Central Perk

joi, 2 aprilie 2015

Damn Cool Pics

The Best Memes From The Walking Dead Season 5

Posted: 02 Apr 2015 11:10 AM PDT

Season 5 of "The Walking Dead" may be over but when it comes to memes it's the gift that just keeps on giving.

It's Your Turn: Now Accepting Community Speaker Pitches for MozCon 2015 - Moz Blog

It's Your Turn: Now Accepting Community Speaker Pitches for MozCon 2015

Posted on: Thursday 02 April 2015 — 02:12

Posted by EricaMcGillivray

Yep, it's that time of year, friends. Time to submit your online marketing talk pitch for MozCon 2015. I'm super excited this year as we'll have 6 community speaker slots! That's right—you all are so amazing that we want to see more from you.

The basic details:

To submit, just fill out the form below.
Talks must be about online marketing and are only 15 minutes in length.
Submissions close on Sunday, April 12 at 5pm PDT.
Final decisions are final and will be made in late April.
All presentations must adhere to the MozCon Code of Conduct.
You must attend MozCon in person, July 13-15 in Seattle.

If you are selected, you will get the following:

15 minutes on the MozCon stage to share with our audience, plus 5 minutes of Q&A.
A free ticket to MozCon. (If you already purchased yours, we'll either refund or transfer the ticket to someone else.)
Four nights of lodging covered by us at our partner hotel.
A reimbursement for your travel (flight, train, car, etc.), up to $500 domestic and $750 international.
A free ticket for you to give to anyone you would like and a code for $300 off another ticket.
An invitation for you and your significant other to join us for the speakers' dinner.

We work with you!

Pitching for a community speaker slot can feel intimidating. A lot of times, our ideas feel like an old hat and done a million times before. (When I say "our" here, I mean "mine.")

At MozCon, we work with every single speaker to ensure your presentation is the best it can be. Myself and Matt Roney dedicate ourselves to helping you. Seriously, you get our personal cell phone numbers. Don't get me wrong—you do the heavy lifting and the incredible work. But we set up calls, review sessions, and even take you up on the stage pre-MozCon to ensure that you feel awesome about your talk.

We're happy to help, including:

Calls to discuss and refine your topic.
Assistance honing topic title and description.
Reviews of outlines and drafts (as many as you want!).
Best practices and guidance for slide decks, specifically for our stage.
A comprehensive, step-by-step guide for show flow.
Serving as an audience for practicing your talk.
Reviewing your final deck.
Sunday night pre-MozCon tour of the stage to meet our A/V crew, see your presentation on the screens, and test the clicker.
A dedicated crew to make your A/V outstanding.
Anything else we can do to make you successful.

Most of the above are required as part of the speaker process, so even those of you who don't always ask for help (again, talking about myself here), will be sure to get it. We want you to know that anyone, regardless of experience or level of knowledge, can submit and present a great talk at MozCon. One of our past community speakers Zeph Snapp wrote a great post about his experiences with our process and at the show.

For great proposals:

Make sure to check out the confirmed MozCon 2015 topics from our other speakers so you don't overlap.
Read about what makes a great pitch.
For extra jazz, include links to videos of you doing public speaking and your slide deck work in the optional fields.
Follow the guidelines. Yes, the word counts are limited on purpose. Do not submit links to Google Docs, etc. for more information. Tricky submissions will be disqualified.

While I can't give direct pitch coaching—it would be unfair to others—I'm happy to answer your questions in the comments.

Submissions are reviewed by a selection committee at Moz, so multiple people look at and give their opinions on each pitch. The first run-through looks at pitches without speaker information attached to them in order to give an unbiased look at topics. Around 50% of pitches are weeded out here. The second run-through includes speaker bio information in order to get a more holistic view of the speaker and what your talk might be like in front of 1,400 people.

Everyone who submits a community speaker pitch will be informed either way. If your submission doesn't make it and you're wondering why, we can talk further on email as there's always next year.

Finally, a big thank you to our wonderful community speakers from past MozCons including Stephanie Beadell, Mark Traphagen, Zeph Snapp, Justin Briggs, Darren Shaw, Dana Lookadoo, Fabio Ricotta, Jeff McRitchie, Sha Menz, Mike Arnesen, A. Litsa, and Kelsey Libert, who've all been so amazing.

Still need to confirm you'll join us?

Buy your ticket!

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

You are subscribed to the newsletter of Moz Blog sent from 1100 Second Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101 United States To stop receiving those e-mails, you can unsubscribe now.	Newsletter powered by FeedPress
FeedPress is a service edited by Beta&Cie, www.betacie.com

A to Z of social media: A guide to the success

A to Z of social media: A guide to the success

Posted: 02 Apr 2015 01:00 AM PDT

For most businesses, using social media as a core marketing channel is no longer a choice; either you are there, or you are losing out. The problem is, people think that being on Facebook means they “get” social media for business. This is not the case. We hope to demystify the world of social media in a series of blog posts covering the entire alphabet of social media essentials, starting here, with our A to Z of social media.

A for ADVOCATES: Attracting brand advocates is not as hard as you many think, in many cases small interactions lead to a much stronger relationship. It's worth keeping in mind that engaged users are potentially far more valuable as they can help you build a wider community and harnesses the power of endorsement.

B for BRAND: Everything you publish on social media can, and should become a reflection of your wider brand. Social media should never be 'owned' by a single person, it should reflect a collaborative approach between people from different specialisations who have a unique understanding of a brand's customers, products and issues. Encouraging your team to understand social and take part in the story should be part of any business social media strategy.

C for COMMUNITY: A key reason why social media is powerful is because it opens up a dialogue between brands and customers. It isn't just another one-way channel, it is a space for dialogue and conversation where listening is even more important than talking.

D for DISTRIBUTION: Distribution is an important part of social marketing, especially when you are investing time in creating your own portfolio of content. Having a social media distribution plan can help you draw traffic and enables your content to flow.

E for ENGAGEMENT: Customer engagement and social media is a match made in heaven! Social sites help brands connect, foster and nurture emotional connections with customers all across the world.

F for FREQUENCY: If you want your social feeds to attract attention, you'll need to kick off each day with a selection of new updates. Persue positive results by becoming involved in social storytelling and remember to be consistent with your schedule.

G for GOVERNANCE: Social media blurs the line between personal and professional activities. Whenever possible, it's good to remind your employees of this. Help them to avoid any potential embarrassment, especially when they are trying to induce some humour. Having a governance policy should help them make educated and informed decisions.

H for HUMOUR: When humor fits your brand, it can become a powerful tool for expressing your brand's personality. Matched with some clever imagery and copywriting, it could become a way of making your brand more memorable.

I for INFLUENCERS: The competition for attention on social media is fierce. Engaging your audience's influencers is a tricky but rewarding way to enhance your reputation and following online.

J for JOURNEY: Developing presence on social media takes time. Don't rush your growth, instead be patient and use your time to listen, learn and be reactive; and don't forget: good things come to those who wait.

K for KPIs: Not the most friendly sounding phrase, but when understood, it can become your best friend. Business KPIs such as sales, profits, customer retention and satisfaction are there to help you improve and stay on top of your quest to become the best.

L for LISTENING: One of the most exciting, but challenging things about social media is that it never stops. It evolves with changing trends, users habits and channel updates. That is why reading, studying, and following up on brand mentions is crucial when trying to build a presence.

M for MEASURING: Data is important. It can inspire activities and have a positive impact on your future approach. This knowledge can open your eyes to new opportunities, help you to spot gaps and become more active.

N for NURTURE: Building relationships is an on-going process. Don’t make the common mistake of focussing on numbers only. Instead build your engagement strategy around your existing followers and find effective ways to retain them.

O for OPTIMISE: In busy social media feeds, compelling content brings shares and maximizes organic reach. Brands who lead successful conversations use social feeds to inspire, entertain and amuse, while avoiding temptation to overload their audiences with overly-salesy material. This is why sharability should remain at the back of our minds when curating and creating content for social media.

P for PRACTICE: Don’t just blindly follow everything that everyone else is doing. Instead, put some time towards understanding your audience and industry. Finding your own voice and confidence will only happen if you give it a chance.

Q for QUERIES: Gone are the days when customers relied on only email or phone for queries. With social media, customer service has evolved making communication easier and faster than ever before. Just in case you ever think of customer service as 'dealing with complaints' – a HubSpot study found that consumers are more likely to complement brands than criticise them on social (35% vs 50%).

R for ROI (Return on Investment): think of social media ROI as a way of evaluating your growth and estimating the impact of your efforts. Measuring this can help you improve your tactics and create more effective strategies.

S for STRATEGY: Creating a good strategy takes time. To do it effectively you need to investigate all areas; your business goals, your own channels, the industry. In doing so you will be able to create a plan that is effective and stands the test of time.

T for TIMING: Timing is everything on social media. Some might even say poor timing can ruin the relationship between a brand and its customers, who often expect a response in under an hour. Timing also applies to posting – knowing your timing can help posts get noticed and shared.

U for USER-CENTRED FOCUS: On social media audience comes first. If you want to do your job well you have to take time to understand their needs and expectations. The more you know about them, the more successful your approach will be.

V for VISIBILITY: Reputable social media sites enjoy a prominent position in search engines. You can use this to your advantage, allowing your social media profiles to increase your visibility in search when a user searches for your brand name.

X for eXperience: One of the many benefits of social media is being able to instantly connect with customers and address their needs in real time. As your online reputation depends on it, make sure you deliver a quality experience, which could inspire loyalty and word-of-mouth recommendations.

Y for YOU: There are many different recipes leading to becoming a successful 'social brand'. Whatever route you choose, take into count all of the points above and remember we are here to help you!

I hope reading this post will inspire your next steps. I would love to hear your feedback and find out more about your social media experience. Which of these approaches have been the most successful for you so far?

The post A to Z of social media: A guide to the success appeared first on White.net.