Listed below are some of the topics that will be covered at this two- day seminar:

* Introduction to Social Media
* Marketing Socially: Creating and Promoting Blog Content
* Social ROI: Measuring Blogs and the Social Web
* Step Up to Social Networking
* Videos and Podcasts and Images Oh My!
* Social Roundup: Microblogging, Social Bookmarking and wikis

Lee Odden CEO of TopRank Online Marketing (toprankmarketing.com)

Lee Odden is an industry leader in strategic internet marketing consulting, training and implementation services. A veteran internet marketer, Odden is one of 25 online marketing experts featured in the book, “Online Marketing Heroes” published by Wiley and has been cited for his search marketing expertise by The Economist, U.S. News and numerous search marketing industry publications.

Odden’s Online Marketing Blog (toprankblog.com) ranks in the top 40 out of 100 million blogs tracked by Technorati and is listed as one of the top 15 marketing blogs on the web by Advertising Age.

Lee regularly presents at: DMA, PRSA, Search Engine Strategies, WebmasterWorld Pubcon and the Media Relations Summit on topics of expertise including: search engine optimization, social media marketing and online public relations.

What Does Social Media Mean To Google?

Google’s Advice On How Brands Can Leverage Social Media

Prestigious Keynotes…

SMX conferences serve up some of the most innovative minds in search as keynote speakers, and SMX West 2009 is no exception. This year we are pleased to announce three keynotes from noted search engine and search marketing experts: Danny Sullivan, Vinton Cerf and John Battelle.

In his opening keynote, Danny Sullivan will review trends in search marketing and the search engine space over the past year, with a look to what the future may hold. Analyzing developments in the industry for more than 10 years, Danny serves as editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land.com, the search engine marketing industry’s publication of record.

On the second day of SMX West, Google’s Vinton Cerf joins Danny for a keynote conversation on the outlook of internet and search technologies. Widely known as a founding Father of the internet, Vint is uniquely qualified to answer questions about “what’s next,” having co-designed the TCP/IP protocols and other basic architecture of the internet. He now serves as Google Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist.

John Battelle is an entrepreneur, publisher and professor. He is also author of “The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture,” an international bestseller published in more than 25 languages. In “The Search,” he coined the oft-repeated description of search engines as “databases of intentions.” During his keynote on February 12th, John will discuss how he sees search developing, the challenges ahead and search’s impact on the internet and society at large.

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So, since I want to be Michael’s BFF let me tell you about his new service. It’s called Viral Conversations (love the name). It’s a way to “bring together product marketers and people who test products and generate product reviews”. Instead of advertisers having to seek out bloggers who will talk about their products or services, Viral Conversations will bring them together. Everyone is reviewed before they can enter the system. They’re also starting a private network of bloggers who will receive exclusive offers that are not available to the general public.

I really think of BFF as a girlie thing but hey if I can be Michael’s new best friend forever, then why not. I wonder if he knows what he’s in for though.

A loyal friend laughs at your jokes when they’re not so good, and sympathizes with your problems when they’re not so bad. ~Arnold H. Glasgow

Most of my jokes are pretty lame so Micheal’s gonna have to learn to laugh at lame jokes. I don’t have many problems but when I do he better be ready to sympathize, even at 4am (see below).

Friendship isn’t a big thing – it’s a million little things. ~Author Unknown

As if he doesn’t have enought to do.

It is the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter. ~Marlene Dietrich

Now that will really test our BFF status. (Michael, please laugh here)

Only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty. ~Sicilian Proverb

rent a car bulgariaI don’t think Michael will have too much trouble with this requirement.

Even though I often read his blog, I’ve only met Michael Gray briefly at a Search Engine Stragegies Conference. Now he’s my best friend………forever. Hey Michael, what’s your phone number?

In the latest interview Andy discusses how the typical press release has used the same distribution format for 100 years but with social media there are so many channels. The question is how does that format change. Some ideas he puts forward are social bookmarking links, rss feeds, tagging, etc.

In the interview about his book, “Radically Transparent”, Andy talks about building a personal brand, using social media and tracking your efforts among other things. One tool for tracking, built by Andy, is called Trackur.com which scours millions of blogs, news sites, images, and videos and let’s you know how your brand is being discussed on social media sites. A great piece of advice was to make sure you secure your “brand” or name on all the social media sites so if they take off you can protect your brand. This podcast is well worth a listen or a read if you prefer. A transcript is provided for all the podcasts. (Great move Susan)

but wait, there’s more…

I met Susan, by email, a couple of years back when she was reaching out to speakers for ad:tech Shanghai. She is Chair Emeritus of ad:tech Expositions and from 2001-2006 she selected nearly 1,000 speakers each year as “she programmed each ad:tech uniquely”. So you can imagine the size and influence of her contact list. I also spoke with her by phone and asked some advice on organizing the China Search Marketing Tour and she took the time to give me some great ideas.

The thing I like about Personal Life Media is that Susan and her husband Tim don’t just have business related podcasts and blogs, they think big and have a shows on art, education, health, music and more. This is a true “media” company or as she puts it a “media empire”.

So if you want to read some good blogs or hear some great podcasts then go to Personal Life Media and look around, you’re sure to find something interesting.

Susan is no slouch at social media herself and can be found here;

Twitter http://twitter.com/susanbratton

Friend Feed http://friendfeed.com/susanbratton

Facebook http://profile.to/susanbratton/

Linked In http://www.linkedin.com/in/susanbratton

DishyMix Facebook Fan Club

As I cruise the web looking for social media ideas I often run across people that make me realize I’ll never get social media. My lastest discovery are two sisters out of Singapore, Nicole Chen and her younger sister, Celeste. They not only get social media, they speak it. It’s their “lingua franca”.

These adorably cute girls (sorry Lisa, you don’t have a monopoly on adorably cute) take to social media like fish to water. Type their names in Google or any other search engine and they are everywhere and on all kinds of social media platforms. They’re on Hotspotters, MyBlogLog, Bumpzee, Vume, Friendster, Zango, YouTube, Flickr, BlogFlux, you name it. They blog and vlog and express themselves in a variety of ways. Singing, dancing, playing the piano and just letting you catch a glimpse of their lives is how they have become social media darlings. They were recently highlighted in the Lifestyle section of the Singapore Sunday Times which detailed how they’ve picked up 16,000 friends on Friendster.

If you want to learn about social media, take a lesson or two from Nicole and Celeste. They sure do get social media. On the other hand, I don’t think I’ll ever get it.