Archive | June, 2010

How to Prepare and Make Best Effective Use of the 2010 BDPA Technology Conference

By on June 30, 2010 in BDPA

That’s right. A meeting before the meeting to help you take advantage of the meeting. Only this time it’s in webinar form.

Many of us have attended generic self help seminars focusing on networking with strangers in a conference or meeting setting. However I had not heard of one that preps you for a specific upcoming meeting, until now, and I love the idea. Wish I had thought of it.

For you shy types hoping to get over your fears of meeting strangers before the 2010 BDPA Technology Conference at the end of July, read this. Milt Hayne’s repost for a Thursday, July 1st webinar on the subject is going to help you get over it and get ready for Philly by the weekend of July 30th-31st. Being comfortable making new contacts is the key to academic, professional and business success.

Curtis Jenkins is going to teach you how to do so on tomorrow, Thursday, July 1st, 4:00-5:00PM eastern. Curtis is the National V.P. of Strategy and Planning for the Black Data Processing Associates so he is in the know on how to work the room.

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 Curtis Jenkins

Read Milt’s post on instructions for registering  for the webinar and make your trip to Philadelphia an effective one.

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Inbound Marketing University Class 2

By on June 30, 2010 in Blogging, General Interest, Google, Google Analytics, SEO

SEO Crash Course to Get Found

Lee Odden of TopRank Online Marketing was the leader of this class. The homework assignment this time was to “Write a blog article that explains why a marketer would want to include SEO in his or her web marketing”. Since it worked so well for me on the first assignment I’ll stick to the three-takeaways format. The presentation was loaded with great Search Engine Optimization tips but here is what I settled on.

  • When it comes to ensuring that your posts are found and indexed by Google’s search spiders text is the key. Search engines look for words not images so you don’t want your site too picture or Flash heavy if automated ranking is important to you. Don’t restrict yourself to word of mouth only and bells and whistles to grow your blog readership. Consistently writing solid keyword intensive content is still the key.
  • Inbound links also help elevate your blog’s position on search engine results pages. Mores specifically, links from authoritative sites are the key here. Good content again is how you make that happen. Be a thought leader that people want to save and fave.
  • And key point number three for me involves search analytics. Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics are must haves. The Webmaster Tools help optimize your site. The analytics code helps you track and analize readership traffic on your site. HubSpot has an analytics tool that Lee recommends as well. It also has a bunch of other tools that I wasn’t aware of. I will definitely begin incorporating more of each into my blogging and social media repertoire.

Here’s the lecture from class number 2. Take a look and listen for yourself and see what else you may find useful.

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Blogging While Brown 2010, Technology Review Panel

By on June 30, 2010 in Blogging, facebook, General Interest

Saturdays are the typical meaty day of information and learning during Blogging While Brown weekend and this year was no different. The first panel on June 19th was a Technology Review featuring Cheryl Contee of Jack and Jill Politics, Angela Benton of Black Web 2.0 and Adam Conner of Facebook’s Washington, D.C. office.

There were so many great comments and suggestions that I can’t properly credit each answer to each panelist. I was making my first attempt at live Facebooking and Twittering and between that and my notepad I just lost  track of myself (LOL). But here are a few items that stood out to me as things to follow up on post-conference.

  • One of the panelists mentioned the value of having contributing writers for your blog. That’s a good point. You add fresh perspective and new ideas in that way. For political blogs in particular you can submit your site to Google as a political resource.
  • Add widgets designed for personal interests. It’s a way of improving your site as a design change. I might add that  contracting or having a good programmer on your blogging team could prove beneficial too.
  • Use Disqus as a commenting platform for your blog. Jack and Jill Politics uses it to manage their commenting community. Seems like a good management tool.
  • Many colleges and universities have ceased establishing new student email accounts on their servers. Instead they use texting and Facebook communities.
  • Semantic widgets were mentioned as a potential tool for our blogging tool  boxes.

Another that seems to have great potential for wider spread use is something called augmented reality. Seems to have been around for a little while but here’s more in case it’s new to you as it was for me. According to the Wikipedia page on the matter “With the help of advanced AR technology (e.g. adding computer vision and object recognition) the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally usable.” In reading only that much I’m imagining business possibilities from my animation curriculum. Thanks again Blogging While Brown!

The panelists were outstanding, giving us insights into their world as successful bloggers and answering questions from the floor. Each of them had a key take away that was valuable to me. Cheryl suggested the we invite consistent commenters to be contributing post writers and integrate them into our team. Angela suggested incorporating webisodes into our sites.

The keys for me though were the main reason I went to the conference this year, social media tips and Adam gave me a good twofer on fine tuning Fan pages. One was the official Facebook Pages page and Facebook Insights, the social media company’s analytics tool to measure your fan page traffic. I have the foundation set for my new company’s fan pages and these tools definitely solidify the ground beneath me.

I thought it couldn’t get much better than this but there was more great subject matter to come the rest of the day. More about those panels in the coming days.

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Supreme Court Ruling Protects Chicagoans From Mayor Daley

By on June 28, 2010 in General Interest, Politics, Society

Thank God the Supreme Court overturned the idiotic gun control laws of Chicago. Even though Mayor Daley’s administration is working feverishly to respond with new laws to restrict hand gun purchases within the city limits, we finally have a chance to protect ourselves and not be legalized victims. For the first time in years criminals have to take into account the possibility of actually dying before committing murder and mayhem. I’m thoroughly convinced all it will take is capping a few malcontents like the dogs they are and we’ll see a precipitous decline in violence. The statistics back up my assertion but more on that later.

As hopeless and desperate as some people say some of these guys are I don’t think any criminal is so depressed as to WANT to be killed to make a score. No doubt some have lost all hope and believe life is useless but not most. But hey, if a particular bad boy is ready to risk life itself, oh well. Help him meet is maker is what I say. After all they’re quite happy to help you get there.

While I completely support social programs to help people turn their lives around and improve their conditions they are not the one and only answer for all ills. Why, because everyone will not be changed. Programs to create knowledge and opportunities definitely help change lives. I know plenty of people who have been helped by any variety of government and non-profit programs. However, with the wide variety of opportunities available in neighborhoods nationwide there are still people who won’t take advantage of them but who instead will run headlong towards making wrong life choices with no consideration for or maybe no care for the consequences. Consequently we still have to deal with those types simultaneously while we’re changing the lives of others who want to do it the right way.

So I’m encouraging law abiding Chicagoans and citizens around the country to legally purchase handguns immediately. Register for shooting classes at approved ranges and learn how to properly use your weapon. Statistics show that where a high rate of legal gun ownership exists, gun crime practically does not exist. For those idealists who have embraced their victomhood, let them have it. I’m perfectly O.K. with them being thug target practice. But not me.

Also, join the National Rifle Association which advocates for 2nd Amendment rights as outlined in the U.S. Constitution. If someone breaks into your home and threatens you do what’s necessary. Better them than you and if someone has to die at least now there’s a better chance of you being alive to tell the tale.

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Blogging While Brown 2010 in Review, Friday the 18th

By on June 28, 2010 in Blogging, Business

This year’s Blogging While Brown Conference in Washington, D.C. was great as usual. Actually I rate it as better on a personal level since, as a second time attendee, I was meeting old friends from last year again. Many of us tweet and Facebook through out the year to stay in touch so the reunion effect was really nice. Made more new friends this year too of course and I’ll introduce you to some of them over the next few days.

I got into the nation’s capitol on Friday afternoon and didn’t get to catch the first session Who We Are, What it Means, Why We Matter. Had to check into the hotel and freshen up after a full day of travel. Fortunately Maurice Cherry one of the panelists had someone taking notes which you can read here. Maurice is the owner of 3eighteen media and creator of The Black Weblog Awards. He was joined on the panel by University of Iowa professor Dr. Andre Brock, and blogger Anna John of Sepia Mutiny.

It was good to see Andre again and to meet Maurice. He and I had a chance to chat briefly while I took some video of him and Lamar Tyler – one half of the Black And Married With Kids blog – talking to each other. Didn’t meet Anna – because I missed the panel – and walked by her a couple of times during the weekend not realizing who she was so may be we’ll catch up next time around.

Speaking of meeting new people, I bumped into a couple of folks on the way from the Metro to the conference center. At the rail station near the center I met Patrice Muhammad of the Fascinating Womanhood blog who happened to be asking the attendant for directions to the Washington D.C. Conference Center, the conference meeting site.  Along the way we met a young guy, Leon Scott who helped us find the right meeting room in the humongous center. Check out his site and Listen to Leon for his humorous take on life.

A fun tradition of Friday night is game night. After the panel there was light food for the dinner hour. Got a chance to roam the room with my camera and video cam (continuing to network as I went along of course) and got some nice stills and digital film. Working on composing the images into something decent very soon so hang tight.

After chowing and hearing from a few sponsors we got down to the fun part of the evening. We had seriously amazing prizes this year. I sat in at the spades table with Andrea Amir of Smart Money Chicks. We played Danyelle Smith Little, The Cubicle Chick , and Curtis Johnson the Communications Associate for the NAACP’s national office. Andrea and I dispatched Danyelle and Curtis and moved on to the championship round against Michelle and Deirdre on our way to winning netbooks. Yeah, netbooks, niiiice.

As you can see we had a wide range and breadth of professional and online experience to mix and mingle with and learn from. And this was just Friday night. Over the next few days this week I’ll write about my insights from the great panels during the main Saturday sessions. Plenty of great tools you’ll be able to use for your personal and professional blogging. Stay tuned.

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Inbound Marketing University Class 1

By on June 23, 2010 in Blogging, Business, General Interest

How to Blog Effectively for Business

Now that spring quarter is over and I have the summer to myself, I am back to working on my first social media certification. HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing University was recommended to me within the last year but I couldn’t fit it in with classes, work and home work so now is the time and today was day one of my certification studies. And perfect timing now that my new company Aqueduct Media Corp. has officially launched online this week.

Part of my homework assignment was to write a blog post about three best practices that I will adopt into my blogging strategy. Smart strategy on their part to assign work that spreads their reputation. Not a best practice directly from the video but definitely one I noticed and will begin to incorporate. But take a look at my three take-away’s. Perhaps these or others may inspire you to improve your blogging.

The first best practice is one that I believe I’d ever thought of before and it involves managing your blog roll. Specifically cluing in on how to keep yours relevant. The helpful hint is to make it a habit to follow comments back to the commenters sites and read their blog rolls. That’s of course where you’ll see what interests them. Over time you should see a handful or more of common blog roll links on your most frequent commenters sites and that’s your que to include them on your blogroll as helpful links for the rest of your readers.

Best practice number two is to pick happy and passionate bloggers as contributing writers to add content to your blog. That makes perfectly natural sense to me. My contributing blogger Bridget Wright is one such person. I’m a happy go lucky guy in general and can’t stand to be around emotional boat anchors. Best to have a complimentary personality to keep the online tone consistent so this confirms how I operate. I’ll stay intentionally conscious of it should we decide to grow our team.

Tip number three is somewhat related to point one. Write about what interests your readers. Their blog rolls will give you an indication of this. I think focusing on fewer topics will help me get there. Up to this point I’ve been writing about a lot of personal interests some of which resonate with my readers from time to time but not consistently. A little more balance towards user needs and less towards personal musings. My mix will begin trending towards media, arts and techy stuff all of which grad school and my new company are about so I think I’ll have this under control sooner than later.

Take a look at the video and see which three tips can help improve your blogging. I also encourage you to create an account, go through the entire series and see if you don’t come out a better blogger at the end.

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Gallery Guichard A Chicago Arts Showcase

By on June 23, 2010 in General Interest

Gallery Guichard is one of south Chicago’s signature arts display houses. Ensconced in the Bronzeville neighborhood it’s home base of some the city’s best talent. The gallery is owned by artist Andre Guichard and is jointly managed by business partners, wife Frances and Stephen Mitchell.

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Kathryn Born wrote a great post about the gallery on Chicago Now’s Art Talk Chicago blog highlighting the successful first few years of Gallery Guichard. It’s one of the south side’s jewels and the art buying public has taken notice.I’ve been fortunate to meet a couple of the artists while getting to know the arts community in my short time here. Their work is impressive. If you have the opportunity to drop by you should definitely take time to look at Dana Todd’s collection and Kudzai Mutasa’s works.Wasn’t aware until I checked the recently updated gallery web site that one of my favorite artists from out of state is also featured there. Kentuckian Alice Gatewood Waddell has a piece that you can see online. Better check it out before someone else claims it.
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Have a wall in need of something beautiful to be placed on it? You can’t go wrong with any of the portraits from this pool of talent. Stop by Gallery Guichard today and find that special piece to fill in that space.

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McDonalds Franchise History Maker Herman Petty

By on June 14, 2010 in Business, General Interest

Last year I learned the historic significance of one of my favorite McDonalds franchises here in Chicago. Plaques on a building are usually a big deal so one day I made it a point to put the camera in the car and park so I could I read this one.

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Herman Petty (second from right below) was the first Black McDonalds franchisee at this site on 67th and Stony Island in Chicago back in 1968.
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Over the years Mr. Petty has moved on to owning numerous franchises in the McDonalds chain. This current site was reopened in 2008 under the ownership of Yolanda Travis, herself an owner of four franchises under the McDonalds umbrella.
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Current owner Yolanda Travis
So the next time you’re on the south side of town and the hungries start to kick in stop by this historic business anchor for your next cup of coffee and breakfast biscuit.
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And if Yolanda Travis happens to be behind the counter or helping out in the drive through tell her thanks for continuing a great tradition of entrepreneurship.

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Blogging While Brown 2010 Schedule

By on June 10, 2010 in General Interest

Here’s what you’re missing if you haven’t registered for the 3rd annual Blogging While Brown Conference in Washington, D.C. The schedule includes topics such as Yoga, Federal Trade Commission advertising rules for blogs and the business of blogging.

The registration link is still active though so if you still want to go pull out your card and pay now. Hope to see you in D.C. in a couple of weekends.

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Watch What You Wear When You Work From Home

By on June 1, 2010 in General Interest

Those Williams girls are at it again! Well, more specifically Venus, who wore a risque outfit on the court during a tennis match. There’s a lot of opinionated feedback on whether or not the outfit was done in taste, good conscious or just plain old ghetto-fab fashion. Whatever Venus’ goal was, I don’t know if she realizes the impact she made. Or failed to make.

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(Image: Yahoo! News)

Women are criticized constantly on their appearance, from what they wear, to how they wear it, how tight it is, how loose it is, etc. Yes, men certainly are criticized too, but in my opinion, not nearly as much as women. And since I’m not a man, I can’t comment too extensively on that!  But my point is that as women, especially professional women, we have to pay attention to what we wear. Our physical presentation says a lot about us and the image we project. While I am the first to admit that I like to look good, I still maintain that a woman has to pay close attention to what she wears and what signals she’s giving. For instance, why would a woman wear a plunging neckline and then get “offended” when a man’s eyes are drawn directly to her chest? Wasn’t that her point? I’m just saying…

Working from home allows me the flexibility to wear just about anything I want to wear. Whether it’s my pajamas, my workout shorts, fuzzy bathrobe or full office attire, I have those options available at my discretion. But just because I DO have those options available doesn’t mean that I should in fact wear whatever I want to. Why? Because I still have to interact with people on a daily basis.When I have business products delivered to my home office, I can’t answer the door looking any way I want, can I? While I’m sure some attire is acceptable, just because you work from home doesn’t always mean that you can look any way you want. Be comfortable, yes, but risque, no. The UPS man doesn’t need to see what you wear after 10:0 p.m. Again, just saying…

What do you think about Venus’ outfit? Do you think she’s being expressive or edgy? What do you wear when you’re working at home?

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