Digital Marketing and Technological Insight

Zoominfo, Wink, Spock…here comes the latest entry into the people search field: Squidwho. Squidwho, brought to you by Squidoo, the semi-popular social search engine that pays people who become experts (and contribute) to a specific content area. Squidwho searches the typical destinations for relevant information on a person…Amazon, Flickr, Wikipedia, YouTube,etc.

Why. That is the only question I have. So called “people search engines” are popping up like crazy and filling search results with their incomplete listing. Great, you can scrape my info off of public directories like Linkedin. What value is that bringing besides the ability to drive traffic to your site? Do I really need to list an “about me” another site? Enough is enough. The social networking field is redefining itself as we speak. Unless your one of the big boys (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, etc) you better start focusing on specific and targeted verticals.

The other day I ran across one of the cooler FireFox extensions around, especially if you are into SEO and Social Media Optimization. The Social Media for FireFox extension is brought to us by the guys at 97th Floor, a SEO company based out of Utah. The tool, does a couple of really cool things. First you will see that in your FireFox browser status bar the 4 big players in social media / bookmarking - Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon and del.icio.us ( see image below). The tool has two settings, manual and automatic. When you click manual on any given page you will see how many times that page has been bookmarked on those various sites, then you can click on any of them to bookmark it yourself…its like having a toolbar for all 4 wrapped into one. When you choose Automatic it will automatically check every URL you visit. Cool right? Well, we aren’t done yet. The other, feature is even more impressive. When you are on one of the four included social news sites, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon and del.icio.us, you will see icons appear next to each story title with the submission information. For example, lets say you are on Digg, you will see how many times that article has been submitted on Reddit, StumbleUpon and del.icio.us. That means you can scan a site for a popular article and send it over to another site that hasn’t had it submitted yet. Right there your credibility on the other sites shoots through the roof. Awesome right? Download it now is all I have to say.

Another list I developed for work that I thought I would share.

Email Newsletters

ClickZ: Offers a series of valuable email newsletters covering a wide range of online / search related topics. Some of the more valuable ones I subscribe to are: SearchDay, Actionable Analytics, Search Engine Watch Experts and Search Engine Marketing.

MediaPost: Contains numerous valuable newsletters, including: Online Media Daily, Search Insider and Notes from the Digital Frontier.

Search Engine Land: Newsletters include 100% Organic, SearchCap and Search Month Recap, all of which feature articles from industry leader Danny Sullivan.

eMarketer Daily Newsletter: Covers e-business and internet marketing trends.

Blogs

SEOmoz blog: Daily news, tips and highlights from the Search Marketing Industry.

reelSEO - Video SEO tactics, tips & information

Matt Cutts Blog - Matt Cutts is a Google Engineer who blogs about everything going on in Google’s world.

Google Webmaster Central

John Battelle’s Search Blog - John Battelle’s, author of the must read book “The Search, How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business…”, take on search, media, etc.

TechCrunch – Dedicated to the online industry, with a focus on the latest news, trends and companies.

GigaOm - Technology news, analysis and opinions.

Mashable - Focus on Social Networking / Social Media news.

I put together a list of valuable Interactive Marketing events that are coming up in the few months left in 2007. Thought I would share it…

IAB MIXX 2.7
Focus: Interactive Marketing / Advertising, Rich Media, Brand Marketing, Search
Description: The preeminent event for marketing and agency professionals and the publishers and technology firms who help drive their efforts. MIXX brings together the industry’s most prominent and influential speakers talking about the most pressing and innovative topics in interactive today. Conference attendees will enjoy keynotes, panels, breakout sessions, proprietary IAB research presentations, industry forecasts and an exhibit hall filled with an all-start line-up of vendors showcasing the latest advertising and marketing solutions.
Dates: September 24 - 25
Location: NYC
Agenda
Key Workshops/Sessions: “The Future of Online Video”, “Proven Strategies in Premium Rich Media”, “A New World of Interactive Engagement”, “Search 2.0 - Innovations and Advancements in the Next Generation of Search”, “Frontiers in Digital Video”
Speakers

Ad:tech
Focus: Interactive Marketing / Advertising, SEO, Rich Media, Viral Marketing
Description: ad:tech is an interactive advertising and technology conference dedicated to connecting all sides of today’s brand marketing landscape. Worldwide shows blend keynote speakers, topic driven panels and interactive workshops to provide attendees with the tools and techniques they need to compete in a changing world.
Dates: November 5 - 8
Location: NYC
Agenda
Key Workshops/Sessions: “Media and Branding”, “The Internet Economy”, “Video + Search”, “Social Media and Consumer Generated Content”, “SEO Workshop”, “TV 3.0”
Speakers

Online Media, Marketing, Advertising Conference & Expo (OMMA)
Focus: Interactive Marketing / Advertising, Brand Marketing, Direct Response, Rich Media
Description: The attendees for this event are the leaders of the interactive marketing revolution. They are the advertisers, agency executives, brand managers, marketing managers, media planners, buyers, creative directors, sellers and suppliers who live and breathe online. They have had their fill of research about interactive in the media mix and now want actionable information on how to better spend the exploding budgets they control. Our audience is focused on delivering powerful campaigns, breakthrough ideas and unrivaled ROI by honing their interactive expertise.
Dates: September 24 - 25
Location: NYC
Agenda
Key Workshops/Sessions: “How to Market Content as Brand”, “Video Search Optimization”, “Widgets: Designing a Viral Brand Phenomenon”,” The SEO-ing of PPC”
Speakers

SMX Social Media
Focus: Social Media, SMO, SEO
Description: SMX Social Media is a two-day show where marketers will learn to harness the power of consumer engagement. It covers how social media sites such as Digg, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Netscape and others are serving a new and growing audience that wants to discover information based on community interests, voting and sharing.
Dates: October 16 - 17
Location: NYC
Agenda
Key Workshops/Sessions: “Social Media Marketing Essentials”, “A Marketer’s Guide to Social Bookmarking & Tagging”,” Wikipedia Clinic”
Speakers: None

WebmasterWorld’s Search & Internet Marketing Conference (PubCon)
Focus: Social Media, SEO, SEM, Affiliate Marketing.
Description: This year’s conference is jam packed with leading-edge sessions and one-of-a-kind presentations. Whether you are a newbie or an anchored old school - there is something big to be learned at PubCon. Those who will be in attendance include: Search engine marketers, optimizers, marketing executives, webmasters, affiliate managers, program and channel managers, purchasing agents and affiliates.
Dates: December 4 - 7
Location: Las Vegas
Agenda
Key Workshops/Sessions: “Duplicate Content Issues”, “SEO 101”, “Universal and Personal Search”, “Link Building”, “Search and Blogging”
Speakers

Search Engine Strategies
Focus: Search, SEM, SEO
Description: Join fellow marketers to quickly learn how to maximize search engine marketing and optimization opportunities and stay informed of the latest search developments and solutions in this area.
Dates: December 3 - 7
Location: Chicago
Agenda: TBA
Key Workshops/Sessions: “SEO”, “Search & Analytics”

For all of us SEO / Online Marketers who rely on Firefox for the best web browsing around, the SEOz blog has listed 8 must have add-ons. As you all know, there is never enough time in the day, so having your web browser loaded with short-cuts can be one your most valuable SEO resources. Here are the 8 that they list, as well as a brief explanation of each:

• Firebug 1.05: Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.

• Save As Image 1.044: Adds the ability to save a page, frame, or part of either as an image. Useful for showing people bugs in a website, creating a snapshot of design progress, or perhaps even creating a gallery of websites. This extension can’t capture flash/shockwave content.

• SEOpen 0.8: Current SEOpen features are all accessed through right-clicking an open area on a web page or by using the new toolbar; they include: Yahoo Backlinks, Pages in Yahoo Index, Google Backlinks, Google Cache, Pages in Google index, Google Translate to English, Google Related, PageRank Check, MSN Backlinks, Pages in MSN Index, Alexa Overview, Alexa Traffic, Alexa , related Alexa Backlinks, “Mass Check” multiple sources at once, Check DMOZ Inclusion, Keyword Density, Page Size Checker, HTML Validator, Server Header Viewer. Wayback Machine, Check robots.txt, Whois Info.

• SearchStatus: For every site you visit using, SearchStatus lets you view its Google PageRank, Google Category, Alexa popularity ranking, Compete.com ranking, Alexa incoming links, Alexa related links and backward links from Google, Yahoo! and MSN.

• SEO for Firefox: This tool is unique in that it shows SEO data points right in the SERPs! That is very, very cool. Here is a list of what it gathers: Google PageRank, Yahoo! linkdomain, Yahoo! .edu linkdomain, Yahoo! .edu link, Yahoo! .gov linkdomain, Yahoo! link, del.icio.us bookmarks, Technorati Links, Alexa rank, Google Pages indexed, Cached Page, dmoz link, Bloglines subscriber, Yahoo ditrectory Listing, WhoIs Data.It also places extra links at the top of the SERP for the following:Google Trends, SEO Book Keyword Research Tool, Overture View Bid, Google Traffic Estimator, Google Keyword Sandbox.

• The Rankquest SEO Toolbar: The Rankquest SEO Toolbar provides you quick access to more than 30 intuitive SEO tools. Once you download and install the SEO Toolbar you are only one or two clicks away from carrying out most of your day to day SEO operations.

• LinkChecker 0.6.1: Check webpage links at a glance with simple color coding. Ditch those massive listings of bad links that provide no context and add LinkChecker to your arsenal of web development tools today.

• X-Ray 0.8.1: When applied to a page it can help you see how the document was constructed without having to go back and forth between the sourcecode and the page in your browser. Is that list made of li, dd or p elements? Is that an h3 tag or just some bolded text? X-Ray shows you what’s beneath the surface of the page