One of the benefits of living an hour from NYC is that you get access to the top seminars and conferences and I took advantage of that benefit by attending the 2009 Search Engine Strategies Conference this week. It was such a rush to hear the thoughts and opinions from leaders in the search and internet marketing world.
The highlight for me was keynote speaker Guy Kawasaki . His blog “How to Change the World” is a place I like to visit often to see how Guy is changing the world and who he thinks I should know about. Guy shared how he uses Twitter to drive traffic to his website and gave us a tour of his favorite Twitter Tools. I’ll be posting those later this week.
Another highlight was a panel discussion on the future of search with top reps from Microsoft, Google, Digitas, iCrossing, and iProspect. It was really fun to see Jon Dorio of Google and James Colburn of Microsoft Live poke at each other. It was clear who the the panel considered top dog - Colburn was ribbed repeatedly about living under Google’s shadow. The big message that I took from the panel is that search is growing exponentially and businesses have to be found! Traditional media drives over 1/3 of searches - so if you’re running TV or print ads you have to coordinate your web site strategy with your traditional marketing to make sure you are capturing the audience that is coming to your website.
Using traditional media to drive traffic to a web site isn’t new to me - I’ve been telling my clients that for years! But it was great to hear leaders in the search industry confirm it and convey the importance.
Another benefit of this conference was getting some training on how to use Facebook advertising. I’ve not tried it but I am very aware of the benefits of being able to target your ads by gender, age, education and interests. There is no other place on the web with more information about your potential customers than Facebook. And the amazing thing is - they don’t pay to get that information, we give it to them with every post we make.
Facebook is an exciting advertising tool that I’m excited to try out AND I snagged EIGHT $50 coupons for advertising on Facebook. I’ve got a short list of clients that I want to use them for, so I’ll be contacting you soon. If you are eager to jump into this cost-effective, highly targeted advertising - contact me so we can start a campaign.
