The BIZTECH CONFERENCE & EXPO is a two-day event featuring the region’s most successful people in business and technology. http://www.wilmingtonbiz.com/biztech/

Keynote speakers, seminars and the expo will help companies and their employees develop professionally, make new connections and reach new customers. Topics include:

Strategies to finance your business, social media marketing, search engine optimization, internet marketing and more!

Perspective Internet Marketing & Sage Island will be just a couple of the Seminar Sponsors. BIZTECH SEMINARS

• The Rise of Health Information Exchanges
• Microsoft’s View of the Cloud
• Facebook Marketing Campaigns — Strategy to Metrics
• Strengthening Your Website’s Presence through an Integrated Marketing Plan
• The Future of IT
• Lessons in Leadership
• Cyber Security
• How to value your business

We are excited to be a part of this special event featuring the area’s most successful people in business and technology,  including our very own Mike Duncan. The expo, held at the new Wilmington Convention Center will include keynote speakers, seminars, and over 100 exhibitors.  The event will help connect employees with new customers and will include an all start line up of educational internet marketing seminars.

Mike is scheduled to speak on the 14th from 9:45 – 10:45 a.m. His seminar “Strengthening Your Web Site’s Presence through an Integrated Marketing Plan” will teach business owners the tactics behind growing an online brand.

Don’t miss the areas largest business event! For full Biz Tech Schedule and to get your tickets click here!

Mike Duncan, Sage Island’s CEO, will be presenting a seminar on using Google Analytics to help drive your marketing dollars during the upcoming Surf Expo trade show. For more info please visit Surf Expo.

Surf Expo, Orlando, FL
January 6, 2011 – 11:30 a.m.

Let Analytics Spend your Marketing Dollars
Presented by Mike Duncan CEO Sage Island
Is your e-commerce website reaching its full potential? An effective and profitable site must contain the meta data and Search Engine Optimization tactics that drive qualified traffic. And once there, visitors must be greeted by an efficient site with optimal customer service. However what happens after that? Understanding your traffic analytics can allow you to fine tune your marketing techniques for a greater return on your investment. This seminar, presented my Mike Duncan, CEO of Sage Island teaches you key factors of your website’s data so that you can increase traffic and sales. Learn how to problem solve your marketing through analytics, and put your website to work for you.

Mike Duncan will be speaking at Board Retailers Certification Program, Survival of the Fittest, in Orlando, Florida on January 5th from 10:00 am – 5:00 pm for the Retail Finance and Retail Technology Courses. In its second year, Survival of the Fittest is designed to provide retail attendees an in-depth look at Retail Finance and Retail Technology, two areas of significance in today’s retail environment. For more info on this series please visit Board Retailers Association.

Click here for the complete agenda.

E-Commerce Strategies that Produce Results
Mike Duncan, CEO Sage Island
Your website is a vital extension of your business, so it’s crucial to have a marketing plan behind it that maximizes your investment. In this seminar Mike Duncan, CEO of Sage Island teaches effective strategies that help fine tune an ecommerce site into a profitable sales generating machine. As featured on CNNMoney.com, Mike speaks to the digital age of customer service in specialty retail and the necessity of a well designed website. By skillfully integrating Internet Marketing, social media, product recommendations, Live Chat, and more, Mike knows the successful e-Commerce strategies that make conversions and increase your bottom line.

Retail Technology
 Includes seminars, presentations and roundtables focused on eCommerce Integration, Marketing, Supply Chain Management and Inventory Controls, QR/Mobile Codes, PCI Compliance, POS Software and Multi-Channel Retailing. If you have an online and brick-and-mortar shop, this is the course for you. Confirmed speakers include leading retail technology experts RMSA, e-commerce and marketing guru Mike Duncan of Sage Island Marketing who boasts a number of industry retail clients including Ambush, ZJ Boarding House, Christy Sports, Modern Skate & Surf and Forerunner Ski. Also confirmed to present are Clarinova who recently announced deals with LSpace and Sanuk, Leisure Trends Group (LTG), the industry’s premier research market intelligence firm and Nationwide Payment Solutions.

Your business is probably already on Facebook—taking advantage of the social media powerhouse to its fullest potential…right? By updating your customers on industry news or events, listening to their feedback, or just sharing information with your fans, your Facebook Business Page is an awesome outlet for enhancing the customer-brand experience.

To take your Business Page to the next  level, it may be time to customize a landing page. Having a well designed About or Welcome section is an ideal way to stand apart from your online competitors and break away from Facebook’s uniformity. You’ve probably seen these custom pages before, that mirror a company’s website or promote a special event.  They give the page a super polished look. When new viewers arrive on your Facebook Page, they automatically land on the  well designed “mini website” providing them with more information than ever and encouraging them to “like you.”

We have a lot of fun giving Facebook Pages this facelift! Check out the customized tabs for Sage Island and Warehouse Skateboards and contact us today  to have yours done!

I am pleased to announce on Monday we launched the new and improved online presence for Freeline. Known as ‘The Next Ride’, Freeline offers a new and innovative sport that is being seen all over the country, and world—the Freeline Skates. These skates were created in 2003 and feature dual independent skates with 2 wheels allowing the riders to ride faster, carve smooth ‘S’ turns and create new trick combos.

In an effort to support the growing Freeline community of fans and riders, this new website features a unique interactive community catered just for Freeliners. This community allows registered members to participate in forums, check out upcoming events, view videos and images and create a personal Freeline profile. This community even allows members to find other friends, exchange messages and engage in conversations via wall posts.

In addition to the community, the Freeline website also promotes and sells their products online; provides background information on the Freeline company; includes brief bios on the pro-team riders with each rider managing their own photos in a Flickr embedded photo gallery; has a separate retail login specifically for wholesale; and finally has a database driven authorized retailer search…WOW!

There is definitely more to come with this site as it continues to grow and expand, so be sure to check back often. In the meantime, be sure to check out the new site, store and community!

This week Facebook announced that they will be building a new data center in Forest City, N.C.  Officials say Facebook will be investing about $450 million dollars in the new center, which is expected to bring more than 250 construction related jobs during the building phase and 35-45 full time workers. Story below:

Facebook Chooses  North Carolina for New Data Center

“Following in the footsteps of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, which are building ever-growing networks of dta centers, Facebook said Thursday that it will build a new data center in Forest City, N.C. This will be the second data center that Facebook is building from the ground up. Its first center in Prineville, Ore., is under construction and is expected to open next year. Facebook also leases data center space — and in some cases entire data centers — in several other locations, including Santa Clara, Calif.

“This project continues Facebook’s strategy of moving from leased data centers to owned facilities that are customized to be more cost-effective and efficient,” Barry Schnitt, a Facebook spokesman, said on the company’s Web site.

In an accompanying press release, North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue said the center was expected to create more than 250 construction jobs during the 18-month building phase and would employ from 35 to 45 full-time and contract workers once the center was finished. Governor Perdue said that Facebook would invest about $450 million in the new center, which the company might expand depending on business needs.”

Read full story from The New York Times here.

Everyone’s been talking a lot lately about the impact of Twitter in search results, and of course, the ubiquitous “likes” from Facebook. It’s clear that social media has impacted SEO, as Google is changing the way it returns search results.  But what about this change is any different than the others?  SEO is constantly evolving and transforming and the addition of social media in search is yet another way to keep us on our toes. If you missed this article on Mashable,check it out.  And if you want to talk to us about your own site, contact us anytime.

How Social Search Will Transform the SEO Industry