A few weeks ago, I was connected to Anna Song, an investigative reporter and anchorperson at KATU. She was looking for an expert in the dark arts of online reputation management.

With a decade or more of related experience, I fit the bill and we scheduled a visit to Anvil Media, Inc. Anna and her cameraman spent an hour or two with the Anvil team, asking questions and getting a better idea of what goes into the online reputation management process.

I just wrapped up 4 days of blog coverage for Search Marketing Standard at SES New York. You can read about the 16 sessions I attended online, and check my personal blog for additional color commentary. All-in-all, the event was good.

Since I first attended SES in Boston, I’ve noticed the event has changed along with the industry. For starters, the overall energy level has waned as the SES appeals to a more broad and corporate audience. Back in the early days, you could sense the nervous energy and appreciated the “insider information” now outlawed by legal departments.

Todd Mintz posted a YouTube video a couple of days ago and complained of “embedding issues” so I thought I’d do the same, testing for myself. Todd’s right… Although it showed in Firefox, it wouldn’t work in IE… What a a pain…

Sorry Todd, but here’s the fix - Before embedding the Youtube code in a Wordpress post, go to Users - your profile - and UNcheck the box for “use the visual editor when writing”. It’s stupid, but that all it takes to fix the issue. Sorry - blame Microsoft I guess…

“…Oh I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mmm I get high with a little help from my friends,
Mmm I’m gonna try with a little help from my friends.” The Beatles

Sphinn has certainly changed the social and professional dynamic of search marketing. Each Sphinster has a different perspective on the Sphinn impact and to best illustrate this, I thought it would be instructive to interview several people about Sphinn who I’ve either met via Sphinn or got to know much better through Sphinn. These folks are:

Securing your social presence. Research relevant social networks, identify existing networks for your brand or your industry, have a strategy & determine who gets social profiles. Consider social profiles for your brand. Create SEO’d profiles & manage your reputation. Empower brand evangelists. Embrace convergence. Leverage existing marketing efforts. Direct traffic offline & online.

Todd’s blog

Social media for strategic linking. Benefits: control over anchor text, body copy , theme & lots of opportunity for links. Strategies - building reputation neighborhoods, building hubs with social media links, maximizes use of anchor text. Reputation management: signup to everything, text, get links, build neighborhoods, interlink within reason, vary anchor text & copy.

Neil’s Blog

Rules of social media: No pay for votes, no creating multiple accounts, no submission of illegal content. Unwritten rules: no self-promotion, adding biased information, ask friends for votes. Golden Rules: Add tons of friends, participate in the community, become a top user, use their features against them, create a social brand (fake name). Conclusion: Do what is ethical, don’t jeopardize your brand & think longterm.

SEOmoz Website

Social Media Marketing vs. Viral Marketing. Creating profiles on Web 2.0 sites vs. Linkerati - Targeted Content, Building friends & relationships in blogoshphers vs. Digg etc. SMM can rule the SERPS, control the brank, get link love, show the community you are a participant, traffic, influence traditional media.

Top Social Media Sites:
You Tube
Wikipedia
Yahoo Answers
Yelp
Linked-In
Flickr
Craigslist (Best of)
Facebook
Amazon
Myspace
Technorati
Judy’s Book
Newsvine
Twitter
City Search
Wikihow