In fact, three of our presenters are finalists for a SEMMY Award.  It’s the search engine marketing equivalent of The Oscars, except the nominees aren’t nearly as good looking.  While I doubt the awards will be covered by E Television, it’s an honor to be nominated.

Alright, what’s up with the this talk of free stuff?

We’re thrilled at the registration numbers so far, but my goal is a 100% packed house.  Beyond a personal goal of having a full room for the event, a packed house helps send a very positive signal that Spokane is a destination for technical conferences.  I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of having to go to Las Vegas, Orlando, or San Jose for conferences.  It’s time for more technical conferences to come to Spokane!

But I also have a personal goal - to beat Matt McGee.  You see, Matt took the early lead in attendee registration and politely reminded me that he’s not even from Spokane.  That just ain’t right.  All speakers have individual discount codes that saves you $50 (the same discount offered via The Spokane Regional Convention & Visitors Bureau, The Inlander, and LaunchPad).  The only difference (until now) is the code tracked in our registration engine.

Let’s see some schwag (free stuff)!

For those of you familiar with trade shows, there is always the allure of schwag - free stuff from vendors.  As this is a non-profit educational event, we don’t have the budget for traditional schwag.  However, here’s what I’m throwing out there for reese2010 attendees:

Register For The Event Here
Add “reese2010″ during the check-out process to save $50 and select one option below.

Free One Hour SEO/Marketing Assessment: Pick my brain for one hour at your office. Yep, one hour of free Internet marketing advice.  No pitch.  No proposal.  One free hour of SEO advice for you and anyone else at your company that you’d like in the room.  Bring your questions and I’ll do my best to answer as much as humanly possible in one hour.

Free Foosball Lesson: Back in the day I made an attempted a career in professional foosball.  In fact, I’ve played four of the top 20 foosball players in the world.  True, my 0-4 professional record doesn’t exactly make me the Roger Federer of the foosball circuit.  But I’d call myself a very good recreational player and can teach you some really cool tips and techniques that will help you beat your friends and neighbors the next time you play.  I’ll meet you at Trent & Dale, THE place to play foosball in Spokane.  I might even be able to talk Lotus Leong-Chesbrough into swinging by.  She has won a $100,000 invitational tournament, represented the United States in international competition, and destroyed me in a tournament back in 1994.

Free Disc Golf Lesson: As an aspiring disc golf player tournament player, I’ll offer tips about improving your game and guide those who would like to learn more about the sport.  I’m still a relative novice to disc golf,  but play quite a bit and am happy to share what I’ve picked up so far.  To learn more about the sport, check out the Spokane Disc Golf Association.

Register For The Event Here
Remember to add reese2010 before final check-out

But what about people that have registered for the conference already?

No worries.  All attendees that registered before January 27th will be grandfathered in!  This is all in good fun.  The local search community is a very close, supportive group of people.  Our goal is to provide you with all the tools necessary to immediately head back to the office and improve your business.  And if we’re able to play some foosball or disc golf along the way, all the better.  We look forward to seeing you on February 4th!

ANALYTICS, ANALYTICS, ANALYTICS

As I’m sure you recall from my presentation, I hammered home the importance of understanding analytics.  I’m not talking about “reporting” or “monthly reports” for your boss.  I’m talkin’ about kick-butt, actionable analytics that teach, provide valuable insight, and inspire action.  What’s workin,’ baby?  What does the data tell us today?  This higher level of attention to your data is not optional… if you want your business to succeed.  You must “know thy data.”  Here’s how:

Occam’s Razor - Awesome analyics blog from Avinash Kaushik
Web Analytics an Hour a Day - Great introduction to actionable analytics (also from Avinash)
Google Analytics Blog - Resource for understanding Google Analytics (beginner & advanced)
Google Analytics Videos - Educational videos that show how to use Google Analytics
Conversion University - A curriculum of analytics video tutorals
Analytics 2.0 [The Art of Online Accountability & Science of Customer Centricity]  (Thanks Avinash!)

MAKE SURE YOUR WEB SITE CONVERTS TRAFFIC

I think it’s great when companies embrace new technologies and ways of thinking.  Social media has taken the Internet marketing world by storm and generated all kinds of buzz (much of it well deserved) this year.  However, I’m always wary of what I call the “Shiny Penny Syndrome.” It’s a condition where companies throw resources at the latest and greatest marketing techniques without testing and tracking what the shiny penny actually does.  I’ve also seen companies completely stop doing what works (like email marketing) just because it doesn’t have that new marketing smell.

Don’t Make Me Think - Great read (really fast, too) about web site usability
Conversion Rate Experts - UK company focused solely on conversion rate optimization
108 Ways to Improve Conversion Rates (from Conversion Rate Experts)
Google Web Site Optimizer Blog (The Official Optimizer Blog)
Always Be Testing - Great book for learning A/B & Multivariate testing
Marketing Experiments - I love these guys.  Their webcasts rock!

LOCAL SEARCH = LOW HANGING FRUIT

As an Internet marketer I’m always looking for the low-hanging fruit—the best bang-for-the-buck in the shortest period of time.  And for most small and medium businesses that’s Local Search. Like I mentioned before, this doesn’t mean you stop doing everything else and go local only.  It means that it’s time for a dedicated local search strategy to compliment your existing marketing efforts.  Learn more from these experts:

David Mihm - Portland, OR Local Search expert & designer
2009 Local Search Ranking Factors - I’m proud to be a contributor to this research project
Mary Bowling - Denver, CO Local Search expert
Understanding Google Maps & Local Search - For those that want details, details, details.
Small Business SEM - Local Search + SMB Advice = Awesome!
Miriam Ellis - San Francisco, CA Local Search expert & designer
Chris Silver Smith - Cartographer & Local Search expert.  Again, for folks that want the technical details.

ORGANIC SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

There is a lot of information out there about SEO.  In fact, there is so much information that it’s tough to know where you should even begin.  These folks provide the best information and their content is always up to date.

SEOmoz - Free and premium levels of membership - Both are great!
SEO Book - Again, free and premium levels of membership - Great as well
Search Engine Journal - Free SEO content from a variety of SEO experts - including me starting next month
Search Engine Land - Center of the universe for all things search - Look through the categories
Vanessa Fox - She has an uncanny ability to explain complex details in very simple terms
Rand Fishkin’s HostingCon Preso - Awesome SEO explanation (and motivation for my art project)

BUT WHAT ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA?

Don’t worry,  I didn’t forget about social media. Remember, this socia media stuff is new for everybody so the importance of testing and learning from data is paramount.  I think this bit of reading will provide good insight for you.

Outspoken Media - More than social media, but they cover it very well.  Many good social media posts here.
Copyblogger - Read Copyblogger now!  Writing is so freakin’ important.  This is one of my favorite blogs!
7 Harsh Realities of Social Media Marketing - Great new post from Copyblogger
Trackur - Cool way to track social media mentions & reputation
Samepoint - See all mentions of your name or company online. A very cool social media monitoring tool.
5 Facebook Case Studies - Yes, 5 real case studies about marketing with FB.
Twitter, Tacos, & Trucks - The Story of Kogi Bar-B-Que

LIKE I SAID,… WHAT MATTERS IS HOW IT HELPS YOUR BUSINESS
Here’s an example from the presentation.  I know it’s hard to believe,… but I didn’t even go to art school!

WANT MORE INFORMATION? HAVE QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? JUST LET ME KNOW.

Please feel from to leave a comment below, send an email, or contact me at my office (509-456-4350).

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday - How SEOs Know SEO from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

I’ll be speaking at the Spokane Club on November 11th at 7am for their Breakfast Networking Series.  Spokane Mayor Mary Verner gave a great presentation this week about the city budget and future plans.  Next week I’m going to do my part to increase Spokane’s tax base by teaching local business owners how to use online marketing to increase revenue.   I realize there has been a lot of buzz recently around social media, SEO, and online marketing in general, so I wanted to create a short video to preview a bit of the content I’ll be covering during my presentation.  For those of you that have seen me present before, you know that I don’t hold back when it comes to content.  If you want to understand how to use online marketing to generate business for your company I’ll help provide the roadmap, tools, and resources to succeed.  I look forward to seeing you there!

Spokane Club Nov 11th Networking Breakfast Preview - Ed Reese from Ed Reese on Vimeo.

To learn more about the event, please feel free to call Debra at the Spokane Club (509-838-8511).

Do you throw it away?  Do you eagerly await its arrival each Fall?  Do you keep it around just in case you need to organize a game of bridge with your grandparent’s friends?  Does it help you get things off of high shelves?  I’m curious.

United’s response: Donate $3,000 to a nonprofit on Dave’s behalf.

My response: Really?  Three grand?  That’s it?

Really?  Three grand.  You REALLY need to be featured on SNL’s Really ?!? with Seth & Amy.  You have an audience of millions awaiting your response and this is the best you can do?  “Wow.” Talk about underwhelming.

You see, if this were a private issue I would call it an appropriate response.  You broke a $3,500 Taylor guitar, cost Dave Carroll $1,200 in repairs plus countless hours chasing down a response.  $3,000 would be absolutely appropriate if nobody else knew about it.  But they do.  You blew an incredible opportunity to save face here.

In fact, in just one day United Breaks Guitars jumped from the 4th to 3rd on page one of Google and added two new references to the story.  It was also viewed on YouTube over 300,000 times yesterday alone.  Check out the rest of a page one search for United Airlines. Half of page one is of the story.  Here’s a look at a few:

So who are the winners and losers in all this?

Dave Carroll & The Sons of Maxwell
It’s nearly impossible to put a value on this degree of exposure for a band other than to say this is a life-changing event that will impact their lives for the better.  I wonder how many other people like me just bought their album.  Dave Carroll is my new personal hero.  Look for them to gain a huge crossover following.

Taylor Guitars - Taylor is so brilliant.  They didn’t even have anything to do with all this mess.  But they’re savvy enough to know a great marketing opportunity when they see one.  They set up Dave Carroll and company with sweet Taylor gear and are going to get some great mileage out of this.  Talk about a low cost relative to the amount of positive exposure this will generate.  Nice work, Taylor.  (As a proud owner of a Taylor guitar, I can tell you their guitars are awesome.)

United Airlines - Sorry guys.  You blew it.  Sure, you gave a few bucks to charity and got a positive response from Dave about it.  But this is a very public black eye that $3,000 won’t fix anytime soon.

SEOmoz and Jason Murphy - SEOmoz for recognizing how great Jason’s post was and promoting it to the main page and Jason for adding a new perspective regarding reputation management strategies. Thanks!

In the simplest of terms, online reputation management is the process of creating new web pages that rank higher than the pages containing the bad stuff for your name, product name(s), and/or important keywords.  Create enough high ranking & relevant content from enough sources and in time your reputation is clean.  Ideally, it’s pushed down to page 3, 4, and lower, but page one is the first big goal.

I hadn’t given much thought to embracing poor reviews until I read this SEOmoz post about reputation management.  It was written by Las Vegas Reputation Management & Social Media Consultant Jason Murphy. He gives United Airlines some brilliant ways to respond to the wild popularity (and incredibly awesome) United Breaks Guitars YouTube video from David Carroll.  If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the video.  Oh yeah, it’s also the 4th listing on page one of Google for “United Airlines.” Tell me this didn’t get their attention.

Well, according to the LA Times, it looks as though they are contacting Dave Carroll to “make things right.”  I’m curious to see if they’ll take any of the steps outlined by Jason in his post.  Rather than re-cap his ideas, check out the complete post to see some very creative ways to handle a big reputation management challenge.

In addition to Jason’s post, I recommend reading related posts from SEOmoz, Distilled, Matt McGee, and Bruce Clay.

I’m proud to announce Sixth Man Marketing’s first employee, Britney Paul. Her primary focus will be client services and project management. However, we are dedicating two hours a day to education and exposure to the search industry. She is also responsible for a weekly blog post and engagement with the business community here in Spokane as well as the search industry at large. Please help me in welcoming Britney to the team. I’m lucky to have her on board.

Britney’s Introduction/First Blog Post:

I am the new Project Manager at Sixth Man Marketing and this my first real job in the professional world. That’s right, I am officially the newbee in town. I am also brand new to the SEO industry, so I’m not quite sure what I’m getting myself into.

Part of my responsibilities is to attend various networking events around Spokane to meet and engage with the people in our community. Ed threw me right into the ring with a beer in my hand. It’s my first week on the job and I’m attending two events.

My first event this week was LaunchPad’s Quarterly Networking Event. I met a few people who were really welcoming to the new girl in town. As a result of the event, I am a LaunchPad member with four friends and counting. It’s a great networking web site for Spokane that’s growing quickly and doing productive things for our community. I’m looking forward to their future events to meet more people.

My second event was a celebration. Seven2 celebrated their 5th Anniversary. The festivities included a margarita fountain, Mexican food, and even karaoke. Although I didn’t make it up on stage to exercise my “unique” vocals and dance skills, I had a really good time and met some more great people that I hope to stay in contact with. These Seven2 guys work really hard at what they do and I congratulate them for five years of success.

I survived Week 1 and I’m interested to see what adventures Week 2 will bring.

However, I’ve just added a new one to the list and wanted to let you know.  It’s a non-profit founded by Rhonda Sand of TMI Tours called Purposeful Africa.  I was introduced to Rhonda by Jamie Birch, who is already on board supporting her efforts with a small team from Coeur d’Alene and Spokane volunteering their time and resources.  As I’m new to the project, I don’t have much to share other than that I’m on board and looking forward to contributing to their efforts.  More details in the coming months…

David asked 27 Local Search experts to rate the importance of 49 criteria with respect to their influence on rankings in the Google and Yahoo Local “Universal” search algorithms. These are the factors that trigger a local map result from perceived local search queries. Since early 2008 all the major search engines now display a map for locally-focused keywords.

Gain insight into local search drivers and understand how your business can get found in Maps and increase online exposure.