October 11, 2011 – SEMpdx welcomed back one of its favorite speakers Tuesday night.  Ian Lurie, from Portent Interactive, joined us for this month’s event to explain how social media suffers from a real lack of legitimacy and what we as marketers can do to change that. Likening the mainstream's perception of social media to the computer game, Dungeons and Dragons, Ian noted that while social media has gained acceptance, many businesses still don’t understand how to use it.  He went on Read more [...]

April 12, 2011 – Merry Morud, from aimClear, dug deep into Facebook ads with us Tuesday night as we explored everything from segment identification and digital assets to campaign analysis. Creating your segments is much like keyword research in that strong segment creation is monotonous and time consuming, but always worth it.  Treat your segments like ad groups as you identify interests.  Take advantage of Facebook’s suggest tool but also use alternative tools such as Visuwords or Wordstream Read more [...]

March 8, 2011 – Two weeks after the widely successful SearchFest, SEMpdx gathered again to dig deeper into the social media conversation. Bryan Stratton, from StepChange Group, shared his high level strategy “do’s and don’ts” of social media. Perhaps the best analogy, he said, was to treat it like a cocktail party. Among his advice was the need to be proactive, noting that paid media is easy but earned media is much more valuable. Make organic connections with those who are already Read more [...]

My initial user experience with LinkedIn Ads was quite negative and I voiced my displeasure on social media. Andrew reached out to me with news that LinkedIn was to soon upgrade their ad platform and that he would graciously allow me to be one of the first to use it. I did and it is a considerable improvement over the old model. Andrew graciously agreed to answer a few question for our blog. 1) Please give us your background and tell us what you do for a living. I’m the marketing lead Read more [...]

Join thousands of fellow marketers (including Susan) for five days of marketing education and conversation! ClickZ Connected Marketing Week, August 16-20, in San Francisco! 1) Please give us your background and tell us what you do for a living. As the CEO of Personal Life Media, Inc., I am a publisher of eBooks focused on your personal and professional growth. We call them "eBooks with Benefits" because our downloadable books and membership sites typically consist of pdf's in the form Read more [...]

The SoMe Awards — one of the country’s premiere social media award events is celebrating the year’s social innovators in technology, marketing and design throughout the region. Want to nominate your client or company work? You better hurry! The deadline for nominations is 11:59 p.m. on Friday, April 23 visit www.someawards.com. The second annual SoM? Awards are on May 6, 2010 at the prestigious Multnomah Athletic Club in Portland, Oregon. They are brought to you once again by Social Media Read more [...]

I thought that Tuesday's Social Media SixPack presentation went pretty well, and someone e-mailed me asking me for my slides, so I decided to post a dry run of my presentation here. I went a bit long here. at about 10 minutes, but it might be worth watching if you want to be more efficient. Read more [...]

SEMpdx has partnered with CMD, Oregon's largest multi-disciplined marketing agency, and specifically with the agency's earned media group, to help further promote and raise SEMpdx’s profile. CMD has been a front runner in developing best practices for how to incorporate social media and search within PR efforts for its clients, such as Cisco Systems, NW Natural, Intel and JELD-WEN, inc. In fact, the agency's PR group recently changed its name to CMD's earned media group, which better reflects Read more [...]

SEMpdx is proud to partner with Portland State University’s Professional Development Center to provide 2 annual scholarships for the SEM Workshop, which is part of the Digital Marketing Strategy Certificate series. The 3-day SEM Workshop is taught by SEMpdx board members Kent Lewis & Hallie Janssen. SEMpdx and PSU are offering the $635 scholarship twice each year, one for each class. The next workshop starts October 23rd, 2009. To be considered for the scholarship, you must Read more [...]

Thanks to the quick work of the organizations below, we are all excited to announce the introduction of the region’s first Social Media Awards, The SoMe Awards (so – mee). This year’s award is on a tight time table, but your help with tweeting, blogging and spreading the word is appreciated. Most details are available at www.someawards.com. Don’t be shy – nominate yourself or a client close to you. The Portland chapter of Social Media Club, SEMpdx and Software Association of Oregon Read more [...]