Social Business Boot Camp - It's A Wrap - Adaptive Business Services

This past Thursday, we conducted our first ever “Social Business Boot Camp” which was designed to provide folks with the fundamentals of the three major social networking sites (Twitter, FaceBook, and LinkedIn), introduce them to Nimble Social CRM as a tool to manage these networks, and to provide them with business-specific strategies for social media, hence the term Social Business.

A close colleague of mine, Tom Gay with The Alternative Board, wrapped it up nicely with a presentation of his “22 Touch System” which is designed to take your existing client base and turn a percentage of those into massive referral machines. Certainly, this ties nicely to Nimble. The event ran from 7:30 AM to 4:00 PM with several attendees staying around until about 5:00 PM in order to get a little extra assistance. Including myself, there were 20 in attendance.

Based on the evaluations from those in attendance, I would have to say that the event was a success having achieved an overall score of 3.7 out of 4. We did ask folks to rate each speaker on a variety of skill sets as well as the course materials and the training facility itself which was held at the Studio 53 Event Center in Meridian. I did receive some very positive comments via email following the event. Sweet!

Was I pleased with how things went? Not so much. That being said, I am rarely satisfied with my own performance. Putting all of this into perspective, 20 plus years ago I did these types of events for a living and, I was good at them. However, that was 20 years ago. I’m not quite as young as I used to be and, for me, this event was going to run from 5:00 AM to about 6:00 PM with setup and tear-down and with not much of a break in between. My daughter suggested I videotape this, sell it, and then she and I could make some major “bank”. I warned her that I just might have a heart attack and die in the midst of my presentation and her response was that “we can edit that part out”. LOL.

Still, the length of the event did concern me. Would I be trying to cram in too much in an effort to provide folks with an all-encompassing one-day course? My goal was to allow them to make the most efficient use of their time but, is one day enough to be effective? One attendee put it best when he said “The information delivery was like drinking out of a fire hose! Too much and too fast!” and, he was right. At my age, this marathon damn near killed me and I am sure that it was much the same for those in attendance. In retrospect, my best intentions were not what was best for my audience.

Can something like this be done effectively within an 8 hour time frame? I think it can but, not 8 hours straight. Right now, my inclination is that the next event will be broken into (2) 4-hour sessions over a two-week period. It might end up being (3) 4-hour sessions over three weeks. Make no mistake, there will be a Boot Camp II. I also received several requests for a more advanced version of this course. We will work toward offering that. At the same time, I am now actively exploring ways where we can provide continuing support and education for workshop attendees and these will be made available to them at either very little or no cost. For those who may wish to take their efforts beyond what we can offer, we do plan to partner with other professionals who can provide these services as our role is strictly defined. We deliver the best product we can for the investment that you make. Our events are fee based vs. free. Of course, “free” is not always what it seems and anybody who has been to a “free time-share” presentation can attest to that 🙂

So, moving forward we will begin work on the next event. Like most things in life, we will continue to learn, grow, and evolve. I will say this, having put this first one behind me is a huge relief! The foundation has been laid and I’m very much looking forward to building a solid structure upon that and I would like to personally thank all of those who attended and assisted us in making this possible!

Thanks for visiting!

Craig

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!