Highlight Midwest

One of the hardest things about getting people on board with the social media trend is convincing them of the value behind these new methods. There are a lot of people out there who just don’t see how a blog or an account on a social network can help them enhance their business and meet their goals.

However, every once in awhile, you see someone really taking the idea of social media and running with it, turning it into a monumental success. Jay Liebenguth is one such person.

I met Jay through my friend Brad Elpers (who, incidentally, I met via Twitter). Jay is the host of a local radio program called Live With Jay, and also writes and runs the Live With Jay blog, where he posts information on the show and podcasts his interviews. I was invited by Jay to sit down over a cup of tea to discuss our company, The Social Lites, and while we were talking, Jay told me about a great idea he had for his show. I was fascinated by the idea.

He would be spending 15 days on the road, visiting 25 cities in 10 states, and conducting 50 interviews. Here’s the cool part: the connections he made to get the interview subjects were from social media contacts—people he had met through promotion on his blog and through social networks like LinkedIn. On August 25th, he launched the tour and his series “Business Drive Time,” which celebrated large and small businesses across the nation.

Social media can also pay off big if it gets the attention of major traditional media sources. The next time you’re trying to convince a CEO that his company needs to get on the Web 2.0 wagon, point him in Jay’s direction. They’ll probably be more receptive once they find out that, through promotion on his blog, Twitter, and other social media platforms, Jay’s series was picked up in stories by Forbes, BusinessWeek, CNBC, MarketWatch, Bloomberg, Reuters, Yahoo Finance, and others.

Jay is definitely a great example of a local businessman who really gets it. Congratulations are due, and I wish him continued success with his social media endeavors.

You can tune into Live With Jay every Thursday at 3:00 PM on Hot Talk-KCTE 1510 AM, or listen to live streaming audio of the show at www.1510.com.

Author and Businessweek/ Yahoo journalist, Sarah Lacy gave Highlight Midwest some nice props. [Follow her on twitter] Thanks Sarah!

How ironic that a San Francisco local and someone the caliber of Sarah covers the event before Kansas City, Des Moines, or Omaha?

Come on! One of the points of this event is to prove we’re not walking in the path of our stereotype. Although I’m speaking in a non-social media sense, I think the twitterverse has started buzzing about the event for a few days now.

So Des Moines, Omaha, and Kansas City media where are you at?

Or how about Lawrence, Manhattan, or Wichita?

Columbia?

Reference: Sarah Lacy “UBT Toronto Bound Y’all“  09/24/2008

[ in case you didn't see it was linked to props, don't you know how this works? ]