Vision 2020

Are you thinking about starting a business? Are you a new entrepreneur? In business but need to learn new skills to promote your business in a tough economy? These are the topics that will be covered on July 21, 2009 at the Vision 2020 Conference & Expo, being held in Grayslake, IL at the University Center.

At that conference, I’ll be presenting information on Social Networking for Business. The first presentation will be in the networking track of the event. In that time, I’ll be showing just how similar social networking is to face-to-face networking.

There are many people afraid to jump into the social networking arena. I correlate that to businesses who did not think there was a need for a website 10 or even 5 years ago. I don’t meet business owners any more who don’t think it’s necessary to have a website. The time has also come for social networking.

There are many excuses for not doing social networking.  People are always telling me things like – I grew up with a phone that had a cord, with a tv that had tubes, without a computer… -  so did I – Get over it! If you want your business to be found on the web today, social networking is absolutely necessary. A website alone is not good enough anymore. Even a website that has great search engine optimization needs more. Having your profile on LinkedIn, updating your info on Twitter and having a business page on Facebook are just a few of the steps that need to be taken in social media to get people to know about your business.

The other piece of what I’m doing is presenting on using Facebook pages for business. Facebook is not just for connecting with friends and finding old classmates. When it’s used correctly, Facebook can be a great business tool. Jobs are found, business is transacted and money is made.

Hope to see many familiar and new faces at this great conference. Did I forget to mention that there will be plenty of time for face-to-face networking?