Online Marketing Blog

Figuring out how to get the most out of internet marketing conferences takes experience with plenty of conferences, including events like Search Engine Strategies happening in San Jose this week. So it seems fitting to follow up on Danny Sullivan’s advice with the insight of fellow Minnesotan, Chris Sherman.

Chris is co-founder of Third Door Media as well as the SMX conferences, has a search marketing consulting business and has been as involved with the details of conference programming, moderating and speaking as anyone you can find.

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What better follow up to our impressive list of internet marketing conference tipsters during SES San Jose than sage advice from one of the most visible people in the search marketing industry, Danny Sullivan. As co-founder of Third Door Media, parent to Search Engine Land, Search Marketing Now and the Search Marketing Expo series of conferences, Danny Sullivan is one of the most often quoted experts in the search engine industry.

Online marketing Blog readers may remember this interview with Danny Sullivan and Neil Patel before a SMX Social Media Conference. You can also find him on Twitter and his personal blog, Daggle

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Day 1 at SMX Advanced has wrapped up quite nicely. Below are some of the session highlights and the gorgeous Bell Harbor Conference Center.

Danny Sullivan opening the show this morning in Seattle.

Everyone milling around, getting ready for the first of this mornings sessions

Blow Your Mind Linkbuilding Tactics panel this morning

Building Value for your SEO Business session, where we learned that we must invest in our clients and employees to increase the value of the company

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[Note from Lee: This is a perfect session for Jolina because she manages one of the largest enterprise SEO projects for any agency our size - over 2o different business units for a Fortune 20 company.]

SEO for the enterprise requires a very different approach, than SEO for an small or medium business (SMB).

Deploying the same approach at the enterprise level, as you would for an SMB, would be like trying to clean a wine spill with Windex. You’ll end up making a bigger mess.

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Sitting in the SEO & Social Media session, Barbara Boser the Social Media Director for 3 Dog Media, shared some great tips on marketing with social media:

Be prepared & Commit to Social Media

• Know that it is time consuming
• Read and learn what is popular
• Look for tools you can use on the sites and on the web

Your Profile

• Research to be sure that your profile isn’t the same as any of the other top users on the site
• Be anonymous if you’re promoting your own site

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In the Branding & Search session today at SMX West, panelists gave the audience many, many items to consider regarding their own brand or their client’s brand.

Let’s start by discussing the people that the brand is ultimately trying to influence.

Edwin Wong, Director of Customer Insights Organization - Yahoo!, touched on this by explaining that people love brands that love what they love. A mouthful right?

He labeled these folks, “Passionistas”.

Let’s use me as an example. I love food and cooking, so I love the Food Network because they share my passion. The theory holds true so far.

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The Expo Hall at SMX West opened today. Take a peak.

Strolling the floor

Folks chatting with Google

Folks chatting with Live

More SMXers

Check out all of the photos at TopRank’s SMX West Flickr set.

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As part of our media sponsorship of the SMX series of conferences, I’ve been picked as the TopRank blogger to visit the Bay Area next month for SMX West - Feb 26-28, 2008 in Santa Clara, CA.

Looking at the agenda for the 3 day conference, one can tell that there are big shifts taking place in the search industry, specifically the transition from ‘old SEO’ (i.e. the optimize and wait approach) to ‘new SEO’ (i.e. optimize, then promote promote promote approach). Validating this transition, many session titles include topics such as ‘Search 3.0′, ‘Search 4.0′ and the ‘Blended Search Revolution’.

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One of the (if not THE) fastest growing conferences over the past year has been Search Marketing Expo. A real world compliment to the successful Search Engine Land blog, the Sphinn community and Search Marketing Now webinars, the SMX shows have brought both a familiar (Danny and crew) and unique flavor to the search marketing conference circuit.

SMX West is coming up fast on February 26-28, 2008 in Santa Clara, CA and offers:

• 50 different sessions
• 13 different tracks
• 3 different ways to attend (All Access, Networking or Exhibits-Only)

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The end of SMX Social Media in New York is upon us. At the close of the conference today, the audience is leaving with a lot of tips and tricks and “how-to”s to make their social media marketing more effective. The main idea pushed on the audience by nearly every one of the presenters was that social media takes time and research, and when done correctly can increase traffic, links and brand recognition from all over the world.

To read about the sessions of Day 2, read my previous posts:

Effectively Leveraging Social Networking

Micro Communities

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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.

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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?

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