HIRE ME TO SPEAK
HIRE ME TO SPEAK

What's the deal with Meerman?

I write about strategies to turn fans into customers and customers into fans. I also share ways to use real-time strategies to spread ideas, influence minds, and build business.

Best Practices

Many people ask me why I use my middle name in my professional endeavors. It's simple: There are so many David Scotts out there! I felt it was important for search engine marketing purposes that I am unique on the Web so six years ago I started adding Meerman to my bio and by-line.

I run across other David Scotts often. Last season, the Boston Red Sox sent me tickets that I hadn't ordered -- they had been intended for another David Scott. Alas, I felt compelled to return them. When I was working in marketing for Knight-Ridder, there was a David Scott at Reuters, also in marketing.

Some of us are famous -- one David Scott walked on the moon as commander of Apollo 15, a David Scott is a six-time Iron Man Triathlon Champion and another David Scott is a US Congressman. Certainly good company, but for clarity and search engine optimization purposes, I chose to become unique among my fellow David Scotts.

The lesson here is that if you want to be found on the Web, you need a unique identity for you, or your product, or your company that makes you stand out from the crowd and rise to prominence on search engines.

If you’re interested, the first-born son in my family going back many generations has Meerman as a middle name. Part of my family came from Dordrecht in the Netherlands and, you guessed it, Meerman is a Dutch name. I was at a book signing in New Canaan, CT for my novel Eyeball Wars several years ago and a woman walked up to me and introduced herself as my distant cousin! She was a Meerman too.