Geeks Rule!

I am adding a new blog to my blogroll: VisInsights with a great blog on social media by Chris Prilllo-- who looks like a 20 something geek but is totally passionate about social media and how it rules our world, our brands, our life..... Check it out.

My First Virtual Conference

I just registered for my first virtual conference--but I have a feeling that it wont be my last.
Digital Marketing World which is sponsored by Marketing Profs will be held on April 1st in the comfort of your own home or office. The only downside that I can think of is that the sponsors will have my email to nudge me with.

As you know, I am a big fan of David Meerman Scott and will defintely attend his session:

2:00pm–2:45pm EST
The New Rules of Viral Marketing
David Meerman Scott, author and marketing strategist

Following the worldwide best selling book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, David Meerman Scott’s new book, World Wide Rave, focuses on the power of viral marketing online. Attend this presentation—just a few weeks after the launch of the new book—and be among the first to learn from David about how to create triggers that get millions of people to spread your ideas and tell your stories. Whether you market to businesses or consumers, a World Wide Rave is when people around the world are talking about you, your company, and your products. It’s when online buzz drives buyers to your virtual doorstep. And it’s when tons of fans visit your Web site and your blog because they genuinely want to be there. Learn how to take your marketing to the next level by following the six rules of “The Rave”:

1. Nobody cares about your products (except you)
2. No coercion required
3. Lose control
4. Put down roots
5. Create triggers that encourage people to share
6. Point the world to your (virtual) doorstep

C u there!

David Meerman Scott's New Book on Viral Marketing

David Meerman Scott's New Book about Viral Marketing: World Wide Rave--another step away from "Old" Marketing Tools. David gives 9 tips on how to create a Viral Marketing campaign and the last tip is:

"Above all, have fun!
Don’t be afraid to go out
there and experiment.
Video content on the Web is still very new for marketers and communicators. But the potential
to deliver information to buyers in new and surprising ways is greater when you use a new
medium. And while your competition is still trying to figure out “that blogging thing,” you
can tap into the world of video and leave the competition behind."

You can download his free ebook here. Enjoy!

Why Marketing is So Much More Important than Technology

All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin--a brilliant video of a lecture to Google personnel about Google and why Marketing is so much more important than Technology....

Social Media Marketing Madness

Social Media Marketing Madness--this says it all-and we marketers have to track it all....

The Easiest Way to a First Page Ranking on Google

A good article from Forrester that I would like to share with you:
The Easiest Way to a First-Page Ranking on Google. "If you're not optimizing your videos, you should start. "Blended search," the practice in which search engines display videos, images, news stories, maps, and other types of results alongside their standard search results, has become increasingly common on major search engines. And optimizing video content to take advantage of blended search is by far the easiest way to get a first-page organic ranking on Google," says Nate Elliot from Forrester.

• Best of all, so few interactive marketers focus on video optimization that most of the videos in Google's index aren't very well optimized -- so if you optimize your videos well, your chances of success will increase even further.
  So how can you optimize your online videos? The agencies and search engines I've talked to offer a number of different tips:
  *Insert keywords into your video filenames.
  *Host your videos on YouTube, and embed those YouTube videos into your own site. Google says its algorithms consider how many times a video is viewed, and any views embedded videos receive on your own site get added to the 'views' tally on YouTube. (And yes, nearly every video we saw Google blend into its results came from YouTube.)
  *Optimize your YouTube videos by writing keywords into your videos' titles, descriptions, and tags.
  *Embed videos into relevant text pages on your site. The context provided by the text on those pages (which is hopefully already optimized for search as well) will help the search engines figure out what your videos are about.
  *Also create a video library on your site, so Google knows where to find your video content. (Google Video Sitemaps can help with this too.) Write keyword-rich annotations for each video in the library.
  Clients can read more about this topic, including some examples and further best practices, in our reports SEO for Blended Search (a Europe-focused report) and Video and Image Optimization (which is US-focused).

Marketing for 2009

One of my favorite websites for information on new web marketing tactics is Duct Tape Marketing even though it is supposed to be for small businesses-I find a lot of practical advice and free webinars on hot topics such as Social Media. It looks like that will be the keyword for Marketing 2009. Here are some general tips to help you change your mindset:

focus on your ideal customer
find a unique value proposition
educate instead of sell
be found as opposed to hunt
harness the Internet

One of my favorite authors on the New Marketing is David Meerman Scott--his quote for tips for 2009: David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR said . . . stop spending $$ on marketing. Instead create interesting information people WANT to consume. -

Please feel free to download this free ebook published by MS on Social Media--is basic but does have some good tips:
A free ebook on social media for small business-but there is still some good advice for medium sized businesses.