I had a great time last week speaking at the Cleveland AMA (American Marketing Association)

It was my second visit in three years.

Normally in the past I was a social media speaker, and that was how they advertised the event.  Buzz Marketing and Social Media training.  However, that topic has become so common and over done that I have become more of a lead generation speaker to give my audience more value.  In the beginning of the presentation I asked if anyone would be upset if I did not spend much time on social media and instead focused on how to generate leads from the Internet.  There was actually a sense of relief.    The fact is, most people are tired of hearing about Facebook and Linkedin.  The presentation on using the web to build a sales and lead generation process was really well received.

Wednesday I am giving a Buzz Marketing speech at the Cleveland AMA.  This is my second time speaking there, and it is an excellent group to go talk to.

They are billing me as a buzz marketing speaker but I tend to think of myself as an Internet marketing speaker – or a client generation speaker.  I am kind of tired of everyone jumping on the social media bandwagon and talking about the advantages of connecting with the audience with social networking sites.

Instead, I now talk about how to build sites and strategies to attract the right kind of people – potential buyers – and how to encourage them to take action.

The tricky thing about the AMA presentation is that I will be discussing Buzz Marketing given that that is how they promoted me.  The good news is that customer generation is all about launching a content and sales funnel, and Buzz Marketing still helps you attract more people into the top of the sales funnel.  So it is still relevant.

I just hope that people do not come ready for more of a PR and Buzz Marketing spin.  They could be disappointed with the emphasis put on measuring and tracking Return on Investment on content and web marketing strategies.  However, my gut tells me that what I am doing now is much more valuable – and so does my pocketbook.

Here are several ways I like to use Buzz Marketing to help event planners that hire me to speak at their event.

1. Twitter about it to my 2,000+ followers.
2. Blog about it so my 100’s of daily small business visitors – but please send me the text.
3. Highlight it on my speaker website.
4. Email my list about it if it is open to the public
5. Link to it via social bookmarking tools.

There are other things as well, and it always depends on the venue and audience.  But I take speaking very seriously with means I feel partially responsible for the success of your event – and I am here to help.

Are you looking for a Social Media Speaker that knows a lot about Buzz Marketing?

If yes, consider giving me a call and lets talk about how to use Social Media tools to create a buzz and drive up lead generation for your business.

Buzz Marketing is actually a very important part of SEO as well.  If you want SEO results, you will get great results if you can anticipate buzz in advance and use Blogging, Social Media and SEO to lay the groundwork to benefit from future buzz.

A simple example of this is knowing that a special is coming up on TV.  Maybe something on 20/20 that ties in with a product you sell.  Well, you can start a week before the program and create a web of information with social media and information, so that when people watch the program (which is creating a buzz) and then they go online to search, you will reap the benefits.

This is just one way a Buzz Marketing and Social Media Speaker can help you grow your business and lead generation.

Ron McDaniel is an SEO Speaker that has presented numerous SEO Presentations in Akron, Canton and Cleveland Ohio.

What makes Ron different as an SEO specialist is that he combines Buzz Marketing and Social Media into a system that focuses on lead generation and clear ROI for businesses.  Search Engine Optimization is a very important facet of generating leads and new customers online.  You also have to know what you are doing with your call to action and your irresistible offer to encourage people to actually become leads for your business.

While Ron will travel to most locations to do private SEO workshops, SEO Speeches and SEO Employee Ambassador Training, he is also available to do private Marketing Webinar courses to teach your marketing staff the best SEO techniques and tools to use to increase the effectiveness of your website.

Contact Ron today to discuss your SEO speaker needs.

Sometimes people are curious where I have been published.  Below are the main places you can find me as an author or as a contributing author.

Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing, by Ron McDaniel
2006 ISBN: 1-4196-4758-x

Contributing Author
49 Marketing Secrets (That Work) to Grow Sales by Ron Finklestein
2007 ISBN: 978-1-60037-248-3

The New Writer’s Handbook, Volume 2 by Ted Kooser
2008 ISBN: 0-9798249-2-3

EMAIL Marketing by the Numbers, by Chris Baggott
2007 ISBN: 978-0-470-12245-7

What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting
by Ted Demopoulos
2007 ISBN: 1-4195-8435-9

Career Intensity by David Lorenzo
2006 ISBN: 1-933683-00-7

Publications
Featured Columnist in AKRON BUSINESS

Sample list of past speaking opportunities.

Social Media Buzz, Ohio Association of County Boards of MRDD
Columbus, Ohio 2009 Spring Conference

Racing Symposium, Race Track Industry Program
University of Arizona, 2008 Tucson AZ

American Society of Women Accountants
Akron, Ohio 2008

Corporate College, Buzz Marketing for Entrepreneurs
Cleveland, 2007

BMW Owners Club, Buzz for Membership Growth
King of Prussia, PA 2007

Solar 2007, Creating Buzz for Renewable Energy
Cleveland, Ohio 2007

Internet Marketing, Babcox Publications
Fairlawn, Ohio 2008

Institute of Management Group,  Internet Marketing for Small Business
Cleveland 2009

Small Business Marketing, AAF Michiana – MAC Michiana
2008 South Bend, IN

Business of Design, Designing Profits, Inc.
2007 Las Vegas, NV

Coleman Professional Services, Private Sales Training
2007 Kent, Ohio

Social Media Marketing, Sales and Marketing Executives International
2008 Canton, OH

Celebrity You, Designing Profits, Inc.
2006 Atlanta, GA

Buzz Marketing Workshop, ASID Carolinas
2008 Myrtle Beach, SC

Non-Profit Blogging, Mental Health Care America
2008 Denver CO

Social Media, Kent State University Guest Lecturer
2007 Kent, OH

The Ruby Group, Private Buzz Marketing Workshop
2007 Cuyahoga falls, Ohio

Word of Mouth & Buzz Marketing, Boardroom Magazine
2007 Boca Raton, FL

The Women’s Network, Buzz Marketing
2009 Akron Ohio

Word of Mouth Marketing, Boardroom Magazine
2006 Los Angeles, CA

Word of Mouth – Levy – Kent city Schools
2007 Kent, Ohio

Word of Mouth Marketing, American Marketing Association
2007 Cleveland, OH

Kent AIGA – University Presentation on Personal Branding
Kent, Ohio 2008

Chambers of Commerce

Fairview Park Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Kent Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Streetsboro Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Aurora Ohio Chamber of Commerce, North Olmstead Chamber of Commerce, Olmstead Falls Chamber of Commerce, Lakewood Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Hudson Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Cuyahoga Falls Chamber of Commerce, Twinsburg Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

Internet Marketing for Small Business, Tallmadge Rotary
Tallmadge Ohio 2009

Also many other Rotary and Chambers.

Ron McDaniel – Corporate Speaker, Author and Employee Ambassador Trainer

Ron McDaniel trains teams in Online Lead Generation with Social media.  Anyone can use the same techniques that famous and highly successful people use to build an audience and get noticed.

When you are speaking to a packed auditorium or turning away customers that are coming to you, you will look back on today and remember your decision to take action and learn to create buzz.

• Choose to take action.
• Find your buzz-worthy self.
• Explore what other people find interesting about your products or services.
• Discover how to be more visible.
• Help other people tell your story.

Do you want to create more buzz for your organization or yourself?

Ron McDaniel has helped hundreds of businesses and non-profit organizations achieve their goals and increase their visibility. Ron provides the strategy and reinforcement necessary to stick to your buzz building activities. Creating buzz is only successful when you can keep focused on the long term and keep doing a little bit of buzz marketing frequently.

That is why Ron’s Buzz Corporate Employee Ambassador Training is so successful for clients. Ron keeps up your excitement level, works with you to find new buzz activities that fit your goals and Ron measures your visibility and results. Ron also continuously researches the latest Internet buzz opportunities that you can utilize to increase your visibility.

Within a short time, buzz will increase your website traffic, increase referrals & inquiries, protect your brand and make closing sales easier. The long term benefit of buzz is becoming an industry expert, leading to many possibilities such as speaking, TV, radio and more.

Why Buzz Marketing?

Triple digit sales growth in six months made me a believer.

With many years in business, I realized one day that despite our other marketing efforts, Word of Mouth was our best new client generator. It wasn’t because we were doing other marketing poorly. It is because word of mouth is that much more effective.

When we cut down on the other marketing and focus on word of mouth and creating buzz, we found that we achieved rapid growth in less than a year. We actually grew so fast that we had to curtail what we offered and raise our prices.

Because many of our clients were small businesses, we had to find ways to create buzz and word of mouth without big additional expenses. Luckily, the most effective marketing techniques are also ones you can employee for little or no cost.

Are you fighting a daily battle?

If you are fighting a daily battle to find new customers and they are not eager to purchase, you are fighting a losing battle. Chances are some of your competitors are creating buzz and word of mouth, and once they hit a critical mass, it will be too late. Eventually the buzz makes someone the obvious choice and you will find it hard to convince people to do otherwise.

The keys to creating buzz are simple, but do require a change in attitude and culture. They cannot be boiled down to a word of mouth “campaign” if you want long term results.

Industry Experts and Employee Ambassadors

The essential ingredients for word of mouth and online buzz are:

* Industry Experts – Owners and Key Employees must become recognized industry experts.
* A scalable, remarkable product – Nothing kills buzz faster than getting people interested in trying your product and not delivering on the hype.
* Employee Evangelism – “The success of an organization is the responsibility of every member.” If your employees are not buzzing, you are missing out.
* Advocacy Cultivation – Advocates are your happy customers, friends, family, former employees and people that are just excited about what your company has to offer. Are you giving them the tools to spread the word?

These are the essential ingredients to a successful organization. If you continuously work on these four items your competition will fade into the distance and you will become the obvious choice.

Your return on investment is much bigger than new sales. Much, much bigger.

Here are some of the ways you are building value with your investment.

Industry Expert

An industry expert will generate more sales and charges a higher price. They also can leverage their expertise into paid speaking, knowledge products like books and videos, high end consulting and more. The value of an industry expert is far higher than the sales they generate alone.

Advocacy

Actively cultivating advocacy among customers, former employees and others will pay big dividends over time. They may actually generate sales for you, but another important element is that they talk and write about you. If they write on a website or blog, this could generate curious visitors to your website steadily for years.

Another important element is the “I have heard of you” factor. If you are meeting someone for the first time and they say “I have heard of you before”, your first meeting is going to be a good one.

Employee Ambassador

This is one of the most overlooked opportunities. The world has changed drastically in the last few years. Communication opportunities have exploded and every employee you have can be a buzz generator. This was my single biggest reason for getting into this field. While I consider creating a buzz culture challenging, I also know how rewarding it can be for the owners, the managers and the employees that will see their careers advanced and share in the success of the organization.

An investment in buzz is an investment in your future and in the future of everyone in the organization.

Two new article that you will like if you are interest in internet marketing.

• Internet Marketing To Do List
• Free Internet Marketing Plan

The first one is quick activities you can do yourself today.  The second one is about how to put together an internet marketing plan that gets results.  Enjoy.

Especially if you are looking for opportunities to promote yourself to a local audience, I suggest you give Briz.com a try.  Here is my profile: Buzz Marketing.

Currently it is free and it offers a lot of opportunities to publish information about your business, including links.  Links are always good.