Personalization and Passion: Getting Social at BlueGlass LA

July 21, 2010
 

In the midst of the networking and educational event, BlueGlass LA, Bruce, Susan and Virginia take a moment to discuss one of the social giants of the Internet, Facebook. There’s a growing intersection between search and social, and the hosts hone in specifically on ranking factors for Facebook’s internal search engine. A recent study by Internet marketing agency aimClear looked at the ranking factors for Facebook internal search, finding an environment that heavily favors a searcher’s current connections on the network, the overall popularity of pages/events/people, etc., and the inclusion of searched keywords in results.

Then Virginia talks to Loren Baker at the first BlueGlass LA conference. Loren is the SVP of online PR and a managing partner at BlueGlass, the marketing agency and publisher that presented the conference. During the final session of the two-day event, Loren expresses his thoughts on the future of the newly formed company, search as the core of a multi-faceted marketing strategy, and the importance of authenticity, transparency and passion in marketing, branding and life. As the founder and editor-in-chief of the search industry news blog Search Engine Journal, he also explains the goal of a conference with a “blogging feel” and gives tips for influencing a community through a blog. Many thanks to Loren and BlueGlass for an incredible time and learning opportunity in Marina del Rey!

A personalized experience — whether online or at a conference — can make a big difference. Michael, Susan and Virginia round out the show with a look at how on-site behavioral targeting and segmentation can be implemented to give users a personal experience with the brand. Technical solutions range from complex on-site segmentation engines or CRM or analytics solutions to JavaScript code to geo-targeting. A 2009 survey of marketers doing behavioral targeting found that geography was the highest priority attribute for targeting, followed by unique user profiles, referral keywords, and explicit preferences as defined by the user.

Tune into this episode of SEM Synergy on WebmasterRadio.fm at 3 Eastern/12 Pacific, Wednesday, July 21.