More and more internet users have been adopting social media, and many are discovering the backlash that could come from it.  With consumers having the ability to voice their opinions in seconds by such means as Twitter and Facebook, businesses are learning that no communication is safe.  With that said, someone who is within the industry should know better.

Matt McGowan is the Head of Incisive Media USA, which is known in the internet marketing space for its Search Engine Watch website and Search Engine Strategies conferences.

Now, as far as I know, I have never met or interacted with Matt McGowan prior to this incident, but I’m sure he is a nice guy and knows his stuff – I mean, as stupid as Search Engine Watch was for letting Danny Sullivan go, they surely wouldn’t have replaced him with a mean hack, right?

Unfortunately for Matt, I’ve been itching to start posting more and this incident piqued me enough to write about it.  It all started when Search Engine Strategies cold called me and left a voicemail, which led to this tweet:

Here is the voicemail… You seriously have to listen to the email address that they state they will be sending me more information to:

I suppose this post is the “or else”…

The next day, I saw this response from Matt in my stream:

Now, I’m sure most of you are familiar with the fable of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. For those who aren’t, the gist of it is… there was this bored shepherd boy who kept tricking the villagers into thinking there was a wolf attacking his sheep.  When a wolf actually did  appear, the villagers did not believe the boy and left him and his flock to the wolf’s mercy.

So, to “cry wolf” basically means to raise a false alarm.

Where I’m from, most people detest telemarketers and cold calls.  So, I don’t think my tweet was unfounded… at all.  As you can see (hear), SES did indeed call me and left a voicemail, and Matt openly admitted that they have been using this practice for years.  Never did I raise a false alarm.

Obviously, Matt either is not completely familiar with the fable, or is stupid.  It was hard for me to believe that he wasn’t completely familiar with the tale, so I assumed the latter:

To this, he responded:

Okay, fair enough. I have to believe that Matt is perfectly capable of sarcasm, so I’m pretty sure he wasn’t really thanking me.  Sure, I could have left out the “No need to be a dumbass,” but that’s just how I tweet.  Plus, I can’t say it wasn’t the truth – unless Matt really is not familiar with Aesop’s fable, or was referring to some atypical use of the expression “crying wolf.”

Either way, he failed to answer my question and I’m still left to thinking he’s a dumbass.  Matt was obviously following me, so one would assume he would be familiar with my openness of tweeting harsh truths.  I’ve never followed Matt, so I didn’t realize how sensitive and incompetent he was.

Let this be a lesson in online reputation management.  For someone who is the head of a seemingly floundering conference, you would think that he would have responded to my original tweet in a much more “professional” manner, rather than falsely accusing me.  Not to mention, as this was our first interaction, this is certainly not a good way to make a first impression.

Am I overreacting?  Maybe… but, overreaction is not uncommon, especially in social media.  The bottom line is that the internet allows us a wide open forum to voice our opinions… now, more than ever.  You have to keep in mind that anything could trigger a backlash.  In this case, it was falsely implying that I was in the wrong.

Note that I didn’t even address Matt specifically in the first place.  Even the @SESConf account, to which I originally tweeted at, came up with a better (albeit self-promotional) response:

I would have been fine with just that response, and this post would never have been written.  Even if Matt messaged me privately, I would have responded in kind.

Instead, ironically, Matt is the one who cried wolf about me crying wolf.

Moral: Don’t be a dumbass.

This post is from SEOdisco by SEO Consultant CK Chung.

(click on image to enlarge)

Clicking on the title will take you to their landing page, and clicking on the “Directions” link will take you to a Google Maps search for the address – surprisingly, not the company listing or a Google Places page.  I also find it interesting that the blue pin-thingies in the Sponsored Links aren’t clickable.  I expected it to take me to a Google Maps result with that pin highlighted among other paid results… or something like that.

It obviously has something to do with local/AdWords.  This Week in Search was just posted by Google, and they mention some local stuff, but not this. Does anyone have any more info or ideas on what these are about?

Update: Steve Hatcher just pointed me to some more information.  It looks like these are Google’s new Local Listing Ads that they are currently testing in San Diego and San Francisco…

Local Listing Ads provide you with:

• Ads shown on Google.com and Google Maps
• A flat monthly fee based on your location and business category
• First 30 days free
• No bid or keyword management
• Free call-tracking, announcing each forwarded customer call (‘This caller brought to you by Google’)
• Full report on the number of calls, clicks to your ad, requests for driving directions, and clicks to your info window on Google Maps
• The option to cancel your ad at any time

—kid disco

This post is from SEOdisco by SEO Consultant CK Chung.

Both Pam and I own the iPhone 3G and don’t know how we’d live without it.  Opening up the phone to take 3rd party applications is probably the best thing that Apple could have done.  However, I remember the times when I could install and test them all… but now there are so many apps to choose from!

So, we know that a bunch of you are iPhonatics just like us.  We have a bunch of apps installed already, but we would like to know what apps you recommend we have for our 6000 mile road trip?  (My iPhone may or may not be jailbroken… )

Here is a rough outline of our route:

View Larger Map

It’d be nice if Apple or some app developers sponsored us, eh?

Please leave your iPhone App recommendations in the comments below! Thanks!

This post is from SEOdisco by SEO Consultant CK Chung.

Our tastes in music covers quite an expansive variety of tunes.  Pam grew up listening to country in the square states, played in orchestra through high school,  and can now be caught singing in her car to everything from Snoop Dogg to Neil Diamond.  I played in symphonic and jazz bands through high school, jammed in a rock band in college, and now find myself enjoying the sweet and soft rhymes of Lil Wayne.

We like pretty much all types of music, as long as it’s good.  Though, we have no real definition of “good”… other than the absolute fact that: whatever we happen to like for whatever reason = good…   For example: “Blue Train” by John Coltrane is good… “Everlong” by the Foo Fighters is good… “Fortunate Son” by CCR is good… “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice is good… “Mason Jar” by Deliverance Machine is good… “Mope” by Bloodhound Gang is good… “No Handlebars” by the Flobots is good… “One More Drink” by Ludacris is good… “Girl on TV” by LFO is good… Now, try to formulate a rhyme or reason for that collection of songs!

So, we will be accepting any and all requests… Just make sure they are good!

Also, we’ve had some extremely generous internet marketers offer up some super sweet benefits for our IM Road Trip sponsors, so don’t miss out on this AWESOME opportunity to get over $1400 worth of the best internet marketing tools for just $150!

Leave your music requests for us in the comments below!

This post is from SEOdisco by SEO Consultant CK Chung.

Pam’s original idea (though she may have been half-kidding) was to see if she could get anyone to “sponsor a cross country road trip to IM Spring Break” if she vlogged the whole trip.  Well, I loved the idea and we’ve decided to run with it.  We are both fun-loving and adventurous people, so to make things more entertaining and interesting, we wanted to involve the SEO/internet marketing community by opening up our trip to sponsorship.  In return, will consider doing just about anything you request for your contributions!

Initially, there were many who questioned our sanity for even thinking about embarking on such a long journey, but we have since received a lot of support.  We would like to thank these generous individuals who have already contributed to sponsor our cause (without any incentive!): Jessie Beaudoin (Retrove Real Estate Search), Jeremy Hermanns (SEOintelligence SEO Tools), Carol Adam, Hrant Bedikian (A&A Accounting), Debra Mastaler (The Link Spiel Link Building Blog), Neil Patel (QuickSprout), Steve Munton,  Casey Yandle (Creative Daylight) and Dr. David “DK” Klein (PurposeInc). Thank you all so much!

In addition, we have received some additional support from a couple of very well-known internet marketers, and thanks to them, sponsors who contribute more than $150 to our adventure will not only be pimped by Pam and I in our blogs, vlogs, live streams, and tweets, but will also receive discounts or free memberships to a kickass click tracking analytics tool,  a not-even-released analytics and insights tool, a complete internet marketing tools suite, top notch PPC tools, a new rank checking tool, and the best online reputation monitoring tool! Not only that, you will also receive the tasty awesomeness that is sweeping the world… the one and only BACON EXPLOSION!

We will welcome all types and sizes of contributions, but…

Sponsors contributing $150 or more will receive:

Various mentions by Pam and I via:

• Twitter.com
• Ustream.tv/Qik.com
• SEOdisco.com – blogs and vlogs
• ThatPamChick.com – blogs and vlogs
• Pickups via our network

Crazy Egg
Thanks to Big Deal Neil Patel, our sponsors will receive a 1-year basic subscription to Crazy Egg.  Crazy Egg is an awesome click tracking analytics tool that provides visualizations of where your visitors are clicking on your website.  This is a value of $108 that you will be receiving for free!

KISSmetrics
In addition to a year of Crazy Egg, Neil is also offering a sneak peak into the private beta of KISSmetrics!  It’s not even out yet!  KISSmetrics is a one-of-a-kind analytics tool that not only captures metrics, but provides it an insightful and actionable format, allowing you to tune your website to optimize your user’s experience.  This is priceless!

Raven Internet Marketing Tools
Jon Henshaw over at Raven is offering 6 free months to their SEO Pro account. Raven makes the process of managing search engine optimization and social media campaigns incredibly efficient. With Raven, you can research keywords, manage link building campaigns, easily handle more clients, collaborate with colleagues, instantly produce ROI reports and much more! That’s a value of $600 that you’ll be getting for free!!!

ShoeMoney Tools
Jeremy Shoemaker, more famously known as ShoeMoney, is offering a 50% discount to ShoeMoney Tools.  Included in this collection of tools are PPC tools, SEO tools, link building tools, and a domain marketplace!  The normal price is $99/month, so at 50% off, you can gain access for just $49.50/month.  Over the course of a year, that’s a savings of $594!!!

AuthorityLabs
AuthorityLabs, a Gangplank Company, is offering up free accounts for life for their Personal plan.  AuthorityLabs is a brand new search engine rank monitoring service that helps you gain an understanding of how search engines are representing your brands over time.  Over the course of a year, this is a savings of $108!

Trackur
The always gracious Andy Beal is offering our sponsors a 3-month personal subscription to Trackur.  Andy is quite well-known for his reputation management expertise and has created Trackur to monitor your online reputation and social media buzz.  This is a $54 value!

EasyTweets
EasyTweets is offering a 50% discount for the life of your subscription to any of their plans. EasyTweets is a web-based Twitter management tool that features a lot of tools, allowing you to promote and monitor your brands via an extemely user-friendly interface. Over the course of a year, at the lowest plan, this is a savings of $144!

And last, but certainly not least…

Bacon Explosion
Aaron Chronister, aka TheMadHat, aka BBQ chemist extraordinaire, is offering up a bacon explosion!  The NYTimes has described it as a “massive torpedo-shaped amalgamation of two pounds of bacon woven through and around two pounds of sausage and slathered in barbecue sauce.” Catch a glimpse of the worldwide phenomenon here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

All combined, that’s a total value of over $1600!!!

That’s not all, folks!

SEOmoz PRO
Rand Fishkin of yellow pumas fame is offering our top 3 sponsors who contribute the most a free month of SEOmoz PRO membership!

SEO Book Training
Aaron Wall of SEO Book is offering a free month of the SEO Book Training Program & Community to the first sponsor who contributes over $150.

So, join in on the fun and benefit from our craziness! In addition to getting exposure through our network, you will also be getting access to some of the best internet marketing tools available!

You may leave comments at the bottom of the page, or use this form to contact us:

This post is from SEOdisco by SEO Consultant CK Chung.

I thought it was an AMAZING idea and embraced it immediately!  I grew up on road trips and never stopped loving them!  I’ve probably visited at least half the states via road trippin’.  Like Pam, my last road trip was to PubCon in Vegas.  Cruisin’ the open road with @onehappyguy in the Cobra with the top down… good tunes and conversation… what’s not to like?

Most of the peeps I know in SoCal complain about driving more than 2 miles and don’t get why I like to drive for hours when I could fly to a destination in much less time.  Where’s your sense of adventure, yo?! I suppose I can understand, though, with the crazy traffic and all the people who don’t know how to drive… which seems to be all of them.  Maybe road trips are more of a Midwestern thing.

Anyway, we gots to talkin’ and are determined to do Spring Break right with a good ole road trip!  To make it more interesting, we are opening it up for sponsorship.  We don’t really know what we’re doing (-well, yes we do)… but if you know anything about us, you should know that we are both fun-loving people!

We just decided on this on a whim, so we don’t have all the details worked out yet. IM Spring Break occurs during the first week of April, so we will have to leave about a week or so prior to leave enough time for the drive and various stops. We’ll probably take our sweet old time making our way back, too…

The most important item we are looking for is a vehicle.  If worse comes to worst, we can take the Cobra, but we would prefer something a little more roomy, rugged, and weather-bearing.  A nice SUV would be… nice!  Surely, there must be someone out there in our circle who can hook us up!

Now, the fun part: We will also take your dollars! We’re not just gonna take it, though… Between the two of us, we have thousands of blog subscribers and Twitter followers who latch onto every written word we mutter. Not only that, Pam is an experienced vlogger… I’m sure you’ve seen the video where she looks like she’s naked!  She’s quite the “pro” ain’t she? Heh heh… So, we will be tweeting, blogging, vlogging, and doing some live streaming throughout the entire trip! We’ll be sure to pimp you out!

UPDATE: Check out the AWESOME rewards for sponsoring us!

UPDATE: Check out Pam’s latest vlog about the road trip!!!

So, send us your ideas (and money )!  We are open to discussion on sponsorship. If you are on, or near, the route of our almost 3000 mile trek (and 3000 miles back!) maybe we could even drop by and do a little sumthin-sumthin…

View Larger Map

FYI – We’re not hard up for cash… We’ve been trying to keep the economy alive! We’re just looking to make things more interesting and have some fun! If we happen to get mad cash rollin’ in, we will donate the proceeds to charity. We’re thinking that we’ll keep it in the ‘hood and use it to support the IM Charity Party peeps.

If you haven’t registered for IM Spring Break yet, what are you waiting for???  They just lowered the price from $750 to $379!!!  I can’t imagine that there are many tickets left, so get yours now and meet us there, if we make it!

If you just want to keep tabs on the craziness, make sure to follow us on Twitter and use the #IMRoadTrip hashtag!

• @Pamela_Lund
• @kid_disco

If you would like to help us out in any way, hit us up!

Spring Break, yo!

You may leave comments at the bottom of the page, or use this form to contact us:

This post is from SEOdisco by SEO Consultant CK Chung.

So… it takes a lot for me now to get motivated to write something here.  I’ve become fortunate enough to be able to spend considerable time doing enjoyable things away from the ‘puter… Things like chillin’ and partyin’ with like-minded peeps.

That brings me to the motivation for this post.  Many peeps know by now that I don’t really “attend” conferences. Rather, I tend to find myself at the same location where conferences are occurring, and for some reason end up migrating toward the festivities where alcohol is present. In strolls IM Spring Break.

Look peeps, it only costs $500 to attend… and you get:

• An OPEN BAR happy hour
• 3 days of GOOD catered breakfast and lunch
• A dinner BBQ partay
• ANOTHER OPEN BAR happy hour!!!

It sounds more like an all-inclusive vacation to me!  And it’s ONLY $500, but you need to register by the next two days (by Feb 28).  Otherwise, the costs go up to $750, which is still a great deal!  Also, there are a limited amount of spots available, so don’t dilly-dally!

Oh yeah… so there are the session thingies too, which I will actually be trying to attend this time.  Three of my most-favorite peeps of all time are keynoting:

• Neil Patel – Boy Wonder
• Chris Winfield – PR/Social Media Maestro
• Rae Hoffman – Internet Marketing Empress

In addition, some of the bestest minds in internet marketing are speaking… just check out the session list!

IM Spring Break in Ft. Lauderdale for 5-hundo! No brainer… Did I mention the OPEN BARS? Drink with ya there!

Update: Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, it was just announced that IM Spring Break tickets have been dropped to $379, thanks to the sponsors!!!

Check it!
—kid disco

This post is from SEOdisco by SEO Consultant CK Chung.

There was once a time when people ate their meals at their dining table, but most peeps I know go out to eat or eat in front of the TV, now…

I usually try not to eat in front of my computers.  I like to step away, get out of the home office, and chillax with my food on the couch in front of the TV.  But I’ve been finding myself eating in front of the computer more and more, as I read blogs and articles, and watch videos and vidcasts.  I’ve been eating most of my breakfasts and lunches in front of my computer, lately. I blame the continued advancement and adoption of online multimedia.

I did spill juice all over my keyboard once. That sucked. Now, I use water bottles and don’t let any open liquid containers anywhere near my computers.

Maybe it’s just me, or those of us who work from home, but even when I worked for the man, I’d find myself eating lunch at my desk on most days.

Being the internet-addicted creatures that we are, I thought I’d throw the question out to ya’ll… Assuming that you eat an average of three meals a day…

Feel free to comment on why or why not you eat your meals in front of your computer… Or any horror stories that you may have!

Lates!
—kid disco

This post is from SEOdisco by SEO Consultant CK Chung.

Just now, I came across yet another tweak to the bar under the search box in the Google SERPs.  I originally wrote about one such tweak back in June of 2007, as Google Universal rolled out: Google SERPs Reverting Back To Blue Bar?

Excerpt:

When Google rolled out with their Universal Search model, one of the few noticeable design changes that was made to the search results page was the change in color of the horizontal bar under the search box. The color updated from a light-blue to a nice and clean web 2.0ey light-grey/white gradient:

(Click on image to enlarge)

Well… while I was surfing around Google today, I thought that something looked different… but I couldn’t pinpoint it until now.

They reverted back to the light-blue bar:

(Click on image to enlarge)

So, today, about a year-and-a-half after that post, I was browsing around when I came across yet another SERP bar that looks different.  Now, look what they did:

(Click on image to enlarge)

I haven’t been able to duplicate the UI tweak again. Has anyone else seen this? For a company that is so anal about their UI, this portion of the page sure seems to be giving them some trouble.  Thoughts?

Check it,
—kid disco

This post is from SEOdisco by SEO Consultant CK Chung.

Yep… you read it right: 2007.

Okay… so, I drafted this back in December of 2007, the week right after Pubcon.  Here we are, almost an entire year later, with the absolutely last recap of PubCon 2007 in Las Vegas.  Now, someone better not write a PubCon ’07 recap after I post this.  Otherwise, I’ll have to rename the title of this post to: The Best Last Recap of PubCon 2007 in The Vegas.  Anyway, without any further ado…

So, you’ve all probably heard the stories and read the recaps by now. I don’t have the time or patience to do a comprehensive writeup, so I’ll just point you over to this quick recap by Dave Davis, mention a few random things, and get on with the link-orgy…

First off, I didn’t even have a conference pass… I just went to Vegas because I didn’t want to miss another PubCon, It’s not a bad drive, and I wanted to hang out with everybody. The last major search conference I went to was SES – San Jose in 2006, so I didn’t want to miss this huge opportunity to get together with friends that I haven’t seen since then, and have the chance to meet others who I’ve communicated with online for some time.

So, I slept and worked during the day and then partied through the night.  I was surprised with the amount of conference attendees that came out from oversees. After a few days, I found myself thinking in a British accent.

There’s a ton of pics from the conference up on Flickr.  Lots of peeps in the expo hall seemed to enjoy my homage to Entourage:

CK and Lee Odden

Anyway, here are the great peeps that I got to talk to and hang out with, plus a little blurb of whatever comes to mind.  (Please keep in mind that this was written almost a year ago! I just finally got around to linking the names… )  I’m bound to have missed at least a few, so I apologize in advance!  In no particular order – oh wait, it’s alphabetical by last name…

• Andy Beal – Gave me a great compliment.
• Jessie Beaudoin – The instigator of te-kill-ya & eggs breakfast.
• Eric Blackwell – Works around the clock!
• Jim Boykin – Getting ready to release Internet Marketing Ninjas.
  
• Eric Bramlett – One of the Austin real estate guys.
• Jane Copland – Love the accent!
• Chris Cotton – Obsessed with midget chariot racing.
• Gareth Davies – Video guru.
• Dave Davis – Polite dude that calls me Mr. Disco.
• Lisa Ditlefsen – My match in back-to-back Te-kill-ya breakfasts!
• Rhea Drysdale – Little chick with a huge camera.
• Amad Ebrahimi – Need to chill with my new OC buddy.
• Rand Fishkin – Always seemed confused (drunk?).
• Adam Green - Tony Clifton‘s agent.
• Steven Green – Te-kill-ya 1 participant from South Africa!
• Greg Hartnett – Almost as cool as me.
• Richard Hearne – One of the overseas Richards.
• Jon Henshaw – Raven SEO Tools.
• Chris Hooley – Good Chris Hunting.
• Matthew Inman – Walks as fast as he talks.
• Rob Kerry – Very jolly fella.
• Richard Kershaw – The other overseas Richard.
• Pamela Lund – Will come up with a nick, next time!
• Todd Malicoat – THANKS for breakfast at Te-kill-ya 2.
• David Mihm – Can’t hang!
• Roger Monti – Interesting… we’ll leave it at that.
• Gillian Muessig – Mama Mozzer.
• Ciarán Norris – Key-air-uhn.
• Lee Odden – Where’s the WiFi?
• Jim Olenbush – The other Austin real estate guy.
• Cameron Olthuis – Dude. Yo.
• Neil Patel – How’d finals go?
• Dan Perry – Works in my fav city – Chicago!
• Steven Pavlovich – Insert mong face here.
• Brian Prince – Need to hang out with this crew.
• Natasha Robinson – Finally met in person!
• Dave Rohrer – Chi-burbanite!
• Jeremy Schoemaker – Lookin’ lean.
• Patrick Sexton – $$$.
• Carolyn Shelby – Lives right by where I grew up!
• Bill Slawski – Always love chattin it up with Bill.
• Markus Urban – Excellent roomie!
• Lauren Vaccarello – Te-kill-ya 2 crew participant.
• Lyndsay Walker – Always smiling with a drink in hand.
• Tamar Weinberg – Money.
• Jill Whalen – Finally met for the first time!
• Scott Willoughby -Is tall.
• Chris Winfield – The real deal.
• Dustin Woodard – Congrats!

Look at those names!  If you are in the search marketing industry, how could you not try your damndest to hang out with these people?  Not to mention, there are these conference session things you can go to and learn some badass stuff!

All in all, it was a rockin’ good time and well worth the time and money.  I will definitely be attending PubCon in Vegas next year (That would be next week)!  If I missed you in the shout-outs, feel free to let me know in the comments.

Make sure to check out DK’s Schedule for the week of PubCon.  I have registered for Fight Club and the Poker Tournament.  You can try to win a chance to fight Pam or kick Sugarrae‘s ass!  Also, follow @josephmorin on Twitter for party info, events, drink specials, discounts, show info and line passes/passwords!  Can’t wait to party with ya’ll!

Late,
—kid disco

This post is from SEOdisco by SEO Consultant CK Chung.