After going on a jog at 5:30 AM with the man himself, Peter Shankman, Alhan Keser attended his keynote on the 3rd and final day of Affiliate Summit East 2009 on behalf of Blue Fountain Media.

A visionary in the world of Social Media and PR, Shankman is the founder of HARO the largest free source repository for journalists anywhere in the world. During his keynote, he made some great points on the importance of listening and connectivity for brands, individuals, and corporations–in real-life or on the internet.

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President of New Marketing Labs, Chris Brogan, delivered the keynote speech at Affiliate Summit East 2009, focusing on his new book, Trust Agents. As Brogan put it very well, the importance of social media is not about how to Tweet, or how to use Facebook. The real question is, “How do you connect with people online where you don’t have personal interaction?”

More and more Fortune 500 companies are having trouble connecting to their target audience. What it comes down to, as Brogan said, is an attention war against “everything in the world” – spam emails, real world events, and their friends. Companies are in constant competition against other attention grabbers. The way to reach them is ultimately by building trust.
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