WebRev Blog

When I was in school, I remember being told by advertising experts that "any publicity is good publicity."  Perhaps in some industries, this is (or was) true. I remember Jerry Falwell galvanized what he referred to as the "moral majority," primarily by making statements that drew negative attention from the press, and some politicians and political pundits still seem to live by this principle.

Those not involved in social movements or politics, however, might want to re-think this old adage in the age of the internet - where good and bad publicity really never dies, thanks to the search engine caches.

Apple is gaining a lot of publicity right now because a few of their latest creations have been alleged to overheat (this is denied by Apple) and spontaneously combusting.  News of a few Chevrolet Volt fires hasn't exactly been good for sales, and will we ever forget Toyota's brake problems? The internet won't - long after all of  these isolated "glitches" have been resolved.

When people are thinking of making a significant purchase, they tend to Google the product to see what people are saying.  If the search engine results return a lot of bad publicity, it is likely the customers will keep shopping - fair or not.  Recently a local young woman was in a dispute with her former mother-in-law.  When the young woman was not where she was expected to be for a visitation appointment, the mother-in-law used her influence with local law enforcement authorities, and managed to have an Amber Alert placed on the mother.  The mother and children were soon "found," perhaps because they weren't hiding, but that young mother may have a bit of explaining to do each and every time she applies for a job or considers dating someone....perhaps for the rest of her life.  Amber Alerts rank pretty highly on the search engines, and when anyone enters her name into the search engines, they are likely to see her name, her photo, and her children's names and photos before they really see anything else.  I'm sure this isn't the type of attention she was wanting.

So what does this mean for your website and your blog?  Some folks still think that generating a little controversy is a good way to attract free media attention, or internet publicity.  Maybe this will work, but it could "blow up" on them in the wrong way.  Remember, whatever happens online will not just be on the six o'clock news, then be forgotten.  What happens on the internet truly does stay on the internet - forever.  Make sure it's something you're still going to be proud to read a few years from now.

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  ;-) 

After reading 10 Things All Entrepeneurs Fail At by TechCrunch's James Alutcher (and resisting the English teacher inside of me wanting to correct the grammar mistakes in the title), I thought of a couple of mistakes I've made and seen others make when putting their new business venture on the web in the form of a website and/or a social networking profile.

The first is underestimating the importance of an online presence.  I went through my local coffee shop's drive-thru earlier this week, and while I was waiting in line, I decided to look them up online.  I was stunned to see that they really have no online presence.  They're in a few directories developed by other people, but they don't have a website or any sort or any social networking profiles that I could find.  Needless to say, I'm working on a proposal (I wonder if they would let me do the job for free mocha frapps...hmm).  But I digress.

One of the first things people do now when they discover a new business, or when they're checking out a new business, is LOOK THEM UP ONLINE.  If they're a local business, people expect to be able to see the hours of operation and a map to nearby locations.  People are also hoping to look at a menu of the products, and maybe even a discount.  In many cases they'll be using their mobile devices to do this.  Any business that hasn't taken charge of its own online reputation by having at least their basic contact information listed online in an easy-to-find and use format is missing the boat. 

The other mistake we all tend to make when we're starting a new business, and caught up in the excitement of seeing our first website (and showing all of our friends), is that we might overestimate how much business we're going to get from that website.  Somehow we tend to imagine that there are millions of people just sitting out there with a void in the shape of whatever we're selling that are going to be so happy that we finally opened for business and put up a web page or a Facebook profile.  Maybe that will happen, but just in case it doesn't (ahem), it's important to remain realistic about the purpose of our website and the goal of our online efforts. 

Sure, if you really study and implement good search engine optimization and you have a business that is geared toward online commerce, you may see a lot of profit just from the online traffic you generate.  For most local businesses, however, the website and/or social networking profile is the new yellow pages ad: You must have one so that people will know you're legit, but the traffic you're going to get solely from there will be a small percentage of your overall profits. 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Those who have been reading my posts on the WebRev blog for a long time know I seldom use exclamation points in my titles.  But today is an exception, because I'm pretty excited about this new little toy I've found. 

No, I don't even get paid to endorse this product.  I wish I did, because I think it's going to be a pretty big deal.

We talk a lot here on WebRev about protecting and monitoring your online reputation.  Mashable did a post this weekend about How Recruiters Use Social Networks to Screen Candidates, explaining that according to a survey done by Reppler.com, the majority of recruiters surveyed looked at Facebook, Twitter, and/or LinkedIN to screen out potential job applicants before they even called them in for an interview.  These interviewers were looking for things like poor communication skills, inappropriate behavior, and discrepancies between information given on the resume, and information given on social networking profiles in regard to job qualifications and experience (Infographic HERE).

So, I clicked on the link to Reppler.com, and was amazed at the information I was able to get about my online profile for free.  I did let them check my Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIN profiles, and felt the results were accurate based on what I have (and have not) been posting recently to those profiles.  You can sign up for e-mail updates daily, weekly or monthly.  I would recommend daily if currently seeking employment, and less frequently if not.  You can receive alerts about security and privacy "red flags," (e.g. if an app you've posted to your wall is known to have security risks), or "inappropriate content," (e.g. if a friend posts a link containing offensive language to your wall).  My overview is the first image shown above as an example.

The drop-down under "My Networks," is very interesting, and shows how many of your friends overlap between the social networking sites, how many are on each one, and what types of content they've been posting. The "My Impression" drop-down is the most informative, giving a tag cloud of your most-used words, a graph of your "likes," and suggestions for improving your online image. I've posted a screen shot of part of mine above as an example.

This is a very interesting and useful site - check it out!

We've cautioned many times here on the WebRev blog that an important part of protecting your digital reputation is being careful what you put online that could be viewed and perhaps judged disproportionally and out of context by potential clients or employers for many years in the future.

While that is sound advice, perhaps there are exceptions to the rule?  Increasingly, people are using the web to air their grievances online, and the lesson we might learn from them might be that if you really MUST do this, be sure to explain exactly what your said grievances are, and express your dissatisfaction in a clear, concise, and BIG way.  At least maybe you'll get points for humor, and creativity. 

Probably the most famous person to do this so far this century is Steven Slater, the former JetBlue Flight attendant, who just finally snapped in frustration of dealing with disrespectful passengers, flew into a rage, and quit by sliding down the emergency chute.  He then became a bit of a celebrity on Facebook (with nearly 200K followers) and in the media.  His story is on the Mail Online, and Wikipedia.  Fortunately, Mr. Slater accumulated a sufficient 401K during his career to live on for the time being, and is able to forego the job search while he is dealing with drug addiction and serious health issues...and his new rap career.

Mashable reported this week on a young man named Joey DeFrancesco was apparently tired of what he felt was mistreatment by his hotel employer, and quit his job - but he didn't make it all about himself.  He managed to get some publicity for his friends who have a brass band, by allowing them to provide the fanfare for his termination announcement - a move which has resulted in over 1.6M hits to the YouTube video so far.  Hopefully, the band will reciprocate by allowing Joey to be their manager...or bell hop, or something.  Or maybe he'll be able to find an employer with a really good sense of humor.

In the same post, Mashable pointed out that Joey's expose of his employer could potentially overtake the popularity of the video the folk band, "Sons of Maxwell," made after becoming upset at United Airlines for (reportedly) breaking one of their Taylor guitars (at the top of this post).  This video has nearly 12M hits on YouTube.  Unfortunately,  this particular attempt to revive a career may have been a spectacular career-ender for unknown reasons (see Wikipedia).  So maybe this one is a lesson in what NOT to do.  Maybe all of these are, after all.

Of course if you ever do manage to get yourself fired, the best defense is to claim that you were just too good looking for the establishment.

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.