This week, PubCon and SES Chicago are taking place. Both are two popular conferences for those in online marketing, social media, and search engine marketing.
Next year, I might finally get to go to my first conference. Since I’ve never been to one, I want your input.
Which conference should I attend next year? My main interests are social media, blogging, conversational marketing, and interactive learning environments.
SXSW Interactive - March 7-11, 2008 in Austin, Texas (I want to visit Austin - and concurrently attend SXSW Film!)
SMX Social Media - April 2008, Los Angeles, California (My bro lives here, and I’ve never been!)
OMMA West - TBD - Last year it was March in Hollywood - (ok, they haven’t announced it, but this is when and where it occurred last year and I heard fantastic things about it. Again, chance to visit my bro is a plus)
2008 Media Summit - March 12-13 in NYC (looks very forward thinking about interactive media, plus it’s in the Big Apple!)
BlogWorld - (assuming there’s a second one) Nov 2008, Las Vegas
PubCon - Nov/Dec 2008, Las Vegas (thinking it’s a bit too SEO for my taste
q - oops my cat typed that in. sorry!
_________________________________ (Fill in the blank with your suggestion.)
ad:tech Chicago - are they having this again next year? (Chicago is the home of improv, and it’s yet another great city I need to visit. but will the conference be a bit, um, too “corporate” for my taste?)
I would really like to have fun and meet cool, laid-back people. I want a real experience and real networking. I’m not going to try to get “in” with the A-list crowd or whatever. So, dear readers, which conference should I attend (if i get to go)?
I skipped this column last week because I was shopping, of course. So two weeks for the price of one!
The absolute most important thing you can do to attract strong affiliate and joint venture partners is to have a high-demand, well-positioned and highly-effective training program. - Brian Clark on How to Tap Into Other People’s Traffic (And Have Them Thank You)
If you can’t make a decision, don’t go into marketing. Don’t try to manage a marketing team, either. - ian on Marketing is About Decisions
The most successful blogs don’t try to manipulate readers into voting for their posts. They just give them what they want. - Jon Morrow on http://www.copyblogger.com/blogging-for-digg/
We can’t let blogging take up all of our time. We have to set limits. Amazingly, by setting limits, we become more effective and more powerful, not less. - Leo Babauta on Haiku Blogging
Even the legitimate use of an urgent message will still be recognized by your audience as a promotional tactic. If you are not being genuine and honest, you run the risk of losing the respect and loyalty of some prospects. - Crystal Blahnik on Urgency Tactics to Increase Your Online Conversions
This week, as you draft, give yourself permission not to be perfect. If you want to go for perfect, make time to revise. - Kenneth W. Davis on Postpone Perfect
Great strategy starts and ends with the consumer and how the product or service can improve their daily life. - John Herrington on Improve Their Quality of Life
If I’d jumped on the “average” description based upon millions of web users around the world, I would have ignored my readers. - Lorelle VanFossen on Readers vs Visitors - Whose Needs are You Meeting?
I am a crappy photographer but I know 100% that David Hobby is the go-to guy on lighting. I know this because of his flagship content. - Chris Garrett on Spreading Your Ideas
Whether I’m in the shower, eating, reading, driving, exercising, talking, IMing, emailing, working, writing or playing with my kids, I always think to myself, “You know, that would make a great post!” It’s a bit sad, actually. - Leo Babauta on The Top 20 Ways to Come Up With Amazing Ideas
Management guru Peter F. Drucker, honorary chairman of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, attributes much of his success in life to his early habit of writing 10 to 12 thank you notes a day. - Ashley Graham on The All Mighty Thank You
Competing products already established in the marketplace means that people are already making money from the market. - Matthew Sherborne on Make Your Next Info-Product a Success!
Comfortable search marketers puke all over everyone else on the rollercoaster. We know this because your clients are calling us. - Marty Weintraub on
Ride the Search Rollercoaster or Exit Now
Twitter is popular now because the Web cognoscenti are using it. This bunch of eggheads prides itself on irony and witticism. They treat the site like some sort of ongoing haiku contest.
The thing is, Lance, I found out about your column. So, you’re right - it is ironic.
Twitter is great for networking and promotion. It’s not a bunch of haikus. No, offense to the haiku industry.
Hi! I’m Nathania. I was paid to write content for this page. Let’s cut to the chase. We want you to buy the stuff on this page. If you do, then it helps this company turn a profit. In turn, they pay consultants like Bold Interactive to find more people like you to buy more stuff on this page. And then Bold pays me and then I can pay my bills and buy sweaters on sale at JC Penney.
Sure, I could tell you all the reasons you want this beautiful piece of art, but you already know that you want or need it. Maybe you have bare walls or you’re just sick of looking at the same old boring stuff that’s up there right now. That’s really none of my business (no pun intended).
So, here it is. This nice piece of framed art. If you like it, buy it. If not, no hard feelings. You might check out the other stuff on our site just in case it suits your fancy.
I pondered this very topic without solid conclusions on Nov 1st in a post entitled: Social Media: Marketing or Measurement? So now is as good a time as ever to revisit the topic.
First of all, I will answer the question I posed at the beginning of the month: Social Media is both measurement and marketing.
Social Media can be a great way to measure Branding efforts, more so when they are carefully coordinated and monitored with traditional, offline branding campaigns. Results from such campaigns can be measured by tracking “friends” on social networks, “followers” and mentions on Twitter, Google Alerts and Google Blog Search, Technorati, and social bookmarking sites.
Yes, it takes a lot of work. And that’s just for the tracking. When you build and maintain these efforts, you get into the marketing. But social media primarily provides us with new tools that help us to implement tried and true marketing techniques. Sites like MySpace and Digg allow for both push (advertising) and pull (conversations). These two primary types of marketing are nothing new. Social media, however, is the new platform for us to explore them.
When these campaigns are engaged, then it’s time to use very analytics, landing pages, promotional codes - all the good stuff from websites and print marketing.
Analytics allows you to track referrals to your site. I’ve shared some analysis on StumbleUpon, for example, which includes how many visitors, their bounce rates, etc.
Landing pages are not just good for paid search, they can be used for social media as well. Try them with your social networks on Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Facebook.
Or try setting up promotions. For example, use different codes for MySpace and Facebook friends. Yes, it could travel virally. You want it to travel virally. But you’ll know the success of a given campaign based upon the use of those promo codes.
For the most part, the tricks of the trade that work in traditional marketing, and more familiar types of online marketing (SEO, PPC, email marketing) work in Social Media. Sometimes it doesn’t feel that way because the conversation is a much bigger part of the picture - but don’t let that aspect (which is a wonderful one, btw), throw you off your measurement track.
I have to say after going shopping on Black Friday and putting up the Christmas tree on Saturday, it feels weird to be working and having the kids at school. But it’s a good weird. I was feeling a bit consumed by consumerism.
Perhaps that’s why “Cyber-Monday,” in its very short history, has been less than successful in producing a spike in profits. People are back at work, and quite frankly, we need a little break from all the celebratory events.
It didn’t stop me from checking my eBay bids, however. I’ve never bid on anything on eBay until a few days ago. I’ve only always done the “Buy It Now” thing. My husband can attest that it caused quite the frustration when I didn’t understand the whole automatic maximum bid thing.
Then, when I did, it became dangerous. Those of you who’ve used eBay understand. I mean, if you think that being addicted to Social Media tools like StumbleUpon and Twitter is addictive - just add spending money to the mix and you know what I mean.
So, now I’ve bought 2 presents for my husband for Christmas that I wish I hadn’t. He’ll still love them. I know he will. He’s good like that.
On the other hand, I’m currently winning on an iPod mini. I’ve been using my daughter’s Mini for a while now (she wasn’t using it before), but now it’s time to get it back to her.
Anyway, it’s time to regroup, remember what’s important in life (HINT: not material goods such as the typical Christmas present), and get back to work!
December 3, 2007 By Nathania Johnson 
Posted in Uncategorized 
3 Comments »
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