Blog | Think Tank Live Digital Marketing Training and Consultancy

WordCamp Chicago July 30,31

June 24, 2011 By Mert Leave a Comment

The Think Tank events are being put on hold for a few weeks so that we can concentrate on organizing this year’s WordCamp Chicago. Several of the members of the Think Tank will be featured as speakers. Mary DuQuaine is this year’s lead organizer along with Heather Acton and Becky Davis.

Why dedicate so much energy to WordPress, you ask? Because your blog is the center of your online social media presence. WordPress is an excellent open source CMS platform that is user friendly and packs a big punch. There are SEO plugins available that can help you to make the most of your online content.

This year, WordCamp will be held at DePaul University’s Lincoln Park Campus. It includes two full days of training for $40.00 – an unbeatable price. Come and network with some of the best and the brightest internet marketers in Chicago.

Filed Under: Blog, Chicago, Events, WordPress Tagged With: WordCamp Chicago, WP Training

WordPress Workshop – Social Media Emphasis

April 23, 2010 By Mary 1 Comment

WordPress Workshop – Social Media Emphasis

Ready to start a blog? You’ve heard about WordPress and don’t know where to begin? WordPress is the most popular blogging program and can also be used to manage an entire website. We will cover the language of WordPress (terms and lingo) and help you publish your first blog post. Join us, and learn how to connect your WordPress blog to Social Media platforms like Facebook and Twitter and strengthen your online presence with the fresh content that Google loves.

Date: Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Time: 9:00AM – 4:00PM
Where: 222 South Riverside Plaza, 29^th Floor, Chicago IL

Registration – May 5 – WordPress Workshop – Social Media Emphasis

(or)

Date: Thursday, May 27, 2010
Time: 9:00AM – 4:00PM
Where: ITT Rice Campus – 201 East Loop Road, Wheaton IL

Registration – May 27 – WordPress Workshop – Social Media Emphasis

Admission: $199

Includes: Workshop, Coffee, Soda & Water throughout the day, 3 month subscription to IM Think Tank Membership Site.

Laptop Required
Please bring your own laptop computer. Make sure your laptop can connect to a Wireless Wi-Fi Network. Internet access will be provided to all attendees.

WordPress Installation Preferred

It will be best if you have a fresh copy of WordPress installed, hosted, and ready to go on your domain prior to the workshop. If you need help with this, please contact us at 312-725-2221 prior to the event. Otherwise, we will give you access to a fresh installation of WordPress on one of our test websites to practice on for the day.

Who Should Attend:

People interested in getting a comprehensive overview of WordPress. We will talk about using WordPress as a blog and as a CMS (Content Management System) and connecting WordPress to your overall Social Media Online Strategy.

Bloggers and Writers
Entrepreneurs/ Business Owners
Social Media/Marketing Professionals
Non-Profit Organizations
Web Designers and Developers
Students

Benefits for you:

Hands-On Experience with WordPress
Networking opportunity with other WordPress users
3 months free subscription in IM Think Tank Membership Site

What You Will Learn:

1-Day WordPress Workshop Schedule

MORNING SESSIONS

8:30 AM – 9:00 AM
Registration and Doors Open

9:00 AM – 9:15 AM
Welcome & Introductions

9:15 AM – 10:00 AM
Session 1: WordPress Overview – Using your blog as a Social Media Hub

10:00 AM – 10:45 AM
Session 2: Selecting a Theme, Adding Plugins, connecting with Social Media Applications

10:45 AM – 11:00 AM
Break

11:00 AM – Noon
Session 3: Copywriting Tips & Publishing Your First Blog Post.

Noon – 1:00 PM
Lunch – On your own, many restaurants nearby.

AFTERNOON SESSIONS

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Session 5: How will Google find you? Search Engine Optimization Tools for WordPress

2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Session 6: WordPress Security for Your Website & Common Sense Best Practices 3:00 PM – 3:15 PM Break

3:15 – 4:00 PM
Wrap Up Session: Q&A – Adding Final Touches

Register Online Today:

Parking – For 222 South Riverside Location in Chicago – Close and Easy Parking Available in the Amtrak Parking Lot on the corner of Jackson and Canal – The cost is between $18.00-$24.00 for the day, depending upon when you enter.

For ITT Rice Campus – Free Parking

Filed Under: Blog, Chicago, Event, social media, Uncategorized Tagged With: WordPress

6 Quick Biz Tips for Your Blog – Authentic Content & Conversation for Business

February 25, 2010 By Mary 1 Comment

By: Ryan Evans

Rand Media Group

Twitter: @ryanevans

1. Develop a Readership Strategy

Before you start writing your blog, consider your overall goals. Targeting potential customers isn’t the only strategy for business blogging. Sometimes your blog will be read by other people in the industry or by the press. Here are a few basic readership strategies:

Speak directly to prospects

Communicate with existing or past customers

Write for industry influencers

Engage with other bloggers or press

Questions to consider:

What is my overall goal in writing this blog?

Who is going to find my topic interesting?

2. Think about Your Message

Writing a business blog is a tricky balance. You want to be personal, but not unprofessional. You want to stay true to your brand, yet be interesting. Think about the following points when considering your message:

Stay true to your brand

Be interesting

Be personal

Stay focused

Be unique

Take a position

Questions to consider:

What will my blog say about my company?

How can I make the content interesting?

What tone is appropriate for my readers?

3. Encourage and Participate in Authentic Conversation

A popular blog can be a powerful way to communicate your company message, but that is only part of the equation. Encouraging conversation among readers makes blogs more personal and interesting. Conversations often spill out onto other platforms, which increases exposure. Here are a few ways to foster conversation:

Open blog to comments

Respond to comments

Don’t sensor bad comments

Comment on other blogs

Invite others to write a guest post

Engage with readers on social media platforms

Leave comments on other blogs

Write blog posts about other blogs

Keep track of conversations

Questions to consider:

Is my blog set up to allow a conversation?

How can I facilitate conversation?

What topics are going to spur conversation?

How can I participate in conversation?

4. Open Channels of Distribution

Make it easy for people to find your blog and keep coming back. Here are a few channels of distribution for your blog:

Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc.)

RSS Feed

SEO

Pay Per Click

Online Advertising

Other bloggers

Industry Publications

Questions to consider:

How would potential readers find my blog?

How can I stay in front of my readers?

How can I make my blog content easy for my readers to share?

5. Monitor the Conversation

Monitoring the conversation that is occurring online is a good source of content for your blog and shows you where relevant conversations are happening. Here are a few basic monitoring tools:

Twitter Search

Follow Industry People on Twitter

Google Reader or RSS Feeds

Google Blog Search

Questions to consider:

Where are conversations about my topic or industry happening?

What tools can I use to find and stay current with these conversations?

6. Track your results

Effectively tracking your results depends on what your goals are. You can track the actual performance of the blog content or analyze sources of blog traffic.

Google Analytics (Track blog visits, page views, average time on page, traffic sources, SEO impact)

Feedburner – tracks RSS subscribers

Yahoo Domain tool – track links to your blog

Questions to consider:

What metrics accurately represent my goals?

How can I easily track those metrics?

Filed Under: Blog, Blogging, Business Solutions, Communications Tagged With: Blog, Business

Interview with Chris Campbell of Lakeshore Branding

February 21, 2010 By Mary Leave a Comment

Think Tank Live Topics

1.WebPages are More Than a Brochure

2.Inbound Marketing and Management:
Having a SEO Mindset for all Operational and Marketing Issues

Hi Chris, what is the history and story of your company?
Lakeshore Branding is a Chicago interactive marketing that helps companies drive more sales, leads and conversions by utilizing digital marketing. We started in 2007 as a search engine marketing consulting company has quickly grown to a small boutique online marketing agency. Our clients come from diverse industries at various stages of growth, from startups to Fortune 500.

Chris, what is your approach to internet marketing?
Our clients utilize us as a resource to help them identify new ways to get leads or sales online. Our team sometimes comes back with outside the box ideas. For example we have a client that started selling their product on Amazon and it now drives 70-80% of the sales each month. A traditional agency might have said lets do an ad buy or invest in search engine optimization. While both strategies can be effective, this strategy helped increase the bottom line of the business and turned a fixed cost into a variable based on sales.

What is your latest project?
We are really excited to be working with Apartment Vigilantes, a Chicago apartment rental service. We are helping them manage their entire online presence through online advertising, SEO and social media management of their blog, twitter and Facebook. We are working to build links so that they rank for Chicago Apartments, which had a quarter million searches last month in Google. We are excited because this will be a challenge to launch a new company into a very competitive keyword category. We are hoping that we can rank them for long tail phrases later this year for keywords like Lincoln Park apartments and Gold Coast Apartments.

We have been working with lots of local companies to help them grow their online presence like a Chicago plumber, a Nutraceutical fulfillment warehouse, a tinley park retirement community and products like shoe insoles.

What are you favorite tools for competitive intelligence?
Well I actually wrote a blog post on my 29 tools for website competitive intelligence. From that list Spyfu is great to analyze competitors pay per click advertising.

I really like the new tool from SEOmoz, Open Site Explorer for off page analysis and the URI Valet, which takes an in depth look at onpage SEO.

Any tips for people just getting started?
When I first got into internet marketing several years ago, I attended every class, workshop and seminar that talked about online marketing. I am a visual learner so I went out and bought a few dozen domains to test some different theories that I have learned and that foundation has lead to many of the successes that our clients have experienced.

I also spend a few hours a week reading current trends with the top online marketing blogs and I am in a book club online marketers. Get involved in the local online marketing community, share your ideas with your peers, attend local meetups and networking events. I learn more from the marketers in Chicago, than I have ever read or learned from an online blog post. This is why I am really excited to be a part of Think Tank. All I could think about the past few weeks was how exciting it will be to hear presentations from all the local experts.

What are the best restaurants in Chicago?
I am a huge fan of Chicago pizza, I consider myself some what of a pizza snob. I think the top places in Chicago are Gino’s East, The Art of Pizza, Giordano’s, Lou Malnatis and Pizano’s. For burgers I think the Metropolitan Club in Willis tower and State Restaurant in Lincoln Park have the best burgers in town.

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
I would like to become a college professor and possibly become an angel investor in the next few years. I am very passionate about entrepreneurship and I hope that by teaching in a business school I can inspire some young minds of their true potential.

What inspires you creatively?
My biggest inspiration come from my team, clients and friends.

I am lucky to have friends with passion for life, its the optimize of glass half full that rubs off and creates a great circle of people to hang out with. The team at Lakeshore Branding are a bunch of rockstars, they get me excited to come to work everyday. Finally my clients are so passionate about their companies that

You can contact Chris Campbell on the phone at 312-229-0038 or email him directly at chris @lakeshorebranding.com

Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Blog, Business Solutions, Chicago, Integrated Marketing, Internet Marketing, SEO, social media Tagged With: chris campbell, conference, lakeshore branding, online marketing

How Breaking Business News Stories Migrate To Mainstream Mass Media

February 11, 2010 By Tony 2 Comments

photo courtesy: sabertasche2

Over the past several years, the cause and direction of news stories have changed the direction of news flow. Slowly news is migrating from a publicist pitching increasingly scarce news editorial staff at newspapers, radio and TV to blog posts migrating to other blogs and then mainstream news sites. I’ve seen this pattern emerging in media and discussed it in detail in my post entitled The New Emerging Media Skill Set of the Generation X Chief Marketing Officer. These are the skills that you must now have in your new web marketing business strategy leadership team!

This almost only happens with unique and passionate stories, let’s examine a recent example. On January 6th Google had an apparent privacy breach. Noticing the apparent importance of the issue and recalling previous statements from Eric Schmidt from Google saying this would “never happen at Google” I wrote a lengthy and passionate post entitled, Google Local Business Center Results Emailed to Random Business Leaders?

Despite the event happening during the middle of the Consumer Electronics Show putting about 2/3′s of the qualified reporters to write follow on stories, it got lots and lots of coverage. When I finished it at 3AM Chicago time on I shared it with Andy Beard, who maintains an outstanding internet business blog was waking up in Poland, he tipped the post to a site called Techmeme, where it appeared a few hours later (post is near the bottom).

That morning it was linked to by the following sites:
Danny Sullivan‘s Search Engine Land: Bad Directions: Google Maps Sends Local Listing Reports To Wrong Business Owners
Rustybrick’s Search Engine Roundtable: Google Sends Me & Others Wrong Local Business Center Reports
Understanding Google Local Maps and Search: Google Maps LBC Sending Out Monthly Stats to Wrong Businesses?

On January 8th, 2010 it was picked it up by a Google News site and a privacy advocate site:
Google Blogoscoped: Google Local Business Center Privacy Breach?
Pogowasright.org: Google Local Business Center Privacy Breach?

On Monday January 11th, 2010 Cade Metz from the Register contacted me and had a conversation with me, he said he had seen my post in Google Blogoscoped, it set the stage for what happened the next day on January 12, 2010:

First thing in the morning January 12th, 2010 London time, the Register posted a story entitled “Google leaks small biz stats to random people” It quoted me and linked to me with the anchor text web marketing consultant David Dalka.

Later that day, Thomas Clayburn at Information Week wrote a story: Google Apologizes for Local Business Data Breach

After that Jeremy Kirk an IDG reporter based in London wrote a syndicated story “Google blames ‘human error’ for data leak” The stories appeared all with links to my Online Marketing Management Strategy blog.
San Francisco Chronicle – link expired at 30 day mark (not a best practice)
networkworld.com – linked to the Google Local Business Center blog story
thestandard.com – linked to the Google Local Business Center blog story
infoworld.com – linked to the Google Local Business Center blog story
pcworld.com – linked to the Google Local Business Center blog story
computerworld.com – linked to the Google Local Business Center blog story
networkworld.com – linked to the Google Local Business Center blog story
pcworld.idg.com.au – linked to the Google Local Business Center blog story
cio.com.au – linked to the Google Local Business Center blog story
idgconnect.com – linked to the Google Local Business Center blog story
networkworld.com – linked to the Google Local Business Center blog story
computerworld.in – linked to the Google Local Business Center blog story

On the following day the story appeared in Italian about the Google Local Business Center privacy issue.

As you can see, unique and passionate blog content can be picked up and can quickly appear on 4 continents!

We’ll be talking about how to passionately blog at Think Tank Live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on February 23rd as an important part of you web marketing strategy. Lee Odden also wrote a related post on seo news tips today you should check out. This is a large element of change management here that can improve business performance or cause a venture capitalist or a seo friend to share a pizza to celebrate your mainstream news media success!

Filed Under: Blog, Communications Tagged With: Business news, Communications, Eric Schmidt, Google, Google Blogoscoped, Google Local Business Center, Google Maps, journalism, link building, search, Search Engine Land, Search Engines, SEO, SEO-conscious content

Interview with Seng Weiland

January 3, 2010 By Mary Leave a Comment

Seng Weiland is a member of I.M. Think Tank and she launches our series of interviews with each of the members:

Thanks for participating, Seng, tell us a bit about yourself: I am a sales and marketing consultant with more than ten years of experience in integrated marketing, consultative business development and account management in the media analysis, online media and service consulting industries.

Strengths include: salesmanship, leadership skills, project management experience and written and interpersonal communication skills with a focus on detail, customer service, professionalism and acting with a sense of urgency.

Describe your approach to internet marketing: Integrated marketing is still the best approach to doing business in the online media sector. Even though it’s not a bricks-and-mortar mentality, there are still customers to retain and prospects to convert. Therefore, the good, old-fashioned marketing principles of value proposition, competitive intelligence and content strategy still apply.

Tell why it is important to you to be a part of IM Think Tank. IM Think Tank encourages a space where experts in the field can get together and communicate their ideas and experiences. This core mission is so important to have because the industry is very dynamic and is in a constant state of defining itself.

What is your favorite internet tool or application? Like so many others, I am fascinated with how to effectively use social media tools for business gain. It’s fascinating to see how professional and personal networks develop and evolve.

Tell us about your latest project: As I’ve mentioned, accountability is going to be even more integral to any marketing, advertising or public relations campaign. Therefore, I am working with pr departments and agencies to ensure that they have the proper tools necessary to monitor and measure media sources. One of these tools includes NewsAccess.

Share one marketing tip: When researching and planning your next campaign, always keep in the back of your mind how to be accountable for each course of action. ROI and metrics are not just buzz words in this bearish economy, but true measures of success.

What is your pet peeve about the industry? I love that there are so many players and so many strategies presented in the industry, but it can be overwhelming at times.

What are you excited to see come about in the future of integrated marketing? The future is uncertain and that’s why it’s exciting. I’m interested to see how the “mobile app” revolution will affect ROI and metrics.

What makes your company stand out from all of the rest? CARMA International was created in Washington, D.C. in 1984 by Albert Barr. For more than twenty-five years, CARMA has been leading the industry as a pioneer in media analysis and PR evaluation. Today we’re the world leader in this exciting field, with clients in virtually every sector around the globe.

Mr. Barr has always remained true to his vision that CARMA International should be devoted to the business of global media analysis. Collectively, the principals of CARMA draw from over 150 years of public relations, marketing and corporate communications experience and are internationally renowned experts on the subject of media consulting and analysis. That’s why today, employing the latest technologies, CARMA can be a strategic partner in accessing and understanding vital information and knowledge at both the local and global levels.

Using the most sophisticated proprietary software and the most specialized media analysis and survey research methodologies in the industry, CARMA is one of the only media analysis services with a truly worldwide reach – essential for any company that competes in this global economy.

Any tips for people just getting started? The beauty of starting an internet company or extending your business presence online is that anyone with a small amount of capital can do it. As a result, there is a surplus under-marketed sites. The first thing I recommend for these folks is to learn about website optimization.

Do you have a SEO, PPC, Social Media or Internet Marketing hero? There are so many players now so it’s hard to name just a few, but I do admire my former manager, RD Whitney, and Mary DuQuaine, Think Tank Live’s Founder and President. I admire their dedication, knowledge and passion. Mostly, I admire their relentless effort to share their expertise with so many. That’s a true characteristic of a strong leader.

What is your motto? “Go Big or Go Home!”

What is the funniest thing that ever happened to you at a conference? I enjoyed seeing my colleagues, customers and prospects dancing on the tables at one of the “networking” events at IAEE’s Expo Expo.

What is the best restaurant in your favorite city? Frontera Grill in Chicago because I normally do not care for southwestern fare until it’s made by Rick Bayless.

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? I don’t know much about the travel industry, but it has always intrigued me. I think those individuals who get to travel to different destinations and rate the local restaurants, tourist sites and hotels have a fabulous profession. Rachel Ray, Anthony Bourdain and Samantha Brown are my heroes in this respect.

What inspires you creatively? I am fascinated by effective leaders, regardless of field.

What is your idea of success? When what you do for a living doesn’t feel like work but a passionate hobby. Luckily, I’m getting closer to that notion of success everyday!

Seng Weiland, Sales and Marketing Consultant

@SengWeiland

sengweiland@gmail.com

Milwaukee, WI

Filed Under: Blog, Integrated Marketing, Interview, Milwaukee Tagged With: Integrated Marketing, Milwaukee, social media

Why a Think Tank?

September 21, 2009 By Mary Leave a Comment

First off, a think tank is a cerebral team of professionals bent on finding solutions to problems.

We teach businesses

how to use social media

to achieve different business goals,

not only “marketing”, rather

creating solutions for business needs by

building online and internal communication networks.

Each of our members represents a different perspective in the world of social media, thus providing a comprehensive or “integrated” approach. We are also professionals looking to provide a content rich program that will be useful for today’s business leaders, marketers, and communications specialists.

Filed Under: Blog, Integrated Marketing Tagged With: Chicago, Integrated Marketing, Think Tank

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