Online Marketing Blog

At the close of Day 1 of SMX Social Media, I reviewed the absolute basics of what I’ve learned over the day: Social Media users love Digg, del.icio.us and StumbleUpon.

Throughout the day, many speakers from different companies and backgrounds gathered to talk about their love of Digg, how to best use del.icio.us and what tips we needed to know to best utilize StumbleUpon as a marketing tool. We also learned about the importance of tags in social media, and Guillaume Bouchard noted that Technorati, Flickr, Facebook and YouTube were some of the best and most popular social media sites for tags. And since linkbait can drive a significant amount of traffic to your site, retain that traffic by continuing to post interesting content in the days and weeks following your initial linkbait. Don’t tease your visitors. Give them a reason to keep coming back.

Read an interesting blog post lately? Save it. Want to share it with others? Tag it and make it publicly accessible online. Or maybe you just want a safe place to save an article you will get around to reading on your weekly dive into your del.icio.us account. No problem. Social Bookmarking and Tagging both have this covered for you.

Social bookmarking and tagging aren’t just about saving items for you anymore. Revert back to your preschool rules, and you will find social bookmarking is just “sharing” on a global level. How else can you research and trade information with thousands and thousands of people all around the world in an up-to-the-minute fashion?

Drop a viral video into a sea of young and old, democrats and republicans, men and women and voters of all ages (with access to the internet, of course) and you have one of my favorite linkbait videos of the year.

So what is linkbait anyway? Cameron Olthius, CEO of Factive Media, defined it for the audience as content or a feature on a website that compels others to link to it from their website.

Linkbait can very quickly increase brand awareness and can drive a huge amount of traffic to your website. In order to do this, however, you need to make sure the content you are about to promote is link-able.

SMX Social Media kicked off Tuesday morning in the Metropolitan Center in New York with a session entitled Social Media Marketing Essentials. Moderated by Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land, this kickoff session reviewed the basics of what you need to know in the world of SMM.

Rand Fiskin of SEOmoz spoke first of the importance of social media and why it is important. From April 2006 to April 2007, social media use increased by 668%. These statistics are incredible, and with social media usage increasing every day, it is important to make sure you at least understand what it is and if you choose to use it with your company, what you can do with it.

Next week starts one heck of a week starting with DMA07 in Chicago, the largest marketing conference in the world.  On Tuesday afternoon I am speaking on a panel called “Desperately Seeking Links Baiting, Buying and Socializing for Links” with Stephan Spencer, Seth, Besmertnik and Eric Ward.

Then on Thursday, I will be presenting as part of a post conference workshop on new media, specifically social media, with Joseph Jaffee of Crayon. Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning Joseph is covering blogs, podcasting, video casting and Second Life/virtual worlds. Thursday afternoon I will be presenting on social bookmarking and SEO as well as a grab bag session on Yahoo! Answers, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. I might have picked a slightly different mix of applications to talk about but then again the topic selection wasn’t my call.

October is by far my favorite month here in Minnesota, and unfortunately I have to leave it for a couple of days. However, the time will be well worth it as I will be representing TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog by blogging the SMX Social Media conference in New York City on October 16^th and 17^th.

Being in the thick of marketing and promoting web sites using social media my entire time at TopRank has given me a sincere appreciation for those who have achieved real expertise with results to back it up. With Danny Sullivan’s SMX conference, the interactivity of it all and getting to know others with similar interests who may actually be able to add value to my own knowledge is something I am looking forward to.

Spotlight on Search Interview with Danny Sullivan of Third Door Media and Neil Patel of Advantage Consulting Services

Next week the next of the Search Marketing Expo (SMX) conference series kicks off in New York: SMX Social Media. Developed by search engine industry legend Danny Sullivan and social media guru Neil Patel, the agenda for this event mixes strategic direction with plenty of practical advice sessions ranging from social news to social bookmarking to social networking with a double dose of Wikipedia on day two.

Spotlight on Search Interview with Chris Sherman, Executive Editor, Search Engine Land

Photo Credit Liana Evans

Online Marketing Blog is very fortunate this week to have a special interview with Chris Sherman, Executive Editor at Search Engine Land and long time observer/analyst/practitioner/advocate in the search engine marketing industry. Chris has been a instrumental influence in the growth of the search marketing industry with his 10+ year old search consulting practice, past involvement with Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Strategies as well as his new role as Executive Editor at Search Engine Land, running the Search Marketing Now webcasts and helping to program SMX conferences.

A lot has changed in the search marketing conference industry in the past year. The biggest news being the addition of Kevin Ryan to oversee Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Strategies along with the departure of Danny Sullivan from SES to start his own venture, Third Door Media and the Search Marketing Expo or SMX series of conferences.

Additional news includes the success of new conferences like MediaPost’s Search Insider Summit, programmed by David Berkowitz as well as the reduction in conference dates for Brett Tabke’s WebmasterWorld’s Pubcon down to one (albeit, temporarily) in Las Vegas. With the number of new and niche conferences popping up it begs the question as to whether the market demand can support so many events?