Steve Wiideman
Adjunct Professor
Schools: University of California, San Diego; California State University, Fullerton; Fullerton College
Location: Fullerton, California
Steve Wiideman, of Wiideman Consulting Group, is a scientist and practitioner of local and e-commerce search engine optimization and paid-search advertising. Steve specializes in strategy, planning, and campaign oversights. He personally played a role in the inbound successes of brands such as Disney, Linksys, Belkin, Public Storage, Honda, Skechers, Applebee’s, IHOP, Dole, and others.
Steve works as an adjunct professor at Cal State Fullerton, UC San Diego, and Fullerton College. He teaches a variety of courses in website design, SEO, SEM, and online advertising.
Steve’s current projects include an online training program, an agency transparency service, and experiments to better understand the impact of voice search, featured snippets, and structured data.
We asked Steve a few questions. His answers are below.
WHAT STUKENT COURSEWARE HAVE YOU USED?
My students and I have really enjoyed using “Digital Marketing Essentials” (text and videos) for multiple classes I teach at Fullerton College, such as SEO, SEM, website design and online advertising. The feedback I get every term is typically centered around how the students enjoy the bite-sized portions of content versus long-winded offline textbooks. The videos are easy to follow, and as a marketer myself, I agree with most of the context.
Though many assignments and exams have specific deadlines, the material is available in a matter that feels like it’s “self-paced,” reducing student anxiety and (from my experience) significantly improving the student’s engagement with the material. For the SEM students, Mimic Pro is the best simulation tool available. There really isn’t anything like it.
WHAT TEACHING TIPS WOULD YOU SHARE WITH OTHER PROFESSORS?
I’m very hands-on in how I like to teach, likely because that’s how I learned digital marketing. As such, I typically select a small business as our class volunteer subject matter, and each student gets to interact with that business as if they were working with a client in the post-college world.
For example, in our last term, celebrated business speaker Bodine Balasco allowed our students access to his web analytics and website to run audits and analyze data. Students then wrote up their own strategies to present to Bodine using proprietary templates and examples. Bodine’s feedback was that he couldn’t tell the difference between my strategy and the students, and that based on his impression of the quality of work performed, every student now has what it takes to be a successful digital marketer.
WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES AND TALENTS?
My family loves to travel, but I’d say our favorite hobby (my wife’s and mine) is our annual 80s Cruise. Here we get to hang out with band members from some of our favorite bands growing up, while exploring tropical beaches and going on exciting excursions. I still can’t believe we made friends with and spent time with Terri Nunn (Berlin) and her husband Paul, and got a private preview of Tiffany’s album before it was released!
CONNECT WITH STEVE WIIDEMAN
Thank you, Steve, and congratulations!
