Scoreboard Media Group, Internet Audience Development

I rarely go to any Search or Social Media conferences but it seems like everyone at Blueglass is trying to foster a more meaningful environment in LA this month.

If you’re going, too, let me know and hopefully we can meet up.

For more information: Blueglass LA 2010

I’m a huge Formula One guy and a big fan of most motorsports that don’t involve rednecks, a stadium, and turning left for four hours at a time.  I was half asleep last night by the end of the F1 Bahrain race and wanted to remind myself of the results again when I was more coherent this moring.  So I Googled [formula 1] to go to all the usual F1 news sites. 

But I also got this at the top of the SERP:

Must be nice for Formula1.com to have the top 3 first page results. Also very cool that there is a reminder with the time for the next race.

As much as we all bang on Google as search practitioners or adversaries in information retrieval, as a consumer, we should give them a little credit when they do build things that make our lives easier or better.

As those of you who follow me on Twitter may have seen me Tweet about this a little while ago, many (if not most) of you will be able to get 1st page SERP real estate for your name by completing a Google Profile.  It was basically a real time result for me to get this:

This should immediately be inserted into your processes for those of you managing Reputation Management clients.  Especially if they have popular names (eg, “John Smith”).  Or, apparently, if your name is Todd Malicoat!…

Now, as cool as that is, the more interesting opportunity for the savvier spammers among us is the last line of that Profiles insertion.  Wanna guess how much traffic and user registrations that drives to Myspace, Facebook, Classmates, and LinkedIn?

As I look at my schedule next week and debate whether I’ll head to a couple PubCon dinners, I was reminded that I had this post sitting as a draft while I awaited the redesign of the blog. I guess you could say I pretty much hate Search Industry Conferences. That’s more of an indictment of the conferences, though. Most of the people are great. This is an industry in which each of us relies on some sort of information advantage, so it’s probably futile to expect much else other than Newb 101 stuff on the panels.
———————————————————-

First of all, if you get your pop culture on like Obama gets his fair taxation on, please see this video so you understand my post title:

Shane Pike surveyed a bunch of us about which conferences somebody should attend when they are starting out. You can read my answer over there, but I actually think this is a really good question.

Everything about this business is easier when you have more personal relationships with peers, competitors, connectors, and mavens. Conference sessions’ subject matter is, more often than not, absolutely terrible. In fact…and conservatively speaking…90% are probably detrimental to your business. If you sit through most of those sessions, my guess is that you’ll equally divide your time performing such timeless charades as “Guy Pulling Trigger In His Mouth“, “Guy Pulling Trigger At The Side Of His Head“, or maybe even “Guy Pulling Trigger At The Back Of The Head Of The Person In Front Of Him, Snuff-film Style“.

The other thing I don’t understand is the sub-class of Conference Lifers who attend conferences like they are hoping to hear when the Mother Ship will arrive. Don’t be that guy. That guy probably isn’t making much money. That guy just wants a hug and the feeling of belonging that only a badge around your neck can provide.

Lastly, if there are any other get togethers like ThinkTank in a warm climate with a nice hotel, a beach, and good food, feel free to let me know about those. Or if you have awesome speaker gifts. I can be bought.

I was participated in a discussion over at Inside CRM about shady SEO services.  Some great quotes in there from around the industry.  Matt Cutts and Vanessa Fox chime in with some Google perspective, as well.