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Category: News

  • Influencer Profile: Paula Keller

    New Orleans born and raised, SI’s own Account Manager Paula Keller was thrilled to get connected with a growing company in a growing industry after graduating from Louisiana State University with a degree in Marketing. With a strong interest economic development and a goal of being a part of the revival of big business in the city she’s always loved, she realized during this very interview that she’s fulfilling that goal by working at Search Influence. Not only does Paula work with an expansive variety of clients across the county, she also has the opportunity to work with some great local companies, including Audubon Nature Institute and Archon Information Systems.

    Paula bringing the party as always!

    Let’s start with the important stuff: if you were a pastry, what kind of pastry would you be?

    A chocolate glazed donught from Dorignac’s. It’s an old fashioned classic that’s always in style.

    What is it that you do around here? What kind of skills do you find yourself using throughout the average workday?

    While my new business card doesn’t list a title, I’m officially an Account Manager. You could also call me a Keywordsmith, Google Place Page Perfectionist, and Package Crafter. I do a little bit of everything. I think that is pretty typical of an Account Manager in any organization – we do everything and anything necessary to serve our clients the best work product. I manage not only some stellar direct clients, but also some fantastic white label relationships.

    There’s a few responsibilities / projects that stand out when I think about what I do exactly. Shortly after I started with Search Influence, I dived into Google Place Page creation, claiming and optimization for all of our existing clients, which led to hands-on creation of far over 100 Google Place Pages during my time here. Secondly, over the past 6 months, I’ve worked with Will and crew to totally revamp our SEO packages and some additional a la carte offerings, which was a great learning experience and a lot of fun.

    The average workday requires a wide range of skills, from time management, organizational, personal, and the ever important: “where are we eating lunch today?” skills.

    Is there anything you’d like to be doing more or less of around the SI offices? In the perfect world, what would you be doing all day?

    In a perfect world, I’d be cooking (and eating) all day. I was secretly hoping for a stove in our kitchen at the new office, but its probably a good thing that we don’t have one, or else I would be bringing batches of ingredients to whip up deliciousness in the kitchen at lunch time.

    As some of our readers know, you used to be the blog manager, cajoling, bribing and occasionally extorting entries out of everyone at the company. Be honest: do you miss it a little?

    Every day! Blogger-in-chief was one of my favorite hats I’ve worn around here. I’ve always loved to write (even research papers), and friends often asked me to review their papers as I was honest and would often edit it as much as I would if I was putting my name on it. WIth SI’s blog, not only did I love editing the posts, I was privileged to be the first to read SI’s take on breaking SEO news!

    Is there anything that excites you about coming to work every day?

    Is this a Yelp review or an interview? I love working with our clients. The best thing about what we do is that we get to help increase and improve the bottom line for small and large businesses. I love the whole process of selecting keywords, putting the strategy to work, and then watching the rankings climb, traffic go up, and customers come to the business.

    Does keeping track of so much information from the people in production and directly interfacing with clients every day get to be a lot of pressure? Any tips for handling it?

    Pressure? Nah. It’s a joy. That’s what the coffee is for. And To Do Lists. My #1 tip for handling any situation: Just write it down. Even if you think “oh, I’ll remember that” – write it down (and remember where you wrote it).

    Thanks so much for everything you do around here, Paula K! For the new readers, you can check out the wide variety of informative and insightful blog posts Paula has written for us, and stay tuned for more Influencer profiles in weeks to come!

  • 5 for Friday — Links, Stories & Posts For Your Weekend

    INFOGRAPHIC: Facebook Shopping Will Be B in 2015 — All Facebook

    In light of our recent focus on Facebook integration, this is an interesting infographic — social commerce is a booming field, and it’s predicted that Facebook shopping alone will generate over $30 billion in 2015. Take a look to find the numbers on customer behavior, graphs of predicted growth and a timeline of the movement.

    Social gems: More new tools for social marketing — B to B

    Interested in expanding your social marketing horizons beyond the dynamic duo of Facebook and Twitter? B to B has a handy list of tools and applications to fill any marketing campaign niche you can imagine.

    25 Great Facebook Page Content Ideas — OneForty.com

    While there are alternatives available (see above), Facebook is still the dominant way to interface with your online customers and create a community around your brand. However, simply maintaining a page isn’t enough — here are some tips to create a dynamic, active profile that’s bursting with fresh content to engage your audience.

    Google+ as a Business Tool — Pronet Advertising

    It’s no surprise that businesses are already horning in on Google+ profiles in order to market to a whole new audience. It appears to be working so far, but Google has indicated that this still-in-beta feature is intended expressly for personal users, with a business-optimized Google experience currently in development.

    So What Is It Developers? Android or iPhone? — Marketing Pilgrim

    Good news for Apple: despite the growing number of customers converting away from the iPhone to the Droid, developer support for Android appears to be waning. A smaller share of developers started Android projects in the second quarter of the year than the first, despite earlier reports that the painstaking Apple app approval process was causing programmers to shy away from iOS. Could this be a temporary flurry spurred by the announcement of the Verizon iPhone and the popularity of the iPad 2, or is Apple’s domination of the market here to stay?

  • 5 for Friday — Links, Stories & Posts For Your Weekend

    FiveThe Future of Mobile Payments — Mashable

    Online monetary transfer giant PayPal has boldly announced that wallets will be obsolete by 2015, aiming to replace traditional credit cards with mobile phone payments. With Paypal gearing up for focus on mobile payments, as well as Google’s recently launched Google Wallet service and Visa’s new interest in the mobile payment platform Square, the claim might not be so grandiose as it seems. This handy infographic presents some data on where mobile payments might go from here.

    Can’t Get Enough Of Facebook’s News Feed? — All Facebook

    Facebook has been revving its engine at full throttle lately, implementing a new chat setup, a Facebook Video collaboration with Skype and now a new data-intensive news feed that can be scrolled through without shuffling any ads, application bookmarks and the navigation bar off-screen. While the aforementioned new features have been generating a lot of buzz, this marks the first redesign of the home page in over a year. Is it just time for some late spring cleaning, or are they feeling the pressure in competition with Google+?

    Study: Local businesses ‘like’ social media for marketing — B to B Online

    According to a recent Roost poll, small business owners show strong approval for social media marketing, with nearly three-quarters indicating that it is more effective than paid search. While many cited positives such as ease of use, cost-effectiveness and ability to keep them on their toes, they also reported downsides such as not being able to get concrete indications of the success of their endeavors.

    Facebook Blocks Friend Export to Google Plus — SEOChat

    A third-party application designed to allow a Facebook user to export their friends’ data such as name, email address, birthday and so on has been blocked from Facebook. While this application does have legitimate conflicts with Facebook’s TOS (specifically the privacy and information-gathering clauses) (I’ll leave this comment up to your imagination), the fact that FB officials chose to go after it only after the announcement of Google+ speaks volumes.

    What is the Best Time of Day to Tweet — Graywolf SEO

    So you’ve established your online identity, accumulated the appropriate number of followers and are ready to start writing attention-grabbing, informative tweets. When to post so they get the maximum number of eyeballs possible? Tweriod.com will analyze your last 5,000 followers and ascertain when they were online. While this isn’t a one-way ticket to permanent broadcast mode, this tool (especially when combined with other reporting utilities such as those that come with Hootsuite and Bufferapp) can be significantly handy for scheduling.

  • Influencer Profile: Steve Maloney

    Steve showing off just one example of the fine millinery that graces the SI Funny Hats Box.
    We’re back with another Influencer Profile! This week’s honoree is Production and Content Manager Steve Maloney, he of impeccable taste in headgear and nut-based snack food. While most people think of newspapers as what happens when you print out NPR, Smaloney (as he’s known around the SI offices) used to write them. Steve comes from the world of print journalism, having been a newspaper reporter before transitioning over into the world of keyword-rich, search engine friendly, online content. With experience running blogs, writing blogs, wrangling writers, and making a living as a writer himself, Steve brings a wide range of experience to Search Influence.

    So what do you find yourself doing around here?

    A little bit of everything. I assign out hundreds of articles to our writers every month, make sure they are completed correctly and on time, make sure the production crew is running like the well-oiled machine that it is, and put out any fires I may come across every day. I also train new people and keep the bowl of mixed nuts on my desk at least halfway full most of the time.

    Is there anything that particularly excites you about coming to work every day?

    My chair is really comfortable, and I always enjoy it when my “snakes in a can” trick fools some unsuspecting sap.

    What do you think your most awesome contributions have been so far?

    Snakes in a can. Oh, and I introduced Leigh to the wonderful world of Care Bears this morning.

    Seriously. Just… don’t.

    Anything you’d like to do more of? In the ideal world, what would you be doing all day?

    Mostly cruising around Bayou St. John in a kayak. But since I don’t own a kayak or live particularly close to Bayou St. John anymore, I guess my ideal day would involve a swimming pool and a good book.

    How do you handle staying on top of and motivating your colleagues and us titans of production?

    The Titans of Production is not only the name of an underground 80’s hair metal band [citation needed], but the nomenclature also fittingly describes the production team here at Search Influence. Reining in this team requires a delicate balance of sight gags, cat-like reflexes, snacks, comic books, early 90’s soft rock, and comfortable shoes.

    How does SI compare to the more writing-intensive work that you’re experienced with? Do you think an element of creativity comes through?

    Much of the finesse and control I once enjoyed over English wordings gone… now… but I really like setting the deadlines instead of being petrified of them as I was back when I was a newspaper reporter. I do miss the fedora with my press pass in the headband, though. I’m always writing, even if most of it doesn’t make it to paper. It’s a reflex action, much like breathing.

    Thanks for all that you do herding the metaphorical cats in the production room, Steve. Keep an eye out for this one’s inaugural blog post — it’s sure to be a good read!

  • 5 For Friday — Links, Stories & Posts For Your Weekend

    FTC to Target Google in Antitrust Investigation — Mashable

    With the launch of several civil subpoenas, the Federal Trade Commission is poised to launch the most thorough and comprehensive antitrust investigation into Google’s business practices yet. While many of Google’s acquisitions have been investigated in the past, this movement promises to be the most comprehensive search of its kind. The allegations that Google uses its position of prominence to stifle competition will surely be a subject of inquiry, with inevitable comparisons to the famous 1998 United States vs. Microsoft. Given the zeal with which the FTC has fought to take over the case, they won’t be looking to go home empty-handed.

    6 Commonly Ignored Website Requirements & 10 Tips To Remember — Search Engine Land

    Often, website creation involves a massive number of people working toward the same goal. To avoid butting heads with your production, design and developer partners, it’s usually a good idea to create a requirements doc to put everyone on the same page. This handy article gives several tips and tricks for a well-crafted set of requirements that will hopefully lead to a well-crafted website!

    10 kick-ass features in Google Analytics v5 — Conversation Marketing

    A long-time staple in the SEO professional’s toolbox, Google Analytics is getting a facelift with some slick new features added on. Among the shortcomings addressed will be multi-touch attribution (allowing one to visualize the effect different campaigns have on sales, leads, etc), multiple dashboards and navigation improvement.

    Is There a Tablet Market or Just an iPad Market? — i2G

    While mobile marketing is rapidly becoming a huge part of SEO, the tablet demographic has been more or less limited to iPad users. Greg Sterling takes a look at the data that indicates that, despite the best efforts of companies such as Motorola and RIM to overtake the market, the iPad is here to stay. Now if only they’d roll out that rumored Facebook app…

    Changes To AdWords Geo-Targeting Coming Soon — Search Engine Land

    The old-school method of targeting ad campaigns by drawing on a Google Map is coming to an end; starting on July 8th, users will have to choose a map point with a radius to mark out geographic area. Local advertisers will have to modify their strategies to compensate for the less customizable and precise tool — what do you plan on doing with the new system?

  • Influencer Profile: Olin Gallet

    After a long hiatus, we’re pleased to announce that our Influencer Profile series is back! Every other week we’ll be highlighting one of our talented teammates, and this week’s employee is one of our resident junior developers Olin Gallet.

    Olin enjoying his hard-won SI Word of the Day Champion Pimp Cup!

    Olin started on our production team just a few months ago, assisting Luke Ledet and Jason Hamilton with the technical end of what Search Influence does. He’s a recent graduate of the University of New Orleans’ Computer Science program with a minor in English — which obviously means that you’ll be seeing more of his excellent blogging skills on display in the near future.

    As one of our resident early birds, you can usually find Olin tapping away at PHP code at absurd hours of the morning. On the off-days he spends his time discovering new music, writing, playing Street Fighter, programming and having adventures around New Orleans. Just don’t call him “bro”… And without further ado, the man himself!

    A note from Olin – since I’ve actually got a minor in English focused on poetry writing, I’d like to show you some of my lyrical skills. I’m not letting Julia have all the fun around here.

    So what do you find yourself doing on a day-to-day basis around here?

    Turn on computer

    Type words look at peers code works

    Turn off computer

    There really is no set guideline as to what I do day-to-day. I just fix problems people have and make sure the solution works.

    Is there anything that excites you about coming to work every day?

    No amount of money or bountiful women with plastic surgery can keep me coming to work. What keeps me coming to work is the people here. I’m not naming names for the sake of favoritism, but there are some characters at work that make the day go by better.

    Most importantly, people know how to leave me alone when I have stuff to do. They also know how to help me or at least entertain my questions when I have them. When I can get my job done and help other people do the same, then I know I had a good day at work.

    What are your biggest contributions?

    I’d say my biggest contribution so far has been designing various forms for various websites. Being able to see the work I do makes it huge for me. They’re also important for ensuring that customers have an easily accessible way to communicate their needs and concerns to the client.

    Anything you’d like to do more of at SI? In a perfect world, what would you be sitting around all day doing?

    I want to do something more creative. For one, I want to get involved in more marketing. I realize that many of the tasks such as keyword research and article writing are repetitive and time-consuming. I want to create ways to minimize the work in these tasks.

    I also want to get involved into graphic design at work. I used to be big into just sketching around when I got a drawing tablet for my laptop, but I haven’t had much time for design recently. I want to get back into it.

    _________________________________________?

    Hey, this is my question for you. What do you want to know about me? The only stupid questions are those that are left unasked. Feel free to either drop it in the comments, email me at [email protected], or pass me a note at work (just make sure Luke isn’t looking).

    Thanks for all your hard work, Olin! We have a really talented and interesting team here at SI, and we’re proud to show off each and every one of them. Keep your eyes on this space for more profiles of our Influencers!

  • 5 for Friday — Links, Stories & Posts To Start Your Weekend

    Make Facebook Comments Box Indexable by Search Engines — SEOmoz

    It’s a common belief in the SEO community that Facebook comment boxes are not indexable by search engines, even with the recent ranking algorithm that promotes valuable comments. This simple piece of PHP code allows you to insert a Facebook Comment Box into your site and serve up your comments to be crawled and indexed.

    Facebook Sees Big Traffic Drops in US and Canada as It Nears 700 Million Users Worldwide — Inside Facebook

    While the social media giant is strengthening in other parts of the world, Facebook actually lost US and Canadian users as well as seeing a drop in new signups. While the fluctuations can be attributed to short-term fluctuations such as graduation season, the data is intriguing — there could be major ramifications if the numbers hold up.

    PPC: Tablet Targeting Strategies — GetElastic

    A handy list of basics for targeting your PPC campaigns specifically toward the briskly expanding tablet demographic. It’s worth noting that Adwords also allows one to target iPad iOS users in particular, with options for other devices such as the Blackberry Playbook planned.

    Google and Silicon Valley’s cult of innovation — The Telegraph

    Digital media editor Emma Brnett writes up the Inside Search Google event, where Amit Singhal announced new features like desktop voice search and Google Instant.

    Spam clogging Amazon’s Kindle self-publishing — Reuters

    With the recent digital self-publishing boom, thousands of ebooks are being released onto Amazon every month. However, some of them aren’t written in the traditional sense — or are even existing books slightly altered to create dozens of spam copies. One suggestion is to start charging for uploads to the Kindle system, which would remove financial results for spammers. Should Amazon let the market remain free and trust that quality will float to the top, or attempt to impose some order on the chaos? What do you think?

  • SMX West 2011 – The Aftermath

    SMX West 2011 was a complete success for our Influencers. The two newbie’s, Anthony Coleman and Rodney Hess, successfully dominated their sessions, and veteran Will Scott successfully dominated Yelp during his. You may have missed it live, but you don’t have to miss out on the great information provided there. Check out the live blogs below to get your fill of SEO info.

    Anthony Coleman spoke during one of the very first sessions of the conference – Google Instant: Six Months Later.  He was the only speaker to talk about how the update affected and could even benefit paid search. Follow the link to the Bruce Clay live blog of his session to get the full rundown.

    Rodney Hess was one of the speakers during the Location Services: The New Local Search session. He focused on how location-based services can be used for SEO purposes and presented data from a survey of check in service users. aimClear live blogged the session, which can be viewed here.

    Will Scott not only spoke about the hypocritical review policies of Yelp, but also presented during the aimClear Facebook Marketing Intensive.

    SMX West 2011 was a complete success for Search influence. Stay tuned for the inevitable return of our Influencers for future SMX conferences.

  • Three Influencers To Speak At SMX West

    We’re very pleased to announce that the upcoming SMX West Search Marketing Expo will feature three Search Influence employees — Rodney Hess, Anthony Coleman and our CEO Will Scott — as speakers. The conference, which will take place March 8-9 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, features a wide array of panels on different aspects of online marketing, including SEO, paid search advertising, social media marketing, local and mobile search, landing page conversions and more.

    Rodney will be speaking on “Location Services: The New Local Search?” where he will be presenting some follow up interviews from our Foursquare Advertiser Survey. Anthony will be discussing Google Instant’s impact on paid search and how this is impacting buying ads and strategies, how auto-generated phrases distract searchers from their initial intent, and the overall decay of geo-modified terms in an era where search entities are organically focusing in on their users’ locations. Will will speak on the following points:
    * Reviewing the Yelp Review Filter
    * Buying Yelp Reviews
    * Why you’re not a Good Yelper

    Besides our talented teammates, SMX West will feature SEM experts from around the world speaking at over 60 sessions and keynotes. Congratulations to all of our Influencers for this exciting opportunity!

  • Word Up

    I wear many hats here at Search Influence. I am a junior account associate, office event coordinator, Google Maps expert-in-training, interim public relations intern and most recently, word-of-the-day aficionado.

    Word-of-the-day Aficionado? What does that have to do with internet marketing? Well, not much. You see, this type of program deals directly with what I like to call “personal marketing.” In this day and age, it is imperative for people to begin marketing themselves, especially in a professional atmosphere. No one will take you seriously with a second-grade vocabulary. Have you ever been on a date and become completely tongue-tied when trying to intellectually compliment the dream girl or boy sitting next to you? Or have you sat in on a meeting where the brown-nosing employee-of-the-month knows all the right things to say, while you look like a bumbling idiot? Or what about when you get on the phone with a VIP client who uses words that you have never heard of before?

    It is my job to help ensure that NO Search Influence employee finds themselves in these situations. (You can all thank me whenever you feel the need.) The story behind the word-of-the-day implementation is a funny one. I was editing a press release for Will, when I came across the word “BOON.” I had never encountered this word before, so I told Will that the word he was looking for was “BOOM.” Will sent me a link to the definition, and BAM, word-of-the-day was born. Search Influence employees have been participating in this program for a few weeks now, and the sentences we come up with are enlightening, to say the least.

    Paula Dupont: Your time as word-of-the-day go to girl has been a boon to Search Influence.

    Caroline Lind: I deserve a guerdon for risking my life in order to get Paula an apple from the kitchen.

    Chris Dollard: As the geese flew south over the meadow, they began to inosculate over the trees until they disappeared from view.

    Joseph Henson: The tree tops of the forest were inosculated which the squirrels of the forest thoroughly enjoyed.

    Caroline Lind: I have a gest regarding last Mardi Gras, but I believe it would be inappropriate to share at work.

    Jason Hamilton: Since I haven’t watched TV in about a month, I have been almost completely nescient of the Egypt hostility until I read about them in the paper today.

    Amanda Barth Graves: Rachel Zoe is persnickety when it comes to fashion,or her life in general.

    Paula Keller: He or she who does not win the word of the day contest will be dyspeptic!

    Olin Gallet: Caitiff people on the internet hide behind usernames to make fun of people without repercussion.

    Vocabulary is cool

    But what do these words mean?!?

    *boon- a blessing or benefit

    *guerdon- a reward

    *inosculate- to join or unite

    *gest- a story or tale

    *nescient- lack of knowledge, ignorance

    *persnickety- fussy about minor details, requiring keen attention to detail

    *dyspeptic- having a bad temper, gloomy, irritable

    *caitiff- a cowardly and despicable person

    Now that these definitions are at hand, I will be expecting everyone who reads this to use these words in a sentence and e-mail them to me.

    I am in the process of “tricking out” the word-of-the-day program to include some pretty amazing prizes. As of now, we have had one overall winner, Jason Hamilton, and we swiftly rewarded him with a gift of Ritz crackers.

    Not only has this program enhanced our vocabulary, it has brought us closer together as a team. Words bring people together, and allow them to communicate. Not a day goes by that I am not hounding some team member of mine to contribute. I’ve been called a “word pusher,” and I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be.

    Ready to give the word-of-the-day program a try at your business or office? Lucky for you I am willing to share my wealth of knowledge. I only respond to e-mails containing previous words of the day, like the ones outlined in this post. Yes, I’m “that girl.” Any questions?