You know, I always thought I was the only Internet marketing geek here in Cleveland. Not true, over the past year or so I’ve begun to find out that many talented Cleveland people are also pushing the envelope of web technology and creative marketing ideas. Here’s mashup of a few finds just from this week alone.
Cleveland’s own recruiting/HR blogging expert, Joel Cheeseman has just been featured in the Wall Street Journal.
“I can work in my pajamas and set my own hours,” says Joel Cheesman, author of Cheezhead.com, a blog about the recruiting industry. Notes Mr. Layne, who has worked at Wonkette for two years and generally acts as his own editor: “I get to be a national political columnist and comedy writer.”
Sage Lewis of Sagerock.com has been sneakily doing a new video blog called Webmarketingwatch.com, where he films himself talking about web marketing every day and broadcasts it for the world to see. This is amazing stuff Sage, and a great initiative. Here’s a sample video of Sage talking about the Overture keyword search tool. Very informative.
Greg H. has started a new blog called SMOMashup.com. Awesome concept.
I’ve decided to focus my efforts on a specific part of our industry: Social Media Optimization. Though most all of us deal in some way or another with various forms of marketing on the internet, I’ve decided to go where I’m unnaturally called… the land of MySpace, YouTube, Digg and beyond to see where it is the rest of us can fall into place.
Clevelander’s, or shall we say, North East Ohioans to be more general, are on top of the game. I’m going to have to step it up to keep up the pace.
NEO’s got this on lockdown!
Thanks for the kudos, Jim. Stories such as the ones you’ve outlined go largely unnoticed by The Plain Dealer, Crain’s, Inside Business and the like, but are surprisingly frequent from what I can tell. There is a very vibrant underworld of creative people and businesses here in NEO that deserve to be recognized. Who knows? Low opinions of our fine city just might improve if they were.
This is an interesting observation Joel. Cleveland is in a pretty old school mentality I think. It looks at business and success in the way that oil companies look at energy. Anything outside of the frame isn’t important as it’s beyond their scope of vision. Credibility doesn’t even enter into it because comprehension of the field of influence isn’t an option.
NEO has many many problems– from public education to mass media to urban sprawl to the Fulton Rd. Bridge and way beyond.. It would be nice though if the area could give some credit where credit is due.
Or wait, maybe that’s up to us?