Announcing a new Meetup for The Vancouver Search Engine Marketing Group!

What: Vancouver SEM Monthly Meetup. Mark The Date: Presenter: the next Meetup will be a presenter’s round table. We’ll have experts answer questions you’ll propose and vote on. (I’m humbled by the quality of the panel, thanks guys).

When: Monday, July 19, 2010 6:00 PM

Where:
Ceilis Irish Pub
670 Smithe Street, Vancouver, BC
Vancouver, BC V6B 1E3

Learn more here:
http://www.meetup.com/VancouverSEM/calendar/13827106/

SES Toronto, THE search marketing show in Canada, is approaching fast and this year, it will be on June 9-11 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Please take a minute and look at the impressive list of speakers at Search Engine Strategies (SES) Toronto on June 09-11, 2010

I have been told that there are a number of brand new panels being presented for the first time at SES Toronto, including:

Eye-Tracking Research Update,
Search, PR & the Social Butterfly,
Meaningful SEO Metrics,
Video: The Next Marketing Frontier,
21 Secrets of Top Converting Websites

You can save up to $200 on their conference pass if you register between April 3 and May 21.

Announcing a new Meetup for The Vancouver Search Engine Marketing Group!

What: Vancouver SEM Monthly Meetup. Mark The Date: Presenter: Marta Turek from Enquiro: The Double Edged Sword of PPC Measurability

When: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 6:00 PM

Where:
Ceilis Irish Pub
670 Smithe Street, Vancouver, BC
Vancouver, BC V6B 1E3

Learn more here:
http://www.meetup.com/VancouverSEM/calendar/12976781

Announcing a new Meetup for The Vancouver Search Engine Marketing Group!

What: Vancouver SEM Monthly Meetup. Mark The Date: Presenter: Ani Lopez – SEO for Multi-Country-Language Projects: Target Europe / Latin America

When: Monday, March 8, 2010 6:00 PM

Where:
Ceilis Irish Pub
670 Smithe Street, Vancouver, BC
Vancouver, BC V6B 1E3

Learn more here:
http://www.meetup.com/VancouverSEM/calendar/12102380/

Dear SEMPO Members,

We are pleased to bring to you an exclusive offer to participate in what will be one of Toronto’s most anticipated marketing conferences. The Art of Marketing will be in Toronto on March 2^nd, 2010 and will feature 6 international bestselling authors and speakers all live and in person including Seth Godin, Dan Heath, Mitch Joel and many others.

The Art of Productions – the company organizing the event is allowing SEMPO members and your guests the opportunity to participate in this exciting event and take advantage of the preferred rates. By using the promotional code RD26 you will benefit from a $50 savings, additionally groups of 3 or more will receive an additional $50 savings when the tickets are purchased together.

We invite you to visit www.theartofmarketing.ca for all the event details including agenda, speakers and ticket availability.

To register right away and take advantage of the preferred rates please follow this link https://www.theartofmarketing.ca/register/step1/promo_code:RD26

We look forward to seeing you on March 2^nd at The Art of Marketing.

Announcing a new Meetup for The Vancouver Search Engine Marketing Group!

What: Vancouver SEM Monthly Meetup. Mark The Date: January 11, 2010
Presenter: John Hossack, from VKI Studos on “Ugly Jerry”

When: January 11, 2010 6:00 PM

Where:
Ceilis Irish Pub
670 Smithe Street, Vancouver, BC
Vancouver, BC V6B 1E3

Our presenter and topic for our first meetup of 2010 are set. We’re just finalizing a few technicalities.

Mark the date and we’ll be posting details soon

Learn more here:
http://www.meetup.com/VancouverSEM/calendar/12102380/

The second of a two part series on Social Media, the engaging and informative luncheon consisted of a panel of 4 esteemed Social Media experts including George Moen, president of Blenz Coffee, Richard Sandor, managing director of DDB Vancouver, Chris Breikss, president of 6S Marketing; and Ryan Holmes, CEO of Invoke Media.

Moderated by Steve Mossop, president of Ipsos Reid, each panelist gave real-world examples on how their clients, and their organizations use Social Media to reach their goals.

When Blenz President George Moen discovered his customers were having conversations online without him, he realized he had to get involved to control his brand. Moen enjoys the instantaneous feedback he receives by regularly interacting with his customers on Twitter and Facebook. A Blenz promotion offering a daily $5 prize to anyone who uses word “Blenz” in their Tweets has helped attract over 1600 Twitter followers.

Moen admits to arriving “Late to the Party” but now looks at all Social Media options as a smorgasbord. By selecting the best platform for each task, Moen is able to maximum the features each platform has to offer. With the arrival of Foursquare in Vancouver, Moen was quick to get involved by recognizing newly appointed Mayors at Vancouver Blenz locations resulting in a story in the Vancouver Sun.

Moen says the biggest challenge to implementing a social media strategy is resistance to change within the organization. “Technology moves fast, people don’t”, says Moen.

Ryan Holmes, CEO of Invoke Media, outlined their social media strategy for the launch of HootSuite 2.0. HootSuite 1.0 was released in December 2008 as a free web-based professional Twitter client. Existing HootSuite users were offered the new version in advance of the release date by Tweeting, “I Upgraded to HootSuite 2.0 because …” Users could then have some fun and finish the Tweet anyway they liked. The promotion was so successful, HootSuite 2.0 became one of the Twitter “Trending Topics” within 7 hours after the launch. Aside from the time required to design the strategy and a few technical issues, there were no other direct costs to the campaign.

Chris Breikss, President of 6S Marketing, shared part of the Social Media strategy they designed and implemented for the Opus Hotel. Prior to working with 6S, their primary method of communicating with their clients was through their newsletter. 6S setup up a master Twitter account and 4 additional sub-accounts for each business group. They then gave the Opus staff a set of guidelines on Tweeting which bypassed the lengthy approval process of the newsletter. Breikss pointed out that while Social media ROI is harder to measure than SEM, there are some metrics available. With 1700 followers on their primary Twitter account along with 2500 Facebook fans, Opus was able to increase communication with their audience 100 fold.

Richard Sandor, Managing Director of DDB Vancouver, took us through the spectacular “Where is This?” campaign for the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC). As with all their projects, they started by defining the business goal. In this case, the goal was to convince Canadians to travel within Canada on their vacation. Using a Flickr group, a YouTube channel, and working with bloggers to spread the word, they asked individuals and tourism sites to upload their best images of Canada to the localsknow.ca website. Using 4,000 uploads, they put together “Where is This?” TV spots that drove viewers to the Locals Know website where they of course they discover that locations are all right here in Canada.

During the Q&A Steve Mossop asked, “Canadians spend as much as 50% of their time online using some form of social networking site. So why are Canadian companies only devoting 11% of their adverting budgets online?” While no one had a definitive answer, with online advertising accounting for 24 percent of the total UK ad market, the opportunity for growth in Social Media marketing in Canada is enormous.

Take advantage of the early bird prices for IMC Vancouver on September 16-18 if you purchase your ticket before Friday Sept 4.

* IMC Vancouver 2009 will cover each of the important methods of marketing online in order to get the highest quality of traffic to your website.
* Learn the new industry best practices in converting more of your site visitors to: Spend more time on site, achieve better sales and user signup conversion, and better site engagement overall.
* IMC is a conference not only to get the best industry insight but also to meet and connect with those that are the writing the new rules of marketing in Internet Marketing today.

If you are a SEMPO Member, the discount code for your group is:

sempo10

and is good for 10% off any of the ticket options (which equates to ~20% if they register for both days since we already offer a $50 multi-day discount). Every attendee will still receive the $50 AdWords credit for EACH day they attend, issued by Google after the seminar via email.

The url for registration is: http://www.bgtheory.com/adwords-seminar-for-success-toronto-2009/

The event name is:
AdWords(tm) Seminar for Success – Toronto
The event is at:
Hilton Garden Inn Toronto Airport
3311 Caroga Drive
Mississauga, Ontario, CA L4V 1A3
8:30 am – 5:00 PM

8/25/09 AdWords 301: Advanced Account Optimization focuses on best practices for Keywords, Ad Copy, and Landing Pages in addition to a deep dive into Quality Score, the Content Network, and Geographic Targeting. This day is jam-packed full of tips and techniques you can functionally use to improve your accounts overall performance.

8/26/09 AdWords 302: Advanced Conversion Optimization concentrates on how to increase your conversions and your profits! Topics include Bidding Types and Strategies, Tracking Conversions, Split Testing, and Account Organization. The information included in this session can have a positive, dramatic impact on your bottom line – this is a must attend event!

If you have any questions about this PPC learning event in Toronto, please ask Leslie Clark: leslie@bgtheory.com