Search PPC Is To SEO As Social PPC Is To Community Management
Most search marketers use inventory data from paid search platforms, as well as organic, to research and form SEO strategy. For instance, an SEO practitioner may use Google AdWords keyword tool (paid) in to identify keywords to target for organic page optimization. Paid research tools are essential because it’s the only place engines truly reveal granular search frequency. Engines must reveal the channel’s makeup, because they’re selling keywords to advertisers. SEOs also often run short burst PPC, in order to test conversion funnels, prior to deploying funnels organically. It’s reasonable, therefore, to say that PPC is often an important research and planning component of successful SEO campaigns.

Sharp SEO jocks also use organic tools. We look at analytics to see what keywords (those we can still see), drive traffic and how users behave post click. We also use search assist tools like Google suggestions to stem out synonyms, find geographic data, and other organic hacks.

Social is much the same to the savvy community manager, who uses both paid and organic social tools to research and set strategy. Paid inventory instruments, especially Facebook Ads “Create an Ad” tool, can be critical components of organic social campaign research and planning. Like search, social ad platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn, must reveal the makeup of their community because they are in the business of selling targeted access to those demographic segments. If you really want to know the makeup of LinkedIn, head to the LinkedIn ad creation tool. Shrewd social media marketers understand this and look to paid inventory tools to understand a community’s makeup. Facebook’s sampling, over 850 million people globally, is so vast that it reveals as much about the general makeup of humanity as it does users on Facebook.

There are also terrific organic social tools that help marketers locate user clusters and conversations. Twitter advanced search is a great example, as is YouTube’s TestTube Comment search. Organic search can be a fantastic aid to social research. The classic “Site:” search operator is killer social research tool, which can be used to unearth deep multilingual social threads.

Data-Driven Outreach
Many community managers sit on the wall and wait for action to come to them. aimClear has been teaching clients for years to research and document where relevant conversations are taking place, and to join in. Such participation can often yield new friendships with potential brand evangelists, build community and (when appropriate) ultimately sales. We use paid and organic social inventory tools, as well as informed use of classic search tools to find these conversations. It is from these fundamentals that we’ve developed the concept of data-driven community outreach.

My keynote presentation will focus on immediately actionable paid and organic social tactics research and engagement tactics marketers can use for augmented demographic research and data-driven community outreach.

Attendees will:

• Learn techniques for mapping search to social. Discover how to identify socially plugged-in authority users along classic lines of search conversion semantics history.
• Explore organic and paid social mashup tactics to leverage the data.
• Investigate data-driven friending tactics: Life & career altering perspective shifts regarding how community managers (and everyday people) can undertake programmatic outreach to connect with personal & business authority users and collect them as friends for fun and profit.
• Probe killer social media paid tactics to target the “whole user” in social channels.
• Consider new KPIs for measuring social media efforts, including “friend leads” and conversion.

I’m humbled and excited to speak to this group. I hope to see you there. If you miss this event, you’ll find me and/or my aimClear brethren speaking over the next couple of months at PubCon Paradise (Hawaii), SEMpdx SearchFest (Portland, OR), aimClear Facebook Marketing Intensive Workshop (San Jose), SMX West, SES New York, SMX Sydney, PPC Hero Conference and eMetrics San Francisco, among others.  We hope to see you there!

Yes, we know. This is not a “landing page” landing page. That’s because, in this case, a “Conversion” means simply to have an opportunity to meet you on this page. You seem pretty intelligent. We’re sure you can find the “Contact” links on the page if so inclined. Welcome! As aimClear celebrates its five year anniversary, following August’s much anticipated move to our incredible new office, In January we’re unveiling a branding campaign, mostly for the fun of it.

The campaign’s KPI is brand awareness, centered on aimClear’s social media marketing strengths:
-Brutally Focused Demographic Targeting & Message Testing
-Holistic Multi-Channel Community Management & Training
-Killer Creative, Seasoned Content Marketers
-Best-In-Class-Social PPC. Literally, We Wrote The Book
-Holistic Integration With Paid & Organic Search
-Multi-Channel ROI/CPA Tracking
-Strong B2B & B2C PR Roots
-Enterprise Grade Scalability, Proprietary Methods
-Fanatical Devotion To KPI-Motivated, Data-Driven Online Marketing

The Über-groovy banners were created by artist Rachel Stene with support from Manny Rivas and Joe Warner.

We rarely advertise. aimClear’s clients, ranging from humongous multinationals to guerrilla entrepreneurs, typically come to us after seeing us speak, reading our blog posts or by referral. Now with our fantastic growth, we’re letting our hair down to let the world know what we’ve been up to and make new marketing pals. Well at least most of aimClear’s staff can let their hair down.

It’s gratifying that we’ve gotten so much done over the last five years and there’s still a lot more to do. In addition to our dream-team client credits, recent & upcoming conference appearances include MediaPost Search Insider Summit, SMX, SES, eMetrics, Conversion Optimization Summit, International Search Summit, BlueGass, OMS and others.

In 2012 you can catch aimClear team members speaking in London, Sydney, Jerusalem, Las Vegas, New York, Portland,  Chicago,  Minneapolis, Seattle, San Jose, Honolulu, San Francisco & other cities around the world. (Contact aimClear)

Numerous team members have written extensively for respected Internet marketing trade publications including SearchEngineWatch, SearchEngineLand, SearchEngineRoundTable, SearchEngineJournal & been quoted in many others. aimClear Blog was cited as a Technorati Top 10 Small Business Blogs, Cison Top Ten Social Media Blogs & PRWeb’s 25 Essential Public Relations Blogs You Should Be Reading.

So, if you’re taking first social media steps, are in over your in-house-head or the current consultant is just not getting the job done, give us a shout and let’s talk.

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Hard to believe, friends, but 2011 is right about coming to a close. It seems like just yesterday, we were heading to beautiful Park City Utah, where aimClear’s Marty Weintraub spoke to enthusiastic marketers about the evolution of social signals’ effect on search engine rankings. Search Insider Summit, A Sweet Journey Home recounted a memorable time at a conference we so enjoyed last year, and we’re excited to announce Marty’s return to the Beehive State to keynote MediaPost’s must-attend online marketing event. Read on for the full scoop.

Hosted among picturesque slopes at the stunning St. Regis Deer Valley Hotel, MediaPost Search Insider Summit, affectionately tweeted #MPSIS, is an upper-management focused conference that draws together a lively, knowledge-hungry crowd.

Marty will kick off the final day of #MPSIS with his keynote on Mining Jewels Hidden Deep In Social Media And Search History. Attendees will walk away armed with top-shelf tactics for map­ping search to social, mashing organic and paid social media techniques, and best practices for social media tar­get­ing augmented by search. The fun starts at 8:30 am MST Saturday, December 10th. Be sure to check it out if you’re kicking it at Search Insider Summit 2011.

We can think of no better way to wrap up an amazing year of industry conferences and launch into the 2012 speaking season. First stops for Marty include SMX Israel, Pubcon Paradise in Hawaii, SEMpdx in Portland, and SMX West in San Jose, to name a few. Hope to see you at one or all of these fine gatherings .

Well guys, gals, and gobblers– it’s just about that magical time of year again. A time when dinner means an eight hour feast, commencing dinner at 1 in the afternoon is defensibly the norm, and wearing sweatpants (or anything with an elastic waistband) to the dinner table is not only socially acceptable, but pretty much a prerequisite.

Yes! Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and while the shining star of this holiday is often a glistening turkey surrounded by a cornucopia of side dishes, both savory and sweet, it’s always important to remember the reason for the season… you know… giving thanks, and stuff like that.

…Because those things special enough to give thanks for? They stick around way longer than whatever sumptuous Turkey Day food you just spooned a third helping of (shhh, I won’t tell).

At aimClear, we have a ton to be thankful for this year. We got a beautiful new home. We brought on new members to our online marketing team. We’ve also got a lot to be thankful for as individuals, and we know our friends do, too. In the spirit of the whole mushy-gushy-fun flowing full-force this week, we hit the tweet-streets to see what you’re thankful for. Some responses were truly heartwarming. Others will snarktastic. All were genuine. Read on for the lovin’-goodness.

(I made the blog post, so I get to include a photo of my cat. I don’t make the rules, I’m just the Publication Manager.)

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and to all, a good night!

Post image credit: joanna8555

Welcome to aimClear’s stunning new home, 9 West Superior Street. Located at the crossroads of Duluth, Minnesota, Superior Street and Lake Avenue in the very heart of our city. Read on for a look at the historical background of our new digs, and a sneak peek inside…

From 1884 until 1932, this magnificent Romanesque style building, designed by renowned architects Oliver Traphagen and George Wirth, was home to the legendary Silverstein & Bondy Department Store. Traphagen is famous for contributing a number of significant buildings in Duluth including Old City Hall, Wieland Block, Munger Terrace, the First Presbyterian Church, Chester Terrace, the era’s City Jail, Pastoret, Stenson Block and Costello Hardware. Co-architect George Wirth studied at Cornell University, grew a prodigal St. Paul consultancy until 1889 and was responsible for designing classic Duluth buildings on his own and partnered with others.

Mid 20^th century architects Giliuson, Ellingson and Erickson retrofit the building with a classical façade, which explains the swags, wreaths and Ionic capitals atop the mock columns framing the street level exterior. In the 1930s and 40s, Bud’s Style Shop inhabited 9 West. Then, the building lapsed into sad times, hosting transient business tenants and finally falling into tragic disrepair. The structure ultimately stood empty for years and faced potential condemnation.

Enter Vonjaro partners, a Duluth investment firm piloted by visionary Duluth entrepreneur and patron of the arts, Jim Jarocki. Jim purchased the building with dreams of preserving its stately legacy. Soon after the acquisition, the economy tanked, making it difficult to find the right tenant. A couple of years later, I found myself sitting next to Jim on a red eye back to Duluth from Minneapolis. This was October of 2010. I’d known him for years because we have kids the same age who go to the same school and have played on the same sports teams. We chatted about aimClear’s growth and I mentioned that we were in the middle of an intensive search for a new location. We loved our Canal Park office but had flat outgrown it. He shared his vision for 9 West and I was mightily intrigued. We agreed to explore possibilities. I called him the next week to discuss, and it seemed within our range to take part in the renovation project. Jim indicated that with us as an anchor, he would have an easier time finding other tenants. We moved to the next steps.

Vonjaro engaged respected Duluth architect Doug Zaun, partner/owner at Wagner Zaun, and we started down the road. Doug is known for designing creative, memorable, functional and sustainable commercial and residential buildings. It was a click right away. The process moved along at a natural pace and pretty soon we were looking at preliminary designs. Then, aimClear jumped in with both feet. Vonjaro retained RJS Builders INC, who joined us at the table. 9 West was literally gutted and rebuilt inside out to our dream specifications, which took more than six months. With aimClear in hand as first tenants and the project underway, Jim cut a  deal with Ragstock, a cool and campy alternative clothing store to take the first floor.

Our COO Laura and CTO Joe managed the design/build process for aimClear, with crucial support, input and hard work from Merry, Alyssa and Dan. I actually had little to do with the project and it speaks to the synchronicity of our team that the space reflects my desires so very well. My sole input to the office design comprised of a 15 minute meeting with Doug, the architect, last December. I told him that we wanted the office open, centered on our kitchen life and, since it is such a long space (nearly a thousand feet deep), I wanted to insure contiguous light from the windows front-to-back by using a lot of glass so as not to interrupt natural light patterns. I explained that aimClear, even when we were small, always had flex’ workspaces and our team moves around. Though there are several dedicated offices, most of us hang out in the open, and retire to private spaces as needed in small and large groups to collaborate. Doug was surprised that I personally did not want a dedicated office, preferring to work in the kitchen or conference areas. He took it all in. The rest, as they say, is history!

Dude, This Is An Incredible Space
The office is nearly 6,000 square feet and encompasses the entire second floor of 9 West Superior Street, front to back. The staff works up front in an open seating arrangement overlooking Superior Street, Lake Superior, Canal Park and the crossroads which mark the very heart of our lovely port city. The open floorplan surrounds an incredible gourmet kitchen, designed to be on par with the set of a cooking-network-caliber show. We’re set up to cook and cater a meal for 120, with all industrial grade appliances and a seriously equipped pantry, wine room, catering/beer cooler and Riedel stemware (Pinot, Bordeaux, Champagne flutes, dessert wine, and Chardonnay shapes). The technical infrastructure is amazing. There is fiber throughout with both wired and wireless connections everywhere, card key controlled access, outlets in the floor and many extras.

Community Workspaces
Looking towards the back of the office from the kitchen, there are two completely classic glassed-in conference rooms that seat 12 each. The near conference room is named, “WTF” and the far, “OMG.”  Each has independent climate controls, a huge flat panel, video conferencing equipment and various lighting scenes. Look closely at the caller-ID if we call you from one of these rooms for a fun Easter egg. Our third enclosed conference room seats six and is aptly named, “LOL,” doubles as the wine storage room and completes the trio of enclosed community workspaces. There are two meeting spaces in the kitchen, the breakfast bar stools at the counter and a kitchen table seating 10, under a groovy light that gradually changes color and reflects in WTF’s glass wall.

Conference Living Rooms
There are three “Conference Living Rooms” in the office. This green living room is called, “Fantasy Island.”

In the upper left above the couch you can see one of my favorite pieces of art in the office, a classic native Aboriginal painting from Australia we picked up (after much face-to-face negotiation) from a downtown Sydney art dealer this past March during SMX Sydney.

To the right of the Fantasy Island living room is the “Napa Room,” a tricked out Marmot glacier tent, sans fly, pitched for our team to take naps (or find a bit of orange tinted repose) on an extremely cushy orange futon.

Another conference living room, “Gilligan’s Island,” is available practically right next to the kitchen breakfast bar. This is one of my favorite workplaces in the new office.

In keeping with the modular workspace environment, our team members have the option of using the standing desk, adorned by an incredible painting by our dear friend, artist Amanda Thralow. To the right there’s one of many community desks, that anyone can use. This workspace seems to be the favored hangout for guests.

Recently, we hosted our grand opening.  We were lucky to have Deep Cereal in the house to create whiteboard art for the occasion.

Our visitors had a rocking good time at the grand opening. In this picture you can see the piano lounge (The third living room conference area) and the disco ball near the far post to the right, hanging high.

The Chamber of Commerce came by for a classic ribbon cutting ceremony, giant scissors and all. They seemed to like the disco ball.  We also have a fog machine for those 80′s glam rock moments.

Yep, that’s me with Duluth’s Mayor, Don Ness and his lovely wife, Laura. If I look like an uber-proud CEO, it’s because I am.

This is what it looks like to be in the OMG conference room.

This is the famed, “Todd Mintz Memorial Hallway,” named after my good friend. Don’t be fooled by the “memorial” moniker. Todd’s not going to be dead for at least 50 years.  This 150-foot hallway is adorned with art and leads back to the recording studio and gym.

The treadmill desk and gym area is called “Matt’s Muscle Lodge.” The recording studio/video editing space is named, “TerraAura,” after a record company I owned in the late 90s and early 2000s.  It’s awesome to have the capabilities to create and edit podcasts, television episodes, and YouTube videos right on site.

I’ll say it one more time, for the third time! “I can’t believe we’ll ever outgrow this space.”  aimClear has grown 2X every year for five years now. Thankfully, there’s plenty of room in this incredibly sweet office.

We’d like to send a big thanks to the team that made our new home possible, especially Jim Jarocki for taking such a huge leap and being open minded about how we designed the space.

We hope you’ve enjoyed the tour of our new office. We’re fortunate to have visitors from all over the world come to Duluth to work with aimClear. If you’re ever in the region, please stop by for a cup of coffee, glass of wine or even a bit of rest in the Napa Room.

Thanks to Dan, Doug and Lynette for the pictures used in this post

Erica’s an ace researcher and writer—both technical and creative. Look for her in the crowd at SES Chicago in November, and keep an eye out for her top-notch coverage right here in aimClear blog. You can stay up-to-date with her tweets @EricaSendros.

In fact, look for Megan at #SESCHI, too.

Online marketing industry, meet Megan Lichty. Megan, meet online marketing industry. Megan is our newest addition, having joined aimClear’s Duluth office in July. Megan has been busy working on a variety of projects around the office, from demographic research and ad copy development to training coordination and office administration. As with Erica, Megan’s marketing prowess has been a welcome addition to aimClear. You’ll find her on Twitter @MeganLichty.

So there you have it! We’re stoked to have two new rockstars on board, and we’re always looking for über-smart folks to join our ranks. Interested in joining our crack team of marketers? Check out the latest aimClear job openings.

As fall conference season is upon us and our team prepares to travel the world speaking, blogging and studying (OK… drinking great wine), I can’t help but ruminate on the inspiring array of fantastic established and future thought-leaders with whom aimClear would love to work. Yep, aimClear is hiring passionate marketers and/or seeking to acquire a small PPC/SEO company to join our quickly growing dream-team in Minnesota. This is not just another SEO or PPC job.

Glassy-eyed and Pollyanna, we’ve constructed a list of marketers we would clone, relocate and adopt… given the chance. Sadly, the professionals on this roster are “taken” with jobs they love, and most live in another city. Still, each represents qualities we covet.

If you’re not on the honor roll, that does not mean we don’t think you rock. You probably do rock. For sure there are dozens of other dream-team-members we know about and hundreds of SEO and PPC thought-leaders and specialists we’ve not had the pleasure of even meeting. As aimClear fans out at conferences this fall all over planet earth, please make yourself known. If you just can’t wait to meet and are interested in being cloned, contact us here. If you’re on the list, feel free to download the “aimClear Wants To Clone Me” badge and display it proudly on your blog. No need to link back.

Adam Audette
@audette is an SEO specialist and CEO of AudetteMedia, which was recently sold to RKG. Adam lays it out there via authentic Twitter conversations. Yeah, we know he’s busy and all, but if he were cloned we’d spirit him off to Minnesota and really have some fun. Everybody SING: “Send in the clones. There have to be CLONNNNNES!”

Alex Cohen
@digitalalex recently left his job as senior marketing manager at ClickEquations, but we won’t steal his thunder here. Our staff loves Alex. I say let’s duplicate him. Wow. I hear can the aimClear crew chanting outside our new office: “We love you Alex, oh yes we doooo… We need a baby… who’s just like youuuuu.”

Andrew Goodman
@andrewgoodman is author of Winning Results with Google AdWords (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2005). He blogs at Traffick.com, writes columns for ClickZ.com, and is president of Page Zero Media.  Andrew lives in Canada, so Page Zero (the clone) would not think Minnesota weather harsh at all. I’d sing about Andrew, but I know it would creep him out. He’s such a serious dude…in a seriously good way.

Andrew Shotland
@localseoguide accomplishes local rankings for his own site, LocalSEOGuide.com, that would scare anybody. Andrew’s one of the biggest-time dudes we know. Let’s replicate him and import his California business acumen. And let’s make sure to torture him a little, too.  I’m just sayin’…

Ann Smarty
@seosmarty owns SeoSmarty.com and MyBlogGuest.com. By all appearances she’s a heck of a marketer. A respected SearchEngineJournal blogger/editor, Ann’s imaginary twin would be seriously welcomed at aimClear.

Annie Cushing
@AnnieCushing is Analytics for BlueGlass. I personally consume her posts whenever she writes. Annie alone is enough to make me want to go see “The Fifth Element” again. Whatever that means…

Ben Pfeiffer
@benpfeiffer is an SEO tweep known for his conference coverage and lead gen’ chops. He’s also from Texas… nobody’s perfect. Certainly his twin would enjoy the radical bass fishing and extreme weather that goes along with Minnesota’s world-class waters.

Bill Hunt
@billhunt is one of the most accomplished international marketers in the world. His (equally accomplished) marketer wife, Motoko Hunt, probably could not handle two Bills. We’ve got dibs on Bill’s double, Motoko, so the pain will be transient.

Brad Geddes
@bgtheory is a rare AdWords seminar leader and noted author of Advanced Google AdWords (Sybex, 2010). He earned the book deal by consistently sharing valuable content with our community. Brad’s a CEO type. We’ll be following him around with used paper cups ready to mine DNA as soon as we build the cloning machine. Hear me, Brad? Got eyes on your DNA.

Brent D. Payne
@BrentDPayne, left his position of as badass SEO and social media director of 435 Digital (consulting arm of Tribune CO.), to form baldseo. He has an addiction to Twitter that benefits us greatly. He’s always providing thoughtful posts and links. I know for a fact Brent’s bio-matter is superior. He’s bald… very much so… an obvious sign of superiority.

Brian Chappell
@brianchappell is senior social search strategist for Ignite Social Media, owner of Adapt Marketing, and blogger on BrianChappell.com. Brian, aside from being serioulsy talented, is just sooo nice. After we invent an identical Brian, he’ll fit right in with the whole “Minnesota Nice” thingy.

Brian Ussery
@beussery is a Google Webmaster Help Top Contributor, Search Engine Watch moderator, Flash SEO expert, UGA official artist, director of SEO technology for Search Discovery, Inc., and blogger for BEUssery.com and SearchEngineWatch.com.  Ever watch dude eat a burger? Enough said!  If only he would give up a few curly locks for the test tube, all would be awesome.

Chris “Silver” Smith
@si1very is an Internet marketing and technology expert, tweets about local search, Google Maps, social media marketing, analytics, image SEO , and shopping search. He’s the Director of optimization strategies for KeyRelevance and also blogs for SearchEngineLand.com and Silvery.com. If ever there were a marketer we’d love to replicate, it would be Chris. He’s lived in Madison, WI before so he’d be right at home in our amazing new office. Compared to Wisconsin, anyway, we’ve got far fewer cows.

Christine Churchill
Well, since @keyrelevance owns the company @si1very works for, we better copy and paste her, too. One of the classiest people in the industry, Christine backs up her verve with true thought-leadership. Red Rover Red Rover, send @keyrelevance right over.

Cindy Crum
@Suzzicks, CEO of MobileMoxie, is a globally known author, speaker, and marketing extraordinaire. She shares her expertise on mobile marketing and SEO via Twitter. Listen to me sing: “Please Cindy Please! Hatch a sister for meeeeee.”

David Mihm
@davidmihm is a definitive authority in local SEO, is president/CEO for GetListed.org as well as a SearchEngineLand.com blogger. Let’s do the math, buddy boy: David + David Clone = aimClear team member. Right?

Dennis Goedegebuure
After about a decade working as eBay senior SEO Ninja warrior, @TheNextCorner now ploughs geeknet.com waters. Step one: Insert Dennis. Step two: Duplicate Dennis (impossible?). Step three: Tie Dennis up and fly him to the land of 10,000 lakes. Creepy? Well, yes…

Derek Edmond
This guy has impressed me for years. I first met @derekedmond at SMX Social, New York 2007.  He’s Managing Partner of KOMarketing, clearly an accomplished marketer. Dear Derek, put your whole self in the facsimile machine, call our office, and we’ll promise to use color ink. Luv, your fans at aimClear.

Disa Johnson
@AirDisa is owner of SearchReturn and creator of Mobile Sidecar. Disa has a passionate flair for marketing and a penchant for sharing her finds on Twitter. We hope there is some aspect of pink veils and blindfolds used as weapons of mass destruction.

Greg Finn
@gregfinn CMO and blogger of CyprusNorth.com, Greg Finn offers great links and to the-point posts. We’ve got a mutual admiration thing goin’ on here. Dig this: Finn means shark. Shark means ocean. Ocean means boat. Boat means vessel. Vessel means blood. Blood means DNA. BABY come on down, the cloning’s fine.

Heather Lloyd-Martin
@heatherlloyd, CEO of SuccessWorks and SEO copywriting pioneer, blogs at SEOCopywriting.com. She tweets useful tips and links related to SEO and copywriting. Give me two, please. No, make it three. OK, two. Don’t say we never showed self-restraint.

Hollis Thomases
@hollisthomases, CEO of WebAdvantage and author of Twitter Marketing: An Hour A Day (Sybex, 2010), wields a colorful Twitter stream and deep knowledge on all things social. Dual Hollises?  YES, the staff here is jumping up and down ‘cause they love the Hollis and want another.

James Thompson
President of Clix Marketing, James was installed at Clix to succeed famed PPC genius @szetela. James, there’s a place @aimClear for your crazed twin brother. Minnesota beckons him.

Imelda Khoo
Sadly, there is only one @imeldak, and she lives in Portland, OR. We’ve seen her around the conference circuit for years, representing the very corporate job she has. Imelda blogs at sembooty.wordpress.com.  She grew up in the UK and has a very exotic personality. I’ve talked to her about marketing and she obviously knows her stuff. More importantly she tweets pics of her food.  Give us another of her, please, and spare no Dim Sum. Ya’ know, we want the clone and the original.

Joanna Lord
@JoannaLord, cofounder of YourJobStop.com and director of customer acquisition/blogger at SEOmoz, rocks a rich Twitter stream always full of energy and social media tweets. She’s not goin’ anywhere as queen of moz retargeting and all other awesome PPC things. Whenever I see Joanna, I cross my eyes to see double, and pretend there are two. Sigh… You know. Not sigh. Cry.

Joe Kerschbaum
@JoeKerschbaum, COME ON OVER! He’s coauthor of the Wiley/Sybex book Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing An Hour A Day. Dude’s a poet, another Clix guy, and went to IU. We understand. Bloomington, IN is a fabulous place. Our COO went there. That said, tell your identical twin that we listen to Mellencamp here in Duluth!

John Andrews
@johnandrews is one of the smartest industry folks I’ve ever met. Based in Seattle, John does web consulting and SEO. His tech and programming skills add invaluable information to Twitter and his blog, Johnon.com is sardonic and deep. He also loves Port wine and has one dry sense of humor. When we clone him, we want to play a few anatomical jokes… more on this later.

Jonathan Kerr
@jonathankerr is one hell of an old/new school marketer. He’s stewarded iconic Australian insurance brand “Budget Direct,” swimmer, triathlete, eCommerce bloke, husband, father and son. Hey, Jon! Look in a mirror, please. Screen capture the mirror. Send us the mirror.

Jordan Kasteler
@JordanKasteler is SVP of content development/marketing partner/blogger at BlueGlass, and also a blogger for JordanKasteler.com. Jordan’s really adept at measuring social media and a clever all-around marketer. Also, chicks dig him. THIS is serious marketing stock and we wish there was another to inspire aimClear every day.

Kalena Jordan
@kalena SEO /PPC ninja and founder of SearchEngineCollege.com, is also director at Jordan Consulting Group and columnist on Ask-Kalena.com. Step one: Clone Kalena. Step two: Apply for visa. Step three: Never let her go.

Keri Morgret
@KeriMorgret, President of Strike Models and freelance SEO /live blogger, is arguably one of the smartest people in online marketing. We’ll get her yet. Maybe building out an extra copy would do the trick.

Lisa Buyer
@lisabuyer Lisa Buyer is PR wizard extraordinaire, President and CEO of The Buyer Group and writer for ClickZ.com. She tweets about PR, social media strategy, online branding, and SEO. Lisa is an established SES speaker and ClickZ writer. Everybody sing, “Ya must have been a beautiful baby.” Make another. Send the other. Sigh….

Kerstin Baker-Ash
@bakerash, the original, lives in Toronto, Canada and is head of Performics Canada. I’ve gotten to know her a bit over the last couple of years and love this savvy lady’s style. She’s a Celtics fan and, hey, I grew up in Boston. Kerstin, please ask your replica if she wants to bring the baby and hubby to Minnesota on a nice little work visa.

Kevin Spidel
@kspidel is a self-proclaimed “recovering political hack turned web marketer” and “professional wet noodle thrower.” He’s also a badass marketer who paces the GennettLocal halls in Phoenix as resident badass marketer. There are political reasons we could never recruit Kevin the original and he loves his job, anyway. That said, there must be a Brindle-fly solution of some sort back to the future. Right?

Melissa Mackey
@Mel66 blogs for BeyondThePaid. She writes for SearchEngineWatch.com and is a consummate veteran marketing pro. Duplicating her seems like a reasonable strategy because there is more personality and chops in half of her then most people we know. Mind if I gush and gussy up?

Mike Seyfer
Dude’s a sleeper, right here in Duluth’s backyard. Vice President and Interactive/Account Manager at HTK, a venerable regional agency, Mike is also a fanatical outdoorsman. I’ve tried to get aimClear’s Manny Rivas to sneak up on Mike and force him into the aimClear-cloning machine, but Manny’s afraid Mike will kick his butt. All kidding aside, Mike is like one of the only pros in town we think of this way. His body-double could attain international thought-leadership status in the vertical of his choice. Please, put me in charge and then let him take over.

Mona Eisley
@webmona is all about PPC and online marketing strategy. Speaker, author, and columnist, VP of online marketing strategy at Page Zero Media, and Search Engine Land columnist, Mona tweets great resource articles and insight. Hmmm. Well, my heart is going pitter patter and the lights just dimmed, as if a power outage is immanent. What does that mean??

Monica Wright
@monicawright is director of search marketing at Hall Internet Marketing and owner/blogger for MonicaWright.com. She’s a terrific tweeter on all things online marketing and a Search Engine Land Editor. We want some of that outgoing vibe here. Step right up! And into the cloning box.

Rand Hah
@littleredbook is Strategy Director at Resonance China, Editor at Littleredbook.cn, Strategy Director at BA360. We’ve become aware of him through his tweets, writings and conference affiliations. A specialist in China social media, digital strategy, Chinese advertising, marketing, and culture, we wish Rand had an obsessive alter ego we could lasso over to the American prairie.

Renee Revetta
@ReneeRevetta is senior social media specialist at Search Mojo, Public Relations professional, blogger. Our team loves loves loves this social media/SEO dynamo and, if ever there were two of her, we’d snap up the body double, hide her in the back seat of a 1987 silver Jag’ convertible, and head north from Charlotte.  But like we said. Renee works at Search Mojo and we’d never poach. That’s why we need two of her.

Rhea Drysdale
@Rhea is cofounder of OutspokenMedia.com. Her blog posts and tweets focus on ORM, SEO, and link development. We’d like to focus our ray guns on her and nab the clone.

Sam Crocker
@SamuelCrocker is SEO Associate Director at OMD UK, having transitioned there from Distilled, a respected UK SEO firm. Sam shares valuable (read: intensively wild-valuable) ideas with the community. For instance, as far back as SMX London 2010, Sam was sharing mozenda footprints, which were near and dear to techno-dweeb hearts. Sam, tell your evil twin that there’s a place for him in the good ol’ US of A.

Scott Hendison
@shendison is another friend from Portland, OR, gutting out the SEO revolution among the knotty sub-urban pines. SEO Automatic might make a fantastic left wing Aqusision to aimClear’s amazing new Duluth office. Hey, Scott. Let’s talk!  If not, how would you feel about a cheek swab to donate some DNA?

Simon Heseltine
@SimonHeseltine, director at AOL and columnist for SearchEngineWatch.com. rebroadcasts important industry news while adding his own ideas and tips. When we clone him, let’s make the legs a little shorter so I don’t feel soooo short.

Crispin Sheridan
@CrispinSheridan is Global Enterprise Search and Testing lead in corporate land, working for mega giant SAP. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing him present at conferences, with a focus on international SEO. He’s one of the few true experts. Dude has it all going on.

Jonah Stein
@jonahstein has been in the search engine marketing business for 15 years and is a true wiz in the biz. Jonah is the founder of ItsTheROI.com, a full service Search Engine Marketing company. His double would take over Duluth and make it pay, baby.

John Thralow
@jonthralow is an eCommerce entrepreneur genius. He is proficient in driving business-to-business leads and sales via radical online tools. Jon is a great friend and neighbor to the aimClear team. Dude, with all the wacked out machines you’ve invented, surly you’ve come up with an online marketer cloning device.

Todd Friesen
@oilman is VP of search at Position Technologies and blogger of Oilman.ca. He is a true expert in search engine marketing and a great guy. I just wonder if there was another Todd, if the other Todd would enjoy leading an agency like aimClear and getting health insurance…

Todd Mintz
Speaking other other Todds… @toddmintz, senior account manager at PPC Associates, editor/blogger at Sphinn, president at Tough Love SEM, and blogger on ToddMintz.com, knows all things social media very well. If we could have another other Todd all to ourselves, we would be so very lucky.

Matt Van Wagner
@mvanwagner is president and founder of Find Me Faster, a search engine marketing firm based in Nashua, NH. Matt is a veteran sales and marketing professional and also a popular speaker at various online marketing conferences and a hell of trumpet player.

Will Scott
@w2scott, CEO of Search Influence (INC 500 2011), is your go-to man for making the web work for all sizes of professional businesses. He also has quite a following on social media platforms, which means Will’s cloned saddlebag would sure be a huge catch…a huge catch, I say.  Did I say a huge catch? Oh SEO, “catches of huge.”

William Leake
@Marketing_Bill, CEO at Apogee Results, has a deep expertise in the Online Marketing industry. He will be speaking at SMX East this year in September, and we wish we could be on speaking terms with his clone every day.

—

Well there you have it! Those are 52 unique individuals from whom we think could source awesome cell lines. In a make-believe world where we could simply clone DNA and manufacture body doubles, each of these mind-blowing markets’ alter egos would surly be on our dream-team roster.

Images Via Fotolia: Sheep image: genetics © Mat Hayward, Badge: Closeup of sheep with dna © Inllusion

Well howdy, partner. Say, did you hear the month of May is nearly done? Hard to believe. Especially since here on the North Shore, we’ve yet to break 50°, even at high noon. Here’s hoping June’s our month. Well lookie here… it is our month! And we’re starting it out right, with a pilgrimage westward to Seattle for search marketing event mainstay, SMX Advanced.

The Advanced arm of Search Marketing Expo is not for the faint of heart, nor the rainbow colored pony. She’s a real buckin’ bronco, two days brimming with top-shelf sessions, panels, keynotes & networking events spanning the online marketing spectrum. aimClear is excited to return to the Emerald City to speak, tweet, blog, and mold tenderfoot Facebook marketers into savvy social ad ninjas. Read on for a sneak peek at what’s on our plates next month, at SMX Advanced Seattle. Giddyup!

Representing the aimClear team this go-round will be own Marty Weintraub (@aimClear) and Lauren Litwinka (@beebow).

Speak! — June 8 | Day 2 | 10:30 am PST
Fueled by much coffee and the white-hot energy of finishing his book, Killer Facebook Ads (Wiley/Sybex 2011), Marty will take the stage Day 2 of SMX Advanced to tackle the Wild West of the online marketing frontier. The Facebook Ads, Meet Search Ads panel, featuring fellow speakers Addie Conner, Director of Advertising, SocialCode and Sara Devine, Manager, Digital Media Integration, VW Marketing, Volkswagen of America, will explore the opportunities Facebook Ads represents in terms of penetrating the pre-search cycle. Must-attend goodness.

Cover! — June 7-8 | Both Days | All Day
I, Lauren, plan to burn holes through my fingers with two days straight of live-tweeting coverage from a variety of sessions,  and publishing comprehensive write-ups each night from what was learned that day. Here’s a look at what sessions are on the docket:

Day 1

• 9:00 – 10:15 am | The New Periodic Table Of SEO
• 11:00 am – 12:15 pm | Advanced PPC Analytics
• 1:45 – 3:00 pm | The SoLoMo Revolution: Social Media, Local Search & Mobile Search Collide
• 3:30 – 4:45 pm | Tough Love: Link Building For The Real World Updated 6/7/11: Use Searcher Personas To Connect SEO To Conversion

Day 2

• 9:00 – 9:45 am | Keynote: Confluence of Social Data & Search
• 10:30 – 11:45 am | Facebook Ads, Meet Search Ads
• 1:30 – 2:45 pm | Yes, Virginia, Facebook Is SEO
• 3:00 – 4:15 pm | Hardcore Local SEO Tactics

Interspersed throughout these sessions, Marty & I will be hitting  up various networking events, including the SEOmoz shindig and bing’s In The Park bonanza. Reach out via Twitter so we can meetcha, say hello, high-5, etc.

Teach! — June 8 | Day 3 | 8:30 am – 5:00 pm
More members of the aimClear team, including @MerryMorud & @Matt_Peterson, will join us on the final day of SMX Advanced to deliver aimClear’s rockstar Facebook Marketing Intensive Workshop. Guest presenters Lisa Buyer and Will Scott will be there, too, to share expertise with the crowd for this full-day event. The workshop’s menu features an array of Facebook fundamentals, including…

• Demographic Research & Guerilla Targeting Tactics
• Establishing Facebook Marketing KPIs
• “Buying Friends” and Organic FB Analytics
• End-to-End Facebook Ads
• Community Management Training (from content aggregation to friending to crisis management)
• Facebook SEO and Organic Visibility Hacks
• Reputation Monitoring in Facebook

We’re ready to rock attendees, arming them with deep know-how on tools, tactics & techniques for driving serious, highly-targeting traffic from Facebook, leveraging paid advertising and hooking in free, organic tactics. Want to learn more? Check out the full session description.

Ahh, Facebook… a household name in social networking that needs no introduction. Nearly 600 million strong, Facebook is a fertile watering hole for enagegement-(and distraction)-hungry users, calculating community managers, and advertisers on the cutting-edge. Targeting capabilities are killer, CPCs are comparitively cheap, and the userbase continue to surge. As kids today say, “Facebook is where it’s at!”

In spite of all this, seven-year-old Facebook is still very much in its infancy, and these social waters have only begun to be charter in a seriously deep way. For marketers who’ve yet to get their social-sea legs, as well as those looking to deepen their know-how & sharpen their social skill set, aimClear is excited to unleash the second wave of our Facebook Marketing Intensive workshop this June at SMX Advanced. Read on for the scoop.

Search Marketing Expo Advanced is one of those beloved staples in our industry conference calendar. Annually held on the advent of summer in Seattle, SMX Advanced attracts a seasoned crowd of no-nonsense marketers ready for two jam-packed days of sessions, presentations, panels, keynotes, and, of course, networking. Thought-leading speakers include Greg Sterling, Vanessa Fox, Todd Friesen, Danny Sullivan, Chris Sherman, Bruce Clay, and our own Marty Weintraub.

The aimClear team will journey west for the event, and stay on through the week to host our full-day Facebook Marketing Intensive workshop.

We’re going to rock the Bell Harbor Int’l Conference Center aimClear style on June 9th from 8:30 am PST til dawn happy hour. Joined by a panel of accomplished international Facebook marketers, Marty will lead the crowd through an array of FB marketing fundamentals, including:

• Demographic Research & Guerilla Targeting Tactics
• Establishing Facebook Marketing KPIs
• “Buying Friends” and Organic FB Analytics
• End-to-End Facebook Ads
• Community Management Training (from content aggregation to friending to crisis management)
• Facebook SEO and Organic Visibility Hacks
• Reputation Monitoring in Facebook

The goal of our workshop is to leave attendees armed and excited about deep tools, tactics & techniques for driving serious, highly-targeting traffic from Facebook, leveraging paid advertising and hooking in free, organic tactics.

Want to learn more? Check out the full session descriptions. Already convinced? Register today (or at least before May!) for best savings on Early Bird rates.

aimClear Marketers Unite!