Social Media.  It’s all you’ve been hearing for the past couple of years. You won’t want to miss this year’s Texas Tech University College of Mass Communications Scholarship Breakfast and Beyond the Breakfast Conference where the theme, Social Media and Its Effect on the Media Landscape, is featuring a panel of experts who bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to the table.

Mark your calendar to attend the scholarship breakfast on Thursday, March 25^th at the Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas. All attendees are invited to attend the Beyond the Breakfast Conference immediately following the breakfast at no additional charge. This is an outstanding educational opportunity for you and an outstanding benefit for the student who will receive the scholarship as a result of your support for this event. All proceeds from this event will go to provide scholarships for students at Texas Tech’s College of Mass Communications.

Here’s the lineup you won’t want to miss:

• Keynote Speaker Brett Tabke – CEO/Founder of Webmasterworld.com and the famous Pubcon internet marketing conferences.
• Nick Bomberbach, Director of Digital Marketing and Customer Experience for JCPenney, is responsible for developing and executing JCPenney’s digital and eCommerce strategy. Hear how JCPenney has found a way to effectively incorporate Social Media and Digital Marketing in their marketing strategy.
• Christi Day and Alice Wilson – Social Media specialists for Southwest Airlines who are in charge of the daily social media strategy for the airline.
• Tony Wright, with more than ten years of hands-on and strategic experience in interactive marketing and a background in traditional and interactive public relations and journalism, has spent his career building search engine marketing teams. Wright is a sought after speaker at industry events designed to create or enhance interactive advertising and search engine marketing.
• Sam Bradley, Ph.D., assistant professor of advertising is a front runner in Social Media Analysis whose research focuses on current trends in social media.  Tom Johnson, Ph.D., is the Formby Regents Professor in Convergent Media. Both professors will discuss the importance of integrating social media trends into classroom instruction and conducting analytical research of the effects of social media.

Event Costs (proceeds benefit scholarships for the College of Mass Communications at Texas Tech University)

$1,000 table sponsorships available for a table of 8

$100 per person or $75 for young professionals (under 30)

We hope you will join us for an informative and information packed session on March 25. To sign up and for more information, please visit www.texastechmass.com.

“We are excited that a board member of DFWSEM is now on the national board of SEMPO,” says Sean Jackson, president of DFWSEM. “Rob is a true thought-leader in search marketing and this national recognition and his new position further re-enforce the depth of talent that Dallas Fort Worth has within the search marketing community.”

Additional board members recently elected include:

• Chris Boggs – Director, Search Engine Optimization, ROSETTA®
• Massimo Burgio – Founder, Chief Strategist, Global Search Interactive
• Bruce Clay – President, Bruce Clay, Inc.
• Dave Fall – SVP Product and Operations, Clickable, Inc.
• Rob Garner – Strategy Director, iCrossing
• Mike Grehan – VP and Global Content Director, Incisive Media
• Motoko Hunt – President, Japanese Search Strategist, AJPR
• Kevin Lee – CEO, Didit
• Kristjan Mar Hauksson – Director Search / Owner, Nordic eMarketing
• Dmitriy Minenko – Online Specialist, Search Engine Marketing, Tourism British Columbia
• Jeffrey Pruitt – CEO, Acendant
• Margaret Willette – Search Marketing Manager, Intuit
• Michael Y. Xu – SVP, Beijing Gridsum Technology Co., Ltd.

The Hyatt is providing us with happy …hour drink prices and complimentary wings, pizza, chips etc.

Let’s end the year with a great networking event to give thanks for all of those who have helped you this past year and let’s set the stage for a great 2010! I look forward to seeing all of you there.

To purchase tickets, go to http://geekmeet-120209-efbevent.eventbrite.com/

DALLAS, Nov. 5 /PRNewswire/ — Optimizing large websites for search engines can be a challenge, especially if you are one of the largest news platforms in the world with industry-leading volumes in search engine referrals and traffic. This was the challenge presented to Ecordia by PR Newswire.

Ecordia, a search engine optimization technology company based in Dallas Texas, was selected by PR Newswire in June 2009 to provide consulting services for the new prnewswire.com website launched on October 2, 2009.

“PR Newswire’s website represented a number of unique SEO challenges,” said Sean Jackson, CEO of Ecordia, adding, “When you are dealing with a website in the millions of pages and updated with almost 1,000 new pages a day, traditional search engine optimization techniques become difficult.”

From the beginning, PR Newswire’s team considered SEO an important part of the new website redesign and understood the unique SEO issues related to a website of this type. To help achieve their goals, they selected Ecordia for their proven expertise in complex SEO issues.

“Search engines play a vital role in driving readers to press releases, whether the intended audience for the message is journalists, bloggers, consumers, investors or any combination thereof,” said Rod Nicolson, vice president, web properties of PR Newswire. “We viewed the rebuild as an opportunity to more fully leverage our news content to deliver even better results for our customers. Ecordia worked with PR Newswire to understand the requirements for our Optimized News Platform, and delivered recommendations that helped us achieve a high level of optimization for our customers’ news releases”

Through a series of meetings, site architectural reviews, and testing Ecordia developed a number of search engine optimization recommendations that met PR Newswire’s goals of providing an Optimized News Platform for their customers.

“We broke down the entire site architecture into small logical pieces of information and began to thread together the pieces from a search engine crawler’s perspective,” stated Jackson, describing the process.

With the comprehensive recommendation report provided by Ecordia, the PR Newswire development team began the process of aligning the new website’s technical architecture with the SEO recommendations. After a four-month development process, the new PR Newswire site was successfully launched on October 2, 2009.

While the new website continues to evolve, the results of Ecordia’s efforts were well received by PR Newswire.

“Ecordia is a delight to work with; proactive, customer-focused, knowledgeable and passionate about making search engine optimization work for their customers,” stated Nicolson.

About Ecordia

Ecordia is a search engine optimization company based in Dallas Texas. The company specializes in the design, creation and implementation of advanced search engine optimization solutions for complex SEO challenges. In addition to SEO consulting services, Ecordia offers two online applications for enterprise-class SEO efforts. The Ecordia Content Optimizer is a predictive content analysis application that verifies the SEO qualities of content. The Ecordia Content Hub is a comprehensive SEO landing page system. For more information on Ecordia visit our website at http://www.ecordia.com

About PR Newswire

PR Newswire is the global leader in innovative communications and marketing services, enabling organizations to connect and engage with their target audiences worldwide.

Through its multi-channel distribution network, audience intelligence, targeting, and measurement services, PR Newswire helps corporations and organizations conduct rich, timely and dynamic dialogues with the media, consumers, policymakers, investors and the general public, in support of building brands, generating awareness, impacting public policy, driving sales, and raising capital.

Pioneering the commercial news distribution industry 55 years ago, PR Newswire connects customers with audiences in more than 170 countries and in over 40 languages through an unparalleled network of offices in 16 countries across North and South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, and via unique affiliations with the leading news agencies across the globe. PR Newswire is a subsidiary of United Business Media Limited (UBM.L), a leading global business media company that serves professional commercial communities around the world. For more information, go to www.unitedbusinessmedia.com.

Search engines have become the de-facto gateway to all information online. Over 50% of online advertising is focused on this unique media – and it’s continuing to grow.  Are you ready for the future?

On November 10^th that DAL and DFWSEM organizations will be hosting a joint luncheon to discuss the future of search engine marketing – addressing the issues that every advertising professional needs to know for 2010. This comprehensive overview will give you the insights that you will need to be aware of as you plan your 2010 online marketing. Tickets may be purchased online.

This luncheon will feature senior representatives from the three major search engines, including:

• Mark Lively, Agency Lead from Google
• Robyn Raybould, Manager ASG from Microsoft
• Kimi Henry, Strategic Account Director from Yahoo! Search Marketing

Moderated by Shelley Ellis, founder of Shelley Ellis Consulting and a leading expert in search marketing, these three panelist will each provide a 20 minute overview of the future of search engine marketing and the innovations their platforms are providing to meet the changing marketplace.

Tickets for this event  on November 10^th can be purchased online at the Dallas Ad League website. Pricing and event information below. Note: DFW SEM members will receive MEMBER PRICING at the event.

Buy Tickets

http://guest.cvent.com/i.aspx?4W,M3,98ae8410-7f41-4de9-b8ae-77fb353fbd76

Location

Doubletree Hotel Dallas – Campbell Center
8250 N Central Expy
Dallas, TX 75206

Date/Time

November 10, 2009 from 11:30am – 1:30pm

Fee

Corporate Member $35.00
Corporate Member Table of 8 $280.00
Member $40.00 (DAL and DFWSEM Members)
Member (Under 30) $35.00
Member Table of 8 $320.00
Non-Member $55.00
Non-Member Table of 8 $440.00

Shelley Ellis

Shelley Ellis
Founder, Shelley Ellis Consulting

Shelley is a 19 year veteran of online marketing and a frequent speaker and presenter on search engine advertising. She is currently a board member of the DFW Search Marketing Association. Her background and experience includes working hands on with several hundred different search engine accounts across a variety of industries. Her clients have ranged from tiny companies where every penny counts to Fortune 500 (Coca Cola, Hallmark, Kimberly-Clark, Ritz-Carlton, USAA, Mary Kay, Avaya, etc.) where the annual budgets ranged in the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.

Mark Lively

Mark Lively
Agency Lead, Google

Mark Lively began his career in media working as an announcer and sportscaster for local stations in Waco, TX while attending Baylor University.  He continued working on air at KZPS / Dallas while earning a Masters Degree in Communications from Southern Methodist University.  Mark’s career includes stints in local and national radio sales / management, with tour stops in Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, and West Palm Beach.  He joined Google in the Audio Ads division in 2006, transitioned to his current role as Agency Lead in 2007, and recently relocated with his wife Beth and 9-year old daughter Kathryn to Chicago.  Mark’s interests include golf, his beloved Dallas Cowboys, and family vacations.

Robyn Raybould

Robyn Raybould, Manager-Premium Account Service Group- Bing
Microsoft Corporation

As Manager of the Premium Account Services Group, Robyn leads a team of Senior Account Managers who provide support and strategy to top tier Bing search clients. She joined Microsoft’s New York offices in 2005 to launch adCenter to the US Market and during her tenure there she has worked with some of the world’s largest retail, telecommunications, and travel search clients.   Before joining Microsoft, Robyn was the Manager of Marketing for YellowBrix, a web content aggregator in Washington, D.C. where she managed all aspects of marketing, including paid search. Originally from Northern Virginia, Robyn holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from New York University.

Kimi Henry

Kimi Henry, Strategic Account Director
Yahoo! Search Marketing

Kimi Henry is a Strategic Account Director with Yahoo!’s North American Sales Team.  She joined Yahoo! 6 years ago through the acquisition of Overture and works strategically with a variety of advertisers, from small business owners to Fortune 500 companies and their digital agencies.

She is currently responsible for developing key partnerships with top Search Engine Marketing and traditional advertising agencies to help integrate and maximize search into their broader marketing campaigns. In this role, she drives shared initiatives, from innovation to digital education, and spearheads integration across Yahoo! search and display advertising.