Marketing Pilgrim Published: “Top 25 Online Marketers to Follow on Twitter” plus 4 more

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Top 25 Online Marketers to Follow on Twitter
Chrome Ads Show All of Google
Are You Ready for Knowledge Engine Optimization?
Direct Mail Still Works Say USPS
The Yellow Pages Jumps on the Deal Bandwagon

Top 25 Online Marketers to Follow on Twitter

Posted: 04 May 2011 07:57 AM PDT

If you’re looking to expand your Twitter universe, you’ve found the right post. While opinions will vary on any list of this sort, I’ve picked out and reviewed my choices for the top 25 online marketers you should be following on Twitter. They are not presented in any particular order so as to prevent any in-fighting with those listed .

I tried to dig in and give you a little more depth provided in most of these kinds of lists and I suspect these folks would love for you to follow them if you are not already.

I hope you enjoy and feel free to add your own favorite online marketers to follow in the comments!

@LisaBarone

Lisa Barone, co-founder, Branding Officer, and blogger at Outspoken Media, she maintains a highly informative Twitter feed where she addresses issues both important and not important. Talented and outspoken, she tweets about social media, SEO, and women's issues alongside Twitpics of the tacos she had for lunch. A quick search of her name at OutspokenMedia.com brings up the wide range of topics that she covers in her blog posts, which are a fantastic resource for anyone involved with Internet marketing.

@JillWhalen

Jill Whalen, the CEO of High Rankings, a Boston-area professional SEO Consulting firm, has an engaging Twitter feed where she makes the most of interacting with other Twitter users. Jill has been a pioneer in SEO since the 1990s and is a staple at conferences like SES. With enough quips to make her feed personal and interesting, she maintains a mostly serious and professional Twitter persona.

@stuntdubl

Todd Malicoat has been lauded by such Internet Marketing heavy weights as Rand Fishkin and Avinash Kaushik as a great talent in the industry. Todd posts the kind of Tweets that makes you feel good you use Twitter. He engages with other users, links to great content, is entertaining and even plans happy hour meetups. Todd is an SEO teacher with Market Motive and runs his own blog covering the ins and outs of Internet Marketing, SEO, and social media.

@Sugarrae

Rae Hoffman-Dolan, self described "entrepreneur, white-collar redneck, proud born and raised jersey girl" may cuss like a sailor, but her Tweets are definitely entertaining and informative. When she is not lovingly telling her tweeples off, she points to some really valuable resources and articles about Internet marketing.

@graywolf

Michael Gray is a well-experienced SEO and web development expert, spanning nearly 13 years. Much of his Twitter feed is dedicated to interacting with his followers and good-naturedly taunting other online marketers (like @sugarrae). Web contractions ("srsly 4 rlz ZOMG"…ugh) notwithstanding, he updates his twitter feed regularly with informative posts and good advice.

@danzarella

Dan Zarella
"The original social media scientist" ,Dan Zarrella, certainly makes a good case for his title. His Twitter feed is full of links to great articles to keep his followers up to date on the bleeding edge of online marketing. He does a fair amount of engaging with his followers without tweeting too much and clogging up your feed. Dan’s Twitter feed is continually updated with well-written, concise tweets that will add a lot to your knowledge of what's going on in the social media world.

@mattcutts

I originally started following Matt Cutts on Twitter hoping he would get drunk and post the end-all-be-all tip for ranking number one organically. While that hasn’t happened, Matt does post very analytical and informative Tweets about what’s going on with his web spam team and Google in general. Matt also likes to post links to his his question-and-answer videos. The videos are usually really well done and if you follow Matt on Twitter you’ll be more likely to watch them when they’re released.

@eprussakov

Geno Prussakov's Twitter feed is like a compendium of pertinent articles from the web on social media and affiliate marketing. He tweets links to his Affiliate Marketing blog every time there’s a new post, and he links to several 3rd party online marketing articles every day. Geno is a staple in affiliate advertising and worth a quick follow.

@pearsonified

Chris Pearson gained all the notoriety he needs by creating WordPress's much-touted Thesis Theme, a powerful, easy-to-implement theme that is streamlined for SEO. He makes the most from his Twitter community by providing a wealth of updates and information while taking the time to interact with his followers. The same charisma which lands Chris speaking gigs, panel spots, and interviews makes his feed an informative and entertaining resource for anyone involved in web development and SEO.

@bmassey

Brian Massey runs the ConversionScientist.com, where he helps people convert web traffic into leads and sales. Brian’s tweets are yet another great resource Brian provides to help you hone your skills at turning Facebook likes and web traffic into revenue. Keeping it light and interesting, Brian engages his followers through informative and entertaining tweets.

@MissyWard

Missy Ward, an "online marketing Swiss Army Knife" and budding oenologist, runs the kind of Twitter feed for which Twitter was invented: informative, communicative, a dash of personal information, even lightly philosophical. She much like her blog, Missy tweets about "affiliate marketing, social media, and other stuff [she] digs".

@btabke

Brett Tabke is the founder of PubCon and Webmaster World, both long-standing staples in online marketing. His Twitter byline says "Celebrating 27 years of Social Media!" which, in contrast to other, older industries, is like saying you were around for Creation. He is an experienced hand at this, an online marketing legend in fact, and he shares all kinds of valuable news and tips interspersed with shoutouts to his favorite burger joint. Make sure to follow Brett if you plan on attending PubCon!

@affiliatetip

Shawn Collins is a cofounder of Affiliate Summit, a popular industry conference for affiliate marketing that is attended by the best and brightest in the industry. Shawn tweets a wide variety of 3rd party articles, videos and links to his own blog posts. He’s very engaged with people following him on Twitter and someone you should be following if you plan on attending Affiliate Summit!

@Rhea

Rhea Drysdale is a cofounder, with @LisaBarone, of OutspokenMedia.com, which provides their lucky clients with a wide range of expert Internet Marketing Services. Her Twitter feed is a mix of fantastic information and humorous Internet memes that make social media such a compelling medium (her profile pic is her face on She-Ra…enough said). She links to great content and industry events and is a must-follow for anyone serious about marketing online.

@GregBoser

Greg Boser is the SVP of Search Services at BlueGlass.com. BlueGlass.com is what happened when four leading consultancies and software companies joined forces in 2001. These formerly independent companies work together now to fulfill the Internet marketing needs of their clients. Greg’s Twitter feed is updated regularly and he often interacts with his followers. It is just the right mix of pertinent web marketing information and casual what-I-had-for-lunch tweets into his feed to make him appear like The Guy Next Door who just happens to be an Internet expert.

@randfish

Straight out of Seattle, Rand Fishkin, is the CEO and Co-Founder of SEOmoz.org. Rand is a very talented marketer with enough legend behind his name to capture +30k followers. Rand lives up to his reputation with his amazing tweets of insightful information about startups, SEO, and social media. Rand is good about interacting with his legion followers and tweets links to some really great articles.

@DaveNaylor

Dave Naylor (davidnaylor.co.uk) is the head of Search Marketing at Bronco.co.uk. Bronco.co.uk is a leading search marketing and web developing agency in the UK. His Twitter feed is an insightful look into SEO and covers quite a variety of subjects. Round out your followers with a little British SEO flair with Dave Naylor.

@dannysullivan

Danny Sullivan
Danny is the founder of a whole host of popular search and online marketing properties including SearchEngineLand.com and the popular SMX conference. Danny’s tweets cover commentary about Google, SEO, PPC, and all other aspects of search engines and search marketing. Danny is pretty good at keeping up with interacting with his more than 135,000 followers on Twitter. His tweets are relevant and catchy and definitely worth reading.

@vanessafox

Author of the book "Marketing in the age of Google", Vanessa Fox is a Seattle resident fascinated by online marketing. Her feed is personable, but refreshingly useful, as well. She answers questions , tweets, retweets, shares good stories, and seems to have a subtle sense of humor in it all as well.

@rustybrick

Barry Schwartz is the owner of rustybrick.com—a website that offers all kinds of compter-ish internet-ish services, from web design to SEO Marketing to web hosting.
Barry’s Twitter could use a little more interaction with fellow Twitter users, but his feed is good for videos, news, and other fun links.

@shoemoney

Jeremy Schoemaker is @shoemoney. He’s a self-described author, blogger, and managing partner of ShoeMoney.com. ShoeMoney.com is his blog and he has over 30,000 readers for a reason: he and his business partner, David Dellanave, launched AuctionAds—an eBay affiliate marketing service that won them several awards and, in the end, the sale of most of the company. His blog documents his "ups and downs in the world of online marketing". He’s made millions and likes to give advice. His Twitter feed is comprised mostly of funny little Tweets, retweets, and direct communications with his followers. But be warned, his Twitter feed is iced with sporadic (hilarious) smack-talking, too.

@tamar

Tamar
Tamar is a well known social media consultant and trainer whose tweets are full of interesting links to great articles on online marketing. Tamar is well engaged with other Twitter users and has a good dash of personal tweets.

@robsnell

Rob Snell was one of my favorite speakers at PubCon Austin and a great SEO mind. Rob is super engaged with other Twitter users even to the point where you think his @ key is stuck. Weaved within this maze of @ tweets are some good gems with links to SEO articles Rob has written or found laying around the Internet.

@aaronwall

Aaron Wall is the author of the ever famous SEO Book. Aaron posts links to a ton of good articles both associated with seobook.com and other online marketing information resources. Aaron is very engaged with other Twitter users.

@andybeal

Andy Beal’s ukulele playing and Taekwondo practicing (a black belt!) make him the kind of want to have the guy as a friend (and not just because he’s the founder of Marketing Pilgrim!). Andy is CEO of Trackur.com, author of Radically Transparent and a reputation management expert. His Twitter feed is filled with a good dose of retweets as well as direct communication with his followers. He tweets interesting links to online marketing articles and has a healthy level of tweets dedicated to travel.

Again, if you have your own favorite online marketer to follow on Twitter please post their Twitter ID in the comments!

I hope you enjoyed the list and I look forward to seeing you on Twitter! @David_Vogelpohl

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily those of Marketing Pilgrim.

Chrome Ads Show All of Google

Posted: 04 May 2011 06:43 AM PDT

Google really seems to be changing quite a bit. Ever since the announcement in January of Larry Page’s move to CEO and the ‘official’ date of April 4 having past executive titles have changed to exclude the term search, company direction discussed at length and now there is even, gulp, advertising being run for Google’s Chrome browser.

The browser is the reason for the commercials but the showcase of Google as more than a search engine seems to be the real goal. Check this out.

Are you sensing some changes with Google that are bigger than just the usual making a change in the SERPs? Tell us what you think.

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Are You Ready for Knowledge Engine Optimization?

Posted: 04 May 2011 05:58 AM PDT

In what some may see as a matter of semantics, Google has made a shift in how they name positions internally with the word search being replaced by the term knowledge. When I first read this I wanted to dismiss it but on second thought that would be pretty hard to do since Google makes almost all its money from search.

So why this shift in terminology from the search engine giant? It could be that the Larry Page era is truly about taking Google beyond the current confines of being just a search company. They have been trying this for a while with various product introductions and little if any true success especially in the area of social. Maybe the shift in titles is about a sea change in the organization to not think search first?

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch reports

Leadership of Google search, like most other Google products, was previously split between Marissa Mayer as product lead and Udi Manber as engineering lead. Late last year Mayer moved over to run Local. Alan Eustace now runs the group, and Manber reports to him. There's a single leader of the group, and he reports to Page.

Page, say our sources, has for a long while been thinking of search as much more than Google's original mission to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." His goal is about more than organizing that information, though. It's also about enhancing people's understanding and facilitating the creation of knowledge.

Ok, that sounds reasonable. After all, search really is about knowledge acquisition no matter how silly that knowledge is. Helping people truly use and apply the newly acquired knowledge is an interesting take.

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I suspect that Google is seeing what is really happening in the world of the social web and they are working to minimize the impact on their business. Their attempts at social have been so widely criticized and lampooned that they may be seeing that they will never be a real social player. The truth is, they may not need to be.

The idea that search is being supplanted by social is ridiculous. Search is always going to be valuable. Search will be influenced in some part by social signals but the idea of pure search is not going anywhere any time soon.

One of things that is most powerful about search is its almost anti-social nature. Do you really want to ask all of your friends all the time about everything you have questions about? The appearance of anonymity and privacy in search (emphasis on appearance) is one of the most important aspects of it. A person can search without worrying what others might think or know.

Oh and what about those crazy souls that want to advance themselves beyond their existing social circle's knowledge base? Search is the way for someone to expand beyond where they currently are and beyond the limitations of the existing group of contacts they have. Let's face it, we give other people way too much credit in the social realm for knowing more than they do. We throw around terms like expert as if it were a common occurrence and in the process practically devalue to term. If anyone is directly equating being social with getting smarter then you are limiting growth potential in a huge way.

It will be interesting to see how this kind of seemingly subtle shift in terminology impacts how Google looks at itself and its world from here on out. Just think about what they are saying by removing their bread and butter term (search) from the title of the person overseeing that operation.

The winds are shifting a bit and it's a good idea to pay close attention.

Direct Mail Still Works Say USPS

Posted: 03 May 2011 03:53 PM PDT

We may be living in the digital age, but the U.S. Postal Service would like to remind you that direct mail campaigns still work. In order to prove their point, they created the Marketing Achievement in Innovation and Leadership (MAIL) Award, solicited nominees through Deliver magazine and chose a winner.

That winner was branding agency Mlicki, and they won for their Blue Octo campaign which had a 10% response rate.

The Blue Octo is a line of waste-water pumps and these guys managed to make it look cool and exciting. Their mailer looked like a classified dossier with reports and photos about sightings of a mysterious Blue Octo creature.

Mlicki creative director John Randle told Deliver;

It was intended "to showcase the first 'photographic evidence' of the Blue Octo's recent movements obtained by G.R.A.N.D.(Gorman-Rupp Advanced Nature Detectives). We wanted recipients to question the authenticity of it in a 'wait, is this real?' sort of way, to get them involved in the rest of the story."

Now, I do love the US Postal Service, they did save Santa Claus that one time, and they bring me freebies and coupons. I also believe that direct mail does work, especially in the case of local service and B2B. However, I’m not sure that the success of the Blu Octo campaign can be attributed to the mail service alone.

The agency also created an excellent digital campaign which included fun videos of Blu Octo spottings, plus a Facebook and Twitter page. It’s likely that the combination of direct and digital did the trick, but the topper on this cake is the creativity. These guys came up with a story and they followed through in all aspects of the delivery. The hunt for a mysterious swamp monster to sell pumps? It really is brilliant.

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The Yellow Pages Jumps on the Deal Bandwagon

Posted: 03 May 2011 01:33 PM PDT

See the girl in that picture there. She’s happy because she’s getting deals so early in the morning, she’s still in her pajamas! Of course, it could be that she’s unemployed and has no reason to get dressed. And she has no furniture, so she has to use her laptop on the floor. . . .

But no. She’s happy. She’s happy because that old, stodgy bastion of advertising, The Yellow Pages, is now new and hip. The Yellow Pages is now a deal site. Yes. It’s true-ish.

It’s actually yellowpages.com, which is owned by AT&T, and honestly, I have no idea if it’s related to those paperweights that get dropped on your doorstep when you’re not looking. But like I said yesterday, it’s not what’s true, it’s what people believe and people will association yellowpages.com with the Yellow Pages books and that’s good and bad.

It’s good, because The Yellow Pages does have a reputation for being the place find local service providers. It’s bad, because it’s very old school and so they’re going to have to fight to find their place among Groupon, LivingSocial, Moola and the rest.

To get the ball rolling, yellowpages.com is offering a $10.00 credit for anyone who signs up now. The actual site hasn’t launched yet, but according to Bloomberg, Los Angeles, Dallas and Atlanta will be online by next month.

In order to combat the stodgy reputation, they’ve included lots of fun language in their start-up pages including the notion of “thriftful splendor in your email box” and ‘We strive to keep the deals easy, breezy and uncomplicated.”

I say, more power to them. Now that I’ve begun to know the joy of daily deal sites, I’ve learned one very important lesson — great deals trump loyalty every time. It doesn’t matter how popular Groupon is, once a deal goes viral, it’s any site’s game to win.

Have you succumbed to the power of the daily deal?