Fresh Business Thinking Live - Review 2011

Yesterday's Fresh Business Thinking Live saw a good mix of presenters, stands and crowds. I gravitated towards the social media theatre which was being MCed by the lovely @JeminaG. Unfortunately, due to a feverish 8 month old son I missed the first session so Filip Matous was the first presenter I saw - which was good as Filip had invited me as his guest.

Filip Matous tells you to build a storyI've written about Filip before in the FreshSocial review and my view of his is the same: he's a sharp guy with his eye on the 'ker-ching' of any deal, whether that is using social media or getting customer service in a cafe. A great insightful fella and it would be difficult to waste your time in his company. Here's some of Filip's many tips: 

1. When creating a video ask yourself "Can this video carry an emotional way of engaging with the viewer?"
2. Who are your influencers? Find them out and namecheck them. "We all got egos, right?"
3. Have a strategy around your blog post. Who do you want to read this? What emotions do you want them to have?
4. For YouTube (or YouToob as the Canadian accented dood calls it) you need these key fields sorted out:
   1. Title
   2. Keywords - why not use a person's name?
   3. Description - fill this in full with the link at the top linking to where the action is
   4. Likes and comments are important also
   5. And of course views
5. Don't worry too much about getting 50k views. If you get 100 quality views that's much better. If you get 3o views and it's who you want to view it, that's great. If you get 3 views and it's by the three people you want to then "awesome". If you want to get to one guy make a video addressed to that person - and tag their name in the keywords.
6. imovie is fine - you just want to fade in and fade out. 
7. 88k views is what it takes to get onto the front page.
8. In your About Us section of your website why not put a video in there? (Take note Cormac!)
9. It's easier to join other tribes than to start one.
10. Get 3 keywords, type them in and see what you see. 
11. Use the filters well. You can find the main cats that way. 

I'm sure I've missed bits out. Feel free to add to this if you like by using the comments section.

Mark Mcguinness was next up and he looked at the what, why and how of using a blog to bring in business. Mark was great. Very unassuming but a hard hitter in terms of delivering value. here's some of his points:

1. A blog is the best SEO tool you have as search engines love them with all that freesh content, keywords and linking thing that they do.
2. Mark is a specialist when it comes to helping the creative types.
3. He is a masterful headline writer. He has had great success by using snappy headlines and posting onto Twitter.
4. If you do one thing get a 'Subscribe by email' section on your blog. I must say I have been reluctant to do this as I tend to view email as 'non-social' - however I totally get Mark's point that getting people's emails and their permission to contact them is a no-brainer. Expect to see this functionality added to our site soon. (You can still sign up to our newsletter by clicking this.)
5. When starting off a blog it is important to blog often (e.g. one entry a day at least). Once it is established then you can blog once a week. 
6. It can take years for the traffic to come along.
7. Best not to write news as the traffic is not as effective. (I know I write up reviews of events quite a lot but I like doing it.)

Again feel free to add to what I have missed out. 

Afraid I missed a great deal of Mecca Ibrahim's presentation as I bumped randomly into @littlemartian whom I first met at the World WaterSkiing Championships of 1998 when I was on stilts and she was dressed as a giant dinosaur!

Next up was the all-knowing David Terrar who offered a really excellent run down on why you need to be on top of analatyics as well as the tools on offer from the free ones to the paid for services. Some thoughts from David:

1. This social media thing ain't going away. You may as well accept that it's here to stay and work out how you're going to get value from it.
2. "The fundamental interconnectedness of all things" ~ Douglas Adams was onto something computery when he wrote that one. (Shame Nick missed this mention as it would have made his whole day. (Adams is Nick's favourite author.))
3. The free tools are pretty good actually.
4. When replying to people in Twitter David takes the time to check out their Klout score.
5. It's important to have a Social Media "Mission Control" whether that is one person who looks after your activity or whether it is a whole team
6. He looked at Dell and how it came from Dell Hell to a place that takes social media seriously. 
7. Dell's journey took years! 
8. Steve Jobs saw technology as moving rather slowly actually.

Here is David's presentation:

Having watched the Apprentice in 2008 I couldn't resist go see what Lee McQueen had to say for himself in the Entrepreneurs Forum. This meant I missed the presentation of @louisefw - which is a shame as Lousie is good and by all accounts on Twitter she did a sterling job. I actually never knew Lee was at the event but when I pinched one of the chocolates from his stand he suggested I come see him present. Here's my views:

1. Lee is a pretty infectious guy. Busting with enthusiasm, passion and, er, muscles.
2. In terms of being an entrepreur he is "1 years old". 
3. He has set up a company called raw talent Academy.
4. He sets goals for his staff which is a good way to motivate them. I don't doubt that for a sec.
5. Lee is the only guy to have starred in The Apprentice and not have been in any final three shoot out with Lord Sugar or King Alan or whoever he is at this stage.
6. He missed an interview by being at the birth of his daughter. That could have cost him a deal of 80k. "That will never happen again!"
7. @leemcqueen has got a massive 11k followers on Twitter.
8. The questions from the audience all prefaced with words along with "Loved your presentation!"
9. My question to Lee was asking how he sets himself goals that are balanced between being achievable and not too much of a walk in the park. He responded very candidly by saying that it is the organisation's aim to being the number one talent academy in 5 years. 
10. he's a funny guy. Likes to throw jokes in there for the craic. And why not!

Overall I found Lee as a likeable chap. He was very obliging with everyone who wanted a piece of him in their mobile photo folders. I can see him doing well. As well as Alan The Ruker Of The Universe? Time will tell.

I've made Lee the star of this week's Wednesday Caption.  Please add your funnies. Also let me know what you thought of FreshLive. Thanks.