Insights from Nebo

Fall is well upon us, which means one thing:

Fantasy Football.

Despite being a huge football fan, I never understood the appeal of the Fantasy phenomenon. “Wait, you play a virtual game with NFL players… you mean like The Sims?”

Yet every year, I felt like I was missing out. Something huge was happening that I wasn’t a part of and I wanted in. So this season, I joined a random Yahoo league, named a team, and boom! I’ve become part of the craze.

Turns out, everything I thought about Fantasy Football was wrong. Sure it’s like The Sims…. The Sims on steroids.

Imagine 10 years ago, leaving the airport at 2 AM in a new city with no contacts and no plans. The idea that you could use your phone to find and book a nearby hotel (based on ratings and reviews), request and pay for a ride (and get an arrival estimate), and make breakfast plans - all while messaging friends across the country - was thought to be incredible. “Blue sky” thinking, they called it.

And yet, now it’s all here. It’s amazing, but also completely normal. Marketing is different. SEO is certainly different. But in many ways it’s still the same. Like we outlined in our new definition of SEO, it’s still about Solving Problems, Engaging Audiences, and Optimizing Everything.

The new “blue sky” thinking in 2014 is about the Internet of Things—the shift to assigning every single thing an IP address and connecting it to the Internet.

When we think about success and growth within a community or organization, two groups stand out to me most: Individualism, which is defined as the “moral stance, political philosophy, ideology or social outlook that emphasizes the moral worth of the individual” and conformism, or collectivism, which is “an ideology that emphasizes the interdependence of every human”.

Working in digital, we hear buzzwords like “innovator”, “visionary”, “revolutionary” and “thought leader”, and we think those words represent the best qualities in people who have made or will make a difference in this world. We tend to consider those who are considered original, extreme, no-nonsense and bold as the leaders who stand out most to us in our fields, right?

If you were to play buzzword bingo at a marketing conference this year, “the funnel” would be a guaranteed get.

It’s a buzzword now, but the concept of a buyer funnel is not new. Back in 1898, a man named E. St. Elmo Lewis was credited (though not definitively) to have developed the first idea of a purchase funnel.  He defined the stages of the buying funnel as follows:

Search engines are constantly making improvements to ensure users are met with quality results. As algorithms are updated, ranking factors change, and guidelines become revised, it’s imperative that SEOs stay apprised of these changes. As we transition from summer to fall, there have been significant updates; so we’re recapping the major changes for you to stay on the top of the latest SEO happenings!

It’s officially Fall, which means one thing for Paid Media professionals: holiday strategy planning. If you haven’t gotten there yet, don’t worry! In addition to major platform updates, this month’s post is full of guides, articles, and research to start you on your way to a successful holiday season.