I’m often introduced to people as a Social Media Guru. It drives me crazy, I have never once given myself that title nor have I accepted it. I understand that we humans have to have boxes, or rather labels for everything. From job titles to clothing styles, to even people groups, like digital natives etc. But we can really come up with a better label than Social Media Guru. (Besides I dislike being put in a box, you might call it a postmodern thing.)

I don’t call a lawyer a law Guru, Or what about the graphic designers should we call them Photoshop Gurus, or better yet Pixel Gurus? (I know that some designers might wear that label with pride, nerds). What about an office manager, do we label them Office Gurus?

The crowd responds with a resounding, NO.

Why Social Media Gurus

So why would we label a new role in the workforce a guru? Probably cause we don’t know what else to call them (or me). I’ve heard some fun attempts at introducing me without saying the G word… such as Paul Kortman knows Social Media, or Paul spends all his time on Facebook, or Twitter. — Yeah that’s the qualifications I want entering a new business pitch, or a speaking engagement.

Lets not forget the kissing cousin, Search Engine Guru, aka SEO Guru.

Because Search is just as difficult as Social Media (even though there is overlap, search is totally different!) and even though the SEO role has been around for 10…. count em, TEN years, we still have this Search Engine Guru label. I’ll stick to talking about Social Media Gurus, but the same applies for SEO Gurus.

Guru defined

A friend of mine once said, ‘Gurus are for Love, not Social Media’ – think of that when introducing someone as a Social Media Guru… aka they know how to make love in social media. Um yeah please don’t use that title anymore.

One last point about the Guru label. It’s the Guru-Maven definition proof:

“A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom and authority in a certain area” From Wikipedia

“A maven (also mavin) is a trusted expert in a particular field, who seeks to pass knowledge on to others.” Also from Wikipedia

So should we call these people Social Media Mavens? Perhaps, this label is light years better than the G word. It reflects how we desire to help others get smarter. I don’t want to be the person who is considered a magician, I’d rather be the best trainer/teacher/doer as possible which will in the end bring about sustainable results for your business.

Social Media and Business

Lets look at the roles Social Media plays in business. First we have the Strategist, a person who can look at the business plan, think about the big picture and help you navigate where, what, how much, and the other meta questions about social media and how it applies to your business model.

Then you have the other roles, such as team lead, analyst, marketer, director, developer, designer etc. Which provides us with the following list:

• Social Media Strategist
• Social Media Analyst
• Social Media Marketer
• Social Media Director
• Social Media Coach

Did I miss any titles you like? Any other roles that are miss-labeled on a regular basis? Let me/the other readers know via a comment below. Oh and if you are one of those people who call me a guru, I’ll accept your groveling apology in the comments ;)

You did what?

Yup, I quit the best job I’ve ever had. For one of the best agencies in Grand Rapids. My last day as an official employee of ddm will be October 15, next Friday. And no I did not quit with a whiteboard and a mass email like Jenny ;)

Why did you quit?

I have heard a lot of people give lip service to having their family as a priority. I have been watching myself fall into the same trap, saying I value my family and time with them over work, while at the same time I was spending every moment possible working. I have encountered a fork in the road of my career where I could choose to continue to sacrifice my family time and attain a really successful career in the marketing agency I work for, or choose my family over a successful career. I have made my choice. I challenge you to make yours consciously versus unconsciously.

So now what? Unemployment?

Well not really, I’m going freelance, doing the same work I’ve done before just on a more focused client list with fewer obligations and less overhead.

What about ddm and their clients?

Until ddm hires a replacement I’ll be on contract for them to ensure their client commitments are kept.

Do you really think you will work less?

Most people I’ve talked to about this suggest that I will work harder, and more. However I believe that its about making a choice, I choose to quit my job to spend more time with my family, not to make more money. If I work the system right I will get to do that, if not I’ll have failed. Either way I need to figure this out, give it a try and find out if I can actually spend more time with Becky and the kiddos.

Put it this way, the status quo of working at an agency was not going to get me more time with my family. Working freelance might not either. But there is a chance it might. In my opinion, these little faces are worth the risk.

What do you do anyway?

I go by many titles, and do lots of jobs, but it all falls under the arena of online marketing. I ask businesses a basic question: What are your online presences doing for your bottom line? Then I help ensure the answer to that question is a positive answer.

In reality I do:

• Search – Both SEO and paid placement (PPC). I get targeted prospects to your website
• Social – Who has time for it? How does it apply in a B2B market? – I answer those and assist clients in managing their social presences
• Segment – Some think of it as Google Analytics, but it’s more than that, I dive deep into user behavior, and produce actionable changes a business needs to take in their online presences.
• Email Marketing – managing lists, managing campaigns, working through conversion metrics and the like.
• Conversion Optimization – Does your website have a call to action? Is it obvious to viewers what you want them to do? I help you make the Call to Action obvious.

Are you going to start an agency?

I just quit an agency where I was given a lot of leeway and leverage to build a successful online marketing department. I have no desire to build an entire agency, nor do I want to compete at that level.

That said, if you were to ask me two years ago if I’d be working at ddm in 2012 I would have said yes. I leave the future to God’s plan, all I know is the next step. I’m taking this step in faith. If I am blessed with too much work, I’ll have to cross that bridge when I get there. I have ideas and ‘plans’ in case that happens, but we’ll figure out what to do when that occurs.

Honestly, my goal is to get out of the trading hours for dollars business (aka the service sector). I don’t have a way to do that yet, but when I do I’ll let you know about it. Until then I’ll be assisting clients in a more focused manner than I was able to do before.

Who influenced you in this move?

There are a lot of influencers in this decision, some know their role, some don’t. Some are larger than life, like Gary Vaynerchuk, others are not so large, like my Amish friends. There have been many great conversations which have lead to this. Becky and I have been praying and working through this for about a year which has given opportunity for some fun conversations.

Wait, you have Amish friends?

Ah, young grasshopper you have much to learn.

Got any questions I didn’t predict? give a shout out in the comments and I’ll be sure to answer them for you.

We’ve all been experiencing forms of the realtime web, mostly through twitter, facebook or other social media channels. However this week Google is unveiling Google Instant Search, which is a combination of realtime and traditional search. Find out below how this will affect page rank or your position in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).It all started with the mysterious Interactive dots Google Doodle unveiled earlier this week. This was the third interactive Doodle, the first two being Pac Man, and Bucky Balls. If you want to play with a version check out Rob Hawkes’ page

Google Instant Search

The third Google Interactive Doodle was an attention grabbing technique as Google unveiled their new Instant search. Essentially when you visit Google’s homepage (or any search results page) and begin typing in a search query you will not only be presented with a drop down of suggested search queries; now you will also see instant results on the page behind you.

No need to press enter.

No need to wait the 1.9 seconds for the results of your query to return.

Instead, as you type the results are displayed instantly.

Welcome to the realtime web!

What does it mean?

Double rainbow all the way, err… sorry. What can it mean?

The truth about your existing SEO efforts and your current page rank is that they will stay the same. The page rank algorithm is still the same. The result set is still the same, you have the same position as you did last week (all other factors being equal).

However, this will change user behavior. We’ll see a shift in how users use long tail and refine their searches. And we should see this change reflected in site analytics.

So, as friends have posted already, stay calm, and stay on the SEO course. We’ll know in a couple of weeks how this affects user behavior.

What about you?

Will you keep Instant search on? Will you switch back?

How will Instant Search results affect your searching behavior? tell us below in the comments section.

Google recently released an update to its display of content called Real-Time Search. At first I thought this would be a better experience than twitter search or facebook search, because its from the king of Search, Google. Unfortunately it has become apparent that this was more of a knee-jerk reaction to Bing’s Twitter Search announcement less than 50 days earlier.

We knew that Google and others were indexing the tweet stream earlier this year, but this is a game changer in how they have integrated their display of tweets with standard results. 

Real Time, the Achilles Search Heel

So what’s the big deal? This content from twitter, this real-time search content that Google is now displaying in it’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is all available elsewhere, so this is just another evolution in the concept of universal search. Right?

True, but as any SEO will tell you, those positions on page one, from 1-10 on the first SERP are highly coveted and can garner significant respect and authority. Be it right or wrong a searcher will more quickly refine their search query then click to page two. A searcher will also consider items on page one of a SERP to have authority or credibility.

Tweeple have credibility and deserve SERP right?

Perhaps some of the accounts on twitter deserve respect and authority, but Google has not indexed it accordingly. Some quick tests have gone on to prove that any (non-private) account gets indexed and can show up on page one of a Google SERP.  Bing keeps the twitter search separate in http://bing.com/twitter. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for Google and Bing indexing tweets, I’d love to see them improve on twitter search, but I like Bing’s approach better than Google. It allows me to say, I’m looking for real-time information that could be unqualified.

How to abuse Google’s Real-Time Search

It’s fairly simple actually, find a search that returns a real-time result in the SERP, namtrok, davenaylor, tiger woods, or Copenhagen Climate, and tweet with those keywords in it. You will see your tweet show up. Now envision this search for sesame street, and a pedophile tweeting something to the tune of “Hey kids want to see more sesame street? Call me at 555-111-2222, I’ll show you how.”

I like every parent of small children suddenly got totally creeped out.

Do you see the possibilities? Do you see the problems? Do you see the spam and liable issues?

Granted the search for Sesame Street does not currently display Google’s Real-Time feature, but who gets to choose which search does and which doesn’t? It’s only a matter of time before this weakness in Google’s SERPs is exploited. (I assume that anything trending or popular gets Real-Time function added, how long till we make Sesame Street trend on Twitter?)

Bing poised, Google Cracked?

I am a Google fan, from day one when they took down Altavista. However, The giants always fall, remember MySpace? or Lotus? How about Windows? (too early?)

No matter how much I love Google and dispise Microsoft, I have to admit, Bing is the best thing Microsoft has put out in years. The only thing Bing needs to improve it’s results set is more traffic. Yup, the crowd when it shifts to the next search platform will help that platform improve it’s relevance and results. If Google were to make a false step now and 10%, or 20% of it’s traffic move to Bing, plus the Micro-hoo deal. Bing could be poised to actually challenge the search giant.

Will Google let that happen? I don’t think so. But if they don’t see the failure of leaving Real-Time Search results in page one of the SERP then perhaps they are too high on their own ego?

Besides I think the usability and pure function of the Real-Time updates are flawed. I much prefer Bing or Twitter Search itself. But thats just me right?

Do you agree?

Do you see the flaws in Google’s Real-Time search? Share examples of searches you’d like to spam or be concerned about being spammed.

What is On Page SEO?

On Page SEO is a term used to describe the work done to change Page content (Titles, Headings, Alt text, internal link text, keyword density, etc) in order to affect position (page rank) in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). We’ve been working with quite a few of our clients and copywriters training them to have an eye for optimizing on-page content in light of SEO and keyword positioning.

It brings good success. But we have learned not to stop there.

Website Promotion

To boil it all down, Website promotion is efforts at garnering links, either through increased exposure, through the blogosphere, through social networks, or through standard linkbuilding.

No matter how you look at it Website Promotion can be a more powerful tool than on page SEO.

Link building case study

To prove a point, I took a domain that had only one published page, and on that page had 6 words and two images. There were no keywords, no alternate text on the images, no headings and the page title was very similar to the domain name.

To say that this page had no on page SEO is an understatement.

I choose a keyword for which this page did not rank, The domain, page title, the 6 words on the page nothing contained this keyword.

I created 8 brand new blogs, one post each, with different content on each post, but all linking to that page with the link text of my keyword. And it worked

Within one month The keyword-less (the none on-page SEO optimised page) ranked on page one, a couple of days later it was up to position 5 on page one.

Quoting Search Engine Watch’s Eric Enge: “Unlike on-page SEO, Web site promotion nearly always continues to offer good returns.” and “Every minute you spend tweaking (and re-tweaking) on-page factors is a minute you don’t spend on promoting the Web site” He says more in his post on Website promotion