Are you attending the #140conf next week? Ping me. We’ll hug. #140conf is described as “a platform for the worldwide twitter community to: listen, connect, share and engage with each other, while collectively exploring the effects of the emerging real-time internet on business.” But takeaways extend well beyond what one learns at #140conf events. Read on for the inside skinny.

My experiences with the 140 Character Conference can be boiled down to two prevailing themes: serendipity and humanity. I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. Seven months ago, I was gliding through my Twitter stream when a new acquaintance tweeted something along the lines of: “@beebow are you coming to the #140conf meetup tomorrow night?” Enter stage right: serendipity.

Losing My Tweetup V-Card
I knew nothing about the event beyond its apparent association with Twitter. I didn’t know who it targeted, who the speakers were or what the topics would be. I registered to attend anyway. I’d spent a year plunking away on TweetDeck, digging the real-time web but feeling disconnected from real, live people. It was high-time to have my tweetup cherry popped.

On Wednesday, September 19th at the New World Stages in New York City, it was. I felt instantly addicted to the almost tangible levels of excitement, achievement, optimism and encouragement pulsing against the theatre walls. When the next NYC #140conf meetup rolled around, I signed up and jumped back into the hashtag stream. With genuine enthusiasm, I tweeted to relative strangers: “Looking forward to meeting you tonight at #140conf!”

When I saw those “strangers” in person, we bear-hugged.

No exaggeration. That’s just how it is. That’s the warm, welcoming feeling generated by #140conf and the people it attracts.

Enter stage left: humanity.

What I Love Most About #140conf
The target audience for these events is undefined, and therefore, all-encompassing. It brings together corporate CEOs, average Joes, formerly shy @beebows and everyone in between. From fashion designers to psychologists, journalists, professors, hospitality managers, musicians, actors, mommy bloggers… these people aren’t just event attendees… they’re panelists. They’re keynote speakers. I’m serious. At the two day conference in Hollywood last year, I listened as the CEO of Kodak talked about how he used Twitter to increase sales and brand loyalty. Next up was a woman living on the streets of Chicago, telling a misty-eyed audience how she tweets SMS messages from her archaic flip phone to “escape from her world and connect with others,” and rendezvous with activists to help raise cause awareness.

“People might say that your voice doesn’t matter,”#140conf creator Jeff Pulver often says. “I would argue that it matters a lot.”

And that’s what he’s doing with the 140 Character Conference. He’s providing a stage and a mic for us to share our story of achieving personal success through Twitter. The coolest part is that in this environment, the concept of “success” is totally malleable. Success can mean making money- it can mean making friends. It’s not the definition that matters, it’s the feeling you get. The serendipitious nature of #140conf brings us together, and the humanity it extracts binds us as bear-hugging friends.

What The World Loves About #140conf
In a few days I’ll be heading back to my old stomping grounds to speak at the 140 Character Conference in New York. To get the party started, I polled #140conf evangelists and first-timers alike to get their take on the upcoming event, and scoured the hashtag stream for other exciting gems…

“The 140conf fosters serendipity. [See? I told you!] It seems like Jeff purposefully architects the event in order to squeeze as many different industries and personalities into a two day period. This makes the event unique because you end up meeting so many different people you would have never met otherwise. I love the warmth of the 140conf crowd. It’s not like a regular event. There’s hugging and friendship as opposed to cold pitches and handshakes.” A.J. Leon | @ajleon

“The 140conf for me is a chance to see all the people I care about on Twitter in real life. Jeff Pulver gives everyone that he sees a hug and that sets the tone for event. The 140conf is not a Twitter conference- it is a conference about the human web and that’s why we love it.” Melissa Leon | @melissaleon

“I love the event itself. The meetups and the conference are an amazing atmosphere to meet others in the space and hear – in byte-sized morsels – their take on tech. The ideas that come in from start-ups, users, technologists, lay-people and geeks are tremendous. As an attendee, you can meet a lot of people from a lot of different spheres – in and out of the State of Now.” Andre Archimbaud|@arshimbo

“The most significant reason I find the 140 Conference valuable is because of the platform it provides to connect and engage with the people I most want to meet, in terms of personal development and just because I find them intriguing or entertaining… [it gives] us social media-inclined folks a way to first make a warm connection online, and then bring that into our offline lives.” Emily Cavalier | @EmilysPearl

“[At 140conf, you] bring your expectations and leave with fresh thoughts and ideas that will stimulate you to the miraculous. Because that is what happens when people meet, trust, engage, believe, conceive, and achieve.” Andy Dickson | @andydixn

“Twitter and the community it has built was instrumental in getting me through endless hours, days & weeks of Chemotherapy. I was able to communicate and be social without people seeing how sick I was, how awful I looked and without giving me that look of pity. It inspired me every day to meet more people, hear more stories and be a part of something bigger. #140Conf for me is a way of meeting people in real life, strengthening existing friendships and assures me that the best way to know someone is face to face.” Brian Simpson | @bsimi

“Social media and construction/real estate don’t, on their surface, seem like an ideal marriage of concepts. My field is mired in ‘tradition,’ and any innovation that is changes the status quo more than a few degrees is generally shunned for years. For a while I’ve been experimenting with and looking for ways to integrate social media into what I do without it seeming tacked-on or gimmicky. I’m hoping to glean something from the idea-sharing at #140conf and its ilk that I can use to help promote myself and my product.” Justin Hornung | @morningkill

“I’m a first timer at 140conf but I’ve heard great things about it from past attendees, especially those who attend the [frequent] meetups in NYC. I’m looking forward to the wide variety of topics, even though it all revolves around one big topic (Twitter).  I often hear people questioning the value in Twitter, and this shows how Twitter can add value in a wide variety of ways in different industries, countries.” Jon Thomas|@story_jon

I wasn’t kidding about the hug thing. Ping away

“Your baby is ugly.” What an endearing way to kick-off a presentation, right? Tim Ash’s session Seven Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design Optimization: The Definition guide to Testing and Tuning Conversions at eMetrics Canada 2010 had the audience engaged from start to finish and well into post-delivery.

So what did he mean when he referred to your baby as an “ugly, ugly little misshapen munchkin?” And how did these claims that “every parent is delusional, viewing their baby as beautiful” translate to landing page optimization? The point was: we all have the same biased, rose-colored view of our web marketing program. Tim is here to advise against this unrealistic view.

Most of the time we feel like we’re rolling out the red carpet for our customers every time they visit our site. To us, our desired call-to-action couldn’t be any clearer. But this could not be farther from the truth. Ninety-nine percent of potential customers view of our online marketing as a castle wall they have to scale with their bare hands. The worst part is that we built that wall, brick by brick, and are damn proud of it. While a very small percentage of people have already decided they will meet their needs with your site-  are willing to hurdle any barrier to get what they came for- you must consider the mindset of the majority of visitors. (At this point Tim has the audience testify, “I AM A SINNER!”) Now let’s see where we fall short:

Sin #1 – An Unclear Call-to-Action
The only people that matter are your website visitors. If visitors come to a page on your site and feel uncertain as to what they are supposed to do next, this is a problem. Repent! The desired call-to-action needs to be blatantly- even painfully- obvious, otherwise you’re losing money. (This is the ‘”obvious standard,” aka “mother-in-law test.”)

Sin #2 – Giving Too Many Choices
Tim pulls up a landing page with 146 clickable links. Holy overabundance of options, Batman! This is a common occurrence with catalog sites. Next he shows the B&H homepage, showcasing the power of creating product categories. The human eye reads letter by letter, but on the other hand, we process visual information 4-500 times faster than actual words. This is one for the books: the purpose of the homepage is to get people off the homepage. It’s a simple traffic directory, nothing more.

“The 3 click rule is bullshit.” The 3 click rule argues that a user should be able to find any information they need in no more than three clicks from the landing page. Do not orchestrate your design based on this flawed concept! What you should focus on is Information Forging Theory. This field of study suggests that so long as the user feels they’re taking a logical steps towards their end goal, they will stay in the funnel.

Sin #3 Asking for Too Much Info Too Soon
This is a very common mistake. Imagine walking into a store only to be greeted by a salesperson greeting you with an abrasive: ”Welcome to our store! Would you like me to hold your credit card while you shop?” Not comforting. Run a form field test on yourself. Is the information absolutely necessary to complete the current transaction? If not, you don’t need it.

Sin #4 – Too Much Text
If you want users to completely bypass your text content without a second thought, write in complete sentences and use as few line breaks as possible. Works every time! Remember that nobody cares as much as you.

Tips:

• Write in newspaper style (headlines, bullet points, tell the what, why, where and how upfront)
• Strike out every adjective on the page
• Take out every unsubstantiated claim

Sin #5 – Not Keeping Your Promises
When visitors show up on your landing page, keep in mind they came from somewhere. Maybe it was a tweet, a Facebook status update or a PPC ad. Whatever the exit, there is an appreciable level of expectation involved. Every context sets an expectation. Meet (nay, exceed!) this opportunity. Don’t let them down by over-promising and under-delivering.

Sin #6 – Visual Distractions
What do you want people to look at first? If this is not obvious, you’re losing potential customers. Functional pages that make the cash register go “ca-ching” are not so pretty outside of the box form designs. To drive sales you need to stick with the form that works.

Sin #7 – Lack of Trust
Ultimately, you need to be able to answer this question: “How do I create instant trust online?” Understand that there is a trust deficit to overcome. Don’t undermine the potential and opportunity to gain your visitors’ trust, and don’t be afraid to show trust symbols above the fold- right in the user’s line of sight.

At the end of the day it is imperative to take off your rose-colored glasses, roll up your sleeves and get to work.

PubCon is a whirling dervish, a collage of kindred spirits, sites, sounds, intensive learning and hyper-techno-geeks. All of this is hyperbolic stew mashed up with a healthy heaping of Las Vegas kitsch & killer eats.  Here are some snapshots to capture a portion of the frenetic ultra-vibe.

The boys from seOverflow: Yes, tell your boss that there is ROI for the sweet shirts. Someone might take your picture and post it in their blog. . I meant to ask but did not want to disturb you. What does your name mean anyway? ….that you take work that other SEO firms don’t have the capacity to handle? Overflow SEO?

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Our friend Cindy Krum, My MY you are so photogenic Cindy.

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A sweet pic from @Leeodden TweetPics: aimClear and Brett Tabke

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Left to right: Moderator Kevin Lee, Tim Ash, Jill Whalen, David Szetela and Bruce Clay

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Gillian Muessig, President and Co-Founder of SEOmoz.

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Killer strawberry Blintzs at the Hilton Buffet breakfast made me very happy.

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Matt Cutts (sans hair) playing Werewolf, a card game featuring search marketers on the cards, at the SEOmoz Party. Thanks for the cool party Rand.

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Ubiquitous signage at the Las Vegas Convention Center

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Our good friend Joanna Lord blogging in her traditional “black is beautiful” garb.  If you ever get a chance to see her speak, take it. She’s one smart lady.

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PubCon Session Room

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Sterling Brunch at Bally’s. You’re looking at lobster tail, oysters, crab, shrimp diablo and lox.

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Our good friends David Szetela and Michael Streko

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Place setting at Sterling Buffet

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My secret Blue Man Group Fantasy

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Ornate statues inside of Ceaser’s Palace

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The hallways at the Las Vegas Convention Center are ENDLESS!

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Harrah’s sign

Picture of a presenter’s .ppt deck on the big screen.

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Even the hotels are wired up here.

Ah, SearchEngineStrategies San Jose- so this is where Summer has been keeping the sun and warm weather?

I knew yesterday’s keynote would be extremely well covered in search industry media, so my boss (Marty) suggested that I spend the evening to  ponder  Clay Shirky’s keynote, “Here Comes Everybody,” prior to my blogging.  He charged me to offer my take on Clay’s social and economic impact theories, from the perspective of a  relatively new marketing professional, entering our industry as an aimClear social media team member.

Social Media has undoubtedly given its users the ease of “organization without organizations.” Shirkey emphasized that never before in history have groups had the ability to be as organized and coordinated as we are today. Finally group conversation and interaction is possible.

There is sweet symmetry in online consumerism- with an online consumer creates the power of an online producer. However, and thankfully, most consumers don’t give a damn about producing, but many do and there is affordable technology for them to do so.

Motivations

Shirkey identified the three most important factors which drive us to be intrinsically motivated- the need to feel autonomous, competent and connected. These three motivations will get people to do things they usually wont and here’s the good news- if you pay them, it KILLS the motivation. So don’t pay people to get them to do something- just make them feel competent about it and that they’re doing it for the team. Try it on your kids- not your employees.

Mass Amaturization

Along with the ease of production comes laymen producers who are, well, amateurs. Shirkey explained though that they are not simply “sloppy pros” or want to be “little versions” of the big shots, they’re just producing content for the hell of it, and why not? The concept and availability of mass amateurization has brought these intrinsic motivations to the forefront- we can see the banal things people write about for themselves, their friends and their niche community.

Yes- I Am A Narcissist But At Least  My Mom Cares…

This point reminds me my friends’ response to Twitter- “How narcissistic!” they said, “People don’t care if you had an awesome sandwich from the Amazing Grace Cafe?” Well, sure, not everybody cares, but my friends do because they want to stay connected and feel a part of my life and the cafe cares because they just got a little shout-out on a very public platform. Shirkey made the point that we are not used to seeing things in the public that aren’t meant for the public. And because the cost of participation is so low, in both a monetary and time sense, the logic “why publish?” morphs into “why NOT publish?”.

Hindsight is 20/20

Clearly hindsight in 20/20 once we realize the consequences of our actions we can then better asses what we should have done. Similairly, Shirkey points out that “only things that are really important are only important in retrospect.” So true. Well, except for the Web, we all knew that’d be huge. Duh. Moral of the story- don’t be afraid to try the new platforms, get your hands dirty, if it doesn’t work out then- whatever man, but if it does you’ll reep the rewards.

photo credit: ArtBrom

Greetings from the Bay Auditorium, Bell Harbor International Conference Center Seattle Washington. There’s an amazing array of search geniuses and enough charismatic personalities for Vegas. The harbor air smells industrial and natural beauty overwhelming, it’s 7:30 AM and sold-out SMX Advanced 2009 is firing up!

These sessions have memorable moments. Right now I’m sitting in the Keyword Research Artistry session and here’s what I just tweeted:

@SEOROI Gabriel Goldenberg is being brilliant, anthropological boy-genius, has us chattering & is mining the long tale of real human communication

This SEM conference is top 3 by nearly anyone’s book, and one of the few places where the basics are assumed.  Complicated is cool, and simple rocks ass here. Last year I resorted to taking covert snapshots of  Stephan Spencer’s Deck from the podium.

photo credit: Qfamily

I’ll be speaking today on the SEO Ranking Factors in 2009 panel.  Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Land will be moderator. I’ll have the pleasure of joining Rand Fishkin, CEO, SEOmoz and Laura Lippay, Dir. Technical Marketing, Yahoo for what promises to be a colorful session.  Rand is promising to preview data from his well-awaited every-2-year SEO Ranking Factors Post.

Tomorrow I’ll waltz over to the Business Track to speak on the “How Much Do I Charge For SEM, Especially Now! Search Marketing Agency Pricing Models -Moderator: Chris Elwell, President, Third Door Media. Speakers:, Andrew Beckman, President, Location3 Media, Matt Walker, CEO, Best Rank, Inc. Chis Elwell’s sessions are thoughtfully sequenced and a logical next-gen from Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman’s famous SES Agency Track presentations from years post. I’m excited to participate on this panel.

The flavor of SMX Advanced is unique in the world of search.  In years past I’ve met life-long friends, amazing clients and picked up some tips.  Matt Peterson will be covering SMX Advanced for aimClear Blog with a couple of posts each day. We won’t post realtime as our conference blogger pal Lisa Barone, the Bruce Clay search bloggers, SEL and others  will do a fine job. Matt thinks about things for a while and then disects these things…that’s just how he is.

So I had my first belligerent search heckler experience in the Death of .mobi session last week @ SES (props to Rebecca Lieb for putting him DOWN!). This was followed by an impulse that I might need a two-drink minimum in the session immediately following (thanks to funnyman Search Engine Strategies Master of Ceremonies Kevin Ryan, for soothing my tattered nerves!). But I digress…Here’s how to behave like a jackass, at any search marketing conference, in 8 stupid-simple steps:

1. Arrive late to a session and make lots of noise. Trip over people, knock over speakers, etc.
2. Plug in your computer so the cords cross the aisle, stretched out 3 inches above the ground, where people walk.
3. Don’t turn your cell phone off after you arrive. Leave the ringer on high playing “so you wanna be a rock star.” In fact, listen to your voice mails at the conference with the volume turned WAY up so people even three rows ahead on the other side of the aisle can hear the squeaks of pops of the minions calling you. Yes you Mr. Pinkish shirt man with the white 3G iPhone.
4. Start asking questions while the presentations are still going on. Yell into the microphone. Act annoyed and make little snarky comments under your breath if they won’t take them until the end.
5. If the moderator does happen to be polite and take your question, be sure to challenge the speaker’s knowledge of their spoken topic. Try to prove you know more. Act like the speaker must have been randomly picked to be up there anyway… and made up the subject matter at the last minute.
6. Accuse the speaker of having an agenda for a certain company. They like that, especially when they don’t.
7. Be sure to repeatedly flaunt how important you are by how many domains you own, your site’s PageRank and last year’s revenue. We all judge by that. You + hundreds of domains = ROWR!
8. When chastised for being rude, defend yourself by saying “I paid to be in this conference.” Expect instant forgiveness.

Chime in the comments thread if you have any anecdotes regarding search conference jackasses. We’ve all been there.

We’re pleased to announce aimClearBlog’s expanded coverage of Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2008. Our stable of bloggers, packing off to the lovely California sun, includes terrific writers like Todd Mintz (Portland), Jennifer Osborne (Toronto) and Charlene Jaszewski (New York).

Kicking off August 18th and running through the 21st, SES is one of the true granddaddies of mainstream search marketing conferences.  With over 70 cutting edge sessions, thousands of attendees, keynotes and even a mass excursion to the GooglePlex for the famed “Google Dance,” this year’s show looks fabulous.

There are still a few passes available so go ahead and register here.

Speakers are Marty Weintraub, aimClear & Michael Wilson, Vignette Software and the session will be moderated by Claire Schoen.

Pay per click pros have been configuring content dynamically, contingent on inbound URL tags, for over 10 years. These days clever web app’ developers are determining user intent real-time and programing web applications to serve up content based contextually based on any identifiable referral source including organic keywords, geographic data, engagement metrics and much more.

Traditional analytics are usually evaluated for actionable insight after the fact. This webcast will take a look at using real-time data to enhance user experience, change out graphics, determine which steps in the conversion funnel certain users “see,” advise internal search and other cool functionality.

Search Marketing Now webcasts combine the most authoritative and actionable search marketing training with the convenience of attending online. Free sessions cover important topics ranging from SEO, PPC and search marketing in general. Continue your professional growth without leaving the office! We invite you to register for today’s webcast.

Keynote speaker Michael Jones looked skyward and evangelized Google Earth’s mission of placing the world’s information in geographical context. Experts introduced many of us to terms like on/off deck, walled gardens, and dumb pipes.

The initial release of the iPhone was embryonic and we all knew it would change the world, in terms of mainstream expectations for mobile web page parsing quality. One year later, the LoMo promise is coming true and SMX Local Mobile has become an extremely serious search marketing conference.

The keynote address featuring Frazier Miller, General Manager, Yahoo! Local set the tone. These 2 days at the JW Marriott in San Francisco were not going to be hypothetical. As Miller talked about Yahoo!’s vision for weaving local information into users’ primary web starting point, I knew right away this conference was not just about theory. It was about search.

The tracks across 2 days were “The Big Picture,” “Local Search Tactics,” “Local Mobile Strategies & Tactics” and “Mostly Mobile.” Sessions like “Ranking Tactics For Local Search,” “Monetizing Local & Mobile: Who’s Making Money?,” “Targeting Locals in a Blended Search World,” Neogeography: Opportunities in Mapvertising” and “Cracking the Code: Inside the Black Boxes of Local & Mobile Search Algorithms” were incredibly relevant.

I found myself taking notes frenetically as Mary Bowling gave her presentation during the case studies panel I spoke on. The audience struck me as a very professional bunch and, when polled, revealed the depth of marketing experience in attendance. I’ll take this opportunity to thank Danny Sullivan, Chris Sherman, Greg Sterling, Chris Elwell, Sean Moriarty, Karen DeWeese and Chris Silver Smith for including on this cool panel and putting on a hell of a show.

SMX Local Mobile has become a serious must-attend search marketing think tank for natural and paid search service providers. It was a pleasure to talk shop with folks like Mike Blumenthal, Owner and Local Marketing Expert, Blumenthals, Jordan Kasteler, Senior SEO Analyst, Overstock.com and make new friends like Will Scott, President, Search Influence LLC.

I’m surprised at the relative lack of coverage for, what amounts to be, one of the most important informational gatherings of 2008. As news of the essential tactics and techniques imparted spreads by word of mouth, next year’s edition of SMX Local Mobile will likely gain quite a bit more attention. Don’t miss it.

Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) presented a panel of experts last night in Minneapolis for a discussion speaking to issues surrounding how big companies make social media decisions, “implement control programs” and measure ROI on various levels. It’s a pleasure to find quality content like this session so close to home. The excitement was palpable because social media is growing up here in God’s country.

While the temperature is still cold in Minnesota, social media is on fire everywhere. This session provided local insight behind-the-scenes into hallowed big-brand board room thinking. The trendy downtown hall was packed with about 250 Minnesota IT, branding, creative, application development, design, content, research, attorneys and PR folks. It was enjoyable to chance upon TopRank’s Lee Odden who interviewed panelist Jim Cuene and Douglas Pollei (Social Media Club Minneapolis) here.

The theme of the evening was “who controls social media in the enterprise setting. Michael Kraabel, Group Creative Director, Gage moderated and kicked things off and led the group. He was proud to note this was the largest event the MIMA has ever held. The speakers were Jason Kleckner, Manager, Information Architecture, Target Corporation, Jim Cuene, Director, Interactive, General Mills, Brad Smith, VP of eCommerce & Digital Marketing, Fingerhut Direct Marketing, and Gary Koelling, Creative Director, Social Technology, Best Buy.

Target has been undertaking incursions in social media on a small scale aimed at college students. The Target Facebook application has 33,165 users and is growing exponentially,” up from 17,000 last month.” With the membership growth comes exponential participation including comments, picture postings, video postings etc…

Though not much discussed last evening, Target has has been on the same humble learning curve as everyone else. The “unfair advantage” Jason shared is that “everybody loves Target,” which makes incenting viral behavior much easier. The deeper message here is the stark reality: Social media can make a great brand better and a bad brand worse. SMO can’t make a bad brand better.

General Mills is “putting their toe in the water on a brand by brand basis” including video upload applications, MySpace presence and testing of other channels. They’re not “driving activity” on Facebook but are “watching it carefully.” That said General Mills clearly understands that Social media and “meeting the needs of consumers” online is a “huge change” from the mass media campaign mindset historically proffered from large CPG brands and vitally important. Reading deeper into the strategy, it’s a sit-tight, enhance what traditionally works and don’t make any mistakes mentality.

Brad Smith stressed the intimate nature of the “traditional relationship” Fingerhut shares with their customers including the important of classic ratings and reviews. “These are are not events, they are relationships.” When it comes to ROI the most important factor remains serving the customer and honoring those relationships. Social media is becoming a more critical part of the overall brand experience at Fingerhut.

Gary Koelling mentioned how Best Buy has recently been working on an internal social networking site (BlueShirtNation) for its army of employees. It seems Best Buy has learned a lot by experimenting on its own community of workers. As for customers They’ve long “struggled with “what to do with millions of people who raise their hands” and sign up for Best Buy loyalty programs. Gary asked “how do you start to have a real conversation with them?”

To successfully engage, social applications have to truly have be useful. Try asking “am I interesting and am I valuable.” The most successful social technologies out there provide people with actual tools. The best sales people in the world step up to customers and say” how can I help you?” Everyone’s wondering who’s going to come along and teach brands how to handle social media. In reality it’s the customer who’s going to dictate the conversation as they express their needs. Big brand or small agency, best practice is to listen to your customers.

Where’s The ROI Beef Buddy?
The panelists’ perspective on ROI, from their multi-billion dollar vantage points was clearly that intangible factors matter as much as measurable ones. Several on the panel felt that looking at social at social media as a ” product investment in user-experience” is more appropriate than pulling dollars from advertising or PR budgets. Participation is as relevant a return on investment as any other measurable ROI metric. It’s a lot like trying to determine the equity of a logo or other branding collateral in the overall brand experience.

This session featured anecdotal insight as to which major Minnesota companies participate in social media plays. Each marketing department approached Social media’s tough dichotomy (you either rock or ya’ suck) with different style, tactics and creativity. It’s refreshing to drive for only a couple of hours and find the SES/SMX vibe right here close to home.

PS: MIMA attendees. Please drop us a note when you head up our way to Duluth and we’ll put some good food on, open a fine Cabernet’, have a game of air hockey at our historic office and we’ll talk a little SMO shop baby.