BNI Embarcadero » News

BNI Embarcadero Mixer / Pot Luck

Carlos Ramirez — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:16:33 +0000

Aug

6:00 pm

This Thursday, August 12, 2010

NextSpace
http://nextspace.us
28 2nd Street
3rd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
415-513-0456

BNI will be providing some Refreshments and Light snacks. We are asking that everyone bring a dish and maybe a bottle to share. Potlucks have been successful and fun in the past and I am sure that this one can be too.

Come and enjoy some relaxed Summer Networking.

Carlos

Social Media 101 – Learn all about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and how you can use them to attract more customers and increase sales

Nadja Specht — Thu, 27 May 2010 00:15:47 +0000

Jun

6:30 pm

Topic: Social Media 101 – Learn all about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and how you can use them to attract more customers and increase sales

Date: Thursday, June 17^th 2010

Time: 6:30-9:30pm

Location: Goethe-Institut, 530 Bush Street, San Francisco, 94108

Social Media 101 – Learn all about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and how you can use them to attract more customers and increase sales

Do you feel confused when it comes to using social media? Do terms like “Tweets”, “Tagging” and “Social networking” sound like a foreign language to you? You are not alone! A large number of small business owners feel overwhelmed when navigating their way through the social media landscape looking for ways to promote their business. We will demystify the buzzwords – Let this workshop empower you!

At the end of the session, you will understand the key social media tools out there, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. You will learn how you can use them to market your business at little or no cost. In addition, you will learn how these social media tools fit into your overall marketing efforts. And finally, you will have a plan for developing your own social media strategy that will help you increase your bottom line.

Please see below for a detailed outline of the workshop:

Social media explained - what are all the major social media tools out there? How are they used?
Marketing planning and social media – how does social media integrate with your other marketing activities?
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn Basics - what are these social media tools and how do they actually work?
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for Business - how can you use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to promote your business, increase sales and get more customers?
Productivity Tools – what tools should you use to manage your ongoing social media efforts and save time?
Measure & Manage – how to measure your social media success?

Sign up today for our early bird special – limited tickets available. Go to http://socialmediasf.eventbrite.com/ and use discount code “BNI” to get 20% off.

For more information about Nuvota LLC, please go to www.nuvota.com or call us at 510 817 4239.

How I Used LinkedIn to Help a Fellow Website Designer . . . and Build Name Recognition for My Company

Bradley Charbonneau — Thu, 13 May 2010 03:06:18 +0000

I’m not a big LinkedIn user, but I poke around there occasionally, maybe update my profile, add my social security number and birthday, that sort of thing … ;-) But I was inspired by a meeting I had with Bob Gates and Nadja Specht this morning in which we talked in quite some detail about social networking–and how you can make it work for your business.

The other day, I saw a post from another website designer in the WordPress LinkedIn group asking for website hosting recommendations. Everybody and their cousin has a hosting recommendation, but I thought my answer was a little more helpful than many of the others, so I posted a comment. I didn’t just say, “I like hosting company XYZ.” but I took an extra 10 minutes and wrote up what I thought was a more insightful suggestion, complete with links and examples of companies I liked and had worked with. Because this isn’t the first time I’ve had this question (or this answer), I had already written up a How To post (complete with tutorial video) on my own website (Using Google Apps email for you@yourdomain.com) on how to do what I was recommending.

So later in the comments, Rob writes some thank you’s to people who commented. Here they are. I’ve bolded his response to me.

@Lucian, thank you for your vote for JustHost

@David, thank you for your input

@Stephane, thanks for your thoughts on shared hosting

@Bradley, yes, I’ve never bumped into anyone else on Surpass either. I’ve found them to be getting a little worse in the last few months – packing their shared servers with accounts in order to maximise profits.

Thank you for clarifying this whole Google Apps for mail issue. I didn’t realise you could use Google’s vast resources for your own personal you@your-domain.com mail address. That’s awesome! This actually slightly negates my need to move as mail was the #1 gripe with Surpass and literally took me hours to sort out. I watched your entertaining movie a couple of times.

@Paul thanks for your UK based recommendation

@Justin, thank you, you may well have saved me a few dollars there. You’re a star!

@Kevin, thanks, another one for Hostgator

People, I may well write a blog post on the back of this discussion as I think I’ve got some really good opinions and recommendations from some seasoned WordPress pros. Would that be OK?

You’ll see he carefully read through the comments and even went to my site and watched the video. Great, sounds like I helped him out. Of course, he is also helping me out by mentioning my helpful post and video on my site so others might come and see it.

So you ask, “That’s all delightful, but how does it help your business?”

For one, I see the website design business as cooperative rather than competitive. So this helps someone in my industry, my industry is stronger for it. But how it directly helps me are the hits/clicks to my site and the traffic that might follow. Maybe someone else reads this same post and thinks that my post is worth linking to from their site, maybe they Digg it or Tweet it or just mention it elsewhere on the web. These are all links to my site, they’re called backlinks. Backlinks are good. Backlinks are very important. But I’m getting a little technical. The bottom line is that I helped someone using my expertise and didn’t go unnoticed.

Pirate Day is Wed., 5/12 — Memory Hooks

Gil Zeimer — Tue, 11 May 2010 17:21:45 +0000

“Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me…”

Jack Sparrow won’t be there. Neither will Captain Hook, Blackbeard, Henry Morgan or Roberto Clemente.

But at BNI Embarcadero on Wednesday, May 12th, we’ll be celebrating Pirate Day by giving our infomercials with memory hooks!

A few examples of the better ones in our group:

Whenever you need a writer, remember you say Zeemer and I say Zeimer.
Business big, business small, Bob Gates helps them all.
I’m Wayne Allen Cameron CPA, I’m the one who keeps the IRS away.
For residential real estate, call Tom Redmond. It’s the only investment you can call home.
To be able to update your own Website, you say Likoma, I say Likoma.

So dust off your memory hooks, maties, or you’ll walk the plank!
See you tomorrow morning!
Captain Gil
Your BNI Embarcadero President

“Top Ten List” May 5, 2010

Robert Gates — Wed, 05 May 2010 16:46:46 +0000

Invite one of these as a guest or “sub”:

1. Bookkeeper
2. Commercial contractor
3. Electrician
4. Plumber
5. Real Estate appraiser
6. Florist
7. Event Marketing
8. Landscape design
9. Hair salon owner
10. Handy person

Leadership Transition Embarcadero Chapter 3/31/10

Thomas Redmond — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:11:08 +0000

Employment Laws You Need to Know

Shane Anderies — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 23:02:42 +0000

Apr

7:00 am

FIRST BANK cordially invites you to our Small Business Education Series

Learn the new HR laws and how to avoid common mistakes related to:

Performance Management
Legal Compliance
Hiring

Download the PDF: Employment Laws You Need to Know

Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Breakfast 7:00 – 7:30 am
Program 7:30 – 9:00 am
First Bank San Francisco Main
550 Montgomery Street @ Clay

Who Should Attend:

Business Owners
Human Resource Professionals
Managers & Supervisors

BNI Membership Extravaganza, 3/29 – 5/28

Gil Zeimer — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:05:11 +0000

Announcing the BNI 2010 New Member Extravaganza

You could be one of 200+ BNI winners to enjoy an exciting andfun-filled trip to the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans, Louisiana!

When four or more chapters from the SF West Bay Region sign up six or more new members for each chapter between March 29th and May 28th, the SF West Bay Region will qualify for the drawing.
When just six new members join your chapter between March 29th and May 28th, 2010, your chapter qualifies for the drawing. (Subject to the region qualifying.)
All members who are listed on the application as sponsor of the new Members receive one chance in the drawing for each new member they sponsored into their chapter!
The more new members you sponsor into the chapter, the more chances you have to win! (Example.: 3 new members = 3 chances!)

Winners will receive a 4-day, 3-night trip to New Orleans, Louisiana, FOR TWO! (Airfare not included.) Travel dates are October 15th through October 18th, 2010.

Winners and guests will stay at the Hotel Monteleone located in the historic French Quarter.Trip includes round-trip transfers, hotel and a workshop/breakfast hosted by Dr. Ivan Misner!

For more information, contact Gil Zeimer com.

Meet Your New Leadership Team, 4/1-9/30/2010

Gil Zeimer — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:01:16 +0000

We’re proud to announce our new leadership team for the term beginning on April 1st.

Anyone who wants to attend our Leadership Training Session with me on Monday, March 15th, is welcome to come at no cost to you. (The chapter pays the fee.) Breakfast is served at 7:30; training is 8:00 am – 1:00 pm at Hotel Monaco, Grand Café Room, 501 Geary, SF, 94102.
Let Gil know ASAP if you plan to attend.

Position	Name
President	Gil Zeimer
Vice-President	Ron Micuch
Secretary	Jerry Becerra
Treasurer	Kate Carreiro
Visitor Host	Adrienne Dale
Social Committee	Carlos Ramirez (Chair), Shianne Lombard, Brenda Mercer, Marty Wall
Membership Committee	Robert Gates (Chair), Cathy Cohn
Renewing Members	Dan Joraanstad
New Member Mentors	Kay Heatherly (Chair), JC Avakian, Colleen O’Connor
Current Member Mentor	Tom Redmond
Technical/PPT/Microphones	Kenji Oshima & Adam Barnum – Co-Chairs
Education Coordinator	Angela Warren & Jamie Stern – Co-Chairs
Timekeeper	Phil Siegel
Go For the Gold	Gabriel Gasca
Newsletter	Gil Zeimer & Bradley Charbonneau
Card Boxes	Mike Hack
Power Teams	Bart Saling & Kate Antonini – Co-Chairs
Webmaster	Bradley Charbonneau
Design & Marketing	Lauren Deane Evans
Librarian	Richard Reinholdt

Rooftop Elementary School Auction 2010

Bradley Charbonneau — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:27:55 +0000

Hi BNIers,

Quick testimonial: Gil offered his services valued at $500 as a donation. That client eventually turned into a $3,000 paying client. ‘Nuff said.

Thank you so much to all of those who took my auction forms this morning! I only had 16 seconds this morning to explain this auction, so here’s just a bit more about it – including a letter below that explains it all in more detail and a donor form (download PDF) that you can fill out and fax in (Rooftop Fax: (415) 695-5429).

I think this would be a great way to advertise your business/services to a group of 600+ families who are looking to spend money because they know it’s going to a good cause (our school). Remember, you don’t send money, just offer a product or service. It’s also fully tax deductible.

What To Do

So here’s how you can help-and help your business, I’m going to use Mischa as an example:

Fill out the attached form with the service you’re offering. [E.g. "Family photo session. $500"] Fill out my son’s name (Liam Charbonneau) as the student and mine as the solicitor (Bradley Charbonneau).
Fax it in: Rooftop Fax: (415) 695-5429
Mischa’s service, because it’s value is $500+, will receive a quarter page ad in the Rooftop Auction Catalog. Rooftop families and friends will all receive this catalog. It’ll also be listed on their auction website: http://www.rooftopauction.org.
At the auction, families will bid on Mischa’s family photo session. Maybe it goes for $300, maybe it goes for $900, who knows. They’ll then have a voucher that they can use for the session with Mischa. There’s a chance no one buys the service or that someone buys it and never redeems it. That’s OK, Rooftop will still get the money spent.
Mischa provides the service, hopefully has a new client, and when everyone at Rooftop hears of what a great photo session he did, he might have more clients.
Big thank you from Liam, my 6-year old !

If You’d Like to Come to the Event

Finally, it’s a really fun event if you’d like to come. Great products and services available (as well as art) and again, all for a good cause! Last year (for a friend’s school), I bought massage gift certificates for my wife, car wash gift certificates (guess that was for me … ), and got outbid on a two-night stay in some hotel in Napa.

Rooftop Auction
The Hall of Flowers
March 20, 2010
5:00-10:00pm
Lincoln Way & 9th Ave
San Francisco, CA 94122
Map: http://tinyurl.com/7schzm

——————–

Here’s the letter from Rooftop:

Dear Community Friend,

I would like to introduce myself as the parent of a child who attends Rooftop School in San Francisco. Rooftop is a K-8 public, alternative elementary/middle school located in Twin Peaks, in the heart of San Francisco. Each year Rooftop’s Parent and Teacher Association (PTA) hosts an Auction to raise money to fund programs that make our school special, such as the library, garden, science, sensory motor and art.

I am writing to you on behalf of all the Rooftop children to help us with our biggest annual fundraiser by donating a gift certificate and/or merchandise that will be sold to the highest bidder during the Auction on March 20, 2010.

These are difficult times for all schools, and with huge state budget cuts our children’s educational system needs even more help. Your support at this time is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and consider making a donation from your establishment. Attached you will find the Donor Form; please complete the form (keep a copy for you records) and return with your donation. If you prefer, we can make a gift certificate for you (just indicate this on the form).

If you would like more information about Rooftop School and the wonderfully positive and creative learning environment we provide, please visit our website at www.rooftopk8.org.

The Staff and Children of Rooftop thank you in advance for your support!