Author Archives: Sarah Parker

About Sarah Parker

Sarah Parker is a freelance writer and communications consultant at Parker Communications. She lives and works surrounded by mountains and birdsong - in NSW Australia.

Search Industry Job of the Week – Director/OVP Social Media

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Job Title: Director/OVP Social Media
Job Reference: unknown
Position Type: full time
Name of employer: Bloomingdale’s NYC
Location: New York City, NY
Date Posted: 20 April 2013
Position description:

Bloomingdale’s seeks a proven leader responsible for developing its social media strategy, designing its online engagement architecture (organization, technology infrastructure, process and policies), and overseeing social media execution. This senior leader will translate the overall brand marketing strategy into an aligned and innovative social media strategy, be accountable for social media performance against that strategy, and ultimately ensure that Bloomingdale’s philosophy, vision and mission are practiced online.

Core Job Responsibilities:

Brand Marketing and Digital Strategy:

  • Develop a social media strategy (content and architecture) in support of overall brand goals and marketing strategy.
  • Partner with the Social Media Operating Committee to ensure social media strategy is aligned with business deadlines and priorities.
  • Develop editorial calendar and approve campaign calendar developed by Manager of Online Engagement; ensure calendar alignment with brand marketing strategy.

Program Leadership:

  • Direct budgets and all investment decision making for Bloomingdale’s social media.
  • Partner with Social Media Operating Committee to scope projects, define schedules, and estimate the resources needed to achieve project goals. Orchestrate resources (including agency talent and internal teams) for social media strategy development and execution as needed.
  • Develop and drive overall social media programs, mitigating risks, escalating issues as needed, and communicating performance.
  • Continuously monitor social media business results and take action to improve performance where needed.
  • Drive innovation in social media strategy and associated technology as needed to effectively deliver Bloomingdale’s brand voice online.

Collaboration and Enablement:

  • Drive a shared vision for online engagement goals at Bloomingdale’s – create clearly actionable success criteria, objectives and requirements and ensure consistent communication of progress.
  • Partner with Social Media Operating Committee and other functional peers to collaborate with fashion houses, industry leaders, and other external organizations required to execute social media strategy.
  • Enable the organization to efficiently and effectively execute against the social media strategy and plans; accountable for training / enablement strategy with input from Manager of Online Engagement but may assign execution responsibilities as appropriate.

Job Qualifications/Requirements:

Education

  • Bachelor’s degree in communications, advertising, or marketing preferred
  • Master’s degree preferred.

Experience

  • 12+ years of marketing, corporate communications, digital or similar experience
  • Demonstrated ability to bridge traditional brand marketing and digital strategy
  • Omni-channel retail brand marketing or digital strategy experience preferred

Skills

  • Strong leadership of complex, cross-functional programs, fostering collaboration to deliver business results
  • Adept at navigating across organizational lines, building consensus and alignment across teams
  • Experience leading social media, social networking, and/or community projects
  • Ability to deal with ambiguity and change
  • Excellent communication skills with the ability to seek input and demonstrate persuasiveness when needed. Able to effectively communicate the business value of social media strategies inside the organization and build support.
  • Able to prioritize, problem solve, and innovate to deliver on business objectives
  • Net savvy (enjoy online activity, social networking sites & all things Web 2.0)

Salary range: Unknown
Closing date: Unknown
More info from: Bloomingdale’s Jobs
Contact: Send resumes via online form to: Bloomingdale’s Jobs

For more search industry jobs, or to post a vacancy, visit Search Engine College Jobs Board.

Fast Five in Search – Week 17, 2013

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fast-fiveThis week’s fast five includes: the history of advertising, SEO spring cleaning, Facebook face lifts and lessons from the guru of advertising – George Lucas.

1) Advertising: A Brief History by David Wallace                                                                      I love these infographics-based posts Search Engine Journalers have been creating lately. Advertising is almost as old as civilisation. This is a great one to share for a broader perspective!

2) Dusting the Website for Spring: Optimization and SEO Cleaning by Scott Wyden          In this post Scott gives us nine great tips on onsite website improvement and two offsite tips. Interesting to hear that sites with Google’s Authorship tool enabled, receive 120% more clicks. The internet is becoming so much more personal and the search industry is at the forefront of these changes.

3) Mastering the Art of Local SEO by Tina Courtney-Brown                                                  A friend of mine has a picture framing business which has slowly transitioned from completely offline to mostly online. He used to rely on his village market stall, but now finds he gets most orders online, even local orders. Some businesses, even though they have a strong online presence, they still require a lot of local promotion. This is a great post on Local SEO and covers all the basics.

4) Give Your Facebook Page a Free Facelift by Tina Courtney Brown                                    I am intrigued by the Social Fixer App described by Tina in this post. I haven’t used it yet, but after reading this post, I’m going to try it out. It would be great to make small adjustments to the look and feel of my Facebook page and profile.

And for something a bit different…

5) Transmedia Storytelling: Building Worlds For and With Fans by Gianluca Fiorelli        We are living in the age of transmedia storytelling and this post outlines how you can make this work for your brand. Transmedia storytelling happens when a story unfolds across multi media outlets and platforms and the end users take on an active role in its expansion. You don’t have to be a George Lucas fan to enjoy the message in this post. Transmedia storytelling is where storytelling and marketing collide.

Happy reading!

*Image by Threadless

Fast Five in Search – Week 16, 2013

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From viral marketing to legendary podcasting – this week’s Fast Five contains a great mix from the blogosphere.

1) Foolishly Viral: Lessons from a Million Pageview Day by Jacob Klein                         Most of us have wondered about the phenomena of content going viral and wondered how it happens. Can it be planned? How do people feel when their content strikes a chord with many more people than expected? Jacob shares his insights in this great post about viral marketing success.

2) Remove Unnecessary Steps and Win More Links, Shares and Conversions – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin                                                                               You’ve got to love Rand’s posts about keeping things simple. He is great at explaining why some things are no longer important, while other details are crucial to building relationships and maintaining your reader’s attention. This post could have been called:  How to Win Readers and Influence people.

3) 17 Things You Should Stop Doing to Your Websites by Inessa Bokhan                    I really enjoyed this post. I have to admit I’ve been guilty of using cheesy stock images before! Inessa gives some great advice in this post – it all comes down to keeping it real and fresh and… don’t forget your readers!

4) Losing Traffic (and sleep) Over Google Reader’s Death? Here’s What You Can Do About It by Federico Einhorn                                                                                                   In case you’re wondering where you can source story ideas and news feeds now that Google Reader is closing down, I thought I’d include this post. Federico shares links to other news feed sites and gives some helpful advice for webmasters who may have relied on Google Reader until now.

And finally…

5) Case Study: How to Build a Vast Audience by Mastering the Art of the Interview by Beth Hayden                                                                                                                                      I’m finishing this week’s Fast Five with a bit of inspiration. It’s always interesting to hear from other creative people – how they’ve worked hard to build a successful platform. In this post Beth interviews legendary podcaster Srinivas Rao about his successful career as a content marketer.

Happy reading!

*Image courtesy of Threadless

Search Industry Job of the Week – SEM Analyst

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Job Title: SEM Analyst
Job Reference: Unknown
Position Type: full time
Name of employer: YP
Location: Glendale, California
Date Posted: 13 April 2013
Position description:

Are you looking for a fast moving, creative environment where you can use your expertise to develop and market cutting-edge interactive and digital products?

YP is one of the largest local search, media and advertising companies in North America. The company creates local search and advertising products that encourage consumers to discover and engage with local businesses across online, print and mobile platforms. YP’s suite of local offerings includes its flagship products YP.com, YP Local Ad Network, the popular YPmobile app and The YP Real Yellow Pages®, the largest print directory in the world by advertising revenue. YP.com, which attracts over 30 million monthly online unique visitors, is also accessed by millions of users each month via the mobile web.

The YP(SM) Local Ad Network helps advertisers grow their business and distributes ads to a distinguished list of top publishers. YP’s wide range of local ad products such as premium listings, performance-based advertising, direct mail and search engine marketing provides advertisers an opportunity to increase their presence among consumers who are looking for a local business. YP’s advertising products address the diverse needs of nearly a million local businesses and help drive tens of billions of dollars in local commerce annually.

YP products are backed by one of the industry’s largest local advertising sales forces made up of several thousand media consultants and other resellers.

Join their dedicated and talented team of individuals all focused on creating the best products in the marketplace. They currently have an opportunity for an experienced SEM Analyst in their Glendale office.

Responsibilities

50%

  • Act as fulfillment account manager for selected key accounts
  • Manage search campaign performance; analyze quantitative, qualitative and underlying data to correct performance issues throughout the duration of the contract.
  • Engage with fulfillment consultants and other parties, during initial fulfillment to ensure that the plan has the correct components;
  • Proactively optimize throughout campaign life-cycle;
  • Increase quality in clicks and conversions for improved ROI;
  • Increase product trust through proactive, engaged customer service;
  • Decrease churn rate through proactive campaign management and positive customer experience.
  • Present Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and campaign performance in a formal setting with management.

20%

  • Build and maintain a positive relationship with internal and external customers by proactively communicating campaign performance with internal and external management.
  • Have contact with internal customers such as sales, customer service, etc. and possibly external customers in any region weekly, biweekly, or monthly.
  • 25%
  • Perform initial and ongoing quality assurance for search campaigns and take ownership of accurately communicating errors to all parties to close gaps and meet customer requirements.
  • Re-emphasize internal, vendor, and search engine best practices during proofing and error correction activities.
  • Regularly review existing processes and procedures for the purpose of identifying and implementing operational efficiencies and process redesigns.

5%

Report escalations urgently and follow up on resolution to close communication loop with management.

Qualifications

  • 1-2 years experience as a full-time Search Engine Marketing professional; 2-3 years preferred.
  • Google AdWords certification and Bing Accredited Professional preferred; resource will be required to obtain certification within 30 days of hire.
  • Knowledge of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
  • Solid work ethic, teaming, adaptation to fast-paced environment, and works well under pressure.
  • Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) is a must.
  • Excellent professional, communication (both verbal and written) skills.
  • Ability to self-motivate, prioritize and multi-task.
  • Ability to research and solve problems.
  • Analytic skills required.
  • BA/BS degree preferred but not required

They offer competitive salaries, excellent benefits including a matching 401(k), bonuses, and a casual yet high-energy work environment. Send them your resume today.

YP LLC is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer and they are committed to hiring a diverse and talented workforce. EOE/AA/M/F/D/V

Salary range: Unknown
Closing date: Unknown
More info from: http://corporate.yp.com
Contact: Send resumes via online form to: YP Careers

For more search industry jobs, or to post a vacancy, visit Search Engine College Jobs Board.

Fast Five in Search – Week 15, 2013

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fast-fiveWe have another eclectic bunch of posts for you this week – from the history of the internet, to SEO from a newby’s perspective. Enjoy…

1) A History of Social Media by Copyblogger.com                                                                All you infographic fans out there will love this visual portrayal of the history of social media. From the world’s first email, to the plethora of digital channels we enjoy today, this post shows how dramatically the world of communications has changed in 40 years.

2) 33 Link Building Questions Answered by Rhea Drysdale                                              Link building has changed dramatically in recent years and Rhea has taken the time to answer many of our questions regarding the dos and don’ts of link building – post-penguin. Thanks Rhea!

3) Claiming Google+ Authorship and Publisher Markup for SEO by Navneet Kaushat    Most content creators are keeping a close eye on Google+ Authorship and this post adds another layer to the cake. Google Publisher markup is another way to get your content identified and your website noticed. This post contains a bit of code, to make implementing these changes into your website nice and easy.

I’ll finish off with a couple good back-to-basics style posts…

4) The Forgotten Art of Creating Good Title Tags by Andy Williams                                  This post reminds us all shy title tags are still an essential element of Search Engine Optimization. Andy’s clear advice regarding the essential elements of a good title tag, is worth bookmarking.

5) SEO From a Newby’s Perspective by HappyBrooke                                                          This is a good fun post to remind us all what it is like to enter the field of SEO for the first time. Like any industry, if we’ve been in it for a while, we can forget what it may be like for newcomers – who are just branching or starting out. A good post to refer to anyone who might be thinking of taking the plunge into SEO.

Happy reading!

*Image courtesy of Threadless