I was recently contacted by David Mielach, a freelance writer for BusinessNewsDaily.com.
David has started writing a daily quick hit article on various topics and was looking for sources on various fields ranging from PR to Marketing; and in turn asked if I would be interested in contributing. Well, it took me just a couple of milliseconds to say YES!
David contact me this morning about an article he was working on; How Missouri's Teacher Facebook Law Affects Your Business. I find it interesting that businesses and schools are still grappling with rules and regulations regarding social media. I understand that they were caught off guard with the popularity of social media, but shouldn't they have caught up by now by updating their employee policies? Small businesses, you must address this immediately!
What are your thoughts on this topic? Do businesses have the right to restrict what you do on social media profiles? Should they?
Want to connect with me? That is easy, I am always on! You can Friend me on Facebook, Follow me on Twitter, add me to your Circles on Google+ and connect with me on LinkedIn.
Two of my friends from Twitter, Marty McPadden @MartyMcPadden and Misty Belardo @MistyGirlph published a post recently that I believe is solid gold! Most individuals sign up for Twitter accounts and figure it out on their own or with the help of a friend. Businesses however, struggle to know how or why to set a Twitter account; not anymore! This video and post will help you approach your business Twitter account in the right way!
Here is their video:
Here is the link to the complete post and all of the tips. Thank you Marty and Misty for publishing this and for letting me re-post it!
Marty McPaddenfounder and host of PodJamTv is a professional photographer, videographer, blogger, apple geek and a Production Supervisor at ESPN one of the largest sports network in the world. His vast knowledge in the above mentioned field will allow you our readers to tap into tools, apps, reviews and tips that he has learned and mastered over the years. How to’s and hacks that will allow you to have a richer online experience.
Misty Belardoco host and co writer of PodJamTv is an experienced blogger, designer and a self proclaimed Twitter-holic and an avid Facebook user is a Senior Production Manager at Barefoot Proximity, one of the most awarded advertising agencies across the globe. Her experience with writing, designing, SEO and brand and advertising strategy will give readers a point of view of what happens behind the scenes in the digital sphere.
Want to connect with me? That is easy, I am always on! You can Friend me on Facebook, Follow me on Twitter, add me to your Circles on Google+ and connect with me on LinkedIn.
The latest edition of the Socialnomics 3 video, an even longer 4:00+ version, has been making the rounds on Twitter, Facebook and Google+. If you are not familiar with the video, it is the world's most watched social media series by Erik Qualman. Based on #1 Best Seller Socialnomics.
Here is the video
Any time this video is updated, it is played, re-played or posted on anyone and everyone's page/profile that likes to call themselves a social media consultant. Is there anything wrong with this? No, not at all. I believe the problem is that too many people see others talking about social media and they convey onto that person the level of expert or they think that person has expertise in social media. Many times this happens because the social media consultant refers to themselves as an expert.
If you are looking for a social media consultant or partner; run like Forest Gump away from anyone, and I do mean anyone that uses the term expert, guru, or cheerleader to describe themselves! No one is a social media expert, plain and simple. Social media is still in it's infancy and we are all students. From the biggest names in the medium to someone that just signed up for Facebook, we are all now and will always be students.
If you are looking to hire a consultant or a firm to work with on social media, consider these tips:
*Check out their Facebook Business Page and Facebook personal account. How often do they post and what kind of engagement do they have with friends or fans?
*Check out their Twitter account. Do they post good information? Do they just RT information? How consistently do they engage with others on Twitter?
*Numbers are not the only thing; but how large of a network have they built? That can be a good barometer of how they can help your business engage and build a network.
*Are they early adopters and do they work to learn new technologies and platforms such as Google+?
*Ask for references of current clients; if they are at liberty to disclose those.
*Ask for references of past clients.
*Ask for information on campaigns they have successfully developed in the past.
*Do they have a blog and/or website that is updated regularly?
This is not a complete or exhaustive list, but it's a start. What are your thoughts?
For the record, I am a social media student, consultant and practitioner.
Want to connect with me? That is easy, I am always on! You can Friend me on Facebook, Follow me on Twitter, add me to your Circles on Google+ and connect with me on LinkedIn.
At the outset, I apologize to the readers of my blog; my updates and posts have been very sporadic lately and I committed to blogging more frequently.
While life sometimes throws us curve balls that we don't see coming, most likely these pitches allow us the the opportunity to knock one out o the park! That's a good description of what has been happening in my life and in my business. Changes that I will explain more completely soon, but opportunities for partnerships and strategic alliances have arisen that otherwise I wouldn't have been able to embrace; trust me, it's all good!
So, while we may not always expect the changes; we should roll with them and embrace what is going to happen next! We should Roll With the Changes.
Saddle up friends, it is going to be a fun ride!
Oh, and if you love classic rock, you know why I used the REO Speedwagon album cover; if not, click on the link in the picture to listen to the song.
As my Twitter brother @VincentHunt would say, et's GO!
Thank you Chris Brogan for this post and for graciously letting me share it with my readers.
I receive a lot of questions about various points of etiquette with regards to social media. I also observe instances where I wish people knew some of the more common etiquette, because they seem like wonderful people, who maybe have made a mistake because they didn’t know better. To that end, I thought I’d give a brief set of ideas around social media etiquette. You’re very welcome to add to these in the comments. There will be a mix of do’s and don’ts, and remember this above all else: you’re doing it wrong.
Social Media Etiquette: Your Appearance
Your avatar picture shouldn’t be a logo. We don’t meet logos at parties, do we? You can include a logo, but make it you.
Unless you’re a fictional character, more often than not, your avatar should be you. Amazing Simpson-like renditions of you are interesting for about four hours.
Your Facebook profile pic can be not you, but it often means that others might not accept your friend request. It feels creepy friending a four year old kid (avatar).
Your picture can be you from 10 or 15 years ago, but that first face to face meeting is going to be jarring.
It doesn’t take a lot of work to take a decent pic. Why use those “me cut out from posing with someone while I have red eyes” photos?
Social Media Etiquette: Friending
You’re not obligated to follow/friend anyone. No matter what. Not even your mother. (I follow my mother, btw).
If you decide to unfollow someone, don’t make a big stink and announce why. Just leave.
It’s okay to let the competition follow you. It’s okay to follow the competition.
Famous people don’t always want to follow back. I’m looking at you, Justin Bieber!
You can set your own rules on Facebook. I’m in the process of moving everyone to a fan page and just keeping VERY close family and friends.
Social Media Etiquette: Conversation
Commenting about other people’s stuff and promoting other people’s stuff is very nice.
Retweeting people’s praise of you comes off as jerky. Just thank them.
If you retweet something interesting, always give credit for who found it first.
Facebook wall comment streams can get long. Don’t grumble. If you’re along for the ride, it’ll end some day.
Promote others more often than you promote yourself. My long-standing measure is 12:1. (If it doesn’t work at first, it’s because maybe you’re not sincere in your promoting of others).
Listening is important and commenting is important. Be the #1 commenter on your blog. (See next one)
It’s okay to NOT comment back for every single comment you receive. It’s nice when you can respond, but don’t litter the comments with a bunch of “Thanks, Judy.” People know you care, if you’re doing it right.
If you are talking about someone in a blog post, link to them. Steve Garfield is a pro at this.
If you’re really nice, you’ll think about link text and help them even more by linking to Internet video expert Steve Garfield. Make sense?
Links do matter to Google and to the people you care about. When you can, give them a link.
If you’re writing about a client, add (client) to the tweet/post/update.
If you’re selling me something with an affiliate link, disclose that in the tweet/post/update.
If there’s a material reason (or perception of such) that you want me to take an action or click a link, tell me.
Tell me once in the post, and once again on a disclosure page. I use part of my about page for disclosures. See also: one of my other favorite disclosure pages (for cheekiness).
Make sure your audience comfortably knows your motives, and everything goes better.
Social Media Etiquette: Promoting
Promote as if you’re at a cocktail party. It’s not the same as your email blast list.
Promote others, and it’s much more likely people will help promote you when it’s your turn.
Leave room for retweets. Writing 139 characters won’t get you anywhere.
Promoting on Facebook is MUCH nicer on my wall than in my private messages. (Do you agree?)
It’s probably okay to promote something 4x a day on a social network, so that you hit all the time zones appropriately. In the last hour, you can always give it a couple more pushes, but that’s about it.
Direct messaging people for promotion help is often annoying. It happens much more than you know.
Your cause isn’t always our cause. If we don’t want to help, don’t badger.
Things where you have to get 1,000 tweets to raise money are litter on Twitter. Things to get 1,000 “likes” on Facebook are fine. (Remember, however, that a “like” gives your demographic data to the thing that you’ve liked, plus permission for that page to message you privately.)
Social Media Etiquette: Content Production
You can post as often as you want on your blog. It’s your blog. Monthly will probably fade from our memory. Weekly could work. Daily is my favorite. Some people post many times a day. It’s up to you.
You can tweet as often as you want, but people unfollow “noisy” tweeters (I get unfollowed often).
You can update Facebook often, and if you’re running pages, you might want to update 3-4 times a day, I’m starting to observe.
Depending on your blog’s purpose, be wary of over-selling. (I ran into this personally.) Make sure you’re still providing great community value.
If you find great content from other places, use it only after you understand whether you have permission to do so, and under the terms that the people have set.
If you’re linking and sharing someone else’s blog post (which is good to do), it’s also wonderful when you add something to it. Add some commentary. Add a thought or two as to why it matters to your community.
If someone’s work inspires your own post, it’s a nice thing to “hat tip” them with a link to the post that inspired you, somewhere in the post (usually down at the bottom).
If you go a long time between blog updates, don’t write a “sorry I haven’t written lately” post. No one cares. Just publish something good.
Social Media Etiquette: Sharing is Caring
Every blog I know has a share/like/tweet/stumble button at the bottom or somewhere. They’re there for a reason. If you like the article, pushing those buttons is a “tip jar” for the artist. Push it. It doesn’t take long.
If you’re reading in Google Reader, sharing is as simple as “[SHIFT] S” and that goes to everyone who reads your shared items.
Tell the blogger when you love something they’ve done. People’s #1 complaint to me when they’re starting out blogging is that they lack any feedback. It’d take you 30 seconds to do, and would change a person’s perspective for a whole day.
Comments in Twitter are temporary moments in a stream. Comments on the blog post itself are forever, in the best (and worst) of ways.
The web thrives on links and social sharing. The more YOU do to participate, the more people will create material for free for you to enjoy.
Your Mileage Will Vary
For every idea above, there’s an exception. For every idea above, there’s a great reason to do the opposite. If you’re doing it differently than above, you’re not wrong. You’re doing it your way. Okay, I lied: you’re doing it wrong.
I look forward to your thoughts, disagreements, counter-posts, additional thoughts, sharing, and more.
John's Thoughts
Chris nails the topic of Social Media Etiquette; and if you think about it, most of what we are talking about here is common sense. I believe one of the powers of social media is the fact that we can support and promote each other. It doesn't take a lot of time, but it does take effort!
What are your thoughts?
Owner at John Lusher Consulting | Co-President at Meetup 2.0 | Board Member Trust House | Want to know more? Check out my About page. Contact me John@JohnLusher.com
