IndustryTara Hunt, Author of The Whuffie Factor, to Give Opening Keynote at SES Toronto

Tara Hunt, Author of The Whuffie Factor, to Give Opening Keynote at SES Toronto

The conference agenda for SES Toronto 2009 introduces some new terms and unique phrases to the search engine marketing industry. For example, the opening keynote on June 8, 2009, will be given by Tara Hunt, the co-founder and chief marketing officer of Citizen Agency and author of “The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business.” In addition, SES Toronto will feature 18 sessions organized into three tracks entitled “Corporateville”, “Geek Track” and “Nuts & Bolts”.

Andrew Goodman at SES London 2009.jpg The event is organized and programmed in cooperation with Andrew Goodman, the founder and president of Toronto-based Page Zero Media, as well as the SES Advisory Board and Search Engine Watch. I should also disclose that SES Toronto is a client.

But I didn’t realize how much my vocabulary would expand working with Goodman.

In a press release distributed this morning, Goodman quips, “Robin Williams once quipped that Canada’s like a loft apartment over a really great party. But what the people at the big party don’t realize is that in our loft party upstairs, we’re quietly plotting global domination. Of the world of ideas, of course. ‘The medium is the message’? Marshall MacLuhan. ‘Gen X’? Douglas Coupland. Whuffie? Cory Doctorow to Tara Hunt. Canadians, all! So, Tweet your followers that the must-attend event will be SES Toronto. We’ll get things started with Tara, the author of a book that shows how any business can increase their Whuffie, the store of social capital that is the currency of the digital world. Then, we’ll follow with conference tracks that read more like blog headlines and less like title tags.”

Now, I have uncovered evidence that Goodman has been plotting this takeover of the industry’s thought leadership for months. Check out the interview with him that was conducted last month by Byron Gordon of SEO-PR during SES New York 2009. Listen closely and you’ll hear Goodman was already using terms like “Nuts and Bolts” and “Corporateville” and “Geek Track” as if they had already become the lingua franca of search engine marketers.

Andrew Goodman, Page Zero Media, previews SES Toronto 2009

Seriously, having conference tracks that read more like blog headlines and less like title tags just reflects where the industry is headed. As Google itself says in its Webmaster guidelines, “The best way to get other sites to create relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community.”

Tara Hunt.jpg As for Hunt, she is co-founder and chief marketing officer of Citizen Agency, an Internet consultancy specializing in community-centric strategies. She is also the author of “The Whuffie Factor,” which is due out this month.

An online marketing pioneer, Hunt is a leading authority on online communities. She specializes in community marketing, which is not about pushing messages or creating strong brands, but building relationships and engaging communities.

Hunt has more than 11 years of experience in web design, eight years in online marketing and over four years of blogging at HorsePigCow. She was named by Fast Company to their list of the Most Influential Women in Technology.

As for the other new words I’m adding to my vocabulary, check out the names of some of the conference tracks and sessions at SES Toronto 2009:

• Corporateville Track: On Monday, June 8, conference sessions include: “Internationalizing Your Campaigns & Sites” and “Beyond Linkbait: Getting Authoritative Online Mentions.” On Tuesday, June 9, conference sessions include: “Analytics for Search: ROI, Engagement, Attribution & More”; “The Canadian Agency Landscape”; “Social Media: Do Big Companies Get It?” and “How to Speak Geek: Working Collaboratively with Your IT Department to Get Things Done”.

• Geek Track: On Monday, June 8, conference sessions include: “Signals: What Relevancy Indicators Are Search Engineers Watching Today?” and “Optimizing for Video Search: Virgin Territory?” On Tuesday, June 9, conference sessions include: “Follow the Carrot: Cool Mobile Apps”; “Information Architecture, Site Performance Tuning & SEO”; “Paid Search Quality Scoring: 201, 301”; and “Extreme Makeover: Live Site Clinic”.

• Nuts & Bolts Track: On Monday, June 8, conference sessions include: “SEO Then & Now: What’s the Same? What’s New?” and “Universal & Blended Search: Comprehensive Visibility Challenges”. On Tuesday, June 9, conference sessions include: “Introduction to Paid Search”; “Campaign Performance Tracking: Basic Tips”; and “Tool Time: The Search Marketer’s Free-to-Cheap Goodie Bag”.

And on Wednesday, June 10, SES is offering a full-day workshop, “Search Marketing Boot Camp”, as well as two half-day workshops, “Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Workshop” and “Google AdWords Tactics to Improve Your ROI”. Ah, finally some terms that I’ve been using for years.

For more information, click on SES Toronto 2009 rates and registration details. If you register through Friday, April 17, you can get the early bird rate and save $370 CAD.

You also get to increase your vocabulary at no additional charge.

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