If you flip through your TV channel guide, it's hard not to notice the number of contest-based shows. Whether people are competing to be the next music icon, lose weight or play games using household products the common theme is competition and a chance to win big. TV producers are smart and continue to find success from audiences who like to compete and love to win. This same idea can be leveraged in online marketing to get a community excited,

This week at the PRSA Digital Impact Conference Vanessa DiMauro, CEO of Leader Networks talked to attendees about the benefits of online communities. According to DiMauro, nearly 2/3 of organizations surveyed are engaged in private, online communities hosted by companies that sell them computer hardware, software or services. The average visit in an online B2B community is 10 minutes, with 1 visit every 5-7 days.

Can BFF's lead to more effective marketing? That's the topic of discussion for the PRSA Digital Impact Conference opening keynote featuring Caryn Marooney, vice president of technology communications for Facebook. Before going to Facebook, Caryn explained that she ran an agency, however she talks about having felt like a mechanical bunny always chasing something and not catching it. Why? Everything is constantly changing.

The word "optimize" has been a staple concept for SEO professionals and online marketers for many years. While SEO is one of the most effective online marketing tactics for customer acquisition, there's a lot of misinformation and outdated opinions about the role of optimization with internet marketing. Our CEO at TopRank Online Marketing, Lee Odden,

The growing Global Economy has significantly increased the number of companies seeking search marketing strategies to connect with target audiences all over the world. Many clients we work with at TopRank Online Marketing are either already global organizations or aspiring to deliver products and services in different countries. As a result, we routinely field questions as clients begin their journey into International Search.

On a sunny, warm day in Minneapolis, marketers gathered near one of the city's best attractions - LakeCalhoun - to learn about "Search and the Connected Consumer", a view of how people retrieve information online and what that means for the future online and search engine marketing. Hosted by MIMA, the event featured Mike Grehan , Global VP Content, Search Engine Watch, ClickZ & Search Engine Strategies.

The SES New York 2011 conference wrapped up last week on the heels of one of the biggest Google updates in recent years. And although there was enough Panda talk to make a passerby think we might all be zookeepers, there were other themes running through the conference as well including content, paid strategies and tools, tools, tools. Here's a quick recap: Panda: The Aftermath,

Content, Content, Content. After attending search conferences for a few years now, it seems only right that content is getting some time in the spotlight. This week at Search Engine Strategies )SES( New York, I had the great pleasure of presenting on the topic of content marketing. For so long talk has been about how to optimize and then how to promote - but we're circling back around to meat and potatoes of online marketing which is the content. Without it,