On Friday evening, I hopped a flight from Seattle to Copenhagen, then Copenhagen to Munich, arriving Saturday around 5:00pm. Munich's a gorgeous city, and one of Germany's friendliest, a fact I've proven to myself by stopping most of the town's population to randomly ask for directions (impressive, since I've only been here 48 hours so far). From Mittlererings to Autobahns to a Mercedes with no acceleration whatsoever, Munich has been like one giant driving test - luckily, I appear to be passing.
This morning featured my first solo-panel SES presentation; I covered Blogging, Social Media Marketing & Linkbait (warning: the PPT file is 500K).
Although Germans are notorious for being less participatory during Q+As than their British and American counterparts, the session was filled with questions (we even ran over time a bit to accomodate). The session's moderator, Tim Cole, did a terrific job of keeping things rolling and ensuring that the session wasn't too myopic (an issue when a single presenter speaks for 1:15). Many thanks, Tim!
Most surprising to me was how accepting the German SEO audience was to the ideas of linkbait - I was expecting more frustration with the English-language centric focus of most of the primary linkbait portals, but several examples from audience members (who've already been adopting and engaging in linkbait) made it clear that sites like Digg & Netscape can be used, even for German content (thanks, Marcus).
After the session, Mystery Guest (who accompanied me for the first time to an SES show) and I visited downtown Munich - wandering downtown's Marienplatz. We did a bit of window shopping, but were most entranced by the farmer's market, where fresh truffles are the featured item this week:
I've never seen a farmer's market with greater organization. Each item is stunningly laid out in its own basket, with clearly marked names & prices. It's a far cry from Seattle's often scatter-brained Pike Place Market. We got pretty hungry viewing all those beautiful, expensive mushrooms and decided to satiate our appetite with a bit of the delicacy at a nearby restaurant:
After lunch, we visited the Glockenspiel, but just barely missed the display.
Jetlag and insomnia finally caught up with us, though, and it was back to the hotel room for a nap. Last night's 4 hours simply couldn't keep me going all day. Tomorrow at 1pm it's back to Seattle, and back to your usually scheduled blogging. Thanks to everyone at SES Munich - it's been a terrific, if short, trip.
I'll post my video of the Glockenspiel from November on youtube later and send you the link, you didn't miss too much. I'm not sure how good the footage is after all I was standing around in the Christmas market drinking hot red wine for like 20 mins waiting for the show to start and I may have had my drunk hand on the camcorder.
Have Marcus take you to The Last Supper, fantastic food and the wines OMG they have some good wines.
If you go to naght gallery whatever you do don't spray sparkling wine all over the DJ booth they really hate when Americans do that.
See you at SES NYC
I actually went to the Last Supper after Glockenspiel with a friend, but Rand didn´t want to go (and missed out on a ´98 Chateau Latour! :-)
Rand, great that you have been to SES Munich, I think the people really enjoyed your session! See ya in NY!
BTW they never sent me that bill for their DJ equiptment.
Hello Rand,
Nice powerpoint presentation. Very well done!
I have two questions, which you have touched upon in your recent articles and in the PowerPoint presentation, but which I don't think you have yet written on (at least, not that I am aware of):
1) Do you have a process for identifying the Linkerati in one's field?
2) Besides using social media sites like Digg, do you have any suggestions for getting the Linkerati to notice and link to your site?
Keep up the great work!
All the best,
Moshe
I'm not Rand, but I'll try to answer. I would think a part of identifying the linkerati in your industry comes from knowing your industry. You probably get your industry news from somewhere and those giving the news are going to be linkerati.
I would think search engines would come in handy here too. If you check the top ranking pages they probably share some common links and it would stand to reason some would be linkerati. A good place to search would probably be Technorati and other blog search engines since bloggers are usually looking for places to link to.
Having said that, Rand if you have a process for identifying linkkerat iI'd be happy to hear it too.
For the second question I think it ultimately comes down to having content the linkerati wants, but I think participating in places where they spend time could be a good way to get noticed. If they hang out in forums you should hang out in those same forums. many probably have blogs so spend time commenting on their blogs.
You can also try linking to them. Most bloggers will know where their traffic is coming from. Rand even posted about it awhile back. If you link to someone and can send them a good amount of visitors on a given day or better yet consistently they're sure to notice and visit your site
Rand, how long is a flight from Seattle to Copenhagen?
Man I can't complain about the flight from Boston the San Fran I guess.
I assume the seats on your flight were better than a typical domestic coach flight?
That's one meaty presentation.
On slide 22 & 30 do you really want people to email you with questions? That could be a quite a flood.
I love the cartoons by the way. Slide 25 is particularly good.
Could you expand on slide 49? I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to get across there.
Those pictures of the market are making me jealous. We lived in Germany for 2 years, and there are many things to miss about it. Make sure to have some fresh weiss wurst from one of the local butchers - you won't be disappointed.
Sounds like a great time. Haven't viewed the PPT, but looking forward to it... seems to be well received here and there!
See if you can trade in the Mercedes for a BMW (preferably a 5) and you should have plenty of acceleration!
safe travels
the ppt is great... more than one needs to know to start a blog and to make it successful!
Ha, did MysteryGuest make you pass on the truffles?
(I almost caused a relationship rupture after indulging in Italy - I hadn't realised that they have the effect of a mushroom version of garlic.)
Glad you enjoyed Munich, it's a fabulous city, and a shame you didn't have time for a ski!
Germany is one of the places I'd really like to go. So did you give your presentation in English or German?
Rand, on slide 3 what site is that image from?
Nice work on the slideshow, btw :)
Glad you are having a good time in Germany. I have always wanted to visit Deutschland. What no pictures of the yellow shoes?
Glad I finally got your powerpoint you promised in Portland at SearchFest 2007.
Have a very enjoyable time Rand.
I'll second that - you didn't miss much with the Glockenspiel. But please please try some of the local bier. You trusted us on the haggis. Now trust me on this.
Order a large one for MG. I have a photo somewhere of Heather struggling to lift one :)
OK. Maybe don't trust me on the 'order a large bier for MG' part, but do trust me on trying some. Both of you. That's real stuff.
It'll put hairs on your chest (Rand).
Rand, you did a PowerPoint? Whatup wit dat?