Knitted phone cozy - back

It’s important to bring fun and yourself into the workplace. I’m a knitter, and so for me, this week, my fun was to Yarnbomb the Co-Founders’ office.

When folks are on the phone all day, why shouldn’t the phone bring a smile to their faces? And what is more smile-inducing than a tacky knitted phone cosy with daisies?

Isn’t it time someone’s computer monitor stand sported a vining daisy i-cord?

Knitted daisy i-cord climbs the monitor stand

Want more information on and photos of knitted graffiti aka yarnbombing aka guerilla knitting?

• Yarnbombing.com, “Improving the urban landscape one stitch at a time”.
• Images of knitting graffiti on Flickr.
• Images of guerilla knitting on Google.
• A 2009 New York Times blog article on an “installation” of parking meter cozies.

What ideas do you have for generating a smile or two at the office today?

Love collaboration? Helping folks gain visibility and clients for their businesses? Love coordination? Love laughter?
Then, you might be right for Pure Visibility’s Relationship Manager position. Please check out our Relationship Manager position opening.

Dear Hootsuite,

We love Twitter, professionally and personally. It is a fun way to stay connected, an effective way to share good news and to connect with others, and it can be part of a cross-medium SEO and relationship-building strategy.

We have used Hootsuite to manage multiple-user access to shared or enterprise accounts for a while now, and we wrote in 2009 how TweetDeck and Hootsuite are better together. Well, here’s the reason we’re writing you, dear Hootsuite. In the body of that post, we of course shared our passion for TweetDeck and then in comments section of that post, we expressed a preference for a competitor, CoTweet. And, we’re sorry about that, we really are.

You see, when we flirted with TweetDeck it was because of its ability to create lists and segment the Twitter streams we’re following into thematic groups. You do that now. And when we expressed our admiration for CoTweet, it was because we needed to be able to manage multiple users on multiple accounts, and Hootsuite, we think you would admit this yourself, that wasn’t your strength at that point. Yet, in the time since, you’ve really grown, and you’ve made that part simple and added other features that make you the Twitter client we recommend to our clients.

The source of our Ardor: Google Analytics Parameter Presets

Beyond those “keep up with the Joneses” type updates, you’ve really set yourself apart with your Google Analytics integration. We also love Google Analytics, it helps us measure the work we do for our clients, and it gives us lots of web data to dive into and extract value for our clients. And it makes us so happy that you and Google Analytics get along so well!

We often recommend the Google Analytics URL builder to help clients tag URLs used in campaigns for tracking. Well, in the excitement of sharing or scheduling a tweet, it can be hard to remember to paste in all of those parameters at the end. And so, we were thrilled to see the ability to set the parameters as a campaign default when any URL is shortened within your dashboard.

Request – Multiple Presets Please..?!

So, assuming you accept our apology, dear Hootsuite, would you be willing to listen to one pretty-please request?

We love the custom URL parameters so much that we want to use them ALL THE TIME, so we have a request for an extension or tweak to this functionality. You see, we would like to get more specific with our campaign names, well, because we’re hyper about analytics parameters. So, ideally the analytics custom presets would to be configurable at the level of of the account rather than the level of the entire Hootsuite dashboard. You see, if we’re tweeting for ourselves, tweeting for a client, or tweeting personally, we want to be able to use different campaigns to comply with their or our best practices. And, we would prefer not have to remember to reset them every time. We love the “set and forget” pleasure of having the preset there in the first place.

Anyway, Hootsuite, thanks for listening. We sure do appreciate the wise and helpful owl you’re turning out to be.

Getting ranked well in MSN is relatively easy. The engine still puts heavy weighting on more traditional SEO techniques. It picks up sites quickly and allows new sites to rank with older sites. MSN doesn’t analyze the quality, age, changing nature of links as thoroughly as Google. Getting ranked well in MSN is as easy as:

1. Write title tags with keyphrases.
2. Write meta description tags with keyphrases (and probably meta keyword tags as well. Meta keyword tags are borderline useless in Yahoo! and Google; they are good for misspellings or non-competitive phrases that are related to a site’s content. They may still be given weight in MSN.)
3. Put keyphrases in the body text.
4. Get links from free generic directories with keyphrases in the anchor text.

Step four is really the key for quick MSN rankings. There are hundreds of free directories,and MSN appears to give just as much weight to them as it would to a link from an industry-related site.

It’s been a few weeks since Google made changes to the user interface of its search results. In putting more advanced search options more firmly in front of the user, Google has broken with one of the factors that is widely credited for their success – keeping it simple. Read More

We were excited to see Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson’s Rework. In it they share some of their iconoclastic, iterative, and wholehearted approach to doing business.

The book reflects their clean design sensibility, with pages of drawings interspersed with quick blog-post-like narrative snippets. It is a quick read, but worth contemplating. I’ll summarize the book by sharing some of the subtopics titles within a few key chapters.

Given my day job as a project manager, I particularly value their approach to creative productivity. They’re minimalists. They advocate reducing interruptions “interruption is the enemy of productivity” and reducing time in meetings “meetings are toxic”. Why? Because “inspiration is perishable.” So you have to get the dross out of the way to be able to act.

Other recommendations they emphasize quick iterations “good enough is fine”, “quick wins”, and “make tiny decisions”, and being realistic about your human-ness “go to sleep”, “long lists don’t get done”, and “don’t be a hero”.

Want some quick inspiration? Go get Rework!

The realm of local search is a burgeoning and rapidly evolving space. And since everyone is local somewhere, it’s a topic worthy of some consideration – whether you’re the mom-and-pop sandwich shop, or the multinational drugstore chain. This post is the first of a two-part series, in which I’ll introduce the concept of local search, and highlight some of the unique differences between optimizing for visibility in local search results versus traditional organic search results. Part two of the series will delve into some tactical “nuts-and-bolts” of local search optimization.

Before I go much further, let’s define what I mean by “local search”. Local searches are those made in pursuit of something tied to a particular geography, often with the intent of taking some sort of action offline. Really, you can think of these as the sort of queries one might have made (or still make) within printed yellow page directories. In response to the increasing use of search for local purposes, search engines evolved to serve up specialized results when they think the searcher is interested in a local result. Because of Google’s 72% domination of the internet search market, I will almost exclusively addresses optimizing for visibility within Google’s answer to local search – Google Places, which are displayed via Google Maps search results.

Search results for "brew pub ann arbor", serving up Google Places listings.

Local search is, in a certain sense, the great equalizer of internet search marketing. At times, traditional, purely concept-driven SEO might be seen as favoring the “big guys” – those who can afford substantial and wide-reaching SEO undertakings to establish their authority on a given topic and propel themselves to the top of the SERPs (content generation/syndication efforts, linkbuilding campaigns, sizeable online PR, etc.). Local search, on the other hand, favors, well… localness. And you don’t have to be big to be local.

This essential difference in the thrust of local search (compared to more general organic search) is driven by a distinct set of factors. Those factors prioritize the local significance and legitimacy of a business just as much as its topical relevance. As I mentioned above, Google will return location-driven Google Maps results on the SERP when it’s fairly certain the searcher is performing a local search. Those search results are populated by listings within Google Places, so much of the focus of local search optimization (for Google, anyway) is placed on tuning up those listings. Once you’ve tackled that, the key is making sure other aspects of your business’ online presence (local directory listings, customer review sites, your own landing page, etc.) are in proper alignment with your Google Places listing(s).

In my next post on this subject, I’ll go over ways specific ways one can demonstrate the legitimacy, topical relevance and overall significance of your local business to Google, resulting in improved visibility in local search results.

Pure Visibility is looking for a curious, enthusiastic Internet search analyst that believes in a bright future with our growing team! The ideal candidate will have experience in creating and implementing visionary strategies in B2B and B2C environments.

With a strong backbone for business analysis this individual will be able to map client’s business goals to an Internet marketing strategy that turns the clients site into an online sales engine. Speaking fluently in margins, profit, and ROI this analyst will tell stories that clients understand. This team member will have the ability to see the big picture while developing, launching, managing and optimizing paid search, organic visibility, and social media campaigns for clients across multiple search engines. This position has a high level of client exposure ranging from providing timely and insightful analysis and reporting of online activities to conducting coaching sessions and training classes with clients.

Interested individuals should submit their resume and cover letter by July 16, 2010 to jobs@purevisibility.com.

SEM companies often fail when it comes to explaining complex ideas. This is unfortunate, because if you can’t explain complex ideas, you must work much harder to help explain the importance of an idea or proposal, and it can even prevent clients from learning about good work you did.

Reporting SEM results can be challenging: it is expected to be measurable, it depends on complex interactions of systems, and it often involves ideas that are relatively new. But you don’t have to give up on reporting. In fact, you can spend less time actually messing with Powerpoint, more time talking to the clients and your co-workers, and deliver much better reporting — all while having fun in the process. Read More

In case you missed it (maybe you’ve had your TweetDeck turned off or you don’t surf the Amazon best sellers list), Zappos’ CEO Tony Hsieh’s Delivering Happiness came out today.

Disclosure: I’ve long been a fan of Zappos. I have hard-to-fit feet, and I very much appreciate the selection and the easy returns they offer. I’ve also long admired their openness and their zest for fun. I was one of the bloggers who received free advance copies of Delivering Happiness. I wrote my (positive) review of the book on my personal blog.

What I wanted to discuss in this space was the multifaceted, organic social media hoopla surrounding the book launch.

One of Zappos core values is to Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication. And, this book launch is an illustration of that approach. And, it is a huge signal of the amount of trust Zappos has in its book and its brand to release many books to many bloggers and request honest feedback from across the blogosphere.

Aspects of the campaign

Inviting honest reviews

Ahead of the book launch, the website offered free advance copies to bloggers and provided us clear instructions for an honest review and where to link on the book’s website and Amazon. The Delivering Happiness Book website reader reviews page tallies reviews (though at the time of this writing the last update to that page was June 2, before the requested date to publish blog reviews). Perhaps more telling is that Yahoo Site Explorer sees 6,209 inlinks to the Delivering Happiness Book website as of today at 1:42. Click this link to see Yahoo Site Explorer has found more.

Strong Schedule Planning

1. Reviewers got clear instructions on when to publish their posts – we could have posted anytime, but were encouraged to post this week, today if possible, around the launch.
2. They’ve had happy hours each Friday leading up to the launch.
3. They’ve encouraged Meetup groups to form around the book launch week.
4. And they’re livestreaming the launch party from New York City.

Clear Calls to Action

1. Get connected – become a fan on facebook, follow them on twitter
2. Start a movement – take the pledge to act in ways to increase others’ happiness, instigate/attend a meetup to discuss the book (see above)
3. See encouraged links from reviews “inviting links”.

Now, these links are on the Delivering happiness book website. Why I believe it is valuable to reproduce them here is to illustrate how comprehensive the list is of ways to engage. Their strategy is open: it’s completely visibile and they’ve released their idea out to a larger community, to largely positive results.

Their strategy is also canny, because here on day one of the launch, they’ve had many reviews in blogs, on goodreads, and on Amazon itself, they’ve garnered many many mentions, building excitement. And, they’re doing it with clear calls to action. And, given the sales they’re seeing (#1 on Amazon.com), I would anticipate their advance planning is paying off in selling books and spreading their message.