Brian Carter, director of search engine optimization, pay per click, and social media at Fuel Interactive, discusses how small and midsize businesses can survive the recession, how corporate structure affects companies, and what the future of marketing will be. As a stand-up comedian/acupuncturist/constant Twitterer, Carter has a lively view on the state of the smaller business today.
Brian Carter is quite a multitasker. He is the director of search engine optimization, pay per click, and social media at Fuel Interactive, a 28-employee marketing agency in Myrtle Beach, S.C. He speaks at various conferences throughout the year. He's an acupuncturist, a teacher of medical terminology, a guitarist, and a stand-up comedian. He's written a book. And he has more than 16,000 followers on Twitter, where he keeps up a steady stream of tweets throughout the day.
How on earth does he do all that? Having a sense of humor and loving what he does certainly helps. "I don't know if I'm a workaholic, but I like what I do," said Carter, who's been known to work 14-hour days, seven days a week. He shared with bMighty his thoughts on how businesses are run, how smaller companies can weather the recession, and what types of marketing will be successful in the near future.
bMighty: Can you please tell me your various titles?
Brian Carter: At Fuel Interactive, I'm the director of search engine optimization, pay per click, and social media -- I helped build the department as well as hire and train. I help guys who sell this stuff with what the pricing will be, especially with social media -- I figure out what the return on investment will be for clients. And I liaise with account managers.
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During the last half of last year, I spoke at five or six conferences, partly to share what I know as well as to be the PR guy for this agency. On Twitter I've been doing a lot of sharing of what I know as well as personal branding. The way social media is run, especially Twitter, it makes people representatives for their company -- even people who wouldn't have been in the past.
Another project I'm working on with MemeLabs is a social media-based Web video show with multiple hosts on all topics of culture. Each topic has a host, and it's things like film and music, viral marketing, moms -- every segment I can think of that's active in social media right now. I recruited Twitter followers, anyone who's good on video.
bMighty: How do you have time to don all those hats?
Carter: [Laughing] Drugs.
The fact is since I've been separate from my wife [who stayed behind in San Diego when Carter moved to South Carolina to work at Fuel Interactive -- but she will be joining Carter in April], I've had to keep myself busy. I don't know if I'm a workaholic, but I like what I do. I'm like a lot of people these days who are trying to do jobs they're passionate about. So it doesn't bother me to put in extra hours. When I first started at Fuel Interactive, I was here seven days a week, 12 to 14 hours a day.
I'm excited because I'm at a point in my life where I have opportunities and some control and a good team. Some people don't spend a lot of time at work because they don't care or they're frustrated with life so they'd rather go home and watch TV. You have 16 hours, right, if you sleep for eight -- how many are you going to work? If you just work eight, what are you doing with those other hours?
I think of my life in the same way I think of advertising. What's my ROI; what's my goal? I think every day I need to accomplish something.
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