Summary by Lane R. Ellis
Video interview by Vanessa Zamora
As thousands of search and social media professionals moved through the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center during November's huge 2009 Las Vegas PubCon, WebmasterWorld video content producer Vanessa Zamora caught up with Outspoken Media chief executive Rae Hoffman.
During their video interview Hoffman told Zamora how Spring Hill, Florida-based Outspoken Media, an Internet marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) firm, has been growing quickly, and spoke about the importance of new businesses building technically sound Web sites.
Hoffman shared some tips for protecting a business's brand on all of the popular social media sites using tools such as KnowEm, and said that her Web site publishing firm, MFE Interactive, has had ongoing success using Twitter as a gorilla marketing tool.
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The interview featured Hoffman, a frequent speaker at PubCon search and social media conferences over the years, examining search leader Google's decision to officially make its Caffeine search engine project available to wider audiences while PubCon was taking place.
Hoffman questioned whether the timing of the move by Google could be acting as a form a cover to deflect questions about some other Google policy or service change.
Hoffman also told Zamora about what she considers the value of networking at PubCon, and some of the ideas she got from her fellow speakers on several of the conference's affiliate track sessions.
Before concluding the interview, Hoffman told Zamora that she has seen an increase in the number of affiliate companies who are aware of the importance of becoming a recognized brand name in their industry.
Hoffman also speculated on what some of the hot topics might be the next Las Vegas PubCon, suggesting that marketing and payment solutions for the mobile Web could become more important over the next year as more people set aside fears about making purchases from their cellphones.
