Blog Council hosts BlogWell; I want to do similar for small biz
I was asked to help spread a little WOM and link love about an event and Blog Council are sponsoring called BlogWell: How Big Companies Use Social Media. It's an event where eight well-known corporations present case studies about how they're using blogs and social media. (Hence the title. Heh.)
The companies in question are...
- Cisco Systems
- Graco
- The Home Depot
- Intel
- Kaiser Permanente
- UPS
- Walmart
- Wells Fargo
"Their goal is to demystify corporate blogging and provide tangible examples for all those companies who haven't gotten started yet," said Blog Council's Michael Rubin.
The even is being held October 28, San Jose Convention Center.
Now, continue reading to hear my thoughts and an idea for an SMB version of this.
First, while I have friends who inhabit the corporate world as social media and online community managers, my real concern is for small business and how they can make use of these tools. Let's face it, small business is the real driver for both jobs and the economy in this country.
It's a visceral issue for me because both my parents were small business owners. My mother, at age 77, still goes into her accounting business every day!
Therefore, you can understand my desire to see small businesses put this to work. They can and many are.
Here's my idea.
I'd like to showcase eight different small businesspeople in a series of webinars where they present their own case studies and where they entertain questions from participants. The eight people will each represent a different industry so that no one could say "Oh, it works in real estate, but it wouldn't work in my industry," for example.
In fact, I wish we could do ours at the San Jose Convention Center, but that's probably out of the question. (Hmmm...maybe one of these companies would want to underwrite the cost.)
What do you think? Would you be interested in being considered as one of the eight? Would you be interested in attending a webinar where small business people were sharing their experiences with blogging and social media?
Let me know what you think. If you like the idea, maybe help spread the meme and let's see if we can stir up enough interest to make it happen. This might even be a worthwhile effort for the IBNMA to host and sponsor. I know the president and hear he's a great guy.
And, if we do this, I hope the folks at Gas Pedal and Blog Council will be as eager to help us spread the word as I was to help them.
