(@NatFinn, @IAmFiction, and @Saan1911 give “Social Media for the Win” workshop at the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce in Valparaiso, IN. The video picks up at the second half of the session, after the break)

Yesterday, myself and three co-workers gave a Social Media Workshop titled “Social Media for the Win,” on behalf of the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce in Valparaiso, IN. To my surprise, the place was packed.

The workshop made the front page of The Times of Northwest Indiana’s Business Section. I was the only one of the presenters that didn’t give a quote. That was because during the break I was tweeting and publishing the posts that had our UStream video.

The reporters seemed like Good peoples. One’s on my Google Chat now.

Not only did our Workshop make the front page, but that fact we broadcast it live on streaming video through UStream was also part of the story. Funny part is that was something we had only thought about it a few days before.

When we were putting the workshop together, we were afraid we’d run out of material for the 2 and a half hour sessions, but once we finished preparing we had didn’t have time to share it all.

I was happy that we had as many questions as we did. We told the audience that we’d be disappointed if we got through all our material and the crowd surely did their part. I hope we answered them all. Our cameraman, Nick, even relayed questions to us that were asked on the UStream chat and from Twitter. Great catch on his part.

We haven’t heard a bad thing yet about our presentation. That’s my way of saying it went really, really well. Our boss talked to us about different camera shots to try next time, but overall the presentation was well received. The Chamber’s Program Director even talked about us coming back, maybe even turning it into a series.

The coolest part of the feedback was from Brett Healy of Indianapolis-based Confluence – a national Social Network for Creative professionals. During a RT from our boss promoting the workshop, Healy added the following:

“Will get this group to #IndyConfluence soon”

I hope this bodes well. Putting one foot in front of the other…

Self Critique of Presentation:

1) You didn’t have to sniff. Find a better nervous twitch

2) CTA – we wrapped up quick and told them where they could download the presentation notes and videos we used, but we didn’t wrap it up tight enough.

3) Lose the 50 lbs. gained since writing Book of Blues. I look like I’m wearing a winter coat inside my shirt. Sad for a guy who played a little college ball.

(Chris Brogan with Duncan Alney of FireBelly at BlogIndiana. I’m trying to practice what I speak, I swear)

I was glad to have had another year of Social Media / Blogging / SEO under my belt when I went back to BlogIndiana. Instead of trying to understand the language, I was able to bring poignant questions along, consider concepts, and fill in the gaps on what I forget to do in not only my corporate life but in my personal career as well.

6 Social Media / Blogging strategies I came away with at 2009 Blog Indiana

1) I should have been using Ping.fm the whole time

I was confusing “autosubmitting” – a faded black hat SEO strategy – with “syndication.” RSS isn’t dead. It’s simply being allowed to fulfill its purpose. A “thank you” goes to Douglas Karr for reassuring me of the difference.

Social media platforms are already combining accounts – FaceBook n Digg, Open ID… and Ping could be the gateway to aggregate Social Media IDs. Or it could forgotten. Thank you to Erik Deckers for pointing out how to set up Twitter to autotweet a newly-published post and then have that tweet be picked up by your Ping.fm account, where then your post is auto-syndicated based on your account settings. Ping.fm doesn’t cover everything, but it’s a real fine way to start.

2) What’s in it for the readers?

Especially for the business blog, write for the readers. Give them something they can feel. Don’t write solely to show your thought leader mousy worth. Add a CTA and if the post topic applies, tie it in how your company can help them. Don’t just broadcast product spew at them. It’s hard to connect to readers if you don’t extend an invitation.

3) I knew I knew my video SEO

My video SEO theories were dead-on correct. The graphics department is going to hate the extra work, but they’ll have to adjust. I learned about it during the Video SEO Session with Chad Richards of FireBelly. Though 99% of it was about YouTube optimization, I asked a couple questions at the end. Thank you for indulging me, Chad. I’d say what my questions were, but the industry I presently work for has some cutthroat ba#^%$@!

4) “Work to Eat” or “Eat to Work?”

There is a reason Chris Brogan is so well-respected in Social Media. Not only is he cool to hang out, but the man has literally starved on more than one occasion in his pursuit of Social Media excellence. Take his concept of Leverage. He talked about the need to get to the big conventions and conferences and not only learn but networked. During the teaching of his concept, Brogan admitted there were times he went hungy and could only afford the free food at conventions. But he was there: learning, networking, and growing.

And now he’s traveling around the world and getting paid to do so.

5) Outline Your Thoughts First, D*mbass.

It sounds like a 7th grade English class lesson, but Erik Decker’s reminder to outline your thoughts is crucial. It’s absolutely spooky how often we need to be reminded of the basics. The light went off in my head. And If I would have adhered to his reminder, this post would have taken half the time.

6) WordPress Canonical Plugin

I didn’t even realize it was out. I suppose I should have known. Thank you, once again, goes out to Douglas Karr for that nugget. Blogs run duplicate content. In order to make sure you post gets the credit it deserves, use the canonical plugin. The canonical plugin will place a canonical link in the source code which will tell the SEs the URL where the content was originally posted. Google, Yahoo!, and Bing have all agreed to honor the canonical.

What concepts have you learned recently at conventions / conferences that have helped you out?