The Roller Coaster of Technology

The other day my friend Wendy Weber of Crandall Associates contacted me to see if I knew anyone interested in a Director of Paid Search role here in Seattle, WA The truth is, there aren't a lot people available in the search or social intustry looking for positions. A few of my closest friends have quit their jobs in the past few months only to be snatched up quickly for new roles. Does this mean that the days of sending your resume to appy for position after position only to find no one ever gets back to you a thing of the past? Perhaps...

So here's my thoery. Even while the "economy" in general may be tanking there are always opportunities elsewhere. As we watched the dot gone era in the early 2000's people who were making money hand over fist with bloated salaries for a simple task like designing a website in Frontpage were getting weeded out. Companies began to get more demanding of their talent and making them compromise in pay. SEO was born as a way to get traffic to your website without having to spend a ton of money on advertising dollars and thus was born an entire industry. Agencies popped up all over, Google came into the picture and introduced paid search ads on a cost per click instead of the cost per million (impressions) that banner ad companies were charging. Suddenly the little guy was back in the game and competing on a level playing field with the big guys. Agencies started picking up on offering paid search as a service, Google even had a test those people could take to become "certified". And now (long story short) Universities are offering degrees in this stuff, agencies are flourishing, and coporations are hiring people to manage it all. Those people were buying houses at $0 down, car leases were being handed out like candy, and startups were getting investment money in their sleep. As companies floursihed from all those people spending money on their credit cards they started focusing on paid search, throwing money at advertising, rather than hiring teams to optimize. SEO's began to struggle and I (among many others) was one of those forced to learn paid search so that we could just get a job (which jumped started my career in online marketing instead of being silo'd in SEO).

As all good things come to an end, a country living in debt finally had to start paying. The stock market tanked and companies panicked, laying off employees that were optimizing their websites or adjusting their paid search ads. VP's and CEO's of startups started managing the ads themselves and figured if their websites are optimized, as long as they don't change anything they'll be ok. In this rollercoaster that our industry is we find ourselves adjusting once again. CEO's started asking those that were left to learn SEM. Developers, PR, Marketing, etc. They were all learning how to take on more for fear of getting laid off if they didn't diverse. Enter social media marketing - as if it never existed before. With the popularity of Facebook and Twitter companies were now adding their twitter link to their homepages. Facebook became a place to plan events, and manage customer service - and Linkedin (while still the best place to market for B2B) began restructuring and changing it's focus to a more socially interactive website than just a place to post a profile and get a job.

Yes kids we're back to the beginning. Going through another adjustment. Companies started looking to thier SEO's once again, are hiring agencies to manage their social media, and even the large corporations (that really get it) are hiring full time positions for social media marketing. We're headed back to the days were a paid search person manages just the paid search, the search optimization person focuses primarily on making the website search engine compliant, and the social media person comes in to manage Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Daily Booth, Linkedin, Gowalla, etc.

We're on the road to recovery once again...

And with Wappow conferences you can stay on top of the latest trends in marketing through search and social media challenges. We've also added our Emerging Media conferences so that everyone in this industry can stay on top of the latest trends from iPhone/iPad and Droid applications, wireless technology including text to customers, GPS and augmented reality so that marketers can stay on the cutting edge
of what's new.

If you're interested in Wendy's position take a read below and email your resume to Joyce at Crandall Associates, Inc

Director Paid Search – Seattle WA

The primary focus of the Director of Paid Search Marketing is to manage the success of paid search marketing campaigns related to online lead generation. This includes managing teams in multiple geographic locations, representing the paid search department in executive and company meetings, communication company objectives to all team members, developing and leading new paid search strategies, and helping to develop team member’s skill sets through training and career enhancement opportunities. The Director of Paid Search Marketing is also responsible for participating in and managing his or her team’s role in company wide marketing efforts.

Education / years & type of experience

BA in marketing or equivalent required. 5+ years experience the online marketing industry minimum, with significant experience in paid search marketing and management. In this role, outstanding leadership, creative thinking, and communication skills are required. In addition, the Director of Paid Search Management should be proficient with project management techniques, quantitative data analysis through MS Excel, creative writing, and website structure and syntax. The successful candidate must have experience effectively managing paid search teams as well as managing large paid search budgets.

Certifications, Licenses, Credentials

Although not required, certifications as a Google Advertising Professional, Yahoo Ambassador, & LastName adExcellence Member are a plus.

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