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.

On March 17th at 6:30 pm at the Renaissance Hotel In Richardson, the DFW Search Engine Marketing Association will be presenting an in-depth panel discussion on using analytical tools including Google Analytics and call tracking systems. Our panelist – Tyson Kirksey and Leah Becker – will review the ins-and-outs of what to measure online and offline to show the real ROI from your search marketing efforts. This panel will go beyond the basic reports and help you learn how to analyze trends and examine data that can lead to dramatic improvements in online performance monitoring.

Admission is FREE for DFWSEM members and $35 for non-members. Tickets and event registration may be done online at http://dfwsem.org.

About Our Panelists

Tyson Kirksey is an experienced marketing analyst who has held leadership positions at two Dallas agencies. From 2004 to 2006, he helped lead the SEO and Web analytics efforts at Zunch Communications. Now at New Media Gateway, Tyson manages the search marketing and analytics team. In 2008, Tyson helped New Media Gateway become the only Google Analytics Authorized Partner in Texas.

Leah Becker is head of business development at Century Interactive, a leading phone call analytics company. Since 1988, Century Interactive has helped thousands of businesses measure their marketing ROI and improve the way they communicate with prospects and customers through innovative telephony solutions. Leah’s expertise lies in understanding the various methods of tracking offline conversions for all media types, and the pros and cons of those methods.

DFW SEM Members Get In Free
The DFW Search Engine Marketing Association (DFWSEM), has restructured its annual membership and meeting charges. In response to member requests, there will no longer be a meeting charge for members to attend regular meetings. If you would like to join the DFW SEM please click here.

Discussion will focus on listening to your thoughts about Bing, gathering feedback and highlighting the latest SEO/SEM tips and tools available. We’ll provide the food and beverages, you bring the questions

Click here to register for the DFW SEM Bing Session

Match.com.com is seeking a Sr. Manager, Search Marketing to lead the development of our Search Engine Marketing strategy, including both Paid Search campaigns (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts.  This position requires hands-on knowledge of best practices in SEM/SEO and a proven track-record of delivering qualified traffic from both an acquisition and conversion standpoint. The role requires an analytical mindset and relentless drive for performance to optimize our search marketing campaigns for maximum efficiency and effectiveness.   A leadership position at Match.com, this role requires the ability to operate on both a strategic and tactical level, touching all aspects of the search marketing roadmap including vendor selection, systems recommendations, keyword management, bidding strategies, creative testing, and analytics.

Responsibilities:

• Create, manage, and analyze paid search campaigns across multiple search engines to ensure acquisition and conversion goals are met.
• Direct Match.com’s ongoing site-wide SEO efforts, including tracking measurement metrics, analyzing results, and working with technology and product management resources to optimize natural search results.
• Responsible for day-to-day management of paid search campaigns including keyword generation, ad copy writing and testing, bid management, landing page optimization, budget management etc. Primary point of contact and subject matter expert for paid search with both internal and external contacts, for example: Google, Yahoo, & MSN.
• Research, collect, and analyze data, leverage internal and external resources, and data sources to report on successes and actionable opportunities for the paid and natural search programs.
• Utilize bid management tools, data modeling, and testing to maximize the effectiveness of PPC campaigns.
• Manage stakeholders with our 3^rd party bid management providers.
• Generate and disseminate management reporting to ensure that the wider team is aware of campaign performance trends.
• Manage relationships with third party bid management partners to effectively and efficiently allocate budget across search engines and terms to maintain performance success.
• Cross departmental coordination to develop, implement and monitor new campaigns and creative units.
• Develop and test new campaigns to better target users and improve overall ROI.

Requirements:

• Bachelors Degree, MBA preferred.
• 5+ years experience in search marketing.
• Deep knowledge of SEM and SEO as well as a working knowledge of current and emerging trends and technologies.
• Experience working for consumer internet brands with similar conversion models highly desired.
• Experience using Google AdWords, Yahoo Marketing Solutions and MS AdCenter.
• Experience with A/B and/or multivariate testing.
• Advanced knowledge of Excel
• Strong written and verbal communication and analytical skills.
• Excellent time and project management skills.
• Creativity, teamwork and strong attention to detail required.

About Match.com:

Match.com pioneered online personals when it launched on the Web in 1995 and continues to lead this exciting and evolving category after more than a decade. Throughout its 14-year history, Match.com has helped redefine the way people meet and fall in love. Match.com provides a rich tapestry of ethnicities, interests, goals, ambitions, quirks, looks and personalities from which to choose.  Match.com operates some of the leading subscription-based online dating sites in 24 countries, in 8 languages and spanning five continents, as well as oversees its ongoing investment in Meetic.  Match.com also powers online dating on MSN across Asia, Australia, the United States and Latin America. Match.com is an operating business of IAC (NASDAQ: IACI).

Benefits:

In addition to a unique culture that appeals to individuals who thrive in hyper-drive environments and who work just as hard as they play, Match.com also provides US employees with a full spectrum of benefits including:

- Medical, Dental and Vision Insurance

- Matching 401(k)

- Company-paid maternity & paternity leave

- Flexible Spending Accounts

- Life and AD&D Insurance

- Long Term Disability Insurance

- Paid Time Off

- Paid Holidays

- Pet Insurance

- Discounted gym membership

- Tuition Reimbursement

This is a summary of benefits and does not offer provisions such as exclusions or plan limitations.

Please apply at http://www.match.com/careers.

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.

10/14/09 AdWords 302: Advanced Conversion Optimization concentrates on how to increase your conversions and your profits! Topics include Bidding Types and Strategies, Tracking Conversions, Split Testing, and Account Organization. The information included in this session can have a positive, dramatic impact on your bottom line – this is a must attend event!

You can choose to attend only one day, or receive a $50 discount if you choose to register for both days! Plus, if you register today, you will also receive:

* $100 AdWords Credit ($50 if you register for a single day) **Must Register 7 Days in Advance

* 2 USB Thumb Drives with Presentation Materials (1 for each day)

* Other Google Goodies

* Bonus Presentations:

Day 1: Marketing in a Down Economy: Superior Profits on a Minimal Budget

Day 2: Actionable Items: Step-by-Step: How to Maximize Results for Your Limited Time

DoubleTree Hotel Dallas Market Center
2015 Market Center Blvd
Dallas, TX 75207
8:30 am – 5:00 PM

Use dfwsem for 10% off when you register at: http://www.bgtheory.com/adwords-seminar-for-success-dallas-2009/