After our first event we decided to re-tool the format in order to make it more accessible to more people — we’re moving the event time from the noon hour to 5:00pm, shortening the overall content to allow for more Q&A and interaction, waiving ticket fees and (here’s the best news) incorporating cocktails!

For the next installment of Lava Row Camp, we’re ditching the 101 slides and focusing on what’s next for the future of social media marketing and business. Some of the topics we’ll cover are:

• Augmented Reality (AR)
• Location-based social networks like Foursquare and Gowalla, and the implications for marketing local businesses.
• Facebook’s recent changes to the News Feed (and Live Feed) and what this means for your business pages.
• Twitter Lists and how they will fundamentally change the Twittersphere (for the better).
• How Facebook Connect and Google SideWiki will forever change the corporate website.

So please join us at the Des Moines Social Club at 5:00pm on Wednesday, November 4th. Cocktails and networking start promptly at 5:00 and then we begin the discussion at 5:30. Be sure to bring your opinions and questions, as we want your insights to be a big part of the conversation. We’ll have a handful of drink tickets on hand for the first people to arrive — but they won’t last long!

The Technology Association of Iowa has graciously stepped in to help support these events, and we can’t thank them enough. Please RSVP for the event below, or you can just click here. We’re still in the process of assembling the presentation, so if there’s a topic you’d like us to cover, just contact us or leave a comment below. See you next Wednesday!

Photo credit: moriza via flickr

Two years ago, public speaking isn’t something I imagined doing a lot of in my career, or even enjoying. Fast forward to today, and in fact quite the opposite has happened: I do a significant amount of it and I actually look forward to each and every engagement.

For those who are considering getting more active with public speaking, or maybe even thrust into a situation where it’s required of you, I wanted to create a post that serves as a guide for getting comfortable, getting better, and getting more gigs. Let’s get started.

Do it for free for one year.

This exact bit of advice was given to me by Drew McLellan when I was just starting out. I stuck to this motto and accepted every opportunity thrown my way – large and small. This kept me highly visible and I slowly built up a reputation network, a few connections here, a few references there, and so on. Today, public speaking is one of our services and makes up a significant percentage of our revenue. If compensation is your end goal, remember that you need to earn it first. Nobody invites you to speak and hands you money just because. If you do a good job, word will spread, and opportunities will come your way.

(Oh yeah, it’s cool to keep taking free gigs. Often times high exposure will beat a paycheck. You get to build your own filter.)

Learn from others.

I recently attended BlogWorld Expo 2009, and while the content was excellent, I learned just as much about speaking styles (and improving my own) by studying some of the individual speakers. Jeremiah Owyang’s solo session taught me how to keep focused on connecting with the audience and their needs, putting less reliance on slides. Patrick O’Keefe demonstrated an amazing ability to lead an efficient panel discussion and keep each panelist on task and topic. (Not an easy task when Robert Scoble is one of the participants and wants to show off Twitter Lists!)

Go out and observe other speakers. Figure out what they’re doing right, what they’re doing wrong, and how you can adapt some of what you learn into your own presentations.

Prepare for questions.

Honestly, Hillary and I spend more time preparing for (and trying to anticipate) tough questions than we do buttoning-up the presentation itself. If you can’t answer your audience’s questions, chances are likely you won’t be getting many more speaking opportunities. Think ahead about their specific challenges and fears, and try to predict them. Have case studies in the hopper and be flexible. (This gets easier and comes more naturally over time.) Remember, they’re looking to you as the expert, so be ready to step up.

Be ready to adjust on the fly.

Despite all the time and effort you put into preparing for a speaking engagement, the needs of your audience may not fit into the exact framework you assembled. For example, let’s say you’re giving a Social Media 101 presentation, and multiple audience members really don’t get the benefits of having a LinkedIn account, and they want you to help them dig deeper. Be ready for this. You’ll also need to stay aware of how much time is left and what to skip over. Always come prepared with more ammunition and inventory than you think you’ll need.

Meet as many people as you can.

This one’s a no-brainer. Call it old-school social networking. Get to know the people who run conferences and professional organizations. The more people who know about you, the better. I recently spoke at the MIMA Summit but made a point to get to know Jennifer Kane (a major decision-maker). Ideally, this will help me get invited back next year.

Give them proof.

If you want to seek out bigger speaking opportunities, you’re going to need proof that you’re good at what you do. Document your speaking gigs with video, photos and share your presentations on Slideshare. I’ve organized all of my material, plus some references, on a speaking page that I often refer people to. I patterned my page after Chris Brogan’s, which is awesome. This gives anyone thinking about hiring you an idea of what to expect.

Create opportunities for others.

My very first speaking opportunity was actually handed to me by Mike Sansone, who had a conflict and couldn’t make it. Along the way, you’ll come across gigs that aren’t a good fit or just don’t jive with your schedule. This is your chance to recommend someone else – maybe somebody who is just getting started but knows their stuff. This is good karma. Use it!

Be entertaining.

Don’t take yourself too seriously. Even if you’re the most knowledgeable person on the topic, you can easily bore a room to death if you don’t show any personality. Make fun of yourself. Tell a funny story. This will help you make an instant connection with the audience. You’re there to inform, but you can also entertain.

Wrapping up

So, there you have it. Mr. Brogan and Owyang also have a ton of smart, insightful things to say on this topic, some of which overlap with mine. I’d encourage you to read those posts, as well.

What are your suggestions and tips on how to get started? What’s worked for you? What hasn’t? I’d love to hear your thoughts below.

We also got to meet John Blue of Truffle Media Networks, who has been involved in social media in the agriculture industry years before the term ’social media’ even existed.

Readers: Were any of you in FFA? How did it shape your leadership skills and values growing up?

Are you at BlogWorld this weekend? Be sure to look me up and say hello!

Are you signed up for HARO alerts yet? Leave your success stories in the comments below. If you aren’t subscribed to the service, you can do so here.

Has this ever happened to you? Be sure to share your story below.

Good news for those of you asking when our next seminar in Des Moines will take place: On Tuesday, September 29th we are kicking off Lava Row Camp — a recurring, monthly series of educational workshops focused around various social and emerging media topics.

For starters, we’ll be tackling the topic of Big Brother 2.0: How companies can develop social networking guidelines that keep employees productive and web access open. We’ll analyze opportunity vs. risk, and share examples of what other organizations have done to address this evolving and complex issue. Participation is encouraged — we’re excited to learn from you and hear more about your specific challenges.

Tickets are $25 per person (plus Eventbrite fees) and can be purchased below, or by clicking here. The event takes place at the Des Moines Social Club at 1408 Locust Street in Des Moines. Please note, this seminar is a bring your own lunch affair. We’ll get started at noon, but don’t be shy — drop in for some good, old-fashioned networking between 11:30 and 12:00.

We’re excited to see you there! If you have ideas for future Lava Row Camp topics, please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Here’s Laura Peters of Genus Landscape Architects explaining National Parking Day:

What has your business done that’s unexpected lately?

Today, in a move that established me as a modern-day Nostradamus, Facebook activated this exact feature. But in all seriousness, this is something Facebook has been contemplating / working on for months, and many users have been clamoring for it. Basically, the popular social network has turned on the ability for you to “tag” your friends in your status updates, simply by typing the “@” symbol and then choosing from an auto-fill drop-down menu. (Pages, events and groups can also be tagged.)

Seems like a simple add-on, right? So what are the long-term implications of this?

First of all, this feature is very Twitter-like. When Twitter came on the scene a few years back, mentioning friends via @replies and effortlessly creating links to them was one of the more appealing features. Over time, some lazy people (myself included) have set up our Twitter feed to update our Facebook status, negating the need to update in both places. This small change may now encourage many of us to update our status natively in the Facebook platform. It might also be appealing to those who “dabbled” in Twitter but never found any real value there.

Translation: Facebook wants you to think Facebook first, other networks second.

Status tagging is just one of many recent tweaks the social network has made to incrementally erode away Twitter’s core user base, including Facebook Lite (a stripped-down, bare-bones, Twitter-like version of the interface) and the ability to publish Page updates to a Twitter feed. (With links back to your content on Facebook, of course.) See the trend here? Facebook first.

Now, a logical person could make the case that no matter how many features Facebook adds, it can’t duplicate the Twitter experience because there are clear differences in the groups of friends you keep on each network. In other words, the quality of connections make the network.

I 100% agree with this, but I’m writing this post from the perspective of Facebook, which is a business, and that business is dedicated to going Scorched Earth on Twitter until there’s nothing left. Make no mistake about it, these social networks are fierce competitors. Remember that Facebook attempted to acquire Twitter back in 2008, believing that status updates were vital to the future of information sharing. Twitter spurned that offer, and since then Facebook bought Friendfeed, another (lesser-known) micro-sharing service, which was definitely a shot across Twitter’s bow.

Facebook and Twitter are at war over your social graph. Where do you stand? Will these recent changes change your social networking activity in the near future, one way or the other? What stand do you think Twitter can make to combat this? Please leave your thoughts below, I’m excited to hear all of your perspectives.