Start with Search First

Want to learn the ins and outs of search engine optimization? Unsure about the value of this emergent trend? Ready to find out what you should be doing to promote your company’s online properties? Phil Buckley has the answers to all your SEO questions, and will help you learn more about:

1. How understanding search engine marketing (SEM) changes the way you interpret the web (especially your properties).

2. The Google Algorithm and why what worked before has stopped working

3. SEO things you can control, and the vast number you can’t.

4. How to figure out if you’re on the right track.

5. Google AdWords and its impact on local businesses.

Attendees will have the opportunity to take part in an extensive Q&A session with Phil after his presentation. Phil believes that SEO as theory is just that, and specific problems require specific answers.

Phil Buckley has been a self-taught web developer for over 10 years, and became a search engine optimizer and social media evangelist while working with the 30 daily papers at McClatchy Interactive. He founded and organizes the Raleigh Media Leaders events for the area’s brightest minds in PR, media, marketing, advertising and technology. He is also a co-organizer of the very popular Raleigh SEO meetup group.

Phil is currently the Search & Social Manager at the Sinclair Institute where he’s in charge of organic search, ppc, blogging, a newly launched content network and social media outreach.

Phil was recently asked to be on a Triangle Interactive Marketing Association panel on social media and it’s ROI and spoke at NC State to graduating seniors on the importance of Personal Branding.

See The World Again For The First Time

Legendary photographer, Nyght Falcon, will engage us all as we uncover the emotional impact of powerful imagery for marketing businesses. Join us as Falcon presents:

• Why a brand is important
• How emotion sells
• How to embody emotion in your brand

Falcon is the founder of Nyght Falcon Photography, a company known for its distinctive artistic voice. Their commercial and artistic photos are marked by rich colors, intensity of contrast, striking detail and its often unusual perspective. The firm’s work has garnered international acclaim and has appeared in Digital Camera World, The Wall Street Journal, After Capture and Studio Photography.

RSVP today for the May 19th luncheon. We’ll be at McCormick & Schmick’s from 11:30am until 1:00pm.

Twitter dominated the April F4T discussion!

Morgan Siem – social media strategist for Media Two Interactive spoke at April’s Food4Thought. As an expert at combining social media, copy writing, research and marketing to reach target audiences, Morgan provided excellent tips and instigated an active discussion during the luncheon.

“Interest in specific social media topics differs every time I attend an event. Yesterday it was LinkedIn, but today – during the Food4Thought luncheon, it was Twitter!” shared Morgan Siem. During the luncheon Morgan answered questions ranging from “What can Twitter do for my business?” to “How can I find my target market using Twitter?” and “How do I get people to start following me?”.

F4T host Lea-Ann W. Berst shared, “The most powerful tip I received was how to get a person (who I would like to be connected to) to start following me on Twitter. Morgan told us to tweet about a topic of interest to that person, then start following them. When they see that I am following them they will most likely look to see who I am  and will see my latest tweet. It just may trigger them to start following me! At that point I can begin to create a relationship with them. Excellent tip! Twitter is all about developing relationships and engaged followers.”

For their clients and agency partners, Media Two Interactive  is an interactive advertising agency that specializes in the strategic planning, buying and design of interactive media while defining best practices for the cross-channel convergence of traditional and new media.   What does that really mean?  It means they know how to make online media deliver an impressive return on your investment.

Thank you Morgan Siem!

How Do You Know If Your Social Media Strategy Is Broken?

What is your company’s presence on social media? Are you on Twitter? Faceebook? Do you have a company blog? How are you measuring their effectiveness? Morgan Siem will answer these questions and more to help you identify weaknesses within your social media strategy to ensure that it is working for you.

Morgan Siem is the social media strategist for Media Two Interactive, a company that has been rooted in online media for more than a decade. Morgan is an expert at combining social media, copy writing, research and marketing to reach target audiences with materials of the highest standards.

RSVP today to attend! Please note that this month we will be at the Capital City Club in downtown Raleigh.

Sharon Hill Nominated to Run as LLS’s Woman of the Year

We are proud to announce that Sharon Hill is competing for the title of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Woman of the Year. As a candidate, Sharon will raise funds for life-saving cancer research and patient services between March 23 and June 9, 2010. Every dollar she raises will count as one “vote” in her favor.

There are many ways you can support Sharon in her quest for a cure. Become a member of her campaign team, sponsor a table the Grand Finale Gala on June 10, or simply pledge to make a donation during her campaign.

To learn more about Man & Woman of the Year visit, www.MWOY.org, or go directly to Sharon’s fundraiser site to support her.

Way to go Sharon!

Business in the New Economy

We are pleased to have Derek Yonai, Ph.d. as our guest speaker on March 24. He will be speaking on the topic of:

Business: Public Perception and Economic Reality

There is no doubt that the current state of the economy has affected the way we do business. If you are a business professional who is still trying to understand the economic impact on the way you do business then this presentation is for you!

By attending, you will get an understanding of the:

• morality of profit seeking

• mental framework that businessmen and women need in today’s business environment

• how we need to rethink the way business is conducted as the economy shifts

Derek Yonai, Ph.D., J.D., is a Lundy Chair of Business Philosophy and a professor of economics at Campbell University. Dr. Yonai earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California at Irvine and graduated cum laude from Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, Calif. He earned both a master’s and a doctorate in economics from George Mason University. Yonai promotes the principles of free enterprise, individual liberty, and minimal government.

Change Strategist & Motivational Speaker, Edie Raether

Showing us how to use the ChangeGrid to increase our personal power and profit, February’s Food4Thought special guest speaker Edie Raether promised to challenge the way we think — and boy did she deliver!

Edie brought her training and success expertise to center stage and taught us how to apply it in business and in life.

Edie also shared with us Persuasion Power Principles from her book –

Forget Selling:
12 Principles of Influence and Persuasion in Sales, Leadership and Life
Throw away your old sales books and marked up manuals and face the facts. Most smooth and slick sales strategies no longer work in today’s savvy marketplace. To be effective in today’s competitive marketplace, practicing the 12 Persuasion Power Principles in this book will increase sales and avoid professional burnout. »Buy The Book Now

Willa Brigham Did It Again!

Our November Special Guest Speaker Willa Brigham has just won her second Emmy for Best Children’s Programming in the Midsouth!

Willa won her Emmy for Smart Start Kids – a Raleigh, NC produced children’s program for 3- to 5-year olds and their families. Local children are the “stars” of the show and go “behind the scenes” of interesting places throughout NC.

The award ceremony was held in Nashville, Tennessee on January 30^th. You can watch the telecast of the ceremony by clicking here.

Congratulations Willa!!

Unstoppable Influence!

We are excited to have Edie Raether as our guest speaker on February 17. She will be speaking on the topic of:

Unstoppable Influence; Why Everything You Learned about Selling Doesn’t Work

If you want affluence, you must have influence. If you are an experienced sales professional who wants a sales system and strategies that not only motivate, but also monitor, manage, and measure change for improved sales performance, then MasterStream is a must!

Manage productive tension with scientific maneuvers that alter the level of challenge to prevent apathy.  If you have faithfully followed other sales programs without success, this system reveals the missing but essential element of influence to increase your personal power and profit. 

 Sales Maneuvers:

• Tension Management: Strategic Sales Maneuvers by Design – Not Default
• Motivational Maneuvers to  Regulate, Direct and Influence Any Outcome
• Implement 4 Cornerstones: Self Mastery, Presentation, Persuasion, Influence
• When NOT to Pitch—Why “You” Never Should Close
• Questions: Not Just What to Ask, but WHEN to Ask
• Managing Mindset: The Mental Game of Persuasion
• Decisions: Learn the “Sequence” of  Scientific Decision Making
• Emotional Triggers: Mental Shortcuts for Selling to the Instinctual Brain
• Selling is No Longer Selling but Buying a Piece of the Customer’s Mind

Edie Raether, MS, CSP, is President of Performance PLUS, an international speaking, training and consulting firm. With expertise in breakthrough thinking for influencing change, Edie has spoken to over 3,500 professional organizations on five continents and is a CSP – Certified Speaking Professional. She has also authored several inspirational and business books published in numerous countries.

Start the New Year Building Healthy Relationships

When your personal homeostasis is off, you can have a dramatic affect on those around you. On January 20th, Peter Metzner will  help you understand ways to be more inter-personally effective, collaborative and productive both professionally and personally.

Peter will present strategies proven to help move conflict and unresourceful emotions to more collaborative, productive and healthier outcomes. Gain insight as how you get triggered into anger or avoidance… as well as how you may do the same to others.

Join us at McCormick & Schmick’s at Crabtree Valley Mall from 11.30-1 to start the new year off with healthy relationships to guide you to success!

About Peter Metzner: Peter  is a Life & Leadership coach, as well as a trainer and instructor of Psychology. He has facilitated  hundreds of training programs for universities, colleges, schools, non-profits, associations, professional offices and businesses. He has served as Vice President of Client Relations and Program Development for The Leadership Trust and worked for the Center for Creative Leadership, helping customize executive development and training programs. Peter teaches Psychology at Vance-Granville Community College, and facilitates seminars on Leadership and High Performing Teams at UNC Chapel Hill, Peace College and Elon University.