Search Marketing Insomniac…The Blog of Adam Henige

It was everywhere this week - Yahoo and MSN/Live/Bing have joined forces to try to take a bite out of Google. The net was aflutter with buzz. Me? I yawned and kept on with my activities. You see, I’m a bit of an MMA fan, and the events of the last week in the world of mixed martial arts is strangely similar to what I see happening in search so it all feels a bit dated to me.

A quick rundown for those of you who don’t follow the sport - you’ve probably heard of UFC, the unquestioned market leader.  If I say MMA, my mother won’t know what it is, but she’ll know UFC.  To the casual observer, two guys fighting each other in a cage is now known as UFC.  In essence, it’s the Kleenex of the mixed martial arts world.  Much the same, people don’t “search” anymore, they “Google” something.  I’ve heard people say they “Googled” something on Yahoo…I’m sure the brass at Yahoo love that.

Anyhow, due to the success of the 800 lb. gorillas that are UFC and Google, everyone’s trying to get a piece of the pie, but almost no one is succeeding (I’m looking at you Cuil).  UFC has been challenged recently by rival promotions Strikeforce and Affliction.  Affliction paid major dollars to bring in some serious star power (similar to renaming, rebranding and running a gazillion dollar ad campaign with a search engine), including the undisputed best heavyweight fighter in the world Fedor Emelianenko and the number three heavyweight in the world Josh Barnett.  Obviously, these guys were spending serious money on talent and promotion, with pay per views lined up and expected to reach six figures for this coming weekend’s event.  As it happened, the wheels fell off.  Barnett tested positive for steroids, the company didn’t have money or depth in the roster to replace him on short notice, the event was canceled and the entire promotion folded in the span of three days.  The slightly better run Strikeforce promotion (with a TV deal on Showtime) will likely absorb some of the fighters and press on, struggling to make a buck living in UFC’s ever larger shadow.

Being the best fighter in the world outside the UFC must be like being the best search expert in the world working for Ask.com. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.com.

The lesson here is that the war is over.  UFC has already won.  Sure, there will be pockets of turmoil, but things are firmly under control when it comes right down to it.  You’ll notice the NFL’s rival leagues over the years (the USFL for example) never went anywhere, and the leagues that had any success as upstarts (the AFL and ABA) only managed a few successful franchises that eventually got engulfed by the undisputed leader.

What Yahoo and Microsoft fail to realize is that they’re fighting for scraps and it will never amount to more.  They’re not reinventing the wheel here.  People like Google, it works well and that’s that.  I doubt they’ll pull an Affliction and fold in three days (hooray for diversification!) but the search game is one they can’t win without TRULY trying something different.  Putting two guys in a cage, or giving me a search bar that returns results is just allowing me to watch UFC and Google something with a different label on it (and historically of lesser quality).

Either change the way the game is played, or go niche.  Some examples:

• The WEC is a sister fight promotion to UFC that’s gotten popular with fight purists by having lighter weight classes which makes for more fast paced fights, but fewer explosive knockouts.
• Spock is a search engine focusing on finding people, and does a fine job of it.  It helped me contact an old friend that I hadn’t been able to track down in five years - take that Google!

It’s not that there isn’t money to be made, it’s just that companies trying to beat products and services in a game where the established leader sets the standards and makes the rules is just foolhardy.  You’re not going to take their market share away without changing expectations or some serious creative destruction in the market.  Since the creative destruction does not appear to be coming, let’s wisen up a little bit, shall we?

When you start a small company and run a small company, you’re always looking for ways to pinch pennies.  Obviously you want to work with effective tools, but you don’t want to pay any more than you absolutely must.  Such was the case when we started Netvantage, constantly seeking out free ways to do things we otherwise thought we’d be paying for.  Initially there were only four people to account for, and three of us working on billable projects, so project management could be done on a whiteboard.  But now that we have a team of six, managine tasks and time becomes a bit more of an issue, and requires a little more firepower to manage.

Enter ClockingIT

I spent some serious time looking around for something that would meet our needs.  I had some experience working with tools like Base Camp and even a few home grown systems, but I just did not want to pay (much) for what would essentially be a task and time management tool for our staff.  Realizing that we essentially do three things - paid search, SEO, and analytics, I knew we didn’t need that robust of a system, but I couldn’t even find a simple task management system for free until I accidentally stumbled upon ClockingIT.

What I found was a system that can stand up to the best systems I’ve used.  In fact, it has a lot more than we actually need.  The system offers a pretty simple user interface, various access levels, task/project management, instant messaging, a time clock and a ton of other valuable tools…and did I mention it’s completely FREE?  No catches, no limited features or even limited number of users.  Add everything and everyone you want…go nuts!

Clocking IT tutorial

Just thought I’d share how impressed I’ve been with this tool.  If you’re looking for a free tool for your office or business, I recommend giving ClockingIT a shot.

Since I’ve been doing some video work lately, I figured it would be time to come back with another installment of the ever popular (at least by Google Analytics standards) HTMYVTDS series. The topic of today’s ridiculously acronymed segment? Post production. Thus far we’ve covered lighting, audio recording and framing, so once you’ve gotten those topics down, the last item to tackle is post production. There are some basic fundamentals that you’ll want to know as you begin any editing project, as it can be very easy to make editing mistakes that can ruin an otherwise worthy production.

• Jump cuts. Jump cuts are bad. Very bad. And nothing will make your video look more amateur than jump cuts. What are jump cuts, you ask?  Jump cuts are when a stationary camera cuts to the same shot with the subject(s) at a slightly different location.  Imagine if you cut out random sentences when someone was talking.  Their position would change and they would appear to twitch or “jump” around the screen.  This looks bad.  Very bad.  To avoid this, you can shoot with more than one camera and cut between them.  When this isn’t an option, it can help to change your camera shots frequently between tighter and looser shots.  This can provide the appearance of multiple cameras.Here’s a pretty good video covering these topics…although the guy is admittedly a bit weird, his points are nonetheless valid:

• Since that’s not always an option either, the best editing solution can be dip to color edits, or using b-roll.  If you have footage that covers the topic of conversation that you can briefly cut away to when the subject is talking, this works well, and is often what’s done in TV news.  When that’s not an option a simple dip to color dissolve of 1 second or less will give the viewer the impression of a change in time, but not jar them visually.  We do this regularly when we cut up talking head videos.
• Fix your audio.  Yes, you may have mic’d and mixed your footage well, but the very nature of the human voice will require you to do some fixing 99% of the time if you want quality audio.  Whether it’s the movement of the person or the peaks and valleys of their intensity, the audio will fluctuate, and it’s your job to even things out in editing to avoid highs becoming distortion and lows becoming inaudible.  Find a happy medium level that exports well and try to minimize the peaks and valleys where necessary.  I find that -6db works well as a midpoint for my work in Final Cut Pro.Music beds.  Be careful with them.  I know YOU may like the tune you have under the subject, but unless it’s more important than what they’re talking about, keep it to a dull roar.  -20 or less is probably safe, but give it a few listens to make sure you’re not muddying up the audio of a speaker.  For intro and outro music, make sure you drop to these levels while someone is talking and gently fade in and out.  Don’t be afraid to extend out those fades either.  Often the pre packaged transsitions are only one or two seconds, which is an awfully fast rise or fall in volume.  Stretch it out to 4 seconds or beyond for a nice smooth intro and outro.
• LAY OFF THE  CRAZY EFFECTS.  I know your fancy new editing program can do spins, slides and wipes and page peels and I’m sure your mother will be impressed.  But nothing will make a good production look worse than overdoing it with cheesy effects.  Quick question.  When was the last time you saw someone use one of the aforementioned effects in a movie?  A TV show?  Any professional video production?  Rarely to never.  Stick with the basics - cuts and dissolves (and don’t overdo these, either!)  Simpsons fans may remember Homer’s fascination with the star wipe, and you will also know that his producing career fizzled rather quickly.

Don't pull a Homer

We just made it past the one year mark.  The day in the office was pretty uneventful to be honest, but I couldn’t help but reflect on all of the things that happened in our first year of business, and the lessons I’ve learned.  To steal a cliche I used in my final weeks at Xerox, I’ll break things down Clint Eastwood style, “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.”

The Good

• My business partner is a brilliant guy, and a lot of fun to work with.  I couldn’t imagine taking this plunge with anyone else, and Joe has been critical in our success thus far, his networking and presentation skills have been on display all over Michigan.  There’s a reason I call him the mayor, after all.
• Our interns.  It started out with a lone intern last summer, and we’ve had a stream of them come through since then and they’ve been eager learners and a real asset to our output.
• Our partners.  Another huge reason for our success thus far has been our partners.  They’ve fueled our growth by partnering on projects (and in the case of GreenLite, they even built our new site!)  This past Thursday we invited everyone out to Claddagh’s for food and drink, and we had a good showing, and more importantly, a good time!
• Getting involved.  We’ve been very fortunate to be able to join so many great associations and organizations locally, which has allowed us to share our input and get some positive exposure.  We’ve taken part in presentations everywhere from Mason High School to Lansing Rotary, and enjoyed working with organizations like the South Lansing Business Association, Meridian Area Business Association, Capitol Area IT Council, Mid Michigan Red Cross, and the Creative Alliance (I’m sure I’m forgetting some, sorry in advance!)
• Our clients.  We wouldn’t have made it very far without them, and some of our earliest clients have continued referring even more business to us.  It took a bit of a leap of faith to climb on board with a new company, and our clients have been wonderful partners working with us to make our services succeed for them.
• Our new digs.  We moved from a tiny office in Okemos to 1,800 square feet next door to Capitol Research Services in East Lansing, which will allow us plenty of room to grow.
• The media.  Just today Spotlight Michigan stopped by to do a feature on us, and we’ve also received great press from the Great Lakes IT Report, Capital Gains, the Lansing State Journal and more.  The coverage has helped create awareness for our business, and the back links have been a big help to our SEO efforts (so if you want to feature us more often, just ask!)

The Bad

• The economy.  While the economy wasn’t on an upswing last May when we started Netvantage, we just didn’t foresee what started in late 2008.  Many a sleepless night happened late into 2008 as we wondered if we’d get undercut by the floundering economy.
• Learning as you go.  Truth be told, we have been pretty lucky in that we haven’t made any catastrophically stupid mistakes.  Thanks to some advice from our accounting consultant Andy Azelton, as well as some sage advice from friends and colleagues, we’ve steered clear of tragedy when it could have been all too easy to sink our ship.  That said, we definitely would change some things if we started over - client acquisition strategy and streamlining our early advertising amongst others.

The Ugly

• Perhaps the best part of this post is that there really hasn’t been an ugly stage to this past year.  Leaving a great job to start my own company in the teeth of a recession still sounds insane, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.  You only live once (depending on your religion, I suppose) and this was something that I just had to do.  2009 has been exceptional to Netvantage so far, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

For anyone who’s been involved in our successes thus far, my most sincere thanks.  If it weren’t for all of you, we really wouldn’t be where we are today.

Well, today I had the honor of being co-emcee of the PACE Awards and it was truly a wonderful experience.  The CMPRSA honored the best public relations campaigns and tactics from the many great agencies in Mid-Michigan.  There was a great turnout, and it was my first chance to meet a lot of these people who have put in such time and effort in promoting causes that improve the lives of so many of us in Mid-Michigan.  The agencies behind Prop 2, a variety of enforcement acts, the City Market and so many more were honored for their fine work in community relations, crisis communications and B2B campaigns among others.

There was a definite air of excitement, and it was made that much more fun by my co-emcee Julielyn Gibbons, who was having fun with the event from the moment I walked in and seemed to know everyone in the room.  That was a big help for a relative newcomer such as myself.  Being co-emcee also got me a great seat up front and I had a chance to sit with some of the day’s big winners, including Anne Readette and Kendall Wingrove.  Also at my table were members of the Michigan State PRSSA team that made the finals of the Bateman competition.

To say I was surrounded by talented people would be a major understatement.  It was a lot of fun to be a part of, and as if to prove the 2.0 theme of the event, @netvantage had added a bevy of followers before I even left the parking garage at the Kellogg Center.  The award for the quickest add?   The Rossman Group’s own Kelly Rossman McKinney!  One more award to add to the collection the Rossman Group pulled in.

Anyhow, I just felt like summing up the day’s events, as it really was a pleasure to take part in it.  In particular, thanks to Amber Shinn for approaching us to get involved with the event.  I’m already expanding the Netvantage Twitter circle, and if anyone feels like following me directly, you can find me on my personal account @AdamHenige.