@BasilPuglisi

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Conferences & Education

#140conf in New York City June 19th – 20th 2012 [Event]

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This year the #140c will be hosted at the 92nd Street Y at 1395 Lexington Avenue in NYC.

The History of the #140conf

In its fourth year running, this conference has had no shortages of experts with a plethora of educational and trending information to provide attendees. Each year it simply gets better and better.

In 2009, #140conf hosted events in:

2011 found #140conf spreading even further across the globe with events held in more locations than before.

There have also been a number of #140conf Meetups which have taken place across the United States, and outside of the states including places like the UK, Kenya and Israel.

In addition, check out the writers panel from #140conf 2011 that featured Debre Eckerling from @WriteOnOnline, Jeanne V Bowerman @jeannevb and Tracey Jackson @traceyjackson4.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIIKqAJmGmE]

With many more impressive panels the 2011 #140conf was a rousing success. This year is shaping up to top them all.

Jeff Pulver Speaks

In April, 2012, Jeff Pulver shared a talk in Des Moines Iowa and he had some very compelling things to say about how we act and interact on our social networks. Are you YOU on your social networks? Are you who you think your friends and consumers think you should be? If you are anything but yourself you are not really connecting with those most important when it comes to marketing yourself or your brand. Jeff put it out there pretty well when he asked:

Are you you? Are you connecting to the person who you are? Are you true to yourself? If you Tweeted yourself would you talk back? Would you friend yourself?

I can relate to this as it is very similar to my previous article “Who are you?”

Societal communications are occurring now on a global level. Jeff reminds us that while the communication line is open, we have plenty of social media users who are more than happy to be brash, rude, insensitive, and that perhaps these people are being themselves. But we also have others who are the veritable shrinking violets, who are unlikely to ever be heard on a grand scale. And then we have our social leaders. Those whose Tweets and Status shares compel us, attract us. In most cases, those people have a strength we admire. Each of us have our own strengths when it comes to how we voice our feelings, how we communicate. In each of us is our true voice that when shared with the Twitterverse, or asserted on a Facebook status will have its own selling point, for those with a similar voice, opinions and assertions.

Inspire others whenever you can, because you can.

This Year’s #140conf NYC

The turnout for this year’s conference is expected to be attendees from 17 countries and 31 states.It is already expected to be the largest worldwide gather of entrepreneurs and professionals who are interested in the effects of real-time on people and businesses.

The focus will be on how the internet has the power to change lives and all attendees should expect to leave with a new outlook on how real-time interaction on the web can be used to grow your business or personal life, or even to do something intrinsically meaningful such as activism in charities you support. The options are almost endless.

The schedule is a fast paced and very unique one. It is the intention of the organizers to supply the perfect platform for as wide of a demographic as possible. Everyone is encouraged to share their thoughts or engage with attendees and speakers. Individual talks will be limited to ten minute excerpts and panel discussions will run for 10 to 15 minute sets.

Conference speakers will be arriving in NYC from all over the world. Speakers from the Pacific, South America, Europe, Asia, Canada and of course many from the United States.

Register Today to Be a Part of This Event

Interested in having your voice heard at a future #140conf event? We are always looking for new voices to introduce to our community. Just drop a note to Jeff Pulver. Interested in leveraging the influence of the #140conf NYC community? we are looking for companies interested in sponsoring this event.

The #140conf events –Tweetups, Conferences, Parties and Roadtrips – present an opportunity to consistently broaden your social media knowledge, whether for its own sake, or for application in communication, business, news, politics, philathropy or just about any other sphere. You always meet the most interesting and creative people at these events, and each time, Jeff’s mix of speakers,  their topics and perspective leave you substantially more informed and meaningfully inspired.

– Ian Aronovich – @GovtAuctions

Don’t miss this years @140conf #140conf in NYC!

Author:

@BasilPuglisi is the Executive Director and Publisher for Digital Brand Marketing Education (dbmei.com). Basil C. Puglisi is also the President of Puglisi Consulting Group, Inc. A Digital Brand Marketing Consultancy that manages professional and personal branding for Fortune 500 CEOs, Hedge Fund Managers and Small Business Owners.

Sources:

Corporate Social Media Summit New York 2012 [Event]

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Once again The Corporate Social Media Summit is back and as usual will come complete with real insight, valid experience and the answers you may be looking for when it comes to social media. There will be over 150 top delegates in attendance. Get registered as soon as possible to insure your place at this phenomenal social media educational summit.

What Can Attendees Expect from the New York Corporate Social Media Summit 2012?

There are many elements of social media, networking and marketing that attendees will take away from the conference.

  • Attendees will get familiar with methods and tools that can help to create a social media marketing strategy that encourages long-term success for their companies. Expect to learn about how such companies as Dunkin’, AVG, Comcast and others have formulated effective social media structures and how to model a similar strategy that will boost your businesses social brand awareness quickly.
  • Attendees will get the chance to connect and network with over 250 social media pros. This global event already has confirmation from many countries such as South Korea and Norway. This will be attendees chance to rub shoulders with personell from Hyundai, Warner Home Video, RCN, Adobe and more.
  • Attendees will be given the information they need to get ahead of their competition. With social media being a constantly evolving industry, it is imperative to keep abreast of the latest strategies and best practices. At the New York Corporate Social Media Summit attendees will hear from representatives from Boeing, American Express and more.

In its third year, the New York Corporate Social Media Summit supplies an ultimate learning experience in addition to valuable networking experience for the constantly evolving marketing industry. This year’s summit will benefit attendees with 5 new additions that will help business owners learn to address some of the top issues in social media today.

  1. Speakers from Europe will be sharing some of their best practices with attendees. Some of the best brands in Europe are represented and will discuss some of the elements that have led to their success.
  2. Attendees will be able to meet and network with over 250 senior level professionals.
  3. A unique session where the attendees get to set the agenda. This is the time to ask those questions that you have been searching and researching for.
  4. Some of the best service providers around will be on hand to help with solutions to manage your own personal strategies, resources and other financial issues.
  5. A networking opportunity and best practice sharing in a Linkedin group that is exclusively for some of social media’s most experienced figures.

Register Now

Author:@BasilPuglisi is the Executive Director and Publisher for Digital Brand Marketing Education (dbmei.com). Basil C. Puglisi is also the President of Puglisi Consulting Group, Inc.A Digital Brand Marketing Consultancy that manages professional and personal branding for Fortune 500 CEOs, Hedge Fund Managers and Small Business Owners.Sources:

Inbound Marketing Summit NYC 2012 – 3 Important Tips to Take Home

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Image c/o http://inboundmarketingsummit.com/event/new-york/

If you had the opportunity to sit in on the panels at the Inbound Marketing Summit in New York this year, you likely took away a few vital lessons that you can carry to your business. The conference itself has evolved over the last few years. It has held a focus on social marketing strategies, but has also begun a swift evolution to cover other vital elements such as social TV, touch screen devices, and mobile marketing, as well as defining what these technological shifts really mean for professionals utilizing engagement skills and strategies.

While many interesting points were made, there were absolutely three great highlights that every small business owner should consider when focusing on social media and fan engagement.

Social Media Advertising

Most social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and even LinkedIn have opportunities for advertising at relatively affordable prices. While businesses are building and managing their content in order to break through valuable channels to achieve better engagement, they are finding that advertising can be easy when it is placed where people are hanging around the most. With the many Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn stats we are familiar with when it comes to time spent on social networks these days, there is no doubt that although more affordable than many other types of digital or traditional advertising, they are still highly effective. The IMS panels recommended trying this out on your Facebook Fan page since it is significantly easier to build an audience there.

Responding and Engaging

Image c/o http://socialmarketingfella.com/

You have heard it before here at DBMEI, it is not enough to simply create formats for your consumers to interact with, you actually have to be responsive, and in a relatively short period of time for maximum engagement opportunities. Business owners can either use a team to ensure engagement in a timely manner, or they can use alerts and other monitoring programs to ensure their consumers or prospective customers are given responses before too much time has passed. They should also not wait until there is an issue to engage, even if a visitor just stops by to post or praise your products and services, give them a swift thanks a Like, and a special coupon code when at all possible. Make interactivity on your social media platforms a source of mutual positive reinforcement when at all possible.

Have a Plan

Business owners need to have a plan. You shouldn’t be rolling over, firing up the computer, and tapping your fingers until the content idea comes to you. You need a lot more of a forecasted plan than that. Using a social media editorial calendar can be a helpful way to pre-plan and map out topics so that they are optimized for distribution, coverage, and of course engagement. You should know ahead of time, aside from breaking or important trending news, what type of content will be created and when it will be set for distribution. Knowing your audience and what type of content they can appreciate, combined with a social media editorial calendar will help business owners to better manage engagement with current or potential consumers.

Many other vital points arose that are also swiftly becoming crucial elements in business marketing such as tablets and social TV and their respective places in a full-bodied marketing campaign. Since Americans still watch around 35 hours of TV per week, many now on touch screen devices and tablets, marketing professionals now need to begin to consider how to capture an audience’s attention across multiple devices simultaneously.

However, it is also important to recall that another lesson from IMS included understanding user behavior over in-depth knowledge about emerging technologies.

Author:

@BasilPuglisi is the Executive Director and Publisher for Digital Brand Marketing Education (dbmei.com). Basil C. Puglisi is also the President of Puglisi Consulting Group, Inc. A Digital Brand Marketing Consultancy that manages professional and personal branding for Fortune 500 CEOs, Hedge Fund Managers and Small Business Owners.

Sources:

Venture Pitch 2012 [Event]

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Thursday,  March 15th 2012
Leonard’s of Great Neck
555 Northern Boulevard
10:00AM – 3:00PM

Business owners should enjoy Venture Pitch, produced by Expos Your Business in partnership with Advantage Payroll Services and based on a concept by Ana Carill-Grumberg, Internet filmmaker to Deepak Chopra, Global.  It will feature a well-known panelist from the big hit ABC television series Shark Tank, Daymond John.  Joining Daymond will be Rob Basso, President of Advantage Payroll Services.

The panelist include Bruce Zutler of the Inventors Association of Manhattan as well as Luis Cuneo from IBM Global Diversity Business Leadership. Venture Pitch, produced by Expos Your Business in partnership with Advantage Payroll Services and based on a concept by Ana Carill-Grumberg, Internet filmmaker to Deepak Chopra, Global, will be a part of EXPOS Your Business and NY Multicultural Business Expo that will be taking place at Leonard’s of Great Neck.

Why Attend?

Shaping up to be a very exciting morning, Venture Pitch, produced by Expos Your Business in partnership with Advantage Payroll Services and based on a concept by Ana Carill-Grumberg, Internet filmmaker to Deepak Chopra, Global, will be filled with new ideas and businesses who are focused and competing to take their own operations to new levels. All competitors will be charged with convincing the panel of judges that their idea should win the top prize. Produced by Expos Your Business, Venture Pitch will be an enjoyable breakfast with some top-notch business marketer entertainment.

Business owners who are looking for new ways to market their products or services will be able to take part in this unique business expo that is focused on helping to stimulate local economies while still promoting appreciation and awareness of cultural diversities. The NY Multicultural Business Expo will be supply a rare opportunity for many individuals or businesses to network in one of the fastest growing elements of our business population, the multicultural market.

There will be sponsors and vendors from many nationalities that will be representing companies that are working to build their own customer bases to help increase their own personal circles of influence. Mark Neuwirt, President of Expos Your Business and organizer of the event, shares that even though the event is not a massive one noted on a national scale, it is the first for the Long Island and NYC area and it has already elicited a high volume of response.

Who Will be Attending?

Reps from the LIDC, Empire State Development, National Grid, the US SBA, and the NYS Governor’s Office on Asian Affairs will be participating. Expos Your Business is partnering with Nassau County to extend outreach to those businesses that are minority owned by supplying them with relevant information as well as helpful panels and seminars on multicultural marketing, public speaking, minority business development, funding, social media, securing government contracts, and more.

Many local, regional, and national media venues have and continue to actively promote the EYB to their English speaking and ethnic communities. Entertainment will include a brief musical performance by the Asian-American Cultural Circle of Unity. There will be food tasting throughout the day supplied by local restaurants beginning around 1pm.  Neuwirt offers the reasons behind the EYB.

“Globalism has come to Long Island and beyond its borders and we embrace it wholeheartedly.”

Tickets to the event are $60 and attendance is free with preregistration. VenturePitch 2012 is taking place at Leonard’s of Great Neck in New York, kicking off the NY Multicultural Expo. For submission details or more information, please visit tinyurl.com/VP2012 or call 516-931-0540.

Author:

@BasilPuglisi is the Executive Director and Publisher for Digital Brand Marketing Education (dbmei.com). Basil C. Puglisi is also the President of Puglisi Consulting Group, Inc. A Digital Brand Marketing Consultancy that manages professional and personal branding for Fortune 500 CEOs, Hedge Fund Managers and Small Business Owners.

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Did you try? A Look at the data from #SMWsmac [InfoGraphic]

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What can you do in 16 days? Try!

With just under a month before Social Media Week 2012, it came to our attention that NYC did not have a daylong event that was tailored to teach the small business owners and professionals how Social Media is and can be used. On Feb 1st, 2012 dbmei authors decided to launch Social Media Action Camp! The event which a few days later became an official part of Social Media Week was set for Feb 16th 2012 at the Roger Smith Hotel in NYC.

Data provided by Synthesio , and a few other sources .

The event tag #smwsmac generated over 1,000 tweets! Which represents about 5% of the social media activity in New York City. The Social Influencers reached over 116,000 followers and generated tweets in 15 countries globally!

In addition to the info from Synthesio, we also know that:

  • 102 people  attended throughout the day
  • 128 viewers at one time on LiveStream
  • 976 views on the Live Stream Channel
  • 1484 tweets to date #smwsmac
  • 71 check-ins on foursquare to the Roger Smith Hotel

The Official Social Media Week event page hosted on SocialMediaWeek.org generated 177 Facebook “Likes”, 250 “shares” on LinkedIn and 834 tweets that did not feature #smwsmac as a tag. Making the event the most socially shared event for ALL Social Media Week 2012 globally!

The Social@Olgivy Movers & Shakers platform supported by Kred featured organizer @BasilPuglisi as the top influencer for Feb 16th and both @BasilPuglisi and @dbmei as the top 5 influencers for the following day Feb 17th 2012.

The event was a mix of speakers featuring some of the digital names like Google, Klout, Synthesio, StumbleUpon, EmpireAvenue & Constant Contact. The event featured digital media professionals like David Meerman Scott, Amy Vernon, Mardy Sitzer, and Lujure’s Nathan Latka. Lisa A Burns, representing Corning Inc.,  spoke about the wonder of how a Fortune 500 Company used YouTube to capture more than 17 million views. Then the dbmei authors Bill Corbett Jr., Jeff Ogden, Craig Yaris and Basil C. Puglisi contributed their take on using social media to generate action!

The real success resulted from the response that the attendees reported.   The mix of content and style presented,  generated useful information in many areas with actionable advice and solutions.

“The diverse group of presenters offered extremely valuable best practices and actionable advice. It was also nice attending a social media event that didn’t cater to newbie’s or skeptics”  said David Gise

The event exemplified the point that “you don’t know till you try”, and while we have a long list of things we can do to make the next event even better, it’s an important point for dbmei as well as the individuals involved to say not only did we try, but we succeeded. If you take nothing else away from the article, we hope that when a opportunity presents itself, you be so bold as to try and make it happen.

 

Social Media Week Made Manhattan Move for #SMWsmac

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An attendee at our event submitted a wonderful poem about his experience at the Social Media Week Social Media Action Camp event. #SMWsmac

Social Media Week Made Manhattan Move

By Serge Zenin

Social Media Week made Manhattan move;
Networking and negotiating, we never grew numb;
Give out a business card and go with the groove;
I’ll friend you on Facebook, wherever you’re from;

Developers need diagrams drawn by art directors;
Bloggers benefit as they beckon a bigger crowd;
Consultants collaborate with crafty data collectors;
Programmers pick projects that make guru’s proud;

Puglisi Consulting prudently puts people together;
Implementing inactive ideas with inherent passion;
If a logo looks cold let’s lightly add a little leather;
If a fangate’s too flashy let’s frame it with fashion;

Social Media Week electrified the wire that conducts;
It’s about providing solutions, not selling products!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXfJQLVPsXA&feature=youtu.be]

Serge Zenin is the founder and director of BD at Media Contours, an NYC based PR and marketing company. When he’s not working, Serge enjoys writing poetry about relationships, love, modern phenomenon, and various other topics. If you would like Serge to poetically capture the essence of your business or your event, please contact sergezeninpoetry@gmail.com with your request.

SES New York Conference and Expo 2012 [Event]

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March 19 – 23
Hilton New York
1335 Ave Americas
New York, NY 10019

The SES Conference and Expo is a series of conferences and events in which a special focus is given to best practices, tips, and trends in many different areas.

  • SEO
  • PPC
  • RTBEnglish: Avinash Kaushik
  • Demand Gen
  • Mobile
  • Social
  • Local

The SES events provide leadership instruction from some of the industry’s top experts. As usual, SES New York will have some highly recognized and respected professionals to educate attendees.

Just after morning coffee on Tuesday March 20th, Avinash Kaushik, Digital Marketing Evangelist for Google, will be a key speaker on the topic of balancing multiple media channels and leveraging the Clear Line of Sight model to help ensure business owners are optimizing across all important business drivers. Avinash is also the author of two bestselling books: Web Analytics 2.0, Web Analytics: An Hour A Day, of which 100% of the proceeds go to his favorite charities.  Be sure to come to the keynote to learn which top four business drivers Avinash believes are most vital to your growth.

After Avinash’s set there will be five simultaneous sessions that attendees can choose from.

The Tools of the Trade for SEO

This session will help if you are a party responsible for a business’s SEO. Attendees will learn about up-to-date tools that will help you more efficiently accomplish your daily tasks such as:

  • Diagnosing and Correcting Issues
  • Indexing
  • Competitive Analysis
  • On-Site Optimization
  • Site and Page Level Information

Paid Search Competitive Analysis

It is part of any essential business plan to understand the particular strengths and weaknesses of the competition. The knowledge can be invaluable when it comes to learning which links you should acquire, what to pay for ads, which content you should offer, and the customer base you would like to gain. With moderator Andrew Goodman,  of the SES Advisory Board, who is President of Page Zero Media and fantastic speakers Stephanie Bailey the Client Manager for Adlucent and Matt Van Wagner, President of Find Me Faster, attendees are certain to take away vital information about new trends in tools and analysis as well as other information critical to understanding your toughest competitors.

Crossing the Digital Divide: The Leap from Search to Display

In many cases, display advertising can lack in the areas of placement, targeted pricing, and ROI of search. Three notable speakers will share fresh takes on media models for your business.

These speakers will present an intro to DSPs and ad exchanges, overviews of new display optimization strategies, and give plenty of advice for those already experienced search marketers who would like to take the leap into exchange-traded display.

Search Engine Marketing 101

This intro session will supply attendees with a comprehensive overview of all of the key concepts involved in search engine marketing. The speaker will be Bill Hunt from the SES Advisory Board and President of Back Azimuth Consulting. Attendees can expect to have vital SEM questions answered such as:

  • How can my site be best optimized to attract organic traffic without excess costs?
  • What are the major search engines that I should be concerned about?
  • How can I achieve high ranking or placement with search engine ad opportunities?

The last session for this conference hour is soon to be determined.

DBMEi Subscriber Discount

The SES has an incredible agenda prepared so do not miss out on your chance to attend or the opportunity to get a great discount for doing so just for being a DBMEi subscriber. Head to the registration and pricing page for SES New York 2012 and be sure to enter the code DBM20 for a 20% discount on your price.

Author:

@BasilPuglisi is the Executive Director and Publisher for Digital Brand Marketing Education (dbmei.com). Basil C. Puglisi is also the President of Puglisi Consulting Group, Inc. A Digital Brand Marketing Consultancy that manages professional and personal branding for Fortune 500 CEOs, Hedge Fund Managers and Small Business Owners.

Sources:

Group Commerce for Publisher-Based eCommerce Solutions: #SocialCommerce

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Recently, I sat down to an impromptu interview with the CEO of Group Commerce, Jonty Kelt, to learn more about what publisher-based ecommerce solutions can offer to more traditional form of media that may be lacking digital presence.

What is Group Commerce?

Group Commerce is a platform for publishers who want to integrate ecommerce into a successful element of their business. Group Commerce serves three groups that help to make their ecommerce program work.

  1. Consumers
  2. Merchants
  3. Publishers

Group Commerce’s technology was designed to support, from the ground up, the unique lists of needs that brands and media companies require. Their enterprise-grade platform doubles as a command center for a publisher’s ecommerce program as well. There is nothing else like it anywhere.  Group Commerce understands exactly what it take to succeed. The professional services offered provide all of the needed elements to ensure that their publishers succeed in ecommerce.

Founded in 2010, Group Commerce is backed by several popular names such as Carmel Ventures, Lerer Ventures, Spark Capital, and Bob Pittman. Group Commerce has some top-notch clients in names such as Chegg.com, Boston.com, CBS Local, DailyCandy, the New York Times, and many more. Based in New York City, Group Commerce now has over 100 employees in 11 major cities.

When asked about the publisher based ecommerce solutions provided by Group Commerce, Jonty Kelt shared with me, “We created group commerce with a mission to enable audience owners, to succeed in ecommerce. This is anyone with an audience, website owners, newsletter businesses, TV, radio, print and more. The brands have to engage with intelligence and integrity, so that they add value to their relationship with their audience. This can give traditional or ad based media companies more revenue stream, more engagement with their audience, attract new audience members and for some solid media based businesses, it can give them more relevance in a digital world.”

Before we wrapped up our interview I definitely had to pose to him a question that is near and dear to publications like DBMEi.

Since there is such a huge market now for content relating to the practices of digital marketing, social media and other similar services, how do you see Group Commerce fitting in for the smaller publishers? How can you begin to monetize platforms such as multi-blogger sites like DBMEi?

Jonty Kelt: We currently have an initiative in our engineering department focusing on building a ladder of service solutions which will enable smaller publishers such as bloggers, smaller websites and audiences to turn ecommerce onto their sites as well.

How Can I Get in on Group Commerce?

Group Commerce is rather picky about the publishers they work with. For the most part, applicants must have several of at least six unique qualifications.

  1. Verticality
  2. High brand engagement
  3. Strong local voice
  4. High user transactional intent
  5. Size
  6. Locally segmented

Since its launch, Group Commerce has raised millions in funding and Kelt plans to continue to expand the company’s reach into 2012.

Sources:

#SocialCommerce: Jonty Kelt Interview Transcript

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Business Insider hosted the Social Commerce Summit on Feb 7th, 2012 at Chelse Pier, during that event I had a chance to sit with Jonty Kelt, the CEO for Group Commerce. Here is a transcript from that interview with a general article to follow on Feb 19th at 5pm, right here on dbmei.com.

About the event:

Since the immersion of social media into digital commerce, incredible opportunities and options have opened for business owners. Socially marketing your products and services can come with its own challenges though, so the Social Commerce Summit, or SCS, has a focus on presenting some incredible tips and tricks along with the best practices common to businesses successful in this form of marketing.

The SCS will provide the platform for experts in their industries to share their own best practices and ideas that have been built upon cutting edge trends and technologies and are the products of incredibly successful Fortune 500 campaigns and strategies.

The Interview: (Recorded by Basil C. Puglisi, Transcription done by Joy Lynskey)

JK: Started the company 2 years ago with a vision for media companies that are publishers, that they should engage in ecommerce.  They have great brands, reach, authority over some topics with certain groups, engaged audiences. Those things we believed could be translated into an ecommerce business, alongside the traditional types of advertising businesses. We created group commerce with a mission to enable audience owners, to succeed in ecommerce. Being as broad as possible. This is anyone with an audience, website owners, newsletter businesses, TV, radio, print. The premises of what we are saying here is that the brands have to engage with intelligence and integrity, so that they add value to their relationship with their audience. This gives ad based or ad revenue fueled businesses, the opportunity to have an ecommerce business alongside of it. This can give traditional or ad based media companies more revenue stream, more engagement with their audience, attracts new audience members and for some solid media based businesses, it can give them more relevance   in a digital world.

We have only been live for about 15 months and currently have about 15 live  , all of them traditional media companies. [name companies] A lot of the brands mentioned began with one or two people managing which has now, a year later, turned into teams of 20 or more employees managing their ecommerce. Now that they have seen it can work, many are now aiming for 9 figure revenue businesses.

BP: So what group commerce is offering is the opportunity for them to survive in the digital era with obvious subscription services failing, people are less willing to pay for subscriptions but instead prefer to get content for free. So this is a way to kind of fill the gap ?

JK: In some cases that is true. Some of our customers were already digital, such as Daily Candy, and this is just tacked on. Other services do not have much of a digital business presence and this can be a way to augment their traditional business and help them to survive in a digital world.

BP: So what are some of the verticals that you guys are seeing, in ecommerce that’s targeting general vs specific.

JK: So very simplistically we have two target segments, vertical such as; thrillist.com for young men, dailycandy.com for young women,  active.com for endurance athletes, and then local media, which tends to be more horizontal,   the new york times for new york, boston.com for the boston area. The vertical ones are leveraging vertical authority, such as dailycandy is an expert on what young women want, that brings to bring great content and comments. Different than boston.com doesn’t have a specific audience. They have everyone, young and old, uptown and downtown. so they have to use their local authority to find the best merchandise and present it to the best audience.

BP: Do we see a higher conversion rate with vertical specific content versus the general content. We talked a bit about how Boston was able to generate something relevant to Boston being Boston based locations. I imagine some of the verticals when they’re talking about how to sell products outside of geographical limitations

JK: So local is normally services, nationally is normally product.  A local can offer local services, and even local product. National, we see more products since national cannot usually offer local service.

BP: Mike Wallace was a big speaker over at Boston.com, you guys had him join you, what does it mean to bring this type of person into your fold?

JK: Our company is about 100 people right now. In order to pull off what we are focused on we have to have really high-quality people with different disciplines, technology, merchandising strategy, sales, finance, hr, account management, and Mike Wallace was actually a customer of ours at Boston.com.  Mike is a born leader, he has executed on the vision extremely well at Boston.com, and we got on extremely well. He loved the vision we had. After about a year and a half of working with Mike, we had conversations with him on having him help us with our business. We wanted him to use his knowledge on how to actually build a program for boston.com in a group commerce setting.

BP: So his official title is..?

JK: Vice President of Publisher Sales which means finding new publishers who would like to participate in this. Finding new publisher partners is his main focus right now.

BP: So one of the things we are talking about when looking at ecommerce is that we have a lot of conversation about daily deals, selling locally, lot of conversation of the push vs pull. Push being here is an opportunity or offer, I may take advantage of it later. Vs the I am standing in the middle of boston right now. Push vs pull mentality, selling in advance, vs I’m standing here I am looking for something to do, where is the best deal or value for me? So have you guys seen the platform showing that push vs pull.

JK: We have been very focused on push. Our customers, Boston.com, New York times, they have very powerful media, they have a voice in many touch points, social media, email list, web page, printed editions, so they are leveraging that and the fact that they have ecommerce now and are offering great stuff. With respect to the on demand, I am in the middle of boston and looking for a great deal right now, that type of pull is not the type of commerce we are currently offering, because we have been more focused on the push.

Groupon and LivingSocial are two of the things that you are referring to with respect to standing in the middle of Boston and having thirty things available around you, is just not reality yet. That is something that we have not been focused on, specifically because we have been more focused on the push. I like to consider the word pull being that when the customer is aware that dailycandy now has stuff on their website to buy, they go there of their own volition, it’s pulling them there. Rather than them having to be interrupted with an email. And that is the holy grail really, for what we are trying to do. We are using a public outlet to push awareness of what are the deals in front of them, which creates buying behavior.

It takes time for our customers to educate their audiences, some of them have only been going now for a little over a year.

BP: There is this huge market now for content relating to the practice of marketing, social media, etc, how do you see you guys fitting in for the smaller publishers? How do you start to monetize platforms such as multi-blogger sites like this?

JK: We have an initiative in our engineering efforts to build a ladder of service solutions, which will enable smaller publishers, bloggers, small websites, etc to turn ecommerce on.

Social Media Week: Social Media Action Camp #SMWsmac [Event]

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This will make the fourth official year of Social Media Week’s return to New York. One of the world’s most unique and innovative global platforms for a large selection of interactive conversations and information on new trends in the social and mobile media industries.

Global Promo for Social Media Week 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXLIL0VMt1s

Why Attend Social Media Week?

There are quite a few compelling reasons to attend Social Media Week.

They include:

  • Free Attendance ~ Due to a generous outpouring of support from partners and sponsors, the events that are hosted by Social Media Week directly, are free to attend.
  • Community Content ~ The program is curated in a unique manner allowing coverage for every new and emerging trend, areas of technology, and the industry sector.
  • Unique Venues and Locations ~ As with any other learning experience, those that organize #SMW understand that environment can be detrimental or conducive to retaining knowledge and understanding. Thanks to many strategic partnerships, as well as the venues that donated space and time, places such as the New York Times, MoMa, and the Paley Center for Media will help to enhance attendee experience.

How to Attend

If you are interested in attending Social Media Week events you can head to their page and create an account if you do not already have one. Once registered, visit the scheduling page to locate the events that you are interested in. Remember that all events are free unless otherwise stated. When you find the events you want to be a part of, click the Attend button to the right of it and you are registered. You must register to attend each event individually.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il9AQu8BlN4]

What is Social Media Action Camp?

The Program Schedule will be released the day before the event. At that time you will be able to plan your day. The time for each session is being held due to the need to allow our VIP guests and teachers to make arrangements to attend and participate in Social Media Action Camp.

Speakers include:

  • Elliot Nix – Head of Mobile, Google
  • Bill Corbett Jr. – President, Corbett Public Relations
  • Jeff D. Goldberg – President, JG&A
  • Maria Prieto – CEO, The Hispanic Network
  • Mardy Sitzer – President, Bumblebee Design & Marketing LLC
  • Amy Vernon – VP Strategy, Hasai
  • Jeff Ogden – Host MAD Marketing TV
  • Garth Holsinger – VP Global Sales & Business Development, Klout
  • Basil C. Puglisi – Executive Director & Publisher, dbmei.com
  • David Meerman Scott – Author, The New Rules of Marketing & PR
  • Anthony Napolitano – Director, StumbleUpon
  • Ellen DePasquale – Director, Constant Contact
  • Nathan Latka – CEO, Lujure
  • Dupleep Wijayawardhana – CEO, EmpireAvenue

And more, including two surprise speakers yet to be announced.

The Social Media Action Camp, or #SMAC, is a one day conference that is focused on providing a environment that encourages small business owners, entrepreneurs, and media enthusiast to increase their knowledge on the benefits of helpful social media practices. The camp will feature a range of learning sessions created with a focus on actionable information. Every session lists a set of learning outcomes attendees can expect.

Why Attend Social Media Action Camp?

Attendees can expect to take away vital information on some very important topics.

  • Business Collaboration Practices ~ Attendees can expect to learn how to supply services equal to the power of the big guys, while fashioning a social business presence that only a small business can create.
  • Collaborative Blogging ~ This session offers a look inside the practice and the purpose behind collaborative blogging including how those efforts can truly pay off via the share factor on social media networks.
  • IRL Networking ~ This session will help small business owners learn how to create the most effective strategic alliances that help to generate real-time buzz about your business, products, and services.

In addition, attendees can expect to walk away with functional knowledge on how to create a successful social strategy, a greater understanding of the four major social networks, and a larger box of digital social media tools that can be used for monitoring statistics and updating campaigns.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vVRRApncEo]

How to Attend

General Admission for #SMAC is $99 and for students $39. As a DMBEi subscriber you are entitled to a 25% off discount when you head to the #SMAC home page from here and enter the discount code dbmei25 during the registration process.

The Social Media Action Camp will be held on February 16th, 2012, from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM at the Roger Smith Hotel, 501 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10017.

Digital Brand Marketing Education is the event organizer. Please feel free to contact: @BasilPuglisi – info@dbmei.com – 631.909.7360

Author:

@BasilPuglisi is the Executive Director and Publisher for Digital Brand Marketing Education (dbmei.com). Basil C. Puglisi is also the President of Puglisi Consulting Group, Inc. A Digital Brand Marketing Consultancy that manages professional and personal branding for Fortune 500 CEOs, Hedge Fund Managers and Small Business Owners.

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