First, ground rules…

The purpose of this blog post is not to answer the question: “What is Twitter?” (Wikipedia offers a pretty good introduction, if that’s what you’re looking for. Also, check out Chris Brogan’s “Newbies Guide to Twitter.”)

Rather, the purpose of this post is to answer the question, “Does Twitter work for meeting planners?” (Yes.) And if so, how? I am by no means a social media guru (that’s Brogan, above), but having worked with meeting planners for nearly 10 years and being a Web 2.0 enthusiast, I’m happy to offer some insights into how you can benefit from including this popular tool in your event management toolbox.

Before getting to the “Does Twitter work for meeting planners?” question, maybe you’re asking a broader question: “Does Twitter work for business?” The answer to that, I believe, is in this BusinessWeek feature that highlights some top CEOs who use Twitter – including the likes of Tony Hsieh of Zappos, Michael Hyatt of Thomas Nelson, and Jonathan Schwartz of Sun Microsystems – and this list of some huge brands using Twitter for business – including Dell, Starbucks, JetBlue and Ford, among others. These are just the early adopters.

To really evaluate how (or whether) you can use Twitter to your advantage, first think of it for what it is at its core: a tool for communication. How important is communication in the meetings industry? You need to communicate with your attendees leading up to a program. You communicate with your attendees at the program. Your attendees communicate with one another at the program. Communication is key.

Then, the question becomes, is your communication system working effectively, or is there room for improvement? If so, then we come to the critical question: Is Twitter is a viable means of communication for my audience? (So we actually don’t need to ask if Twitter works for “meeting planners” or for “business”  after all. It’s all about your unique audience. Twitter is not right for everyone, but its reach is likely greater than you think… and it’s growing.)

If you decide Twitter might be right for your audience, then there are five general objectives that can be pursued for any social media (including Twitter), according to the authors of the book, Groundswell:

1. Listening (use formal or informal observation to better understand your audience base)
2. Talking (share messages with your audience base)
3. Energizing (similar to talking, but aim especially for enthusiastic supporters and fuel word of mouth)
4. Supporting (help your audience base, and help them help one another)
5. Embracing (act as a facilitator to help members of your audience base engage together to improve your events)

With those five objectives in mind, here are nine specific ideas of how you can utilize Twitter in the meetings world:

1. Gain “followers.” Again, this is not a Twitter tutorial post, but you do need “followers” if you want to “talk.” On Twitter, your “followers” are your audience. Promote your Twitter address through your web site, newsletter or other existing forms of communication to get started.
2. Announce your event registration details and share a link to your registration page. You can even schedule “tweets” in advance using the TweetLater tool (http://www.tweetlater.com/), so you can set announcements to show up at predetermined times leading up to your event – i.e. “Early registration ends this Friday.” (talk)
3. Ask prospective attendees for their input on site selection, or what kinds of content they’re interested in, or other details of your event. (listen/embrace)
4. Share updates about your event with attendees. For example: highlight special activities on the program, announce entertainment/speaker line-up, etc. (talk/energize)
5. Use Twitter at your venue. One way to do so: John Wilker of 360Conferences said they set up flat screen TVs around their venue with a Twitter wall application running so everyone could see what other attendees are saying, which provides added fun and increases engagement. (supporting)
6. Search Twitter for topics/issues/concerns that are relevant to you. For example, watch for chatter about your company, meeting, speakers, location, etc. See http://search.twitter.com. (listen)
7. Follow “experts” who can help you. For example, popular meetings industry consultant Corbin Ball is at http://twitter.com/corbinball.  You can use Twitter’s “Find People” function to search for names or other keywords associated with a person. (listen)
8. Make your Twitter feed serve as “info central” – at least the quick reference version – for your event and suggest attendees follow it for special announcements, agenda changes, etc.  This will help you attract more followers, as it adds to the value of your feed. (talk)
9. As an example of how to accomplish #8: Announce known travel alerts, flight delays, etc. on the day(s) your attendees are arriving – and let them know beforehand that you’ll be doing that. (talk/supporting)

The Groundswell authors advise against tackling all of the social media objectives (listening, talking, etc.) at once. Instead, choose just one to start with, make a plan, and have fun with it.

While there are many potential advantages to incorporating Twitter into your plans, remember that the number one reason to use it is to enhance your relationship with your audience (your followers, and those you are following). Let people get to know you (and/or your organization) and further assure them that you have their interests in mind. Doing so can only help you and your events become more successful.

For additional reference on Twitter, here are some helpful/interesting links:

• How to Use Twitter to Grow Your Business
• Twitter Means Business (book summary)
• Top 20 Posts about Twitter in 2008
• How Twitter Can Make You a Better and Happier Person (by Zappos CEO)
• Twitter for Event Planners

Special thanks to those in the LinkedIn groups who engaged in the Twitter discussions with me.

I hope you’ve found this to be helpful, and good luck in your Twitter adventures! We’d love to hear about your experiences below.

By the way, here is my Twitter link: http://www.twitter.com/shawntsg (Shawn Ellis, founder of The Speakers Group).

Posted under Event Management, Planner Tips

Chances are, scarcity thinking is one of the greatest challenges to your organization today. When your people are afraid, and believe that there is not enough to go around anymore, they stop innovating and collaborating. Fear sets in and the corporate culture becomes reactive and self-protecting. When scarcity think is prevalent, any change triggers selfish reactions. Does this sound familiar?

In his new keynote, titled “Out of Scarcity – Getting Back to Abundance Thinking,” former Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo and New York Times best-selling business author Tim Sanders calls out scarcity thinking as a cultural cancer of an organization, usually brought in by a few “Chicken Littles,” who believe they add value by telling us that “the sky is falling.” Sanders will outline the symptoms of scarcity thinking as well as how it can take any team or group down if left unchecked. Most importantly, he’ll provide ways that we can overcome this mindset and think with abundance and confidence. This customized keynote, taking your organization’s unique situation into account, will give actionable advice on how to return to greatness again – despite the signs of the times.

According to this best selling author and former Yahoo! executive, “There are two types of people: Scarcity thinkers and Abundance thinkers. Unfortunately, scarcity thinking is on the rise – driven by the current economic crisis. Your people read the news, watch the market and come to work with that deer-in-the-headlines look. It’s natural, but at the same time lethal to any company, association or group. Throughout history, the greatest leaders have found a way to defy the emotional gravity of the situation and stay focused on the customer and team.”

Sanders should know: he’s seen it first hand during two economic crises (The S&L crash in the 80’s and in the dotcom crash of 2001). From 2002-2004, he gave over one hundred talks to companies and associations about this issue, and received rave reviews from audiences and thought leaders such as Dr. Stephen Covey and John Maxwell.

To learn more about how Tim can help you eliminate scarcity thinking in your organization and keep your employees engaged in difficult times, please contact The Speakers Group today.

To receive an excerpt from Tim’s best-selling book, Saving the World at Work, on The Law of Abundance, complete the form on the right and indicate “Tim Sanders Excerpt” in the comments box.

Posted under Leadership Development, Motivational Speakers, Organizational Excellence

Each year since 1990, Dr. James Canton has published his top forecasts for the next year in the Global Trends Report. These trends and predictions are designed to give your client’s a heads-up on what’s next in the economy, technology and society. As featured in his keynote, “The Extreme Future,” this year’s Global Trends Report is a wake-up call on the key trends that will shape the coming year. Dr. Canton identifies 2009’s top global trends as follows:

1. Managing Complexity – This year, more than ever, the top skill that everyone will need is managing complexity. The complexity of dealing with immense and fast changes, the economic crisis, the job market, global competition and new technologies will require a high level of complexity management. Survival may well be dependent on how well a Complexity Manager you are.
2. High Agility Enterprise - Fast to change. Anticipatory of what’s next. Exceeding expectations. New innovations to serve customers, find profit, accelerate transactions, release creativity and empower employees and customers will transform business in 2009. Innovations like customer care portals, Wikis, Mashups, Predictive Analytics, Social Networking, Web 2.0 processes and products will drive competitive advantage this year. Business agility will be propelled by elegant, integrative Clouds, adaptive and innovative business IT processes. This is the year to migrate to more web-centric business transformation.
3. Global Connectivity - Information will find you. The pervasive mobile Internet is coming in 2009 and will connect everyone in business, customers-everywhere, and all the time, across borders, supply chains and industries. Entirely new business models, supply chains, customer care networks, markets and industries will be born from this always-on global connectivity. New business models that deliver real-time value, all the time anywhere and everywhere, will redefine markets-get ready now for this shift.
4. Blended Reality - The convergence of TV, computer, Net, wireless, telephony across interactive fast real-time broadband networks with GPS information will become a Blended Reality lifestyle in 2009. Rich media interactivity, real-time messaging, rich media and virtual worlds are coming. This lifestyle cuts across geography, markets and cultures. Blended Reality is the new global lifestyle and demographic that will emerge.
5. Navigating the New Risk Landscape - Here comes the Post-Economic Meltdown-OK let’s get on with it. Every business and everyone will need a new strategy to deal with navigating risk and opportunity this year. It will change everything and touch everyone in 2009. Dealing with the aftershocks to the economic meltdown, which started in 2008, will be top of mind for every business and individual. Smarter moves and greater risk management will be prudent advice for this coming year. Navigating the new risks, new challenges and new threats will be key. We will look differently at risk-even missing some opportunities. Understanding how to navigate the changes and challenges of the new risk landscape will be essential this year. Know when to risk and when to hold on.
6. Personalized Medicine - People are living longer and spending more to enhance their cognitive, emotional and physical performance. Radical new choices are coming that will challenge our values and laws. From prevention, to mapping your personal genome, to life-extension, longevity medicine is coming fast. This global marketplace will be the largest in the 21st century, driven by Boomer’s wealth and biotech’s future innovations in stem cells, synthetic biology, and cloning that will transform health care making it boldly predictive and personalized. How about a new kidney for Christmas?
7. The MegaCity Consumer - From China to India, to Latin America and the EU, there is a new consumer demographic that is emerging driven by massive urban migration. They live in megacities, are highly mobile and are transnational. The MegaCity Consumers are the new middle class, tech savvy, highly mobile and entrepreneurial. They are driving up demand for products and services that could reach over 120 countries, generating billions by 2035. This new global middle class is being born and they want the prosperity and quality of life that is defined by the consumer marketplace.
8. Beware Dark Networks - Security will be an increased risk factor for business in 2009 given the vulnerability of computer networks that increasingly connect us all. From hackers to identity thieves, to terrorists and criminals, the future is bright for the Dark Networks. Business needs to invest in deeper innovations in security and take it to the next level. More sophisticated and complex fraud, theft and terror attacks will threaten modern society, so be prepared and invest now in prevention.
9. Green & Clean Sustainability - Billions will be invested in alternative energy, clean tech and climate change in 2009. The new administration will embrace, whole hog, the sustainability trend. We will capitalize on cleaning up the planet, reducing foreign oil dependence and reducing global warming. Customers are going green. Consumers will want increased corporate accountability in protecting and saving the environment. Smart companies will now leverage Green & Clean policies, products and services-and be held accountable if they are not.
10. Strategic Vision: Future Readiness - Most businesses are not ready for the future. Witness the economic beating of this past year. Each business needs to develop a predictive awareness-a sensing capability of what is next. Developing a capacity to see what’s next and prepare by monitoring trends, developing business foresight with an eye towards the longer more strategic view will be essential to success in 2009. New profit opportunities will come from those companies that see the future first and become Future-Ready-anticipating, adapting and evolving before the competition.

To learn more about Dr. Canton’s keynote presentations, trend analysis, and related work, please visit http://www.techfuturist.com/. To book Dr. Canton or check his availability for your upcoming meeting or conference, please contact The Speakers Group.

Posted under Innovation Speakers, Leadership Development, Organizational Excellence, Speaker News

What are the keys to success for your team and your organization in the year ahead? Among them:

1. Create a positive, engaging workplace.
2. Understand your target market and communicate the appropriate message.
3. Put a well-trained, modern sales force on the ground (or on the phone, web, etc.).

With a mix of new names and familiar faces, below are nine business speakers whose expertise may be just what the doctor (or CEO) ordered to help you in those areas in 2009 (in alphabetical order):

• Jonathan Salem Baskin
  
  How he can help: Author of Branding Only Works on Cattle, Jonathan is out to help you get more out of your brand by fundamentally changing the very conversation about brands and branding. “It’s about shifting it away from the narrow definitions and expertise of marketers,” he says, “and opening it up to functional, organizational, systems, and other areas of expertise across your entire company.” Jonathan wants to help you empower every employee, from the top executive to the outsourced part-timer, to collaborate on inventing a new, more proactive and sustainable model for your brand.

• Bob Burg
  
  How he can help: Through his dynamic “Endless Referrals, Winning Without Intimidation” (based on his book, Endless Referrals: Network Your Everyday Contacts Into Sales) and “Go-Giver” (based on his latest bestseller, The Go-Giver) systems, Bob teaches business professionals how to leverage their network of everyday contacts into a never ending stream of new prospects. “No matter how the national economy is doing, you can truly recession-proof your business and take advantage of the power of today’s networking, referrals and positive persuasion to leverage your time and relationship assets and generate a constant stream of new sales!” Bob says.

• Rolfe Carawan How he can help: It is well documented that only 29% of today’s workforce are fully engaged on the job, 55% are partially engaged and 16% are actively disengaged. That means 71% of employees are not giving their best at work. In today’s competitive marketplace, where organizations are trying to do more with less, it is not enough to have only some workers on board. Leaders need all workers on board, in unity – working together, sticking together, and giving their best. Rolfe teaches leaders how to create a committed workforce, raise employee morale, effectively implement change initiatives, and strengthen communication – releasing the power of unity that lies hidden in your organization.

• Keith Ferrazzi
  
  How he can help: The author of the bestseller, Never Eat Alone, offers the real secret to our unlimited career and personal success: develop an inner circle of deep trusted friends and advisors who care enough to help us unleash our fullest potential. In 2009, Keith Ferrazzi helps us move beyond Never Eat Alone with a new book (and supporting keynote), WHO’S GOT YOUR BACK, due in May. Ferrazzi focuses on the necessity of forming even deeper bonds with a few key people who can help guide us in our day-to-day actions and our long-term goals. As Ferrazzi says, “Once I lined up an ironclad team of deeply trusted advisors, success came quickly. I was able to overcome the things that were holding me back. I tripled my earnings at my company. Even better, every day I wake up knowing that caring, trustworthy people are watching out for me. Don’t wait for these guardian angels to magically appear in your life. It’s up to each of us to create these relationships. And I can show you how.” BONUS: Keith can also help you demonstrate to your clients that you’ve got their back!

• Jill Konrath
  
  How she can help: “Selling in today’s economy is tough,” says Jill Konrath, in an obvious understatement. “And, it’s likely going to get a lot tougher in the upcoming months. That’s not news that we want to hear, but it is the reality we face so it makes sense to address it head on. Tough times call for different sales approaches, new offerings and stronger business cases. It’s not enough to just make more calls or have more meetings. We have to be better than we’ve ever been – in every aspect.” Jill, author of the acclaimed book, Selling to Big Companies, specializes in delivering highly interactive, content-packed workshops and keynotes focused on helping salespeople crack into corporate accounts, speed up their sales cycle, generate increased demand for their offering, and win big contracts.

• Andrew May
  
  How he can help: Do you spend half your day responding to email? Do you have Road Runner Syndrome, racing from crisis to crisis? Do you suffer from Constant Partial Attention? Do you get sick on weekends and on holidays? Are you too busy to take proper time out to relax and recover? The rapid speed and intensity of modern business demands a new way of approaching performance. Armed with the iPhones, Blackberries and productivity gadgets, we are cramming more and more into our already jam packed schedules. Rather than running at a fast pace and then taking time out to recover – a vital strategy used by high performing teams in the sporting world – every working day now requires the stamina of a Grand Final. Based on proven research, Andrew’s presentations and tailored conference programs deliver key strategies to give your team the power to really Switch On when they need to… and the ability to recharge and Switch Off when they can!

• Harry Paul
  
  How he can help: Harry Paul’s first book, FISH!, is one of the best selling business titles of all time. Harry has been in the training, motivation and people development business for almost 25 years, working with some of the top business consultants including Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson along the way. With a new book and a new program – both titled “Instant Turnaround” – in 2009, Harry shows managers at any level what they can do to start an immediate, dramatic increase in productivity and profitability by transforming their workplace into a welcoming, rewarding space full of dedicated, energized and enthusiastic colleagues. By tapping into the discretionary effort of their employees, managers and leaders will begin looking at measuring success in decades, not quarters.

• Neil Rackham
  
  How he can help: The results of Neil Rackham’s study of professional selling – the largest ever, including more than 35,000 sales calls in over 20 countries, at a cost of $40 million in today’s dollars – revolutionized the way we think about the complex, consultative sale more than 20 years ago. Today, with a market more complicated and challenging than ever, Professor Rackham’s insights are invaluable. Having spent decades observing the world’s best sales forces, he understands like few others what these top sales forces are doing differently from more than half of the world’s sales professionals who are failing today – and it’s getting worse. Taking a scientific look at successful selling, Neil Rackham’s presentations go beyond motivation to help your managers build and equip a sales force with the tools they need to outperform your competition.
  

• Lewis Schiff
  
  How he can help: Lewis Schiff’s latest book, The Middle-Class Millionaire: The Rise of the New Rich and How They Are Changing America, charts the rise of America’s growing affluent middle-class through original research and analysis. What does this mean for you and your business? Lewis makes “success” come alive as he presents the results of thousands of interviews with “success stories.” For those aspiring to join the ranks of these Middle-Class Millionaires, Lewis connects the dots between the affluent and the middle-class. He talks about financial choices in a way that respects the basic ideals of the middle-class but leverages the best practices of the moneyed class. Lewis can teach people how to be successful and he can get them excited about the process. For those engaged in luxury and other sales and marketing-driven businesses, this is essential to close the deal. Lewis prides himself on helping the person behind the counter “connect” with his or her best client, turning the experience into one that’s about relating and less about selling.

It’s no secret that event budgets are being scrutinized more than ever before, and speakers must deliver more relevance and value than ever before – there is no room for fluff or hype. This list of nine speakers – available through TSG speakers bureau – represents just a few of the candidates you can call on with confidence to help you, your team and your organization succeed in 2009. Do you have other favorites to add to the list? Please comment.

Posted under Event Management, Leadership Development, Motivational Speakers, Organizational Excellence, Planner Tips, Sales Management, Speaker Recommendations