Search Marketing in 2010 Panel

By: Serena Hillman
DrinkTheCoolaid.com*

The Search Marketing in 2010 session included the following panelists (left to right):

• Martin Stoddart, Senior Product Manager at Bing
• Vanessa Wynn-Williams, Associate Marketing Manager at Yahoo! Canada
• Ryan Kelly, Founder and CEO at Pear Analytics

The first question posed by the moderator, Rajan Sodhi, VP Marketing at Peer 1: “What is happening with Bing and Yahoo?”

Martin, from Bing, told us CPC results will be provided by Bing, but as implementation is just being started not much has happended yet. He also suggests we go to SearchAlliance.com to get the most up-to-date information.

Rajan moves on to the second question: What’s with all the acronyms? SEM, SEO, PPC?

Ryan ran down the list:

SEM: Search Engine Marketing (Paid + Organic)
SEO: Search Engine Optimization (Organic)
PPC: Pay Per Click (Paying a certain amount to a publisher based on per click)
SMO: Social Media Optimization (Social media activity with the intent of attracting unique visitors)

Vanessa told us Canadians search a total of five times per day on average.
Ryan then told us 80% of all purchases start from an online search.
Finally Martin added, 60% of people say they are using search to make bigger decisions in their life.

Third Question: Why is banner advertising going down in adaption and search is going up?

Vanessa responds that the nature of search is direct response, although she believes some banners can provide this as well.

Fourth Question: Where should SEO Start?

Ryan tells us to start by looking at if from a technical standpoint, to simply not hinder the bots. Then after that he suggests content development and suggests the Wordpress theme Thesis for $100 because it has such great tools already implemented.

Fifth Question: Do major search engines crawl differently?

Vanessa tells us all search engines have their own “secret sauce” but generally speaking they are all looking for the same thing–the most relevant information. She tells us if you do SEO right it should help you with all engines.

Sixth Question: How does SMO effect SEO?

Ryan tells us that by signing up for accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. they will make sure someone who steals your name doesn’t show up before you in Search Engines. As these sites rank very high with your branded name, you can rank high for your branded name.

Martin tells us that web of objects all become relevant in delivering results and that is why the results page for Bing is evolving. More visual content, social media content and this evolution will continue to happen. He tells us that though the algorithem is important it is just one part.

Seventh Question: PPC first or SEO?

Vanessa says, SEO will be hard but it is good for the long term, while PPC is more of an add-on. She tells us a user is 24% more likely to click on your site if they see your listing on both the paid and organic results because it increases brand trust. She also tells us that while PPC does not increase your SEO the gained traffic from your PPC will.

Then they define other areas such as Black Hat, long tail keywords… blah blah blah nothing new.

Final Question: What is the future of search?

Martin tells us there will be a bluring of lines between banner and text in search results. Vanessa tells us Dynamic keyword insertion for very relevant PPC, but mostly find your key audience and talk to them.

All-in-all it was a good session; the moderator should have known his stuff a bit more, and Vanessa brought interesting stats to the conversation, and thus lead the topic with her excellent understanding.

On a side note, I have been to a number of search conferences and it seems the majority of the time Yahoo!’s representatives are female. Is this intentional, perhaps a way to deferentiate themselves from the boys over at Microsoft and Google? I donno, but I like it!

*Serena has been involved within the web industry since 2003 and specializes in Organic Search. She is currently employed as the Director of Marketing and Web Development for ShowTimeTickets.com. Prior to Serena’s career she earned her Bachelors and Masters Degree in Interactive Communications from Quinnipiac University.

Related posts:

1. F5 Expo: Cloud Computing Session
2. How to Prepare for the Future of Search
3. F5 Expo: Overview

The cloud computing session included the following panelists:

• Howie Wu, Co-Founder and CEO at LayerBoom Systems
• Mark Cunningham, Co-Founder and CEO at Indicee
• Ryan Storgaard, Director of Cloud Computing Services Strategy at Microsoft – no link required

Howie Wu, Co-Founder & CEO at LayerBoom Systems

The first question posed by the moderator, Rajan Sodhi, VP Marketing at Peer 1, was “What is cloud computing?”

Howie suggests we view the Youtube video on Water Vapour. He then gives us one of the best cloud computing definitions I have ever heard. He explains that it is the 3^rd generation of computing. The first generation was mainframe computing – one computer, many users and everyone shares resources. The second generation was personal computing – one computer, one user. The third generation is cloud computing – network storing, a shift caused by the internet with such sites as Flickr and Gmail.

Mark agrees with Howie’s definition and elaborates by saying businesses benefit because of the scalability; they don’t care about how it works, as long as it works. He refers to cloud computer as a “black box”.

Ryan says he struggles to define the cloud. He says he is more concerned with what does it mean our businesses. Which he says is not being locked into a long term contract.

Howie tells us cloud computing turns your fixed costs into your variable costs.

The second question is around security concerns around the cloud.

Howie tells us your virtual machine is as secure as your local machine. He uses the example of Salesforce and how much of your customers personal information you store with them in cloud and the success they have had.

He uses the analogy of having a server is like having a kid–you have to feed it and pay to keep it around–virtual server takes this risk away.

Ryan Storgaard - Director of Cloud Services Strategy, Microsoft Canada

Mark says he uses the amazon cloud, then places their applications on-top of it. So his system has two levels of security: their application security and Amazon’s. He mentions that in the later we are really talking about one of the most powerful data centre’s that has “fort knox” type security compared to the one in your basement.

The third and final question from the moderator was: Data Failure in Clouds – how can we avoid this?

Ryan starts off by suggesting your service level agreement mentions up-time. He also mentions that Microsoft has set up the cloud system so that if you hate the experience you can easily go back.

Howie suggests you look at the cost of putting together your own infustrucure and see if that outweighs the risk cost. He mentions with a cloud computing solution you will still need to maintain your system, just all the old fixed costs will become variable costs. Howie clarifies that the companies like his are really just cloud enablers, mentioning that people don’t realize they are already using cloud services like Flickr. Howie feels that the move to the cloud is inevitable. That people will eventually get used to the concept because of the accessibility and affordability and just like when we used to have issues putting our credit card online we will get over these insecurities.

Mark believes that the consumer world will drive where the business world goes. New generations expect the software to work (Serena note: this is true based on work done by Gord Hotckiss in the Buyershere Project), not the cryptic stuff that we are dealing with now as their are lots of issues to be deal with.

Ryan also mentions the “millennial generation” and the questions they have about Sharepoint: ”so you are trying to make this like the Facebook of the company?”

The panel wraps up pretty quickly. I thought the session was very interesting and well put together. It might have been nice to have someone on the panel with an opposing view, but overall worth the time.opposing view — but overall worth the time.

*Serena has been involved within the web industry since 2003 and specializes in Organic Search. She is currently employed as the Director of Marketing and Web Development for ShowTimeTickets.com. Prior to Serena’s career she earned her Bachelors and Masters Degree in Interactive Communications from Quinnipiac University.

Related posts:

1. F5 Expo: Overview
2. F5 Expo: Search Marketing in 2010

Malcolm Gladwell's Fro on a Mini0

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the F5 expo in Vancouver. The event is produced by Lindsay Smith, the CEO and founder of Massive Media Inc. A company usually synonymous with fun tech socials in Vancouver. The conceptual inspiration of expo is a play on “F5 key”, thus dubbed: Refreshing Business Strategies. Lindsay has always had a knack for smart marketing and she has definitely kept her track record strong with this event–if not adding to her portfolio of successful events.

Headlined by Malcolm Gladwell, it would be a hard to have any sort of involvement in the Vancouver tech scene and not have seen the ads with his huge fro plastered throughout town.

I arrived a little late to Lindsay’s keynote Wednesday. The room was so full by the time I got there we just hung out and got some coffee and explored the expo hall next store. Unfortunately the second speaker was in the same room and with no other events going on anywhere else everyone just stayed in the same room – same issue, too many people – stood in the hallway.

By the time the third session started we were more eager to see some action. Our choice of topics included a Cloud Computing Session and one on The Metrics of Social Media. Being in the middle of a Cloud transition at work we opted for the Cloud Session. The panel consisted of two local Cloud Company executives and one representative from Microsoft for the Enterprise representation. View the full review of the Cloud Computing Session.

Yahoo! Booth at F5 Expo

After we headed over to the Panel on Search titled: Search Marketing in 2010 . I am often hesitant to attend panel’s on this topic if the event is not search focus the topic seems to just be thrown in as a hot topic and generally speaking quite low level. In this Search Session I would say this was about 80% true. However as a newbie listening to the panel I think I would have been impressed with the amount of information they packed into the session as well as how honest the panel was. The panel, similar to the Cloud Computing session had a good mix, including a representative from Yahoo!, Bing and a local SEO. Coming soon, the full review of the Search Session.

Overall the event was one of the better ones I have attended in the Vancouver area. There were lots of good representation from industry leaders and participation of local enthusiasts.

Here are my highlights and low-lights:

Highlights

• The Branding of the Event
• Inclusion of Industry leaders
• Strong Local Representation
• Lunch

Low-lights

• Keynote and conference kick off accessibility
• No Internet??

*Serena has been involved within the web industry since 2003 and specializes in Organic Search. She is currently employed as the Director of Marketing and Web Development for ShowTimeTickets.com. Prior to Serena’s career she earned her Bachelors and Masters Degree in Interactive Communications from Quinnipiac University.

Related posts:

1. F5 Expo: Cloud Computing Session
2. F5 Expo: Search Marketing in 2010
3. SES San Jose Review: Overview of Day 2

Crowdsourcing is a relatively new term being thrown about in the internet marketing community. Jeff Howe of Wired Magazine coined it in 2006 as “putting a problem out there to have it solved independently.” The Urban Dictionary describes it as “the practice of outsourcing a job or task that is traditionally performed by employees or a contracted company to a non-organized, usually large group of people, generally in the form of an open call or competition” (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=crowdsourcing).

Doritos “Name a Flavor” and “Create a Superbowl Ad,” or Queensland Tourism’s “Greatest Job in the World” contests may come to mind when you hear this buzzword. Yet, as author, entrepreneur and professor Rick Goossen (@make_good) explained to the March 10^th IIMA event, crowdsourcing is hundreds of years old. One of the first recorded concepts is from 1714 when the British Parliament posed the problem of how to measure longitude. Cabinet maker John Harrison, answered the call and won $5 million for his solution. The point? Goossen highlights two:

1. Well established principles of entrepreneurship and innovation have worked for hundreds of years. It’s just that technology allows us to be more efficient.
2. According to James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds, groups can often be smarter than the smartest person in the crowd. Particularly when acting separately but apart from each other – so there’s no collusion or swaying. No one told John Harrison he couldn’t do it.  

Of course, the key is to actually have a crowd. Goossen uses Fluevog’s Open Source Footwear as an example (http://www.fluevog.com/files_2/os-1.html).  After 30 years of building up a following, Fluevog came up with the crowd sourced shoe.  They ask site visitors what kind of shoe they’d like to see. Site visitors vote and the winning shoes are produced by Fluevog. Right now, there are hundreds of hand-made designs waiting for votes (click on RESULTS after clicking the link above). A quick look at the site is an example of how to engage customers. In addition to Open Source Footwear, customer Flueshots are posted (photos of feet in Fluevogs); they run contests like win $1,000 in shoes for an ad design; give away random prizing and solicit ongoing customer input. As a result of these initiatives, Goossen shares that Fluevog’s website makes more money than any single retail bricks and mortar location in the world. Crowdsourcing is an add-on to their existing success.

On the other hand, although much riskier, there are successful companies where crowdsourcing is their entire business. Goossen discussed NowPublic.com as such an example (http://www.nowpublic.com).  As crowd powered news organization with 150,000 non-professional reporters from 160 countries filing stories, they reach 5 million readers each month.  It’s the whole crowd that determines what goes onto the site, not professional journalists.  NowPublic.com is experiencing this success because of the credibility we give to eyewitness accounts.

Here’s Goossen’s recipes for crowdsourcing success:

Appreciate these three principles first:

1. Crowdsourcing has a long history – well established principles of entrepreneurship and innovation that have worked for hundreds of years.
2. Understand generational context – all generations have to work together. If you break it down, Traditionalists/Boomers have money; Boomers/GenX have business practice;  Gen Y/Z can run circles around technology.
3. Understand change context – change is happening FAST, for example it took Coke 100 years to build its brand where it is today – yet YouTube launched in 2005 and is already a global brand.

Six Principles of Crowd Power:                                                                                                     –

1. Good Drinks – Jeff Howe said if you want to be the room where the conversation takes place, serve good drinks. Give people a reason to come to your website.
2. Vetting vs creating – don’t tap into a crowd to do the hard work, tap in for easy things.
3. Recognition system – give credit to people who ARE the experts. Give more status to people who make extra effort. 
4. Cheers! – People want to visit a place “where everyone knows your name.”
5. Rewards – If you want to tap into crowd power and you’re not paying, give some other kind of reward. NowPublic.com pays if stories get picked up by AP, etc.
6. Not 18^th Century French Court – write in engaging, friendly, entertainingly down to earth language.

Business Model Value

1. Reduces Risk – by giving customers what THEY WANT.
2. Expands Resources – NowPublic have 200,000 people recording stories – for FREE.
3. Fosters Brand Loyalty – Fluevog already had loyalty.  By engaging, fosters MORE loyalty.
4. Generate Sales – Fluevog sells more on their site than any of their stores. 

Goossen suggests when exploring crowdsourcing, ask yourself what you can do to make something interesting and engaging – so much so that they’ll contribute.

There were many valuable examples shared during this presentation which members can research in greater detail in the interview with Rick found here http://www.iimaonline.org/harnessing-the-power-of-the-crowd-with-richard-j-goossen/. In addition, Goossen mentioned the titles of several entrepreneur books.

Related posts:

1. Liveblogging – Harnessing the Power of a Crowd
2. Harnessing the Power of a Crowd with Richard J. Goossen

Shortly, we’ll be liveblogging Richard J. Goossen’s presentation on “Harnessing the power of a crowd”, CEO of MakeGood and author of “E-Preneur – From Wall Street to Wiki: Succeeding as a Crowdpreneur™ in the New Virtual Marketplace.”

If you’re livetweeting this event, feel free to use #IIMA in your updates.

Ean Jackson is introducing Richard Goossen and his book, “E-Preneur”. Richard is on the faculty of Trinity Western University. You may follow him on Twitter through @make_good.

A couple of things that Richard is pointing out on the outset: the world of the Internet is fascinating because things change so quickly. He’s done this same presentation in April, and Facebook had 100 million users. Now, it has 400 million. Eventhough things change, somethings stay the change, such as principles related to how innovation happens that have worked for hundreds of years.

Richard is referring to Peter Drucker (the father of entrepreneurship), and that his principles still apply nowadays.

Richard’s introduction to the context to the principle of crowdsourcing: he’s mentioning John Harrison, from England. He’s relevant because he was involved in the one of the original concepts of crowdsourcing, and in managing the principle of longitude. The parliament in England at the time used the principle of crowdsourcing to come up with a solution to the longitude problem, in 1714. At the time, Cambridge had been around for approximately 400 years, and yet, they couldn’t figure out the problem.

John Harrison was a cabinet maker in West Yorkshire, and sickly as a young lad. He retired as a millionaire after solving the issue regarding longitude by using crowdsourcing as the solution. So, if John Harrison was able to achieve such advances in a time where communication was so more challenging and technology was not where it is now, imagine what can be done nowadays.

Richard is now speaking about the Generational Test and is showing a slide of Bonanza as a generational test, and how, in conferences, most people 25 and under cannot make the reference. There’s a generational divide. Richard is showing a classification of Gen Z as the generation that comes after Gen Y (born after 1981, until now). Gen Z doesn’t even know a world where Facebook doesn’t exist. At the rate of how technology changes, generations should be classified in gaps of 5 years.

Global brands – circa 100 have taken hundreds of years to become established – such as Ford, etc. Now, in 1990s, brands like eBay (established in 95), Google (98) and Napster (99), the pace of change keeps going faster, are some of the top brands in the world, and have only been around during the last couple of decades. Wikipedia (2001), Facebook (2004), Twitter (2006) – all these brands are now so ubiquitous. This illustrates how quickly things change.

The New Virtual Marketplace

Going from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0

• Web 1.o is static, unidimensional – where as 2.0 includes user generated interface, where we’re co-creators.
• Network effects: the more connections there are, the more important a social network becomes.
• Long tail (expanded by Chris Anderson’s book). Most retailers can’t stock all the books that the audience is interested in, but Amazon is probably able to. Companies can now make $ off micro-niched markets.
• In the Cloud (pushed a lot by Google): your computer will not have any software on it. All programs you need will be online. Just log into the cloud and programs will be available. The concept of having a computer with your own program in it might be outdated for the next generation. Akin to “when I was your age, I had to walk 20 miles to go to school”.

All of this means a lot to today’s businesses.

The Madness of Crowds

One might think that the crowd is a mob. Key thing to think about is a point in “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds”, relating to tulips. Tulips were a reference to a person’s worth at one time in Holland.

How do we get to the wisdom of the crowd? Can the crowd be wise? “Under the right circumstances, groups are smarter than the smarter people in them”. Three types of problems where the crowd wisdom can be helpful:

• Coordination problems
• Topics like “who will win the Superbowl”
• Cooperation problems – motivating people to fix the problem

“The wisdom of the crowd is best when individuals are acting separately, but addressing the same issue”. (paraphase from the book that Richard is referring to). We have been wired to be collectively smart. How this influences business:

• Open Innovation (for e.g., Firefox)
• Collective Intelligence (term used by Tim O’Reilly. There’s an interview w/ Tim in Richard’s book, e-Preneur).
• Crowdsourcing (coined by Jeff Howe, from Wired Magazine) – throwing a problem out to a group of people who will respond independently to the problem.

The Crowdpreneur

Crowd Power + entrepreneurial application = crowdpreneur

How do we harness crowd power for an entrepreneurial application?

Companies currently using crowd power: Cambrian House / VenCorps, Chaordix (the crowdsourcing engine for companies), Threadless, whereto you can “submit an idea for a chance at fame, friends and twenty-five hundred dollars!”. Simple concept: “when people tell you what they want, you give it to them”. Another example: NowPublic: the crowd determines what news will show on their website. It’s “Crowd Powered Media”.

Now, Richard is using Fluevog as an example of crowdpreneur & shoes – crowdsourced shoes! But you need to have a crowd to launch a project like this. It worked for Fluevog because of their number of followers. This ties back to John Harrison’s time in England, but technology allows for crowdsourcing to happen a lot faster. In addition, Fluevog can take this risk, because even if there weren’t crowdsourcing, they would still succeed.

The Crowdpreneur & Good – Make Good

Make Good:

• A community that is “good for business”
• Crowdsourced ideas for giving
• Changing the nature of doing good

It’s an unbiased way of advertising of what the company is doing that is good. This related to crowdsourcing because they’ve been looking at which causes should be supported by going to the wisdom of the crowd.

Takeaways

6 Principles of Crowd Power

• If want to be the room where the conversation takes place, give them good drinks!
• Vetting vs. Creating: there’s a big difference.
• Give credit to people who are the experts.
• Give people recognition
• Reward! Make it worth people’s while to participate. Now Public is an example.
• This is not 18th Century French Court! The language on a site, for example, should not sound like a brochure from an accounting firm, etc. Make it engaging!

Crowpreneur – Business Model

• It reduces risks
• It expands resources (NowPublic, for e.g.)
• Fosters Brand Loyalty (e.g. Fluevog). Now it’s no longer an unidimensional transaction. When there’s a sense of ownership, there’s a sense of loyalty
• Increase in revenue/sales (Threadless)

The Future of Crowdpreneur

• Shift Worldwide
• Cameesa – Crowdfunding Tees (www.cameesa.com). Different from Threadless, because through this site, the idea is that you put the concept out there, and people come together to make the shirt happen.
• www.Indiegogo.com – a collaborative way to fund ideas & innovation

“The future is here; it is just not evenly distributed yet”

J. Craig Ventor, Genomic Research Scientist, Web 2.0 Summit, October 2007

Related posts:

1. Standing out from the Crowd
2. Harnessing the Power of a Crowd with Richard J. Goossen

IMC is also coming to Copenhagen, Helsinki, Vancouver, New York, Barcelona & San Francisco and please email us if you’d like us to hit your city.

Lennart Svanberg
Producer
http://InternetMarketingConference.Com

Written from Stockhom covered in snow.

Related posts:

1. Internet Marketing Conference – Agenda ready for Stockholm & Montreal & Calgary
2. OMS Is Coming to a City Near You!

Jason Billingsley, ecommerce guru and founder of http://www.elasticpath.com/, promised to unveil 42 ways to sell more online. To the IIMA event audience, leaving with this info would be a terrific benefit. So when Jason over-delivered with more than 100+ tips – and all of them valuable – the audience was thrilled.

The presentation focused on B2C retail, although one can easily transform any one of Jason’s recommendations to a B2B site. His sense of humor showed immediately when he presented his favorite website http://www.arngren.net. His moral, “no matter how bad you think your site or your client’s site is – this one is worse – so DON’T PANIC.” 

Jason encouraged the crowd to “keep asking yourself if the project is achieving the goal.” To help accomplish the goal, he provided proven ideas to enhance sales in five main components of an ecommerce site (SEO, email, PPC, the home page and product pages).

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• Shorter URLs … domain.com/product will convert higher in the rankings. Place product name as close to the base domain as possible.
• Optimize for the first Link. Crawlers hit first link on a page and follow it out.
• Put text link first as Google gives them a higher rank than an image link. Visit http://www.firstlinkchecker.com/ to check out your links.

Pay Per Click (PPC)

• Bid exact match campaigns slightly higher – the campaign will double as it drift-nets all the words that can’t be thought of.
• Separate out content ads from search queries. People aren’t in a hunting mode, they’re in a browsing mode so use a product category or 10% off if you click here.
• Ensure the landing page delivers on the promise.

Email

• Email is the highest converting channel in almost all instances in retail channels.
• Put your offer in the first line of your email so it will show in the preview panel of the viewers email provider.
• Make sure your emails are getting delivered. Set up test accounts in Google, Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail and send ALL your emails through before delivering to your list – for both transactional AND marketing efforts.

Home Page

• Sites with more products on the home page sell more and show search engines that it’s an ecommerce site. Amazon.com is the granddaddy of showing products and prices on the homepage.
• Google has search results that show 50% of people will scroll down, but only 12–15% will go to page 2. If you have lots of products show them. http://www.clicktale.com/ has fantastic research on scrolling vs. clicking.
• If you have a model on the page, make sure they look at the product – eye tracking shows that people will follow her/his eye to the product.

Product Pages

• Image size and context is critical. Show 500 pixels by default if your layout allows and zoom to 1000 pixels. If there are other colors show them, or they’ll never sell them.  
• Set a baseline of what the product value is – ie. show manufacturers list price and calculate how much they save. See this example http://tinyurl.com/yh77nov  Use color and prominence to show your pricing.
• Eliminate uncertainties. As soon as possible show buyers the total cost. It will decrease abandonment on the cart. 
• BONUS TIP: Get the money first. Use an anonymous check out giving buyers an option to get a password at the end.

Random and Q&A

• A site that loads in 2 seconds out-performs one that loads in 8 seconds.    http://www.compuware.com/fastcal/ will tell you how much money you’re losing by having a slow site.
• To build confidence, customer reviews are a MUST.
• If you place a $300 and $50 product with one for $100, the $100 product will sell the most.

Best Event Tip: http://www.getelastic.com/  is the most popular ecommerce blog in the world with 15,000 readers. Sign up now!

Now a professional ecommerce coach, speaker and owner of flipretail.com, Jason is looking for two e-coaching clients that are $1-2m and one client in the $10m range. If that may be your company, contact him at Jason@flipretail.com or 604-270-6959.

Follow Jason on twitter @jbillingsley

Related posts:

1. Speaker Interview: Jason Billingsley – 42 Ways to Sell More Online
2. Director’s cut – October 21st event review
3. Re: Presentation Slide Deck – Jason Billingsley, Jan 13th Event

Related posts:

1. Speaker Interview: Jason Billingsley – 42 Ways to Sell More Online
2. Event update: Social Media: Where’s the ROI?
3. Event Review: The Marketer’s Guide to the Ecommerce Galaxy

Related posts:

1. IIMA – Speaker Interview – Darren Barefoot presenting Dec 9th
2. Re: Presentation Slide Deck – Jason Billingsley, Jan 13th Event
3. Interview with CEO, Michael Fergusson of Ayogo Games

Sincerely,
James Laitinen – Director / @jlate

Upcoming Events

IIMA Event Review: Social Media: Where’s the ROI?

By Charlene Brisson, MAPC
Marketing & Communication Specialist, @charlenebrisson
What an opportunity it was to attend the Dec 9th IIMA session Social Media: Where’s the ROI! Return on Investment is the holy grail of social media (SM) that marketers are seeking to produce immediately successful campaigns. Proof of time and money spent is critical to show clients and bosses that SM marketing efforts aren’t merely the exploits of fantasy, but will actually lead to customer acquisition. The full house at the event followed up by an active Q&A provides further proof that the topic is hot and marketers want to know more. Presenters Darren Barefoot, (@dbarefoot) of Capulet Communications, Warren Sukernek, (@warrenss) of Lift9 and Stephen Smith (@webnames) of Webnames.ca did an excellent job presenting. Read more…

January 13th, Connect with Jason Billingsley

By James Laitinen @jlate, Director IIMA
Some of the feedback we received regarding the Dec 9th event was for a pre-event opportunity to ask the speaker questions and have them answered at the event. We would like to make those changes and give you a new forum to have your questions asked, and answered by our expert presenter. To submit your questions regarding E-commerce: 42 Things You Can to Sell More Online Next Week we have setup the following options.  

Email: info@iimaonline.org with your first name, last name, company and question for Jason.
Twitter: @iimaonline and use the hash tag #iimajan13
Phone: (778) 373-8785
All questions will be condensed, and a full report will be provided after the event with all the answers for registrants of the event and IIMA members.

Resources & Guides

 
Step By Step Guide: Using Microsoft Windows Live Messenger to Integrate With Your Facebook Profile
By James Laitinen @jlate, Director IIMA
One of the tools that I have always loved is Microsoft Windows Live Messenger. The free downloadable/web versions have only gotten better with the Windows Live services. Considering the user base, the zero cost entry for people to adopt it’s a pretty compelling story. Additional benefits are also now for your contacts are now replicated through your email. You can seamlessly integrate with the Windows Live Mail email client, and it’s a great way to have all your contacts, communications in one place to connect with people. Read more…

13 Simple Tactics to Prevent, Detect Content Plagiarism
How can you prevent and detect Content Plagiarism? Plagiarism is a serious issue in the blog world and it is a prime duty for all bloggers to prevent their content from getting copied and also take the corrective action when needed. Every blogger gets annoyed when someone copies their content and ranks higher than them in the search engines. While it is highly unlikely to stop blog scrappers and splogs from emerging there are some simple measures that a blogger can do to tackle this effectively. As we always know prevention is better than cure and hence the first step is to take preventive steps which will make it hard for the scrappers to copy your content. Read more…

#FollowFriday: The Anatomy of a Twitter Trend
What if you didn’t know who to follow on Twitter? Would you randomly start following people? Would you follow people you see mentioned by those you already follow? Most likely you would ask your friends for recommendations since you can trust that your friends will suggest people who are worth following. Which is exactly how FollowFriday began. Read more…

How To: Find A Job On Twitter
Tough economic times call for innovative approaches. An estimated 51 million people internationally are expected to lose their jobs in 2009, and with the unemployment rate on the rise, how does one find career opportunities fast? One great option is Twitter. Read more…

 

Recipes For The Holidays

Peppermint Martini Recipe - submitted by Charity Robertson @charitysweb, Director of Communications IIMA
Ginger Cookies Recipe - submitted by James Laitinen @jlate, Director IIMA

Just For Fun!

1. Best Christmas Card of the Year! (See the card…)
2. What Not To Do For SEO: Over Disclose on Twitter (Watch the Video)
3. Home Depot – Watch and Listen to Jingle Bells Played with Power Tools (Watch the Video)
4. Host An Ugly Christmas Sweater Party! (Read more…)

Charity’s Book Wishlist (Reading List)

Charity Robertson @charitysweb, Director of Communications IIMA

The Big Switch: Rewiring The World From Edison To Google
Author: Nicholas Carr
While it may seem that we’re in the midst of an unprecedented technological transition, Carr (Does IT Matter?) posits that the direction of the digital revolution has a strong historical corollary: electrification. Carr argues that computing, no longer personal, is going the way of a power utility. Read more…

Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
Author: Seth Godin
The classic bestseller that taught the business world that safe is risky; very good is bad; and above all, you’re either remarkable or invisible. In 2002, Seth Godin asked a simple question that turned the business world upside down: What do Starbucks and JetBlue and Apple and Dutch Boy and Hard Candy have that other companies don’t? How did they confound critics and achieve spectacular growth, leaving behind formerly tried-and-true brands? Godin showed. Read more…

Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer
Author: Bryan Eisenberg et al.
Stop guessing, start testing, and enjoy greater success with your website. If you’re looking for more leads, sales, and profit from your website, then look no further than this expert guide to Google’s free A/B and multivariate website testing tool, Google Website Optimizer. Recognized online marketing guru and New York Times bestselling author, Bryan Eisenberg. Read more…

Related posts:

1. January 2010 IIMA Newsletter
2. IIMA – Speaker Interview – Darren Barefoot presenting Dec 9th
3. Re: Presentation Slide Deck – Jason Billingsley, Jan 13th Event