Search and Social Rank Symposium 3

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Rob Campbell

Search and Social Rank Symposium The third Search and Social Symposium entertained over sixty people with great ideas they can each use in their own marketing campaigns. The event happened in The Boiler House restaurant inside the Distillery District in Toronto on April 16th, 2012. It was a very social information download accompanied by cold beer and spaghetti with meatballs.

The highest point of the evening was almost certainly at the end when Brad Gosse debuted his new book Chronic Marketer and used the opportunity to showcase some of the secrets inside. The book is set to launch Friday April 20th 2012 at 4:20 pm in his online store.

As advertised, the public really does have an insatiable curiosity for expert insight into the weird science at the intersection of social media marketing and search engine optimization, as well as a strong appetite for spaghetti with meat balls.

Search and Social Rank Symposium

Search and Social Rank Symposium

Three Presentations and resulting discussions explored some of the strategies of social selling, Google AdWords Pay Per Click advertising versus digital storytelling / organic link building for top rankings on SERPs – the kind of marketing done by Smojoe social media marketing in Toronto that fuses SEO and SMM together into powerful story funnels. The snapping and crackling waterfall of liquid electricity came primarily from the three featured speakers Brad Gosse, Rob Campbell, and Alex Blom seen below.

Search and Social Rank Symposium

Search and Social Rank Symposiums are great melting pots and full of exciting people from all different backgrounds. Some folks are marketing managers who work for agencies or media institutions, while others like Sheamus MacLean are professionals or business owners looking for more customers .

Rob Campbell was a skilled Master of Ceremonies taking a few minutes before the presentations got started to introduce the subject of the upcoming discussions and try to identify places where search engine algorithms have already skewed social – like the share buttons you see everywhere now… they help improve on-page SEO. Another great example he shared was more evidence of the simple miracle of having a WordPress blog on your website and how that is also a great help to SEO. By outlining some of the weird science in advance, Rob shaped the premise of the event and laid out the proper tip-sharing tone of the evening. Follow him on Twitter @Roberrific

Search and Social Rank Symposium

Alex Blom went first, and tried not to scare people as he described how easily he could research their shopping habits and target them as customers. But his information is quite cerebral. Alex spoke about how large social networks can mine their data and make accurate assumptions about users in order to better target these members with relevant content and advertising. He did share some insights into LinkedIN and how users can pay to spam the network with messages for lead generation. Australian born Alex Blom is the CEO of SalesChoice a sales management company providing detailed analytics to Fortune 500 companies. You can read all about the young man on his blog AlexBlom.ca , and follow his adventures on Twitter @AlexBlom

Story Funnels to Buckstops by Smojoe fuses Social Media Marketing and SEO.

Rob Campbell returned as the second speaker and put his one and only slide on the screen. he spoke about the emerging economy of relevance and how Google is the ultimate arbiter of relevance as manifest in the PageRank website measuring system.Rob Campbell shows how to make media with Story Funnels to Buckstops at Search and Social Rank Syumposium

Rob showed how he builds media from the top down starting with original pictures in photo hosting programs that are embedded into rich media articles, blog and discussion forums, and bookmarked on Digg, and StumbleUpon etc  He got quite a few laughs when he outlined the proper use for Facebook and Twitter as… ‘ketchup and mustard on his keyword sandwiches’. His process targets humans to make media more important, so the robots will come along later and index it higher. By spider-webbing his media together, Rob can make the strongest articles share their relevance with the weaker posts and help ennoble the whole assembly with ‘usability’ which, as he outlined at the beginning of his presentation, is the newest and most important of the the ‘four pillars of PageRank’.

Rob Campbell and Brad Gosse take two different approaches to online advertising, Rob favours organic rankings, while Brad is a Google AdWords PPC man.

In contrast to Rob’s presentation, Brad Gosse started his talk by generally dismissing search engine optimization as futile and unnecessary! He favours Google AdWords PPC;  he admitted that while he once paid a lot of attention to SEO (he spoke about how his XXX business was once ranked #1 on Google for the word ‘porn’ which brought 250K visits a day) he has since found the search algorithm is too slippery to manage, while Google PPC delivers a steady return on investment. @BradGosse

Search and Social Rank Symposium

Search and Social Rank Symposium

Brad Gosse is the author Chronic Marketer which hits book shelves on Friday April 20th at 4:20 pm. The book is subtitled,  ‘Confessions of a Half Baked but Highly Paid Internet Marketer’ and that could also be substituted as a summary for his presentation. It was also slightly auto biographical as it displayed the timeline of Brad’s evolution starting from the point where he turned his back on clients and bosses to start selling his own digital digital product downloads. He’s never looked back, except when giving presentations.

Brad Gosse proved himself as an expert on product creation and website monetization. He has over 300 products for sale online and treats each one like a mini project which he obsesses over and hustles to get it done and then relaxes and lives his life once its up for sale in his store.  Needless to say his life grows more and more comfortable as his profits escalate with every new release. His book will be the best product yet!  Brad specializes in video branding, business development, internet marketing, software development and he has a strong passion for online advertising in general.

Below is Alison Preiss and Sandra Meret. Alison distinguished herself at the end of the night when she won a copy of Brad’s book as a ‘door prize’ by suggesting that he send a hardcover edition to Kevin Smith for review on his podcast. Alison Preiss is the author of Scribbled Down foodie, lifestyle blog, and she can be found on Twitter @AlisonPreiss

Search and Social Rank Symposium

Special thanks to Deb Lewis of Toronto City Events and her skilled team of recruits. What a great team of worker bees. And thanks to everyone who came out on Monday night. See you at the next one!

Posted in Good Presentor, optimization, Search and Social Rank Symposium, Toronto | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Free Wisdom at 2012 PodCamp Toronto

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Rob Campbell

I finally made it out to PodCamp on Saturday, now in its sixth year.  The place is full of smart, original people. The 2012 PodCamp Toronto is Canada’s largest single event about social media, and it is organized for the participants, by the participants. I was there on Saturday Feb 25th 2012, from 2pm to party time.

Here’s a great example of what the place is like – look here, Robin Macrae is a well known consultant and author of Workspace Builders shares valuable tips and tricks to managing content using categories and keyword tags. Writing good content is one thing, but organizing your blog posts for humans and robots is essential in the quest for findability. Robin is a local thought leader; all of the organizers are members of the Toronto social media / web marketing community. These folks have come together here on a volunteer basis to create the over-all infrastructure that allows the entire community to pitch in and help create the experience.

the organizers are all members of Toronto social media communityOver 1,000 people registered for PodCamp Toronto but that doesnt mean much because it was a free event – the sessions were all full however, and some rooms, like the one on Pinterest, was full to capacity with people listening at the door – im not kidding.

The first session I attended was Saleem Khan How To Talk to Journalists, which was valuable for PR students and ENG technicians and anybody seeking media attention for their projects.

How to Talk to Journalists: Pixels, airtime and ink by Saleem Khan was shaped to answer the most common question he’s asked by startup entrepreneurs, investors, PR and marketing professionals, corporate executives and others – it boils down to this: How do I get a journalist’s attention and convince them to cover my project or people?

Saleem Khan, how to speak to JournalistsSaleem shared his insights into how to get a journalist to respond to your pitch; Secrets of a good interview; How to avoid or deal with a bad, hard, negative or damaging interview or story; Ways to avoid being a one-hit wonder; How to put yourself at the top of a journalist’s call list; and more.  Saleem Khan is a very soft spoken guy and not an amazing presenter, yet full of good knowledge.

Jeff Waldman is a smart guy too. His session focused on defining the relationship between social media personalities and their employers.

I was in the same room an hour later with Jim S. Pagiamtzis

Blogging Your Way To Success, Saturday 3:45 pm in RCC-229

Jim Pagiamtzis shared his session with Rob Campbell of Smojoe social media for SEO. Jim and Rob shared insights and experience on how to write and promote an effective blog.


http://2012.podcamptoronto.com/sessions/building-trust-with-podcasting/

Promod Sharma is a star at building trust.  I trust him completely now, after talking to him for 30 minutes.

John Leschinski of Leschinski Design is a fixture at PodCamp and very supportive of all speakers and topics. He is the genius who built the website that lets everyone interact and come together with such synergy. Bravo.

 

 

Posted in Age of Earned Media, Good Presentor, optimization, PodCamp Toronto, Secrets, Seminars and workshops, tips, Toronto, Tweeps | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Search and Social Rank Symposium Redux

Posted on November 15, 2011 by eddie

The inaugural Search and Social Rank Symposium, presented by Jib Marketing and Lenzr Photo Contests kicked off successfully last night, Nov 14th 2011 in The Cannery venue in the historic Distillery District at 55 Mill St in Toronto, Ontario.

climb stairs to The Cannery, Rob Campbell and Ameet WadhwaniThe heavy rain delayed proceedings, but didn’t deter attendees. Once inside the event, it was quite cozy.  The Cannery is a very spiffy venue with exposed wooden beams and sand blasted brick walls. A white table overflowing with salads and sandwiches met the guests when they walked in, and everyone enjoyed dinner and a refreshing alcoholic beverage while getting to know each other at the long table.

Rob Campbell played host and MC —making introductions, cracking jokes, and generally encouraging conversations throughout the room. He was the first to speak. He started out by saying that all the presenters for the evening were search and social rank pioneers of sorts, and each of them has contributed something unique to the industry. Rob is a gifted speaker, and his ability to engage with an audience made him the natural choice to go first and describe, quite passionately, exactly how he put Onyx Containers on page one of Google for the search term ‘popsicle molds’ while teaching 75 teen girls how to communicate their thoughts and opinions online through blogging.

The Search and Social Rank Symposium, Nov 14th , Rob CampbellHow did Lenzr Corp put Onyx Containers on page one of Google.ca for popsicle molds using only the Miss Teen Canada World Blog Network?

Rob set up a WordPress blog network for the 2011 Search for Miss Teen Canada-World. For the first time, each Miss Teen (representing regions from St. John’s to Vancouver Island) was given her own blog property and writing assignments. Most of the blogging was simply the girls’ experience preparing for, and finally getting to the pageant in Toronto, but occasionally they were asked to blog about sponsors. That’s where ‘popsicle molds’ comes in. Not only are keyword focused links suddenly coming in from seventy five busy blogs, they are presented within real content about popsicle making; the posts are original how to pieces describing healthy recipes.

Rob Campbell and Ameet Wadhwani at The Cannery in The Distillery

Rob explained how the blog network had, in his opinion ennobled the annual Search for Miss Teen Canada-World by giving each participant the tools and encouragement to share her voice with the world. The girls’ blogging skills are graded and comprise ten percent of their score in the overall competition. Rob also defended the honour of his SEO practice — while spammers may be “ruining the internet”, some SEO pioneers, like himself are producing informative, relevant content that “benefits all of humanity.”

Periodic Table of SEO, Michael NusNext up was Michael Nus, with a presentation of SEO 101.  The night was devoted to search and social rank. The phrase ‘weird science’ emerged many times, because it’s so full of experimentations and trying new things? nebulous but exciting? Thankfully, the talks extended far beyond tricking the latest algorithms on Google.

Further blurring the distinction between web marketing and SEO was Ameet Wadhwani and his innovation OptMeIn, which allows customers to elect how their favourite companies should contact them, and is attached with powerful metrics to monitor traffic and conversion – coupon redemption.

Discretion is at the core of the service; Twitter users, for instance, are contacted through direct messages rather than public tweets. Yet despite the discretion, companies have experienced impressive distribution stats as customers are taking it upon themselves to share promotions with their social circles. Ameet’s focus with OptMeIn isn’t necessarily SEO, but customers who willingly share promotions through social networks, and by taking this action are inadvertently increasing the ‘social rank’ of the sponsor companies

Search and Social Rank Symposium, Being creative and managing clients by Benjamin AllisonThe night wrapped up with Benjamin Allison’s articulate soliloquy about managing client expectations and still being creative. His words formed a  reminder that companies need to stop acting like overprotective parents with their brand. “The odds of having your child kidnapped from your front lawn is about a million to one,” explained Ben, “but how many people still worry about it?”

at the Search and Social Rank Symposium, Benjamin Allison discusses Creative The idea that brands should be allowed to enjoy agency voice was the centerpiece of Ben’s presentation. Of course, brands can’t do it alone, and often need the help of forces like marketing agencies to develop a unique voice.

In conclusion it was fun filled evening of argumentative discovery wherein it become increasingly obvious that companies need to face that brands are taking on a life of their own. But it need not be a rude awakening. As Rob Campbell showed, an SEO campaign can also create social capital in the process. And as much as Ameet’s unique services are removed from the public sphere, people are bringing it back by choosing to share company broadcasts.  It was an evening of weird science at the intersection of search engine optimization and social media marketing; it was a group discussion on the definition of social rank in the age of earned media.

Posted in Age of Earned Media, optimization, search, Search and Social Rank Symposium, Seminars and workshops | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Introducing The Search and Social Rank Symposium

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Rob Campbell

Did you get an invitation in your email? There’s something happening in The Cannery Room down in The Distillery District, 55 Mill St Toronto on Monday Nov 14th 2011, and we’re calling it the Search and Social Rank Symposium.

What is a Symposium anyway?

Ancient Greek Symposium

In ancient Greece, a symposium was the name for a wine soaked gathering of male guests; it was a meeting between men of good families. They were held frequently and were important for fostering debate and building consensus and transmitting ideas. Sometimes there were women involved, as seen above, and music and dancing, but more often there was a lively group discussion (and poetry) between men. Symposia were held by common people too , and aristocrats to celebrate special occasions, such as victories in arts and athletic contests. The most famous symposium of all, described in Plato’s dialogue, was hosted by the poet Agathon on the occasion of his first victory at the theater contest of the 416 BC Dionysia. According to Plato, the celebration was upstaged by the unexpected entrance of the toast of the town, the young Alcibiades, who arrived drunk and nearly naked, having just left another symposium.

The participants, or “symposiasts,” were limited, and depending on the host, they were handpicked and individually invited to the assembly. The gatherings only held a dozen or more people who enjoyed food and wine and listened to each others’ stories and schemes – they made their own entertainment in a night of ideas.

Search and Social Rank Symposium

Lenzr Corp is inviting the men and women of good families to come and glimpse small but brilliant steps forward into the grey shadowy mists of internet web marketing.

David Shephard and Rob Campbell will open things up with a conversation about Lenzr and Miss Teen Canada World, followed by Ameet Wadhwani and ‘Pulse’ and then some surprises – we might see Jade Hirtle from Social Scratch, or Michael Nus and Chris Brooker from Epilogger, and more. This will be a symposium of substance, a night of delicious ideas.

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Warehouse Management Software Company uses Lenzr as Image Licensing Tool

Posted on October 22, 2011 by Rob Campbell

Warehouse Stockpiles is the second in a series of three photo contests sponsored by a software company that seeks images for their new website, and will accept submissions from people living in the USA and Canada, Much like the first contest, A Manufacturing Process, this competition follows a user / sponsor reward structure whereby the winning image is licensed for $250 alongside three other images @$75 each selected from anywhere in the index (so not just the Top Ten user ranked images).

In this match the sponsor seeks images of inventory stock being managed to accompany text on the Production Planning page of their website. There’s already one picture there, and its a close-up of a control box, and not very exciting. Please see also the Inventory Management page. That page is another target for which they are procuring images and is perhaps best represented by the contest title, Warehouse Stockpiles. The web pages need some visual references that compliment the text, but are not overwhelming. The reward is $250 CAN

Upload pictures now, and right up until November 25th, 2011. It’s recommended that you promote your pictures when voting begins Nov 15, 2011 to get into the Top Ten grouping. Judges pick from the Top Ten images that are locked down on the 25th of November at 12:01 am when voting ends – the winner is announced Dec 1st 2011

Sound off here in the comments or visit the discussion forum, Warehouse Stockpiles Open to Americans. Warehouse Stockpiles leads the pack as all four October Lenzr photo contests detailed on Dumpdiggers discussion forum ; the piece above is an excerpt from that dialogue.

Posted in Age of Earned Media, optimization, photography contest | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Jeff Quipp of Search Engine People Speaks SEO at the Small Business Forum

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Rob Campbell
Toronto, Enterpise logos for Small Business Forum on Oct 17th 2011Tuesday Oct 18th, 2011, I attended the Small Business Forum at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, 222 Bremner Boulevard

Jim Pagliatis and Rob Campbell at Enterprise Toronto

“Learn Today, Grow Tomorrow!” was the focus of Small Business Forum and the sessions above the accompanying trade show attracted more than 1,500 entrepreneurs and business owners who came downtown to  gather up free insights. There were investors, marketers, social media experts, product & service providers who came together in the spirit of generosity to help entrepreneurs leverage existing assets and uncover new opportunities.

Jim Pagiamtzis and his friend Tom had just got their name badges and were heading into the trade show floor when I made them pause for a picture.   “Three sharp dressed professionals attending the Small Business Forum.”

The trade show itself was filled with service providers of course; there were dozens of booths, maybe fifty or sixty or more businesses that specialize in helping people get leads, make sales, count money, pay taxes and generally do a better job of it. Being a small businessman is tough stuff, I know.

Jeff Quipp, CEO of Search Engine People

By far the most enjoyable session that I attended, and the only one worth writing about, was the 60 minutes I spent listening to Jeff Quipp, CEO of Search Engine People.

The Search Engine People are located in Ajax, 100 Westney Rd near the train station and I’ve driven past their building many times. But I had never met the CEO, nor did I have any idea who he was, or what he looked like… But then as luck would have it, I had the good fortune to run into Jeff before his seminar started;  of course I asked him to pose for a picture beside me – this was smart thinking because it wouldn’t have happened afterward, when Jeff was absolutely swamped with admirers and curious business owners.

Jeff Quipp, CEO of Search Engine People beside Rob Campbell of Lenzr

When choosing the perfect keywords, Jeff says there are three main criterion that he considers in order of importance: 1) volume, 2) competitive and 3) relevancy.  He taught me something when he showed the # of results at the bottom of the search engine results page (SERP) as being a factor in determining competition level. He says that keywords with less than 100k results are easier to rank higher for than search terms that generate over a million results. Seems like a no brainer but I had never seen anyone use the results # at the bottom of the SERP like that before.

Jeff isolated the keyword term ‘weight loss’ as being particularly busy, but he didn’t dwell on that one. He skipped around and used examples from many quintessential business keyword search terms. He actually used a variety of case studies including ‘Toronto dentist’, and once he even said ‘Toronto accountants’, both of which are targets for Lenzr clients.  Cunningham LLP is first for Toronto accountants now.

Jeff Quipp, CEO of Search Engine People 11am session, oct 18 2011

Some of the ugliest questions actually came during the presentation.  One guy asked “…do links in comments count for anything?” and Jeff sighed; I could see him debating the validity of explaining what is a ‘no follow’ link? and what is a ‘do follow’ link? to this crowd.  ‘Lets go offline with that’ he said after a brief pause.

Jeff would sometimes say ‘makes sense right?’  or ‘Does everyone understand?’ which was memorable only because it upset the flow of information. Everyone looks around to see who will raise their hands and ask for more of an explanation.  Nobody was that brave.

I did learn quite a few things from Jeff’s speech, and I hope you all won’t think I’m conceited when I tell you truthfully, that his seminar is almost exactly like mine.

One big exception perhaps is that Jeff doesn’t package his insights into an overarching tech philosophy, or at least he didn’t that day. While he does say ‘Don’t try and fool Google’, and … he doesn’t prognosticate on the future, and yet he must see it.  I have taken the notion of building an ‘economy of links’ to funnel relevance and have designed ‘keyword sandwiches to feed robots’, Jeff gave no insight into the emerging ‘nature of things’ or the existence of ‘Google juice’ or even the crises of spam and duplicate content.  In one of my earlier posts I discussed the new vocation of being a relevance producer, and much like a theater producer or a film producer, we tell stories on multiple platforms to increase the relevance and importance of firms trying to get traffic.

Jeff Quipp came armed with some alarming statistics

One of the most surprising statistics that he mentioned, and I wrote in my notebook immediately because I was so shocked by it, and I may have misunderstood…  Jeff believes that a full twenty percent of the people who do search queries on Google, Yahoo and Bing leave the results page through sponsored ads?!   I don’t know if I believe that..?  But I am prepared to believe that P.P.C. ads could possibly account for 20% of a businesses’ traffic. This is because there are so many places on the web where these ads appear, other than search engines.

Jeff does a great job assigning values to what would otherwise be gray areas, including the amount of work spent optimizing on-page data versus the amount of time spent planting incoming links off site.  30% of the data Google needs to determine relevance and authority is found on-page he stated, and cited page titles as being most important.

When discussing the on-page 30%, Jeff reminded me again of the value of on-page links, the links in your homepage or secondary pages that link down deep inside your enterprise. According to Mr Quipp, every page of your website can be optimized for a maximum of three keyword search terms. So if you are hoping for page one results for 12 terms, then you’d best try to have at least four pages in your site, all optimized for three terms each.

Regarding the off-page 70%, Jeff Quipp gathered some giggles when he showed how  ‘miserable failure = George Bush’ as an example of a ‘Google bomb’, which is what happens when hundreds of people game the system and in this case they linked to George Bush’s profile on the White House biographies page. By showing this example he illustrated how a full 70% of a website’s authority is derived from a measurement of the quality and volume of incoming links to that website. All those incoming links under the text ‘miserable failure’ made that page of the White House rank highest in Google for that search term.

Everyone in the crowd wanted to know ‘How do I get other websites to link to my pages?’

The slide of gold came at the very end – Jeff laid out some great ideas for places to write and post original content with an eye on securing incoming links.  In case you cant read the picture, I will transfer the text here:

1. Suppliers, clients and complimentary business
2. Article syndication
3. Reciprocal linking
4. Directory submissions
5. Press Releases
6. Guest Posting
7. Widgets
9. Awards Badges
10. Research competitor links

I noticed after typing these into the blog that there is no #8 in the slide. so I would add

8. Sponsor Lenzr Photo Contest and drive links to your website via contest media websites that index current contests and then archive the data.

Posted in Age of Earned Media, optimization, Page One state of mind, search, Secrets, Seminars and workshops, tips | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Rob Campbell Speaks at Word11 in Toronto, August 27th on Story Funnels to Buckstops

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Rob Campbell

Word11 is a 24hr blog fest in TorontoLet me remember forever here some of the things I experienced at Word11, a unique blog convention held at Bathurst and Bloor in Toronto on August 27th 2011. It was 24hrs packed full of rare knowledge and information. I made some new friends and said hello to some old ones. But of course I couldn’t last 24 hrs. Personally, I don’t think I could stay awake for 24hrs if my life depended on it. And fortunately, it doesn’t. I went home at 10pm.

WORD11 Opening Ceremonies were at 9am on the top floor of the CSI, the Center for Social Innovation on Bathurst just south of Lennox (one street south of Bloor) which made it a very handy location for people commuting to the event by TTC. The green trees outside the wide open windows made the space very cheerful, bright and sunny and everyone was in a good mood. MyCityLives, Swapsity and StickerYou were all represented here. Word11 in Toronto

At 9:30 am the show began – minus one speaker.  Jim Pagiamtzis took over a session entitled How To Get Your Blog on TV and showed attendees some of the tricks he uses to get followers and provoke comments on his Jim Pagiamtzis blog which is about making wealth and finding happiness and being all that you can be using new technology; he writes a social media best-practices blog.

Jim Pagiamtzis at Word11 in Toronto

Karim Kanji speaks about The Social Media Club in Toronto

How to create an online community? Karim Kanji came to tell us that “…it’s not about the tools but the people.” Most recently, he helped found and is now a director at Third Ocean (http://thirdocean.com) which collaborates with big and small companies and helps them utilize online, digital and social tools to strengthen their business. Karim is also the co-founder of XConnectTO, which explores the impact of new media and technology on industry. You can follow Karim on Twitter @karimkanji

I spoke to the same audience minutes later – the crowd was was a unique blend of amateurs and experts. Annoyed with the layout of the room, I rearranged it to accommodate more people. Unfortunately I forgot to give my camera to someone in the back to get pictures, but I talked for forty minutes about Story Funnels to Buckstops and why multi-platform storytelling is standard Lenzr Ideology and one of the operating principles behind the Page One Program. This is how we distribute messages.

If someone has pictures of me talking at this event I’d love to see them and post one here.

bloggers at Victory Pub between sessions at Word11 in Toronto
Several of the bloggers got together afterwards and shared their hopes and dreams and ideas with each other over some pints at Victory Pub – which was an official sponsor of the event.  The guy with the grey hat drinking the Steam Whistle is A.J. Morris who is living his dream as a Headway WordPress Themes designer / promoter. Headway is a premier WordPress theme and A.J. is a wealth of great information about past, present and future trends in web design.  There were a few moments at that table, on that patio, in which we all debated not going back to the official show. The beer was tasting great and the ideas were flowing.

party rentals in Toronto, John Kenyon, Absolute Toronto

But the show must go on! Here’s John Kenyon, all smiles as he set up his tent for the Word11 night time sessions – his desk was a hotbed of activity when it became known that his company was donating two free Caribbean Cruises on a reputable cruise ship line for the best posts mentioning Absolute Tent and Event Services, and Its My Potty luxury portable toilets.

Here’s the official offer straight from John Kenyon,

Blog about your experience at WORD11 and you’ll have a chance to win one of two, 4 night/5 day Caribbean cruises for you and a guest.

The cruises are provided by Absolute Tent & Event Services and It’s My Potty and are valued at more than $1,200.  They include all meals (yes, room service is covered!) and also feature Las Vegas-style entertainment.

To be eligible for this amazing giveaway, write a blog post about your experience at Word11, what you liked or didn’t like but be sure to include a link one or both of our generous sponsors, Absolute Tent & Event Services or It’s My Potty.  If you attended the evening component you would have seen their support equipment everywhere.

Even if you missed the evening sessions be sure to give us your spin on the event and you just might be heading to the Caribbean this winter.

An expert panel will look at blog posts until September 10, which means you’ll have two weeks after WORD11 to get your blog entry posted.

In case you’re wondering, I cannot enter this challenge. I’m probably on the panel.  John and Paul Kenyon‘s generosity reminds us that Absolute Tent and Events Services is Toronto’s best choice for party rentals and supplies.

Let’s not forget The Grasscutters‘ portable solar generator / equipment trailer, custom designed and built by Dan Shephard at Solarline Power. This unit ran the lights and powered the nighttime portion of the event. Here’s a terrible picture of me with Jim Pagiamtzis who looks even goofier.

RobC and JimP stand beside the solar panels of the Grasscutters trailer in Toronto

TM Mahdi setting up Word11, Bathurst and Bloor, Toronto

TM Mahdi was the executor of the event and he never lost his cool, that I saw…  Although its true his best laid plans went awry when folks were sent outside before it was properly set-up… TM had planned the presentations inside CSI to the minute, and he needed them to last the full duration to give him time to make ready all of the outdoor activities. It didn’t happen. More and more poeple came and joined my party at the Victory Pub.  But TM persevered with his prep confident he’d regain his participants, and I brought everyone back at 8:30pm just as the sun was going down and the projectors carried images of the first evening presentations.  At this point I was getting tired and really just wanted to go home, but I had to stay to watch Rob Cairns and then Dan Imbrogno share their secrets and ‘ Intermediate Plugin Development Techniques’, and I’m glad I stayed. They are both very knowledgeable speakers with well thought out presentations.

Word 11 parking lot behind Honest Eds

The night activities were more technical than the day time blog marketing and mobile celebrations. Rob Cairns’ WordPress Tips was fascinating and even more intriguing was when he was interrupted by a strange man who came onstage and needed to get his eBike out from behind the projector. This resident woke up to find this outdoor assembly beyond his living room window, shining a projector on his exterior home.  Worse of course was that his ebike was center stage in Rob Cairn’s show! It was a moment to remember and so was everything Rob shared about Sexy Bookmarks and Back-Up Buddy.

ebike interrupt Rob Cairns presentation at night

It was a heck of a symposium. Word11 was about bloggers of all stripes sharing knowledge and inspiring each other.

Posted in Age of Earned Media, Seminars and workshops, social networks, tips | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Owning the first page by being social

Posted on August 13, 2011 by shepdaddy

When optimizing your web presence, local or otherwise, you need to include claiming and creating Internet profiles on all of the popular social networks. That way, whenever potential customers search, surf, and socialize online, they will be able to find you. As Google Plus expands (recently adding games), this new social network continues to rival Facebook (which still has more users). But as each site continues to add similar features, like video chat and other social signifiers like “+1″ and “Like” buttons, the sites still remain slightly different from one another. Here’s a handy infographic from SingleGrain that compares the two networks features side-by-side.
Facebook Vs Google +

(View the original here)

As part of your web optimization strategy, you should have a Facebook Business page. Although Google Plus has not yet released official business pages yet, you should still be promoting your business on your personal Google Plus profile. Not unlike process manufacturing, or lean manufacturing, you need to have a system for maintaining your grip on your business’ search and social rank.

TIP: The more active your social presence is, the more likely you are to reach page one search results and engage more customers.

Posted in optimization, social networks, tips | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Freshly baked

Posted on August 8, 2011 by shepdaddy

Our clients want to be found! And they want to be found for search terms that are relevant to their business. Some clients come to us with fabulous web sites. They have good PageRank and incredibly social identities with rich highly shareable content. However the reality is, a great deal of our clients come to us with very little knowledge of how or why their web site works or doesn’t work. They’re not interested in sifting through mind-numbing spreadsheets of keywords, or learning how to optimize their web site for their top keywords or phrases. And most are unwilling to learn. They simply want to run their business. So having an SEO service that is fun, engaging, and guaranteed to work is right up their alley.

ShaSha Bread Healthy SnacksThe PageOne Program has helped dozens of businesses, small, medium, and large, tell their stories through our proprietary online story telling service. One of our recent successes is an organic bakery called Shasha Bread Co. Shasha is well known for their heart shaped organic cookies and sour dough breads and have recently expanded to include a line of healthy snacks made from raw buckwheat, which are prebiotic, probiotic, and high in fibre. Their challenge was whether to use traditional media to create buzz and awareness for their new product and keep their fingers crossed. Or, consider using a service that starts conversations, builds social relevance, and delivers search engine rank and optimization in an intelligent, interactive way, delivering eyeballs to their web site over and over again. It was a no brainer. Now, thanks to the PageOne Program, Shasha Bread enjoys the benefits of page one Google natural search results.

Google your business’ keywords. Not on page one? We’ll put you there.

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Inside the Page One Program

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Rob Campbell

Google search engine social media guaranteed seo listings The Page One Program is a state of mind, as much as it is a website, or web service offering page one of Google rankings for client URLs under busy keyword search terms.

This science is imprecise and ever changing; you cannot build a house on the shifting sands of the Google search algorithm, but you can build an organization committed to studying the math and reporting empiric results. Together we look for anomalies, trends and successful patterns. This is not a new idea, but our association of blogs and bloggers and discussion forum managers and online magazine editors have come to a higher understanding – its all just a state of mind, because in the age of earned media you must deserve page one rankings.

The Economy of Relevance -  A new age of information handling has begun; behold the dawn of the economy of relevance which sees the rise of reputation arbiters.

the age of earned media, dumpdiggers search engine traffic

Click the photo, it expands.

Look here at my Dumpdiggers blog search traffic over long tail. See how one specific post Find Rare Coins in Pocket Change became 3x more successful than every other post because of quality of information (there was no promotion). We coming together as a technocratic society, and we recognize that there is simply too much data, and now more than ever a search for experts, or trust agents drives the web.  Facebook grades data based on friends and serves relevance across the largest social network. Bookmarking sites, image search engines, small independent contextual search engines, and Bing etc and even multi platform search engines like Addictomatic.com exist and are emerging to offer new ways to sort and serve relevant data and establish top ten quality results for keyword queries.  But Google is just getting bigger and better as it now grades our data with Google Plus and is leading the shift into a more and increasingly democratic filtering of results.

Rob Campbell CEO of Lenzr blogs with Siera Bearchell Miss Teen Canada - World 2011Google search is part of my social media experience. esp when searching for experts.

There are many and varied search engine friendly ways to promote your website in social networks, and these do not have to appear promotional, but MUST yield quality original information or at the very least some original thoughts. Original pictures?

The secret is recognize that there are no short-cuts and to build maintain a great destination for specific search terms, and that doesn’t just mean making pages full of mindless keyword rich text either. It means delivering satisfaction, having and always improving usability and conversion while building and promoting a business reputation.  You have to be in a Page One state of mind to think, build and promote your business to Top Ten search results for busy keywords.  This blog will offer insights into some of our best case studies.

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