Social Geek

Ken Walker, CEO of Driven Brands declared "Franchising Is Back!" to IFA attendees at the 51st annual convention held in Las Vegas. Deb Evans attended the convention with 2800 other franchise industry leaders and suppliers. This week AK Stout will discuss the convention with Deb. What did attending a convention of that size offer? Was the new IFA Convention Mobile App a success? Was there anything...

On Thursday, February 17th while Deb is traveling back from the International Franchise Association Convention, AK will be joined by guest co-host Dana Lopez of Graphic Management. AK & Dana will be speaking with Shelley Roth, Founder & President, Springboard Works. http://www.springboardworks.com . Since 1999, Springboard has been helping businesses create and implement ways to grow sales...

On February 10th AK and Deb welcome guest, Greg Pitkoff, Managing Director of GRiP Communications. Greg has been working in the franchise community for nearly 15 years, during which he has helped startups with just a few locations, multi-national companies with thousands of sites and a broad range of companies in between attract prospective franchisees, gain more customers, build and broadcast the...

AK Stout will be traveling to a speaking engagement on Feb 3rd and not available for Social Geek Radio. She will be missed but Deb welcomes BJ Emerson as co-host! Together they will speak with Ron Stack, Founder/COO of Zavee, an innovative community-based social shopping program that rewards loyal consumers, empowers local businesses and provides support for local civic and charitable organization...

Chris Anderson joins AK Stout and Deb Evans to discuss how independent business owners can attract and convert customers online through their own blogs, websites, and in social media. Chris will discuss how Empowerkit, can meet the needs of business owners with their own personalized websites – without risking harm to the brand, loss of corporate control, or legal compliance liabilities in the pro...

Join AK Stout and Deb Evans as they chat with Michelle Rowan, COO of Franchise Business Review. Franchise Business Review (FBR) is a market research company in the franchise space. They specialize in franchisee satisfaction, validation and customer validation. FBR helps franchisors benchmark and strengthen their brands, and help interested franchise buyers identify quality franchises to invest in,...

This week AK Stout and Deb Evans welcome Justin Brackett as special guest. Who is Justin Brackett you ask. He is: A Social Media Evangelist. Entrepreneur. Blogger. Lover of the RedSox. Champion of Non-Profits. Justin recently attended CES (Consumer Electronic Show) in Las Vegas! As Vice President of Digital Management at Kioky ( www.kioky.com ) (KEY-oak-E) he says, "The greatest problem plaguing o...

Deb Evans welcomes new co-host AK Stout, founder/owner of Saying It Social, LLC. With a degree in Marketing, AK prides herself in finding ways to utilize her knowledge in conjunction with the ever expanding mix and advantages of online tools to increase a brand's exposure while establishing trust and cultivating meaningful business-consumer relationships. Our guest this week is Jack Monson, Vice P...

We are coming to the end of 2010 and time to plan for 2011. What will you Social Technology Strategic Plan look like? Do you have a social media road map? Are you getting the most out of LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook? Join us and guest AK Stout as we discuss planning strategies for 2011! Follow AK on Twitter @SayingItSocial and visit her Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/sayingitsocial

Our guest this week is Tracey E. Diamond, Esq from Hyland Levin Attorneys At Law. Tracey practices in the areas of employment law, human resources counseling and employment litigation. As franchisors continue to use social media to expand brand presence and maintain consistency across all media, it is important to adopt a comprehensive social media policy to ensure that company employees, franchis...

Our first guest for the month of December will be Hollis Thomases. Hollis has built a reputation as online marketing’s “Voice of Reason.” In January 2010, Thomases’s first book, Twitter Marketing: An Hour a Day, a 478-page business text on the application of Twitter in marketing, was published by Wiley/SYBEX. Since 2005, Thomases has bi-weekly authored the “Planning the Buy” column for top Interne...

This week BJ and Deb are joined by Jared Degnan, host of the Marketing Diner. Http://marketingdiner.com/blog . We'll be covering return on investment within social media. Don't miss this important discussion with a real brand geek.

Our guest, Jay Steinfeld, Founder of Blinds.com built his company from inception in 1996 to $80 million revenue, including three acquisitions. Ranked #192 of all U.S e-commerce companies, #1 e-commerce company in Houston, and the world's #1 online retailer for blinds, shades, and other window coverings. Jay is also author of "The No Nonsense Boss" http://www.bnet.com/blog/grow-business for BNET. (...

Robin Raskin will be our guest this week. For nearly 30 years Robin has followed technology. Her company Living in Digital Times creates conferences and exhibitions that showcase products, technologies and ideas about what it means to be digital today! Robin produces a series of conferences and exhibits at CES (Consumer Electronic Show). One of them: Kids@Play is devoted to looking at the digital...

How can a solid social media presence dramatically increase a website's search engine ranking? Do you know how to use correct page titles, metadata, alt-tags for images, anchor text, etc? Join Deb and this week co-host Lorri Wyndham (@LorriW) and guest AK Stout from WebConjunction. AK will share how she has helped many small businesses grow their business by enhancing their online presence and man...

Listen in as BJ interviews special guest Bill Hanifin of Hanifin Loyalty, LLC. They'll be discussing the the latest trends in technology related to loyalty, social applications and how brands are rewarding customers.

Once again BJ Emerson will be in the air and unavailable for Social Geek Radio. We may start a contest, “Where in the World is BJ!” Deb invited COMPUTER EXPLORERS Curriculum and Program Development Director, Cyndee Perkins to be her co-host on Thursday Sept 30th and together they searched for a “Geek of the Week” special guest. They are delighted that Margaret Johnson, founder of Sabi Games, a Sea...

BJ Emerson will not be available for the Sept 23 show but Deb will be joined by Warren Buckleitner, a long time friend of COMPUTER EXPLORERS. Warren Buckleitner is the Editor of Children’s Technology Review. After five years in the classroom and 10 years at the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, he established Children’s Technology Review, earning him SIIA’s First Journalism Codie Award f...

Still confused by foursquare and how to use mobile social communications for business? Want to learn how foursquare can help drive sales? How do you become Mayor and how do you attract Mayors through loyalty programs? BJ Emerson will be a presenter at the Mobile Social Communications Case Studies & Roundtables in NYC on the 15th. The ½ day event will include some great case studies and roundta...

BJ and Deb dedicate this week's show to why and how Twitter can be a great channel to engage customers 140 characters at a time.

This week we'll be joined by community enthusiast, social media strategist and new media maven Dave Delaney who is social media coordinator for Griffin Technology. Listen in as we cover the latest trends in social technologies with one of the coolest geeks on the web.

Our guest will be Nick Powills, founder of No Limit Media Consulting which is a progressive communications firm focused on the franchise industry. By using a fine-tuned blend of Social Media + Traditional Media, No Limit creates campaigns focused on driving more consumers at the local-unit-level and more franchise prospects to the brand. Its staff of experienced publicists challenges old technolog...

BJ and Deb met and interviewed Jeanne Bliss, author "I Love You More Than My Dog" at the Word of Mouth Supergenius conference (see video www.facebook.com/socialgeekradio ). Jeanne started her career at Land's End reporting to founder Gary Comer and the company's executive committee, ensuring that in the formative years of the organization, the company stayed focused on its core principles of custo...

Social media tools offer franchisees and franchisors so many ways to promote their franchise business today. LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogging and Facebook are used to build brand awareness and drive interested customers to the corporate website. There are also platforms customized to manage and monitor the franchise sales process for the franchisor. Join BJ and Deb with guest Jon Carlston, Vice Preside...

This week BJ and Deb will discuss on social technology plays a role in franchising today. They welcome friend and very special guest the Tech Media Ninja, Ken Colburn. Ken is founder and president of Data Doctors Franchise System based in Arizonia. You can hear Ken every Saturday as Talk Show Host of The Computer Corner on KTAR 92.3 News Radio in AZ. Ken is an active member of IFA (International F...