The idea behind T3CHn!c came about last year as people were simultaneously discussing on Twitter a way to get together for a summer picnic with fellow geeks, techies, IT nerds or whatever the technical community likes to call themselves.

A group consisting of Josh Schramm and the Boundless Flight team got together and started planning a summertime picnic and inviting all those associated with the IT community of Northeast Ohio.  The goal was to provide encouragement as this group had been knocked around a bit due to the slumping economy.

It was exciting to plan the whole event using the internet – social media was used to coordinate and plan the picnic, in fact Josh and I didn’t meet face to face until the day of the event!

In one instance a company from France contacted us via Twitter and offered support because they noticed the buzz of T3CHn!c and wanted to be a part of it.

The result was enough interest was shown by the companies and individuals which teamed up together that T3CHn!c became a free event for all attendees.  We had lunch, dinner, drinks, beverages, entertainment, swag and the opportunity to win great prizes like software and books.  Of course the other benefits were that it also brought together a talented group of people to network and become acquainted, sharing stories and making connections.

Last year’s event brought together about 20 companies and 200 people; this year we hope to get 40 supporters and 400 attendees making T3CHn!c 2010 an epitome of collaboration and the highlight of our summer!

The Ripple-Effect Cleveland is a Professional Women’s Social Club created to host networking events as well as a specific fundraising avenue for Cleveland non-profit organizations.

Find them on Facebook and http://www.meetup.com/TheRippleEffect-Cleveland

Learning To Maximize Your SEO

Go to Google and type in the product or service your company is most known for.  Hit search.  Are you on the first page of the results?  The second page?  The fifteenth?!?

Once a prospective client goes to your website are they engaged?  Are they buying? How is your website’s conversion ratio?

Boundless Flight’s SEO Expert, Damian Petrini, will cover all these topics and more when he teaches this Search Engine Optimization Course over

two evenings at our corporate office in Rocky River.

In a small group instructive setting you will have continuous interaction with the expert to leave with an in-depth knowledge of:

Fundamental SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Basics

• HTML title tag, meta description tags, page tags, etc…

Designing a Search Engine Friendly Website

• Keyword research, competitive analysis, keyword discovery, and what are they really searching before they hit your site

Implementing a Strategy to Get Top Google Rankings

• Content structure, link strategies, tracking/monitoring/measuring, using free tools for SEO and SEM

Other topics to be covered include the impact social media can have on your SEO and how to incorporate tools like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook into a SEM (Search Engine Marketing) campaign as well as the benefits and disadvantages of paid internet strategies such as PPC (pay per click) and AdWords.

To sign up for the class, RSVP on Meetup, Facebook or LinkedIn.  If you aren’t a member of Meetup, Facebook or LinkedIn: #1) You should dust off that rock you’ve been hiding under #2) Take a LinkedIn class we offer every Tuesday and #3) Contact us at the office 877-777-8004

View Original Article

Sweet Tweets

by Lisa van der Pool

Pasted and summarized by Boundless Flight’s Kimberly Kitchen

The link above will bring you to a story about Dunkin Donuts turning their tweets into revenue by Lisa van der Pool.

These highlights prove to me, companies value twitter, it’s not easy to figure out an effective strategy, and for smaller companies, outsourcing your social media presence may be your best option:

• “35 percent or 173 of Fortune 500 companies have active Twitter accounts, according to a recent study about corporate Twitter usage in 2009 from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research”

• Dunkin Donut’s David Puner has been tweeting for them since 2008, has 40,000 followers and says they’re still “figuring out twitter” while valuing the real time contact the brand can have with its customers

• Staples Inc., has five staff members doing their tweeting

This is a presentation David Puner put up on slide share that summarizes a few concept; have personality, listen to your followers, encourage feedback, and your customers can’t talk to a billboard.

Twitter is effective.  If you don’t have a David Puner or a 5 member twitter team you can afford to hire, contact Boundless Flight.

LinkedIn Class March 16, 2010

Gary Baney teaches local professionals to use LinkedIn for:

1) Gaining Employment

2) Establishing  Strategic Business Relationships

3) Prospecting  For New Customers

4) Expanding  Their Digital Footprint

In tonight’s class we have a range of professionals from an up and coming photographer, project management specialist, interior designer, and a builder.

Every Tuesday night from 7-9pm, Gary uses his past experience as a professor to reach out and teach local professionals how he has used one of today’s most powerful social media tools to build his professional network to span over 200,000 individuals within a 2nd degree connection.

View Gary’s LinkedIn profile.

Gary Baney Great Lakes Geek Bio

Gary Baney, CEO of Boundless Flight, gets mention in recent article listing “Top Techies In Town”.  Dan Hanson, Columnist and Technology Editor for Inside Business Magazine, Executive Director of Computers Assisting People (CAP) Inc., Webmaster of ClevelandPeople.com, Entreprenerd – The Great Lakes Geek and MagnumComputers Inc., and Microsoft MVP devoted his March column of Inside Business Magazine to ensuring the tech professionals in Cleveland got their recognition.

Thank you Dan for putting us so high on your list of Business Prime!  (we know it’s alphabetical)

Link here to read Dan Hanson’s column in Insider’s Business Magazine:

http://www.ibmag.com/Main/Archive/Powered_Up_11612.aspx

Ever want to tell another driver that his headlight is burned out?

Twitter on the Highway

Ever want to tell someone who is blatantly speeding and cutting off other drivers that they are being obnoxious?

Ever want to ask that cute guy in the car next to you if he is doing anything tonight?

TA – DA!! Announcing the License Plate Twitter Account (LPTA)!!!

Simply register your license plate number, for example GF493AT, followed by

the two letter abbreviation of your state, for example OH for Ohio, as your

Twitter account. Now when people see you on the road and want to communicate

with you, they can simply Tweet to that account (@GF493ATOH) and they will get

you!

State Highways:

Imagine if the state of Ohio started giving out Twitter accounts at the point

of license issue? Then we can tie the red light cameras into your Twitter

account and just Tweet your ticket to you! … and the officer who sees you

speeding can simply take a picture of your plate and issue the traffic

violation immediately. Toll both? Receipt for your payment is sent to your

Twitter account. How about all traffic warnings (accidents, detours, construction) will be sent to your Twitter account based on where you are on the highway at a given point in time.

Retailers:

How about pulling into the mall as the retailers in that location tweet you notifications for their current specials.

Don’t laugh – this is ALL feasible with technology that exists RIGHT NOW.

I have contended for quite a while that Twitter is going to become not just

social media but social middleware. Just as Tivoli took over the data center,

Twitter is going to take over the cell phone network.

Stay tuned, we are cooking up LOTS of good ideas and solutions over here at

Boundless Flight!

If you’re still thinking social media, like Twitter and Facebook, are solely for college kids and self-indulgent pop culture, ask @itsThePlumber on Twitter.

I just took this picture and am making this post from my Palm Pre cell phone, so I haven’t seen how many followers @itsThePlumber has, how much activity they’re getting or what other forms of social media they’re using. However, you can be guaranteed I will be a fan, a follower and already know who I’ll be calling (or tweeting) when I need a plumber!

Tweet Me! @ItsThePlumber

Using Social Media To Promote Local Business

blog post by Boundless Flight’s Kimberly Kitchen

Are you a business owner or decision maker at your place of employment?  Are you in charge of increasing awareness?  Maybe brand awareness, or event attendance or awareness of a political campaign?  If any of those answers are yes, I hope you’re not relying on newspaper, magazine, yellow pages, radio, direct mail, coupons, television and/or billboard advertising and marketing without considering social media.

Social Media:

What is social media?  Well, I’ve always considered it to be a form of media that encourages socializing. For example, you can’t talk to a magazine, a newspaper, a radio, a billboard, a television, a coupon, direct mail, etc… (I guess you can, but they won’t respond).  LinkedIn, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc… are forms of media that not only encourage interaction – they’re driven by interaction.

The difference can be identified with a classroom analogy.  Have you ever tried to learn something by reading a book and listening to some tapes without any interaction with peers taking the same course and/or a teacher?  Compare that experience to a course taught in a room with other students and someone leading the class.  There is social interaction that can alter the path of the curriculum based on the students.  There is a feeling of community shared by the class that takes on its own dynamic.

Here is Wikipedia’s answer.

In today’s world, the delivery of news is evolving.  News used to be delivered, by a delivery boy, the television, the radio, the postmaster, or some other form the user was expecting.  Now, news is being “delivered” from blog posts, LinkedIn discussions, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, word of mouth, etc…  Of course the way we get our news has an impact on advertising and marketing.  If people no longer bought the newspaper, what would be the sense in advertising in the newspaper?

So it’s no surprise that companies are starting to see sales increase as a result of their social media presence, that political groups can attribute raising funds and awareness to social media campaigns, and that relief efforts for Haiti, breast cancer awareness and other causes have been seeing more results with a better social media strategy.

Martin’s Corner Deli:

We made a blog post about the wine tastings promoted by Boundless Flight a few weeks ago.  Read the post for the whole story, but the short version is before we took over promoting the event, Martin’s was using a flyer, word of mouth and a sign in the deli to advertise the wine tasting.  The attendance was very limited.

When Boundless Flight took over we set up a Twitter account, a Facebook group (we prefer pages, but in this case a group was more appropriate), and used LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Meetup to promote the event.

This past Thursday, March 4th, with only 10 days to promote the event, Boundless Flight got 33 people to attend the wine tasting.  We had software professionals, event planning professionals, lawyers, insurance representatives, a photographer, a few people with the heath care industry and even a magician!

Many small businesses know a little about social media, know they spend too much on marketing and advertising but don’t have the time to

Wine Tasting Attendees Watch The Magician

learn the tools.  Their option?

1. Create a job!  That’s a great thought – hire a social media strategist for your company.  A recent college grad will probably do it for $30K/yr in this economy.
2. Increase  a current employee’s responsibilities to include creating the accounts and regular messaging.
3. Outsource the social media efforts to Boundless Flight.  For less than the cost of a newspaper ad, Boundless Flight will set up the accounts, provide messaging from all accounts, promote events, expand digital footprint and increase SEO efforts for maximum exposure.

Contact us on LinkedIn, Meetup, Facebook, Twitter, WordPress or – if you must, call: 216-659-4303 (Kim’s Boundless Cell. Text Friendly)