I just came back from another Internet Marketing Bootcamp event. My head is jam-packed with up-to-the-minute, cutting edge marketing strategies, and my hand is about to fall off from taking so many notes!
Apparently, I stood out so much for my silent note taking, that I caught the eye of the speaker. About once an hour for two days, I would hear the speaker’s deep voice break my concentration with, “Barbara stop writing!” or “Barbara, you don’t have to write that down!” Then, off he would go again.
Lunch was for networking. It didn’t take long for my lunch buddies to figure out that I was the “Barbara”, the speaker kept telling to stop writing. That led us into discussions on the various ways we learn.
For me, I can retain almost all of what a speaker is teaching IF I tune out everything but the speaker. I can achieve almost total focus by watching and listening to the speaker while I constantly write down everything of worth they say and have written on the large side screens.
What nails down my retention is writing down everything that I see and hear. After years of doing this at seminars, I can actually see in my mind the pages with the notes scribbled on them. I can see what I wrote and am able to find the exact information I want to look at again in my notebook.
I have created an “experience” that is hammered into my memory.
What I work to create for attendees of my safety seminars is an experience that they will remember. Sexual assault and rape prevention are very difficult subjects to discuss, let alone teach effectively. I want them to remember as many of the solutions I present to them as they possibly can.
The roughest part of the Internet marketing bootcamp was viewing the websites of our fellow attendees and watching their designs being critiqued ( polite for public shreding). Tonight, I let our webmaster know that we have a bit of work to do on our websites. I invite you to come back often and see how we adjust Colorado Safety Educators and Five Star Seminars website designs to the Internet marketing experts’ recommendations.
I will leave you with two website design tips that I learned:
Website Design Tip #1: Graphic Artists LOVE flash animation and flash intros. Internet surfers HATE them.
Website Design Tip #2: Don’t open your website with “Welcome to my…” We have about 5-10 seconds at most to catch the attention of our website’s visitor before they click off our site. They may not read any farther than your welcome greeting.
Do you think I stopped writing?
Nope. Not this obsessive, compulsive, front-row notetaker…
