Broadcasting Brain

Catch the Brainwaves is our ongoing series of interviews with a variety of folks participating in blogging and social media. I ask them ten questions and they respond with their brilliant answers and insights! Today we are featuring the amazingly helpful Jaan Kanellis of KBK Marketing aka The Incredible Help!

1. Can you give us your definition of “organic search marketing”?

Optimizing a website for the purpose of ranking in the “still free” places on Google, Yahoo and MSN. The three main pillars to success for organic search marketing are:

1. Relevant authoritative back links. Link baiting and social media.
2. Accessibility in themed structure. Making your website easy to crawl and index. Information architecture is key.
3. Basic on-site SEO factors. Fresh original content.

2. Why does your blog title emphasize that you are located in Cincinnati, OH?

Just for local SEO help. I work with clients all over the world, but I want to let them know where I am located directly. I don’t like it when customers can’t get a feel for where you are located in the states. There are far too many shysters in this business that don’t claim any actually place to work from.

3. In your opinion, does Digg traffic provide any long term advantage to a website?

As with any social network you can have a second order effect that will help your website rank. If I offer a collection of social network buttons on all my pages (Digg include) the visitor may get there and be more apt to bookmark the website since the buttons are there. After the page has been syndicated, friends of the original syndicator will pick on the Digg and syndicate it further. This will create a flow of eye balls to your website which will:

• Create new leads
• Create more bookmarking of the page
• Create new RSS feed subscribers
• Create more buyers for product or service
• Create more back links to your when others blog about website

The chain reaction of just one Digg or Stumble is very effective. So my answer would yes you should actively promote yourself in the social networks, including Digg, but I personally find other social network are more effective than Digg.

4. I like the nod to Marvel Comics in your avatar. Are you a Marvel Comics fan?

Sure as any young boy in the 80s I was a fan of most comic books. My name IncredibleHelp came before the avatar. I have been very active in forums over the years and everyone keep saying what an “incredible help” my posts were I kind of assumed that as handle going forward. With a name like that I decided to take a angry picture of myself and turn it a shade green. The avatar definitely stands out from others when browsing blogs that use MyBlogLog.  (ED:  I can attest to the power of green… and purple.)  I am a fan of the Incredible Hulk, but a bigger fan of Spider-Man.

5. Do you think that large organizations are starting to understand the potential value of social media? Or does social media really have an impact on a large corporation?

I think larger corporations are just now being more sold on blogging itself.  As companies grow internally with their corporate blog(s), social media becomes much more acceptable.

6. What is your opinion of the long term viability of “human powered search” i.e. Mahalo?

I have not been a big fan of Mahalo. I don’t like seeing them appear in Google. It is a bad experience for everyone, but that is another issue for another time.

Conceptually it makes sense to have a search engine that has human interaction, approval and editing, but Mahalo won’t work because it is simply not scalable. There are far to many search queries that currently happen, let alone the new ones happening every day to think you can do this type of thing effectively. I remember Udi Manber from Google saying that 25% of all queries on Google are new or have never been tried before, from the previous day. How is Mahalo supposed to keep up with that?

7. What resources do you use to stay on top of your field of expertise?

Read, learn, post. SEM is ever changing and very hard to stay on top of everything. You must build your own social circle where you have contacts and colleagues in the industry. Follow them and others in your RSS reader every day. Start posting on your own blog. It helps keep you sharp and involved in the industry.

8. What is the one achievement on the Web which gives you the most pleasure and/or satisfaction?

I would say it is two-fold. I really enjoy helping people on forums and blogs. Answering questions for some of those that are new to this type of thing and seeing it help them is really rewarding. Of course meeting my clients overall goals is just as rewarding.

9. Pretend the Internet is destroyed overnight. What do you do the next morning?

Start building the infrastructure all over again. The internet is a necessary means of communication and we should work to keep it free and safe for ever.

10. What one piece of knowledge, advice, or wisdom do you have to share with our readers?

If you want to rank better on Google, Yahoo and MSN the one thing you should do is start a blog on your website. I don’t care what products or services you offer a blog can be worked into your business plan and will be a success for your online marketing plans long term.

Thanks again to Jaan Kanellis!

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