Oh the highlights from PubCon are sending tingles up everyone’s spines. So it should since it started of with a head to head in a David and Goliath face off; except in this case it was Goliath that wins. If your wondering what I’m referring to it is the Jason Calacanis and Matt Cutts Showdown. In a packed standing room only day one keynote talk by Jason Calcanus, he kicked it off by targeting the giant Google. Multiple tiny stones were thrown at Google’s way by Jason but I assume they were nothing more than an irritating itch in Google’s collar.
Looking at Jason’s track record it seems to me that he is one successful man. I’m sure he was happy with Google at one time but unfortunately from what we hear from our sources (or lets just say Twitter) not so much anymore. Two of the most talked about issues brought up on the social vine was
1. Google’s take down of Spam, and
2. Google’s Preferential treatment of partners with big money.
1. Spam is spam and it even tastes bad in a can. Props for Google hitting it hard and Search Engine Journal posted Matt’s comeback as: “We had to move fast when attacking spam. We attacked anything that looked like a content farm. But when most of the site is spam, there is nothing we can do. Even if you have some quality content but mostly negative content… nothing can be done.”
If a company took advantage of spam they obviously knew what they were getting into and ultimately were going to get caught. Don’t complain now.
2.Preferable treatment? This isn’t the case. It’s advertising – the more you advertise the more you’ll be seen. This is just common knowledge. Besides, there is more that you can do to get in front of clients and potential clients just get out there and network!
To sum this up it really seam to me that the evolving way we do digital business has made somebody uncomfortable and in fact, it’s made many people uncomfortable. This demonstration is a good example that no matter if you’re a big business or small – how you play the game is so important and that choice can ultimately haunt you down the road.
The list of influential speakers at PubCon has made an impact on it’s audience. Just reading from three Twitter feeds alone, many business took time to visit the convention for answers. From topics “Monetizing and Optimizing your Blog” with Adam Reimer, Michael David and Stephen Spencer as well as “Conversions in a Social World” by Tim Ash. Topics like these are parts to a stable foundation for online business and marketing. Perfect for many of the smaller businesses who took the time to visit this convention.
The first three days made an impact for so many but also seemed to connect the digital leaders to the businesses they work with. Besides the entertaining match between Matt and Jason many positive connections were made and will continue to be made as long as these conventions continue.
We’ll have a more detailed post about what was learned and what was talked about shortly. Now that we’ve got the gossip out of the way. 😉