Sheila's Guide To The Good Stuff

At the national conference for the AWC (Association for Women in Communications) I was excited to speak at a session with Maria Henneberry about creating and conducting online training through webinars.

AWC organizes and runs a webinar series about a variety of communications topics (I’m on the Tech Committee that finds topics and speakers) plus we run webinars at Tourism Currents related to social media, technology and tourism/hospitality.

So, I have webinars on the brain these days. What are the main things to remember?

Do NOT make boring slide decks, take advantage of the web and multimedia tools, remember that your voice must show the enthusiasm you feel (since in many cases attendees can’t see you) and keep an eye on online presentation tools like Zipcast that easily and cheaply bring video into the mix.

Here’s the direct link to the webinar how-to presentation on my SlideShare channel, and let me know in the comments below if you have questions or feedback.

In preparing the keywords section for our July 26 webinar with Travel Online Partners about SEO basics for tourism, I was struck by the obvious….if you have a rich vocabulary and are good at crafting descriptive sentences and well-organized paragraphs, you are perfect for SEO (Search Engine Optimization.)

Why then do so many think that SEO is some sort of impenetrable, exclusive club for techies? Beyond any mumbo-jumbo you may have heard, SEO means creating content in a way that makes it easy for search engines (and people!) to find it.

Two words for those who may need to do some SEO for content written in English – English major.

Duh, right? Yes, you CAN get a job with it!

So can communications majors, journalism majors, heck even anthropology majors, because you know how to WRITE.

What words will people use in search engines to find your content, and how can you craft content to match what they seek?

Words. Yes, you can DO this….

PS – the SEO webinar info and signup is here, or if you some across this blog post at a later date, it will be available in our Tourism Currents Store, in the Webinar section. Thanks!

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Where are the bloggers who might be a good fit for your destination or attraction, and how in the world do you find them, sort them out and connect with them?

How can you best reach out to online publishers who can become champions for you?

We’re offering a dynamite 90 minute webinar to answer those questions!

I’ve been blogging since early 2006, and my Tourism Currents business partner Becky McCray has been publishing online in one form or another since 2003, so we’re pretty well versed in how the community works, what drives bloggers crazy and what kind of outreach can be very successful.

Let us share our hard-won knowledge with you on Thursday, June 30 at 2 pm Central:

Finding Your Online Champions, with Tourism Currents

This one hour and 30 minute webinar plus Q&A will help you find your champions and other digital publishers, connect with them online and off, and increase their support of your destination marketing efforts.

It’s all part of our buildup to the Tourism track at BlogWorld and New Media Expo in Los Angeles, November 3-5 (where a blogger speed-dating session with CVBs and DMOs is on our menu!)

Here is what you will take away from the webinar

1)  Resources and guidance for sifting and finding the right sort of online publishers among the thousands out there.

2)  Tools and techniques for evaluating whether someone is a good fit to work with you.

3)   How to best approach and connect with bloggers and other champions of interest to you.

4)  Why outreach to niche online publishers and smaller audiences may reap bigger dividends for you than trying to chase high-traffic sites and worrying about Klout scores.

Sound good?

The webinar price of $29 includes access to the slides and a recording of the presentation that you can refer to again and again.

Even if you miss the live webinar, you’ll still have access to these items if you’ve registered.

For more information and to register, go here now.

(If you like this post, please consider subscribing to the blog via RSS feed or by email – the email signup box is on the right sidebar near the Search box. Thanks!)

You know that part of CVB that deals with meetings? CVB stands for Convention and Visitors Bureau, after all.

How can you find and connect with the right people and encourage them to consider your destination or venue for their event, when there are so many social media channels – blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter – and so little time?

Join us for a special Tourism Currents webinar on Wednesday, May 18, 2011 starting at 2 pm Central, and we’ll show you how to book more meetings using focused and intelligent social networking with the event planners you want to reach.

We’re excited to be partnering with DMAI (Destination Marketing Association International) and their empowerMINT one-stop RFP service for meeting planners, to bring you this online session. It’s part of a series of interesting educational events leading up to our Tourism track at this year’s BlogWorld and New Media Expo West 2011 (Los Angeles CA, Nov 3 – 5.)

The webinar includes an hour with me, my Tourism Currents co-founder Becky McCray and our (always entertaining!) insights into social networking to connect with meeting planners, then 30 more minutes of Q&A….90 minutes of solid info.

Sound good?  Let us help YOU fill those meeting spaces!

Here’s the Book More Meetings webinar info and signup page - the event is FREE for empowerMINT members and $47 for others.

(If you like this post, please consider subscribing to the blog via RSS feed or by email – the email signup box is on the right sidebar near the Search box. Thanks!)

For those of you who are interested in really ramping up your blogging skills, I’ll be participating in a Webinar next week called the Girlfriend’s Guide to the Business of Blogging.

Conference organizer Debbie Lawrence saw me on Twitter – I don’t shut up much there, either  - and was kind enough to invite me to speak.

There are lots of sessions, all online, across three days (Tuesday, December 8 through Thursday, December 10) all for only US$15.  You can even earn a free ticket through their affiliate program.

Speakers include Michael Martine (Remarkablogger) Julie Gallaher (travel site Things You Should Do) a TweetNote keynote by Charles J. Orlando (he’ll be talking about “How to Build a Sustainable Brand from Scratch—for Less Than $250/mo”) and a lively bunch of others.

My speaking session is scheduled for Thursday, December 10 at 9 am EST (yes, that’s 8 am my time in Texas. Blargh. I hope my coffee is strong!)

It’s called “Let’s Get Visual: How Flickr and YouTube Can Amp Up Your Blog.”

We’ll talk about shooting basic video with a Flip camera or using the video function on most digital cameras, minor editing using software like Microsoft’s MovieMaker (which comes with most PCs) and then uploading to YouTube and embedding back in a blog post. We’ll also discuss the importance of images to the power of your blog’s content, and ways to find great photos through the Creative Commons alternative copyright on the Flickr photo-sharing site. Finally, and very important for human and Google-y search, we’ll talk about how to title, describe and tag both videos and photos so that they can help drive traffic to your blog.

You can read more about Flickr in my guest post Every Picture Tells A Story on the Girlfriend’s Guide blog, and I hope you have time to attend some or all of the webinar sessions. I think it’s a ton of good information for an incredible price, and even better, a portion of the proceeds go to the American Stroke Association in honor of blogger Anissa Mayhew, who recently suffered a devastating stroke.

See you next Thursday?