The next Des Moines Tweetup will take place at el Bait Shop on Thursday, June 4th at 6:00 pm. Here are five reasons why you should not attend:

Follow the #dmtweetup hashtag on Twitter to stay on top of who’s attending! See you out there!

Here we are late on a Friday afternoon, and (oh noes!) we just realized we hadn’t created our weekly video yet. So we asked ourselves, why do we create these things, anyway?

Happy Memorial Day, everyone! Remember to love your loved ones, remember those who have passed, drink a few beers, and grill up some sausages. Back to the hustle next week.

We were crunched for time today, so this week’s Area 52 video was recorded in the car during our drive north to Minneapolis for a client visit. I wanted to capture some of my scattered thoughts about the BIG Omaha conference, and here they are:

Okay, I’m going into full-on hustler mode today. To kick off Iowa Small Business Week (May 18-22), Lava Row has partnered with the New Iowa Entrepreneurs’ Coalition to host two workshops next Monday and Tuesday.

Descriptions for the workshops and venue location are below. We want to stress that this programming track is “101″ in nature — meaning that it’s perfect for those who have not jumped headfirst into the social media world, but are curious about it. Tickets are $25 per person.

Building business intelligence and managing reputation through social media
Monday, May 18, 11:30am-1:00pm, Des Moines Social Club

Fact: Your customers are talking about you online. This workshop teaches you and your team how to harness listening and monitoring technology (Google Reader, Technorati, Twitter Search, etc.) for the purpose of scanning conversations in blogs, social networks, user forums, message boards and online communities for mentions of your business, competitors and other relevant topics.

You’ll also learn how to effectively engage your online audience on their own turf with honest, human-to-human discourse, as well as how to deal with detractors. We’ll cover best practices, share real-life case studies, and help you set up a company-wide engagement strategy (what to respond to, what not to respond to, and who in the company should respond).

Tickets are $25 per person and available at the door. RSVP at MeetUp.com.

Expanding the Digital Footprint of your Business with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
Tuesday, May 19, 11:30am-1:00pm, Des Moines Social Club

Social networks are getting a lot of buzz right now, but how can a business actually execute an strategic presence within them? What are the demographics of these social networks and should you expect your audience to be there? This workshop will answer that question and more, including best practices on how your company should behave and participate within online social channels and what to expect in terms of ROI.

Tickets are $25 per person and available at the door. RSVP at MeetUp.com.

The Des Moines Social Club is located at 1408 Locust in the Western Gateway of downtown Des Moines. Please enter through the front door. We’ll see you there!

View Larger Map

If you’re interested in any of the other topics we cover with businesses and organizations, please check out our social media workshops page.

Blogger outreach has quickly become an integral part of many brands’ marketing efforts. The blogosphere enables interactive dialogue between bloggers and consumers, and blogger outreach opens the door for conversation between your brand, bloggers and consumers. For any company that is looking to leverage the blogosphere for your marketing or PR strategy, here are 5 benefits of blogger outreach.

It’s important to remember that any blogging strategy should begin with listening, and at the end of the day, it’s all about the quality of the content or product that you are promoting. In other words, you can’t expect positive reviews about your brand if you’re promoting a product that lacks quality.