With all the great events coming up I thought I’d put together a list that might be helpful:

Top 6 Tips To Make Attending Events Worth It:

If you’re like me you’ve been to a bunch of networking events, seminars and business conferences. Some are good and some have been really bad, right? I’m not going to focus on the bad stuff, but suffice to say I created SoCal Action Sports Network because I couldn’t find what I was looking for out there. Now, we’re far from perfect and there’s lots of room for improvement, but we are trying to do things differently and have great events that actually mean something to you and produce the results you’re looking for. Here are 6 tips that might make the difference:

1. Do– Attend the Event. I know this sounds silly, but actually showing up is important. Success has never been determined by “best intentions.” Remember Wayne Gretzky: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Keep in mind attending is only about 50% of the equation. But do save event dates in advance and make attending a priority. See Oct. 12th event here.

Why?

a. Because successful people do what others are not willing to do. If you have a product or service, your competition is probably at our events and making the most of it. Looking for a job? You have competition too–just saying…

b. Because meeting someone at one of our events can help you accomplish your business goals like: getting new customers, finding a new job, finding a supplier/vendor etc. This probably far outweighs the investment of time and money you spend to attend an event. “Be there before the sale.”

2. Do– Have a Goal. Having a goal is the same as having a strategy. It answers the question: Why– What’s the point of this? Ex. Do you want to find 1 new client? Do you want to be a sponsor to reach our members and get the word out about your product or service? Is there 1 person on your must-meet list who you know will attend that could help you find a new job? Once you know WHY, you can start planning WHAT–the tactics or what you’ll do to accomplish your goal when you’re at the event.

3. Do– Your Homework. Also common sense, but how many of you are really using our group on Linkedin to its full potential? My guess is almost none of you… And BTW, this has nothing to do with continual promotional posts on our Discussion Board. How is asking me to buy your stuff a discussion?

Examples:
a. Being part of SoCal Action Sports’ Linkedin group let’s you view member profiles, work history, recommendations and more. You can do keyword searches based on any criteria you want. For example, if you’re looking to connect with someone who has “digital media” experience or is “VP of Marketing” at an upcoming event, all you have to do is put in the keywords and see who comes up. Make a list of people you’d like to meet at the event and seek them out when you get there.

b.Linkedin gives you a limited amount of free “In Mail” to make connections. After you exhaust those you have to pay. But members who belong to the same group can send as many messages to each other free of charge. So what if you made a list of group members you wanted to meet based on your biz goals? Before an upcoming event you could send them a message like, “Hi Julie, we’re both members of SoCal Action Sports Network and I see you’re in printing. I have a friend who’s looking for some fliers.. If you’re attending the next meet up on Oct. 12th it would be great to meet you…” or something like that. Do your homework and come prepared to the event with a plan.

c. Come prepared to ask questions. You’ve got expert Chris Brogan here for 1 night only next week. There will be a Q&A after his presentation or you’ll get some personal time with him if you get a VIP ticket…

4. Do– Bring a Camera, Video and Take Notes. Do you write a blog? Need content that will drive visitors to your site? Content and context is king. Our events are filled with some of the best talent in Orange County from whom you could get great stuff to write about. And what about our speakers and or expert panelists? On Oct. 12th we’ll have bestselling author Chris Brogan who also happens to have the #2 ranked marketing blog in the world. This could be an opportunity for content that would fuel several future blog posts and spur visitor traffic. Post pics or a write-up to your blog, Facebook, Twitter to get a conversation going or whatever.

5. Don’t– Pass Out Business Cards To Every Person. Don’t measure the success of an event by the number of business cards you collect by the end of the night. What would you do with all of these anyway, wall paper your bathroom? If you get someone’s card and send them a blind email, or worse your Newsletter, they will usually delete it. You should get to know someone a little and IF there’s a match, exchange cards. A match could include people in one of 3 categories: 1.) I can help this person. 2.) This person can help me. 3). I know someone who can help this person.

6. Do– Break Out of Your Comfort Zone. It’s fun to be social and talk with the people you know and like–and if they are part of your plan to be successful, then keep it up. Just remember the reason you’re attending. Don’t you hate that awkward feeling of wanting to break into what looks like an interesting group–but you don’t because they obviously ALL know each other? Or you’re just too shy to try and meet anyone? Being quiet and introverted limits your opportunities. You might consider bringing a friend or two of your own to events to be your wing man. But in either case, remember your goal and get it done! Seize the day. Make it happen!

What do you think? Did I leave an important point out?

Engage or Die: What You Still Don’t Know about Social Media Marketing and PR

Tickets to the in-person networking event and presentation are now sold out. But you can still watch Brian Solis’ presentation LIVE or recorded On Demand. So put on your old sweat pants, warm up that dinner and sit down and relax in front of your own computer. We’re recording his presentation so you can watch it On Demand whenever you have time. Thanks to Sponsor Linked OC the reduced price is only $15 when you sign up before Aug. 19th (remaining cost covers camera crew, bandwidth etc to host this service).

Early Bird Registration: General admission ticket $29—($49 after August 19th) SOLD OUT

Early Bird Registration: VIP admission ticket $49— ($79 after August 19th) SOLD OUT

What: A special night of networking with an important keynote by A-list speaker, author and marketing guru Brian Solis. Brian is one of the foremost thought leaders in the category; his new book is called, Engage!

Where: Irvine (venue will be announced soon)

When: Thurs. August 26th, 7:00-9:30 pm

Agenda 7:00-7:45 pm–General & VIP reception and networking

7:45 pm -Welcome and announcements

8:00-9:00 pm Brian Solis keynote

9:00-9:30 pm networking

Who should attend?

Marketers, business owners, managers, executives…

Sponsorship Opportunities:

Wanna be a sponsor? On the same “Make a Payment” page that you can click thru to above, find the second bubble (below Event Registration) and you’ll see “Sponsorship.” Click the bubble and you’ll see a pull-down menu of sponsorships options and pricing. You can email Bryan Elliott at: 1goodbrain@gmail.com

Swag bag:

If you’ve got swag, we’ll put it in a bag and give it out to attendees. Since this is subject to approval, contact me directly if you’ve got something to give. We’re expecting 200+ people… You can email Bryan Elliott at: 1goodbrain@gmail.com

Just fill out the form below and sign up.

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Want to give it a try?

Step 1.

Fill out the form for 1 or more business locations. If you have multiple locations, fill out a new form and click “submit” for each location. That’s it for now! Q. What if my biz is not a traditional brick and mortar shop or I work from home?

This is super cool because you can set up a virtual shop anywhere you want without telling everyone your home address. Just put in your city, state and zip and you’re set. In the address field put in the method of contact: email address, phone number or your website.

Think about this—if you’re a small business that wants to get found in multiple cities, you could set up a location in those cities–e.g.– LA, OC and SD. Are you a Biz Dev Gal who covers a certain territory? Set up multiple virtual locations in various target areas.

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That’s it for now. More questions? Call me directly: 714 318-6086 or email: 1goodbrain@gmail.com
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Here’s what you get:

1. You get a custom ad on our exclusive mobile app: works like Foursquare & Gowalla API– uses GPS and Google Maps to help you reach a targeted, tuned-in local audience.

How is it different from the regular Foursquare or Gowalla? Instead of displaying “everything,” The List only features businesses that have “Special Offers.”

–*Select “Offers” and the app filters only businesses on Bryan’s Local List.

–*Select “Places” and it shows you everything else around you.

–*Customers Check-in to your location so you can validate and authenticate the offer. Keep track of how many customers come in.

–*Customer Check-in’s can also be shared to Facebook and Twitter providing more impressions and attention to your business.

–*Manage your business info and Special Offer from our web dashboard and update in real-time.

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FAQ’s

How many people will have the app? For starters, it’s free to download and we’re telling the 15,000+ registered members in our networks plus advertising it to 5 million potential households that are able to watch our TV show 24 in the OC.

—Next, we’ll put it in applicable app stores for the world to see

—Finally, we’re supporting the app with ongoing TV advertising, promotion thru social networks and other web and media partnerships.

Your business can get a chance to air a custom TV spot for free just for being on The List.

-When we reach 1,000 businesses on The List, I will randomly choose 3 businesses from The List monthly to have the chance to air a free custom TV spot on the show.

- “24 in the OC” reaches potentially 5 million Orange County households + a little up in LA and airs on PBS. One episode plays for a month and airs on average 20x–this translates to approx. 100 million potential impressions.

2. You get your ad emailed to our 15,000+ member community. Each week, I’ll choose 3 companies at random from The List and send out a “Deal of the Week” message with your “special offer.” As our community grows, you’ll reach more and more folks.

How does this compare to other services?

You probably know that traditional methods like print ads, web banners, direct mail, radio and TV cost a lot of money…

Services like Groupon use the power of collective buying to deliver insane deals and potentially lots of customers. But at what cost? The problem is you have to discount your product or service 50% or more and give up nearly 100% of your profit margin. And the offer isn’t always relevant to the receiver.

Google recently relaunched Google Places and you can add a listing and special offer for free. The free listing is a good idea for SEO. But you’d have to pay an additional $25/mo. for Google to color your tiny dot on the map listing a yellow highlight color. The problem is that you’re a tiny dot on a huge map and competing with everyone. You’re also still relying on strangers to find you–many of whom are Lookie Loo’s or only loyal to the lowest price.

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I'd like to thank Brian Solis for this special guest post.

Brian is an amazing talent and thought leader in marketing. He’s also coming to speak to us on August 26th at a special night of fun and networking…

The Social Media Style Guide: 8 Steps to Creating a Brand Persona

Brian Solis is the author of Engage!, a new book that helps brands and businesses build, cultivate and measure success in the new Web.

Anyone who has ever worked in corporate marketing, advertising, and branding is more than familiar with a brand style guide. It’s how we ensured that the brand was represented as intended through marketing aesthetics and messaging – including detailed usage instructions on font, style, color, language, placement, positioning, etc.

It is our bible and adherence to its tenets and instructions is strictly enforced.

However, with the unstructured proliferation of social media within many organizations, the brand style guide is seemingly disregarded or not considered in favor of expediting the creation of profiles in social networks and the participatory engagement that immediately ensues.

Everything the brand was intended to represent is no less important simply because new tools and services make it easier for anyone within the company to reach and connect with markets. The contents and purpose of a brand style guide still apply. In fact, the unification of a brand and what it both evokes and symbolizes is now paramount in this conversational medium to effectively attract, earn, and inspire customers and advocates.

While its highly likely that the design of each social profile works against the brand elements and usage guidelines in the existing style guide, at least in principle, the true quandary and risk in all of this, is the potential for brand confusion and dilution.

In social networks, the brand and how it’s perceived, is open to public interpretation and potential misconception now more than ever. Without a deliberate separation between the brand voice and personality and that of the person representing it, we are instantly at odds with our goals, purpose, and potential stature.

Simply said, the style guide is more important than ever before and it is in dire need of innovation in order to humanize and personify a brand voice and persona, something that people can truly connect to online and offline. Therefore, we need to revisit our core and modernize our story, how we present it, and how we intend to be perceived, setting the tone for engagement and resulting activity.

The goal of a social media style guide is to establish:

- What the brand represents in the social Web

- Its characteristics

- Brand personality traits

- The voice of the brand

- Attributes and voice necessary at the representative level

- Procedures and guidelines for representation, accountability, and workflow

- Metrics for quantifying activity and the intended results

Finding the brand “voice” is not enough however. The result we seek is intentional and aspirational in its design, calculation, presence and overall mission. In my new book Engage, I share a template to help brand managers define the brand personality, characteristics, and overall identity for the brand as well as establishing the voice and behavior of its representatives.

By completing The Brand Reflection Cycle, we uncover a series of important attributes that symbolize the brand, its personalities, and its characteristics, as well as defining and aligning the voice and personal brand of those on the front lines in social engagement.

The goal is to include brand managers and social ambassadors in this exercise to document the words that will personify the brand and what it symbolizes. This is how we bring new ideas to the surface and discuss them in a collaborative environment to renew the value and intention of the brand, making it something truly engaging in the social Web.

The Brand Reflection Cycle is divided into 8 stages designed to not only help us define the brand persona, but also to lay the foundation for a new, more socially inspired and relevant corporate culture and value system.

1. Core Values: The audience, surrounding environment, and the circumstances in which we are summoned contribute to our disposition and character. At the beginning, we need to form a common center of gravity to support the orbiting characteristics that support our mission and purpose. Essentially, we need to specify what we stand for and emanate it through all we do.

2. Brand Pillars: Pillars are the support objects that serve as the foundation to sustain and fortify the brand. It is these pillars that establish the principal, central themes that convey our uniqueness and value, fortified through the social objects we develop and distribute.

3. Promise: The pledge that paves the way to brand meaning and direction is the brand promise. It should answer a simple, yet powerful question: What is our mission and how does it introduce value to those who align with our purpose?

4. Aspirations: No brand is an island, nor is it inanimate. As such, the attributes we define today must continually evolve. Our aspirations are representative of the stature and mission we seek over time, and it’s constant. This is how we compete for the future.

5. Brand Characteristics: Defining the brand characteristics will help us establish the traits we wish to associate with the brand represented through our actions, words, and overall behavior.

6. Opportunities: As we complete this exercise, the identification of the attributes that are not embodied allow us to embrace a path to greater relevance. It’s a combination of who we are and what we offer today and also the opportunities that emerge that allow us to connect to those seeking solutions we had yet to identify.

7. Culture: The brand team must examine the culture of the company, not only what it is today, but ultimately how it should embody our aspirations so that it is readily identifiable in social media. People need something they can align with, and it is our culture that serves as the magnet to our purpose and aspirations. We are all in this together.

8. Personality: It is crucial that we contemplate, review, and designate the elements that we wish the brand to illustrate and represent. This final step in the completion of the Brand Reflection Cycle, is to identify and bring to life the personality and character of the brand through conversations, social objects, and stories. If the brand was a person, how would it appear? How would it sound? How would it interact with others? How would others describe it?

Everything begins with evaluating the brand’s journey through the past to where it is today, and ultimately where it must travel to maintain and continually establish relevance.

As we usher in the era of the next web, the brand style guide requires a social refresh in order to embody purpose, engender affinity, and earn relationships based on trust and value. In a social context, people aren’t looking to earn friendships with avatars or logos, they are seeking the attention of the people who personify the brand and the corresponding values they represent. It’s not just the brand personality that requires examination and establishment. The personality, tenor, and voice of the individuals representing the brand combined with a meaningful culture and mission, contribute to the overall brand experience – whether it’s in social networks or the real world.

The opportunity to update the brand style guide is so much more than a mere exercise. It renews our sense of purpose. It is a chance to breathe new life into everything we create, where and with whom we share it, and how we engage in online societies that contributes to the brand’s universal legacy of and the brand graph that weaves everything together.

Connect with Brian Solis on Twitter or Facebook

Congratulations to SoCal Action Sports Network member Patrick Tomas who was randomly selected to get the Flip Video Mino HD Camera!

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THIS OFFER IS OFFICIALLY OVER

Do you like to shoot video? The folks from Flip Video were one of our sponsors at the last event with Seth Godin and I shot interviews and a bunch of stuff with my own Flip HD. It’s so easy and I had a blast.

Now I want to hook you up with a brand new Flip Video Mino HD [$229 model]. I’ll be giving away one (1) Flip Video Mino HD to one (1) SoCal Action Sports Network member.

To be eligible for the draw you must be a registered SoCal Action Sports Network member. Not registered? Sign in here:

*Legal stuff: because email/internet/computers are not 100% reliable, SoCal Action Sports Network is not responsible for lost data, undeliverable emails or messages.

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Seth Godin in a recent interview in SoCal to talk about Seth’s new book Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? While I’ve exchanged an email and phone call or two with Seth in the past, this was my first time talking to him in person. I found him to be incredibly approachable and outgoing. In the book Linchpin, Seth says, “This time it’s personal.” He told me that he writes books not because he has to to make a living but because the message needs to get out there. He seems to be speaking, and sometimes pleading, in the book to anyone who will listen that it’s okay not to fit in. It’s okay to resist the status quo. Because after all, as he has said, “The reason they want you to fit in is because once you do, they can ignore you.”

It strikes a chord with me and I’m sure many others who have felt at times like they don’t always fit in–perfectly. I’ve always been an entrepreneur of sorts and preferred action over “analysis paralysis” and learned most of what I know through (sometimes painful) trial and error. Like the traveler from one of my favorite poems by Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken” I seem to prefer the unexplored roads.

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

Seth talked to me about not worrying about fitting in, but standing out. Becoming a linchpin is about doing work that matters, giving gifts (metaphor) and being memorable.

One of my favorite quotes regarding the current economy that came from Seth’s 1-hour keynote, not this interview is, “Just because the tide is out, doesn’t mean there’s less water in the Ocean.” Seth’s new book Linchpin is very different from his other books like The Dip, Purple Cow, and Tribes. It’s a timely message about being an artist in your respective profession, shipping (metaphor) and doing it consistently. It’s about reinventing yourself (if it’s necessary). Seth says not to worry if you’re not the best that ever lived at your job. Very few will ever achieve what  Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and other icons of business have done. But that doesn’t matter. Whether you serve coffee or serve on the Supreme Court, Linchpins find a way to do things others cannot or will not. They literally keep things running smoothly in a company and they are not to be overlooked or lost.

True or False…. Seth Godin answers every email he gets. The answer is True (I think). Seth told me that he tries to reply to everyone because it’s about being a citizen for him. And I believe him. Seth really struck me as a champion of the little guy. In many ways I think he has been and still feels like the underdog fighting big corporations, years of dysfunctional status quo. And his wears it like a badge of courage. Incidentally, it’s a fight that he is winning. But he would never take the credit. He understands the value, power and leverage of rallying communities–in fact he wrote the book on it (see Tribes if you haven’t read it).

In this segment I asked Seth about his favorite book. What book of his does HE like most and why? Before you watch this video, can guess? Seth also explains the writing process of one of the most read blogs in the world; Seth’s Blog. He told me he writes about 2,000 posts a year and only a few hundred ever make it online. Seth said that he’s often inspired with ideas when he discovers a need or something that can be done better but a solution doesn’t yet exist. Like the many App ideas he’s challenged anyone to create…or why expensive hotels make you pay for WiFi and less expensive hotels offer it for free…

Seth says, “Fear is the most important emotion people can feel.” He talks about the lizard brain in his book Linchpin. The lizard brain is the “natural man” our animal instincts, our worst side–procrastination, fear and other obstacles preventing us from being successful.

A special thanks to photographers Chris Lorenz and Rich Van Every who did such a great job covering our event!