I’m about to head home after having attended SES San Jose for the third time in my Internet marketing career. My thoughts on the conference are mixed: I thought the SEO-focused sessions that I attended were solid (Search: Where to Next?, Search on a Dime, the Advanced SEO Roundtable with the always entertaining Todd Friesen), especially for beginners, and that, per usual, the lunches were atrocious (pasta salad, soggy sandwiches, shiny hot dogs and cafeteria-style pizza squares three days in a row).
Black Hat vs. White Hat Social Media and the Battle for Common Sense
Day 2 of SES San Jose closed with “Social Media: White Hat vs. Black Hat.” The description of the panel in the agenda indicated that the session would take a “hard look” at social media, and there was a lot of buzz from conference goers who were looking forward to attending the session and hearing an engaging debate/argument about the current perception of social media marketing. Alas, much like Guns n’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy album, the panel was a lot of hype with little reward and no Slash.
Polishing Turds and Igniting Viral Campaigns at SES San Jose
Day 2 of SES San Jose started off nicely with Igniting Viral Campaigns. Our own Greg Finn was on the panel along with four(!) other speakers, which I think is two too many. Everyone was limited to about 10 minutes of speaking time, and I think it was just too much information for an audience to digest. There’s a reason why three is the magic number, people.
Video Optimization Tips from SES San Jose
The first day of SES San Jose is drawing to a close. I’ve only caught a few sessions due to client meetings and getting sidelined with work, but I thought I’d share what I felt were the most compelling tips of the day. Today’s tips come courtesy of the “Next Wave for Online Video” session from earlier this morning. Gregory Markel from Infuse Creative gave such a comprehensive presentation that most of the other panelists got content-jacked by his thoroughness. :P
Re-Launching a Website from a Designer's Perspective
We recently completed our website redesign and relaunch, which is always an exciting moment! Many factors come into play when the idea of a redesign is on the table, besides making it aesthetically cleaner and functionally smarter. Why redesign? What was not working with the existing layout? What is working? How can it be better?
Friday Haiku: Conference Season
Before I embark on my trip to San Francisco and then to San Jose for SES, I thought I’d leave you with yet another little Friday haiku. See you next week!
26 Reasons to Buy Me a Drink at SES San Jose
Today I turn 26 years old (cue the fanfare). My birthday always seems to fall on or around SES San Jose, which typically takes place early/mid-August. Tomorrow I’m flying to San Francisco for a short birthday weekend before driving over to San Jose on Monday for SES, and while I’m there I’d love to network with my fellow attendees and with the speakers.
The August '09 Social Media Hot Topic List
This is a new feature that I am going to be posting each month and I think it will really help those avid social media news/bookmarking users and also all the linkbaiters out there who are looking to build buzz and links. This list will contain some of the hot topics that you can build content around so you can harness pre-existing momentum so you don’t have to do all the legwork.
Being HUGE on Twitter: A Small Business Case Study
I was chatting with Lisa Barone yesterday, and she showed me a Twitter account she came across:
“We have this local car place in Albany where it’s this fat, greasy guy whose tagline is ‘it’s huuuuuuuuge’ (as in the savings). Yesterday, the commercials directed people to their Twitter account — http://twitter.com/iamhuge.”