Category

Social Media

Mar 24
Love0

True LinkedIn Confessions

By Social Media

I just got a notification that read, “Christopher Long would like to connect with you on LinkedIn.”

Now, it’s not completely ludicrous that Superbowl winner, New England Patriot, and former St. Louis Ram Chris Long would want to be connected to me. We have met, after all, when I worked on the media relations for Champion Brewing Company’s collaboration Waterboys IPA.  We live, in the off-season, in the same town. I saw him at the gym just last weekend.

If you’re still not sure to whom I am referring, this guy:

 

Chris Long

 

Still, I saw the notification and I said …

Get. Out.

GET. OUT.

And, like a SCHOOL GIRL, thought, “He remembered me!”

And then I clicked through to LinkedIn.

Not him.*

Sigh.

 

 

*Apologies to this Christopher Long, whom I have not met. He probably gets mistaken for the other guy all the time.

 

Mar 22
Love0

Does Blogging Still Work for Business? Marketers say Yes

By Social Media

I spoke to the local chapter of the American Marketing Association last night. Many of the people in the audience represent small businesses and are often the sole marketers in their organization. There were varying levels of experience with blogging, but for the most part, they were all trying to get a handle on how to get the work done.

I’ve had business owners question whether blogging or as I prefer to call it, publishing your own content online, is still worthwhile and relevant. I really believe it is, based on measurable evidence of client engagement, traffic, and lead generation. In the research I did for the most up-to-date statistics, I found the following infographic from Digital Information World.

  • Small businesses with blogs see 126% increase in generation of leads
  • The average company that blogs gets 97% more inbound links
  • 78% of businesses that blog daily (I KNOW) have acquired business through their blog

Part of what we do is help businesses figure out the best blogging strategy for their business and a way to get the work done. I’m interested in learning what other people think about blogging for their business, what successes they’ve had and what challenges they face.

Mar 16
Love0

Beware the Default Message When Building Local Business

By Social Media

There’s a new business development and professional networking tool on the scene: Alignable. What makes the tool different from LinkedIn or other social tools is its focus on connecting local business representatives. Here’s the message I received today to connect with someone on the platform:

 

This is a fine message, in general. The problem is that I’ve known the sender for about ten years. We’re connected in about a dozen ways and have done business together before. That’s a pretty common story for the majority of people in business in my local network. This message comes across as not only ridiculous but offensively impersonal. The default settings of these tools ALWAYS make it easy to blanket your contact list with the same default introductory message in an effort to build your network quickly. Don’t do it. You run the risk of having the opposite effect.

Nov 28
Love0

What to Do When You’ve Been an Idiot in the Past

By Social Media

Were you an idiot, once upon a time? (“Yes.”) Did you share your idiocy publicly, say, via social media? (Hangs head, “yes.”) Are you an idiot now? (“NO!”) Well, good. There’s hope for you.  The internet in my immediate geography is buzzing over some old tweets from a person who is now in elected political office. Wait. That could be misconstrued. Not recent tweets from our president-elect — OLD tweets from a city councilor. It’s different.

The tweets are offensive and the owner of the account has since apologized publicly (on Facebook) and is no doubt, hoping this issue goes away.

The wonderful and for some, terrifying thing about social media is that it allows people to publish their thoughts freely and without editing. That can be pretty hard for people who don’t possess an internal filter and who have thoughts that are offensive to others. And if you’re a person who cares about your reputation, or has thin skin, or who wants to craft a certain persona, it might be wise to stay away from social media altogether.

If it’s too late, however, and you were an idiot in the past, but you’re MUCH BETTER NOW, proceed with caution. Know that people will be watching you now more than ever before, and that for those who want you to be successful, they want to see you proving how authentic you are by continuing to share your thoughts. Could you be an idiot again? Possibly. But that’s the beauty of an unfiltered form of media — the real person behind the account can come shining through.

Oct 11
Love0

Doug Muir, the Bella’s Boycott, and Black Lives Matter

By Crisis Communications, Social Media

A week ago, we attended Rooting Out Injustice, the signature fall event put on by Legal Aid Justice Center and Central Virginia Legal Aid Society. Full disclosure, I’ve been involved with Legal Aid for more than seven years and am on their advisory council. The event featured co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, Alicia Garza, who was a fantastic, inspirational speaker. The speaker panel, emceed by local attorney and author John Grisham (you may have heard of him) explored the intersection of race, injustice, disparities within the system, and ways the nonprofit organizations are tackling civil injustice.

In the midst of the event, a local business owner, Douglas Muir, saw fit to post a comment on Facebook stating, “Black lives matter is the biggest rasist (sic) organization since the clan. Are you kidding me. Disgusting!!”

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Mr. Muir is the owner of Bella’s, an Italian restaurant in Charlottesville. He’s also listed as a guest lecturer at the University of Virginia.

What Mr. Muir obviously didn’t know is that the wrath of the offended via social media is swift and ruthless. There’s a hashtag #boycottbellas and there has been a peaceful demonstration. But that’s not the end of this. Doug Muir deleted his comment and is, no doubt, keeping a low profile while his employees suffer a lack of income (restaurant workers make their money mostly in tips. No customers = no income.)

I think this is an opportunity for all people — not just the people who attended the event, or who have heard and seen Mr. Muir’s comment and are aware of the boycott of Bella’s to go look at the http://blacklivesmatter.com/ page. Think about civil rights and a movement that didn’t just start last year, but has been going on since before Abraham Lincoln was president. This isn’t new. Racism isn’t new. Social media is, though, and how we use it can change minds and change our society.

UPDATE 10/12/2016:

The Cavalier Daily ran an apology from Douglas Muir about the comment. It’s a good apology.