Rodney Bradford might be the only one pleased with Facebook these days.  A perfectly timed status update from his father’s house in Harlem –  “On the phone with this fat chick…Where my IHOP?” — saved the 19 year old from prison time as his update served as his alibi for an armed robbery 12 miles away in Brooklyn.  After the DA subpoenaed Facebook records which confirmed the update was submitted from Harlem, the case was dismissed leaving Bradford a free man and demonstrating the pervasiveness of social networking sites.

Bradford’s vindication, while sensational, does not mark the first time social networking sites have been used in the courtroom or by the government.  In fact, this week consumer watchdog group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit against multiple government agencies – including, but not limited to the CIA, DoD, FBI, and DEA – alleging unlawful use of social networking sites to investigate an array of crimes ranging from underage drinking to the coordination of G-20 summit protestors.

This filing follows a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that was not met by multiple agencies.  The government scored a victory on the shoulders of Facebook in the case of Maxi Sopo, who was indicted for bank fraud after he failed to resist the temptation to brag about “living easy” in Cancun following the $200,000 heist.  Sopo’s downfall began with his acceptance of a friend request from a former Justice Department official.

The increased usage of social networking sites coupled with heavy government involvement, has led some to question whether Facebook and Twitter will become the new arenas for wiretap initiatives.  If so, the debate promises to be as heated as conventional wiretaps, with even the EFF acknowledging that information obtained from social networking sites is often for commendable reasons—where evidence of bank fraud is found, there too can an alibi be found.  The EFF points to a need for users to comprehend the extent of privacy rules and procedures of any social networking site in the face of government requests.

With forthcoming changes to Facebook’s privacy rules and settings, as alluded to in founder Mark Zuckerberg’s open letter to the Facebook community released earlier this week, the question of government usage of social networking sites promises to remain present and contested.

Are you ready for the Google Caffeine update forewarned to be unleashed in early 2010 after the upcoming holidays?

Google first alluded to this next generation infrastructure shift back on August 10th.

This shifts will change how Google does its crawling, indexing, and ranking as it will be on a much faster scale in many respects can be seen as a response to both Bing & Twitter.

Matt Cutts put everyone on notice at PubCon in Las Vegas this November that Caffeine will be released after the holidays and that your site’s load time will be a factor.

Site loading speed is important not just for better search results but as well for mobile browsers which with Android & the iPhone is exponentially increasing in search share, so Google has provided a tool to help your site get faster.

I directly asked Matt while he was fielding questions during the Search Engine Smackdown at PubCon if the SERPs or Search Engine Result Pages will be rendered in AJAX with the Caffeine update to which he said no, but they are still experimenting with it.

Matt Cutts & Michael Martin playing pool at The Garage in Seattle

Just as I learned to not beat Matt Cutts when playing pool if you want to keep your rankings, you should also test your site out before a big Google algorithm shift such as this.

You can test your results on the one Google datacenter containing Caffeine that pushes those results about half the time at 209.85.225.103

From Britney Spears, to Oprah; from Sarah Palin, to Ashton, celebs and politicians alike are employing social media as a means of online reputation management.  Whether they want to promote their books or shows, refute paparazzi and journalists or simply stay in the spotlight doesn’t matter- it’s all different means to the same end.

Social media has become a great way for people to get out their message with a large reach and a low cost.  Recently, Sarah Palin has been making waves on Facebook to promote the launch of her new book “Going Rogue: An American Life.”  She used to be an avid tweeter but decided to cash in the 140 character microblogs for Facebook notes.  Now, she regularly writes back to readers and journalists making false accusations about her memoir and suggests that AP writers engage themselves in something more newsworthy than ripping apart a book.  See a recent Facebook note of her’s below:

Sarah Palin's Facebook Note

This is only one of many and the others were definitely more aggressive but I think this gets across the same message in a brief manner.  Clearly, Palin isn’t afraid to be frank and candid, which was shown to the world on her recent Oprah appearance as well.  Oprah, who is also heavily engaged in social media, made the interview a trending topic on Twitter and posted a podcast of of some of the clips.  While the video claims, “There’s nothing we didn’t talk about!,” much of the interview has not been released to the public.  But, Oprah does occasionally give her Twitter following some proprietary information:  On November 20th, when she announced the end of her show in September 2011, she first informed her fellow tweeters.  Before the episode, she tweeted, “Big day…. tune in my tweet friends.”

Rach and Tey prior to break up

Oprah isn’t the only public figure using Twitter to relay big news.  Rachel Zoe and lead employee, Taylor Jacobson, publicly broke up on Twitter only weeks ago.  They had been working side by side for the last four years styling celebrities all over the world on the show the Rachel Zoe Project.  On November 6th, Taylor tweeted: “Today is an end of an era and the beginning of a new professional chapter.  Looking forward to what the future brings…!!”  The media picked up on this immediately and their split soon became common public news. But, sources are still not sure who broke up with who….  What do you think?  Let us know what gossip you’ve been hearing around the globe.

Many companies using Internet marketing strategies out there drive most of the traffic to their home page or possibly another internal page of their website.  The optimization of any online marketing campaign should focus on both the traffic drivers as well as where the traffic is sent.  This is especially true when using search engine marketing strategies like Pay Per Click advertising in any search engine. 

It is now crucial to use a landing page for PPC advertising in Google because it wll have a direct impact on your Google Quality Score and conversion success.  The idea of consversion optimization is pretty simple but the purpose should be understood in order to execute it correctly for your webpages.  The main idea of course is to always be improving your ROI.  There is no point in spending tons of money in online or offline marketing if you are just planning to drive traffic to your home page (unless of course your home pages acts as a well optimized “landing page”).

Here is an example.  JetSelect Aviation (a premier private jet charter service) has performed various form of marketing (online and offline), including Yahoo PPC.  All the traffic was being channeled to their home page and results had been fairly dismal.  They were recieving about one or two leads a month.  Here is an example of the home page:

Once the marketing campaign started, aggressive Googe PPC was added and four landing pages created.  The ad copy for the ads was written according to their direct business goals.  It is important to understand Google Quality Score guidelines in order to properly optimize your PPC campaign for the best possible results.  Here is an example of one of the landing pages created.  Notice the update in design, graphics, clear calls to action, simple booking engine right at the top of the page, and simple information (there is more content below the fold). 

Landing pages can really be as simple or content heavy as you want (in my opinion).  What matters really is what is above the fold and how the call to action is designed.  Of course, this all depends on your conversion goals and what you plan to obtain from your landing pages.  Those goals should be defined first before designing the page or launching any marketing. 

The initial result of the properly optimized PPC campaigns and well designed landing pages was going from one or two poor quality leads per month to five to eight high quality leads per day.  The results will of course vary depending on your business, industry, and specific goals. 

Either way, you must use landing pages with great content ands clear calls to action in order to get the most bang for your buck from your Internet marketing strategies. 

Not just for elementary school playgrounds anymore, Foursquare, a new online social network/gaming platform, is catching on like the common cold in a fifth grade classroom.  And this isn’t their first venture: just a few years ago, this same crew gave us the mobile social network Dodgeball, which was acquired by Google in 2005, and then later canned.  But unlike Dodgeball, FourSquare presents an expansion to the simple notion of broadcasting your location to your friends.  Foursquare tracks your “check-ins” at various locations like bars, restaurants, museums, retail outlets, and even street vendors, and awards you for such notable achievements as “Gym Rat” (for frequent visits to the gym), “Mayor of ___” (for frequent visits to a certain location), and “School Night” (for checking in late on a weeknight).  These achievements are then published on your personal profile and available for viewing for the whole Foursquare community.

Friends can use Foursquare as a means of finding each other when they’re out as well as compete with each other to get the most badges or Mayor statuses.  One can see how addictive the game could get; similar to Facebook, Twitter, and the likes, users can easily become preoccupied with the number of “check-ins” and forget the real reason they even go out.

The team has also partnered with Twitter as another broadcasting channel for their check-ins, a partnership which spurred some chatter about the similarities between the two social networks.  Mashable blogger Pete Cashmore commented on Robert Scoble’s observation: “Go back three years ago. Twitter was being used by the same crowd that is playing with Foursquare today.”

The application also allows for highly targeted marketing initiatives for participating locations, such as drink specials for the “Mayor” of a bar or reduced ticket prices for those who frequent a specific art gallery.  The novelty in this could quickly wear out, though, as many perceive to be the fate of Twitter’s marketing abilities.

With key competitors including Gowalla, Loopt, Brightkite and Google’s Latitude, Foursquare’s path to success won’t be smooth sailing.  But their unique offerings will surely give them a head start against the rest of the pack, and I’m sure we can expect many more great things added to the Foursquare platform in the near future.

I recently read and article with a somewhat missleading title, but the content was interesting, and a bit scary.  The article is from the LA Times and was called “Congress is Cracking Down on Internet Marketing Companies“.  Now, when I think of Internet Marketing companies I think of firms offering actual marketing services.  In this case the article is really referring to Internet advertising and sales technology companies.  Either way, the topic is about these technologies being used by major retailers which use people’s credit card info and share it with other services.  Next thing you know you are getting reoccurring bills from some site you have never heard of.

Here is an example.  You are ordering tickets online and during your check out process an ad pops up urging you to “click” in order to get $20 off your next purchase.  That click then automatically sends your credit card info to another company you have never heard of and signs you up for a “membership”.  You then get billed automatically for months before you realize it and cancel.  Most people are too busy to notice or forget whether they signed up for something and never really pursure it beyond cancelling. 

As I said before the article refers to these firms as online marketing companies.  The companies they are talking about are the ones who are creating and distributing these technologies and then partnering with major retailers.  Some of these companies include (according to the article)  Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty.  The scary thing is that these shady companies have been able to partner with major retailers like Hotwire.com and Continental Airlines.

The article stated that stories like these have encouraged members of Congress to seek legislation designed to crack down on these types of aggressive sales tactics (and the technology that makes them a reality).  This type of thing is no doubt something no consumer should have to worry about!

Has this ever happened to you?  Please share!

I was recently speaking at the 2009 PubCon in Las Vegas on both an Organic Site Review Clinic & an SEO Site Design Panel.

The Organic Site Clinic on Wednesday November 11th was only myself & Alan K’necht of K’nechtology where we were aligned on foundational & canonical SEO for the sites we reviewed as we are both sticklers for proper back-end coding.

We even came across a site that was using a MORE link to hide content at the bottom of each of their pages – the site will remain unnamed

Later that Wednesday after lunch I was on an SEO Design & Organic Site Structure panel with Ted Ulle of Converseon, Lyndsay Walker of Canada’s Web Shop, Scott Polk of Search & Social Media.

Moderating this motley crew was Christine Churchill of KeyRelevance with QA moderator Taylor Pratt of nFusion.

We all agreed we would keep our presentations to under 5 minutes so people could ask plenty of questions and get some great takeaways rather than just simply hearing us talk on and on, on stage.

I spoke on foundational SEO concentrating on what I term the big 3 of the .htaccess, robots.txt, & Webmaster Tools – I included my presentation below:

Ted went over some great foundational design information while Lyndsay went into coding advice and Scott provided some great tips, but where I disagreed with Scott is on using file extensions over directories.

I like & respect Scott Polk as he is great speaker with a wealth of knowledge & experience coming from Bruce Clay thus I didn’t want to undermine him publicly so I simply nodded in agreement with Ted on stage with him stating he prefers directories.

All things being equal a page at abc.com/xyz.html has just a good chance to rank as abc.com/xyz/ but with the directory page you have the added benefit of not having to change reference links if you go to another web page format such as php, asp, cfm, etc plus I feel its better organizationally since you can place related pages & files in this directory giving them added keyword weight.

Scott stuck to his guns on extensions over directories while also being correct that you can simply resolve the new web page format issue in the .htaccess, but I still contend directories are better long term both organizationally &  for SEO.

What do you think?

Dean Loudermilk and Ellen Albert with the Alumnae Women of Emory board

Although Dean Loudermilk still teaches the semester long class at Emory University, Social Movements and the Media (the basis for the presentation): let’s just say it wasn’t your average college class last night! We had guests from Atlanta, attendees ranging over 20 class years and even a Cornell Alum who eagerly signed up to get in on the action too. Well, seems like everyone had the right idea, as the talk was spectacular—funny, futuristic and engaging all at the same time. It seemed as if everyone was laughing on cue, but really, it was just a good speech coupled with some racy images that boasted a broad appeal.

The event, hosted on November 11th at MTV Studios by Emory Alum, Ellen Albert, was from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., but it seemed like the crowd didn’t want to leave! We had a wonderfully diverse group of 30 guests. A surprising amount of men actually showed up to listen to the talk too, which was, even in the event description but more so in actuality, largely focused on feminism in advertising. Dean Loudermilk began by plowing through the history of various different social movements and their effect on the media, but guests became overwhelmingly engaged during the saga on feminism, which was presented in conjunction with commercials and ads. The presentation spanned the gamut of brands—beginning at Dolce & Gabbana, critiquing Virginia Slims and ending with oomph on Maidenform Bras.

At one point, an Emory Law Grad, Marni Galison, was so intrigued by an ad and Dean Loudermilk’s interpretation of it that she interrupted mid presentation to play devil’s advocate. In older Virginia Slims marketing, a lot of feminists hated the “You’ve come along way, baby” campaigns. Marni, after vehemently denying smoking, exclaimed: “Is there any cigarette ad that feminists do like?!” Her point, essentially, is that, if they inherently don’t like the product, they certainly will disapprove of the ad. But, we did see some commercials that feminists happened to be fonder of—for a sexy 45 seconds, I recommend checking out “The Diet Coke Break” on YouTube.

Regardless, thanks to Marni, the tone was set for an informative and inspiring feminist advertising debate post presentation. The group finally concluded, with Dean Loudermilk’s guidance, that feminism in advertising moves in waves and eventually always comes full circle. Last night, we learned that only 16 percent of people in senior advertising roles are women! So, who is really spurring the innovation here? Our best bet is that it stems from men in high positions with slight interferences by politics and presidential administrations. Keep your eyes peeled for the future because, just like with the Reagan and Clinton administrations, we are certain to see a new wave of advertising with the “Change” advocate, President Obama.

What do you think?!  Tell us below and check out the EAAvesdropping blog.

Several managers from IMI will be in Las Vegas this week for Pubcon, a large internet marketing show. There is a poker tournament on Thursday night at The Mirage and our President Brandon Fishman will be playing.  Any winnings from this event will go towards The Naval Special Warfare Foundation which provides financial support to the families and children of SEALs killed or injured in combat.  Recently we lost several of our Navy SEAL heroes:

On 13 SEP LT Dan Cnossen lost both legs below the knees when he stepped on an IED during a combat operation in Afghanistan.  He is at Bethesda Naval Hospital undergoing treatment for his wounds.  You can learn more at his website.

On 24 SEP Ryan Jobe a SEAL who last eyesight in both eyes when he was wounded in Iraq in 2006 underwent a major operation that unfortunately resulted in a complication that caused him to lose his life.  Since he was wounded Ryan had been a spokesman for the NSW community.  His wife is pregnant with their first child.

For more information on this charity, go to the website here:   http://www.nswfoundation.org/

For more info on the Pubcon Poker tournament  http://www.purposeinc.com/pwp/2009/11/02/poker-tourney-blog-to-register

Outbound marketing is just not as effective anymore.  Outbound marketing for companies could be the use of traditional mass media, making cold calls, or going to trade shows.  These activities are active methods “selling” products and services through finding and approaching potential customers.  Tired of cold calling?  Try investing more on inbound marketing and let the business come to you!

Inbound marketing involves attracting new customers and letting them find you because you present your brand as a credible and trustworthy source.  Consumers or companies seeking products and services that you  might be offering are looking online and doing research through Google searches, reading blogs, and even reviewing content on social media sites.  Instead of putting your brand out there to people or companies used to quickly tuning out mass media, why not just be “found” by your target customer when they are looking?

Inbound marketing through search engine optimization simply means that your site is going to be well optimized for keywords most important to growing your business.  Without SEO, your company’s website will never be found in the natural search results and therefore lose market share to competitors who are in fact being “found” by your potential customers. 

Inbound marketing with blogs and social media involves developing great content.  This will in turn drastically improve your SEO efforts.  Social media is of course about more than content but is driven by sharing valuable information with your audience.  The information on your blog and social media platforms should be compelling and offer your audience a chance to quickly learn something of value.

Most companies these days are still spending about 90% of their time and energy on outbound marketing and only 10% on inbound methods.  Once a company truly embraces the theory and strategy behind inbound marketing they generally improve the inflow of new business leads.  They quality of these inquiries is usually better too. 

In conclusion, if your company wants business to come to you rather than having to chase down “leads”, then pursue these strategies:

• Position your company and people within your company as industry experts
• Develop great content for your website and blogs (i.e. articles, white papers, blogs, videos, etc.)
• Distribute your content to social media sites like Facebook, other blogs, Twitter, YouTube, etc.
• Forget the “sales pitch” and let new business come to you