Food for Thought: Business Social Media Lunch & Learn

Tuesday morning found us in downtown Duluth with Choco Perks coffee in hand. With social media and sandwiches on the menu, we were hungry and eager to participate in the “Get Social: You’re Online, Now What” Social Media Seminar at the .

WorkSpot owner Rayann Larsen, as a member of the Duluth Merchants Association, offered an excellent discount to her fellow DMA members to encourage participation in what she knew would provide positive information to grow our businesses.

We were a varied group of seminar attendees: photographers, promotional photo journalists (that's us!), newspaper staff members, graphic designers, and retail store owners -- all sharing the common goal of gaining more information around using social media channels to grow our individual businesses. 

Our trainer was Michelle D’Attillo, president of Sosh, an "online media and promotions agency specializing in social media strategy, management, promotions and offline events." Michelle provided both group and one-on-one training during the three-hour lunch and learn session. Her presentation included the use of Facebook and Twitter for growing our businesses.

Michelle reviewed the value of establishing a Facebook Business page, increasing our Business Fan base, utilizing Facebook Ads to promote our businesses, the best time of day to post, and how often to post to ensure our business message will be picked up by Facebook algorithms and shared on as many news feeds of our Facebook fans as possible.    

Michelle then reviewed the value of using Twitter for business -- how often to send tweets, how to find others on Twitter to follow, how to join in conversations and finally how to send out tweets ourselves. While we enjoyed sandwiches and soft drinks, Michelle assisted those attendees who did not already use Twitter in setting up a Twitter account and a Twitter client for managing the process.    

Rayann, the good hostess that she always is, offered her comments and assistance to all the attendees during the course of the seminar. Her role in providing a shared workspace environment to the Duluth community including educational lunch and learn seminars has been well received this past year…the lunch part ain’t bad either! We look forward to continuing our relationship with Rayann in the future. 

As we said goodbye to Michelle, we were happy to discover that she will be returning in February for another seminar at the WorkSpot. Stay tuned....