SEM Synergy Reloaded!

August 11, 2011
 

After 8 months away from the microphone, Bruce Clay, Inc. is excited to be back on WebmasterRadio.fm with our weekly broadcast and podcast. In the time the show has been on hiatus, Bruce Clay, Inc. has remained an active member of the Internet marketing industry, servicing clients, attending conferences, and providing training around the world as interest and understanding of SEO continues to grow. Still, much has changed since SEM Synergy last rode the airwaves, and to start the show, Bruce examines recent news stories effecting the industry, including ICANN opening generic top level domains to all options.

For our first special guest of the show we welcome Bryan Eisenberg, conversion optimization thought leader, technology and marketing analyst, conference speaker and best-selling author. Bryan and Virginia discuss a framework for thinking about CRO that Bryan calls the conversion trinity. By optimizing relevance, value and call to action, a marketer can increase the rate of conversions. A characteristic all three concepts have in common and a common theme in marketing today, Bryan says, is the focus on the users’ interests, desires and needs. Users are in charge and their needs should lead your decisions as a marketer — not your competition’s and not your own. Google seems to have hit upon this strategy in developing Google+, it’s first seemingly successful social network. Bryan believes that Google+ will find popularity because it allows users to share and gather social content in a way that they understand intuitively. He likens Facebook to AOL in an illustrative and illuminating analogy that speaks to privacy and openness demands online.

Then, Aaron, Virginia and Susan (in one of her final appearances on the show) further discuss the evolving expectation of privacy online. With Google requiring all Google+ profiles to include publicly viewable information, have we reached an age where consumers should abandon the hope for privacy on the Web? Over time there has been a gradual move toward openness on the Internet, and today the majority of users are comfortable sharing contact information and personal details in public spaces. Those who embrace the public nature of social media can build a powerful and positive online persona.