Category Archives: Events

Events

“Open Mic Night” Saves the Day After No-Show Speaker

August 19, 2012 – 1:19 pm

In short: What do you do when your speaker bails at the last minute? Think of something quick, but don't cancel!
 
Last Wednesday, I organized a meetup to bring together marketing enthusiasts in the Ottawa and invited a special guest speaker from across the borders to join us and talk about Google+ Marketing. Short story: an unexpected event happened and got word at 2PM (4 hours before the event) that he wouldn't be able to make it. I was stumped. I didn't know what to do. I thought, this is the worst thing that could happen right now. 
 
I first thought about what people would say if I cancelled the event because our speaker won't be making an appearance. Then I thought; what if we told the people that our speaker is not coming, but change up the format and still hold the event? I thought, the worst thing I could do is to cancel the event after 64 people had confirmed their attendance. So I knew what I needed to do.
 
I received the message at work and got a few Pathers to help me brainstorm ideas to fix this problem, and to still deliver an exceptional show to those who've been waiting weeks for this to take place. There are two concepts that i think really worked. Most, if not all, of those who showed up, stayed from the beginning, right to till the end. I was, more than shockingly surprised and happy.
 
A message was sent out to the group letting them know about the cancellation of our speaker. Still, we got a decent showing of ~30 people. After the message was sent, replies were coming in and many still wanted to meet. So I was glad only a select few bailed last minute. 
 
On to the two ideas: 
  • "Open Mic Night" – this idea came from one of my colleagues, Mike Prouty. 
  • Questions, Answers and Discussions – this came up on the spot at the event

As simple as it sounds, one the key objectives of our group is fostering knowledge sharing. I feel like both of these accomplished that, and it worked out well enough that the audience was engaged and participated in the discussions. 

Open Mic Night – this idea is all about giving members an opportunity to get into the spotlight and share a project that they're working on. The topic had to be on something related to Internet Marketing (SEO, SEM, Web Analytics, UX, etc.). Each participant had 10 minutes to talk about their project, with a few Q&A at the end. 

Questions, Answers and Discussions – to fill the gap where if nobody was brave enough to take the stage, I asked whether anyone had any questions about their website or anything related to Internet Marketing. Immediately, a few hands shot up and the questions and answers got into motion. 

At The Ottawa Web Marketing group (free event), we take privilege to those who volunteer their time and assemble a presentation and share it with the group. We hope to continue down this path, and that our group continues its growth into 2013. If you're an avid or enthusiastic marketer, I invite you out to our next event to check us out!  Come join the fun!

Has this situation ever happen you? What have you done to keep your event live and entertaining? 

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Events

Highlights from SMX Toronto 2011 Day 2

April 30, 2011 – 3:38 am

SMX TorontoOn to day 2…

If you haven't yet, you can read my previous post about Day 1 at SMX.

Given the fact that my flight is at 5:30pm, day was short, but I found even the condensed time-frame didn't takeaway the value I got from the speakers. Here are the sessions I attend and will be recapping on:

  • Evaluating SEO and Paid Search Activity and Conversions
  • Data Diving: Segmenting Data for Insights and Actionable Metrics
  • What's new with Local Search?

Evaluating the value of your efforts

Often getting a ton of traffic flowing to your site is great. But is that enough to satisfy your efforts to drive that amount of traffic to your site? Do you know your cost:revenue ratio? This is exactly what this panel discussed.

Key takeaways:

  • Map out your conversion funnel and assign values in buckets (take it one step at a time). Refer to Ani Lopez's post on Measuring SEO Performance, which sums up his presentation during this session.
  • Set Goals: Do you have goals set up in your Google Analytics account? Do you have goal values assigned to each one of your goals?

Multi-Channel Funnel

Probably one of the hottest topics around Google is their new Google Analytics V5. Recently, Google also revealed the their Multi-Channel Funnel feature. There was great interest in this product shown by the number of questions that were raised at the end of the session. I will not dive into the discussion because it's a technical one, but my company wrote a post about the feature on the Cardinal Path blog.

Advanced Segmentation

One powerful feature in Google Analytics is advanced segmentation. You may create advanced segments to separate out the data you don't want to analyze, and focus on just the ones you want to draw conclusions on. Key takeaways:

  • Extremely powerful if used properly.
  • Can assist you with deeper analysis into a specific segment of your entire data set.
  • You can get creative with advanced segments. Think about your goals and objectives.

One example that was discussed was to this question: "Is my blog actually delivering any business value?" So how do we know? We create an advanced segment that filters out only the visits from the blog. After you've done that, you may want to dive deeper, as the visits data usually doesn't tell you much about how many of those visits really brought in money to your business. In order to do so, you will need to look at some of the conversion mechanisms like the Goals report > Conversion Rate (if you have goals set up) in Google Analytics.

Local Search

Google's been pampering local information even more lately. There's a great interest in this area because local search is becoming an integral part in our lives, whether it be looking up a menu on your desktop, or looking for a number to make a reservation on your phone.

Key takeaways:

  • Follow the Google Local guidelines
  • Formulate some type of categorization for your local keywords and apply them within your Place Page listing
  • Obtain a broad set of citations * Apply timely updates to your Places page
  • Use microformat (hCard and hReview) on your site
  • Obtain diversified links to your website from other local sites
  • User rank tracking software like AuthorityLabs.com or BrightLocal.com to monitor your listing

This brings day 2 to an end for me at SMX. I have had the privilege to connect with a lot of innovative SEOs and would really thank the organizing committee for this great opportunity. Finally, because it's Friday, that means it's time for #FF…

Here's a list of some SEOs to keep an eye out for (in no particular order):

Until next time, see you friends!

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Events

Highlights from SMX Toronto 2011 Day 1

April 28, 2011 – 11:56 am

SMX TorontoI must tell ya, when I heard SMX (Search Marketing Expo) Toronto 2011 was coming up on April 28 two weeks ago, my heart started jumping, thinking that if I could make it to this event, I'll get the opportunity to meet all those that I've been following for the past year and half since I first stepped foot into the search marketing business. Guess what… I'm here! I'll be coveraging the SMX event on Twitter, and highlights from the two days I'm there on my blog.

For those who don't know what the SMX event is, it is a search engine marketing conference where only the brightest minds in the search and social world come together and share their wisdom with other search and social geeks (me being one of them). This year, the event is held at the Sheraton Center in downtown Toronto. The event runs for two days: April 28-29, packed with sessions that range from fundamentals in SEO to advanced SEO strategies, to social media and its impact on search.

To not bore you with a super long post, here are the sessions I attended:

  • Google Instant: Impact 7 Months Later
  • Keyword Research, Content Gaps and Copy Writing
  • Link Building Essentials
  • SEO Live Site Review
  • Leveraging Video and YouTube
  • Multi-lingual Social and Search

If you would like to see a list of all the events that took place / will take place tomorrow, download the SMX Toronto 2011 Guide. Like a nerd that I am, I took down a ton of notes. I will highlight some of the key takeaways that I found interesting and insightful.

Google Instant

Google Instant Behaviours in search has changed. When Google said that Google Instant would save us 2-5 seconds per search, well, you can scratch that because people seem to draw their eyes to the suggested terms, pause, think, and choose a suggest query. Some users are still completing their search even with Google Instant turned on (finish typing out the full query they intended to search for when they first entered into their journey of discovery). Saving us time? Doesn't sound like much time is saved here.

Another interesting discovery around Google Instant is their suggested phrases for single letters like "A". In many instances, Air Canada shows up as the first suggested term in the box. Fascinating, but how is Google prioritizing their suggested terms? Who knows? Or do you?

Google Instant A

Keyword Research

This is still, in no doubt, the most important part of your SEO strategy. Without research, you will lose (as harsh as it might sound). With search becoming more social, and there are even more ways to find out information, we must consider and adapt to these changes to stay ahead of the curve. Keyword research no longer applies to only universal search, rather you need to take into consideration all of following when you develop your SEO strategy: 

  • Universal Search
  • Video Search
  • Local Search
  • Mobile Search
  • Personalization of SERPs

Hm, that's a lot! Yes it is. Do all apply to your business? Maybe, maybe not.

If you are a local business you will want your customers to find directions to your restaurant not your competitors. If you are in the franchise business, you wouldn't want the same restaurant that is 1,000 km away to show up either, that just wouldn't make any sense! Think local, if you are offering a product or service to your surrounding area. Refer to some of my post on Local SEO if you are looking for additional readings in that area.

Multi-lingual Social and Search

This is a whole new ball game. When we talk about multi-lingual, we're talking about a site that's in multiple languages. This means we are serving up a wider and diverse group of individuals. This is an interesting topic to talk about because there's a lot on the line if you're not optimizing properly.

Some takeaways are:

  • Decide whether you can afford to host in the country you are targeting.
  • Decide whether you can afford to own a country domain TLD: example.fr or example.de
  • Ask: Is your URL structure crafted to suit to target country and audience you are going after?
  • You content must be aligned with the language of demand for the country and audience you are targeting.

Day 1 at SMX 2011 Comes to an End

The first day at SMX was entertaining and insightful. A lot of typing, tweeting, and handshaking. For those who are not attending SMX you can follow the conversations on Twitter under the Hashtag #SMX or you can follow me, Jackson Lo, on Twitter. Running simultaneously is the Marketing Optimization Summit, or eMetrics. You can follow that event on Twitter by following Hashtag #eMetrics.

One of the more exciting news that was shared at today's #eMetrics event is the announcement that Stephane Hamel has joined Cardinal Path. That's big news in the web analytics industry!

If you haven't already, read Gil Reich's post on the Best of SMX Toronto 2011. He picked up and shared some great one liners on his blog.

I will continue tweeting up until 5pm tomorrow, by that time I will be making my way to the airport and heading back to Ottawa. Look forward to tomorrow's presentations. Tune in, if you can, for my awesome tweets! Ciao!

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