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eMetrics - Navigating a University Website

By Simon Heseltine

Surely the smartest people on the planet can know where to click? Vicky Brock of Highland Business Research aims to answer that question, providing she doesn't succumb to the arctic temperatures in the room.  She's starting the session off by threatening the audience with calisthenics in order to ward off the prospect of frostbite (did I mention that it's cold in here?).

The presentation is based on a case study of one of her clients - Durham University, one of the top UK, and top European universities.  The tale starts with the university cutting the marketing budget...

SMX Singapore Keynote II - Harrison Gervitz

By David Temple

16 year old business prodigy, Harrison Gevirtz of GevirtzMedia and LeaderClicks spoke about social media monetization for the keynote on the second day of the inaugural Search Marketing Expo in Singapore, SMX Singapore. LeaderClicks is a social advertising network, working with publishers and advertisers on Facebook, Myspace, Bebo and Hi5. Harrison's company specializes in monetizing social traffic with proprietary ad serving technology.

Social networks have been growing significantly over the past 5 years and he just read an article that social media has surpassed the adult industry. 4 of the top 10 sites in Singapore are social media sites. MySpace and Facebook are receiving most of the traffic as well as Friendster here in Asia.

The evolution of social media started with just targeting based what was on their web page. Now we're getting into a new technology, social graphing targeting. Using technology shapes relationships. We developed technology to determine influence among friends. For instance if someone has 500 friends on a FaceBook profile and interact once or twice a week, let's say that friend has around 500 - 1,000 interaction points.  But if someone has 200 friends and they interact on a daily basis they have a lot more interaction points. So they have more power over their friends. So it's quality over quantity.

eMetrics: Actionable Social Media Metrics

By Li Evans

During the first day of sessions at the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit in Washington DC, the day's been split into 4 different tracks.  I decided to just plunk myself down into all the social media sessions for the day.  You'll see a mix of reviews on the session highlights both here and on Key Relevance's blog, SEMClubhouse, so make sure to keep an eye on that blog for other sessions.

Participation is Key with Social Media

In the session Actionable Social Media Metrics, Jason Burby and Ryan Turner of Zaaz, got right to the heart of what social media is and what actionable social media metrics means.  When we talk about social media, what we really mean is PARTICIPATION.  Participation in a social environment really happens because its true collaboration.  When you invite your customers to participate online it becomes interactive participation and co-production, Ryan explained to the audience.

However, social media is not limited to just the web, it's on the cell phone.  The web is a platform for social interaction, we are only starting to see the beginning. 

eMetrics - The View from the CMO's office

By Simon Heseltine

Having just arrived at the eMetrics conference in DC, I've gone straight into this session presented by Liz Miller of the CMO Council, (well, ok, I did take advantage of the free pretzels and drinks on offer in the press room first, but it was on the way there).  This session is all about the evolution of the role of the CMO, and contains data from several CMO Council studies.

So the first thing to do is to introduce the CMO Council.  It currently has over 3500 members in 57 countries, with control over $100 billion of annual marketing spend.  They all work together to find out what's going on in the marketing world, helping to identify those areas upon which CMO's should focus their efforts.

emetrics: Social Network Analysis Session Highlights

By Li Evans

Fred Turling, SHS Viveon AG presented one of the first session of the morning here at the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit.  Fred's topic was on Social Network Analysis, which starts off the Social Media Metrics track here at the conference in Washington DC.

Social Network Analysis (SNA) can become a pretty deep subject.  Looking at the value of participants in social networks such as networks is becoming a pretty hot topic.  It's no longer about which community can best benefit from the relationship building in a social network, but honing in on which community members are the most valuable to build the relationships with.

Fred went on to describe that there are three main approaches to analyzing social networks: 

1. Web Analytics - metrics & analytics of  reach, interest, conversion funnel;
2. Business Intelligence (community platforms)  user generated content, user characters detailing daily usage patterns;
3. Social Network Analytic & Data Mining - focusing in on social patterns, etc.

Looking at the background of where Social Networks come from, it's not new at all.  The term social network was introduced in 1954 by JA BArnes and refers to a social struture, in which individuals are connected to each other via relationships.  That can take on a variety of meanings from written letters, to post it notes and now even to emails and IM's.  In the contet of current media networks 4 distinct types can be identified:

1. Communication - directly targeted communication (email, im, chat, sms), discussion oriented (message boards, blogs)
2. Contact Management (social software - facebook, linked in)
3. Interaction - nline games (world of warcraft), commercial or service auctions (ebay)
4. Collaboration - collaborative indexing (digg, delicious, flickr), Wikis (Wikipedia)

eMetrics: A Morning in Google Analytics University

By Li Evans

eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit - Day 1

This week SearchMarketingGurus is at eMetrics for a 2nd year.  This year, myself (Li Evans of Key Relevance) and Simon Heseltine will be bringing you all the great highlights of the sessions here at eMetrics being held at the Hilton High Mark here in Alexandria.  I'm actually excited to be here after all of the great things that Mike Grehan & Bryan Eisenberg have told me about this event.

This morning I arrived bright and early, set on finally sitting in on a Google University class.  It's running all day, and I'm stepping in for certain segments of it, while attending to normal "work" things. 

This Google Analytics session is being presented by Justin Cutroni of EpikOne and really opened my eyes on some major things I'm missing out on.  I love data, and you don't realize just how much data there is afforded to you by Google Analytics until you sit down with someone who can show you everything.  I'm a big fan of Avinash Kaushik (like no one didn't know that already) and have read his book, but still, there's something about sitting and having someone present it too you in this type of fashion that opens your eyes even more.

Here are some of my quick take aways:

SMX Singapore Keynote - Gillian Muessig

By David Temple

Gillian Muessig, president of SEOmoz, gave the keynote address "The Business of Search" at the inaugural Search Marketing Expo (SMX) in Singapore. Gillian addressed the financial crisis going on right now. As she traveled around the US and Asia in the past few weeks she asked people how this was affecting them. In general the view in the US is "This doesn't happen!" and people were quite worried however in Asia they felt, "This happens; it will all work out".

What does it mean for SEO's? Gillian used an analogy, noting that when a Plague hits, people 'wake up'; you have their attention. The recent events in markets have given us the financial equivalent of a Plague. SEOs finally have client's attention; they are ready to understand how much less expensive, more targeted, and more effective SEO/SEM can be than traditional media. She pointed out that Dr. Mathew McDougall, CEO of the Sinotech Group in China, said he is already seeing millions of dollars moving online and others have corroborated that in their comments to him.

Gillian said the first millions are being spent in SEM. She predicts that as more bidders push up the cost, the next stop will be SEO. And when the dust settles, she predicts that money will remain online and continue to increase as mobile web, SMS, and other forms of marketing experience maturation and rising adoption. All in all, this is a very good time to be in Internet marketing of any kind.

Fun Friday Photos: Key Relevance's Christine Churchill with Scottie Claiborne & Jill Whalen of HighRankings

By Li Evans

The photos from SMX East are up and on Flickr!  As I mentioned last week, I was really low key at SMX East and didn't make all of my usual rounds, but there are about 40 or so photos in the set.

This week's fun photo is of three of my most favorite folks in the industry, in fact I'm calling them the Three Musketeers!  Christine Churchill of KeyRelevance and SEM Clubhouse (Key Relevance's Blog), Scottie Clairborne and Jill Whalen of HighRankings.  Believe it or not, all three of these women were instrumental in forming the beginnings of my Search Marketing career (whether they know it or not!), to them, I owe a debt of gratitude!

If you like this photo of The 3 Musketeers at SMX East - Chris Churchill of Key Relevance, Scottie Clairborne & Jill Whalen of HighRankings, feel free to comment and favorite it on Flickr, Sphinn or Fetch this photo as that's how we'll be judging the photos at the end of the year! Check out the rest of the fun at SMX East 2008, there's just over 40 photos for you all to check out.

Dealing With Grief Online - Social Communities Offer Ways to Cope & Remember

By Li Evans

When a family member dies, it can be one of the most difficult times a person can go through.  I found out first hand, just how tough it is when my father passed away at the end of last month.  Everyone has their own way of grieving, their own way of finding comfort when you loose someone close to you such as a husband, a father or a child. 

With the advancements in technology and communication, each and every passing day provides us with new ways to connect with others who can share share of grief, or help us deal with it in ways we never had before. As painful as it can be, even dealing with death, a person can find help and kind voices online in the form of social communities.

When dealing with all the details of taking care of my father's service and helping my mom get through all this, I was struck by something, something so simple, yet I found it quite comforting.  I'm not the type to read the obituaries first when I go to the online paper, I always sort of chuckled when people who are my parents' age habitually went to read the obituaries first.  But here I was finding comfort in an online obituary for my father, and in the notes of love, comfort and respect that were left for my mother, my sister and I.  Family, friends from very far away, and friends of ours who never even met my father but knew my sister or me left beautiful words of comfort.

Guess the SEO's Tattoo in 'Whose Tat Iz Dat?'

By David Temple

Dave Snyder of Snydesense was the inspiration for this seo attention diverting post. I sat next to him at a dinner in San Jose during the Search Engine Strategies Conference in August. This is one smart, genuine and quite frankly, likable guy. If you've ever met Dave, one of the first things you notice is he's covered in works of art. I was admiring his tattoos and took a couple of pics.

As I wandered around the next few days and nights I discovered other seo's who had tattoos and wondered if anybody ever noticed them. So I decided to take a few pics along with my new friend Jenny Du, who blogs at What Would Jenny Du? We managed to compile some of the many tattoos of the search world in the next couple of days. This is by no means a comprehensive list but instead a look at those who were willing to share. One seo was willing to share their tattoos but asked that we do not name them, so they shall remain anonymous.

See if you can guess Whose Tat Iz Dat? Simply match the number with the letter. And If you're at SMX East please don't go about stripping your fellow seo's to see if you can match them with the tattoos. Ask nicely and maybe, just maybe, they'll reveal a tat or two.

1. Dave Snyder
2. Jim Boykin
3. Dave Davies
4. Motoko Hunt
5. Greg Hartnett
6. Mike McDonald
7. Brent Csutoras
8. Chris Boggs
9. Jayme Westervelt
10. Brandy Eddings
11. Todd Malicoat
12. Matt Gonzales
13. Anonymous

a.

b. 

c.

d.

e.

f.

g.

h.

i.

j.

k.

l.

m.