Training Day will consist of a minimum of 4 tracks:

1. Social Media: covering the latest marketing strategies & tactics to use Twitter, Facebook,LinkedIn, YouTube & other Social Marketing media
2. Mobile Marketing: how Mobile Marketing now integrates into Web Marketing, Print Marketing, Video Marketing and more. Applications will get a lot of attention.
3. Search Marketing: is Google out of tune? Is Bing turning around into the preferred choice? The Search Marketing Training will cover all the latest trends from the world of search. For example, how to deal with Google’s preference of showing maps as results.
4. Analytics & Optimization: from tracking to testing into creating the most effective landing pages. Tracking is standard, but are you using the data to test different alternatives? Are you effectively creating the most successful pages for your website marketing efforts?

IMC will feature world-class trainers in all of the above topics. Trainers will be announced soon.

Conference Day Schedules – September 22nd-23rd

Both conference days will feature up to 4 tracks running simultaneously. We will also feature Keynotes from Guy Kawasaki, as well as from companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter & when all attendees are assembled into one room.

The 4 tracks will have the following themes & topics:

1. Content

• Creating outstanding content; both text, images & graphics as well as video
• Writing for the web; learn from the masters on how to produce compelling copy
• Taking beautiful pictures & mastering video; what signifies great imagery on the web?Banners; how to produce the most effective banner ads
• Text-ads; what signifies great copy-writing for short text ads?
• Compelling Twitter-updates; how can you in 140 characters describe a situation best?
• Linking; where to put links, how to put them on a page, and what to think of?

And more to come!

2. Traffic
Where do you get the most traffic from in 2010?

• Twitter:
  • Learning how to use your own Twitter business account for best traffic.
  • Understanding how you can leverage your networks Twitter traffic for your own benefit.
  • Followers, followers, followers; how many followers should you have? What distinguishes quality followers?
• Facebook:
  • Fan Pages, Get many who ’Like’ you, as well as News optimization
  • LinkedIn; learn how to use Q&A, LinkedIn Groups, Network updates & more
• Search Optimization; learn the latest optimization techniques for Google, Yahoo & Bing
• Search Marketing; understand how to get the most out of your Pay Per Click campaigns
• Intelligent Banners; how do you create banners that are infomercials, not commercials?
• Mobile traffic vs. “other traffic”; what is the difference?

And more to come!

3. Tools

IMC’s popular tool track will feature the hottest & coolest tools for:

• Content Management
• Web Analytics
• E-Commerce
• SEO
• Social Media Management
• Network Updates
• Application Marketing

And much more! We anticipate over 20 tools to be showcased during the two conference days.

4. Tying it all together

At IMC Vancouver 2010, we will introduce a fourth track which focuses on cases & ideas that combines Tools with Traffic, Content with Tools & Traffic etc. This will be example from a wider range of Industries covering:

• E-Commerce
• Travel
• Business to Business
• Lead Generation
• Retail

In Case Studies we’ve got for example Natalie Baudoin, Mountain Equipment Co-op’s Marketing Director confirmed as a presenter and she will be followed by up to 10 different case studies.

In total, over 75 speakers from a range of interesting backgrounds are expected to participate at IMC Vancouver 2010, making it the most exciting and informative IMC ever!

Get your tickets for IMC Vancouver 2010 now!

By: Serena Hillman

My second session was presented by well-spoken Sarah Smith, Manager of Online Sales Operations at Facebook. The Stanford grad reviewed ways to increase CTR as well as some of the current features Facebook offers. She outlined how Facebook advertising is quite different than search engine advertising, citing it as “demand generation” (AKA the less sexy Interruption Marketing).

Sarah mentioned that the “thumbs down” action, when engaged on your ad, will end up costing you more as Facebook is trying to deter you from placing non-productive ads. In the future Facebook is also looking to report the thumbs up and thumbs down stats on your dashboard. She also recommended refreshing ad creative more frequently as stats are showing a high rate of decay for ads that don’t.

Here is what she suggests to increase CTR:

• Ask questions in the ad text
• Avoid over capitalization
• Include a strong call to action
• Mention offer or discount code (using third party applications such as Wildfire)
• Don’t use “%” as stats are showing adverse reactions
• Get creative with your targeting (ex. don’t target users listing “conservative” political views but people who are interested in Sarah Palin)
• CTR .05%-.04% is reaching the poor performance

Increase Facebook CTR Slide

I did ask Sarah if Facebook had plans for a real-time search based on non-friends statuses–I said non-friends because I couldn’t remember if Facebook has a friends status search or not–I just tried to find out on Facebook and I don’t think it does, pending me figuring out the usability–she unfortunately said she wasn’t part of “that development” and had no information.

The main reason I asked is because about a month ago one of my “friends” status vaguely mentioned the passing of a childhood acquaintance of ours. Needless to say I didn’t want to just ask the person as the topic was quite touchy and the “friend” was someone who I hadn’t talked to in over 10 years. At the time I really wanted to search all my friends status’ to get more info but didn’t know how to.

I also think if Facebook had real-time search it would be great way to introduce networking and like minded people, similar to what Twitter has done.

Oh well at least I didn’t ask her if Facebook plans to comply with the Canadian Privacy Investigation by Aug 17th.

*Serena Hillman is an HCI professional who has worked in the web industry since 2003. Serena currently works as the Director of Marketing for ShowTimeTickets.com and is a graduate student at SFU studying mobile commerce as a part of the Connections Lab Research Group.

I have broken each session review into separate blog posts for better flow:

• Session 1: Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues
• Session 2: Facebook Ads – Reaching Prospects Early in the Decision Making Process
• Session 3: Social Media – Managing Conversations & Reputations When the User is in Control
• Session 4: The BuyerShere Project (review coming soon)

Day 2 Highlights:

• Marty Weintraub’s energetic presentation
• Domino Pizza’s website (when I ordered my dinner)
• Zappos’ Brian Kalma’s specific examples of their Social Media Campaign

Day 2 Letdowns:

• The overcapacity room for the session: Google Analytics & Website Optimizer: Secrets Revealed!
• Lunch (overcooked hot dogs)
• Paying for internet at the Hilton

Keynote: Nicholas Fox, Google

*Serena Hillman is an HCI professional who has worked in the web industry since 2003. Serena currently works as the Director of Marketing for ShowTimeTickets.com and is a graduate student at SFU studying mobile commerce as a part of the Connections Lab Research Group.

I am about to board my flight to San Jose to attend SES’s San Jose Conference 2009. Check out my updates of the daily events at http://www.iimaonline.org/resources/blogs/.

Day 2 agenda:

http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sanjose/agenda-day2.php

Day 3 agenda:

http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sanjose/agenda-day3.php

Feel free to shoot me a quick email (serena_hillman[at]hotmail[dot]com) if you want me attend and report on any particular session and I will try the best I can!

*Serena Hillman is an HCI professional who has worked in the web industry since 2003. Serena currently works as the Director of Marketing for ShowTimeTickets.com and is a graduate student at SFU studying mobile commerce as a part of the Connections Lab Research Group.

When Michael Jackson died on June 25th, 2009, the majority of online users didn’t turn to Google to find the latest news, they went to the microblogging site Twitter.

News of the tweets about Michael Jackson were announced in our office–via our appointed company tweeter–I then, much like the majority of my co-workers, went immediately to Facebook to update my status, specifically to “Jackson 4 :’( “.

But where did the rest of the online world go to learn and interact about Michael Jackson’s death? Here’s how the big guys stacked up, assuming everyone’s downtime was about equal:

(Click to Enlarge)

Source: http://mashable.com/2009/06/26/michael-jackson-web-impact/

It seems our micro-network was a decent representation of all online traffic that day. We heard it from Twitter then engaged with our friends on Facebook.

But what about Google? Search Engine Journal reported on the 25th, “Google is showing only ONE headline in its Google News Universal Search Onebox about the rumored passing of Jackson, with others about his jewelry and one about Lou Ferigno training Mr. Jackson. ”

With Twitter’s future plans to expand its searching capabilities beyond its own nest by crawling the actual links in the tweets, one has to ask herself is this really a Twitter exit strategy like experts have suggested, or did MJ’s death really just prove Twitter can go the distance?

Even Steven Johnson‘s article in Time Magazine this month seemed to downplay where Twitter will end up “three to four years from now” :

Social networks are notoriously vulnerable to the fickle tastes of teens and 20-somethings (remember Friendster?), so it’s entirely possible that three or four years from now, we’ll have moved on to some Twitter successor.
(http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1902604-3,00.html 4th paragraph)

(also see: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007138)

The dawn of real-time search belonging to Twitter might just be upon us. Quite simply Twitter’s brand recognition coupled with its real innovative approach is reaching a level where owning a niche of the search market is nowhere near out of the question, it might even be the current reality. Twitter has been able to create a level playing field for all users to shape search, where-as Google simply cannot find a way to do they same. Google’s major vulnerability is what their very brand is based on–they want to organize the world’s information. If Google continues down this road a robot quite simply will not be able to keep up with 1.6 billion people online and counting (http://www.worldometers.info/).

It is a fact that in the right formation, the lifting power of many wings can achieve twice the distance of any bird flying alone. (Milton Olsen)

*Serena Hillman is an HCI professional who has worked in the web industry since 2003. Serena currently works as the Director of Marketing for ShowTimeTickets.com and is a graduate student at SFU studying mobile commerce as a part of the Connections Lab Research Group.

While on the hunt to find ways to add to my company’s profile on LinkedIn I noticed a new link in the top right hand corner: “Interested in a premium account profile?”–why I might just be. After scanning a few “quick PDF’s” on what the premium account is I was confused more then ever, so I just filled out the lovely AJAX form and waited for someone to contact me.

…one hour later…

Full Scale Re-Tweet

I got a call from a LinkedIn sales representative. The very nice lady explained to me the premium company pages start at $25,000. Holy Crap. I still don’t know what Premium Profile means but it better include a solid gold membership plaque! The way it sounded they didn’t really know what it was either. Instead, it was more like tell-us-what-you-want-and-we-can-do-it-for-a-price; a.k.a. they have no clue what they are selling but they know they need to change their business model quickly to start paying for hosting everyone’s crap.

With the following stats floating around the internet it is no wonder Social Media Grade-A sites like LinkedIn are suddenly introducing new features with expensive price tags.

The social network (Facebook) is running up a huge tab to store and serve up all the photos, videos and other junk you stuff into your profile. Ad rates on its network are terribly low, the company doesn’t make a profit and it hasn’t shed any light on how it will make good on investments that valued the company at $15-billion (excerpt: Everybody’s surfing. No one’s paying).

The problem with Social Media monetization is that companies generally flock to the web because of its perceived low-cost to market goods or services–not to necessarily engage their customers or enhance the customer/company relationship.

Generally speaking, I would say the only exception to this rule is large companies with a well established online presence and a desperate need to partner with a hip young 2.0 website to show they are not dinosaurs. (LinkedIn should really just call HP or Microsoft).

Case in point: TicketMaster and Eventful… why the partnership? Well it’s not because Eventful is going to be adding to their bottom line. Eventful is not even profitable; it is simply because they don’t know how to enter the 2.0 Webspace and it scares them so they bought a website to fill their need.

Eventful CEO Jordan Glazier on the company’s Finances:

Glazier was to reluctant to provide any concrete financial information, other than the already public funding figures, but he says that the team is working extremely hard to drive revenue and turn profitable by Q4 of 2009 (excerpt: http://www.startupsd.net/spotlight/post/eventful-demanding-attention-and-seeking-profitability second to last paragraph).

The race to monetize social media has begun. In fact, I don’t even think it is a race, more like a pure panic to stay alive. No longer can Silicon Valley support projects designed for the advancement of the world. They have to come up with a real old school business plan and fast. I know I know, the majority of social media enthusiasts will be up in arms: “that is not what it is about, it is about creating portals of information and advancing knowledge and communication for the greater good of the world!” Welcome to the real world hippies–you need money (jk).

Google will lose $470-million (all figures US) on the video-sharing site (YouTube) this year alone… The Boston Globe, which is on track to lose $85-million in 2009, is five times more profitable–or, rather, less unprofitable–than YouTube (excerpt: Everybody’s surfing. No one’s paying).

The only company with what seems to be a real plan is–surprise surprise–Google. They seem to have recognized that the only way to get out of the 2.0 financial mess is to put their blinders on and keep moving forward. Analysts estimate Google pays about $360 Million dollars a year on bandwidth. They obviously couldn’t just ignore web 2.0 if they still want to be a dominating force in the future. Granted YouTube was probably not the right direction, but kudos to them for recognizing their biggest threat is not MSN or Yahoo but human generated content sites. No one will trust a robots algorithms over real human feedback. Most people are not even aware what it takes to place high on Google’s rankings, and just assume that SERP is just advertising. Human generated content will always provide better results than any robot ever could.

But what would happen if Googlebot and human generated content combined forces? Then you would get Google Search Wiki! Yes that’s right, its a search engine, its a wiki, it’s Google Search Wiki! Users can add comments/content to search results and Google can use the data however they see fit, humanizing the result. This is the way Google needs to innovate. I look forward to seeing the monster grow and develop in this new organic direction.

*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.