, Ms. McGee-Cooper send Southwest a check for $500, and a letter which included the following explanation:

We are encouraging our clients to fly Southwest Airlines.  We are buying more stock…and we stand ready to do anything else to help.  Count on our continuing support.

As for the $500 check, she explained that she sent it because Southwest needed the money “more than I do”.

If your company is lucky enough to have just ONE Ann McGee-Cooper as a customer, then no amount of advertising or marketing you could ever do, will be more effective than what she does every single day.  Customers like McGee-Cooper are fans of your company.  They go out of their way to tell others about you, and they try their damnest to convince everyone they know to give you their business.  Because they believe in who you are, and what you are doing.

I left this comment to a post on Brains on Fire’s blog:

Find the people that are already singing your song, and give them the stage, the spotlight, and a microphone. We all want to be rockstars, and we tend to love the companies that make us feel like we are.

This is what I love about social media.  Now all your customers have these new content creation tools to take the word of mouth that was formerly trapped offline, and bring it online.  Now you have the ability to FIND that WOM, and can easily identify who your fans are.

And when you do, all that’s left is to give them the stage, the spotlight, and a microphone.

Oh and a hug and saying ‘Thank you!’ wouldn’t be a bad idea, either.

PS: Helping companies connect with their online evangelists is the type of work that I love doing.  If your company is considering such a project, please email me as I’d love to work with you to help get such a project off the ground.

Pic via Flickr user Hiddedevries

Some of the biggest names in digital and new media will be converging on Dallas next month for Optimization Summits!  People like Geno Church, Jason Falls, CK, Brian Solis, Lauren Fernandez and a TON of other great leaders.  They’ll even let me lead a workshop and sorry, Lady Gaga will only be appearing via Powerpoint (Le Sigh).  I spoke in March at #optsum and loved the event.  It’s not focused on having speakers up behind a podium.  Instead of sessions, there are workshops, so attendees can immediately take something home with them to get started improving their marketing and social media efforts.  The attendees in March were extremely smart and laser-focused on how the content they were being exposed to could help THEIR businesses.

The workshops themselves will be broken into 2-hour blocks, and my topic will be Think Like a Rockstar: How to Build Fans and Community Around Your Social Media Efforts.  My March workshop for #optsum was on this same topic, and it was Standing Room Only.  I was thrilled with the turnout, and had attendees telling me later that the workshop justified their trip.

And the BEST news of all is that Tami and the good folks at #optsum have given me a few free passes to #optsum PLUS a sweet discount code for anyone that wants to attend.

So here’s what I thought we’d do:  If you want to get a steep discount on the $525 ticket price, then click here and register for #0ptsum for only $200.00! Now that’s an affiliate link, and I’ll get $50 for every ticket that you buy there.  So it works out great for you, in that you get a huge discount, and you’ll be helping me, cause I’ll get a cut.

But if you want to try to win a pass to #optsum, I’ll be giving away THREE free passes to the 2-day event! Now as we all know, a lot of the contests you see on blogs have some really lame processes for entry.  Maybe you have to leave a comment on a blog, or link back to whoever is holding the contest.  I didn’t want us to do that.  I wanted to make it so your entry into the contest was ALSO creating value for everyone else.

So here’s how you can enter to win one of the three free passes to #optsum:

All you have to do is write a blog post with your best idea on how to build community via social media.  That is it.  It can be a post on how to get more blog comments and interaction, it can be a case study of how your company grew a community of customers via social media, whatever.  The idea is that by entering the contest you are ALSO writing a great post that will help others.  Which is infinitely cooler than simply throwing up a link on your blog to this post, right?  In fact, I do NOT want you to link here from your post, or even mention this contest.  This is all about creating value for YOUR readers, not as a way to promote me.

So if you want to enter the contest, all you have to do is write your post and THEN leave a comment here to this post and add a link to your post.  The contest will end next Friday the 27th, at midnight.  On Saturday I’ll announce the THREE winners of a free pass.  Now again, if you don’t want to enter the contest and just want to buy your ticket at the discounted rate of $200, PLEASE do so and you can by clicking this link.

Pretty cool, eh?  And as the entrants come in, I can promote those posts on Twitter, which will give y’all more exposure.  So all you have to do to enter to win a $525 pass to an awesome 2-day marketing/social media conference is write a post with your best ideas for building community via social media.  So even if you don’t win, you’ll still have written a great post that will help others and probably get you some extra exposure.

So if you want to enter for a chance to win a free pass to #Optsum (normally $525) then all you have to do is:

1 – Write a post with your best idea for building community via social media.

2 – Leave a comment here with a link to your post, once it’s published.

That’s it!  The deadline is Friday the 27th at midnight, and winners will be announced on Saturday the 28th!  Sound good?  And remember, if you want to buy your tickets to #Optsum at the discounted rate of $200, then click here!  Either way, I hope I get the chance to see you in Dallas!  If you have any questions about the contest, please leave a comment or email me!

I haven’t done a post here in a while analyzing my stats, so I wanted to share with you something interesting I’ve found over the past two weeks.  Going back a month, and not counting this post, I’ve published 10 posts here since July the 20th.  The posts have been a bit infrequent, until last week and this week.

Last week I published 4 posts here, and this post will mark the 3rd post so far here this week.  Here is how my daily traffic has been for the last month:

Note that the days with the red X above them are the days when a new post was published.  Also notice that traffic was down a bit from July 21st through the 8th of this month.   Then it about doubled last week when I published 4 posts, and it’s spiked this week.

Now at first glance, you might assume that since I posted more last week, that it helped boost this week’s traffic as I was actively posting this week as well.  I think there’s some truth to that.

But I’ve done something different this week.  Each day I have shared links on Twitter to other interesting blog posts or articles, starting at 8am each morning, with a new link each 10 mins.  I scheduled these ahead of time with HootSuite.  Also, I’ve mixed in the newest post from here, each day.  For example, today I started sharing links at 8am on Twitter, and at 9am, I shared a link to this post.  I didn’t do this at all last week.

Now my hunch, and it’s just that, is that sharing links this week is driving more traffic to my blog posts.  The links I am sharing every morning are generating a LOT of retweets, and I think that’s getting a lot of people to pay attention to them.  And in the process, they will also be checking out my posts.  Also I think it’s interesting to note that LAST week’s 4 posts averaged about 130 retweets each, while the 2 posts written on Monday and Tuesday have averaged about 40.  And even though this week’s posts are getting far fewer RTs, as you can see, traffic is much higher so far this week.

I’ll keep watching this to see if sharing really is driving traffic.  BTW in case you are wondering, the sources I use for finding content to share are:

1 – Google Reader.  I use new posts from blogs/sites I am subscribed to PLUS shared items from people I am following.  Shared items are a GREAT source of killer blog posts and articles.

2 – AllTop.  Another good source that gives you access to articles from many sites in just a few minutes.  Great for scanning dozens of sites and seeing what everyone is writing about.

Normally these two sources give me enough links to cover 2 or 3 hours.  If I need additional links, Delicious is another good alternative.  Also, as I see my friends sharing interesting links during the day, I will RT these as well.  This, plus the links I share in the morning, mean I can share 25-30 links a day.  And then I can RT a link to my newest post 2-3 times that day.  That means I will share other posts from other bloggers about 8-10 times as often as my own posts.  Not as high as the 12:1 ratio that Chris Brogan suggested during #blogchat this week, but close!

Does this help any?  And if you try to post daily, and also use Twitter to promote your posts, have you also noticed any type of traffic bump from sharing links from OTHER sites?  I would love to know what y’all are seeing in your stats!

If you haven’t heard, @ChrisBrogan has agreed to co-host #blogchat tonite!  We’ll be discussing how to use other social media sites in order to improve and grow your blog.  I think Chris probably does this better than anyone, so I am thrilled that he’s agreed to share what he’s learned with us.

Now if you are a regular of #blogchat, you know how batshit-insanely fast the chat can get.  It can be danged tough to keep up with, even if you are a veteran.  Add in Chris co-hosting and bringing his 150K followers, and it could be a recipe for complete chaos.  Hopefully in a good way 😉

So in an attempt to make sure that everyone has a grand time, I wanted to try to have a little more background and structure to tomorrow’s chat.  As #blogchat regulars can tell you, #blogchat is pretty much a freeform discussion, and that’s honestly the biggest reason why #blogchat is the most popular chat on Twitter.  But if the volume picks up like I think it will, the ‘freeform’ flow could be too much for some (especially those that are new to #blogchat), unless we have a bit more organization in place.

With that in mind, keep the following in mind:

1 – The topic is How to Use Other Social Sites/Presences to Grow Your Blog.  Please try to keep your tweets on this topic.

2 – For the 1st 30 mins of the chat, we’ll discuss this particular question: “How do you decide which sites you should be active on in order to help your blog?”  I’m not talking about ‘Is Twitter better than Facebook?”, but rather we will be talking about your strategy for growing your blog, and what you are trying to accomplish.  In other words, we won’t be talking about specific tools so much, but rather what do you look for from the sites in order to see if they would be a good fit for what you are trying to accomplish with your blog?  Chris will walk us through his thinking here, and help us figure out which sites will work best to support our blogging strategies.  This area of the discussion will carry us through about 8:30 or so.

3 – At around 8:30, we’ll start talking about how to decide if one of the social sites you have a presence on should just be an ‘outpost’ for you.  Chris has written before about this, here and here.  Please take a few minutes to read these posts to familiarize yourself with the idea.

Now if you have some blog questions that are NOT related to this week’s topic, I would ask you to please join #blogchat after 9pm Central. Chris can likely only stay till around 9pm Central, and we want to make sure that we give as many people as possible a chance to connect with him.  Besides, if you have a question about the best WordPress theme, for example, if you ask it at 8:15, it will just get lost in the sea of #blogchat tweets anyway.  So please, as a courtesy to your fellow #blogchatters, please wait and join us around 9pm Central if you have non-topic questions.  We’ll be happy to help you with those if we can!

For the record, the most active #blogchat ever had a shade over 4,000 tweets in 2 hours.  And ironically, the topic was using Twitter to promote and grow your blog.  A similar topic to tomorrow nite, PLUS Chris Brogan will be co-hosting that topic.  So I wouldn’t be surprised to see tonite’s volume set the record.  Which is a big reason why I wanted to write this post, so everyone can work together so that we have organized chaos, not complete chaos 😉

Sound good?  If you have any questions, please feel free to add them in the comments!