Online Marketing

This webinar will be taught by Geri Stengel, founder of Ventureneer, and  teacher of Entrepreneurship and Growing Your Business at the New School in New York City.

In Online Marketing: What’s the Right Mix for You? a new, FREE webinar from Ventureneer, you'll learn how to build a cost-effective marketing plan that targets the right people at the right time with the right media.

Entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, and small business owners will leave the webinar understanding how to define and reach their particular markets.

Customers, clients, donors, and investors are just some of the target audiences you might want to get your message but effective marketing isn't about reaching the widest swath of people; it's about reaching the widest swath of potential customers or donors. To do that, you have to know who they are and how they get their information.

This FREE webinar will cover such basics as:

• Know your audience. Which media do they use and why?
• Know what you want to accomplish. Do you want to build awareness, credibility, traffic to your website, attract donors, recruit clients, all of the above, or something else?
• Online media is an emerging field. Some people can learn to do it themselves. Other people need guides to show them how to do it. Still others need to have someone help them get started. Find out what's best for your organizations and the resources available to help you.
• If you don’t measure, how will you know if you are hitting the mark? Learn to analyze results so you can adjust online media so it is effective for you.

• Card pricing criteria: debit/credit cards, card brand- and industry-specific pricing
• Processor and merchant responsibilities
• What happens in a plastic-based transaction, from soup-to-nuts
• Avoiding fraud and chargebacks
• Social enterprise e-commerce and online donation sites

You need to know what the standards are and what's new in plastic cards to keep up and then move ahead. This FREE webinar answers these questions and more.

A profile that stands out is the first step in using LinkedIn to build your nonprofit's visibility and revenue. If used to its full extent, LinkedIn can source donors, prospective board members, and volunteers; showcase your organization; and take you into donor markets not otherwise tapped. 
 

• daily use and maintenance much like exercise or other habits; 
• joining affinity groups for news and exposure; 
• understanding and using apps." 

Google has built a $200 billion online ad business. For years, marketers and entrepreneurs have griped that there is no online marketing alternative to Google Adwords. 

But now there is.

In this online seminar, you'll learn how to effectively use Facebook ads, a completely different, less expensive, and very effective alternative to Google ads.

Ads on these two platforms are not compatible: Successful Google Adwords will not generate results on Facebook. Facebook is a different animal. It's much more targeted than Google. Should it be part of your advertising budget?

In this free webinar, we will explore how to create Facebook ads, how to make them effective, and how to measure the results.

Social media is being approached like medical research once was: If it's good for the men, then a smaller, pink pill must be good for women. No way!

Women invented social media. After all, who recommends more products and services than women? No one. If we're the originators of "word of mouth," shouldn't our businesses benefit from our invention? 

Extending women's communication skills to web-based information exchanges is a natural. Women have nothing to fear from such technology, as long as it's explained well, in plain English.  

And that's just what Real Women Do Social Media is all about: clear explanations with practical advice on implementing what you learn.

What don't most classes consider that we do? Well, how about:

• Women don't have the time (or the inclination) to "poke around" or "figure it out." We're not stupid. We recognize the value of social media, but we want marketing tools that show measurable progress in a reasonable amount of time.
• From a time-management perspective, women need to do the right things, at the right times for the right reasons to get the right results. No matter how much we've "evolved," women are still responsible for the bulk of child and family care. We have friendships to maintain, lives to shape and lead and, oh, there's that minor matter of personal time.
• When women learn, they teach others. Hence, women want information that is easy to pass on. That's why the Real Women Do Social Media takes a common-sense, step-by-step, nitty-gritty approach.
• Social media lends itself to the way women naturally communicate and share ideas. Historically, most storytellers were women. Women exchange "secrets" to build trust, which men do not. These nuances carry through online. (The good news is, we get to define whether a "secret" is something marginally personal or soul-baring.) Social media is all about being genuine, open and sharing. Sound familiar?
   

• Weekly 60-minute working calls and, for those who want more, Q&A following each call. Our instructor is gifted at drawing out questions without making you feel silly that you asked.
• Assignments related to your business needs and feedback that will help you deal with your particular challenges.
• Comfortable, travel-free classes via phone and Internet so you can join in wherever you are.
• Real Women Do Social Media Case Studies (so you can learn from other women like you).
• Access to recordings of all classes in case you miss a session or want to review.
• Online, private Real Women Do Social Media forums so you can interact with one another and ask questions on the fly.
• A step-by-step outline to create your own social media strategy once and for all. Good for at LEAST a year! You know how women like maps and men don't? Well, this is GPS on steroids.
• Discounted access to Social Media Concierge Agents aka "social media elves."
• Insider recommendations for no- and low-cost social media tools that will save you time and aggravation.
• Access to a proven social media system that has worked wonders for women business owners like you.
• A surprise bonus!

At the end of the 8-weeks, you'll have, IN WRITING and ready to implement, your own social media marketing plan. If you don't wish to implement it on your own, you'll also qualify for a discount on access to our team of Social Media Concierge agents.

Syllabus

It's back!

Because it works.

LinkedIn for the Uninitiated in 4 Easy Steps gives solo-preneurs, small business owners, and nonprofit leaders (yes, you are running a business!) access to the benefits of LinkedIn without overwhelming you with techno-babble. When you know how to use it, LinkedIn is a powerful, free tool for making the connections small businesses and nonprofits need.

The price is right and the results impressive ... with both LinkedIn and our class. That's why we're offering it again.

Nonprofits and small businesses need to use every tool available to tap new resources. LinkedIn is one such tool; Ventureneer's Vcourse, with personal attention to your questions and problems, is another.

"I had no idea that LinkedIn had such potential as a marketing and business development tool. Not only did I find the information presented useful in expanding my organization's reach, but the clients I serve have benefited immensely." Jaci Hirschfeld of FY Eye

Ventureneer's reprise of its popular LinkedIn for the Uninitiated in 4 Easy Steps will be held from 12 noon to 1 p.m. EDT on Thursdays beginning May 20 through June 10. The Vcourse, like our popular  webinars, will be taught by Marc Halpert.

"Thank you so much for your specific, detailed instructions and tips about how to maximize the LinkedIn profile networking tool. Even though your target audience was nonprofit, there was tons of helpful information applicable to for-profit businesses, too." says Emily Cox, of PowerwoRx.

LinkedIn is a marketing and networking powerhouse for small businesses and nonprofits. Ventureneer's Vcourse will show you how to use that power effectively.

• You'll get one-on-one guidance from the instructor and your questions about your particular situation will be answered.
  
• You'll meet -- virtually -- fellow classmates with whom you can brainstorm and network.

• You'll develop an effective LinkedIn profile for your business, not learn about profiles in general.

In just 4 weeks, with minimal homework assignments, you will create and learn to manage your profile so it is attractive to the people you want to reach. When you finish the course, you'll have access to more than 50 million people around the world who use LinkedIn as a business/networking tool, that's 50 million potential customers, investors, donors, volunteers or board members.

That's a lot of reach for only $250 (or even $300)!

The Vcourse gives leaders of both small businesses and nonprofits an in-depth, hands-on experience that will result in a highly visible LinkedIn presence for their organizations. This is a practical, not a theoretical, course. 

A LinkedIn discussion group will also be set up so participants can network and converse beyond the confines of the course. And you'll know how to use it effectively.

The Vcourse format allows both the quality learning and the peer support that business owners and nonprofit leaders need to succeed. It is flexible and convenient. If you can’t make a class, you’ll have access to recordings and a copy of the PowerPoint.

Check out the curriculum.

You keep hearing about social media (should I blog or use Facebook – no, Twitter, right?), but what you hear just doesn’t add up or make sense. It works. It doesn’t. Do this, but don’t do that. You’re not concerned with what other people are doing – you just want to know where social media fits into your plan, and, more important, what advice you can safely ignore and what really works. 

• Why you have to not only create and write great blog content, but get out there and promote it so you reach your audience
• Why it’s crucial to select the right social medium to have a chance of success
• How and when to apply The Reciprocity Rule
• Why you need to have something to say and be willing to step into the spotlight
• And much more

By the end of the webinar you will have an understanding of what social media are available, when and how to use them effectively, what kind of content to create for different media and what tools to use.  

Have you invested your time and money building a great website to attract clients, customers, and donors? Do you depend on Google to deliver these visitors to your site? 

If so, be sure that Google and other search engines can find it! Don't hide from the search engines: Help them find you.

Search engines only work for you if they recognize the value of your site when serving up search results to their visitors. To ensure that the search engines find your site, you need to take advantage of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques. 

You'll also want to leverage a completely different kind of search engine marketing: paid ads. And with so many people looking at what other people are saying about organizations, smart marketers want to have a presence on social media sites, too.

You need to understand and use the Findability Mix.
 
Google and the other search engines race to provide the most dynamic results possible to those looking for information. That information is gleaned from a mix of website listings, real-time postings from social networks, videos, photos, maps, product listings, and more.

If you want to be found, you must create different categories of content and put that content on the web in a way that makes sure search engines find you; you want to create the right "findability mix."

"Findability" techniques include, among other things:

• creating active social profiles

• optimizing your photo and video content

• adding your business listing to Google maps

• submitting your inventory to product searches

In How Entrepreneurs and Nonprofits Can Make Search Engines Work for Them, you'll find out how to use social media and real-time search results to make search engines find you fast. You'll learn strategies for becoming one of the top 10 results for your brand.

Social media's all the buzz these days but can it really help a small business professional or "solo-preneur? The answer is a resounding "Yes!" ... with the caveat that you have to know how to use LinkedIn strategically to increase your visibility and reinforce your professionalism. 

In this webinar, you'll get tips and straight talk on optimizing LinkedIn, the predominant social network for 60 million professionals and business people. It is targeted to the needs of small business owners, freelancers, and consultants who need visibility, recommendations, and accessible profiles to attract new clients and enhance relationships with peers, clients and vendors.

You'll learn:

• How LinkedIn can enhance your personal network and build community; 
• What critical steps a business must take so potential clients choose you; 
• What are the best practices when making LinkedIn one of your networking tools.
• The instructor, Marc W. Halpert, will answer these questions and share examples of entrepreneurs who overcame challenges by strategic use of LinkedIn's potential.

As a bonus, you'll learn The 5 Top Tips for the Care and Feeding of LinkedIn.

This is another in a continuous series of Ventureneer seminars Marc has offered, each one breaking records for attendance and resulting in high praise for the quality of the presentations.

The Real Women Do Social Media Program is an 8-week program that takes you step-by-step through a proven social media approach that Lena West developed after working with women business owners for the past 4 years on how best they can leverage social media to meet their business needs. (And for 8 years before that she helped women entrepreneurs develop and implement Internet marketing strategies! She's no newbie!)