Not surprisingly, there’s a lot of interest in learning ways to build and develop business relationships to help drive your business forward. Chris Herbert, cofounder of Silicon Halton and founder of Mi6 and Hugh Black, Principal at HMB Communications Group, co-presented how you can build and leverage social networks to drive business using both social and traditional media outreach.

Chris Herbert’s Presentation

Chris Herbert provided fascinating insights about how to build a social network, particularly through the use of social media tools. Chris encouraged people to think about the different layers that exist in social networks (from close acquaintances to people you’re in the process of discovering) and then how to apply that within a social media context.

He showed how he leveraged different tools (e.g., web sites, blogs, Twitter, and LinkedIn) to discover new people, reach out to them and how to identify where there are commonalities to build relationships. He also demonstrated how it had been applied to the building of Silicon Halton.

Chris also shared part of his daily routine as a professional social networker, which is worth investigating in his slide presentation. Needless to say, his presentation evoked a lot of enthusiastic discussion during the Q&A session and resonated with a lot of people.

Hugh Black’s Presentation

Hugh highlighted the role that positioning can play in building your network, and to think about the concept of talking about what you do using stories. It’s something that can be at events, digitally (e.g., through blogs, Twitter, YouTube), at meetings, and through traditional media .

He then showed how Burlington-based E=mz2 told used the story telling concept to work with traditional news media to not only generate awareness, but also generated tangible sales leads.

Incidentally, E=mz2 CEO Marguerite Zimmerman will be a keynote speaker at the next meet-up on Aug. 9th in Milton, talking about creating differentiation through selling.

Keynote Presenters

Chris Herbert is the founder and CMO of Mi6, a B2B Marketing Agency. Mi6 creates social networks & communities that build reputations & generate results. He is also the founder of ProductCamp Toronto and is the cofounder of the Hi-tech community Silicon Halton. He tweets under the handle @B2Bspecialist

Hugh Black is the Principal of HMB Communications, which specializes in market-build communications initiatives. Hugh is a senior communications professional with a successful 20-year track record of business-to-business and business-to-consumer service at regional, national and international levels. He is a member of Silicon Halton. He tweets under the handle: @HughBlack

G2KAM (Get to Know A Member) Intros

Alex Bucataru gave a fascinating presentation about an innovative referral/word-of-mouth marketing site called Enthuzr, which launched fairly recently. Some people signed up immediately as a result of his presentation.

Ben Zimmer of Enable Training and Consulting Inc. talked about the exciting growth that his company has been experiencing.

It’s great to hear about great Halton area success stories.

Post-Event Q&A

Silicon Halton members can participate in post-event conversation with the presenters in our private Linkedin group.