You want to become more successful online with your business? Learn from the great examples the speakers share. Apply it to your business in one day.

In 2009 I watched SOBCon Chicago for the first time. It was all online and I could not see everything, but @JenChicago made me fall in love with this event. She used the webcam of her laptop and shared the event live via Ustream.

It was that year I said to myself, “Next year I am going to SOBCon.”

Why SOBCon is a different conference

During most events there are presentations where you can sit back and listen to the experts. You get a lot of ideas for your business and how you can implement what the expert is talking about.

By the time you are on your way home you are overwhelmed with ideas and inspiration. The next morning the event is over and business as usual takes over. The inspiration fades away. Nothing changed

There are also events with workshops. This is already better. You get information and tips from the expert and start implementing these that same day. By the time the event is over the first steps are already taken.

At SOBCon there are great speakers that talks about a topic. The topic has been set with Liz Strauss (@lizstrauss) and Terry Starbucker (@starbucker), so all topics align with the events goal.

After the presentation, there is an explanation of the model that is in relation to the topic of the speaker. Then you start working on the model for your business.

Now the big plus of SOBCon will hit you. You start discussing the model and how you will use it in your business with the other people at your table (about 6 people).

This is the moment you learn from other business owners, marketeers, bloggers, entrepreneurs how they are going to apply the model for their business, and you share your ideas. A double learning loop.

You can understand by the end of the day you have a good understanding of the people on your table. You have build new relations with business owners that you can help and whom can support you. The relation continues beyond the event.

Things have changed. First actions have started. New relationships.

Speaking at SOBCon

In 2010 I was invited to speak at SOBCon, Liz Strauss wanted me there and got me on a panel. Now I just had to pay for the flight and hotel. After a few weeks I found a sponsor to go to SOBCon.

The panel was about Small Business and was hosted by Becky McCray (@beckymccray) and Sheila Scarborough (@SheilaS).

First Becky and Sheila held a presentation about how they founded Tourism Currents at SOBCon the previous year and had a profit within the first months after the launch. Then the panel could share their thoughts on how to become profitable fast.

SOBCon 2011

This year I was again at SOBCon and found some great ideas.

Derek Halpern gave me some great ideas and tips I started implementing in my blog and clients websites.

I loved the presentation by Tim Sanders and his new book Today We Are Rich. The presentation by Steve Farber on leadership was again amazing and we got his new book Re-energized.

Other presentations that rocked Cathy Brooks, Michael Port, Chris Brogan, Carol Roth, Chris Guillebeau and Jonathan Fields.

All great speakers sharing some great experiences and valuable lessons.

You like SOBCon too now

You think this is a great event. You want to be there too next time. Go and register for SOBCon in Chicago May 2012.

Wait, You can join SOBCon in Europe. After discussing it with Liz and Terry, the founders of SOBCon, we are bringing SOBCon to Europe.

June 12, 2012 in Amsterdam

Come and join us.

• Meet Liz and Terry, listen to their motivational presentations.
• Learn from the experience that Arko van Brakel has with the internet. (author Iedereen Ondernemer)
• Learn from the SEO specialist Joost de Valk how you can improve your website.
• Listen to Nils Roemen and the explosion of Durf te Vragen on the web.
• And some more surprises on the way

Together with Pieter van Osch I am organizing this event. He already brought the Growth Summit successfully to the Netherlands. We are also two of the organisers of the monthly Social Media Club Amsterdam.

You don’t want to miss the opportunity to be at the first SOBCon Europe.

Register now for SOBCon Europe in Amsterdam and enjoy a EUR 100.00 bonus when you register before February 1, 2012.

Post from: Erno Hannink feel free to use the content but give credit to the writer (CC BY/SA)

Successful Online Business Conference comes to Europe #sobconeurope

For independent professionals LeWeb is not the conference to go to. LeWeb is a tech conference. So only if you are interested in tech you should go visit this event in Paris in the cold (last year we even had snow). Or is this incorrect?

Le Web is an international event, with speakers from Europe and the US. You can meet and connect with 2.000 attendees from 46 countries. The presentations do cover a lot of tech stuff, but there is more. For example, last year we were inspired by a conductor, a live winelibrary.tv, Chris Anderson and more. LeWeb is about people, meet the speakers, entrepreneurs meet investors and lots of networking.

In the Demo Zone you can learn about some great new products and services that you can use in your daily business. At the startup competition you can learn from the entrepreneurs how to pitch or maybe how not to pitch.

This year LeWeb will help you to see how you can use the Real Time Web to make friends. To help your potential customers on the web. To see them more as friends, connect on Twitter or Facebook.

Do you need to be constantly on both platforms or is one enough for your business? Do you need to build your own network on Ning? Can you use live video like ustream to connect? Is LinkedIn more than an online rolodex? Questions that will be asked during LeWeb.

Social Media is a great tool for independent professionals to connect with their target customers. By writing informative and useful content for your target clients you can become an expert. No longer do you need news papers, magazines, radio or TV to do this. Will the real time web help you to get better connected to your target audience?

Brands and marketing use the real time Word of Mouth. Large companies use the real time web as a public customer service, they are listening live to their focus groups. Brands like Ford, Dell and Zappos are doing this with great success. In the Netherlands we see UPC and Vodafone proactively answering to customers on Twitter. Get the real time web, work at it and see the positive effects on your business.

For independent professionals this also means use the mobile internet to be always on. With smart phones we can be in touch and listen to our clients all the time. Not just 1-on-1 but 1 to many. Help people and build your social capital or Whuffie, that is easier if YOU are the business. You can decide instantly and reply right away. That is often a lot faster than the large brands can do.

So, yes LeWeb is a conference with a lot of tech. However, if you listen in the right way you as an independent professional can learn a lot here. From LeWeb I will show the effects of the real time web for the marketing of independent professionals. I will create video’s with some of the speakers to make this translation for my readers. Like this video from last year with Gary Vaynerchuk.

What about entrepreneurs and the tech industry in the Netherlands you are asking? Let me share 3 examples from Holland:

• Layar, is a free application on your mobile phone which shows what is around you by displaying real time digital information on top of reality. It is a mobile augmented reality browser.
• MobyPicture let’s you directly share your photos, videos, and more with all your friends on your social networks.
• My Name is E, enables you to collect your accounts on social networks in one spot, and share them by using your mobile phone.

Are you already using these services from Holland? Try them, they are free to use.

Talk to you from Paris.

Erno Hannink helps independent professionals to use social media to get more clients. He writes on his Dutch blog enthousiasmeren.nl about internet, marketing, blogging, social media. Enthousiasmeren translates to ‘Making people enthusiastic’. Author of the book ‘Let the clients come to you’. Initiator of WordCampNL and the Social Media Club Amsterdam.

This is a guest post from me at the LeWeb blog and was also visible on Techmeme in the sponsored post section. I missed that, so no screenshot of that moment.

Post from: Erno Hannink feel free to use the content but give credit to the writer (CC BY/SA)

LeWeb, Not For Independent Professionals?

Cyril Attias, head of social media at TBWA FRANCE, and one of the official bloggers at Le Web 2009, has a great idea.

I prepare a post to present alle the official blogger, but it could take too many times if i present each of you, i wondering if you’ll be interested to make a quick video from yourself (to see each others :0) about 15 to 30 sec.

Marcel Bernet added the idea of hashtags.

Published my introduction video on YouTube:

Cyril is blogging at www.attias.net/blog and president of BloggerAgency, the french advertising blogger community about 250 members.

Note: since I am one of the official bloggers for Le Web 2009 you can get a 10% discount if you use this code when you register: BLOG09

Post from: Erno Hannink feel free to use the content but give credit to the writer (CC BY/SA)

Introduction for Le Web official bloggers

Is it possible to calculate the ROI of relationship? Is this something like calculating your Whuffie in the bank? One thing is clear the SOBCon 09 will be all about this subject.

Liz Strauss – Successful blogger – is organising this event for the 3rd time. A great event where you will not just sit and listen to the presentations. There is work to do. You will work with a small group on the subject that was just presented.

Liz came up with a great list of speakers for the weekend op 1-3 May. I want to name a few for you:

• Chris Brogan – what a great guy he is. I don’t know where he get’s the energy to keep us all inspired on the web and take care of his family. Follow his trails on his blog and Twitter and you will be amased. We met at CES 09 in Las Vegas
• Liz Strauss – Liz is nice and fatastic in starting and continuing the conversation. Her blog succesful-blog had 8 months ago already over 70.000! comments. There is a WordPress plugin that shows the number of comments in a badge, with her name. To my suprise my Dutch blog enthousiasmeren.nl was listed as SOB in February 2006. We met at WordCamp in Las Vegas 09.
• Lorelle VanFossen – aka Lorelle on WordPress. There is a lady that knows about WordPress. Of course she does understand also a lot about blogging. Love her support for the WordPress community. We met at WordCamp in Las Vegas 09, we actually went together to the Diana Ross concert at the Monster party.
• Chris Garrett – this young man from the UK knows about blogging for business. Chris can learn you a lot about how to use a blog for your business. In 2005 Chris founded a company to help businesses achieve more with Online Media called OMIQ. We met at Social Media Congres 09.
• Brian Solis – knows all about PR2.0. Brian writes incredible intelligent posts about social media in general and on PR on the web. – We met at the CES 09 in Las Vegas (I shot this photo of Brian and Cathy).
• Wendy Piersall – Wendy started eMomsatHome as eMom. In April 2008 she has succesfully transformed this into Sparkplugging – Work at Home Resources & Community for Web 2.0 Entrepreneurs.
• Brian Clark – Copywriting, THE Copywriter, the CopyBlogger. You understand what he is all about? You can not only learn from his blog about great content for your blog. Do check out his community on Teaching Sells
• Melissa Pierce – is the he producer of the interview documentary, Life In Perpetual Beta. We met at CES09 Las Vegas

Read more about it on the website or register right away to listen to 25 Expert Speakers, 5 Mastermind Workshops, “Show the Sponsors” Challenge, and fabulous food!

If everything goes as planned I will be joining you. For this event I will just need a sponsor for te trip + hotel + registration. Working on it, your support is welcome.

Post from: Erno Hannink feel free to use the content but give credit to the writer (CC BY/SA)

SOBCon 09 – The ROI of relationship