Now in its 10th year, the global SES Conference and Exposition Series educates tens of thousands of marketers each year, with a 98% satisfaction rate. SES Chicago, the only major Search Marketing Conference and Expo in the Midwest, will be packed with 60+ sessions, multiple keynotes and Orion Strategy sessions, exhibitors, networking events and more. We hope to see you there.

Event Overview:

• Real-time actionable information you need to grow your business through search engine marketing
• Ins-and-outs of search engine marketing from top search experts and the search engines themselves
• A unique setting to network with fellow marketers and search engine industry professionals to discuss the trends in search engine marketing
• Access to the world’s most comprehensive gathering of search engine marketing & optimization-related solutions providers and potential partners & affiliates.

What You Will Learn:

• How search engines list web sites for free and through paid placements
• How to get free “organic” traffic by building a site that pleases search engines and your visitors
• How to efficiently purchase listings guaranteed to rank your company at the top of search engine results
• How to calculate the ROI of your search marketing efforts by tracking your visitors from the time they hit your site until they buy-and get tips on improving conversion if they don’t

Oh, and Justin’s sending me off with a packed lunch as I’ve been invited to present a Tinbasher case study next Wednesday at the Blogging for Business session.

Looks like the Marketing Genius blog is back after the hijacking.  That was much quicker than anticipated.  Please continue to enjoy posts from our good friend Skip Lineberg, which resume today.

In the meantime, I wanted to give you an update on 2 items:

1. For a time being we pulled posts from each of the travelling speakers from Next Generation Marketing.  We are no longer doing this, but still encourage you to check out each one individually:

• Direct Online Marketing Blog – Justin Seibert and Paul Woodhouse
• Mythology Marketing Blog – Jeff James
• Marketing Genius – Skip Lineberg and other folks from Maple Creative

2.  You’ll note I didn’t link to Skip’s blog.  We didn’t have a falling out – I still want to give him a great big bear hug every time I see him.  His blog – Marketing Genius – got hacked.  Really tough situation. As soon as the situation gets resolved, I’ll provide an update.

The Power 150 is a ranking of the top English-language media and marketing blogs in the world, as developed by marketing executive and blogger, Todd Andrlik. It’s really as simple as that, except that the name isn’t strictly accurate: It currently ranks more than 500 blogs written about all types of media and pretty much every imaginable marketing discipline. It’s now housed on Ad Age, partly because we thought it’d draw some traffic and links for us, but also because both Todd and Ad Age figured it was a useful service to rank and showcase all these sources of information in one place, where thousands of readers could discover them. With more than 700,000 registered users on our site and a host of daily and weekly products, we also hope we can grow the traffic to Todd’s creation and some of the blogs it highlights.

Methodology
What Todd came up with is a largely objective ranking, which is probably why it’s already gained such popularity among marketing and media bloggers. It uses a basic multimetric algorithm to obtain a final ranking based on the sum of eight sources, seven of which come from Google, Bloglines, Alexa, Yahoo! and Technorati. The last is Todd’s own personal subjective measure. In the case of a tie, individual scores for a blog are weighted in the following order (from highest to lowest):

Todd Points (1 to 15): As the only subjective measure in the Power 150 algorithm, 1 to 15 opinion points were assigned to each blog. Todd Andrlik values frequent, relevant, creative and high-quality content. The use of audio, video and graphics is also heavily weighted in the Todd Points.
Yahoo InLinks (1 to 30): Much like Technorati’s InLinks count, Yahoo uses its Site Explorer to tabulate the number of links to a particular blog. We then scale this number down to a 30-point scale.
Technorati Ranking (1 to 20): Technorati ranking analyzes the number of sites pointing to a particular blog. The more link sources referencing your blog, the higher the Technorati ranking. Similar to the Bloglines Subscribers value, Technorati ranking ranges were determined (i.e., top 9,000, top 10,000, top 20,000, etc.) and each range was assigned a number (1 to 20) that was used in the Power 150 algorithm.
Technorati Authority (1 to 20): Much like the InLinks count, Technorati’s Authority count is the number of blogs (as opposed to individual links) that link to a particular blog. This number is then scale down to a 20-point scale.
Technorati InLinks (1 to 20): Technorati tallies the number of links to a particular blog, and we then scale that number down to a 20-point scale.
Alexa Points (1 to 15): Alexa ranks sites with an algorithm that incorporates page views and reach (the percentage of all web users who have visited that particular site). For the Power 150, we take that rank and assign it a proportional score between 1 and 15 and factor it into a blog’s total score.
Bloglines Subscribers (1 to 10): Bloglines displays the number of feed subscribers. Subscriber ranges were determined (i.e., more than 20, more than 30, etc.) and each range was assigned a number (1 to 15) that was used in the Power 150 algorithm.
Google PageRank (0 to 10): Google PageRank is a link-analysis algorithm that interprets web links and assigns a numerical weighting (0 to 10) to each site. High-quality sites receive a higher PageRank. The actual PageRank number was used in the Power 150 ranking algorithm.
Collective Intellect (0 to 10): Collective Intellect is a social media analytics company that works with brands to evaluate consumer opinion, measure buzz, identify customer sentiment and manage corporate reputations at the industry, company, brand, campaign and messaging levels. For the Power 150, Collective Intellect’s authority ranking uses a patent-pending algorithm to calculate an author’s authority on a topic, including such measures as link-analysis between on-topic posts, topic density, author’s percent of contribution to the topic, number of comments and post quality.

This honor is to be shared by all of you, our entire community of marketing geniuses. It goes to show how important all of you are who comment, contribute, link to, recommend, tag and ‘favorite’ this and other blogs. Thanks! We couldn’t have done it without you.

Check the videos.

We’re wanting raving loyal customers. Or loyal raving customers.

Would you refer us to someone else?

Net Promoter

Great little example of advocacy of Zappos.com from Jenny in the audience in her explanation of her Zappos usage – “Any shoe you would ever need.”

If you check their site you have have testimonials front and center. Let others toot your horn.

Good memory moment from Justin about a great thing Zappos did for a customer a while back. I’d forgotten about that one, but then again, I’ve forgotten what I had for lunch.

Seriously, read Seth Godin. If you don’t have a sublime realization of zen-like wowser-ness then I’m a numpty.

Get your free copy of Groundswell. (Although it’s a free for blog review copy.)

Right, where are we.

The whole general idea here is to not act like you give a crap but to actually give a crap and align in that kind of engagement with you and your customers. Yes, it’s something you have to do, but it’s something you honestly can’t fake. Or can’t fake honestly.

You can inspire them with going the extra yard like with the Zappos example above.

Linkedin

If you do happen to be an existing member of Linkedin or sign up for the service after the conference, feel free to mentioning it in the comments if you’d like to connect.

Beware the John McCain spam troll strategy.

Whatever the channel, you need to engage and communicate with your customers and develop a deep relationship. It’s fairly simple. Blogs are fabulous in the current Web landscape that is of the read/write variety, but if you feel more comfortable utilizing video or audio (podcasting) then go right ahead.

From a personal point of view I’ve always been a more avid writer than speaker. And I’ve always had a face for radio. Blogs are an easy choice from my pov . I’d also argue that because of additional benefits such as the search engine reach they’re more beneficial as a more rounded marketing strategy. Let a blog be your Web presence’s engine room.

Nice. Charlie Brown’s teacher as the zoned out messenger. Good impression with hand gestures to boot.

Justin’s flagpole – the story will happen and will you join the conversation.

The conversation is uncontrollable. It’s the old Oscar Wilde quote about the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.

Twitter.

Two chances to make a first impression – when you first meet and when you first screw up. A Huntington attendee took the idea and threw it round his bank as a mission statement type thingy.

So how does one maintain one’s online reputation.

Half of all purchases are made with online customer reviews. Negative and positive.

Search Providian

Really. As if a Boy’s Gone Wild video starring Justin would’ve sold any copies whatsoever. Now I’ve got a terrible mental image.

46% of all employees have talked about their workplace online.

Google Health Service

Truly universal healthcare provision.

Ebayink.com

How on earth do you win a severed finger in a bet?

All businesses have advocates. Embrace them and cajole them. Take them skiing like Brad does on a regular basis.

THREE THINGS TO DO TONIGHT

google.com/alerts

Techrigy

Start building a Web presence – even if it isn’t a site per se, start building a rapport online. You can use one of the above services to find out where your brand is being mentioned.

Set up a paid search accounts – only half an hour on Google and Yahoo with your brand and business name results. If and when it happens it’s set up so you can adjust whatever it is that has occurred as a modifier.

“Google are awful! Absolutely awful!” – Justin Seibert, President, Direct Online Marketing.

Man, this isn’t half a test of my flabby touch-typing skills. Then again, it doesn’t take much.

Just a little background info – Justin just so happens to be my boss and I just happen to be his “New Media Specialist”.

So you can rate this liveblog post on a scale of 1 to 10 on the blowing-smoke-up-backside-o-meter…

Anyway here’s the basic gist of the general gist:

• Organizational blogging

• Social networking, wikis, twitter, and other forms of social media

• Search engines, online press releases, and ways to fuse online and traditional forms of marketing

Blogs: Somebody not interested in reading blogs – man it’s like a personal slap in the face…..I shall get to this at some point.

It shouldn’t be a case of reading blogs so much as coming across information written on blogs. I mean, does anybody claim they don’t read forums as an entire mass? Pfft.

How many people write blogs…..stat attack. (will find)

Still amazes me about the low information threshold on RSS feeds and such.

Basic blog rules and ethics. Probably best to throw out a few top five lists on certain points Frightening or perhaps not or maybe I’m in my own little blogging bobble bubble.

SOCIAL MEDIA:

We’re at least fairly cogent on facebook mysapce and social networks.

PRESS RELEASES:
Brad wins for most press releases with 4-8 a day.

Press releases as SEO.

A big happy new media and old media conflab. All media is crap apart from the decent crap. Point out the uses of social media with regards to blended/universal search.

Not as much on this as there should be and that’s my fault.

So, seeming you’ve got your notes, go ahead and ask any questions you’ve got loitering in your frontal lobes.

I’m supposed to know about this stuff!

He’ll be live blogging the conference today to give folks that couldn’t make it – or are waiting to register for Martinsburg – a taste of what we’re discussing.  You won’t get the slides, the free marketing book, a free review of your Web site, the opportunity to network with other Morgantown, WV area marketing professionals, to meet Jeff James or twitter with Skip Lineberg…but it should give you a glimpse of how you can be more effective in your own marketing efforts.

This is good news for everyone except Paul; he hates live blogging (with good reason – it’s hard!).  Maybe he’ll post a picture of himself with a frowny face here to complement the post.  It would complement his “oooh” picture from his live blog of the Southpointe, PA online marketing conference.

1. What has been the biggest change you’ve seen in how universities market and promote their sports programs since you started out at UConn?

The internet is biggest change. When I started at UConn in ‘93 the internet/email was in the very early stages (if we even had it all – I can’t remember ever using it at UConn in the beginning). Now, it is generally the first medium we think of when deciding how to best promote one of our games/events.

We still promote our events through traditional vehicles, but the internet is the one we think of first. It allows the most flexibility and the best opportunity to hit the most people during the course of a day.

2. How are you moving the WVU athletic department forward in terms of new methods of advertising, marketing, public relations, and measuring their effectiveness?

We are constantly looking at new ideas for our web site. Recently, we have started adding more video features to the site. We receive instant feedback with our web site via the traffic. We can see right away if something we did on there was well received. That is tougher with traditional television, radio or print advertising.

Most of measurement techniques are basic at this point. If it’s web based we look at the page views, unique users and or “click throughs” if it’s a pop up ad or something similar.

We are fortunate that we get most of our feedback about events by looking in the seats at a game. We can tell pretty quickly at a game if our promotion worked or not. I can expand more on this topic at the conference.

3. You mentioned in the last session that you’re moving ticket sales to an all electronic-based system in the near future and that you’ve experienced some resistance to that, particularly with older generations. If you could sit down with one such person, how would you explain why you’re moving these sales to online processing and why it’s a benefit to both them and you?

Great question. I still think it will take us a few years to become fully automated in this area. I think the benefits are the overall ease for the customer. No more waiting on the mail to arrive with the ticket application in there. No more writing out two different checks and sending them back. Click a couple of buttons, put your cc info in and you’re done. No filling out forms, doing the math on how much you owe. It’s all right there.

4. Which Web 2.0 / social media / new marketing applications are most exciting to you?

Facebook and MySpace I think are extremely interesting applications. It’s amazing to me how many students/people use one or the other. As I mentioned at the Charleston event, I think people have to be careful with this as well. While it can be a great marketing tool (both individually and for groups), people that post to and speak to our athletes about their image and how much one picture on their Facebook page could change the perception of them that is out there.

That said, they can be valuable promotional tools. We had interns post events on both sites this year in an effort to attract people to a soccer game, wrestling meet, etc…

5. You’ve now had the opportunity to speak at one city (Charleston) and listen to a couple of the sessions. Do you think this is the type of event marketers in West Virginia can use to their benefit?

I think these events are great. I think it is invaluable for marketing people to get out of “their world” and share ideas as often as possible. So often I think busy executives get hung up in their day to day duties and don’t have the time to think on a bigger scale. I know I do. It’s amazing how much more creative I feel after sitting in a room with a bunch of other marketing people and throwing around ideas. I think these conferences are outstanding and will only get better as they get more and more participants!

6. What do you think are the benefits of holding conferences such as Next Generation Marketing in West Virginia in cities like Morgantown and Charleston?

Both have so much to offer. Charleston is great because of the multiple ad agencies, gov’t groups and just the fact it is the capital. Morgantown because of the obvious draw of the University. But, Morgantown gives you more than just the Univ. It has been one of the few areas in West Virginia that continues to grow and thrive. Construction continues at an unbelievable pace. More and more students are coming to the Univ each year only leads to more and more growth in the business community.

Morgantown and Charleston are both vitally important to the growth of our state. I think bringing bright, energetic, talented people together (as these conferences are doing) will benefit not only the individuals, but also the cities in this state and the state as a whole!

Governor Manchin Emails State RE: Daughter’s WVU MBA Scandal

Alright,

Now I’m convinced the higher ups at WVU and in West Virginia State government are reading my blog and attending our Next Generation Marketing conferences.

I’m not going to go through the whole spiel again, but be aware that this article is written in a non-biased fashion meant to take a deeper look at the Heather Bresch pr crisis from an academic standpoint. Careful readers should be able to learn several ways to combat their own bad press.

For organizations with robust search engine reputation management and online pr crisis response needs, please contact us to discuss your options and develop a plan. We accept checks and all major credit cards and operators are standing by. Plus, call within the next 15 minutes and receive a free genuine ginsu link building plan.

You must understand two things:

1. You cannot bury your head in the sand. The conversation will happen. The question is: do you want to join it?

2. It is a million times easier to respond to pr crises with a proper plan in place before the dynamite goes boom.

Paid Search in Online Reputation Management

In my first blog post on the WVU MBA degree scandal, I discussed the issue from an online reputation management standpoint. As an aside, I pointed out that WVU – through its Google AdWords content match search advertising program – was advertising its MBA degree on the very same online articles that announced the record keeping discrepancies and questioned how it would impact the value of MBA degrees at West Virginia University.

A couple days later the ad was gone.

Email Marketing to Reach Advocates

Also in that blog post – and in my “Engagement & Dialogue” sessions in Huntington and Charleston, I mentioned that the Governor has often used email marketing very effective and what a powerful tool it can be. With RichRod, I received an email within 4 hours of his announcement about leaving for Michigan. Yet, I received not one email on the issue of Heather Bresch’s MBA degree.

Until a few minutes ago. I’ve copied and pasted the full text at the bottom for you to read. You’d think with all this help, we’d have a new contract with the state by now.

So come join us in Morgantown this Thurday and find out what free advice I’ll be giving out next. Oh, and if you represent the State of West Virginia, Mylan Corporation, or West Virginia University, please feel free to give me a call. I’ll set aside 3 ginsu link building sets in the meantime.

Note bene: Wrong – at least on the WVU front. They’re still advertising there. I may call some of my WVU contacts.

Click on the picture to open up a larger version you can actually read.

Copy of Governor Manchin’s Email

——– Original Message ——–

May 19, 2008

STATEMENT FROM THE GOVERNOR
REGARDING CONTINUING DISCUSSION
OF WVU E-MBA DEGREE REPORT

Contact: Lara Ramsburg, 304-558-2000

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Gov. Joe Manchin today released the following statement about the continuing discussions regarding the report from the independent panel examining the E-MBA program and his daughter’s degree at West Virginia University.

“As a father, I must admit that I was hoping that the controversy surrounding my daughter’s E-MBA coursework at WVU would eventually resolve itself and subside. However, as a Governor, I recognize that is not realistic.

“In both roles, it has been extremely difficult for me to watch this controversy unfold. As governor, my natural instinct in a crisis is to do my very best to dive in and help bring all sides together to find a resolution. However, because of my family’s involvement in this particular situation, I feel that this is one time in which I am not in a position to follow that instinct, because it is likely that one side or the other would be inclined to question my ability to remain objective.

“WVU holds a special place in the hearts of both Gayle and I not only because we are proud graduates of WVU, but because it is also the place where we met, fell in love and started our family. From our perspective, this controversy all started because our daughter sincerely believed that she had her degree, because of a meeting that everyone admits took place with the program’s director in 1998, and when she contacted the university last year, she was simply asking them to find the records that she believed would confirm that.

“Had they told her that after looking through their records they didn’t have the proper documentation on file, we honestly believe that while she may not have liked that answer, she would have accepted it and moved on with her life.

“At no time would she have asked anyone to either ‘guess’ as to her records or to fabricate grades on those records. As a result, Gayle and I are both angry, in particular, at the fabrication of grades that took place, because it unfairly damages our daughter’s reputation as much as it does the University’s. It was absolutely wrong and, in my mind, completely unacceptable.

“Although I remain confident in President Garrison’s ability to follow the recommendations of the independent panel’s report, I am also fully aware of the concerns that have been raised by the faculty, staff, students and alumni of WVU and recognize that they must be addressed in some meaningful manner. WVU needs to find a way to begin to heal the wounds that have been created over these last few weeks, and it will take all parties working together to achieve that goal.

“To that end, I have seen it stated many times by individuals and the press that because I appointed certain members of the Board of Governors, they must be following my orders as to what to think and say regarding President Garrison and the independent panel’s report. This simply is not true.

“The Board of Governors is made up of extremely bright and accomplished people who were not given this responsibility lightly and who I trust to do the job assigned to them to the best of their abilities. While many members are appointed by a governor, they do not serve at the will and pleasure of a governor. They may act as they wish during their four-year terms as long as it is within legal and ethical reason.

“Therefore, the WVU Board of Governors members are not under my control and remain free, as they always have been, to make their own individual and collective decisions on this or any other situation. As I said previously, I am not in a position to make a recommendation to them in this instance even if I wanted to because, regardless of what it might be, it would not be viewed as being made objectively – and I absolutely understand and accept that.

“As a result, I consider this matter one that should be decided by the members of the Board of Governors based upon their own insights and beliefs and information, and as governor, I will continue to support whatever direction they believe is in the best interests of WVU both now and in the future.”

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