Everyone has heard that Field of Dreams quote being tossed around the marketing world. You know the one “If you build it, they will come.” That might work for ghostly baseball players, but for websites and online brands, we know that is most certainly NOT the case.
You may be able to achieve some nice rankings through basic SEO, drive some decent traffic with a PPC budget, but what if that’s just not enough? More and more Continue reading
There’s that little piece of all of us that strives to be a better human being. Some act on that piece, some don’t. No judgement here, I have a lot of thoughts that I don’t act on – arguably those thoughts shouldn’t be acted upon, but when it comes to philanthropy and online business, getting started and finding the right fit can be tough.
The idea of a business donating proceeds to a charity has been around since marketing began. There has always been motive behind these donations – the word Continue reading
Still in their infancy, Google+ Communities are growing quickly. First available in early December 2012, they’re quickly becoming an asset to any service, product or idea provider.
Don’t get me wrong, they can be horribly spammy. I have participated in a few communities. One of my favorites is a Food Photography community that has helped me learn how to take better pictures with my DSLR in a very short amount of time. Continue reading
I received an email in my in box recently that made me cringe. Then it made me think.
As an agency that concentrates on SEO and PPC – seeing an email like this makes us scoff. It’s a bit scary – Then we had a discussion around the flip side of discounting that went something like, “You know, if that email had said ’80% off shoes’ you’d have had a very different reaction.”
When does a discount SUPPORT a brand, and when does it hinder it? Certain things in life many of us strive to get at a discount. There are many other things that seem inferior if we’ve purchased them at a discount. Why does the saying, Continue reading
Last session of the conference for this sore-wristed typist. I’m excited to hear from Gillian Muessig. I spoke on a panel with her quite a few years ago and she is really one of the most gracious and supportive people I’ve met.
First up is the SEOMom, Gillian Muessig, Founding President Emeritus, SEOMoz.org
Gillian is sharing photos of clusters, talking about clusters progressing into communities. Are the clusters, communities? No – they’ve a similar thought group, etc. Continue reading
Looks like a panelist didnt show up….that’s too bad…..and bad form…..in my opinion….. 
First we’ll hear from Matt Craine - Owner and President, MattCraine.com, who met & proposed to his wife at past pubcons…awwwww.
To make contests relevant and successful you need to have a prize of significance, prizes of relevance, don’t give away someone else’s product, Push the promotion.
Warren Whitlock, Digital Business Strategist, Carbon Digits, Moderator
Warren starts out asking a few audience questions surrounding in-house vs agency and who creates the cotnent within your organization.
First up is Kirsten Wright, Social Media & PR Manager, MagnaFlow. She’s been working in the industry for 6-years. Her business sells auto exhaust products. Going to talk about Continue reading
Alison Zarella, AlisonZarella.com, Moderator - and wear-er of awesome shoes……
First up is Kevin Scholl, who is the Social Media Manager at Red Roof Inns
How to turn your community ….. Something I totally missed the first slide, it went by at light speed. You need to determine if you’re building the right audience. Building a community isn’t just digital.
Build community for your brand advocates. Needed to figure out how to get folks into the community before you focused on converting them. They promoted, partnered and participated. Content engages your audience.
So excited to hear about my crack, I mean Pinterest, from Jennifer Evans-Cario, President of Sugar Spun Marketing. What makes Pinterest different, how do we know if it will last? 
The key things that make it different is 1) It does something useful in a new way. Basically bookmarking with images – easier to process than a list in a feed. 2) it solves a problem; and 3) it appeals to publishers, curators, seekers and stashers. Oh – and it’s easy to use.
This morning my friend John Ellis, founder of Crescent Interactive, is rocking the history of Google’s social connections from FriendConnect to Wave to Buzz – all things most in the room have no knowledge of. The point, Google has been trying for a long time. Then talks about how +1s are introduced in search results in March 2011.
People ask John if he thinks Google+ will last, he doesn’t know but they pushed all in with it, so they’re in trouble if it doesn’t.
Bing has partnered with Linkedin, showing blended ads now. Integrating search seems to show some growth in Search Engine Share – related? Not sure, correlation vs causation issue. Continue reading