Your brand is not in your hands anymore.

The internet possesses powers that can turn you into a celebrity overnight. But the great god that giveth, doth also taketh away. In other words, deal with your business honestly or you won’t own a business anymore. Think this sounds dramatic? It’s true.

Take the example of Brian King. Brian is media editor (video mostly) and also a podcaster. He’s a freelancer. He lives in LA and does great work. Brian had the opportunity to help someone who needed, more-or-less, a quick and dirty video done. Cheap, fast, you know the drill. Brian had some connections and offered to work on the project. After multiple editing rounds, the client paid. Well… kinda. Brian got a letter from Bank of America saying the client in question had stopped the check. It wasn’t for a whole lot of money, but Brian had paid out of pocket to use facilities and now he was in the hole. Of course, the amount isn’t what matters, its too small of a check to bother hiring a lawyer, but its the principle of thing. So Brian decided he wanted payment, and he was going to do what it took to make that happen.

Brian turned to the internet. First he bought a domain. It just so happens that his client does not own his-name.com: philconti.com Then he promoted the page to his blog. Then he posted it to twitter. Within 2 days he had over 100 retweets and dozen of people making comments on their own blogs and personal websites. If you now google performers Phil Conti & Marlene Arden, mostly negative press shows up.

I found out about Brian’s plight from a webcomic I read: Candi by Starline X. Hodge. She posted about it in her daily update because,

“He’s a good friend of mine, so when he posted it on his blog, I decided to help. I just didn’t like hearing that he got ripped off. Figured if more people knew about it, then maybe they’d pay him for his work.”

I contacted Brian and asked if he’d tell me a little bit about why he chose this course of action (putting pressure on the client through the internet). He said

“They’re entertainers, and I know that entertainers’ web presence is extremely important. If they realize that the internet dislikes them, and their google/twitter/whatever search results are negative, they’re going to have problems.”

Which I agree, it’d be a problem for anyone! I asked Brian what kind of outcome he hope for. He said he’d just like to make up the difference, if they pay in full, he’ll pull down all the pages he wrote mentioning them.

Brian is just one freelancer in California and he completely changed the personal brand of Phil & Marlene. So the next time you deal with a customer or hire a company, be above board. Make sure you hold the keys to your company’s image. Never underestimate the power of the internet and what that means for your brand.

So what do you think? Do you think smearing someone’s brand is justified? Is it too much? Not enough? Have you seen the internet eat another business alive?
If you agree with Brian’s approach be sure to spread the word, ReTweet, blog, link on Facebook. Show his site some love. And Starline too!

Image by AndYaDon’tStop

I’ve got this really bad habit of gushing about things I love: Wordpress, Twitter, kittens… well I have a new and brilliant tool I want to share with you. The problem with many browser plugin/apps/downloads is that they clutter and aren’t very user friendly anyhow. But not Shareaholic! Observe:

Before Shareaholic.

After Shareaholic.

But what does this wonderful and non-space hogging button on my browser do?? you may be wondering quietly to yourself. It might as well be a portal to the end of the universe as far as I’m concerned, its just that spectacular. No really, it lets you share stuff… everywhere! You know how it goes. You’re on a site, or reading an article and you are like “Wow, this is brilliant. Everyone should see it.” Then you have to copy the url, open an email or Twitter or Facebook, paste it and hit send. And you have to do that for every place you want to share it to. No longer! Just click the Shareaholic button and a drop down menu appears, select where you want to share your info and bang, done. All that’s left is customizing and waiting for all the feedback. (Random Tip: you don’t have to just share publicly, Shareaholic will let you link to your email or to private Facebook messages as well.)

I know what you’re thinking: “Okay, I’m sold, how do I get this amazing button of awesomeness?” Easy. Just go to Shareaholic.com and pick your browser. (It even works for those shameful people who don’t have Firefox.) Then download, and the happy little green icon will appear on your browser. Note: downloading this will not hurt your computer, not spyware or anything like that, your hard drive is safe!

Not convinced yet? Shareaholic works with about 50 services already and there’s even a video I found on their lovely blog:

Today I want to hurt the feelings of a tiny tool that every salesman I’ve met keeps on his desk; the rolodex. I hate the rolodex. I hate its infernal little tabs and its mindless organizing system and today I’m going spend an entire post tell you why it sucks. But not to worry, your contacts deserve better and I have a solution.

Your Rolodex and Its Many Short-Comings

• Organization: So a rolodex may look more organized that my original method for keeping business cards (a shoe box) but instead of empowering you, it restricts you. You can only search one way: alphabetically. And you can only alphabetize by one method (first name, last name, company name – pick one). You can’t search through it by category or need.
• Infuriation: Not everyone’s cards fit in the box. Some people like to be special (ever seen those cards that try to be cute and are shaped like a square? They just want to mess up your system!). Or better yet you have to write the information onto a card, wasting your precious time.
• Transportation: Its not exactly portable either, is it? You can’t go to a lunch with it in your pocket.
• Inspiration: So what happens if you want to give some a referral on the spot? You can’t unless you happen to have them in your cell phone! You have to make a note and hope you remember. The moment of opportunity is gone.

So what can you do?

Get Rid of the Rolodex. Forget all that paper work. Call it going “Green“! (Or whatever helps you sleep at night.)

Now, let me tell you what I do.

1. I go to a meeting and come home with a handful of cards.
2. I log on to Linked-In during the next week and type in their name.
3. If they’re on, I connect with them, adding a note about where we met. If not, I send an invite.
4. Then I upload the contacts to my outlook through the Linked-In Toolbar.
5. (Extra step for my Blackberry/smart phone users: I synchronize my Outlook with my phone.)
6. Then I THROW THE CARDS AWAY. That’s right, I toss them.

I know what you’re thinking: What if they don’t connect with you and you could have used their service? Too bad. I figure I would have stuck them in my rolodex and forgotten about them anyhow. But now since they are in my phone and their information is updated through, I can connect them to other people or get in touch with them any time. It may sound crazy but it works. I stay better connected, I don’t have as much paperwork all over my desk and I have their information with me all the time.

So I suggest getting all your cards together this 4th of July weekend and roasting some marshmallows on them.

What do you do to simplify your business with technology? Are you really using Linked-In to its great potential or are you just there?

We at Veribatim are very excited to announce our partnership with Microsoft. After speaking at the StartSpark event, I’m able to back this program whole-heartedly. Don’t know about BizSpark yet? Read on!

Microsoft® has an exciting new program specifically designed to provide early stage Startups, like the ones we work, with software, support, and visibility to help ignite your success. The program, called BizSpark™, provides access to:

• Software. Join BizSpark and you’re just clicks away from having access to current, full-featured development tools, including Visual Studio Team System, plus production licensing to develop and bring your solution to market.
• Support. BizSpark provides you with professional technical support from Microsoft and connects you to a global community of business experts who can help guide you through the hurdles of growing your business.
• Visibility. Through BizSpark, you’ll have the opportunity to achieve global visibility to an audience of potential investors, clients and partners.

Eligibility requirements are minimal: If you’re a privately held company building a software-based product or service (even using open source code), in business for fewer than three years, and with less than USD$1M in annual revenue, you’re in!

To join BizSpark, you must be sponsored by a BizSpark Network Partner, such as us! (Note: Look up Veribatim when registering). You’ll find more program details here. When you’re ready to sign up, contact us about sponsorship and get your enrollment code.

Once you have your enrollment code, joining BizSpark is fast and easy. No payment or credit card information is required, and there are no upfront costs. (Microsoft will assess a USD$100 program offering fee at the end of participation in the program, or the end of three years, whichever comes first.)

Get your Startup fired up! Visit the Microsoft Startup Zone to learn more!

While we’re on the subject; are you subscribed? If you’re not getting regular updates of the Veribatim Word of Net blog, why don’t you take a second to connect to our RSS as we continue to offer new and greater benefits.

I realized after attending the Microsoft SparkStart event that I often repeat the same advice over and over again, just with a new angle. So instead of doing that today, I’m going to point you to posts I wrote over the last year that still make sense right now! Believe it or not, the social media game hasn’t changed that much in a year. In fact, marketing as a whole hasn’t changed that much, we just use a different medium.

So here are some posts that might be relevant for you today:

Why Social Media is important:

• Social Media: Personal Touch in a Virtual World
• The Business of Social Media

The Facts:

• Facebook: Making the Rest of Us Look Bad
• Tools for your Belt: Demographics & Surveys

The Etiquette:

• Top 5 Ineffective Social Media Accounts
• Social Media Compared to Offline Networking

A lot of the truths of marketing still exist in the digital age. Are there any principles you use over and over again in your own marketing (online or off)?

Last week I had the opportunity to speak on a panel for Microsoft BizSpark’s first event: SparkStart. I sat on the Marketing Panel with two fantastic names you may know: Giovanni and Sean Jackson. I had a great time and every person I talked to said that they got even more out of the day than they expected.

However, though social media was spotlighted by the marketing panel we did discuss other ways to market. I want to share some quick thoughts that I thought should be repeated:

• Consider your sales funnel: There is a gap between the intent to purchase and actual purchase, do everything you can to help people get through it.
• Don’t scatter shot: Focus your social media efforts, but make sure you grab your real estate with something like NameCheck
• Social Media Tip: Have the heart of a servant
• Twitter: To quote Giovanni “its the shiniest thing out there right now” but know your target market, they might not use Twitter; go where your clients are.
• Branding, branding, branding: Do this FIRST! Don’t get on Facebook til your brand is completely ironed out.
• Email: has not gone out of style and is still a cornerstone of any online campaign.

If you missed SparkStart, I heard that due to the overwhelming positive feedback, there will be more of them! Feel free to contact them at their website or their twitter profile: @Sparkstart

Did you attend? What did you take away with you?

We’ve all been there, you need something, you need it fast, you’re already stressed out–and then, the dreaded website frustration. You can’t find what you’re looking for, the site is impossible to navigate and there’s no contact information to be found. Right about then you actually consider smashing your laptop against someone’s head.

Usability = User Friendly

Usability in web design is a term that equates to User Friendly. I decided to write this post after a suggestion from Cynthia in an earlier entry. Also, it blends nicely with my last post about design because design and usability should go hand-in-hand.

Imagine a world full of balance and peace. Its not going to happen anytime soon but if your website could instill a little bit of zen think of how grateful your clients would be! So, let’s evaluate the key components of your website for usability and even, a bit of tranquility.

The Zen of Simplicity

The key to a user friendly website is simplicity. A few places on your site can cause your clients to pull their hair out if they can’t find them. So create a bit of zen for your clients in these spaces, since we all know happy clients means a happy business:

Contact Information: It sounds obvious, but difficult to find contact info remains the number one complaint I hear about business websites. Make it obnoxiously easy to contact you. Note: Sometime companies purposefully hide phone numbers because they don’t want to take personal calls. If that’s the case you have a customer service problem as well as a usability one.

Purpose: I don’t mean your mission statement; I mean the goal of your website. Do you sell car parts? It should be obvious on your landing page. Do you have an online store? Tell me upfront. The worst thing you can do is waste your client’s time. Make this information readily available to them.

Navigation Bar: Navigation on a website should be intuitive. Let’s define intuitive as logical and balanced. The navigation bar must be easy to find and easy to use. Consider your most visited pages: put those first. For example, if you have an online store, more people will want to visit your shop before reading your biography.

The anti-zen: Clutter: Clutter gets its own special category. Its something you DON’T want to have on your website. It’s also the arch enemy of peaceful zen-ness. Some examples of clutter on your landing page can be excessive use of

• ads
• blogroll
• links
• announcements
• pictures
• calendar/events
• multiple text boxes

Don’t distract people from the message of your site with secondary information, let them explore to find it. If your site has accumulated some clutter, consider some online spring cleaning.

You don’t need a bunch of scented candles to create some balance for your clients. Start with something simple, like making your website a stress-free zone. A little zen goes a long way.Want to get a little more in-depth with your search for simplicity? Kalena Jordan has a great guide to a User-friendly website, for further reading.

What frustrates you the most when you look at a website?

This is my very first Vlog. I’ve not done it for lots of reasons, but because I’m speaking more and more I decided to share it with you!

I’ve been looking for a simple analogy to social media for a while. Then I realized that most business people are trained at some level to network in real life. Social media uses those exact same principles, just online! So the point of this video was to compare offline networking to your online presence.

The poster in the background looks like this:

Here are ten super quick ways of getting your website out there and clicked on. The number one excuse I hear from business owners is “I don’t have enough time to do that”. So let me offer ten “5 minutes or less” solutions.

10. Connecting your blog/site to Linked-In. You can add a link to your website directly in your profile or you can add the Blog Link Application which will import your most recent posts right into your profile!

9.  Connecting your blog/site to Twitter. Twitter’s profile allows you to connect to one website but to get better results consider adding a blog feed. I use Twitter Feed.

8.  Connecting your blog/site to Facebook. Same as Linked-In. You can add your site to your profile or you can import notes from your blog here.

7.  Creating a company profile on Linked-In. Linked-In has opened a beta version of company profiles. You can easily add a blog and website here too. Check it out.

6.  Checking your company profile at GetListed.org GetListed is a neat little service that will let you check for company profiles on major search engines. It make take more than 5 minutes to add yourself to each one, but it will only take 30 seconds to check your listing information.

5.  Responding to one blog post with your website connected. If you are reading other people’s blogs or even news articles, take the time to comment. Even if the comment doesn’t have to do with your industry, you could still drive traffic. I know I look at the website of everyone who comments on my posts. Most comment sections ask for your name, email and website. So add it!

4.  Adding one relevant “back-link” to your next post. If you blog regularly, or even occasionally, add a link for “further reading” at the bottom. You don’t need to explain it, but an extra link will usually bring by the author to check you out or if you link internally, keep your readers clicking.

3.  Putting your web address or blog in your email signature. More people click on email links than you think. I do it all the time. Especially if there’s some catchy phrase or description attached like: Wanna see how I help companies market themselves online? Instead of just www.howImarketonline…

2.  Submitting your site to review. Plenty of websites exist strictly to review other sites and they can drive a ton of traffic. Submit yourself to Technorati or Coolsiteoftheday. It takes about 2 minutes to send your information in.

1.  Writing a 3 sentence review. Marketing sites say that people are more likely to trust customer reviews than just about any other form of advertisement. Take a minute to review one of your partners or competitors and include a backlink. Try Google or Yahoo for the most-read reviews.

What brings you the most traffic?

Image by Burning Image

Disclaimer: If you haven’t, read this post first so you know what I’m talking about.

This week comparing the amount of business potential a number of social media services have. While Linked-In has made a fair amount of updates recently, its little overhaul still doesn’t compare to Facebook. You can go see their changes here and when you log-in you can read all about the improved search functions. Group recently went through a make-over as well. I willing give kudos to Linked-In, but it’s still just not as impressive as the massive amount of work that I can see at Facebook.

To me Linked-In is a bread and butter type of website. You need to be on there. Linked-In is my Rolodex and I tell people as soon as you have an email address you need to go create a profile, even if your website isn’t up yet.

Personally, I think the ways to do business on Linked-In is limited. Sure, the questions and groups are great but the versatility just isn’t there. At least, not like Facebook. To me, Linked-In is much more like an introduction than an actual relationship. Linked-In says “Harry, have you met Sally?” and then you do the work. Facebook says, “Romeo, this is Juliet, oh and here’s her family history before you do something dumb. Oh and, wait a few days before you drink the poison.”

I feel like Linked-In is taking stock of their users and listening, but carefully choosing its path based on predetermined goals. On the other hand, Facebook says, “Hey, how do you want to connect with others? How can we make that happen?” And is more than happy to evolve into what its users want, even to an animal they didn’t originally intend on being.

Linked-In provides a necessarily and important service. But I think their desire to step beyond that is limited. So, here’s your silver star, Linked-In, don’t let it go to your head.

What about you? Do you think Linked-In deserves second place? Are they listening and moving with business better than Facebook?

P. S. Veribatim now has a Facebook Page.