Along with everything else that comes with the territory, both Mat and Dave will be speaking this year.  Here are the details and I suggest you don’t miss these sessions as they could change your life forever!

Wednesday Nov. 11 @ 2:55 pm
Interactive Site Reviews: Focus on Brand and Social Reputation Management
Location: Salon F

Reputation management is becoming more central to website marketing responsibilities. Whether you currently have reputation management issues to deal with, or you want to be proactive and keep reputation issues at bay, this session will teach you a lot. Want to have your own site reviewed live?

Give your business card to the moderator or any panelist at the beginning of the session.

Speakers:

Brian Chappell, Sr. Social Search Strategist, Ignite Social Media
Giovanni Gallucci, Social Media Ninja
Matt Siltala, Owner/Chief Media Officer, Dream Systems Media
Jennifer Laycock, Director of Marketing/Editor, SiteLogic/Search Engine Guide

Thursday Nov. 12 @ 1:30 pm
Competitive Intelligence: Know Thy Competitor Well
Location: Salon C

Competitive research is important in any business, so that you know what you’re up against. Competitive research online can reveal a wealth of valuable intelligence about not only your competition, but also the need-to-know activity in your industry. Learn all about the tools our experts use and the richness of the data they are able to collect.

Speakers:

Michael Gray, President, Atlas Web Service
Michael Streko, Co-Founder / CEO, KnowEm LLC
Matt Siltala, Owner/Chief Media Officer, Dream Systems Media
Andy Beal, Internet Marketing Consultant, Marketing Pilgrim LLC

Thursday Nov. 12 @ 2:55 pm
Domain Names and Trademarks: Legal Issues
Location: Salon C

Trademarks, domain names, and click fraud are legal issues related to search engine marketing that marketers need to be aware of. This panel will look at the current state of trademarks, click fraud, and some privacy issues related to search engine marketing.

Speakers:

Deborah Wilcox, Partner, Baker & Hostetler LLP
Clarke Walton, Founder, Walton Law Firm
David Mink, Co-Owner/Chief Legal Counsel, Dream Systems Media
Steve O’Brien, VP, Sales & Marketing, Click Forensics

Now you know where we’ll be for sure at those times and we hope to see you there too!

is going to win a 25$ gift card to iTunes …….

People You Need To Follow On Twitter

I love getting feedback from my readers. I especially love getting questions; and do my best to help at any opportunity.  The other day I received a question from “Lise” about using Twitter.  She had some valid questions and points of concern regarding Twitter that I wanted to address in a blog post.  To do that, I thought I would bring in some Twitter “gurus” to help me answer this question.

I really appreciate these amazing Internet marketers taking the time out of their very busy days to answer these questions.  I really think this can benefit a lot of people and hope you will feel its worth the read!

Here is the comment & question that “Lise” asked me:

So Mat. I am really enjoying your blog and have started following you – with thanks to Gerald. But I have a challenge that no one seems to be able to help me with – perhaps you can.

1) I endeavor to ask questions of folks and start conversations and yet I am ignored. I am asking honest questions that I would really like answers to, yet apparently folks think they are not…. any thoughts there?

2) I feel like many, many of the twitter posts that run through my desk are links to posts elsewhere. That is well and good, but doesnt really teach me about or connect me with the poster. Am I mis-understanding the uses of twitter?

I don’t think I am quit getting the power behind this…..I’m sure its a learning curve, and I have been telling my clients about my twitter (I post a weekly special every Monday) but beyond that, I think I am failing somehow.

Any helpful thoughts?

I have a treat for you Lise!  I went above and beyond to answer this one – kudos to you for asking such great questions!  In no particular order, here are your Twitter guru’s answers. I hope everyone else finds this information as useful as I did.

Here we go:

Cameron Olthius

Cameron Olthius – Owner of Factive Media an Action Sports Media Network & editor janitor-in-chief of 5 Ones.

1) I think a lot depends on how many followers you have and if they are knowledgeable on the topics you’re asking questions about. There’s a lot of noise on twitter right now so in order to get above that and have people pay attention to your tweets, you either need a lot of followers or quality followers, i.e. people who are really paying attention to you. You can also @ people who you think might be able to answer your questions, this will ensure they see the question.

2) There are many uses for twitter, one of them is being a way to share news/links/etc. Sounds like this is a just a matter of the people you’re following. If you want to connect more with people, DM them and @ them.

Aaron Wall

Aaron Wall – Creator of SEO Book

1) I think a lot of this comes down to size of downstream network + their loyalty + how you have marketed yourself + how you use words.

The larger the network the better than answers will be.  People who are brand fans or friends who have known you for many years are more likely to want to help out than someone who only glancingly knows you and/or is using Twitter as a spamming tool, (following thousands and thousands of people, but actually following 0.)  Originality of content and how interesting it usually is both matter a lot. Tim O’Reilly is always sharing great links, for instance. Streams full of RT RT RT probably do not add enough value for people to want to pay much attention to the.  If people frequently mistake intent then it might come down to general word usage. This is especially true in short and/or rushed channels like Twitter and email. My customer relations (and the value customers got from interacting with me) both drastically improved when I switched away from using way too much email and started to try to run most things from inside our member’s forum.

2) Q: I feel like many, many of the twitter posts that run through my desk are links to posts elsewhere. That is well and good, but doesn’t really teach me about or connect me with the poster. Am I mis-understanding the uses of twitter? A: Through the links you share and the words you wrap them in you share your interests, your passions, and your biases. Blogs do a much better job of fostering real relationships because there is no character count that forces your thoughts to be condensed. Having wrote that, I would still recommend putting far far far more effort into building your own destination rather than putting much effort into a twitter account. Brian Clark’s post on user generated content http://www.copyblogger.com/are-you-someones-user-generated-content/ does a great job explaining why it is so important to build a strong home base away from these networks.

cheers aaron

Follow Alysson Fergison on Twitter

Alysson Fergison – Owner of SEOAly a Florida SEO Firm

1)  There are a multitude of reasons this may happen. It could be something as simple as the time of day or day of the week you’re posing these questions to your Twittersphere to something as complex as people not completely trusting you – for whatever reason. Instead of throwing out questions to everyone via a general tweet, try posing a specific question @ a specific person you feel might have something constructive to say on the subject. Obviously, if you have a rapport with that person already, it helps and makes it more likely that you’ll receive an answer. Again, this comes back to trust. To be able to take full advantage of the power for Twitter, you must engage people in other social arenas, as well – most importantly, on their own blog. Participating in the discussion within the comments of someone’s blog will help you to stand out and make them more likely to engage in a conversation with you on Twitter in front of the rest of the Twitterverse.

2)  Twitter is a medium for sharing information, not just a “look at me…” kind of thing. You can learn a lot about someone based on the posts they share, even if they aren’t the author. In fact, I think you can tell just as much – if not more – about someone based on what they read than what they write. Not only is this an opportunity to find some common ground with the person tweeting, but also with the author of whatever information was shared via the tweet. That said, if you’re trying to learn about someone there is no better way to gain insight into their personality than by learning about what interests them. Twitter makes that task super easy…because they’re literally TELLING you what interests them every time they tweet. Use that to help you build a rapport with the person sharing the post via Twitter and also the author of the post by commenting. It’s a win-win for everyone!

Michael Gray

Michael Gray – Owner, Atlas Web Service and SEO Blogger

1)  Interacting with Twitter users can sometimes be much more complicated than it appears, let’s look at a few different scenarios, to start look at a low level power user say someone who has or is following ~5K people. Even if you assume that 75% of that persons followers don’t participate that’s ~1,250 people who do. So unless they happen to be sitting at the computer when you tweet, chances are they won’t see your tweet. You’re best bet is to use the @ function to get their attention. I try to answer review my @ messages a few times a day and answer anyone who tweets me that way, but it’s an imperfect system. I use easytweets and tweetbeep to monitor for my name and between they catch at least 1-2 @ tweets a day that aren’t in my web interface, on a busy day it can be more. Also take into account misspellings (in my case @greywolf vs @graywolf) or misdirected messages (again in my case I get between 10-20 messages per week intended for graywolf press), it’s a an imperfect system. Also take into account people’s time constraints while I’d love to help everyone there simply aren’t enough hours in the day, so like everyone else I’m much more likely to respond to you if I know who you are.

2)  A lot people forget the simple stuff when they sit in front of a computer, like social media is all about being social and using social skills. For a moment let’s assume that I’m single and there’s this woman who works in my office building who I’d like to ask out on a date. I’d pay attention and try and find out when and where she goes to lunch, maybe if it was the food court I’d try to be there at the same time and say hi once or twice. What type of books does she read, maybe I could read some so I could find something to talk about when we pass by and I see her carrying it. Maybe she has an iPhone and I show her this really great new mophie juice pack external battery I got. I’m looking for things that she’s interested in and trying to find a way to break the ice and make a connection. Connecting with someone on twitter is no different, what time of day do they tweet most often? Do they tweet about their iPhone or blackberry? Do they tweet about their upcoming vacation, what type of food they like, or how certain they are that Captain Kirk was truly the best Star Trek Captain and how all other Captains pail in comparison? Look for a common connection and a moment to engage them. The one caveat is don’t try to hard, you want it to appear as natural and casual as possible, otherwise you’ll look like you’ve got both feet planted in Stalkerville, and nobody wants to be social with a stalker.

Nate Moller

Nate Moller – a Utah SEO, Owner of Moller Marketing, and follower of The_Real_Shaq on Twitter (had to throw that in Nate!!!)

1)  Yes, this will happen, especially if you’re new to the Twitter scene. The key is to be consistent. Start by retweeting stuff they are sharing. Publish articles of theirs in your tweets. Promote what they are doing – they WILL notice this. You can also follow their profile link to their site and attempt to connect with them via their website too (email still does work). You have to realize, you may not be able to connect with the biggest dogs in the industry right away. They get tons and tons of “questions” and do their best to answer. The more you get your name out there though, the more you’ll get response.

2)  That’s the beauty of Twitter, there are no set rules. The best tweeters do a combination of both: converse with the community and broadcast links (their own and others). To show them I care about what they are sharing, I will often RT what they say, make a comment on it, follow the link and read/comment on what they’ve posted, etc. The golden rule does apply to twitter, if you take care of people, most of the time they will take care of you. Plus, following their links can often help you know where they are coming from and give you a better perspective whether or not they are a good connection to pursue for your business. Happy Tweeting!

(by the way, The_Real_Shaq does follow Nate on Twitter too, and it makes me a little jealous – but don’t tell Nate)

David Wallace

David Wallace – Owner of Search Rank, A Phoenix Search Engine Marketing Firm

1) I would ask who is actually “following” you and how engaged are they? I have over 1,600 followers at the moment but honestly, I don’t know who most of them are. Could be bots or simply people that signed up but are not that actively involved. One thing I might advise when asking a question is to Direct Message legit followers (people you know) if you don’t get a response by just “putting stuff out there.” Also, make sure your questions include popular keywords that people might be looking for. Example, “Did anyone get pre-sale email for “U2 360″ concert tickets?”

2) Lots of people on Twitter will share stuff that interest them. So while it is cool to share your own stuff, hopefully you are sharing other interesting stuff as well. Such as today I shared a link to the Fox News story of the DPS Photo Radar officer that was killed and even though I hate photo radar, how I thought this was way out of line.

Ann Smarty

Ann Smarty – Owner, SEO Smarty and avid Search Industry Blogger

1) I say, keep trying. I am aware of no other effective ways to engage Twitterers into conversation except talking to them daily. Answer others’ question, retweet and comment on others’ Tweets – and you will soon see others do the same for you. Twitter is more about talking to people than being talked to. The more you engage, the more are involved (like with any other social media site).

2) There are so many “uses of Twitter” that it is actually impossible to mis-understand them. Many people have many various styles of using Twitter. Look at this post for example which I love: http://mediacaffeine.com/network/the-14-types-of-twitter-personalities/ It’s your choice who to follow – which is decisive in the way your Twitter stream is maintained. So if you don’t like to follow links, just unfollow those who Tweet them (or use TweetDeck to filter those out).

Andy Beal

Andy Beal, Founder of Marketing Pilgrim, an Internet Marketing News blog.  Andy also owns Trackur, a reputation monitoring software company.

1) It’s likely not a case of whether someone believes your questions are honest or not. Twitter is just like a real-life networking event. Just because someone’s a registered attendee, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be in the same room at the same time as them, be able to spark up a conversation with them, or find each other interesting.

2) People use Twitter (and other social networks) for different reasons. While many use Twitter as a channel for making personal connections, others view Twitter as nothing more than an additional broadcast channel. Don’t hold it against them–there are so many social networks demanding our attention that it’s hard for any of us to be fully engaged with all of them. If you find that you’re following someone that only syndicates their updates from other sources, either accept that’s how they’re using Twitter or unfollow them.

In conclusion:

Initially I thought I would try and add my two cents to answer these questions, but I could not say anything better then the 8 gurus that rocked this post for me already!  Twitter is not going away, and business owners wanting to learn how to use it effectively are going to be the ones who are rewarded.  They will be rewarded with more traffic, more business, more sales, more connections and so many more opportunities that they couldn’t have even imagined!

One final suggestion to take away from all this, make sure you are following everyone on this list on Twitter.  You will find their names linked up to their Twitter profiles to make it easier for you.  Oh yeah, and since this is my blog – I will throw this in here too – follow me on Twitter as well!  Lise, if this did not answer your questions I don’t think I can do anything else to help! I really appreciate you asking these tough questions and giving me the opportunity to learn from some of the best Twitter users (not spammers) out there!

I want to make sure my kids understand money differently then I did growing up and understand what it means to be in business and build wealth, instead of just making money for an employer, and making them rich.  I was taught you finish high school, get a degree, find a company and work for that same company for the next 40 years until you retire making 10k more per year then what you started at … no thanks!

Well as all 6 year olds do – my son is always asking me for money for this toy or that and I have simply been starting to ask him where the ROI is for me to just keep giving him money for toys?  It took him a little while to catch on to what I was doing but now he is giving me answers like, “I will clean all of my room and you won’t have to keep telling me to keep cleaning” or “I will pick up all the toys downstairs without any help”.  So you see he has figured out that I am more willing to give him some money for toys, or just buy him toys if he shows more willingness to do some work.  He understands that cleaning up is my return on the investment etc.  He has even started to clean stuff up on his own without being asked, and thats amazing!

Don’t peg me for a hard core, because I don’t always make my kid “earn stuff” but I just wanted to start getting him (and my other kids) thinking differently (like I stated above).

Where is the ROI Dad?

All this came back to bite me in the butt today!  Here in the Phoenix area we have some amazing weather this time of year, and we were outside working on the yard and starting to get the pool ready.  My son kept putting his feet in the water and saying he wanted to swim – almost teasing me that he was going to jump in.  I finally just asked him to jump in because I didn’t think he would.  I even told him the water temp was only at 66 and he knows we usually are swimming at like 82 – 85 degrees.  I kept telling him that he wouldn’t do it etc., and that he was chicken (just egging him on) and he then asks me;  Well if you want me to jump in, where’s the ROI Dad?  HUH?  What kind of a 6 year old asks that?  LOL!

It took me by surprise, and pleased me that he really is listening and now seems to really understand what I have been trying to teach him.   Well once we established I was going to give him a dollar to jump in and swim from the rocks to the other side of the pool – it was on!

When he jumped in – you should have seen the look on his face (kinda captured here), I don’t think he expected 66 degree water to feel that cold!  Plus its not summer and its not over 100 outside – so IT WAS COLD.  He wanted to keep doing it after he got his dollar and kept trying to see if I would give him a dollar every time he did it.  When he kept wanting to swim because he said it wasn’t cold anymore I decided he needed to get out because I was sure his body was just numb at this point.  Last year, my last swim was in about 71 degrees (still in 90s during day) and THAT was still WAY to cold for me!  I can’t imagine how cold this was.

A lesson to be learned:

This is NOT a lesson of greed, or love of money, but rather an idea for you to start thinking about the return on your investments.  It’s also a good lesson for you kids too (if you have been looking for ideas to teach them about money) But with that said – If you are investing time, money, or whatever – what are you getting out of it?

Start to think smarter about the things you are investing your time and money in.  Everytime I take on a new client, or think of a new idea to pursue the very first thing I will think about is the ROI.  Its not always about money either – it can be about time too.  My kids are young and I want to spend as much time as I can with them, and if I am evaluting a possible new project but its going to kill all my time, I would rather make less money and have more time.  This is a personal decision and I am not saying its the only choice, but for me its the best ROI.

Anyway – not really wanting this post to be much of a lesson or anything – just wanted to share what I thought was a cute story of something that happened to me today.  If you get something out of it – great, if you got a laugh – great, if you hated it – thats ok too!  Hopefully though, most of you who read this will feel like you did get some kind of a “ROI” for your reading time, and thanks to my son for providing yet another amazing story!

I had a unique experience a few years ago to meet Larry H Miller at the LHM Motorsports speedway in Tooele, Utah.  He was out there with Bob Bondurant, founder of The Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving and a few other people who shared his passion for racing testing out his new track.  It was amazing to see these guys like little kids in a Candy shop around what they truly loved – Race Cars!  Bob had just finished up a major heart surgery like 3 weeks before and he was racing around that track at 150 mph – he always said he wanted to go while racing!  I wish it could have been better circumstances for Larry – My thoughts go out to him and his family during this time.

Here are some pictures I was able to take while on this visit to Larry H Miller Motorsports speedway a few years back:

Here I am with Larry H Miller at the Tooele Motorsports Complex

Here is a picture of Bob Bondurant, and if you know anything about racing – you know about Bob and his passion for the industry – it has been his life:

Bob Bondurant at Larry H Miller Motorsports Speedway

Bob Racing:

Larry H Miller Motorsports Speedway

Those stock Ford Racing mustangs were valued at 120k straight from the factory and I wish you could have heard them … amazing machines!

Stock Ford Racing Mustang

Again – my thoughts and prayers are with the family of Larry H Miller during this time.  For those of you that may not have known who Larry H Miller was, he owned many dealerships in many states, theaters, many other things including the Utah Jazz.

Photos: via Flickr

When it comes to whether you should use SEO tools you must consider both the good and the bad – like every other choice in life. Tools are good for gathering data. However, tools can be expensive, produce inherent errors, and have many limitations.

Scripts are tools that you create. Save time. Save money. Thomas recommends adapting your scripts from existing open source code.

Dave Wallace At SMX

David Wallace

Recommends having a routine that looks something like this:

1. Begin your day with email, bloglines, and Twitter. With Twitter just looks for DM’s and @replies.

2. Write your new blog posts.

3. Now do everything else. Deal with clients. Deal with business. Deal with finances. etc.

David says that he is really big on structuring his email. (Our own Andrew Melchior is a wizard with organizing email!) Develop a category structure.

David also says he relies heavily on bloglines rather than visiting individual blogs. He is very selective with social bookmarking. He uses www.socialmarker.com which allows you to submit to multiple social networks.

Jennifer Slegg

@jenstar ecommends using an old fashioned notebook, a personal voice recorder, dragon naturally speaking which converts spoken words into text, blackberries and iPhones, jott.coma phone message which allows you to leave a message which is transformed into an email sent to yourself. I really enjoyed her down to earth approach – nice job Jen!

Stephan Spencer

His talk was based on the idea of GTD – getting things done. For example he recommends making to do lists in different categories like – at home to do lists, at phone to do lists, at email to do lists. So, if you are in your email the idea is to pull up your email to do list. Remember the 2 minute rule, which is to simply knock the item off the list if it can be done in less than 2 minutes He also talked about a lot of other things that I am much too lazy to write!

Would I be able to hang in Bedrock?

This morning I was outside sitting by the pool, getting some work done on the macbook and enjoying a beautiful sunny Arizona day when something IMO funny dawned on me.  Do I know how to interact with people without technology? LOL, of course I do – but it got me thinking and laughing.  (Side Note) Even though it was 84 here today the pool water is still way to cold, but it was very tempting!  Just two more months!!

Anyway, my wife was inside sitting at our kitchen table (playing on her macbook), and our backdoor was even open and up pops a instant message.  We must have chatted for over two minutes on the messenger program before my wife said, “I guess I could just come out there and talk to you about it”  We were talking about some things we needed to get at Home Depot.  It just made me laugh because of all the technology around us.

Are you guys guilty of similar technology abuses? (see below)

• When your spouse is next door will you text message him/her if you need them (as oppose to just walking over there)
• When they do not answer (or get) the text message will you message your neighbor whose house they are at (who you know is online always) and get a hold of them that way. (usually works well for me)
• When those above don’t work will you send them an email (I know that my wife’s Blackberry will alert her)
• If even that does not work will you send them a DM on Twitter (I know that my wife’s Blackberry notifies her of that too) ha
• Do you take a picture of something and instead of just showing them, do you tell them to check out your latest “Twitpic” cause it will make them laugh!
• Do you text each other when you can’t find each other?  Is texting in your home the new intercom systems?
• Do you use your cell phones more then 5% of the time for actual talking.

Now its not this bad folks, I am playing a little, and having fun – but this stuff does happen around here.  I was wondering if it was even possible for me to disconnect?  Would you guys be lost without your gadgets if you had to disconnect?  I think its time for me to disconnect around the house for a little bit!

Last night I was talking to another Mother, and she said that she felt she was being a less effective Mother because things had been so busy that day, she had not had a chance to see or talk to her kids, but she did text them the message to get their homework done.  She laughed about technology too, and wondering if she could live without it.

Writing all this down was good for me – a little eye opening too!  I really am going to work on learning how to interact with people again WITHOUT using technology!

Please feel free to add to this list in the comments if you have something funny and eye opening not mentioned here, or please feel free to reply to me on Twitter and let me know.  I will add those comments here too!

Here is a picture my daughter drew rigth before the game, and I never felt so bad in my life when I saw her crying after the Cardinals loss.  My son too – they were so into it this year.  They are begging for season tickets next year.  I think the Cardinals did a good job this year making people believe, and even though they didn’t pull off a Superbowl victory – they changed football in Arizona forever!  Again, as a HUGE fan, I would like to congradulate the Arizona Cardinals on an amazing Superbowl and great year!

Arizona Cardinals

I was reading a great post from Nate Moller talking about Kurt Warner and the power of never taking no for an answer.  People said the Cardinals could never get past Atlanta, they did.  No way they could get past Carolina, they did.  OK, now there was NO WAY they could get past the Eagles and guess what they did.  All with a QB everyone said was to old.  Kurt Warner is going to be the 3rd oldest QB to ever play in a superbowl and IMO, he’s gonna win.  He does not take no for an answer!

Again, Congrats to the Arizona Cardinals for making the Superbowl!  I was so happy to get to meet Kurt Warner and talk to him a few weeks ago after the Seattle game.  He told me he was going to do everything he could to make the fans of Arizona proud of its Cardinals – Superbowl aside, he already has!!  He is one of the coolest people I have ever met.

Kurt Warner Signing my Jersey

Kurt Warner Autograph