Kammy Burleson, president of YNot Web, will be leading a Social Networking Workshop hosted by the National Latina Business Women Association (NLBWA), Sacramento chapter.

In this 90-minute workshop, Kammy will be teaching participants how to use Twitter and Facebook, with actual demonstrations of the social networking sites and her recommended tools and techniques for managing each from a small business perspective.

The workshop is scheduled for Wednesday, March 31st at 5:30pm at Drexel University and is open to NLBWA members and non-members for a fee.

To learn more about the meeting and the NLBWA-Sacramento Chapter, please visit their website at:

http://www.nlbwa-sac.com

A basic starter site for a Fair Oaks contractor specializing in green construction & energies. 

See it at http://www.SCPSolarGreenConstruction.com

Kammy Burleson, owner of YNot Web, will be speaking this month on the topic of Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. This presentation will be hosted by the Sacramento Valley chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMASV). AMASV meets monthly at Delegata, located at 2495 Natomas Park Dr., Ste. 200, in Sacramento, California.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at 11:30 AM AMASV presents:

“Get Found with Search Engine Optimization”

Come learn:

• How to increase your visibility with your target audience by using SEO
• How recent changes to search and social media affect SEO strategies
• What SEO techniques you should be focusing on NOW
• How to optimize your Social Media marketing campaigns
• How good SEO practices will increase the effectiveness of your paid search marketing campaigns

Register here

To learn more about the meeting and the AMASV, please visit their website at:

http://www.amasv.org

Another round of virus infesting emails directed at Facebook users (Facebook=the new Microsoft?).   I always see things like this in batches and this is about the fourth round of similar emails.

Dear Facebook user,

Due to Facebook policy changes, all Facebook users must submit a new, updated account agreement, regardless of their original account start date.
Accounts that do not submit the updated account agreement by the deadline will have restricted.
Please unzip the attached file and run “agreement.exe” by double-clicking it.

Thanks,

The Facebook Team

Of course, an agreement would never be in an executable file and you should never run an executable file sent to you by email by persons unknown.

Recently a colleague of mine sent a flustered reaction about a solicitation she had received by email where the sender had said they received her address from “Such and Such” Chamber of Commerce.  She went on to say, she wasn’t even a member of that chamber- how could they be distributing her email address?  Did HER Chamber share the information with another Chamber?

I responded with an explanation from my own observations and experience and received some good feedback on how helpful this information was, so I have decided to share it here for all. It seems this isn’t as intuitive or obvious as I used to think to many business people.

Dear Y,
No, I wouldn’t assume that your chamber shared your address with another chamber or anyone else for that matter.  This is simply a spammer who didn’t bother to change his form letter to the chamber that you are member of from which he (or a company he uses for marketing) harvested your email address.

Here’s the reality :

1. All Chambers have member directories which include address & email addresses. This is a “benefit” so their members can do business with other members
2. Some of these member directories are online- accessible from anyone in the world.
3. People will abuse this, whether THEY are members of that chamber or not.
4. It costs VERY little to hire someone to transcribe an online directory or scanned printed directory into a database of names & addresses that can be used for mail merges etc.
5. THOSE lists get passed around ad infinitum (maybe you were in the THAT chamber five years ago, the 3rd party created list is not updated as chamber memberships change). I just had someone I know locally send me another Chamber’s mail list. I didn’t ask for it and I don’t use lists, but it was handed to me nonetheless. That person was trying to be a “good guy” by providing this resource to his business buddies.
6. Spammers want to make their letters look legitimate and personable. “So and so” gave me your name gives them more credibility than having no point of reference.
7. Sadly legitimate small businesses don’t even think they are SPAMMING when they do this. These are LOCAL businesses soliciting other local businesses.  They have so-called marketing firms or buddies tell them it’s a good idea, that they’ll get the client out in front of “5000” area businesses or such.  I even work with groups that use purchased lists- ultimately, even with assurances from the list source, those groups have no real control of how those addresses were obtained.
8. I get emails AND phone calls AND mail from people CLAIMING they are also members of the Fair Oaks chamber when they are not. I get email AND phone calls AND mail from people who have harvested my address from various other sources (I can tell since I often use alternate email addresses for different groups and associations).
9. A group I am with even had a past member posted a nasty blog entry a couple of years ago claiming that the group “sold” their contact information to spammers. This wasn’t the case.  Reality is—UNTIL a couple of years ago—the group’s member directory was posted online, making it easy for a spambot to harvest members emails. 
10. This spamming and unwanted solicitatious behavior will not stop, especially with such easy targets of consolidated data.

Again, posting member directories with contact information was and still is TYPICAL behavior by associations and chambers. If you’ve ever been or are in any sort of group with a member directory, your email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses have all been exposed by many sources for a very long time.

Sadly, good intentions have been exploited by others. Small businesses unwittingly become spammers as they see nothing wrong with soliciting other local businesses (see my past post The Definition of Spam).

Kammy Burleson, founder of YNot Web, will be speaking in February at the Entrepreneur’s Edge, an educational symposium for business owners hosted by the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), Sacramento chapter.  Kammy will be presenting, “Social Media 201: Best Practices for using Social Media effectively for Business.”  

In this break-out session, Kammy will be teaching participants how to use LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter with actual demonstrations of the social media sites and her recommended tools and techniques for managing each from a small business perspective.  Kammy will answer participants questions and help them discover strategies to effectively incorporate social media into their marketing plan, regardless of the size of their business or budget.

This will be the second year Kammy has been invited to speak at the Entrepreneur’s Edge.  The event is open to all Sacramento area business owners and potential business owners.  The 2010 event is scheduled for Wednesday, February 10, 2010 3:00pm – 7:30pm at IKEA in West Sacramento. For complete details and to register, see the Entrepreneur’s Edge listing on the NAWBO website.

Kammy Burleson, owner of YNot Web, will be speaking this month at the American Business Women’s Association (ABWA) on the topic of Online Visibility and Promotion.  This presentation will be hosted by the Placer County chapter of the ABWA.  The ABWA-Placer County meets at 6pm on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at Coach’s Classic Bar & Grill in Rocklin, CA.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 6:00 PM the ABWA Placer County Chapter presents:

“How to Gain Visibility in an Ever-Growing Sea of Competition”

To learn more about the meeting and the ABWA-Placer County Chapter, please visit their website at:

http://www.abwa-placercounty.com/