Is your mastermind group, freelance consortium, small business collective or non-profit organization invested enough in success to sponsor a member to attend SOBCon?

A famous African proverb states it takes a village to raise a child. In this economy, it can take a collective to finance the fantastic opportunities that Successful and Outstanding Bloggers (SOB), Biz School for Bloggers offer.  SOBCon 09 is a great value for the depth of talent gathered at an intimate event of this size. Where else are you going to interact with a number of gifted bloggers and marketers at this level of expertise, for that price? The key word here is interact. SOBCon 09 isn’t about theory, SOBCon is about putting theory into practice, starting right there at the convention. How much money have you spent on books that you never read or pod casts that you never listened to much less integrated into your work? What value do you place on not just on facts and information but interaction and implementation? How can you share that value with your community, collective or organization so it is in their benefit to sponsor you?

If you are a small business owner, a free lancer or a non-profit, the scale of your business might cover conference fees but the added expense of lodging and travel might appear to put this opportunity beyond your grasp. When I looked at my budget, it was beyond my means but I believed in its value. People that I knew, trusted and admired encouraged me to go. I have used the inspiration and wisdom that others gained at SOBCon 08 as a reference in my own posts like Blog naked? blog privacy and vulnerability arose from reading Sonia Simone’s post Feel great naked about putting yourself into your blog. It made sense to me and ever since I read that post, I have wanted to go to SOBCon Biz School for Bloggers.

I also value my own skills as a teacher and consultant. I believed that if I went to SOBCon 09, I would return to my courses with new skills and perspectives that would add merit.  I figured out the total expenses of my trip and asked my students,

“How much is it worth to you, for me to go to SOBCon 09 and incorporate what I learn there into my classes?”

They responded with their wallets, in amounts ranging from $5 to $100. Now, I am less than $100 from my goal. I am registered. My airplane tickets are booked. My hotel and roommate/dogwalker situation is secured. On May 1st, I will be at SOBCon 09!

I recognized the potential of SOBCon 09 and convinced my community of students to its value. What will it take YOU to convince your community, collective or organization to sponsor your SOBCon 09 Biz School for Bloggers?

When you only have 140 characters to work with, every single one of them counts. Twitter, an extremely popular micro-blogging platform, has developed a shorthand to make the most of those limited characters. Let’s take a look at some of the Twitter commands and shorthand.

Twitter commands

Twitter shorthand

RT

RT @SandyStepien: Would like to know: Who is your favorite car rental agency?
‘Having a problem with Hertz … ‘hope they can resolve soon.

This is a retweet. The RT signifies that you are passing on information or a question that was initiated by someone else. When you retweet, you give credit to the original source by including @username in your retweet. By including the original username in the retweet, you provide the means for your followers to connect with the originator. Because the @SandyStepien is not at the beginning of the update, this will not show in her Twitter web page reply tab but it will show in some 3rd party applications like Tweetdeck.

Hashtags

Check out @foodimentary for fun and interesting food facts #followfriday

Hashtags designate Twitter topics. Anyone can designate a Twitter topic. A couple of weeks ago, @micah made #followfriday a topic. Basically you recommend others that you think are worth following and why. Include the hashtag #followfriday to make it easy for others to find on the public timeline and via searches. On Fridays, try this search FollowFriday to find great people for you to follow.

One of the most common type of hashtag is for workshop and events. I learned a lot about the Seattle Startup Weekend by paying attention to the #ssw2. When I heard mention of a project that I was interested in and wante more information, I included that hashtag in my question. I not only had my answer in less than 5 minutes, I had the contact person for the project and three new followers!
@swallner has let me know that twitterfox doesn’t use hashtags but most 3rd party apps and the regular Twitter web site does.

@

LindaEaves: Great meeting with @beanfair yesterday. She does this class: http://tinyurl.com/5u5gmf

Earlier in this post, we talked about using @username at the beginning of an update as a reply to a prior update. The @username can be used anywhere in an update. In most 3rd party apps and the Twitter web page, using @username will create a link so your followers can easily check out that person’s profile. Note that because the @beanfair is in the middle of the update, this does not show up as a reply on my Twitter web page but it does show up as a reply on Tweetdeck. You can always do a search on username to see what people are saying about you as well.

These are some of the most common Twitter command and shorthand. Have more to add or a question? Let me know! Check out my  Twitter for Business and Pleasure course