Last fall we worked with Panchero’s Mexican Grill on their overall social media marketing strategy, including making a business case for using Twitter to engage and connect with customers online.

Joel “Oscar” Johnson (Social Media Manager at Panchero’s) is the guy at the helm of the company’s digital efforts. One of his first Twitter outreach conversations was with Ted Murphy, a prolific Twitter-er and blogger who also happened to be a frequent Panchero’s patron.

Ted was so enthused when Joel reached out to him that he wrote a blog post about how Panchero’s had embraced Twitter and challenged the company to go further — specifically at the store level. In this week’s Area 52 video installment (above), I talk about how Panchero’s took Ted Murphy’s idea and turned it into reality.

If you follow lots of people on Twitter, you’re likely to miss out on valuable content and insight from specific individuals. One option is to swing the Unfollow Hammer mercilessly, or set rigid standards before following people back. Admittedly, I’ve done a poor job at doing this and have performed Twitter “spring cleaning” only once or twice.

Two viable solutions for filtering your Twitter chaos are Tweetdeck and Friendfeed, which we explore in this week’s Area 52 episode:

Please chime in below and let us know which tools or methods you use to manage your Twitter stream.

I’m excited to announce that Lava Row has partnered with 48Web to present
“What Now? A six-part entrepreneur survival guide” at Impromptu Studio.

If you’ve recently started your own business, or you’re trapped in a cubicle thinking about ditching “The Man,” we’d love for you to attend. Each session will consist of a conversation between two local speakers sharing their personal experiences, emotional highs, lows, hurdles and triumphs – with audience participation, of course. The full line-up is outlined below.

We’re experimenting with a couple of ticket payment options. Series passes are available for $150, or you can name your own price for individual session tickets. Please visit the event registration page on EventBrite to RSVP and purchase your passes. All proceeds from the series will go towards keeping Impromptu Studio a low-cost facility option for entrepreneurs, and a hub for the technology community in Des Moines!

Lunch will be provided. You’ll have a chance to network and eat from 11:30 am – 12:00 pm, and the speaker conversations will last from 12:00-1:00 pm. Hope to see you out there!

Making the Jump: Mistakes and Hurdles
Friday, January 30 – 11:30-1:00
Join Liza Kindred (Lullabot) and Brian Hemesath (Diligent IS, Catchwind) as they discuss common pitfalls and mistakes made when forming a business, and how to overcome various logistical and emotional obstacles.

Networking: Get out there!
Friday, February 13 – 11:30-1:00
Andy Drish (Principal Financial Group) and Justin Brady (Test of Time Design) will share various methods of getting out there and networking yourself socially and digitally – whether you’re looking to start your own biz right now or a few years down the road.

Avoiding the Day-to-Day: Staying Inspired & Motivated
Friday, February 27 – 11:30-1:00
Ron Wagner (comic book & storyboard artist) and Teri TeBockhorst (serial entrepreneur & former owner of East Village Books) join forces to talk about the emotional side of being in business for yourself: how to stay motivated, how to avoid depression, and how to constantly reinvent yourself.

Running Cheap & Lean: Bootstrapping 101
Friday, March 6 – 11:30-1:00
Jason Walsmith (The Nadas, Authentic Records) and Doug Mitchell (CreateWOWmedia) share success stories (and horror stories) of how they bootstrapped their respective businesses.

Character: Don’t be an @$$hole
Friday, March 20 – 11:30-1:00
Brett Trout (Law Offices of Brett Trout) and Adam Steen (25 Connections) talk about the importance of character in business relationships, and how it can affect your reputation, referral network and bottom line.

Marketing: How to get creative in a tight economy
Friday, April 3 – 11:30-1:00
Speakers: Mike Ferrari & Mike Wagner
Mike Ferrari (SmartyPig.com) and Mike Wagner (White Rabbit Group) share various ways in which they’ve creatively (and inexpensively) marketed their businesses in a tight economy.

The official series page is set up here over on the Impromptu Studio blog. Thanks to Andy Brudtkuhl and Daniel Shipton for helping put this together!

The social network LinkedIn is a fantastic platform for showcasing your reputation and expertise, as well as for connecting with new business leads. Many people have LinkedIn accounts but never take full advantage of them.

In this installment of our weekly video series Area 52, we explore three ways to get started. (We’ve also learned to not backlight ourselves!)

Looking for more? Guy Kawasaki’s blog post “Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn” from 2007 is still a classic.

Our 2009 resolution for Lava Row was to create. Behold our first creation: A weekly video series that we’re calling Area 52. (52 weeks in a year, get it? Ha!)

We’ll use this series as a platform to discuss social media, entrepreneurism and small business topics. As you can tell, we’ve still got a lot to learn about lighting and sound, but we’ll keep learning (and getting better) with each week. Special thanks to Hillary Brown for adding her iMovie skills to the video.

Our first episode features Mike Templeton, co-creator of microsharing news and resource blog Microblink, and all-around nice guy.

The purpose of the video series is to educate and share information with you, our readers — so please tell us what topics you’d like to see covered in the future.