So what do you find yourself doing around here? Any particular favorite aspects of the job?

Most days I’m fighting to cross off every line on my To Do list (it’s a pretty great feeling when I actually do!). My number one priority is always keeping our clients’ SEO services on schedule and making sure their sites are reaching new heights on Google. I sometimes have to spend my days staring at spreadsheets for hours and trying to keep from going cross-eyed. It’s a tough job, but somebody’s go to do it!  Some of my favorite aspects include seeing the progression of a client’s rankings when we’ve put in the work for them, and being able to show them how valuable Internet marketing really is! Oh, and I also love the office on Fridays at approximately 5:00pm, thanks to fellow Influencer Joe Luft.

Have you done any Internet or marketing work before working at SI? How’s the transition been so far?

My education background is in advertising, and I’m a twenty-something who grew up with computers, so that should tell you something about my experience with the Interwebz. I’ve worked at small ad agencies and even a non-profit where I was the communcations manager and developed their social media presence quite a bit, so I like to think I know a thing or two about Internet marketing. SEO is definitely new-ish to me, but so far the transition has been pretty smooth.  I’m learning a lot about SEO and the people here are pretty cool!

Working at SI is pretty dang fun, but be honest — what would you be doing all day if left to your own devices?

When I think about an entire day with no responsibilities, a few things that come to mind (not necessarily in this order):
1. Sleeping late
2. Hanging out with my dog, Lila
3. Facebooking
4. Baking sweet delicacies
5. Eating said sweet delicacies
6. Exploring NOLA (yes, there are things about NOLA that even us natives are still discovering)
7. Watching silly YouTube videos
8. Tweeting about said YouTube videos
9. Traveling the world
10. Enjoying the company of family and friends
11. Laughing

Last, but certainly not least — if you were a traditional NOLA landmark, what NOLA landmark would you be?

Maybe a lesser-known “landmark” but definitely a NOLA staple, I’d be Hansen’s Sno-Bliz on Tchoupitoulas Street, the creators of the first shaved ice machine. It may be November, but I’m a self-proclaimed snoball connoisseur and lover of all things sweet and syrupy year-round.  I’d probably devour a snoball in the middle of a snow storm (if we ever had one of those here), given the chance.
Try one of my all-time favorites from your local snoball stand and it just might change your life:
The classic: chocolate snoball stuffed (not topped) with vanilla soft-serve
NOLA favorite: pralines and cream snoball topped with condensed milk

Let’s get this out of the way: if you were a punctuation mark, what punctuation mark would you be?

A parenthesis comes to mind. I am known to interrupt with conversation-halting, absurd parenthetical comments. What can I say, it’s a gift.

You’re a member of SI’s Content Team, copy-editing, re-punctuating and polishing a huge array of different written pieces to go out for our clients. Be honest: do you go homicidal at the sight of a dangling modifier or poorly-placed comma, or have you become totally inured to bad grammar?

I try to fight my snob tendencies when it comes to grammar. If you ask most chefs, they will tell you their favorite food is something greasy and messy, rather than a perfectly plated dish. Sometimes a butchered sentence is the funniest thing I read all day, so I should just learn to love it. But I still have to delete it.

Like fellow Content Team member Colette, you have a journalism background. How did you get interested in the written word? Do you incorporate any of those skills into your work at SI?

My family is always discussing books, so my interest was probably inherited. Studying journalism seemed like a good outlet for that passion. I think the skills I picked up at newspapers are helping me cope with the pace of work at SI.

In addition to being new to SI you’re new to New Orleans in general — what brought you down here? How has it been so far?

I thought about moving to New Orleans for years, but I always ended up somewhere else. Good food and music is really all I need, so I have been more than happy here so far.

Besides writing and editing, what else do you find yourself doing here?

Playing the guitar, listening to music and finding new places to eat are taking up most of my free time right now. Other than that, I’m just trying to meet new friends and have fun.

How did you get into marketing? Were you interested in online models or SEO from the start?

After I moved out here to New Orleans, I was really interested in being a part of a new and growing field. I have a background in Communications, so I knew that I wanted to be in a field that involved collaborating with people and businesses of various backgrounds. Search marketing is something that I think is often over-looked and a little unknown. It feels pretty great being a part of a field that is constantly evolving. Everything I learn here is a really valuable part of growing business and brand awareness.

How’s the transition to SI been? Picking up any new tips and tricks?

The transition with Search Influence has been really nice. It’s a fairly laid back and collaborative environment that prides itself on getting things done correctly. I’m learning more here than many jobs I have had, and I enjoy the challenge. I’m also enjoying the fact that I am being taught new things and taking on new tasks with each different client project I work on.

As far as tips and tricks, I can’t share the “secret sauce” — but it’s cool knowing that I’m a part of it!

What do you find yourself doing around the office? Any particular favorites?

On a normal day, I find myself picking up where I left off from the day before and making sure my “To Do” list has lots of crossed out tasks! Having our clients stay on schedule and increase in rankings is priority. I try my best to make sure we keep things moving in the right direction.

My favorite thing would probably be collaborating with my co-workers. It’s a really great feeling when we all work towards one main goal and succeed, knowing that our work paid off. I think we all work well together and respect each others’ ideas and strengths. It makes me feel lucky to be working with such a smart and dynamic group. — Oh! And I really love randomly making my co-workers laugh. I’d like to think they find me funny, so I try to keep things pretty light as often as possible.

In a perfect world, what would you be doing all day?

In a perfect world, I’d probably be working as a Production Manager for a really awesome, successful comedic sitcom — or a ghost hunting show — or a reality show. A movie? Anything to keep me laughing… or crying. There’s something about knowing that you’re part of such a large outlet that reaches out to so many people. And your name is there for the credit. Oh, and Ebay. Can’t forget my small Ebay obsession.

Most important of all: if you were an 80′s teen pop sensation, which 80′s teen pop sensation would you be?

Tiffany. She was a teenage pop sensation that did a mall tour! You can’t get any cooler than that. Stone-washed Jordache jeans, denim jacket, big earrings and teased hair: awesome! Thousands of terribly dressed screaming fans: amazing! 20 years later you have immortal songs to prove it: oh yeah!

Joe showing off that rad 'tude and kicking style we love him for.

First, and arguably most vital, question: if you were an antiquated dance craze, what antiquated dance craze would you be?

Honest answer, the Cha Cha Slide. It takes me back to my days in middle and high school. Second choice would be “The Dougie” mainly cause my thirteen year old sister listens to it and does the dance at least twice a day. Guess those really aren’t antiquated, already failing at this interview.

So what do you find yourself doing around here?

On a daily basis I’m making edits to the code on our clients’ sites and publishing content for our clients. Whenever people ask me this, I always kind of pause and think for a second, then ramble on about computers and codes and the Google and by the time I look up that person is no longer standing there and I’m talking to myself about the computers. I’d say all my fellow Search Influencers are in that same boat, so many different things happening around here on a daily basis.

Have you done any Internet or marketing work before working at SI? How’s the transition been so far?

Just kidding! Here's the man himself.

Yes, I have. I started dabbling with internet marketing in college when I worked for a sneaker store in the French Quarter. After a couple months working there they set me up with an admin account for their blog and I really got into it. From working at that sneaker store I was able to meet a lot of other local business owners and got a side gig running a blog for a men and women’s clothing store Uptown, and eventually created an e-commerce site for them. So my main focus, prior to SI, has been Internet marketing for fashion. I can’t even count how many pictures of shoes I have on my computer right now. I’d say a thousand.

The transition at Search Influence has been fun and challenging. Instead of managing every aspect of a couple of websites, I’m in and out of numerous sites making edits on a daily basis. Along with working on more sites, I am doing more in-depth edits to site templates.

How did you acquire an interest in coding? Any tips or favorite tools of the trade?

I got interested in coding pretty soon after I started blogging. While WordPress and Tumblr can make some pretty cool templates, I always wanted to make the blogs I worked on a little more unique. During winter break of my senior year of college I bought a massive book about HTML and CSS coding and started poking around the world of Hyper Text Markup Language and Cascading Style Sheets.

Biggest tip I would offer is to do it every day.

What’s your favorite thing to do around the office? In an ideal world, what would you be sitting around doing all day?

The most favorite thing I do around the office happens at 5 o’clock on the dot every Friday, I play “This Is How We Do It” by Montell Jordan out loud on my computer. Lets the people know it’s the weekend.

In an ideal world I’m a “Whispers in the Dark” DJ on an old school Hip-Hop and RnB radio station spinning slow jams for the lovers all around the world. By law “Whispers in the Dark” programs can only occur during the hours of 11 at night until 2 or 3 in the morning (it’s whispers in the dark, not the light), so for the other portion of my day I’d like to design, clothing, sneakers, furniture. I’ve always found those things to be the most interesting and often overlooked forms of art.

Personality test time: if you were an old-school gaming system, what old-school gaming system would you be?

The Nintendo Entertainment System, all the way. It’s my favorite to this day, and the reason why is because it was a low-cost platform to develop for and because of that, it had a lot of really wonky games on it. My childhood was spent on gambling/role playing game hybrids and far eastern war strategy. Guess it gave me a taste for the wild and weird, which comes in handy when you write about topics like I do!

So you’ve been a blogger-at-large for some time now– how’d you get into the community?

I moved to Los Angeles in late 2005 with the idea I was going to change careers and try to shift towards writing, and I ended up meeting some great circles of people in creative careers. One friend worked in comics and I used to hang out with him while he drew panels, which was tremendously inspiring. One day I mentioned to him I wanted to start a blog about gaming, and he looked up from his work directly at me and said, “Why haven’t you done it yet?” I never forgot that moment — it was the pivot that turned me in a new direction. I started my own gaming/tech blog, pitched myself as a freelancer to my favorite blogs, and cut my teeth over at several of the Gawker network blogs. Six years and a whole lot of published work have passed, and somehow I’m still scribbling.

As one of the more regular writers for the SI blog, have you noticed any incongruity between writing for SEO/marketing topics and the more pop-culture focused stuff you’ve done in the past? Any skills you’d like to hone or bad habits to get rid of?

I think the key to reaching people with any topic, be it pop culture, SEO or dog shampoo, is a passionate voice. If you believe strongly in the thing you are telling your audience, it is inevitable they will catch some of your enthusiasm and perhaps want to learn what it is that generates that enthusiasm. The more you continue to pursue those topics, the more you evolve as an authority. One thing I see on some SEO blogs is writers picking apart other SEO practices. I think challenging how people do things is fine, but pop culture suffers from this issue too — arguments cause page views and generate discussion, but they don’t necessarily get anything new accomplished. When I sit down to write something for an audience, I consider what I am going to say, and what effect it will have on my audience. Is it colored with my opinions, and if so, are they expressed in a way that is well-supported with evidence and makes sense? Or are they a rant? What can I contribute to the community I am writing for, in other words.

I always love a chance to hone my skills on subjects outside of my natural pool of knowledge, so the SI blog is a nice arena for me to explore more SEO-based issues as well as social media, which is rapidly becoming a favorite topic.

What do you find yourself doing around SI? Anything you’re excited about coming in to work on? In a perfect world, what would you be doing all day?

I tend to focus on content here at SI, and my favorite thing to do is edit it and tweak it to make it better. Once an editor, always an editor! One thing I’ve actually been enjoying seeing on my task list is press releases, because I have never written them for any other job, and I think it’s a great skill to have. I’m getting better, but I still have a long way to go before they feel easy to do. Challenge is great — I have always thrived on it.

Let’s see, in a perfect world… believe it or not, I would still be working. I thrive on accomplishment, so I don’t think I could just go to the beach (although I would totally put the four day work week into effect!) I feel like I could do a wide variety of things that would make me very happy. But as long as I’m writing, I feel good. I guess in my dream world, I would write about Japanese history and culture all day, cause you know, I’m kind of a nerd like that. And have to take “business trips” to Kyoto frequently, of course…

Cranking out a steady stream of creative material can be hard — any techniques or tricks you use to get yourself psyched up or bust through writer’s block?

My key rule for writer’s block is pretty old school: Write every day. If I could frame these words and put them over the desk of every writer who has ever struggled, I would. If you ignore going to the gym, it gets harder — writing is no different. Just keep flexing the muscle. If I don’t feel like writing, I sit down and I do it anyway. Maybe it won’t be as good at first, but eventually I fall into the rhythm. Staring at the blank page expecting yourself to perform on some perfect level is worse because it’s paralyzing. No matter what you write, always write something.

Hard-hitting question time: if you were an amphibian, what kind of amphibian would you be?

A newt! (I’d get better.)

Tell us about yourself! Are you a NOLA resident originally?

I’m from a town a little south of New Orleans, but I’ve been living in and around the city for the past 6 years or so. If I lived on Sesame Street, I’d relate the most to Burt… Although in real life, I’m probably more of an Ernie.
Apparently, I am pretty terrible at answering the question “tell us about yourself.” I don’t know how I got this job.

You’re one of our newer employees — how long ago did you start? How’s SI been so far?

I started at the beginning of August, so I’ve been at SI for a month and half now. It feels like I’ve been here longer, but in a good way. I really like my job– the work is challenging, and there is always coffee. And now that the hazing has stopped, I’m almost completely healed! Just kidding. The hazing was gentle.

What do you find yourself doing around the office? Any particular favorites or disliked tasks?

I do all the usual stuff that IMAs do, like submissions and lots of copying and pasting. But lately, I’ve been getting a lot of graphic design tasks.
I was a freelance designer off and on for about 7 years, and any freelancer will tell you that it’s soul crushing. Designing at SI is heaven. Everyone’s been really open and supportive, and I’ve done everything from massive infographics, to logo retouching, to making a baby-on-board Photoshop of one of our (male) co-workers. (I still feel like I have to apologize for that every time I see him, too. Luke, I’m sorry!)

How did you get into graphic design? Any favorite tools of the trade? Do you do fine art as well?

I think I’ve been using Photoshop to make graphics for my various websites since version 5.0, maybe? That was in the 90s. I know Photoshop better than I know most people, and we’ve come a long way together.
My favorite nerd tool of all time is my Wacom tablet (an Intuous4). I bought it last year, and it’s completely changed the way I think about design. It’s like drawing with pen on paper… but, like, way more amazing. I could go on and on about layers and tilt sensitivity, but I also still want to sound interesting, so… yeah. Wacom tablet. It’s awesome.
And I draw all kinds of stuff! I have a Tumblr that gets seasonally neglected, but I post illustrations and doodles when I’m in the mood. And I’m almost always scribbling on something.

Thanks to Kate for her tireless work making SI’s projects beautiful inside and out! Keep an eye on this space for many more informative and innovative graphic pieces in the near future.

Tell us about yourself! Where’d you go to school? Are you a NOLA resident originally?

I recently moved back after a little over a year in California. I spent this past winter in Lake Tahoe skiing and loved every second of it but I missed my family and had to be closer to home. I grew up in New Orleans and am glad to call it home again. I moved to Atlanta when I was a teenager and always knew I would be back.

You’re one of our newer employees — how long ago did you start? How’s SI been so far?

I’ve been here 2 months now and am enjoying the different challenges I am faced with each day. SI has been great so far, as I have learned different things everyday I have been here. The employees here have really made it an easy transition with all the help I have received.

What do you find yourself doing around the office?

A little bit of everything, whether it’s publishing content, performing QA or any other task that comes my way.

I hear you do some coaching on the side — tell us about it!

I have been coaching youth soccer for the past 8 years. I enjoy teaching and being involved with youth sports. Currently I am coaching 2 teams based with the Chicago Fire Organization of Louisiana.

Anything you’d like to be spending more time on? In the ideal world, what would you be doing all day?

I would like to spend more time on blogging and getting involved more in social media. In my ideal world I would love to be on top of a mountain skiing or sitting front row at Old Trafford rooting for Manchester United!

Do you come from a marketing or Internet background? How do you use your skill set at SI?

I had some experience before coming to Searchinfluence performing Quality Assurance on different websites and other random tasks to ensure the quality of our sites. Things are a little different at SI, but I am enjoying learning the ins and outs of SEO.

Scott exemplifying the professional demeanor we strive for at SI.

He finds himself interested in the technical side of marketing and business and appreciates SEO’s demand for these skills on a daily basis. Scott’s also a longtime Influencer, tied with developers Luke Ledet and Doug Thomas for longest-tenured Production member — all three have been with us since the company was based out of Will and Angie’s living room!

What do you find yourself doing on a day-to-day basis? Any particular skills you’ve had to develop since joining SI?

One of my biggest responsibilities is making sure that approximately 600,000 words per month are in proper order, not misspelled and make sense, and that approximately 21,600 links per month are intact and functioning properly. I spend a lot of my time looking for issues, fixing some and having good training in place to minimize errors. We do a great job at getting a massive amount of work done and it’s mostly because the work we do as individuals comes together like a nice smooth roux at the end of every month.

At Search Influence I’ve learned a ton about management but also the technical skills required to work in this industry. I have also learned that you actually can go to Snake and Jake’s Christmas Club Lounge for several hours after work, with coworkers, and still have a job the next day.

You were recently promoted from an Internet Marketing Associate to Assistant Manager of the Bad Boyz of Production. Congrats! How’d the changeover go?

It wasn’t much of a change because it has been a constantly evolving progression for the last year. I’ve done almost everything in Production, from editing websites to being the subject of a horribly corny snakes in a can prank (Psych! I played along to be a good sport). I was here near the inception of the Production department and wanted to get my hands as dirty as possible from the beginning.

Is there anything you’d like to be doing more or less of around the office? In a perfect world, what would you be doing all day?

It would be pretty awesome if Will retired and made me CEO, but I don’t see that happening any time soon! It would be pretty cool to do some statistical research about correlations between all of the known SEO variables and rankings on search engines. I’ve also always fantasized about trading lives with Just Blaze or Diplo.

Does keeping track of the hundreds upon hundreds of content we process every month get overwhelming? How do you deal with it?

It’s usually not overwhelming because the training process is so thorough that we usually don’t make very many mistakes. On top of that, when I export task data from our project management system, I plug it in to one of the sickest spreadsheets known to man [=SUMPRODUCT(--(input!C2:C2000=""&A14&""),--(input!D2:D2000="Deferred"))], and it warns me about many of the problems we might be having.

Scott Shockley's own smoked pork shoulder.

What do you find yourself doing outside of SI? Any cool projects?

I’m trying to redesign my currently ugly, but juiced up website to promote 24 hour restaurants in New Orleans, mainly because I love SEO but I also love to eat. I’m also into cooking, especially smoking food, and will be roasting my first whole pig this Labor Day! On top of that, I manage to find time to tell all the jokes that are too inappropriate to tell at work.

The editor would like it to go on the record that she appreciates both inappropriate jokes and copious amounts of pulled pork. Thanks for all the work you put in wrangling writers, content and SI employees, Scott! We’ll be back in two weeks with another exciting Influencer profile.

Since Facebook’s native markup of a combination of HTML and XML can be clunky and very limited (especially when it comes to more sophisticated elements like Javascript), iframes offer a sleeker approach to Facebook brand display. They pull content directly from a business’s site, so that traditional HTML and the aforementioned advanced elements can be utilized to create a much more multi-faceted approach to drawing in eyeballs both before and after the “like.” Additionally, multiple tabs can be created within the frame, allowing for a customized complexity not normally seen in the basic FB layout. These tabs can offer different aspects of the business such as a “thank-you for liking” display, locations, specials, and forms.

As most Facebook users simply “like and forget,” this kind of direct data can draw traffic to the business’s page instead of its Facebook. Since the third-party content exists on a familiar platform, though, it can function as a preliminary landing page, easing the users in to getting to know the brand or service. The more dynamic aspect of the frame tabs also makes it easier to track page views and user behavior. In turn, targeting demographics by aspects such as location, sex, age and interests is made simpler as well — something that anyone with an interest in Facebook marketing is surely invested in.

On a more surface-level aspect, this approach is simply more engaging to the user than passive newsfeed updates. There are over 750 million users on Facebook (150 million + in the US alone), and maintaining a strong presence is a must for any social media-savvy brand. The updates can be informational (such as special offers and exclusives shown directly from the website onto the viewer’s feed), but also allows for direct interaction in the form of contests, mailing list sign-ups and other conversion points from viewer to participator.

It was an educational afternoon at Search Influence, and we thank Anthony for his hard work putting together his presentation! He’s got an upcoming blog post on more Facebook tactics, and you can bet that future Lunch & Learns will be written up right here. In the meantime, you can check out his heroic (and informative!) presentation here.