Reconnecting with Thomas Lynn at Algonquin College
The Story:
Thomas Lynn was a student of mine three years ago in my Marketing 1 class at Algonquin College. I remember that Thomas was a mature (returning to school after having a careering in social work) from PEI, with 2 boys and he was an excellent student that asked questions, participated and had a keen interest in Marketing. Turns out that he has majored in Marketing at Algonquin.
Last summer, we briefly ran into each other in a hallway and swapped ‘hey how are yas’. At the time, Thomas was working on a project for the business school.
I recently stumbled upon Thomas on Twitter a few weeks ago when I was looking for an update from the Ontario Colleges Marketing Competition which was held at Mohawk College on the weekend of November 19th. I went to Twitter Search and was looking for anyone commenting on what was happening at the competition. That’s when Thomas and I reconnected. These were the Tweets I was following that night:
With Twitter you read from bottom to top. You can follow Thomas on Twitter @thomaslynn.
After I read the post, I congratulated him, connected online and proposed that talk more about social media marketing and networking in Ottawa. We ended up meeting at the first ever Gen Y Ottawa event at the Mercury Lounge along with close to 100 motivated Gen Yers.
At the Gen Y event Thomas and I talked at length about his experience with social networking tools, his win at OCMC and what his WhyHire.me experience would be like next term in his Transition to Marketing Professional class. We also talked about my upcoming speaking engagement in his Integrated Marketing Communication class. I needed to understand what level of knowledge the students had prior to my talk.
Our discussions have continued and Thomas is recently started a WordPress blog which we will help him attach to his WhyHire.me profile next term. The story will continue as the pieces of Thomas’ social media marketing strategy for his personal brand evolve. The icing on the cake will be pulling the pieces together and further explaining the potential next term.
The Experiment:
This post is legitimate post but also a test of SEO for student Thomas Lynn, Business/Marketing student at Algonquin College in Ottawa. I will reveal the story as the experiment progresses.
Phase I – I googled Thomas Lynn and Algonquin College and in 1 minute after completing the post I found Thomas on the first page of Google in our blog. I then googled Thomas Lynn and Ottawa and I found him in 1 minute on the second page of Google. I tried Thomas Lynn and checked 10 pages and couldn’t find my blog entry.
Phase II – I added tags to the post including Algonquin College, Thomas Lynn, and marketing student. I also added the first phase of our story, the past. The results were that in 5 minutes Thomas Lynn and Algonquin College was the first entry on the first page of Google. When I searched Thomas Lynn and Ottawa the blog post showed up on the first page as the 5th entry. I still can’t find the post on the first 10 pages of when I just include his Thomas Lynn. I guess I should point out now that my Thomas Lynn is fighting for search with a man that is on death row which makes this experiment more interesting. Now to add to the story above; the present.
Phase III – I added the Twitter connection to the story which which included links and some new tags. The results of the search did not change in 5 minutes but I will check again later this afternoon. Google bots need some time to find your story. Phase IV will come tomorrow.
Phase IV – Results are the same. Phase V will occur as part of his WhyHire.me profile next term.
