Recently, I’ve taken to listening to podcasts while working. The only problem is that I haven’t been able to find many Online or Internet Marketing Podcasts (that are updated on a regular basis). I do listen to For Immediate Release, The Daily Searchcast, Managing the Gray, The Search Pulse (Am I the only one having trouble getting to that site?) and a number of shows on Webmaster Radio. But I wish there was more. Does anyone have a podcast that they would recommend? And if I don’t find any, I guess I’ll just start listening to books at Audible.

The What Have I Been Reading Reading List:

• Risk Assessment for Different Styles and Applications of SEOs: The SEO who works for clients, the SEO who works on his own affiliate stuff, and the SEO who works in-house on one particular site all have wildly different needs and demands. What is crucial and vital for one of those types may be utterly worthless to another. The one thing I would call critical is the ability to assess and manage risk factors. To know how likely something is to change before banking a whole campaign on it. To know what net result changes may have, and to ensure that all risks are within your remit and ability to make decisions on.” This is why I read everything Ammon Johns writes. Btw: If you’ve never read SEOMoz’s interview with Ammon Johns, read it. See also: In-House Search Marketing Jobs Growing Along With Search Industry (via; Search Engine Watch Forums)
• The New Org Chart: Specialists and Generalists: “Clients want both niche experts and big-picture thinking, and agencies have had to adapt. ‘The kinds of skill sets and ways of thinking required today mean that everyone has to be able to wear 18 different hats. Today, the most valuable people are the most adaptable the ones who can leverage it all and grow. It’s critical to have media folks in the room as we’re developing ideas, because they’re the most up-to-speed on what’s innovative and sexy, and they can push us in different directions’ - Lincoln Bjorkman, executive creative director of Digitas”
• What Do Kids, Tweens and Teens Do Online? (via: Sleepy Blogger) “When the firm asked youngsters which technologies they would miss the most, television came first, but video games and the Internet were close behind — and the Internet beat TV by a wide margin among the older teen group. Radio, newspapers and magazines were hardly in the running. Younger kids are essentially Internet users in training. Tweens are the Internet explorers. By their teens, youngsters are well-connected and savvy Internet users, with search, e-mail and IM important and regular Internet activities. See also: Ypulse. If Generation Y Marketing is your thing, this site is a must read.

The I Also Glanced Over Reading List:

• EBay Keyword Stuffing: It’s a shame to find out out the EBay may be keyword stuffing, especially since I know that they were looking for an SEO a few months ago. I hope this is not the new Search Engine Optimizer’s work.
• Advergaming: Burger King teams up with X-Box See also: Average Video Gamer is 41 and Half Are Female
• IBM Adds Enterprise Blogging to Lotus Notes
• The Rise of Flash Video, Part 1

The Too Cool: Goes to: SEOMoz’s list of Every Website Statistic Publicly Available. From the Blog post: “Admittedly, this is an ambitious list, but it’s also a worthwhile one. Below, I’ve attempted to lay the foundation for every piece of website data available to marketers, researchers and the curious. Competitive analysis experts, welcome to data paradise” – Definitely Bookmark Worthy!

“Dreams unwind and love’s a state of mind” - Rhiannon - Fleetwood Mac

Posted by: Natasha “That Girl From Marketing” Robinson

AKA: Why, in spite of my better judgement, I will use the term Social Media Optimization in every post for the next month…

What is Social Media Optimization(SMO)? Well it is the new term dujour in online marketing. When I read the first article mentioning SMO a month or so ago, I thought “Cool, I like the concept”. Then I began seeing it everywhere.

And now I cringe when I read about SMO…everywhere! I cringe because here we go again, with yet another acronym with a nebulous definition in the online marketing industry. I cringe because I know it will be a topic of a panel at whatever is the next Online Marketing Conference. I cringe because I will be forced to read it everywhere. And, I cringe because of all the bandwagoneers who rush to use the term because it is the term dujour. And I especially cringe because… well if ya can’t beat ‘em….

The Online Marketing industry especially Search Engine Marketers suffer from Next Big Thing Syndrome. How many times have we read: “(insert tool, technology or new marketing term) is the Next Big Thing.” I believe it was not that long ago that I read that RSS was the Next Big Thing and Blogs were the Next Big Thing and Social Networks are the next Big Thing and SEOPR and Linkbaiting and so forth and so on.

But here’s my issue: while I have read articles on what Social Media Optimization is, and why you should implement social media optimization, I have yet to read an article on how a company allocates budget to include Social Media Optimization in their next campaign. Anyone? And don’t even get me started on the question that we all know a client will eventually ask, “So how many visitors do I get for that?”

And on that , I’ll leave you to ponder a quote from the article: Viral Smoke n’ Mirrors: Comparing Stunts vs. Buzz in a Viral Marketing Campaign:

“Many clients and agencies are missing the point – mistaking the means for the ends. The means are a well thought-out marketing program that might include a viral component. The end is the ever-elusive and often ill-defined buzz. Good viral campaigns make you stop and look. They sneak up on you. You have an ‘aha’ moment of realization. Stunts make you look, but you quickly forget. Viral campaigns make you wonder who’s behind them. Stunts often have nothing at all to do with the company paying for them. Smart viral campaigns take advantage of the intimate connection between a brand and the community.”

The What Have I Been Reading Reading List:

• Should B2B Marketers blog? - “Of the marketers who told us that they use these emerging tactics today, over 70% said they planned to boost their spending on social computing tactics during the next 12 months. Successful blogs have two interconnected ingredients, a community that finds reading the blog -– and contributing to it — valuable. From our own experience at Forrester, blogs are a bit like children –- they demand constant attention and nurturing to grow up properly –- so deciding to initiate a blog is not a decision taken lightly. Questions marketers should answer are: What is the purpose of the blog? Who is the audience? Will the blog encourage participation? And, who should own the blog’s content?” See also: These lists of Corporate Blogs: Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki, A List of Business Blogs & Corporate Blogs in Europe
• Benchmark Study on the Internet’s Influence on Consumer Moviegoing: “The study found that these moviegoers recall television advertising, trailers and word-of-mouth as the most important sources of what MarketCast called “first awareness”–essentially the first introduction of a movie to a potential consumer. However, in between first awareness and the point of sale–during the critical period in which consumers learn more about movies, winnow their choices, and look up showtimes and theater locations–the Internet’s influence is vast. MarketCast found that 49% of moviegoers surveyed actively research a movie after first hearing about it; and of these, seven in ten go the Internet. “(via Marketing Pilgrim). See also: Google’s Treasure Trove of Industry Market Research

The I Also Glanced Over Reading list:

• Adidas Opens Second Life Store
• If You Want Visitors To Come Back, Send Them Away
• Social Networking Can Work For Businesses - (via media 2.0 blog)
• A look inside the Monitor110 research suite
• Game publishers need to better understand how to exploit market research

“In the real world, these just people with ideas/ they just like me and you /when the smoke and cameras dissappear”. Hip Hop - Dead Prez

Posted by: Natasha “That Girl From Marketing” Robinson