5 Reasons to come to the Biz Studio WordPress workshop

The Biz Studio is all about providing small business owners with the tools they need to succeed—including community, coaching, and workshops. On February 7th The Biz Studio is hosting a WordPress workshop designed to get business owners a bit more comfortable with their websites, so they can use their sites to their full potential.

Today I'm going to share 5 reasons this workshop is a good idea for your business. But first, a bit of housekeeping:

Who is this workshop for?

This workshop is for business owners who have a WordPress website. They know how to add a new blog post, but they don't necessarily know how to change any of the formatting, add special code or back it up to ensure there's no chance of losing their entire site.

Who is teaching this workshop?

I'm committed to finding experts to teach every Biz Studio workshop, and that won't always be me. Meagan Hanes designs and develops websites of all sizes using the flexible and extendable platform WordPress, and has been doing so for over a decade. She's also a speaker at WordCamps and other tech conferences across Canada, and contributes to the WordPress.org Project's Training Team.

Discover the beauty of DIY

One of the best reasons to get a WordPress site is so that you can do a lot of the updating yourself instead of having to ask someone to make every update for you. Unfortunately, when you first get your site up and running, you often run out of capacity for learning past the basics of getting new content up.

Now that you've had your site for a while, let's get you learning some of the more advanced options you have for building your website into the marketing platform and business tool of your dreams.

Learn about the community of support at your disposal

Did you know there’s a WordPress community in almost every major town across Canada and the USA, as well as fun yearly conferences that cost less than going to the movies? WordPress is open source—as such, a LOT of people support the tool and readily share their knowledge and support! Learn where and how to leverage the incredible WordPress community so that you never feel alone and overwhelmed when it comes to your WordPress website.

Integrate your site with Social Media

It's great to have a blog and it's great to be using social media, but how do you get more people seeing and consuming your message?

One way is to make it EASY for people to share what you have to say! Right this second, it’s likely someone can’t share your content with the click of one button. We're going to go through how to make it THAT easy for people to share your content.

But content sharing doesn't always need to be by others - do you share your own content on different platforms? We'll show you how to have your Instagram feed into your website, getting more eyeballs on the content you've worked hard to create.

Nourish your audience!

Once someone is on your site, we want them to stay on your site. One of the best ways to do this is by using your existing blog posts and content. We'll talk about ways to get people reading more of what you write, like suggesting related posts for them to read next!

Know what you don't know

There are so many things that you can do with your WordPress site and I bet you don't know what most of them are. Why? Because we don't know what we don't know! Meagan will teach us to know what our themes are capable of and how to take advantage of the advanced features. Then, not only will you know what you don't know, you'll know how to take advantage of what's available!

Join us on February 7th from 1-4pm for this hands on workshop. You'll get right into the code of your website and leave feeling more confident and proud of your amazing WordPress website.

One-Day Social Media Workshop {October 16, 2012}

It’s time to ramp back up now that fall is (nearly) officially here. Wellman Wilson is bringing back its one-day Social Media Workshop on October 16 to help small business owners delve deeper into their social media presence: Twitter, Facebook, and having a strategic plan!

What’s on the Agenda?

In the morning, we’ll focus on learning the two biggest social networks - Facebook and Twitter. Whether you’re a beginner trying to figure out this social media thing or experienced and wanting to jump to the next level.

Intro to Twitter
Learn about the basics of Twitter, including: what it is, the unique language of Twitter, where and how to find people to follow, the art of following strategically and the most pertinent question of all: what to tweet about.

or

Twitter - what comes next?
Ready for more advanced use of Twitter? You’re tweeting but taking the next steps seem overwhelming. Streamline and organize your use of Twitter by learning about the use of tools like HootSuite and Tweetdeck, how to schedule tweets, how to use lists, and how to host and take advantage of Twitter chats.

Facebook 101
With over 800 million active accounts, Facebook is an ideal location to connect with your audience in a space they are already regularly visiting. In this session we will go over how to set up a business page, what kind of content works best, the importance of engagement, and how to get more people to like your page.

or

Facebook 201
Take advantage of the power of Facebook to create a more robust marketing campaign for your business, products or services. We’ll talk about the options available to you, including page customization, plugins, extra tabs, applications and creative uses of the platform to increase brand awareness on Facebook. We’ll also touch on EdgeRank and the impact it has on Facebook Pages.

Social Media Strategy
After lunch, we’re going to devote the afternoon to discussion and strategizing. The key to really successful use of social media is to have a plan! Most social media tools are free, but time is not, so you want to use it wisely to achieve the greatest benefit. That’s where the plan comes in. Together we will go through a general template to use to put together your strategy and then we will break into smaller groups, giving you time to brainstorm and to work on your plan.

A few more details

When: October 16, 9am - 4pm

Where: Ottawa Public Library: Elmvale Branch (1910 St Laurent)

Cost: $149 + taxes and administrative fees

If you’d like to sign up for this, visit our Eventbrite page. We look forward to seeing you there and helping you get great results from your social media efforts!

One day social media workshop

I’m thrilled to announce that Karen from the Media Mesh and I are running a one day workshop on February 26.

Here are the details - I’d love to see you there!

What: One-day social media workshop

When: February 26, 9 am to 4:30 pm

Where: Anna Belanger & Associates, 1097 Bank Street, Ottawa

Cost: $124.99 + taxes and fees

Join us for a day of social media learning and planning as we cover some of the main content areas for your social media presence:  Twitter, Facebook, and having a strategic plan!

Learn in a small and intimate setting with two experienced social media consultants/strategists.  (The registration for this event is capped at 10.)

This full day event will involve opportunities for networking and includes coffee, drinks, snacks and lunch (provided by Wow Mom - Homemade to Go).

Schedule:

9:30 am
Intro to Twitter (with Karen Wilson)
Learn about the basics of Twitter, including:  what it is, the unique language of Twitter, where and how to find people to follow, the art of following strategically and the most pertinent question of all: what to tweet about.

or

Twitter - what comes next? (with Lara Wellman)
Ready for more advanced use of Twitter? You’re tweeting but taking the next steps seem overwhelming. Streamline and organize your use of Twitter by learning about the use of tools like HootSuite and Tweetdeck, how to schedule tweets, how to use lists, and how to host and take advantage of Twitter chats.

11:00 am
Facebook 101 (with Lara Wellman)
With over 800 million active accounts, Facebook is an ideal location to connect with your audience in a space they are already regularly visiting. In this session we will go over how to set up a business page, what kind of content works best, the importance of engagement, and how to get more people to like your page.

or

Facebook 201 (with Karen Wilson)
Take advantage of the power of Facebook to create a more robust marketing campaign for your business, products or services. We’ll talk about the options available to you, including page customization, plugins, extra tabs, applications and creative uses of the platform to increase brand awareness on Facebook. We’ll also touch on EdgeRank and the impact it has on Facebook Pages.

12:30 - 1:30: Lunch/networking/general discussion

1:30 - 4:30: Social Media Strategy

The key to really successful use of social media is having a plan!  Most social media tools are free, but time is not, so you want to use it wisely to achieve the greatest benefit. That’s where the plan comes in.

Together we will go through a general template to use to put together your strategy and then we will break into smaller groups, giving you time to brainstorm and to work on your plan.

Everyone will get one-on-one time with Karen or Lara to talk about specific strategies that would work for your business.