NewSunNetworks

So here I sit in the DFW airport hanging out with David Berkowitz waiting for my connection to Austin. What better way to spend that 45 min than to write a helpful blog post? A big part of my “mission” for SXSXi is to create content after all. I have several other goals like networking (reconnecting and especially new contacts), competitive research, recruiting and potential client prospecting. But content marketing is our bread and butter. It can be an effective tactic for you too, especially if you can learn to be highly efficient at liveblogging conferences. Here are a few tips that will not only give you a tested and proven guideline but should improve your efficiency and quality of output. Create a schedule . Whether you’re blogging on your own or with a team, pick which sessions and related topics you plan on covering before the event. SXSWi has almost too many concurrent sessions and with such a large event, not planning will lead to getting to sessions late. That means a crappy seat in back and likely not anywhere near an outlet.It’s very easy to get distracted while at the conference and with live blogging, there’s no time to waste. If you know which sessions you’ll be covering, it can help to create draft blog posts ahead of time and include as much information in the draft as you can. This will make it easier to finish off the post as close to the session time as possible. Plan ahead . When planning out which sessions, interviews or events you’ll cover, put together a grid showing session names, times and who should be covering (if you’re part of a blogging team). Coordinate sessions coverage avoids duplication and ensures the topical mix of content you plan on covering is properly represented.

Original post:
10 Tips on Live Blogging & Content Marketing at SXSWi

Go Rumors : Qualcomm’s Multi-Fold Device Can Replace Your iPad And iPhone

Several months ago I read a piece of research in the Journal of Marketing that I found both surprising and believable at the same time. In fact, the conclusion of this research made such an impression, I clipped a report of it and put it on the board beside my desk as a reminder of one important difference when marketing to women versus men that many small businesses completely ignore or forget about. The research explored the idea of customer loyalty, and uncovered that (on average) men were far more loyal to an organization or group than any single individual within it – and for women this finding was the opposite. What this means is that for businesses such as a hair salon or barber shop – men are more likely to be loyal to the establishment itself, while women would be more likely to follow the individual stylist from salon to salon. As the research notes, “Women tend to view themselves as being connected with and dependent on a few specific individual others. In contrast, men tend to view themselves as being connected with and dependent on larger groups of people and organizations. Because individual relationships are more important to women, they are more likely to develop loyal customer relationships with individual service providers.” If you believe in this research, then it has obvious implications for your small business no matter what industry you are in. Here are a few practical tips and advice that you may want to consider to take advantage of this knowledge of the gender difference in loyalty: Rotate your employees – If you can make it work for your business, there may be a large value in rotating the employees that your best customers deal with on a daily or weekly basis. For men, this may be easier – but in either case having a range of employees working with any customer (male or female) can help insulate you against one employee leaving, and taking your customers with them. Establish two methods for referrals – Knowing that referrals are often the lifeblood of many small businesses … this study also offers a clue to how you might want to slightly modify how you pursue getting referrals from a client based on their gender. For female customers you may want to encourage the main employee who works with them to ask for referrals – whereas for male customers, you might ask more on behalf of your company. Balance your recommendations – When online reviews or ratings are a part of your business, you may find that they go in one direction or the other in relation to talking about your people versus your business as a whole

See the article here:
SBF: The Surprising Gender Difference In Customer Loyalty

SEO PR is a buzzword that is both over-hyped and under-hyped at the same time. What I mean by this? SEO PR is currently in Buzz overkill mode in the Search Engine Marketing industry, but is drastically underutilized in the traditional …

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Webmaster and Web Tools» Blog Archive » SEO PR: Buzz-Worthy Or …

“If you have an iPhone, Palm WebOS phone, or any Android-powered device, and you’re in the US, just go to Google.com in your mobile browser, tap on the “more” link, and then select ‘Shopping.’”

Go here to read the rest:
Local Shopping Inventory, Blue Dot, Mobile Searches Rolled Out By Google

Welcome to the post-Winter/pre-Spring version of the BIGLIST review of  SEO blogs . Snow is starting to melt and you can actually walk around outside (in Minnesota) without your eyelashes freezing together. We have a nice group for you to review so fire up your RSS reader and subscribe. LyndiT blog gets our attention for great design and user experience in this BIGLIST update. Lyndi Thompson is a Social Media and Online Marketing Specialist and like me, is addicted to peanut M&Ms. Besides writing about a mix of social media, SEO, web design and online marketing topics, you might be interested to know Lyndi lives on a mini farm, owns several animals including a donkey and supports some great causes in the Northwest. Frank Thinking About Internet Marketing – Frank Reed blogs on several sites including Marketing Pilgrim and Biznology. Here, he shares is talented writing skills to tell stories about SMB internet marketing topics. This isn’t a how to blog, it’s a broader topic and things to think about blog as the name implies about Search, Mobile, Social and Local. State of Search – What’s going on in the search and social media marketing space? This new blog from Dutch internet marketer, Bas van den Beld of Search Cowboys fame, and friends promises to be a source for what’s happening in the world of search and social. It also compliments a weekly radio show on WebmasterRadio.fm of the same name. ezlocal blog – If you’re in search of great advice on local search marketing, this might be your lucky day. You can expect detailed how to posts including those about Google Maps and Local Business Center and local marketing topics. ezlocal itself is a local business search resource and directory. Digital Marketing Zen – David Wells is a digital marketing strategist for an agency in Charlotte, SC and publishes a blog that documents his observations via posts, podcasts and a curated collection of videos on topics that include everything from Augmented Reality to SEO and Social Media to Web Analytics. Single Grain Blog – This agency blog is written by Sujan Patel and Ross Hudgens on SEO, PPC, Design, Link Building and some social media. Website Workshop – Buzzhound Learning Lab is a St.

Link:
BIGLIST Social SEO Blogs Update 031110

Yesterday, I posted Video Marketing Case Studies with David Meerman Scott and Me . At the end of the post, I said, “If you have any video marketing case studies that you’d like to share with us, just mention them.” Silly me. Click to read the rest of this post…

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More Video Marketing Case Studies from Leading Brands

When RedBeacon won the TechCrunch50 as the “OpentTable for service businesses,” I lauded the site’s elegant design and theory but “dissed” what appeared to be naiveté on the part of the model (and some of the folks who were celebrating it). Here’s what I said at the time: As a general matter local businesses are time starved, confused about online advertising and generally overwhelmed by pitches for their marketing dollars. Getting them to show up and participate at RedBeacon is going to be an enormous challenge. Let me repeat that: an enormous challenge. If the founders have a five to seven year time horizon they might be prepared for the very long, slow climb up the mountain that is local. Alternatively they might be secretly thinking they’re a useful platform and will be acquired by a yellow pages publisher or other traditional media company if they can prove value and gain some momentum. Perhaps; it’s more likely than succeeding as a stand alone company. Somewhat less challenging than getting local businesses to self-serve and participate in RedBeacon is building consumer awareness

Continued here:
RedBeacon Morphs into Social Platform

Have you read the Twitter news yet? Probably so, but it’s absolutely crazy. This could completely change the Social Media Marketing landscape. I mean,

Excerpt from:
Breaking Twitter News - Webmaster Forum