Events Archive

We had the best Saturday morning this past weekend. My father-in-law suggested we take our daughter, Maggie, to the Home Depot Kids Workshop in West Seattle and we had a blast.

Maggie is actually smiling in this photo!

The idea is that, for a few hours on a Saturday once a month, parents can take their children to their local Home Depot DIY store and make something cool using wood, real hammer and nails, glue and even get to paint their creation.

On Saturday they made a little desk calendar which used wooden blocks, and next month it’ll be a little racing car.

One of my new year resolutions is to really enjoy the small things in life, and this little outing was first on my appreciation list.

Not only did we have a fun morning, but it struck me what a genius marketing initiative this was to use creativity to get families into the store at no expense to them, have children start understanding the importance of woodwork, craft and DIY, and have them start seeing having a good time making things they can be proud of synonymous with the Home Depot brand. What was also apparent was the amount of families that then wandered off into the store to buy stuff, so they must make a few additional sales of the back of the program.

My only tiny grumble from a social point of view, was the lack of social activation. There was no hashtag on any of the collateral and I would have thought, given the rise in “sharenting”, that the store is missing a trick by not nudging proud parents to share their little ones’ creations on social channels.

Do you know of any initiatives like Home Depot’s that resonate like this? Let us know in the comments below.

Next week is my birthday and I’ll be spending 4 nights in Las Vegas at Pubcon too!

This must be about the 6th Pubcon conference I have attended and I’ll be there with Dixon Jones and the guys from MajesticSEO.

Brett Tabke, who founded the conference way back when, has kindly asked me to speak at a session on Thursday about online brand management. I’ll be focusing on digital PR and social media tactics and weaving a little bit about search too!.

They’re also letting me sign some of books with Barnes and Noble as well, so I’ll have an action-packed week.

If you’re going to be in sin city, drop by and say hello.

I’m looking forward to catching up with you all again!

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Thursday sees a milestone for me as I travel back to San Francisco to speak at BrightEdge’s Share 13 event at the fantastic-looking Palace Hotel.

Last year, it was the first conference I attended as Brand Ambassador for Majestic SEO after Dixon Jones asked me to join their ranks after I left Microsoft.

Now, a year on, I’m speaking in a session about search and earned media, giving a talk entitled “Loving Links Beyond SEO”.

I’ll be blowing away the fog that surrounds link data when it comes to other uses other than link building, and focusing on the relationships that can be made between not just the rich data available, but the people behind the content that marketers can uncover and build even deeper relationships with.

Really looking forward to spending time with some old friends too, like Andy Betts, Jim Brigden, Simon Heseltine, Mike Grehan, Elisabeth Osmeloski, Lisa Williams, Todd Friesen and Matt McGowan.

Given that line up, it should be an excellent event, so follow the hashtag on Twitter: #Share13 for all the wisdom coming from that corner of the US of A!

It’s been a while since the hiatus of all our book reviews, so when this came through from the Marketing Society Library, I couldn’t resist posing it here for posterity.

Ninder Takhar, Head of Marketing North East Asia, BT Global Services kindly describes the book thus:

“All in all, an inspiring read, and a good introduction to digital approaches and the broader digital market landscape.”

I’ll be speaking about the lessons learned from Pioneers of Digital at SearchLove San Diego in a few weeks, so listen out for the Tweets.

You can get a cop of the book for less than a dollar/pound on Kindle too!

A few weeks ago I spoke as part of the prestigious Microsoft Research Visiting Speaker Series on the Redmond Campus

Handwritten Note!

My talk was on the book I’ve co-authored – Pioneers of Digital: Success Stories from Leaders in Advertising, Marketing, Search and Social Media.

As you’d expect they had quite the technical set up, and you can now watch the video of my presentation with slide transitions edited in.

There were a handful of people in the room, but well over a hundred watching via video Lync all over the world I gather.

It was an honour (no really it was) to be asked to speak to this audience, especially as I have been a huge fan of their work for many years.

Here’s the premise behind the talk:

Join us on a whirlwind journey through the internet’s recent history, telling the stories of innovators and entrepreneurs that have shaped the online marketing industry and left their indelible mark on the web. The talk draws on the ten traits and disciplines distilled from twenty interviews with these Pioneers, and the audience will take away actionable insight gleaned from these conversations that can be instantly applied to their businesses and careers.Each Pioneer has contributed valuable advice on how to build on ideas, build businesses and build a web for the future. This talk will reflect on their trials and tribulations, many of which have never seen the light of day until now.

It was also a stunning touch to provide a hand written thank you note with a DVD of the talk too.

How often do you see people go to those lengths to say thanks!?

Enjoy!

Cheers,

Mel

The work I get to do with Majestic SEO never ceases amaze me (among many other things) because of the good luck I get whenever I’m on their booth at many of the digital conferences I attend with them around the world.

A couple of weeks ago, it just happened that our booth at SMX West was smack bang next to Market Motive’s where the fabulous Jennifer Cario (nee Laycock) was signing copies of her new book: Pinterest Marketing: An Hour a Day

Not one to pass up an opportunity, and always on the look out for tips to pass onto my clients and followers, I asked Jennifer if she could spare a few minutes chatting to me about the book, what tips she had for businesses when it comes to their Pinterest marketing, where Pinterest marketing should fit into the overall social media mix, and how marketers should be thinking about copyright and trademark issues so they don’t get into a sticky mess with their pinning.

I know from my experience with clients – I also pin Delightful social media insight and digital PR research when I can – that Pinterest can be a wonderful resource and source of traffic for websites, but that, even though we keep hearing it’s a must “have” social channel, many businesses are still a little in the dark as to how to leverage it well enough to justify the time spent.

Jennifer gave some great, no-nonsense answers to all those questions, so if you are in any doubt as to whether your Pinterest marketing strategy is heading in the right direction, take a peek at the video above and follow Jennifer on Twitter for all her Pinterest goodness.

Thanks,

Mel

P.S. If you think Jennifer’s Pinterest tips and advice are worth sharing, why don’t you share this post and let all your followers in on the information!

One of my favourite TV shows is The Good Wife, so my trip next week to Chicago will be doubly thrilling!

I’ll be there to speak at SES Chicago and represent Majestic SEO along with my friend Dixon Jones.

My session will be on Social Media Beyond Engagement and you can read all about that in an interview I did with the team last week.

Can’t wait to check out the evening scene too as I have never been to “The Windy City”.

Just hope we don’t bump into Kalinda.

She’s a little scary!

Cheers,

Mel

Those fabulous people at PR Week in the US have kindly asked me to speak on a panel at their virtual event tomorrow on: Navigating the Maze of Data Collection

Here’s the blurb:

The avenues through which you can glean data from consumers are endless. Numerous tools exist to measure how people interact with your website. For shared channels, free tools offer insight and analysis into how communities react to your content. Traditional tactics such as focus groups and surveys still have a place in the data-collection playbook. Then there are products that talk back, location-based data, and so much more.

PRWeek’s Gideon Fidelzeid moderates a discussion with leading experts from agencies, corporations, and measurement companies on identifying the best sources of data for your particular brand or program.
Panelists include Mel Carson, former Microsoft Digital Evangelist & founder of Delightful Communications, Nils Mork-Ulnes, VP of insights and analytics at Beyond, and Frank Strong, PR director at Vocus.

I’m really grateful to Steve Barrett for giving me this opportunity to rub shoulders with PR industry luminaries and veterans less than a month after Delightful launched.

Let’s hope I do him (and me) proud!

The date is October 25th and the time of my session is 1.40pm EST – please register here!

If you know anyone who might be interested in a lively discussion on big data and tools, then please share this post using the social media buttons.

See you there….virtually!

Mel

On my way to Las Vegas next week for the fabulous conference that is Pubcon run by the equally fabulous Brett Tabke and co.

I’ll be there with Dixon Jones representing Majestic SEO (see my latest post for them on removing Google penalties)  and I’ll be speaking on back to back panels on Thursday on Online Brand Management Studies and Twitter Customer Service Strategies.

I’ve not been for a few years, so really looking forward to getting back into that scene and catching up with old friends and colleagues!

If you’re going, come and visit the Majestic SEO stand and see our new fancy video!