5 Things I learned at SMX West

by Tim Kilroy on March 5, 2010

  1. Twitter Works For Publishers: From Adam Sherk, 0.7% of traffic for folks like the NY Times comes from Twitter…now, 0.7% may not sound like a lot, but when you think about the huge numbers that NYT puts up (19.5ish million per month) that means over 130K visitors monthly from Twitter. That is HUGE. Twitter is a REAL traffic driver.
  2. Video is a Key to Page 1 Listings: According to Danny Sullivan, it is 50x harder to get a traditional web page on to page 1 than it is to get a video on page 1. I am going to guess that this is going to change soon.
  3. Search Optimization is Search Engine Marketing: I had several discussions with folks who were pretty clear (misinformed, but clear nonetheless) that paid search was real marketing and search engine optimization was largely an IT lead endeavor. Organic search optimization is search engine marketing. Creating content that is well constructed by search engine standards and is valuable enough to link to is truly a marketing activity.
  4. I Did Not See Anything NEW at SMX West: I work at an SEO agency and we are always looking for new partners and new ideas. I saw very little at SMX that was NEW. There were a thousand variations on paid search bid management, but I did not see anything cutting edge in the SEO or social side. The world of search is exploding in images and mobile and geo-location…and I didn’t see any new ideas. (I have a bunch that we are working on, but I haven’t seen anything that was really cutting edge in a while…who is going to wow me and make me want to partner with them?)
  5. Search (Wrongly) Lives in Silos: There is this very artificial wall between paid and natural search. Paid search is on one side, living by its own rules, managed often by a different client team. Organic search is kept by itself too. Organic and paid search need to have clear interdependence. They aren’t different. They are all search marketing, finding the right match between searcher and product. Paid search and natural search are two sides of the same coin. The walls aren’t real and marketers (and search providers) need to under stand that.

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Social Media – Real World

by Tim Kilroy on February 15, 2010

sad faceSo, social media may be stretching it a little bit, but I have told EVERYONE I have talked to about this incident, so I guess I am being social about it.  I was at the local branch of a drugstore chain on Sunday morning. While I was there, I was my usual gregarious self. I talked to the cashier and wished her a Happy Valentine’s Day. After a bit of chit chat, she confided that she didn’t celebrate V-Day. Great, so I told her that I wished that she would have  terrific day nonetheless.

She said, “Yeah, I hope its not busy. That would make it a great day.”

I used to work in retail. And all I could think is OMG. How badly does this chain treat this woman that she would hope that her store isn’t busy? How unaware is she that she doesn’t understand that bad days mean that they store could cut staff? I was just astounded. How clueless was the store management in their training? What about a little scripting so that she might have some conversational hooks so that she doesn’t have to stray off the reservation too far?

Wow. I was just amazed.

I immediately thought  my employees and the folks that I am lucky enough to manage every day. I called them all to tell them  that they were doing a great job today, and we had already aligned their compensation so that they do better when we all do well. More revenue means that their paychecks are a little bit bigger. Perhaps it is time to bring a little performance incentive back into retail. Maybe my cashier would have asked me if I wanted a pack of gum with my New York Times rather than wishing that she wouldn’t be busy.

There is seriously something wrong with companies who can’t align their employees behavior with their company goals. Give this woman a reason to be engaged. Tell her she is doing a great job. Teach her how to do a great job. Make her compensation in line with some measurable metric. Give her a reason not to be miserable.

Retail can be great. Retailers can create environments that reward employees and make their jobs fun. I wish this drugstore chain was more like Trader Joes or Whole Foods.

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Google Buzz – Day 3

February 12, 2010

So, I like Google Buzz much more than I expected. It is more intimate and has a more conversational tone than other social touchpoints. I was having CONVERSATIONS…how often does that really happen?
But that all changed this morning. I agreed to follow someone whom I know. We are “social media” friends. We aren’t real friends. [...]

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Google Buzz – Buzz or Bust?

February 10, 2010

OK. So it is a first iteration. Google is good at making a service with potential and adding to it over time (GMail bordered on BAD when it first launched, and now it is perhaps the finest e-mail interface in the cloud or desktop…) Google Buzz got me excited…because Google sees everything that happens…the torrent [...]

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iPad: It’s Impact on Search & Social

January 28, 2010

The iPad is here. See my initial gut reaction to the iPad. Long story short, I am enthused about it with some reservations. But since I am usually thinking about how this stuff impacts search and social media, I’ve begun to contemplate the iPad (and by extension the entire slate computing universe) as it affects search and [...]

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The iPad: Game Changer or Gadget?

January 28, 2010

OK. So we will start out with this disclaimer: I have only bought 1 non-Apple computer since I bought my first laptop in 1993. (And that little Asus eeePC sits on the bookshelf…in case of a computing emergency.) I have an iPhone. I am writing this post on my MacBook Air. So, you might say that I [...]

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The Idea of Reputation: Page Rank Becomes Personal

November 7, 2009

It has been a while since I have posted…I have been busy merging SpinShark with PMDigital, and now I head up all of the search engine optimization efforts at PMD. It is heady and humbling. And, on top of that, there has been an incredible shift in the world of search.
The tried and true methods [...]

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Bing Goes Bang

July 13, 2009

Bing is really starting to grow…on me personally, my wife, and the rest of the United States…Bing’s traffic is up 8% in June. This is very decent traffic growth. Good on you Microsoft!
Now, I am NOT a Bing convert (I use Google, and, frankly, I am too embedded into Google Apps, GMail, Google Calendar, Google [...]

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What I Learned at IRCE

June 23, 2009

So, Gang, I spent most of last week at the Internet Retailer Conference working the SpinShark booth. Based on shows that we’ve been to this year, we weren’t really expecting too much. Previous e-commerce shows this year have been poorly attended and very low energy. However, when I walked into the convention center, the vendors [...]

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Does Bing Matter?

June 3, 2009

icrosoft launched Bing last week to a lot of fanfare. And the response that I have heard is one of pleasant surprise. And I have used Bing fairly extensively, and my  response is also one of pleasant surprise. It is a lot less crowded and flashy  (in that bad, buzzing neon sign sort of way) than [...]

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