Think Local: Looking for digital and Internet marketing jobs in Ann Arbor

I am a proud graduate of Eastern Michigan University. When I received a job offer from Pure Visibility in the spring of 2011, I was pumped at the chance to put my education to use in the town I call home.

You hear it all the time but getting a job these days, especially in this industry, is just as much about who you know as what you know. So how do you get to know people? Three ways:

• Local groups
• Local companies
• Local events

I have lived in Ann Arbor for a while now. Between bar tending my way through school, doing freelance work, and building my personal and professional network, I had a huge advantage when looking for a job. But what would I do if I were to move to a new town? Well, besides missing Michigan football game days and my basketball season tickets, I'd look around for professional groups and local events to connect with the local companies.

SEMPO Michigan

Full disclosure, I am one of the founding co-chairs of SEMPO Michigan. Along with Linda Girard, Pure Visibility's CEO and my amazing boss, we founded the group to bring together the search and social professionals throughout Michigan. Our goal is to make it easy for three groups of people:

• For students interested in Internet marketing to find resources and educational opportunities to build their resume, make connections, and get jobs.
• For digital managers to become better clients through educational events.
• For companies to have a strong group to recruit from.

So while I am partial to the benefits of joining SEMPO and attending SEMPO Michigan events, I am even more passionate about the overall goal of our groups like ours.

Ann Arbor Groups and Companies

There are many domestic and international SEMPO groups. But there many other groups, especially in the Ann Arbor area. To find digital and internet marketing jobs in the area, look for groups and ways to connect with the companies hiring. Just to name a few:

• Mobile Monday Ann Arbor
• LA2M
• SPARK Marketing Roundtable

And just a few of the great Ann Arbor and southeast Michigan companies to get more information on*:

• Pure Visibility (of course)
• Enlighten Media
• Ingenex
• Whole Brain Group
• Kaleidico
• Pakmode

*Links? You don't need links. Google the companies for more information.

Upcoming Events

Many of the above mentioned groups meet weekly or monthly. I also encourage you to look into two larger events happening in November:

• November 16th - EMU's Search Marketing Workshop
• November 30th - University of Michigan Ross School of Business and SEMPO Michigan present: "From Google to Facebook, What's New in Internet Marketing"

For more information visit www.thesearchmarketingworkshop.com and follow SEMPO Michigan on Twitter.

Go Forth...

My final bit of advice is to keep it real. By this I mean focus on building real relationships with people. Go for a beer, buy someone a coffee. Don't just dish out a bunch of business cards. Creating a real network of friends in your industry will be more profitable to you than increasing your LinkedIn connections. When someone needs to fill a position they will think of their friends and colleagues first.

If you have any more questions or need additional advice hit me back on Twitter or try and catch me at one of the above mentioned events. Happy hunting!

"The Bubble" for news organizations and retailers

Yesterday my parents were spending the night on Lake Michigan. I volunteered to spend the night at their home and watch the family dog. This is a good way for me to unplug from the distractions at my house.

After knocking out a few chapters on my Kindle, I switched over to my favorite iPad app, Zite. It not only does a good job of aggregating content, but finds new sources to pull from. I've discovered several new sites that are now in my regular reading rotation.

While laying comfortably on my parents' couch, this headline immediately grabbed me:

John Mitchell, ReadWriteWeb

It was from Jon Mitchell's article on ReadWriteWeb about Evening Edition, a side project for Mule Design. Mitchell describes how Evening Edition is "the first news site I've ever read from top to bottom two days in a row."

The site's content is edited by Anna Rascouët-Paz of Annual Reviews. It takes the day's most important stories, removes the "noise" and provides you with a good ten minutes to an hour of reading, depending on how deep you dive into each post's links.

Mitchell points out that there is no push notification, no breaking news, no live updates. Evening Edition pushes new content live everyday at 5pm PST, just in time for the new habit that sparked the project.

This study shows that iPad users frequently use their device after 5pm at home. This sparked the idea of Evening Edition. People are taking their advanced hardware from Apple and Motorola and doing what they did years ago, sit in a comfortable chair and read. They want to relax, not find what the best information is from a live firehouse of feeds and notifications.

What Evening Edition did was what many other companies are finding. People want a simple, fast solution. Ace Hardware is following others such as Walmart, Taget, and Meijer by opening up small "express" stores. This allows them to open locations in dense urban areas, but also provides shoppers with a quick solution to finding what they really need. Consumers of goods and content are moving from the overload of giant stores and basic RSS readers to local shops and stripped down news apps.

There was the tech bubble, some say the valuation bubble, this guy thinks there's a filter bubble (I think the's a smart dude). Have we reached the "content bubble?"

This article from the Harvard Business Review points out the importance of mobility.

Mobility is radically different from the stationary "desktop" experience. In some cases, mobility is a "lean back" experience like sitting on a commuter train watching a video. In other cases it can be "lean forward" — like shopping for a gift while you take your lunch break at the park. And in many cases, it's "lean free" when your body is in motion, or you're standing in line scanning news headlines or photos from friends while you wait for your turn to be called.

As more devices and stores become smaller. Retail and content providers are going to have to follow the lead of Evening Edition. Find what and when people want something. Then give them the best "stuff" that will fit in that space or time. Whether its a Walmart in Brooklyn or the news I read at 5pm PST.

Eric Wortman on Google+

Demo of Spotify's new Play Button with embedable playlists!

I'm giving the new Spotify Play Button a try. Already listened to this album twice today. Give it a listen.

The perception of search analysts

Become a better search and social marketer in Michigan

SEMPO Board

What state led the country in tech job growth in 2010? Michigan with over 2,700 jobs created according to TechAmerica Foundation. With the rich history of Detroit advertising firms, Google's Ann Arbor office, and search marketing classes offered at Eastern Michigan and Michigan State Universities, the big glove of love is one of the best places in the country for internet marketers.

The Michigan chapter of SEMPO was recently founded to bring together the amazing search and social professionals throughout the state. The goal of the SEMPOMi is to provide internet marketers resources to improve their skills, connect with local colleagues, and gain exposure to some of the top businesses in the nation looking to promote online.

Each quarter SEMPOMi will hold a "mini-conference" by bringing in nationally recognized speakers on PPC, SEO, Analytics, social, and mobile. SEMPO members will receive highly discounted rates and have the opportunity to connect with companies and other professionals. Informal monthly meetings will also be held to help search and social marketers build professional relationships, share tips and experiences, and have a good time!

Here's how to become a better search and social marketer in Michigan:

1. Be passionate about search and social
2. Become a SEMPO member at www.sempo.org, students can join for only $39 per year
3. Join the SEMPOMi group
4. Attend events and become a better search and social marketer

Fantastic webinar from @avinash, focuses on high value metrics instead of clicks and impressions

Apple could eliminate uploading for cloud music services, dominate Google and Amazon.

"Hi, Mr. Label. I'd like to ask permission to court your content."

The cloud music game is slowing coming into focus, with Apple's rumored late entry possibly leading the way.

Apple often benefits from being the first to enter new hardware markets.  Who knew you actually needed all of your music on one MP3 player?  Who knew you needed a tablet to consume digital content?  Apple seems to be taking the slow and steady route with their expected cloud music service.

Google and Amazon were the early leaders in offering cloud services for your personal digital music collection.  While they were the first of the major companies to enter, they also managed to piss off the record labels (which isn't very hard when it comes to new methods of distribution).  Seems the big wigs don't like the fact that Google and Amazon didn't ask for permission.  Goog-azon's argument was that they are simply offering another storage system, like an iPod.  They labels disagree.

Apple is taking the long road and it may ensure cloud music dominance.  Many people were speculating what was Apple going to do after they purchased streaming music system Lala? It seems Apple is trying to eliminate the uploading portion of getting your music into the cloud.  This was one of the main benefits of Lala which would scan your system for music and automatically give you access to a cloud stored version of the song or album.  No uploading.  Just permission based streaming of specific content.

In order to do this, Apple has to play nice with the labels.  This could delay the launch, but ensure a much more user friendly way of streaming your music.  If Apple does launch this service for music, it could theoretically be used for other forms of media.  Movies, even books.

This move could save Apple a hefty amount of money on storage costs.  Instead of having to store each individual Justin Bieber track, they just store one.  Then stream that file to every user with access.  5MB is less that 250TB.  This would be especially true with the larger file size of movies and TV shows.

In playing nice, Apple may be dominating the cloud music service while Amazon and Google deal with angry record labels.