Date: Pick a Thursday in May
Time: 9:30 AM – 1:00 PM
Location:  VergePoint Inc.
Address:  211 Perimeter Center Parkway Suite 900, Atlanta Ga.  30346
Registration Fee: $195.00
Contact:  Paula at pbond@vergepoint.com or 1-800-680-5832

Dan is the director of Training Programs at VergePoint Online Marketing Cooperative. For more than 20 years, Dan has implemented and managed the technology and application of software resources necessary for a successful web presence.  As a technology leader Dan has held positions as Director of Advanced Technology with Turner Entertainment Group, Chief Technology Officer at iXL and Chief Technology Officer with Marchfirst. An avid learner himself, Dan works to ensure that every student’s educational experience is productive and enjoyable.

Steve is the founder of VergePoint, Inc. and VergePoint Online Marketing Cooperative.  Steve’s unparalleled experience in both general business applications and Internet Sales and Marketing allow him the uncanny ability to see the next generation of applications concerning Internet strategy.  An early Internet pioneer Steve’s customers and his own company’s alike have been responsible for well over $500 million dollars of Internet sales over the past 14 years.  Steve enjoys assisting others in achieving their goals of using the Internet as a consistent, productive, and successful business tool.

Facebook.  LinkedIn.  Twitter.  Blogs.  Forums. Learn how to stay connected to your clients through social media.  In today’s economic reality it’s vital for real estate professionals to leverage every aspect of the Internet to generate leads and successful sales.  If these terms were new to you or you would like to learn more about them, you want to take part in our Seminar “Re-energize your profits selling Real Estate through FREE online marketing”. During this one-hour seminar we will be giving you a quick overview of some of the systems and techniques available that you can use to become more involved in this exciting new method of generating leads and sales.

Strategies:

Why are Facebook and Linkedin vital in generating leads?
What is Twitter and why is everyone excited about it?
How do you stay connected to your clients using Facebook, Linkedin & Twitter?
How do you combine the best Social Marketing skills to earn more money?
What is a Blog and why it is an important method of communications?

What is a Forum and why it is an important method of communications?

What will be covered

• What is Social Media & some Important Social Media Facts
• How can Social Media be used for your business and for YOU?
• Case Studies / Examples
• How to Get Started using Social Media Today
• What is Facebook?
• Setting up a Personal Facebook Account
• Goal: Get at least 20 Friends
• Facebook Pages and Groups, What’s the difference?
• Setting up a Facebook Group
• Setting up a Facebook Page
• What is LinkedIn?
• Setting up a LinkedIn account.
• Goal:  get at least 20 friends
• What is Twitter?
• WORKSHOP
• Setting up a Twitter Account and how to get people following you
• GOAL: Get at least 20 followers
• Twitter Tools you must use and how to use them.
• Using Twitter and Facebook together
• And much much more…

STOMPERNET MEMBERS ARE AMAZING!

We could not get over how many extremely talented people we met by just walking around and those that visited our booth. From small business owners and entrepreneurs to programmers and affiliates and everywhere in between. Let’s just say that if something terrible happened to the Hyatt while all those people were in there we know the internet landscape would suffer greatly.

So we would like to give a big THANK YOU to Tom Ham and all of the StomperNet crew that made this event possible. VergePoint is excited about all the opportunities that were discussed during the show and we’re already taking action with new clients!

VergePoint gives away a FREE Website Mockup

Towards the end of the day on Saturday, a raffle was organized and each StomperNet attendee was given tickets to throw in a hat at each of the booths with the chance of winning something cool for free. We decided to offer up a free professional website design mockup that would include the re-design of a current site with high website conversion in mind. That’s one of our specialties. We don’t just make pretty websites, we build online businesses that are designed for CONVERSION.

How Web 2.0 is Changing Marketing Forever

Here’s a fun test to try.

If you have different departments for IT, Development, Marketing, and Executive it is even more fun. If not, try going to the best person you can for each of these POV’s.

Go to someone from each background and ask them “What is Web 2.0?”

Here’s what you will probably get:

IT Department

IT says : What is Web 2.0? UGH! What’s wrong with you people! You’re like the 100th person to ask me that today. Go on to Wikipedia and see for yourself, I’m BUSY!

You say : Dude, lay off the Red Bull.

IT says : Sorry man, Web 2.0 has something to do with clouds or something. I don’t know what the heck that means but it sounds like there are no servers to manage so I’m out of a job.

You say : Oh, well uh… Good luck with that.

Developer

Developer says: What is Web 2.0? Well, that just means we gotta use AJAX. Lots and lots of AJAX.

You say: What the heck is AJAX? The cleaning stuff?

Developer says: No! What a n00b. AJAX stands for Asynchronous Javascript And XML. It’s all the rage right now.

You say : Right…. So what’s so important about Web 2.0?

Developer says : All I know is that the more I keep using AJAX in my new projects the more chances for me to get paid, go AJAX! <begins chanting “AJAX, AJAX” repeatedly>

You say : Nevermind, goodbye.

Marketing / Design

Marketing says : What is Web 2.0? All I know is that is needs to be shiny!

You say : Shiny? What needs to be shiny?

Marketing says: All of it! I just got this shhhaaweeet iPhone.Can’t get enough of those shiny buttons.

You say : What does that have to do with Web 2.0?

Marketing says : EVERYTHING! People are asking to make these clean and shiny style websites every day! Oh, yea, and people like big shiny buttons too with not much explanation of what they are for. It’s just gotta look simple and don’t forget…

You say : Shiny?

Marketing says : Yea!!? How’d you know? Man, you catch on fast! Stay shiny!

You say : Uhh, sure.. Thanks…..

Executive

Executive says : What is Web 2.0? Well, it’s a fancy buzz word I like to use when bringing in clients and investors.

You say : Why do clients or investors care about Web 2.0?

Executive says : Beats me! I heard it the other day from my IT department and Marketing. Clients just can’t get enough of it! I told my golf buddies the other day that we were going to buy a YouTube Channel and blast all of our product demos to the masses. We’ll make millions!

You say : Ummm… You don’t have to actually “buy” a YouTube channel, it’s Free…

Executive says : Nothing FREE in this world! Now go do me a favor and find some blogs to put on our site so I can impress our staff about how hip of a company we are!

You say : But.. It doesn’t work like that, you can’t just find a blog and put it on…. nevermind.

How much you want to bet that it’s just exactly this way in so many companies out there? When point of views get involved with a topic as broad as Web 2.0, things can get a bit crazy. Buzzwords are born.

Web 2.0 with No Point of View?

The best way to get a broad understanding of what Web 2.0 is, would be to take POV (Point of View) out of the equation entirely. There is a video that will inspire and motivate you about what is happening as the Internet evolves. I offer this as another way entirely of looking at what the 2.0 age of the world wide web is all about.

What do we do with Web 2.0?

Ok, so enough about what is Web 2.0 - What do we do with it once we get it? There are many things. Here’s ours.

We use Web 2.0 to our advantage in order to grow startups and expand small businesses. There’s a lot more out there now than just searching for things and ending at a destination. Now we are beginning to truely interact online putting less dependency on the search engine behemoth known as Google.

Social Networking, Social Shopping, Micro-Blogging, Video, and a whole lot more is out there with opportunities to get your business growing. Syndicate your next marketing campaign through the use of video, podcasts, RSS Feeds, PR, and much more. You will begin to find that recency in today’s world is starting to become more popular than authority alone. If you are interested in learning more, let us know. There’s a lot of ground to cover so we want to hear feedback from you on what you want to talk about.

It’s our goal is to provide as much information necessary in order for you to do what it takes to make a web-base business successful . If you can’t do it, that’s another story. We can just do it for you. The choice is yours!

What do you do with Web 2.0?

You’ve heard about what we like to do with Web 2.0. So please tell us what you are doing with Web 2.0? What POV do you come from? We’re already getting some great feedback and suggestions on what your biggest pains are in marketing online. Next week we’ll cover the next big mystery out there… Twitter.

Let us know what you do with Web 2.0 - please comment.