Connect Ann Arbor

Attention women in business. You may want to attend our NEW Monthly Inforum - Women’s Networking in Ann Arbor. The first event is this Thursday, June 26 from 4:00 - 6:00 PM at Bar Louie at Division and Liberty in Ann Arbor.

This is the first Inforum Women’s Networking group in Ann Arbor, and a new venue for meeting women in business. Come on out for a drink and some apps. There is not cost to attend, drinks are on your own. It should be a good time, and good networking as Inforum members are smart, and successful women (and some men) in business.

Tell a friend and see you on Thursday!

Derek

On March 11 from 5:00 - 7:00 PM you are invited to a (FREE) networking event on Social Networking. If you’re interested in building a social network come on out. Here’s the lineup…

Social Networking from Ann Arbor, East Lansing and Detroit.

What is social networking? How can social networking help your business? How can you be social? Learn the answers to these questions and more from this panel of highly respected experts who have built social networks throughout the United States and the world.

Program Leader –

Derek Mehraban – Around the Way
CEO, Ingenex Digital Marketing
Founder of Connect Ann Arbor

Expert Panel –

Lori Laurent Smith – Ann Arbor
Social Media Evangelist
Digital Marketing Guru

Edward Vielmetti – Ann Arbor
Chief Economist, Pure Visibility
Creator of The Vacuum Blog and SuperPatron Blog

Terry Bean – Detroit
Chief Networking Officer, Networked Inc.
Founder of Motor City Connect

Note: This program will be recorded for a Podcast by Ross Johnson, CCO, Ingenex Digital Marketing.

This program is brought to you by the Marketing Roundtable and Ann Arbor Spark.

Register here

Last week’s LA2M - Lunch Ann Arbor Marketing had an amazing discussion. We discussed a Fast Company article about The Tipping Point and Duncan Watts, and how people can influence trends and brand success. Turnout last week was approximately 10 people. We had a new guest from 352 Media, and many of the usual suspects.

Reminder that LA2M happens every Wednesday at Eastern Flame Lebanese Restaurant on Ashley in Ann Arbor. This is a firm commitment and I will be there every week. As I’m sure will many people who seem to enjoy talking about marketing topics. I hope someone brings a camera tomorrow to capture a nice photo of this event. Tomorrow will be a snowy lunch. Hoping that Mr. McGowan from Enlighten makes the trip downtown.

The topic for our 5th LA2M lunch is: How does a small company (1 or 2 people) sell to a big company (thousands of people)? This is an important question and we will tackle it on Wednesday, February 13 at LA2M. See you there.

Some random notes from our meeting last week about influence and the web:

1. Forums have more credibility
2. Are blogs commercialized to much? Can you trust a blog or is it corporate?
3. Message boards have no commercial interest as opposed to blogs where people want to grow their business or sell google adwords.
4. Forums are more anonymous as opposed to blogs where people’s names are tied to the blog - therefore people can be more honest or trusted on a forum.
5. Edmunds.com is a successful message board.
6. Mailig lists - moderators run role of editor. There are some big, established mailing lists - Association of Computer Engineering.
7. Epinions, rate things, some people chooe the “influences” at epinions and send them products to review, attempting to influence.
8. It’s important for the first reviewers of a product to be positive.
9. Amazon.com - good review can make or break your product.
10. Gaming the system.
11. Demand for audience, they should have a blog - if someone wants to read about it, then they should have a blog. (when should a company have a blog?)
12. Should you start the blog and cut your yellow pages spend? What is the criteria for a business to start a blog? What conditions must exist?
13. I only use businesses that have a web site, they must be in tune w/ customers. (in response to yellow pages talk and url for biz.)
14. Is paper valueless?
15. 80% of people who search for local businesses use Google search.

Dunrie also announced World Usability Day event at WCC on March 31 - April 2.

Hope to see you there!

Derek

Thank you to everyone who came to the third LA2M - Lunch Ann Arbor Marketing on Wednesday, January 30. There were 13 people in attendance. The conversation was lively and good connections were made. At this meeting everyone was asked to kick in a topic that will be discused at a future lunch.

Here are the topics we came up with:

• Is there still value in direct marketing (snail mail)
• Personal marketing (selling and branding yourself)
• How to set a marketing budget
• Landing page best practices
• Fast Company Article
• How to develop + sell a marketing plan
• CRM (customer relationship management)
• How traditional media spend influences search engine traffic
• How a one-person company can win the trust of a large company
• RSS feeds - how to maximize
• Message board monitoring
• Outsourcing - great tool for startups
• Blogger outreach
• What is best way to spend time in marketing (if you only have so much time to spend)
• Marketing 101 refresh
• Social Media Marketing
• Trade Show Marketing

These topics will be discussed in the future. At each meeting we will decide on the topic for the following week. You are encouraged to bring articles, books, and thoughts to the meeting for show and tell. The first topic is based on a Fast Company Article. Please read it and bring your thoughts on The Tipping Point - toast or no toast.

LA2M is for anyone in the field of marketing, pr, advertising, digital, and web design who wants to connect and learn more about the industry. Our group has so far been pretty heavy toward internet marketing, digital marketing and web development. But that doesn’t mean we don’t want the Ad folks to come out. We do.

So if you know someone at a local advertising agency like Perich for example, please invite them out.

Agencies represented at this meeting include:

Ingenex Digital Marketing

Clarity Quest

MS&L Digital

Your Search Advisor

Blue Sky

Design Hub

Enlighten

And more…

We also hope that people will meet up and talk offline, at coffee shops, etc. about these topics. Please join the Yahoo Group for our mailing list.

You can also join the Facebook Group or Ning Community.

Extra thanks to Eastern Flame who made and served some amazing Lebanese food. The LA2M lunch special of any wrapped sandwich and choice of soup, rice or fries for only $5 is amazing. Thanks for serving us such tasty food.