For someone in the trenches of the SEM world almost every day, trade shows such as SES are quite refreshing as well as overwhelming. I had attended SES San Jose once before in 2006 and it was quite interesting to see how the show, and the industry, has changed.

In 2006, Social Media was prevailing but not the powerhouse that it was this year. You couldn’t walk down a row of booths this year without hearing “promotion through social media channels” or “Viral Content” or “Improving link quality”. Learning more about Social Media Optimization (SMO) from several of the exhibitors really opened my eyes to how the industry is creating tools and techniques in order to tie a number to SMO initiatives. In the past, blogs had been viewed as an avenue for branding or internal communication but had never been associated with revenue driving marketing. All that has changed. It is becoming more and more common for analytics programs to report on social media efforts. All in all, it was quite exciting to see SMO case studies from Fortune 500 companies that are using blogs, wikis and other forms of social networking.

Again, Google went all out with the dance. What a party! They had the dancing, volleyball and tons of food just like back in 2006, but the Glow in the Dark theme this year made the night come alive.

SES