Conference Buddies

Why Blogs are your #1 Search Marketing Tool

Speaker: Chris Baggott, Compendium Blogware
10/15/2009, 11am – 12pm

Notes:

• Blogging is the number one corporate focus. It is the fastest growing corporate initiative
• Blogging is a great way to get out information (to searchers)
• The goal is to get more first time searchers
• comScore: 43% more searches this year than last year
• Search is a way to find a solution to your problems
• Companies that have blogs have 55% more visitors to their website, with 97% more traffic to inbound links
• Blogging is a way to get people to search on your site
• 1st generation blogging: me, me, me. 2nd generation blogging: look at what I know. 3rd generation blogging: getting business through search
• 3rd generation blogging is to target messages around your specific keywords
• Create multiple blogs that target your keyword phrases
• Corporate mistake: content is organized around an individual. Content should be organized around solving the audiences’ problems and what they care about
• Use words that your customers are using, “speak their language”
• Make searchers happy, convert them into customers
• Problems with blogging is that it takes time and effort
• When we look at a page, we are searching for credibility. If they trust you, you will get the click thru
• Similar-situation sale: tell me a story about how you solved a problem like mine, then I’ll trust you to solve my problem, too.
• Bloggers are free, not assigned. People want to blog, tell a story
• Blog content and volume of blog posts directly correlates with traffic
• How do you measure the value of corporate blogging? Compare organic traffic with how much the keyword is worth ($$ wise). That’s one way to measure ROI
• Targeting key words on blogs is comparable to PPC, measure ROI by engagement, conversion. 1.6% conversion on organic searches, 30 to 40% on blogs
• Call to action: fill out a form, click on a button
• Make blogs look like landing pages
• Doesn’t make any difference whether the blog looks like a regular HTML page
• Search Engines are looking for fresh new content, updating the blog regularly will get you crawled more.
• One good blog vs. many different blogs in corporations: established readers vs. first time searchers. Corporations are interested in getting the conversion as opposed to a loyal reader.
• Corporate blogging should be focused with search in mind
• 90% of customers are coming from search
• Have many blogs, all sub-domains, to make it more search engine friendly

What Travel Marketers Look for in Blogs

Speakers: Mike Taylor, PR Manager for Fairmont, Toronto
Tom Martin, Zehinder Communications
Leanne Jakubowski, Disney Parks
Doug Anweiler, Moderator
10/17/2009, 11:30 – 12:30pm

Mike Taylor: B.L.O.G.S.

(B)ring the Basics: give general, pertinent information. Less than two paragraphs, your audience, affiliated publications, metrics, unique visits, ratings

(L)inks/Relationships: find ways to develop relationships, pitch blogs with specific content, reach out to establishments

(O)n Top of the World factor: the bells and whistles that set you apart from others, videos, photos, contests & promotions, fresh new ideas, become an influencer & let people know who you are

(G)oods: be up front, communicate what you can deliver, your focus, set the expectation, doesn’t always have to be editorial in nature, can be book tours, tweetups, present opportunities

(S)end and Share: what is your distribution strategy? E-mail, Twitter, Facebook? Are you independently well known?

Tom Martin:

www.Budurl.com/TomMartinBlogWorld

• make it easy to cut and paste, make yourself easy to work with
• understand that the stakes are higher in the agency world, there is no new marketing budget, a small misstep can get the rep fired
• show that you speak to a tribe, not just an audience
• this is a business, cash matters, free trips and passes are accounted for and tracked for ROI, why is it is good decision to give you this?
• travel is an incestuous business, do not burn a bridge because you will be blacklisted with many agencies

Leann Jakubowski:

www.disneyparks.com/blog

• Blogger outreach to mommy bloggers and travel bloggers
• Likes to work with bloggers that have reach
• Content of blogs are family friendly, organic
• Can submit blogs to theirs

Questions:

1) How would someone starting out without a strong presence get their attention?
Give them a call, create a relationship, set expectations, tell them what you are looking for, write keyword-rich posts so they can be found, use Twitter as a way to reach out, post links, & get re-tweeted, make your blog as visually appealing as possible

2) How can you convey how good you really are in a niche market?
Send them an e-mail of a re-tweet, a video, or a post that really gets their attention

3) What role does content play in a blog as opposed to print and ads?
Content is king

4) Any tips that make initial content engaging?
Analyze who you are trying to reach out to, get the most active name of the brand you want to connect with

5) Is anyone reaching out to baby boomers and seniors?
Fastest growing group in social media are baby boomers, most marketers are between 25 to 42.

6) What role do bloggers play in generating revenue?
Getting a presence is more focused on creating an awareness of their brand, puts a human touch to their brand, their reputation

7) Is there a monetization value to link blogs to a brand (cross linking)?
Too complex to discuss

8) Who to contact without being spammy?
Redbooks.com, a curated database of every ad agency in the world, gives address, phone number, and sometimes e-mail. AdWeek and BrandWeek. Contact the PR person, contact the city’s traveling bureau

9) How do bloggers reach local demographics?
Google search, Twitter search, connect with brand’s PR person to get local contacts

10) What is your opinion of HARO (Help a reporter out)?
People do not subscribe to a reporter, but to an establishment.

11) What is an example of something that stands out from a blogger?
Renee Ross of Cutie Booty Cakes, a lifestyle writer. Hotel Chatter, posts are tongue-in-cheek wittiness, funny, wraps up travel & entertainment, has a great tone.

Travel Blogging 2009 & Beyond

Speakers: Jim Benning, @jimbenning, www.jimbenning.net
Pam Mendel, @nerdseyeview, www.nerdseyeview.com
Stefanie Michaels, @adventuregirl, www.adventuregirl.com
Robert Reid, @reidontravel, www.lonelyplanet.com
Jessica Spiegel, @italylogue, www.italylogue.com, www.bootsnall.com
10/17/2009, 3pm – 4pm

Travel Blogging Tips & Advice

• Write stories about things that are happening, things you see, people you met
• Don’t do it because of money, do it because you love what you’re doing
• Make your travels into interesting stories
• Blog in conjunction with twittering, use bit.ly to put links on there
• Reach out to others
• Check out Travel Tuesday, Aloha Saturday, or any travel sites
• Follow travel tweeters on Twitter
• Always show people what things look like, use videos but keep it short, hold the camera steady, do not zoom in and out too much
• Find videos of other travel bloggers you think are good to get ideas on how to make your’s good
• Blog during your travels but make sure to blog when you get home, too

The Value of Blogs To Hospitals, New Organizations, and Industry

Speakers: Gary Schwitzer, HealthNewsReview.org, http://blog.lib.umn.edu/schwitz/healthnews/
Bob Stern, MedPage Today, http://www.medpagetoday.com/Blogs/
Paul Levy, Beth Isreal Deaconess Medical Center, http://runningahospitalblogspot.com
Marc Monseau, Johnson & Johnson, http://jnjbtw.com
10/15/2009, 4pm – 5pm

Notes:

• Represent what you and your institution stands for. Why would anyone not do that?
• People like seeing posts of medical institutions, statistics, new medical breakthroughs
• Everyone else is talking about us, why aren’t we? Large Corporations might have legal & regulatory constraints, but they can give out new info, respond to customers, address issues
• Listen, respond, and develop relationships
• People trust others like themselves rather than large institutions and companies
• How do we ensure that medical information available online is accurate? Reach out to the community by blogging about the topic. Use it as a way to deal with product issues. Use twitter to complement the blog posts
• People were proud of the fact that their boss blogged about them.
• Fosters greater confidence in their organization
• “The Terry Schiavo Case” – Blogging about the case gave people the real world insight into what was going on exactly.
• J & J sued the Red Cross for infringement of their logo, became a big news story. People questioned why anyone would want to sue the Red Cross? J & J saw blogging as a way to address the situation. Detailed reasons for doing so, how the trademark laws work, and opened up the screen for people to see what was behind running their organization.
• “Only a fool has to learn from losing, only a bigger fool who doesn’t learn from it”
• Preview comments before they are allowed on the blog, such as discussions about the off-label uses of certain medications, threats, non-topic related comments
• Tap into resources about healthcare on YouTube
• If people come to your blog, it’s because they care about that topic
• ROI on healthcare blogging? Blogging doesn’t cost anything, just time. Can use tools to chart number of visitors, but the value is more important than dollars & cents.
• What is the risk of not being involved? It is more about trustworthiness and source of good information.
• To get around regulatory restrictions and legal issues, blog in baby steps. Start small.
• Blogging about ways to relieve side effects of powerful meds. Although the medical manufacturers refuse to acknowledge the post, at least the information is out there by people who use those meds.

State of the Medical Blogosphere

Speakers: Kerri Morrone Sparling: www.sixuntilme.com
Kevin Pho: www.kevinmd.com
Nicholas Genes: www.medgadget.com, www.blogborygmi.com
Kim McAllister: www.emergiblog.com
10/15/2009, 9:45am – 10:45am

Evolution of the Medical Blogosphere

• 60% of patients use the internet as their first source of information
• Doctors need to get on board to connect with their patients, answer questions about medical news and new medical info
• Patients are blogging about their experiences as a way to find other people like them
• People are leaving the Blogosphere due to privacy and employer issues
• Issues with patient privacy when doctors blog, new parameters as to what doctors can and cannot share emerged
• Social media presence is essential for all doctors stay relevant and credible
• Patient blogging can help other patients with managing their diseases (shared experiences, what to expect, medication reactions doctors didn’t mention but many people experience, how to administer your meds in the least painful way)
• Social and mainstream media will someday merge into one entity
• Very few people read medical blogs, blogging is a way to get into mainstream publications
• FTC is looking at blogging and full disclosure, bloggers must share whether they are being compensated for writing their blog
• If you are only on Facebook or Twitter, you might not be connecting with your audience. Being on different social networks allow you to connect with people who might be interested in you but does not participate in all the social networks
• Being a patient blogger allows you to connect with other people who have the same condition as you do

Questions & Answers

How can medical companies blog without violating FTC and FDA regulations and still get the word out on their products?
Independent bloggers have more freedom to say what they feel without worrying about that. They can link to the medical devices pages, or the companies can get the blogger to link to them

Building A Sustainable Online Community: ChicagoNow

Speaker: Tracy Samantha Schmidt
10/16/2009, 3pm – 3:30pm

Tracy Samantha Schmidt wrote for Time magazine. They wanted her to get a student eyewitness at the Virginia Tech shooting. She reached out to people through the Virginia Tech group on Facebook and found a survivor. She beat out 800 other journalists to get an exclusive interview. She believes in using social media to get facts and to reach people.

On Creating ChicagoNow.

The idea behind ChicagoNow is for people to find out what’s happening on their block, things that are happening that affect them, news, and entertainment.

Some key tactics that were used:

• To populate quickly: used an existing community, like bloggers.
• Brought people into the site by funneling all blogs into different categories.
• Hired bloggers by offering them contracts, but the bloggers still owned their content, unedited.
• Remained unnoticed until a massive launch with a marketing campaign.

ChicagoNow has 115 blogs, but no neighborhood blogs. So they created a summary of blogs on paper to distribute to neighborhoods with neighborhood ads.

Social Media ROI: What, How, Why

Panelist(s): Rob Hahn, Jim Marks, Sherry Chris, Mike Simonsen, Dan Green
@mikesimonsen
@BHGRE_Sherry
@jimmarks
@mortgagereports

What is an ROI?

Traditional ROI = Return on Investment
Social Media ROI = Return on Influence

ROI is a measure on traffic, clicks, and dollars. The basics of ROI is that, how much money you put in is how much you get in return. It can be summed up as such:

Time invested and sphere of influence put into Social Media => Return on Influence => Return on Investment

Time Spent on Social Media

To give a perspective on how social media works, Dan Green provided his background on his foray into social media. When he first started social media interactions, it took 18 months to get the first lead. Now he spends on average: 132 minutes per day or 13.5 hours per week on blog, twitter, facebook (essentially equating to about 1/4 of a week on social media). The pay off is that he’s closed over 100 real estate deals via social media contacts.

Another one of the panelists stated that it took 6 months of blogging before receiving his first lead, and now he’s gotten 4 real estate deals of $300K each.

The success isn’t to say that you make your conversions on social media. It’s a way to market yourself, gain access, garner contacts, and eventually close the deal. Traditional means such as a phone call or a face-to-face meeting are still necessary in closing the deal.

Structure Strategy, and Direction

Jim Marks states that for a successful social media effort, you need a structure, strategy, and direction. If you don’t know the direction you’re going in everyday, you have to change your strategy. Blogging works, since a byproduct of blogs results in traffic and conversions. Aim to bring online clients offline. Create relationships.

Corporate Blogging and Social Media

Sherry Chris says that getting approval for a Corporate Blog maybe difficult. However, the payoff could be substantial. For example: using BHGRealEstateBlog.com and through “tweeting”, it resulted in closing a $13M business deal.

Some tips for Twitter :

• When retweeting, use a teaser
• Give a reason to click on the link
• Lead them towards a means to close the deal