WebRev Blog

In this ever-changing world of social media, it's important to keep up with what the "cool kids" are doing online. Or are the "cool kids" spelling that with a "k," now, as in "Kool Kids?"  I don't think we're supposed to call them "groovy" anymore, but I have noticed a resurgence in the term "hipsters," thanks to the occupy-everything movements. 

Well, whatever you want to call them, it's a good idea to keep up with the techniques that work.  Back in the good ol' days (circa 2009-2010), it was considered rude or in bad form online to simply use a social networking profile as another one-way broadcast medium.  Only huge corporations with established name recognition like Coca-Cola or people who were just impossibly cool like Hollywood stars could get away with having gazillions of followers or friends and not really following anyone back. 

However, as people tried to gain name recognition by "mutually following" everyone on the web, they found that their networks became full of people who were doing the exact same thing, and no one was really getting a lot of benefit out of it anymore.

Mashable started a good discussion on this over the weekend, specific to Twitter, but the concept also applies to Facebook or Google Plus or Pinterest, or whatever industry-specific social network you might be using.  It's important to remember what the PURPOSE of your social network is.

So what is the purpose of your social network?  Is it to drive traffic and links back to your blog? Is it to target your prospective customers, and give them a convenient way to communicate with you?  Is it to actually develop a meaningful relationship with old friends from school? Is it to build your online reputation so a Google search for your name returns positive results in your current job search?

As you can imagine, the people you will want to include in your network will be different depending on your primary reason for social networking.  If your only goal is blog traffic and links, then probably the old method of gaining as many followers as possible will work for you.  If you are trying to build direct communication with your potential customer or client base, you might want to limit your "mutual" following to people in that demographic.  If you're social network exists for personal reasons, you might want to increase your privacy settings, and network only with people you know personally.  If you're wanting your online profile to look great in a job search, you'll need to maintain a public profile, and be very careful about what photos and comments you let those old friends from high school tag you in  ;-) 

Is this thing on?!

By now, perhaps you've seen the most popular grandparents on YouTube (above).  They were trying to video-cam with a beloved granddaughter, but didn't realize they actually had turned on the camera.  Beloved posted the resulting video on Youtube (isn't that precious), and as of the writing of this post, they have received over 6.5 million hits (with the help of the national news organizations).

Fortunately they didn't say or do anything on the video that was damaging (just very funny), but I have had friends who forgot their webcams were on, after they stopped using them, and some of the stories are a lot more embarrassing, or potentially humiliating.  This happens to be one of my greatest fears, so I never kept a webcam connected when I had the option.  Now that the video cameras are installed on most laptops, I keep a piece of electrical tape over the lens.  This tape will not damage the lens, can be easily removed, and keeps anyone from at least getting video if I accidentally turn on the camera (They could still get audio, of course, but oh, well). 

That photo wasn't for you!

It seems like once or twice a month we hear about some movie star or political personality whose private photos have been leaked to the public.  In some of the case, of course, a skeptic might wonder if the photos were leaked intentionally to drum up publicity for a diminishing career,.  For the rest of us, however, who really don't want the world to see our most embarrassing photos, the key is not to store those photos.  Just don't.  Photos are like secrets - they will always find a way to surface.  Keep those memories in your heart, and get rid of the photos.  That's my advice.  For those who think this is bad advice, at least don't store the photos on your "smart" phone, or any other blue-tooth enabled device.

Reply all...yikes!

By now most of us are familiar with that sinking feeling you get just right after you write a cleverly sarcastic e-mail in response to a more serious e-mail - intending to only send it to your one friend on that e-mail list, but hitting the "reply all" button instead.  Oh, you don't know that feeling?  Well, it's a terrible feeling.  It can be avoided by not using reply all.   That probably sounds obvious, but what I mean is get in the habit of always hitting "reply," or "forward."  Reply all usually ends up adding a bunch of people to your e-mail address book you didn't want on there anyway, so it's in your best interest to avoid using that feature whenever possible.  Plus, not being in the habit of using the "reply all" button will reduce your chances of using it by mistake. You can also reduce the chances of the people you e-mail mis-using the reply-all button by sending your mass e-mails using the "blind carbon copy (BCC)" option.  Even if your friend accidentally hits the "reply all" button, the e-mail will still only come back to you.

The above comic is from the Joy of Tech blog, and I got it from Mashable.  They've covered generally just about every type of avatar out there - in a mostly tongue-in-cheek manner. 

You probably know by now that you're going to need an "avatar," or profile picture for just about every social networking site on the web.  I personally recommend a good headshot for most business-related social networking, but many people are uncomfortable posting a photo of themselves, either because they don't like the way they look, or just because it feels too "vain," to self-promote.  Others have security or privacy concerns with posting their own profiles. 

Whether you choose to post a photo of yourself, or some other type of graphic, here are some things to keep in mind when choosing a social networking avatar:

If you have security or privacy concerns with posting your own photo, please DON'T substitute your own picture with one of your kids or pets.  They are more vulnerable and make easier targets than you do. 

Remember that your avatar is the way people will quickly recognize you and find your posts on the various sites.  DO choose something fairly unique to you, easily recognizable.  DON'T "change it up" every couple of weeks.  This just confuses people.

DO use something that represents you or your business.  DON'T use a celebrity or political figure.  This is technically illegal (it's a type of impersonation, even though it's seldom prosecuted because most people realize this is either done by fans or as satire).  It's also a common tactic used by spammers - who aren't planning to stick around under that profile very long, and are too lazy to come up with something original.  Finally, it shows lack of personal self esteem - not a good image to project if you're networking for business purposes.

DO be a square.  Many of the networks actually require you to crop your image to a square one, and a square one will work even on the networks that allow other shapes.  Having a good square image on-hand will save you time and frustration when you're signing up for a new site.

Finally, although this should be the most obvious, I'm amazed at how often I see this being done - DON'T use the site default for your avatar.  This screams, "I'm new to the Internet," which, in 2011 is not an image you want to project.  Take a few minutes to develop an avatar that works for you, and that you would like to use for a long time, and then use it.  Just do it. :-)

From time to time I need to start a new online profile from scratch, either for a client or for a new project of my own.  Did you know that it is possible to be on the front page of Google and the other search engines in 24 hours or less?  Here are a few simple steps to quickly get an online profile up and running.

1) Choose a unique name. If you choose a name already in use by someone good with SEO, or a common name already in use by a lot of people, there will be too much competition.  Choose something unique - even if you need to choose a unique spelling for a word everyone already knows.  Choose something short, so that people will be easily able to search for you on the search engines and social networks.

2) Sign up for Facebook, and customize your Facebook URL for your new online profile. Adjust your settings to make your new profile "public," so that people and the search engines can easily find you.  For a business or project, create a page; for a person, create a profile.  Facebook ranks  very high on the search engines, so this will show up almost immediately.

3)  Sign up for Twitter, and use your new profile name as the new Twitter ID.  Just as with Facebook, make your new profile public, and make a few relevant tweets.  Both the profiles and the tweets show up quickly and rank high on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

4) Purchase a domain name, and point it to your blog or website.  If you're a WebRevelation customer, Tim Short will take care of this for you, of course.  Make sure your domain URL matches the name of your blog for optimum digital profile management.

And there you go! You're well on your way to good online profile management in 24 hours or less.  Keep in mind that online profile management is not the same thing as optimizing your site to get traffic from the search engines (that requires a few extra steps).  The purpose of online profile management is making sure that when people search for you or your project by name they will be able to find you and good information about you and what you're doing online. 

 I've spent the last several days helping a client with the online part of a PR "damage control" situation.  Without going into the specifics of the situation with that particular client, I will simply say that online reputation management is ALWAYS more easily handled proactively rather than reactively (after the damage has been done).  Sometimes this is not avoidable, however.  The more competitive or controversial your industry, the more likely this could eventually happen to you, so let's talk about a few ways to handle online reputation damage control:

1) Do NOT ignore the problem.  Once the problem exists online, it can take on a life of its own, and is often immortal.  You need to take actual as quickly as possible.

2) Tell your side of the story right away.  Whether you are being falsely accused of something, or you (or your company) have actually made a mistake, it is important to address the problem as quickly as possible.  If you find out about what happened on someone else's blog, you have already lost control of the dialogue, and you are now on the defensive.  If you can get a well-worded (honest) statement describing your side of the story out as quickly as possible, you will have more control over the conversation.

3) Rally your fans, customers, supporters, friends, family to help support  you publicly.  The interesting thing about public opinion is that it is contagious. If the public sees and hears people supporting you or your business, they will be more inclined to give you the benefit of any doubt.  If all they hear are complaints and criticism, they'll be more likely to believe that "where there's smoke there's fire," and stay away.

4) Propose a solution, and carry it out.  What this means, exactly, will vary depending on the nature of your business, and the nature of the problem. But one thing that never changes is that "actions speak louder than words."  Americans love a happy ending.  If people see you out there (in action) using whatever just happened to you to the advantage of yourself and others, they will be much more likely to see the problem as being resolved, and also to remember what you DID in response to the problem, rather than what other people SAID about you.

5) Realize that some people will never like you.  Ignore them. While it is important not to ignore any potential Public Relations catastrophe, it is also important not to give your competition or adversaries more power by trying to change their opinion.  Keep a sense of humor, and remind them that "any publicity is good publicity," and then focus on your business and your mission. 

Jennifer Pointer (e-mail) is in Tulsa, OK. She promotes a simple, a low-tech approach to effective online profile management, search engine optimization and social networking. 
 

Yes, I'm often very critical and/or sarcastic about Google's ongoing mission to take over the world.   The truth is that the reason they're so close to fulfilling that mission is that they are so good at so many of the things they do.  Google Alerts is a good example. 

I set up alerts to help track my and my clients' digital reputation (online profile), and to keep up with current events and news that are important to me.  Unlike my feed reader (also on Google), which help me keep up with specific websites and blogs, the alerts allow me to track search terms such as names keywords relating to specific news stories.

Setting up alerts is easy.  Go to alerts.google.com, and enter your search term.  Preview the results, and either broaden or narrow down your search to a level that makes sense.  Select your desired frequency, and enter your e-mail address (it doesn't have to be Gmail.)  If you're not using Gmail, and/or you're not signed into your Google account, you'll receive an e-mail asking you to confirm the alert. 

After that, you'll receive alerts daily or several times per day (depending on the frequency you have selected) with blog posts, website articles, discussion forum posts, and social networking discussions containing your search term.  Since Google pretty much crawls everything now, the results are pretty comprehensive. 

If the story is one you only want to track for a short period of time, you can always stop the alerts at any time by clicking on the link provided with each e-mail. 

Jennifer Pointer (e-mail) is in Tulsa, OK. She promotes a simple, a low-tech approach to effective online profile management, search engine optimization and social networking.