I will be blogging live from this event, trying to make some photos and videos from the speakers at the main stage.


The presentations I want to attend are:

Fons Trompenaars

Fons (@thtconsulting) is well-known about his research on cultures. He was one of the authors I loved while I was doing my MBA. I am really interested in cultures and his research is very interesting on this.
At this conference Fons will talk about The management dilemma’s of the social web

“…he will address the culture-free challenges that all cultures face when implementing social media-centric approaches. Adoption and deployment of social media and the associated rules of interaction usually create tension in the ways companies are working.”

LinkedIn

Lot Keizer (@lot) will talk about Social Media for your business i.e. LinkedIn. Lot is the director marketing solutions at LinkedIn in the Netherlands.

Social in Business

Olivier Alain Blanchard (@thebrandbuilder) of The BrandBuilder Marketing will talk about Success in the next decade for business.

Olivier will give an overview of how social technologies are already impacting the way businesses gain a competitive advantage, and what this means for brands in the coming decade.

I have also planned a short interview with Olivier. Hopefully we can work that out between the presentations.

implementing social media

Polle de Maagt (@polledemaagt), recently started his own company. His presentation is titled Why we keep failing in really implementing social media.

We failed to show real business impact, convince management, make employees really understand the new transparency and lay the foundation for more social companies.
Therefore, a plea for less retweets and more reports, for less experience and more excel.

Embedding Social Media into our DNA

I have seen Thomas Marzano (@thomasmarzano) speak during one of our SMC Amsterdam meetings. There he spoke about Klout and influence. Today he will talk about the work he does for Philips.

…how Philips integrated social media. What have been the social and brand experiences during this implementation. What are the 3 pillars of social integration?… the case LifeLine: Integrating Social Media into our products & services.

The PR Champion

The final presentation of this day will be about PR. Deirdre Breakenridge (@dbreakenridge) is coauthor of the book Putting the Public back into Public Relations.

Eight New Strategic Practices for the PR Professional, which focuses on shifting the PR mindset to create more efficient processes and internal collaboration, increased guidance of new media communications, stronger connections with customers by analyzing and engaging in relationships, and the better use of technology during the PR planning process

Eight New Strategic Practices for the PR Champion

• The Policymaker
• Internal Collaboration Generator
• COMMS Organizer
• Tech Tester
• Pre-Crisis Doctor
• Relationship Organizer
• Reputation Task Force Member and
• Master of the Metrics.

A short video that Deirdre did for this event.

Here you can find the complete program of The social Conference

Post from: Erno Hannink feel free to use the content but give credit to the writer (CC BY/SA)

The Social Conference #TSC12

You can use video in various ways:

• Create video posts
• Do live interviews
• Video-interviews via Skype
• Record events
• Record your workshop or presentation
• Record a webinar
• Screencasts
• Recording a mentor or coach session with a client

All these possibilities require a different setup and some different cameras.

For the videos that I am working on now I have purchased two new webcams.
I want to record HD videos so that the quality of the image is perfect on YouTube and Vimeo.

Remember I am not a camera or video expert. I want to help independent professionals to attract clients. Videos will help me with that and it will help you to attract clients, if you sell products or when you sell a service.

Sometimes I get comments on my published video from so-called video experts. They pay attention to the quality of the camera, sound and lighting. Pleas remember: the main point is to get your message out there, to help your target audience. Focus on the content.

This is the setup at my desk:

Cameras

Logitech HD Pro webcam C920
The latest HD webcam by Logitech. It even lets you record video calls from Skype in full HD. Only for Windows and you need Skype 5.7+ (beta).
Connected to your computer you can use it for webinars, video-interviews via Skype, posts from your desk.

You can also place this version on a tripod
Cost EUR 99.00
http://www.logitech.com/webcam-communications/webcams/devices/hd-pro-webcam-c920

Logitech HD Pro webcam C910
Also a great HD webcam that you can use for Mac and Windows. In mac the control of the camera is limited i.e. zooming in is missing.
You can record 720p with Skype. Regular recording with camera can be done in Full HD (1080).

Cost EUR 99.00
http://www.logitech.com/webcam-communications/webcams/devices/hd-pro-webcam-c910

Kodak Zi6
A bit older HD camera that I use to do videos when I am on the road. I did all my recordings from Le Web 2011 with this camera.

Great camera, although the Zi8 is even a bit better with an external Mic connection. Both cameras are no longer available in the shop.
The replacement would be the Playfull

The Playfull Dual Camera has an external microphone in.
Price EUR 180.00
http://shop.kodak.nl/store/ekconseu/nl_NL/pd/PLAYFULL_dual_camera/productID.242813300

Important: Sound and Light

There are 2 other parts that are extremely important when you record a video: sound and lighting.

A good microphone is necessary so the viewer can understand the subject. The microphone build in the camera can be good enough, but then you have to be sure that you record in a quiet environment.

You can use daylight, make sure you have the sunlight in the back of the camera and shining on the subject. When you want to record and not be depending on the sun you can buy some lights.

Microphone

Blue Yeti – this is a great microphone USB for Win and Mac. I love the sound of it. You can find it at Blue Microphones

You can buy this later but for me it is a great product that I use for all my Skype calls, interviews and podcasts.

Price: EUR 135.00

Lights

2 soft box lights directed at your face from both sides is the minimum.
I have been searching for these lights at a good price for some time.
First I found it via Amazon but later via eBay.

My latest set of 3 lights were purchased via a Dutch shop on eBay for EUR 120.00.

Software

Tools to edit your video. You do not have to use it. I published a lot of videos directly from the camera to YouTube. Editing takes time.

Windows MovieMaker – free.
This is the basic software from Microsoft that you can download and use to add titles, add sound, add images to your video. It works good and easy.

iMovie (Mac) – free
Part of iLife. If you want the latest version it is iLife ’11 and comes with iMovie ’11, iPhoto ’11 and Garageband ’11. This upgrade costs EUR 12.00, that is a bargain.

Similar to Movie Maker, a basic video editing tool.

Camtasia (Win/Mac) – paid, to record from your screen and do screencasts for example.
The software is created by TechSmith.

You can Download a free trial.
Cost: EUR 285.50 for Windows and EUR 94.50 for Mac??

To make easy recordings of my Skype interviews I purchased seperate software. I want me and the person that I interview in 1 shot side-by-side.

Call recorder for Mac
Easy to use software by ecamm to record your video calls on Skype. You can use it for video interviews via Skype or coaching calls via Skype.

Used by the video interview pros TheRiseToTheTop.com and Mixergy.com
Price EUR 20.00

Supertintin for Windows
Looks similar as Call recorder.
I still need to test this one

Price EUR 25.00 (US$ 30.00)

Publishing

To get my videos out in the open, start shipping, I publish them on 3 channels.

YouTube
This is the channel that gets the most traffic. It is the second search engine after Google.
Using the right title can put your video on the first page in Google for your keywords.

YouTube

Vimeo
It has a better quality video. It also offers you a Pro account where you get more upload size (5G per week). You can upload videos of 1 hour or more with Pro.
The Vimeo Pro solution offers a lot more EUR 199.00 / year

I also use it to publish the videos that I sell from my webinars. You can hide the videos in Vimeo.com and only embed them on a specific website.
When you are just beginning the free version of Vimeo will get you high quality playbacks.

Vimeo

Blog
Once the video is published on YouTube and/or Vimeo I embed it in a post and publish it on my blog.

Inspiration

Here are some posts that I used to get some inspiration and information for my video recording setup:

• How To Record Skype Video – Skype Video Call Recording Tools
• How To Produce Video Interviews For Your Blog Using Skype
• How to record a video interview in 8 steps
• Studio of Brendon Burchard – a good overview of the equipment Brendon is using. Wow.

Subscribe to these channels to see my weekly Q&A’s and upcoming video interviews on attracting clients:
YouTube
Vimeo

What do you use?

So are you ready to start recording now?
What kind of equipment do you use for your video recordings?
Share it via the comments below.

Post from: Erno Hannink feel free to use the content but give credit to the writer (CC BY/SA)

More and better videos for your blog and the equipment you need to make it happen

There can be a view reasons why this page is there:

1. You or a colleague added an employer with the business name to their personal profile. They just added the name of the company without connecting it to a page. This happens often.
   Facebook automatically creates an empty page, with the blue briefcase, with the business name.
2. Someone checked in at your location using your business name. Here Facebook also creates a page automatically, a ‘place’.
3. Someone, possibly a fan, started a page for your business

What to do?

1. Start your page

For now just pretend these other pages are not there and create your page. Start completing you page.

• Add a banner in the sidebar (profile image)
• Create a welcome tab and ask new visitors to like your page
• Invite friends, clients, customers, co-workers, colleagues to like your page
• Post updates regularly, at the least once every 2 days.

Let your page be found and indexed by Facebook and the other search engines by creating a very active and valuable page.
This page our page will show up in the search results above the other pages.

2. Remove employers with empty page

Ask your colleagues to remove their employer and add it again.
Now when they add the employer for a second time, they will have to select your page from the list.

This way the official page will be connected to their personal profile and the automatically created page will slowly but surely disappear.

Connect the check-in page

You may want to connect the check-in page to the official page that you have created.

Go to ‘Edit page’ -> ‘Resources’ -> ‘Merge duplicate pages’

You have fans

A fan created a page with your business name. Try to contact the owner of the page with a message on the wall of that page.
See what you can do with the help of this fan to promote your page. Maybe you can support this page, that is what Coca Cola did.

Video

Here is the video with my weekly Q&A.

There is already a page on Facebook for my business that I did not start from Erno Hannink on Vimeo.

Weekly Q&A

Do you have a question for the weekly Q&A? Send me a message on twitter @ernohannink please use the hashtag #QandA, or send me an email.

Post from: Erno Hannink feel free to use the content but give credit to the writer (CC BY/SA)

Someone created a Facebook business page with my business name and it wasn’t me. #QandA

You can find Christopher Barger on his blog Socially Speaking on Twitter @cbarger and LinkedIn.

This book really is for people who work in communications or marketing in a large organisation and that want to improve the organisation’s social media presence. Or if you are a PR firm that works for these organisations and still don’t get it.

For my regular reader, the independent professional, I do highlight some points from the book that you want to apply in your business.

Book review video

This is the video of my book review:

Social Media Strategist by Christopher Barger – #smcbooks review from Erno Hannink on Vimeo.

Successful Social Media Program

The main part of this book is about the 7 elements of a successful social media program.

1. the Executive Champion. The person on the executive team that does not need to know all the social media terms or be very active on it, but provides internal support for the program. He or she makes the connection between the social evangelist and the executives.
2. Who owns social media. Which department or what team is responsible for social media on behalf of the organisation. Christopher gives several pros and cons for marketing, Pr, HR or customer service. In the end someone needs to be responsible.
3. The social media evangelist – the face of the organisation in the social media. This person knows every thing about social media and still is able to explain it to you and me. Even though this person is the face of the company it is not about him or her, it is always about the organisation.
4. ROI and measurement. This point is important for independent professionals as well. You need to know what success in social media looks like. What do you measure and when are you happy. You also need to determine where you are now, your zero point. Sales is always the most important end result.
5. Legal Team – you have to work with the lawyers. You need to understand what you can and can not say in public.
6. Social Media Policy – the rules. What can people in the organization do in the social media. What can your co-workers not talk about on Twitter. As an independent professional I see no reason to write a policy (who is going to fire me? Me?), however the Usage Guide has some good tips:
   • Acknowledge mistakes – fast
   • Never remove posts or factual errors – just explain and update
   • Be respectful – always.
   • Link back to others’ people posts
7. Teaching – educate the people in your organisation. How does it all work. Why a policy, what is in it, what gets you fired.

The Social Media Strategist: Build a Successful Program from the Inside Out on Amazon (aff)

What did I think about it

It is a thorough book which takes care of the most important points about social media in large organisations. I don’t work for large organisation but I feel that you can learn a lot from it if you do.

Working with social media is different for someone like me compared to an evangelist in a large organisation. The most important points are true for both of us:

Social Media is about people not technology.

Social Media is a 2-way business tool to attract customers.

Bottom line:

Use common sense

If you are working in or for a large organisation and are working with social media it is a good book to read. It will not show you how to use Twitter or blogs, it will show you what are the important elements of a social media program.

A video from an interview that David Meerman Scott did with Christopher Barger at his GM time in 2009.

Post from: Erno Hannink feel free to use the content but give credit to the writer (CC BY/SA)

Social Media Strategist by Christopher Barger @cbarger book review [video]

Quantity vs Quality

Quality is an important factor in attracting the ideal client. You need to create content and products of high quality. That is a fact.

However the quantity factor can not be left out.

1,000 true fans should be enough to have a good business and earn EUR 50,000 – EUR 100,000 when you are able to sell your true fans EUR 50.00 – EUR 100.00 per year.

But how do you get 1,000 true fans? Lots of people need to see you, find you, read about you.

4 keys for successful client attraction:

1. visitors,
2. subscribers,
3. fans and
4. clients.

In that order.

1. Visitors

It all starts with attracting visitors to your content. There are several ways to attract visitors to your hub (website and blog combination).

Ads – you can use advertising to draw fans to your content
Search Engines – when you have good content and you use a good technical platform like WordPress, the search engines will pickup on your content. People are looking for the content that you supply in the search engines.
Social Networking Sites – people on sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube want to share their discoveries with their network. This is how people find you, new and people who have seen your content before.
Bookmarks – People bookmark great content for later to read, for inspiration. The bookmarks in the browser and bookmarking sites turn into visitors for your website.
Newsletter or RSS – when people want to stay updated to what you are doing they subscribe to your updates. You can supply these updates via newsletter and/or RSS. People will visit your Hub from your updates via email.

Subscribers

People that visit your website via any of the above ways come to your website, a visitor. When they are interested in your topic at this time they want to stay updated. They want you to keep them informed on this topic, for now.

A great way to do this is to let people subscribe to your newsletter. It is a great thing you can offer the visitors of your website.

They will stay updated and it will give you the opportunity to send time sensitive messages.

Fans

A small part of the people who follow you, read every thing that you publish. They spread your articles, share it with their fans. These fans love what you do, learn from you and pass the information on.

Clients

Clients, customers, true fans, these are the people who buy from you. They like what you do so much, they are willing to pay for even more information.

You need products when you want to make a living from your business. But it is also true that your true fans need products from you. They want the limited edition, the extended version, they want more.

Your are letting your true fans down when you are not offering this. They will be disappointed. I know now.

What you need to do

There are only 3 things you need to focus on:

• Create great content,
• listening and interacting with your audience, and
• create great products that your ideal client wants to buy.

Content

Great content will keep attracting new visitors. It makes new visitors, returning visitors. It makes visitors willing to share your content, bookmark it. It makes them want to subscribe to the updates. It will turn them into fans when you continue to deliver and surprise them.

Create great content and people will use it and add a link to your content in their articles. This will make you more visible in the search engines and rank you higher.

Great content gets shared in the social networking sites even by people who have never heard from you before.

Interact

The visitors of your website can only turn into fans when they get to know the real you. When they trust you. You do not have to meet in person to get to know each other.

People will learn a lot about you from your writing, videos, photos and audio. This is you sending. People will even learn more about you when they interact directly with you. You will build trust with them.

When you listen and reply to comments, replies, messages, people can turn from visitors and subscribers into fans and true fans.

Products

Create products. With products you are able to support your true fans. It will make you a living.

Creating products looks sometimes more complicated than it really is.
Listen to your true fans. What are they looking for. Ask.
Then, create it.
Ship it.
Done.

Shipping is the hardest part here. You are looking for perfection. You may think the product is still not good enough for your true fans. There are plenty of other things to do.

However a product doesn’t count if it hasn’t been shipped. When a product is not on your website, in your shop with a price attached to it so people can buy ut, it doesn’t count. You need to complete this step.

How about you?

How do you feel about this model?
Do you see it working for you? Do you miss something?

Post from: Erno Hannink feel free to use the content but give credit to the writer (CC BY/SA)

From visitors to clients and the 3 things you need to do

The hub is one of the 5 key points in the Best People Attraction Model. Posting regularly to attract new and returning visitors to your Hub is important.

In one of the Stop Selling Breakthrough Session I spoke with a lady and she said “Writing is not my thing. Like for others administration is not their thing. I feel the same about blogging. So, I can not start a blog.”

That is not true of course, you can blog. You can become visible on the web. You can be found by your target audience via the search engines.
There are 3 very obvious ways that you can increase your visibility on the internet.

1. Video

Recording and publishing videos is an excellent way to make yourself more visible. Especially if you, as a person, are an important part of your business and services.

People want to see and hear you. They need to get to know you, trust you. Watching and hearing you talk will help.

It is not as difficult as it used to be. A good easy to use HD video camera will cost you about EUR 150.00.

There are 2 key points that you need to pay attention to, sound quality and light. You need to make sure that people can understand you and see you.

You do not need to buy special lighting equipment or an expensive microphone. Just make sure that you have no background noise and are looking towards daylight.

You can video yourself, you can give a workshop and record that, you can record your presentation, you can do an interview, or video your clients.

Use sites like YouTube or Vimeo to post your videos. Then embed the video on your blog. So the people that follow your blog can always find your latest videos.

2. Photo

When you make products, small or tall or if you create art. It is great to keep your following posted of your creations. Use your camera and shoot pictures of the process. Post pictures of the end result.

You can post photos and images to Flickr or the new kid in town, Pinterest. There are plenty of other options available.
Of course you also upload the images to your blog and to your Facebook page.

3. Text

Even if you don’t like to write, you should at least write a short text that explains your videos or photos. Or even better, write a post of about 1 page each week or month. That is do-able right?

Once you get in the rhythm you will notice that it becomes easier. Maybe you will never love it but you can learn to use it.

People like to read articles. Search Engines like to find new information on your Hub on a regular basis. This will help you to rank better on your keywords.

While you are putting in the effort to write something make sure you write about the things you want to be found on. Try to find the keywords that your target audience uses when they look for their problem.

What if you don’t like writing? 3 tips to become visible from Erno Hannink on Vimeo.

Weekly Q&A

Do you have a question for the weekly Q&A? Send me a message on twitter @ernohannink please use the hashtag #QandA, or send me an email.

Update:
Good example of blogging with images: 5 Awesome Examples of Instagram Marketing From Real Brands

Post from: Erno Hannink feel free to use the content but give credit to the writer (CC BY/SA)

3 tips to become visible even if you do not like to write – Build your Hub

This changed and you need to do 2 extra steps now.
You can also find a screencast of this below.

The people that like your page

1. Click on the link ‘Like this’ just below the number of likes on your page, in the left sidebar.


2. Click on ‘See likes’ on the top right.

Here is the list of your likes in chronological order, i.e. people that liked your page most recently are first in this list.

View Likes via Insights

There is another way to find the people that liked your page, via Insights. Actually it is the same way but a different starting point.

1. Click ‘Insights’ in the left sidebar

2. Now Click ‘Likes’

3. Click on ‘See likes’ on the top right.

4. Voila, the List of the people that liked your page, with most recently liked first in this list.

Screencast

A short screencast of these steps.

Find the people that Liked your Facebook page from Erno Hannink on Vimeo.

Say hi

This list may help you to welcome new followers for your page. You can visit their personal profile and send them a short message.

Celebrate your fans

The list can help you to celebrate your fans on your page. You can put a spotlight on the 100th, 200th, 1000th… fan of your page and write something on the wall about this new fan.

Post from: Erno Hannink feel free to use the content but give credit to the writer (CC BY/SA)

Where do I find the people that Like my Facebook business page?

What most of the times happened was that at some point you have added your company as work experience in your personal profile on Facebook, without creating an actual business page.

This is when Facebook automatically creates a page. One that has this briefcase (see below) and you can not edit it.

This video explains what is happening and how to correct it including a short screencast.

Add your Facebook business page to your personal profile [screencast] from Erno Hannink on Vimeo.

Go to the about section on your Facebook personal profile

1. Go to your Personal Profile by clicking on your name on the right side in the menu.
2. Go to the about section – click on About.

The incorrect empty page

This is usually how the incorrect business page is listed on your personal profile. When you click it some other people may even have ‘Liked’ it, but you can not edit this page.

Remove the empty page

Remove this empty Facebook page with your business name.

Add the correct page

3. Now start typing the name of your business page.
4. Select the correct Facebook page from the drop-down list.

Complete your company details

5. Complete the details for your company:

• Position
• City/Town
• Year and month when you started this business

When you have multiple business or jobs listed here, remember that these are ordered on the date you started the business or job.

Done editing

6. You are done editing

Your Facebook page visible and clickable in your personal profile

Now you can see your business page in the about section on your personal profile. It will show the position that is at the top of your ‘Work and Education’ list.

The visitors of your personal profile can now see your business page when they hover over the name. They can click the page and go directly to your business page. Of course your page is very interesting and you have another ‘Like’

Weekly Q&A + tips video

This is part of my weekly video Q&A.
If you have a question that you would like me to answer in such a video, please send me a message.

Post from: Erno Hannink feel free to use the content but give credit to the writer (CC BY/SA)

Add your Facebook business page to your personal profile in 6 steps [video]

By just thinking about a list of these lists I got a lot inspiration. Now I just need to add blogs to Google Reader and Delicious to fill those ’30 best’ posts.

The lists I came up with so far below.
To give you an idea what I am looking for I have already added some blogs to the lists.

30 best Female Bloggers

An overview of blogs written by ladies. The blog should be interesting for entrepreneurs.
The blog is maintained by a single author.
Mari Smith
Conversation Agent by Valeria Maltoni

30 best Male Bloggers

An overview of great blogs written by gentlemen again the blogs should be interesting for entrepreneurs.
The blog is maintained by a single author.
Brian Solis
Jonathan Fields
James Altucher

30 best Multi Author Blogs

Great blogs for entrepreneurs maintained by multiple authors.
Social Media Today
Successful Blog
Duct Tape Marketing

30 best Money blogs

Blogs on money and entrepreneurship. So how to live with less money. Making money online. A better balance in entrepreneurship and making money. Making more money as an online entrepreneur.
Man vs Debt
Get Rich Slowly
Cash & Joy

30 best Blogger Blogs

Blogs about blogging. Here you learn more about blogging. What is important for you as an entrepreneur when you blog.
ProBlogger.net founded by Darren Rowse – my personal number 1, Darren and his blog got me blogging in 2005.

30 best newsletter / copywriting blogs

Blogs about copy writing. Writing for entrepreneurs. Blogs on newsletters or ezines.
Copyblogger.com
AWAI

30 best Social Network Site Blogs

Blogs with tips on social network sites
Social Media Examiner
Dan Zarrella

30 best coaching blogs

Blogs of great coaches. Coaching for solopreneurs, entrepreneurs and the self-employed.
Marie Forlio

30 best speaker blogs

Yes, blogs of the best speakers in the world. Get inspiration from other speaker. You should be speaking as well. Do you know speaking is a great way to attract more clients and you can actually sell at the end of your presentation.
Alan Weiss

30 best author blogs

Authors that write non-fiction books. Books on marketing, business, entrepeneurship….

30 best Small Business blogs

Bogs by small business owners. Yes, these business owners are running a business and bog actively.
Andrea Vascellari

30 best corporate blogs

A large part of the solopreneurs offer their products or services to mid size or larger companies. Some of these companies have great blogs. What can you learn from your potential clients in their blogs.
Hubspot blog

30 best books for the self-employed

There are so many interesting books around that you can read to become better in your business or as an entrepreneur. This list will cover 30 of these books that you can put on your Amazon Wish list.

• Uncertainty
• Million Dollar Speaking
• Today We Are Rich
• Greater Than Yourself
• Making Ideas Happen
• Build to sell

30 people to watch in 2013

At the end of 2012 I want to publish a list of solopreneurs, self-employed and independent professionals that you want to watch in 2013.

30 best WordPress blogs

Blogs that are created with WordPress. Here it is more about design. How do the blogs look.

30 best WordPress websites

Amazing websites create and maintained with WordPress. Inspiration for when you are looking for a new design for your website.

Will use the help from my Google.com/reader, Technorati, Alltops.com

Your input

I love to get some help from you.
When you have a suggestion for any of the lists above just put them below in the comments.
Please put this in your comment: Name, URL, what list you want it in.

Thank you.

Post from: Erno Hannink feel free to use the content but give credit to the writer (CC BY/SA)

12 Lists on the 30 best of – your input please #30bestof

Pieter van Osch

Pieter van Osch – now working on his Dutch bog customervibes.com and Refresh Interactive but has an international plan on mindful marketing for 2012 @pyotr

Drive your business growth with super enthusiastic customers.

Monique Bolung

Monique Bolung – a coach that is really good in team coaching especially management teams. She is launching a new program and starts in January 2012. So glad that I am her Greater Than Yourself project. She is helping me to face my fear for earning more money and making me look beyond myself. A warm hard and a sharp mind. @breinkorf

boardroom consultant, executive coach, team coach, conflictcoach

Brigitte van Tuijl

Brigitte van Tuijl – She is going to make a big difference in people’s life in 2012 with her new program Big Mission, Big Impact. We talked in September and concluded that 2012 is the year we will make the full switch to English. Or as she says on her blog “A Purpose & Breakthrough Expert for Heart-centered Entrepreneurs. @brigittevanT

Helping heart-centered entrepreneurs that struggle to reach more people with their message to get unstuck so they make a bigger difference and contribution while making more money.

Lianne Ebbinkhuijsen

Lianne Ebbinkhuijsen – of Being In The Room from she moved from fear of speaking to selling with your presentation. A great move. A skill that a lot of self-employed are missing. I see a great future for her new program Sell Your Excellence by Speaking from the Heart, launching in January. @lianneebbink

Moving your Audience

Becky McCray

Becky McCray – a Small town business specialist. What a wonderful business women. Building on several business at the same time. Running a liquor store in Alva, Oklahoma, starting Tourism Currents and taking care of the farm. Enjoyed our long talks during SOBCon and our monthly master mind sessions.

Specialist in small town and rural issues in small business, government and tourism.

Stephanie Ward

Stephanie Ward – my first English webinars was earlier this year together with Stephanie. We did even a workshop together for the AABC members in Amsterdam April 18, 2011. A good start for my international aspirations.

I am passionate about helping Business Owners attract more clients and grow their businesses!

Liz Strauss and Terry St. Marie

Liz Strauss – we had a couple long chats via Skype about my direction earlier this year. She and Terry ‘Starbucker’ St. Marie are making it possible that there will be a SOBCon Europe in 2012. Looking forward to this energetic event. @lizstrauss and @starbucker

Liz is truly a community builder and develops a warm relationship with readers of her blog.

Laura Babeliowsky

Laura Babeliowsky – missed working with her this year. We stopped the Social Media Event that we have organised for 3 years together. She invested in coaching and training during 2011. Expect to see some great things from her in 2012. I feel she will move into the 7 figures revenues this year. @laurababel

Business Coach for the self-employed to get more clients

SMC Amsterdam team

The Social Media Club Amsterdam team – Olchert Vels, Remco Janssen, Leo Verdonck, Sandy de Roos, Pieter van Osch for 2 years of SMC Amsterdam already and the great plans we have for 2012. Meeting great and smart people who attend the monthly events and listen to great speakers. Personal highlight for SMC Amsterdam in 2011: presentation David Meerman Scott. @smcamsterdam @olchert @remcojanssen @leoverdonck @sandydr @pyotr

WordCamp NL team

After some hard thinking I decided to step down of the WordCamp Netherlands board. As initiator for this WordCamp it feels like letting your baby go after 3 years. Wishing the team lots of fun and a sold out event for WordCamp Netherlands 2012 @wordcampnl @chantalcoolsma @yoast @defries @illutic

Clients, freelancers and friends

Love working with clients like Selma Foeken, Brigitte van Tuijl, Lianne Ebbinkhuijsen, Chi-Yeun Gulick-Lee, Marianne Schutten, Marije van Duijne Strobosch, Olaf Rutten, Marietta Boland, Karla Mooij, Suzanne Meijles, Marina van Walsum, Minky Spijkerman, Josephine Bots, Marjon de Stefano, Marlene Langbroek. Thank you for sharing your business and experiences.

Impressed by the work of Chantal Coolsma @chantalcoolsma, Matthew Rockow @rochow, Sinian Nienhuis @Virtualsz, Sabine Schmidt @smdsocialmedia and my wife whom all helped me out in 2011. Looking forward to outsource even more work to you in 2012. Love to keep you busy.

Coaches

Learned a lot from these coaches and trainers in 2011 – they help me to make progress without meeting them in person:

Sandi Krakowski – A Real Change – a really smart business women and serial entrepreneur. From bankruptcy to multi millionaire. A hard-working mom that found the peace to take care of business AND her family.

Kendall Summerhawk – shows me new ways of looking at earning money. Have been following Kendall a few months now.

Fabienne Fredrickson of Client Attraction, great tips and insight on how to grow as an entrepreneur in business and life.

Brendon Burchard founder of Experts Academy. Respect of how is over US $ 10 million in just 2 years.

Derek Halpern of Social Triggers – learning about better website from Derek. Was following him from the beginning of 2011 and got to listen to him at SOBCon in Chicago. Love his way.

I did not hire these coaches, I followed them online. In 2012 I will hire a business coach.

Authors that made a difference for me

I have read a lot of books last year. It feels like the most books I have ever read in a year. About every 2 weeks I finish reading a book. The books and authors that really touched me were:

Tim Sanders @sandersays – Today We Are Rich: Harnessing the Power of Total Confidence

Steve Farber @stevefarber – The Radical Leap Re-Energized: Doing What You Love in the Service of People Who Love What You Do

Scott Belsky @scottbelsky – Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality

Arjan van Erkel @aartjan – Verleiden op Internet

Paulo Coelho @pauloCoelho – Aleph

Blogs

Blogs that I read the most in 2011 and shared a lot of stories from. Thank you for your high quality content.

Social Media Examiner – an online magazine on social media with Michael Stelzner, Cindy King and many more.

ChrisBrogan.com – don’t know how he does it, writing multiple post every day.

Conversation Agent by Valeria Maltoni

Jonathan Fields – great launch of his new book Uncertainty.

Dan Zarella – great statistics and insights

Duct Tape Marketing – John Jantsch – small business support

ProBlogger – with Darren Rowse and others. Great about making money with your blog and more.

Social Media Explorer – Jason Falls

Mack Collier – Helping companies understand the “social” part of social media.

Jeff Bullas

James Altucher – serial entrepreneur and Venture Capitalist

Mari Smith – the Facebook Queen.

Convince & Convert by Jason Bear

Brian Solis

HubSpot Blog

And you?

Whom are you proud of?
Share your inspiration below.

The inspiration for this post came from 20 Bloggers to Watch in 2012 by @jadecraven

Post from: Erno Hannink feel free to use the content but give credit to the writer (CC BY/SA)

Which friends made you shine in 2011? Here are 50 of mine