CommonPlaces' Ben Bassi and VP of Marketing Sherrin Bull presented at the Specialized Information Publishers Association's conference on the subject of Social Media technologies.
Hampstead, NH (PRWEB) December 23, 2008 -- CommonPlaces CEO Ben Bassi and VP of Marketing Sherrin Bull presented Wednesday, December 10th at the Specialized Information Publishers Association's "Mid-Year Marketing Conference" in Las Vegas, Nevada. Their presentation was entitled "Leveraging Social Media to Drive Traffic," and offered opportunities and strategies for specialized information publishers to promote and distribute their content on the social Web.
This year's SIPA conference was titled "Gain. Market. Share." and was focused on strategies specialized information publishers could implement to increase website traffic, conversions and sales. Citing statistics that three of four adults in the US use social tools on the Web, and that B2B social media will be a $4.6 Billion industry by 2013, Bassi and Bull strongly emphasized the importance of getting involved with social media in the coming year.
Success in the social media realm depends on quality content that will engage your audience. But as Bassi and Bull were quick to point out, this is the strength of specialized information publishers--regular, high-quality content. The presenters encouraged the audience to view the social Web as an opportunity rather than a threat. The quality content they were already creating was a big step towards their social media success.
The next step is to "open the gates," as Bassi said, and the two offered a number of ways to do this: leveraging technologies such as RSS, forums and wikis; encouraging rating, commenting and reviewing on your site; and submitting content to social bookmarking sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, Yahoo! Buzz and Reddit were just a few.
There is no doubt that social media is playing an increasing role in business, and that more and more marketers are viewing it as an indispensable part of their marketing campaigns. A recent study by Cone found that 93% of Americans who use social media technologies on a regular basis expect companies to have a presence on these sites.
From the SIPA website: "SIPA is the international trade association dedicated to advancing the interests of for-profit subscription newsletter publishers and specialized-information services." This year's Marketing Conference marked the 25th year of the event, and featured over 20 presentations from industry leaders and marketing strategists.
Ben Bassi is happy to supply anyone interested with a copy of his presentation. If you would like to request a copy, he can be contacted at ben (at) commonplaces.com. To invite Ben Bassi to speak at your business event, please contact the CommonPlaces Marketing team.