Conferences are a big part of TopRank’s marketing and content promotion strategy and it looks like a busy summer is ahead of us. Numerous events are coming up quickly – enough to make your head spin. Here is a summary of our involvement with PRSA, DMA, PUSH, SIS, SES and SMX events over the next 30 days:

05/14/08 – MIMA: Duality Reality – Who Controls Social Media in the Enterprise?
The local interactive marketing association along with inspiration and motivation from Doug Pollei, there will be a very interesting panel of in-house Interactives discussing how large companies (General Mills, Best Buy, Target, Fingerhut and OptumHealth) are adopting and measuring social media programs. If you’re in the Twin Cities this week and involved with social marketing now or in the future, this is a MUST ATTEND event.

05/15/08 – Teleseminar: Reputation Management in a Google World
Crisis communications PR pal Kami Watson Huyse and I will be doing this PRSA Teleseminar for PR professionals that are still trying to make sense out of SEO and search engines as PR tools. More info is available on the PRSA web site

05/18/08 – Search Insider Summit
On beautiful Captiva Island in Florida, MediaPost is holding another strategic, networking focused conference with TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog as a media sponsor. The SIS event is hands down one of my favorite conferences. It’s small, exclusive, high level and full of networking with senior agencies and brands. Visit the SIS site for more info.

05/19/08 – ACCM: Reputation Management – Protecting Your Brand in the Search Engines
The DMA is holding it’s annual ACCM conference in Orlando, FL and together with Heather Lloyd-Martin of SuccessWorks and Rob Key of Converseon, we’ll be explaining the intricacies of online reputation management to the direct marketing crowd. More info on the session page.

06/03/08 – SMX Advanced
Of all the SMX conferences I’d like to attend, this is the one I look forward to most. Due to conflicts, Dana Larson from TopRank will be attending and blogging in my place. This SMX event promises high level content for those already fluent in SEM. More info here.

06/09/08 – PRSA Digital Impact Conference: SEO for News Content
For the PRSA I am presenting a session in NYC for PR practitioners on how to make the most of optimizing the digital assets they have access to. Optimizing news content leads to more effective discovery by journalists researching topics/experts online. Find the 2 day conference schedule here.

06/15/08 – PUSH: The Fertile Delta
PUSH is an annual executive conference for innovators on topics including Economics, Religion, Politics and Technology held by the PUSH Institute in Minneapolis. I’ve heard buzz about this event for several years and am now finally going to attend. Here’s more about the PUSH experience.

06/17/08 – SES Toronto: Twitter – Ultimate Time Waster or Great Tool?
Clearly the writer of this session title has some bias. David Snyder of JRDunn, Chris Winfield of 10e20 and myself will effectively clarify what Twitter is good for and what it is not. I will be presenting results of our Twitter survey as well as a case study and 3rd party tools. Session info here.

If you are attending any of these events, be sure to say so in the comments!

For our coverage of conferences ranging from PR to direct marketing to search marketing, visit our Marketing PR Conferences category.

Comments

I am thoroughly impressed with the hospitality I was shown in Milwaukee. Everyone was very helpful and welcoming. I appreciate that very much. I intend to return to Milwaukee and see more of this great city.

A special thanks to Tiffany, Bill, and Erica for the extra work they did to make sure I was taken care of during my trip.

Regarding the 3 main points I made about constructing quality websites for your clients, here are some links for additional reading.

Code Quality

• W3C Markup Validator — Enter a URL in the first box and click the “Check” button to validate any page on the Web.
• Firefox web developer extension — This is the tool I use to turn stylesheets off and do other geeky website evaluation tricks.
• Adobe on Accessibility — A great primer on accessibility.
• CSS Zen Garden — This is the site that illustrates the power of semantic markup and separating website content from presentation.

Search Engine Optimization

• The Goal of Search Marketing — Sometimes ranking first isn’t necessary to achieve your goals.
• Guide to Link Building for SEO Purposes — Linking is a powerful SEO strategy…this article discusses link building strategies in depth.
• Choosing Keywords Wisely — An overview of the keyword selection process.

Manageability

• 10 Reasons Every Website Needs a CMS — There are more than 10 but this is a good start!
• Sitemaps and SEO — An overview of the Sitemap XML protocol we discussed.

Miscellaneous

• Ten Buzzwords and What They Mean
• All Websites are Not Created Equally

I also had a few requests for information about the services my company offers as well as about Tweak, our content management system so here are links to both of those.

Agency Fusion
Tweak CMS

If you’re interested in learning more about our CMS, I recommend having one of my project managers do a brief online demonstration of the system for you. They’re really good at showing you specifically how you and your clients can benefit from using Tweak.

Please don’t hesitate to post a comment below if you have additional questions or have suggestions on my presentation. I love receiving feedback!

Comments

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This year’s event is sold out and there’s an excellent mix if speakers. With lots of sponsors this year, there are a ton of giveaways as well.

One of our pr firm clients, The Web Marketing Association and Web Award will have their CEO, William Rice start things off with the morning keynote presentation. Bill has run the Web Award competition for 10 years and the program has reviewed over 9,000 web sites in that time. His presentation will offer insight into what makes an award winning web site and he’ll also present industry vertical data compiled over the past 10 years.

I will be introducing Elisa Camahort, co-founder of BlogHer, a community and conference for women bloggers. She also runs a marketing agency called Worker Bees. Elisa will be presenting, “10 Techniques for Web Writing”. I could certainly use a heavy does of that! I am looking forward to meeting her in person.

In the afternoon, I will be introducing Jake Baillie from TrueLocal. I’ve seen Jake speak many times at Search Engine Strategies and Webmaster World Pubcon conferences and even had the opportunity to speak with him at a DMA conference in New York this summer. Jake is one of my absolute favorite speakers on search marketing. He knows his stuff up and down. He’s also a really interesting guy with deep interests in photography, flying airplanes, poker, black hat SEO and competitive intelligence. We’re lucky to have him as a speaker and I’m looking forward to his presentation on site architecture.

The afternoon keynote presentation will feature Michelle Collins, a blogger for VH1′s, Best Week Ever who I have not met but I hear she is a fantastic speaker and a great comedian. We’ll have 8 members of the TopRank M&O team there as well and it should be a great event.

I’ll be taking photos and maybe a few short video interviews and will post to Online Marketing Blog in the evening.

Bookmark WebProNews:

Lee Odden is President and Founder of
TopRank Online Marketing, specializing in organic SEO, blog
marketing and online public relations. He’s been cited as a search
marketing expert by publications including U.S. News & World Report and
The Economist and has implemented successful search marketing programs
with top BtoB companies of all sizes. Odden shares his marketing
expertise at Online Marketing Blog offering
daily news, interviews and best practices.

Eric is currently Vice President with the Visual Sciences division of web analytics firm, WebSideStory, is the author of several books on web measurement and moderates several popular discussion lists on analytics. He also manages an excellent site on web analytics called Web Analytics Demystified. He previously worked as an analyst with JupiterResearch and has been cited in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, CNN, Business 2.0 and others as an expert on the topic.

Eric will be speaking at a MIMA event tomorrow evening here in Minneapolis so I thought I would check in with him and do a little interview.

Please share a bit about your background

I’ve worked in the web analytics field since 1998 when I started at WebTrends as a webmaster. Since then I’ve worked mostly as an analyst (WebSideStory, JupiterResearch) and currently head up the Strategic Services group at Visual Sciences (a division of WebSideStory.) I’ve written three books on the subject of web analytics-Web Analytics Demystified (Celilo), Web Site Measurement Hacks (O’Reilly) and The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators (self-published in PDF format only)-and have founded a few web analytics “community” groups-the Web Analytics Forum at Yahoo! Groups and Web Analytics Wednesday. You can learn more about my activity in the web analytics community at www.webanalyticsdemystified.com.

What do you think are some of the most significant unrealized opportunities for companies regarding web analytics?

Most companies aren’t realizing the full benefit of their investment in web analytic technology because they’ve failed to assign proper/enough resources to the task of “improving the web site.” Measurement tools are a critical piece of the continual improvement process-basically working to improve your site incrementally rather than hoping that a massive redesign will solve your problems-but too few companies are leveraging this opportunity effectively.

What are some of the most common mistakes companies make regarding measuring web site performance?

Not taking the time to clearly define their business objectives and activities before they start generating “reports” that they push out to people. In my experience folks don’t need more reports, they need the “right” reports that speak directly to the business problems they’re trying to solve. The act of clearly defining value the web site is supposed to deliver and then mapping those goals to measurable clickstream helps clarify which data and reports are valuable at the strategic and tactical levels.

What are a few of the most important new trends companies should pay attention to regarding the future of web analytics?

At the recent Emetrics summit in Santa Barbara, one thing I was really impressed by was the fairly dramatic increase in the quality of questions people were asking from 2005 to 2006, which leads me to believe (at least in the microcosm) that the overall level of web analytics maturity is increasing. Given that there is already some pretty sophisticated technology out there, I think the most important trend that we should all watch for (and encourage) is how companies think about this type of technology and the impact it can have on their overall business.

Can you recommend educational resources for companies that want to improve their practical knowledge about web analytics?

Sure. I personally really like my site, www.webanalyticsdemystified.com which is about to get an overhaul and has links to tons of web analytics resources, jobs and community events like the Web Analytics Forum and Web Analytics Wednesday. Another good resource is the Web Analytics Association, our communities “professional association”.

You’ve written some excellent books on web analytics. (Web Analytics Demystified, Web Site Measurement Hacks, The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators) What are some resources you rely on for information on web analytics regarding best practices and up to date information?

Well, the Web Analytics Forum at Yahoo! Groups helps me keep my finger on the pulse of the larger community. I subscribe to a number of different RSS feeds written by “web analytics bloggers” like A. Clinton Ivy (Instant Cognition) and Minnesota’s own Mike Keyes (Ciceron). I read Jason Burby, Bryan Eisenberg and Neil Mason at Clickz and have a persistent Google search set up for the keywords “web analytics” which uncovers a bunch of interesting articles every week. Now that I’m at Visual Sciences, I also rely on our customers who, by and large, are a pretty sophisticated group of companies.

What are your favorite search engines?

Google. I pretty much only use Google.

Thanks Eric!

If you are in the Minneapolis – St. Paul area this week on Wednesday, be sure to come and see Eric speak at the MIMA (Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association) seminar, “Making Your Analytics Work. Hard.”. The event will be held on the 50th floor (Windows on Minnesota) of the IDS tower in downtown Minneapolis. More information is available at the MIMA events page.

Lee Odden is President and Founder of
TopRank Online Marketing, specializing in organic SEO, blog
marketing and online public relations. He’s been cited as a search
marketing expert by publications including U.S. News & World Report and
The Economist and has implemented successful search marketing programs
with top BtoB companies of all sizes. Odden shares his marketing
expertise at Online Marketing Blog offering
daily news, interviews and best practices.

Eric T. Peterson from the Visual Sciences division of web analytics firm, WebSideStory and author of several books on web measurement will be presenting, “Making Your Web Analytics Work. Hard”.

From the press release:

“Few organizations fully realize the potential of their investment in web analytics technology,” said Peterson. “Web analytics applications provide truly actionable data that can be used to positively impact an organization’s bottom-line but companies need to treat web analytics as a business process, not simply an ad hoc endeavor. My work at Visual Sciences, and my MIMA presentation, revolves around how companies can treat web analytics as a business process and dramatically improve the return on investment.”

The event will be held on Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at Windows on Minnesota, located on the 50th floor of the IDS center downtown Minneapolis. Visit the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association events page for more information and how to register.

Lee Odden is President and Founder of
TopRank Online Marketing, specializing in organic SEO, blog
marketing and online public relations. He’s been cited as a search
marketing expert by publications including U.S. News & World Report and
The Economist and has implemented successful search marketing programs
with top BtoB companies of all sizes. Odden shares his marketing
expertise at Online Marketing Blog offering
daily news, interviews and best practices.