The end of 2012 is approaching (if the world doesn’t end today that is). Here on State of Search we try to listen to what other people think and we like to let our friends talk. And our friends have had quite the year!
So this year we asked our friends and bloggers what their moment for 2012 was and what their wishes for 2013 are. Going up to the New Year we will tell you what the best moments of our friends were and around the New Year we will show you what they wished for. Towards the end you will hear from our bloggers.
Today it is time for the third group! Read the moments of Dixon Jones, Kevin Gibbons, Fili Wiese and Richard Gregory
Dixon Jones, Marketing Director at MajesticSEO
“There is no doubt about my “moment” of 2012. When the UK Search Awards was on in the posh part of the Enirates stadium I knew from the previous year that it was going to be a great black-tie event, so for once in a blue moon I manned to persuade my wife to join me – along with Majestic SEO clients and some of the team at Receptional. So I was all the more overwhelmed when – through my drunken haze at the end f the award ceremony” I heard my name being called as the UK “Search Personality of the Year”. I honestly had no idea I was even entered and seeing 400 people clapping and many standing was one of the proudest moments of my career in Search.
For possibly the first time, my wife realised why I Tweet in bed and why I fly around the world away from home SO much. I absolutely love being here at the start of search marketing and feeling part of the industry’s growth. I still recall the early years when “digital agencies” putt up banner adverts for Adidas or Nike when a user typed in “Internet Marketing” on Yahoo’s Inktomi engine. The targeting has come on a LONG way since then.
Thank you to everyone in the Search community for the award.”
Kevin Gibbons, Managing Director UK at BlueGlass Interactive, Inc.
“The triggering moment of 2012 for me was presenting at SMX London with Bas (of course!). The game has changed in so many ways in 2012 – but the research for in particularly really started to take things on a new route for me personally. My presentation looked at the impact of Google+ to SEO and split client campaigns into two sets; 1) those who did content marketing and had social profiles, vs 2) those who didn’t. The results really surprised me – because those who didn’t do content marketing saw a drop in organic traffic of 19.5% (over a 3-month period of Jan-Apr). And those who did saw a huge increase of 42.6%!
By pinpointing effort in this way, that was the moment that made me realise content marketing was achieving great results vs more traditional SEO. Shortly after this I made the decision to launch Quaturo, re-structuring into a new model as the UK’s first content marketing agency (this was back in June – there’s already quite a few now!) – and later teaming up with BlueGlass in November! So it’s been quite a busy year :)”
Fili Wiese, Head of SEO and Development at Netlead
“When Bas asked me for my moment of the year and my wishes for the new year ahead, I had to think really really hard and it actually took me a few days to come up with an answer I was happy with. Things change so much and so often, and it can sometimes be hard to look further than three to six months ahead. That said, I found my answers and I hope you enjoy them. Looking back at the last year, I must say that “my moment of the year 2012” was the month September (give or take a few days) because it was in this month that I got married and embarked on a new adventure by moving to Berlin (Germany) while leaving my interesting position as a senior support engineer at Google (Ireland). Although it was hard to leave my good friends and former team members behind, I found my way around Berlin and am now working for Netlead as Head of SEO and Development. In addition, I was also a speaker at SEOktoberfest in Munich (btw this conference really rocks!) and the OMCap 2012 in Berlin in the same month. All-in-all, September was a month of significant change for me and just reminds me again of the saying “the only constant in the universe is change”.“
Richard Gregory, Managing Director at Latitude Digital Marketing
“While lots of big things have happened in the digital world (the rise of tablets, the growth of G+ as a major social network, Google’s continued drive for cleaner organic search results) my highlight of the year actually was this year’s SAScon event in Manchester. For the third year we managed to pull together an great mix of speakers and topics, topped and tailed with a social buzz (and the odd jaegertrain) ensuring the event was a sell-out.”
Stay tuned for the next ones! Find the moments of:
Joost de Valk, Mel Carson, Jonathan Allen and Barry Schwartz
Becky Naylor, Marcus Tandler, Dennis Goedegebuure, Alex Moss and Julie Joyce
