Cincinnati Social Media Marketing Series for Creatives & Others

Excited about a new partnership with the  Mason-Deerfield Arts Alliance in Cincinnati.  We have teamed to bring together social media educational programming for Creatives: artists, writers, directors of arts organizations, marketing managers for arts organizations and businesses, musicians and anyone who wants to learn more about digital marketing. Here's the full info:

Please join C3: Creating Connections Consulting, LLC and the Mason-Deerfield Arts Alliance for four (4) unique Social Media Marketing seminars that can enhance your marketing efforts; build awareness around your work or organization; and help you to connect with your target audience online. It is our goal to help artists, creatives and leaders of arts organizations to get the digital marketing education that they need to utilize key social media tools to their fullest potential. We're here to assist you in showcasing your work, your organization and your business in the best possible digital light.  Each seminar can be taken independently of the others, but as a series, are designed from an introductory level to the final advanced class.  Not in the arts field? Don't feel left out. Social Media Marketing is key for all organizations, non-profits, small business, and solo-preneurs.  All are welcome to attend.  Space is limited, so register early! 

Seminars and workshops will be taught by Michelle Beckham-Corbin, President & Social Media Strategist at C3. Creating Connections Consulting.  Michelle is a long time trainer and presenter in the social media education field and is a Procter & Gamble Marketing and Customer Business Development alum having spent 15 years with some of the biggest brands in the consumer packaged goods industry. Read more about Michelle here.

Introduction to Social Media Marketing (includes Pinterest)

Date:  Thursday, 4/19

Time:  9:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m. (2 hours)

Cost:  $59.00

This seminar provides an overview of key social media platforms that arts organizations should consider integrating into their marketing efforts in order to reach their target market, build awareness, and establish relationships that lead to an increased call to action response.  We will examine: Facebook Pages, Twitter, Blogs, YouTube and the rapidly exploding Pinterest.  Examples from the Arts Industry will be show-cased and live sites will be examined.  Strategic planning and reputation management systems will be discussed. Participants from all fields and industries are welcome!

Learning outcomes:

• Greater understanding of key social media marketing tools
• Importance of setting a social media marketing strategy
• Why goals and measures are important
• How to create a social media plan
• Reputation Management & monitoring tools

 

Additional courses include:

Facebook Page Timeline & Settings Optimization Seminar
Info HERE


Exploding Your Organizations' Reach with Pinterest
Info HERE


Facebook Page Marketing Strategies Seminar
Info HERE




 
 Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2011-2012

Unveiling the Secret Life

Today is the day that I embark on a personal journey. I feel a sense of trepidation as I picture the window of my anonymity being rolled down further than the child safety seat of my comfort zone normally allows. At this stage in the journey, why hold back? More than 1/2 my life has already been written.....

Join me on my journey to the Secret Life of an American Female Entrepreneur:

Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2011

So This Is My Life- No Regrets

Erin Schreyer, President of Sagestone Partners asked me to write a bio highlighting my career, current position and volunteer work for a panel I will be participating in soon. Thought I would house it here in case there are Friends that don't know my story. For the record, I consider my greatest achievements to be the care, nurturing and education of my two children. I walked away from an incredible career building world-class household brands with Procter & Gamble in order to focus on my own home-grown brands, and I'm happy to say I don't regret a single minute of my decision. The kids are doing well and my path led me to C3- which I absolutely am passionate about!

So here you go:

Career History for Strengths & Sisterhood Panel

2/10/11

Michelle Beckham-Corbin, Owner & Principal of C3: Creating Connections Consulting, LLC, a social media marketing strategy firm.

Michelle began her career as a Sales Representative in the Health & Personal Care Division of Procter & Gamble after graduating from Xavier University and rose through various Customer Business Development & Marketing management positions during her 15 year career with P&G. Along the way, she acquired an MBA in Management. Michelle later left P&G to devote more time to her two young children and to offer her organizational & training talents to family- based non-profit, Beech Acres Parenting Center, as a Contract Facilitator & Trainer for several long-running programs.

After several years, she returned to the business world working for a local marketing firm and became fascinated by the early world of Social Media. As she built up her knowledge base of digital media, she was sought after by many companies for her expertise. Her husband encouraged her to hang her own shingle and C3 was officially born in early 2009. Today she works with corporate clients, non-profits and start-ups consulting, coaching, training and speaking on all things social media.

Outside of running her company, and keeping tabs on her two high school children’s activities, Michelle is an active volunteer in the community. She is a former Girl Scout Leader, PTO Board Secretary, Parish Council Member and Lector for her Church. Michelle is a Board Trustee for the non-profit group Authentic Leadership Cincinnati and is on the Board of the IHM Job Search Ministry Group where she shares her knowledge of Web 2.0 job search strategies and social media promotion with those in transition. She is a member of the Steering Committee for the digital networking group, New Media Cincinnati and is the host of AC-TV talk show, Trustee Talk, on Warner Cable. Michelle is a frequent speaker, lecturer and trainer. Additionally, she is a published writer, co-author of Social Media book, Age of Conversation 3 (Channel V Books, New York, 2010), frequent commenter and Blogger.

She brings great energy and passion as well as a keen ability to deeply connect with people in order to create business building social media opportunities for her clients.

~So there you have it. Not the Bio that my clients usually see. This is the back story......


Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2011

The Sweet Spot: Where Passion & Career Collide

Imagine the infinite possibilities that await you when you follow your passion.....




Full text of the post referred to in the video can be found here.

Want to join the conversation? Need help in navigating your passion? Contact me here and let's talk!

Also:

I am looking to establish a mentor/mentee program for women. If you have any interest on either side of the equation, please send me your name & contact information. You can reach me: Michelle@CreatingConnectionsConsulting.com

Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2010

Meeting Trevor Hurst of Econoline Crush

One of the wonderful things about social networking is that you can connect with interesting people that you don’t know initially who can go on to become friends, clients and business partners. There is something freeing about the internet that makes it easier for even the most introverted among us to reach out and really touch someone. Remember the old AT&T Commercials:

I recently met someone quite famous on-line in a web-conference type scenario. The thing is I had no clue who he was at the time, only his location: Canada. I could deduce a few things about him from our conversation: his demeanor, looks and choice of wording. I gave him my candid impression of his “personal brand”: rocker (as in musician) and sensitive guy with a vocabulary style that screamed out ‘writer’. These were all characteristics that he did not mention himself. Apparently, I was dead on because he was surprised by my description and asked if I knew who he was; which of course I did not.

The unknown guy told me that he was indeed a musician and a songwriter and gave me the name of his band, Econoline Crush and one of their biggest hits, “You Don’t Know What It’s Like.” I had never heard of either but was intrigued. Being the skeptic and ardent Googler that I am, I quickly did a search while we were still talking (multi-tasking comes in handy at times!) and came up with a very slick video on YouTube for the song.

Yep, the guy I was talking to looked like the lead singer in the video sans dark black eyeliner and tight leather pants. Still slightly skeptical, I half-joked that if he truly was a celebrity, he probably had a personal Twitter account. I assumed he would tell me that he didn’t, instead he promptly gave it to me and suggested I send him a Tweet later.

We could have left it at that and gone our merry ways, but curiosity got me and I later found the Twitter account he mentioned and sent him an @message. He immediately followed me and fired back with a response. Did some research and discovered that he was truly Trevor Hurst, the lead singer and front man for Econoline Crush. Apparently they were very hot in the 90’s, disbanded for a time and reunited in 2007. They have released 4 albums: Purge (1994), Affliction (1996), The Devil You Know (1997), Brand New History (2001) and Ignite (2008). EC received two Juno nominations; and their “Devil You Know” album went Platinum.

Their music has been described as Industrial Alternative Rock and they have toured with bands like Hinder, Three Days Grace, Alice Cooper and KISS. I continue to keep up a Twitter DM relationship with Trevor, answering his questions and sending him occasional advice on his Twitter account and EC Facebook Page.

Econoline Crush is currently working on a new EP and just completed a campaign on the social fund-raising site IndieGoGo. They will be posting video clips and photos of the recording process on their Facebook Page.

Trevor comes across as being very intelligent and creative with a keen sense of what is important to him: entertaining audiences and sharing his creativity with fans. He is sensitive, articulate and was a pleasure to bump into on the social media highway. Really glad I did.

Here are some Cincinnati area bands that are active on Twitter & Facebook. Maybe you can bump into Drew, April, Laurie or Scott in real life at a local venue. Just ask first before reaching out and touching them…..

Drew LaPlante

Honneycombs

Tupelo Honey

Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2010 ~All Rights Reserved

Celebrating Social Media Day Cincinnati Style

Imagine setting aside one day out of the year to celebrate and build awareness around social media across the world. Top Social Media Blogger Mashable has declared Wednesday, June 30th, 2010: Social Media Day. Mashable states that this day was created “to celebrate the revolution of media becoming a social dialogue.”

Cities around the world are creating their own unique twists around the day and communities everywhere will be able to link their content on Twitter, Flickr and YouTube via the common hash tag #smday. You can keep tabs on the global celebration by connecting to the Social Media Day Facebook Page or Twitter feed.

Here in Cincinnati, the day is being organized by local social media networking group Cincinnati Social Media (#CincySM on twitter) founded by Kevin Dugan, Dan Lally and Dave Knox in partnership with Ignite Cincinnati. Ignite is a cool presentation concept with a quirk. The Ignite website describes it as:

“…a night of presentations with a twist. 14 presenters each get 5 minutes to talk about their subject. 20 slides that auto advance after 15 seconds. It is quick, fun, smart and fills the Know Theater.“

Cincinnati Social Media is known for sponsoring topical, thought-provoking seminars in cool spaces across the city which sell-out within an hour or two of posting. Read more about previous CincySm events here.

Wednesday’s event will occur at the Lavomatic Cafe in the OTR Gateway (Cincinnati’s historic Over the Rhine district) from 5:00 p.m.- 6:15 p.m. According to the event page, free drinks and appetizers will be available until the tab has been reached. This will be followed by the Ignite 3 presentations at close-by Know Theater. The event sponsor is Vitrue, a company focused on technology solutions for social media management.

Here’s an example of a recent Cincinnati Ignite presentation featuring Candace Klein, attorney and founder of the micro-lending program for women: Bad Girl Ventures.

All are welcome to attend Social Media Day Cincinnati, but you will need to pre-register here.

Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2010

Big Blue Line Mourns Another Fallen Brother

Social Media is changing how the world communicates. The ability to quickly spread news across various social media vehicles certainly is a benefit from bygone days with much slower communication methods. Take a look at how fast news of the election protests in Iran and the earthquake in Haiti spread on Twitter in the past year. Images and video were captured and launched around the world to thousands within minutes, long before traditional media was broadcasting on the ground.

When sad news hits close to home, it becomes even more evident how useful social media applications can become in spreading important messages quickly. On the evening of Friday, April 2nd, well-known St. Xavier High School Senior football star and USA Today First Team All-American, Matt James, died after falling off a balcony at his hotel while on Spring Break in Panama City, Florida. The news spread rapidly via text messages and a Facebook Group Page was quickly established: “R.I.P. Matt James”. The Facebook Group Page posted over 3,000 members by Saturday morning (roughly a 12 hour time span) and nearly 8,000 in less than 24 hours. St. Xavier students used social media to put out a call for action to meet at the school for a prayer vigil at 11:00 p.m. Friday night. The Facebook Group Page gave mourners a place to share their thoughts and memories about Matt and to offer condolences to his family.

Matt James was a young man loved by many with incredible talents both on and off the football field. He was scheduled to graduate in June and join fellow football recruit Luke Massa at Notre Dame for the fall under former UC coach Brian Kelly. St. Xavier spokesperson, Mark Motz, was quoted on the ESPN College Football Website as saying about Matt, “His message was that we have to take care of one another."

St. Xavier, the largest Jesuit boys’ school in the United States, is known for their motto: “Men For Others”. Last night, the students of St. Xavier exemplified this belief as they quickly organized a prayer vigil and ensured that their classmates heard the news about their fallen brother as soon as possible, given that many had fanned out with family for the start of Spring Break. Unfortunately, for this tight-knit community, this was a drill that they had been through before. I wrote about a similar call to action last fall, when students rallied together to support Junior classmate Kevin Le, after he was struck by a car. Kevin hung on to life for several days prior to succumbing to his substantial injuries. Read about Kevin Le HERE.

Funeral arrangements are still pending at the time of this posting. Please check the Facebook Group Page for additional details or to leave your thoughts on the Wall.

As you approach this holiday weekend, take some time to unplug: turn off the smart phones, notebooks and laptops and spend some quality time with friends and family. You won’t regret it…..

Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2010

Building Trust in a Virtual World

Michelle Beckham's Blog

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Building Trust in a Virtual World

March 5, 2010 · 2 Comments

People live their lives today pressed between the flowing pages of Twitter and the back and forth banter of blogs. They connect with professionals via their profiles on LinkedIn and run them through Google search as a matter of routine background check. Presented with rich content, they sift through the information trying to determine the desired level of connection.

The tentacles of their personal brand are out there on the social media highway, reaching out and touching each person who zips by. These “brands” try hard to be engaging, hoping that the hook they thrust out is the one that will spear them in, bringing the friend/fan/follower front and center to the hub of their existence: the place where they make the sale.

This can’t happen without taking the conversation to a deeper place where they can become intimately connected to each other. How we get there is a matter of trust and is a crucial point in establishing lasting relationships. Those who have presented themselves in an authentic way on-line will appear seamlessly the same in person, while others who have experimented with on-line personas that don’t truly represent who they are will find continued relationships lacking as purchasers of the brand discover the existing holes.

Trust will always be an inherent part of taking the next step, but it is a developed risk needed to arrive at a deeper level of doing business. Today establishing a brand identity and a unique value proposition involves not only trust but truly being authentic in a very transparent way.

Life is a Highway: Adding Some Road to My Words

News Flash:

Have finally gotten my writing space organized into the three realms where my words will exist. They are:

• Here at Kaleidoscope Discoveries:

Creative Writing, Random Thoughts, Slice of Life Essays

• C3 Website Biz Blog- All things on the seriously business side of social media & business development

• *NEW* Blog- Michelle Beckham's Blog (ok, the title really needs to be tweaked!)- all things on Social Media from my personally, unique perspective. This is where I am as authentic as it gets; where being PC gets put aside in favor of the stark, naked truth as I see it. Will also be a birds'-eye view of how I use social media in my life and in my business.
  

It's a highway and I'm on a journey of discovery. Come along and hitch a ride with me. I promise you won't be disappointed and you certainly will be entertained!



Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2009

SummitUp: A Social Media Confab in Images

Fabulous SummitUp Social Media Conference in Dayton this week. Will be posting key take-aways at a later date, but wanted to get the vid that I created from some pics that I took at the event up on the Blog. Just a bit of a video montage:






Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2009

Social Media in Dayton

Next week finds C3 in Dayton participating in two exciting Social Media events. The first is the SummitUp conference which consists of local and national speakers. I was excited to register for this conference because one of the keynote speakers is a Twitter personality and social media guru that I respect, Chris Brogan. Was thrilled to get to hear him speak live (have participated in a couple of webinars that he has been part of) and to get a copy of his new book. Recently found out that I was the winner of a Twitter contest whose prize is a seat at the speakers' table for this event. Now I am triply thrilled about going!!!

The second event is one in which I will be speaking on, or rather leading a discussion around Social Media and how a successful strategy can help to build business. It is a very unique event that is part of Cox Media's Dynamic Dialogue Series and involves three speed discussions that rotate for the first hour of the event. The second hour will be spent with more traditional networking with food and drinks all within the gorgeous back drop of the Dayton Art Institute.


My friend and Internet Marketing Czar, Rob Bunting, does a great job detailing the event and interviewing event coordinator, Cathi Eastman from Cox Ohio Media. Check it out here.


Chris Brogan's book: "Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust".

Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2009

Reaching Out Through Social Media

What would you do if you found a long forgotten journal that detailed every day of your high school life? Imagine what would happen if the very first love of your teenage life, lifted from the pages of said journal, finds you via Twitter and you begin a conversation many decades later. What would happen if those present day conversations began to include pages from the forgotten journal that detail the birth and death of that first love between the two of you?

I do have that journal (among many others) and my first boyfriend from age 13 recently found me through Twitter. Actually the truth of the matter is that he found me via Classmates.com (who even remembers they have a profile on this archaic site!). Received an email letting me know that "someone" signed my guest book (WTH- guest book???). Followed the link and saw who it was, but could not read the message he had left for me because I wasn't a paying Gold member. Is anyone a member of Classmates.com? Why would you want to pay for info that you can get for free on other social media sites??

Imagine getting a message that someone left for you- someone you had heard nothing about since you were a junior in high school- and you were unable to see what the message contained!!! I was dying to find out what he possibly would have to say to me so many years later--so I circumvented the program (long story) and was able to get a simple message to him: "Google me for contact info."

Well he happened upon my Twitter profile, and despite being part of the clueless over 35 population with regard to social media tools, he created a Twitter profile and proceeded to make contact with me. I was shocked to say the least. Since then, we have taken our tweeting to email. I have been sharing the pages of his life with him as seen through my eyes and it has been a completely fascinating journey.

I am seeing myself through adult eyes as well and looking at the pre-cursor of who I am today. I have written many posts expounding on my belief that we truly are made up of a sum of our experiences and interactions with the people who travel our path in life. I am so blessed to be crossing paths again with so many people who played an integral part in helping to shape who I am today and I thank social media applications for enabling these connections to happen.


Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2009

The Art of Creating Conversations: Dynamic Dialogues Social Media Event

A little Picasso, some oozing Brie nestled among the foie gras, Chopin playing lightly in the background and the sound of a whistle calling all social media enthusiasts to their discussion tables. Piqued your interest? Come check out my latest Social Media Event:

C3 was approached by Cox Media/Dayton B2B Magazine to be a Discussion Leader at a very unique social media event for local businesses on October 21st, 2009 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.. The event is part of the Dynamic Dialogues Series and the topic for this event will be "New Media: Effective Business Applications". This will be an incredibly unique event not only for its format, but also for it's venue. The format is reminiscent of speed dating or speed networking. Participants will receive a "dance card" of sorts indicating which three of the many discussion tables they will be visiting on a 20 minute rotation that night. The event is being held at the Dayton Art Institute among the many inspiring pieces in the museum's collection. When the rotation hour is up, all participants meet up for general networking, wine and hors d'oeuvres. This gives people a chance to continue some spirited discussions previously interrupted by the rotation bell as well as to make contact with a discussion leader that was not on the "dance card".

Sounds to me like a great time! This follows the big SummitUp Social Media conference being held the day before at Wright State University featuring my favorite social media guru: Chris Brogan. I like Brogan's style: straight to the point with humor. He keeps it real and most importantly he practices the main principle of social media: conversation. The guy actually responds to tweets, despite having 102,308 followers this very minute. Now watch, someone is going to burst my bubble and tell me that he is operating @chrisbrogan with a staff of ghost tweeters like Guy Kawasaki!

Anyway, if you like social media, wine, cheese, moonlight and great art-you need to check this event out and sign up immediately. The last event in this series SOLD OUT!



Check out info here: Dynamic Dialogues Event

Let me know if you are stopping by!

Image Credits: inside919.ning.com
www.architettura.uniss.it/.../1374/1/30/
Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2009

Social Media Ranting: Time to Dialogue!!

Ok, this is simply pathetic. It has been so long since I lasted posted that Blogger has changed it's background design and added some new capabilities. Ugggh. Have been incredibly busy with the business and new clients and projects. All good- but so many very cool things to work on and so little time. I already have lots of people asking me 'when do I sleep?' Ummm, are the dark circles showing or are they just following me on all of the spokes of my social media presence?? I need a clone now!! Preferably one that can make incredible gourmet meals; bake goodies to share with others; clean my house so that it doesn't look like it has been taken over by dust mites; attend out-of-town seminars like the very cool social media event going on in Boston- wait, I WANT to attend that event- the clone can work on client projects...... Anyway,

I have been meaning to blog on several key business/networking events and hoping to deposit the impressions of my experiences in a brand new business blog dedicated to all things flying around in my C3: Creating Connections World- but just couldn't get the blog going and it was causing a stalemate in the writing end of things. No point in developing brilliant business analysis if you have no garage to park it in, so back to Kaleidoscope Discoveries, which as the explanation and disclaimer states: is a place for my random musings.

So, here are some key events that will be future blog posts on the new Biz Blog (coaching note to self- write it down on the To Do list and put a date next to it with the letter 'A'- can we say graduate of Franklin Planner Time Mangement System???):

• New Media Cincinnati 2nd Saturday Event-Topic: Dealing with Competitors
• Digital Hub Inititative non-Conference- Very cool Social Media/Digital Event- won a prize for being the most prolific tweeter of Day 1 at the event #dhi09- link is to Chuck Gose's recap

• Get Motivated! Seminar featuring Laura Bush, General Colin Powell, Rudy Giuliani and others. I have lots to say on this!!!! Would I do it again?......NO!!!

Want to leave you with some very cool quotes from a very eye-catching (especially in the title) presentation on Social Media by Marta Kagan.


"Technology is shifting the power away from the editors, the publishers, the establishment, the media elite. Now it's the people who are in control."

-Rupert Murdoch, Global Media Entrepreneur


"The word blog is irrelevant. What's important is that it is now common and will soon be expected that every intelligent person (and quite a few unintelligent ones) will have a media platform where they share what they care about with the world."

-Seth Godin, Author

Ok, last one from the presentation creator herself:

"If your product sucks, then social media won't fix it."

-Marta Kagan

Amen. I'm outta here- back to the social media of my own business. Remember folks it's all in the conversation. Strike up a dialogue- you just might like what happens (hey, you can quote ME on that one!).










Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2009