Acquisition Enhances Performance-based Social Engagement Advertising Offering

ATLANTA / June 8, 2010 – BLiNQ Media, a Social Engagement AdvertisingSM company and the pioneer of performance-driving CPSASM (Cost per Social ActionSM), announced today the acquisition of Atlanta-based Charles Lumpkin + Partners, an online media planning and buying company specializing in search marketing, performance display, mobile and social media advertising. Charles Lumpkin, founder of Charles Lumpkin + Partners, will take on the role of Vice President of Media at BLiNQ Media.

Lumpkin will oversee all media services for BLiNQ Media and help lead the strategic development of the BAM (BLiNQ Ad Manager) system. His technology background and experience working with fast-growth entrepreneurial ventures and Fortune 500 companies will be an asset to BLiNQ Media and its customers. A noted expert in search marketing and performance-based media, Lumpkin has managed “multi-million dollar search marketing and cost-per-acquisition budgets for companies who demand disciplined, intelligent and measureable Internet advertising.”

Lumpkin’s associate, Josh West, will take on the role of Senior Media Manager, and will provide day-to-day management and optimization for BLiNQ Media client campaigns using the BAM system. West also brings significant search marketing and performance-based media buying experience to the team from past work with companies such as Staples and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG). Both Lumpkin and West have degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

“Charles Lumpkin + Partners blends a compelling combination of technology, analytics and performance-based online media which will help us maximize social media advertising results for our customers as well as contribute to the ongoing development of our BAM technology,” commented Dave Williams, CEO, President and Co-founder of BLiNQ Media. “Together, our companies will provide superior social engagement advertising solutions to brand marketers and agencies.”

About Charles Lumpkin + Partners, LLC
Charles Lumpkin + Partners, an Atlanta-based firm led by noted expert Charles Lumpkin, provides counsel and advisory services in the areas of search marketing, performance display, mobile and social media advertising. Charles Lumpkin + Partners helps brands and agencies improve the ROI of their campaigns through campaign planning, optimization, landing page testing, and improving Web site conversion rates. Prior customers include leading brands such as The Home Depot, Brink’s Home Security, Liberty Medical, and FootSmart, among others.

About BLiNQ Media
BLiNQ Media, a Social Engagement AdvertisingSM company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, makes it easy for big brands to deliver break-through results in social networks like Facebook. BLiNQ Media is pioneering CPSASM (Cost Per Social ActionSM) and Social Engagement Advertising to drive up social ad performance while keeping costs down. BLiNQ Media fundamentally changes the way brands message, target and engage consumers in social networks with a strategy-based approach underpinning powerful media management technology, performance-based pricing and unparalleled quantitative analysis. BLiNQ Media’s family of innovative and powerful technology solutions, anchored by BAM (BLiNQ Ad Manager), was created with the Facebook Ads API to enable rapid and scalable management and optimization of performance-based social media campaigns. BLiNQ Media is a member of Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) and can be found on the Web at www.blinqmedia.com, as well as on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Transcript:
Hey folks. My name is Charles Lumpkin. I appreciate you spending some time with me today. Today we’re going to talk about shelf space theory.

Ken Robbins, the president of Response Mine, where I used to work, used to always say this: “It’s like you walk into a grocery store. You go down the cereal isle, and there you have all these different cereals. Unbeknownst to you, yes, they look like all these different cereals, but half of them are owned by General Mills.” That’s Shelf Space Theory in the grocery store.

Now let’s talk about that as it relates to the search page. So, the anatomy of the search page, as you know, is that on the left hand side you have all these natural search listings. Across the top and on the right you have the paid listings. The simplest form of shelf spacing is when you know the particular term is very profitable for you, and you’ve been running it in paid search. Now you’re going to optimize for it in SEO, so you have two spaces there on the page. What we’re talking about is taking up more and more screen real estate.

There are more things you can do to improve and get more and more shelf space. Things like down lining deals to affiliates. There’s a whole variety of different ways.

So shelf space theory is that if you have a particularly good pot of gold, mine it more aggressively.

Again, my name is Charles Lumpkin, and you can find more of me at CharlesLumpkin.com Thank you.

Transcript:
Hey folks. My name is Charles Lumpkin. Today I want to talk to you about building a network of sites. Now, this is going to be another one of those infuego issues that I’m going to get crushed with email on. That’s cool. I’m just going to put it out there for you and let you make your own decisions.

What this is all about is… Ok, you’ve got one site in an industry. Now, from an SEO perspective it’s called a “Link Network.” You’ll hear a lot of people say that link networks don’t work. They still work, but the tend to work in smaller niches. You’re not going to be at the top of the keyword “tables” by building out solely on a network of sites.

So here’s the thing. You create several sites, and you strategically link those together. Now, Google hates this. Absolutely hates this. Again, if they find you, they’re going to burn you. Now, how do they find you? They’re going to do some link analysis, so don’t go crazy linking every site to every site. That’s one thing, but another thing that you want to avoid is when you register these domains, registering these domains in your name. You have to register them privately. When you first do the hand registration for those domains, you have to register them privately, so when they’re created in the system, from the first time it doesn’t show your name. Why is Google a registrar? It’s not because they’re trying to make money off of domain names and their registrations. It’s because they want the data so they can connect the dots and understand who understands who owns which sites. So take the defense on that side.

Now, again, I’m going to get flamed up for this one, and that’s cool cause I’ll start some controversy and that’s fine. My name is Charles Lumpkin and you can find more of me at CharlesLumpkin.com. Thank you.