After hosting me a couple months ago, multi-cultural marketing machine and my main man, Joe Kutchera, has embarked on a blog tour of his own to promote his new book, Latino Link.

In this video, Joe shares 3 tips for connecting with Hispanic audiences. Unfortunately, there’s no rap at the end but maybe I can start working with him on his flow in time for his next book. :)

Be sure to check out JoeKutchera.com/LatinoLink for a sample chapter and more info on buying the book. Hasta la vista, baby!

Here’s a fairly extensive Q&A I did with Guy Kawasaki for Amex OPEN Forum. In it, I share some practical tips for applying my Googley Lessons to the SMB space and also take some shots at Rupert Murdoch and those new-fangled check-in social media platforms. Thank you Guy for the opportunity to “open” up a bit here!

What Small Business Can Learn From Google

Did a quick interview with Catalyst Ranch today in advance  of my Dec. 1st Match Books session.  Here’s how I pitched the event to my colleagues, friends, and family…

If you’ve never been to Catalyst Ranch, it’s quite the unique venue filled with all the accoutrements to satisfy your ADD. Think play-dough and pipe cleaners… ok, stop thinking about them and get back to my email!

During this session (which will only go 60-90 minutes, leaving the rest for socializing), I’ll be toggling between white-board exercises, powerpoint (no more than 7 words per slide, promise!) and rapping.

As you know, I’m not one for over-hyping (hah!) but I’m fixin’ to outdo the 2 minute rap I threw down at SES Chicago a few weeks ago.

Counting on audience participation throughout so bring your energy, ideas, and beat-boxes. :)

Here are the nitty-gritty deets. See the email below for the full pitch. And feel free to invite others.

Date: Wednesday, December 1st, 2010 from 6pm to 8:30 pm
Location: Catalyst Ranch, 656 W Randolph St, Chicago
Cost: $20/person or 2 new children’s books (all proceeds & books will be donated to Open Books). Light refreshments will be served.

Hope to see you there! Please register through this link.

Here’s my third and final Googley Tip of the Week on EOtv (my piece starts at 5:12 and the rap kicks in at 6:45):

Make Memorable Brand Experiences

In case you missed the last 2:

Accomplish Goals through Active Visualization

Increase Your Ranking with Google

McGraw-Hill facilitated some Q&A for me with Michael Mink of Investor’s Business Daily for his piece, “Click with Social Media.”

Mink does a great job of threading together insights from a number of various authors to show how social marketing “can be low cost, high reward.” I’d definitely suggest investing some time in reading through his column.

Here’s the full Q&A:

What is the “Big Picture” idea of “Everything I Know About Marketing I learned From Google?”

The big picture idea is that any organization — regardless of size or category — can apply lessons learned from Google to better engage new and current customers.

Many people think the secret to Google’s success is some complex algorithm or similar marvel of engineering.

The truth is that Google just applied some tried and true marketing principles to drive usage and revenue.

The goal of my book is to demystify Google and share the key elements of its success so that any business executive can inject a little Google juice intro his or her organization.

What are [some] tips that business people can start implementing right now that will make the most difference in their marketing with respect to the information in [your] book?

Here are 5 “Googley Lessons” from my book that business executives can act on right away:

1. Keep it simple, stupid.

There’s nothing simpler than Google.com. There’s no ambiguity over what the product is or how to use it.

How can you bring Google-like clarity to your business? One way is to perfect your Twitter Pitch. Describe your company in under 140 characters. Then shrink it to 95 characters and run it as a text ad on Google. Experiment with different versions and see what works best.

2. Be where your audience is.

Google doesn’t make you go to Google.com to Google things. You can Google from your desktop, toolbar, mobile phone, and anywhere else where there’s an Internet connection.

In today’s world of infinite sources of information and entertainment, it’s critical to bring your brand to your audience and not what for it to come to you. Your website should be your hub but you need spokes everywhere your audience is spending time. The first step is figuring out where your audience is. There are great tools available from the likes of comScore, Experian Hitwise, and, yes, Google (AdPlanner) to see where your target customers are on the Internet.

3. Test everything.

Google is fanatic about testing. It once tested 41 different shades of blue for a toolbar. But Google doesn’t test in focus groups. It tests in live environments. There’s no better way to gauge performance.

Rather than wait to go to market until you’ve got everything buttoned up, launch your product or your ad campaign as quickly as possible and use real-time customer feedback to tweak and iterate until you’ve found the right combination. The only failed test is the one that never happens.

4. Make your company a great story.

Who doesn’t know the one about the 2 guys at Stanford that crashed the university’s servers with its new web crawler? Or the one about the company that gives its employees free food, massages, laundry, and transportation? Or the one about the company that uses goats to mow its lawns?

Generating word of mouth requires more than just creating a great product. It requires creating a great story — nay, becoming a great story. How can you make your brand more memorable? You don’t have to reinvent yourself. Just give people something to talk about. For example, if you’re a retailer, stock your cash register with $2 bills and give people a reason to tell others about their experience in your store.

5. You can learn a lot from a query.

Every day, billions of people around the world tell Google what’s on their mind. Google uses this data to deliver targeted ads to the tune of $20+ billion annually.

How can you use search data to drive growth for your company? Track query volume for specific products to adjust your offering and/or features. Monitor query volume in certain geographic regions to help prioritize expansion plans. Measure query volume for your brand name to gauge the effectiveness of your other marketing efforts.

When it’s all said and done, what makes the most difference and is the best use of a company’s or their executives’ time and money in the digital and social media marketing space?

At the end of the day, if I had to pinpoint one reason for Google’s success, I’d say that it figured out how to be relevant. It created a product that’s highly relevant (read: indispensible) to anyone using the Internet. And it created that product based on new and innovative ways of determining relevancy based on what people are looking for and what assets are available.

As a business executive, when thinking about digital marketing and social media, you must make yourself relevant. Build a brand that’s relevant to your target audience(s). And create assets that Google will deem relevant to people searching for related products and services.

Getting to the top of Google is not about gaming the system. It’s about proving relevancy. If you can’t get a #1 ranking then you’re not as relevant to your audience (or the product/service being searched) as you think. Find new and innovative ways to demonstrate your relevance and Google will reward you. And so will your customers.

That’s the question Laurie Sullivan of MediaPost asked me after watching this Bloomberg Game Changers video on Sergey Brin and Larry Page in which the suggestion is made that Steve Jobs was targeted to be Google’s first CEO.

My response, along with input from some fellow search “insiders,” were included in Laurie’s SearchBlog piece of the same title last week.

I told Laurie that “Google would be a lot different. Cleaner, less-cluttered search results. More focused on products not software. More focused on brand advertising. Much less open and transparent. The list could go on and on.”

That said, it’s worth noting that Google and Jobs do have quite a few similarities so, while the company may not have turned out there same, it’s likely the combination would have worked.

Both Google and Jobs:

• Hold user experience above all
• Know how to stay relevant (see Chapter 1)
• See mobile as the holy grail
• Have an over-inflated view of self-import (which is actually quite important when setting out to revolutionize industry/ies)

Here’s the $2 bill I dropped at the end of my session at SES Chicago today. Lyrics below…

To all the marketers tryin’ to be frugal,
Buy my book today, learn some lessons from Google.

You’ll find practical tips a plenty,
Through my Googley Lessons 1 through 20.

There’s Chapter 1: Relevancy Rules.
Stay true to your niche, don’t act a fool.

Chapter 2: Tap the Wisdom of Crowds.
Join the conversation, don’t shout out loud.

Chapter 3: Keep it Simple, Stupid.
Attract customers like Cupid.

Chapter 4: Mindset Matters.
Take it from the cat in the pleather hatter.

Chapter 5: Be Where Your Audience Is.
It’s the one sure way to grow your biz.

Chapter 6: Don’t Interrupt.
[cough, cough, cough] Aiight.

Chapter 7: Act Like Content.
It’s the icing on the cake. No, wait, that’s fondant.

Chapter 8: Test Everything.
Do it and make your marketing sing.

Chapter 9: Track Everything.
Do it and watch the cash register ring.
(Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, ching, ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching.)

Chapter 10: Let the Data Decide.
Do the math and then ride, Sally, ride.

Chapter 11: Brands can be Answers.
Just like Jews can be great dancers. [Interlude]

Chapter 12: Your USP is Critical.
It’s Marketing 101. Cut the Umbilical.

Chapter 13: Your Competition’s Broader than You Think.
You’re up against everyone but the kitchen sink.

Chapter 14: You Can Learn a Lot from a Query.
Just ask Eric or Sergey or Larry.

Chapter 15, that is is Sex Sells.
Do it and ring the sales bell.
(Ding, ding, dong. Ding-a-ding ding, ding, dong. Keep the bells ringin’.)

Or Chapter 16: Altruism Sells.
Try it and go to marketing heaven, not hell.

Chapter 17: Show Off Your Assets.
Shake what you got and then place your bets.

Chapter 18: The More Shelf Space the Better.
If you don’t know that, behind the ears, you are wetter.

Chapter 19: Make Your Company a Great Story.
Do it and capture all of the glory.

Chapter 20: Don’t Rely on SEM Alone.
If you don’t know that, son, then it’s time to go home.

There you have it. 20 lessons from me.
Guaranteed to make your business Googley.

Buy my book today, enjoy it with some noodle kugel.
Everything I Know About Marketing I Learned From Google.

Hit up SES Chicago today. Jolly good show.

Here’s the deck I presented in my session, “Get Googley: How to Apply Lessons from SEM to Other Marketing Channels.”

As you may have guessed from the last slide, Tha Lyrical G made an appearance. Will post the rap in its entirety in a separate post. (Waiting for YouTube to complete the upload.)

UPDATE: Here’s the Googley Lessons rap. Turn up your speakers, click the link, and then brace yourself.

Check out the second video tip in my EOtv series. This one is bundled into a webcast titled, “Accomplish Goals through Active Visualization.” Not sure what that’s all about but worth testing, I suppose. :)

That’s what MediaPost’s Laurie Sullivan asked me in prepping her column, “Search Reaches Turning Point With Social Integration.”

This was my response.
–
In 5 years, search will be an incredibly personal experience.

When we want information, entertainment, or commerce, we’ll use apps that know our preferences and return not just the results we want but the actions we want to take.

To deliver on this promise, the search engines of the future will tap APIs from virtually every content publisher, brand manufacturer, and retailer to deliver immediately actionable opportunities.

And, to make the experience more relevant, “likes” will be weighted more heavily than “links” in the search engine algorithms. And location will be automatically factored in.
–
This thread is covered extensively in Chapter 21: Future-Proofing and Siri is profiled as the “search-and-act” engine or “app-sisstant” of the future.

As for Google’s role in this brave new world… as discussed in the book, the Big G can either become a search-and-act engine itself and/or the underlying platform upon which these engines are built. Think API-burner.

It’s interesting to see Bing taking steps towards this new expression of relevancy though its recent deal with Facebook to incorporate “likes” into its search algorithm. I explored the potential for a search engine that pivoted on the social graph in a blog post from 2008 titled, “The Perfect Search Engine.”

And, more recently, I looked at “Link vs. Like and the Future of Web Ranking.”

It’s hard to say whether 5 years is the right window for all this heady stuff to come to fruition but if we look at how far search has come in the past 5, I wouldn’t bet against it/us.