About SocComm - The Social Communications Summit - February 10-11 2009 in New York City

Posted by Marshall on December 03, 2008 | Link It

I had fun with SocComm - Jeff Pulver’s SocComm Conference which was just announced yesterday at the Social Media Breakfast that I live blogged at - some thought it was my show - it had to do with the way the posted item was written.

First, I posted the SocComm page to my facebook profile - and since the announcement was written in the first person, people who read my facebook feed thought I was launching a new conference and I got 5 pitches in that many hours!

Ha … it kinda sounds like maybe I ought to take that as a sign of something … (but not, a sign of the Times … more of that later in the post).

More I think about it,  had I the opportunity and means (and those are two big “ifs“), I could put together a  better conference, in terms of content, than any I’ve attended revolving around Web Analytics or Social Media.

Of course, that’s easier said than done - so I would have to try it and see what happens - but I have no plans to right now.

What I have personally noticed, and this is true of many conferences such as  Search Engine Strategies; there is too much emphasis on repeating the same content and not enough emphasis in creating new and original content for a particular show in a particular venue.

Here’s what I said- using Google’s Search Wiki - a subject I’m sure is going to be on the mouths of many a Search Optimizer next week in Chicago… but I got the first word in….

I get press passes and have been to enough shows to have a first hand opinion on how they are run, what they’re worth and to whom (we’ll see if I get one for next spring in NYC).

My take, the same information is presented to a different audience, several times a year in different venues, adding new information about search, as it comes up.

What I would rather see is stuff like what I did in my panel at SES San Jose, last summer, when we presented a Buzzlogic - Military.com case study that had been created for that panel - that time.

I’d like to see new content for every conference and a variety of new speakers at each one - often based around the location and venue the conference takes place, or a local event that is happening while the conference is going on, or around the same time.

For example there was a panel on Search and The US Presidential Election at SMX East - the panel took place one month before a national election and was on the top of mind of pretty much everyone - and the panel was great - that’s what I’d like to see for a good chunk of the content (I realize, it’s impossible to have totally new content for every show - but I think 50% new content would be a good target - for every show).

Too many conferences are re-presenting the same stuff, over and over, in different venues - it’s much the same thing the New York Times several times a day recycling the same stories by changing the title slightly and adding a line or two - just wrote about it tonight in a post titled - Automated Ads to figure out what your creative ought to be, plus more.

The same thing happens on Cable, TV, radio news when the same stuff is announced, over and over, assuming someone is going to listen for a short amount of time, then leave - the message needs to be kept updated, so it appears new and fresh, even when it’s not..

Getting back to Jeff Pulver’s SocComm Conference, I found his approach to the conference and why he’s doing it refreshing - and honest - he sees Social Media as a lifestyle and is creating a new conference with new content.

I hope I get a chance to speak at SocComm - it’s not my conference, but I took the opportunity for the “fluke” I just wrote about, to investigate what I’d do if I did, in fact, create a conference.

It was amazing to see how many people accepted me as the creator of SocComm, even though I’ve never really done anything like this before - again, it gets me to think that maybe, had I the means, I could “knock it out of the park”.

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Google Search Wiki vs. Creating your own Content

Posted by Marshall on November 30, 2008 | Link It

Just wondering if it makes sense to do one thing Google wants vs. another?  I mean, there’s a new tool Google released 2 weeks ago that tells you all the keyword phases you could advertise on connected with a theme, that you are letting money on the table, by not advertising these words (which is good for Google).

On the other hand, assuming I did not advertise but just took the time to create meaninful content on these keyword phrases, maybe I’d get the traffic, except I would have to really streach what I’m writing about and maybe make up stuff I really don’t know very much about.

And I think that would be doing a disservice.

Or I could go and work on the Google Search Wiki for the keyword phases a care about and make sure I comment all over the place and make sure people know my point of view - and get traffic that way.


I would opt for the latter over the former - as this is the future of Search and is more honest and transparent, in my opinion.

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SearchWiki feedback continues to be positive

Posted by Marshall on November 25, 2008 | Link It

For all the complaints about Google Search Wiki’s interface not being perfect, the overall sentiment about Google Search Wiki continues to be good (75% for it and 25% against) - all of this according to SearchWiki.

In face, of the 740 notes recorded for this searchwiki there were a lot more searchers voting results up than down.

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