Just a quick note that I'll be moderating a Technology Council Event : Social Networking as a Business Strategy May 19, 2009 - Culver City Social networking media are used on a daily basis to grow businesses and expand career opportunities. Individuals use social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Plaxo as career-advancing tools, even more useful in a down economy. Corporations increasingly see social media as a key PR, communications and marketing medium. Social networking sites and microblogs are used not only to build company brands, but to foster

This past week has had an interesting confluence of events that's led me to conclude that I want to start doing a lot of visible networking among the tech / web crowd here in Los Angeles. I want to take you through a bit of what brought me here, because I think it will help explain what I mean by visible networking. Networking Events – Questionable Return on Your Time Last week I posted about Networking Events in Los Angeles and Southern California and received back some interesting comments, some of the best from a LinkedIn Group. Several of the comments there echoed what I've been feeling: Person 1: I have attended a plethora of networking groups and have also found it harder and harder to continue to be motivated to go. Person 2: Very discouraging (few if any happy with their networking efforts) but not unexpected.

He talks about a bunch of the different networking events that occur in Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California. Often good topics and interesting networking. And here's where you can find more events: SoCalTech Calendar – A great aggregation of events around Southern California that has been pulled together for years by Ben Kuo. Meetup – My personal experience has been mixed with these. Southern California Tech Central – Brings together posts from top bloggers around Southern California including John's blog and this blog. Great post by John Shiple.

Frequency: Multiple times a month, in Los Feliz, Carlsbad, Burbank, Irvine Cost: Free Review: You'll need a free membership to Xing to see the details on the community page Added 10/2/09 by Todd Zebert Name: Challenger Networking Group (CA) Sites: www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2037237 home=&gid=2037237 Self-description: "This networking group sponsored by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. This is will be a continually updating post. I'll be creating additional lists for educational, chamber of commerce, etc. Organizational representatives: please contact me directly for updates, etc.

My friend Mark Long recently asked me about networking in Los Angeles. This past couple years, I have been doing a ton of networking. Rather than write something just for Mark, I thought I would let everybody else know what the good, tech-oriented networking events are in Los Angeles. For the tech-oriented networker, there is one primary thing to Mark is a CTO, see, and his company, PortBlue , was recently acquired (congrats, Mark!). After transitioning to the new team, Mark was left to wonder, what now?

Business networking is a big part of how business deals get done these days -- but it has become harder and harder to make business networking beneficial. For some people, face-to-face networking at meetings for professional groups and association chapters works well to meet new people. For others, online networking using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail discussion lists works well to increase I have used both methods for a long time, and they work well for meeting new people.

Empty networking doesn't work. So they approached me and they said, we will work for you for a quarter for free, helping you navigate improving the reflections of your products on social networks. We’ve heard about you know networking is so important; building a business network is so important. Maybe this was my first brush with the importance The Harvard Business School Case Study on Heidi Roizen talks about the dinner parties she hosts for tech leaders like her personal friend, Bill Gates, and how people skills helped her build one of the most admired careers in Silicon Valley.

While the economy in 2009 looks challenging for most companies, the outlook of marketing executives is rather bright and upbeat. Deborah Kania and her team at Brightworks Interactive have just released results of their survey of marketing executives' plans for 2009. Here are nine marketing trends you can expect during 2009: The survey covered both B-to-B and B-to-C companies, as well as a mix of large, medium, and small businesses, so the survey results represent a good cross-section of marketers. Marketing Trend #1: Increased use of digital media and a decrease

And make sure you spend time visible networking . Linkbait. Put yourself in the middle of a blog network. See my posts: LinkedIn - Prospecting No - Conversation Yes LinkedIn for Finding Expertise Searching for Expertise - LinkedIn Answers Secret for Networking at Events – Prenetworking Pre-network with LinkedIn My LinkedIn Open Connection Approach By the way, this group didn't all link to me after the presentation on LinkedIn. I did a presentation about the use of Social Media to a great group of people who mostly are different kinds of service professionals (attorneys, accountants, consultants, etc.).

Tags: Interview Marketing Negotiating Networkin So What? Answer that one question when you talk and people will instantly care about you and what you have to say. Mark Magnacca came to Mixergy to teach you how to make this small change in the way you present your ideas so you’ll become more persuasive. If you use what he taught, you can write more influential ad copy,