Google’s Steve Grove Oakland Digital (ODALC) is proud and excited to have Google’s Steve Grove keynote our July 25th Oakland City Hall event. Steve leads Google’s efforts to grow the Google+ community through partnerships with influential organizations, brands, and public figures. Previously he built the news and politics division of YouTube, including CitizenTube, a channel that curates and promotes citizen-generated news clips from breaking news events.

Oakland Digital (ODALC) is proud to present our 2nd annual Social Media for Small Business symposium! SMfSB is a one day, five-hour event that serves as a neutral educational and learning platform for local small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. SMfSB breaks social media down into easy-to-understand pieces, so attendees can make sense of and utilize digital tools and technology as a platform to grow their business.

Oakland Digital Arts & Literacy Center (ODALC) first annual “Social Media for Small Business: Online Marketing Symposium” held at Oakland City Hall, Council Chambers was an overwhelming success. The event was open to the public with a purpose of displaying how to use social media tools effectively to help increase their Return on Investment (ROI), reach untapped and potential customers, how to stay connected with customers and boost their online brand presence.

At the end of March I had the honor of speaking at the Oakland City Hall, at their Social Media for Small Business event. It was very well attended, with almost 200 business owners who are just now really starting to focus on how they can use social media to grow their business. It was exceptionally well run by Shaun Tai, executive director of Oakland Digital, culminating in a special visit from Oakland’s Mayor Jean Quan, and featuring stellar speakers such as Andreas Weigand (Social Data Revolution, Stanford University, Amazon), folks from Yahoo! and Constant Contact. What I loved about it, though, was that it inspired me to revisit what we do at Get Satisfaction with fresh eyes.

When used properly, social media can be a great tool to help your small business reach untapped, potential customers and stay connected to current ones. But there are a few things you’ll need to know to help you get the most out of social media as well as your online presence in its entirety. “Social Media for Small Business” will help break social media down into easy-to-understand pieces, so you can make sense of and make use of this powerful resource in a way that grows your business.