In two weeks I’ll be leading a micro conference especially for marketing, advertising, and public relations professionals. So, whether you work in a communications office, marketing staff, PR firm, or advertising agency, you qualify for this micro conference. The 90 minute micro conference will be on April 29 at 10:30am EST and will cover the following:

• Why new media marketing is worth a shift to your marketing strategies
• Growth statistics for new media technologies
• Explanation of the technology, the shift in online culture, and the shift in the way to communicate online
• How to think like a social media marketer
• The most effective strategy for social media marketing

Limited Space (but five spots are FREE)
Space will be limited to 30 companies/organizations. The price is $249 for the 90 minute conference but five of the thirty slots will be given away for free to non profits. If you work for a non profit or know of one that may benefit from the conference, pass this information along to them. All they need to do is send me an email stating who they are, what they do, and why they are interested in social media marketing.

Access For 10 People From Your Organization
Access to the micro conference will be available for listening online or on the phone. Participating businesses and organizations will be able to have up to 10 people from their company attend as well. That means if a couple people in one office want to gather around a phone or computer but someone else is a little less social…everyone can all listen from their respective locations. Or maybe one of the staff is traveling and will be driving all that morning. She can call in and access the entire conference from there.

Conference Recording Available to All Participants
The entire session will be recorded and emailed as an MP3 to the email address provided during the registration process…so even if someone from the staff is out sick that day or you just want it for future reference, you’ll be able to pass it on to the rest of the staff after the conference is over.

Your Questions Answered
The reason for limiting the number of participants is that I want to be able to answer at least one question from each participating organization. Once you sign up send me a question (or several if you like) and I’ll be sure to answer at least one during the course of the micro conference so I can answer something you specifically want addressed.

If you’re ready participate click here or click the “add to cart” button below.

This is certainly off the beaten path of my normal blog posts but too funny not to share. My friend C.H. told me he realized this week that he’s getting old and out of touch.

While listening to the local radio station a few days ago, C.H. heard a promotion for an upcoming concert and the announcer was making a really big deal about giving away “$48 tickets for Fifty Cent.” This completely dumbfounded C.H. because he thought, “Why the heck would the radio station promote a giveaway for a concert yet charge the winner fifty cents to win the tickets? Can’t they just give them away for 100% if the ticket value? Is there some kind of tax implication to the station for giving away the full value of the tickets? Is the radio station just so cheap that they’ll pay the first $47.50 but not cover the remaining fifty cents? What a lame giveaway. Why can’t the station come up with a measly fifty cents more?”

After really being perplexed by this strange radio promotion it finally dawned on him. The tickets aren’t going to cost fifty cents. The tickets are for 50 Cent…the rapper. It’s a 50 Cent concert. Guess the radio station’s promotion isn’t so bad after all, though maybe their phrasing was. Or maybe it was just lost in translation on a guy who’s not quite as in touch as he thought. Whatever the case, I got a good laugh out of this.

I admit that I’m not an SEO guy and and don’t want to be. There are lots of specialists who know the ins and outs of how to get the most Google juice out of your website or blog and it’s worth knowing where to go for that kind of help.

Eric Holter and the team at Newfangled Web Factory, located in the shadow of the University of North Carolina, (no kidding…they’re right down the road from the campus) have put together a two part series on search engine optimization. The video below is the first of two they’ve done to help people understand how to do search engine optimization better. You can read more about Newfangled’s two-part series on SEO here (part 1) and here (part 2).

How to do SEO

That’s the topic Nathan and I discussed on the latest episode of The New Mediology podcast. Also, check out the blog that inspired this entire conversation, GoodURLBadURL.com.

…I think he would be saying some of the same things he was saying 85 years ago. I had never heard of Claude Hopkins until recently. I think I would have liked him. I also think he would have liked the marketing opportunities we have today with social media tools. Here’s something Claude wrote in his book, Scientific Advertising, back in 1923:

Remember the people you address are selfish, as we all are. They care nothing about your interests or your profit. They seek service for themselves. Ignoring this fact is a common mistake and a costly mistake in advertising. Ads, say in effect, “Buy my brand. Give me the trade you give to others. Let me have the money.” That is not a popular appeal.

The best ads ask no one to buy. That is useless. Often they do not quote a price. They do not say that dealers handle the product. The ads are based entirely on service. They offer wanted information. They site advantages to users. Perhaps they offer a sample, or to buy the first package, or to send something on approval, so the customer may prove the claims without any cost or risks. Some of these ads seem altruistic. But they are based on the knowledge of human nature. The writers know how people are led to buy. Here again is salesmanship. The good salesman does not merely cry a name. He doesn’t say, “Buy my article.” He pictures the customers side of his service until the natural result is to buy.

Claude Hopkins, Scientific Advertising

I think Claude would agree that content is a good promotion strategy. He might even sing a little bit of “Old McDonald” with me.

You ever have one of those weeks where you think things are going to be one way and they turn out completely different? That’s what this week has been for me. Between a sick wife and daughters and the resulting cancellation of several meetings, a crazy storm night on Tuesday that derailed an entire evening of catch up time and a complete transfer and little details required for the redesigned MicroExplosion.com (thanks to AnthologyCreative) it’s been a little nuts. Somewhere in there I’ve been trying to squeeze in the time to finish my presentation slides for PodCamp Nashville this Saturday (sorry I’m late Kelly) and record the next episode of The New Mediology. Then, of course, there’s client work that trumps all of this (except the family stuff of course.) So…it’s been a little different than expected. Regularly scheduled blogging will resume soon and I’ll still have a video of the week tomorrow!

Welcome to the new home for MicroExplosion Media. Nice, new look. Same ole me.

I have been meaning to comment on this since the weekend…

In Sunday’s paper, Tennessean editor Mark Silverman stated: “Fact is, newspapers aren’t dying. Indeed, many newspapers are succeeding at keeping up with the changing needs of their audiences. Consider The Tennessean.”

I’m withholding some of my thoughts on this for next week’s episode of The New Mediology, but I’m curious if the editorial strikes anyone as a bit desperate sounding? The rationale seems shaky despite the “quantified” research he cites. I’ll update this post when the podcast goes live and may elaborate a bit more.

One more thing…irony of ironies, I actually saw this article in a copy of the Sunday paper I purchased. I think it’s the second or third Tennessean I’ve bought in five years.

UPDATE: Discussion on this topic on the The New Mediology is available.

This weekend I discovered Kongregate.com. It’s a free online game website that has some really fun stuff. My personal favorite was Filler, a fun (and addictive) puzzle game. Once you get the hang of it you’ll be hooked for a while. I got to level 15 but couldn’t get beyond that.

Kongregate looks like it’s incorporated the web 2.0 mentality to games by letting users submit their own Flash based games and form communities around them. There are communities that have emerged around the games as well.

It would take quite a while to try all the games on this site…but it sure would be fun trying.

Check out the latest episode of The New Mediology. This week Nathan and I discussed our top 5 web applications and what we love about them. As always, we welcome feedback.