tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85458634784303537172024-03-18T07:52:22.661-04:00For Free BlogFree insights on Social Media, Creativity and moreMike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.comBlogger214125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-34061931189419349792017-12-26T14:51:00.004-05:002017-12-26T14:51:44.161-05:00Fake News – How to Spot It And What to Do About It<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In 2017 fake news became a mainstream concern and many
wondered if there is anything that can be done about it.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDHrTiO98-RjXx-IQevY_e4Ynn6kuo_vIFaI_yP8JAYJOhAAr3z9t0s3qSMenAnrGtLOGV4CfhX0QepsGj1mCI24v_hD_zdo4oouHpk0wJWmPyr8r9WlsuHV6q3sYZBimstECGK41aEyf0/s1600/fake-news-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="236" data-original-width="450" height="104" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDHrTiO98-RjXx-IQevY_e4Ynn6kuo_vIFaI_yP8JAYJOhAAr3z9t0s3qSMenAnrGtLOGV4CfhX0QepsGj1mCI24v_hD_zdo4oouHpk0wJWmPyr8r9WlsuHV6q3sYZBimstECGK41aEyf0/s200/fake-news-2.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The first step is to acknowledge that we each have a role
to play in its spread and rise to prominence. Then the next logical question
is: What can we do about it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The first thing is recognize fake news "in the wild."
And if you think this is challenging you’re absolutely right.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A February, 2017 study in Britain found that only 4
percent of 1,684 UK adults surveyed could correctly identify whether six news
stories were true or fake.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But take action we must, so:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>11 Ways Spot Fake News</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIxRTBWT8elNkW7xn1LwSmxCDkYOpsF-l0I-cN5WoAa6-vHWvoZRIwcdDubgc_IpDmjoRAW9FMYtqLmZ1tzCmwWZykpAF5WOnBwdDoBGhn9OaY_fpFqrJlVjf7cRlOVmYf54AJAPGcY4xG/s1600/suspended.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="532" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIxRTBWT8elNkW7xn1LwSmxCDkYOpsF-l0I-cN5WoAa6-vHWvoZRIwcdDubgc_IpDmjoRAW9FMYtqLmZ1tzCmwWZykpAF5WOnBwdDoBGhn9OaY_fpFqrJlVjf7cRlOVmYf54AJAPGcY4xG/s320/suspended.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The now-suspended site abcnews.com.co</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Does the story come from a strange URL?</b>
Sites with strange suffixes like ".co" or ".su," or that
are hosted by third party platforms such as WordPress or sources such as
ViralLiberty or National Report are trouble. For instance, several fake reports
from abcnews.com.co went viral before being debunked. Did you note the ".com.co"
at the end of that address?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Does everything match?</b> The headline
and the content, for example? A sure sign of something less-than-reliable is an
image of an attractive woman (likely a stock image) and a headline that says something
like " NY Homeowners Get a Huge Surprise.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Is the story only on one website?</b> If
it is really a big or important story why is it only in one place? A quick
Google search should find many other versions of a legitimate story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Is it on a site known to be unreliable?</b>
There are plenty of places to find out if a site is likely to be spreading fake
news. For example:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<ul>
<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">PolitiFact’s <a href="https://infogram.com/politifacts-fake-news-almanac-1gew2vjdxl912nj">
Fake News Almanac</a></b></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wikipedia’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fake_news_websites">List
of fake news websites</a></b></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">FactCheck.org’s <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2017/07/websites-post-fake-satirical-stories/">Websites
that Post Fake and Satirical Stories</a></b></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">RealOrSatire’s <a href="http://realorsatire.com/">List
of Fake sites</a></b></li>
</ul>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK_tigtxExUTi-5rNEHNqVyDmW3TaqCY6qNZAQD2K0t1mMUUBY7ON24jzQV1ApFtFwoXrdn7GLAJvsCjFp-Z48OR4qDa4v1kB9bWNSAwx15YGXJ2eNRg_0xhtW81zcq1AuvuNi6MDZs05E/s1600/x-fake_trump-truck.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="457" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK_tigtxExUTi-5rNEHNqVyDmW3TaqCY6qNZAQD2K0t1mMUUBY7ON24jzQV1ApFtFwoXrdn7GLAJvsCjFp-Z48OR4qDa4v1kB9bWNSAwx15YGXJ2eNRg_0xhtW81zcq1AuvuNi6MDZs05E/s320/x-fake_trump-truck.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The fake Viral Liberty story</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Is it a recent story, or an old one that has
been re-purposed?</b><b> </b>For example, the website Viral Liberty
reported that as a result of Donald Trump’s election to the White House Ford
would move its truck manufacturing from Mexico to U.S. But the move happened in
2015. Again, a Google search will likely turn up the earlier story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Does the article cite primary sources?</b><b> </b>For example, in 2016 Coca-Cola
allegedly recalled Dasani water bottles after a "clear parasite" was
found in the water. But nowhere on the web was there a statement from Coca-Cola
or Dasani about this.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcTR3FpYwrmRgroFv0bG8sMui9SY3lskVldxPGo1wlmFUVwLRaoenOOyZ0sMGCuzkHg2NXQvQ2urDTbUO_GK5NUSoYAF_hQb0DJVk78WEmzydTVqCbI0U1p8hhr9wrF9rP5_grQ3TZqM2A/s1600/x-trump-People.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="469" data-original-width="469" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcTR3FpYwrmRgroFv0bG8sMui9SY3lskVldxPGo1wlmFUVwLRaoenOOyZ0sMGCuzkHg2NXQvQ2urDTbUO_GK5NUSoYAF_hQb0DJVk78WEmzydTVqCbI0U1p8hhr9wrF9rP5_grQ3TZqM2A/s320/x-trump-People.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This was never printed in <i>People </i>magazine</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Are there traceable quotes in the story?</b>
<i>People</i> magazine has huge archives, but no trace of the alleged
quote of Donald Trump stating that if he ran for office he’d run as a
Republican because "they're the dumbest group of voters."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNUa3_tweOk9AGwOaLeQtULQ56N41meLe4r6nqgzq5G82wMaAFAiBufZ8QsPxGkyTXLsBFPcQW_rAVf4qSA684jbVn7WcHO-ZOBLBs3tnbQ8ldOfiM5EUy97HC0wKVQGAWZQmF2bCr0Yew/s1600/x-fake+shark.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="309" data-original-width="412" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNUa3_tweOk9AGwOaLeQtULQ56N41meLe4r6nqgzq5G82wMaAFAiBufZ8QsPxGkyTXLsBFPcQW_rAVf4qSA684jbVn7WcHO-ZOBLBs3tnbQ8ldOfiM5EUy97HC0wKVQGAWZQmF2bCr0Yew/s320/x-fake+shark.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Although all over the web this image is, well, fake</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Are supporting videos and photos verifiable?</b><b> </b>During the 2017 flooding in Houston Fox
News host Jesse Watters fell for the fake shark photo doing the rounds on the
web that reputedly showed a shark swimming on a flooded highway.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Does it support your existing point of view?</b>
If a story is odd, bizarre or surprising and yet supports something you’ve
always suspected, beware of your own "confirmation bias." Again look
for evidence that it really is true.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Has it been debunked by a reputable
fact-checking organization?</b><b> </b>There
are a lot of trustworthy fact-checking websites out there. A small sample:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<ul>
<li><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">PolitiFact’s<a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/">Truth-O-Meter</a></b></li>
<li><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Snopes’<a href="https://www.snopes.com/category/facts/fake-news/">Fake
News Archives</a></b></li>
<li><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">RealOrSatire’s <a href="http://realorsatire.com/">Plug
in a URL Tool</a> to discover if a story is fake</b></li>
<li><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">The story checking site <a href="https://www.truthorfiction.com/">TruthOrFiction.com</a></b></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now that you’ve identified it as fake news what can you
do about it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>5 Keys to
Fighting Fake News</b><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Have a "healthy amount of skepticism"</b>
and think, really think, before sharing a piece of news. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Considering all of the points above, am I ABSOLUTELY sure
this story is true?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Be a little slower to share</b> and
re-tweet content. Especially do not share anything just based on the headline
or a picture that caught your eye. Read what you want to share.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Report all fake news</b> There are
multiple ways to do this. Start with the source, if possible, and then report
it on the platform where you found it. For example:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Facebook</b>’s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/572838089565953">How
do I mark a news story as false?</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On <b>Twitter</b> (while on the post with the
fake news) you’ll need to click the chevron in the corner or the three dots
under a tweet, then chose "report tweet."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On <b>Google</b> you scroll to the bottom of
the offending page and click on "Send feedback" where you’ll have the
option of including a screenshot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Call out fake news to whoever posted
it</b> You should be polite and message privately (if you can), but you
need to do this. And if this doesn’t work…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Use the comments area under a post to state the
truth</b>. A best practice is to include a link – a link to a verifiable
source to reinforce the point.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now you know both how to spot fake news and how to fight
it – happy hunting. The more each of us does the less fake news will make its
way into our newsfeeds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Related:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2017/12/2017-was-year-of-fake-news-its-our-fault.html">2017
Was the Year of Fake News – It’s Our Fault</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-48410124224485386832017-12-26T13:02:00.000-05:002017-12-26T14:53:24.907-05:002017 Was the Year of Fake News – It’s Our Fault <div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The year 2017 is likely to be
remembered as the year of fake news.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Politicians, one
Tweeter-in-Chief for example, uttered the term "fake news"
regularly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Social platforms, Facebook and
Twitter in particular, were accused of making it easy for "fake news"
to spread.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">New organizations, major
newspapers and national news networks all felt it important to cover the issue
of "fake news" regularly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwtFjRS-H-Wehda7VsDYpFXxvsov-jvAcJCu_k_G9Kw_ZvCJ1zDXsqaZJyZ75XdpI84SCPQoMpZ9hKyYVLLKjRIMDNdW2WdjyPdYmAxZ4TfWUh7huIJl4h8ypUQTezlF97r0PXll7rrKgb/s1600/Ben+Franklin+portrait.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="288" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwtFjRS-H-Wehda7VsDYpFXxvsov-jvAcJCu_k_G9Kw_ZvCJ1zDXsqaZJyZ75XdpI84SCPQoMpZ9hKyYVLLKjRIMDNdW2WdjyPdYmAxZ4TfWUh7huIJl4h8ypUQTezlF97r0PXll7rrKgb/s200/Ben+Franklin+portrait.png" width="147" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ben Franklin - founding father<br />of fake news</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">All of which might have left
you wondering: How did we get here?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The real answer is that fake
news has been around forever. Just ask Benjamin Franklin, who in 1782 made a fake
issue of a Boston newspaper which carried a false, but widely circulated, story
alleging the British had hired Native Americans to scalp colonists. The purpose
of the propaganda was to drum up sympathy for the American Revolutionary cause.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Almost
forever, people have found it "useful" to plant fake news stories to
advance a cause. It’s just that in our modern hyper-connected world it is so much
easier to have the source of such things become blurred and have the fake news
spread much more quickly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> One
other thing that hasn’t changed is that fake news thrives because we are part of the problem:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>6 Reasons Fake News is Our Fault</b></span></div>
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</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>We are open to the idea that fantastical stuff
is possible:</b> – It’s why certain TV shows and supermarket tabloids
such as the <i>Weekly World News</i> have always thrived.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>We tend to shut out ideas and opinions we
disagree with:</b> It’s human nature to not be inclined to listen those who
say things we already disagree with.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>We allow "confirmation bias" to guide
our decision making:</b> This bias is where we gravitate to ideas
that conform to what we already think. Which leads to …</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>We don’t take the time to verify</b> what
we share. You may recall the famous Internet meme that makes fun of this: "The
problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is hard to verify their
authenticity" – Abraham Lincoln.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>We often see "others" – those whom we
don’t know well – as two-dimensional</b> (and social media encourages
this). This makes it easier to demonize and disregard the views of others.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Real news and real journalists are a shrinking
breed</b> As news consumers we have been less and less willing to pay for
our news by buying newspapers or watching TV news. Since nature (and news)
abhors a vacuum – something has to fill the gap and that something can be news
of spurious origins.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So, now we know why it might be our fault. But did you
know that there are different types of fake news?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The infographic below is a starter guide – perhaps you can
think of others….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What do you think? Are we to blame for the spread and
general occurrence of fake news today?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b> Related:</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2017/12/fake-news-how-to-spot-it-and-what-to-do.html">Fake News – How to Spot It And What to Do About It</a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br />
<div class="canva-embed" data-design-id="DACqr0tmRMQ" data-height-ratio="2.5" style="background: rgba(0,0,0,0.03); border-radius: 8px; padding: 250% 5px 5px 5px;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
<script async="" src="https://sdk.canva.com/v1/embed.js"></script><a href="https://www.canva.com/design/DACqr0tmRMQ/view?utm_content=DACqr0tmRMQ&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=embeds&utm_source=link" target="_blank">5 Basic Types of Fake News</a> by <a href="https://www.canva.com/mojgpt?utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=embeds&utm_source=link" target="_blank">Mike Johansson</a> </span></div>
Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-15592460221999603492017-09-11T11:38:00.001-04:002017-09-11T11:39:37.629-04:0010 SM Resources for Hospitality Customer Service<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Why does social media matter for those in hospitality? A
Google search for "hotel" turns up 3.1 billion (that’s billion with a
b) results in 1.05 seconds. A similar search on "restaurant" turns up
almost 1.9 billion in 1.56 seconds. And the top results will be for such places
as Hotels.com, Expedia, Trivago, Kayak and Restaurants.com.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDMQ2gizU4K3wxq6W_AbXbqkw07zLPNUTgvpLK1-8V8ahkvFTaovf-U75vJ5HDZ7ug5m12kg80IyAA_pzjz1WSZDgiZRXNjo07-np6WblpG2M_28ym_CVfTlF1uK3lI8kBwBBMdCVWZ-ms/s1600/Hospitality+comp.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Social Media for Hospitality" border="0" data-original-height="1256" data-original-width="1600" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDMQ2gizU4K3wxq6W_AbXbqkw07zLPNUTgvpLK1-8V8ahkvFTaovf-U75vJ5HDZ7ug5m12kg80IyAA_pzjz1WSZDgiZRXNjo07-np6WblpG2M_28ym_CVfTlF1uK3lI8kBwBBMdCVWZ-ms/s320/Hospitality+comp.png" title="Social Media for Hospitality" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For most users those top results will be all they need.
But for others the search will be slightly more involved or the decision to
click will take a few seconds longer. The difference? Loyalty to a brand or
recollection of another person’s great experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What can help businesses in hospitality (hotels and restaurants, for example) earn those few seconds of extra
consideration? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Social media – it is the very key for industries whose
biggest driver is word-of-mouth marketing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But how? And, perhaps more importantly, why? According to
a 2015 article on <i>Harvard Business Review</i>:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
</div>
<ul>
<li>"<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Consumers under 35 spend almost four hours per
day on social media, and more of that time is being spent engaging with brands.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"</span></li>
<li> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">17% of people older than 55 prefer social media
over the telephone for service.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And, of the four stages of the consumer decision-making
process – need recognition, information search, evaluation and decision –
social media increasingly plays a role in the first three….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So how should those in hospitality – particularly on the
customer service side – use social media to attract, assist and retain loyal
customers?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>10 Social Media Resources for Hospitality
Customer Service</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The article <b><a href="http://www.cision.com/us/2016/09/5-social-customer-service-best-practices/">5
Social Customer Service Best Practices</a></b> from Cision suggests
restaurants and hotels graduate their social care customers to a more reliable
communications platform such as SMS or email, get all employees on board with
appropriate social responses and understand that customers expect a
near-immediate response on social media.</span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Key takeaway:</b> "Today, 39
percent of social media complainers who expect a reply want it to come within 60
minutes, yet the average response time from businesses is 5 hours,” says social
media expert Jay Baer in the piece.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In <b><a href="https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-and-hospitality/">Social
Hospitality: How 8 Hotels Engage Guests On & Offline</a></b>
(from Sprout Social) author Jennifer Beese <span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">suggests that social media allows hoteliers to be an Invaluable resource beyond
just providing accommodations, to be attentive during guests’ stays and a to
extend the experience after the stay.</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>A key takeaway:</b> "Knowing
where your guests communicate online will help you provide a better customer
service experience while enabling you to reach the right people at exactly the
right time."</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The grandly named <b><a href="https://sproutsocial.com/insights/bars-restaurants-social-media-guide/">The
Complete Guide to Social Media for Restaurants & Bars</a></b> (also
from Sprout Social) gives advice on creating relevant posts (i.e. understanding
the difference between engagement vs. promotional posting), how to find optimal
times to post and what it takes to get your social efforts to a higher level.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>A key takeaway:</b> "If
you’re not visibly active on social media, then you’re missing out on a large
customer base."</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The question and answer website Quora might be a
great resource for those in hospitality according to <a href="http://socialmediaexplorer.com/content-sections/tools-and-tips/quora-how-to-generate-leads-for-hotel/"><b>
Quora: How to Generate Leads for a Hotel</b></a> says an article on the Social
Media Explorer site. It suggests such strategies as being on social to provide
solutions, searching social platforms for questions to answer and resisting
being promotional in social posts.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>A key takeaway:</b> "A
boutique hotel could easily muscle in on the big boys’ territory with
well-thought out answers to travelers’ queries. In the process, you’ll build
authority and possibly carve out a niche for your brand."</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The eHotelier.com piece <b><a href="https://ehotelier.com/insights/2017/04/27/hospitality-industry-social-media/">How
the hospitality industry is embracing social media</a></b> offers a
series of "insider tips" for those in hospitality and their use of
such platforms as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. These include Facebook
promotions and working with bloggers.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>A key takeaway:</b> "Ninety
one per cent of retail brands use two or more social media channels, and the
hospitality industry should be no different."</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Conversocial, a website that looks at various
aspects of social media and customer service, offers <b><a href="http://www.conversocial.com/social-media-customer-service-for-travel">Customer
Service for Travel</a></b>, suggesting that hospitality brands
standing out as leaders in social customer service are making major investments
in this area, expanding their teams and marketing budgets. The piece offers
tips on deepening connections to customers and making the right impression on
social channels.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>A key takeaway:</b> "More
than other customer service channels, social lends itself to creating memorable
experiences for customers."</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<div style="text-indent: -24px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">7.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Customer service in its broadest sense means offering something of value on social to current and future customers. So the post <a href="https://blog.enplug.com/10-examples-of-great-social-media-content-for-restaurants-in-2015"><b>10 Examples of Great Social Media Content for Restaurants</b></a> on the EnPlug Blog offers tips including the obvious "Share mouth-watering photos” and the not-so-obvious "Get your employees involved."</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: -24px;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: 0px;"> A key takeaway: </b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Show your customers that you’re on social for more than just pushing out promotions. Whether you’re answering questions, addressing concerns, saying thanks, or just responding with wit, your responses will go a long way."</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<ul>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.traveltripper.com/blog/top-social-media-management-tools-for-hotels-and-the-hospitality-industry/">Top
social media management tools for hotels and the hospitality industry </a></b>
from TravelTripper.com offers a list of 10 social media management tools for
the hospitality industry with explanations of features and pricing.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>A key takeaway:</b> "From
streamlining content creation and posting to social listening and analytics
integrations, social media tools come with a range of innovative features …."</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Are there downsides to social media for
hospitality businesses? Some would say negative reviews on sites such as Yelp,
but RestaurantEngine.com – in <b><a href="https://restaurantengine.com/how-to-respond-to-negative-restaurant-reviews/">How
to Respond to Negative Restaurant Reviews</a></b> – says "…not
all negative reviews have lasting consequences…. It’s what you do with the
review that sets you apart and defines your restaurant."</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>A key takeaway:</b> "Not
only are you fighting for the reviewer’s business, but you’re fighting for
everyone else who reads the review."</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And of course I’d be remiss to not mention all
of the various infographics that boil down social customer service to its key
elements. I’ve created a public Pinterest board called <b><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/mikejny/social-customer-service/">Social
Customer Service</a></b> that may prove useful to those in
hospitality. The graphics range from how to use social to deal with negative comments
to using social to build loyalty and trust with future and current customers.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Bonus:</b> If you’re looking for some thought
leaders in the area of social media and hospitality you might check out <b><a href="http://blog.capterra.com/the-top-16-leaders-in-hospitality-to-follow-on-twitter/">The
Top 16 Leaders in Hospitality to Follow on Twitter</a></b> from Capterra.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Is
social media here to stay as a fact of life for customer service in social
media? For sure. Will it evolve and grow as a series of customer service
channels? Absolutely. What do you think?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Related posts:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2016/05/social-media-listening-its-time-to.html">Social
media listening – it’s time to commit to it</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/social-media-employee-empowerment-what.html">Social
Media Employee Empowerment - What Works</a></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
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<br /></div>
Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-86883574239128878302016-10-14T12:53:00.000-04:002016-10-14T12:53:03.708-04:00Tracking the presidential election with social media<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">With just weeks until the 2016 Elections in the U.S. it is clear that this cycle has become the social media-driven elections.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFvvyI8fp3LI8cQ_kqJbdBQWivMowaawauYQLlkcvYWClnMFJWIZSJqoLsykrTCFVS6equ7zTjm1y4zUUi0Jc7cMGGprlAd-ba1UM82R5TjyVJQerkvIQOE3vJu427IbyHhgdFH-N7gYbP/s1600/voting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFvvyI8fp3LI8cQ_kqJbdBQWivMowaawauYQLlkcvYWClnMFJWIZSJqoLsykrTCFVS6equ7zTjm1y4zUUi0Jc7cMGGprlAd-ba1UM82R5TjyVJQerkvIQOE3vJu427IbyHhgdFH-N7gYbP/s200/voting.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">No matter who you support, who you despise or who you wish would just </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">be quiet" there is an endless supply of Twitter tweets, Facebook posts, Instagram images and YouTube videos to variously inform, annoy or enrage. How to make sense of it all? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">First, decide if social media can help you stay informed. If the answer is "no" you can just stop here. But if the answer is "yes</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> then here are a few suggestions: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Twitter</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">• <b>Follow a popular hashtag or hashtags:</b> Some popular hashtags this election season include #election2016, #debates, #debates2016, #trump, #clinton, #donaldtrump, #hillary, #vote, #nevertrump, #hillaryemails</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">• <b>Explore some new hashtags:</b> There’s an exhaustive list of hashtags (Warning: some are NSFW) on the <b><a href="https://top-hashtags.com/hashtag/election2016/">Top-Hashtags.com</a></b> website.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">• <b>Create a Twitter list:</b> This is simply a way organizing the Twitter "firehose" so that it is more manageable. In other words by viewing a list you are only seeing the tweets of the people you place on that list and not all of the people you follow on Twitter. (For more how to create a list see <b><a href="https://support.twitter.com/articles/76460">Using Twitter lists</a></b> from Twitter). Who should be on your list? A good place to start is adding the Twitter accounts of the candidates, their proxies and their official campaigns. After that add people you think are informative and helpful.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Facebook</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">• <b>Like the pages of all the major candidates:</b> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DonaldTrump/"><b>Donald Trump</b></a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hillaryclinton/"><b>Hillary Clinton</b></a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/drjillstein/"><b>Jill Stein</b></a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/govgaryjohnson/"><b>Gary Johnson</b></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">• <b>Like the pages of the political parties:</b> Green, Libertarian, Independents, Democrat and Republican.
• Use the filtering functions of <b><a href="http://socialfixer.com/">Socialfixer</a></b> to exclude certain kinds of posts. Although this article from ZDNet talks about using Socialfixer eliminating all political debate from your Facebook feed, the same principles can be applied to cut down on certain types of content in your feed. See <b><a href="http://www.zdnet.com/article/election-2016-tune-out-politically-sanctimonious-facebook-friends/">How to filter politically sanctimonious Facebook posts from your news feed</a></b>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">• Use the <b><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/fb-barometer/">USA Today/Facebook Barometer</a></b> to gauge which candidates are doing better or worse based on Facebook activity (likes, shares, mentions).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Others</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">• Follow the Instagram accounts of … <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hillaryclinton/?hl=en">Hillary Clinton</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/realdonaldtrump/?hl=en">Donald Trump</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/govgaryjohnson/?hl=en">Gary Johnson</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/drjillstein/">Jill Stein</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">• Subscribe to the YouTube accounts of … <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/GovernorGaryJohnson">Gary Johnson</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/JillStein2012">Jill Stein</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLRYsOHrkk5qcIhtq033bLQ">Hillary Clinton</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/donaldtrump">Donald Trump</a> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I hope this is an useful primer. Please feel free to post other social media tips around the elections in the comments.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Related posts:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2016/10/fact-checking-presidential-election.html">Fact-checking the presidential election - from social media claims to debate points</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2016/08/social-media-and-politics-makes-for-odd.html">Social Media and Politics Makes for Odd Bedfellows</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-24789740912316061682016-10-14T12:51:00.000-04:002016-10-16T18:56:34.549-04:00Updated: Fact-checking the presidential election - from social media claims to debate points<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Updated to include Google's addition of a "Fact Check" category in Google News search results. See "Update" at the end of this post.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This 2016 election season in the United States has been like no other for a couple of reasons. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It has two leading presidential candidates comfortable using social media with hordes of rabid followers tearing up the social media channels with claims real and, well, a lot less so.</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTEj5xIEyI6c8RRepWMxNRxXedddSWcpeLDILTyEigoIY_a97EQSxkyZcxl_2dq6xwv_MEnl4Su6kQtEIgqbQlFhLYpBsx2Ixy12riO-dOkNYb6hDbq700WJgjAXa1iLajBOftuOeh4YM1/s1600/fact.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Fact or Not? Fact-checking and social media" border="0" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTEj5xIEyI6c8RRepWMxNRxXedddSWcpeLDILTyEigoIY_a97EQSxkyZcxl_2dq6xwv_MEnl4Su6kQtEIgqbQlFhLYpBsx2Ixy12riO-dOkNYb6hDbq700WJgjAXa1iLajBOftuOeh4YM1/s200/fact.png" title="Fact or Not? Fact-checking and social media" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The live candidate debates have frequently degenerated into name calling and claims that are hard to believe.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What is an interested citizen to do?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thankfully the other trend this season has been the wide range of sites offering fact-checking on what is being said by all sides. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here is a starter list (it could never be truly comprehensive). The links lead to a site's political coverage where many, if no most, offer live fact-checking during major debates:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Big name media outlets on the right:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.wsj.com/news/types/election-2016">Wall Street Journal</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.forbes.com/election-2016/">Forbes</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2016/presidential-election-headquarters">Fox</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Big name media outlets on the left:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/politics/">NPR</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics">New York Daily News</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/section/politics">The Huffington Post</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Mainstream media outlets:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/">USA Today</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Election">ABC News</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/politics/">CBS News</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics">NBC News</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/topic/politics/">PBS Newshour</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/elections/fact-check.html?_r=0">The New York Times</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/elections/fact-check.html?_r=0">The Washington Post</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/">The Los Angeles Times</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Fact-checking organizations:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/elections/2016/president-united-states/">PolitiFact</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://factcheck.org/">FactCheck.org</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.snopes.com/tag/2016-presidential-election/">Snopes</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Foreign news media:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/election/us2016">BBC</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://live.reuters.com/Event/Election_2016">Reuters</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Hip media outlets: </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/tag/2016_presidential_election">Buzzfeed</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://heavy.com/tag/politics/">Heavy.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://mic.com/">Mic.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Partisan advocacy organizations:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/tagged/election-2016">ThinkProgress</a> (Liberal-leaning)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.newsbusters.org/tell-the-truth-2016">NewsBusters</a> (Conservative-leaning)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/">Breitbart</a> (Conservative-leaning)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So, whether you're fact-checking a candidate debate or another's social media post, know that you have almost no end of sources tom verify what is being said.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Update:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Google has added <a href="https://blog.google/topics/journalism-news/labeling-fact-check-articles-google-news/">Fact Check</a> as a tag to search results involving major news stories. It says it is doing this to help searchers on the web identify stories that have a fact-checking in them. Google in a web post said:"We’re excited to see the growth of the <a href="https://blog.google/topics/journalism-news/labeling-fact-check-articles-google-news/">Fact Check</a> community and to shine a light on its efforts to divine fact from fiction, wisdom from spin."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Related posts:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2016/10/tracking-presidential-election-with.html">Tracking the presidential election with social media</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2016/08/social-media-and-politics-makes-for-odd.html">Social Media and Politics Makes for Odd Bedfellows</a></span>Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-83405053474508865022016-08-21T13:18:00.000-04:002016-08-21T13:18:16.892-04:00Social Media and Politics Makes for Odd Bedfellows<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk823wBAqIrHi1zJjj10r5fV_99ItSLU8Z8roPlnJ-XosA38aQJkhnw5iDbNsl8poEXD2BFD2gA43ILL8ONcqm4wNQetFS1AJaU4FccE_rHOmR3yyAbTeZA2lSpWOz9aiohz2MROxYHYXZ/s1600/Clinton_Trump_withBubble.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump - 2016 presidential candidates" border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk823wBAqIrHi1zJjj10r5fV_99ItSLU8Z8roPlnJ-XosA38aQJkhnw5iDbNsl8poEXD2BFD2gA43ILL8ONcqm4wNQetFS1AJaU4FccE_rHOmR3yyAbTeZA2lSpWOz9aiohz2MROxYHYXZ/s320/Clinton_Trump_withBubble.jpg" title="Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump - 2016 presidential candidates" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you believe, as the saying goes, that "politics makes strange bedfellows," then politics and social media make for some truly odd "bedfellows."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the current hyper-charged electoral season in the United States it seems social media streams are overflowing with political points of view ranging from bemused commentary to out-and-out hate speech for one presidential candidate or the other.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This, perhaps inevitably, has led to those posting or those seeing extreme posts to invite anyone who disagrees with them to "unfriend me now."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It’s such a phenomenon it’s become a national story with Politico, for example, reporting this week that <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-facebook-friendships-227175"><b>Trump and Clinton wreck Facebook friendships</b></a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But is "unfriending" – the Facebook term (or unfollowing or disconnecting on other platforms) – the only or even the best option?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Recently, I was asked to add some tips for a story in the Rochester, N.Y., <i>Democrat and Chronicle</i>: <a href="http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2016/08/16/electoral-collage-how-stay-friends-social-media/88637692/"><b>Tips to deal with political haters online</b></a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That story featured my tips and those from Scott Talan, an American University communication teacher who studies social media and politics. His tips are all sound:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Take a breath or two" and think it through before commenting on a friend's post or unfriending someone.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Instead of sharp opinion statements, pose questions such as "how can we trust her?" or "is he stable enough to be president?"</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Remember that this will all be over in November, and your friendships could and should outlast the next presidential term.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And, in general, "try not to be like the candidates."</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My additions were:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Simply ignore the people posting things that upset you. Facebook’s algorithm will eventually push anything they post further and further down your news feed since it gives priority to close family and friends and people you interact with regularly. You can also start interacting more with the people you enjoy — this will hasten the process of the others being pushed down.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you must comment on posts, stick to facts and questions. It’s hard to argue with the former (especially if you drop in a citation and/or link). Or ask questions that might provoke new thinking.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But I got to thinking and there are other things you can do: </span><br />
<ul>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO_TbbR1VaHZjJLQR4uVMj2O3p6bjSb292Z32E3-d6q4ygCUihZveOCa-nxNqCLGLe-pWrBJpgxVbBj5xqRnvJVa_7XE6YgQxh7u6MeUZMN2ZubV3VvbnELLxrCVpkD8EOpEqeBNswAk5Y/s1600/hidepost.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO_TbbR1VaHZjJLQR4uVMj2O3p6bjSb292Z32E3-d6q4ygCUihZveOCa-nxNqCLGLe-pWrBJpgxVbBj5xqRnvJVa_7XE6YgQxh7u6MeUZMN2ZubV3VvbnELLxrCVpkD8EOpEqeBNswAk5Y/s320/hidepost.png" width="267" /></a>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Another way to quickly bury someone who is posting things you don’t want to see on Facebook is to use FB’s “Hide” feature (see pic). At the top right of any Friend’s post the drop-down menu will include Hide and Unfriend. The first means you’ll see a lot less from the person and (if you have a lot of friends) eventually nothing from that person unless they tag you in a post. Unfriending is the “nuclear option” and although the person you unfriend gets no notification of this they will soon figure it out if they try to message you or tag you on Facebook.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Twitter a best practice is to start using the Lists feature to organize the people you follow into those who are friends and/or providing relevant posts. This cuts the “Twitter firehose” news feed down to size and can have the added benefit of ensuring you don’t see posts from people who annoy or upset you. </span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And in all of this hyper-charged political season one piece of advice for anything on social media still holds true: “Would you be proud to show you grandmother whatever it is you are about to post?”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Good friends and smart people can agree to disagree on one thing and not lose a friendship over it. Social media doesn’t need to be a place where we only associate with people we agree with 100 percent of the time – that’s the kind of thinking that has turned Washington into a laughingstock…</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What do you think?
</span>Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-140856657009833922016-07-10T17:00:00.000-04:002016-07-10T17:00:31.727-04:00Live video streaming on social media has ‘arrived’<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinXR2rAL1NMLw6YfIQLafsksfW_oG2X5d1JKxhI05lB0XpIugd-epSCe09c2Zpiw3sJh4gwxnzsDqSjArfntn7ISxWjX44ZtXzQOtQRl_LE7GpVbiIyUN_dkkb7BawHW72jC3wWTn057R-/s1600/livestream.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="116" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinXR2rAL1NMLw6YfIQLafsksfW_oG2X5d1JKxhI05lB0XpIugd-epSCe09c2Zpiw3sJh4gwxnzsDqSjArfntn7ISxWjX44ZtXzQOtQRl_LE7GpVbiIyUN_dkkb7BawHW72jC3wWTn057R-/s200/livestream.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In case you missed it this past week - live-streaming social media video has changed the world. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While livestreamed events such as a watermelon being exploded with rubber bands or the "Chewbacca Mom" video have been Internet hits, it has been the graphic news of the past week that hints at the live-streaming’s powerful future potential.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Facebook Live stream by Diamond Reynolds of the aftermath of the shooting of Philando Castile by a police officer in Minnesota was only the latest (and possibly most graphic) example of a livestream capturing and recording news as it happened.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The sniper attack in Dallas the next day led to numerous live video streams on Facebook Live and Twitter’s Periscope.
News coverage on traditional media during the Dallas shootings and over the following hours consisted almost entirely of live-streamed social media video.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If live-streaming needed it’s "coming of age" moment this was likely it.
What does it mean?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The live-streamed events of last week foreshadow <b>"the biggest shift in media consumption we’ve seen since the introduction of television itself,"</b> writes Andrew Hutchinson, a writer and community manager at <a href="http://www.socialmediatoday.com/">Social Media Today</a> in a post called <a href="http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-business/evolution-live-streaming-could-change-way-you-consume-media-heres-how">"The Evolution of Live-Streaming Could Change the Way You Consume Media - Here’s How"</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Just as online content democratized newspaper journalism, putting small time blogs on equal footing with centuries-old publications, live-streaming takes away one of traditional broadcasters’ most significant advantages, in the control of the broadcast of live events," he continues. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Really, social media is moving beyond its personal networking roots – there’ll come a time soon when ‘social’ media is simply considered part of the media more widely.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But, the possibility of injury and death being live-streamed raises ethical issues.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In <a href="http://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/streaming-apps-are-now-broadcasting-live-shootings-and-killings/3409870.html">Live Broadcast of Deaths Raised Ethical Questions</a> on the <a href="http://learningenglish.voanews.com/z/3521.html">Voice of American Blog ‘As It Is’</a> Robert Thompson, Director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, says the rise in live streaming will have good consequences (holding people accountable) and bad (groups such as ISIS staging killings just for the purpose of recording them). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"A lot of these bad things are done for the sake of the recording they are going to get," Thompson says. "You could make the argument, pretty soundly, that September 11 was planned as a television production." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This will raise a wide range of ethical issues with live-streaming technology, but it will be nearly impossible to stop it: "Technology is relatively neutral," he says. "How do you only take the good from this and not the bad?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And with all of this potentially graphic live content comes responsibility. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To deal with the likelihood that more and more graphic live material will be streamed Facebook will increasingly play a policies-and-standards role in the news social media users will see live-streamed. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Minnesota video was off Facebook for about an hour last week - apparently while the network decided if it was too graphic and might violate Facebook's Community Standards. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Writing for <a href="http://www.techtimes.com/articles/169216/20160710/facebook-live-stream-video-gives-marginalized-a-voice-but-heres-where-it-draws-the-line.htm">Tech Talk</a> Quinten Plummer notes that "to determine which graphic and violent images are permitted, Facebook relies on context." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In an article called <a href="http://www.techtimes.com/articles/169216/20160710/facebook-live-stream-video-gives-marginalized-a-voice-but-heres-where-it-draws-the-line.htm">"Facebook Live-Stream Video Gives Marginalized A Voice, But Here's Where It Draws The Line"</a> Plummer reports: "Facebook has clarified its stance on gory and violent content. Just as is the case with video on demand, a member of Facebook's review team can interrupt a live video at any time. And a team member is on call around the clock, each day of the week." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And, in what seems to be Mark Zuckerberg’s wish for the future of live-streaming, the Facebook CEO says: "While I hope we never have to see another video like Diamond's, it reminds us why coming together to build a more open and connected world is so important - and how far we still have to go."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Zuckerberg's wish is one many share, but the reality is this: The media landscape changed last week and the ramifications of that will be felt far and wide….</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Related:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2016/07/3-things-to-consider-well-before-you.html">3 Things to Consider (Well) Before You Live Stream on Social Media</a></span>
Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com41tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-31587377288817803502016-07-10T16:38:00.000-04:002016-07-10T16:38:58.466-04:003 Things to Consider (Well) Before You Live Stream on Social Media<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Live-streaming a news event on social media is about to be something more and more of us will consider doing. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvuLSdZvVSQPe-Bud6VyzbEsH8sRKobxFxBf9NT4m6MfhAH1ncqKfkJmUHKpW4nA8oV0M67sj0Yqsc0KkiKCV25gwEQZ7mhz877UwKhdhs1yyxDNXnPbfNVOl6doN6gYN2s8gkMqT93jIQ/s1600/livestream2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvuLSdZvVSQPe-Bud6VyzbEsH8sRKobxFxBf9NT4m6MfhAH1ncqKfkJmUHKpW4nA8oV0M67sj0Yqsc0KkiKCV25gwEQZ7mhz877UwKhdhs1yyxDNXnPbfNVOl6doN6gYN2s8gkMqT93jIQ/s200/livestream2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But what should we be thinking about before whipping out the smartphone and “going live” on Facebook Live, Twitter’s Periscope or some other live-stream video service?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>1. Safety</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Watching the world through a small smartphone screen as you live-stream is inherently dangerous.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You cannot see everything going on around you and if you’re moving you may not fully see where you are walking or what you are walking into. This is especially true at night.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Or, as in the tragic case in Chicago in June, you may become a crime victim while live-streaming (see </span><a href="http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/570467/news/world/man-shot-and-killed-while-live-streaming-on-facebook" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Man shot and killed while live streaming on Facebook</a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The best idea? Have a "buddy" with you while live-streaming – someone who can look around and "have your back." </span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2. Consequences</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What are the possible outcomes of whatever you are live-streaming? And, if the worst-case scenario happens can you live with sharing that live?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thinking about this ahead of time will likely help you, in the heat of the moment, make a decision you can live with.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A best practice? Ask yourself if (worst-case scenario) happens is this something where the benefits outweigh any possible harm?</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3. Motivations</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Why do you want to broadcast this event/news/happening to the world?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This will necessarily get into ethical considerations. So, again, thinking about which circumstances you will or will not stream ahead of time can help in the heat of the moment when decision-making may not be so clear-minded.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A useful resource for anyone considering live-streaming might be this article from the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank: </span><a href="http://www.poynter.org/2016/10-questions-journalists-should-ask-themselves-before-going-live-on-facebook/420594/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">10 questions journalists should ask themselves before going live on Facebook</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Getting started</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And if you’re new to live-streaming where to begin?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The <i>Chicago Tribune</i> offers some good advice in <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-social-media-live-streaming-20160329-story.html">5 top tips for live streaming video on social media</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do you have experience live-steaming? What other considerations are important?
</span>Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-17082934999301698062016-05-31T13:11:00.000-04:002016-05-31T13:11:45.567-04:00Social media listening – it’s time to commit to it<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What is social listening (and why commit to it)?</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In a nutshell it is paying attention to what is being said on social media, but obviously it’s more than that. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It starts with social monitoring – or collecting every social mention and action relevant to your organization, brand, purpose etc.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWB5WGZTPvdvICUViyVPECG9wmvoEziTITCFAif5OXK-kt0NR1rdJ7rHETco9i2kNQf-SJIl9R7EMO9nVuD7TClDCB2gzjbWdLT09Cx2px8MTABKciUuA6mRcirUnchAXGoGrGPusHDH7q/s1600/Social_Listening.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Social listening is important in social media" border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWB5WGZTPvdvICUViyVPECG9wmvoEziTITCFAif5OXK-kt0NR1rdJ7rHETco9i2kNQf-SJIl9R7EMO9nVuD7TClDCB2gzjbWdLT09Cx2px8MTABKciUuA6mRcirUnchAXGoGrGPusHDH7q/s200/Social_Listening.png" title="Social listening is important in social media" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After monitoring comes social listening – this requires analysis and reflection on what has been gathered. It also means watching for patterns, tracking sentiment and drawing conclusions based on where and when conversations happen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So why should you commit to social listening? Among the things it can do:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• Improve customer care</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• Learn about opportunities – business and otherwise</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• Get feedback on products and services</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• Identify your influencers and advocates</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• Discover where your community hangs out</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>How to do it:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• <b>Monitoring</b> – what people are actually doing, not just what they say they are doing, on social platforms and the web in general</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• <b>Listening</b> – separating signal from noise; determining importance and relevance</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• <b>Interpreting</b> – what does it mean to us now? In the future? Do we see a problem we can solve for a customer?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• <b>Taking action</b> – turning data into insights; acting on those insights</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Manual steps (free):</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If paying for monitoring tools that simplify social listening is not in your budget there are free things you can do:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• <b>Plan to listen:</b> Set aside time (daily is best) to search on keywords and/or hashtags that relate to your business, its name, its products and services and the industry you’re in.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• <b>Plan to respond:</b> Have a document that spells out how you will respond on social to both the good and the bad comments etc. about your organization. This should include how you can redirect people to helpful online resources or be helpful in other ways. Also, have conversation starters ready to use with influencers and others who are interested in your industry.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• <b>Plan to follow up:</b> When you have jumped into a conversation be sure to follow it to a natural conclusion … and be timely (in other words don’t allow more than a day to elapse between responses – much less time if you’re dealing with any kind of crisis communication).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• <b>Plan to document:</b> Keep track of who you have interacted with and when. Complete a monthly summary of this activity and its benefits to your organization so you can send it to your boss so a higher-up will understand the value of spending time on this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Paid tools:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are a lot (see "Resources" below). Here’s what’s important in whatever tools you use:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• <b>Learning curve:</b> How hard is it to get up and running on the app/software?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• <b>Data collection:</b> What kinds of data can be collected and how customizable is this?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• <b>Reporting:</b> How is the data reported and can it be manipulated by the end-user for inclusion in reports?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• <b>Historical reporting:</b> In addition to the regular reports how does it aggregate data and report it over extended timeframes?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• <b>Planning:</b> Does it allow any kind of “what if” scenarios that show how changing one action might affect results?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, there you have it, social listening is clearly important for anyone on social media. The question is to what extent your organization should commit to it…. I’ll address that in a future post.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do you have thoughts on things I may have missed? I’d welcome your feedback.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Resources:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/6-social-media-monitoring-tools/">6 Social Media Monitoring Tools to Track Your Brand</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• <a href="http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/top-8-social-listening-tools-do-way-more-listen">Top 8 Social Listening Tools That Do Way More Than Listen</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• <a href="http://wiki.kenburbary.com/">A Wiki of Social Media Monitoring Solutions</a></span>
Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-86491972357133540062016-03-20T13:14:00.001-04:002016-03-22T18:02:32.703-04:00Social Media Safety Tips for Teens and Parents<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLUBF_gLxf8XVsptPqnf9hEMtoNomqOsh4IzV_Ea11yYu0-Axz9su0WYOlTXSBUoBz5rEDbFaUVE3azRLWeZujx_2Qaa7y5UkQtXABzU4NEobDw_pZfMZMBWkv-guGSQUiVNtLa4iKXez8/s1600/age-of-social-media-users.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLUBF_gLxf8XVsptPqnf9hEMtoNomqOsh4IzV_Ea11yYu0-Axz9su0WYOlTXSBUoBz5rEDbFaUVE3azRLWeZujx_2Qaa7y5UkQtXABzU4NEobDw_pZfMZMBWkv-guGSQUiVNtLa4iKXez8/s400/age-of-social-media-users.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Source:</b> Woman Online Magazine</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Once in a while I get asked to talk to a mixed group of high school students and their parents about social media and the possible consequences when it is misused. So given the broad use of social media by teens (see graphic) it seems like a good excuse to encapsulate some of the things I say. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>For Students:</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">• Anything posted on social media can (and will) be shared by others regardless of your privacy settings. There really is no such thing as "private" in social media so if you don’t want others to see it DON’T POST IT. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">• Social media can be a good thing, but if you (teens) ever feel uncomfortable by something you see or read on social, trust those feelings and talk to someone you trust – a parent, a teacher, some other adult you trust. Bullying, threats and cruelty on social media are all signs that the person doing those things needs help. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">• For high school juniors and seniors: Clean up your social media. If you don’t think those colleges you’d like to attend aren’t looking at what you post, think again. If social media is the place you must vent go analog … write your "vent" on paper chew it and swallow it … it’s the only 100 percent way you can be sure no one else will ever see it….. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">• Understand that collectively what you post online adds up to your personal brand. What people find out about you in a Google search is what they believe to be a picture of you. Make sure that is a flattering picture. If you need help managing your online reputation use tools such as <a href="https://brandyourself.com/">brandyourself.com</a> and <a href="https://www.reputation.com/">reputation.com</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">• And last, but no least: Have fun on social media (but never at someone else’s expense) because if you’re not enjoying it why are you using it? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>For Parents:</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">• You cannot control social media – accept that fact and work on developing your students’ life skills: self-esteem, good judgment and knowing where to turn when things get uncomfortable unkind and, yes, unthinkable…. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">• Have such a good relationship with your teen that they are OK with you being their "friend" on social networks. I know, much easier said than done – but well, well worth the effort. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">• Always be open to your teen’s concerns. Even the most innocuous question from a teen can sometimes be rooted in something they’ve been exposed to on social media. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">• Ensure that any teen under 18 using a smartphone has to get your permission to download an app (this is a setting on most smartphones) and do your research before agreeing to the download. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">• Parents hosting drinking parties think they’re being smart by taking cellphones from kids at the party, but those neighborhood kids who weren’t invited or adults who don’t appreciate what’s going on? They’ll share their photos and thoughts on social media and you can’t control that…. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Two Good Resources:</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">• The <b>American Academy of Pediatrics</b> says: "While today’s tweens and teens may be more digitally savvy than their parents, their lack of maturity and life experience can quickly get them into trouble with these new social venues." It offers a series of practical tips in <a href="https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/news-features-and-safety-tips/pages/Talking-to-Kids-and-Teens-About-Social-Media-and-Sexting.aspx">Talking to Kids and Teens About Social Media and Sexting</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">• <b>WebMD</b> says: "It's a parent's responsibility to parent around the technology" before offering guidance in such areas as Getting Started, Setting Guidelines and Checking In in the article <a href="http://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/social-media-and-tweens-teens">Social Media: What Parents Must Know</a> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Related Post:</b> <a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2014/05/talking-to-kids-about-social-media-and.html">Talking to Kids About Social Media and Other Online Activities</a></span>
Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com50tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-31583721186985894992016-03-06T12:50:00.000-05:002016-03-06T12:50:38.000-05:00The Power of 'Thank You' in Social Media<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKne4yDexkeOgSXNLuv27YW_sK5fV5DUS4FO1npNjMeg9LkN7DjNgXnA5gk0cxWZlVa6nJW0lgC4rmqEhB-JNeNDydCCQ79-E1nfbmUJ-9SezZd-WhT_ZNoQAhQ_QEMjrd_DPCLqgBGx_1/s1600/One1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKne4yDexkeOgSXNLuv27YW_sK5fV5DUS4FO1npNjMeg9LkN7DjNgXnA5gk0cxWZlVa6nJW0lgC4rmqEhB-JNeNDydCCQ79-E1nfbmUJ-9SezZd-WhT_ZNoQAhQ_QEMjrd_DPCLqgBGx_1/s320/One1.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Recently I was reminded of the power of the words "thank you" on social media.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of my favorite apps – <a href="https://buffer.com/">Buffer</a> – publicly thanked me for tweeting about them with a GIF.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://twitter.com/mikejny">@mikejny</a> aww, Mike! You're a legend :) Thanks so much for your support. We love having you with us!! -Paul <a href="https://t.co/uY9q0XPymo">pic.twitter.com/uY9q0XPymo</a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">— Buffer (@buffer) <a href="https://twitter.com/buffer/status/705639220086333440">March 4, 2016</a></span></blockquote>
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<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
It was a fun and surprising day brightener. And it got me to thinking: What has happened to the thank yous that used to be all over social media?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think there was a big push a couple of years ago to cut down on the endless stream of "thank you for sharing" and "thank you for retweeting" etc. messages on social media. But that was never supposed to mean you <b>never</b> say thank you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Part of the "social" in social media is being courteous and thankful. The real question is how to say "thank you" in a different and meaningful way – just as Buffer did.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>3 Sources for Ways to Say "Thank You" on Social Media</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The post <a href="https://www.semrush.com/blog/creative-ways-to-say-thank-you-on-social-media/#more-25706"><b>Creative Ways to Say 'Thank You' on Social Media</b></a> by Brittany Berger (<a href="https://twitter.com/bberg1010">@bberg1010</a> on Twitter) suggests a thank you on social media is seen by many so it must be "unique and genuine." Berger, before offering great tips also offers that writing distinct 'thank yous' can save your sanity. "Typing the same thing over and over gets boring." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I love the <a href="https://vtldesign.com/inbound-marketing/social-media/six-ways-to-say-thank-you-on-social-media/"><b>Six Ways to Say Thank You on Social Media</b></a> post in The Alley Blog from design company <a href="https://vtldesign.com/">Vital</a>. It offers basic, but sound advice that some of us may forget from time to time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And in what only seems like a contrarian point of view <a href="http://jennifergardella.com/2015/02/18/stop-saying-thank-social-media/"><b>Stop Saying “Thank You!” on Social Media ... And Start the Conversation!</b></a> by Jennifer Gardella (<a href="https://twitter.com/drjennylynn">@DrJennyLynn</a> on Twitter) the author argues that she is "sick and tired of watching so many small business owners, authors and personalities just say thank you when I share something on social media." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">She says a thank you is an opportunity to "let their network know a bit more about you!" And adds that "As you and your social partners get in the groove of sharing and commenting it will become second-hand and your social footprint will grow exponentially."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Will you start saying thank you a little more now? Was this a useful guide to social media and social niceties?
</span>Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com32tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-84082637269756783842016-02-02T13:19:00.000-05:002016-02-02T13:27:03.836-05:00How to spot a social media scam - and 5 tips to avoid them<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Social media scams have always been around, but it seems that each year they get a little more sophisticated and a bit more targeted. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This week on Facebook a lot of folks in Rochester, N.Y. (where I’m based) opened Facebook and there in their news feed was a post seemingly offering a "free $200 grocery coupon" (see image) to Wegmans supermarkets – the biggest and by-far-the-most-popular chain in the area. The posts were accompanied by poster’s comments such as “Wow” and “Can you believe this?”</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7lqUqoIEW-yYCnnQjOW7uoWrWYNZpgdufT8P2SKryLKu1SZGVs0COLM4byCeV2sqxPH-c3qRhuDW0EH3CrRdZqF_Zgul2-WsndmqBO1sicZOT_OG_q_yxFqC2QvpRezzg1xsdpFKw_4gS/s1600/wegmans+post22.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="365" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7lqUqoIEW-yYCnnQjOW7uoWrWYNZpgdufT8P2SKryLKu1SZGVs0COLM4byCeV2sqxPH-c3qRhuDW0EH3CrRdZqF_Zgul2-WsndmqBO1sicZOT_OG_q_yxFqC2QvpRezzg1xsdpFKw_4gS/s400/wegmans+post22.png" title="The Wegmans Facebook coupon scam post" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The widely shared scam post</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Well … no. There were a couple of clues right in the post that it was a scam.</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The URL (web address) at the bottom of the public post does not look like it belongs to Wegmans’s official page</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The English is fractured – typical in scams since they are often posted overseas by non-native English speakers </span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then, if an offer seems too good to be true, well it likely is. So don’t ever click on the headline or any link before going to Wegmans (or any supposed posting company’s) official social media page.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In this case a quick visit to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Wegmans/?fref=ts">Wegmans’ official Facebook page</a> shows that this "offer" is not posted there and instead there’s a warning about the scam.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVB51pY-y9FCPHFzr4QZtZVGMVb1666Tu56i-K1nlrNVkNSifNfZu3jGlp6fukUJsB_NXQVC_suof1jvgEvTPMfZVaycUFbZXo_BQPvmaB2WERsmgNnLYGlVX4KScDLGB9eRQDWOFV7TTa/s1600/wegmans3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVB51pY-y9FCPHFzr4QZtZVGMVb1666Tu56i-K1nlrNVkNSifNfZu3jGlp6fukUJsB_NXQVC_suof1jvgEvTPMfZVaycUFbZXo_BQPvmaB2WERsmgNnLYGlVX4KScDLGB9eRQDWOFV7TTa/s400/wegmans3.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The warning on the Wegmans Facebook page</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you do click through to the offer (not recommended as this can be the way the scammers download malicious software onto your computer) there will be abundant evidence that this is a scam.
For example: In the case of the Wegmans "offer" it was a digital counter counting down how many coupons supposedly remained. Every time the page refreshed it went back to 360 and started counting down again… </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And, if you are a business that has been spoofed and your organization’s name associated with a scam you should quickly do two things:</span><br />
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Post something on your own social accounts warning about the scam so people will find the information there.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Contact the affected social networks and ask for the malicious scam material to be taken down and the poster banned.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Both of which Wegmans did very quickly after the coupon scam surfaced …. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So, in general what are the best ways anyone can avoid falling for a scam?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Top 5 Tips to Avoid a Social Media Scam</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>1. Does this news/post sound too good to be true?</b> If it does it likely is. Headlines screaming unbelievably exciting or tragic news. Or offers of cash or goods that seem like they would make your life a lot better. Or words such as “Unbelievable,” “Shocking” and “Disturbing.” All are often related to an attempt to get your attention and get you to click.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As mentioned above, the first thing to do is seek verification by going to an official social network site to see if the post exists there. Or go to <b><a href="http://www.snopes.com/">Snopes.com</a> </b>and enter a few key words from the item – Snopes is the best online debunker of fake news/information (and, in fact, had an item posted about the <a href="http://www.snopes.com/wegmans-facebook-coupon-scam/">Wegmans coupon scam</a> within a few hours). Even a general Google search might turn up warnings that something is a scam.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>2. Think before acting:</b> Typically scammers want to make you feel you have to act quickly. Nothing on social media is a matter of life or death. For example, those urgent appeals from a friend who lost their wallet overseas? Think about it: Why are they using Facebook or Twitter to reach out to all their friends?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>3. Ask yourself: Is this a chain letter?</b> The old chain letter used to ask people to forward a letter to a number of friends to bring good luck or cash. Today, by way of examples, the chain letter takes the form of "Tweet this image and Bill Gates will donate $100 to help premature babies" or "Share this post with your Facebook friends and Mark Zuckerberg will randomly pick 1,000 people to each receive $1 million in Facebook stock." These appeals almost always tap into a grain of truth, but would these very rich men really do what is proposed?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>4. Watch for phishing attacks:</b> You innocently click on a link you find on a Facebook or Twitter post and you are asked to log in using your Facebook or Twitter credentials – don’t. Yes there may be a legitimate reason some sites want you to do this, but before you do check out the URL of the page you are now on. Is it still a Facebook page or some other legitimate site? If not this site is wanting you to sign in so it can grab your credentials and hijack your account.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">5. Be cautious of shortened URLs:</b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Don’t blindly click on shortened URLs. You'll see them everywhere on Twitter, for example. But because they are shortened and consist of a garbled collection of characters you can’t tell where the link will take you. The best practice is only click on shortened links from social media posters you highly trust. This is not foolproof, but offers a degree of protection.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hopefully these tips will spare some of you the grief of having been fooled by a scam or, worse, having your social media accounts compromised.</span>Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-82611736162115701082016-01-24T20:01:00.000-05:002016-01-24T20:01:56.125-05:00Collected knowledge: 5 Useful Posts About Snapchat for Business<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Snapchat is apparently the social media platform to pay attention to in 2016 – for users and for business. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrCXTfCX5o2WqMRyuTO60jBFs3TvbJlbR9b4DWeMCrjd8u8C1UFc3udKnHFM7a7wIm3d_hJa3c0isWQERlgOvBsvXbQsvLF68VXlqDCdVRyJ4b4s2Qcqyaba1JffRsrvZ86LG6HZ17jOtX/s1600/snapchat_modified.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Snapchat for business" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrCXTfCX5o2WqMRyuTO60jBFs3TvbJlbR9b4DWeMCrjd8u8C1UFc3udKnHFM7a7wIm3d_hJa3c0isWQERlgOvBsvXbQsvLF68VXlqDCdVRyJ4b4s2Qcqyaba1JffRsrvZ86LG6HZ17jOtX/s1600/snapchat_modified.jpg" title="Snapchat for business" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">According to an article in <i>Business Insider</i> <b><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-snapchat-is-the-one-to-watch-in-2016-at-the-expense-of-twitter-2015-12">Why Snapchat is 'the one to watch in 2016'</a></b> - has offered many new features for users and has made it a more advertising-friendly place for business.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">With 86 percent of Snapchat’s 100 million active daily users falling into the 13-37 age range it’s clearly a place to reach a younger audience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you’re still not understanding Snapchat or how to get into it for the sake of your business here are a few resources that may help.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>5 Useful Posts About Snapchat for Business</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But first, if you literally know little to nothing about Snapchat you might start with the basics at <b><a href="https://support.snapchat.com/ca/getting-started">Snapchat Support</a></b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Small businesses may find the list of tips from Brian Solomon (<a href="https://twitter.com/Brian_Solomon">@Brian_Solomon</a>) at Forbes useful: <b><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/smallbusinessworkshop/2015/08/25/how-to-use-snapchat-a-small-business-guide/#42e14ac167bd">How To Use Snapchat: A Small Business Guide</a></b>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Kristi Hines (<a href="https://twitter.com/kikolani">@kikolani</a>) writing for Social Media Examiner offers a comprehensive guide to Snapchat for marketing purposes in <b><a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/snapchat-for-business-a-guide-for-marketers/?platform=hootsuite">Snapchat for Business: A Guide for Marketers</a></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">An AdWeek article by Lauren Johnson (<a href="https://twitter.com/LaurenJohnson">@LaurenJohnson</a>) has tips for all businesses using Snapchat with examples of brands who are already doing it very well. Read <b><a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/5-ways-brands-are-standing-out-and-building-audiences-snapchat-168094">5 Ways Brands Are Standing Out and Building Audiences on Snapchat</a></b>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And for an update on features added recently see <b><a href="http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/adhutchinson/2015-09-16/snapchat-adds-new-features-allows-users-re-view-snaps-price#sthash.AhlQFZT0.dpuf">Snapchat Adds New Features, Allows Users to Re-View Snaps (for a Price)</a></b> by Andrew Hutchinson (<a href="https://twitter.com/adhutchinson">@adhutchinson</a>) writing for Social Media Today.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And last, but not least, for a look at how Snapchat will become even more advertiser-friendly in 2016 see <b><a href="http://digiday.com/platforms/snapchat-api/">Snapchat is building an ad technology platform</a></b> by Garett Sloane (<a href="https://twitter.com/garettsloane">@GarettSloane</a>) of DigiDay.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So, if you haven’t explored Snapchat for business will you? In 2016 it seems like it will be the social media platform to work with.
</span>Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-59755896064294391542015-10-30T14:03:00.002-04:002015-11-01T20:01:14.885-05:00Personal Branding With Social Media: 4 Links<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’m honored to be part the very first <a href="http://www.upstatesocialsessions.com/#upstatesocial">Upstate Social Sessions</a> conference Oct. 31 in Rochester, N.Y.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The panel I’m on – Brand Yourself: Advancing Your Career Through Social Media – looks to be a lot of fun. My co-panelists are <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexjfitzpatrick">Alex Fitzpatrick</a>, a Deputy Tech Editor at <i>Time</i> magazine, and <a href="http://rocwiki.org/Rachel_Barnhart">Rachel Barnhart</a>, a news anchor and reporter at WROC-TV in Rochester.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQwNDUJCHSwWJyl3T6wRabf11-mgPzb-1Xfs4VSCMmonEDOyTFdFl4PQw95lterOYNmaYQ9u-3XIbRHc1g87npZTkKuAKD5hnb3aXw6k4LdUddlHktZiO7BRDJAo_c3-bg74mlVuvQTfYN/s1600/panel.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQwNDUJCHSwWJyl3T6wRabf11-mgPzb-1Xfs4VSCMmonEDOyTFdFl4PQw95lterOYNmaYQ9u-3XIbRHc1g87npZTkKuAKD5hnb3aXw6k4LdUddlHktZiO7BRDJAo_c3-bg74mlVuvQTfYN/s400/panel.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Since I’m assuming the focus will mostly be on more advanced techniques for using social media for personal branding I thought it might be helpful to offer a collection of blog posts on some of the basics of personal branding. Here goes:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyLbs-oGDPhR_mGB1_uhTVoFEPNbcyfOzaooumG-4Dg9JNUEtK_RDFo1GLCfHaK1SsDewX2bXIuCaSp4iUxN_jTPK3KII3jkKmcMqqvQXcJaF_anUMwBUmm40loyoRFXhwunWzDG6Vrz0r/s1600/Quality.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyLbs-oGDPhR_mGB1_uhTVoFEPNbcyfOzaooumG-4Dg9JNUEtK_RDFo1GLCfHaK1SsDewX2bXIuCaSp4iUxN_jTPK3KII3jkKmcMqqvQXcJaF_anUMwBUmm40loyoRFXhwunWzDG6Vrz0r/s200/Quality.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/quality-sm-connections-for-personal.html">Quality SM connections for personal branding</a></b>
Making connections is what social media is all about. When it comes to personal branding however, the quality of those connections is important. For example, imagine a recruiter looking through your Twitter Followers and finding a spammy “Buy 5,000 Twitter followers” account or, worse, a porn account. What does that say about you that you didn't block such accounts? <a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/quality-sm-connections-for-personal.html">Read more … </a></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh_0qpxshfI4DpPHuU0hTr3fJcYW9M4CkeGNmSuWb9Cbq13FvoyXxBnRXTcufTQz95UFUKqZSUgLhImrQ-8gFJ7QC2QY5eKU9tvbcepw-YcGSOxz6WNTUMBEmaWp_adPioSYh2t4MztuZn/s1600/Blogging.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh_0qpxshfI4DpPHuU0hTr3fJcYW9M4CkeGNmSuWb9Cbq13FvoyXxBnRXTcufTQz95UFUKqZSUgLhImrQ-8gFJ7QC2QY5eKU9tvbcepw-YcGSOxz6WNTUMBEmaWp_adPioSYh2t4MztuZn/s200/Blogging.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<b><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/blogging-for-personal-branding.html">Blogging for personal branding</a></b>
Building or improving your personal brand can seem like facing a massive mountain. But some strategic use of social media can help anyone improve their personal brand – or the collective impression online search results speak about who you are. One of the best places to start? A blog. <a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/blogging-for-personal-branding.html">To read more …</a> </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUPscU0pZ-OQKfSaCxl8_7qeBp3A_bHnyOKSTZg3rqtVUeODjUD78yrsH-jQgNWRxEUMO2lcMLfhNS-VpguAZyifiQjlXN8_lfyU09QAkZhHBCSeOmIaP1lM_Fky1NyU0vPBzn8CDepYbF/s1600/Don%2527t+leave+to+chance.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUPscU0pZ-OQKfSaCxl8_7qeBp3A_bHnyOKSTZg3rqtVUeODjUD78yrsH-jQgNWRxEUMO2lcMLfhNS-VpguAZyifiQjlXN8_lfyU09QAkZhHBCSeOmIaP1lM_Fky1NyU0vPBzn8CDepYbF/s200/Don%2527t+leave+to+chance.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/personal-branding-dont-leave-it-to.html">Personal branding – don’t leave it to chance</a></b>
Like it or not a personal brand is something that follows you wherever you go from your personal life to the work world and beyond. It’s the combined information (Internet postings, social media updates etc.) about you that shows up when someone searches online. Don't leave it to chance. <a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/personal-branding-dont-leave-it-to.html">To read more …</a></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-vN78LRoh22xh4jXyREGF9q3-PO-EqHWasbfdjhcMpTfY0yVrsK31OpWM-CPr_cOp-aeOP5TukcfreD09ATuDCuYOn-jIRsZsHYF1ZH7uKMqJrnuTwdIbwHukNkZUp3xPwHqE7gqa8U4W/s1600/Overlooked.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-vN78LRoh22xh4jXyREGF9q3-PO-EqHWasbfdjhcMpTfY0yVrsK31OpWM-CPr_cOp-aeOP5TukcfreD09ATuDCuYOn-jIRsZsHYF1ZH7uKMqJrnuTwdIbwHukNkZUp3xPwHqE7gqa8U4W/s200/Overlooked.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/6-overlooked-sm-personal-branding-must.html">6 Overlooked SM Personal Branding Must-Dos</a></b>
Personal branding – it’s all the rage. Working hard to make sure that everything that shows up online – social media and everything else – reflects well on you and paints an accurate picture of who you are. But there a few things that often get overlooked when considering working on a personal brand. <a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/6-overlooked-sm-personal-branding-must.html">To read more …</a></span>
Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-80987059436008149762015-10-30T13:12:00.002-04:002015-10-30T13:12:29.089-04:006 Overlooked SM Personal Branding Must-Dos<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfCxXSeF7efHf1EbK4HeJAHIV4L3cGegiCIZ4ohwvtQgDcqA3bDI78crZnz5wz1Iub3605m0vkcumNHLnzHkdDb0vDOFLaYk082I5DoNnzzK3hy5sZZ4jOcAdqq2_QhQ1JQ5etCr8Zyo_P/s1600/PersdonalBranding_foursome_small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfCxXSeF7efHf1EbK4HeJAHIV4L3cGegiCIZ4ohwvtQgDcqA3bDI78crZnz5wz1Iub3605m0vkcumNHLnzHkdDb0vDOFLaYk082I5DoNnzzK3hy5sZZ4jOcAdqq2_QhQ1JQ5etCr8Zyo_P/s200/PersdonalBranding_foursome_small.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Personal branding – it’s all the rage. Working hard to make sure that everything that shows up online – social media and everything else – reflects well on you and paints an accurate picture of who you are.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But there a few things that often go overlooked when considering working on a personal brand.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>6 Personal Branding Must-Dos</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>1. Updating:</b> Stay on top of your various online presences and what they say about you.
If you have a job title change, be sure to update it in all of your bios. If that profile photo more than 10 years old its time to update it – everywhere.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>2. Social media and SM connections:</b> Reevaluate all of you social media presences. Do they all still make sense to tell your story? Are there others you should be on?
Evaluate your connections for quality. Be sure that anyone looking at who you’re connected to is not going to be less than impressed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To read more on this topic, see <a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/quality-sm-connections-for-personal.html">Quality SM connections for personal branding</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>3. Blogging:</b> Writing and regularly posting to a blog is viewed by some as a bit of a vanity pastime. They could not be more wrong.
To claim extra internet real estate, show off some expertise or to simply get found in Google search results – it’s hard to beat the power of a blog. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To read more on this topic, see <a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/blogging-for-personal-branding.html">Blogging for personal branding</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>4. Your focus:</b> Yes, you’re focused on things you can do to your personal brand stand out, but ultimately your success in social media is mostly about how social you are and how others perceive you.
To that end make your time on social mostly about others. Be helpful: help others connect, help others learn and most of all notice, and comment on, the hard work of others.
It’s the No. 1 commandment here: <a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/10-commandments-for-social-media.html">10 Commandments for Social Media</a> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>5. Get uncomfortable: </b> It’s easy to stick to connecting to people we know; to interact with people like us. But the real secret sauce of social media is the opportunity to meet people all over the world who have interesting stories to share.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Make a point of connecting to at least one intriguing Twitter or other social network account per week and look for ways to interact with the account-holder. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You’ll be surprised where this might lead in terms of connections down the road. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>6. Get real:</b> Finally, but most importantly you need to turn all this online activity in something in the real world or IRL as the kids say). Massive effort on social media is not worth a hill of beans if you don’t make new connections in the real world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How to do this? Look for opportunities to attend meetups. Suggest your own meetup. If you’re visiting a different city or even a different country let your connections know and offer to buy coffee so you can meet.
It truly is a very gratifying and fun experience to meet someone you’ve been connected to on social media for years to finally meet them in real life…. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There you have it: Six often overlooked keys to stronger personal branding wit social media and other online presences. Do you have other suggestions? I’d love to hear them.
</span>Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-89409319391972074802015-10-29T20:23:00.000-04:002015-10-30T05:26:32.738-04:00Personal branding – don’t leave it to chance<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Like it or not a personal brand is something that follows you wherever you go from your personal life to the work world and beyond.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEWRmaiyFEkHaut7m0wmhI4CFl07Alq7t0PpxFoLyF-hmYRTaKwbVRmuOYXHYiyDRJ2KBV7xDl1cRwc3fgw_e0bSaxFwHMZ0QcdrKxm2uYNtvTJXXzZgrkNLd1Y_KAVXJ5PicJU-p2uEFU/s1600/SM_personalbranding.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEWRmaiyFEkHaut7m0wmhI4CFl07Alq7t0PpxFoLyF-hmYRTaKwbVRmuOYXHYiyDRJ2KBV7xDl1cRwc3fgw_e0bSaxFwHMZ0QcdrKxm2uYNtvTJXXzZgrkNLd1Y_KAVXJ5PicJU-p2uEFU/s320/SM_personalbranding.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s the combined information (Internet postings, social media updates etc.) about you that shows up when someone searches online.
So it probably makes sense to figure out how to make your brand the best it can be.</span><br />
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></b>
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5 steps to take this weekend to boost your personal brand:</b><br />
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></b>
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1. Define your tactics:</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ask yourself: What do you want people to find when they search for you online? Someone they’d like to …</span><br />
<ul>
<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hire:</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Then focus on optimizing your </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Linkedin</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> profile (and not just to get it to Linkedin’s 100 percent complete status, but adding images, videos, examples of your work etc.) Consider using other channels too: A blog to demonstrate your knowledge, Pinterest boards to demonstrate any visual work and interests, and Twitter to share your work and to network without the barriers of Linkedin.</span></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Get to know:</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Start by picking three platforms to focus on that will allow you to tell your story. For example, if your interests are sports, travel and reading consider creating boards on </span><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pinterest</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> for each of you specific interests.</span></li>
</ul>
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2. Define yourself:</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Develop a short description of who you are, what you believe in and what you do best. In other words: How would you tell your online audience why you’re the right person to work with or connect with? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This two- or three-sentence statement is for you, but should guide how you describe yourself - everywhere.
Be sure to describe what makes you different from other people with the same or similar expertise. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you’re not sure what that is, do some research on well-known people in your field. Observe what they do and adapt it to your own way of doing things.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3. Define your expertise:</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What particular skills and knowledge do you want to be known for? Who do you hope to connect with?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Determining what makes you unique helps you understand what sets you apart from crowd on the Internet. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Your areas of expertise define who you are and what you do. They should be included in your social media profile descriptions and should include your main </span><a href="https://www.techopedia.com/definition/1215/keyword-seo" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">keywords</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4. Define your approach:</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How will you use various social media platforms to advance your brand? For example, will ...</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You only use Linkedin to post things relevant to your career or will you also post a few things that show some of your personality?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Facebook be strictly for people you’ve met in real life or consider personal friends?</span></li>
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Twitter</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> be a place to share industry news and find new connections?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Y</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">ou use a scheduling tool such as </span><a href="https://hootsuite.com/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hootsuite</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> or </span><a href="https://buffer.com/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Buffer</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> to schedule posts to maintain a regular social presence or will you post organically as you find interesting material?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Y</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">ou use tools such as </span><a href="http://empire.kred/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Empire Avenue</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, </span><a href="http://home.kred/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kred</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> and </span><a href="https://klout.com/home" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Klout</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> to monitor your efforts and guide your progress?</span></li>
</ul>
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></b>
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5. Define your success:</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What will success look like to you?</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Making lots of online connections that become in real life (IRL) connections?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Enhancing your current job/career?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Getting a better job?</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Whatever you settle on set some future calendar reminders to look back at what you’ve done. Then decide which efforts are worth continuing and which should be dropped.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Remember</b> your personal brand is an evolving, living thing. The only thing you can do "wrong" is to ignore it and let it change, or worse: stagnate, while you remain blissfully unaware…</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Does this help? Will you use social media and a plan to boost your personal brand? I’d love to hear back from you.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Related posts:</b><br />
<a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/quality-sm-connections-for-personal.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Quality SM connections for personal branding</a><br />
<a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/blogging-for-personal-branding.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Blogging for personal branding</a>Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-32919699336941242842015-10-27T09:14:00.003-04:002015-10-30T05:26:21.911-04:00Quality SM connections for personal branding<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Making connections is what social media is all about. When it comes to personal branding however, the quality of those connections is important.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For example, imagine a recruiter looking through your Twitter Followers and finding a spammy “Buy 5,000 Twitter followers” account or, worse, a porn account. What does that say about you that didn't block such accounts?</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnE2gniVK1jyxWkNlKE0GEWDapMJ6BVtph2lNU2l4fBEvNeP8hNli349yjm7xxsVAYrWC1P6HwkQKuAJVOyQJXKdRHWZ1V4nv6d0CIc_zaI64BegPOCd7S7BXCS9ZiDwrMs1Z855T0-6_j/s1600/Social-Media-Icons_altered.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Quality among your social media connections matters" border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnE2gniVK1jyxWkNlKE0GEWDapMJ6BVtph2lNU2l4fBEvNeP8hNli349yjm7xxsVAYrWC1P6HwkQKuAJVOyQJXKdRHWZ1V4nv6d0CIc_zaI64BegPOCd7S7BXCS9ZiDwrMs1Z855T0-6_j/s320/Social-Media-Icons_altered.png" title="Quality among your social media connections matters" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And, if you’re still using the number of followers to measure your social media success, it’s time to rethink your strategy.
Do an audit of your audience and determine which users are the right ones, and cull your lists accordingly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once you’ve completed the audit what can you do in the future to ensure you have quality connections that will enhance your online personal brand?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Start by having a thoughtful approach to who you’ll follow.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>How to decide who to follow on social media for personal branding success</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Linkedin</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When someone asks to connect with you, ask yourself:</span>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Are they in your industry or a related industry? (Related question: Are they in any Linkedin groups you belong to?)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Are they active on Linkedin and other social media?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What do they talk about and what do they share on SM?</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you are seeking new connections, first ask yourself:</span>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Who do you want to connect to? Why?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How will you find these people? Using advanced search in Twitter and Linkedin, and Facebook’s graph search are good places to start – search for people mentioning the terms relevant to your interests.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Are they active on Linkedin and other social media?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What do they talk about and what do they share on SM?</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Twitter</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In some respects Twitter is a better starting place to find industry-relevant people. It is a place where you can connect with anyone (unlike Linkedin where you need to be connected or pay a premium to contact people you aren’t connected to).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Basic tips to assess whether to follow someone on Twitter include:</span>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Does their bio indicate relevance to your purposes on social media?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What kind of content have they shared in the past few days?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Is their Following-Follower ratio in balance – in other words are there either more Followers or are they about the same. If there is a much higher Following number they are either new to Twitter or desperate for followers.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Still in doubt? </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Use one of the free tools that assesses Twitter accounts:</span>
<br />
<ul>
<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.twitteraudit.com/">Twitteraudit</a></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">: It seeks to answer the question: "How many of your followers are real?" But it also evaluates the Twitter accounts of others. Anything higher than 10 percent fake followers indicates someone who indiscriminately connects or does not block spammy followers… i.e. they’re not very careful on Twitter.</span></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://fakers.statuspeople.com/">Status People</a></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">: It sorts any Twitter accounts followers into Fake, Inactive and Good. A high number in Fake (more than 10 percent) or Inactive (more than 20 percent) should also be a warning sign.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></b>
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Facebook</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First, decide if Facebook is a place you want to open up to people beyond friends and family. Some people draw that line at Facebook.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But if you are OK with connecting professionally on Facebook you can use FB’s own search engine to find people who may be worth connecting to.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Start by using search terms such as keywords related to your industry and move on to search on relevant hashtags.
And, although its focus is marketing the tips here can be applied to personal connections too: </span><a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-use-facebook-graph-search/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How to Use Facebook Graph Search to Improve Your Marketing</a><br />
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></b>
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Google+</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Any discussion on personal branding has to include Google+. Whether you’re a fan or not is somewhat irrelevant – it’s a Google product so you better believe being there helps in Google search results.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Using the Google+ search or a regular Google search use keywords and the usual Google search operators.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For more on doing better Google searches see </span><a href="http://mashable.com/2011/11/24/google-search-infographic/#rxO4nzMy2sqO" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How to Use Google Search More Effectively</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Was this helpful? Wil you invest some time in social media and ensuring your connections are worthwhile? It is the only way social media can help with personal branding.</span><br />
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></b>
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Related link:</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/blogging-for-personal-branding.html">Blogging for personal branding</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/personal-branding-dont-leave-it-to.html">Personal branding – don’t leave it to chance</a></span>Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-74818715053484406452015-10-26T09:15:00.000-04:002015-10-30T05:26:07.932-04:00Blogging for personal branding<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Building or improving your personal brand can seem like facing a massive mountain. But some strategic use of social media can help anyone improve their personal brand – or the collective impression online search results speak about who you are. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the best places to start? A <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog">blog</a>. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqpSydy2LzyjAXaOgxLw28aTUeDiGmo6ZnBcXz_HeVSzv-p3CnWMZzjnxG48wFn0Ep6D0lGF7KxJ88Vm0-wJYF8W6pQU8fBt9N7mCAYNK3SCcjcA5ZY73tthHqIi2ZtNUBe7XWb15surs5/s1600/Mountain2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqpSydy2LzyjAXaOgxLw28aTUeDiGmo6ZnBcXz_HeVSzv-p3CnWMZzjnxG48wFn0Ep6D0lGF7KxJ88Vm0-wJYF8W6pQU8fBt9N7mCAYNK3SCcjcA5ZY73tthHqIi2ZtNUBe7XWb15surs5/s320/Mountain2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now a blog doesn’t need to be a massive undertaking. Think of it as a one-step-at-a-time approach to making a name for yourself or being an expert about something.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are all kinds of theories about how to decide what your blog should be about and how to make it successful for personal branding. Here are some of the best pieces of advice I’ve seen:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>15 Tips for a Successful Personal Branding Blog</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1. <b>Pick a blogging platform</b> or a free website tool that is easy to work with. For a starter list of platforms see <a href="http://quickgulp.com/start-free-blog-2015/">5 Free Blogging Platforms to Start a New Blog in 2015</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2. Make it <b>about something you care about</b> so you’re more likely to keep it going. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3. Write about an aspect of your industry OR make it about something you can have a lot to say about. Which means as long as you <b>write an informative and enthusiastic blog</b> it will get a following and get you some attention. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4. Keep blog posts <b>in the 250-500 word range</b>. Shorter than that and it may not get indexed. Longer than that and it may not get read. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5. <b>Stick with it.</b> In other words post regularly (something I’m guilty of not doing this year) – perhaps once a week or twice a month at a minimum. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">6. <b>Plan how you will share your blog</b> – this could mean via social media accounts and/or via email. And make sure social sharing buttons are always on your blog posts so others can share a post. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">7. <b>Join a blogging network</b> – a place where members share each other’s posts- or find another place that welcomes blog sharers. See <a href="http://www.searchenginejournal.com/15-places-sharing-blog-posts-facebook-twitter/128746/">15 Places You Should Be Sharing Your Blog Posts</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">8. <b>Discover sources of illustrative artwork</b> for your blog. A blog post with at least one image is twice as likely to get attention and be shared by others. For a list of 20 sites and some good how-to-use-art tips see <a href="http://longlivetheinternet.com/20-free-blog-graphics-sites-and-how-to-customize-images-for-your-blog/">20 Free Blog Graphics Sites and How To Customize Images For Your Blog</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">9. <b>Write out</b> in a single sentence w<b>hat the blog is about</b>. Then a list of topics it will cover. Refer back to this list regularly </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">10. <b>Develop a posting calendar</b>. It can be flexible, but it takes a lot of pressure away to know what your next five to 10 posts will be about. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">11. <b>Be patient</b>. All blogs take a little time to get established and win an audience. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">12. <b>Include </b>two or more internal l<b>inks to exterior, deeper content</b>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">13. Be sure to include l<b>inks to your previous posts</b> – two or three per post once you have a catalog of posts. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">14. <b>Check to see how the blog displays</b> in various browsers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">15. <b>Interact </b>with those who comment on your blog and, if necessary, delete spam comments. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, do you have a blog? Will you start a blog? Will it be something you’ll add to your social media activities on a regular basis? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Related post:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/quality-sm-connections-for-personal.html">Quality SM connections for personal branding</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/personal-branding-dont-leave-it-to.html">Personal branding – don’t leave it to chance</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-importance-of-personal-branding-for.html">The Importance of Personal Branding for College Students #infographic</a></span>
Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-867382761059323272015-09-09T15:46:00.004-04:002015-09-09T15:46:50.648-04:00Social Media #EmployeeEmpowerment – Why it’s a MUST for Business <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Social media employee empowerment has become a business imperative – but why? </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdBsbkof4z64O_Ogd5I4Y7r5tGfH9gzR5r8ZsUI190BJw1dJO8i5S1oxkGL7OpqkbMdC4ZqcKWU0h9LawyglEVZ1dqOW3bKor9eGlkmi_4yIFewJ6gzWYGVUHcJ8lfmI6ROdLLO0H8ybvT/s1600/water1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Allowing employees to nurture social media for the brand can pay off" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdBsbkof4z64O_Ogd5I4Y7r5tGfH9gzR5r8ZsUI190BJw1dJO8i5S1oxkGL7OpqkbMdC4ZqcKWU0h9LawyglEVZ1dqOW3bKor9eGlkmi_4yIFewJ6gzWYGVUHcJ8lfmI6ROdLLO0H8ybvT/s200/water1.png" title="Allowing employees to nurture social media for the brand can pay off" width="178" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Because (as we have seen from previous posts – see below) brands do not have the social reach of all their employees combined and, more importantly, they do not have the trust and level of engagement employees can achieve. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A recent story in <b><i>Fortune</i></b> magazine, <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/08/25/social-media-brands-ignore/">Brands are using social media more than ever, and users are ignoring them more than ever</a></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, highlights the challenges of social media for brands. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It points out that at a time when brands are using more social media than ever the percentage of posts that lead to user interactions keeps falling. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The rates at which users interact with branded social media posts has always been low, but a 2014 study and a follow up study in 2015 by Forrester indicate the numbers are falling, the <i>Fortune</i> piece says. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Last year, Instagram posts from brands created interactions with 4.2 percent of a brand’s followers. This year, that number fell to 2.2percent," it says. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"On Pinterest, interactions fell from 0.1 percent to 0.04 percent." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It all adds up to brands doing more and getting less from social media. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Citing <a href="http://sproutsocial.com/">Sprout Social</a> research a recent <a href="http://www.socialmediatoday.com/">Social Media Today</a> piece, <a href="http://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/aag/2015-09-08/7-8-social-messages-brands-go-unanswered-infographic">7 in 8 Social Messages to Brands Go Unanswered</a>, notes that more and more consumers expect a response to a social media inquiry on a brand's official social presence. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sprout’s research found "7 in 8 social messages go unanswered by brands in the first 72 hours," which Sprout likened to not answering your phone at your place of business.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The author of the SMT piece, A. A. Currey (<a href="https://twitter.com/AjaMaybe">@AjaMaybe</a> ion Twitter) is a content hacker at Social Media Today and says what makes a brand have a great response rate and a good rapport with the customer is having actual humans on the other end of social channels.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"The way to a satisfied customer base is, yes, a quick and regular response rate, but there’s no faster way to a consumer’s heart than an authentic reply.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“And that’s something only a brand who values human-to-human connection can provide," she says.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A recent post on the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) website further explains why engagement matters for brands:
"With an engaged, loyal online group of followers, you’ll cultivate an audience that will want to buy from you," it says. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"And, here’s an even bigger benefit—they’ll share information about your brand with their communities, too." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The IABC then goes on to offer its <a href="http://cw.iabc.com/2015/03/24/10-questions-jump-start-social-media-engagement/">10 questions to jump-start social media engagement</a>.
Among them are sparking a reader’s curiosity with a question and offering a single-question survey.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, if social media employee empowerment is important to the brand how can an organization encourage it?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">An example of how a brand encourages employees to engage on social media is found in <a href="http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/online-social-media-principles">Coca-Cola’s Social Media Principles</a>:
The principles start with: "Countless conversations take place online about Coca-Cola every day, and we want our Company’s more than 150,000 associates in more than 200 countries to join those conversations, represent our Company, and share the optimistic and positive spirits of our brands."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They go on to discuss company commitments (five key principles including transparency and monitoring), personal use of social media (including the admonition: "We encourage you to get online and have fun, but use sound judgment and common sense") and company spokespeople expectations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, social media employee empowerment is clearly a business MUST in 2015 … will more companies get on board?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Previous posts about SM employee empowerment</b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/employee-empowerment-drives-massive.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Employee empowerment drives massive social media results for brand</a></li>
<li><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/2015-year-of-sm-employeeempowerment-and.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2015: The Year of SM #EmployeeEmpowerment and How to Create a Successful Program</a></li>
<li><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/social-media-employee-empowerment-what.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Social Media Employee Empowerment - What Works</a></li>
</ul>
Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-34748297041093003252015-08-26T14:46:00.001-04:002015-08-26T14:53:06.064-04:00Social Media Employee Empowerment - What Works<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Social media "employee empowerment" is catching on in a wide variety of companies.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It helps a brand leverage the social reach of its employees to talk to an audience that can be 10 times larger than the brand’s.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFCq45vfIUtZ37y7HNpZO-7oAyep8TlNkz80Hd-zUIe1q0cg0dusZusV4HOFR67uBb1PypcSLSYQ6d5eqkqoDvgc3gFs8RdPsb9xdP3KuxVkmL31jBzuKcNRToRacYmOW3mkk1xUmPeosd/s1600/employee+advocacy.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Russ Fradin of Dynamic Signal quote on employee advocacy" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFCq45vfIUtZ37y7HNpZO-7oAyep8TlNkz80Hd-zUIe1q0cg0dusZusV4HOFR67uBb1PypcSLSYQ6d5eqkqoDvgc3gFs8RdPsb9xdP3KuxVkmL31jBzuKcNRToRacYmOW3mkk1xUmPeosd/s200/employee+advocacy.png" title="Russ Fradin of Dynamic Signal quote on employee advocacy" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Social media employee empowerment programs are proving highly successful at brands such as Lenovo, Oracle and Cisco where employees using their own social networks become brand ambassadors.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Increased reach and engagement are just two of the often-cited benefits for brands.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I recently became aware of just how widespread employee empowerment is thanks to Stephanie Dobyns who does marketing at Dynamic Signal in San Francisco and who, via a Twitter conversation, pointed out some great examples of employee empowerment going on in various companies.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Her own boss, Russ Fradin, CEO at Dynamic Signal, has predicted that in the next 12 months a majority of top companies will be use employee advocacy (see image).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, how do companies implement a social media employee empowerment program?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Social media employee empowerment resources:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://blogs.cisco.com/socialmedia/inbound-marketing-what-comes-after-the-tipping-point">Inbound Marketing: What Comes After the Tipping Point?</a></b> - (a Cisco blog post by Dr. Christine Bailey, Marketing Director, EMEA & Russia for Cisco) says five big changes are coming to marketing in the coming year and No. 5 is: "Employee advocacy will fuel marketing.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>From Oracle: <a href="https://blogs.oracle.com/socialspotlight/entry/4_steps_to_create_a">4 Steps To Create A Culture of Employee Advocacy</a></b> - looks at four key areas that companies and their employees need to learn to trust each other.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://dynamicsignal.com/resources/#ufh-i-114692622-leveraging-employees-through-social-media-with-charlene-li?utm_source=DySiVS&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=employeeadvocacy">Leveraging Employees through Social Media with Charlene Li</a></b> (email address required to view) - In this 55-minute video of a Dynamic Signal webinar Charlene Li, founder of the Altimeter Group, reports on research showing that a vast majority of companies are going through digital marketing transformations and that employee advocacy through social media is a key part of that change.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://digiday.com/brands/lenovo-created-internal-social-network-improve-employee-engagement/">Lenovo created an internal social network to improve employee engagement</a></b> - talks about how the China-based computer manufacturer got a huge lift in its marketing efforts by encouraging a relatively small proportion of employees to first share information on an internal social network before sharing elsewhere. It also reports this interesting detail: "Studies have shown that employees who are encouraged to share stories about the company on social media tend to stay with the company longer and are more loyal."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/employee-advocacy-vs-social-selling-how-drive-revenue-anna">Employee Advocacy vs Social Selling & How to Drive Revenue Using Both</a></b> - looks at the similarities of employee advocacy and social selling. Author Anna Stevens, Digital Marketing Manager at Recall, says brands can create long-lasting circles of trust. "Here's how. Your employees trust you >> Their social networks trust them >> So, your company's message, products, and events authentically reach new people."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://blogs.oracle.com/socialspotlight/entry/5_common_problems_with_employee">5 Common </a></b></span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogs.oracle.com/socialspotlight/entry/5_common_problems_with_employee">Problems with Employee Advocacy</a></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> - is an Oracle blog post that identifies some typical objections/hurdles to employee advocacy programs and offers solutions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, is social media employee empowerment for you and your brand? I’d love to hear other examples.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Related posts</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/employee-empowerment-drives-massive.html">Employee empowerment drives massive social media results for brand</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/2015-year-of-sm-employeeempowerment-and.html">2015: The Year of SM #EmployeeEmpowerment and How to Create a Successful Program</a></span>Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-4180399944822208012015-08-26T14:43:00.002-04:002015-08-26T14:52:05.314-04:002015: The Year of SM #EmployeeEmpowerment and How to Create a Successful Program<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuSCcfUZ2kEELpTl12TExVFJ9E2277dua-KPLMiZuT4MjHfYtu3xziEjKoPMEzXzG1x1Xbw2JCmv4rbenIu5zdJaigeOkdm37_Lx4ptsTclBH3CrpBefz3cz1WL4uR1Uf598vUEGvoZVCB/s1600/employee_empower_final.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="2015 - the year of social media employee empowerment" border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuSCcfUZ2kEELpTl12TExVFJ9E2277dua-KPLMiZuT4MjHfYtu3xziEjKoPMEzXzG1x1Xbw2JCmv4rbenIu5zdJaigeOkdm37_Lx4ptsTclBH3CrpBefz3cz1WL4uR1Uf598vUEGvoZVCB/s320/employee_empower_final.png" title="2015 - the year of social media employee empowerment" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As 2015 is shaping up to be the "Year of Employee Empowerment" in social media more and more companies are wondering how they might benefit. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Social media employee empowerment programs are proving highly successful at brands such as Lenovo, Oracle and Cisco where employees using their own social networks effectively become brand ambassadors.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Increased reach and engagement are just two of the often-cited benefits for brands.
But how do you set up an effective employee empowerment program?
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">During a recent <a href="https://www.brandwatch.com/">Brandwatch</a> webinar called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?edit=vd&v=B6DeFQsFhyU">Social Monitoring & Gamification: Creating Employee Advocates at Cisco</a> (the <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/brandwatchsocial/cisco-brandwatch-webinarfinal">slides from the webinar are here</a>) Brandwatch’s product manager Caroline Goodwin outlined one possible approach: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Raise awareness of the value of social</b>. She said organizations can do this by:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Putting social up on screens in the workplace where everyone can see social activity around the brand and its products and services.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Using reports to regularly show employees at various levels what is happening with social efforts and how they help the brand.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Integrating social facts and figures for the brand with other numbers employees are more comfortable and used to seeing such as sales figures or call numbers. </span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Enable your employees</b> by:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Training them and providing tips and guidelines about what kinds of information can and can’t be shared about and around the brand. Also share how social media efforts are measured.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Promoting the type of content you’re hoping employees will share, the hashtags your brand prefers and any tips on the ways to share content from the company website.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Collating all of your employee’s social handles so you can accurately track their efforts. Goodwin says the surprisingly easy way to do this is to "just ask" for each participating employee's social handles.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Encourage healthy competition</b> by:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Creating a table showing who has the greatest impact (either by using an existing commercially available tool or creating your own measurement) that looks at frequency of sharing, numbers reached, and numbers of responses and re-shares. </span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Harness the power of your advocates</b> by:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Planning ahead, for example, by giving your employees a heads up on an upcoming marketing campaign and share the relevant hashtags and links to the content that will be going out in the near future.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Monitoring results by tracking specific links and hashtags and who is sharing them and how far they are going. Brands can also keep the momentum going by providing very regular updates to employees during the campaign so everyone feels involved.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Recognizing all participants once the campaign is over and sharing its success with all. But then also recognize the most successful social media advocates.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So that’s one approach to employee empowerment in social media, what about others? My next post will look at that and provide links to some great thinking around the whole topic.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Related posts</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/employee-empowerment-drives-massive.html">Employee empowerment drives massive social media results for brand</a> </span><br />
<a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/social-media-employee-empowerment-what.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Social Media Employee Empowerment - What Works</a>Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-16802568884956849522015-08-25T18:06:00.000-04:002015-08-26T14:50:51.148-04:00Employee empowerment drives massive social media results for brand <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Increasing social media reach by 1,000 percent might seem like an unattainable goal for any business.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well, that’s exactly what Cisco’s Marketing Manager Alex Montuschi reports as a chief advantage of his company’s empowering employees to use social media to talk about Cisco.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8lwQSONAo2cg-HeamyYQqw2x8wwJgGABEsiATjcC9rqFANhOxKj0AHzPjMeQWl4hM-xPEEj2pXnHGTloXksPKSxJVm8p0nOr8ZH3Y-4FQZnsV91M7XwUYT1bmSGm0Ahl-LoTtwAbM-zhv/s1600/Cisco.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Statistics re Cisco employees' reach on social media" border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8lwQSONAo2cg-HeamyYQqw2x8wwJgGABEsiATjcC9rqFANhOxKj0AHzPjMeQWl4hM-xPEEj2pXnHGTloXksPKSxJVm8p0nOr8ZH3Y-4FQZnsV91M7XwUYT1bmSGm0Ahl-LoTtwAbM-zhv/s400/Cisco.png" title="Statistics re Cisco employees' reach on social media" width="380" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He was speaking during a recent <a href="https://www.brandwatch.com/">Brandwatch</a> webinar called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?edit=vd&v=B6DeFQsFhyU">Social Monitoring & Gamification: Creating Employee Advocates at Cisco</a>. (Also, the <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/brandwatchsocial/cisco-brandwatch-webinarfinal">slides from the webinar are here</a>.) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The webinar was looking at what is turning out to be one of the hottest trends in social media in 2015: Employee empowerment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In a nutshell employee empowerment (as it relates to social media) is a conscious move by a brand to empower/encourage employees to support the goals of a brand using content and social channels owned by the employees.
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why do companies use employee empowerment?</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Among the reasons cited by Montuschi:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cisco employees have 10X the followers than the brand</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">90 percent of employees’ audience is new to Cisco</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">An employee advocate is likely to score 2X on any measure of trust than the CEO</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Content shared by employees receives 8X more engagement that content shared by brand channels </span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> According to Montuschi, whose particular piece of the Cisco pie is the area known as Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia (EMEAR), one of the most-effective tactics his company employed was creating a social leaderboard table that recognized the most-influential employees on social. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These were not always those with the most followers or the most posts on channels such as Twitter and Facebook.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In addition to the massive increase in reach for Cisco message son social in the EMEAER region, Montuschi listed other benefits:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cisco employees’ social activities increased by over 140 percent in 6 months.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Average number of tweets posted by employees increase by 5 percent.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some 232 employees are using the social leaderboard tables to measure their social impact.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cisco also used the introduction of the leaderboards as an opportunity to offer 120 hours of social media training to 200 employees. The result of this, said Montuschi, was that those employees became better users of social media and more aware of their social impact.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So how do Cisco and others set up its employee empowerment program for social media?
More on that in my next post.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Related posts</b></span><br />
<a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/2015-year-of-sm-employeeempowerment-and.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2015: The Year of SM #EmployeeEmpowerment and How to Create a Successful Program</a><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/social-media-employee-empowerment-what.html">Social Media Employee Empowerment - What Works</a>
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-45632225296488234862015-08-21T10:23:00.003-04:002015-08-21T10:23:51.159-04:00College freshmen needs – laptop, books, oversized sheets and caring about your online rep NOW<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All across the United States this month a few million
college freshmen will be heading off to college for the first time … and one
thing they probably aren’t considering is how little time they have to perfect
their online reputation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yes, four years can seem like a lot of time. But before
most of these students realize it they will be applying for jobs and sending
out resumes. And that is when employers start checking them out online.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiId6GR_LuDm2rJAGvrBPvFg0PAdIGWJI0kn4hD7YjnXg3itiNnhsOGUTwSb2-oQfOsoU2cb5n5YdECScnjsBD4zf5Wh443we_I8t0Dp6XeEzLjSnUGU7DOdiCTWCCKLn7dFFwGSsGWjI8N/s1600/frshman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="College freshmen" border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiId6GR_LuDm2rJAGvrBPvFg0PAdIGWJI0kn4hD7YjnXg3itiNnhsOGUTwSb2-oQfOsoU2cb5n5YdECScnjsBD4zf5Wh443we_I8t0Dp6XeEzLjSnUGU7DOdiCTWCCKLn7dFFwGSsGWjI8N/s320/frshman.jpg" title="College freshmen" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you’re a college freshmen – or if you know one – now …
right now … is the time to start thinking about how to perfect that online
first impression.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From social media posts to pretty much everything else
that goes online about a student a lot of "stuff" can build up
online. Whether it is a positive or a negative impression can depend on what
happens between now and about 3.5 years from now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So what should all incoming freshmen do?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here are a few tips gleaned from a presentation I will
make to freshman at the Rochester Institute of Technology (where I teach in the
School of Communication). It will be part of a “Digital Self-Defense” session
for all 2,900+ freshmen and owes a debt of gratitude to an earlier presenter <a href="http://careersherpa.net/blog/">Hannah Morgan (aka the Career
Sherpa)</a>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Before Year 4: College Students Must Think About ...</b><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl6X7sJBS0ykIttaPXkTH_SVm9CJ38Nszwm042nGyIVrQRsnjzDwYgY2P2_-G55kOyWij1y-4fzdJLD811oCHM7zl9Ka8dN25waMSXsOSrbktFcNSq5cuaF50PlO1OR1piVuI8wliSKDCx/s1600/Yougle_logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="85" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl6X7sJBS0ykIttaPXkTH_SVm9CJ38Nszwm042nGyIVrQRsnjzDwYgY2P2_-G55kOyWij1y-4fzdJLD811oCHM7zl9Ka8dN25waMSXsOSrbktFcNSq5cuaF50PlO1OR1piVuI8wliSKDCx/s200/Yougle_logo.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1. Yougle:</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> In other words: "You
are what Google says you are." Stay on top of how you look to others in
search results. And make sure you are doing the search of your own name on a
device that either has no record of your preferences or you should select the "globe”
symbol to the top-right of the search results page … that way you see what the
world sees, not what Google thinks you want to see.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>2. A better you:</b> Your goal is to
dominate Page 1 of Google search results with positive links about you. First, be sure
that any "bad stuff” you have control over is taken off the web. This can
be harder than it seems since removing material from a website may not remove
it from a search engine's database. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYowaFUh7nNT1d5iQeZXZX9oyGiLby5qxBysufzC0g06SCVQBoChNn78AG7_NEcx_9EzxyQp3uTxYAY6xD7cDnfroo1mvUzusYS6u9zrq1-ptdoLRQr3Ttk-9sNss3HmeyNuhe-6fJHfz0/s1600/BrandYourself-Logo-with-Tagline1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="59" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYowaFUh7nNT1d5iQeZXZX9oyGiLby5qxBysufzC0g06SCVQBoChNn78AG7_NEcx_9EzxyQp3uTxYAY6xD7cDnfroo1mvUzusYS6u9zrq1-ptdoLRQr3Ttk-9sNss3HmeyNuhe-6fJHfz0/s200/BrandYourself-Logo-with-Tagline1.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then, to improve both how high up your best links show up
in search - and perhaps bury the ones you don’t want to be so easily
found - there are numerous tools worth checking out. I’m a fan of </span><a href="https://brandyourself.com/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Brandyourself</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> which
offers a decent set of tools for free and, obviously, a broader range of tools
for those willing to pay a monthly fee. For more on other services see my
earlier blog post: </span><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-new-online-you-part-3-professional.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Professional
Reputation Management Services</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>3. Own your name:</b> If you don’t already own it you should buy
the URL of your name or one with a version of your name in it. If you don’t own
wwww.yourname.com someone else will. Then use it with one of the great free
website-building sites (<a href="http://www.wix.com/">Wix</a>,
<a href="http://www.weebly.com/">Weebly</a>, <a href="https://wordpress.com/">Wordpress</a>, among others)
to create a simple website that tells your story and shows off your talents and
experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>4. All of you:</b> Make sure you own your
name on the biggest social media sites – even if you have no immediate
intention of using them. A good place to start is <a href="https://namechk.com/">Namechk.com</a> to see if your preferred
social media handle is available across all the networks you’d like to be on.
Best practice? Keep looking until you find a name that is available everywhere
and use that everywhere so you control it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Also, be sure to have at least one professional-sounding
email address that you use for business communications. Yes, you’ll get a
school (.edu) address right away, but will that stay with you long after
school? A Gmail address or something similar is fine as long as it sounds
professional and is not like ketelonedrinker@xxxxx.com – I once really did receive
a job application from a 22-year-old who listed this as their email address.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKDdjsGMvLM1S9lASm92aeybo29woJk9nErS7TgJdMTmOfr6bsdWeRU5TBTScaAnkmnmim0vTnpN041kHxwsiUTY00fPkJTg-cKqyxPcPfD05w0WSztml3ovNXU0mFy8H0CXffrzBWo8nU/s1600/LinkedIn_icon.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Linkedin logo" border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKDdjsGMvLM1S9lASm92aeybo29woJk9nErS7TgJdMTmOfr6bsdWeRU5TBTScaAnkmnmim0vTnpN041kHxwsiUTY00fPkJTg-cKqyxPcPfD05w0WSztml3ovNXU0mFy8H0CXffrzBWo8nU/s200/LinkedIn_icon.png" title="Linkedin logo" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>5. Connect – a lot:</b> It goes without
saying that you need to create and manage a solid Linkedin profile. It may be
thin on details initially, but it is the primary professional network and
provides the opportunity to build a long-term group of professional connections
and to develop an online identity and reputation among the people you know. It
can also serve as an online portfolio of your work. More and more employers are
using LinkedIn to find and hire employees.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then be sure to volunteer, join clubs, and to be active
in campus groups and professional organizations while in school. This will
provide things that can flesh out the picture of you online in places such as
Linkedin. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>6. Guard your image:</b> Stay on top of
how you are portrayed by others. This means keeping track of where your image
appears and your name is mentioned. Start with some basic <a href="https://www.google.com/alerts">Google alerts</a> so that
if your name shows up on the web you will know it. Then recheck all your privacy
settings across all the social networks you’re on and don’t forget the cardinal
rule: When something goes online it likely is online forever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>7. Stand out – for something:</b> Last,
but not least, find a way to differentiate yourself from the millions of other
college students who will graduate at the same time you will. Ways to do this
include blogging on a topic you care about, sharing stories or images on
various social networks that relate to causes you support (just stay away from
the two toughest ones – politics and sex). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It helps if your public interests online align with your
career goals, but it is not essential. I had, for example, an accounting
student who blogged about making milk carton-furniture and that blog helped
land her her first accounting job because, as the hiring manager said, “it
shows you have interests beyond number crunching.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Overall</b>, this seems like a lot to think about, but freshmen have
four years (well, maybe a little over three years) to get this sorted out. They
should start now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Was this helpful? It wasn’t my usual social media-heavy
type of column, but I hope it helps. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Related posts:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-importance-of-personal-branding-for.html">The Importance of Personal Branding for College Students #infographic</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/hey-baby-not-on-social-media-this-might.html">Hey
baby, not on social media? This might help …</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/10-commandments-for-social-media.html">10
Commandments for Social Media</a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-78255239003885225552015-08-20T14:58:00.001-04:002015-08-20T14:58:52.832-04:00The Importance of Personal Branding for College Students #infographic<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ahhhh … the start of a new college school year and the excitement of heading off to or back to college…. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One thing many college students won’t be thinking about at this time of year, but they absolutely should be, is their <b> personal brand</b>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK-5_2IlU3QnPdF5mCDWHM_2OZLOgfDQdNGP04B9gteHCc_ExQrxZKZstIheWQ8JDv8VIlQV8ZMCo6cXe7qMeu9_sNWt3sjTsJkqI7XR6qwi4vQqsDZpB0YVvKO0IKsGM2FL15Cl1OJQIe/s1600/barnding_small.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="105" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK-5_2IlU3QnPdF5mCDWHM_2OZLOgfDQdNGP04B9gteHCc_ExQrxZKZstIheWQ8JDv8VIlQV8ZMCo6cXe7qMeu9_sNWt3sjTsJkqI7XR6qwi4vQqsDZpB0YVvKO0IKsGM2FL15Cl1OJQIe/s200/barnding_small.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By the time they’re preparing to graduate – hopefully at the latest they’re thinking about this in Year 3 – they should have a strong personal brand that is obvious to anyone who finds them on the web. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A solid personal brand means that a future employer, landlord or even significant other finds a well-rounded and positive (or at least 99 percent positive) image of you when they Google your name.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So how do you get a great personal brand?
You build it over time and you do it methodically.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This means students entering college now have the greatest opportunity to build up that personal brand. And yet … </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many won’t think about this until it is too late – Year 4 – or not at all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The time is now in terms of building that brand.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This infographic might help. It spells it out in basic terms anyone can follow. It seems particularly relevant to college students:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3iaft9vT1X50bLWOzyxNEgYWSXd2y3CcpARaMvn4duaDAOZe-Zrx9BBkAUEYYrfaC9u9didfW84UmgtTH5_BFJ2QndZpD74DVXZkujGaTpHh9Rl_nRy3nDzy3Mi8Txbp0D3VeBrMwJdXG/s1600/branding1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3iaft9vT1X50bLWOzyxNEgYWSXd2y3CcpARaMvn4duaDAOZe-Zrx9BBkAUEYYrfaC9u9didfW84UmgtTH5_BFJ2QndZpD74DVXZkujGaTpHh9Rl_nRy3nDzy3Mi8Txbp0D3VeBrMwJdXG/s1600/branding1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Infographic source:</b> Original in Italian by <a href="http://www.sestyle.it/2011/la-via-del-personal-branding-infographic/">Enrico Bisetto</a> and the English version by <a href="http://jorgensundberg.net/way-personal-branding-infographic/">Jorgen Sundberg</a></span>
Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545863478430353717.post-80674532803990341172015-03-25T13:30:00.002-04:002015-03-25T13:30:38.137-04:00Internet Shaming in the Social Media Age: Is it Right? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoynQ2NuUbqCywB4ZtVSsjLIbxBsy0gGa1YaN-DU3KfOtYWW3kDz1A4Bf0gTgxeMS7myFKKowKsaxXnUaefLIBOduLF7YlRebTXYH37-jHxPrkTJFuutjNolJVjFRmzDPuFXqDa8Egw2Eq/s1600/Internet+Shaming2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Is Internet Shaming Always OK?" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoynQ2NuUbqCywB4ZtVSsjLIbxBsy0gGa1YaN-DU3KfOtYWW3kDz1A4Bf0gTgxeMS7myFKKowKsaxXnUaefLIBOduLF7YlRebTXYH37-jHxPrkTJFuutjNolJVjFRmzDPuFXqDa8Egw2Eq/s1600/Internet+Shaming2.png" height="171" title="Is Internet Shaming Always OK?" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Publicly shaming bad behavior is as old as mankind, but in the Social Media Age it seems to happen more frequently and it certainly happens a lot faster.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Various cases in the past year or so have highlighted the rapidity and breadth of consequences for people perceived to have wronged others. Just a few examples:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Justine Sacco</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, communications director for the New York-based internet empire InterActive Corp, tweeted before she boarded a flight in December 2013: "Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!" By the time she landed in South Africa the Internet outrage was about to lead to her firing.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Author </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Daniel Handler</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket), presenting at the National Book Awards in November, told an insensitive anecdote about a black girl who is allergic to watermelon. When Internet outrage ensued he promised a $10,000 donation to and to match up to another $100,000 in gifts to We Need Diverse Books.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfIOw0-FPu5UZ-17aEjAw4kMyisHehds6qBs_zISwxw-ce-4SpImmTKR19bkVbf6CGRSy00h0zKNUoD-RehZFzO3gAfGo7V6t3tJGK9nkEWzW_NnK99bjuTpgjQBY4yQ7J_zHl8pq2E8Jg/s1600/CurtSchilling2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Curt Schilling" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfIOw0-FPu5UZ-17aEjAw4kMyisHehds6qBs_zISwxw-ce-4SpImmTKR19bkVbf6CGRSy00h0zKNUoD-RehZFzO3gAfGo7V6t3tJGK9nkEWzW_NnK99bjuTpgjQBY4yQ7J_zHl8pq2E8Jg/s1600/CurtSchilling2.jpg" height="200" title="Curt Schilling" width="183" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Curt Schilling</td></tr>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Former Boston Red Sox pitcher </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Curt Schilling</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> congratulated his daughter, Gabby, on Twitter Feb. 25, 2015 for her acceptance into Salve Regina University. Two Twitter users used this as an opportunity to make lurid comments about his daughter. He responded by outing Adam Negal and Sean MacDonald in a blog post called </span><a href="https://38pitches.wordpress.com/2015/03/03/is-it-twitters-fault/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Is it Twitters fault?"</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> As a result the two young men were blasted on Twitter. They shut down their accounts and Negal was subsequently suspended from his community college in New Jersey.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some clearly think this online Internet shaming is OK, even laudable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Alex Reimer writing for the online news site BostInno in Boston says the Schilling online shaming is an example of "how the Internet can be used for the greater good."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In a piece called <a href="http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2015/03/02/curt-schillings-blog-post-about-twitter-trolls-conveys-a-powerful-message-about-cyberbullying/">Curt Schilling Publicly Shamed 2 Cyber Bullies, & It Was Awesome</a> he says: "If the humiliation Nagel and MacDonald have suffered stops even one cyber bully from hurling personal insults behind the comfort of his keyboard, then this may be one of Schilling's greatest accomplishments."</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSX17PBj23Y2BpTdfy53ZuRu45kuOfiqm7L0DlpMYQzOqB4zD9pOO3c84dsIkdg60KiTwyXTHzK61tVRwkp5IkpEZ0yzSniQ5VQmuJy8OMhtY3c_T_eci0uNGO26ly2NY9ijD2aNf2koJl/s1600/AlyssaRosenberg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Alyssa Rosenberg" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSX17PBj23Y2BpTdfy53ZuRu45kuOfiqm7L0DlpMYQzOqB4zD9pOO3c84dsIkdg60KiTwyXTHzK61tVRwkp5IkpEZ0yzSniQ5VQmuJy8OMhtY3c_T_eci0uNGO26ly2NY9ijD2aNf2koJl/s1600/AlyssaRosenberg.jpg" height="200" title="Alyssa Rosenberg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Alyssa Rosenberg</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But Alyssa Rosenberg, who blogs about pop culture for <i>The Washington Post</i>'s Opinions section, has a different point of view. In a piece called <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2014/12/03/why-i-stopped-shaming-online-harassers/">Why I stopped shaming online harassers</a> she asks, among other questions: "What kind of speech should trigger consequences?" and "Who gets to pass judgement?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In a thoughtful summation of several instances of people who have been punished online, some for things they did and one because an ex-boyfriend impersonated an innocent woman, Rosenberg concludes:
"Until we get a better handle on these precedents, I’ll be sticking to my Mute button rather than reaching for Retweet to expose angry people to a wider audience which might feel moved to chastise them."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Knowing that the people who want to say ugly things about me online are shouting into the void feels like punishment enough."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Laura Hudson, a writer at <i>Wired</i> magazine offered a cautionary tale in her July, 2013 piece <a href="http://www.wired.com/2013/07/ap_argshaming/">Why You Should Think Twice Before Shaming Anyone on the Social Media</a>.
In the piece she recounts an incident at a tech conference called PyCon where two males' talk - using sexually suggestive double entendre - within earshot of a female attendee led the latter to tweet out a picture of the two and comment on their inappropriate behavior. She had a large Twitter following and the online reaction was swift and loud. One of the young men's employers recognized his employee and fired him. When there was an equal backlash to the firing the young woman lost her job too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hudson says it’s as if online shaming "has become a core competency of the Internet, and it’s one that can destroy both lives and livelihoods."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Increasingly, our failure to grasp our online power has become a liability — personally, professionally, and morally. We need to think twice before we unleash it," she writes.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4GGt0V9fDv0i60A8hyvGgcJ33PkAmJyAUy-T8POPeGqkRF3i0ZGMIvN5LUKfo0Hjgvjf-sH1ziJTe_Exv6dtZ-24yZ7hgOcOUU_2KYF0DkiqAYK1yi1UTtP6tc4FxnAkj7Ncy_hQGOs43/s1600/Monica_Lewinsky2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Monica Lewinsky at her TED Talk" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4GGt0V9fDv0i60A8hyvGgcJ33PkAmJyAUy-T8POPeGqkRF3i0ZGMIvN5LUKfo0Hjgvjf-sH1ziJTe_Exv6dtZ-24yZ7hgOcOUU_2KYF0DkiqAYK1yi1UTtP6tc4FxnAkj7Ncy_hQGOs43/s1600/Monica_Lewinsky2.png" height="200" title="Monica Lewinsky at her TED Talk" width="185" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Monica Lewinsky at her TED Talk</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another, perhaps unlikely, voice against Internet shaming is that of Monica Lewinsky, the former White House intern who was involved with President Clinton. In <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/monica_lewinsky_the_price_of_shame">a March 2015 TED Talk called The Price of Shame</a> she calls for a revolution away from the culture of humiliation towards an "internet community of empathy and compassion." </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While admitting she made mistakes as a 22-year-old the now 42-year-old says she knows better than most how painful and long-lasting Internet shaming can be.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And then there's this: The <i>Gawker</i> writer who first outed Justine Sacco’s seeming racially insensitive tweet about AIDS and Africa, Sam Biddle, wrote a follow-up piece in March, 2015 called <a href="http://gawker.com/justine-sacco-is-good-at-her-job-and-how-i-came-to-pea-1653022326">Justine Sacco Is Good at Her Job, and How I Came To Peace With Her</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In it he writes about a dinner meeting with Sacco during which he realized that her original tweet had been a poor attempt at irony, that his quick retweet had ruined her life and that he needed to say sorry.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, what do you think? In the social media age should shaming be an acceptable response to perceived online wrongs or inappropriate behavior (online or otherwise)? And, if so, should it be within some kind of personal guidelines and only under certain circumstances? Or should it be something we avoid altogether?</span>Mike Johanssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10991236141486591241noreply@blogger.com1