Joe Garraffo
President
Management
Joe has been developing interactive experiences for the Web since 1998, and specializing in search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) since 2002.
He’s spent years studying development, code and Web animation and spoken at numerous conferences and colleges. His writings were published in 2004 as the co-author – with Russell Chun – for the Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Advanced for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickPro Guide (Pearson/Peach Pit Press).
Before starting Efferent Media in 2011, Joe – a self-proclaimed news junkie – worked in the traditional media industry, spearheading projects driven by SEO at Newsday that were nominated twice for Pulitzer Prizes and won multiple awards in the news industry.
With the passing of Anna Nicole Smith in 2007, Joe orchestrated links and content between the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and some of the largest name newspapers in the country to direct their visitors to the story on Newsday.com. Within 30 minutes Newsday.com received its highest trafficked day in the history of the site.
After that Joe sat on the founding committee that brought SEO to news desks across the country within the Tribune family. In 2006 Tribune Interactive was welcoming just close to 10 million visits/sessions from the engines. By 2008 the group ended just shy of 14 million visits from search engines.
Joe firmly believes in the power of SEO and SEM and what they can do for an expertly designed website not only for news outlets, but also for businesses across the board.
And when Joe’s not busy growing Efferent and turning his clients in “Raving Fans,” he loves spending time with his wife, Nicole, and their two children.
He almost always listening to a Pink Floyd album and also enjoys building ponds, restoring coin-operated arcade games, and cycling when he’s not helping companies getting found online and optimizing, building and maintaining their websites.
Each new employee of Efferent Media is required to read the office copy of “Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service” by Kenneth H. Blanchard & Sheldon Bowles. This delightful book, written as a fable, stresses three key principles for business success: Integrity, Passion, and Over-Delivering. All of us at Efferent — including interns and part-timers — must read this book and absorb its message. It’s a pact with the company — and even with ourselves — that we will never settle for simply “satisfying” customers.
