Killer Keywords: The Tip of the SEO Iceberg

The blogs just keep coming hot and fast these days. It seems there's more in my mind than usual, which of course results in even more content than usual. Today, I'd like to talk about yet another concept I've just started learning about: Search Engine Optimization, better known as SEO. This fascinating process is an excellent example of something that began as a simple technology innovation and has since been leveraged to gain attention for a variety of interests across the web, from businesses to causes to blogs. Now, I preface this article by saying I am a rank beginner in this subject. The intention of this particular blog is not so much showing my expertise, but rather giving others an idea of where they can get started with this daunting analytical practice. There. Now that the tip of the iceberg has been sufficiently mapped, let's begin.

In order to start grasping the philosophy behind SEO, you first need to get the history. The particular echoes from the past informing this technological phenomenon began where many thoughts of its kind do: with engineers. Back when the web was young, it soon became apparent that organization was going to be paramount to its success. What good were all these electronic resources if it was impossible to find them without knowing an exact location? Enter the search engine. Using programs known as crawlers or spiders, engineers gained the ability to map out the giddying peaks and bottomless valleys of the online world. These programs pulled the information into organized indexes, what we now see upon entering a search on sites like Google or Bing.

But what makes it possible to create such an index? Wouldn't you still have to know exact addresses to mount an effective search? Relax, my friends. I present to you the heroes of our time: keywords. By tagging websites with words and phrases related to the content contained within them, we can search in a more general way and receive results from a plethora of sources based on their relevance to our query. This is the beating heart of SEO.

Once businesses realized that it was possible to use keywords in this manner, they took the next step and tried to optimize keywords to get noticed. By using consistent terms, matching the titles and URLs of websites to internal content, and researching the keywords that got the most use, companies became able to predict where their pages would be most successful in shouting their brand to the void. In fact, there is now an entire industry built around creating analytical tools for and performing the functions of SEO. Once again, language at play creates valuable connections.

I've done a simple scratching of SEO's surface here, but if you are interested in more information, I've found SEOmoz to be an unparallelled resource. In addition to creating tools and analytics that help you build a successful SEO strategy, SEOmoz also provides numerous free resources for learning about the subject. I've found their Beginner's Guide to SEO to be quite enlightening. Check it out, and start spreading your echoes to those around you. I hope these resources help you to keep expanding your perspective and to meet many other unique points of contact.

The Business of Imagination

During the beginning of this week, I've begun delving into the depths of yet another dark corner of the business world: Business Intelligence. BI, as those savvy in the terminology of this industry call it, concerns itself with creating an architecture around gathering and using the various customer, financial, and technological data swirling about untamed in a company's infrastructure. Sounds dry as a bone, right? Sure, but have I yet met a topic I failed to spice up? I guess we'll find out.

BI, like so many other practices in the oft-draconian corporate world, has myriad appearances and methods of application, and looks quite intimidating from a high level. Despite this fact, however, I am convinced that with the correct application of a talent unique to our species, we can break down these walls and restore what so often falls by the wayside of progress: accessibility.

What talent could possibly accomplish this herculean feat? What skill could cut a swathe through the seas of endless red tape? The key, my friends, is imagination. True, the previous sentence might seem to contain an overabundance of cheese, but the point stands.  By linking concepts that seem unyielding in their complexity to the creative centers of our brains, we can break them down piece by piece into digestible packets of visual, auditory, and written data. Several examples of these kind of business practices already exist. Once again, as in my last article, I find myself giving a well-deserved tip of the hat to Wistia.

In addition to their innovative video marketing platform, the Wistia team makes BI easy through gathering vital information about the videos they host using analytical tools. This video, taken from the Wistia Learning Center, gives some insight into how this kind of information can help track success without melting the minds of the innocent. As you can see, Wistia presents video stats using a clean, graphical representation that forms an instantaneous imprint on the user's mind. The colors delineate important patterns and draw the eye to the most relevant data points. No longer must we swim through line after line of a spreadsheet to glean insights into performance. Using the resources that modern technology affords us, we can harness the artistic ideas bursting from our brains and speak to others through cornea blasts of content that excite rather than frighten.

This does not simply apply to video, either. Wistia's methodology is extensible. The infographic below, posted on Column Five's site and done with Wistia, moves the scope outward to cover the video marketing industry as a whole and articulates its efficacy with striking grace.

Using an aesthetic mix of colorful imagery and easy-to-decipher text, this page breaks down the applications of video marketing, as well as its key audiences. It accesses the interplay of verbal and visual connections that form the constant backdrop of our mental experience. Through understanding this transience in our language, we can transfer meaning and resonance to objects and establish chains of significance leading from words to pictures to ideas. This is at once a powerful case study for deconstructive philosophy and a boon to business practices. Who says academic and corporate culture can't live in harmony?

I know it seems that I've harped on Wistia a great deal of late, but that's only because they've done such a great deal to deserve it. Companies using the kinds of methods articulated above give me hope for further innovations to come. If we can make business our art and art our business, then nothing will stop the free flow of imagination between the two. No longer will we need to choose between the drudgeries of work and the amusements our hobbies afford us. Instead, we will all simply live in a world at play.

#TweetFiction, Video Marketing, and General Excitement

This week has been one of the most eventful in recent history for me. So much discovery, exploration, and imagination is flooding my mind that I simply have spill such wondrous brain contents here. In terms of authorly-type activities, the ideas have been flowing, and to start I'd like to articulate a concept upon which I've been musing of late: #TweetFiction.

Similar to the flash fiction of luminaries such as Warren Ellis, #TweetFiction further condenses the concept to work within the scant 140-character confines of everyone's favorite social media platform. Thus far, it seems that about two sentences is the average workspace afforded. I've published four or so entries on my Twitter feed as concepts pop into my head. This is a wonderful brainstorming tactic, as it galvanizes the ol' neural connections and, in my case, leads to springboards for longer form fictional endeavors.

Being interested as I am in connection and perspectives, I'd like to extend an invitation. All ye writerly types, flood the Twittersphere with your dazzling creations. Pass it on, share the wealth, and provoke thought in a region of the web so often perceived (unfairly) as a source of irrelevant trivialities. Whether you're a fan of the real, fantastical, or scientific, this format offers a way to send out polished nuggets of verbal excellence to the world. Consider this the beginning of your manifesto: creativity and expansion. After all, isn't life boring if it's all defined for you?

Continuing on the track of creativity, I've recently become acquainted with an industry that has me quite excited: video marketing. Ranging from whimsical to instructional, these pieces of content highlight the importance of the emotional resonance that I spoke of in my last post when it comes to selling products and services. In our Big Data-centric society, the visual content is often of even higher importance than the verbal message. As Eddie Izzard put it, "It's 70 percent how you look, 20 percent how you sound, and only 10 percent what you actually say." Now, this isn't to say that verbal content should go out the window; my point is more that the visuals should match and amplify the message.

One of the best examples I've found of this amplification lately is the work being done by Wistia, a video marketing group out of Somerville, MA. They've managed to push for change in the marketing industry in ways that inspire others and spark conversations about where the industry as whole should head. Most important in my mind, however, is their generosity. Not only do they offer masterful solutions to clients, they also have numerous free resources available to the general public. One of their newer efforts is the Wistia Learning Center, a portal in which the company expounds upon the various aspects of video marketing. Whether it's the nuts and bolts of production techniques, the cerebral process of concept design, or the analytical intricacies of measuring video success, Wistia has it covered. Their easy-to-digest content is enlightening and integral to the building of success in the industry. Additionally, they offer free hosting for three videos to anyone who makes an account so that both the resources and opportunity to learn are within reach. Check them out if you have time.

Well, this brings us to the end of another scintillating installment. I hope to see #TweetFiction and videos popping up across the untamed vastness that is the Internet. Remember, construct your lives one moment at a time, and always broaden your perspective.

Revitalization and Notes Toward a Marketing Career

"How did Gandalf get ahead of us?"
"He comes and goes at will. He is a wizard, you know."
- The Hobbit (1977)

Jobs are much like wizards; they come and go at will, but (hopefully, at least) they always show up when you need them. My recent departure from RSA has caused some contemplation in this regard. The unexpected does not send you a calendar update on Microsoft Outlook, it simply happens. However, while it may be uncomfortable, it opens up a host of new, previously unexplored realms of opportunity. These are the things that, in my humble opinion, it is most productive to focus upon.

The chiefest sin of becoming entrenched in a daily routine is the impulse toward inattention. As my significant other says, "You can't just let life wash over you." This is a sin to which I have fallen prey over the last year in particular. Many of the facets of life that I most enjoy have fallen by the wayside as I encased myself in a firm wrapping of petty day-to-day concerns. One of those facets is this blog. The sounding board has suffered from a failure to resonate for over a year now. It's high time I remedied that situation.

As a first step, rather than keeping it all contained in the grey matter between my ears, I'd like to discuss my plans for the future upon reentering the murky waters of job searching. As I said in "I Swear to God I Can Copywrite" back in prehistoric times, marketing is the career area in which I think I can make the greatest impact. In terms of having a channel for boundless creativity, you can't get much better. The myriad products and services floating around in the ether of our global community all need direction, expansion, and targeting. Whether it's a video game, an automobile, or the latest breakthrough in cancer treatment, the only way for it to become useful is for it to be known.

Now, I know many may accuse me of lionizing a career that is essentially a glorified, electrified form of peddling, but if you look a little deeper, "take the deeper dive" as the managers I've had are fond of saying, you will find a vibrant community of individuals as imaginative as any science fiction writer. After all, marketing is the science of connection, something that has fascinated me since my MA studies. Think of it not as simple selling; that's not the point. The actual motive is a far more complex process involving the interweaving of emotions with people, acts, and objects. Ask yourself: what makes me treat a Roomba like a pet that happens to like eating my dirt? Why is it that the kind of computer I use signifies a certain set of personality traits to others? Marketing at work, folks :).

Now, my intention here is not to have everyone go off in a half-cocked, paranoid state a la the movie Branded thinking "the corporations are eating my brain." True, these powers have been and can be used for nefarious purposes, but there are other ways as well. Caution is called for, yes, but consider this: social and political causes need marketing too, as do products legitimately attempting to progress the well-being of humanity. For instance, despite the fraught nature of the individuals involved in its inception, the Kony 2012 campaign did succeed in highlighting the crimes being committed toward children in Africa and grabbed the attention of the global community in a very tangible way. In fact, three of the four goals established for the project were met in the same year in which it started. That's a pretty solid result any way you look at it.

Another sterling example is Kiva. Realizing that the biggest barrier to philanthropic activities is convenience, the people behind this organization created an online micro-lending platform that allows for instantaneous small donations to various individuals across the world. The best part? It's a loan, so the money will come back to you, and you can use it again to help more. All this from your comfy chair at your first-world computer desk. I can't think of a better use case for market targeting.

In short, marketing can change the world. It's a process that follows the best possible portions of the deconstructionist vision: using the play of language to engage as many points of human connection as possible. Through this enterprise, we can not only create successful businesses, but also expand our perceptions and raise global awareness of the infinite subject positions inhabited across the earth we share. In this spirit, I encourage you to learn about others; learn what they need, what preoccupies them, what they think and feel. It's not about manipulation, it's about actualization and proliferation. In this way, we can all be marketers.