SES Day 1 Keynote: David Meerman Scott [LIVE BLOG]

David Meerman Scott, author of World Wide Rave, is here to talk about “The New Rules of Marketing & PR”

And we’re done. Time for panels, expo room, etc. Follow me on Twitter (@nlj) and stay tuned for more live blogging from SES New York over the next three days!! Johnson OUT!

10:14am Q: Landing page testing has shown (for this question asker) that it makes no difference using stock photos or “real people.” Do you have research that shows otherwise?

DMS: I don’t have research. Goes into an anecdotal story about using the photo about a real person. But he talks about the story that accompanies the real person. The underlying point being that it’s the overall persona/content – not just swapping out images.

10:09am Q: In regards to fear, how do you talk to companies about letting go of control with regards to damage control?

DMS: One bucket of fear: people will say bad things about us. Well, they already are, so if you avoid it then you’re only making it worse. You can help to diffuse or provide better information. Toyota isn’t being bashed for their car recall as much as the lack of communication and transparency.

The other bucket of fear is ignorance. They’re ignorant about the tools so they dismiss them.

10:07am Q: Everyone knows how SEO works. How do you get ranked for YouTube?

DMS: I don’t know about SEO. I know about creating information that people want to share.

10:05am And with that, David Meerman Scott has finished his keynote. Q&A time

10:02am Shows video a toilet company made. The toilet has self-cleaning seats. The video is a woman trying to do cocaine off the toilet seat, but the toilet cleans itself before she can snort it up.

10:01am “If the generals trust a 23 year old on a $50 million airplane, why can’t they trust them on Facebook?”

10:00am Air Force: “We want 330,000 people to be in Public Affairs.” In other words, your employees should be Tweeting and Facebook and blogging. Don’t block these networks at the office!!!!

9:58am Back to the topic of FEAR. Talks about excuses given. Ah yes, fear is often dressed up as reasons which are really just excuses.

9:57am Talks about the Best Job in the World contest. The winner became a blogger for Queensland, Australia. The contest generated interest in Queensland and saw an uptick in travel to the area.

9:54am Shows pic of blogger lounge in SXSW. Collective reach of bloggers at SXSW is bigger than any daily newspaper in U.S.

9:53am Put down roots. Where is your community? Talks about B&H Photo and Video. Henry Posner hangs out in photo forums – not to sell – but to talk photography.

9:51am Old rules of measurement are sales leads and press clips.

9:49am Lose control of your content. This is very difficult for marketers. Talks Grateful Dead letting fans record their concerts. Those recordings got shared. The music spread. The rest is history.

9:48am Girls Fight Back. Teaches girls how to defend themselves. At the end of the session, they ask the girls to get out their phones and take pictures of girls kicking butt. Those photos get shared on Facebook, etc.

9:45am You don’t have to use coercion. Of course, many do. Shows example of being tricked into clicking on a Toyota ad with a parents against metal music ad. Then points out that the back button is the third most used web feature.

9:43am There’s also visual gobbledygook. Shows stock business images. IBM and Constant Contact both used the same stock photo of a bald dude with a laptop. Instead, speak to your customers in your/their language.

9:40am The way many companies speak is like some kind of cult. Marketers use the same phrases over and over again and it’s gobbledygook (yes, that’s the official spelling).

9:39am No one cares about your products except for you. What people really care about is themselves and what works for them.

9:38am “If you take crappy content and search engine optimize it, you have slightly less crappy content.”

9:37am Shows yet another video about the HP video with printing pages set to dance music. The video has been viewed 1/2 million times, generated links, etc.

9:34am Yes, it works for B2B marketing as well. Another video is being shown. It’s a Cisco video that starts like a diamond or luxury vacation commercial. But ends up being about a Cisco product. Chuckles from the audience.

9:33am The old way of marketing is bugging one person at a time. Also known as sales. The new way is engaging content.

9:32am This polished speaker is showing off the stickers on his laptop. Yeah it’s advertising.

9:30am When you address buyer personas and create fresh, relevant content, that will help your search rankings.

9:30am All hotel websites are the same. Instead they should target various buyer personas. Picks on Hilton website. I think his room service will take even longer now.

9:27am Buyer personas. Address them instead of nameless, faceless prospects.

9:25am Talks about a Boston dentist that wrote an ebook about dentistry and oral sex. Suddenly people don’t need coffee to wake up.

9:23am DMS says people are fearful of doing the “new marketing” tactics. (I agree and I know this. I spoke recently in Durham about overcoming the fear of blogging. A LOT of people are afraid to blog for various reasons.)

9:21am “Flip video camera is the single most important marketing tool.” SEW director Jonathan Allen will agree! DMS pulls one out, asks a question, and films the raised hands.

9:19am DMS shows a video of him asking the same marketing questions to other audiences he’s spoken to. He’s proving the point that non-search audiences reflect similar marketing response behaviors to this room, which is full of search nerds and newbies.

9:16am DMS gets off the stage to get all interactive with the audience and stuff. He’s asking for hands to raise about responding to things like direct marketing, yellow pages, etc.

9:15am “What we’re all about is attention.” There are many ways to generate attention.

9:13am David Meerman Scott (DMS) takes the stage. He’s launches right into a story about launching the Harry Potter theme park. The marketer told seven of the most popular bloggers in the space. That’s it. I feel a happy ending coming on.

9:07am Mike Grehan takes the stage to get things started. It’s almost as magical as Steve Jobs. With a British accent.

The music playing before the session is pretty good. Thankfully, no Black Eyed Peas songs (yet).