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The Allstate Corporation is the nation’s largest publicly held personal lines insurer. A Fortune 100 company, with $133 billion in total assets, Allstate sells 13 major lines of insurance, including auto, property, life and commercial. Allstate also offers retirement and investment products and banking services. Allstate is widely known through the “You’re In Good Hands With Allstate®” slogan. Allstate was founded in 1931 and became a publicly traded company in 1993.

IZEA prides itself on the successful execution of social media marketing campaigns. We work hand-in-hand with agencies and brands to deliver ROI through buzz, clicks and conversions.

ReveNews is a trusted, unbiased source focusing on Internet related industries such as online marketing, SEM, affiliate marketing, retail (e-commerce), analytics, spyware, blogging and much more. ReveNews authors consist of highly respected thinkers, commentators and business people who have real experience and insight. ReveNews readers include industry gurus, top-level executives and CEO’s, plus many of the industry’s top net-repreneurs; all coming together to create a global Internet community to distribute, discuss and analyze the industry at hand.

SmartBrief is a media company on a mission to save you time and keep you smart.

The premise behind SmartBrief is simple: there’s too much information out there and too little time in the day to read it all. Our editors hand-pick the most relevant and important news from all over, summarize it, link to the original sources and deliver it — for FREE — in one-stop-shop e-newsletters.

Nearly 3 million business decision makers count on SmartBrief each day to provide “must-read” news in 25 key industries. Subscriptions are free of charge, offered in partnership with more than 100 leading trade associations. professional societies, non-profits and corporations.

At our subscribers’ request, we’ve developed a suite of best practices newsletters to keep busy professionals smart about their jobs.

And, once again, our SOBCon partners for accommodations and the conference space are Hotel 71 and the Summit Executive Center.

A Stylishly Different Chicago Hotel

Hotel 71 is a modern urban boutique hotel experience, perfectly located on the Chicago River at Wacker Drive and Michigan Avenue, “the Magnificent Mile”. The hotel’s fresh style, large rooms and suites, beautifully appointed meeting space, friendly service and an unrivaled location at the epicenter of downtown Chicago, make it the best luxury hotel for both business and leisure travelers.

Summit Chicago
Our world-class facility, exceptional staff and outstanding cuisine provides you with all the tools you’ll need to successfully enhance your meeting.
Summit Executive Centre is downtown Chicago’s only accredited member of the prestigious International Association of Conference Centers. Our standard of quality is recognized by leading businesses and decision makers around the world.

Mike Rodhe made these sketchnotes at SXSW last week and they are fantastic. I have been thinking about doing something like this for SOBCon because I am a big notebook freak. But I can’t draw so well…

So I am going to ask you all to help with this little project. On Sunday the Lovely Bride ^TM and I went to Boston for a trade show and I stopped by the Levenger store to pick up some supplies for this “secret project“. I am looking forward to seeing what the attendees put together.

If you have any ideas on how to make this better, please let me know (contact form).

who owns social media

Advertising Age Magazine saysShops Seek Control in Social-Media Space “Agencies of all stripes want to lay claim, and no one wants to cede control.”

This is an interesting article from two points of view. The first is in terms of “traditional” marketing practices using the new tools of the internet:

In some ways, media agencies are a natural for social media. As people increasingly spend their “media time” on social sites — in some cases at the expense of traditional channels — agencies need to figure out if they can put marketers’ messages in those places. According to Frank Magid Associates, more than 22% of 18- to 24-year-olds say they are watching less TV since they started using social-networking sites.

The social challenge

Yet, thus far, media agencies haven’t shown they can own social media. Most media agency-driven social-media campaigns look a lot more like traditional media with a social twist than they do created-from-scratch communities such as Dell IdeaStorm or social-utility staple Nike Plus. And they tend to be defined in campaign terms rather than the kinds of inside-out transformations of culture and organization that companies such as Zappos have pulled off.

While some social-media pundits will discount media agencies for that reason, there are practical considerations for these agencies’ approach to social media.

The other viewpoint is that the social media (or Social Media) marketspace is by it’s very nature individualized and non-media oriented. It is about people talking to other people. This part of the social media landscape tends to take a harsh view of commercializing what the users see as “their” space. As an example, look at the recent controversy over Chris Brogan’s sponsored post about Kmart (see Advertising and Trust, Twitter search)

The “ownership” of Social Media and the new internet marketspace is going to be hotly contested due to the enormous amount of user-generated content that is impossible to predict. It will be the users that determine the fate of advertising:

Craig Daitch, senior VP at promotions firm Measure2X, has logged time at PHD and Digitas working as a sort of social-media evangelist, and laments the problem. “You can’t append a CPM to it, and you have a hard time putting a profit and loss to it. So the question is: Who pays for it, how do we quantify ROI and how do I convince clients this is a worthy endeavor?”

He said digital shops need to embed a social-media way of thinking with their planning groups. He pointed to one, albeit old, example to illustrate the difference that can make. When Mentos saw the videos of two guys in lab coats dropping its mints into two-liter bottles of Diet Coke and making them erupt in a fizz-filled geyser, it bought ads on YouTube. Coke’s initial reaction: That’s not what you’re supposed to do with Diet Coke.[emphasis mine, ed.]

“You shouldn’t see it — it’s all about conversation,” Mr. Daitch said. “When something pops and people are talking about it, you look for brand involvement.“

Daitch hits the nail on the head – “when something pops” is completely out of the control of the advertisers, the marketers, even the brands themselves. I would submit that the answer to the question “Who owns social media?” is We do.

Good morning. I would very much welcome an opportunity to introduce Chitika’s Premium ad program to the SOBCon audience. We have been known for years as a blog ad network but we were a strict product niche (i.e. we had product ad widgets for blogs that discussed products). With our Premium program we have significantly increased the advertiser base (we still have product ads but now we also have great ads for ALL blog sites) and we have improved our targeting technology.

The results? More money for more bloggers. Publishers with Chitika|Premium ads are seeing eCPMs are as high as $71 (averaging slightly higher than $2), with click through rates as high as 13.5% (averaging approximately 1.5%) and we now have high-performing advertisements for any type of web site (product sites and non-product sites in all verticals).

Note, Premium ads will only display to a portion of a blogger’s US traffic but when they display they perform very well. The ad units are available in 2 dozen sizes. For more information please visit Chitika or contact jeff at chitika dot com.

Thanks for the update, Jeff. I imagine that many of the attendees will be interested in this service as they work toward building their blogs into media properties.

Last year we read a lot about SOBCon and the fine bloggers who attend this extraordinary event. This year the event sounds even more promising and we are proud to be among the first companies to sponsor it. It simply makes sense for us to promulgate our corporate values by sponsoring excellence. If you take a look at our online history and read the numerous testimonials about our company, services and customer support, you will see that excellence is something we also strive for.

We host hundreds of websites and we carefully monitor their activities. There are many reasons why we do this and we can easily summarize the most important ones. We pledge to be a family safe web host – meaning that we will not allow mature content on our servers. We will also delete any website that promotes any type of questionable content without further recourse. These are serious concerns that help us maintain our integrity as a brand. However, when we monitor the sites we host the most rewarding experience is to learn from our customers, to grow with them and to promote their work if we can. This is how THC differentiates itself from other web hosting companies.

Our company philosophy is: to treat our customers with utmost respect, to create a bridge between our company and them, to offer room for real conversations and real relationships.

Do you remember the small neighborhood bakery where the cakes tasted better because the seller knew how to be a baker? Do you remember the little cookie he always kept aside for your child and do you remember the way he hand it out to your child with an open smile? He didn’t charge you more to be kind, did he? Besides, you always knew that if there was something wrong with the cake you bought, the baker would have solved the problem immediately. No false excuses. No extra charges. Well, THC is your local baker.

Too abstract? Okay, okay.

According to a poll of 5,000 recent brand-sponsored event attendees, purchase intent rose 11-52% after attending such events. About 50% of the time, people actually bought things they had learned about at the events.

The poll also found that business-to-business events (like SOBCon!) are especially good for selling to potential customers. 54% of 2,000 trade show attendees reported an increase in purchase intent because of those events.

There are at least 250 reasons why you should sponsor SOBCon.

We hope to bring in 250 smart entrepreneurial minds and stir them together for 3 days.

And have you considered the word-of-mouth marketing power those 250+ souls possess?

Together, their blogs and websites reach over 80 million people every year. That’s about 7 million people a month.

And these business bloggers – these SOBCon 08 attendees – are some of the most well-networked people in the world. When they hear about a great product or service, they can’t help but tell their friends about it.

I can think of only 2 legitimate reasons why you shouldn’t be a SOBCon sponsor:

1. You don’t have anything to offer an intelligent, business-minded audience.
2. You don’t have any money to be a sponsor.

In both cases, you’ve still got well over 2 months to come up with what you don’t yet have.

And I promise it will be sooooooooo worth it for you. The ripple effect alone could be staggering.

Right this way.

The SOBCon founders and the good folks at Plante Moran Financial Advisors (www.pmfa.com) are co-sponsoring a SOBCon Marketing Contest, where the blogger who can refer the most traffic to the SOBCon website (www.sobevent.com) between February 11 and March 15 will win:

• A free registration to SOBCon08 in Chicago, from May 2-4 ($450 value)
  
• Two nights hotel accommodations ($300 value)
  
• Podium recognition by the SOBCon MC, Terry Starbucker(promotional value for your blog and business – priceless)

Let’s get to the rules, but first a quick word about our co-sponsor, Plante Moran Financial Advisors (www.pmfa.com). They’re a group of financial professionals that are all about “you”, just as it should be. In their own words, “In saying “you” we encompass every aspect of you, such as your family, business, and personal interests into your investment strategy – today and into the future. You are our first priority and that is why our approach to your wealth management is as unique as you.”

OK, here are the rules:

1. To be eligible you must register your referring site, via e-mail to terrystarbucker(at)gmail(dotcom). You can do this anytime before or during the contest period, but the sooner you’re “in” the better.
2. We will count the referrals to SOBCon08 (defined as a “hit” to the site that comes from a link on your site) beginning on February 11, and running through March 15.
3. The referrals must be from a sufficient variety of network and geographical locations (as determined by Google Analytics), as determined by the SOBCon contest committee.
4. Speakers at the conference are not eligible, as well as the founders.
5. If you’ve already registered, you can certainly enter, and see if you can win your money back (and then some!)

So, do you think you have the promotional moxie to promote SOBCon and get your readers to check out our site, and find out how irresistible and compelling this year’s conference is going to be? Are you looking for a way to get to SOBCon but all you have is a blog, and not the cash?

Than sign up and start promoting SOBCon!!

Good luck and have fun.

So it is in that spirit of adding value to our attendees that we are pleased to announce what event sponsor Evoca has agreed to do for all of you.

Evoca is offering all attendees to SOBCon ‘07 a one year complimentary Professional Account with their service.

That, my friends is a $60 value.

And it’s your’s just for attending SOBCon ‘07!

With that account you get 200 minutes of recording time. And you can record to that account either using Evoca’s browser mic, your telephone, or even record straight from Skype!

Here’s what their web site describes their service and how it works:

What is Evoca and how does it work?

Evoca lets everyone instantly create, organize, search, and share audio recordings.

Look at these simple steps and see how easy it is:

1. Speak

Make a recording with EvocaMic™, our browser recorder

Record your voice with by calling EvocaTell™, and make recordings on the fly.

Professional members can call with Skype™, the call is free and the quality impeccable.

Or simply upload an existing recording from your PC.

2. Organize

Tag your recordings with searchable key words

Place them into albums or groups

3. Share (or not!)

We’ll help you spread your voice around the world, within a select group, or keep everything you say absolutely private. The choice is yours.

4. Search

Type in a keyword and we’ll bring you to the exact place in the recording where that word is spoken. (We know, it is hard to believe.)

Check out Evoca’s FAQ Page for more information about their service.

And be sure to register for the conference today! We’re looking forward to seeing you there!