The conference is structured to be hands-on, intimate and packed full of real-world knowledge from the trenches.

“It was apparent to me that you took great time and effort to ensure that the information presented was current and useful.” – Charles Schwab, 2011 Attendee

This year, the content centers around the content marketing lifecycle: Strategize, Create, Curate, Manage, Distribute and Analyze. Subject experts will address each topic along the life cycle.

Day one kicks-off with insight into each step along the life cyle.

Day two, through a series of case studies, digs deep into companies like Dell, Ogilvy PR, ServiceMax, SAS and more who have created successful content marketing programs.

For the complete agenda and to register go to Contentmarketingnow.com. If you register by February 29^th, you will save over $500 off the regular ticket price.

Our first interview is with long time friend and blogger Toby Bloomberg. As part of several American Marketing Association events from 2004-06,  I had the pleasure to tour with Toby and talk with SMBs about the benefits of content marketing before it was mainstream. Back in 2004 it was called blogging. Toby Bloomberg consults speaks and trains on how to combine social media with branding, marketing and other customer touch points to build relationships though the people who are the stories of the brand. She was Forbes’ Pick of Best Women Blogs on Marketing & Social Media

I wanted to find out from Toby if blogging is still relevant into today’s social networking world.

Q. Blogging has evolved over the 5 years you have been involved with it. Can you briefly explain the evolution?

Toby. From the start, blogs were perceived as rogue. The culture demanded transparency, authenticity and honesty. Although we hope honesty is a value for all companies, transparency and authenticity were new to many organizations.  Allowing employees, even at the CEO level, to speak their minds in what has been called “human speech” and talk directly to the world without benefit of marketing or PR messaging was nothing less than earth shattering for many organizations.

Interestingly, it was small businesses, which didn’t have the layers of red tape or management structure, that led the way. Entrepreneurs recognized the benefits including: cost efficiencies, online presence (at the time websites were still costly to develop), relationship marketing, positioning reinforcement, informal research, search engine lift and media relations.

Slowly brands and larger organizations came onboard. Some stumbled but eventually got it right. Dell is a great example.

Recently, I’ve noticed the core reason for blogging is getting lost. Organizations are using blogs as a vehicle to push out messaging instead of connecting to people. Some blogs don’t even include a byline for blog authors. Copywriters, ghost writers, agencies now “speak” for the company turning the blog into little more than an SEO vehicle.

Q. There is a lot of talk about Facebook, Twitter – short messaging. The latest upstart, Pinterest, is gaining a lot of momentum around images. As a small business owner, should I still have a blog or should I just jump on one or all the social sites?

Toby. I’ll give you a marketer’s answer .. it depends.  It depends on what you want to accomplish and how you want to use social media to support your positioning. However, what I remind clients is that you never have full control over your content, branding or guidelines when you “rent” space on social networks that you don’t own.

Although less time consuming than a blog might be there are tradeoffs with putting all of your content marbles in social networks. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube and even LinkedIn change their rules at their own pleasure. Frequently they offer little or no notice to its “clients” or users.

Although most social networks are picked up by the search engines, the archiving functionality is limited at best. If a business owner is utilizing social networks to reinforce or create a thought leadership positioning it’s difficult to send clients or prospects to a tweet or Facebook status update.

All that said, for a company that wants to test social networks and engage in digital conversations Facebook or LinkedIn could be the way to begin. Especially for social networks, the greater benefit is derived from the right friends, followers, likes, etc.  Keep in mind the Field of Dreams does not hold true. They will not come unless you tell them. One more element to add to the mix.

Q. If you believe a blog is still vital, what are your top 3 words of advice for how a small business should leverage it in today’s social climate? 

Toby. You do ask challenging questions!  I’ll give you one word in three support roles. Understand.

1. Understand the benefits, challenges and culture of each social media platform/network including blogs before you choose where to begin.
2. Understand what success means to you on each social network (including blogs) that ties back to your goals/objectives
3. Understand your own resources and interests. If you commit to too much too soon and you have no interest in the subject matter you won’t sustain the content development nor enjoy participating in discussions.

Q. Everyone is talking about how small businesses need to be on one of the social networks, is the ole-fashion newsletter still valid/needed? How does it fit into the social landscape?

Toby. For me, social media and eMail newsletters go together like PB&J. Since eMail is an in-box communication where no one but you can see the information, I don’t consider eMail to be social media.

eMail, however, is a great tool to send people to a social platform or blog for more information and conversation. Keep in mind, not everyone is online all the time. Especially with social networks the stream moves so quickly that a tweet or status update or post can be easily missed.  I think of email as bringing people to the party.

I encourage you to follow Toby:

Toby Bloomberg
www.divamarketingblog.com
http://twitter.com/tobydiva

All The Single Girlfriends
www.allthesinglegirlfriends.com

Author of Social Media Marketing GPS, the first book based on Twitter interviews

Surprisingly, Oakland was named #5.  Sandwiched between London and Tokyo.  This created quite the hubbub with bloggers, news media and travel writers alike.  The HuffingtonPost.com even labeled Oakland as the “coolest new kid in the country”.

Dlvr.it’s corporate headquarters are located in the downtown area of Oakland, California called Old Oakland.  Old Oakland is comprised of historic buildings that date back to the 1860s and provides a historic setting with thoroughly modern amenities that is close to San Francisco and is conveniently located in the Bay Area, according to the Old Oakland management companies website.  Wikipedia states that the Old Oakland neighborhood continues to gentrify as a ‘downtown lifestyle’ district, more bistros and boutiques have cropped-up, as more market-rate condominiums have been constructed nearby, and as transit-oriented development retail and housing become more and more in demand.

I have to admit that I have not always been a fan of working in Oakland, partly due to the bad press.  You have to be living in a remote cave to not have heard about crime in Oakland and the constant police presence and news teams in the air reacting to the Occupation Oakland movements.  My feelings towards Oakland are not helped by my commute which cannot be made with public transportation. Good days an hour, bad days…well, ugh.  However, I have started to appreciate Oakland and all it has to offer.  In my recent holiday card to family and friends, I mentioned that I really do enjoy leaving my bucolic life in my hometown of Sonoma to experience urban life.  I have made friends with local shopkeepers and restaurant staff.  I love walking around Lake Merritt with co-workers and finding hip places to shop (recent favorite is Oaklandish).

The urbaneness of the area attracted Dlvr.it’s founders to Oakland a few years ago.  Most of us commute in from the “burbs”.  What keeps us in Oakland, besides the awesome companionship of our fellow employees and work life, is the great weather, the great farmers market right outside our front office door, tasty restaurants, nightlife, popupshops (yep, I like to shop) and now, most recently, it’s ranking as a destination spot. Very cool.  Quite an honor.  Congratulations Oakland!

Via Mashable.

Quick Tip #1: Don’t flood your social media networks. People are interested in having a conversation with you not just listening to you “talk”.

Don’t send a status update for every song you listen to. Make your posts compelling or interesting. For example, explain why you like the song. What if every update in the Facebook ticker showed up in your Facebook stream?  Your friends would ‘hide’ you. Or worse, ‘unfriend’ you. If you care, don’t over-share.

The relationships and interactions you have on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn vary based on how the network is used. Imagine if everything you pinned on Pinterest was sent to Twitter or Facebook? Social media sites are different kind of parties, be a good considerate guest.

Words to live by if you happen upon a flooded social stream, “If you come to a flooded road, turn around, don’t drown.”

How do you avoid these social gaffes? Use dlvr.it to get the right content, to the right people at the right time.

In my past, company holiday parties have ranged from potluck white elephant gift exchanges to holiday winter wonderlands replete with fresh snow drifts and sit down luncheons for 200 catered by Wolfgang Puck.  Rags to riches.  1980’s to 1990’s.

Anne, here in our office shared her experiences from a mid-sized dot.com, where the whole month of December was dedicated to holiday celebrations.  Employees were divided into teams and had different activities to complete each day or each week.  From cookie decorating, to a scavenger hunt, to cubicle decorating, to cocktail creating, each team worked together to earn points towards a prize announced right before the holiday break.  To round out the experience, the company would adopt a family through Compass Family Services in San Francisco.  Each team was assigned to one family member and given their wish list.  It was wonderful to watch all of the gifts fill up the conference room – every team always went overboard and guaranteed that each family member received what they asked and many surprises.

This brings us full circle to 2011 and Pheedo and Dlvr.it.  It is difficult to coordinate schedules and celebrate together with our offices in Oakland, Portland, Chicago and New York.  The Oakland office, a mixture of sales, marketing and finance, usually takes the holiday lead and jumps on the bus (actually, the biggest Suburban on the planet) for an adventure.  We’ve done catered private dinners with and without spouses, lunch in San Francisco for a Cirque de Soleil show followed by drinks and most recently, a quaint afternoon with lots of laughter at Lotsa Pasta in Danville (subtle plug for a great family restaurant) followed by a stop for excellent coffee in Rockridge at Bica.   It is rumored that our tech team frequently celebrates the holidays or any time of year really, at pubs, concert venues and bowling alleys of Portland.  I can’t imagine why the Oakland office has never been invited up for these events.  Same goes for Chicago and New York.  Expense reports do talk!

You may ask, what was the outcome of the Dlvr.it team white boarding exercise?  It may be obvious, but holiday traditions are just as important in companies as they are in families.  Traditions celebrate employees.  Whether it is an open bar karaoke night or month long activities, they are an important aspect of motivation, team building and productivity.  How do you celebrate your employees?

Family traditions also run the gamut.  We took a quick poll of our employees most memorable ones.  Enjoy!

1. Watch Polar Express with the kids on Christmas Eve.
2. Growing up, we had a big Italian feast – everything was homemade. Pasta, meatballs, cookies, breads, sausage and more.
3. On the first weekend in November, the entire family plus dog, hike up to the top of Moon Mountain to “reserve” our tree.  We march back up first weekend in December to cut down.  Same time frame, year after year.
4. Pixies show up in early December and hide each night in different locations until Christmas day where they safely land on top of the tree.  Kids go crazy every morning trying to locate them.
5. We leave shoes outside on December 6^th for St. Nick.  Miraculously, they are filled in the morning with goodies.
6. On New Year’s Eve, my family plays Michigan Rummy.  Google it.

How do you celebrate your employees or families during the Holidays?

Six simple ways to optimize your twitter stream for a local audience:

1. Create a #hashtag with your city and product (#oaklandcoffee)
2. GeoTag your tweets (learn how to automatically GeoTag tweets in dlvr.it)
3. Add location as a prefix or suffix (i.e. Joe’s San Francisco: 50% off Lattes)
4. Be certain your bio on Twitter includes your location
5. Organize a tweetup at your business. Learn more about successful tweetups
6. Encourage guests to check-in using a location based service like FourSquare

Bonus, #7

Whether you’re the local butcher, the baker or the candlestick maker, become the go to twitter account in your community by adding local content to your twitter stream. Use a tool like dlvr.it to feed useful information including local events, local entertainment, local news and weather. Relate the content to your business vs. just pouring into your twitter stream.

1. Use a site a like Topix.com to find relevant local news to share. In dlvr.it, add the RSS feed as a route and set-up filters to get pull out the most relevant content for your audience.
2. Follow local twitter users. Invite them into your business. They are also a good source of local information.
3. Add a weather feed  and relate the weather back to your business. If you’re a coffee shop, mention on a cold day that you have warm pastries and freshly brewed coffee for only $x.xx to keep you warm inside.

Are you a small business serving a local community? Tell us your twitter success stories and we’ll highlight your story on our blog.

Via Brafton

Optimized Content Delivery
Interested in maximizing the impact of your content? dlvr.it can now automatically optimize your social content* delivery to get your most compelling content to the right people at the right time.

You tell us what metric you want to maximize – clicks, re-posts or follower growth — and we’ll automatically post your best content at the optimal time. Just sit back and enjoy your coffee, we’ll do the rest.

Advanced Social Content Analytics
dlvr.it’s new advanced social content analytics deliver actionable content performance and audience insights across your social networks. Highlights include Social Content Engagement and Popular Keyword and Topic Analysis (below). View additional details.

Get Relevant Now.
Let dlvr.it help you optimize your social content and become socially relevant. To learn more about our social content optimization tools for businesses visit us today.

*Social Content = stories, blog posts, updates, photos, videos, jokes, ideas, entertainment, advertisements, deals, information, and anything else that can be shared online.

A Flipstream is a collection of web pages shared together in an easy-to-flip, magazine-like bundle. You can create a Flipstream to share a group of your personally curated web pages. Here’s an example: http://flip.dlvr.it/1L

Flipstreams are a great way to drive more traffic to your site and increase engagement with your content. You can connect your visitors to a bundle of webpages with a single link shared via your social networks. And viewers can easily share your content via Twitter and Facebook right from the Flipstream viewer.

To create your own Flipstream and share via your social networks:

1. Log into your dlvr.it account

2. Go to Post > Flipstream

3. Enter the URL of the webpages for your Flipstream and post to your social networks. Here’s a screengrab of the Flipstream creation interface.

We’ll keep track of your Flipstream stats, including the total number of visits to your Flipstream and the number of views on each individual page in your bundle.