Our third seminar...

This past week we held our third seminar, "Social Media for CEO's". It was great because we had over 20 people in attendance (our largest crowd so far) and over half of them were individuals that were referred by someone else. We are really seeing the viral nature starting to work and the WOM (word of mouth) taking shape.

But what I really wanted to share are some of the comments and ideas that came out of the session. I would love to give you names of all the attendees but since they were virtually all CEO's we honor their privacy.

One key theme from almost everyone is they really see this whole area of Social Media as something that is both "scary" and an "opportunity" for their organizations. When we asked who had heard of MySpace and facebook and LinkedIn, most had heard of all of these social networking sites. When we asked who was using them, we had 2 for MySpace, 5 for Facebook and about 8 for LinkedIn - pretty consistent with what we have seen out there. Only a few were aware of and using Twitter and only 2 had a blog.

The message we share is "Engage to Lead" - meaning that we recommend executives get engaged so they understand the power of the medium so they can lead their organizations in this revolution. Our "QuickStart program is designed to do just that and we have been getting a lot of interest in this as well from our discussions. One example is Rob Watson, of Watson Security. Rob attended our first seminar and now has "a CEO blog" of his own. You can check it out at www.robowatson.com and see how cool this is and how great it will be for his business.

Stay tuned and we'll give you some more insights and feedback from our seminar next post.

Blaine

More than just a great breakfast

I just got back from attending a great breakfast (and not just the food) with some of Seattle and Bellevue's most prominent and influential people. The breakfast was hosted by Eastside Business Roundtable and I was invited by Jim Frank of Human Capital Resources - thanks Jim.

The event featured the CEO of Seattle Children's Hospital, Tom Hansen. He gave a great speech on what is new at Children's and how the economy has affected them as well as everyone else. Since Tom focuses on pre-mature babies in his own research, he gave some fascinating statistics and comments about these infants - such as the fact it costs about $1M per baby in health care when they are in the hospital as a premature infant - wow.

I applaud the group for getting together on a regular basis and bringing in relevant, thought provoking speakers to share new and interesting ideas with some key business leaders from around our area. I personally had the opportunity to meet Donna Shirey, from Shirey Contracting - delightful lady with a very interesting business. I would encourage you to check them out if you are doing anything with a house remodel or construction. I also got to see Fred Burnstead, of Burnstead Construction. I know both of Fred's kids, Rick and Steve, and had the pleasure of coaching their boys in baseball and basketball when they were growing up - wonderful family.

So if you want to join a group that knows what's going on in the area, contact Jim Frank and ask him how to get connected. If nothing else, they serve a great breakfast...

Blaine

Blogging is here to stay - says Wharton...

Many people are asking me if "blogging" is just the latest "FAD" that will be gone tomorrow. The simple answer is, "No way, it is here to stay and will do nothing but flourish." Don't believe me? Wharton, one of most respected names in business schools, has numerous articles supporting the claim that not only is it here to stay, it could potentially have the greatest impact on anything we have seen on the Web. I would encourage you to visit their BLOG, published by Wharton Graduate School of Business at Penn State University.

The key message is that they are not only here to stay but they are making tremendous in roads into the world of communication and marketing. For example, Dan Hunter, professor at Wharton, says, "This is not a fad. "It's the rise of amateur content, which is replacing the centralized, controlled content done by professionals."

Kevin Werbach, a legal professor at Wharton says, "At its most basic level, it's a technology that is lowering the cost of publishing" and turning out to be "the next extension of the web. Blogging is still in its early days. It's analogous to where the web was in 1995 and 1996. It's not clear how it will turn out."

"Blogging is really driven by interest and desires, not commercial activity," says Wharton marketing professor Peter Fader. "It's rare to see something take off like this when commercial prospects are so minimal. People just want to share ideas."

Bottom line: Blogging is not only here to stay but is a burgeoning area for those willing to take the chance on being a leader. We believe in leading. We believe in blogging. And if you're a CEO, we believe it is about time you got on the train - it has already left the station. This is an ideal time to engage and participate and lead.

We have a phrase we use in our seminars and with CEO's. It simply says "Learn so you can Lead." Get involved - get engaged and share your knowledge, wisdom and insights - the world is waiting...

Blaine