October 8, 2008
SMX East is going on this week in New York City, attracting many talented and experienced search and social marketers to the Big Apple. Read the blog this week for liveblog coverage of the sessions.
Cindy Krum, Director of New Media Strategies, Blue Moon Works, talks to Virginia about how to optimize for mobile search. Eric Lander, Associate Editor at Search Engine Journal and Organic Search Manager at ADP/BZ Results, looks at enhanced listings. Then Kate Morris, SEM, RateGenius.com, sits down with Virginia at the WebmasterRadio.FM Search Bash to talk about white hat secrets and contractual issues in SEM campaigns.
October 1, 2008
Bruce, Susan and Virginia start off the show with a look at the search industry news. Google recently readdressed their paid search agreement with Yahoo, claiming that the deal will not harm competition, that ad prices will not rise, and that the two search companies will not have access to the other’s user data. Yahoo is in the midst of testing a makeover to Yahoo.com and has added a music feature to search results pages. Finally, Live Search has begun integrating Powerset into search results through Freebase Answers, enhanced Wikipedia captions and improved related search suggestions.
Virginia then speaks with Martin Bowling, CTO of Vec3, about integrated marketing strategies and the strength of social media. Martin will be speaking on the Protect Your Rep panel at the Scary SEO mini-con this month, and will award the winner of a contest a free two-night stay and registration for the conference. Martin shares some of the reputation management tips he will be making on the panel, as well as his findings on Google Suggest and how the feature could be harmful to online reputations.
Following up on some of Martin’s social media recommendations, Susan, Michael and Virginia talk about some of the social media don’ts. Don’t ignore or avoid social media. Don’t keep a bare profile or fake involvement. Don’t try to control the conversation. And don’t be pushy in promoting your product or services. In social media, the key to success requires being transparent, up-front and honest about your intentions.
