In it for more than the cotton candy this year.

We’re up for our first SXSWi panel this year (!!!). If you don’t know anything about SXSW Interactive, it’s kind of the end-all, be-all for social media and interactive conferences. At least, it’s grown to be that way. Last year, something like 20,000 people attended officially, and god only knows how many went “badgeless.”

Help Us Get There

The conference is five days, centered around panel sessions led by industry peers. In 2012, I hope to be one of those peers. We’ve made it past the first round, but now we need your help to get past the second round. This week is the last week of voting for our panel using the SXSW Panel Picker. If you have 60 seconds, please click this link and vote for our panel.

What’s This Panel All About?

It’s called Humans + Robots: SEO & Social-Friendly Content. (SXSW is all about the cool panel names, by the way.) What we want to do is bring two SEO Humans and two Social Strategy Humans together to talk about what social search is, why search engine algorithm changes matter for content marketing, and how to create a strategy that will help you develop content that will make humans and robots happy.

Who’s On It?

Our own Holly Hoffman is one of the Social Strategy Humans, as you might’ve guessed. Tiffany Monhollon of ReachLocal is the human who came up with this bright idea, and she’s the moderator. The other Social Strategy Human is Jenn Pedde of 2tor. The SEO Humans are my pal Matthew Egan of Image Freedom and Mike King of Publicis Modem.

What Will Attendees Get Out of This?

Key takeaways include: 1) An understanding of social search and why both SEO and social engagement matter for your content and blogging strategy. 2) How to write a social-friendly, keyword-rich headline that gets shared and indexed. 3) Tips on how to write engaging, share-worthy SEO copy that humans and robots both love.

More Info

What to know more about what we’re doing? Check out the following:

http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/13303?return=/ideas/index/10/name:Humans
http://humansvrobots.tumblr.com/
http://humansvrobots.posterous.com/
Twitter hashtag #humansvrobots

Many of our clients have asked us about the effectiveness of working with sites like Groupon and Living Social. While we don’t have any personal experience with these sites for our business, we know that many companies are skeptical and that some have said “never again.”

A few new studies haven’t cleared the matter up much. A MerchantCircle survey found that 58% of businesses liked daily deals as a means of customer acquisition, but 42% listed ineffectiveness of customer acquisition as their number one reason for not using such sites again.

A Rice University study offers conflicting data, however, where businesses who used daily deal sites said 77% of those who took a daily deal were new customers, with 20% of them becoming repeat customers.

It looks like our answer to this question remains the same. If you are wondering if you should use a daily deals site like Groupon or Living Social, ask yourself what kind of return you would need to make it worthwhile.

Here are a few ideas to help you ask the right questions.

Do Some Research

Look for case studies of businesses in your industry that have had a good return on these sites. Conversely, find businesses who were not successful and ask them what went wrong. Was it the deal, the industry, or the public that didn’t work?

Do the Math

Figure out how much such a deal would cost, and compare the investment and potential return to other marketing and advertising options. Is this the hardest that dollar amount can work? Would it be better to take that money to print advertising, social media marketing, or promotional give-aways, like t-shirts, to your already loyal customers?

Don’t Expect a Silver Bullet

There’s no one thing that’s going to solve all of your marketing problems. We’ve found that the best approach is multifaceted and integrated, using relationship marketing tactics, social media, and even traditional media, in a strategic fashion to achieve a specific business goal, like brand awareness or customer acquisition. (If you need help creating such a strategy, we can help.) Go into a daily deals offer knowing what to expect.

If you’ve had experiences with a daily deals site like Groupon or LivingSocial, please share them with us and other readers in the comments.

G’day ladies and gentlemen.

This week we’ve decided to give you a roundup of some new articles that do a lot of different things. It’s been a busy week and we didn’t want you to miss out on some important and helpful information that’s been popping out of Mashable in particular. So, in an old fashion tip of the hat to Mashable, we present you with some of this great content getting you up to speed on what’s up with all of these different platforms.

*********************

What’s Up With Smartphones? Well, we’ve got tips for you to make your app more discoverable. It has to do with optimization, in-bound leads, and customer reviews. Oh by the way, soon your phone may be able to tell you when you’re sick. When will we see the phone that tells you what the right thing to do is?

What’s Up With Twitter: They’re putting promoted tweets in your timeline in the Next 2 Months. And by the way, I hope you like the new twitter. Because the old one is dead.

What’s With Facebook? They’re experimenting with comment ads. This is an interesting move, and is a nifty new idea that you may want to start considering. With this addition to the ad strategy, en element of engagement is instantiated that wasn’t present before.

What’s Up With LinkedIn? They’re perpetually getting better, and now they’re using column ads and profile promotions to encourage follows and recommendations, similar to some of the features on Facebook’s right hand interface column. Imagine, on the side of your LinkedIn page, “you might be interested in applying for this job”.

Are your fans this passionate? Well…that may be a good thing…

*****************

Most days you’ll go into work, talk to some customers or clients, and, if you’re reading this, you probably spend a reasonable amount of time talking with online fans, followers, etc. Sometimes you see them, but, especially if your organization is web-centered, often you don’t. This might not always your top priority, but in today’s post, we encourage you to, for the next few months, bump it up a notch or two or six.

There’s something about face to face interaction to which, despite the efficacy and revolutionary grandeur of the web’s new marketing tools, social media has always conceded. And we defy you to consider a handful of times that you’ve had a more riveting interaction on the web than you did in real life. There’s something mysteriously complex and fascinating about talking to someone. Human beings are social. And if social media is all about building relationships, then there’s no replacement for a good handshake, good eye contact, and a welcoming, comforting attitude–really talking. In the small business world, people follow people, not entities.

We’re asking your business, for your sake and ours, to be something to do.

So this week, as the Summer rolls itself in and the city gets its itch to go out and play, we’ve got a handful of articles talking about how to set up and promote live events, how to integrate them with your existing social media strategy, and what kinds of things you can get out of them. Enjoy!

*****************
8 Ways to Improve Events With Social Media. This Mashable article goes through the strong fundamentals of live events–establish social networks, incentivize invites, new tools, live streaming, and a lot more. This is key.

5 Quick Tactics for Supercharging Your Events Marketing. If Mashable covers the fundamental strategy, the logic of it all, then MarketingProfs covers the pathos, the attitude of it all, giving you a smart “how” to guide you through your event marketing.

3 Reasons Live Events Are Good Content Marketing. Another smart one from the Profs. Live events allows you to get your content to an audience in a way that’s fun and engaging for both parties. What would you rather go to? A webinar or a half day summit with lunch and cookies! See, it’s not even a question.

How To Market Your Events With Social Media. From Technsare, we see a very backend-heavy approach to event marketing with a large focus on monitoring and preparation. Great considerations and advice.

Spring Brings Fans Out, Marketers Calling, “It’s Event Season”. Now while this post focuses on sports events, there’s a lot to take into account for your own purposes. With beautiful weather around, maybe your business could be one of those “things to do” in your city.

The Royal Wedding Was The Sixth Largest Web Event In History. So you could plan a royal wedding. That’s one option. But if that’s not within your means, take this article as fun and helpful for seeing the history of web events.

Last Sunday, President Obama officially announced (on TV and via a live stream online) the news that people had been tweeting about for over an hour: Osama Bin Laden had been located and killed by U.S. Military forces. Whatever your politics, the event was the single biggest landmark for social media to date, and everyone responded. Below we’ve collected the absolute best coverage of the event from a social media standpoint. If you have anything to glean from this response (other than that if you’re not on Twitter, you probably should be), we’d love to get the conversation going.

*****************

How Social Media Reacted On Osama Bin Laden Death. We’ve been keeping up pretty darn well with these stories, and this has the best sum-up of how a variety of platforms were affected by the news, from Flickr to Youtube to search engines.

Timeline: How News of Osama Bin Laden’s Death Unfolded on Twitter. Everyone knows Twitter is where it started. Mashable recounts how, piece by piece, second by second, the world came to know and respond to the monumental event.

One Twitter User Reports Live From Osama Bin Laden Raid. And apparently he didn’t even know what he was in the middle of.

“Osama Bin Laden is DEAD” Facebook Page Goes Viral. Over 150,000 likes in two hours.

Foursquare Users Check Into Post-Osama Bin Laden World. You might be thinking, how could people check in to a thing like this? Well, they did.

Google Maps Shows Where Osama Bin Laden Died. Even Google Maps is in on it! Quickly after the news was revealed, Google Maps was updated with an “Osama Bin Laden’s Compound” in norther Pakistan.

Other Related Stories

Osama/Obama Gaffes. And next-to-lastly, how not to do social media in a time of crisis. Lesson #1–do not report, under any circumstances, that the President has been killed.

Players learning that social media needs to be used responsibly. You tweeted, she tweeted, we all tweeted. Let’s face it, not all of it was appropriate and you’d be a lucky one if you managed to squeeze by a Facebook political conversation unnoticed. But if you’re an NFL player, it’s hard to hide in the crowd. And Rashard Mendenhall of the Pittsburgh Steelers learned the hard way.

Photo by ZUMA Press via Mother Nature Network (MNN).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5HlPPd06WY

Really, does Old Spice ever do it wrong? In the spirit of great things, we’ve provided you with a plethora of advice from the best in practical form. I would like to note the tremendously fantastic use of video throughout these links (and the above, to be sure), so that’s a nudge in a direction we think you might be thankful for. Got questions about video? Let us know. Enjoy these highly entertaining, highly inspiring examples of organizations and businesses that just got it right. Now, it’s your turn. We believe in you!

**********

Pop Tarts Facebook Strategy To Connect With Teens Crazy Good For Business. So what did they do here? They knew their audience, they listened, they developed content to cater to their audience. And of course, made delicious Smores flavored pop tarts. Oh, childhood.

5 Smart Social PR Campaigns to Learn From. While turning a profit or just being helpful is still prevalent in this domain, social PR is about a bit more, and these campaigns do some really fantastic things to make their relationships intimate, meaningful, and genuine.

20 Awesome Facebook Fan Pages. Lip balm, candles, coffee, cupcakes, music, science. I mean, really. Take a look. There’s a lot to learn here, with a focus on doing fan pages right.

Anal Warts and All, Denny’s Does Episodic Content Right. This might be the worst headline for an article ever, but here are some reasons to click through: Will Arnett, Sarah Silverman, Jason Bateman. See? Now it sounds fun. Give it a whirl, it’s a nice campaign.

9 Companies Doing Social Media Right and Why. Shabam! Retailers, real estate, trucks, restaurants, games—and more. Not just facebook fan pages, but whole social media efforts. It’s all here with helpful insights to boot.

Really, how could you resist?

Last week we showed you how to get Facebook fans. This week we show you how to keep them. Engagement is key in both of these endeavors. People aren’t interested in liking a page that no one else is interested in. Likewise, it’s hard to convince fans to stick around if there’s no party going on with your page. So that’s one way to think about it–make sure your Facebook page is a constant party.

In addition, look: what’s social media about? Here’s a good answer–building relationships. Relationships? Engagements?! This sounds heavy! Not ready to commit? That’s fine, but when you’re able to have real conversations that you and your Other are both interested in, when you can be mutually helpful and supportive–well, you might just find yourself changing your relationship status to “married to my fans”. Jokes aside, if you want to have any success in social media, get your audience talking. How? We’re glad you asked.

**********

HOW TO: Improve Engagement On Your Brand’s Facebook Page. By far the most awesome thing you’ll read this week. Industry-specific tips based on real data of 200 companies over two weeks. The images are great, and should change your game for engagement in the coming weeks.

How to Encourage Engagement on Facebook. Another outstanding article, bringing in the idea of contra-competitive posting and including an e-marketer graphic. Gotta love emarketer.

16 ways To Get More Comments On Your Facebook Page. This article focuses on asking questions. What do you ask? How do you ask it? And, our personal input, always think of what exactly you’re trying to achieve when you do ask it.

The 5 Golden Facebook Engagement Metrics. Metrics are key for finding out what to do. So we have two articles here for you. This one gives you the tips as well as examples for the things to do/watch for no matter the size of your business. If you keep just these 5 metrics in mind, then you’ve got a good start for progress.

How to Measure Your Facebook Engagament. I mean, you could start counting comments and likes, but we’re not sure that’s really what you want to do. Facebook comes with some sophisticated analytics that allow you to see what works and what doesn’t. Remember that, in the end, past all the tips, do what works for you.

image courtesy www.93south.net

About two months ago, I sent out this tweet:

And one of our clients sent me a direct message that hinted – well, downright stated – that it didn’t inspire confidence in our clients. I could see where they were coming from, especially since they had recently signed a contract for a customized Facebook fan page from us.

I messaged them back that it had the #devilsadvocate hashtag for a reason, that I used Twitter as an industry sounding board, etc. but still, it nagged at me.

A few weeks later, one of our interns emailed me about an article I told him to post to our blog, fan page and Twitter account. It reported that only one out of every 10 Facebook posts gets noticed. He wasn’t sure we should post something like that. Maybe it would undermine our services.

Should we put blind faith in our tools?

I think as good marketers we should question our tools. Our clients and fans trust us to point them in the right direction, to guide their social media efforts in the most effective manner possible, and to be the voice of reason in a very noisy industry.

If every one out of 10 Facebook posts goes unnoticed, our clients and fans need to know so that they can adjust their strategies accordingly. I don’t think our clients should be walking around thinking that each and every one of their status updates is cherished and honored when it’s not the truth. It doesn’t make Facebook a lesser marketing tool. People continue to buy television advertising knowing full well that most people don’t see them. They adjust their strategy, and purchase in bulk, cycles, and with the idea that they will repeat, repeat, repeat.

Social media isn’t a magic bullet. It’s not different from traditional marketing in that sense. Do you have a better shot at reaching people? We think so, especially if you are working within the framework of being helpful, resourceful, and useful to your target audience. But what if it still isn’t working? Something’s broke, and you have to find out where the breakdown is occuring. Sometimes it’s you, sometimes it’s the target, and sometimes it’s the platform.

Questions Lead to Answers (Hopefully)

If I’m having a hard time increasing engagement on any platform, I’m going to question it’s usefulness for our own clients. In questioning we find answers. To shut our eyes and ears off to what we see happening is to be blind-sided in a few months or a year.

Literally days after I sent that tweet, Facebook made sweeping changes to fan pages. They now allow fan pages to comment on other fan pages, which dramatically changes any given fan page’s effectiveness in drawing fans there. Fan page administrators now have the ability to do outreach to other areas of Facebook and draw in new users.

That makes me think that my initial concern was right on, and that I wasn’t alone in questioning it’s effectiveness. Facebook must’ve known this as well, or they wouldn’t have made the changes that they did.

The reality is that social media marketing is all still very new, and will remain a moving target for marketers as the platforms upgrade, change, and shift. The only way to avoid falling into the trap of putting all our eggs in one basket is to continue to ask questions, play devil’s advocate, and keep our eyes open to the limitations and capabilities of our tools.

Hope you got a kick out of our prank. But no more fooling around! We promise useful content so we’ve brought you the content.

This week, how do social media and email interact? What can you do to improve your email marketing? And how effective is it even? All this and more addressed in this series of choice articles. Enjoy your weekend, folks.

********

HOW TO: Optimize Your Email Marketing for Social Media Results: In this Mashable article we’ve got some good tips and some impressive examples of companies using email as a lead in to their social media campaigns.

6 Common Email Marketing Mistakes: We all make mistakes, but these email marketing mistakes can and should be avoided at all costs if you want your brand to be trusted, liked, and effective.

How To Turn Your Email Into A Social Media Hub with Posterous: Have you heard of Posterous? A lot of people are using it for a lot of different reasons, one of its biggest attractions being the fact that you can post to over 20 different social media platforms from it by email. Need a hub? Is email where you spend most of your time? Check out Posterous.

Integrating Social Media Into Email Marketing: If the first article in this bunch was about using email to drive customers to your social media, this article is about using social media to drive people to your email campaigns. Which do you prefer? Let us know!

Email Marketing “Extraordinarily Effective”: A lot of people say e-mail is dead. A lot of people said disco was dead. They were probably right about that, but they’ll have a harder time proving the same for e-mail, and this article starts the conversation on why that is. The most likely truth, it argues, is that email integrated with social media efforts is likely to produce the best results.

*******

So what’s your idea on it? Are you an e-mail fanboy? A social media militant? A centrist of the two? What works and what doesn’t–we wanna hear it.

Never gonna give you up,

Neovia.

Examples

5 Unique Uses For QR Codes. More in the “how to do it” department. None of these ideas are up in the articles above, showcasing the vast possibilities for this kind of technology. In other words, don’t count it out just yet.

Best Buy Mood QR Codes Best Buy has done something interest and used QR codes internally for HR purposes–”how do you feel today?”. In addition, there’s a way cool video showing real time customer QR code scans for all Best Buy stores across the country.

Convinced? Do it.

QR Code Generator. This is one of many different QR generators, but try it out and tell us how it works for you.

Finding a QR Code Generator. A review of a few generators, as well as some really crucial tips in what type of content to encode and where to throw your QR codes.

The Next Generation, iQR Codes

iQR Codes. Unfortunately, in the technology world things move at a fast pace. iQR codes have a higher data capacity, can be rectangular, and can be printed even smaller. Though currently not used for marketing purposes, the development of iQR codes (or Intelligent Quick Response) might be something to keep an eye on over the next few years.