What's your Cause?
This weeks radio interview is with Barbara Saunders from SECP.
What’s Your Cause?
While I spend a lot of time in this newsletter focused on writing articles about businesses and how a business can grow, or about writing and how to build a marketing platform, I also think it’s important to sometimes look beyond the professional and focus on the service aspect, specifically what causes you support.
What is your cause? What is a social, environmental, political, or economic issue you believe in that requires some form of activism and participation, in order to create some changes in the world? Having a cause can help you find some clarity for your life and your goals, because the cause provides you perspective outside of yourself, your clients, your family, and friends. It connects you to an issue that touches or effects more than just the people you know, and may sometimes effect more than just people.
I have a few causes that I believe in and focus on. I believe in contributing time to taking care of the environment, whether it’s planting trees and other plants or pulling out invasive species. I believe in teaching people about economic activism through networking, and how that can be used to promote genuine change and collaboration. And just recently I’ve started researching information about African Elephants, because I want to donate some of my finances to help out elephants.
What’s your cause? What do you believe in? What can you do to support your cause?
Upcoming Classes:
How to Use a Blog to Promote Your Business
When: Tuesday, April 14 2009 6-8:30pm
Where: 1562 Se Tacoma St. Portland or 97206
Cost: $75.00
You’ve heard of blogs, online journals where people write about different subjects and can sometimes use them to market your business, but how does it work? In this class, I’ll explain what a blog is, how it can promote your business and how you can automate it.
In this class you will learn:
- What a blog is
- How to set-up a wordpress or blogger blog
- How to use feedburner to automate your blogs
- What blog directory sites to get on to promote your blog
- How to get your blog entries onto Twitter
- How to use blog widgets with your blog
- How to let people subscribe to your blog by email
- How to make your blog professional and tasteful
How to use Linkedin and Biznik to promote your business
When: Tuesday April 21st 2009 6-8:30pm
Where: 1562 Se Tacoma St. Portland or 97206
Cost: $75.00
Linkedin and Biznik are two of the more popular social networking sites available to professionals and entrepreneurs, but often I hear that people aren’t sure how to use these sites or how they will get you clients. I was once even told that someone thought that Linkedin was just another job hunting site. In this class, I clear up the confusion about these sites and show you how to automate them.
You will learn:
- How to set up a profile on Linkedin and Biznik
- How to use the Status update on Linkedin
- How to use the Question and Answer forum on Linkedin
- How to use Biztalk on Biznik
- What the groups feature is and how to use it on Linkedin and Biznik
- Why the recommendation/compliment can be helpful for growing your business.
- Why writing an article/putting on an event can be useful for raising your visibility.
- The protocol for inviting people into your network
How to use Facebook and Twitter
When: Tuesday April 28th 2009 6-8:30pm
Where: 1562 Se Tacoma St. Portland or 97206
Cost: $75
Facebook and Twitter are two social networking sites which are increasingly becoming prominent in the social media world, but how can you use these sites to grow your business, and is it really worth your time? I’ll explain how to use and automate these sites, so you can grow your business and still have time to live your life. In this class you will learn:
- How to setup a profile on facebook and create a fan page for your business.
- How to create an event listing on facebook.
- How to balance between personal and professional on facebook.
- What twitter is and what tools to use to make twitter useful.
- How to set up an rss feed from your blog to twitter via twitter feed.
- How to automate your status updates to different websites so you only have to update through twitter.
- The etiquette for using Twitter
How to use Plaxo, MySpace, and i-list
When: Monday May 4, 2009: 6-8:30pm
Where: 1562 Se Tacoma St. Portland or 97206
Cost: $75
When people hear about MySpace, they may think of teenagers and rock bands, but did you know that Seniors and Baby Boomers are increasingly using it? Learn how to use MySpace to reach that part of your client base, while also learning about Plaxo and how you can automate your presence on it. I-list is a site which allows you to list events on Facebook, Twitter, and other sites, as well as promote those events to your contacts on your email. In this class you will learn:
- Learn how to set up a profile on Plaxo
- Learn how to automate Plaxo
- Learn how to set up a profile on Myspace
- Learn why MySpace is for more than just kids and why you may need to use it to grow your business.
- How to post a blog on MySpace
- How to use i-list to announce your events to craigslist, facebook, gmail, twitter, and other social media sites.
- How to set-up a profile on i-list.
RSVP Taylor at imagineyourreality@gmail.com or 
503…
to sign up for the class.
Cost per class is 75 USD. Total cost for all four classes = 300 USD. If you sign up for all the classes, when you first RSVP me, I’ll give you a special rate of 250 USD for all four classes.
