Lessons on Injecting Yourself into the Online Conversation

During the MarketingProfs Digital Marketing World Virtual Conference on Sept. 17, Tina Brown, author and founder of TheDailyBeast.com, gave the keynote address, “Engaging with Customers Where they Are, with Content they Value.” In addition to discussing her transition from the print to the blog world, she talked about what makes one blog’s content more valued than another’s. Here are highlights from her session.

Mining Social Media for Market Intelligence

Janet Eden-Harris, Vice President, Marketing, J.D. Power and Associates, spoke at the 2009 AEP Summit about how publishers should gather information and interact with customers on blogs, chat rooms, and other forms of new media. Here are highlights from her session, “Mining Social Media for Market Intelligence.”

Using social media to gather market intelligence is about listening in on the conversation. Whereas the traditional method for gathering data was doing a survey—asking the customer questions and hoping they would answer back—new media marketing involves finding people who are already discussing your products or areas of interest online. The power has shifted to the consumers, and they want to tell you what they think on their own time and in their own way.

Digital Marketing Lessons from the Obama Campaign

Joe Rospars, a founding partner at Blue State Digital and New Media Director for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, spoke at the 2009 AEP Summit about how he and his team integrated digital marketing into the campaign to empower the online voting community. Using three guiding principles and adhering to three main missions, his team mobilized over 13 million supporters through their website and digital marketing strategy.

As the first new media director for a presidential campaign, Joe Rospars said that the key was that his department was integrated laterally into the organizational structure. They were not lumped in with the tech department–they were editors, marketers, designers, and writers focusing on the online community. More important, they worked directly with the offline marketing group, making sure that their efforts supported each other.

AEP Honors Year’s Best Educational Products

AEP is pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 AEP Awards, recognizing the year’s most outstanding materials in the field of teaching and learning. The winners of this year’s Distinguished Achievement and Golden Lamp Awards were honored at special gala event Friday night at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

Fast, Cheap, and Under Control

At the AEP Summit 2009, Tim Frick, Owner of Mightybytes, led the workshop “Fast, Cheap, and Under Control,” where he discussed tools that can help publishers easily create dynamic, content-rich blogs. The workshop included a hands-on demonstration of how to create a blog but also featured a discussion about blog strategies. Here are highlights from his session.

• Don’t skip the first stage: developing your blog strategy. Ask yourself why you are creating a blog: Who do you want to reach? Why are you trying to reach them? This should guide your content creation and help save time when you are determining what to post.
• Also, think about what resources you have–and not just in terms of money. Updating blogs and commenting on social networking sites take time. Understand the commitment you are making with a blog and use your time wisely.