Hot off the conference center floors of the Javitz Center for BlogWorld 2011 NYC, and let me tell you, it's all about social media! I traveled from southern Mexico, spent at least $1,500 going to this trade show and am now freely going to give you some of the best tips I got from the show. I hope you can get as much enjoyment from the knowledge as I hope to gain.

The first day started with conferences and Blog World didn't have any shortage of experts or big names. I caught Jay Baer at the Now Revolution speaking about Social Media and Blogging. What did I learn? Well for starters a home building company called Martell Homes in New Brunswick, Canada has increased their sales by 400% in two years by actively engaging their community with social media like twitter and Facebook, and by blogging. They increased their margins by reducing the need for directly assisted sales through real estate agents from 90% to 12%. This directly affected their ability to grow the company, and transformed the company from barely surviving to thriving. They took an unusually long sales cycle of 6 months, and slashed it by 60%, with the shortest sale record being 32 minutes. The CEO explained that the customer was already coming to them informed about their products, and didn't need to kick the tires for 6 months to make a decision. Continue reading →