Social Media Show

Jasmin Tragas is a woman on a mission to help provide opportunities for other women to succeed. And for many women that means first of all getting themselves out of poverty.

As a Women’s Opportunity Ambassador with Opportunity International, Jasmin set herself an ambitious goal of raising AU$10,000 to enable a Trust Bank to be established for currently poor women in the Philippines.

In recent days, with the help of a sponsor inspired by her campaign and the suppport of a number of bloggers and Twitter users, Jasmin’s fund-raising efforts have received a much appreciated boost.

You can read the full story and link to various blogs where people have posted to help the project, at Jasmin’s A Woman’s Investment blog.

And in this interview which I recorded last night, Jasmin talks in further detail about the project and how the Trust Bank will work.

Today I seized an opportunity to have a chat with my friend and colleague, Professor Lonnie B. Hodge. We discussed the workshop which, with some esteemed colleagues, we will be leading in Guangzhou, just a few weeks from now, on March 26th (China time).

Social Media Optimization and PR 2.o is subtitled “Practical Tools in an Economic Downturn”. While the world at large frets about what has happened to the global economy, we will be focusing on how the low-cost or no cost tools of social media can help companies, organizations and individual entrepreneurs to go on the front foot in their marketing and communications.

We believe it is a serious enough topic. We also believe in helping people have fun while they (and we) learn.

For more information about the workshop, including, location, times, how to register (for participation in the live event or online) go to the event Facebook page.

The audio of our chat lasts about 36 minutes: you can listen here or download the MP3 file to your iPod or other MP3 player.

I love meeting visionary people who have the determination and the smarts to turn their visions into business realities.

One such person is Jalali Hartman, Founder and CEO of the Yovia network, whom I met last year at the Blogworld and New Media Expo in Las Vegas, where Yovia had a stand. From talking with Jalali I was inspired enough to join the Yovia network.

Now, several months later, I’ve at last had the pleasure of interviewing Jalali for this Social Media Show.

In the conversation we touched on a number of subjects, including:

• how even experienced tech hotshots can learn from high school kids about the possibilities of the Web
• how to deal with corporate resistance to the introduction of social media
• why the Yovia motto is “Spread the Word”
• why some 2,000 bloggers and even whole villages in Africa are part of the Yovia network
• how to keep a human balance in the midst of the pressures of a tech startup
• how to get paid to blog by hooking up with Yovia

and more.

Listen to the interview here or download the MP3 file for your iPod or other player.

MP3 File

This podcast incorporates a fairly impromptu, 30 minute conversation I had on June 4 with Professor Lonnie B. Hodge, CEO of culturefish Media, a Guangzhou, China based company specializing in online marketing, seo and reputation management in the China market. I’m an Associate of culturefish Media.

The conversation is about the four one-day workshops on digital media releases which Lonnie and I are presenting in July this year, in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.

Proceeds to the Dreamblogue Handicapped Intern Program, The Library Project Earthquake Fund and the Reading Tub Literacy project.

We talk about our aims for the workshops, the concept of a social media release, having fun while learning, Twitter, meteor showers and flashlights.

Download MP3 file

Event details and bookings:

(UPDATE: due to the current restrictive regime on travel into China and related challenges in obtaining visas, it was necessary to postpone the arrangements for the workshops. We are working on alternative plans now.)

Hong Kong (18 July): http://pr-20-hongkong.eventbrite.com

Shanghai (21 July): http://pr2-0.eventbrite.com/

Beijing (23 July): http://pr-20-BJ.eventbrite.com

Guangzhou (25 July): http://pr-20-gz.eventbrite.com

For more information, please contact us.