
Director of Technical Marketing at Yahoo!
San Francisco Bay Area

Director of Technical Marketing at Yahoo!
San Francisco Bay Area
I am currently the Director of Technical Marketing for Yahoo! Media, where my team and I are responsible for designing strategies to enhance visibility in Search and Social spaces online for dozens of the top internet properties in their verticals, and working with internal product teams to act on them.
I have both a marketing and a web dev background which has lent a great balance and a unique positioning to my 8 years of experience in online visibility.
I am a fervent data geek. I believe the right data can help companies find loopholes, solve problems, and create opportunities that can make all the difference in a product and a brand (plus, I really like to see results).
I am also a speaker at several conferences, in addition to organizing regular Social Media and SEO events and training locally and at Yahoo!
Prior to Yahoo!, I was the SEO Specialist at CNET, where I helped develop the in-house SEO program. Previous to that, I was Manager of Interactive Media (loosely subtitled The Goddess of Chaos and Harmony) at The Linus Group.
And like the ex- inventors, private investigators, and celebrity private jet flight attendants in my industry, I have an interesting backstory, in which I traveled the country as a performer for the circus. It's true.
My Clifton StrengthsFinder strengths:
1-FUTURISTIC: I am always thinking ahead and looking for what's next. This is why I'm in the Social Media space, why I've been in SEO for years, and why I am fascinated with futurists.
2-INCLUDER: I connect the right people for the right projects/decisions. I tap into superb talent around me rather than think I know everything.
3-COMPETITION: I'm an athlete. I play fair and I like to win. Simple as that.
4-WOO: I was never a cheerleader but I can say "Cheers!" in several languages (who can't?). I like to keep an aura of fun around me, and I live to laugh.
5-POSITIVITY: Also my weakness. I am an undying optimist. I (almost) never say never
Myers-Briggs: INTJ (Mastermind)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INTJ#Characteristics_of_INTJs
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Strengths Finder 2008: 1. Futuristic, 2. Includer, 3. Competition, 4. Woo, 5. Positivity
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Strengths Finder 2006: 1. Includer, 2. Self-Assurance, 3. Learner, 4. Achiever, 5. Positivity
(Public Company; YHOO; Internet industry)
September 2008 — Present (1 year 3 months)
OVERVIEW: I have several arms that reach out to various groups at Yahoo (mostly product and marketing) to assist them with Search and Social Media strategies, processes, reporting, data and analytics, leveraging resources, and overall evangelism, awareness and training at the company.
My typical day might involve
- Providing input into internal custom-built SEO reporting tools
- Digging into data and tools to uncover traffic opportunities
- Crafting presentations to train groups on SEO tactics or to raise awareness on proper social media strategy
- Working with a team on getting visibility in search and social spaces around their new campaign
- Running traffic reports to look for deviances
- Brainstorming w/ product groups on how to craft partnerships that will get them more traffic and visibility
- Brainstorming w/ engineers to find search-friendly code middle grounds
- Working w/ social media vendors on getting insightful and actionable reports for our products
- Organizing internal events to bring people together for discussion on Search or Social topics
- Keeping up w/ industry people, news and events via online spaces and after work meetups
I am thrilled to have created these products, services, results, and events so far at Yahoo:
- Search traffic increases for properties in extremely competitive verticals of over 300% YoY, and over 350% over 2 years
- An annual company-wide SEO & Social Media Conference
- Internal "Social Social" meetups
- SEO Opportunity Reports (determine traffic gaps & opportunities)
- SEO Research Documents (Product Insights and Strategy)
- Weekly SEO Dashboards
- Biz Dev SEO One Sheet
- SEO Planners customized to multiple groups
- A 200+ page intranet SEO & Social Media resource center
And these products I work with other brilliant Yahoos on:
- Social Media Center of Excellence
- Executive SEO Dashboards (Performance & Compliance)
- 60+ SEO tests integrated into QA process
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; YHOO; Internet industry)
February 2008 — September 2008 (8 months)
Work with leads on 20+ Yahoo properties to set SEO direction and priorities around search traffic opportunity.
Integrate SEO into anything that might hit a page or its source code, working closely w/ Biz Dev, design, engineering, web dev, editorial, QA & marketing teams.
Educate, train, and provide SEO resources for all product teams.
Work with teams that create CMS & publishing tools to automate as much SEO as possible.
Work with PPC marketing, marketing strategy, and surfing teams to define, measure & collaborate on keyword driven efforts.
Our team also defines & delivers SEO reporting & analysis, writes & executes SEO test plans for QA, provides SEO insights into partner deals, creates & executes internal and external linking strategies, and builds SEO into product requirements documents, information architecture, wireframes, and product development.
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; YHOO; Internet industry)
January 2006 — February 2008 (2 years 2 months)
Build SEO program at Yahoo Media Group in the Business Intelligence Group & work w/ Yahoo on global SEO initiatives.
-Work with 100's of people on 18 of the highest trafficked properties in their verticals on the web + microsites
-Work w/ engineers on automating SEO tactics in a vast array of publishing & content tools
-Work w/ designers on creating search-friendly design modules for use across YMG sites
-Work w/ global data teams to spec & define globally utilized SEO tools, reporting & analytics
-Work w/ bus. intellignc. on providing fast answers to shifts in search-related data
-Work w/ data mining teams to identify & segregate/aggregate referral types
-Build extensive internal SEO resources for self reference & SEO how to's
-Hold education & training sessions for a variety of SEO topics
-Work w/ specialized teams to iron out tough SEO issues like AJAX opt. & tracking, video opt. & SEO process, Intl. geolocation issues, search engine related issues
(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; CNET; Consumer Electronics industry)
June 2005 — December 2005 (7 months)
Build in-house SEO program in order to get the SEO ball rolling. This included education and training, automating any possible site dev processes, creating SEO tracking/analytics, and actual SEO such as cleaning up URLs, linking strategies, on-page SEO, and working closely with the crew on individual development projects.
- Spec and work with engineers to create SEO analytics
- Determine where and how to automate parts of SEO through CMS
- Work with developers on SEO best practices & particular code implementations
- Work with designers on SEO best practices & particular design SEO tasks
- Work with editors on SEO best practices worksheets and processes
- Build internal SEO wiki for tools, reference, etc.
- Work with PPC team to determine how to balance SEO & PPC
(Sole Proprietorship; Myself Only; Internet industry)
January 2005 — June 2005 (6 months)
• Discovery: Uncover company website goals & search engine positioning situation, target market(s) and optimization possibilities
• Implementation: Architecture, wireframing, look & feel, beta testing, and site project management, all centered around target markets (personas), company goals, and search friendliness
• Website Data Analysis: Recommend & set up the most effective reporting system for each client and monitor data to discover areas of continual conversion and search positioning improvement
• Manage web design & development teams, search engine optimization consultants and pay-per-click service vendors
• Consulting, training and presentations for clients and web development teams
(Marketing and Advertising industry)
November 2001 — December 2004 (3 years 2 months)
• Assist in developing work processes
• Research and write a bimonthly marketing publication
• Plan and often partially or fully develop all interactive/media projects integrating SEO and usability
• Delegate work to, and work closely with vendors on client projects
• Interface with clients on all interactive/media projects
none , Project Management , 2001 — 2001
unfinished degree, due to getting too busy managing projects...
Associates , Multimedia , 1998 — 2000
4.0 GPA
none , Advertising Design , 1992 — 1994
unfinished, due to pursuing a skating career
SEO, group brainstorming/roundtables, social media strategies, widgets, statistics, smart people, futurists, etymology, thinking ahead, being organized, creativeness, funny things, traveling, racquetball, classic sports cars
SEMPO, San Francisco SEO get togethers, In-House SEO
Yahoo! You Rock Award