Google’s Chairman, Eric Schmidt, Visits The U. of MN, Mayor R.T. Rybak, and Area Business Leaders Recognizing MN’s Economic Talent While Marketing Google Apps

Jeremy Swenson

On Wednesday, 11/30/11, MN was host to one of technology’s most successful business leaders, Eric Schmidt, who has an estimated net worth of over $6.2 billion dollars according to Forbes.com (2011).  Schmidt has held leadership roles at Sun Microsystems, was the CEO of Novell, and steered Google as CEO during their growth phase – 2001 to 2011.  Today, Schmidt serves as Executive Chairman of Google advising the CEO and Board of Directors.

 

Schmidt started his talk on the future of technology, asking the audience where innovation was going to come from.  He cited “open idea generation and collaboration” as a way to outthink old ways of doing things.  He went on to describe mobile devices running Google’s finely marketed Android operating system, suggesting some ideas his company brings forward get quashed due to privacy concerns in spite of convenience.  The example he cited was a mobile device application that allows you to predict where your contacts are going to be based on their mobile GPS trail, etc.  This is something I agreed with due to the possibility of misuse, and also because where you are is not always indicative of what you are doing.  Creating such a tool with more intelligent and retractable tracking abilities could have more market appeal for a targeted demographic.

At the later part of his presentation I had the opportunity to ask him (top photo) about the similarities of Google Voice video chat and Google + Hangout video chat.  As I had anticipated, he said, “the two will be merged”, which is a good way to streamline services and reduce marketing confusion between two related but fairly new products.  Schmidt also hailed the U of MN as an early adopter of the Google Apps product, and praised MN’s economy as highly capable of innovation­­­. 

Later in the day he met with technology entrepreneurs and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak (bottom photo) and toured the Minneapolis Grain Exchange building.  This leads to speculation that Google could open an office in Minneapolis to tap MN’s technology and marketing professionals, or at least that we have a growing market of small businesses that serve Google, like Augusto the Google Apps, Docs, and data migration consultancy.

Photos by Jeremy Swenson and John Hageman respectively. 

Jeremy Swenson, MBA, is an experienced marketer, marketing manager, communicator, sales person, and business analyst/academic.  He has extensive product marketing experience with financial products and retail electronics products (State Farm, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Intel, and Best Buy).  Since 2009 he has served on the MN AMA Social Media/Marcom Committee.  You can reach Jeremy at jer.swenson@live.com.  

Digital Series Speaker Profile: Marty Weintraub

Marty Weintraub

Author of "Killer Facebook Ads" and CEO of aimClear®

Marty kicks off another exciting MN AMA Digital Series with his keynote presentation "36 Ways to Make more Social Media Friends Who Matter" on 10/24 at Rojo Mexican Grill.

What is most exciting to you about the field of marketing today?
I love emergent technologies that allow marketers to target users based on their intrinsic characteristics. From deeply rooted predictions to the music people prefer, platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Twitter, blogs and forums make it possible to identify users based on documented engagement, and target them by paid and organic methods. My fascination culminated with a Wiley Sybex book book about Facebook Ads.

"Paid" means Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Paid Stumbles, YouTube ads and other channels' advertising programs. "Organic" means community management, reaching out and the systematic identification of authority users to target for engagement by various models.  Either way, it's a brave new world where cool marketers make forever-friends by giving and...actually being friendly.
Who or what has been the biggest influence on your career?
So far as the "who" goes, my favorite industry sage is Chris Sherman. He's a true futurist and one of the wheels behind SMX conferences. If you ever get a chance to attend and SMX conference, don't miss it. Danny Sullivan (Executive Editor of SearchEngineLand.con), Rand Fishkin (Braintrust and founder of SEOmoz), and Barry Schwartz (SearchEngineRoundTable.com) are my favorite bloggers in the business. My mom and dad were huge influences, as well.

So far as the "what" goes, my time at Berklee college of music was a huge deal for me. Though the first 25 years of my career were as a musician, the impact of my Berklee education looms large every day.
What are the top 3 resources you turn to for information to keeps you current in your field of marketing?
I read the DailySearchCap in SearchEngineLand every day, without fail and have for years.  Barry Schwartz is Executive News Editor of SEL and does a bang up job. Twitter is an awesome resource for staying current. Check out my Twitter profile and follow who I do. You can't go wrong. I go to a lot of conferences. I love SES, SMX, MediaPost SearchInsiderSummit, International Search Summit, and a numberof others.
What book are you reading now?
A Lapsed Anarchist's Approach to Building a Great Business, These management principles are from Zingerman's, a flagship Ann Arbor deli that does about 30 million a year between their businesses. The book includes an explanation of the “Twelve Natural Laws of Building a Great Business” and Writing and Using Guiding Principles” Zingerman’s co-founder Ari Weinzweig offers up eighteen fascinating "secrets" that help companies like aimClear grow. I am again listening to the audio book, "Good To Great" by Jim Collins. I love this book and revisit it every couple of years.
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing marketers today?
It's challenge that things move so quickly. It  takes me between 1-2 hours every night to study the trades' to stay current. If not aimClear could lose its edge. Fortunately now we have a staff of research artists to keep us current. Still, I study every night...and I mean every night.
What do you like to do in your free time?
Wine and food. Then I switch to food and wine. I also love canoeing in the BWCA, fishing, hiking and working out. 

Why Digital Recruiters are Different from the Other 99% of Recruiters

Kathryn Duncan

Looking for your best digital marketing employee? In today’s market, your ideal candidates aren’t the ones in the unemployment lines or the ones filling your inbox with applications for your open position. They’re unique because they are often “passive” candidates who have no problem finding a job, and probably aren’t even “looking.”

Before your next search, it pays to take into account what makes recruiting for digital so different:

Reality #1: Your best talent aren’t always coming from large corporations

Small digital marketing agencies often generate the best recruitment candidates. And the fact is, if you don’t already know who all those small companies are, you can easily overlook an entire pool of candidates who just happen to be flying completely off your radar.

Sifting through stacks of resumes that cite numerous company names you’ve never heard of can not only be daunting, but a time-waster. Without following the who’s who in the digital world, you’re wasting time, money and the opportunity to find your perfect candidate.

Reality #2: You must get your network in place before you need to fill that job

Emerging digital talent has traveled well beyond traditional venues into a new cutting-edge world. Simply put, it can be hard to earn their trust.

How do you earn that trust? Take the time to get to know them – well before they are actually looking to make a move. When you already know a potential candidate’s strengths, career highlights, and salary expectations, you will have established a valuable relationship that can be leveraged for your next hire.

Reality #3: Many hiring managers realize they don’t have the time and resources to build such relationships and are increasingly turning to specialized recruiters. 

Digital recruiters free up your time, allowing you to focus on managing and building your business.

Good recruiters already have well-established relationships of trust with candidates. They know the ropes, the players, and the salary requirements because their day-to-day lives are immersed in the culture and lifestyle of your future candidates. It’s their job to ally with you to help you build a compelling case to convince superior talent to join your team.

Speed and accuracy are crucial to a successful employee search. The pool of qualified digital recruits is small, so finding that perfect match for your company can be intimidating and expensive. When you allow an expert to match your opportunity to the best-qualified candidate, you will have no doubts you’ve got the right person for the job.

Kathryn Duncan is a partner of FRWD Co., a digital media services agency based out of Minneapolis. She has been relationship recruiting for five years and on any given night can be found networking with the rock stars of the Twin Cities’ digital industry.