In fact, Jason Breed, Senior Director, Social Media Expertise at social networking powerhouse, Neighborhood America , stressed that his company requires that any social media efforts pay off in one of 3 fundamental ways: Impressively, not only Neighborhood America but a number of attendees indicated that they are already seeing tangible returns from their social media efforts. Be very specific about what tangible benefits you intend to derive from your efforts. It seems as though every kind of organization from multinational to small business to nonprofit are beginning to

Go Virgin America! On a side note, I realize that I post a lot of entertaining videos, but I hope that you see them as more than just entertainment, as examples to put into practice in your own presentations. hope you're taking the SUCCESs principles , for example, and using them to make your presentations more "sticky" and memorable. Download audio here. Here's another very clever way to take something old, predictable and boring and make it fresh again. All the information is here, but delivered in a new and fun way.

Kathy Saenz of Neighborhood America Shares What It Takes to Make Video an Effective Content Marketing Tool We recently caught up with Kathy, who is Neighborhood America’s corporate communications manager, for a brief interview on the best ways to communicate with video. She has been able to help Neighborhood America add video communications to their core marketing capabilities. Even a micro business can use video effectively to communicate with its customers online. But, as we amateur carpenters know, you can wind up with a mess instead of a masterpiece unless

Download audio here. The BBC America show " Mary Queen of Shops " has brilliant lessons for anyone in business, from retailers, who the show focuses on, to speakers, coaches, consultants and anyone who is serving customers and clients. Do you use demonstrations and real-life examples so they can apply your message to their real lives? Mary Portas is one of the UK's foremost authorities on retail and brand communication. On this television show, she is invited by the owners of struggling fashion boutiques to come in and help them get back on their feet through a process

America grows up.  0160; For example, as the writers note , Hallmark Channel is in the midst of revamping "its family-oriented programming." 0160; Novelist Henry James who showed the vulnerable underbelly of Americans's innocence among the darker Europeans would be proud that we finally took that leap into seeing the world as the complex, often menacing place it is. Evidence of this maturation is the un-marketability of wholesome and white bread. 

Yet, I do not point to this talk as an example of great visuals or even of perfect delivery. But, I wish I also had taken even more art and music classes instead of avoiding fine art classes, for example, out of guilt that it was not serious academic work. "If we Over the years I've met many people in the high-tech industry, for example, that in addition to being successful engineers and programmers, etc., Mae Jemison is an astronaut, a medical doctor, an art collector, and a dancer. In 1992, Dr.

One of my favorite offbeat examples comes from Ghostbusters II in which the statue is brought to life in a last ditch attempt to save the city of New York. Lady Liberty Symbolizes All That’s Right about the United States in a Uniquely Powerful Way This may be more about loving the Statue of Liberty than about marketing. So I

Last year, another speaker coach asked me to help find video examples of today's top women speakers , because he was having trouble finding examples to share with trainees that were of current, rather than historic women speakers. This year, for Black History Month, I asked readers on Facebook and Twitter to help me crowd-source a list of today's top black women speakers, to give us current role models and examples. Here's the list you made, with video or speech excerpts where available. Please add your favorites in the comments!

Was it not a contradiction to praise such an imperfect TED talk when there are many better TED examples? Recently I read a good book by Jerry Weissman called The Power Presenter: Technique, Style, and Strategy from America's Top Speaking Coach. In the post below I said that the presentation by Shai Agassi was my personal favorite of the TED 09 conference. It was certainly not a perfect presentation technically, so one gentleman asked me how I could recommend such an imperfect, "awful" talk as a sample model to follow.

BizTechDay 2009 is a practical, hands-on and experiential Small Business Strategy, Social Media and networking conference where expert speakers and business leaders (from Google, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Yelp, Virgin America, Elance, Constant Contact, Justin.TV, WordPress, CBS 5, and Comcast Business Class) share their insights and experience and help your business get up to speed in this economic downturn.   Porter Gale - VP Marketing at Virgin America Are you a pubic speaker and entrepreneur with a great message, but not sure how to reach more customers? Are you