Despite the sweltering heat, OMS Houston attendees we’re probably the most energetic and enthusiastic yet of our 10 city tour. From the morning keynote I gave that had one person “Boo” me for jokingly commenting on how seniors are slow to adopt online media to the request for a tequila shot at the end of day Big Brands, Big Plans panel, the participation was great.


Ray “Catfish” Comstock really blew away the audience in the morning when he presented Social Media strategies for SEO. With the multitude of acronyms, new websites like “Squidoo” and SEO terminology, many we’re left thinking “Was he speaking English”. Moreover, most realized the true complexity of Social Media and how it relates to SEO. Personally, that was a really big “Ah Ha Moment” for me in that, we must, must, must reach out to others for help on all things online that we do not specialize in and once we have a decent strategy and education then maybe rein it back in. There is no way one marketing professional can execute a good email campaign, manage analytics, drive a leading Search Marketing Strategy and properly test Social Media without missing 90% of the potential ROI b/c simple time in a day and expertise held in one brain. So, next your boss says, “Hey Aaron, can you look into doing a blog for us… looks like we need something like that,” just say, “How much budget you going to give me to find someone that knows what they are doing to help us set such up properly?!” vs. our normal slave like response “yes, boss.”

Beyond Social Media, we had great presentations on how to talk to IT and how CMS to drive online marketing campaigns from Stefanie Lightman at Reddot; Killer Social Networking preso from Barry at Jive, and other strong insights on how to measure ROI (Steve from SpurDigital) and staples like Jeremy from Bluehornet on Best Practices in Email Marketing. Day ended with a lot of takers on drinks at happy hour and lively dinner at Omaha Steakhouse.

Off to the Bay Area for OMS on Thursday!