Dave Bascom steps down as president and CEO but continues as an owner and advisor. Nelson James takes over as president, and Mike Mann as CEO. New management has big plans to surpass the SEO firm’s past rapid growth. Dave Bascom stepped down as CEO and President of SEO.com on Monday to take a position with a new division of Deseret Digital Media. Bascom will continue to have part ownership in the SEO company and will act in an advisory role.

“I helped build this company to a point where it’s established,” Bascom said. “Now I’m moving on to a new challenge with Deseret Digital Media. SEO.com has an amazing team and incredible leadership. It’s on a great growth track and is headed in the right direction. I’m confident SEO.com will have even more success in the future.”

From his basement, Bascom started the SEO company in 2003 under the name Web Targeted. In 2007, he obtained the SEO.com domain with Mike Mann, renamed the company, and since dramatically grew SEO.com despite tough economic times. In the last year, Utah Business Magazine named Bascom as a Top 40 Under 40; and V|Spring Capital named him a top 100 entrepreneur in Utah.

Mann will be the acting CEO and placed Nelson James as the president of the company. James was formerly SEO.com’s vice president of client services, and has worked directly under Bascom for the past five years.

“Dave has been a great leader for this company and a mentor of mine for the past five years,” James said. “We have a great opportunity and strong leadership in place, and I look forward to continuing SEO.com’s growth. I wish Dave all the success he deserves.”

In the last two years, the search marketing firm grew from 12 employees to more than 60, moved to a larger office in Salt Lake County, and increased monthly revenue by more than 600 percent.

SEO.com was named the No. 2 SEO firm by Website Magazine, among the top 10 SEO firms in the country by PromotionWorld, and one of the top 25 fastest growing companies in Utah by the Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum two years running, including No. 6 in 2010. SEO.com also has been named among the Emerging Elite by MountainWest Capital Network.

“I want to thank Dave for bringing SEO.com to where it is today,” Mann said. “He has done an incredible job. His efforts to date have, and will, perpetually benefit the charities we support, which is extremely important and the main impetus for all of my work. With Nelson, we will carry on the tradition of providing great results for clients, and we will continue to grow.”

About SEO.com
SEO.com is a search marketing firm that delivers a big ROI for its clients by driving traffic to their websites through aggressive search engine optimization, pay per click management, and social media marketing. SEO.com then turns those visitors into sales through search-optimized Web design and conversion optimization. Clients range from small startups to Fortune 100 companies. For more information, visit http://www.seo.com/

Check out the flyer below and please pass the word to your associates.

Enspark

Bonus: Check out Enspark’s latest free customizable elearning game.

Three Areas that Stand to Change the Face of eLearning

Instructional and educational technologists who see value in eLearning are constantly finding new ways to answer and rebut arguments against it. eLearning and its implementations may be considered still in an infancy stage, but will evolve as quickly as its creators adapt and innovate with new tools like augmented reality development, interactive courseware, etc. A few of the areas that most likely to change the eLearning landscape:

• mLearning. The next revolution in personal computing has come in the palms of our hands. While many still spend a great deal of time on personal computers, the huge degree of penetration by mobile devices into mainstream society has got us all wondering how learning happens for a very mobile population. Maybe mLearning, much like e-mail or e-commerce, will eventually seem like a misnomer because that’s how we’ll all use the internet of the [very near] future.
• Social Learning and Collaboration. Let’s face it: whether you like Facebook or not, it (and sites like it) have changed the face of the internet. And although users already spend over 300 percent more time on Facebook than Google, social media websites are continuing to find ways to keep users on their sites longer. The wild popularity of social tools like Facebook has left educational technologists questioning the value traditional, lonely, self-paced learning. Is learning more effective (if not at least more exciting) in groups, collaboratively?
• Accountability. Similar to early ventures by brick and mortar stores into e-commerce, eLearning is too young to be able to give stakeholders solid ROI reports, benchmarks, and actionable insights. But with recession-constricted budgets, uneducated workforces, and pressing training needs banging on the door, eLearning will have to find a way to prove its value and place.  Once it’s seen as worthwhile and budget-worthy cause then the learning analytics and data can focus more on optimizing and solving for the learner rather than justifying its existence.

eLearning has been seeing amazing changes in our society. The ways people work, access information, communicate, socialize and even consume (think consumers) has changed in basic, fundamental ways. And, inevitably, the way that they learn will change too.

Solution Services, Inc

What are the Real Benefits?

The most obvious benefit to hiring someone else to do your human resources management is the amount of time it will free up. When you don’t have to spend as much time on employee administration, you can start to look at many other opportunities for growing the business. On the Solution Services website (www.ssihr.com) they list the top reasons to consider outsourcing options. Outsourced HR will:

• Prepare payroll and pay employees
• Pay all payroll and statutory taxes
• Provide assistance with regulatory compliance
• Pay state and federal unemployment insurance
• Provide workers’ compensation insurance, audits, and claims management
• Consult and develop a workplace safety program
• Provide a complete insurance and fringe benefits package
• Provide HR consulting services
• Administer and procure health insurance
• Prepare customized employee handbooks

Why Use a Utah Payroll Outsourcing Company?

Modern businesses face a world of complexities and challenges every day. There are employees to care for, customers to appease, and industry regulations to follow. Even in the best of times, these demands can cause a lot of stress on managers and employers. This is why so many companies are looking at different options for outsourced HR in Utah. Professionals, like the ones at Solutions Services, can usually consult these companies to discover its needs and suggest the best strategies for dealing with benefits, payroll, worksite safety, and employee risk management.

Side note: Solution Services is currently offering a complimentary set of federal and Utah State regulatory compliance posters for local businesses.

Funding Universe is hosting their popular SpeedPitch event on July 7, 2010 wherein you can pitch your new business to 20 to 30 investors for free. Free! (They used to charge for this event.)

I participated in a SpeedPitch last year and not only enjoyed the time meeting and getting feedback from investors, but found that I was able to better refine my company pitch and the experience was well worth the effort.

SpeedPitch is an opportunity to pitch dozens of active and engaged investors. The format is simple & personal. You’ll sit at a table with just 3-4 investors whom you’ll pitch to and converse with. After rotating through 10 tables of investors a catered lunch will be served over a final 30 minutes of networking.

July 7, 2010
11:30 am – 1:30 pm
Salt Lake Community College — Miller Business Innovation Center
Karen Gail Miller Conference Center
9750 South 300 West
Sandy, UT
map

Prizes

• The winner gets a plaque! (… and $5,800 of services from our sponsors):
• NOWAdvisors: 12 hours of financial & accounting services = $1,800 value
• FundingUniverse: startup services = $2,500 value
• Amazon: web services = $500 value
• CLI: legal services = $1,000 value

Never before has your online reputation been so important; a negative blog post, social media comment, or product review can spread online like wildfire.

Google is giving greater value to blogs and user-generated content, which means negative twitter comments and bad reviews will hurt your business and cost you customers.

Join my good friend Ash Buckles for an informative webinar on Thursday, May 27.

Ash is the Director of SEO at SEO.com and will discuss how to protect and influence your online reputation.

Reputation Management Webinar
Thursday, May 27
9:30 a.m. MDT

Register for more information at Reputation Management Webinar.

Modern copy machines store a copy of every copy made. Shocked?

I was, just as I began thinking about all the things I have made copies of; contracts, agreements, financial records, plans, password documents I keep in a safe. All kinds of confidential business stuff. My heart really began to race as I considered all the places I might have copied personal documents such as social security cards, drivers’ licenses, bills, taxes and medical records. Oh my!

The security risk isn’t immediately apparent until you realize many of these machines are leased, and ultimately go back into the system to be leased again, or sold. Sometimes to your competitor, sometimes to foreign countries, and sometimes (as implied in the video, below) to people who know they are getting a harvest of confidential information that can be exploited. Think about all your records being copied by your doctor, your financial planner or your credit card company.

As a business, we have a responsibility to keep records safe and secure. It also pays to be aware of how securities can be circumvented, if even in the most benign of ways.

So, as my public service announcement of the day, I present to you one of the most shocking YouTube videos I have ever watched:

*Thank you to my good friend and Utah CFO Kent Thomas for the adrenaline rush this late Friday afternoon. Kent is my CFO, and always has my back.

The six part series can be attended as a group, or ala carte. The cost for all six parts is $75, or you can attend any of the six for $25 each. To get the $75 deal you must register before May 26.

The training sessions will be held at the Miller Business Resource Center SLCC Miller Campus. You’ll find it at 9750 South 300 West Sandy, Utah 84070. Classes are held on their respective days from 10:00am- 12:30. Sack lunches are provided to attendees.

Here’s the run down on the classes:

1. May 27: Are you building a VC or Investor Ready Company? Venture Economics
2. June 24: Designing the Perfect Investor
3. July 22: Raising Money; Non-Venture sources of Capital
4. August 26: Start-up therapy
5. September 22: Legal Clinic; Deal Docs: what to expect when you close a round of funding
6. October 28: Networking; knowing how to find, get, capture and retain contacts.

To Register, visit: http://ufoftraining.eventbrite.com/

Please forward this message to those that would benefit from this training.

For questions or more information please contact:

Tamee Roberts
Office Project and Govt Relations Manager
Utah Fund of Funds
310 South Main Street Suite 1310
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
801-521-3078 ph

Nominate a Top 25 Under 5 Company!

Top 25 Under Five spotlights outstanding Utah entrepreneurs and emerging companies from across the state. Award recipients will be recognized at ceremonies on July 8th, with sponsors including Omniture, Silicon Slopes and InnoVentures.

UVEF’s Top 25 Under Five Awards have recognized the development of more than 200 individuals and companies, including Utah success stories like ZAGG, Agel Enterprises, Interbank FX, Seastone, Altiris, Omniture, and Xango among many others.

Companies throughout Utah, five years old or younger, are invited to apply electronically. Applicants are judged based on revenue and job creation.

The Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum (UVEF) is a volunteer non-profit support group linking entrepreneurs to Money, Markets, and Mentors. Celebrating 21 years of new business success, UVEF empowers current and future business leaders to thrive in today’s competitive market. We provide real-world, practical education and valuable resources on how to access needed capital, attract new customers and tap into industry experts. For information on upcoming meetings, speakers and exclusive membership benefits visit www.uvef.net.

Press and interested media companies can contact Andon Carling at PilmerPR, (801) 368-7249.

Questions about Top 25 Under 5 or UVEF? Contact michelle@uvef.net

My friends at the Women Tech Council are hosting the Building Trust in a Connected World Summit: Get INspired!

Learn more about the conference.

The event will feature three New York Times Best Selling authors:

• Chris Brogan
• Julien Smith
• Mitch Joel

This event brings together today’s most respected thought leaders in social media marketing and building meaningful online relationships.

The summit will feature each speaker for 45 minutes and conclude with a roundtable Q&A.

Breakfast is included and each attendee will receive a copy of Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, and Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel.

The event is Tuesday, May 11 from 7:30 a.m. to Noon. Meet at Noah’s in South Jordan (322 West 11000 South, South Jordan, Utah 84095).

Registration, breakfast and networking are from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., speakers begin at 8:30 a.m.: Don’t be late!

Cost is $65 for members, and $75 for non-members. Registration fee non-refundable

Ready to attend? Register for the Summit.