Howdy, it’s Bob.  Remember me? I used to be pretty active on this blog, but then lots of things in life started making things crazy.  I’m not complaining, because I’m happy to announce that I’m getting married this August and I’ve also taken a new job.  The job part is what brings me to the topic of this post – getting your foot in the door at companies which may otherwise not give you the time of day.

Working and doing a lot of online marketing, you find some loopholes, but there are also some drawbacks.  The bad thing is that its hard to actually openly search for a job while you have an active blog and social profile.  The things you rely on heavily to communicate with and get the word out, can’t be used as they should when lots of ‘different’ people could potentially be reading it.  You almost have to do it ninja style, sending cryptic DM’s and communicating under the dark of night.

Thinking to myself, I wondered how could I show off my skills to those few ‘dream job’ type of companies. I didn’t really expect I’d get the job or even take it if I did, but it was more an experiment on my own to see if it would work.  So here’s how I got interviews with 2 of the most influential web companies in the country.*

You’ll kick yourself for not thinking of this yourself and come to find out, I’m not even one of the first.  But all I did was buy a couple of Facebook ads and directly target folks that worked at those few companies I was interested in. In the ad, I mentioned who I was, my specialties and if they could introduce me to a hiring manager.  The ad featured my picture which led the user to my resume** located on my site. Boom, I had 2 calls within 4 days for a grand total of $12 spent and less than a hours worth of time.

If you’re new to buying Facebook ads, check out my 101 presentation from Social Camp

That’s it. I wish there was some magic formula to it.  Have you seen creative resumes or ways that people are getting interviews? If so, share them in the comments below.  I promise I’ll work on posting more often too.
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*I’ll keep their names a secret, but the first interview came from a company whose name combines a utility that a man shaves his face with and an aquatic animal and the second interview came from a company which combines a word that defines a market consisting of a street lined with shops common in the Middle East with the the distinctive quality or pitch/condition of a person’s speech.

**Much love for all the time and hard work that Jay put in on my comic.  He took my vision and blew the doors off of it.  With his help and a little time with Comic Life, my resume really stood out in a crowd.

Hack Your Next Job Interview is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

My first priority with One Half Amazing! has always been the users.  I want to make sure that you have the best experience possible.    Without you, I am nothing.  You inspire me, motivate me and push me to get better. For that, I’m forever grateful.  With that, I’m excited to announce some great new features.  If you’re a regular reader or follow me on twitter, you may have noticed that I’ve leaked these additions out over the past few weeks, but I thought it would be best to summarize them in one single post.

1. Thanks to the wonderful folks at MotherApp, One Half Amazing! is now available as a free iPhone app.  Download it here or click on the “Available in the AppStore” button in the right hand navigation.  MotherApp offers a end-to-end solution for bloggers and designers to create mobile applications without the need of learning the SDK.  They offer 2 different platforms.  For $99/year you can have an app without ads, but if you’re cool with ads in your app, they offer a free version and will split an ad revenue with you.  Hau at MotherApp has been one of the easiest folks to work with.  Hats off to them, they do great work and I highly recommend their services. Download the One Half Amazing! app.
MotherApp is working diligently on getting my app available for Android and Palm platforms as well, so please hold tight if you’re using either.

2. I’m very honored to be featured as a top marketing blog on AllTop.  Alltop’s goal and purpose is to collect the latest stories from the best blogs that cover each certain topic.

3. Kindle owners rejoice! You can now read the the best digital marketing and online marketing content from One Half Amazing! on your Kindle.

These are the biggest additions to my blog in the 2+ years I’ve been running it.  I hope you enjoy them and find value in them.  I’d love your feedback in the comments below .

One Half Amazing! Is Growing. Free iPhone App, Featured on AllTop, Kindle Edition. is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

@lalunablanca entertained this idea a couple weeks ago via twitter.  Here’s how it goes.  I want your feedback. Simply tell me what you like about this blog and what sucks. Tell me the type of posts that benefit you most and those that you just gloss over.

Post your feedback in the comments below or drop me a message here.  That’s it.  Thank you very much.

Feedback Friday is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Louis Gray wrote a wonderful piece on what he believes are the keys to satisfying consumer expectations in today’s real-time world.  Gray believes consumers and technology are becoming more acute, hence they are demanding greater advancements in communication and openness with the companies they do business with.  In his post, he details 10 key tenants for dealing with today’s real-time consumer including, my favorites, #2 – We Expect the Product to Work on Any Platform In Any Location and #10 – We Want You To Trust Us As Informed Consumers and Partners. It’s worth the read, check Louis Gray’s rules for today’s consumers.

The world of communication and product delivery is changing as the Web evolves and new services are introduced, enabling us to gain faster access to information, download richer media more quickly, and rapidly voice our opinions and feedback near and far in a wide variety of methods, including text, voice, video and imagery. As customers become more savvy and in tune with these new tools, we are also expecting those offering products and services to adapt, and as such, I thought it made sense to put forth what I believe are key tenets of a new consumer manifesto for today’s real-time world.

Who do you feel are the best companies that are really in-tune with real-time consumer expectations? The worst? What will it take for more companies to tune in and take action?

Satisfying Consumer Expectations in Today’s Real-Time World is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Memphis Pillow Fight Bobby Digital Style from Bob Hazlett on Vimeo.

On March 21, 2009 a fun, old-fashioned pillow fight broke out in Overton Park. Bobby Digital was there to catch all of the action. Enjoy!

Memphis Pillow Fight is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Razorfish recently released their 2009 Digital Outlook Report. It’s a beautiful piece with amazing content and insight for just about every digital industry. Download your copy free copy now.  If 175 pages is too much to read, then check out Guy Kawasaki’s overview.

Does anyone know if they offer this in physical book format? I know it sounds silly, but I’d love to have a ‘real’ copy. Maybe Lulu.com can help me.

Razorfish Releases 2009 Digital Outlook Report is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

“Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand.”

Thanks Kenny!

Putt’s Law is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Wow, who wouldn’t want to work for a company that valued and promoted company culture like Zappos.com?  Watch the video below and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Zappos Core Values

1. Deliver WOW through service
2. Embrace and drive change
3. Create fun and a little weirdness
4. Be adventurous, creative, and open-minded
5. Pursue growth and learning
6. Build open and honest relationships with communication
7. Build a positive team and family spirit
8. Do more with less
9. Be passionate and determined
10. Be humble

What core values are important to you in your work?  What values would you add if you could start a company tomorrow? Let me know in the comments below.

Starting A Company? Model It After Zappos.com is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

It’s easy to create a Facebook page or get people to join your network, but how do you make the web as a whole more social?

Changing the way your small team works and communicates doesn’t take much effort. Changing the way the entire organization shares ideas, collaborates and communicates is a big movement.

If you know a few easy tricks, its easy to write for search engines, but how do you write and create unique content that people seek out and instantly recognize?

Anyone can create a product or services that people will buy, but how do you move to products that people seek out, talk about and want to become a part of?

I could go on and on.  The point is – the stuff on the top is easy and most people and businesses are willing to stop there.  Take off the blinders, get your hands dirty and dig deeper.  The payoff is much greater than the work required.

How Do You Move To The Bigger Idea? is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Online Marketing and Social Media week in review for Feb. 7, 2009.  Bobby Digital talks about the Google Latitude debut, Facebook joining the Open ID alliance, Urchin 6.5 as well as Social Camp Memphis and Social Media Expedition.

Special thanks to David After Dentist

Online Marketing and Social Media Week In Review – Bobby Digital Edition is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

In case you were too busy giving birth to 8 kids this week, here are some of the highlights you missed.

Advertisers are mashing online and offline events.  This week Facebook partnered with AT&T to stream a live Lil’ Wayne concert and Sunday Pepsi is hosting and online Super Bowl Party.  {NOTE: I wonder how you could take your event or product and engage people who aren’t physically there?}

Razorfish came out with a report that ties consumer social media activity to purchase behavior. They determined that the more deeply engaged someone is with social media, the more likely they are to make a purchase.  Glad to have the data to back up our assumptions.

Rumors of the GDrive surfaced

Web Site and Social Media metrics you should monitor

Jiffy Lube is using mobile marketing to bring in 50% new households

Online Marketing and Social Media Week in Review – January 31st is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

How would your job (or strategy) change if they cured cancer tomorrow? AIDS? Heart Disease?  What if everyone in the world had access to a computer and the internet? What if the government outlawed some portion of your business?  What if Google just disappeared? What if everyone had the same amount of money?  Would they still need your products?  Would they still use your services? How would you survive?

What If Everything Changed? is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

In case you were too busy being inaugurated, here’s what you missed last week;

• Belkin got caught paying people to write fake Amazon reviews of their products.
  
• YouTube is expanding functionality to include links to the iTunes store.  Currently only available in Europe, but could a  monetization ‘buy this video’ option be too far behind?
• Pepsi asked high fructose corn syrup lovers what input they would like to give the new President in order to refresh America. Their new microsite couples user and celebrity content together on a huge wall of carbonated social goodness.
• Google is discontinuing their print ad service, while at the same time giving tips to optimize your campaigns with smaller budgets.
  
• 7% of MySpace users and 3% of Facebook users are dead.  At least those users won’t be sending me an invitation to Mob Wars.
• Smashing Magazine posts their 2009 web design trends.
  
• Twitter is cutting back on the use of their API. Could this mean the beginning of additional features or a premium subscription model?
• Feedburner is making it’s move to better integrate with Google’s architecture, but has encountered some hiccups along the way.

Online Marketing and Social Media Week in Review is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Originally posted January 19, 2009

Developing your web site for mobile devices can be confusing.  What screen size should you optimize for? What device is the most popular?  What content do you keep in, what do you remove?  There are many decisions to make, but allow me to make one suggestion. Save yourself some heartache and instead of using a separate domain such as a .mobi version, use a subdomain such as m.yourdomain.com or www.yourdomain.com/mobile. Using a subdomain keeps your brand strong, reduces customer confusion and better optimizes your site for search engines.

Additional Resources:

Mobile Plugins for WordPress – easily make your site viewable on mobile devices.Setting up a Google Analytics filter to track mobile visitors to your site
Designing for the Mobile Web

Designing For The Mobile Web is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Originally posted January 15, 2009

As budgets get tighter, take 20 minutes today to update your paid search negative keywords.  Negative keywords are those irrelevant or low converting keywords that you add to a pay-per-click campaign which tell the ad system not to show your ad when that particular keyword appears in a search.

To start, do some research for new negative and low-performing keywords through Google’s keyword tool or your web analytics data. Add your findings to your already established campaigns and adgroups.

Adding additional negative keywords optimizes and streamlines your campaigns’ effectiveness. They increases your quality score, improves your click-thru and conversion rates.

Quick Online Marketing Tip – Update Your Negative Keywords is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!