I went to Carolina Connect 2011 and got to see a good keynote by Peter Shankman. I turned on the Flip camera for the last few minutes of Q&A and got some insights from Peter about the complementary nature of SEO and social media. His point was that SEO helps the searcher find you but social media, in the form of reviews and recommendations, is what ultimately will persuade prospects to engage with your brand, or buy what you’re selling.

Of course, that is correct, and in a way nothing new. “Social proof” in the form of referrals, word-of-mouth, and customer testimonials has existed since people started selling stuff. Good marketers and salespeople began using social proof long before there was an Internet. As Peter put it creating customers who will spread the word “goes back to customer service” in the broadest sense of the term.

Shankman’s talk was definitely the highlight of the event.

P.S. We are long-time fans of HARO (see below) and regularly submit pitches for articles. Just last week we got a call from Inc. magazine to confirm a quote from us. Next issue?

More about Peter Shankman from the event website:

Peter Shankman is perhaps best known for Help A Reporter Out (HARO), one of the fastest-growing social media services in North America, which he founded in 2008. Every day, HARO brings nearly 30,000 reporters and bloggers and more than 100,000 news sources together with thousands of small businesses to tell their stories, promote their brands and sell their products and services.

Shankman is the author of Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work – and Why Your Company Needs Them (Wiley and Sons 2006). His second book, Customer Service: New Rules for a Social-Enabled World (Que Biz-Tech 2010), comes out later this year, revealing how to make the most of social and viral media in customer service.

Kevin and I walked Steve Thomas over to the Western Carolina Home Show this morning so he could deliver his talk. He’s a pretty cool cat and was nice enough to take a minute to make this little video with us.

Yes, it was indeed cold this morning, somewhere in the 20s I believe. The 2011 Isaac Dixon Hot Chocolate 10K was an extremely well-organized event. Despite the temperature I was somewhat disappointed I wasn’t in the race, but I’m sure that feeling would have been long gone by the end if I had been. Plus, someone had to hand out all those AVL Marketing water bottles we ordered. Of course, Kevin was there at least two hours before me to set up, and everything was ready when I got there. I’ll have to think of another excuse for not running. Next year! I did go out into the cold, for a few minutes, to catch the start and end of the race on video. Check out all those runners. Congratulations to everyone who participated, from the runners to the many volunteers.

Hey Asheville peeps! Come on down to watch the race tomorrow. It’s sold out, but there is also a kids’ hill climb, hot cocoa, music and other family fun. PLUS, if you get there soon enough you can grab one of these cool AVL Marketing water bottles we had made for the event. I tried to talk Kevin into running the race in a gorilla suit wearing an AVL Marketing t-shirt, but he thought water bottles would be a better promotion. So there it is. Come and get ‘em.

Good luck racers!

More info here: Hot Chocolate 10K

Jack Carrier (the man in the dog suit) strikes again. We have seen this designer dog tag crowdsourcing entrepreneur in video, in costume, on this blog before. The video above is certainly more professional and does a great job telling the story of DogTagArt.com, a website for custom dog tags.

See Carolina Connect 2010 for more info.

Thursday! Thursday! Thursday! Bryan Freeborn brings the blitz. One day only! Get the blitz “bestowed” upon ye. Special appearance by Go-Go the Gorilla.

He, Bryan, not Go-Go, is a firehouse of ideas, all good, and this is your chance for some free goodness. He offered to buy an Ideation Blitz shirt for me and I turned him down, to my everlasting regret. And I don’t even wear t-shirts. That thing turned out sweet!

May 13 at The Renaissance in downtown Asheville. Come an’ get it!

Oh yes, you want to be at this event. Carolina Connect 2010 is sure to be a great opportunity to network with all sorts of businesspeople in Western North Carolina, and way beyond. Many of the speakers and panelists are coming from all over the country.

I’m moderating a panel in the Entrepreneurial track with some great panelists from local startups, a major media company, and an international corporation that the founder recently sold. The overall theme is still being worked out but we will certainly discuss the “growing pains” with any successful startup, big mistakes to avoid, managing remote teams and outsourcers, leveraging technology, and anything else we can jam into the hour.

At the end of the day there will be a bunch “Critical Conversations” and Bryan and I are hosting one of those. It will certainly be related to modern marketing but we are up for discussing anything. Please let us know your thoughts.

And remember, tickets are only $95 if you register by May 7. After that tickets are $125.

See Carolina Connect 2010 for more info.

Shaky cam strikes again! Too much coffee this morning, or not enough? I’m not sure. But I think you can still clearly see how fantastic this handmade furniture is, by Brian Boggs and company. The barstools Brian shows us in this video are exquisite. They are an interesting juxtaposition of hard edged precision geometry and deliberately visible hand work. And freakishly comfortable.

We really enjoyed our time in the shop today and for a furniture nerd like me it’s hard to not start dreaming up things to make after being around all that creativity and craftsmanship, and tools (covet covet).

Visit BrianBoggsChairs.com for more info.

“I— Am— Sil-ho-uette Man, In-ter-view-ing peo-ple as fast as I can…”

First time I’ve used the Flip camera in the conference room at the new office. Now I know. Don’t sit in front of the windows, too much backlight. I had a great meeting with Eric and Trevor at Lab Escape. They are from a software company, based in Asheville, that makes “heat map” products.

“Lab Escape provides information visualization solutions for businesses seeking to better understand their data. Our products include our Tree Map, which shows trends and highlights anomalies, and our Data Map SDK, which provides support for building your own data maps.”

It’s an interesting business with several big name clients. I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say beyond that but when I say big I mean el grande. So if you’re wrestling with great gobs of data, trying to make sense of it all, check out their heat map software.

Heat maps can help you visualize:

“Sales Performance
Risk Management
Market Share Analysis
Asset Management
Market Basket Analysis
Network Monitoring
Investment Performance
Budget Analysis
Portfolio Management
Performance Tracking
Trend Detection
Opportunity Analysis”

That’s all for now.

Yesterday I met with Renee Owen, Executive Director at Rainbow Mountain Children’s School. This is a great, small private school in west Asheville. They serve kids from preschool through eighth grade. I have firsthand experience with school because both of my kids have been students there, and it’s been a good experience. The school has developed a fantastic community of students, parents and faculty.

If you’re looking for a private school in Asheville find more about Rainbow at RMCS.org.