IndustryAre the Unsung Heros of Search and Social Media Marketing Sartorially Challenged, Too?

Are the Unsung Heros of Search and Social Media Marketing Sartorially Challenged, Too?

On Thursday, I asked, “Are the Brains of Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization Sartorially Challenged?” And I put together a list of the Top 10 SEMs who were working hard to change the industry’s collective image — “sometimes in unpredictable ways.”

This prompted Brent to post the following comment: “Interesting list, but I believe there are several behind the scenes, in the trenches, marketers that are really doing a lot of the work.”

Brent, you’re right. So, today I want to share the list of the Top 10 Unsung Heroes of Search and Social Media Marketing who are also working hard to change the industry’s collective image — “sometimes in unpredictable ways.”

But, I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether or not these unsung heroes are sartorially challenged, too.

At the top of the Top 10 Unsung Heroes list are Marilyn Crafts, Senior Program Director, SES Conference & Expo, and Jackie Ortez, Conference Program & Training Manager, SES Conference & Expo. And below is a Flickr photo of these unsung heroines handing out hats at the SEW Black Hat White Hat Unconferenced session at SES San Francisco 2010. Hey, do you think it’s easy figuring out who is playing by the perceived rules in this industry?

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Marilyn Crafts (left) and Jackie Ortez (center) at SEW Black Hat White Hat Unconferenced

Another person who belongs on the list is Byron Gordon of SEO-PR. He may not be a member of Marketers with Beards yet, but he’s got one. Bloggers are starting to ask me if I work for him. And he’s conducted more than 125 interviews for SESConferenceExpo’s Channel on YouTube. In fact, the interview he did with Avinash Kaushik at SES Chicago 2010 has leapfrogged over more than 500 videos to become the second most viewed video on the channel. Check it out below.

LDS (mormon) Church knows SEO with Avinash Kaushik, Google, at SES Chicago 2010

Another unsung heroine is Erica Schmidt, Global Search Director of iProspect and a member of the SES Advisory Board. Her day job is helping iProspect search engine marketing firms across 28 markets in 22 countries. She also assists Aegis Media (the parent company of iProspect) in launching iProspect-branded SEM practices. On the swing shift, she’s the Dean of iProspect University. And in her spare time, she has to speak at SES conferences in Paris, London and other cities. Hey, it’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it.

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Erica Schmidt at SES Paris 2008

Another unsung hero is Thomas Bindl, Founder and CEO of Refined Labs and another member of the SES Advisory Board. (Do you get the feeling that Mike Grehan has packed the board with several behind the scenes, in the trenches, marketers that are really doing a lot of the work?) In his spare time, he has to speak at SES conferences in Berlin, New York and other cities. Oh, and he gets asked to do silly interviews by pesky video bloggers. Hey, it’s nice work if you can get it.

The German SEM World from Thomas Bindl at SES NY 2008

Another SES Advisory Board member who belongs on the Unsung Heroes list is Andrew Goodman, President of Toronto-based Page Zero Media. He is also co-founder of Traffick.com and author of Winning Results with Google AdWords (McGraw-Hill, 2nd ed., 2008). When he’s not reading The U.S. of EH?: How Canada Secretly Controls the United States and Why That’s OK, his spare time eccentricities include rollerblading without kneepads and naming his Japanese maples. Also in his spare time, he co-founded HomeStars, a consumer review site with aspirations to become “the TripAdvisor for home improvement.”

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Andrew Goodman (center) at SES San Jose 2008

While we’re mining the SES Advisory Board for unsung heroes, let’s add Jon Myers and John Marshall. Myers had a day job. He’s Head of Search/Associate Director of Mediavest. Marshall has a day job, too. He’s Market Motive’s CTO and visionary for curriculum, teaching, and technical strategy. And on the swing shift, they speak at SES conferences on both sides of the pond. And when they aren’t updating their slides because Google’s changed its algorithm again, they’re asked to do interviews for SESConferenceExpo’s channel. With no time to stop and smell the roses, Is it surprising that they end up interviewing each other?

Paid search and understanding search path analysis with Jon Myers, MediaVest at SES London 2010

Another guy with no time to stop and smell the flowers is Bill Hunt. He’s the President of Back Azimuth Consulting. He is the co-author of the best selling book Search Engine Marketing, Inc.: Driving Traffic to Your Company’s Web Site (IBM Press, 2nd Edition). When he’s not reading Around the World in 80 Days, he’s writing Bill Hunt’s Digital Marketing Rants and Raves. And he’s yet another member of the SES Advisory Board. (The SES advisory board works to continually deliver cutting-edge techniques, more integrated and relevant content, and professional development resources to attendees. Do you get the feeling that Mike Grehan has incriminating photos or funny videos of each of the members?)

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Mike Grehan (left) and Bill Hunt (right) at an undisclosed location

Last but not least on the list of the Top 10 Unsung Heroes of Search and Social Media Marketing is the Yahoo! SearchMonkey. Using SearchMonkey, developers and site owners could use structured data to make Yahoo! Search results more useful and visually appealing, and drive more relevant traffic to their sites. But this service was shutdown in October 2010 and the SearchMonkey learned the meaning of “deprecated.” Nevertheless, he deserves to be on the list for all the hard work he’d done to change the industry’s collective image — sometimes in unpredictable ways.

SearchMonkey Launch by Yahoo! Canada

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