Sometimes we think there is no way we could possibly be any MORE excited about social media. There has to be a limit to our giddiness, a point at which we become bored by each new video, each blog post by other social media marketers and each new tool that joins the mix.
But, no.
Each day we have the pleasure of doing what we absolutely love – connecting brands and companies with their customers, discovering creative ways to share information and most of all learning from the other amazing practioners in the field.
Today’s re-invigoration (and the object of a serious social media crush) comes via Erik Qualmann at Socialnomics with the refresh of his Social Media Revolution video. As impactful today as it was when it was released over a year ago, this refresh includes new data and even more reasons why you MUST be using social media as part of your marketing mix.
Spare five minutes of your day and allow yourself to be re-inspired…
Also, you can visit the Socialnomics Blog to get all of the data presented as well as see all of the sources or just engage with the great Erik Qualman himself!
Yes, we’ve been quiet for awhile, but it was for a good reason. We were busy building a Social Media Training Center in Orange County! Check it out, here’s the official release going out today:
Southern California’s First Social Media Training Center Opens Doors in Orange County
Specialized workshops cater to marketers looking to expand their current careers as well as those looking to start a new career in social media marketing.
Costa Mesa, Calif. – April 30, 2010 – Introducing a new resource in Orange County dedicated to helping companies that want to effectively engage with customers and drive business using social media – the Social Media Training Center. Social media has revolutionized the way we communicate as well as the way businesses engage with customers and build their reputations. These tools have businesses scrambling to create Facebook Fan pages and tweet their latest deals – often without understanding how these tools fit into the overall marketing mix and how they can best be used.
Created as a joint effort between ASG Renaissance (www.ASGren.com) and the Social Method (www.theSocialMethod.com), the Social Media Training Center offers a unique place to dive into the world of social media marketing. While the Social Method brings an experienced team of social media marketers to the endeavor, ASG Renaissance adds specialists in training, recruiting and job placement as well as marketing communications. The combination allows the course content to focus on not only training marketers looking to expand their current careers, but also to offer courses geared at re-training unemployed persons looking to start a new career.
Founder Rebecca Markarian shared, “While there may be thousands of online webinars on social media marketing, the content is often vague and you’re one student among one thousand. We wanted to offer more impactful workshops taught in person and with small class sizes. Our goal is to deliver high-quality instruction so that our attendees leave ready to start or progress their programs.”
The Social Media Training Center shares office space with both founding companies adjacent to John Wayne Airport. The Training Center offers regular courses which can be found at www.ocSMTC.com and are taught in the Social Media Lab which is equipped with workstations for each student.
“With our expertise in training, we’ve designed a system where attendees work right alongside the instructor – building their networks and setting up their tools during the sessions. This allows our team to answer questions and offer hands on assistance – saving valuable time and ensuring programs are implemented in the best possible way,” added Beth Ardisana, ASG Renaissance’s CEO.
Prices range from $25 – $500 per course. Sessions are limited to 10-20 attendees depending on the material. The Training Center also offers on-site training sessions for larger companies and agencies. For more detailed information, visit www.ocSMTC.com.
Sometimes you just luck out and that’s what happened last month when we were working on Twitter and happened to see a tweet about Lovejingles launching a new initiative to create a jingle per day – for as little as $1. Being the inquisitive types we are, we clicked the link and saw that only two people had signed up – meaning they would remake your jingle for $3! (It went up $1 each day).
Problem was, we didn’t have a jingle, but they still didn’t let us down. If you were willing to add a zero to the end of your number – $30 instead of $3, they would create a custom jingle for you! $30 for our own jingle? We thought about that for less than a millisecond and signed up!
Immediately we recieved an email that they were looking forward to working with us and that we should let them know what we wanted in the jingle. Just one quick note to them and all that was left to do was wait, and now the waiting has come to an end. Without further ado, we are thrilled to present:
the Social Method Jingle!
Thanks LoveJingles! We’re totally smitten with it. The “weird” doctor is a perfect fit with our self-proclaimed geeky personalities and we laughed and smiled the whole way through.