Marketing Pilgrim

This time last year, Google was licking its wounds after the dismal failure of its Nexus One phone.

You know, the one designed and sold by Google. A complete Android package from the search giant.

So what better way to celebrate the one year anniversary of that failed experiment than by coughing up $12.5 billion, in CASH, for Motorola and jumping feet first into the handset manufacturing business?

I know, you’re checking to make sure it’s not April 1st, but this is hot off the wire:

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Google will acquire Motorola Mobility for $40.00 per share in cash, or a total of about $12.5 billion, a premium of 63% to the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday, August 12, 2011. The transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies.

No offense to our readers from the great state of Vermont but if it wasn’t for skiing and syrup many folks don’t think much about the state. That’s not a knock it’s just the truth. (Quick: WIthout looking it up what’s the state capital of Vermont?)

Well, Google once again showed its new found marketing and outreach chops by taking its Get Your Business Online campaign to the Green Mountain State (yes, I had to look that up but I did know the capital without looking it up). Take a look at this local news report about the big search engine hitting the road and helping spread the word about this Internet thingy.

Sometimes we all need to be reminded of the power of video and what it can do. Sometimes a message is just right for the medium.

I realize this is not about Internet marketing but you would be hard pressed to find a better example of someone using video to impact others. If nothing else, start your week off with a voice of reason and think about making a difference.

From time to time we will be running posts by some “friends of Marketing Pilgrim”. How do you become a friend? Just like in the real world, it’s pretty simple in that you just need to get to know us. We’re harmless .

“I know, it’s only SEO, but I like it.” – with apologies to The Rolling Stones

Much of the buzz in the SEO world of late has been about the recent updates to the Google Algorithm called “Panda.” A great many have reported their sites took a hit on the SERPs, while an equal, or perhaps greater number of others applauded the changes because it benefited them in some way. Although I haven’t yet studied it fully, my own observations tell me that most of the sites scraping content off the websites I’m responsible for have all but disappeared. Panda must have dried up their revenue stream because they’ve been very quiet for several months now.

I am in the cab of my dad’s pick up. We are coming home from visiting family in the South Carolina up-state. The blazing sun above and the infamous southern humidity have mixed to create an almost unbearable atmosphere. The only escape that we find, is keeping the windows rolled down and the truck moving forward. We are on one of South Carolina’s many back roads. It’s the kind of road that seems to go on forever and is lined with old barns and tobacco fields on either side.

When your main source of air conditioning is keeping a steady flow of air pushing through your open windows, the last thing you want to do is slow down, or heaven forbid, stop. But, occasionally you are forced to do both.

Zippy, the Zip Code Man has been helping the post office route letters since the 1960′s and now Facebook has joined the party. As of yesterday, advertisers on Facebook can now chose to target their ads by state, city or zip code.

It may seem like city goes hand-in-hand with zip, but for a local business on a budget, it can make a big difference. Take a large city such as Los Angeles. People from one side of the city, aren’t going to sit in forty minutes of traffic to get to a coffee shop when they can find ten within ten minutes. With Facebook’s new zip option, that coffee shop owner can chose only those zip codes within a few mile radius of his shop. Or even within a half-circle if the radius includes the bad part of town.