Well, It's True: The Bird is Indeed the Word

Some of you may have taken a glance at the application I referenced in my last post, The Birds the Word.

When I posted a few links for you guys to try the application on April 8th, the domain only had 2-3 URLs indexed in Google.

Today, there are 1,590 unique URLs from the domain indexed by Google. The site is beginning to receive traffic on niche keywords like:

• 3d animated disney clipart
• gnr fanart

Here are a few of the URLs that might be getting ranked for these keywords and are already indexed in Google:

• digital 3d
• fanfic site

This application is also great for exploring concepts in a meandering, aimless sort of fashion. Check out what happens if you input John Deere. One of the results is february 7, 1804. At first, I was disappointed to see the seemingly irrelevant result come through the application. Until I realized that February 7th, 1804 is the birth date of Mr. Deere.

Very cool!

Everybody Knows, The Birds the Word

I'd like to take a quick moment to introduce a Web app. I don't want to go into its uses in great detail, but rather, let its users determine its best use.

Here it is: http://www.thebirdstheword.net

Try a few searches:
Villain
Superhero
Batman

Feel free to click around wherever you like - explore and let me know what your initial reaction is.

Snuggie Pub Crawl in Chicago - Viral Media is Powerful

I just want to take a moment to plug a recent project that one of my co-workers, David Barnes, and I are working on.

Behold, the Snuggie Pub Crawl in Chicago.

The Pub Crawl became an overnight success. On a slow Friday afternoon, Dave and I launched the site and sent out a few notes to friends and co-workers, hoping they were interested in attending. And like the California wildfires of 2008, the word spread fast! (Too soon?)

By the numbers:

Traffic:
Day 1: 199 Visits
Day 2: 49 Visits
Day 3: 42 Visits
Day 4: 239 Visits
Day 5: 1529 Visits
Day 6: 2869 Visits

Top Traffic Sources:
Day 1: Direct entry, Facebook, Digg.com
Day 2: Direct entry, Facebook, Google
Day 3: Direct entry, Facebook, Craigslist
Day 4: Direct entry, Facebook, Twitter
Day 5: Direct entry, Chicagoist, Facebook, Stumbleupon, Google
Day 6: Direct entry, Gapersblock, Chicagoist, Twitter

As of yesterday, we had a total of 4,927 visits and ~450 submitted their email addresses on the site.

About a 9-10% conversion rate. Not bad.

More to come as this project continues to grow. I hope you plan to attend, it's going to be a riot!

Setting Expectations at the Enterprise Level - Read Carefully, This Impacts You

If you aren't communicating the following four things to your colleagues, you're going to have a hard time leading a successful SEO program for a large business:

1. Many of the actions that members of Web, eComm, IT and Marketing departments take impact their business's positions in search engines
   
2. Search engine optimization is a lifestyle, not a marketing tactic and long term success is a result of changes in corporate culture, behavior and established processes.
3. Seeing increased traffic and revenue from SEO will require more time, more resources and more cross-departmental communication.
4. Like anything in business, real estate on search engine results pages is competitive and won't come easily - we still need to outwit our competitors to gain market share.

Stay tuned... my next post will identify my top 5 enterprise SEO challenges and philosophies for overcoming them.

Whopper Sacrifice: Is Zuckerberg Afraid of Be Unfriended for a Burger?

I love it. I absolutely love the Whopper Sacrifice app. What a creative, counter-culture driven application that puts a playful and sinister twist on our oh-so-coveted social networks. Burger King has successfully exposed the darker side of Facebook and like the pseudo-ignoble, highly creepy and skulking "King," the app is one that people either seem to love or hate.

Facebook just recently announced their disapproval of Whopper Sacrifice. Luckily, my counter-culture heroes over at Burger King responded with this simple but pointed image:


Bravo!

It looks like Mr. Zuckerberg has been outwitted this time. In my opinion, Mark would have nothing to worry about if, as you'll hear from any Facebook staffer, friendships on Facebook are more sincere than MySpace and more reflective of real-world social circles. Apparently not, because Facebook users seem to be plenty willing to sever their social connections for a hamburger.

Keep up the good work, King.