Guess what season it is? It’s award season! Now that those pesky Oscars are over, we can focus on the award ceremony search professionals actually look forward to all year long — The U.S. Search Awards. This 2015 U.S. Search Awards will be held in Las Vegas (during PubCon, of course) on October 7.  Nominations are now open in more than 20 categories and will remain open until July 17, 2015. I’m sure July sounds really far away but… well, we all know how quickly the months get away from…

There are a number of articles giving advice on “how to get a placement in the Wall Street Journal in just three steps!” (or some variation of that). This is great for the small business owner or startup that can’t necessarily afford the services of a PR professional, but wants to take initiative and build brand awareness. However, it’s not as simple as it seems. Piecing together a multi-faceted media relations strategy takes work, time and preparation – even before you begin reaching out to reporters. It’s important to organize,…

“In general, I’d try to avoid that.” Avoid what, you ask? Linkbuilding. That was the advice Friday morning from Google’s John Mueller when asked, “Is link building in any way good?” (you can find the complete transcript here). “We do use links as part of our algorithm but we use lots and lots of other factors as well. So only focusing on links is probably going to cause more problems for your web site that actually helps.”  Google’s John Mueller is probably having a good chuckle at this one: http://t.co/OF7v70RQb7…

Hard to believe it’s been 10 years since YouTube was founded! But that’s the reality – on February 14, 2005, three guys wanting a place for people to share videos online founded YouTube. After an amazing period of rapid growth, it was only a year and half later that Google acquired the brand from its founders for more than 1.65B in Google stock. And 10 years later, it hasn’t slowed down. More than 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.  One of the first videos I remember…

“Creative block” is a term all too familiar to many of us working in creative professions. Unfortunately we tend to make the very easy and all too common mistake of convincing ourselves we’re not creative. If you’re an artist, designer, or similarly in a position of constant demand for the imagination, you’ve learned to rarely succumb to the ominous voice of self doubt – or at least that is what you like to tell people. The truth is humans are inherently creative and some of us are better at taking…

Dear Webmaster, Site Owner and/or Marketing Agency Responsible For Committing UI Atrocities, Let’s talk. Recently I visited your fancy website from a mobile device while trying to read/ buy/ do/ put off something. To be clear, when I say “mobile device,” what I really mean is that I wasn’t on my laptop. I was using my smartphone/ Wii U gamepad/ PlayStation/ tablet/ really cool nerd watch; I was not using the Nokia 3310. Unfortunately, I must report that I had a horrible mobile experience. I left feeling frustrated, scared and…

If you could learn, in detail, the nitty-gritty about your potential customers, from what they like and what they purchase to where they shop and how they’re similar to your current customer base, would you ignore that information? Or would you demand to have that insight? I demand to have it. In 2015, you have to have it. There are data sources out there, right now, ready to provide you with key information about your target demographics – if, in fact, you know who your target demo is. If you…

How’d your social media efforts work out last year? Did you connect with the audience you wanted? Were you able to drive traffic to your site and increase leads from the right types of customers? Did you enjoy it? Or did social media just kinda… sit there, not doing a heck of a lot for you? If it’s the latter, don’t feel too bad. You’re not alone. But it doesn’t have to be that way anymore. Let’s make 2015 different and give it a happier social media ending. Below are six things…

PR professionals – what can we expect in 2015?  This morning’s PRSA Capital Region event, “Communicators on Communications,” gave us some answers. A panel of four expert public relations professionals discussed the major news stories of 2014, and what we can expect in the New Year. The speakers included: Jonathan Pierce, founder and president of Pierce Communications Paul Larrabee, executive VP and managing director of Corning Place Communications Liz Grimes, public relations director at Overit Jake Dumesnil, managing partner at Gramercy Communications How these experts landed in the field of…

 Scenario #1: Your company has big announcements. Press opportunities. Special events. Who is your company’s spokesperson? Scenario #2: Your company is facing criticism. A crisis. An unexpected turn of events. Who is your company’s spokesperson? Scenario #3: Your company is talked about online and in-person every day, with your sales team, the people at your front desks and cash registers, the people handling your social media accounts. In these cases, who isn’t your spokesperson? The people that speak – and act – on behalf of your brand are critically important….