David Mink

We always enjoy the opportunity to share our marketing experience, knowledge and tips with others at search marketing conferences and networking events across the country. Recently, we have been pretty busy doing just that.  Here are just a few updates:

David Mink, one of DSM’s founding partners was asked to serve on the founding board of directors for www.slcsem.org.  David is handling all of the legal “to do’s” that come with setting up a non profit organization.  David will also be heading back to Las Vegas for PubCon 2011 to once again speak on the “Legal Issues of Domain Names and Trademarks” panel with fellow attorney Clarke Walton.

Mat Siltala will be joining David at PubCon to speak on several panels including Foursquare & Gowalla – Geo Location Marketing, Interactive Site Reviews: Focus Brand & Reputation Management and Competitive Intelligence – Tools and Tactics.

Dream Systems Media also became a “dinner sponsor” for Epic Dinner  Pubcon Vegas 2011, and is really looking forward to that huge event… within the bigger event (PubCon) and the opportunity to connect with even more amazing individuals in our industry!

Andrew Melchior, our other founding partner made a trip down to Tucson, Arizona to help Local First Arizona present to a number of businesses on “local search” marketing strategies.

Matt Siltala

The whole crew will be heading to  PubCon Paradise 2012 In Honolulu Hawaii where Mat has been asked to speak & moderate a variety of panels.

All in all, lots of skymiles, meeting with old and new friends and learning from some of the brightest minds in the game.

I am really looking forward to SMX Advanced this year for many reasons, but the biggest this year is being able to hang out with some of the most awesome friends on the planet.  Another reason is because I am on a pretty kick butt panel with some amazing fellas called “Location Services: The new local search?”

Moderator: Greg Sterling, Founding Principal, Sterling Market Intelligence

Speakers:

Vince Blackham, Founder & CEO, Primary Affect
Michael Martin, Owner, Mobile Martin
Will Scott, President, Search Influence
Dylan Swift, Director of Local Business Marketing, Yelp

I look forward to seeing you all there, please make sure and come up and say hi!  Some of the best friends I have in this industry came about by going up and saying hi!  Some of the best info I have gotten out of other speakers was when we were hanging out, chilling in a bar or eating dinner!

A couple of us from Dream Systems Media will be speaking at SMX West, and we are pretty excited about it.  Myself and David Mink are going to be speaking on a combined total of 4 panels.  They are some awesome subjects with some even cooler speakers!  Here is a run down of our speaking schedule.  We are very excited to be speaking with some of these other awesome speakers!  We are also very thankful that our 3rd team member Andy Melchior will be holding down the DSM fort for us while we are gone!

Matt Siltala speaking schedule:

Local & Mobile Search Track

Mobile Search Apps & Opportunities – Away from your computer, but need to search for something? There’s a smart phone app for that! More than 100,000 for the iPhone, 20,000 and growing for Google’s Android. This session looks at popular search apps on different devices, how they gather data and opportunities they offer to search marketers.

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

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

1) Matt’s article entitled “Free Local Marketing Options that Bring Real Traffic” was recognized by Techipedia as one of the Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2008

2) Matt has been asked to speak on social media at SMX West 2009 (Feb. 10-12 in Santa Clara, CA)

I had to write this post because I knew Matt never would – believe it or not the man can be too humble. Matt is hands down one of the best Internet marketing minds on the globe and continues to be at the forefront of search and social media development. Congrats brother on two awards well deserved! So please follow suit and give Matt some props in the comments.

Many Uses of Twitter

As I was driving home yesterday from the Cardinals game (which I will be posting about) I heard a local radio station telling people to follow them on Twitter, and to check their Twitter page out for the latest updates and contests etc.

I was super impressed to hear this. I have been wondering why more radio stations don’t tap into the power of Twitter and using it for these exact reasons! I am also glad that more of these places are getting away from referring people to their MySpace pages. MySpace had their time and chance to get better, but didn’t – and their service IMO has just gotten worse. Twitter is simple and easy to use and understand and is an amazing platform for promotions and contests.

There are few social networks that I just can’t get enough of and Twitter is one of them. If you own a local business and are reading this, or just hearing about Twitter for the first time – go to Twitter and sign up for an account today!

There are some amazing resources out there for getting started with Twitter. A few of the places I recommend you visit include:

• Twitip – How To Set Up A Twitter Account
  
• Chris Brogan – 50 ideas on Using Twitter for Business
• Social Desire – Examples of Using Twitter For Hot Deals
• Michael Gray – How To Use Twitter As A Marketing Tool
• ProBlogger – 35 Tips From 35 Real Twitter Users
• Score – 52 links for using Twitter for Business
• Moller Marketing – Why Twitter? [Video]
• My Posts About Twitter

That is a huge list that should keep you busy!  I just want to make sure businesses (online and off) are doing everything they can to take advantage of the amazing things that Twitter will do for them!  As always – please follow me on Twitter and comment and add to this list if you have a link that you feel would help someone new to Twitter.

When I am teaching clients (or consulting new to Internet business owners) about social media, and starting to dive deeper into social media marketing with them, the very first thing I try to help them understand is the “social” side of it.  If you are not able to be social with individuals, or are worried about what people will say or think of you, then you will not do very well with social media.  Being social is the most important key element to any successful social media marketing campaign.

I know this sounds kind of no duh, but you would be surprised how often these concerns come up with clients, especially the new ones that have never done any kind of online marketing – including social media marketing.

I guess the real reason I bring this up, and wanted to post about it, is because last week I did a Webinar (on social media) that had about 20 people on it, and one of them sent me a private message telling me that they did not know if they would be able to do anything with social media marketing.  I thought it was odd considering they were on the Webinar, and knew what they signed up for.  They said they had a fear of being rejected, and were very fearful of how people would interact and take them in the online communities.  This is a problem, and I tried to address it with reasons you MUST be social in order to be successful.

9 Reasons You Need To Be Social:

1. You will have to approach, and befriend other bloggers related to your industry.
2. You will need to leave useful and real comments to gain trust in blog authors (who you might connect with).
3. It is a must to grow your social media accounts by adding friends, and asking people to add you – I don’t think I have ever done a post about Twitter without asking someone to follow me – Follow Me? (heh)
4. You need to vote and participate in the communities – again leaving comments in all the elements of the community (ie post you voted on, in their comments area – anything they allow).  You help people get to know you by doing this, and in turn gain trust.  You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours!
5. New friends will help you grow your business and market it for you, and give you unbiased feedback.
6. New friends will link to you, thus helping out your online presence.
7. You will learn from new friends.
8. You will meet some amazing people that you normally would not have had the chance to.
9. Other people WANT to connect with you.

Do not fear the “SOCIAL” in social media:

You need not fear people not wanting to connect with you.  Most people you find are wanting to grow a bigger group of people around them too.  I realize not everyone you connect with is going to be golden, but you will find some amazing people that almost alone will be enough.

I remember when I first started getting serious about social media, blogging and making connections I thought some of the bigger names in the game would be unapproachable, and not want to talk to a nobody like me.  I went ahead and “took a chance” when Chris Bennett and I attended the first ever SMX in Seattle together, and ended up meeting probably one of the coolest people in the social media industry – Cameron Olthuis and we have since become great friends.  Through the relationship we have gotten each other business, made each other money and helped each other grow even more.  The best part was gaining a cool new friend.  Chris even went on to create a high action sports social community with Cameron that involves (among other things) what those two are most passionate about – Surfing.

Matt Siltala, Cameron Olthuis, Rebbeca Kelly, Matt Cutts - SMX Seattle

You never know what is going to happen with social networking unless you just go for it.  I have learned great lessons in social networking and all of them have paid off in the long run.  Lose the fear, and realize that the social community is the best industry period to be a part of right now.

Now That You Are On Your Way:

If you do end up meeting a jerk, or if someone is not nice to you, then just move on because there are plenty of awesome people out there that ARE willing to hook up with you.  Just remember, the more social you are, the easier things will be for you when it comes to social media marketing and using the networks for pushing your products, services or whatever it is you are doing.

If all else fails, talk to me – please feel free to connect with me online, and let me know how I can help you!