Content Marketing

I went to hear Craig Silverstein speak at UNC’s medical library on October 30th, a week ago, thanks to Davak at tech-recipes.

I remember especially enjoying section four below on Mobile Search and Google Co-op.

This is over 30 minutes of movie, so if you happen to watch it all please indicate in which video you found particular value…

Craig Silverstein 1: intro + how Google began
In part one he introduces himself and discusses Google’s origins.

Craig Silverstein 2: Google’s Begins + Google Book Search
In part 2 here Craig continues to discuss how Google started and then introduces Google Book search. He’s presenting to librarians afterall.

Craig Silverstein 3: Google Books + Google Scholar
In part 3 he finishes explaining how Google Books can’t actually achieve its goal of digitizing all books and then introduces Google Scholar to the audience.

Craig Silverstein 4: Mobile Search + Google Co-op
In part four Craig digs into the future of the web, which Google sees as mobile, and Google Co-op as a future of enabling search results to get smarter.

Craig Silverstein 5: the Page Anecdote + Closing
In part 5 he recounts Larry Page’s favorite early Google anecdote and the bids everyone farewell.

Davak provides his take on Silverstein’s lecture here.

I met up with Tech-Recipe’s incredible Davak at the Caribou near UNC’s campus to go see Google’s Craig Silverstein speak.

In the parking lot we saw the Microsoft Live Local truck and I spoke briefly with Gary Ekstame of Facet Technologies, whose job it is to drive this truck around and snap photos of US cities.

Ekstame said he was shooting for the Streets and Trips project, a software that sells for $129. Apparently there’s a GPS device that accompanies the software.

Ironic then that he was driving around with “Microsoft Live Local” on the back of his van.

Anyways, thanks to Gary Ekstame for letting me poke around in his van and ask a few “w3 t0dd 1D” questions:

Ben Wills proposes that there are five pillars of social media marketing.

I suspect there may be more, or that there may need to be some pillar rearrangements. Regardless, Ben’s analysis is a fantastic starting point for those seeking to offer social media services.

I met with THK’s new COO, Stan Antonuk on Friday. We discussed the termination of my position at MSI and, therefore, searchenginelowdown.

I met with Ben Wills on Sunday. We discussed social media marketing, terminations, SEM agencies and t-shirt business models. I was all hunkered down for digging into consulting work and the job search and hadn’t given a thought to continuing to write publicly. Then he gave me this url and blog.

It felt like Christmas.

In the near term the focus of this blog will be:
>> social media marketing
>> no-budget video production
>> B2B media creation/lead gen strategy
>> SEM agencies
>> my day-to-day as I job hunt/get projects rolling

If you have projects for me or ideas or just want to say hi, send me an email at gfrench@gmail.com or feel to call me on my cell: 919-696-4225.

Also, check out Ben Wills’ article The Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing

Did you think you could just leave the world waiting in the mean-time?

…

Yeah. I didn’t think so.

(the rest of this post… from Ben Wills… I deleted because it contained logins, usernames, etc… I feel like a kid at Christmas with this shiny new word press blog)

About me, from folks I’ve worked with in the past:

“As our media planner/buyer it felt like I was cheating when I worked with Garrett. His unique and creative thinking is always 2 steps ahead of the industry and our clients saw the direct benefit of those efforts. In a time when every agency tries to talk about viral and community marketing, Garrett’s ideas and understanding of the clients goals makes the others look novice.”
Geoff Lamm - Manager of Interactive Media, MarketSmart Advertising

“Garrett is a forward thinking person who is always sees outside of the box. I worked with Garrett for almost two years and he was a collegue who offered great insight, advice and practical knowledge to many different areas of interactive marketing.”
Cord Silverstein, Director of Engagement Marketing, capstrat, author of MarketingHipster

“[Garrett's] focus on search optimization and social media marketing allows him to identify unique marketing opportunities and help clients take advantage of cutting-edge campaigns.”
Andy Beal, MarketingPilgrim.com

My Story:
In 2001 I began researching and writing about search marketing tactics for an email newsletter called WebProNews. We had 1,000,000 readers and - at the most - received 10 email responses from our readership when we sent out our newsletter.

Then I offered my readers a “Free Web Site Review by WebProNews.” This offer generated over 450 responses in the first day.

I continued to find ways to meaningfully connect with audiences and leveraged our reader interactions to increase open rates and site traffic, make content creation easier, fuel the growth of our forum to over 50,000 members and land more advertisers.

Where I Am Today:
I bring this lesson in leveraging community for business to all of my marketing projects with my partner Adam Schultz and our new company, Bold Interactive. Our clients include a tool affiliate site, a lemon law firm, a turbo kit vendor, a remote control toy manufacturer, a real estate marketing services company and other advertising agencies.

Publications:
I’m a regular contributor and participant for Search Engine Journal and the Search Marketing Standard blogs.

In addition I’ve been published in Search Engine Guide and WebProNews.

Recent Successes in Conversation Marketing:
Through combining blog marketing and email newsletter strategies with community interactions I’ve helped one client increase links in Yahoo from 750 to over 4,000 in just four weeks. Blog marketing for the site now accounts for over 25% of total traffic, the site has gone from 350 pages indexed to over 2,000 and has seen a 300% increase in organic search traffic.

Get YOUR Market Conversation Started Today!
Contact me at gfrench@gmail.com or call 919-696-4225 to learn how you can start or improve your market conversations today!