With respect to that 80’s one hit wonder, Rockwell (backed by a still, relatively sane Michael Jackson), today’s mobile phones can really make you feel like someone’s eyes are on you.

One of the buzzes around mobile, mobile web browsing and text messaging is the concept of geo targeting. Most are aware at this point that when you visit a website with your favorite browser on your computer, websites can pinpoint a general location from your IP address.

This is why when you visit search engines, it magically can target local businesses, services, etc. by your locality. Want to see for yourself? Point your browser to http://whatismyipaddress.com/ and see how close it can target your location. Some appreciate this, and others are frightened by it. Proxies and other similar techniques can be used to hide your IP address to fool the engines into thinking you are somewhere else.

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It’s the time of year for voting for everyone’s favorite SEMPO board of directors. A lot of the fun is watching the evolution of the candidates from this year. This year’s SEMPO Board candidates are a bit less diverse then last years and I believe a bit less globally inclined.

This is especially important to the growth of the JAR Group. We would like a SEMPO organization that is growing it’s global presence and it ability to help its members look towards the future of the search marketing space.

As such, there are a few candidates who I recommend whole heartily….

Massimo Burgio is among the pioneer group of SEMPO founders and has always been involved with the Global Committee. He has Chaired that committee since 2005, and the European Working Group, that he started Chairing at the end of last summer.

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Having your own corporate website is not a rarity like it was ten years ago. Even if you are not selling directly from your website, maintaining an online presence is as essential as being in your local yellow pages uses to be for businesses. But does every company make use of it to its fullest degree? Consider companies cultivating new prospects in the b2b field. A typical b2b sales process involves generating potential leads, cultivating those leads through cold calling and follow ups.

Your website may be overlooked in this process. It is not unusual for a potentially interested party to seek out your website after a call. While your firm may not rely on ecommerce, an effective corporate branding site optimized for search is necessary for success in today’s marketplace. It is crucial to maximize your site so when a potential sale searches out your firm’s name you appear first on the major search engines.

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Seventies coming of age, is coming of age again. As is customary through a social network. Yesterday Barry Williams launched his own social network community The Greg Brady Project via MyLifeBrand. A “network creation service” launched last year providing tools for making personal groups and networks, along with features for self-promotion. His media blitz began with a virtual interview on Second Life. Unable to operate the avatar himself, we did hear his voice (there’s some kind of irony there) as he discussed his involvement in a large and growing technology community. I gotta tell you though, the world is over-saturated with nostalgia, fun facts and pop trivia. Enter social media as a latest vehicle to get traction around coming of age memories. As a boomer, I crack a smile when I think of seventies anything, (for example, my prom picture, I look like a tired Las Vegas act). I watch the occasional rerun of Green Acres but we’re talking about an online community who’s point of departure is Greg Brady. Then again, why the hell not? Niches can be amazing. I subscribed to the RSS feed.

Hey, I wonder how Melanie Griffith’s website is doing?

It’s the study of what words are used by regular folks to find stuff and is typically employed to understand where to spend your paid search budget. This is great, but Search Intelligence can deliver more insights than just the keywords used.

Everyone’s struggling to find the most memorable ways to get their messaging across. And whether doing brand awareness or direct marketing, we all want some form of action to occur. Something to consider is looking at what Search Intelligence can tell you. This search-based linguistics research gives insight into what language is familiar and what isn’t to the audience you’re trying to communicate with. It can help focus advertising messaging, site nomenclature, naming, content priority or other areas where clarity is key.

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