TheBrianMurphy.com

This semester, my Internet Marketing Class, MKTG 470 had the pleasure of having  Lindsay Crone as a guest speaker. Lindsay is a Creative Editor at The Search Agency and has a lot of experience in the field of Internet marketing, holding a job at AOL for the first few years out of college. She is yet another well established JMU College of business Alumni. She talked a lot about the internet marketing world, and I learned a lot from her.

The Best Way to Get a Job

Speaking to a bunch of graduating seniors, Lindsay did us all a favor and talked about her experience with the job hunt and offered us some key insight on the subject.

Network

When you meet someone professionally, network with them.Don’t be afraid to add them on LinkedIn or connect with them, just make sure you are cordial, and identify yourself and how you met them.You may never interact with them again, but maybe they will be able to offer you insight in the future that will be valuable.

Focus your resume to a certain topic.

Not everyone is a Renaissance man, and no one is looking for one. Employers are looking for individuals who are excited about entering a certain area and show determination to get into that area.

Cross-Media- advertising on a large number of mediums.

The Importance of Search Engine Optimization

We have done a lot of work with SEO in our internet marketing class, controlling where our pages turn up on organic search and in pay per click advertisements. While we mainly try to get SERPs, Lindsay taught us that when working on big accounts, above the fold information is the key to having happy clients, as they see their site immediately when entering it into major search engines.

Google Analytics

The Google Analytics report for my website:

Visits: 149 Unique Visitors: 54 Pageviews: 435 Pages/Visit: 2.92 Avg. Visit Duration: 00:02:47 Bounce Rate: 34.90% % New Visits: 36.24%

36.24%New Visitor 54 Visits 63.76%Returning Visitor 95 Visits

Despite the low number of viewers, the viewers that I had seemed to explore my site a good amount. The number of page views is quite high compared to the number of unique visitors, The average number of pages per visit is above 2, the bounce rate is very low, all indicating the visitors seemingly explored my site quite a bit while on it. The majority of my search traffic (67.33%) came from search, mostly under the keywords JMU marketing and JMU Business. 26.67% came from direct traffic, and 6% came from referrals.

Overall reflection on internet marketing

I was not all that interested in internet marketing when I first began the course. It is not my desired career path, however i was pleasantly surprised with how much i learned. Before, I didn’t know a thing about building a website, controlling traffic, or running an ad campaign. After the course, I can do it with ease. My key takeaway from the course is the knowledge I gained on building a web page.

Issues pertaining to the future

As a result of the course, I have really learned the relevance and importance of internet marketing in business. It is a booming medium of advertising and it is a valuable tool to have as a marketer. If I had to take the course over again, I would definitely stay on top of the assignments. I would also make more contact with my blog partner to stay on top of my posts. There was a lot of work associated with the course and sometimes I let it overwhelm me. I don’t believe I will seek employment in the field of internet marketing, however I am still excited about boasting the skills i have learned from the course. Now that the course is over, I will gear the site to be more relevant to my life, but I plan to keep it for a while. I think that the links that Professor Theresa B. Clarke has recommended for her Marketing 470 course, found in her delicious stacks will be interesting and helpful to stay informed with.

The Task

This semester,my fellow marketing 470 students and I competed to get the JMU webpage on our website We were to explore different ways to have our webpages increase in organic rankings.At first, my website ranked horribly. I was not on the first 20 pages of organic search results, and my website scores across different ranking measurements were dismal at best. In order to get these scores up, I had some work to do.

The Solution

In order to bring mu scores up, I banded together with fellow students to give link love to each other. “Link love” is a term that my marketing professor, Theresa Clarke uses to describe adding links of colleagues pages to your page. This not only improves their scores by giving them access to more web crawlers, but also connects your pages to others, allowing us all a better chance of up in the organic search. If you did not notice, the link above is a bit of link love for my professor.

In addition to this, I hid the Phrase “Love JMU” in places that would not be overwhelming. I put the phrase at the bottom of my page, labeled the pictures as “Love JMU,” and put it in the text a few times.his allowed theweb crawlers a better chance to see the phrase.

The Results

While my webpage is not spectacular, It improved immensely. It moved up on the organic results by over 13 pages, and is right with the majority of my classmates. The scores, however, are not so good. I got no more that a 1/10 on any aspect of the grading, except keyword density, where i got a perfect score as a result of putting the phrase several times on my page. My Page, however, turned up on page 7 of Google for the phrase “Love JMU”

Importance of Internet Marketing

In this era of internet marketing, it is a constant struggle for companies to stay on top of their website. A company’s website can and should be one of its biggest assets, as it is often the gateway to the customer.  As a result, an entire industry has emerged In order to satisfy website needs. So, how can a company tell if their website is doing what they want it to do? Whether the company is expecting exposure, content, appearance, or performance, Google Webmaster tools allows website owners access to any information that they need to know so that they can adjust their site.

Webmaster tools

Google Webmaster tools can be a useful asset for marketers, as Google critiques your organic search success. Capturing organic search results has become a common form of internet marketing, and perfecting a sites organic search with webmaster tools can help a website thrive.

For Instance the image below is a screen shot of a Search Query, showing a marketer where people are clicking on their site.

My Site

By looking into the information on my website by Google Webmaster tools, I learned a few things about my site. One of the Most important, The success of the LOVE JMU page. One of our goals This semester is to get good exposure to our LOVE JMU page. I learned that my average position in organic search is 58, and I will need to do a bit more work to get that position down. In order to be more successful, I think I need to learn more about the Crawl Stats aspect of Webmaster Tools, and learn how to maximize crawling on that page.

Importance of consistency

As Social Media becomes a more stable outlet for businesses, there are certain concerns that must be addressed to employees. Many companies are creating social media policies in order to establish consistencies amongst employees who wish to post via social media.

Social Media Policies

Ford Motor has released policies regarding social media for any employee who wishes to partake. The main takeaways from the policy include:

• Be honest about who you are
• Make sure it is clear that the views expressed are yours and not Ford’s
• Remember that your actions reflect Ford
• Use common sense
• Be Polite
• Understand that the internet is a public forum and anyone can see
• Things written on the internet can be permanent and irreversible
• Some responses require official permission
• Offline conversations are not to be shared publicly
• Respect Copyright and trademark laws

• When in doubt, ask

By setting these guidelines, Ford is protecting their employees, by giving them a checklist to follow so that they stay out of trouble, and protecting themselves, so their employees are not posting things that they shouldn’t.

Another large, Furoune 500 company, IBM follows generally the same guidelines, but has added a few to the mix in order to make sure their employees are contributing positively to the barnd.

• Make sure you are adding value with each comment
• Use a disclaimer identifying that the views posted are your own
• Don’t pick fights, or say anything that may stir the public
• Only use IBM logos and trademarks if given permission

Credible Sources Weigh In

Mashable, a blog frequently referred to by my internet marketing professor, has recently posted an article titled: 10 Must-haves for your social media policy. It covers the goals that companies should have when developing their social media policies. The highlightes included:

• Introduce the purpose of social media
• Be responsible with what you write
• be authentic
• consider your audience
• exercise good judgement
• understand the concept of community
• respect copyrights and fair use
• protect confidential information
• Bring Value
• Productivity matters

Both Ford and IBM did a good job developing social media policies according to mashable’s standards. Ford could use some clauses stating that value and productivity are important aspects of social media, however, IBM’s is sound on all aspects.

Job Search,  Tougher than Ever

Miriam Salpeter recently released an article on grads and the current market

For any college graduate, the job search can be one of the most horrifying and trying tasks throughout his or her college career. Since the start of the recession in 2008, the experience has been made that much worse, as jobs are not nearly as easy to find, and open positions become more and more competitive.The question now: How can candidates stand out in the competitive environment.

Jennifer Lasater, Executive Director of National Career Services at  Kaplan University has offered some insight and tips for job seekers with new degrees:

5 Tips For New Grads

Own Your Degree: It is not just a check mark. Demonstrate the way that you used the knowledge earned in your degree throughout the past few years. Show that you were involved in organizations, immerse yourself in related publications and related issues, and connect with related groups in Linked In.

Showcase Your Experience: Do not just show what jobs you have had, but what you have done in those positions to supplement your education. How has your experience changed you or prepared you for this point in your life?

Use Social Media: Highlight your new certifications or degrees in your profiles on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and Facebook. Demonstrate your professionalism and qualifications with these mediums and join groups that will expose you to employees.

Train Your Network: Go out of your way to let people know what your plans are and what you want to do. If you think they may be able to help, let them know.

Stand Out from the Competition: Stay up on the latest trends, get certifications relevant to your field, and always show appreciation when someone who reaches out to you. Remember to be professional at all times, no matter what the interaction.

Read more as Miriam Salpeter weighs in on 2012 grads entering the job market in May. Also, look into her book, Social Media for career success

Too Many Ads!

Everyone has experienced the frustration of  dealing with a slue of internet ads while trying to gather information. The Ads are typically unrelated to the topics being researched and are seen by most visitors as invasive and unwelcomed. Hubspot Blog has recently released encouraging information on this nuisance.

Google, to the Rescue

Fortunately, for internet surfers of every kind, Google has developed a new algorithm that calculates the number of ads above the fold,  and the chances that a user will proceed to the content below after the overwhelming attack from the unwanted media. Pages with too much going on above the fold will essentially disappear from Google searches. Whether the page was formerly the 1st or 1000th result, it will not be as easy to access from the Google search engines.

Expected Changes

Internet ads will surely see a hit as a result of these efforts by Google. Not only will the sites be penalized for their clutter, the penalties will not be lifted immediately, and they will suffer for a good amount of time before they can return to their normal activity. As a result, this change may come sooner than we may think. The burden of the offense could significantly affect website views, and could have the site owners deciding (rather quickly) if they think they can keep their viewers without visits from Googlers, or if they should restructure their site.

While Google may be seen by the site owners as a nuisance, They have provided information about what a successful website looks like and a set of criteria to make sure their site does not disappear from their searches.

Ultimately, Google is using their power  to give users a bit more freedom when searching the internet.

Twitter, Just Not for Me

I have to admit, I resisted the twitter trend for as long as possible. I was very displeased when I discovered that I was being asked to actively engage in twitter throughout the semester for Dr. Theresa Clarke’s class,  MKTG 470. While I had nothing but doubts going into my 1 hour twitter exploration, I have left the experience with at least an appreciation for the concept.

Twitter Scan

I started my twitter voyage on the onion, and found it so easy to navigate from post to post. I got very off task and found myself reading posts from professional athletes, posts about the grammys, and pretty much every trending topic that was listed.

Results

I am still a big twitter skeptic, however, I can see the enormous value that it could have for me. Starting my career in Sales in just a few months, Twitter is a very good way to identify current opinions and information on companies i may be researching. While facebook pages and individual websites provide a solid source of historical information on companies, they tend to be more informational and historical than twitter. Twitter is a good source of present relevant information about companies and people.

How could Twitter be helpful?

Twitter is a great resource for marketers because it is a good way to identify current trends within a target market. Is is also important for marketers to see what kind of connections different companies have in order to understand their relationship a bit better.

Follow me @bmurphyg

Welcome to my blog.  I am currently enrolled in Strategic Internet Marketing (MKTG 470) taught by Dr. Theresa B. Clarke at James Madison University.  As one of the course requirements, all students will be completing some of the assignments as blog posts.  This is my first official blog post for Dr. Clarke’s course in the JMU Department of Marketing.