Boston, my boxer, was still able to get around at the time, but he was getting significantly less exercise. Before his arthritis began to impact his ability to walk, he would walk for upwards of an hour at a time. As he lost strength in his hindquarters, I used a Silver Tail Bottom’s Up Harness to help keep him upright. I also recommend the Silver Tail harness and I still use it for short distances. A rear harness is great for quick trips and getting in and out of vehicles, but it did not allow him to get around under his own power. Because a rear harness requires me to hold it at all times, Boston would only go out for short trips. He could not follow his own path, stop to sniff or relieve himself without help.

I assumed that I should wait to look into dog wheelchairs until he lost the ability to walk at all, but my girlfriend suggested I purchase a wheelchair while he still had some strength and control. She believed that it would help support Boston rather than become his only way to get around. She was 100% correct. We researched all the options available, but most dog wheelchairs were bulky and poorly designed. Many products received poor reviews with users stating that the wheelchairs they selected were uncomfortable for the dog and awkward to use. The only product consistently receiving positive feedback was Walkin’ Wheels.

I purchased a Walkin’ Wheels Dog Wheelchair late winter of 2013, and I am very happy with our choice. The Walkin’ Wheels product is way ahead of the competition by form and function. It is designed with high quality materials, and it has both the dog and the owner in mind. The wheelchair is easy to use, fits him well, is easily adjusted and can fold up to fit in the trunk of our car. The setup was simple and fast. He took to it immediately.

Although it states that you slowly get your dog accustomed to the wheelchair by using it for small periods of time, Boston walked for 30 minutes with no signs of discomfort. On his first day of use, he started walking and kept on walking. The first video below was recorded during his first few moments in the wheelchair. The second video shows Boston on a dirt trail moving faster than we could keep up.

The Walkin’ Wheels Dog Wheelchair is an excellent product. He continues to use his rear legs, and if anything it is extending his life. It supports him rather than replacing his legs as he moves. He doesn’t know the difference. All he knows is that he can walk as long as he wants at the speed he wants. The product is slightly more expensive than some out there, but it is very well designed. He is comfortable, it is easy to use and very easy to collapse for travel. Just seeing him still using his rear legs and watching him enjoy walking is worth the cost. If you are considering purchasing a wheelchair for your dog, do it before your dog loses full control of its legs, and strongly consider a Walkin’ Wheels Dog Wheelchair.

My specialty is driving ROI with measurable tactics including social media, SEO, PPC, content and media, digital advertising, branding, email, data visualization and whatever comes next. In my last role, I ran the social media practice and developed strategies that generated approximately $1 million in new revenue for Penton Media, the largest and oldest media and publishing company in the US.

My core skills include:
• Integrated Digital and Social Media Marketing
• SEO and Search Engine Marketing
• Delivery Management and Process Development
• Online Monitoring and Analysis
• Internet Technology and Analytics
• Marketing Strategy and Execution
• Sales Training and Support
• Emerging and New Media
• Speaking and Thought Leadership

I thrive on creating strategies that drive measurable and reoccurring revenue through integrated digital marketing services. This includes creating and evolving offerings, managing the delivery as well as working with other internal groups to provide integrated digital marketing solutions for B2B, B2C and non-profit organizations. I also love working with clients as well as supporting sales efforts to help close new business with key accounts. In the last two years I signed, created and managed the execution of large social media programs for DuPont, the American Cancer Society, Rosetta Stone, HP and many others.

For more detail, please visit my LinkedIn profile: www.LinkedIn/in/AndrewGBates

My resume is available for download: Andrew Bates Resume – Director of Digital Marketing

I turned off LinkedIn autoplay ads through the settings. It took me a few minutes digging around for it because it is not an option directly under the Privacy Controls menu under the Profile tab.

Here is the path I followed:

1 – Hover you courser over your profile picture in the top right corner of the page. Select Privacy and Settings.

2 – On that page you will find a section in the bottom left with Profile as the first tab. On the profile tab the privacy controls menu is the first series of option to edit settings, but there is nothing listed that will turn of the autoplay advertising videos. Select the Account section 3 tabs down from the Profile tab.

3 – At the top there is another Privacy Controls menu with a single option – Manage Advertising Preferences. Selecting this setting pops up a small window with a checkbox selecting setting – LinkedIn may show me ads on third-party websites.

When you change the third-party ads setting you will not have autoplay videos on your home page. You won’t see those ads anymore, but you also won’t see ads from any organizations that you may have interest in viewing. This is important for any business advertising on LinkedIn. Even if a business does not have autoplay videos ads, it should be aware that others may not follow the same strategies. Every business needs to be aware that autoplay videos as well as popups greatly increase bounce rates.

For more info around bounce rate concepts, check out Search Engine Watch’s recent post, “Reduce Bounce Rate: 20 Things to Consider.”

Me at SXSW Interactive 2013

The People – First and foremost, it is the people you meet and the conversations you develop that truly make it worth the cost and trip. Attendees are friendly, eager to connect and interested in learning about and from each other. SXSWi is the definition of community engagement.

Tip - Don’t be afraid to start conversations with total strangers. You can often find people with similar interests in blogger lounges and at off campus events. Even if people are well known industry experts, they are likely willing and happy to chat with you.

Me with Pete Cashmore, Founder of Mashable

Sessions vs. Events – The sessions are so diverse that they have become completely focused on niche topics. They may be panels, workshops or even book readings by experts. Events focus on interaction with other attendees, and they are intended for casual conversations and fun.

Tip – Pick only the sessions that pertain to your interests. You may only be able to attend 2-3 per day, so choose those that directly relate to what you do as well as those that fit your personal interests. For the events, go to those that are sponsored by well-known brands in your industry and sign up on eventbrite for events weeks ahead of your trip. Get to them all early. Space is limited and lines are long.

The Tradeshow – The tradeshow floor is packed with vendors and startups looking to build as much brand awareness as possible. They are frequently app or software developers, websites showcasing new services and tools as well as physical technologies. This year there was even 3d printing machines building examples in real-time.

Tip - Save your trip to the tradeshow floor for the day that has the least sessions of interest to you. Move quickly and take advantage of the free swag, but you cannot visit every booth. There is a difference between cool and valuable, so spend your time with those vendors that are offering something with practical applications.

Factory.org 3D Printing

The Sponsors – Big brands like Samsung and Chevrolet spend a ton of money to grab your attention. They show off new products and services with demos and contests. They also often provide charging stations for mobiles devices and laptops to ensure you will stop by. Chevy even offered free taxi services in its new Cruze sedan.

Tip – No real tip on this one. Check them out. People win great prizes. I even got the opportunity to drive a 2012 Corvette Grand Prix around the area. That was awesome.

I test drove a 2012 Chevrolet Grand Prix

Fun and Food – Austin and SXSW in particular are likely the most fun city and event you have the opportunity to attend each year. The entire city opens its arms and welcomes everyone and anyone. The city even sections off all streets within a few block radius around the convention center. The streets are filled with musicians, magicians and performers of all types.

Tip - Walk 6th st and you will see it all. Don’t waste your time in a hotel restaurant. Even the food trucks serve up great meals. The interactive, music and film portions of the festival overlap, so you never know who you may see. Famous movie stars and musicians are known to show up without any promotion. They also come to have fun and experience the festival.

Hotels and Travel – There are a number of hotels within walking distance of the convention center, but not that many. Most are upscale and expensive. The Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is big enough that nearly all airlines come in from most major airports.

Tip – Book both early. Six months in advance if possible. You don’t want to stay in a hotel so far away that you end up spending $30+ on cabs every day. Flights are also expensive and are frequently booked by veteran attendees months in advance. The badges also become more expensive as the festival approaches.

SXSW Interactive is my favorite “business” event each year. I won’t lie and say that I don’t have a great time, but I learn more in one week there then I do over the rest of the year. The connections are invaluable. You will likely make connections that you would never be able to under any other circumstances.

Social Media monitoring is one of the most popular methods of gaining business intelligence across the web, but is also frequently misunderstood. Many organizations use software to find and report on mentions of their brands’ name online. This is a good start to understanding the strength of your brand, but it does not provide the context and full picture to truly show your brands place within its digital universe.

Within the Social Media and Online Monitoring Presentation Deck attached, I define, explain and provide tactics to develop an effective brand monitoring program. In this SlideShare presentation, I share strategies to answer key questions that will allow your organization to further evolve its digital marketing strategies.

These questions include:

 Who is talking about our brand?
 What is being said online about our brand & products? Is it positive or negative?
 Where is this conversation occurring?
 Who are the influencers authorities in our industry?
 What are our competitors doing?
 Are we missing important information about our brand, industry, audience or any other valuable insight? What do we not know?
 What strategies can we incorporate into our marketing and business development efforts that will drive thought leadership, brand awareness and ROI?

Please let me know what you think about this presentation> welcome your questions and ideas.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was established by President Eisenhower in 1958. Unlike the secretive government agencies that formed the US intelligence community and military, NASA was intended to communicate openly with the civilian audience. Its goal was and is to encourage “peaceful applications in space science.”

NASA has profiles on all of the major social networks and its content and engagement strategies are appropriate for each individual environment. Here are a few of my favorite.

@NASA Image of the Day – @NASA posts a lot of fun multimedia on their twitter profiles.

Foursquare check ins in space – NASA partnered with Foursquare to allow astronauts to check into the International Space Station (video). Foursquare also has a badge for checking into the planet of Mars, but it will be a while before we can all unlock that one.

Building a community – The agency also has a strong social media focus on the website allowing people to “Connect and Collaborate with NASA.”

NASA does a great job at going beyond sharing content to building a strong following through many engagement tactics. It also uses multimedia, emerging networks and events to drive activity and awareness. Even those who find astronomy boring may change their minds when they take a look.

LinkedIn Recommendations

Professional recommendations have been and will always be seen as votes of confidence from colleagues and coworkers. Hiring managers frequently speak with a candidate’s references, but this is most often done after submitting a resume and frequently after the first successful interview. With LinkedIn’s Recommendation feature, you can help your contacts during the recruiting process and well before they walk in the door for their first interview.

To truly support your colleagues, it has become increasingly important to craft a well written recommendation that will grab the attention of vendors, hiring managers and recruiters. Here are some tips on how to write a great LinkedIn recommendation that will help your contacts differentiate themselves from other candidates with similar experiences.

Recommendations are different than Endorsements. Recently LinkedIn added a feature to allow contacts to endorse each other without providing written detail. You can endorse an individual’s skills with a single click. Because a real recommendation takes effort and provides detail, it shows that you feel strongly about backing your contact.

LinkedIn Endorsements

Only recommend contacts that you have worked with in the past. This is not an outside sales tactic. Writing recommendations should not be used as a way to get your foot in the door. Your goal should be to reward your contacts for their experiences and successes.

Save them for those who deserve it. Do not offer recommendations to everyone you know professionally. You are publicly stating that you feel strongly about your contact. Others will be influenced by the detail you provide.

Keep it brief. Cleary state the value your contact provides to an organization. You must get the point across quickly. Doing so may also increase the likelihood that the reader will view other recommendations your colleague has earned.

Be specific about skills and accomplishments. The reader understands that you are recommending your contact. Explain why. Make sure your examples support the skills and experiences listed on your contact’s profile.

LinkedIn Recommendations have significant influence on the way other users view your colleagues’ profile. Make an effort to write one that gets noticed and they may even return the favor.

Social Media Neuromarketing Revisited 2011

For the first of these posts, I’m including a 2011 blog post on the EyeTraffic Media and Penton Media’s site. This was my second post following up on, “Neuromarketing in Social Media.” In 2010 I attended 2 session focused on applying the principles of neuromarketing to the decision making process. This program explained how the brain evolved and how that impacts the ways our brains processes information. It was a fascinating course. I apply these concepts in my marketing programs.

Ways to Utilize Social Media for B2B Sales

For my next post I offered ideas on how to use social media to benefit B2B sales. This post describes a process sales professionals can follow to best utilize social media while prospecting, preparing for the pitch as well as ways to follow up to keep the opportunity warm.

Content and Conversion – Volume Does Not Equal Volume

Now most online marketers are becoming aware that vomiting content on their audience hurts more than it helps. The industry is just beginning to address this issue. Many organizations post content for contents sake. So much so that Google is penalizing sites for sharing too much content that provides little value to its audience.

What Makes a Good Infographic

There are too many poorly designed infographics floating around these days. Most lack key elements that make an infographic great; not just good. In this post I describe the core elements of a successfully executed infographic – Audience, Message, Tone and Personality, Theme and Hook. Since the Pinterest craze started I’ve been pinning them all on my infographic board.

Navigating the B2B Social Media Universe Infographic

I can’t pretend that I did not become engulfed in the infographic craze. I pin and post most that I come across. This particular infographic caught my attention because I’m an astronomy geek as well as a social media marketer. The stats are also interesting. Just today I pinned “The Cost of Living on Mars.”

The Best Times of Day to Post Content on Social Media Profiles

We post content all day, but is our core audience seeing it? Thanks to analytics we can test this concept ourselves. The industry also has more data on this now and a few are included in this post. It just happens to be an odd fact that there is an infographic included in this post as well.

Duplicate Content – Will Google Penalize Your Website When Quoting Others? via Google’s Matt Cutts

Looking back, this post has a very long title, but duplicate content is a huge issue. In this video Matt Cutts, Google’s SEO authority, answers questions and offers advice on how to reference and quote other posts properly.

8 Search Engine Optimization Tips for Blog Content

This may be one of my more valuable posts of last year. SEO and content have a symbiotic relationship. One cannot succeed without the other. This post contains a list of 8 SEO concepts to think about when preparing to share content.

2012 B2B Social Media Statistics

Posted in January of this year, this post lists some of the most valuable B2B social media marketing stats of 2012. I found this data on a number of sites including MarketingProfs and ClickZ. Sam Hunter helped quickly create the infographic included to test how fast we can produce basic visuals.

Those are my 2012 posts on the EyeTraffic Media / Penton Marketing Services blog. Unfortunately switching from our old wordpress site to Penton’s DNN architecture did not allow us to archive outs posts starting in 2009.

It is obvious that she knows what she is talking about and that she has a strong understanding of how businesses struggle with their online identity. In Online Reputation Management for Dummies Lori breaks down the why, what and how of online brand monitoring. She gives the context and examples of why an organization should care about their industry and audience online as well as why this concept is important to the bottom line of any business big or small. She then explains how to set up an online reputation management and response team with details on what resources it will take to execute a successful internet and social media monitoring program.

I strongly recommend that you add this book to your online and digital marketing resources.

Some facts include:

- If Facebook was a country, it would be the third largest, reaching 1 billion users in 2012
- Everyday 20% of the searches in Google have never been searched before
- 1 in 5 couples meet online

As a social media specialist, I find the information to be fascinating and many of the facts update me on topics that I speak about every day. All though the same anoying song is in this version as well, I still recomend sharing this with your contacts.