You did it, Portsmouth!
Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOMoz announced late last night that SEOMoz has selected Portsmouth, NH as one of three winners to host a #MozCation in 2012! That means SEOMoz will host a Meetup right here in Portsmouth, likely in the beginning of November!
In his announcement, Fishkin mentioned Portsmouth’s original content, tech/social media community, and creative tweets as reasons the city was selected to host SEOMoz, one of the world’s leading authorities on search engine optimization.
“We love the pictures, the images, all the videos from the individuals encouraging us to come to your city, the great tweets, the community that you’ve got there,” Fishkin said of Portsmouth. Here’s the full video:
SEOMoz chose two other cities to host a #MozCation in the coming months: Milwaukee, WI and Cape Town, South Africa (Was there ever a question? They named their money after Rand.)
MozCation is an effort SEOMoz launched last year to connect with local communities that support their work and are interested in learning more about search engine optimization.
“The Family MozCation is a way for us to get out on the road and meet the amazing people in our community,” SEOMoz’s site on MozCation explains. “While we still plan on having other meetups now and then, we wanted the people to give us ideas and help us choose where we should go. Just because you live in a small city, doesn’t mean you don’t have a chance!”
Portsmouth’s selection is evidence of that. Known as the “e-Coast” along with the surrounding Seacoast area because of its tech-centric businesses and residents, Portsmouth has a population of about 20,000. But the Seacoast tech and creative community worked together quickly and cooperatively to showcase all the city has to offer and to convince the SEOMoz team to come visit us!
We did it in relatively short order too, holding an initial planning meeting here at Raka on July 16. SEOMoz’ deadline for nominations was July 26.
From there, we worked largely through a Google Document – and of course on Twitter and email. Portsmouth peeps and others from NH, including agencies, tech companies, and individuals, pitched in whenever they had time to create this website, write original blog posts, Photoshop images of Roger Mozbot in Portsmouth, produce great video interviews as well as personal video pitches, make an interactive drinking map, compile Twitter lists, pin to our Pinterest board, and even generate local media coverage. And of course, we tweeted at a prolific level in support of Portsmouth’s bid.
You did it, Portsmouth! And in just 10 days.
There are too many individuals to thank for contributing to this effort, but you know who you are! This would not have happened without a complete team effort. (Here’s some of the companies involved.)
And now the fun part starts. We’re going to host SEOMoz right here in Portsmouth. (I am sure Rand Fishkin will appreciate some of our gastronomical choices including a 2 a.m. selection from the legendary Gilley’s menu.)
So stay connected and let’s get going! We will have more details soon from our contacts at SEOMoz about organizing a committee to help plan the event. I couldn’t be prouder to be a part of Portsmouth’s creative and tech community and want to personally thank everyone who contributed. Thank you, Portsmouth!
Wanna get involved? Just comment on this post or look for the #03801Moz hashtag on twitter to connect with everyone who’s working on the effort.
And don’t miss these other places to connect with #03801Moz!
#Mozcation – #03801 YouTube playlist
#MozCation – #03801Moz Pinterest board
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Foursquare List