SlingshotSEO Co-Founder Tells the Story of Search

Last weekend the Beth Wood Chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America held a conference at Indiana University. 'Get Social: A Blueprint for Social Media Strategy' featured a plethora social media geniuses who combined have nearly 130,000 followers on Twitter.

 As a member of the Beth Wood Chapter, I had the opportunity to volunteer at the two-day event, as well as attend a variety of sessions. I attended Jeremy Dearringer's  breakout session called 'Social Media: A Revolution in Search.' While it wasn't as funny as listening to Jay Baer profess his love for tequila or watching Kyle Lacy draw on a projector screen with a dry erase marker (our apologies to the Kelley School of Business), it was a very intriguing discussion about search engine optimization. I'll admit, I was skeptical to take advice from a Purdue alum, but Jeremy quickly proved his knowledge in fields outside of agriculture.


Jeremy is the Co-Founder and Chief Research Officer at Slingshot SEO, Inc, a professional search engine optimization company that offers full-service consulting and Internet marketing services. Jeremy has been using SEO since 1997 and founded Slingshot SEO in 2006. Their goal is to help clients increase their search engine visibility and control online conversations.

Jeremy began his presentation by providing a brief history of search. We saw the evolution of search from Lycos in the 90's, Google's awakening in the early 2000's, and what it takes today to be relevant on the Internet. The presentation mainly focused on Google's dominance and the effects social media has on SEO.

The statistics he provided completely blew my mind.

• Google sites accounted for over 10 billion searches in February 2011, and that was just in the U.S.
• 1/3 of those searches occurred on YouTube
• Bing and Yahoo together accumulated only 5 billion searches

So what does this have to do with social media?

• Social media has interacted with SEO since 2003, the days of Delicious, Digg, and StumbleUpon, in terms of content marketing
• There are 460,000 Twitter accounts are created daily
• There are 500 million active Facebook users that spend an astonishing 700 billion minutes on Facebook per month
• Google recently introduced the +1 button, a new "social approval" tool

So what does this mean for you?
Search engines are beginning to incorporate social search rankings. Google and Bing are both working on opportunities to interact with searches influenced by people you know and see results that are shared by your friends. Curious to check out an event in your area? Soon you will be able to type it into Bing and see if any of your Facebook friends are attending. Jeremy said the goal is to create true brand advocates. The number of Facebook shares, likes, comments, and  tweets of URLs all have a similar effect on organic or algorithmic search as other optimization techniques. Here are a few tips Jeremy provided to help your website rank higher:

• Encourage social activity on your website or blog through share features that incorporate sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn
• Don't ignore mobile devices - make sure your site is compatible with smart phones and tablets
• You need social media to win in search so find out what the experts are doing and make yourself relevant within their networks - get them to mention you on Twitter or follow their blogs

I walked away from his presentation with two critiques:
1. You know a man is extremely knowledgeable when his vocabulary is way over your head. Jeremy talked about meta tags, topic modeling, PageRank, organic search, and a lot of other terms I won't include because I don't know if I can even spell them. The only thing going through my head was, WHAT! I had to turn to the all-knowing Google just so I could write this blog without sounding like an idiot (which I'm not sure I completely avoided). I would have benefited more from this presentation had he not assumed that a senior PR student knew the basics around SEO - even though by senior year a PR student probably should know the basics of SEO.

2. I was left wanting more. I wanted to know more about SEO and how to use it for my blog. Aside from some helpful tips, we didn't actually learn how to utilize it.  I could really benefit from SEO considering that Google's PageRank probably doesn't even know where to find my blog. A few demonstrations incorporating SEO and social media would have made this session more constructive, especially since the majority of attendees were PR students obsessed with social media (let's be honest, what other major let's you play on Facebook all day?).

At the end of the day, I learned a lot from Jeremy on the importance of search, Google's algorithm, and social activity. I'll take his advice and try to use some optimization tools in my blog and see if I can get it to register in the Googleverse. As Jeremy said, the opportunity is now, so get out there and get noticed.

For more information about SEO, go to Slingshot SEO's blog at http://www.slingshotseo.com/blog/.

If you're interested in learning more about Google's power in search, checkout this book I'm reading called The Googlization of Everything by Siva Vaidhyanathan. 


Thanks again Jeremy for giving the presentation even though you were feeling a little under the weather. It really was insightful. Another thanks to my readers who actually made it to the bottom of this absurdly long post.

How to Host an Enjoyable Event

There are multiple elements that go into planning an event. However, the most crucial pieces are those that help guests feel comfortable. There are three ways to do this successfully: maintain a theme, choose the right venue, and give back to your guests.

Maintain a Theme
When I say "theme," I'm not talking about the way your high school prom was decorated as a "Hawaiian Luau" or "Masquerade Ball." Color palettes, patterns, and degrees of formality are great ways to invoke similarity throughout your event. Everything from invitations and decor down to the napkins should match. The goal is to maximize the guest's familiarity and minimize their uncertainty with your event. The Knot, the largest online wedding tool in the country, said invitations should be considered an "all-in-one" and provide guests with pertinent information like date and time, location, and dress code. Invitations are the first impression of your event and all following materials must fall into the same theme.

Choose the Right Venue
Different kinds of events require different types of venues. For example, business events and celebratory events should be held in venues that invoke different feelings. Don't pick the romantic lodge in the mountains to celebrate your company's fifth anniversary, go for the local convention center or reception hall. If the event is casual it could even be held at the company headquarters. Celebrations and weddings should be held at a space that is more decorated and has room for guests to move around. Resorts and hotels usually have a reception space with a room set aside for dancing. No matter what you're celebrating, make sure the venue has adequate supplies to handle the needs of your event. Before touring a venue, make a list of event necessities and pack samples of your event theme. Pick the venue that best merges these two aspects of your event.

Give Back to Your Guests
It is important to remember that your guests came to the event to support you. Improve their experience by doing something for them in return. This could be as simple as providing free dinner and drinks at the event. Preston Bailey, popular event designer in New York, says that buffet-style dinners are great ways to cut costs and help guests mingle. Take-home favors are another way to show guests your appreciation. Desserts in stylish takeout boxes are something guests can enjoy after they leave. If your event has a keynote speaker, see if they have a book that you can offer guests as a gift. Whatever you decide, it is important that guests walk away with a tangible memory of the great time they had at your celebration.

While successful events are attributed to a number of elements, the most important is how guests remember it. Keep guests in mind throughout the planning process and you can guarantee a large turnout at all of your events.

Coming soon: Event Promotion 101: Building Buzz in your Community

The Art of Planning

"Without leaps of imagination and dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning." - Gloria Steinem