Eco-Friendly Digital Marketing Internship

As Lauren mentioned in last Tuesday’s post, she and I visited a different kind of lunch spot today. This week’s trip took us inside Google’s Ann Arbor Office.

Now you may be wondering how Lauren and I were able to merit an invitation to one of Google’s private employee lunches. So here is the story…

While sitting at one of the Lunch Ann Arbor Marketing (LA2M) networking events, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to teaching about all things marketing, I met a guy named Rob. Rob works for the Google Adwords team and oddly enough knows my roommate’s sister- small world. While talking with Rob about his job at Google and my internship at Ingenex Digital Marketing, where I dabble in Adwords, we discussed the fun, laid-back, colorful work environment that has become synonymous with Google’s name. And being that we were at a lunch event, we discussed the fabulous lunches that are served at his office each day. Long story short Lauren and I headed to the Google office, located on South Division just a few minutes walk from our office, this afternoon.

Upon entering the reception area we were greeted with a warm welcome and hello, and were asked to sign in. Rob arrived a few minutes later and we walked through the brightly colored halls to the Google cafeteria. Inside we helped ourselves to the buffet style lunch that had been laid out by the office’s culinary crew. The spread was delicious with fresh salads, fruit, veggies, rice, salmon and lamb linguine pasta. After our meal, the general consensus was that Lauren and I could not leave without tasting the peach cobbler dessert. So we walked around the corner and to our great surprise the tray was being filled with a brand new peach cobbler- still warm and gooey, fresh from the oven.

After the meal Rob gave us a tour of the building. We got to check out the employee rec room- with games, tvs and loads of snacks; a few conference rooms- each named after cities in Michigan; the employee work stations- each decorated with colors and personalized themes; and so much more. But I think it’s safe to say that Lauren and I enjoyed viewing the Lansing room best of all; being that we are grads of Michigan State University (I graduated last May and Lauren will graduate this coming spring) and Lansing and MSU are near and dear to our hearts. So it was neat to see the Lansing room with its mural of the State Capitol, and photographs of the MSU football stadium and campus.

We’d like to thank Rob and the rest of the Ann Arbor Google Team for allowing us the chance to sit in and enjoy such an exclusive lunch with you.

Google Chrome is the newest addition to the Web browser game. According to recent browser stats, Chrome is ranked number 3 as of May. The folks at Google have implemented an interactive marketing strategy that allows designers and programmers to create “Experiments” for visitors using Javascript, HTML5, Canvas, and more. It has been tagged as “Not Your Mother’s Javascript,” and indeed, it is much more. One such designer, Mr. Doob, created Harmony- a procedural drawing tool. By clicking around, I made this:

It’s not much in the way of art, but it is quick, easy, accessible, and an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon researching at Ingenex Digital Marketing. Other experiments are more geared toward gaming such as Stewart Smith’s “Browser Pong” and Paul Brunt’s “Bert’s Breakdown”. Google is taking submissions and posts the best experiments so design away.

Developers at Google have also developed a race across the internet called Chrome Fastball. Google takes you on a scavenger hunt around the internet. Time yourself and see how quickly you can tweet, find a bike route, or translate text. See if you can beat me!

rAmmoRRison

Location-based apps are one of the newest frontiers in Digital Marketing. Google Maps, Foursquare, even Twitter are in on the “check-in” game. On platforms like Foursquare, users can see who is currently checked into a place, leave messages there, and receive incentives for checking in. Twitter and Google allow location broadcasting to approved friends. But where is this technology going? I did some deep digging to find out.

1. Tracking
Tracking on social Web sites is not new. We have all heard cautionary tales about Joe Inappropriate losing his job over an indecent picture his company found on Facebook or Jane Toomuchinformation missing out on a second interview because of too many updates on Twitter about how much she hates her current job. Location based tracking seems to be ahead. ZDnet suggests that insurance companies or assessors may be able to use your check in history to determine risk factors and rates. If you were to check into multiple bars every night for 2 months and you don’t own one, this might be an issue for you. It’s not all bad though, an auto insurer could set up a maintenance check-in program that tracks how often your car’s oil is changed or whether or if you check in to a car seat inspection station.

2. Real-time coupons
Some Web sites, like Foursquare, are already in the infant stages of adopting this technology. As a user checks in, incentives, or coupons, are shown for his or her presence. However, Mobile Commerce Daily has reported that Where, another location-based site has introduced location-based, real-time mobile deal alerts. “[Where's] deal alerts service pushes mobile coupons and discounts to consumers based on preference and location.” For instance, let’s say I have selected to receive alerts from Ingenex Digital Marketing on Where. 2 weeks later, I walk past Ingenex and my text alert goes off. It reads:

Hey there friend! Ingenex Digital is offering a free cup of coffee when you stop in and say “Hello!”

The text service is free but regular text messaging rates apply, but for most of us, that really shouldn’t be an issue anymore. Business owners could have the ability to schedule daily offer changes and control the amount of time the coupon is active.

3. Tourism
Why not make being a tourist a little bit easier. Gowalla seems to be the predominant player in this so far. Users can create “trips” with check in points. The site features sponsored tours by University of Oklahoma and National Geographic. Not many other players have embraced the tourism possibilities and with Gowalla’s page visits down approximately 45% in the past two months, the possibility of dying in the shadows of Foursquare and Google Latitude grows stronger. Roseindia, a leader in Web tutorials, offers a few points for utilizing location-based tourism. Based on your GPS, a platform that provides traffic information, weather updates, local information, city guides and check-in spots could possibly be available in the near future for tourists with smartphones.

The landscape of local-based applications is wide open for innovation. Tracking, real-time coupons, and tourism are all areas that apps are beginning to target. So, what would you like to see come to fruition?  Any ideas?

deanj

BP has been taking on a multi-faceted marketing campaign in attempt to offset the bad press as a result of the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. Recently, BP began bidding on  keywords such as “Deepwater Horizon,” “Gulf of Mexico oil spill,” and “oil spill,” in which the landing page provides information on BP’s response to the environmental disaster. Visitors can click on video updates, pictures and news releases to get the company’s perspective on their clean up efforts and tactics. Yahoo!, Google, and Bing reveal PPC ads with links to BP’s response.

Social media sites have been targeted by BP in order to control the message being broadcast. To date, BP’s official Facebook page, BP America, counts 30,343 “likes.” Fans can read updates from the company as well as watch YouTube videos and review BP’s commenting policy. However, the majority of Facebook users have chosen to befriend BoycottBP with 694,898 “likes.” Facebook users have the ability to participate with the page instead of BP’s controlled approach that only allows the company’s commentary. The anti-BP page allows users to vent their frustrations and with over 8,400 photos being added by users of the aftermath and more than 51,000 links associated with the boycott, users are, indeed, frustrated.

BP has also taken their voice to Twitter. The company states:

Updates of BP’s ongoing response efforts are provided by our social media team as well as on-the-ground personnel working in the affected Gulf regions… From time to time, CEO Tony Hayward and COO Doug Suttles will be giving first-hand updates via this channel. These tweets will be identified by ^Tony or ^Doug.

Once again, BP’s one-way conversation with its followers are not doing enough to ease the tension. BP Public Relations , another anti-BP account takes a more whimsical approach as it weaves in dark humor and quips about the company’s response efforts. It writes:

My staff told me I shouldn’t wear my monocle in Congress but now I can’t read the lies they’ve written for me. ^Tony

and

We’re not blocking all reporters from the gulf – just the ones who aren’t going to say nice things about us.

The false BP Twitter account boasts 175,820 followers while the official BP America claims 15,735.

It seems as though what the world wants now is to be heard and have a discussion instead of being spoon fed information from a very intentional marketing strategy. Essentially, BP’s social media involvement and PPC ads are not geared toward a direct response, which is quantifiable. Instead, one must ask his or herself: When someone is searching the keyword “oil spill,” what is he or she looking for? The answer may be news, pictures, videos or what BP is saying in general. So, BP’s strategy is a successful one, albeit, a bit of a perversion of the point of social media and PPC ads.

Soccer, or football, is in season. This means, if you are a sports novice, you must struggle to maneuver through workplace conversations, small talk, and Facebook threads without revealing that your silent nods are really a desperate attempt to not let anyone know how clueless you feel. You wish you could scream, “I have no idea what round Brazil is in!” or “why does the United States refer to it as ‘Soccer’?” Fellow novices, choose to suffer in silence no longer, for today, I Googled it.

Property of FIFA

A quick search clarifies the soccer vs football query; the sport’s full name is Association Football. The US shortened it to Soccer from “asSOCiation.” But whether you call it “soccer” or “football” it is a sport that ultimately unites. Mike M. from Ann Arbor writes, “[Soccer] is a sport that everyone around the world plays, really, the only one.” The world coming together as one is something every one can get into; so, let’s get into it.

The Essential Facts:

• FIFA stands for Federation International de Football Association
• The World Cup occurs every 4 years
• The 2010 World Cup runs one month: June 11th- July 11th
• South Africa is hosting the event this year among 10 cities within the country
• 32 countries are competing for a top spot
• Soccer can tie and the completed games receive points:

Easy ways to get connected:

• Twitter offers a World Cup page with the most up-to-date tweets on all things World Cup 2010
• Mobile apps are now available for the iPhone, Blackberry, Android

Although you may still be a FIFA World Cup beginner, you now have a few talking points at the water cooler. Enjoy and relax, Soccer is for everyone.

As Eco- Friendly Interns at Ingenex Digital Marketing, Lauren Weingartz and I have grown accustomed to writing press releases, coming up with headlines, and scouring the web for templates and how-to guides. But this week we have been given the opportunity to embark on a new kind of adventure. An adventure far from the likes of Adwords and Google how-tos. Every Tuesday we will be walking around Ann Arbor and exploring the wonderful world of Ann Arbor restaurants, eateries, diners and bistros and then blogging about our experience. Service, atmosphere and “melt-in-your-mouth” food quality will all be up for discussion. So grab your sunglasses and umbrella – this IS Michigan- and join us on our latest dining excursion.

In the 1930’s it was decided that “football”, or soccer as it is called in America, would be dropped from the summer Olympics that were going to be held in Los Angeles. The committee sited the sport’s lack of popularity in America as it’s reason for dropping the sport. After the decision was made Jules Rimet, the Federation Internationale de Football Association president, began organizing a football tournament of his own. Years later the tournament grew from one with 13 teams, to one which currently boast 32 competitive teams.

The sport has grown increasingly popular in nations around the country. And with another World Cup about to begin in South Africa, it is no wonder that the world has already started to prepare. While avid fans proudly display their team’s colors, and flags for each country are placed for passersby to see; one much more subtle preparation has occurred. When searching “World Cup” on Google people will find that the site has actually changed it’s display name at the bottom of the search page to read as “Goooooal”.

One journalist named Stan Schroeder commented that he can’t help but wonder, with the option to create custom Google pages, if Google is slowly losing it’s brand identity. Or is it possible that the name has become so synonymous with search engines that the changes won’t make a difference in Google’s brand recognition at all?

It brings up the question of how much freedom websites should provide their users, when it comes to customizing their personal pages. Does it hurt companies to allow users to tweet their image? Or does it help the company’s reputation in some way? Only time will tell. But one thing that I think most can agree on is that before customization occurs, companies need to establish a strong brand identity. And with the technology wave moving us into the future, websites are one of the best ways to establish that brand image.

I guess Google was getting so big, so uncontrollable lately, it was only a matter of time before we began hearing words of descent. On July 13th, an unknown poster whose been holding back their frustrations about Google, and SEO in general, spoke out about it.

I stumbled upon an article that was posted on TechCrunch.com about how Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become so unregulated it’s now comparable to “free trade”; with the one controlling all exports and imports being the search engine itself (i.e. Google, Yahoo). The article, which is written by an author who wishes to remain anonymous (for fear of fallout with Google and the SEO industry), makes points about how Google has too much control over search engine results, and the rankings of websites for certain companies and points of interest. This power and control, the author believes, should be regulated by the government and that it’s about time it happens.

“Through an uncontrolled set of factors search engines determine which listings appear at the top and bottom of any individual query,” says the author. “If you happen to own an online business, unless you exist within those top three (search results), the amount of individual traffic you will obtain from organic listings is very, very low.”

He also goes on to explain that these search engines should be required to publicly disclose the rule-based algorithms that determine result sets. This sounds a little like releasing the source code of a program, which would result in Google changing from a unique search engine brand to a common one. His points are interesting and thought provoking, but is government control really the answer?

A blog post has been made in retaliation to the article on Econsultancy.com by Chris Lake, where he declares that Google and SEO should NOT be regulated. He goes on to list 10 points about how this anonymous author is wrong and comes up with some good arguments.

Let’s say the government does decide to get involved with this, especially if this becomes a hot topic. What happens to the digital agency and digital marketing as we know it? It seems like there would be a lot less calls from people who would love to use SEO for their company, especially if search results were completely randomized. I would especially hate to see sites that contain spam and other junk at the top of Google search listings just because they contain a few words from a search query.

I urge you all to read both of these articles and leave a comment on where you stand on this issue.

The Time Has Come To Regulate Search Engine Marketing And SEO

10 reasons why Google and SEO should NOT be regulated

Michigan State University is now offering, to both undergraduate and graduate students, a new course on social media entitled “New Media Drivers License.”

The New Media Drivers License course, or NMDL for short, provides students with a comprehensive overview of new media and digital marketing, and the relevance and importance of each for today’s businesses.  The course is taught by Ingenex Digital Marketing CEO and MSU alum, Derek Mehraban, as well as professor and Chair of Advertising, Public Relations, and Retailing at MSU, Dr. Richard Cole.

NMDL shows students how to take social media, like Facebook and Twitter, normally used to communicate with friends, and turn it into a valuable commodity for companies and clients.  In addition to social networks, the course covers the use of blogging, podcasting, search engine optimization, and a number of other digital marketing areas, including the never-ending uses of Google.

Paul Kanan (me), an MSU alum and a passenger on the maiden voyage of the NMDL ship during the 2009 Spring semester, says of the course, “This class rocks!  I recommend it to anyone going into public relations, advertising, or simply wants to have their finger on the pulse of the future.”

This summer marks the second offering of NMDL at MSU with three full sections.  The class meets at the beginning and end of the semester at Walsh College in Novi, MI, with everything in between taking place online.  For more information on the class, the course site can be found at http://newmediadl.com or follow along on Facebook and Twitter.

So that’s the official Eco-Friendly word, but like I said, this class rocks!  And another thing, it’s long overdue, so check it out!

It’s that time of year again – the annual rite of passage when new graduates begin to lose their minds because they’ve entered into one of life’s no-man’s lands – the time between the end of college and the beginning of a career.

This time in one’s life can best be described as being somewhat like purgatory. You know you’re not quite in Hell because you’re relieved from the stresses of finals, proud of yourself for getting that degree, and happy to return back to Ma and Pa’s for a bit once the lease is over to hang with all your leftover high school friends while you search for gainful employment (true story).

But about one month in you realize something isn’t right, you can’t shake this gnawing feeling, and you finally realize what it is – you don’t get to go back to school in the fall.  “There are no more excuses.”  “This is your life.”  “A new chapter is about to begin.” A dozen other clichés. You have no answer for everyone when they ask that unbelievably annoying and patronizing question, “So what’s next?”  It’s even worse when you realize that employers aren’t just going to knock on your door because of your fantastic college resumé and that the job market is way down due to the recession. To be honest, it sorta feels like this:

So what’s a college grad to do, short of searching for Mrs. Robinson?  Well the answer for some may be right in front of them.  Just as graduates are beginning to look for jobs, current college matriculators (is that a word?) are also beginning another rite of passage – the summer internship (or their third or fourth such position for the ambitious).  The internship used to be seen as a way for college students to get experience and credit while employers scout the talent and take advantage of inexpensive labor.

Not anymore, my friends.  The internship is now for everyone.  With the current job market as tight as it is, an internship can be the cure for the occupational blues.  For current students, it’s still the tried and true way to get a leg up on your peers while putting to use what you’re learning in the classroom.  For the newly graduated, it provides a plethora of positives.  For starters, it’s a morale boost for those who haven’t yet found the career their looking for.  It’s also another notch on the resumé belt and an opportunity to show your stuff to an employer for when they eventually (and hopefully) resume the hiring process.  And, perhaps most importantly, it can serve as a bridge over troubled water stirred up by the recession.

An especially beneficial opportunity is that of the digital internship. The digital internship (especially the Eco-Friendly Internship – no hyperlink necessary.  You’re already here!) combines the best of traditional internships past and the necessary skills of the future (which is really now).  With the digital internship, you still head down to the office once in awhile, so your office social skills remain primed, but a lot of what you do can be virtually accomplished (and you save gas, which is Eco-Friendly).

In a digital internship (yes, I realize I’ve said “digital internship” quite a bit, but it’s important) (and I’ve used an abundance of parentheses, but I like them) you learn the crafts of blogging, social media as a business tool, podcasting, Google, and the innumerable other spheres of the Internet that are being introduced to the lexicon of businesses on a daily basis.  Becoming versed in these techniques will give you a leg up on the competition for jobs over those who don’t possess the requisite technical abilities of the future.  Not to mention you can deepen your writing and communications skills, which has been a growing complaint of employers regarding the lack thereof amongst college students and recent graduates.  Oh and so as not to end this paragraph on a boring note like writing skills, digital internships are super cool and fun.

The bottom line? Digital internships are where it’s at!  Fun times, job skills, way of the future, resume placeholder, occupational peace of mind…whatever you’re looking for, they fit the bill.  So quit sitting on the couch, playing PS3 and Wii (guilty) or acting like mowing the lawn is grounds for a successful day (again, guilty), and start scouring the Internet for one.  Oh yeah, and as this blog entry began, a regular internship is cool too…just not as cool.