Last week at SES San Francisco / Connected Marketing Week, I had the pleasure of introducing Bruce Clay for the SEO 101 session. I’ve known Bruce for many years now, and since people often ask me “how long has Bruce Clay really been involved in search,” I thought I’d turn that question into some audience participation with a poll: Who’s been in Search Longer? Forty-two (42) people in the room responded! Once again, Al Gore just missed the win;
Who’s been in Search Longer?
36.73% Bruce Clay
34.69% Al Gore (He invented search too!)
20.41% Bono (He still hasn’t found what he’s looking for)
8.16% Marco Polo
Thanks for all who participated, I hope you enjoyed the session!
I’m at SES San Francisco, part of Connected Marketing Week. This morning, I have the pleasure of introducing Bruce Clay for the session “Search 101.” It thought I would have a little fun with Bruce, and ask the audience:
If you have any comments, ping me during the session - @rzwicky
Are SEO’s and PPC experts more effective at driving referral traffic to a web site from Twitter than SMM specialists? That could be the conclusion based on data I’ve collected from a series of polls, so far.
A few weeks ago I started running some lists on this blog. My goal was to thank so many great contributors for posting relevant and useful information which would be useful to anyone engaged in online marketing. Some people are established, and well known. There were five lists SEO, PPC, SMM, Links, and Cross-Channel (meaning they fit in 2+ categories).
I’ve known many of these people for years, since before I started Eightfold Logic. I used a vote driven format, because I know polls always draw attention, but also because I thought their might be some interesting data to report. After a couple of system crashes, I’ve finally completed compiling the data and expect to begin publishing the results next week.
While I’ll publish the detailed lists later, I wanted to share out some interesting summary data in the meantime, and get your thoughts and input on a surprising result. Perhaps most interestingly to me: why is it that tweets by SMM specialists in support of the list of Social Marketers generated the lowest click through rates?
This first chart shows how many unique individuals posted, or reposted, a link on Twitter promoting each channel’s list. As you can see, the greatest volume of unique activity was for the Cross Channel and SEO lists. This total is not the number of tweets, but rather the number of unique individual who tweeted about the lists, and used Bit.ly for url shortening purposes. I selected just the bit.ly tweets as it’s simple to track.
This is where it gets interesting. Despite the unique activity levels for the SMM and PPC lists, the Social Marketer’s self-promotions drew the lowest average number of referrals per tweet. Could it be that SEO’s and PPC’s are the most effective Tweeters?
I’d love to hear your comments and thoughts as to why this is.
As you may be aware, we collect a lot of data at Eightfold Logic, and have been doing so for a few years. Last week, I was looking at the lists of online marketers, and the voting numbers, and began to think about them in the context of traffic delivered, and its value. I had a broad sampling run from a swathe of web sites across industries and geographies to ascertain which channels deliver the most raw referral traffic. Later, in another post, I’ll dive into quality.
It’s amazing how much marketing attention is focused on social considering the volume of referrals it drives to businesses, relative to other customer acquisition channels. However, it’s understood that used effectively, social is more about the pre-site-visit experience, and market awareness. That said, very few organizations are using social media marketing effectively. Effectively harnessing this inbound marketing channel opportunity will be of paramount importance going forward for companies to survive and succeed.
It’s been quite interesting watching the response to the lists about online marketers that I started published two weeks ago. . There have been over 3,000 voter submissions in the last week. That’s a lot more than I ever expected. Additionally, I’ve received many text messages, voicemails, DM’s, blog comments, and emails with suggestions of who else could be included on the lists; I appreciate all these notes.
Some people also chose to send me their own names for inclusion. One person appears to have submitted their name for inclusion ~50 times! Fortunately for you, I’m not publishing your name, but if you’re reading this, you know who you are. You’re claiming to be an Internet Marketer of some skill: Do you honestly not know that it’s easy to determine if traffic repeatedly originates from the same places or computers?
Other than the notes from a couple of manic individuals repeatedly suggesting themselves, lots of people sent me some great suggestions. I’ve been trying to follow-up on them by reading things by and about these contributors. There are some valuable resources I’m discovering, or re-discovering. Thank-you! Some of the useful suggestions are found in the blog comments of the appropriate posts.
The suggestions I’ve received go to the point of the series. It’s not been about who gets the most votes, but, that said, I will publish lists thereof. The attention seeking has been for all these valuable contributors whom I wanted to recognize via this forum. Some of the people on the lists are already well known, and justifiably so. Others are not well known yet, but they provide great information about different facets of online marketing, and should be a resource that anyone with any level of interest in the space can turn to for insights.
I do appreciate all the attention that these lists have generated, and hope that people will share the results widely – that only goes to accomplish the goal of providing these people recognition.
As for the voting; it’s been really interesting to see whose inputs are heavily valued, despite their not being common industry names. It’s also been extremely interesting to observe which channels have been driving the most traffic via social media, and other sources, as well as observing which channel’s traffic has the best user behavior once they visit the site. I’ll likely have a few posts coming out reporting on user behavior trends. Quite interesting really! For instance, as it stands right now, the day of the social media experts tweets drove the lowest RT and clickthrough activity per post or mention. Perhaps that’ll change before the lists close…
Finally, there have been two individuals who received no votes. (Bet you want to know who, eh?) I was shocked at who they were, and presume it’s because their communities did not overlap as heavily with the search or social marketplace community represented here. Hopefully they’ll learn about these lists before I close them.
In the meantime, if you haven’t checked out the lists of great contributors (or voted), please do so now at:
Last week I began a series of posts to answer a question I keep getting asked by people entering the industry, attending conferences, or even veterans looking for new sources of information: Whose writings I have found useful, by discipline. On Friday, the post was about PPC experts, and on Thursday, SEO thought leaders. If you haven’t read those posts, please do, and please read what these people are saying.
By now, I hope you’ve read the other posts you’ll know the point of this series is that it’s easy to list off a few names, but there’s an incredible span of knowledge out there and experts in many different areas. Everyday single day, there’s great new content being published, and I want to share with you whose contributions I regularly find to be useful and valuable. While they may not all publish regularly, what they do share is practical and should either makes you consider something new, or provide you with insights as to how to do something ever better!
Of my list, who’s your Top 5, and who am I missing out on?
Yesterday, I started a series of posts to answer a question I keep getting asked by people who are entering the industry, attending conferences, or even veterans looking for new sources of information: Whose writings I have found useful, by discipline? Yesterday I posted about SEO writers
It’s easy for everyone to list off a few names, but there’s an incredible span of knowledge out there and experts in many different areas. Unless you read a good, broad sampling, and not just the few same ones every day, you’re not going to become truly proficient in any one domain. That’s because there’s always cross-over. If you think that you can succeed as an SEO without properly understanding the fundamentals of the other disciplines, good luck to you.
Everyday, there is great new content being published, but these lists are about who do you find provides the most useful information for putting skills into practice? The people whose contributions I find the most valuable may not publish daily or even weekly, but when they do, what they share is practical and either makes you consider something new, or provides you insights as to how to do something ever better! Some will mostly use Twitter to highlight other people’s articles of interest for their own readers [or polls ].
The list of people I know whose contributions I value is so large that I found that it was easier to create lists around themes, or concept groups. Some people are better known than others, but that doesn’t mean their writings are more helpful: The reality is, some people are incredibly knowledgeable, and while they don’t write a lot, or do so with flair, what they write matters.
If there’s someone you think I’ve missed, send me a comment - I’m trying to recognize people by discipline, and it’s possibly I see them more in one concept group than another. If you’re not on this list, perhaps you’ll be on one for another discipline, or perhaps your knowledge is so broad it’s hard to pin you into any one group! There’s also a few people who fit into two or more categories.
There is one person not on any of the lists on purpose: Danny Sullivan. I like him personally, and value and enjoy what he writes. But, let’s face it, he’s on everyone’s reading list.
Top 5 Results will be published at a later date.
And if you haven’t looked at the list of SEO’s I’ve regularly turned to, please do so.
I thought it would be interesting to put together lists of people, by discipline, whose writings I have found useful, and ask you: Who are your top 5?
Every time I tell someone what I do, and at every conference I go to, people ask me: what resources should I read to learn more about online marketing? It’s easy to whip off a few good resources, but what about particular writers? There’s tons of great content being generated all the time, but who provides the most useful information for putting skills into practice? Lots of people publish articles, blogs and tidbits to share knowledge and wisdom with others. Some will also balance out original contributions by using Twitter to highlight other people’s articles of interest for their readers. That’s a tougher question.
When I started trying to put together a list recently, I found that it was easier to create lists around themes, not just “search.” There are some great online marketers whose knowledge spans multiple disciplines, like paid and organic; social marketers v. search marketers; or organic and link-building (yes I consider that separate!). So why not break them down into concept groups accordingly? Some people are better known than others, but that doesn’t mean their writings are more (or less) helpful. Conversely, some people are incredibly knowledgeable, and while they don’t write a lot, or do so with flair, what they write matters.
If there’s someone you think I’ve missed, send me a comment. If you’re not on this list, perhaps you’ll be on one for another discipline, or perhaps your knowledge is so broad it’s hard to pin you into any one group! There are two people I’ve not included on purpose: Danny Sullivan and Matt Cutts. I like both of them personally, and enjoy what they write. But, let’s face it, they’re on everyone’s reading list. I’ll be running more polls across more of the disciplines in the coming days.
It’s interesting how when you ask the right question, you get more questions. We ran a poll on mobile phone experience yesterday, and it generated a solid response, which is still going. I asked a few people about other questions they would like to see asked. Cindy Krum, who’s an expert in mobile marketing wants to discuss:
Thanks for the question Cindy - let’s see how the results turn out!
I’ve received quite a bit of email about the post showing how Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android OS powered phones are surging, but Google’s seem to drive more people online. I’m not ignoring Nokia’s offerings, nor do I dismiss the Palm systems, Microsoft mobile etc. In fact, I think Microsoft’s next version of mobile OS could be great!
The point is, each of the phones have definitely addressed different marketplaces. Google and Apple’s offerings definitely appear to be targeting the same groups, and at least from the perspective of enticing people to surf the web, Google seems to be doing a better job.
I’ve had a few people email me that they use apps on the iPhone to fetch info, and perhaps this accounts for the difference in numbers. Unfortunately, since most of the top apps are available for both platforms, this is unlikely to be a factor. As a side note, Apple’s App Store blows away Google’s.
So, tell us, which phone’s OS / Browser combination do you think offers the best web browsing User Experience? Remember, you don’t need to own one to vote for it. This has nothing to with best of email, call quality, etc.
Observations from the Receiving End - Surprising Results in Poll Lists
August 4th, 2010 by Richard Zwicky
It’s been quite interesting watching the response to the lists about online marketers that I started published two weeks ago. . There have been over 3,000 voter submissions in the last week. That’s a lot more than I ever expected. Additionally, I’ve received many text messages, voicemails, DM’s, blog comments, and emails with suggestions of who else could be included on the lists; I appreciate all these notes.
Some people also chose to send me their own names for inclusion. One person appears to have submitted their name for inclusion ~50 times! Fortunately for you, I’m not publishing your name, but if you’re reading this, you know who you are. You’re claiming to be an Internet Marketer of some skill: Do you honestly not know that it’s easy to determine if traffic repeatedly originates from the same places or computers?
Other than the notes from a couple of manic individuals repeatedly suggesting themselves, lots of people sent me some great suggestions. I’ve been trying to follow-up on them by reading things by and about these contributors. There are some valuable resources I’m discovering, or re-discovering. Thank-you! Some of the useful suggestions are found in the blog comments of the appropriate posts.
The suggestions I’ve received go to the point of the series. It’s not been about who gets the most votes, but, that said, I will publish lists thereof. The attention seeking has been for all these valuable contributors whom I wanted to recognize via this forum. Some of the people on the lists are already well known, and justifiably so. Others are not well known yet, but they provide great information about different facets of online marketing, and should be a resource that anyone with any level of interest in the space can turn to for insights.
I do appreciate all the attention that these lists have generated, and hope that people will share the results widely – that only goes to accomplish the goal of providing these people recognition.
As for the voting; it’s been really interesting to see whose inputs are heavily valued, despite their not being common industry names. It’s also been extremely interesting to observe which channels have been driving the most traffic via social media, and other sources, as well as observing which channel’s traffic has the best user behavior once they visit the site. I’ll likely have a few posts coming out reporting on user behavior trends. Quite interesting really! For instance, as it stands right now, the day of the social media experts tweets drove the lowest RT and clickthrough activity per post or mention. Perhaps that’ll change before the lists close…
Finally, there have been two individuals who received no votes. (Bet you want to know who, eh?) I was shocked at who they were, and presume it’s because their communities did not overlap as heavily with the search or social marketplace community represented here. Hopefully they’ll learn about these lists before I close them.
In the meantime, if you haven’t checked out the lists of great contributors (or voted), please do so now at:
Search Engine Optimization Professionals
Pay-Per-Click Marketing Experts
Social Media Marketing Specialists
Link Building Masters
Amazing Cross-Channel Online Marketing Contributors
I’ll hopefully start publishing results next week.
Richard / @rzwicky
Tags: link building, linking strategies, links, marketer, marketers, Marketing, metrics, ppc, search, SEM, SEO, SEO Link Building, Social Link Building Marketplace, social marketing
Posted in Commentary, Inbound Marketing, Link Strategies, Marketing, Poll, SEO, SMM, link building, ppc, social marketing | No Comments »