The U.S. stock market tumbled for the sixth straight day yesterday in only the second full week of trading since the new year began. Analysts believe that the grim trading that kicked off the first quarter of 2009 was due in part to the poor retail sales numbers that were reported after the holiday shopping season.
Holiday Sales Were Down
Online retail sales in December fell for the first time in seven years, and small and midsize businesses felt the sting more than the big brand retailers. The top sellers for November and December were retailers like Amazon and Walmart, known for discount prices as well as customer service.
CES Attendance Was Down
The world's largest consumer technology tradeshow, CES, saw an estimated 22 percent drop in attendance this year. The weakened economy has taken much of the blame, illustrating that consumers' ability to spend on non-essential goods has suffered. The principle can be extended to the B2B and service industries as well, which begs the question: what are you doing to remain an unexpendable asset for your clients?
Adapt in the New Year
Retailers and service providers are taking a close look at their marketing programs to evaluate and adapt their focus going forward. Plan campaigns with informed, trend-based marketing predictions, like those in this month's feature article by Bruce Clay. A recent poll of marketers showed that retention marketing, identifying new audiences and integrating Web 2.0 and social media technologies top the list of priorities in 2009. In many ways, getting basic marketing tactics right is more important than ever; establish a unique selling proposition, explain how your product or service goes beyond those of competitors, and establish trust and loyalty with a strong brand.
Shuffles
The rumor mill has been busy circulating the word that today Microsoft will lay off 17 percent, or 15,000 employees. While the truth of that is yet to be seen, Microsoft confirmed that the global VP of sales, marketing and services, Bill Shaughnessy, has left the company after 15 years.
Yahoo has named Carol Bartz the company's new CEO, who will be leaving software maker Autodesk for the troubled search engine. Over at Google, the search giant's end-of-year contractor layoffs are being treated likely a closely held secret, but the company did announce yesterday that there would be further layoffs in the upcoming year.
Steve Jobs, CEO and co-founder of Apple, announced that he would be taking a leave of absence through June in order to focus on improving his health, which has reportedly been declining due to a hormone deficiency.
The C-suite of the popular professional networking site LinkedIn played a bit of Hokey Pokey last month, replacing resigned CEO Dan Nye with former CEO Reid Hoffman, and hiring former Yahoo executive Jeff Weiner as interim president.
A Brussels-based viral marketing firm, ironically named So Nice, decided that rather than choose which employees to lay off, clients would be given the opportunity to choose for them.
Industry leader Danny Sullivan announced last month that he had recorded his final episode of the Daily SearchCast after more than three years because his time was being eaten up by trips, meetings and conferences.
A new director of Internet marketing, Gregg Finn, was appointed at the online marketing and Web development company 10e20.
Sound Bytes
If you like what you read in the SEO Newsletter, there's more Internet marketing expertise where that came from. Check out SEM Synergy every Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. Eastern and Noon Pacific on WebmasterRadio.fm. Bruce Clay and the other hosts discuss industry news, SEO tactics and marketing trends, while expert guests share their insights on methods, best practices and upcoming events. Check out the show schedule below for a look at recent shows and upcoming topics.
January 7
(Listen Now)
| Halo Media | Gregg Banse | E-commerce Considerations |
January 14
(Listen Now)
| Spam Evolution | Scott Polk | Avoid Spam Tactics |
January 21 | Audience Targeting | Scott Skurnick | Finding Demographics |
January 28 | Customized Search | TBA | Google SearchWiki |
Got something to say? Contact the SEM Synergy team and share your thoughts, comments and questions. You might even hear your question answered on the show.
Shindigs
The next major search industry conference will be SMX West February 10-12 in Santa Clara, CA. You can stay an extra day to attend a special Bruce Clay, Inc., SEOToolSetŪ Training on February 13, and even get a registration discount on the complete package.
Search Engine Strategies also has its conference schedule posted. Across the pond, SES London is set for February 17-20, hosted by Mike Grehan. Or, you could avoid customs and plan to attend SES New York on March 23-26 in the Big Apple.
Here at home, we're gearing up for lots of search engine optimisation training in 2009! The next three-day SEOToolSetŪ Training will be given March 16-18 here in sunny Southern California, with an Advanced Certification Course right on its heels March 19-20.
You've been asking for it and we're bringing it to the sunrise coast. We're incredibly excited to announce that SEOToolSet Training on the East Coast officially launches this year as well, beginning with April 28-30 in New York with two more dates planned through the year. And that's not even all our training news. Keep an eye on the Bruce Clay blog for another announcement next week.
Attaboys
Yahoo received pats on the back from consumer privacy advocates last month after announcing that the company would anonymize data after 90 days, significantly faster than Google's nine-month period.
In a precedent-setting victory for search engines, a U.S. federal court decision absolved Google of liability for ads created in the AdWords program.
California schools are now armed with a new weapon in the fight against cyberbullying, as a new state law grants the authority to suspend or expel students found to be using the Internet or mobile messaging to harass other students.
In an effort that traditional media hopes is not too little, too late, newspapers showed that they were catching on to the new media world, reporting an upswing in adoption of social media and user-generated content.
Again showing an understanding of the power which can be leveraged online, this month President-elect Obama unveiled a new Web site that will function similarly to a Craigslist for public service. USAService.org allows people to post and sign up for geographically organized community service activities.
Word on the
Wire
Before the new year, the Pew Internet & American Live Project released its annual Future of the Internet report. Based on the survey responses of leaders, activists and analysts of the Internet, some of the major findings predicted to be in full swing by 2020 include: mobile devices will be the primary means of Internet connection; easy access to the Internet will bring about increased blurring of personal time and work time; and voice recognition and touch-screen interfaces will be more prevalent.
It appears that Google is performing a number of new tests in the SERPs, including enhanced page descriptions, a "jump to" feature and automatic spelling correction.
Following an Australian court's ruling that Facebook is an acceptable platform for serving legal notices, Burger King served a cease and desist notice via Twitter. The implications of being able to serve legal notice via social networking sites are far reaching.
