Category: News

Hailing from the frosty northlands of Chicago, IL, SI Internet Marketing Associate Joe Luft graduated from Tulane University in 2010 with a degree in Political Economy and no desire to be a politician or a lawyer. As an IMA Joe is responsible for a wide variety of tasks around the office, but finds hands-coding to be a productive and rewarding area. Some of his favorite things in the world include his family, dog, painstakingly broken-in denim jeans and, of course, his beloved Chicago Bears. (It’s okay, Joe. We don’t judge you… too much.)

First, and arguably most vital, question: if you were an antiquated dance craze, what antiquated dance craze would you be?

Honest answer, the Cha Cha Slide. It takes me back to my days in middle and high school. Second choice would be “The Dougie” mainly cause my thirteen year old sister listens to it and does the dance at least twice a day. Guess those really aren’t antiquated, already failing at this interview.

So what do you find yourself doing around here?

On a daily basis I’m making edits to the code on our clients’ sites and publishing content for our clients. Whenever people ask me this, I always kind of pause and think for a second, then ramble on about computers and codes and the Google and by the time I look up that person is no longer standing there and I’m talking to myself about the computers. I’d say all my fellow Search Influencers are in that same boat, so many different things happening around here on a daily basis.

Have you done any Internet or marketing work before working at SI? How’s the transition been so far?

Yes, I have. I started dabbling with internet marketing in college when I worked for a sneaker store in the French Quarter. After a couple months working there they set me up with an admin account for their blog and I really got into it. From working at that sneaker store I was able to meet a lot of other local business owners and got a side gig running a blog for a men and women’s clothing store Uptown, and eventually created an e-commerce site for them. So my main focus, prior to SI, has been Internet marketing for fashion. I can’t even count how many pictures of shoes I have on my computer right now. I’d say a thousand.

The transition at Search Influence has been fun and challenging. Instead of managing every aspect of a couple of websites, I’m in and out of numerous sites making edits on a daily basis. Along with working on more sites, I am doing more in-depth edits to site templates.

How did you acquire an interest in coding? Any tips or favorite tools of the trade?

I got interested in coding pretty soon after I started blogging. While WordPress and Tumblr can make some pretty cool templates, I always wanted to make the blogs I worked on a little more unique. During winter break of my senior year of college I bought a massive book about HTML and CSS coding and started poking around the world of Hyper Text Markup Language and Cascading Style Sheets.

Biggest tip I would offer is to do it every day.

What’s your favorite thing to do around the office? In an ideal world, what would you be sitting around doing all day?

The most favorite thing I do around the office happens at 5 o’clock on the dot every Friday, I play “This Is How We Do It” by Montell Jordan out loud on my computer. Lets the people know it’s the weekend.

In an ideal world I’m a “Whispers in the Dark” DJ on an old school Hip-Hop and RnB radio station spinning slow jams for the lovers all around the world. By law “Whispers in the Dark” programs can only occur during the hours of 11 at night until 2 or 3 in the morning (it’s whispers in the dark, not the light), so for the other portion of my day I’d like to design, clothing, sneakers, furniture. I’ve always found My Personalised T-Shirts to be the most interesting and often overlooked forms of art.

Search Influence Internet Marketing Associate Colette Bennett is also a freelance writer who has been producing content across a wide variety of geeky topics since 2006. She has written for a wide variety of videogame blogs, including Kotaku, Destructoid, GamesRadar, Touch Arcade and Gamasutra. She also does work on color theory, culture and fashion for TIME magazine top 50 blog Colourlovers. Her most current project is running the Japanese culture section of Geek Out!, a new pop culture blog from CNN. At SI, she puts her word-nerd skills to work creating and editing a wide variety of web content, not to mention being one of our most prolific bloggers!

Personality test time: if you were an old-school gaming system, what old-school gaming system would you be?

The Nintendo Entertainment System, all the way. It’s my favorite to this day, and the reason why is because it was a low-cost platform to develop for and because of that, it had a lot of really wonky games on it. My childhood was spent on gambling/role playing game hybrids and far eastern war strategy. Guess it gave me a taste for the wild and weird, which comes in handy when you write about topics like I do!

So you’ve been a blogger-at-large for some time now– how’d you get into the community?

I moved to Los Angeles in late 2005 with the idea I was going to change careers and try to shift towards writing, and I ended up meeting some great circles of people in creative careers. One friend worked in comics and I used to hang out with him while he drew panels, which was tremendously inspiring. One day I mentioned to him I wanted to start a blog about gaming, and he looked up from his work directly at me and said, “Why haven’t you done it yet?” I never forgot that moment — it was the pivot that turned me in a new direction. I started my own gaming/tech blog, pitched myself as a freelancer to my favorite blogs, and cut my teeth over at several of the Gawker network blogs. Six years and a whole lot of published work have passed, and somehow I’m still scribbling.

As one of the more regular writers for the SI blog, have you noticed any incongruity between writing for SEO/marketing topics and the more pop-culture focused stuff you’ve done in the past? Any skills you’d like to hone or bad habits to get rid of?

I think the key to reaching people with any topic, be it pop culture, SEO or dog shampoo, is a passionate voice. If you believe strongly in the thing you are telling your audience, it is inevitable they will catch some of your enthusiasm and perhaps want to learn what it is that generates that enthusiasm. The more you continue to pursue those topics, the more you evolve as an authority. One thing I see on some SEO blogs is writers picking apart other SEO practices. I think challenging how people do things is fine, but pop culture suffers from this issue too — arguments cause page views and generate discussion, but they don’t necessarily get anything new accomplished. When I sit down to write something for an audience, I consider what I am going to say, and what effect it will have on my audience. Is it colored with my opinions, and if so, are they expressed in a way that is well-supported with evidence and makes sense? Or are they a rant? What can I contribute to the community I am writing for, in other words.

I always love a chance to hone my skills on subjects outside of my natural pool of knowledge, so the SI blog is a nice arena for me to explore more SEO-based issues as well as social media, which is rapidly becoming a favorite topic.

What do you find yourself doing around SI? Anything you’re excited about coming in to work on? In a perfect world, what would you be doing all day?

I tend to focus on content here at SI, and my favorite thing to do is edit it and tweak it to make it better. Once an editor, always an editor! One thing I’ve actually been enjoying seeing on my task list is press releases, because I have never written them for any other job, and I think it’s a great skill to have. I’m getting better, but I still have a long way to go before they feel easy to do. Challenge is great — I have always thrived on it.

Let’s see, in a perfect world… believe it or not, I would still be working. I thrive on accomplishment, so I don’t think I could just go to the beach (although I would totally put the four day work week into effect!) I feel like I could do a wide variety of things that would make me very happy. But as long as I’m writing, I feel good. I guess in my dream world, I would write about Japanese history and culture all day, cause you know, I’m kind of a nerd like that. And have to take “business trips” to Kyoto frequently, of course…

Cranking out a steady stream of creative material can be hard — any techniques or tricks you use to get yourself psyched up or bust through writer’s block?

My key rule for writer’s block is pretty old school: Write every day. If I could frame these words and put them over the desk of every writer who has ever struggled, I would. If you ignore going to the gym, it gets harder — writing is no different. Just keep flexing the muscle. If I don’t feel like writing, I sit down and I do it anyway. Maybe it won’t be as good at first, but eventually I fall into the rhythm. Staring at the blank page expecting yourself to perform on some perfect level is worse because it’s paralyzing. No matter what you write, always write something.

After the ringing success of her Google acquisitions infographic, we’re proud to debut Kate Voisin as this week’s Featured Influencer! Kate is an illustrator and graphic designer who, before joining the SI team, worked as a freelancer. Like just about every New Orleanean, she spends much of her off-time writing what she hopes will turn into a novel, or browsing the stacks at Tulane’s library (where she is not actually a student). Her interests include coffee, dystopian novels, and cartoons.

Hard-hitting question time: if you were an amphibian, what kind of amphibian would you be?

A newt! (I’d get better.)

Tell us about yourself! Are you a NOLA resident originally?

I’m from a town a little south of New Orleans, but I’ve been living in and around the city for the past 6 years or so. If I lived on Sesame Street, I’d relate the most to Burt… Although in real life, I’m probably more of an Ernie.
Apparently, I am pretty terrible at answering the question “tell us about yourself.” I don’t know how I got this job.

You’re one of our newer employees — how long ago did you start? How’s SI been so far?

I started at the beginning of August, so I’ve been at SI for a month and half now. It feels like I’ve been here longer, but in a good way. I really like my job– the work is challenging, and there is always coffee. And now that the hazing has stopped, I’m almost completely healed! Just kidding. The hazing was gentle.

What do you find yourself doing around the office? Any particular favorites or disliked tasks?

I do all the usual stuff that IMAs do, like submissions and lots of copying and pasting. But lately, I’ve been getting a lot of graphic design tasks.
I was a freelance designer off and on for about 7 years, and any freelancer will tell you that it’s soul crushing. Designing at SI is heaven. Everyone’s been really open and supportive, and I’ve done everything from massive infographics, to logo retouching, to making a baby-on-board Photoshop of one of our (male) co-workers. (I still feel like I have to apologize for that every time I see him, too. Luke, I’m sorry!)

How did you get into graphic design? Any favorite tools of the trade? Do you do fine art as well?

I think I’ve been using Photoshop to make graphics for my various websites since version 5.0, maybe? That was in the 90s. I know Photoshop better than I know most people, and we’ve come a long way together.
My favorite nerd tool of all time is my Wacom tablet (an Intuous4). I bought it last year, and it’s completely changed the way I think about design. It’s like drawing with pen on paper… but, like, way more amazing. I could go on and on about layers and tilt sensitivity, but I also still want to sound interesting, so… yeah. Wacom tablet. It’s awesome.
And I draw all kinds of stuff! I have a Tumblr that gets seasonally neglected, but I post illustrations and doodles when I’m in the mood. And I’m almost always scribbling on something.

Thanks to Kate for her tireless work making SI’s projects beautiful inside and out! Keep an eye on this space for many more informative and innovative graphic pieces in the near future.