But like many industry rockstars, Heather’s work goes well beyond that which she puts into speaking gigs and PowerPoint decks. She’s an accomplished author and SEO copywriting pioneer with well over a decade of professional experience under her belt. SuccessWorks, Heather’s SEO copywriting firm, cross-trains in-house copywriters from companies of all sizes and types– Fortune 50 retailers to travel destination sites. A keen focus on leveraging strategic content to increase online visibility makes the SuccessWorks team one-two-punch-tastic.

On the advent of SMX West, aimClear had the pleasure of sharing a candid Q&A with the lovely Ms. Lloyd-Martin. Discussion topics ranged from “Hi, who are you?” to Google Search Plus Your World (SYYW) to must-have online tools to amphibious childhood memories. Read on for the full scoop.

| aimClear: Welcome, Ms. Heather! Let’s get the formalities out of the way– who are you and how did you end up in the online marketing realm?

Heather Lloyd-Martin: I wanted to be a writer since I was a little girl. I didn’t think that you could make a living as a writer, so when I graduated college, I took all sorts of marketing jobs that allowed me to write – but I was stuck doing other things (like answering phones) that I really disliked.

One gig was working for a company that made industrial freezers for fishing boats – and I would write their marketing copy (it’s hard to make a “screw compressor” sound interesting, but that’s exactly what I did!). My then-boss loved to go online and surf around (this must have been about 1995,) – and I realized that there was more opportunity in the online world than there was in my current job. So, I quit so I could “become an online writer.” Did I have any freelance gigs lined up? Nope. Did I know anything about writing online? Nope. I just quit and figured that I could make a go of it somehow…

Fortunately, I was blessed to meet a lot of other first-generation search marketers who were just starting to get their online feet wet. Jill Whalen is one – and we started the RankWrite newsletter together in the late 1990′s. RankWrite was the first newsletter that discussed how to write good SEO copy, and people still mention that they remember reading it years ago. Things blossomed from there, I got on the SES speaking circuit…and here I am today. I’ve been doing this for about 14 years now – and wow, time has passed quickly. I feel so blessed that I get to have fun doing exactly the type of work that I love to do!

| aC: Inspired! So. You forged your mark in the industry about copywriting. There’s been some rumbling in the industry that on-page content will become devalued, if not minimized – in light of Google Search Plus Your World. What do you believe will happen? Has SPYW completely screwed the SEO pooch? (On the flip side of the coin: Are you excited about forming a community in Google+?)

HLM: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve heard that SEO is dead, we’ll all be out of jobs soon, blah, blah. Here’s the thing: Good content is ALWAYS important, and has been since the beginning of content time. People don’t link to crappy content. People don’t share crappy content. Crappy content doesn’t convert. I’ve said it before – yes. the opportunities in SEO copywriting will change (for instance, we weren’t writing tweets 10 years ago). Content, however, will also rule. And if you want to maximize the ways that folks find your content, that means knowing how to create solid SEO copy.

I think that the last few Google changes have been wake up calls to those folks who haven’t focused on content. Having said that, I feel for the small business owner with a zero budget trying to keep up with Google+/SPYW. I’ve heard a number of folks complain, “I don’t have time to do this myself. I don’t have budget to outsource. I don’t have time keep up with all of these changes.” I definitely feel their pain.

(And yes, I’d love it if you added SEO Copywriting to your Google+ circles.):)

| aC: Noted . What is it that excites you about SEO copywriting in particular, more so than, say, reg’lar ole’ writin’?

HLM: I dig reg’lar ole’ writin’, too. But SEO copywriting is just…different. I think it’s because so much of my career has been wrapped around keyword-based writing. I watched SEO (and SEO copywriting) “grow up” – and it was a blast to be a part of it. Having said that, I find myself wanting to write about things that have nothing to do with SEO copy, marketing, or the search engines. That’s good – I think it’s healthy to shake things up and do different things.

| aC: Indeed. Guilty-pleasure time! Tell us 3 websites you visit daily… NOT work-related.

HLM: Ha! Great question! I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t been surfing for fun. But when I do want to kill some time, I love checking out…

• MindBodyGreen – Yoga and wellness tips.
• Budget Travel – For when I want to plan my next getaway.
• Facebook. If I’m bored, I’m here.

| aC: Groovy. Okay, now tell us 3 work-related websites, services, or tools you wouldn’t ever want to live without.

HLM:

• I love HootSuite – I love how easy it is to schedule tweets and track conversations.
• SearchEngineLand- Great writers, great information.
• GetItDone App- This app has helped me organize my entire life. Really. Considering all of the “stuff” in my brain, that’s a major accomplishment.

| aC: Right on. The morning of Day 3 at SMX West will find you on the The “New” Killer Content panel. Give the readers at home a sneak peek at what you’ll serve up!

HLM: So many marketing teams see changes like Panda, SPYW, etc. and say, “OK, I give up. I have no idea how to leverage existing content, or build new content.” So, I’ll be talking about ways companies can create quality, sharable content, leverage their opportunities and develop sustainable content strategies. The panel has a really great speaker lineup – I’m excited and honored to be a part of it.

| aC: Excellent! Looking forward to it. Now, last but most certainly not least: Favorite ethnic cuisine, foreign city, and amphibian, GO!

HLM: Fave ethnic cuisine: Indian. The spicier the better. If it’s not making my mouth burn and my eyes water, it’s not worth eating. Fave foreign city: It’s a tie between Amsterdam and London. I LOVE Amsterdam, but London always feels like home. If I can combine a London/Amsterdam trip, I am a happy girl. Fave amphibian: Um, never thought of this one. I did have a pet salamander named Sam when I was 5…

| aC: Well  now if that isn’t the cutest thing I’ve ever heard. Right on. Big thanks, Heather, for this special glimpse into your life & upcoming preso @ #SMX West. Let’s get some Gobhi Aloo and Chettinadu kozhi varuval while we’re out there. Safe travels!

Riiiiiiing!

You probably already know we have a plucked, squeezed and altogether revamped curriculum for our Facebook Intensive Marketing Workshop geared up for SMX West. We’ve shared some titillating details in the past few days, but not all. Don’t you slightly feel like a freshman on the first day of high school whose class schedule just got sucked into the tailpipe of a passing car? We can help with that.

aimClear’s taking you back to school, not before arming you with a comprehensive run-down of training modules. But first! A look at  your teachers for the day:

Marty Weintraub (@aimClear): CEO of aimClear. Speaker, author, world traveler, and your workshop host with the most.

Will Scott (@w2scott): Owner/CEO of Search Influence, longtime pal of aimClear.

Merry Morud (@merrymorud): Account manager at aimClear, all-around Facebook marketer extraordinaire.

Matt Peterson: (@Matt_Peterson): Account manager at aimClear, maybe the funniest / freakiest person on the roster.

Now that we have our introductions out of the way, it’s time to look at your day of fun-filled learning.

8:30 – 8:45 am | Welcome, House Rules, Introduction & Overview
Will Scott and our very own Marty Weintraub will kick things off with an overview of the day’s training modules, as well a few housekeeping items that will save you from a ticket to detention…. Fortunately, computer use and tweeting from your phone are not against the rules…

8:45 – 9:30 am | Facebook Demographic Research & Guerilla Targeting
Marty will lead the charge in all things demographic research, blending both traditional and not-so-traditional channels while offering up some key tips into how to best leverage search to recognize social users, investigate search history to cultivate social strategies, and target top-notch social segments that surpass literal targeting.

9:30 – 10:10 am | Establishing Facebook Marketing KPIs
By discussing how social resources, public relations, internal, and search engine optimization all work together, Marty will describe how to achieve realistic Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), all while focusing on how search affects social.

10:10 – 10:25 am | Coffee Break & Refreshments
Because we all know you’ll need a little brainpower recharge…

10:25 – 10:40 am | Curate & Aggregate! Industrial Strength Content Sharing For Powerful Community Managers
Straight from Marty’s mouth, learn advanced strategies for compiling free, non-competitive, third-party resources, and how to leverage your newfound cauldron of information to keep your community updated on the latest and greatest news.

10:40 – 11:00 am | Holistic Befriending in Facebook: 36 Ways to Make More Social Media Friends Who Matter
Marty will discuss various case studies about the best methods for keeping your stalking at an acceptable, non-scary level and how to make friends with authoritative social media users. Come prepared!

11:00 – 11:30 am | Facebook Crises Management! Dealing with Intra-Community Bloodshed
Arm yourself with an indestructible plan for when your social community erupts into madness. Attendees will learn several crowd-calming tactics and stress-reducing tips for when the going gets rough. Marty and Merry Morud will lead this discussion and share actionable advice from traumatizing experiences.

11:30 am – 12:00 pm | How To Buy Fans For Fun & Profit
Get ready for case studies on how to best “buy friends” and investigate the value of a CPF (Cost Per Friend) and what it means for you with Will. Don’t fret, lunch and recess are up next.

12:00 – 1:00 pm | Lunch Time

1:00 – 1:20 pm | Killer Facebook Ads: Account Structure & Optimization
In order to have a really killer Facebook Ads account, you have to start with the basics. Learn how to organize your account structure to best serve your needs as you start building campaigns, rolling out ads, and optimizing for superior performance. Merry will guide you through some of the best strategies and naming conventions that will help you achieve advanced account management.

1:20 – 1:45 pm | Killer Facebook Ads: How To Write Ads like a Rockstar
Merry’s at it again, offering up awe-inspiring tips on how to best utilize your 160 characters for headline and body copy. What can you do to make sure they get noticed? Learn proven techniques, from out-of-the-box brainstorming sessions to maintaining optimization for creating the most killer Facebook Ads you have ever dared to dream of.

1:45 – 2:15 pm | Killer Facebook Ads: Choosing Images That Scream
Now that you know how to create Killer Facebook ad copy, what do you do with it? Facebook’s gargantuan community likes to visualize everything, so it’s imperative to match an attention-grabbing ad image with awesome creative copy. Merry will walk you through A/B test case studies to demonstrate which ads work and which ads don’t, all while sharing bountiful best practices for selecting and optimizing your ads.

2:15 – 2:45 pm | Sponsored Stories & Other Fantastical Social Facebook Ad Unit
Sponsored Stories and their mysterious intricacies will be uncovered as Marty discusses the top-secret elixir and innovative strategies to help you utilize the tremendous advantages and powerful perks available—as well as best practices and shortcuts out there.

2:45 – 3:00 pm | Coffee Break & Refreshments

3:00 – 3:45 pm | Decoding Facebook’s EdgeRank & Organic Visibility
Facebook’s ranking algorithm, EdgeRank, will be exposed by Will as he shares newsworthy tips and insider tricks for increasing and embracing community engagement to elevate how your social assets are viewed organically.

3:45 – 4:20 pm | Digging Deep In Facebook’s Insights & Mining Organic Analytics
Will gives us a birds’ eye view of Facebook’s organic analytics platform—Facebook Insights—to see the assortment of combinations of metrics available, including engagement and demographic figures that can help convert insight into action, followed by a ten minute Q & A session.

4:20 – 5:00 pm | The Great Big Glistening Tremendously Tricked-Out Book of Tools
All together now! Marty, Merry, Will and Matt Peterson will plunge through a jam-packed session showcasing a plethora of tools ranging from conventional to borderline lunatic, complementary to enterprise-level, all while discussing the advantages and disadvantages of these toolsets and a standard framework to help evaluate them.

5:00 – 6:00 pm | Optional Extended Q&A in the Bar!
As a reward for your hard efforts throughout the day, we will move on to the bar for anyone who is interested in joining us. Not your average prize for a long day at school, huh?

That about sums up our workshop for SMX West! We hope to see you in sunny San Jose. Remember, you get a free copy of Killer Facebook Ads if you attend. Haven’t registered yet? There’s still time! Go get ‘em, tiger!

photo credit © Ingrid – Fotolia.com

A new year calls for a new look… at least, that’s what any hot-blooded fashionista will tell you. Here at aimClear, we’re embracing that concept and mapping it to, among other things, our Facebook Marketing Intensive– just in time for it’s one year anniversary, to boot.

Yes, it was one year ago we unveiled our full-day workshop on the stage of #SMX West. The aimClear team is stoked to return to sunny San Jose, armed with an exciting new curriculum brimming with even more hot, juicy, actionable takeaways in a radically revamped agenda. This is one Facebook Marketing Intensive workshop not to be missed.

Mark your calendars for Monday, February 27 if you’re interested in joining the party. Our panel of accomplished international Facebook marketers are ready to rock it from breakfast til happy hour, tackling everything from “free” organic optimization tactics to paid “Facebook Ads” advertising best practices, in-depth demographic research and tips for harnessing Facebook’s massive online community to achieve well-established KPIs.

This is a ticketed event, so be sure to register today for a seat at mama’s table. Read on for a closer look at our newly remodeled workshop agenda, along with descriptions of each crowd-engaging module.

Facebook Demographic Research & Guerilla Targeting: Tally-ho! We’ll kick off the day getting down ‘n dirty with demographic research that incorporates both traditional search and emergent social channels. You will learn to leverage search to find and mine social users by conversations, tap into search history to develop deep social strategy, as well as create and target killer social segments advised by fertile watering holes identified by search. Are we noting a trend here?

Establishing Facebook Marketing KPIs: Our classic look at the art of attainable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), with an intensified focus on how search affects social (there it is again!). This is an end-to-end journey, from understanding to establishing to achieving marketing KPIs that span Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, PR, SERPs, blogs and more.

Community Management: We start with kindergarten principles (e.g.: why sharing is important!) and escalate to DEFCON 1 (dealing with intra-community bloodshed and brand reputation crises). Along the way, we’ll take a look at holistic friending best practices and case studies, as well as tips for cross-channel promotion that won’t irritate your fans. #UsingHashtagsOnFacebookMakePeoplePuke #DoNotDoIt #FunFact

Specific modules include:

• Curate & Aggregate! Industrial Strength Content Sharing For Powerful Community Managers
• Holistic Befriending in Facebook: 36 Ways to Make More Social Media Friends Who Matter
  
• Facebook Crises Management! Dealing with Intra-Community Bloodshed
  

How To Buying Fans For Fun & Profit: Feast on a wealth of case studies on “buying friends” and explore the real meaning and value of a CPF (Cost Per Friend).

Killer Facebook Ads: Full Contact! This is where we went seriously nip/tuck-tastic. In addition to a keen emphasis on how Facebook Ads impact search, we’ll also tackle:

• Killer Facebook Ads: Account Structure & Optimization
• Killer Facebook Ads: How To Write Ads like a Rockstar
• Killer Facebook Ads: Choosing Images That Scream

Sponsored Stories & Other Fantastical Social Facebook Ad Unit: Saddle up for a look at Facebook Sponsored Stories– the perks, the possibilities, and everything in between.

Decoding Facebook’s EdgeRank & Organic Visibility: We’re cracking open the black box known as EdgeRank, Facebook’s ranking algorithm… to the best of our ability. Expect useful tips and insider advice for how to inspire and harness community engagement, effectively increasing organic visibility in search and social.

Digging Deep In Facebook’s Insights & Mining Organic Analytics: You can’t achieve goals unless you set them, and you can’t know to what extent you’re #winning or #sucking without some form of analytics. We’re going to dig into Facebook’s organic analytics platform, Insights, exploring various combinations of metrics including engagement and demographic statistics that will help transform insight into action.

The Great Big Glistening Tremendously Tricked-Out Book of Tools: We’re rounding out the day with a filled-to-the-gills guide sure to be your definitive resource for marketing in the social space and calculating ROI. Listening tools to page management tools, mainstream to maniacal, free to enterprise-level, you’ll come away with a rich understanding of how to construct a social analytics toolkit, pros and cons of toolsets, confidence about what is measurable and what is not, and a common framework to evaluate different tools.

—

Remember to register lickity-split for Early Bird rates on your pass for #SMX West and aimClear’s Facebook Marketing Intensive.

Did we mention workshop attendees will each win a free copy of “Killer Facebook Ads” (Wiley/Sybex 2011)? Sweet deal

Already signed up for the main event? Keep your eyes peeled for our own Marty Weintraub, Merry Morud, and Manny Rivas, set to storm the stage during #SMX speaking on a slew of savory top-shelf topics.

Greetings marketers! We’re back from a fabulous week at #SMX West, San Jose 2011.  The sessions and speakers were fantastic.  It’s a brave new world of attribution modeling, SEO influencing social signals, international search and a veritable mobile explosion.

After the main conference was over, we rolled out the inaugural edition our very own aimClear® Facebook Marketing Intensive. This full day ticketed program evolved from years of our offering customized social media training to our clients.  The room was packed in post-conference intensive terms.  The feedback we got from the audience was amazing, as was the audience itself. Dude, y’all were so cool to be with for a day!

aimClear was joined by Will Scott, President of Search Influence, a New Orleans SEO and social media firm. Also Lisa Buyer, social PR wiz and President of the Buyer Group graced us with her killer insight and subtle ways.  Thanks to Merry, Manny, Lauren, and Matt for taking their turns at the podium, all the preparation and sharing such great information.  Also, kudos to the Third Door Media crew, producer of the SMX conference series.

We expect many happy returns of the day, and plan to produce our Facebook training workshop many more times all over the world, starting very soon. If you attended the workshop in San Jose, here’s the link to download the slides.  Thanks so much for your radtastic participation and we’ll see you next time!

Welcome to aimClear’s coverage of #SMX West 2011! Day 1 is officially over and just like the warm, friendly 60-degree weather here in sunny San Jose, it did not disappoint– brimming with great panel discussions & tip-top presentations– among them, Location Services: The New Local Search.

Gib Olander, director of business development with Localeze; Rodney Hess, account associate with Search Influence; Jason Rupp, director of product management at Ask.com; Chris Travers, president and co-founder of UniversalBusinessListing.org and Ken Norton, senior product manager for Google were at the helm for this one. Each took turns exploring  how location services like Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp and/or mobile apps are changing the local search space indefinitely. aimClear live tweeted this session (via MoCR521)… read on for a full write-up.

Business Identity & Discovery
Gib Olander was the first to take the stage, diving right into how search has evolved over the years and continues to change with the world wide web and new tools like location services.

• Today, we use Google to look for what we want now, as opposed to where we used to look for information (you know, a library… remember those?).
• Finding the what & where yesterday (hard copy of a map) vs. finding the what & where today (Google Maps).
• Finding the what & where with the help of people who are/were (social) there vs. finding the what & where with the context of who.

Now more than ever, the emphasis is on WHEN. Why? Because it can change the relevancy, heightening our search to the what & where with the context of who and when.

Gib defined business identity today as having a Name, Address, Phone (NAP) plus a Category (C). A searchable business identity used to be as simple as having your information in a hard copy of the Yellow Pages. But now, because of online capabilities, consumers are increasingly using more and more sources to find local information & content.

Check out these sources of local business information, and the percentage increase of usage from 2009 to 2010. The state are pretty darn telling, to say the least…

• Search Engines (+19%)  
• Print YP or WP Directory (+8%) 
• IYP Sites (+9%)
• Local Search Sites (+15%)
• Local Newspapers/Magazines (-9%)
• Directory assistance (phone) (-6%)
• Cell Phone/Wireless Device (+40%)
• Social Networking Sites (+28%)

Gib then asked, “Are you discoverable?” It is vital to establish your online identity because it will anchor your customer’s experience:

• People are expected to buy within 1 hour using mobile Internet and 7 days using PC Search
• By 2011, 80% of mobile devices will have GPS
• 60% of mobile Internet is spent on social networking

Location check-ins are growing rapidly with outlets like Foursquare and Facebook. Foursquare currently has 6.5 million users, 2 million daily check-ins, 420 million check-ins all together and a 3,400% growth in 2010. With statistics like this it is not surprising that brands (both big & small) are starting to take advantage of location services.

Social and mobile and local are colliding in your customers’ hands!

• 32% of SMBs said they used Facebook Places to promote their business
• 12% said they plan to use Facebook Places in the coming months
• 70% said they used Facebook for promotions, which is up 50% compared to last year and beats Google, which is being used by 66%

Gib’s key takeaways:

• Mobile, Local and Social are happening NOW!
• If your identity isn’t established, you do not exist.
• Enable your client to create and share great discovery content.
• Have one consistent and pervasive NAP.
• Recognize your spatial network and be aware of time as a relevancy factor.

Barnacle SEO
Rodney Hess was up next. In a casual-cool manner, he touched on how location services can benefit SEO. “Barnacle SEO”, he explained, was the act of attaching oneself to a large fixed object and waiting for the customers to float by in the current. Attaching your URL and addresses to a strong, trusted site takes very little effort, and can help you rank well for long-tail phrases. Examples of trusted location sites include Yelp, Foursquare, Yahoo! Local, etc.

Two things to keep in mind when thinking about location services: (1) Google and Bing both index venues from Foursquare and Yelp in organic search results, and (2) Google crawls Facebook, Yelp and Foursquare for local citations.

Key findings from an advertiser sentiment survey Rodney conducted include:

Concerning the breakdown of service usage:

• 61% of advertisers are using Facebook Places
• 55% use Foursquare
• 50% use Yelp
• 3% use Gowalla

When asked why users are leveraging location services:

• 50% said just another social networking addiction
• 28% said for business promotions
• 21% want their friends to know about their whereabouts.
• A mighty 95% said they check in using a mobile device.

When asked if business promotions on these sites inspire them to be a return customer:

• 70 percent said…”NO”

To sum up, location-based services serve more practical purposes than free advertising and check-in services are still in their infancy. Rodney’s survey findings prove that these services need to show users more value that will make it worth their time. Only then can check-in services can become the new local search.

Mobile = A More Engaged User
Jason Rupp took the stage next, with a presentation that concentrated on engagement. The concept of searching has dramatically changed in regards to mobile; the behavior/expectations of users has changed.

• 81% of mobile users need info ASAP
• 66% of mobile users say they are more likely to need info when they are not in front of their computers
• 40% of mobile users trust peer content more when it is 24 hours old versus one month old

Jason encouraged the audience to seek new “signals” on mobile devices by…

• firing up an app
• checking in
• selecting a location or place of interest
• sharing locations and/or asking/answering questions about a place.

The Q&A model offers marketers an intent-based signal, which is similar to search.  Location-based questions allow marketers to respond to real user needs that can eventually build brands and drive leads.

Key points from Jason’s presentation:

• Think about testing location-aware real time offers
• Provide incentives for checking-in, sharing locations, inviting friends to a location
• Be creative about branding the check-in experience where possible.
• Align your mobile marketing strategy with your social media strategy
• Consistent messaging/branding across multiple touch points
• Cross platform offers to drive engagement

Businesses: Identification to Reputation
Chris Travers was up next, to take us through a look at the change in location search from identification to reputation. People are going from an address toa map to figuring out what’s nearby, to learning how good the place is, to who is nearby and how worthy is that person and their opinion.

Chris stressed that business profiles can be a vulnerability and you should only create or claim profiles you are prepared to manage long-term or populate the profile with data that is not likely to change. For this, Chris recommended using specialized services that manage listing carefully.

Businesses are being challenged because the key elements of concern are being fragmented over multiple platforms. It’s a delicate and necessary balancing act between managing listings and profiles, monitoring reviews, mentions, ratings, competitors, diligently making updates to postings, keeping up with advertising, offering coupons and tracking related analytics.

First steps…

• Syndicate listing across the Digital Search Landscape
• Claim business listings in Google, Bing, Yahoo to protect your identity
• Add credibility with verification
• Distribute video profiles
• Visible analysis and presence reports
• Monitor listings, reviews and social mentions – remember to react quickly to any negative comments or reviews
• Claim your brand on social networks – ensure brand consistency, gain broad exposure for your business and protect trademarks

Final Thoughts From the Google
Ken Norton from Google was the last to step up to the podium to briefly share a few comments that succinctly summed up the session and hammer home thoughts that marketers need to keep top of mind… most notably:

“Think about location as a layer that enhances everything users are trying to do online. Everyone has a location… Be sure to think about and not forget the mobile experience.”

The audience walked away with some amazing tips and insight into location services and other factors to be aware of when managing a business’s online presence. Stay tuned for more coverage of #SMX & live-tweet coverage coming atcha from the aimClear team!

Greetings from #SMX West, 2011. The sun has not yet risen over the Mountains, but there is an air of excitement here at the Marriott San Jose McEnery Convention Center. Today kicks off this years edition of West and aimClear is here in force.

Today, I’ll be speaking at 3:45PM PT on the “YouTube Ads for Fun and Profit” panel, moderated by conference Co-Chair Chris Sherman, Executive Editor, Search Engine Land. I’ll have the pleasure of sharing the podium with John Weyand, Managing Director, iProspect New York, iProspect/Range Online Media.  I talked with John last night and his material is awesome, not to be missed. I’ll be giving away (that’s right, giving away) a Mozenda extraction agent that powers two utilities aimClear created: “YouTube Promoted Video Squatter Detection” and “YouTube Promoted Video Uncontested Inventory” tools.  I’ll also demo radical Ajax suggest box research for YouTube using ScrapeBox.  This will be a live tools demo and it’s going to rock.

The  Q&A Moderator for my session today will be our own Manny Rivas, who is also scheduled to speak tomorrow on the “New Tools & Techniques For YouTube Success” panel. He’ll join Aparna Chennapragada, Product Manager for Google Video Search, Google, Grant Crowell, Senior Analyst, ReelSEO, Jeff Martin, Dir Search Marketing, TouchStorm and Eric Papczun, VP SEO & Feeds, Performics.

Facebook & More Facebook!
Tomorrow, I’ll take the mic again at 3:30PM PT on the “Facebook Ad Tactics For Search Marketers” panel. The Moderator will be our pal Disa Johnson, CEO, SearchReturn. The lineup of speakers is super cool, including Matt Lawson, VP of marketing, Marin Software, Justin Merickel, VP, Marketing and New Product Development, Efficient Frontier and John Yi, Strategic Program Manager, Marketing APIs, Facebook (Q&A Speaker).

Then, of course, on Friday we’ll present the inaugural  “Facebook Marketing Intensive” to a full class of information hungry marketers. aimClear’s Merry, Manny, Matt, Lauren, and I will lead 5 cool Facebook workshop sessions. We’ll be joined by Lisa Buyer internationally known interactive PR, social media and branding diva and Will Scott, President of Search Influence, a specialized New Orleans SEO agency.

Hope to see you there!

photo credit: ta-graphy | SMX YouTube Tool

#SMX West kicks off in sunny San Jose next Tuesday, and we’re happy to report that much of the aimClear clan will be bopping around the conference venue, sticking around an extra day to host an intense full-day Facebook Marketing training, to boot. Our team has had the pleasure of attending many an industry event in the past, delivering presentations, press coverage, or just soaking up search marketing brain-chow. This go-round, we’re charting new territory… in the SMX Expo Hall. aimClear’s own Merry Morud (aka @MerryMorud, aka yours truly) will spend time at the Acquisio Booth, demonstrating the new Acquisio Facebook Advertising API tool. Read on on for a look at the tool and what Acquisio has to offer.

Planning to attend Search Marketing Expo West? Time’s almost up, so better register today. Use the partner code smxspeaker15 for an additional 15% discount.

Acquiso, At A Glance
Acquisio, the world’s leading Performance Media Platform, represents a streamlined solution for online marketers to buy, manage, track, optimize and report across advertising channels. The tool recently grew to include the much-coveted Facebook Ads platform. (Wheeee!)

As interest and use of the Facebook tool increased, limitations of the Facebook UI became more apparent. Some argue that the UI is built for 101 advertisers, not deep online marketers with robust segments, a bevy of ads and multiple client accounts. Keen to this, Acquisio has built the dream tool for Facebook Advertisers, complete with:

• Comparison Among Other PPC platforms
• Robust & Dynamic Reporting
• Cross-Channel Attribution
• Automation Rules for CTR and CPC management

In the Acquisio booth at SMX West, we’ll demo the Facebook API tool and its features to any and all who mosey our way. For those who can’t make it, or to whet the appetites of Expo hall explorers, let’s indulge in a quick peek at a few favorite features from the targeting interface:

More Interests
Facebook offers up a drop down menu of 10 interests:

Type… enter… type… enter… type… enter… Choosing interests with the Facebook UI tool is laborious, to say the least. Conversely, the Acquisio tool allows marketers to select considerably more interests with its Choose Multiple feature:

The ability to choose multiple saves time while providing more interests to choose from. Double delight!

Copy + Paste Functionality
There is only one thing to be said about this perk: HECK YEAH!

After selecting a bucket of (perhaps) hundreds of “Interests” one can then “Copy to Clipboard” and either “Paste Multiple” immediately in the interest bucket, or save it as a .txt for easy accessibility at a later date. (In other words, you don’t have to save segments by way of a mocked ad if you use the Acquisio tool!)

Bonus: The “clear list” button is also useful when creating segments for clients. Users can bust through segments, clearing the interests in one fell swoop, compared to working in the FB UI, which can get buggy with heavy use.

Save Segments with Acquisio

You can save an entire targeting grid for easy application in later ad campaigns.

Pretty sweet, eh? Come check it out for yourself at the Acquisio booth, and while you’re there, toss a high-5 my way. Not going to SMX West? Don’t worry. Sign yourself up for a free demo of the Acquisio Facebook tool and see what it’s all about.

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Finding the aimClear® Crew at SMX West
If you will be at SMX West, catch our own Marty Weintraub (@aimClear) speak on YouTube Ads for Fun & Profit in the afternoon on Day 1 and Facebook Ad Tactics for Search Marketers after lunch on Day 2. aimClear’s Manny Rivas (@MannyRivas) will also hit the stage on Day 2 to share tips on the New Tools & Techniques for YouTube Success panel. Must-attend sessions for sure.

Tune into to live-tweets from aimClear’s Molly Ryan (@MoCR521) and blog  coverage of SMX West sessions right here on aimClear Blog.

Sticking around for the whole week ? Check out our aimClear® Facebook Marketing Intensive @ SMX West, a fun-filled full-day event on March 11^th. From our team, Marty, Manny, Merry, Matt (@matt_peterson), and Lauren (@beebow) will cover the curriculim, along with special guests Will Scott (@w2scott) and Lisa Buyer (@lisabuyer).

This workshop is a ticketed event, so sign up today for best rates. See you there!