Socialnomics: How social media transforms our lives and the way we do business by Erik Qualman, published by Wiley Publishing, is in bookstores and on eReaders.
What better way to show the world that reading is sexy than through a pin-up calendar that raises funds to support dyslexia?
The Reading Is Sexy Calendar, featuring some of Vancouver’s finest (and sexiest!) readers, is being launched this week. The calendar aims to promote literacy and to raise funds to help kids (and adults) with dyslexia become literate.
The idea for a “Reading Is Sexy” calendar was sparked back in the spring, when Ian Martin (http://www.twitter.com/IanAMartin) of Atomic Fez Publishing (http://www.twitter.com/atomicfez) began goading Emme Rogers, founder of the blog Being Emme, into saying “reading is sexy’ as often as possible on twitter.
The calendar is modeled on a “pin-up girl” style, similar to the one that Bryne Pen created on Salt Spring to raise funds and awareness for The Land Conservancy. In this case, the calendar supports the Canadian Branch of the International Dyslexia Association.
And if you’d like your calendar signed by the men and women of “Reading Is Sexy”, please come out to the Launch Party and Literary Celebration on Thursday.
Local: Gudrun Wine & Cheese Bistro (150-3500 Moncton Street, Steveston, BC) Date: Thursday December 3, 2009 Time: 7 pm until late
Stop by for author readings, calendar signings by the models, and the auctioning of some of Robert Shaer’s photos from the shoot. Plus Gudrun goodies, wine and beer will be on sale.
Created by Backbone and KPMG, the PICK 20 is the only national ranking of its kind and some of the judges and winners are our friends.
Among the Judges
Super-smart social media and digital marketing expert, Kate Trgovac is president of LintBucket Media, a boutique marketing agency headquartered in Vancouver which focuses on social media, community building and digital content creation. We love Kate and her marketing and technology blog.
A winner last year, “NowPublic continues at the forefront of the reinvention of news media,” according to O’Connor Clarke. “They continue to impress with the rate of their growth, their constant innovation and their overall leadership in defining the future of citizen media.” Napier said the company’s “scan tool, which acts as a filtering system, appears to be positioned to help readers get the information that is most valuable and relevant to them,” but Trgovac, while impressed by the company, is “still not sure how they make money.”
11 ThoughtFarmer Friend Chris McGrath, and social media gurus Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo who introduced me to ThoughtFarmer http://www.thoughtfarmer.com
Intranet software which incorporates social networking features
A winner last year, ThoughtFarmer “is still great, although they’ve got some tough competition. Still, it has a solid team, smart products and really cool marketing,” according to O’Connor Clarke. Trgovac also sees “lots of competition in the marketplace” but also calls ThoughtFarmer “one of the best social intranet applications I’ve seen, with a great interface and features.”
#20 Pixton Friend and CEO/Creator Clive Goodinson and Creative Director Daina M. Goodinson http://www.pixton.com
A site where people create, publish, share and remix comics
Geist enjoyed seeing something “new and creative” and Shende said Pixton “outputs creativity, collaboration, crowdsourcing and community all in an innovative new spin on an old, previously non-democratic medium.” The judges hope Pixton can monetize the service. “If the company can continue to attract classrooms willing to try the solution, and highlight the value delivered to entice institutions to pay for the subscription, the company could turn a fun comic-strip tool into something that’s really adding value and providing a revenue stream,” Napier said.
I’m envious of those who get to go so this is my pitch for what sessions you should attend so that I can follow the tweets and blog posts.
August 12 - Wednesday, Day 2
9:00am-10:15am Geek Speak Track: Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues
I love to speak geek. And I’d love to better understand duplicate content and content syndication through RSS and feeds—“Will other sites be considered the “real” site and rob you of a rightful place in the search results?”
10:45am-12:00pm Geek Speak Track: Landing Page Testing and Tuning
Geekdom 2x. Tim Ash of SiteTuners.com is one of my favourite speakers. I get him.
4:00pm-5:15pm Vertical & B2B Track: The BuyerSphere Project: Understanding B2B Buyer Patterns
I know I left a long break here but I’d probably be chatting or attending the Google sponsored session. I would definitely be back from hiatus in time for Gord Hotchkiss, another dynamo and not-to-miss speaker. According to the session notes, “A major B2B research initiative, conducted by Enquiro with input from Google, Business.com, Covario, Marketo and DemandBase, showed that most marketers aren’t effectively leveraging online assets to their best potential.” Did we need a full study? Yes, because the BuyerSphere project looks at how online strategies became artificially separated from traditional best practices, how they can be more effectively integrated and the part search plays as a major influencer. B2B is big.
Moderator: Gord Hotchkiss, President & CEO, Enquiro
Speakers:
Mark McMaster, Senior Planner of B2B and Technology Markets, Google
Ben Hanna, VP Marketing, Business.com
Susan Scarth, VP Marketing, Demandbase
Jon Miller, VP Marketing, Marketo
Dr. Matthias Blume, Chief Analytics Officer, Covario
9:00am-10:00am Morning Keynote: How to Prepare for the Future of Search
Keynote Speaker Charlene Li, Co-Author, Groundswell, Founder, Altimeter Group, is 100% worth hearing.
10:30am-11:45am Organizational Track: Electronic Contacts and the Long Arm of the Law
Johnnie Law my friends is worth knowing. The ease of e-commerce over brick-and-mortar business does not preclude the legal requirements that are unique to internet businesses situated anywhere in the world. Even offshore internet businesses can be held accountable under a variety of US federal and state laws concerning gambling. Know the rules.
Moderator: Anne F. Kennedy, SES Advisory Board, Founder Partner and CMO, http://Joblr.com and Managing Partner & Founder, Beyond Ink
Speakers:
Robert Friedman, Partner, Kelley Drye & Warren
Mark Rosenberg, Of Counsel, Sills Cummis & Gross P.C.
12:45pm-2:00pm Organic Track: News Search SEO
Boxcar Marketing likes online press releases and news search engines so we’d be ready for this panel on generating targeted traffic with the use of press releases and news content. Extra! Extra!
Geek Speak Track: Follow the Carrot: Cool Mobile Apps
Our double whammy of course is that friend and colleague Matthew Snyder, CEO of Mobify, is on this panel discussion about user migration to a mobile environment.
Search Engine Strategies is the event for search marketing and optimization. It’s one of my favourite conferences and I’m disappointed that my schedule doesn’t allow me to attend this year.
But if you are going, I’d love to have notes or feedback on the conference.
And if you’ve never gone before and are going to San Jose, here’s what I would do.
9:00am-12:00pm
SEO and Direct Marketing Tactics for Ecommerce Websites with Matt Bailey, SiteLogic
Half-day $645
The world of ecommerce is fascinating to me and Boxcar Marketing is starting to work on a number of ecommerce projects. I’m interested in how principles of Search Marketing and Direct Marketing can increase the sales rates, impression and visibility of a site.
1:00pm-4:30pm
Search and Social Media Tactics and Case Studies with Aaron Kahlow, Online Marketing Summit, and Hallie Janssen, Anvil Media Inc
Afternoon Session Only $495.
Social media gets a lot of attention but I don’t think that Search should be left by the wayside. This session promises lessons on Integrated Search, Social Media and Website best practices from the trenches of the world’s leading brands to the local business. Stories and case studies are always interesting to me.
Keynote Speaker, Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, is great to listen to and inspirational. Get up and go to the keynote.
10:30am-11:30am
Search & Measurement Track
Always be Testing: Marketing Optimization in Challenging Times
Rising costs and shrinking marketing budgets are never going away, nor is increasing demand for accountability. This means you can’t afford not to test, whether it’s A/B or multivariate testing. If you don’t know where to begin, Bryan Eisenberg is the perfect guy to tell you. I find his work exemplary and would love to attend this session.
Bryan Eisenberg, SES Advisory Board & Co-Founder, Future Now, Inc, go look him up. Trying searching (lol).
11:45am-12:45pm
Search Fundamentals Track
Successful Site Architecture
I spend a lot of time talking about site architecture with designers and developers. Successful architecture, such as specific page elements and design technologies, affect organic search rankings. Directory, file structure, server-side includes (SSIs), 404 error trapping, JavaScript, robots.txt use, frames, secure area usage—do you know how these affect the ability for customers to find your site?
1:45pm-2:45pm
Search Fundamentals Track
Turn Brain Science into Bucks: Incorporating Persuasive Messaging into Your Content Strategy
Oooo, who doesn’t like the brain and its inner workings. At Boxcar Marketing we are constantly thinking about Twitter, white papers, optimized web pages, blog posts, and any other possible opportunity to help our clients capture the attention of prospective buyers, open up communication with customers, build strong b2b and b2c relationships as well as c2c relationships. I think the showcase of online content campaigns and strategies would be very interesting given the social proof, neuroscience, and psychology twist the speakers will provide.
Moderator: Greg Jarboe, President & Co-Founder, SEO-PR
Speakers: Graeme McLaughlin, Manager Digital Marketing, British Columbia Automobile Association and Heather Lloyd-Martin, CEO, SuccessWorks
3:00pm-4:00pm
Search & Community Track
Stop the Presses! How SEO Can Help Save the Publishing Industry
Publishers absolutely need to know how to leverage SEO and drive traffic to their sites. I can’t talk about this enough so it would be great to hear someone else’s perspective.
Bryan Eisenberg, I’m a fan. I’d be back to hear Bryan speak in this session on metrics, usability and persuasion. Plus it ties into the A/B test in the earlier session. The big sell: “This session will instruct you on how to identify the critical barriers to success on the sites selected and how this team of experts would go about fixing them in less than 48 hours.” I hope someone will share notes here.
Moderator: Anne F. Kennedy, SES Advisory Board, Founder Partner and CMO, http://Joblr.com and Managing Partner & Founder, Beyond Ink
Speakers:
Bryan Eisenberg, SES Advisory Board & Co-Founder, Future Now, Inc.
Ethan Giffin, CEO, Groove Commerce
It was Super Bowl, which is one of the last mass media experiences that we share. Super Bowl is particularly important for the ad industry ($3 million for a 30-second spot) and we think that spending $3 million is not ballsy, but handing over the creative direction of your ad to your consumers is a really ballsy move.
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