Founded in 1999, SageRock is a digital marketing agency dedicated to helping brands engage their audiences online.  This is made possible with a suite of solutions that cover SEO, social media, behavioral targeting, usability and analytics.  Aside from being a digital marketing specialist, the company also provides planning, consultation, and training through SageRock Institute, which includes both paid and free courses.

Contel Bradford of DMB recently spoke with Sage Lewis, SageRock founder and president, to learn more about the company and get his thoughts on the ever-evolving digital space.

I noticed that you are very engaged in the digital marketing world? What fuels your passion for the business?
I believe that the digital revolution we all are participating in is the greatest transformation of media in the history of humanity. Because of tools like Twitter and blogs and YouTube, all riding on the back of the Internet, voices and perspectives never heard before are being heard worldwide.

This newfound power of the masses has required completely new levels of accountability and transparency in our governments and our corporations.  Simply put, communication is a good thing for everyone even though sometimes it looks messy.

What inspired SageRock Institute and what type of courses do you offer?
I love to teach. I am able to share my passion for my industry with many others through the medium of education. Also, I believe that there are many people who want to know how to successfully engage in the Internet marketing realm.

An important key to success in business is listening carefully to your customers and providing them with the services and products they want. SageRock Institute is trying to offer that solution.

With Twitter’s fast rise and the continuous dominance of Facebook, do you think brands should view social media as a must-have marketing tool?
No. Nothing is right for everyone. Doing social media correctly requires openness, transparency and a knack for engaging people on a personal level digitally. There are a lot of moving parts in social media. Doing it well is a rarity. Doing it poorly is common.

If your leadership and culture views social media skeptically and with suspicion you aren’t ready for it. Do something else.

What are your thoughts on Facebook’s Open Graph concept?  Do you think it will change the digital marketing landscape?
Information is meant to be free. Information evolves to openness. This is a law of human nature. There are many people that feel uncomfortable with Facebook’s sharing of information. Honestly, I’m uncomfortable with it. But ultimately this is where all information is heading.

People are uncomfortable with this because they see it happening. They should be more frightened of where their information is going without their knowledge. We used to live in a world where we hid our political and religious views. Today we live in a world where our personal lives are becoming available to everyone. The people giving the information need to be at peace with that. The people getting the information need to realize we are all human.

Some view social media as a threat to online search? As an SEO specialist, do you see it having an impact on how businesses approach optimization?
It isn’t a threat to online search. It is the evolution of online search. YouTube is now the second most important search engine. Social content is now becoming integrated within the search engines. The search marketing space is significantly more complicated than anything I dealt with in 1999.

As a search optimizer we have no choice but to force ourselves to learn and grow with this space. If we do, it offers incredible opportunity to be leaders and guides for the rest of the business community. To work in this space correctly you have no choice but to be a specialist.