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At SMX West in Santa Clara, the State of the Search Union keynote is taking place today. It’s moderated by Chris Sherman, Executive Editor of Search Engine Land, and features SEL Contributing Editor Vanessa Fox, Google Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik, Yahoo Director of Search Marketing David Roth, and Misty Locke, President, Range Online Media and Chief Strategy Officer of iProspect. The official description for this keynote says: We’ve just come through the most turbulent period in history for search marketers. Economic disruption, massive algorithm updates, the disappearance of a major player through consolidation with one of its former competitors… these events and others have reshaped the search landscape, creating both challenges and opportunities for search marketers. On this panel we’ve assembled some of the sharpest minds in search to discuss where things stand and where we’re going – you won’t want to miss the insights and recommendations from this group of super-savvy panelists. I will liveblog the event below, when it starts 9:00am Pacific/12:00pm Eastern (please forgive typos): Liveblogging starts: 12:00 EST:

Originally posted here:
Liveblogging: The State Of The Search Union (Google, Yahoo & Experts)

I’ve always considered LinkedIn more of a place to prospect for a job than anything else. And since I haven’t been in the market for one in a while, I’ve paid it little mind. Plus, if I’m being honest: I’ve always thought LinkedIn was kind of … well, boring . If Facebook was a rave at a cool downtown hot spot, LinkedIn was a stuffy reception with piped-in music at one of those cookie-cutter function facilities conveniently located at the end of an exit ramp. Does that sound harsh? Perhaps. But now I’ve realized that I couldn’t have been more wrong

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How I Was Wrong About LinkedIn (with 2 Mini Case Studies)

Okay, it’s not the first time, but it does seem like a rather momentous one: bloggers are now being granted press passes from the City of New York. These passes allow qualified journalists to and even sometimes within police and fire lines (within reason, of course)—and everything from bloggers to other online-only content providers. Although bloggers are often recognized as press members at sporting events and even political meetings, a city officially recognizing online media as a legitimate news source isn’t something we’ve seen happen very often. Giving online content providers the same rights and privileges that they extend to traditional media shows a pretty impressive respect—and it does feel like bloggers have finally arrived

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Attention, Bloggers: We Have Arrived

Follow all of Bruce Clay’s Liveblogging Coverage of SMX West 2010 here. Session names will take you to the coverage and show you what’s upcoming. Session descriptions link you to the SMX conference site. Enjoy! Day 1: Tuesday, March 2 Time BCI Liveblog Coverage Session Description 9:00 a.m. Keynote Conversation: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Session Description 10:40 a.m. Mobile Paid Search Ads: Real Opportunities Session Description 1:15 p.m. Not Your Father’s AdWords: The New Google Ad Formats Session Description 3:00 p.m. Google’s Personalized Search Revolution Session Description 4:30 p.m. Supercharging Your Descriptions With Sitelinks Session Description Day 2: Wednesday, March 3 Time BCI Liveblog Coverage Session Description 9:15 a.m. Keynote: Peter Norvig, Google Session Description 10:45 a.m. Bring In The Bling Via Bing Cashback Session Description 1:30 p.m. Dealing With Domain Names, URLs, Parameters & All That Jazz – Technical SEO Tactics Session Description 3:15 p.m. Facebook Ad Tactics For Search Marketers Session Description 4:45 p.m. The Need For Speed: Google Says It Matters Session Description Day 3: Thursday, March 4 Time BCI Liveblog Coverage Session Description 9:00 a.m. Keynote – The State Of The Search Union Session Description 10:00 a.m. Microsoft + Yahoo: What’s It All Mean? Session Description 11:30 a.m. Measuring How Search Ads Drive Offline Conversions Session Description 1:30 p.m.

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SMX West 2010 Liveblog Coverage

Toyota is now turning to Twitter to help stem the tide of negativity that has been heaped upon it during the “Recall Free For All” (that one’s mine). I guess someone at Toyota HQ has been studying up on this Twitter thing and decided that it was the way to go. Of course, just going headlong into a potentially hostile environment would be foolish so they have found a way to “manage” just what is being seen and heard in this attempt to make things better again with the top selling automaker in the world. TechCrunch reports The Japanese auto giant has launched a branded channel on TweetMeme, in partnership with Federated Media, which aggregates and organize Twitter conversations regarding Toyota. Called Toyota Conversations the site brings together the top stories being Tweeted about Toyota, from news articles to press releases. The site also shows visitors the most popular videos and images being shared about Toyota on Twitter

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Toyota Turns to Twitter for ORM Issues

Moderator Greg Sterling , founding principal, Sterling Market Intelligence, asks how many people were in the Steve Ballmer keynote this morning? Everyone raises their hand. Who found it substantive and interesting? Most keep their hand raised. One of the things that came up a number of times in the conversation is the growth of mobile search. Even Ballmer was surprised the volume, the monetization and the clicks in the mobile arena. A user’s search behavior on a mobile device is often much more immediate and focused than it is on a PC, Greg explains. So with that, let’s take a look at the marketing opportunities in mobile search

Link:
Mobile Paid Search Ads: Real Opportunities

Heather Hopkins / Hitwise Intelligence : Facebook Users Prefer Broadcast Media

Maybe you’ve already seen them: the ads that end with “Visit us on Facebook,” instead of a URL. Reminiscent of ads a few years ago that encouraged us to search on a specific search engine with a specific keyword (or use AOL) instead of visiting a website, the latest rash of CTAs scream “look at us, we’re really hip!” Steve Rubel’s March column on Forbes ( available on his blog ) points out Uniball as one example of these newly hip-cool advertisers. Yeah. Totally buying that. Not. Even better, the Uniball Facebook page is giving away 10,000 pens (or was, anyway)—with no direct links to its website. While that’s a great social strategy (although . . . pens? You’re using digital marketing to give away pens?!), divorcing their social campaigns from their website—a space they wholly own and control—doesn’t seem like the smartest move. Rubel points out that this try-hard social method will backfire with more savvy consumers (like me . But seriously, see above reaction). He also says that (emphasis added): Second, the use of “heavy artillery” – e.g. advertising – to round up more fans and followers is equally controversial. This would be fine if it lead to true person-to-person engagement.

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Coming to an Ad Near You: Visit Us on Facebook

The Society For New Communications Research has come out with a new study on journalists’ use of social media —and it’s not as optimistic (or maybe realistic) as another study published this month. In a survey of 300+ journalists, the second annual Middleberg/SNCR Survey of Media in the Wired World ( PDF executive summary ) found that most of them did use social media—but a significant minority didn’t. However, in this study, journalists did admit that social media was important. Earlier this month, Cision and Don Bates of GWU found that 89% of journalists source stories from blogs . The Middleberg/SNCR study found that nearly 70% of journalists surveyed are using social networking sites, and 66% are reading blogs. (The number of journalists using social networking sites constitutes a “28% increase since the results of the 2008 Survey of Media in the Wired World were released,” but I’m not sure if they mean 28% [meaning it was ~55% in 2008] or 28 percentage points [meaning it was around 40% in 2008].) Twitter and other microblogging sites and tools are at 48%, a 25% increase since 2008, while online video is up to 48%. 25% are listening to podcasts. However, these journalists were (I choose to believe) more honest than the ones surveyed by GWU. The last study showed that only 15% of journalists think social media is “important” and 40% think it’s “somewhat important.” This study indicated that “Nearly 80% of journalists surveyed believe that bloggers have become important opinion-shapers in recent years” and “91% of journalists surveyed agree that new media and communications tools and technologies are enhancing journalism to some extent.” What do you think? Which of these “really” reflects how journalists feel about social media?

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A Third of Journalists Still Not Using Social Media

Jack Purcher / Patently Apple : Cool New Finger Swiping Camera Controls coming to iPhone & iPad