I’ve been busy busy busy, and yes this blog has been left rather unattended- but for good reason. I decided to write more around an educational idea on social media @ 123socialmedia.com promotion and branding. My newer articles cover a wide range of different topics and I hope that everyone learns from my experience. In the past two weeks here are some samples of my articles:

Enterprise Social Media Measurement and Analysis – I receive plenty of feedback from peers in the social media space about “reporting and analysis” of the metrics behind online conversations. How do you measure buzz, authority, perspective, bias, trending, cost? All of the above? A mixture of it all?

Seattle SEO and search engine optimization? – So many companies are trying to get on top of Google for different keywords, and I have often pondered the great question of “is it worth it?” All too many companies want to define themselves by phrases such as “Seattle SEO” or “Seattle Search Engine Optimization” but the truth of the matter is that less than 20% of our traffic comes from keyword search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Sure we may be in Seattle, but SEO is only a small fraction of what we do.

Social Media Measurement and Brand Control -Social Media Measurement usually refers to tracking online communications and networking patterns that occur on blogs, podcasts, videos, social communities, and the various commentary that exchanges between them. Many companies are struggled with the task of analyzing when and why people are talking about them online, or if there is something a company needs to be aware of relating to the industry with competitive companies and products.

Social Media Influencer Marketing - Influencer Marketing is the act of targeting specific thought-leaders, critics, industry giants, celebrities, and just plain interesting personalities. Wikipedia currently has it defined as “a form of marketing that has emerged from a variety of recent practices and studies, in which focus is placed on specific key individuals (or types of individual) rather than the target market as a whole.

Ethical Media Consulting – As a marketer I am responsible for helping my clients promote themselves, as a public relations contact I am responsible for helping them strategically maneuver, as a professional I am responsible for making sure that I do not sacrifice my clients well-being for my own, and as a thoughtful human I must hold myself responsible for everything else.

Daily Blog Tips is a great “how to” blog site. Every now and then they have a good idea about something.

Here are a few great articles that you should take a gander at:

30 Traffic Generators is 30 different tips from thirty different pro-bloggers around the net. Some of these ideas are simple and straight-forward, while others require a little brain power.

101 Blog Tips is a slightly more comical bullet list of blogging ideas. It deserves a once-through simply to jump-start your blogging brain and make sure you didn’t miss anything.

5 Tips for Writing Timeless Content covers a few points on not dating your articles so that they remain “fresh” forever.

And lastly 10 Professional Looking Themes is a quick list of some decent themes that both new and seasoned bloggers can use.

LinkedIn is a huge network of millions of professionals. They range from IT professionals and corporate CEOs, to urban bakery professionals and auto mechanics. By using search tools and filtering options, you can find people from nearly all of the Fortune 1000 as well as your friendly neighbor down the street.

Virtual networking tools like LinkedIn do not replace regular networking tactics. They are merely magnifiers for reaching new and unique crowds of contacts. The overall function of LinkedIn is to help leverage your contacts to introduce yourself to new associates with similar interests and professional goals.

Some basic fundamentals of using LinkedIn

• Reach out to everyone you run across. Don’t be shy.
• Take time to connect with everyone you can. Think of out-of-the-box reasons to accept a new invitation and cultivate a relation.
• Consider every person in your network to be “you” supporter. Use your personal network to spread your message when you need to.
• Detail yourself as much as possible. The extra information allows other members to figure out ways to network with you.

Once you have 100 connections, begin analyzing individuals who have developed networks and leverage those connections.

• Endorse individuals you have met along the way.
• Ask your friends to endorse your profile and add recommendations.
• Add detailed employment items to remind connections of your history.
• Be real. Be truthful. Offer endorsements and commentary. If a user doesn’t like the exact wording of a statement they won’t put it live.

Take a day each month-

• Do a quick name and e-mail search for new contacts you’ve met in the real world.
• Use new introductions as a way to even more new introductions next week.

Start today. Everyone is waiting. You can find me here.

It reminds me of the shower scene from Psycho.  

A youthful blogger is relaxing at the keyboard as they patiently sip a warm cup of coffee.

The computer beeps, letting them know some new mail is in their inbox.

Outside the window, a brisk night wind ever so slightly rattles the window.

A moment passes as our enthralled blogger whimsically clicks through inspiring articles.

Then, without warning, they browse to the bottom of the article completely oblivious to the danger approaching them.

With one button-click they jump back as they feverishly try not to scream.

What did they find?

• A link to the secret formula that will forever increase their love life.
• A guide to finding the perfect partner.
• The cure for male pattern baldness.
• A free laptop.

Simply put-

BLOG SPAM

Blog Spam has become one of the most challenging aspects of my occupation. Many businesses that I speak with are often terrified of it. Just like the shower scene in Psycho, they have become intimidated by years of horrid e-mail offers landing in the inbox and fearful that what they have to say online will be drowned by inappropriate commentary.

As part of my daily life, I often educate professionals on the technical and social devices in place that help us with blog spam. Occasionally some blog spam gets through, but luckily we have some highly effective defenses-

COMMUNITY- The very nature of online communities is self-correcting and self-defining. While some members would or could SPAM us, they are kept inline by social doctrines that are often left unspoken by the community. This is actually the most effective form of inappropriate comment control, as every one of us is psychologically concerned with how our professional peers, family members, and friends will treat us if we break the rules of our own community.

THE EDITORIAL QUEUE- Most blogging platforms support the ability to place a comment “on hold” until a live editor takes the time to read it. This is time consuming, but provides an almost surefire way of keeping SPAM off your articles. The downside to this is that it derails the “live” aspects of blogging and requires someone to watch those comments coming in. If you happen to visit the site during Christmas break, that active dialogue may take a few days to be highlighted on the web.

ACTIVE LOGIN- Requiring individuals to login translates to effort. Effort translates to time. SPAM bloggers hate wasting time, so deterring them with twenty seconds of logging in generally annoys most of them to death.

CAPTCHA - (Stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”, trademarked by Carnegie Mellon University) A common type of SPAM control that requires a user type the letters of a distorted image, sometimes with the addition of an obscured sequence of letters or digits that appears on the screen.

RATINGS-  Another community enforcement tool, some blog platforms support ratings on comments so that they may be audited by the system if enough readers deem them inappropriate.

E-MAIL VERIFICATION- requires the user posting a comment to confirm that they have submitted a valid e-mail address. This doesn’t guarantee it isn’t a junk e-mail account, but it does add another step to the spammers time commitment.

AUDIT E-MAIL- most platforms have the built-in ability to notify everyone involved in an article or comment thread that a new comment has been posted. While this allows comments to go live, someone in the hierarchy of blogging can generally pull down offensive materials before a huge impact has been made.

As bloggers and as busy professionals, we all pay a high cost to individuals looking to spray mass-marketing messages to us through inappropriate methods. For every control we put in place or for every one that we don’t- we either pay they price of lost hours reading worthless materials or we lose time going through the extra steps forced upon us to maintain a palatable community.

As you go through your daily articles, keep in mind that moderators, editors, technicians, and YOU create a layer of defense against SPAM commentary. When adding information to someone else’s blog, make sure it is on target and relevant to what is being discussed. Keep your ideas focused on the subject at hand, and if you want to diverge from the topic have the respect to do it on your own blog.

What do I need to know about the online world?

You need to know how to get your name out there. You need to realize that your personal brand is one of the key reasons clients choose to do business with you. By developing a visible presence on the internet and utilizing a toolkit of professional online networking skills, you can add a huge asset to how you interact with both new and existing clients.

In the recent past, certain elements of the web have been nicknamed “Web 2.0”. The 2.0 ideology is that the latest focus of the web has been to define conversation, or social aspects of relationship building.

If Web 2.0 is social, how does that benefit me?

The social foundation of the modern web allows businesses of all sizes to compete on an entirely new level. Everyone from the small business owner to the largest of the Fortune 500 is defined by one voice, the brand of the company shares the brand of the people who are part of it.

How does my company define its brand?

It can begin by embracing an ideology. Some of the most important aspects of a true professional is the sense of family, the dedication to have a strong relationship with a client, and being able to carefully balance all of the karmic gray areas in business.

Karmic gray areas?

Those are all of the areas of business that you don’t find on accounting sheets; employee satisfaction, executive inspiration, community involvement, customer relationships, and everything else that can create a “warm and fuzzy” feeling in how your business functions.

Don’t make a mistake- every single karmic gray area also has the potential to create highly destructive impacts to your business if left unattended.

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I woke up to an e-mail saying “Web video is a powerful recruiting tool.”

This has been a topic addressed by several members of the recruiting community, but this time it was more of a great note to see our own Blogging Systems video listed as a “Video of the Week”.

Our piece isn’t about recruiting specifically, but it does detail how our community publisher platform can be used as a social tool to build relationships and community, we all know that a good relationship leads to referrals, and strong referrals produce great candidates.

This whole “word of mouth” technique is great. I personally love it. Our model has proven successful in having Radio shows, magazines, newspapers, blogs, and technical summits giving honorable mention to what we are doing at Blogging Systems. Our team is working day and night to enhance our community products and build real value for our clients, and I’m very happy to say that our team rocks.

I also have to add that Paul and Richard’s Realty Blogging book is receiving great reviews from the real estate industry. It has become a top seller in the blogging and marketing categories on Amazon, and is a benchmark for any professional looking to maximize the benefits of blogging (it may be real estate focused, but the lessons within apply to almost any consultative industry.)

You can read more about some of our daily coverage at www.bloggingsystemsblog.com 

Over the years, my personal ‘theme’ has evolved around two primary phrases- “Changing Reality” and “Technical Disaster”. Both are tongue-in-cheek outlooks at where the world is today, and where we can go. Technology (not just on the web) is evolving so quickly on a basic level there are amazing new avenues to travel down. That leads me to today’s topic- the Blog Business Summit. The fundamental feeling here at the summit is peeking into the future, not only asking “where are we going?” but also “where do we want to go?”

After dealing with all levels of clients in businesses ranging from small one person operations to the Fortune 50, I very rarely run across an interest in these questions that is truly taken to heart. Right now I’m listening to Jeremy Pepper (PoP PR), Jeanette Gibson- (Corporate Communitcations – Cisco), and John Starkweather, (Group Product Manager Microsoft). Along with the other attendees of the summit, these individuals are helping to cultivate where we want to go.

By the time the summit is over, I’m hoping to have some new creative brainstorms on where I want to go too.

Well here I am. Experiencing the pitfalls of blogging, while listening to a presentation on the pitfalls of blogging.

There has to be some sweet irony in that.

Overall the crowd here is very intuitive and enlightening to be around. There are a lot of good ideas that range a variety of industries, ranging from spiritual enlightenment to streaming music video (one could argue that those two things are the same for some folk). In all, the range of presenters I’ve seen have a very point-forward and encouraging stage presentation. They hit the important points of blogging, and touch some of the more whimsical issues facing companies that are looking to blog.

My viewpoint on the issue- all companies should have someone here. Blogging has emerged as a dominant marketing tool that focuses on an area few other marketing tools have… community. It is strange to think that the through the 90’s, the internet stripped away a lot of personal contact with the way business is done. Blogging however, takes the online marketing of the 90’s and brings a human element back into the equation. The interaction leads to a conversation, the conversation leads to community.

Tags: BBS, BBS06, conference blogging, Blog Business Summit, Tucows, Tucows blog

Have you ever tried to list out your thoughts, trying to keep track of options or brain-storming sessions from an afternoon meeting? If so, take a look at http://www.mayomi.com/.

It is a simple web based piece of software that is free to use and allows you to track and share your thought pattern. You may find that being able to graphically demonstrate your thoughts, the ability to save them, and to share them… is a great tool.

As social networking online becomes more invasive, I’m seeing good amounts of data about individuals I’m considering working with that are key indicators that open the door for an experienced recruiter to reach out and contact them. This is a good thing for the recruiting world as a tool for reaching out to passive candidates, but what happens when the ‘evil’ of technology goes down the dark side?

What if, a major corporation used the same exact services to track employees satisfaction with a current role? While sites like Myspace and Livejournal may not have a specific employment theme, places liked Linked-in and Jobster do. As a manager, if I come across your profile that indicates you are passively wandering around the jobscape, what does that tell me about you? would it be in my best interest to keep my top producers from posting “I’ll take an offer” sign on a profile?

What are the methods a company could retaliate against job seekers, both active and passive? Will there be a point that a legal or HR team will be implemented to monitor and track current employees in the major systems? Will it identify them for replacement or potential downsizing?

I could definitely see some competitive companies entering recruiting wars, with HR teams designated to recruit and to defend employees. As job markets tighten in specific industries, maybe we’ll see some of this fighting in the trenches…

I guess we’ll all just have to wait and see.

Laughingly, I’ll have to go to the trademark office and think up some terms like ‘headkeeper’ and register them now.