Updating Wikipedia book

 We're starting to begin planning for our updated version of the Wikipedia book - with a bit more of a focus on online reputation.  If you have thoughts on areas to cover, please let me know.

 My new book is out: Wikipedia for Business 2022: The Rules & Latest Developments that Businesses & Communicators Need to Know to Succeed

Is this thing on?

 Been a while :) 

Letsrun.com advertising

Always fun to see your ads on your favorite running site.  Retargeting ftw! 

Upcoming SEO webinar

My next webinar on "Why you Rank where you do on Google" is coming up this Wednesday.

Upcoming webinars

We've got two coming up soon for clients; regular readers are invited to join in.
Wikipedia for Corporate Communications
and
B2B Lead Generation and Search Engine Optimization.

Weekly newsletter

If you aren't receiving our weekly newsletter, drop me a note, or visit the company site at http://www.themathergroupllc.com to sign up.

Why You Rank Where You Rank on Google: A Webinar

I am hosting a webinar on Wednesday, April 26th at 3PM EST where we will talk the details of ranking on Google and do live site reviews. Register here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7154972244307188482.

And if you send me your site ahead of time I will make sure yours gets reviewed!

Sauder 414684 directions

I've put a few pieces of Sauder furniture together over the years.  I've always found it puzzling that they don't have their manuals online (fear of competitors stealing their designs?), especially since if you buy, say, a side table, and their are no directions, that's no good.
They even have a form online you can submit to get the directions sent to you, with no indication of when you would expect to see them.
However, they do have a nice online chat, and a very friendly online representative sent them to me within a minute.  Interesting ecommerce strategy - I'd be curious about any other theories for why it's set up this way.

The Mather Group

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Facebook Live

Nice article by Website Magazine on Facebook Live.  Been seeing a lot of success with it lately.

CEOs I've worked for: David Zaslav

I thought it would be fun to put together a podcast (or blog) series on CEOs I've worked for.  Contemplating starting with David Zaslav from Discovery.  Any of my fellow alumni want to share stories for when I around to putting it online?

Google's Smart Goals

I've had a lot of interest in trying out Google's Smart Goals, as I've worked with a number of small businesses who have trouble setting up conversions.  Unfortunately, after trying 15 different accounts, none of them seemed to qualify to use them.  So for now, I'll just rely on external reports on how they're working.

Nice offices

I was recently at a conference and caught up with some of my friends at States Logistics.   They're in a recently updated building in California (and they have a nice set up in Arizona, in their warehouse, too).  The different areas give you a lot of environments for doing work.  Overall, a great space - plenty of easy ways to change your environment, if you just need a change of scenery to inspire you.

Some favorite reads from 2015

Antartica Marathon:

Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson

Pirate Hunters: 

Once Upon a Time in Russia:

The best of Long Reads

King of snooker

Uber ratings

Ever wonder how your Uber drivers rate you?

help, account, i want to know my rating

Marketing and Campaigns

Pleased to announce I'll be speaking at the upcoming Campaigns and Marketing Summit on November 13. I'll be on a panel on Facebook and 1:1 marketing.

Google Plus

Fascinating news for the SEO folks out there.  Google Plus continues to lose value in rankings.  Time to tweak your approach, again.

Clever SEO tactic

Hat tip to Jiffy Lube for a clever SEO tactic.  On their locations pages, they have a list of services.  Those services that they don't offer are in the same text, just grey.  They index pretty well, to, for the services they don't offer.

MAM Summit

I'm looking forward to talking at the Mid Atlantic Marketing Summit this Friday.  It's something I've done the last few years, and always enjoy the exchange of ideas there.

Complete Crewing

I had the pleasure of visiting my friend Floyd in Chicago recently.  He runs Complete Crewing, a production company in Chicago.  Basically, they take care of all the labor for convention centers like McCormick Place.  What I found particularly interesting was that they've carved out a niche, by basically knowing more about one particular area than anyone else.
The labor laws in Chicago appear so byzantine, that some companies bypass Chicago as a site for shows, and others need a resource to navigate them.  That's where Floyd comes in.  They've got complete guides to venues (in many cases,more thorough than those venues) and due to the frequency of their work, relationships with all of the unions.  Fascinating to see in action - and a great old brick building for a workplace.

10 Things to bring to the NRF Big Show

As a former employee of Shop.org, and as a public service, I offer the following tips on what to bring to the NRF Big Show in NYC next week.

1.  Very comfortable shoes
2.  Some sort of easy on-easy off clothing - a sweater you can pocket or tie around your waist.
3.  A bottle of water or cough drops.  The Javits center is dry.  Really, dry.
4. Your phone
5. A charger for your phone - everyone there wants an outlet
6. Snacks - If you enjoy 50 person lines for a $13 sandwich, don't bother, but a bag of trail mix or beef jerky will come in handy.
7. Some sort of shoulder wearable bag.  Or a backpack, even.  Despite your best efforts not to collect swag (but I totally needed a tshirt from the vendor of the self wrapping conveyor line), you'll need somewehre to put it.
8. A link to the official Big Show resources page: http://bigshow15.nrf.com/resources  It'll definitely come in handy when you forget where you're supposed to be going.
9. A paper backup of your schedule/your hotel info/crucial information.  Every year, something happens to someones phone - lost, forgotten, dropped, dead battery... Like the Boy Scouts say, "be prepared.
10. Bring the bar coded email for registration.  It'll save you hours if you get there at peak registration.

Houdini's greatest tricks

Fun read today on Houdini.

Facebook's ad operations

Good look behind the scenes in the NY Times on Facebook's Ad operations.