Title: Blogging for Bankers
Course Description: Blogging for Bankers is a course specifically designed for the banking and financial services sector to help professionals better understand how to use blogging and other social networking tools to create, enhance and grow relationships with customers, as well as seek out prospects and attract them to the business. The course is offered through three "modules", each offering four one-hour webinar sessions. In addition, we will also offer "office hours" where attendees can call back in and ask questions about the process.
Dates and Times: The first module starts on Wednesday, September 16th. All times are 2:00 - 3:00 pm Eastern. Actual times are noted below along with each of the individual course sessions.
Facilitators: Jeff Simpkins, Eric Cook and Bea Fields
COST: Each four-week module will cost $397 and includes weekly
one-hour webinars and "office hour" time to call in and ask your
questions. But if you sign up before the course starts on September 16,
you can register for all three modules for a discounted price of only
$997. Get registered now...
MODULE 1 – BLOGGING 101: Starts Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Week 1: Class 9/16/09 | Office Hours 9/17/09
This session will begin to get you thinking about the importance of building a solid foundation for your blogging efforts (and how a blog can be considered as just one part in an overall "social networking" strategy for the bank). Before you even get started with your first post, you'll want to spend some time thinking about who you will target, what you will be talking about, who will be responsible in your organization, monitor comments, what policies and procedures you'll need to have in place and other key elements. We'll provide a strategic planning document with over 20 questions that you'll need to address when starting the blogging process and discuss the importance of having answers to these questions.
Week 2: Class 9/23/09 | Office Hours 9/24/09
We'll review a sample project plan that can be used to get you started down the process, in addition to a quick reference guide that will have a listing of all the resources you'll need to get started. These will include things like podcasting, video and especially photo editing tools to make it easy to share your message a variety of different ways through your blog. This will also provide the bank with an excellent opportunity to bring in some of their younger employees that are "living and breathing" web 2.0 and social networking in their daily lives.
Week 3: Class 9/30/09 | Office Hours 10/01/09
As bankers, you are certainly familar with the issues of compliance and these need to be taken into consideration in your blogging strategy. For this session, we'll bring in compliance experts to talk about the "hot" compliance issues that you'll need to account for including Reg Z and Truth In Lending issues as you consider talking about your products and services online. This session will also talk about consumer privacy and internal procedures to help keep your bank compliant, yet effectively using a blogging strategy. We'll also visit several popular banking blogs to see just what others in the industry are doing.
Week 4: Class 10/07/09 | Office Hours 10/08/09
You'll come to realize there is a lot going on in the bank that you can talk about online. But one of the great benefits of a blog is it gives you the ability to discuss virtually anything that you want, keeping in mind it's best to ensure that content is relevant to your chosen target market. As a banker, chances are people look to you as an expert in a variety of areas related to their financial lives, and this is the perfect opportunity to give them even more information of value. Let's see... has there been much going on in the banking industry lately that you can talk about in your blog?Now's the chance for you to further build credibility and show the world that you're not just another pretty face.
Investment: $397.00
Buy All 3 Modules With the Bankers Blogging Early Bird Bundle for the Discounted Price of $997.00
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MODULE 2 – CONTENT GENERATION: Starts Wednesday, October 22, 2009
Week 1: Class 10/21/09 | Office Hours 10/22/09
In this week we'll start the brainstorming session of what you want to talk about in your first blog post. You'll come to learn, that while it's certainly important to be professional in your writing, a blog post can be more informal and should represent the author's personality. Since a blog is more a tool to build relationships than anything else, the genuine and sincere approach is one that will be appreciated by your readers. And, if you're having a hard time thinking about what to write about, we'll provide a list of ideas that can get your creative juices flowing!
Week 2: Class 10/28/09 | Office Hours 10/29/09
While at first many of the readers of your blog will likely be current customers that are already coming to your bank's website or hear about it from your employees, we'll show you how to take steps to increase the odds that search engines will pick up on what you're talking about and bring new people to you. We'll help you think about the importance of keywords, creating post titles and how to use categories and tags to help identify what you're talking about on your blog to the rest of the world.
Week 3: Class 11/04/09 | Office Hours 11/05/09
Now that you have a good idea of what you should be doing, we're going to dive into a real-world blogging platform and take you through the process of how to actually build a blog. While there are numerous blogging platforms available on the Internet today, we'll be demonstrating the TypePad system as an example of just how easy building and maintaining a blog can be.
Week 4: Class 11/12/09 | Office Hours 11/13/09
Now that you're getting comfortable with "traditional" blogging - typing what's on your mind - this session will explore opportunities to make your blog even more interactive using video and audio content. The "new consumer" (think about those ages 22-32) wants to not only get good information, but is looking to be "entertained" with things like video and audio they can watch online or download to their iPods and listen when it's convenient for them. We'll show some examples of how to incorporate sites like YouTube and others to help with your "rich media" strategy.
Investment: $397.00
Buy All 3 Modules With the Bankers Blogging Early Bird Bundle for the Discounted Price of $997.00
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MODULE 3 – PROMOTION STRATEGIES: Starts Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Week 1: Class 12/02/09 | Office Hours 12/03/09
Now that you've got all this great content on your blog, it's time to make sure the rest of the world knows about it (and you make it easy for current readers to keep up with your posts). There are services out there using RSS (really simple syndication) and e-mail delivery that can make it possible for readers of your blog to automatically get your posts in their inbox, making it even easier to ensure that people know what your bank is up to.
Week 2: Class 12/09/09 | Office Hours 12/10/09
Since building a blog is part of an overall "social
networking strategy", the word "network" is an important component in
your overall success. There are tools out there like My Blog Log and
others that can help turn your blog into its own online community and
further encourage visitors to interact with your bank online. This can
be an excellent way to solicit feedback on products and services, as
well as deepening relationships with your customers.
Week 3: Class 12/16/09 | Office Hours 12/17/09
Ok, so now that you've got blogging all figured out, it's time to start thinking about some of the other popular social networking sites that can help to get you connected with customers and prospects. We'll talk about the "big four" that are out there now, those being Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. Of course, there are countless others, but each of these four can play their own special role in building the bank's reputation online and enhancing your customer relationships.
Week 4: Class 12/23/09 | Office Hours N/A
Chances are we'll only begin to scratch the surface on the topic of social networks, so we're reserving our last week together to wrap up the prior week's discussion on the "big four" and to address any remaining questions you may have.
Investment: $397.00
Buy All 3 Modules with the Bankers Blogging Early Bird Bundle for the Discounted Price of $997.00
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Bankers Blogging Early Bird Bundle
Buy Modules 1, 2 and 3 today and save $194.00 if registered before the course begins.
Investment: $997.00
