Bruce, Susan and Virginia have a bone to pick with Facebook. The social network announced a number of changes at the f8 developer conference in April, including its plans to create Open Graph and a redesign of connections made throughout the service. The show hosts are concerned about the diminishing promise of privacy and user’s ability to control personal data on the service. Several security holes have been discovered since the platform changed, and some U.S. senators have even asked the social network to remove new features that may invade user privacy.


David Turner, technical lead of Facebook marketing firm Brand Glue, talks to Virginia about Facebook news feed optimization and ways to engage users to become fans on the social network. In the Wall Street Journal’s The Black Art of Writing Facebook Updates, Brand Glue shares recommendations for crafting optimized Facebook updates that entice interaction and could help updates show up on more users’ news feeds. David also discusses customized Facebook landing tabs and ways to use Facebook to drive conversions on a business’s Web site.

Then Aaron, Susan and Virginia consider the effect of W3C validation on search engine optimization. The question of how validated code plays into rankings was the source of lively debate in the WebmasterRadio.fm chat room a few weeks ago. Aaron expresses that W3C validation likely doesn’t have a role in search engine rankings, based on his own testing and experience. However he believes there is considerable overlap between SEO best practices and validated code and that W3C validation is an important part of designing a spiderable and accessible Web site.

Twitter is becoming further integrated into search results, and Bruce, Susan and Virginia start the show by discussing newly released Twitter-based search features. Google introduced Replay It, a feature that lets users zoom into what was being said about a topic on Twitter during specific dates and times. Bing is testing real-time results that include tweets and most-linked-to URLs for the keyword. And Twitter is shaking up its Twitter Search service with the addition of Promoted Tweets. Twitter and its pulse on the public conversation continue to be used in new and interesting ways.


Facebook has also been pushing the boundaries of new and interesting, as last week the network introduced a number of social plugins for developers. Marty Weintraub, president of aimClear Search Marketing, gives listeners a guided tour of the eight new plugins that have the potential to drive engagement and social interaction on a site.

Maintaining a strong social presence online can be an ongoing challenge for any company, but it’s not the only one. A survey of search marketers indicates that link building, keyword research and bid management are the three most challenging aspects of SEM. The show hosts agree that link building is a task that requires a lot of elbow grease and is often neglected because it’s time consuming. Quality content creation isn’t mentioned in the survey results, but maybe it should be, as great content attracts users and links.

Kicking off the show, Bruce, Susan and Virginia take a look at the new search user interface Google is rolling out. At the beginning of the year, Bruce predicted a UI change to the Google search results, though he says he didn’t expect a change like this. Susan criticizes the interface as too busy and cluttered. Search expert and former Googler Vanessa Fox shares the impact of the changes, which include location auto-detection, a “nearby” feature, and time filters and vertical search options that change based on the query.


Tracy Falke, who runs Content, SEO, SEM, and Social for Freestyle Interactive, a UK-based communications agency, then talks to Virginia about how to automate Twitter while maintaining a human touch. Tracy explains the types of tweets that work best for automation, and the Twitter situations that require human intervention. She also outlines an actionable strategy for responding to negative feedback on Twitter. Finally, they look at the cutting edge of location-based and the bleeding-edge of augmented reality applications, and how businesses can extract intelligence about their customers.

Then Virginia, Susan and Daerick Gross explore some of the recent headlines in search and social. YouTube has redesigned its site in an effort to increase stickiness. Related videos are much more prominent, and information of the current video is less prominent. Facebook has also changed some aspects of its network with the introduction of Community Pages and the shift of “Become a Fan” to “Like.” Many marketers feel that the added option is more confusing than helpful for businesses.

Social media is becoming an increasingly potent marketing influence and it’s the theme of today’s show. Bruce, Susan and Virginia kick things off by considering if and how a social media user’s sphere of influence should be considered as part of their lifetime customer value. On a blog post titled Companies Should Factor ‘Social Influence’ Into Total Customer Value, Web strategist Jeremiah Owyang outlines the benefits and risks of accounting for a users social influence.

Shannon Poole then talks to Virginia about her social media strategy for developing business, especially at conferences like the upcoming SMX West. Shannon will be involved in business development for Bruce Clay, Inc., and while at conferences like SMX and SES, she plans to use every tool available to her advantage. Speed of interaction, picking up on cues of interest, and attendance at educational events will all play a part in her business development strategy at search marketing shows. The Bruce Clay, Inc. booth at SMX West is #307. To receive a 10 percent discount on conference registration, use the discount code smx10bruceclay.

Then Susan, Virginia and Bradley examine Internet giant Google’s latest foray into the social space, Google Buzz. Reactions to the new social networking features of Google Gmail have run the gamut from privacy related outrage to the instant acceptance that was never granted to Google Wave. Bradley wants to know what Google Buzz does that other social networks don’t already do. Susan believes that because Buzz has a built-in user base, it will be a well-adopted success for Google.

Twitter marketing is the topic du jour on today’s SEM Synergy podcast. Bruce Clay, Susan Esparza and Virginia Nussey consider the effect and efficiency of in-stream Twitter advertising. While some vocal users find in-stream advertising to be intrusive and off-putting, it may be a matter of time until Twitter users accept advertising within the format. After all, businesses have been using Twitter to promote products and services since early in the site’s history. See Dell for a shining example of community-welcomed marketing on Twitter.


Internet marketer Michael Gray then talks to Virginia about recommendations for marketing on Twitter. Michael says that in-stream Twitter advertising is a worthwhile platform for brands to explore. Twitter Lists comes with risks to online reputation management. And a number of Twitter content distribution tactics that Michael describes can be applied by businesses. For more Twitter marketing and SEO recommendations, follow Michael on Twitter at @graywolf.

Then Virginia, Susan and Michael Terry share some tips and statistics to optimize content distribution on the microblogging platform. Tracking clicks through URL shorteners is one of the key steps of knowing what content is most well received by the audience. They look at which URL shorteners receive the most retweets and have the best tracking features. They also look at statistics for time of day and day of week that retweets occur most often to help marketers leverage user behavior for content distribution goals.

People are spending more time on their social networks and going to them for suggestions and review. And the search engines have taken notice of the power of social media, and recently, some big announcements have been made about partnerships between social media platforms and search engines. Bruce Clay, Susan Esparza and Virginia Nussey are critical and cautious in light of the potential implications of Bing’s Twitter and Facebook status update integration and Google’s experimental Social Search feature.



While content from social media and social networks has become increasingly integrated within traditional search engines, a new search engine and aggregator, LeapFish, seeks to gather and display real-time, social and multi-media results in a way fitting of the evolved Web environment. Ben Behrouzi, CEO of LeapFish, talks to Virginia about the need for far-reaching, relevant and customizable aggregation of data, including rich media, social and real-time content.

Finally, analysts are taking note of social media’s role in consumer behavior and influence as the holiday season approaches. Businesses and shoppers alike are turning to social media. Consumers are looking for deals, customer reviews and contextual information about products and services. And businesses are taking advantage of the opportunity to reach an audience through a platform that accentuates sincerity, reliability and openness.

News moves fast in the search marketing industry so today’s show is all about recent Internet marketing headlines. Bruce, Robert and Virginia look at the expansion of local results for non-geo queries and what it means for SEOs and small businesses. The fact that local results are listed for relevant non-local queries will benefit small businesses and may change searcher behavior.

Jordan Kasteler, co-founder of Internet marketing company Search & Social and co-host of the WebmasterRadio program Mobile Presence, shares his thoughts on a number of social media news stories. Virginia and Jordan talk about Digg’s PageRank-passing ad links, if Twitter will be acquired in the next year, and how important it is to target social media sites in your link building campaign.

Jordan Kasteler

Rounding out the show, Virginia, Susan and Michael explore a few more recent industry news stories. Bruce Clay, Inc. has released two new SEO tools: a Firefox version of the SEMToolBar as well as a new tool that gives you one convenient place to see how many pages of a domain are indexed in the three biggest search engines. They also discuss Google Me profiles and the new Google Analytics API.

Trends are a useful gauge which help observant businesses adjust their strategies to the current times. Bruce, Robert and Virginia look at a report by Efficient Frontier that analyzed Q1 2009 for changes in consumer search behavior and the performance of key metrics, such as click-through-rates, cost-per-click and return on investment. While not disputing the underlying data, Bruce and Robert are suspicious that the analysis is based on a false assumption of cause and effect.

Tim Kendall

Another trend Internet marketers can’t ignore is the growth of social networks. Virginia talked to Tim Kendall, director of monetization at Facebook, about Facebook Advertising. Tim explains the benefits of a demand generation ad platform compared to the demand fulfillment model of search advertising. He also talks about Facebook’s ad serve algorithm, how the quality of ads mean both advertisers and users are winners, and how the company is working to scale the ad platform in the coming year.

We’d be remiss if no mention was made of the current economic trends and the effect they have on our industry. Consumers are paying close attention to the value they receive through their purchases and partnerships. It’s worth considering how you can add value to your services so that you stand apart from competition and keep customers happy. Be proactive in getting client feedback and consider additional services you may be able to provide that would add value to your relationship.