Archive of General Posts

Last night I played in a charity poker tournament sponsored by PR Newswire and organized by PRSA Boston.

The event was fun and I met lots of great PR folks in the Boston area.  Last year’s event helped raise enough money to allow PRSA Boston to raise its scholarship grant from $1,000 to $2,000.

It was also fun to watch the side action based on a friendly rivalry between Schwartz Communications and Racepoint Group (both PR firms located in Waltham, MA).

One of my favorite things about the Search community is that they are not only smart but also pretty darn witty. After reading 20 blog posts in a row about Twitter (or whatever the latest topic is) it can be very refreshing to read something that just makes you laugh out loud.

I have gathered 22, of what are in my opinion, Hi-larious posts from bloggers in the search community (and a few randoms as well) to make you laugh. Here are the links along with some evidence of their funniness:

Lists of Funny

My clients’ understanding of the value of PPC might hinge on my ability to lucidly present data. So by flooding them with data I do us both a disservice. I don’t accurately portray the success of the paid search campaign and the client does not necessarily understand what he or she is getting for their paid search investment.

I am going to show how some universally reported paid search metrics can be presented so that someone with little or no experience in paid search would be able to see the value.

Metric 1: Clicks

I am a self-admitted fan of celebrity gossip. I don’t know how it happened or when it happened but I have been sucked in and I can’t get out. Needless to say on Monday I was skimming through the various ‘entertainment’ blogs and I came across a few stories on how John Mayer Googles himself every morning and how he responded to the accusation. A lot of the authors were making fun of him but I don’t blame the guy one bit.

Yesterday I was interviewed for a podcast by Ken Rayment from Better Process Podcast.  The title of the Podcast is Industry Report Andy Komack Komarketing Associates (has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?).  The “industry” referenced here is small and medium-sized manufacturing companies in the U.S.

Ken, a manufacturing engineer with a Six Sigma Black Belt, asked to interview me after reading the How Strong is Your Brand Online? article in IndustryWeek.com.

The Podcast focuses on how manufacturing companies can leverage online marketing techniques to remain competitive (both in the U.S. and abroad).

We covered themes such as:

Yesterday Google released it’s Automatic Matching Beta.

Automatic Matching is an opt-in feature that allows your ads to be shown on additional search queries that Google finds are both relevant and that are not covered by your keyword list.

We’ll get more into that in a moment, but first I wanted to point out some of the good things Automatic Matching has going for it.

Pros for Automatic Matching:

Cost Controlled
It will only provide additional traffic if you are spending less than your maximum daily budget in a given campaign.

Andy and I are excited to be a part of SEMPO’s hybrid training concept, which blends the material from their online course “Insider’s Guide to Search Marketing” with a one day class at Bentley College’s Center for Marketing Technology in Waltham, MA.

Our goal is to provide a complementary experience to the material found in the SEMPO course through the use of real world examples, applications and an overview of core concepts. In addition, hands-on exercises have been created to give beginners practical recommendations for applying ideas found in the course into their own search marketing campaigns.

Utah Web Services has a post entitled ‘A CEO’s Perspective On SEO, SEM, SMM, PPC, and ROI‘ that really hit home for me.

So often we as a company have to answer to CEOs, Presidents and executives who do not have a clear understanding of search marketing and more importantly a clear understanding of what they are paying us to do.

One of my biggest weaknesses (and thankfully Andy’s biggest strengths) is explaining search marketing in a way that everyone can understand it. With improved analytics and tracking it is certainly much easier to show ROI but it isn’t always easy to explain the SEO processes themselves.

Why Social Media Scares Me 

Andy still likes to joke about how he came across my MySpace page when I applied for this job and saw messages from my friends congratulating me on a new job and a big move.  The funny part - I hadn’t gotten the job yet! 

As we have read time and time again, what you put on the internet can be seen by just about anyone.  Google “casie gillette” and what will you find?

• I work at KoMarketing
• I played basketball at Marietta College
• My Sphinn name is Casieg

Earlier this month I wrote a blog post titled “Why You Should Cut Back Search Marketing In a Recession“.

The title of the post was purposely provocative. 

I actually spent much of the article laying out reasons why other marketing/advertising methods are either more vulnerable to spending cutbacks, or are how search marketing can strengthen campaigns in other media.

I was happy to see that in a recent article on BtoBOnline that many of my assertions about spending decisions for B2B companies are being validated by B2B marketers themselves.