Posted by randfish

Conversion rate optmization – the practice of improving the quantity of visitors who take a desired action on your site – has been a hot topic this year. There’s both an art and a science to the process of turning browsers into buyers and drive-by readers into email subscribers, Facebook fans and Twitter followers. In my opinion, no marketer should be engaging in this work without having read Robert Cialdini’s seminal work – Influence: Science & Practice.  I agree wholeheartedly with Guy Kawasaki’s assessment on the subject:

The problem is, not every marketer will read the book, and that leaves a lot of head-shaped holes in a lot of walls. Thus, this post is here to help do the next best thing – explain, through illustrations and descriptions, the broad concepts of persuasion. The book covers six major "weapons of influence." For each, I’m going to illustrate the concept then give tips (and some examples) on how you can apply them to marketing and conversion on the web.

#1 – Reciprocation

Hold open a door and you receive a "thank you" and a smile. Send a birthday present to a friend and you’re almost certain to get one in return. Pay for a co-worker’s coffee and she’ll pick up the next one. As Cialdini painstakinly details in the book, there is no culture on Earth without this unspoken, yet powerful rule of reciprocation.

The power of reciprocation relies on several conventions. The request must be "in-kind," which is to say, commensurate with the initial offering. The power is increased if the give-and-take happens in a short time frame. Reciprocity’s influence increases with closer relationships, too – it’s much harder to resist/refuse to reciprocate a favor to a friend who’s down the street than to an anonymous site on the web.

Leveraging reciprocity through web marketing:

• Give away free data and analysis through tools, but ask for permission to send an email marketing message in exchange
• Tweet or blog about a prominent person or business in a positive fashion, then email them asking if they’d help spread the message
• Email a site owner about a problem on their site and offer a solution/fix; they’ll often follow up by asking how they can return the favor
• Provide exemplary answers to questions posted in online forums with a signature or final note asking that if they found your answer valuable, to consider visiting your site and sharing it with friends
• Share great information on your blog and ask your readers to subscribe to your feed (see what I did there? Pretty meta, eh?)

#2 – Commitment & Consistency

As humans, we have an insatiable desire for consistency in our behavior. It’s why we abhor hypocrisy and embrace leaders, politicians and beliefs that "stick to their guns," sometimes to the point of foolishness. This consistency can be observed through the effectiveness of political tactics like push polling, wherein a paid "surveyer" will call numbers and ask voters whether they’d cast a ballot for "a man who refused to say the pledge of allegiance," thus getting a response and commitment verbally that will transfer into votes come election day after the follow-on ad campaign alludes to precisely that inaction from an opposition candidate.

A case study from the book illustrates this principle quite elegantly. Researchers on a New York City beach staged thefts to see if onlookers would risk personal harm to stop the "criminal." A research accomplice would listen to music on a blanket near their "test subjects" and after several minutes, stand up and stroll away, leaving a personal radio on the blanket. A "thief" would then approach, grab the radio, and attempt to hurry away with it. On average, only 4 in 20 bystanders would intervene.

However, when the experiment was changed slightly, the results altered dramatically. In this second scenario, before strolling away, the research accomplice would ask the test subject to "watch my things." Now, under the influence of consistency and commitment, 19 of 20 subjects became "virtual vigilantes, running after and stopping the thief, demanding an explanation, often restraining the thief physically or snatching the radio away."

Commitment and consistency can’t happen without that initial action of a reponse or promise. Cialdini notes that this power increases tremendously if the agreement is written, rather than merely verbal. E.g. last week, you told us you wanted XYZ… Guess what? Here it is!

Leveraging commitment and consistency through web marketing:

• Asking users to answer online questions about their habits/preferences, then marketing to them based on the answers they’ve given
• Getting visitors to a site to sign an online pledge to take a certain action and then email/message them at a specified day/time (example – the "Quit Facebook Day" movement)
• Asking your users/members/fans to commit to taking an action if a certain event occurs (like a charity pledge for a marathon runner). For example, you could say that your startup is up for an award and if you win it, you’d like them to commit to emailing a friend about their service. If/when you do win, send members who commited an email requesting the action.
• Using a landing page / funnel process that asks a question where users must choose to define themself in a set number of ways, then crafting sales messaging that speaks to how your product/service is the right choice for people like them.

#3 – Social Proof

If you’re walking along a street and see a crowd gathered around watching something, it’s nearly impossible to resist the urge to go over and investigate yourself. If you’re at a party and everyone is drinking, the pressure to have a drink yourself rises dramatically. We all hate the horrifyingly over-the-top laugh tracks on TV sitcoms, but TV producers know that the social signal of laughter makes us laugh along, too.

This same phenomenon applies when we judge exceptionally important life decisions – who should we date or marry, where should we go to school, where should we work. The influence of our peers is a powerful influencer and one that can’t be overlooked in the sphere of marketing.

Social proof becomes more powerful when the numbers increase and when the action-takers become more relevant and, especially more like the target. In other words, if you’re selling games to rebelling teenagers, don’t show testimonials from middle-aged parents who loved it, show other teens.

Leveraging social proof in web marketing:

• Services like MyBlogLog that display the picture and username of recent visitors to the site
• Facebook-leveraging visit tracking software that shows recent friends of yours who’ve engaged with the site you’re visiting (even more relevant and social proofy)
• Testimonials on landing pages and in sales copy. Those that feature photos, have titles and full names and relate to the visitor work best
• Network-effect services like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn touting their fast-growing and far-reaching memberships and usage

#4 – Liking

We’ve heard the phrase a thousand times – "People do business with people they know, like and trust." It turns out, there’s quite a bit of science to support this. Research confirms that things like physical attractiveness (we like good-looking people), familiarity (we trust people we know), similarity (we like people like us) and compliments (we like people who say nice things about us) all factor into to the principle of "liking."

It’s hard to argue with the power "liking" has on us as consumers. When Will Critchlow (whom I like a lot, despite constantly losing presentation-off battles to him) recommends that I read a book or try a service, it’s practically a guarantee I’ll do it (note to Will: please don’t abuse this power). Similarly, movie executives realize that asking Tom Hanks to go on the late-night circuit is a great way to drive viewership of a film, while sending Tom Cruise on a similar mission may have the opposite result.

Leveraging liking in web marketing:

• Start a blog, twitter account or email list and share your thoughts in a personable, personal and friendly way.
• Employ the power of celebrity, in microcosms. If Seth Godin wrote a blog post saying that SEOmoz was a valuable resource, that would likely drive many people who like Seth to take commensurate actions.
• Join in conversations on the web (on forums, in blog comments, on Twitter, via other social services) in ways that engender you positively to those community members. Follow up personally with community leaders and organizers to help spread the liking effect in a more scalable way.

#5 – Authority

A story from the book illustrates this principle so well, I couldn’t resist sharing:

Professors of pharmacy Michael Cohen and Neil Davis attribute much of the problem to the mindless deference given to the "boss" of a patient’s case: the attending physician. According to Cohen, "in case after case, patients, nurses, pharmacists, and other physicians do not question the prescription." Take, for example, the strange case of the "rectal earache" reported by Cohen and Davis. A physician ordered ear drops to be administered to the right ear of a patient suffering pain and infection there. Instead of writing out completely the location "Right ear" on the prescription, the doctor abbreviated it so that the instructions read "place in R ear." Upon receiving the prescription, the duty nurse promptly put the required number of ear drops into the patient’s anus.

Obviously, rectal treatment of an earache made no sense, but neither the patient nor the nurse questioned it. The important lesson of this story is that in many situations in which a legitimate authority has spoken, what would otherwise make sense is irrelevant. In these instances, we don’t consider the situation as a whole but attend and respond to only one aspect of it.

The power of authority can come from a variety of sources – clothes (think of the movie "Catch Me if You Can" in which Leonardo DiCaprio becomes a doctor or pilot simply through attire), titles and prefix/suffixes (Dr., Senator, President, C-level executive), and context (the famous Milgram study in which ordinary people commit horrifying acts simply because they are told to do so).

Authority only influences when the target believes in the power and authenticity of that authority. The stronger the authority association, the more powerful the impact, but not all authorities work on all people.  

Leveraging authority in web marketing:

• Has a well respected individual or organization endorsed your product/company? Make that a prominent feature when you request an action from your visitors.
• In a product or software service that provides information users rely upon, the product itself can influence actions by recommending them and showing the data to back it up.
• Experts in your field can make for great testimonials and endorsements. They need not be recognizable or even speak to social proof elements if they carry credentials and weight that will make your target audience respond.

#6 – Scarcity

Ever notice that some shops seem to be perpetually running "going out of business" sales? It’s no mistake – the power of potential loss is a remarkable influencer. The Rolling Stones’ "last ever" tour, the final can of Crystal Pepsi, the limited edition collectors keepsake (only 70 ever released!). All are examples of scarcity principles at work.

As Cialdini notes:

The feeling of being in competition for scarce resources has powerful motivating properties. The ardor of an indifferent lover surges with the appearance of often for reasons of strategy, therefore, that romantic partners reveal (or invent) the attentions of a new admirer. Salespeople are taught to play the same game with indecisive customers. For example, a realtor who is trying to sell a house to a "fencesitting" prospect sometimes will call the prospect with news of another potential buyer who has seen the house, liked it, and is scheduled to return the following day to talk about terms. When wholly fabricated, the new bidder is commonly described as an outsider with plenty of money: "an out-of-state investor buying for tax purposes" and "a physician and his wife moving into town" are favorites. The tactic, called in some circles "goosing ‘em off the fence," can work devastatingly well. The thought of losing out to a rival frequently turns a buyer from hesitant to zealous.

 

Scarcity becomes more powerful when it’s clear that the resource is finite (houses are great for this reason) and when immediacy is added to the scarcity (as in the case of another buyer on the horizon). Auction sites like eBay combine the powers of these persuasion tactics with remarkable results.

Leveraging scarcity in web marketing:

• Offer a special version of your product for a limited time in limited quantities
• Feature messages like Expedia’s - "only 2 tickets left at this price" – or Zappos’ – "only 3 pairs left in this size" – next to results/products to help encourage timely conversion
• Create an incentive for the first X visitors who take an action; you’ll likely get many more
• Show the number of people viewing an item right on the product page (e.g. "6 others currently on this page") to help create excitement and a feeling of immediacy (particularly for one-of-a-kind or limited quantity products)

---

Individually, these are powerful instruments of persuasion. Together, they’re a marketing force to be reckoned with. Let’s try an experiment and see if I can effectively employ the six principles as they related to SEOmoz (please note, I’m not normally this self-promotional, and this is meant somewhat tongue-in-cheek):

1. This blog post is the result of many hours of studying, writing and illustrating. If it’s helped your business in some way, we hope you’ll say thanks by sharing it through tweets, links or an email to someone you think would appreciate the reference.
2. Are you the kind of SEO who bases their decisions on data or gut feeling? Close your eyes for a minute and think. If you said "data," I’d urge you to check out the new Keyword Difficulty tool. It will help make decisions about where and how to compete from a much more data driven perspective.
3. 2,426 search marketers on Facebook have become fans of SEOmoz. Won’t you join them?
4. Danny Dover is impossible not to like. Make Danny happy by following him on Twitter.
5. The Search & Social Awards named SEOmoz the best SEO Blog, top SEO community and favorite SEO tool suite this year.
6. This summer we’re launching a new software suite and SEOmoz PRO prices are going up to $100, $500 and $2,000 per month (respectively). There’s less than 60 days to get PRO at the current rates.

The next time you make a landing page or try to drive actions on the web, think about how you might leverage these principles of influence to improve your conversion rate.

As always, looking forward to your thoughts in the comments – I’d particularly love to see examples of the principles in action at on the web. It’s something I wanted to do when authoring this post, but simply ran out of time.

Do you like this post? Yes No

I don’t promote a lot of social media training courses as there is a lot of second rate teaching going around on the topic – however there is one online training event that I participated in last year that made a real impression on me.

The Social Media Success Summit – an event that is held purely online over a 3 week period. It features an amazing array of social media influencers – many of whom you’re probably quite familiar with.

I’m participating again and am promoting this both as an affiliate, presenter and as someone who is going to participate as a learner.

Those involved in the teaching include:

• Chris Brogan
• Guy Kawasaki
• Steve Rubel
• John Bernier (Best Buy)
• Marla Erwin (Whole Foods)
• Sarah Molinari (Home Depot)
• Tristen Walker (Foursquare)
• Mari Smith
• Ann Handley (MarketingProfs)
• Brian Clark
• Chris Garrett
• Me

The list goes on and on (there are 24 people involved). There are 18 sessions (live but also recorded, with transcripts) plus 20 or so other bonus recordings from last year’s summit).

Last year’s summit was huge both in terms of the learning but also the number of people involved. This year it has grown further and it is well on the way to selling out.

The great thing about it is that until this Thursday it is half price for early bird registrations.

The Social Media Success Summit is a teaching event best suited to those who have a business that they want to bring social media to – however much of what is covered is relevant to bloggers who want to make social media their actual business. Check out the extensive information page to learn more about who is involved and what the sessions will cover.

50% off until this Thursday

Until this Thursday (15th) you can register at half price. I look forward to connect with you in the session I’m involved with (with Chris Brogan, Brian Clark and Rick Calvert) and learning with you as a participant in the other sessions.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Join Me at the Social Media Success Summit 2010
[50% Discount Until Thursday]

Share This

Earlier this year at SES New York, Guy Kawasaki raised quite a stir when he gave his keynote address regarding his use of Twitter and specifically, his use of ghost tweeters. Although many SEOs disagree with the practice, Li Evans of Serengeti Communications defends him on the grounds of marketing.

Kawasaki’s use of Twitter became a problem when some people discovered that he had ghost tweeters but didn’t disclose it. Although he does disclose now, Evans says people need to understand that Kawasaki is a marketer. With marketing, the message plays one of the most critical roles.

In an interview with WebProNews at the BlogWorld Expo 2009, Kawasaki responded to the criticism of his ghost tweeters by saying: “At the end of the day, the ultimate test is not who tweeted it, as much as, is it interesting.”

According to Evans, the core issue is the expectations of the audience. Ashton Kutcher is an avid tweeter and his followers know it. On the contrary, 50 Cent has other people tweet for him; although it doesn’t make everyone happy, his followers know that he is not tweeting on his own.

In regards to business usage of Twitter, Evans recommends planning a strategy to determine the best way to meet the audience’s expectations. If the expectations involve more than the business can do on its own, make sure to disclose whoever is doing it. Otherwise, the business could lose its credibility.

Do you think ghost tweeting is wrong if you disclose it? What does your audience expect from you?

According to Guy Kawasaki, the Co-founder of Alltop, the best way to use Twitter is for marketing. He is anything but shy when it comes to both his love and usage for the microblogging service. However, not everyone agrees with his stance. He has especially received criticism from the SEO community.

One area of controversy is in regards to Kawasaki sending out the same tweet multiple times, a practice some people refer to as spam. Secondly, he has been greatly criticized for the “ghosts,” or other people he has tweeting for him.

In spite of the scrutiny, Kawasaki defends his strategy on Twitter. In a Q & A post on his blog, he explained his reasoning for repeating his tweets. He said:

“I repeat a handful of my tweets because I don’t assume that all my followers are reading me 24 x 7 x 365. This is the same reason that ESPN and CNN repeat the same news stories (without updates, simply identical reports) throughout the day.”

In response to the opposition of his ghosts, Kawasaki told WebProNews:

“At the end of the day, the ultimate test is not who tweeted it, as much as, is it interesting.”

As a result of the controversy, his ghosts now identify when they are tweeting. Ironically, he said that one of his ghosts actually gets retweeted more than he does.

Although his usage of Twitter has been brought under attack numerous times, it doesn’t appear to be affecting his success on the service at all. Since Twitter is a free and open platform, is there really a wrong way to use it?

Posted by randfish

I’m not always a fan of Guy Kawasaki’s work, but really enjoyed his post on the OPEN Forum – A Dozen Don’ts for Entrepreneurs. I thought I’d take a stab at replicating it with some of my biggest warnings for those in our field.

For the list below, the word "clients" is interchangeable with "marketing manager" or "executive team" for in-house SEOs.

1. Don’t Create False Expectations
   Clients are just like everyone else – when you exceed their expectations, they love you. When you disappoint, they’re angry. Make it easy for yourself and don’t oversell. If anything, undersell your abilities to do great things and let them be surprised. It’s a hard thing to do, particularly in a competitive bidding environment, but humility and hard work often shine through in presentations and good clients will see that and honor it.
   _
2. Don’t Ignore Analytics
   Website analytics, both visitor traffic and third party metrics, are important parts of SEO. When things are going well, even if best practices aren’t being followed, it can be wise to match up data and trends to see what’s made a real difference. Don’t undertake an SEO project unless you have at least the essential data points (this also comes in handy once changes have been implemented and your work starts to have an impact).
   _
3. Don’t Always Take Your Client at Their Word
   If you talk to lots of clients, you’ll find that none of them have ever spammed the engines, bought a link, accidentally cloaked for Googlebot or hidden text, yet the statististics tell another story. Never assume your clients are being dishonest, but always watch out for activities they might not be aware of (or might not have realized were problematic). This goes beyond just white and black hat – we had a client who thought they had a couple dozen active domains; turns out they had nearly a hundred – canonicalization alone has been a big project and a big return.
   _
4. Don’t Get Into Projects with People You Don’t Like
   If ever you get a "funny feeling" about a client, move on if you can possibly afford it. Some people just don’t click together, and when interpersonal relationships aren’t working, projects have a way of not working out, either. It’s always better to get out before something’s signed than after.
   _
5. Don’t Give an Unqualified Answer Unless You’re Extremely Certain You’re Right
   If you’ve been reading SEOmoz lately or hearing me speak at conferences, you’ll notice that my advice comes with a lot more caveats than it used to. It’s been a tough lesson, but there’s very rarely a "this is ALWAYS better than that" in the field of SEO. Exceptions abound, so cage your language accordingly.
   _
6. Don’t Confuse SEO & Sales
   If your client comes to you wanting to drive sales with SEO, make sure they’re keenly aware of the multiple responsiblities inherent in such a request. Yes – SEO can drive lots of high quality, targeted traffic at the perfect moment for capturing the sale. But NO – SEO cannot convert that visit into dollars. If the website sucks at turning visitors into leads, do the right thing and recommend CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) before they dive into SEO.
   _
7. Don’t Rest on Your Laurels
   If you’re not paying attention in the SEO world, even for just a few weeks, you can miss massive changes. Look at June! We’ve had a reversal of position on nofollow and Javascript links from Google, a new engine/algorithm/brand from Microsoft, adoption of rich text formatting in the SERPs, evidence that header tags may not be as valuable as we thought and data suggesting that alt attributes are highly correlated with good rankings. Stay ahead of the curve and devote some resources to industry news – you owe it to your clients and yourselves.
   _
8. Don’t Undervalue Your Work
   SEO is hard work. For every consulting hour, there’s days of research, testing, reading, surfing and experimenting. Don’t undersell your services or accept that what you do doesn’t provide tremendous value. If you’re being undervalued now, consider how terrificly trackable SEO really is and show them the data. It’s almost always on your side.
   _
9. Don’t Believe Everything You Read
   Yes, even here at SEOmoz! We certainly try our best to provide high quality, accurate information, as do many other great sites on SEO, but no one is right 100% of the time, and, more importantly, not every piece of advice is applicable for every business or every situation.
   _
10. Don’t Underestimate Dev Contributions
    I was recently asked "what’s the biggest roadblock to SEO," and didn’t need to think for 10 seconds before quoting Mr. Ballmer’s infamous adage "Developers! Developers! Developers!" If you get bandwidth cycles for SEO projects, use them wisely. If the developers have made critical SEO errors, don’t be quick to criticize – you’ll make enemies, and, oftentimes, be guilty of hypocrisy. Stay humble, prioritize the big pieces and make sure you have the resources before you commit to improving traffic.
    _
11. Don’t Overstate Your Influence or Abilities
    Just because you have the ear of some important minds at Google/Yahoo!/Facebook/etc. doesn’t mean you can influence change within these large organizations. I’ve heard a lot of stories from companies that worked with SEOs of how they promised to get their penalty lifted or special treatment from an engine because they got a response to an email they sent to a search engineer. Perhaps an even better rule is – don’t promise something you can’t personally control and deliver.
    _
12. Don’t Get Overconfident and Dismiss Other Marketing Channels
    OK, yes – SEO rocks. But don’t forget how valuable other marketing activities like email, PPC, CRO, affiliate programs, even display advertising can be for the right scenario. Once you’ve found the SEO hammer, it’s easy to see every problem as a nail – I’ve certainly been guilty of it. If you can resist, think holistically and provide the best answer from a strategic (rather than tactical) level, you’ll become even better and more valuable to your clients.

Your turn – any "don’ts" you’d recommend to fellow SEOs?

p.s. If you haven’t read the whole Malcolm Gladwell vs. Chris Anderson with Seth Godin weighing in thing, it’s pretty worthwhile

Do you like this post? Yes No

Posted by rebecca

Stories, news, and other notable items from the past 3 weeks:

• Enquisite launches Enquisite Campaign for general users, enabling folks to improve their organic search rankings by capturing real-time search data and providing ROI tracking. It’d be cool to hear feedback from any of you monkeys if you’ve tried out the service.
• Andrew Goodman follows up Part I of his "Is Guy Kawasaki Singlehandedly Ruining Twitter?" post with Part II. Tune in for Part III: Is Guy Kawasaki Rendering Women Infertile Because of His Tweets?
• Lyndoman tells us to do "smash a brick into the face" link building. It’s a great pairing with "kick you in the balls" viral marketing and "spit in your mouth" analytics.
• Rand is interviewed by Wildfire Marketing Group. My boss gets interviewed so often that I wonder what’s left to talk about. Tune in for next week, where I ask Rand burning questions about his feet size, what side of the bed he sleeps on, and whether he’s an innie or an outie.
• In case you haven’t noticed, Digg is replacing their shouts feature with the options to share via email/Facebook/Twitter. What the hell is the point in having a friends list on Digg then? Make up your mind, you stupidly addictive site.
• DuckDuckGo, a new search engine, shares its most common queries. Unsurprisingly, sex, porn and boobs are common staples.
• Cesar Serna releases his first iPhone app, a PPC calculator, thus making paid search nerdiness available on the go.
• Via MyWifeQuitHerJob.com, here are things about their business that didn’t go according to plan. I’m assuming "Pantsless Fridays" fizzled pretty quickly.
• Cre8asite teaches us how to avoid WordPress duplicate content problems with Google.
• Andrew Girdwood says we should be thanking Matt Cutts, not criticizing him. Okay, thank you, Matt!

• SEO Optimise provides 41 ultimate tips from SMX London 2009, thus saving you the cost of attending. Thanks for that!
• You don’t know jack about online PR…well, according to datadial, that is.
• Cre8asite gives the middle finger to the Arial font and makes out with Verdana. Arial gets all emo and starts posting angsty videos to YouTube.
• According to Wired, search sucks but Microsoft is here to help. Indeed, Bing launched recently and has already proved to be very useful.
• Andy Beal blogs about how 74% of employees agree their social media shenanigans can ruin their company’s reputation. Also, regarding Sex Panther cologne, 60% of the time it works every time.
• Gather ’round the campfire, kids! It’s time for a brief history of social media!
• Via Search Engine Land, here are 7 reasons to keep bidding on your brand terms.

• Your "awwww" clip of the day: a banker catches ducklings hopping off the roof of the bank and guides them to safety.
• DirJournal provides us with 6 classic articles every SEO should read. Just missing the list is Rand’s post about why the meta keywords tag is a top ranking factor and should be used by everyone :P.
• WellWrittenWords has the ultimate list of web tracking applications. Now you can track evathang!

YOUmoz entries:

• Looking for Feedback from the SEM Community on Our Business Model. Kenja asks the YOUmoz community for their input on his website that offsets carbon footprints for businesses and their shipments.
• Does Google Care About Legitimacy Anymore? DustinMa wonders if Google cares about damaging and unfounded reputation management results like Rip Off Report.
• The Seven Deadly Sins of Company Blogging. Chris Lister ties seven common blogging pitfalls into the 7 deadly sins.
• Piggybacking Off Of Survivor. Imarker talks about how he leveraged interest for Coach Wade of Survivor to bring traffic to his soccer website.
• GFGI. Yoshimi says enough is enough and that lazy SEO noobs should stop bugging people for answers to easy, basic questions and to just go f*cking Google it.
• URL Rewriting: Increase Organic Traffic By Using Dynamic URLs That Look Static. Adwb gives a lesson on URL rewriting and provides some nice examples of bad URLs that need fixing.
• Quantifying Social Media: Cost Per Conversion. Mitch Turck talks about the cost per conversion and cost per acquisition for social media marketing and campaigns.
• Social Media Sites the Future of SEO/RM or Just a Fad? DustinMa wonders about the longevity of social media marketing.
• Do Twitter Accounts Need Scale? The Lost Agency analyzes Twitter and wonders if it can begin to replace other paid campaigns.
• How to Utilize Twitter Trends for Amazing Blog Traffic. Kandice Day shares how she uses Twitter Trends to bring traffic to her blog.
• utilizing twitter in a link building campaign
• Companies Playing on the Social Media Playground. IGoMogul wonders if social media renders corporate websites irrelevant/obsolete.
• Can Rand Do No Wrong? RoryCarlyle ponders why almost nobody thumbs Rand down on our site.
• Getting Value from Search Conferences. StatMatt shares ways to get the most out of attending costly search conferences.
• Was the Google IO Android Phone Giveaway a Paid Links Violation? MM Agency wonders if Google’s recent Android phone giveaway was technically a paid link scheme to bribe recipients to blog about the phone and link to it.
• Hiding From Your Competitors. Teifion shares a tactic from Mikkel deMib about how to hide your site from your competitors.
• The Cookie Conundrum. DanaDV wonders about the proper way to handle a cookie issue with his geographic websites.
• Five Web Writing Tips That Pay My Bills. Webwordslinger shares 5 tips that will improve your writing on the web.

Best of YOUmoz:

• Weapons-Grade SEO Part 1: Laying the Foundation. Colewhitelaw shares valuable strategies on how to evolve your site into a "living ecosystem of link strength" to help grow your business.
• Utilizing Twitter in a Link Building Campaign. Nicchenet shares a cool strategy on how to use Twitter to build relevant contacts and obtain links.
• 7 Reasons Why You Might Not Be Making Money As An SEO. JoelJonathan lays down some tough love and shares reasons why you’re not bringing in the big bucks as an Internet marketer.

New additions to the SEOmoz Marketplace:

Featured job postings:

• SEO manager for BlueGlue in West London, UK
• Contracted penalty remediation for a webmaster in NY
• Director of online marketing for ROBLOX in Redwood City, CA
• Senior SEO consultant/head of search for Blueclaw Media in Leeds, UK
• Organic SEO specialist for Bloosky in San Clemente, CA
• B2B SEO consultant/client services account manager for Search Engine Partner in West Palm Beach, FL
• Inside sales position for Imagine Consultation in Atlanta, GA
• UK-based freelance SEO copywriter/article writer
• Web designer and programmer for Medex Arabia in Damascus, Syria
• Online SEO & PPC marketer for shiply.com in London, UK
• SEO specialist for MSH.net in Cologne, Germany
• SEO director for ClickFuel in Boston, MA
• Senior SEO manager for ABCNews.com in New York, NY
• Account representative for Marcel Media in Chicago, IL
• PPC campaign manager for Astonish Results in Warwick, RI

Featured companies:

United States:

• Efelle Media in Seattle, WA
• The Sayre group in the US
• RescuedSites.com in Lockport, NY
• Cartisien Interactive in Seattle, WA 
• Raisor Marketing in CA
• CB Web Innovations in Burlington, NC
• Acsys Interactive in Farmington, CT
• Tampa SEO Training Academy in Tampa, FL
• Coalmarch Productions in NC
• Search Engine Partner in West Palm Beach, FL
• SEO Treo in Santa Monica, CA
• Frankel Coaching Group in Coral Springs, FL
• Segnant Technologies in Irving, TX
• Webhead Interactive in Tampa, FL
• Remote Backup Systems in the US
• Mankato Web Design in Minneapolis, MN
• Polar Design in Boston, MA
• Justmake Media in Columbia, SC
• Pacific Tech SEO in CA
• WhatsTheBigIdea.com in Saugerties, NY
• Ethos Digital in Falls Church, VA
• Piepho Media in Edina, MN
• Siatomic in Greenwich, CT
• HEROweb Marketing and Design in Springfield, OR
• SEO conductor in Austin, TX
• Astonish Results in Warwick, RI
• Hidden Millionaire in Madison, MS
• IS Support in Houston, TX

UK / Europe:

• BlueGlue in Reading, UK
• Creare Group in Leicestershire, UK
• Exponetial in France, UK and the US
• OxfordSEO.com in Oxford, UK
• Network Marketing in Leeds, UK
• WAM-Referencement in Lyon, France
• WebDistortion in Belfast, Ireland
• Weborganique Referencement in France
• Lavora Marketing in Cheshire, UK
• Periscopix in London, UK

Asia:

• Asia Affiliate in Singapore
• WebReinvent in India
• Activa Group in Damascus, Syria
• Intellact in Mumbai, India
• 123-SEO in Kalyani, India
• DesignersX in Chandiagrh, India
• Indian SEO in Bangalore, India

Australia/New Zealand:

• Optimum Results in Wellington, New Zealand

Miscellaneous:

• VisitorCamp located frickin’ everywhere

Featured resumes:

Currently looking:

• Donny Gamble is looking for clients who are in need of SEO and SEM work.
• Julian Duc is an Internet marketing specialist who is seeking a challenging SEO/Internet marketing position anywhere in the world.
• Brian DeLoach is a web developer and designer with a focus on SEO and information architecture.  

Happily employed:

• Vikram is an SEO for Gold Crest Software who is looking for SEO or SEM positions.
• Muhammad Al-Sharifi works for Activa Syria.
• Juan Jose Calvo Ramos is an SEO professional with seven years of experience in SEO, SEM and Internet marketing.

Do you like this post? Yes No

This interview was conducted by Monica O’Brien (@monicaobrien) from Twenty Set.

As the recession looms on, more and more people are turning to social media and blogs to look for jobs. Jamie Varon (@jamievaron) has generated buzz in the Twitter community with her new website called Twitter Should Hire Me, where she blogs candidly about her attempts to get a job at Twitter. In this interview, she shares her tips on how to use social media to land the job of your dreams, even in a recession.

What kind of reception have you received since launching Twitter Should Hire Me?

By the end of the second day that the site launched, I had received over 20,000 views. My Twitter following count has increased by almost 40% and I have forged relationships that I would not have otherwise had. There have been multiple write ups about my campaign and I have been contacted by my local news and some other news outlets that I can’t discuss. The Twitter community responded to my campaign in an overwhelmingly positive way. They were very supportive and it spread very quickly throughout people’s Twitter streams. At one point, I was the 70th most retweeted person on Twitter, among the top 100 with huge influencers such as Guy Kawasaki, Chris Brogan, and Pete Cashmore.

Sometimes the hardest part of finding a job is getting that initial interview. What steps did you take to get noticed by Twitter before starting Twitter Should Hire Me?

I had a connection recommend me to the hiring manager for an open position. I never heard back because the position was filled. I dropped in on the hiring manager at Twitter HQ to introduce myself and bring in some cookies (cheesy, I know). Then, a couple days after that, I emailed the hiring manager that I met. After not hearing anything back from any of those efforts, I decided it was time to do something a bit more extreme. That’s when I came up with the idea for TSHM.com. Plus, I thought it would be fun to do something bold like that and thought it would be interesting to see the response.

How are you promoting your site and your job search?

I promoted my site primarily through Twitter. I thought that the strategy of getting to Twitter through Twitter would be an interesting one. I didn’t contact any Twitter representatives directly, because I wanted the site to get to them organically. As of right now, I am not promoting my job search anymore, because I might end up with too many things on my plate, so I’m backing off a little bit. However, I am adding blog posts every day to my Twitter site to now show that I have information and ideas to back up the site — and not just a good idea that attracted buzz.

You’ve garnered amazing support for your site from the Twitter community. Why do you think people have rallied so strongly around you?

I think it’s a great story about innovation in a time where a lot of people are struggling to get noticed by companies. There’s a sense of hope, optimism, and ambition in my message, which people are very much needing to see. We’ve been hit by a lot of negativity in the media lately and the message of someone continuing to believe in themselves and go for their dreams, even in the midst of this crisis, hit home for a lot of people. There has been this sense of, “take whatever you can get,” and people were happy to see someone who was still keeping the hope alive.

What have you learned from the site about using social media to get a job?

The power of social media is alive and strong. I have learned that if you have something worth sharing, people will share it. And, that if you genuinely want to build community, you will attract people. I think that a main reason for my success with this site was that I had built a great community before I launched the site. I had genuinely been using Twitter to connect with people and wasn’t trying to push any agenda on them. My biggest supporters were people that I had previously connected with on Twitter. They really set the tone for the campaign, because they responded positively and put the word out. In terms of getting a job using social media, I think what I’ve learned is that people will know if you have an agenda. Building relationships without any pretense is vital to being successful with connecting (and then eventually maybe finding a job) through social media. There has to be something real there initially.

What will you do if Twitter doesn’t offer you a job?

I have three job offers doing marketing – One PT social media marketing position actually gets me into the startup industry in a big way. This site has opened up tons of possibilities for me in marketing.

That’s the ticket: I wanted something in the creative departments of startups. So, I created something unique and marketed both it and myself. No matter what experience I put on the site (even though I am pumping a good amount of info into it), I have achieved what companies want: buzz. My uncle, out of the woodwork, called me and wants to hire me as a freelancer and throw $5000 of marketing budget at me. That just doesn’t happen in this economy.

Furthermore, if Twitter doesn’t hire me at this point, I hope to create a relationship with them and maybe the future will bring a partnership. I know I will be in the startup industry to stay, so even if there isn’t a place for me on the Twitter team at this point, it doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be a place for me in the future.

What advice would you give to people trying to get a job in social media?

If you want a job in social media, prove you can utilize social media without a paycheck. I recently was just asked to be a social media marketer for a company because I had spent the month I was unemployed building my own brand online. I didn’t wait for a company to give me a chance to prove I was successful within social media; I took it upon myself to let my actions speak louder than my words. If you can’t build your own brand (your blog or your Twitter, etc), then you can’t be successful in social media. And, companies will hire the person that has proven to understand social media, rather than the person who says they do.

Share This