How do you explain a sand castle? The SEO fighter pilot from Miami used the absurdest question to answer our Chief Financial Officier’s question. Our CFO asked, “what do you fear?” We, the multi-channel retailer I worked for at the time, were in an unfamiliar cockpit. We’d just been taken for an amazing ride, a ride into a land of SEO arbitrage never experienced and only marginally understood now after lunch and a two hour meeting.
The three guys from Miami tried, tried hard, to explain how they viewed the world. Everything in their world was arbitrage. Make something for pennies sell it for dollars. Make something for nickels sell it for dollars. Make something for dimes sell it for dollars. Everything was arbitrage. I wasn’t sure the furniture in their offices weren’t on loan and capable of being bought by the highest bidder on some auction site.
How prescient a meeting was that? Internet marketing and search engine optimization looks more like pork bellies futures daily. Jeff Bezos, a former Wallstreeter, seems to have made the entire world after the street’s desire to buy and sell. David Meerman Scott in his book Real Time Marketing and PR declares our trading futures, a future that is happening now as today’s meeting with Radian6 and last week’s meeting with Argyle Social confirm.
Q: Do you think things are going to move faster or slower in the future?
Thinking like an Internet marketer on SEO means understanding Key Performance Indicators, being able to feel a trend and riff content almost before the feeling is over and arbitrage, arbitrage and arbitrage. Think like an Internet marketer means the next time your CFO asks about social, mobile or QR Code ROI ask if they can explain a sand castle (lol). Make sure your resume is up-to-date and remember Atlantic BT is hiring so be fearless :).
