I’ve emphasized in many previous posts the importance of education especially in the online world as it’s such a rapidly changing space. It’s important to understand what works and what’s no longer relevant in order to stay ahead of evolving technology, be an early adopter and really understand the landscape of the social media revolution.

My most recent venture in education industry is one that I’m most grateful for. I have the privilege to educate college students at Platt College San Diego on a subject that is my absolute passion, Online Marketing and Social Media. I was hired to develop a brand new Marketing curriculum focused on innovation, new technology and social media which is really the essence of marketing in 2010 and beyond. The school teaches students both traditional and contemporary skills because the fields  instructed at Platt (3D Animation, Graphic & Web Design, Digital Video Production) are in a constant state of development. There is a strong emphasis on providing a foundation in problem solving skills to meet future challenges and needs of a constantly evolving job market. My role as a Marketing & Communication Instructor is to empower students with new technology and social media skills for their professional development and career ventures.

I’ve only been teaching the class for a few weeks and although it’s my role to be the educator, I have learned a significant amount in areas of business management, professional speaking, presentation skills and more. By sharing my learning I’d like to inspire others to start educating about their passion. Education isn’t limited to a college setting.  There are many platforms that allow one to teach about their passion. Professionals can educate other business owners, speak at industry events and educate within their own company. If you’re passionate about something, share it with others and that’s exactly what I’m doing!  Here’s how educating has helped my career development allowing me to better serve my clients and partners as an Online Marketing Consultant, Social Media Strategist, Speaker and Entrepreneur.

1. Refined Professional Speaker- I’ve been using professional speaking as a marketing tool for myself and a service offering to help businesses and events for the past few years. Speaking has always come naturally to me especially when I’m talking about my passion. The act of teaching has refined my professional speaking skills significantly because I’m constantly practicing my ability to read the audience and engage them with compelling content. I’m learning better ways to prompt participation to create an interactive experience. I’m also enhancing my skills to be clear and concise with my messaging.  Each lecture I give is essentially a new speaking platform for me as I continue to grow my business as a paid professional speaker on online marketing and social media.

2. Better Visual Presentations- I’ve learned how to incorporate visuals in a way that tells a story  thus eliminating long drawn out sentences through excessive bullet points. Images trump text in any publication as people see  images before even scanning the text.  Choosing the right images for your presentation really makes a difference in the ability to engage your audience. My visuals are consistent with my lecture.

3. Enhanced Business Management Skills- I compare managing a group of students to a leadership role in a company where you’re managing a team. I’m responsible for providing clear instruction, managing expectations, motivating my students to meet deadlines and being an overall leader that inspires my class to really take the initiative to stay learn.

4. Increased Knowledge about the Social Media Landscape- Since teaching the class I’ve educated myself more on the social media landscape and technology developments. I find myself reading more blogs, watching more videos and scouring social media for examples and case studies relevant to my lectures. While I do this because it’s a passion, it’s now become a responsibility. As a leader  in the classroom and a professional in the online marketing space, I expect myself to fully understand the evolving social media landscape.

5. Improved Interpersonal Communication- My interpersonal communication skills are constantly being challenged and improved as a Instructor. I work with students from all walks of life so I must be able to adapt to their style of communication but also implement strict policies in a manner which allows them to understand the benefits of my assignments and requests. I must be understanding of each individual student’s circumstances while being firm about my policies and overall craft replies that are tactful and respectful. These are the same strategies I apply to business relationships so the more situations I’m in where interpersonal skills are necessary the better I become at improving my own communication.

As my class continues I look forward to sharing more of what I learn and how it applies to my career development. I’m always open to new opportunities to teach and educate others so feel free to contact me if you feel there is a good fit with my teachings and your educational institute, business or organization.

I believe that every single one of us in an entrepreneur of our own ideas. I also believe there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has arrived. This blog post is about an idea I’ve had that’s flourished into action. Before you read on know that this post is one of the most personal I’ve ever written and I’m so inspired to share it with you.

When our idea’s time has arrived, it will be put into action and is unstoppable! Take a look at significant historical ideas that received much resistance yet when their time arrived, they were unstoppable. The abolishment of slavery, Women’s right to vote and the most recent election of a multiracial leader President Obama were all ideas  once unfathomable yet when their time arrived, they couldn’t be stopped!

Since I was in a freshman in college, it’s been my calling to live with an entrepreneurial spirit. Instead of waiting until graduation to gain work experience I began interning my first summer in college at Clear Channel Communication in San Diego as a Promotions intern for the Top 40 radio station, Channel 933 I enthusiastically attended retail events, movie premiers, concerts, club nights and theme parks to assist the radio station in creating a fun, interactive experience for customers while ensuring the client’s marketing objectives were aligned.  I enjoyed this so much that I attracted all the right people into my life to help me get hired on as a Promotions Assistant when I returned back to school in the fall at Clear Channel Communications in Santa Barbara.

I learned early that doing things with enthusiasm significantly enhances the experience not only for yourself but for others. I attracted more opportunities to do what I love which is helping businesses better market themselves and connect to their customers.  To name a few, I was hired on the Red Bull Promotions team, The San Diego Padres fan appreciation promotions team and The Active Network to assist with their marketing needs.

Upon graduating UC Santa Barbara, I was offered an amazing opportunity to work full time at Clear Channel Communication as a Marketing Consultant and Account Executive. For over 2 years I enjoyed every moment of creating interactive campaigns utilizing radio, internet, events and experiential promotions for both local businesses and national brands including: Ralphs/Kroger, Westfield Malls, Colgate Palmolive, Liberty Tax Service and AMC Theaters. As technology evolved, I saw a need for businesses to strengthen customer relationships, develop stronger communities and empower brand evangelists.  As more options became available to consumers I noticed a shift in behavior as they became less responsive to outbound and guerrilla marketing techniques. I saw a need to create opportunities in a space where consumers already belonged. This realization led to my transition in shifting the focus of my marketing strategies from outbound and guerrilla tactics to building communities and socializing  them on the web.

It became crystal clear to me that if your customers are already online, make sure they can find you when they’re searching and if they’re already on social networks, build a community for them in a space where they already belong.  I began attending technology events to grow my network with leaders in the online space and reading everything I could get my hands on about the evolving online marketing and social media industry. As I became more immersed, I had a strong knowing that the infinite online space was my calling. I graduated myself from traditional media and applied my understanding online. Since then I’ve dedicated the past 2 years to educating myself and others, blogging about the knowledge and insight I’ve learned and speaking about my passions to project positive energy and ideas that inspire others to use online technology and social media to grow their business.

While advancing my own knowledge I had the privilege to work with innovative industry leaders at various online marketing agencies in San Diego. I’ve been surrounded people who share my passion and collaborated with leaders who specialize in all areas of online marketing including SEO, PPC, Email Marketing, Analytics, Design, Development and Social Media.  Combining the energy I received from many colleagues and partners with my personal quest to learn, my understanding of the online space accelerated.  This allowed my strategic mind put everything in place as my entrepreneurial spirit continued to surface until my idea to pursue my own ventures became unstoppable! My decision to graduate from the agency world to pursue my own business was recently affirmed as all the right people and circumstances were drawn into my life.

My entrepreneurial spirit and ambitions have come to life. I am now following my true calling as I’ve declared my intention to advance my career by fully investing my time to connect, engage and inspire businesses and entrepreneurs to take charge of their own marketing goals through combining my initial experience of promotions and interactive marketing with new technology and social media. My business is completely self-reliant charged with my belief in myself and inspiration I receive from those around me. At the same time I’m partnering and collaborating with other thought leaders and entrepreneurs. I’m already accepting clients, being booked for speaking engagements and strengthening existing partnerships. My passion for education will extend beyond businesses. In addition I have been hired to create a new curriculum for Platt College’s marketing program. Beginning in January I’ll be teaching Marketing classes in a format that will empower students with technology and social media skills for their career ventures. I am so happy and grateful for everything and everyone who is and has been a part of my success.

I have  a lot in store for the upcoming year including a new website, enhanced branding for Marketing Melodie, new business ideas, partnerships and speaking engagements. This small idea I had years ago to pursue my entrepreneurial idea has officially arrived and I’m unstoppable. Please feel free to connect on my updated LinkedIn and Facebook . Thank you for reading such a personal post and here’s to a prosperous new year!

If you’re reading this post you’re probably a professional in marketing, public relations, social media or have a sales role of some kind. Or maybe you’re an entrepreneur, a small business owner or a combination of the listed occupations. No matter what your background, you’re extremely busy running from appointment to appointment and back to back conference calls. You haven’t booked your flight for your business trip next week or even looked up a hotel and still need to pick up a birthday present for a party that night. I’ve got great news for you! You’re now one step closer creating a more productive and stress free life with your very own Personal Assistant. Who wouldn’t love even an extra hour a day to read, meditate, work out, cook, enjoy time with friends and family etc.?

You may think Personal Assistants are just for the rich and famous and cost a fortune. You may also be an excellent multitasker and see no need for a Personal Assistant. BlackBerrys and laptops have definitely improved our efficiency, but even the most organized business professional can appreciate a helping hand. I’m grateful for my helping hand and Personal Assistant, AskSunday. I began using the AskSunday 24/7 Assistance almost 2 years ago and can confidently say they’ve significantly increased my productivity by helping me accomplish tasks that are important and urgent but don’t require my specialized skill or knowledge.

AskSunday is a service that provides Virtual Personal Assistants. They offer various packages for their 24/7 Assistance that begin as low as $37/month. They accept requests via email, phone, and even Twitter! They also offer Dedicated Assistants that provide help at a higher level. I’d like to share personal examples of how AskSunday has helped me optimize my valuable time.

1. Reservations- Reservations may seem simple but when I need a specific type of environment for a business meeting that has tables and chairs set up a certain way, a specific location in the room, various food preferences, want to prepay the bill and don’t have a restaurant in mind because the meeting is in a location I’m not familiar with, I AskSunday and they deliver. They do the research and provide me with various options.They also provide alternatives and let me know if there may conflicts with my request. I get back to them with my choice and they confirm the reservation by telling me who they spoke with in case anything comes up.

2. Price Comparisons- There are many times when I want to buy a product and know I can easily spend 20-30 minutes price comparing online but don’t because I’m busy working on a more important task. Same goes with booking travel. With AskSunday I can find the most cost effective solutions for purchases and travel without investing any extra time. They look things up, send me the options then go through with the actual purchasing, always making sure to send me a confirmation.

3. Booking Appointments and Cancellations- There are many appointments we put off booking because it’s on the bottom of our to-do list. AskSunday will book health appointments, spa treatments and other personal appointments. Many often put off cancellations more than booking because we already went through the hassle of setting it up. We know it may take a while to get through and confirm the cancellation. AskSunday has also helped me cancel other things that are necessary but not priorities. I somehow get on mailing lists for many magazines and catalogs that I don’t wish to receive. They help me help the environment by canceling these extraneous subscriptions.

4. Data Entry- Have a stack of business cards that need to be entered in your address book? Evernote your business cards and AskSunday will enter them for you. Have other data that needs to be organized in an excel spreadsheet? No problem! AskSunday does this in your sleep!

These are just a few of many requests AskSunday has assisted me with. Additional resources I have learned from are two books that have tremendously enhanced my knowledge on first prioritizing my tasks- Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity and then outsourcing certain tasks and knowing how to determine which items to delegate – The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

Now that you’ve read all about the possibility of having a Personal Assistant and how they have immensely increased my productivity I’m absolutely thrilled to announce that I’m giving away an entire month of AskSunday’s 24/7 Assistance’s Gold Plan! I’m very grateful to now have an opportunity to share my positive experience with one of you.

Here’s How you will win a complimentary month of AskSunday’s 24/7 Assistant service:
First you Must be a fan of Marketing Melodie’s Facebook Page to qualify. Once you’re a fan you can enter 3 ways. If you participate in all 3, you will be entered 3 different times.
1. Leave a comment my Facebook “Discussion” telling me how AskSunday will make your life more productive.
2. Retweet this blog post with the Tweet button on the top left of this post and make sure to include my Twitter name @MyMelodie in the tweet.
3. Leave a comment on this blog post with insight on what you personally do to increase productivity.

I will choose 1 lucky winner on Sunday December 13th, 2009. I’m choosing this date because it’s my birthday so there’s no better day to give away something very valuable to me! I wish everyone the best and success to increased productivity!

Last week I had the honor of attending Twiistup, a premier event in Los Angeles that connects people from technology, media and entertainment. I met a plethora of amazing people from all walks of life who share a passion for staying at the cutting edge of technology.

Attending events and networking in person goes hand in hand with social networking. While we have a myriad of ways to communicate virtually, the power of a handshake still adds a personal touch that can’t be achieved through online communication. Having both is essential for me to build credibility and authenticity to strengthen my relationships.

If you follow me on Twitter you may know I generally follow people I have met in real life (IRL)  or people I will probably meet IRL. I have met about 90% of the people I follow IRL. Those I haven’t met may be business accounts or high profile people.  I choose to follow with this strategy because knowing someone IRL significantly strengthens the value of their tweets for me. I am able to place a face and personality to the short 140 character blurb which really makes a difference in how I process the information that’s presented to me.

I had the pleasure of meeting several of my online friends IRL. Upon the initial handshake, I immediately felt connected and comfortable as we dived right into conversations as if we were catching up from when we last saw each other which in this case was online.  I’d like to give a shout out to a few of my online friends who I met IRL at Twiistup.

Adena DeMonte- @AdenaDeMonte is  from Diddit. Her company was featured as a Showoff at Twiistup. I have used Diddit before and found her through the service so it was great to meet the face behind a social network. I always find it exciting to meet people who work for social networks or big online companies that don’t have a brick and mortar location because it really humanizes the brand and allows me to identify with the service I’m using.

Marvin Tabangay-@Sketch678 is well involved in the Los Angeles tech scene. I always love connecting with other like minded people in different cities. He also happens to be one of the people on Twitter who motivate me to run! There are a few marathoners I follow and it’s always inspirational to read about their training, progress and then race day! I’ve been following him as he was training and fundraising for Rock and Roll Marathon and also know he is a designer so I immediately had a many questions to ask him about how things have been progressing in the tech world and fitness.

Chris Brogan- I told a friend who didn’t know who @ChrisBrogan was about how excited I was for the opportunity to meet him (friend is not as involved in the online space). I described Chris Brogan to my friend as someone who is “famous on Twitter”. He is one of the few people I follow not from California who I hadn’t met in real life nor did I expect to meet soon.  But really, Chris Brogan is more than just someone who has a lot of Twitter followers. He is a true leader in the social media space because he is authentic, caring and truly passionate about his work.  He projected these qualities in person just as his online persona does in the digital space. Meeting him in person really gave me a chance to confirm why people including myself respect him as a leader in social media.

There are many other people I’ve met online then IRL but I wanted to feature a few to give you guys an idea of how I strengthen my relationships by combining social networking with real live meetings.  Please feel free to share a story of how combining online and offline networking has strengthened some of your relationships. I look forward to connecting with more of you in person soon!

For some more Twiistup fun join me on Facebook and check out the photos. Please feel free to tag the photos as I don’t know everyone in all of them.

I heard about the Weekend U Networking/ Introduction event that took place on March 16th and decided to stop by after work. All I knew is that Weekend U was a class to educate people on the internet. At first I wasn’t sure I was the right candidate for Weekend U since I already work in the Internet industry but I quickly learned that the course empowers internet users of all levels.

After a bit of networking, Dmitry Shapiro, an Internet Entrepreneur who most notably founded Veoh Networks took the stage and immediately captured my attention with teasers of powerful information he’d reveal during Weekend U. I was impressed by the myriad of topics he touched on that are essential to our internet success yet ignored by many.

Just a few of the many tools Dmitry will help you master:

• Use Google search differently to pinpoint detailed answers instantly on the web, without wading through pages of search results
• Always be the first to know about industry and competitive news as soon as it hits, before your boss, co-workers and partners
• Ask for, and receive, virtually instant help from 10s of thousands of people using social networks, for referrals to a prospective customer, input on selecting a vendor, references on a partner and other daily business challenges
• Immediately have an unfair advantage through information, speed and productivity over your co-workers, competitors and even your friends

By the end of Dmitry’s presentation I was eager to learn more and couldn’t wait to start sharing this opportunity. Going back to my new year’s career resolution to incorporate Online Marketing Eduction to help others I’m empowering 1 lucky Marketing Melodie reader with a complimentary pass to attend the Power Internet Marketing course.

Details: The full Internet Power course is on April 18, 2009, from 8am to 5pm, at Hotel Solamar

Winner Receives: 1 Pass to Weekend U in San Diego on April 18, 2009, from 8am to 5pm, at Hotel Solamar. This prize is valued at $499.

Contest Rules:
1. You must be following me @MyMelodie Twitter (This also means you must have a Twitter account)
2. You must RETWEET this post by clicking on the “Tweet This Post” button on this blog. *Please note  is how I’ll be tracking your Retweets.
3. You must leave a comment answering the following question:
What internet tool do you wish you had a mastery of to improve productivity? (Examples, Twitter, Facebook, Search Engines, LinkedIn, Email management, etc.

You must do all three things on the list to be eligible. A winner will be randomly chosen on Wednesday April 8th, 2009.

Bonus: Even if you aren’t the winner, you still win because I’m also giving you  $100 off the regular $499 price ($399). Just use the discount code SD37 and tell them Marketing Melodie sent you!

I founded San Diego Speed Networking Dennis-Michael Broussard of Silk Road Productions over a year ago to create a professional networking event that overcame these obstacles:

a) Networking at loud bar with music where people are yelling over each other because they can’t hear
b) People aimlessly wandering around in an attempt to meet everyone with no formal introductions
c) The awkwardness of interrupting a conversation or leaving a conversation

Here’s how it works.
-Each company attends with TWO representatives If you only have one person at your company then attend with a friend/ referral partner/ someone you collaborate with.

-Each company receives a table top to set up marketing materials, promo items, visuals, etc. Rep 1 from the company remains at the table while Rep 2 from the company is assigned to move around to each table

-When the Speed Networking sessions begin Rep 2 moves to the table next to table and 3 minutes are alloted for each session. When time is up Rep 2 continues to move to the next table until every company has had a chance to meet every other company.

Each person will connect with everyone in the room. The speed networking session is long enough to establish a connection and short enough to move on if no connection is made. At the end there is a mixer. That’s the event in nutshell.

I’m having many challenges with my marketing campaign for the event. It’s extremely frustrating. As a Marketer I know exactly what needs to be done but don’t have the means to do it.

I don’t have access to my domain name so I can’t redirect the website currently hosted under the Silk Road Productions Website. The domain was purchased by former partner who has the password and has not disclosed it. I tried calling GoDaddy they were no help. Any SEO work I attempt will not be credited to: www.sandiegospeednetworking.com since it’s not hosted as its own entity.

I’ve also been unsuccessful in hosting a wordpress blog within the site. I’d like it embedded into my site as a page but it only links to the blog on the wordpress site. Dennis-Michael has done a great job with the site given that neither of us are developers or designers. I’ve become so discouraged with the marketing that I’m compelled to cancel the event, but we’ve already invested a lot and thus the show must go on!

If you read this entire Blog you get a $10 discount to the event. Regular price is $50 per company. My blog readers get in for $40. That’s $40 for two people. Includes hosted appetizers! Twitter followers @SDSpeedNet also get the discount! If you have any feedback for my website, marketing strategy or event in general please comment! I hope to see everyone there. Reserve your spot today space is limited!

For those who don’t already know I resigned from my position as a Marketing Consultant at Clear Channel Communications. I begin my new venture at with 3K Interactive on Monday Sept. 22nd. I am excited to move into Online Marketing. The Internet is growing exponentially and the opportunity is unlimited! I’ll be a true consultant, resource and connector for my clients.

The main question I get is “Why did you leave?” First I’d like to say that I absolutely loved working at Clear Channel. For almost 2 and 1/2 years I have felt nothing less than proud to represent the company. It was a difficult journey and succeeding there is by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Long nights, stressful days, driving all over town, cancellations, internal battles etc, but my hard work at Clear Channel was well worth it! The things I learned about building client relationships, developing targeted campaigns, interpersonal relationships, having a strong work ethic and marketing in general are priceless! The perks of working in radio aren’t bad either!

After working there I am confident that I can take on any challenge and succeed. It was a stepping stone that opened up so many doors. I didn’t leave because I wasn’t doing well or I didn’t like the company. The more I grew in my position there, the more I wanted to offer more to my clients. By creating campaigns for people only within Clear Channel Properties I became extremely limited. I wasn’t creating targeted campaigns. I was reaching out to thousands of people with a commercial that probably only 1% of listeners actually cared about. Out of those 1% only another 1% actually remember to go home and look up info about the ad. Radio is the largest form of word of mouth and works great if you’re a huge corporation with a large marketing budget but for companies who can’t afford to spend as much as Coke or McDonalds the online presence is essential before considering any other medias. Thus my transition to online marketing.

I’m an Entrepreneur at heart. I’m always formulating new ventures, business ideas and plans to grow my career so the transition to online marketing is perfect because . I never sold a campaign that I didn’t believe would work but the more I learned about marketing, I realized that there is more that I can do to help businesses grow. I will now create campaigns where my clients will be found by consumers specifically searching for their product/service instead of trying to find consumers who probably don’t care. My campaigns will be permissive and the advertising will be sought after rather than interruptive like most TV and Radio Ads. I will help my clients build a community to really engage their customers. I will optimize websites to increase conversion rates and I’ll be able to track everything which will allow me to fine tune and customize the campaign as it progresses. I could go on and on about what I’m now able to offer with the online world! If you’d like to learn more about my new marketing resources please don’t hesitate to reach out to me!

So there you have it! The real story about my transition and new business venture!