craig sutton

I was speaking with Loretta Marston of Optima Business Consulting the other day, she had attended the first Learn About Web conference held here in the Tri-Cities, WA, and has joined myself and others in creating the Biz411 Group, a group of Small Business Owners who are dedicated to educating others while generating some money for charity.

We were talking a bit about why some Owners or key people might choose to shy away from these events and she had mentioned a conversation with a local business owner who mentioned that the idea of coming to a show like this was appealing, but that it may show a weakness to other potential clients or a boss, if they came.

I really hadn’t thought about it this way, and I understand the concern. Having said that, there is another way to look at this.

Conferences are nothing more than ongoing education. You will hear plenty you may already know, the goal here is to get up to date on concepts you may not understand as well. Or you might be provided some information to help you make decisions about your business future.

I proudly tell my customers about the additional conferences I attend, because they also know that with technology, every facet of business changes at the speed of light. Your boss knows this as well. Explaining to your boss that the investment of the trip to the conference will prove one of two things, you know everything you need to know, or they made a wise investment that will enable you to make them more efficient!

I have been to conferences that taught me very little, and some that I have learned a lot from. The key is to read the details about what the conference is geared to provide. What is its target market, what are the key conversation points, and is there enough there for it to be sensible for you.

What about competitors? They might be there!

Yeah? So what? You should be worried about them being there while your sitting in the office. Everyone wants a competitive edge, its only the fool who thinks they have it already. A very key issue in business, its not about what you know.. you are EXPECTED to know how to do your job, its about how you build and sustain relationships. If you’re not as good as or better than your competitor at that, no amount of knowledge will save you.

Conferences are designed to help you build and keep relationships by providing you the education you need to make them happy.

Focus on YOU, not on THEM.

I educate people and learn from them, yes, even my competitors!

Lee Odden - Top Rank Marketing

There are 3 situations in which I perform speaking or training tasks. The first is speaking at conferences like Pubcon, Search Engine Strategies, DMA or PRSA events. Blogging, social networking and speaking at events pretty much makes up the bulk of our marketing efforts. Topics at conferences tend to focus on what will draw attendees and what conferences have come to associate TopRank with: SEO and public relations, blogging, social media and online reputation management.

I also get hired to speak or do training for certain conferences or associations such as the Direct Marketing Association with the Search Engine Marketing Certification program, or the 2-day Social Media Smarts workshop.

The third type of speaking or training event I’m often involved with is when companies want to bring someone in to speak at a company event on up and coming topics and strategic focus for search, PR and social media or to do in-house training of interdepartmental teams.

You have often pointed out the necessity of having good fresh content on your blog. Have you ever had writers block? What options does a blogger have when they just can’t seem to focus?

Writers block rears its ugly head a lot more often than people think. I’ve been actively blogging for over 5 years and sometimes it’s not just writers block, but a time and resource issue. TopRankMarketing.com is a respected company and we’re pretty busy. That makes me busy and sometimes spending the kind of time I would prefer on writing and researching a post simply isn’t available.

The way to get around focus or time issues is to be proactive. I keep 10-20 draft posts in our blog at any given time. Rather than sitting down and writing a 1000 word post in one sitting, which still happens at 3 am from time to time, I add to them over time. That makes it a bit easier from a resource standpoint. We also do regular features which are easier posts to do, but also things people look forward to such as reviewing SEO blogs each week, running Reader Polls, interviews or crowd sourced posts from Twitter and LinkedIn.

We know Search Engines are always changing there dynamics and because of this Web Marketing companies always have to be on there toes. I preach that being interactive online is at least equally as important as SEO. What do you think? And what should we watch for in the SEO future?

Yes, being social online is very important as a standalone marketing activity but also because the byproduct of being social creates content. That content might get passed around, attract links and motivate bloggers and journalists to write about you.

As long as web developers keep making web sites that don’t play well with search engines, there will always be a need for SEO as its traditionally defined. What I think you’ll find after talking to other long time SEO consultants is that keyword expertise and pull marketing insight is invaluable in many other online marketing disciplines ranging from public relations to social media. Anything that can be searched on can be optimized. As long as people can search, there will be a need to SEO.

Future SEO is taking more of a well rounded approach to marketing online rather than focusing exclusively on standard search engine rankings. Everything from Universal search to personalized to social search makes what was previously a 2 or three dimensional discipline a multidimensional expertise.

If I was starting a new e-commerce site today with some SEO friendly features already built in, what software should I be considering?

The answer to that question needs some budget insight first. A 500 product store online has different needs than a store with 5 million SKUs. The fundamental features to look for are: unique and editable title tags & meta description tags, ability to include descriptive text on top level category pages, sub category pages and of course, individual product pages, dynamic population of alt text on images, intuitive URLs, flat site architecture – avoid too many levels deep, ability to export HTML and XML site map files automatically, and many, many others.

Also, no matter what, an ecommerce site can benefit via SEO with a blog. Ecommerce site blogs can present new products, tips on using products, solicit customer generated content, run promotions and offer product support information.

What do you do when you have some spare time to yourself? Any hobbies?

Spare time? What’s that? I spend as much time as I can with my 3 little musketeers plus a bit of travel, cooking, working out, watching movies, games, some sports and gadgets.

Danny Brown - Press Release PR

There are many people that use Twitter for many different reasons, getting to know others, education, sharing information. How do you get the most out of Twitter and what do you hope to accomplish?

I’d say it’s most definitely the connections, and the thought processes that you come across every day. While I don’t see every single tweet made by my connections, just catching the odd one that has an immense depth that blows me away is what makes each connection count. As far as accomplishing goals, basically continue to learn from the people around me, and improve myself because of it.

Tell us where you are from and what you do for a living?

I’m originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, but I now live in Canada just outside Toronto. I own my own boutique PR agency, which combines traditional PR and marketing with social media. This includes business consultancy as well as individual projects.

Do you know others who use Social Media tools like Twitter in your area? What would you say about the knowledge of people in your area about Social Media in general?

If by my immediate area, there are a few, although I’d probably say that Facebook is still a more popular application than Twitter. You’ve got incredibly smart guys like @davefleet and @unmarketing who are both local to me and in my field, so it’s an ideal mix. It’s definitely growing, though, and I think 2009 will see Twitter go much more mainstream.

What gets you really motivated and excited?

Knowing that each day is different. I’m lucky to work in an industry I love (despite the best efforts of unethical PR pros giving it a bad name) and that I am my own boss. The charity challenge I’ve put together for 2009 is really motivating me, and seeing all the support for it is always exciting. And learning from great people online every day, who want to encourage others in all that they do? That never fails to amaze me.

Give us one crazy fact about yourself you haven’t already shared.

Hmm… when I was at primary school (I’m guessing grade 6 or 7 across here), I played the Fairy Godmother in the school production of Cinderella. Definitely a crowning moment, and scary how “okay” I looked in a dress…

Any other tidbits you would like to offer?

Never take no for an answer, and no matter what people might tell you, everyone has greatness inside of them. Don’t be afraid to show yours and encourage others to be great too.