April 25, 2008
Top 10 Toughest Jobs to Fill? The Top 3 Are In Search Engine Marketing
Here's the best example of misleading statistics we've seen, outside of the ads skewering the mythical Cable Corp: "DirecTV - Cable Corp Inc. - Statistics" directed by Christopher Guest) "Whip up some numbers that make it look like we have, like, I don't know, a thousand HD channels."
Today the WSJ blogged about the hardest jobs to fill based on an annual employment survey conducted by temp firm Manpower Inc. We all agree with the famous German ad shown here, "Life is too short to be in the wrong job."
Not surprisingly, the very temp-to-perm jobs Manpower specializes in ended up high on the Top 10 list of the 42,500 global companies surveyed.
Based on the response to SEW Experts columnists Ron Jones (SEM.edu), Fionn Downhill, and William Flaiz, we know better.
In fact, rather than linking to all their columns about learning SEM or how to attract and hire talent, I asked John Skroly, vice president of business development for Onward Search what jobs Fortune 500 companies and top search marketing firms can't easily fill.
Here's what Skroly had to say:
Based on feedback from clients this is what we are finding:1) Qualified Web Analytics professionals – Omniture, Web Trends etc
2) Organic SEO experts with e-commerce experience from top tier IR's (Internet retailers)
3) Paid Search with vertical experience
So what gives?
Manpower asked companies, "What is the one job you are having most difficulty filling due to a lack of available talent?" The categories were so broad they practically broke down into the age-old categories of white collar and blue collar:
1. Skilled Manual Trades (carpenters, welders and plumbers)
2. Sales Representatives
3. Technicians (production/operations, engineering and maintenance)
4. Engineers
5. Management/Executives
6. Laborers
7. Secretaries, PAs, Administrative Assistants & Office Support Staff
8. Drivers
9. Accounting & Finance Staff
10. IT Staff (primarily programmers/developers)
Do those jobs sound like the future of the American economy?
Has that been your experience? Discuss your career here.
Posted by Kevin Heisler on April 25, 2008, 4:00 PM | Permalink
Social Media Power: UC Berkeley Student Twitters Out of Egyptian Prison
CNN is reporting that Student James Karl Buck twittered his way out of jail with single-word text messages after being arrested. The "twit" (messages) communicated to his "tweeple" (friends) on micro blogging platform "Twitter," resulted in pals hiring a lawyer. Buck twittered all during the experience, the transcript of which is visible here. This is yet another case study speaking to the societal power of modern networking tools.
There is a lot of passion regarding Twitter in the search marketing community, with top SEOs/social media pros like Lee Odden and DoshDosh having dozens or even hundreds of "followers."
Respected link builder Jennifer Laycock has written extensively regarding applications of the platform. Others use Twitter (on their computer and/or phone) to stay in constant touch with family, customers and friends throughout each day. Twitter deployed recently in Japan with advertising in an attempt to leverage the channel. Stay tuned...
Other Twitter Resources:
The Many Uses of Twitter
techipedia
Twitter: Different Ways to Use Twitter
Lifehacker
200+ Internet Marketing Gurus on Twitter
Marketing Pilgrim
51 Favorite SU, Sphinn, Twitter & Facebook Posts of 2007
SocialDesire
Posted by Marty Weintraub on April 25, 2008, 12:39 PM | Permalink
Londoners faceoff online in support of their candidates for the Mayoral Election
If the popularity of Facebook fansites was an indicator of how Londoners will vote on May 1st then Boris would be a clear winner with 7466 supporters whilst Ken and Brian trail behind with 2152 and 2130 respectively. Thankfully it seems that Londoners will vote with their feet rather than faces but latest results from a social media study reveal that online PR strategies could count for something in the electoral race.
Nielsen Online revealed today that London Mayoral candidates Ken and Boris are top of the blogs, dominating 80% of the social media conversation. Liberal Democratic candidate Brian Paddick is third with 9% of comments, followed by the Green Party's Sian Berry with just under 4% and the BNP's Richard Barnbrook with 2%.
According to Alex Burmaster, Internet Analyst from Nielsen Online, Londoners penchant for social networking continues to thrive and users are taking their opinions mainly to non-political forums, blogs & message boards including those of national newspapers and sites like Twitter and Facebook.
“Ken and Boris are the two leading candidates, neck and neck in the polls and the levels of conversation in the social media space utterly reflect this. If conversation levels were a guide, Ken would narrowly pip Boris to win. However, it's when we look at the sentiment of these conversations that a far more interesting and revealing picture emerges.”
Controversy, positivity, negativity: sentiment towards the five leading candidates in social media
• Controversy: Boris is the ‘marmite' candidate – being the most likely of the top five to generate some form of opinion either way. Only 30% of posts relating to him were of ‘no opinion'
The Green Party's Sian Berry generates the least controversy / most apathy – having the highest percentage (54%) of ‘no opinion' posts
• Positivity: Whilst Boris is most likely to generate positive sentiment, 29% of posts being ‘positive' – Sian Berry had the highest overall ‘net' positive score of 15% (positive sentiment % minus negative sentiment %). Brian Paddick is the only other candidate to come out with a ‘net' positive score (11%)
• Negativity: Richard Barnbrook is most likely to generate negative sentiment, 38% of posts being ‘negative'. He also had the lowest overall ‘net' positive score of -19%
Indeed Nielsen's results seem to suggest that, shock horror, actually participating in blogs, forums and social media is effective in helping other people to form opinions on issues that affect them. The most active candidates online garnered a net positive score in total comments posted on social media sites. Brian Paddick employed a web ace, signed up to twitter, where he hosted a policy debate and also broadcasted himself via uStream.tv.
“Of the three leading candidates in the polls it's not surprising that Brian Paddick is the only one to have an overall positive sentiment score in social media. His campaign, involving a US web strategist firm, has focused the most heavily on social media including a pioneering British political use of sites like Twitter, Facebook and UStream.TV – and it certainly seems to have paid dividends.However, judging from the sheer levels of social media conversation on the election, it may not be enough to grab victory over Boris or Ken. If social media were a crystal ball it might tell us Boris is likely to get more votes than Ken. However, positive comments on Boris more often centre on personality rather than policies and only time will tell if this is a strong enough factor for voters when faced with putting the cross in his box to change the status quo.”
So, positivity is not the cure for apathy and clearly Londoners like myself, vis-a-vis this post, whether online or on the underground, don't know what we really really want but we sure do love a good rant!
Posted by Jonathan Allen on April 25, 2008, 12:33 PM | Permalink
Q1 2008 Click Fraud Down from Last Quarter, Up from Last Year
Click Forensics has released data showing a decline in click fraud rates in the first quarter of 2008. The overall industry number came in at 16.3%, which is down 16.6% quarter-over-quarter but up 14.8% year-over-year.
Search engine content networks saw a higher average click fraud rate at 27.8%, which is down 28.3% from last quarter but, again, up from last year by 21.9%.
Botnet click fraud traffic was up 8% year-over-year.
Search engines are addressing the click fraud problem head on. Yahoo recently announced the provision of Click Filter Reports, which show advertisers the number of discarded clicks in their PPC campaign. The Sunnyvale search engine also announced a partnership with Click Forensics to address their click fraud woes. Lycos has announced a similar deal with Click Forensics.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on April 25, 2008, 11:45 AM | Permalink
So You Wanna Be a SearchMonkey?
Yahoo is creating some wide open spaces for web developers. This is no API playground, people. It's a zoo.
SearchMonkey will let developers go hog wild with search results. Simple links are so old school. Listings could now include photos, reviews, ratings and contact information via developer mashups. Want portability? You got it.
And if you don't want it, you should. Yesterday, I reported that search is integral in finding social media results that affect a consumer's opinion about brands. SearchMonkey should be a tremendous tool to help influence your online reputation.
The launch party for SearchMonkey is May 15th. Here are the details:
When:May 15, 2008, 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Where:Yahoo! Headquarters РUrl's Caf̩, 701 First Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94089
RSVP: Register at upcoming.org AND send your full name and company name to searchmonkeyevent@yahoo-inc.com. Space is limited.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on April 25, 2008, 10:24 AM | Permalink
T-minus 1 Day: Last Minute Rhetoric from Microsoft and Yahoo
On yesterday's earnings call, Chris Liddell, Senior VP and CFO, affirmed recent statements by Steve Ballmer to focus on the online advertising market. He said that the strategy was based on three pillars:
- To drive innovation and search
- To increase value to advertisers and publishers
- To grow user engagement across MSN and Windows Live properties
Liddell said that Yahoo would accelerate that strategy. But later, he made this statement:
We've yet to see tangible evidence that our bid substantially undervalues the company. In fact we see the opposite.Yahoo continues to lose search share and profitability continues to decline year-on-year. The results that they announced on Tuesday were in line with the guidance that they gave on their last earnings call on January 29, after which their stock price closes at $19.05 and Wall Street analysts' consensus on value was significantly decreased.
Just how is Microsoft expected to accomplish their three pillars if Yahoo is as awful as they say?
Perhaps Liddell and Ballmer are beginning to ponder that exact question. Earlier this week, Ballmer suggested that Microsoft would go forward without a merger. During yesterday's call, Liddell suggested that an alternative to Yahoo's “no” is to withdraw the proposal.
Meanwhile, Yahoo remained consistent in what they've been saying all along – that they're worth more than Microsoft's original offer. Speaking on Yahoo's earnings call on Tuesday, CEO Jerry Yang reinforced his confidence in the overall value of his company:
Yahoo! has a unique and valuable combination of assets that include our global brand, our large worldwide audience, our leadership in online advertising, our strategic positions in Asia, our mobile and emerging market franchises, and our scales, tools, and technology.
Yang stated that Yahoo's Q1 revenues were particularly remarkable in the light of uncertainty caused by Microsoft's unsolicited offer. He also said that Yahoo remains open to its options, including a deal with Microsoft.
Then Yang zeroed in on what he felt was his most important statement on the matter:
If you take only one thing away from this brief discussion, I hope it will be that our board and management are committed to choosing a path to maximize stockholder value and will not enter into any transaction that does not recognize the full value of this company.
Tomorrow, the ultimatum comes. Decisions will be made and actions will be taken. But the rhetoric still has just begun.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on April 25, 2008, 9:54 AM | Permalink
Microsoft Earnings Key Takeaways: Where's the Search?
The biggest acquisition news yesterday wasn't Microsoft-Yahoo but Arby's-Wendy's. In both cases, search marketers are asking, "Where's the beef?"
Better yet, analysts on the Microsoft conference call should have asked, "Where's the search?"
Microsoft search queries and page views are up year-over-year. By how much? No Wall St. analysts asked the question.
Microsoft reported $4.4 billion in net income for the quarter.
Microsoft's online services business increased revenue 40 percent to $843 million, including $143 million from aQuantive, which added 96 new publishers this quarter to the Atlas Publisher Solutions, the ad management platform that competes with Google's DoubleClick division.
Online advertising for Microsoft grew 39 percent. If aQuantive ad revenue ($47 million) is excluded, Microsoft was up 29 percent. Microsoft's online audience is still growing. Live IDs increased to 18 percent to 448 million.
Microsoft remains focused on the online advertising market (doubling by 2010 to $80 billion).
Yahoo would accelerate growth but the core strategy won't change: drive innovation and search, increase value to advertisers and publishers through innovation and scale and grow user engagement across MSN and Windows Live properties.
The weak U.S. dollar may be Microsoft's best friend. While about half of Google's revenue comes from the U.S., two-thirds of Microsoft's revenue is derived from users abroad. In addition, about 15 percent of revenue is in high-growth emerging markets.
Microsoft's strategy of reinvesting existing business, pursuing organic and acquisition growth opportunities makes the company a formidable competitor with or without Yahoo - except in search.
Posted by Kevin Heisler on April 25, 2008, 7:43 AM | Permalink
