Talent Revolution Live

In support of Share Our Strength, a national organization that works hard to make sure no kid in America grows up hungry, Talent Revolution will be donating 10% of the net proceeds from the TR Live workshops in LA to help end childhood hunger in America.

Learn more about Share Our Strength

After you book your ticket for the TR Live workshops, Ultimate Career Lifestyle and Social Media: The Complete Package, reserve your room at the Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles for the special rate of $99 per night!

Click here to get the TR Live group rate and please make note: it’s only available until September 24th!

See you in LA…

Scott Stratten (aka @unmarketing) will be a special guest speaker at Social Media: The Complete Package in LA! If you’ve been looking for another reason to book your ticket, this is it.

And, in case you don’t know @unmarketing, here’s a little intro:

Scott Stratten is the President of Un-Marketing.com. He is an expert in Viral, Social, and Authentic Marketing which he calls Un-Marketing. It’s all about positioning yourself as a trusted expert in front of target market, so when they have the need, they choose you, That’s UN-Marketing.

Over 60,000 people follow his daily rantings on Twitter and was voted one of the top influencer’s on the site with over 100 million users . His recent Tweet-a-thon raised over $16,000 for child hunger, in less than 12 hours.

His book “UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging” is due to hit the shelves in the Fall of 2010 from Wiley & Sons.

See you in LA!

The dates and location of our next Ultimate Career Lifestyle and Social Media: The Complete Package workshops have been determined! Here they are:

Ultimate Career Lifestyle: October 16th – 18th

Social Media: The Complete Package: October 19th – 21st

Both workshops will be held at the Sheraton Gateway in Los Angeles, CA, and we’re offering a special package deal for those who want to attend both workshops.

One more thing: when you register for the workshop(s) before September 17th, you’ll save $200 off the regular ticket price!

Register today. We can’t wait to see you there…

Social media has changed the game. It has become a powerful tool to build relationships with customers, attract today’s top talent, and create a personal brand that resonates.

It’s a tool that is constantly evolving, which leaves many wondering where to begin, what to do, and how to stay up-to-date.

“Social Media: The Complete Package,” is a two and a half-day work session, providing the solutions to all of your social media needs. You’ll walk away with everything you need to get in the game: the training, the strategy, and the tools.

What you’ll get:

• Intensive social media training with the highly experienced TR team
• The opportunity to collaborate, share, and learn from leading companies
• Hands-on setup and building of your online presence:

             – Social media monitoring hub
             – Blog
             – Twitter
             – Facebook
             – LinkedIn
             – YouTube

• A customized, six-month social media strategy ready for implementation

You’ll leave “Social Media: The Complete Package” with all these things and so much more. What might have cost you six months of research and planning will be done in two and a half days, and you’ll have the expertise of the best at your fingertips. That’s a smart investment.

Register today.

You have a career to create that makes work not seem like work, and time that needs to be re-focused on the things that drive you. You need to be the authentic you, define your lifestyle before someone does, and find purpose in applying your talents.

You need to create your Ultimate Career Lifestyle.

This 2 1/2 day workshop, facilitated by the Talent Revolution team, provides you with an experience that aligns your career with your ideal lifestyle and, in the process, uncovers the purpose of your passion, defines the life you want to live, and shows you the actions you need to take to make it all happen.

What you’ll leave with:

• Five-year, customized life and career plan
• 12-month action plan
• Budget designed for living your UCL
• Highly defined bucket list
• Personal/life branding plan

The results of this class are in your hands, because you will be doing the work. This is your life and it is up to you to create it. The TR team will guide you through a series of processes designed to expand your awareness and think about your lifestyle, your career, and your company in a different way.

You’ll find a new passion and enthusiasm for your life, business, career, family, and relationships, and you’ll know exactly what to do to make them all work.

Find out more here, or register today for your Ultimate Career Lifestyle.

This week, I discovered this powerful video, “Bigger than TV? Social Media’s Power Shift” produced by Radian6. I’d like to pass along and summarize my interpretation of that message here.

Is the Social Web really all that revolutionary? Or is it a fad?

Make no mistake, we’re in the midst of a revolutionary shift in how brands and customers do business. If you don’t start taking this seriously, you will find yourself lonely and without a voice.

Let me explain.

If you’ve studied marketing, you’ve heard the phrase: “The medium is the message.” This is stunningly true. The medium itself has a significant social impact on business and in our lives regardless of the message being communicated through that medium.

Think email.

It’s changed our work lives. And, it’s not because of a particular email that we’ve received. It’s just the fact that we have email that’s changed the way we work and how we do business.

Here’s the thing. Up until now, the medium has been owned and sold by the gatekeepers who controlled it.

Think TV, radio.

It came at a price. With your purchase, you got to tell the story the way you wanted to tell it. And for a long time, that worked. But the Social Web is very different because it’s owned by the Community. No one controls it, you can’t buy it, and everyone is an equal participant.

Now, a customer has as much of a voice as the brand. That is a revolutionary shift in power.

The messages are no longer controllable.

The days of sitting in a room with your Executive, PR and Marketing teams, defining a message and pushing it out there, are over.

Your brand is defined by the conversations that are happening about it. Communicated in the language, shaped by the voice and in the words of your customer. You can influence it but, ultimately, your customers will shape it.

The reign of the dominated, one-way conversation has come to an end.

And you’re better off for it. Because when you isolated the conversation, you never really knew what was happening on the other end, whether people believed and trusted you, if it struck up a conversation, if it inspired an action or idea.

Now, in real time…at your finger tips…if you choose to tune in…are all the reactions, all the ideas, recorded and living here on the Social Web. Right. Now. You have the opportunity to talk directly to your customers.

But…

You’ll have to humanize your brand. You’ll have to be more authentic and more engaging to earn their trust. You’ll have to care enough to listen, and do so fanatically. And, you’ll have to be ready for disappointment, be open to change, because what they tell you may not be what you wanted or expected to hear.

If you do, and if you are, one day you’ll look back and see that this single medium has revolutionized the way you do business.

I’d like to invite you take action now and join us in Dallas on February 24th and 25th for TR Live: Designing Your Companies Social Media Strategy.

written by Amanda Hite

Today’s “TR Live: Social Media Q&A” is with Kat Cole, Vice President of Hooters Restaurants and widely-sought Communications & Leadership speaker and consultant.

TR: How long has your company been using Social Media, either for marketing or recruiting?

Kat: “Hooters has been utilizing Social Media, in some form or another, for the last three years.”

TR: Did your company develop a strategy first?

Kat: “No, we were very experimental in that we would place an add here, and post an update there. When we started, there wasn’t an abundance of guidance available like there is now.”

TR: What has been your biggest challenge with Social Media?

Kat: “It’s been minimizing risk while maximizing benefit to guests, employees, and the company. Also, getting people to really understand it takes authentic engagement, which takes time. In some ways, it’s no quicker than face-to-face marketing or recruiting but it is less expensive, and when done right, it can reach more people across a larger area. Like the entire globe.”

TR: Who has helped or influenced you in regard to leveraging Social Media for business, either for recruiting or marketing?

Kat: “Several groups. There’s Talent Revolution and Amanda Hite, spreading the message of authenticity as a strategy and method of execution. Claim Jumper and Avery Block truly lead by example in reaching out to guests and employees. Women’s Foodservice Forum and People Report were bold enough to highlight Social Media in marketing and recruiting early by bringing speakers and consultants to their members in order to elevate recruiting and marketing practices.”

TR: Do you have a success story or example you would like to share?

Kat: “Countless. Some are small scale like when I was on Twitter once and saw a conversation about our restaurants. I engaged with the guest, and it ended up making them happy and directly creating a restaurant visit and additional sales. Similar scenarios have happened repeatedly in various forms such as recruiting, where people have found me on Facebook and LinkedIn to get jobs. We’ve found great managers who first sought us out through Social Media.”

TR: What “first steps” do you recommend for companies looking to utilize Social Media?

Kat: “Get key executives engaged individually, so that they have an understanding of what Social Media is and what it is not. Bring in someone with experience and passion to highlight key opportunities and share best practices. Think Globally, Act Locally – simply stated – realize the massive potential, but understand the potential is only realized through local, real-time interaction in your online communities. Only then can you reap the wide-reaching benefits.”

Our very special thanks to Kat Cole for her time and generosity! If the time has come for your company to develop its own Social Media strategy, please visit:

http://talentrevolutionlive.eventbrite.com/