Austin SEM

Following up my last blog post recapping the events of the Video Marketing Expo 2009 (VMX), in this entry I interview the event organizer, Chris Justice of Sparksight, on the opportunities and future trends in video.

I know a lot of you are looking for avenues for your talents so I asked Chris questions regarding opportunities in the video industry. Being that my own company’s expertise is in technology forecasting and trend analysis, I found Chris’ answers to be particularly interesting. To get an idea of what is on the tape, my questions include:

1. Where do you see the trend of video in the short and long term?
2. Where do you see opportunities for individual, small and larger companies in the future?
3. What changes do you see in video in the future?
4. What would you like to see people leaving with today?
5. Can you tell a funny experience you had doing video?

Carrie Vanston, Technology Futures, Inc., cvanston at tfi.com

When Kate, our fearless AustinSEM leader, asked me if I’d be willing to write a blog about the Video Marketing Expo (VMX) May 13, my first thought was, “I’ve never written a blog and I’m too busy.” But then it occurred to me, why am I attending such events if I’m not going to jump in and do what I learned. So, here I am writing my first blog entry! And then, I thought, “Well, if I’m going to a video expo, I should do a video.” So I interviewed the event organizer, Chris Justice of Sparksight, on opportunities in video. Chris was great and Kate has helped me put up the blog entry, as well as the video. So far, so good!

Editors note: We decided to do the recap as one post and the video as another. The video will be published tomorrow in Carrie’s followup.

VMX Video Marketing
The expo opened with Ingrid Venderveldt who gave encouragement with saying “Yes, it is worth finishing, it’s not stupid!” The overarching theme of this show seemed to be that businesses needed to not be afraid of video, but embrace it.

Brigette Dale and Lan and Vu Bui talked about the future of entertainment and TV. They said the most important things are that videos should teach you something and, ideally, end with a smile. They suggested www.Freevlog.org and www.thebuibrothers.com as having tons of stuff on how to get going. They all made the point that what your audience really wants is to see you are a person.

Next I attended Track 2 with Troy Lanier and DadLabs on the essentials for producing online video. One nugget that jumped out was www.tubemogul.com allows you to put your video out to 15 plus social sites.

Then we went on to learn about online video marketing strategies with Jim Warren from Infomercial.com and Giovanni Gallucci with The Agency Blog.

Jim’s 3 steps for successful video marketing:

1. Call to action
2. Offer
3. Hook
   • Exclusive web offer;
   • Limited time offer or TV offer;
   • Lack of availability to purchase elsewhere;
   • Credibility of spokesperson.

Giovanni says Google owns YouTube and therefore it is very valuable to your overall marketing presence to optimize your videos.

1. Title in description in YouTube should be 100-300 words
2. 5 keywords per 100
3. Put keyword either before or after the link in video description;
4. Google loves Flicker, so do stills of your video and put them up.

Next up was producing and syndicating online video from the Bui Brothers. Being a super neophyte regarding internet and video, I had no idea how video even got onto websites. Now I know they get there by living on a host site and then being embedded onto a website. Some of these sites are free–if your content is non-commercial–and some are kind of lax even if the video could be considered commercial.

Their favorite was blip.tv, but they agreed that for low quality video, the product isn’t that great. Blip does let you encode information about your own company. Vimeo.com was 2nd favorite and better with lower quality video, but more picky about commercial content. The brothers had experienced being cut off without notice on one of their ads. They mentioned that having YouTube host your video on their website gives them a lot of rights that you may not feel comfortable with. You can always have it hosted somewhere else and just put it on YouTube. For a tutorial on getting a video shot and up, go to http://thebuibrothers.com/store/.

Brian Rutledge from GetPageOne says the nice thing about video is the search engines might pick it up if it’s optimized. Video transcribing (putting video text onto the page) can help with rankings. He suggested maybe putting a little of transcript on the page and then putting “more” leading to the rest of the transcription. His favorite metric tool is tubemogul.com. He said seomoz.com has a lot of useful information.

Hank Jones talked about copywriting, legal compliance, and rules of ownership. He suggested to

1. Always cover “what-ifs” in contract;
2. Deconstruct definitions in contracts;
3. Cover industry and technology “processes” with samples, exclusion;
4. Register copyrights early, often, and right;
5. Learn from other copyright groups.

We finished up the day with Brian Brushwood with Scam School giving a fascinating presentation about branding. He recommended a book entitled “Origin of Brands” by Al and Laura Ries. How to win:

1. Be first;
2. If can’t be first, be first in category;
3. Be first in the mind;
4. Be 2nd, but be as opposite of everything first is as you can.

Brian of the wild hair used the techniques to successfully become “the magician of the internet.”

Awards followed with a great reception of Japanese food. Wow, the food was great all day!

Several sessions and interviews from the day are available at VMX2009, including the session by Chris Justice about  live streaming and webcasting that I wasn’t able to attend. I also interview Chris about his thoughts on the opportunities and future trends in video on a separate, upcoming post.

Carrie Vanston, Technology Futures, Inc., cvanston at tfi.com

Just a quick update so everyone can get their June calendars set! We are looking at a June 23rd date at perhaps Iron Cactus downtown? Voice any opinions or suggestions in the comments. We are open to place or topic.

May Social Pictures

It’s Social Time in Austin – Join us for a few drinks and a lot of fun!

We had a fantastic time last month at Third Base doing the Table Topics (thanks Nadia!), and now it’s time to kick back and relax. There is graduation going on, Summer Break, and school is out. Let’s celebrate spring (already feels like summer) in style with a good old fashioned social. Hope to see everyone there with some search marketing friends.

Where: Cool River Cafe, Austin (Thanks for the suggestion Matt!)
When: 6pm-ish, Tuesday, May 26th
RSVP: Email katemorris at the Google mail … if you are attending please, or comment.
(And be sure you are signed up with the group to get all emails and reminders!)

Please pass this along to everyone you know in Austin in the search marketing industry. Just as a reminder, this group is for search marketing professionals. We welcome everyone from beginners to advanced, but try to keep it to those who perform search marketing related tasks. Invite in-house people you know … and agencies, grab your specialists. We want them to learn, we want to learn from them. This is a group just for those of us that are tackling the exciting world of search marketing!

So we have been going since August, and things are in full swing, so I am looking for help. I need a few good search marketers in Austin to step up to the plate and help out in a few areas.

• Blog Writer – Help recapping new and past events, plus whatever else is going on in Austin.
• Social Planner – I will help the most with this, but I need someone to contact places to arrange meetings and such. Someone that is good at locating great Austin spots to have socials and such.
• Events Calendar – Keeping up to date with the Austin Tech scene to let the group know via our calendar what is going on, what events to attend and all the juicy details of future tweetups and the like.

If you are interested in helping in any of these areas, even for a small time, please let me know! I’ll give anyone a login to the WordPress account that wants to write a few blog posts now and then.

Q&A Session

Analytics – What should be tracked to successfully measure an SEO campaign?

Best Answer: Brian Rutledge – Track what it is you are monetizing, be it a lead or a sale. Newsletters, information, whatever will lead to a sale for you.

Other Answers
Matt Reid – Track the keywords that are leading visitors to your site.
Abel Alvarado – Track your competitors and the phrases they are competing with you on.
David Ogletree – Check your log files! Check for referrers from 404s and 301 redirect those to gain link value.
Brian Combs – Track your conversions to have a better view of your sales funnel.

On-site optimization – What are three steps to transition to a new domain name?

Best Answer: Brian Rutledge – Map site directly over with the same structure using 301 redirects. Then contact link partners to change links to new domain.

Other Answers
Larry Tamkin – You must prepare the domain for the new shift. It’s a big change in the life of the domain and much care is needed to transition it to its new role in life. Perhaps contact a domain psychologist to set up daily sessions to talk about the new challenges and road blocks ahead for the domain. (Yes, this answer was a joke, laugh.)
Kate Morris – Keep both sites up and running if you are changing hosting as well as the domain. A recent change of domain and hosting resulted in a week of updating DNS and search results. Keep mirrors running on both ends until you get all lose ends tied up when it comes to DNS changes.

SEO Myths – What is keyword density and how is it important to SEO?

Best Answer: David Ogletree – It’s about stemming which is the repeating of key phrases different ways. Focus on the topic not a specific key phrase.

Other Answers
Dan Crean – it is defined as the percentage of keywords focused to total number of words. Was relevant back in the day, but isn’t anymore.
Brian Rutledge – You don’t “need” to look at it anymore because you already know. For long tail, there is a sweet spot of density, but as search marketers we are just used to seeing it now. The theme of the site can dominate the page in results no matter the topic of the page.
Keith Goode – Begs to differ and says that with listing sites there is a focus for keyword density. There does seem to be a correlation. It does depend on the site.

Paid Search – What are the components that affect paid search quality score?

Best Answer: Brian Combs – There are actually two pieces to the paid search quality score. One is related to ad cost and the other to placement in rankings. If you end up having isses, your AdWords rep can help.

Other Answers
Moses Chang – Determining factors are account, keyword, and ad text. [Editors note, landing page is also taken into account]
David Ogletree – CTR is the biggest determining factor.

Blogging – Is creating a blog good for SEO?

Best Answer: Ashton Verrengia – Yes. Using them as a part of the whole campaign is good.

Other Answers
Keith Goode – yes it helps, but that’s because that’s the only part of the site that gets updated on a regular basis.
Dan Crean – I’m skeptical. It has to be used in the right way for it to be effective. It’s not about the updating, it’s the quality of the information in the blog.
Brian Rutledge – For people on a budget, getting someone to do a good SEO friendly blog is the best investment.
David Ogletree – Use a subdomain – blog.domain.com so that it ranks well in addition to your domain.

Conferences – Name the two best SEM related conferences.

Best Answer: Kate Morris – It depends on where you are in your career. Advanced professionals should attend SMX Advanced and PubCon Vegas for the best information and networking.

Other Answers
Larry Tamkin – What is SEM?
David Ogletree – SES and PubCon; SES to get clients and PubCon to learn.

Paid Links – What are they and what do SEs think?

This was a huge debate, so calling it a draw
David Chang – Popular bloggers post links for to profit on their blogs and SEs don’t like this practive cause it’s not quality content.
David Ogletree – Google is cracking down on it big time, but still effective.
Nadia King – It’s just advertising … we have to play by the rules. But a good link is a good link.
Brian Rutledge – Not sure Google cares, they don’t remove them. Wants the buyers to be kicked as well.

Paid Search – Two ads on same keyword, good or bad?

Best Answer: Kate Morris – it’s possible, but takes much setup in the way of having two separate sites, accounts, and ads. The platform has to not be able to tell its you multiple times. Won’t be caught by algo, but if hand checked can get you in some trouble. Besides, it’s not the trouble, you could be doing yourself a disservice. It’s more shelf space yes, but sometimes too much work for it. Get affiliates!

Other Answers
Brian – It’s not good or bad, but you are pushing up your own cost of doing business
David Ogletree – You can have 10 if you want.

Analytics – Best package on the market?

Best Answer: Keith Goode – Omniture, but GA is best. GA uses sampled data, it’s not 100% accurate

Other Answers
David Ogletree – Weblog Expert – Log analyzer, customized reports, web interface, Ghost.com
Larry Tamkin – Core Metrics
Dan Crean – Webtrends. I don’t want Google to know all that stuff.

Pictures

Thanks to Keith Goode for taking pictures!

Annoucements	Get Page One Boys
Brian Combs	Moses Chang

Our new event is coming up on April 21st at Third Base. Don’t miss it. Missed the email? Join up and you’ll get all the announcements from now on. We just bypassed the 50 member mark. I know there are more Search Marketing professionals in Austin!

Until then, here is the email you missed along with the details of the event.

Can’t wait to see you there.

So we haven’t had any events lately … I am blaming that on the short month, my own busy-ness, and the fact that Austin is being invaded this week. PubCon South starts on Wednesday (I hear there MIGHT be a few more spots open, so sign up now!) and then SXSWi starts Friday/Saturday.

In light of the parties that are happening, and the wide variety of talent invading Austin, we are skipping what was to be a planned event this month and moving it to April. We have a location locked down and an idea to run with. We will be learning, teaching and having fun … and there will be drinks, promise. It’s going to be April 21st at 6pm at Third Base. More details to come after this week.

For the events of this week, check your email for party info, links to more party info, and a details of a small gathering of minds in North Austin on Thursday. I am looking forward to seeing everyone at the events, parties, and just out and about. If you are going to any open events, please post them here for everyone to see, or in the forums for just members.

Remember, if you have that burning question about search marketing and want to hear other’s thoughts, sign up for the AustinSEM forums. The more that our members sign in, answer, and question, the more we get good ideas for our own campaigns.

Nadia recently added a question about Sharepoint. If you have experience with it, login or sign up, and give her your thoughts.

The forums require approval by Kate, so if you don’t hear back within a few hours, comment here and we’ll take care of that immediately. Too many spammers trying to get in means that if you aren’t identifiable, chances are you’ll get rejected.

“Day of” Note:I am here, inside currently on my Mac. This place has plenty of space and parking and heaters on the patio just in case we are out there. From Mopac, take Westover Exit, head towards campus, follow that road until it ends, hang a left, follow that until it ends, hang a right. That’s 29th St. Go past Lamar, and the next light will be Rio Grande. You’ll see it on the right.

It’s time to prepare for the invasion on Austin and get the word out about
AustinSEM.

PubCon South is coming to Austin in March and we have the hook up to event
news. It’s time to get read for the onslaught. How do we do that? Well
socialize of course. We have to prepare right? In true AustinSEM fashion, we
will get together, talk about whatever is on our minds and prepare for
the coming year. What do you guys want this to be? Bring ideas and a drive
to make this the most worthy group you’ve ever joined. Oh, and tell your
friends, we’d love to meet everyone in Austin that does Internet Marketing!

Where: Drango’s Ice House, 29th and Rio Grande, Austin
http://www.drungoicehouse.com/
(Thanks for the suggestion Jeremy!)
When: 6pm-ish, Wednesday, January 28th
RSVP: Email katemorris at gmail dot com if you are attending please or comment here.

Directions to
2828 Rio Grande St. Austin, TX