Workshops

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 succeedincluding 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.

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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 sourceas 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.

You have more to say than you realize

Show me what you've got to say - I bet it's really good!

Show me what you've got to say - I bet it's really good!

There's a common piece of advice given by big name marketers that says you should only write when you have something to say. It's meant to be applied everywhere - your blog, your newsletter, and social networks. In theory, it makes sense: Don't overload/bore/waste your audience's time with content that you share just to have content to share.

For a small business, with a small audience, that's trying to build up engagement, this is not good advice. Here's why:

1) It requires a critical mass of engaged followers/subscribers.

The marketers who say this have all done their time, building up a good sized audience that trusts their expertise. They have loyal followings that look for their content and interact with it when it comes. As a small business owner, it takes time to build that kind of relationship with your audience. To remain successful with a "write when you have something to say" strategy, you need a critical mass following you. Can your business grow if 50% of your followers convert to paying customers? Depending on the size of your audience and what you do, many can say yes to that. The reality is that most businesses won't convert nearly that many people. So, how many people would it take to build your business to the level you want to reach? Now, you'll likely have to grow an audience that is at least 20 times that size (or more!). That's why it's important that you know that when content isn't delivered regularly, your audience will not grow consistently or as fast.

2) Credibility starts with visibility.

The point of posting content regularly is to keep your business and expert content top of mind with your audience. If they don't see or hear from you on a regular basis, they can't learn to trust what you have to say. Whether you're sending a newsletter, writing a blog post, or posting to social media, each of those touch points is an opportunity to provide value that builds your credibility as an expert in your field. As your audience sees the information you share, they will respond in various ways: by filtering it out or ignoring it, reading it, taking some kind of action - like, comment, share, tweet, or apply it to their work. Each of these responses is important - some can be measured and give valuable insight to you for future content. Stay visible with your content by delivering consistent 

3) You have more to say than you realize.

Has anyone ever said, "There's a reason we have two ears and one mouth," to you? Human nature is that we like to talk and some people need a gentle reminder that listening is important too. It's a rare person who truly doesn't like or want to talk. Posting content without thought or for the sake of putting something out there isn't valuable to you or anyone else. But if you think about the interactions you have with your customers and clients each day, how many times did you find you had nothing to say to them? What about associates? 

On January 13, 2015, Lara and I are leading a Content Mindset Workshop that will help you see how much content you truly have. Whether you've been creating content for many years or you're just starting out, we have some exciting plans for this day that will help you look at the creation of content from a different angle. We're going to spend time teaching about various types of content, and tools and tactics that can help you create more effective content. You'll walk away at the end of day with content to use for your business. We strongly believe that you have more to say and this workshop is designed to draw those things out of you - for the benefit of your audience and your business.

Join us - I promise you won't regret it!

What is it and why should I care - launching my newest workshop

I have one of this QR necklaces - it’s awesome and I can tell you why!

There are so many tools and applications and web sites and kinds of blogs it can be overwhelming.

What ARE these tools?

What SHOULD I be using to promote my business?

Is there a good reason for me to be using them?

In this two hour workshop we will cover eight different tools based on the needs of the group.  Each participant will let me know what their top two choices are to be covered and also let me know what they do (business, personal).  I will then choose the eight tools to cover based on interest and what I feel are useful tools for the group to hear about.

Bring your smart phones and laptops and we will go over the tools in a hands on approach, so that by the time you leave the workshop you will know what these tools are and whether or not you actually should care.

Choose from the following list of tools (or add your own) to let me know which two topics you would most like to cover.

There really are amazing reasons to use so many of these tools to promote your business!

Crowd sourcing
Digg
Evernote
Feedburner
Form spring
Foursquare
Google alerts
Google docs
Instagram
Instapaper
Klout
LinkedIn
Micro blogging
Podcasts
QR Codes
Quora
Readitlater
RSS readers
Stumble Upon
Tumblr
Vlogs
Wikis

$40/person

Group rates and private lessons available.

Upcoming dates:

All sessions need a minimum of 4 participants and will have a maximum of 8, maintaining the one on one style coaching I like to give my students.


June 8, 2011, 1:30 pm, Boston Pizza, Orleans





June 13, 2001, 10 am, Spin Kitchen Bar, 100 Kent Street

 




What is it and why should I care - developing a workshop

I am developing a series of workshops to help people feel more comfortable with social media - in using it for personal reasons or for business.

I’ve already launched my Intro to Twitter workshop (which is going really well and there are spaces available in three sessions - sign up, or tell your friends who need to know all about Twitter to sign up! :))

My next workshop is called “What is it and why should I care”

I often either get asked what the purpose of something is or get told it is of no value.  I agree that every tool isn’t for everyone, but sometimes you just need to hear in plain words what something is for, with some examples of why and how it can be used.

I am putting together a workshop that will do just that. I am working on a basic list of tools with descriptions and examples. My entire workbook with all the descriptions will be handed out to all students but we will go through and try out about eight during a two hour workshop.

What I want to know from you guys is - what are the tools you have questions about?  Here is the list I have so far (it’s a work in progress) but I would really appreciate your input on this!

Foursquare

Tumblr

Quora

QR Codes

Instagram

LinkedIn

Stumble Upon

Klout

Digg

RSS readers

Feedburner

Vlogs

Podcasts

Wikis

Crowd sourcing

Micro blogging

Form spring

What am I missing?

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