CleverClicks | Search Marketing Blog

Day 2 kicks off.

Audience is looking a little less energetic today…

Moderator:

Chris Sherman

Panelists:

Andrew Goodman (Pagezero Media)

Gillian Muesig (SEOMoz)

Alex Parsons (Ninemsn)

Marty Weintrub (Aimclear)

• What impact did the GFC have on Search? Gillian says: “GFC was great for the Search business as print declined. Most search agencies grew last year.” (Agreed.)
• Alan (the only Aussie on the panel) says: “Australia faired pretty well in GFC.”
• On the topic of search degrees at university, Gillian says: “University degrees may never actually work, due to the fast-changing nature of the industry.”
• Marty says it’s the cheapest time in his lifetime to buy brand awareness online. (He is talking about Facebook. He has said a couple of times over SMX that Facebook is a great opportunity.)
• Measurement is getting more sophisticated. It’s not just about uniques, but things like depth of engagement, how many comments are on your blog.
• Alex says Bing has gone from 8% to 11% of search queries in the US. (C’mon, Bing, you need more market share in Australia.)
• Gillian says she thinks that people in Australia are not as fussed about certain privacy aspects like enabling geo location on their mobiles for specific advertising.
• She also says that the younger generation is not nearly as worried about privacy as the over-20s (and I think she is implying that the current privacy issues are blown out of proportion).
• (Am thinking we need a few more Aussies on this panel.)
• “Attribution” is being dropped all over the place.
• Many advanced reputation monitoring tools are hitting the market.
• What will be the biggest change looking 5 years out in Search?
  • Alex: Maybe mobile. Ultra-fast broadband.
  • Andrew: Read Chris Anderson’s book “Free”. This will be at centre of the web (eg lots of Google’s products, like Google Docs).
  • Gillian: Regulation will come to a head. Mobile is where it will be.

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Next track is Facebook.