Coca-Cola Watches the World Pass By, Decides to Join
This week, Coca Cola is “formally embracing” the online video phenomenon of the exploding geyser created from mixing Mentos with Diet Coke. This statement is from the same company whose formal position a few months ago was: “We would hope people want to drink [Diet Coke] more than try experiments with it,” says Coke spokeswoman Susan McDermott. She adds that the “craziness with Mentos … doesn’t fit with the brand personality” of Diet Coke.” From the Wall Street Journal June 12, 2006. Well, now we have an official acceptance from Coke that people will now be publicly embraced for dropping Mentos into their product, rather than being shunned by the corporate giant for…
The announcement from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) that it would offer SEO certification was received with skepticism within the SEO industry. This was not a surprise. Many have asked why or who, especially because some see that the DMA may be treading on on their territory. Conversely, the announcement was received with excitement within the DMA and from those outside of the SEO industry. The DMA has been featuring SEO and SEM sessions for a few years now, as they have seen the value of it in their own organization. Many marketers know and understand the potential that this industry has, so the fact that a large marketing organization…
Links are Worth Much More than Rankings
The other day, my friend Jennifer and I were having an argument discussion about what has really changed in the search optimization industry since the early days. Her contention was that content was the most important in the early days and links were fairly insignificant. My counter to that argument, “Links have always been critical.” Her counter was, “Well, yes; they were as important, but not to rankings.” At least! I had her where I wanted her. We have always agreed that it’s not all about rankings. I was ready to throw that in her lap, but first a little background. From the first days of building and marketing…
Next Month, November 14, 2006 is World Usability Day. A day for celebrating those things that are easy to use and understand. A day to celebrate products that do not require extensive instructions in order to put them together or use. Because isn’t that what we really want? To NOT use the instructions? I am celebrating a month early with the instructions on how to use my hotel alarm clock. Anything that requires this much instruction is certainly not intuitive – and not something I am metally prepared to deal with at 12:30 AM. I’m in San Francisco for the DMA Conference this weekend. It’s shaping up to be a great…
Visualizing Edward Tufte
Last week I had the privilege of attending a seminar given by Edward Tufte. Tufte is recognized as an authority on Data Visualization and he offers extensive examples of incredible diagrams that engage the reader by communicating extensive amounts of information through diagrams or the written word. This was one of the most interesting seminars I’ve ever attended, and I strongly suggest this seminar to anyone that has to communicate data. Either as a salesperson, a public speaker or simply to internal technical groups, the information in this seminar will help you to become a better presenter of information. Tufte uses many historical examples of visualizing data. Starting from…
Google buys YouTube, the popular video sharing site, for a paltry $1.65 billion. This surprised many industry watchers as Google has typically bought start-ups before they became popular. YouTube has far surpassed expectations of popularity, which is also why the deal seems so large for Google. Buying YouTube will also bring with it a few interesting problems. The first of which is to figure out how to monetize YouTube in ways other than ad revenue. The video site has grown significantly since is debut last year, largely by word of mouth, but did not have a monetization strategy. The second issue will be potential copyright lawsuits. Many videos on YouTube can…
No major organization has offered SEO Certification to this point; however the DMA (Direct Marketing Association) has officially announced a SEO Certification Program that will be initially offered at DMA06 in San Francisco. The program offered in San Francisco will be the Level 1 Certification, with a Level 2 offered later. Initially, there are four Level 1 modules that will be offered at DMA06, and there are ten modules that will eventually be added. • Introduction to Search Marketing – Jeannette Kocsis of Harte Hanks • Search Engine and Directory Submission/Inclusion – Detelev Johnson of Position Technologies • Site Indexing Challenges and How to Fix Them – Matt Bailey of Sitelogic Marketing • Search Engine Basics…
Internet Marketing: An Hour a Day
Written by Matt Bailey, President of SiteLogic. Matt presents the start-to-finish guide for marketing online, answering many questions that most businesses don't know to ask!
