Social Media 101 Workshop in the Chicago Suburbs

After a lot of planning and coffee dates over the past couple months, I’m happy to announce that Nicole Crimaldi (better known to most of you as Ms. Career Girl) and yours truly have teamed up and will be offering “Social Media 101″ workshops in the Chicagloand area. Our goal is to educate small business owners, non-profit representatives, and entrepreneurs how they can market their business on the web, while spending very little to no money doing it.

In short, Social Media was made for small business owners – it’s a medium that enables even the smallest locally-owned businesses to compete with the corporate big-wigs. The days of being sold to are out the window – instead, we, as consumers, want to make a connection with a brand. Social Media and blogging allows companies to do just that – build bridges that lead to long-term prosperous business relationships.

Our first workshop is on Saturday, April 10th, 2010 in Elgin, Illinois. If you’re in the Chicagoland area – we’d love to have you come out with your questions, an open mind, and a willingness to network with other local businesses in the area. If you’re outside the Windy City but know someone who would benefit from our workshop – PLEASE feel free to pass along this link to our registration page: http://sm101chicago.eventbrite.com/

This workshop is 100% free – we are approaching this as a community service – a way to give back and help small businesses weather the (recession) storm. Nicole and I are both passionate about helping local businesses stretch their marketing dollar by showing them how to use free online tools.

We’re also VERY excited to have Mari Luangrath, founder of Chicago-based Foiled Cupcakes – as a guest speaker. Foiled Cupcakes has relied heavily on the web and Social Media to market their business and I constantly use them as an example of someone who is not only doing it, but doing it extremely well.

Lastly, Nicole and I will also be co-authoring a “Social Media 101″ e-book – which will include some of our best practices and case studies from small business owners. We’re not reinventing the wheel here, but are instead focusing on providing a tangible resource to all workshop attendees and anyone else interested in learning more about Social Media. This bad-boy will be 100% free for all attendees.

I couldn’t be more excited about getting this off the ground with Nicole. She has a contagious personality, a PASSION for this “space” and is doing some amazing things in her neck of the woods. We’re planning on making this a frequent event – and we can’t wait to connect with local business-owners and entrepreneurs in the Chicago suburbs!

Click through the link below to grab your free ticket (space is limited to 40 people) and for more information!