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Randy Pausch delivered the “Last Lecture” after he learned that he’d developed terminal pancreatic cancer.

His video became an Internet sensation, with over 3,000,000 views on YouTube. Pausch was a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

You can find Randy Pausch’s home page here: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/

Randy Pausch died today at the age of 47.

He is survived by his wife, Jai Pausch and three children, Dylan, Logan and Chloe - to whom he dedicated his video lecture.

We’ve written a great deal about the education of a search engine marketer. Ron Jones’s column, SEM.edu, provides a wealth of information about learning the technical aspects of SEM and SEO.

Today we’ll take a brief look at the most important goal: achieving your dreams.

Here’s the complete video of the “Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch.

PRWeek reports that a new study conducted by Burson-Marsteller has found that 15% of Fortune 500 companies communicate with consumers via blogs.

The survey, conducted in February and March this year, found that 74 Fortune 500 companies actively maintain blogs, many of them technology-related corporations. The top four industries with blogs were: Computers and Office Equipment (IBM, Dell, etc.); Network and Other Communications Equipment (Motorola, Lucent Technologies, etc.); Semiconductors and Other Electrical Components (Intel, AMD, etc.); and Internet Services and Retailing (Amazon, Google, etc.).

Of course, the next step is learning how to optimize your blog. For that, may I recommend that representatives of Fortune 500 companies attend the “SEO Through Blogs & Feeds” session on Wednesday, Aug. 20, at SES San Jose. The session will be moderated by Rebecca Lieb, Contributing Editor, ClickZ, and the speakers are:
* Chris Boggs, Search Engine Watch Expert & Manager, SEO, Brulant, Inc.
* Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Online Marketing
* Amanda Watlington, Owner, Searching for Profit
* Daron Babin, CEO, Webmaster Radio

Check out the session to learn more about the unique advantages that optimized blogs and RSS feeds offer to companies large and small.

Measurement and analytics are crucial to a successful online marketing campaign, but the relationship between online marketing and offline purchases has been a tricky one to figure out. But as more attention is given to the matter, we’re learning more about the connection.

Media measurement company, Nielsen Online, conducted a survey to examine the relationship between online research and offline purchases. They found that 80% of participants who had recently bought consumer electronics from a brick and mortar store whose site they visited first.

• 53% bought from the site where they spent the most time.
• 58% would choose the internet if they could only use one channel to conduct product research on consumer electronics. Only 25% chose the brick and mortar store.

Nielsen used “pet food” as another category to examine the online/offline connection. They used this category to examine a niche that might not need as much research. I personally think this was a bad topic for that purpose due to last year’s pet food crisis. But let’s check out the data anyway.

Here’s the percentages of pet food survey participants who would use the internet to research each topic.

• 48% Learn about nutritional specifications
• 45% Learn about product ingredients
• 45% Learn about recalls
• 40% Learn more about safety issues
• 40% Find sales/promotions

Of course, as we learned yesterday, more and more people are turning to the internet to make purchases due to rising gas costs.

But the message is clear, online marketing and company websites impact consumer purchasing decisions.

What do you think of the data? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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On-demand search provider, SLI Systems has upgraded Learning Search, a hosted site search solution. The update will include:

• Faster generation of results. Search queries will return results up to 50% faster.
• Redesigned merchandising console. SLI says the new design will help customers more easily change the order of search results, create banner ads, and customize landing pages.
• Auto Complete. This is a new feature which provides search suggestions.

Shaun Ryan, CEO of SLI Systems had this to say about the announcement:

“We’re always looking for new ways to improve our search solutions, and to give our customers more flexibility in how they can maximize the functionality of our offerings. The newest enhancements help everyone, regardless of their technical ability, to make decisions about merchandising, and make changes themselves — without having to rely on their IT departments.”

Geoff Ramsey, the co-founder and CEO of eMarketer, recently shared 0.001% of the information that his team of researchers and analysts knows about Internet market trends during his morning keynote at Electronic Retailer’s LiveEdit Lab.

Why can I be so precise?

He presented 60 slides out of the 54,000 charts available to eMarketer’s subscribers. You do the math.

Now, I’m not going to try recapping all 60 of his slides here.

Instead, I’m going to highlight three key market trends that Ramsey touched on. Plus, I’ll pass along his analysis of how each of these new trends is profoundly affecting the business landscape.

Slide #15

The first market trend that is worth highlighting is the percentage of Internet users who are watching video online monthly.

According to eMarketer, it’s 73% – or 137 million Americans. And by the end of the year, eMarketer estimates that 154 million, or 80% of Internet users, will be watching online video.

About a year ago, I reported on a survey conducted by PR News and Medialink which found that “PR pros aren’t using online video as often as they’re watching it.”

Well, they better start using it now. Online video isn’t an emerging market trend. It’s already emerged – big time!

Slide #18

Ramsey said, “Online video is a great way to engage with your customers.” And he recommended:
• Placing video footage of your products on your Web site (e.g., create a video demo!);
• Placing video ads on other content video sites, e.g., on YouTube and product category-related sites; and
• Creating your own Webisodes – content so entertaining that people will come to watch it (and share it with others).

Slide #24

The second market trend that deserves serious attention is the percentage of large companies that already have a blog. According to JupiterResearch, it’s 34%.

Last August, at Search Engine Strategies San Jose, I caused a stir in the blogosphere when I said, “Getting excited that you’ve got a blog is like getting excited that “the new phone book’s here!’”

Now, less than a year later, it appears that if your company doesn’t have a blog already, it’s going to feel even more like Steve Martin in “The Jerk.”

Slide #28

Ramsey said, “Advertisers should explore creative ways to leverage the power of blogs.” And he advised:
• Monitoring the blogosphere not only with professional services, but also on your own;
• Working with existing relevant bloggers, in ways that will encourage them to link to your site;
• Placing advertising on popular blogs; and
• Creating your own blogs — to create a community of interest around your product.

Slide #44

While the third market trend didn’t surprise me, it may come as a shock to some others in the industry.

A survey by AdMedia Partners found that 69% of senior media execs think social media is “over-hyped.” (I should disclose that AdMedia Partners is a client.)

And Hitwise has validated this skepticism by reporting that only 4% of US online retail traffic is driven by social sites, which is significantly less than the 29% of online retail traffic that is driven by search engines.

Slide #48

So, what’s a marketer to do? Ramsey outlined four strategies for gaining consumer insights into social networking:
• Looking, listening, lounging and learning;
• Advertising on the big social networking portals, e.g., MySpace and Bebo;
• Getting vertical with your social advertising on smaller, niche sites like Flip.com; and
• Building your own social network, e.g., Procter & Gamble’s Capessa community site.

Now, six slides out of 60 are only 10% of Ransey’s presentation. And that’s just 0.0001% of the information that eMarketer knows about Internet market trends.

So, you may want to dig deeper. Nobody wants to be the last one on the block to spot key market trends.

Search engine marketers in the US tend to look West when trying to spot new SEM trends. As Frederick Jackson Turner first observed back in 1893, the frontier has always had a significant influence on American perceptions.

But, if you stare into the sunset too long, you might not see the other “new frontier” North of the Canada-United States border that’s also shaping search engine marketing trends. While Search Engine Strategies Toronto ended last week, I’m still sorting through some of the new SEM trends that I spotted by looking in a different direction.

One of the more intriguing trends that I noticed was this one: More than 80 employees of the Yellow Pages Group (YPG), Canada’s largest directory publisher, attended SES Toronto. YPG also owns and manages Canada’s most visited online directories, YellowPages.ca and Canada411.ca, so the company is no stranger to local search or Search Engine Strategies Toronto.

Now, I’ve often encouraged SES alumni as well as first time attendees of Search Engine Strategies to “bring a couple of colleagues along with you” to an upcoming SEM conference. And I’ve seen companies send teams of more than a dozen people to other SES conferences. But, I’ve never seen a group quite as large as the one I saw at SES Toronto last week.

So, I tracked down one of the key players behind this new trend. His name is Darby Sieben and he’s the Director of Online Services at the Yellow Pages Group. You can watch my interview with Darby on the SES Conference Expo channel on YouTube.

Yellow Pages’ Darby Sieben at SES Toronto 2008

Or you can read my interview with Darby Sieben of the Yellow Pages Group below. He has some very interesting insights into small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Q: The Yellow Pages directory story started 100 years ago by connecting Canadian buyers with sellers. YellowPages.ca went online in 1995. Has the Internet dramatically changed the way people approach the shopping experience?

A: Yes and No. By this I mean, the need of connecting buyers and sellers has not changed and never will. The way in which they go about doing it has changed and will continue to evolve and the Internet is only one way. Consumers are more complex today and depending on the need and particular circumstances will connect using a combination of ways including print, internet, voice, mobile, etc. The key piece of advice to a SME in this evolving world is to understand that this is about syndication of their information across multiple media platforms.

Q: According to comScore Media Metrix, the Yellow Pages Group reaches 41% of all online Canadians — and ranks #8 out of the top properties in Canada. In the United States, the SuperPages.com Network reaches about 16% of all online Americans and ranks about #21 out of the top properties in the United States. What’s going on in the Great White North?

A: The main difference between Canada and the US is the fact that the Yellow Pages brand in Canada is trademarked; we are the sole owners and users of the brand. In the US, the value and strength of the brand has been diluted as there is confusion. Second, I believe we are a very progressive directory player. We were the first to sign a deal to license data to Google, we work with all the major search players and we continue to push the envelope on technologies such as our 411 voice services, SMS, IM and our mobile platforms. Syndication of our advertiser’s information is very important. We believe in the anywhere, anytime and on any platform to get information.

Q: The content and keywords found in a print advertisement in the Yellow Pages Group and contained in a business profile on YellowPages.ca are fully searchable on the web and made available to your online partner network including Google, MSN and Yahoo! Isn’t that that a strange brew?

A: We don’t think so. If we examine a key barrier to search, that would be content. YP.ca and the search players are only as good as content that is digitized. The issue is that half of Canadian SME’s don’t have a website. We view print as the start of a very incredible journey for a SME because it contains very important pieces of content that consumers look for in the buying process. Those ads get digitized; keywords extracted, bucketized and distributed on YP.ca for our users as well as being pushed to search engines who index. It creates some incredible synergies and creates an ROI for our advertisers. To add one point here – a few years back we launched an initiative called the WebNumber. This is where we have mapped every phone number in our directory to a URL. For example – http://7804517857.yp.ca (this is the phone number for a Harley Davidson Dealership in Edmonton, Alberta). If you type that URL in – you land on their merchant page and can see their video and a host of rich content about that business. Many of our clients will register a domain name and simply point it to their page instead of investing in expensive design services.

Q: More than 80 people from the Yellow Pages Group attended Search Engine Strategies Toronto last week. Why did you bring everyone except the McKenzie brothers to the conference?

A: Well Bob and Doug are launching a cartoon version of their hit from SCTV to be aired this fall, so they were unavailable. On a serious note it is all about further learning’s and understanding. In 2007 we signed Canada’s first reseller agreement with Google and have bundled AdWords with our print and YellowPages.ca advertising. We also launched last year full customized search marketing solutions based on a budget spend and have been testing and continue to sell a guaranteed clicks product. To really become the CMO for small businesses you need to understand all sources of generating results for your customer.

Q: You mentioned that you are bundling Google with your print and YellowPages.ca advertising – isn’t Google considered a competitor?

A: We are definitely in a world of cooperative competition. You referenced ComScore earlier; here is a key fact that best explains the strategy. If we examine the unduplicated audience between Google Maps and our properties – what you realize is that there is a significant boost in audience reach. Both of us have around 31-32% reach and combined we reach over 50% - that is incredible for any SME who is looking to be placed in the path of consumers when they are making buying decisions. One thing I would like to add is that in terms of the purchase funnel – YellowPages.ca generates a very high ROI because by the time users come to us they tend to already know what they want to buy or are very close to a buying decision and need to do some comparisons. We tend to be further down the purchase funnel than search engines and the measurement for SME’s has to go beyond clicks to include phone calls and store visits. As we often say, nobody comes to YellowPages.ca to surf they come to buy and this remains a key focus for us.

The SEMPO Institute is teaming with SIM Partners and i.c. stars to create search marketing career opportunities for young adults in Chicago. The president of SIM Partners, Jon Schepke, sits on the board of the SEMPO Institute. His company has been working with i.c. stars for over four years.

“As co-chair of the SEMPO Institute, it made perfect sense to connect these two organizations when the SEMPO Institute launched in 2007,” says Schepke.

i.c. stars is a nonprofit organization designed to develop community leaders in Chicago. The organization uses project-based learning to groom adults (who have at least a high school diploma or GED) for careers in business and technology.

“The i.c.stars partnership with SEMPO and SIM Partners has enabled a new and growth-oriented career option for graduates in the area of Internet Marketing,” states Eric Lannert, vice president of i.c. stars. He continues, “the volunteer efforts of SIM Partners have enabled us to modify our internal curriculum so students can manage their own Google Adwords campaigns for startup websites and gain experience. At a time of economic uncertainty, we see this partnership as a strategic initiative to continue providing meaningful and challenging job opportunities for our students.”

Earlier in the year, SEMPO Chairperson Dana Todd included expanding the Institute’s baseline for education in her mission for the industry organization.

Related Reading:
Top 10 Toughest Jobs to Fill? The Top 3 Are In Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Marketing Career Development
Search Marketing: A Rewarding Career Path

With SES Toronto coming up June 16-18, 2008, we interviewed June Li, the founder and managing director of ClickInsight. June will be one of the speakers at the “Giving Credit Where It’s Due: Which Campaign Sold What?” session, which will be held on Wednesday, June 18, from 4:00 to 5:15 p.m.

June has over 20 years of e-business, marketing, manufacturing, logistics and sales experience. She is also an associate instructor for the web analytics program at the University of British Columbia, as well as an instructor for a web analytics course at the University of Toronto Professional Learning Centre, Faculty of Information Studies.

June has spoken and moderated at the Emetrics Summit and is a contributing writer to OneDegree.ca and the AIMS blog.

Q. You founded ClickInsight, a business that creates successful strategies for clients to multiply their online leads and sales. Can you provide SEW readers with a sample of some of your latest Web analytics projects? What is the latest “buzz” in the field of Web analytics?

A. We use web analytics to help businesses accelerate their results from marketing initiatives. Almost all of our business breakthrough projects involve an analysis of search marketing, either organic or paid. And since Canada is a net exporter of goods and services, with the Canadian dollar as strong as it is, there’s been increasing interest in using search to get more qualified leads. Cold calling is such a probability game, why not attract the buyers who are need your goods and services and are looking for what you have to offer?

Analytics is a necessity for defining baselines for improvement. Businesses that have not optimized their site for search or are not using paid search should look at their organic search keywords using their web analytics system. What searches are driving traffic to their site? More often than not, the search keywords include just the company name in some way. This means only the people who already know about your organization are coming to your site, and you’re not reaching new prospects. And if you are getting generic, non-branded searches, don’t stop there? You may not be visible to your target market, and unless you drill down to see who your visitors are, you won’t know what you’re missing.

What’s the latest buzz? Social media measurement and mobile analytics. Both have great linkages to search and positioning on the search results page.

Q. How does your company make use or not make use of Google analytics?

A. We and many of our clients make use of Google Analytics (and other tools) to assess the impact of marketing and site changes. We want to see whether our changes have the intended impact on where our visitors are coming from, what’s driving them to our sites, and what’s not. Google Analytic’s new benchmarking availability is interesting and has definitely triggered some very interesting discussions. We also use Google Analytics to mine and analyze onsite search to see what people think you should have on your website. Perhaps what they’re looking for isn’t present or is difficult to find.

But Google Analytics can’t tell you what might work better. So we also use and recommend Google Website Optimizer for testing alternate options and 4Q (4Q.iperceptions.com) to “listen” to the voice of the customer. Without listening, you won’t have the insight on what might be improved or the reason why people behave as they do on your site. And if this still doesn’t provide what you need, surveys and usability testing might be next.

Q. What got you fascinated about Web analytics to begin with? Did you ever suffer any of the experiences that so many of your clients come to your company for to help solve?

A. Since I started with web analytics on the client side, I’m quite familiar with the issues companies have managing web analytics data, reports and analysis.

Without analytics, you’re guessing as to what’s happening on your website and with your online marketing initiatives. And who can afford to guess, particularly now that we’re seeing the economy slowing down and in Canada, coping with a stronger dollar. Web analytics won’t solve everything (it’s not magic and it’s not perfect) but you’re much better off with the insights analytics can provide than none at all. Web analytics practices continue to evolve, integrating with data mining and expanding to include social media and mobile analytics.

Q. What excites you about Search Engine Strategies Toronto? What do you look forward to most?

A. This will be the 4th Search Engine Strategies I’ll have attended in Toronto, and they get better every time. Last year, I was happy to see there was much more discussion “beyond the click” and about landing page conversion, the money-making “value event”. I’m sure this year will bring yet another advance in the community.

SES is a great place to gauge the pulse of the search community, where businesses are at with search, learn what leading organizations are doing, and have fun discussions about the current myths of search and what the crawlers are up to now, where they’re going next.

Q. You teach a Web Analytics Training course at the University of Toronto. Do you plan to draw upon any of it for your presentation at SES Toronto?

A. Absolutely. The Web Analytics training course at the University of Toronto is an introductory course intended to help those who need to show value from website content understand not only the technical basics but also the management and organization pre-requisites for success. Key to using web analytics is a clear understanding your goals. Only then can you set up your analytics plan to properly (and sanely) assess performance and progress towards attaining your goal. I’m really looking forward to the panel I’m on. We’re tackling the topic of Multi-Channel Measurement. Goal setting is critical to ensuring you don’t drown in multi-channel data and can actually make sense of what you’re measuring.

Q. Put on your prognosticator helmet: What is the future of Web analytics? Say over the next 10 to 20 years?

A. 10-20 years? We’re having problems with 2-3 years! Web analytics will become “analytics”. With new online and integrated technologies proliferating, the tools to measure will evolve, perhaps not fast enough but they’ll evolve. For sure things will get more complicated, and that’s what keeps it interesting and fun!

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