AboutUs Weblog

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SearchFest = Social Media Feast Posted: 02 Mar 2012 04:14 PM PST Better late than never, as they say (and who are “they” anyway?)….Here’s our wrap-up of last week’s brilliant SearchFest 2012.   Social media, social media & social media For us AboutUs folks, SearchFest was really about the social media presentations. These took place in the Heritage Ballroom at the Governor Hotel, which is where sponsors had their tables. Since we were sponsors this year, we stayed put and enjoyed great presentations by Ian Lurie, John Shehata, Marty Weintraub (dig that headshot, Marty!), Will Scott, Justin Kistner, Kelly Feller, Greg Sterling and Chris Silver Smith. Gotta hand some praise also to moderators Jessica Ward (who guided three sessions!) and Portland’s own local search expert, David Mihm. Here are a few of our biggest takeaways: Social media doesn’t have to be as big a time suck as you think (or fear). Take Ian Lurie’s tips and you can do it in less than an hour a day. Fifteen minutes in the morning, a few 5-minute sessions during the day (between other tasks) and 10 minutes at night, keeps you current. Of course, using good social media tools really helps, and Ian and others shared their favorites. To get the best SEO value out of Web directory listings, make sure your company’s name, address and phone number are consistent across all listings. (You can get a good start on improving directory listings by going to David Mihm’s site, GetListed.org.) If you can talk about something that’s current right now in the news, you can get a big spike in engagement on social media. But make sure it’s pertinent to what you do, so it makes sense for you to be commenting. Get visual! Facebook posts with photos draw 50 percent more likes than posts without photos. A comment on your Facebook wall is worth four times as much as a “like.” Elicit comments by asking questions that require real answers, not just “yes” or “no.” There was a lot more to glean from the social media sessions – let alone the analytics and SEO sessions. If you missed out this year, do yourself a huge favor – join SEMpdx, go to the monthly educational meetings, and sign up early for SearchFest next year.

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