Author Archive
Homo Habilis & Compete.com - Marketing’s Handy Man?
by Brian on Nov.10, 2008, under More SEOMatrix
Online competitive intelligence services have absolutely ballooned in the last few months. Alexa.com is in danger of becoming 2009’s Jerry Yang because of a 800 pound gorilla called compete.com. I myself use compete.com periodically for one particular bit a data- their referral analytics service enables me to not only find out which sites are lending traffic to a client’s competitor, but it gives me a good sense of the APPROXIMATE PERCENTAGE OF TRAFFIC EACH REFERRER IS OFFERING UP to these competitors. Valuable stuff —
compete.com marketing's handy man
Connecticut Technology Council Tech Top 40: MDCADS, And Ticket Software LLC
by Brian on Nov.07, 2008, under More SEOMatrix
I was invited to attend the Connecticut Technology Council Tech Top 40 Awards Program by McLaughlin Delvecchio and Casey marketing agency - the big winner of the night was Ticket Software and Donald Vaccaro whose company displayed a whopping average yearly revenue increase of over 4000% (yes, that’s no typo). In his stirring speech he recounted a significant event in his company’s success, to paraphrase Vaccaro (I heavily stress the word paraphrase):
An 18 year old GRADUATE of MIT walked into my office — I looked over his resume and found out that he had not done so well freshman year. When I prodded the young man he said that “I was only 14 when I started college, so of course there was some getting used to the environment.” Anyway, I hired the young man and many others (over 200 employees now) and the rest is history…I dedicate this award to my HR department who has consistently brought aboard the highest quality individuals to work along side me.
Some photos from the event:
Paige Rasid - CTC Marketing and Operations Manager
Open Solutions Inc. Booth
Pasquale DelVecchio
random event participant
Chevrolet Center In Wallingford, CT
Social Media Marketing Squared: Linkedin With Me
by Brian on Nov.06, 2008, under More SEOMatrix
[http://www.linkedin.com/in/marketingbrianortiz]
I am posting responses to my linkedin question of the day:
What is the best way to judge prospective employee motivation during the interview process?
Kristi Neal
Staffing Specialist at Manpower
Schedule an interview at an awkard time like 7:00am the following day or at 6:00pm the following day or even early on a Saturday morning or you can involve existing employees in the interview process, but stay resilient.
Jaime Gracia, PMP
Federal Acquisition and Program Management Expert
My experience has been with both verbal and non-verbal cues. Their excitment about the opportunity and/or the company, body language, posture, smiling when they discuss their experience, etc. Do they ask questions about you and your experiences, do they seem interested? Those are the types of things to look for.
Strategic Sense Inc.
Ask them if they have been to your website. If the answer is no, not only are they likely not to be motivated toward your projects but they don’t even have the motivation to learn about the company at which they are being interviewed. If they really want a job with you, they will offer thoughts on findings at your website.
www.strategicsenseinc.com
Lead Developer at WMG Inc.
I strongly disagree with Kristi’s advice. Scheduling interviews at awkward time slots only proves that the candidate is desperate. Doing so will also alienate many potential candidates. For instance, I wouldn’t do an in-person interview on a Saturday morning under any circumstance. It is a bully tactic designed to exert leverage when it is completely unnecessary. Experienced candidates wouldn’t entertain that kind of treatment.
Basically, the best way to assess prospective employee motivation is to determine the individuals value system. There are numerous ways to glean that information, but I always like to ask the following questions:
Why did you choose a Development/Sales/Marketing etc. career?
What do you enjoy the most/least about your field?
If you had to choose another career field what would it be and why?
What would you consider to be an ideal work environment?
Who had the greatest impact in your professional career and why?
Keep in mind that the response will be what the prospect believes to be “correct” answer. Your job is to identify the value system from the answers that you are given. Typically, it is not a good idea to lead with questions that have a yes/no answer. Get the candidate talking! The more they tell you, the greater to opportunity to parse out the motivation behind their responses.
If a prospect repeatedly mentions learning new things, improving skills and mentoring others in their responses, then Knowledge is a value. That type of employee can be motivated by the prospect of continuous training, working on larger, more difficult projects and the potential to lead a team.
Everyone is motivated by something. The challenge is to determine what that something is and to utilize that knowledge in a way that keeps the employee productive and happy. Generally speaking, people want to have a positive impact on their team, have their efforts recognized and be rewarded for a job well done.
Information Architect: Web, Print, Internet, Multimedia, E-Learning
To suggest a more lateral consideration: many people — especially when there is a high unemployment rate — aren’t particularly motivated to work specifically for your company, they just need a job. It doesn’t mean they won’t do a good job, or that they don’t WANT to be excited by their job…
Instead (or, in addition), determine how much energy they put into their profession when they don’t have to: do they read trade publications, attend conferences, and keep up with the latest/best practices in your industry? Otherwise you might be asking them to enthusiastically lie in order to hear “I’m so excited by Acme Widgets, it makes me tingle.” so you can check it off your list.
Paul Feingold
President & CEO at Feingold & Associates, LLC
Ask him/her what they know about your company. ask about hobbies or other activities to see if the activities have any relationship to the job (a mountain climber would probably not last long at a “desk job”). Ask the three things he/she disliked about his/her previous job.
Owner, HR Revelations
Profiling as part of an applicant assessment process can also be helpful with understanding what lies beneath the surface. The majority of serious applicants are rehearsed and on their best behavior for the interview. So it’s helpful to understand more about them prior to an interview, and it can lead to a more effective interview You need to be certain you are using a valid and reliable tool that is appropriate for a selection process. This can be very effective in hiring right and knowing more about the individual applicant before you make then an offer for employment.
Links:
President at 7 Steps Ahead, LLC. Leadership and team development expert.
Best Answers in: Staffing and Recruiting (1)…The key is to recognize that people are always motivated; their motivation and your motivation may or may not coincide.
While you certainly want to see that a prospective applicant cares about your company, recognize that they can’t possibly learn enough about it to be motivated to work for you beyond the simple fact of getting a job that they think they’ll enjoy.
Therefore, there are two key things to look for. The first is passion. You want to see that the person is passionate about something, preferably something job related. That’s not a requirement though; mostly, you need to know that given an opportunity to become engaged, this is a person who will tend to engage.
Second, find out how motivated they were on previous projects. Ask them to describe what they’ve done. Let them talk; only ask questions when you need to keep them going. You want them to paint a picture. Does that describe the person you’re looking for?
For more details, see the articles below.
-Steve Balzac
“The Business Sensei”
Links:
Accomplished International B2B Sales and Marketing Leader
One approach I have used with prospective sales people is to ask them if they had the choice between 1. a high base and lower commission plan or 2. a lower base with a higher commission plan, which would they choose.
You can also generally observe from their behaviour at the interview, the level of enthusiasm, for instance, how motivated they are likely to be.
However, at the end of the day, until someone has worked for you for at least 30 days, you really won’t know. It’s a crap shoot in the end. Even the behavioural tests don’t always get it right.
Independent advisor to CEO’s, MD’s. BOD’s and SME’s. Serial entrepreneur and Investor in Ideas
Best Answers in: Small Business (6)…
Hi Brian,
Just ask the prospective employee:
“Why should I hire you?”
and “What would be your added value to this company”.
If well motivated, you will get some amazing answers.
I used this “trick” when hiring people and this proved to be very effective. Q is also, IF they have the motivation that is needed, how are you sure that it is a keeper, not a loser…
Cheers
Frank
Clarification added 5 hours ago:
Hi Brian,
Forgot to mention this. When I was working as MD, after the shortlist, I interviewed the candidates, without knowing their resume. After my short questions (took only max 10 minutes), I referred them to my people who, based on resume and overachievements, continued with the “normal’” process.
cheers
F
Pres/CEO at Professional Options
Best Answers in: Organizational Development (1)
Introduce a subject related to the position and/or industry and have a conversation, not simply an interview. Cartwheel by including strategic questions or scenarios to get at what you need in order to gauge your candidate.
The hiring process is a two-way street, a prelude to win-win partnerships. Meting out a battery of tests and tools may work for some, but unless a candidate is able to put you through the same measurements, you run the risk of alienating strong and dynamic prospects.
Owner, Double C Professional Consulting Services | LION | Aspiring author
Best Answers in: Organizational Development (6)…
Hi Brian,
Their level of engagement during the interview is a good indication of whether they will be motivated and productive employees.
Did they take the time to learn about your company and/or the position before the interview? Ask them to describe for you how their experience or skills complement your company’s strategic plan or fit in with your company culture. Not only does this demonstrate the interest they’ve taken in your organization, but it also gives great insight into how they think and process information. Any blank expressions or way off base answers might be cause for concern.
I probably wouldn’t recommend scheduling interviews for odd hours or weekends for the purpose of seeing how flexible a candidate is, but there are other more subtle ways of accomplishing the same thing. For example, if you have a good feeling about the candidate, ask them if they’re available for another 15-30 minutes to meet another manager or take a tour of the building. Most people with a genuine interest in the position will be enthusiastic about the opportunity. If they have a legitimate reason for not being able to stick around for another 30 minutes, try scheduling another time for them to come back in. What’s their reaction to this request? Are they gracious for the offer? Do they seem hesitant to commit? Is it clear that your request is inconveniencing them?
Most interviews that I’ve participated in (from both sides) seem to share a number of similar questions, making it easy for a candidate to rehearse their answers and provide exactly what you are hoping to hear from them. I can think of a few truly awful employees that were absolutely brilliant during their interviews, mostly because they knew exactly how to answer the questions, and appeared quite polished in their delivery. Had some unique and complex questions been asked in place of the “usual” list, they might not have been hired.
Excellent discussion topic Brian!
Regards,
Carrie
Specialist in Merger Integration, Exit Strategies and Organizational and Professional Change
I suggest using a Behavioral-Event interview process. We’re all experts at fielding hypothetical questions like “what would you do if…” The question to ask is to “recall a time when you had to deal with…” Develop your list of questions based on real-world conditions at your firm. Ask them take their time answering and to be specific in their answers. If they have shown motivation for these in the past, they most probably will in the future.
Herb Kessner, Ph.D also suggests these experts on this topic:
- Pam Porath
- Denise Codgen
- Bob Furlong
Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Professional and Certified Fraud Examiner
If you are an experienced interviewer you should go with your gut feeling. Then hire the best candidate on a temp to perm basis. This will eliviate the problem of a good interviewee who isn’t the kind of worker you expected.
Program/Snr Operations Manager / Consultant. Make business easier & more profitable, with less stress. Develop & thrive.
Best Answers in: Business Analytics (1)…
Hi Brian - you have a host of great answers here. All I can add is I think you are trying the screen the actors ( those who can put on a convincing reveal their true selves latter on in the heat of battle ), from those who are genuinely motivated, but may not perform as well.
I’ll remove those who don’t even bother doing basic research for the interview ( thus excluding the arrogant and lazy ) and confine ourselves to the scenario where everything being equal a decision needs to be made.
I am also guessing that motivation desired is one that promotes the company and the team as opposed to that focusing only on oneself.
Here are a few guidelines:
Types of Questions: This has been addressed here already, but ensure you have the questions on how they have dealt with both difficult and delicate situations in the 1st person. So use situational based questioning
Me versus’s We: During the interview guage whether answers to questions how heavily answers are based on self interest as oppossed to serving the needs of the team. Actors usually highly polar placing undue emphasis on either their interest OR placing all emphasis on the team (watch the latter)
Non Verbal / Visual Queues: I dispense with trying to outline picking out the truth from a lie, but when someone is talking about how they have dealt with a situation look as to whether there eyes are looking up, up and around or they are looking down. Research and experience discounts those who when talking about feelings or drives ( ie motivation ) look up or up and around, as this tends to indicate they are fabricating the story ( denoted by those who look down during pauses ). Take note of the tone of voice ( should be deep or natural rather than high ). Finally (this is tricky) check the breathing. If you note short sharp breaths ( which is what you are looking for ), rather then slow, deep breaths then this is a good sign. In the real world you’ll never see all of these so use the 3 out of 4 rule.
Can you guage the motivation: Often people who are genuinely motivated often let slip what drives them - check this for plausibility and consistency with their answers.
As with picking stocks you’ll never get a board lit up highlighting a 100% positive response on all fronts, so pick the candidate with the most green lights in these categories.
… and as always, this note that this remains as much of an art as a science!
Business Development Manager
Best Answers in: Public Relations (1)
i ask the prospect what they would do if they stumbled over a lottery ticket and suddenly won us$64 million, tax free. this gives you a clear window into where the prospect’s true interests and motivations lie. if you are hiring someone for a sales position, the best candidates are those that talk about what they will buy with the money. if hiring for customer service, the best candiates frequently begin by saying they would give a certain amount to charity or to their family. the better managerial candidates usually say something about a business or other venture that they would start. if they don’t know what they would do with the money, they are probably not motivated enough to do more than the minimum.
Executive, Entrepreneur, Technology/ Business/ VC Consultant - Semiconductor, Nanotech, Alternate Energy, Cleantech
Motivations are of various types. What needs to be segmented is that the employees motivation is towards bringing something more to the role and not for what the job brings to him/her. The later can be purely for personal reasons - pay, title, location, perks, benefits,….etc. Asking pointed questions on what and how the candidate will bring more to the role or make a difference to the role will reveal if he/ she has really thought out the role and is motivated to perform.
Solution Archtect
Best Answers in: Quality Management and Standards (2)…
Interview, may be for 1 / 2 hrs can not really judge a prospective employee completely. Many times we may have completely different opinion about an individual before and during interview and when we work with him, we come to know that our opinions can be wrong.
Human being is complex thing and every day we may see completely different aspect of an individual. Motivation is driven by a vigor to make change, level of satisfaction with the present level, support available, past experiences etc. Environment plays an important role in defining motivation. It may come from reward, fear to some extent.
Bill Gammell
Marketing / Client Relations at PGM, Inc.
Best Answers in: Branding (1)…
Give them homework. Between the first and second interview, give them a business problem (actual or made up) and ask them to come up with their best solutions by the next interview. Be sure to have them explain things in depth when they come back and ask follow-up questions to make sure they really are motivated to solve the problem or simply used the Internet or some other expert to solve the problem.
Good luck!
Marketing People Are Immune From Star Wars Branding
by Brian on Nov.05, 2008, under More SEOMatrix
Or maybe they aren’t…well…I saw a new commercial for the new Lincoln MKS — was that the millennium falcon I just saw? Wow — just in time for the economic turnaround — I thought Lincoln’s were reserved for words like “uncool” and “gramps” — guess not — I’ve ordered two already.
The SEO Devil’s Gentleman and Maybe Some Marketing Misconceptions
by Brian on Nov.05, 2008, under More SEOMatrix
client: “My web designer is at fault for making my website inhospitable to search engine spiders.”
devilish gentleman 1: ”It’s 2008, your designer should have set your website up for fundamental and scalable SEO success.”
devilish gentleman 2: ”Your web designer is paid to create a beautiful site and nothing more — how could he or she possibly invest their time in creating unique title tags and a zillion other attributes and elements for every page.”
client: “search engine submissions are critical
devilish gentleman 1: “Google will come around eventually (a la The Thin Red Line effect) and find, recognize, and index my site.”
devilish gentleman 2: “You do need to submit your sites to sentient run directories like dmoz and yahoo.”
client:”seo is expensive”
devilish gentleman 1: “depends on who your hiring”
devilish gentleman 2: “depends on what they are doing”
devilish gentleman 3: “depends on the industry you are in”
devilish gentleman 4: “depends on the current state of affairs of your website”
devilish gentleman 5: “depends on the keywords you are going after”
devilish gentleman 6: “depends on your goals”
devilish gentleman 7: “depends on the results your going to hold them to”
devilish gentleman 8: “depends on the popularity of the SEO firms blog”
client: “seo is cheap”
devilish gentleman: “can you say help in spanish”
client: “seo is hard”
devilish gentleman: “the fundamentals of SEO don’t change, only the emphasis on certain facors in Google’s algorithm do”
client: “silly rabbit, youtube is for kids”
devilish gentleman: “according to marketingvox.com 50% of youtube viewers are within the ages of 35-64. So now we know what granny has been up to.”
client: “My website is doing swell. I am capturing a huge part of my Internet market share”
devilish gentleman: “I can show you a tri color synopsis of what Compete, Alexa, and Spyfu have to say about that.”
client: “PPC is better than organic SEO”
devilish gentleman: “wait for Google to mandate mesothelioma like minimum CPC bids of $85″
client: “Organic SEO is better than PPC”
devilish gentleman: “yes, it will take over 3000 man-hours to get you on the first page of Google for “shingle” — at $400 an hour that would be well, pretty expensive.”
client: “seo takes time”
devilish gentleman: “have you ever heard of a blog”
My Googleganger and me: Brian Ortiz’s Online Reputation Management
by Brian on Nov.05, 2008, under More SEOMatrix
Here come the acronyms:
SERM - search engine reputation management
ORM- online reputation management
OBM - online brand management
OIM - online identity management
One of the most common internet marketing misconceptions is that reputation, brand, or identity management is relegated to companies, countries, agencies, or other groups made up of a number of individuals. Identity management however, drills down as far as the individual level- linkedin, facebook, myspace, sphinn, twitter, blogs, and other Web 2.0 mediums including Google itself all act to either make or break an online reputation. Creating a strong individual brand should start with a steady stream of involvement or contribution in these communities — passively approaching SMO and SMM tools could potentially leave you open to a Googleganger attack that even the most fortuitious case of karma couldn’t heal.
Myopic SEM vs. Foundation SEM - Gene Hackman Had It Right
by Brian on Nov.04, 2008, under More SEOMatrix
Remember when Gene Hackman hollered “patch him up” to the concerned doctor in Hoosierswhen one of his player’s stitches came out during a critical point in a decisive game. Hackman hesitated for only about a second when he decided not to play his critically wounded high schooler. Using some 1950s nylon would have undoubtedly only masked the underlying injury, potentially causing irreparable damage to the young man it inflicted. Approaching marketing challenges parallel this Hackman methodology. My thesis:
Before touching a website in any way you should consider whether you are masking underlying problems. Treating the symptoms of a website in cardiac arrest doesn’t get at the true meat of the quandary and it won’t be doing clients too much good. Ask yourself if you are looking at the challenges from as broad a perspective as possible. Question if you are integrating your thoughts into a cohesive marketing strategy. Challenge yourself to understand your role and how it fits into the client’s long term business objectives.The definition of ”Myopic SEO or SEM” is any Internet marketing practice that only scrapes the surface of a site’s potential to be recognized, useful, and authoritative. Myopic SEO can also be articulated as an attitude or philosophy about how to “optimize” specific websites. Approaching any business should be done with the antithesis of narrowminded and segregated thinking - back it up a bit before sticking on the band aids kids. Examples of Myopic SEO or SEM are as follows:
- adding alt tags to images simply because they aren’t there
- obtaining inbound links without understanding the best anchor text to utilize and toggle
- removing javascript indiscriminately throughout a website without considering conversions
- tracking one type of conversions
- doing what a client tells you to do without considering any long-term implications
- not tracking website conversions at all
- adding pages of content while disregarding website structure or architecture
- not finding other websites that may have duplicate content sprinkled around the Internet
- not clearly understanding a client’s goals or expectations
- focusing on one metric as the decisive measure of marketing success or failure
- not understanding how SEO and SEM fits within a business’s marketing
- focusing too heavily on off-site or on-site optimization elements
- not understanding the newer online marketing mediums and how they fit in with traditional SEO like SMM (social media marketing) and OIM (online identity management)
- starting work on a website haphazardly with insufficient data driving your assumptions and conclusions
Examples of the Foundation SEM philosophy are:
- clearly understanding a client’s marketing goals
- clearly understanding why a client is requesting what their requesting
- not blindly following a client’s suggestions to simply feed the animal
- considering a variety of alternative marketing paths before finalizing a strategy
- clearly understanding the client’s expectations
- keeping up to date on broad and developing marketing techniques
- thinking about how each individual idea or implementation fits within the larger marketing schema
- tracking a wide range of metrics and having a sizable starting block of data to work from
Foundation SEM is a thought process in approaching marketing challenges. Every action taken on behalf of a client should be considered among the framework of wider goals and expectations. It might take a little more time and due diligence, but the long term effects can be nothing less than dramatic.
8:30 Reservations At Dorsia For Tonight, Who’s Calling?
by Brian on Oct.29, 2008, under More SEOMatrix
…Patrick Bateman had difficulty solidifying his request for a table at Dorsia in the 2000 film American Psycho. The exclusivity of the restaurant was never fully explained. Website conversion analysis can often be articulated in similar terms of psychological impact — webmasters are often smitten with large 1800 numbers that scream call me now, I am ready to take your valuable dollars! Both my practical and empirical experience on the internet has taught me that occasionally having an inconspicuous phone number actually gives you a higher conversion rate on phone calls (often times significantly higher). In fact, having a toll-free number occassionally decreases call volume in and of itself. A few websites with tough to find digits include:
1) adwords.google.com
2) www.seomoz.org
3) www.amazon.com
4) www.microsoft.com
Granted, these sites push a huge number of visitors through their pages on a daily basis, but the fact that the contact numbers are tough to find make some individuals all the hungrier to find them.
Google Books: A Logic Named Joe
by Brian on Oct.29, 2008, under More SEOMatrix
…sometimes inside Barnes and Noble I actually feel car sick — it’s not the Starbucks dragging me down — I think it may be more of an information overload type queeziness. Nowadays, I get a similar sense of awe when sifting through Google Books - it’s a neat invention. I tend to be more of a book skimmer or scanner type reader anyway, so Google Books is ideal for me. A few interesting notes on why:
1) You can store your favorite books to read at a later time
2) Books can be search on the basis of “full preview” or “limited preview” - my favorite prophetic Internet hypothesizing novel - A Logic Named Joe is available for limited preview.
3) You can share you book reviews and selections with others.
4) You can jot down notes under each title.
Overall, it assists me in organizing and storing information in one convenient location (and no, Google didn’t pay me to say that 
Waiting for Godot- Rather Googlebot
by Brian on Oct.29, 2008, under More SEOMatrix
What are the types of bots that Google sends out to the web?
Googlebot: crawl pages from our web index and our news index
Googlebot-Mobile: crawls pages for our mobile index
Googlebot-Image: crawls pages for our image index
Mediapartners-Google: crawls pages to determine AdSense content. We only use this bot to crawl your site if AdSense ads are displayed on your site.
Adsbot-Google: crawls pages to measure AdWords landing page quality. We only use this bot if you use Google AdWords to advertise your site.
He’ll often leave a little stamp in the weblogs like crawl-66-249-71-23.googlebot.com
Or, the image crawler will leave a little Googlebot-Image/1.0
To check to see how relatively frequent Google’s bots are coming around to your site, you can do the query in the Google search box cache:yoursite.com
