In the age of the digital revolution, online presence is everything to business. Unfortunately, for many businesses, getting online ends the process. Once you set up that Twitter feed, or Facebook page, the work stops. You may check back, watch your followers grow and leave interesting updates but that covers the interaction with social media.  However, a lack of follow-through when a customer raises a question or issue can quickly undo all the goodwill you created by plugging your brand into the internet.

The Orbitz Omission

Last week, my grandfather suddenly started declining. I took a rush flight to South Carolina to be with him and my family. Two days later, he passed away. My plans to go to a conference the upcoming weekend quickly disappeared. My boyfriend took care to cancel all our plans. The conference refunded our tickets. Southwest put our miles towards another flight. But the hotel… the hotel became a problem. We booked our room through Orbitz. Orbitz refused to give us any kind of break on the hotel, even with proof of a family death. So my boyfriend relieved his outrage on Twitter. With a flurry of negative tweets suddenly on their radar, Orbitz responded to us, wanting to make amends. However, despite a quick Twitter cover-up, they never did anything to fix the situation.

Just Not Enough

Obviously, a large company like Orbitz has a twitter presence, but just responding to a few angry tweets, wasn’t enough. The problem required more effort. While the apologetic tweets were thoughtful, they did nothing to solve the problem, which was having to pay for a trip I could not make, on top of expensive last-minute flights. Sentiment on social media in the end, means very little.

Negativity Can Only Be Overcome with Action

Social Media can be powerfully negative to your brand without you monitoring and reacting to each issue independently. If Orbitz had changed its tune and found a way to work with us, that small action could solve multiple problems. At this point, neither of us will use Orbitz again. And we, both significant influencers among our peers and colleagues, will advise others not to use their services either. We’ve both already written reviews of our service. These negative words are powerful and can impact a brand directly. A small action would overcome the flood of bad press this business received in just one day.

This is a lesson that even small businesses can learn from. Social media is a great way of creating dialogue. But just like real life, not all dialogue is happy chitchat, issues come up and then need to be dealt with. So when it happens, and it will happen, be prepared. Remember, swiftly and purposefully taking action against a problem often creates more goodwill among your followers.

It's a mistake we've all made: Vista Print. How can you say no to cheap printing and all the reduced rates? You order stickers or a box of cards--just once, mind you--and then the damage is done. Vista Print has your email and they will never desist.

The emails (Bad idea)

If you've ever used Vista Print, you know exactly what I mean. They show up at least once a week, and sometimes once a day. The titles of the emails tend to be pretty creative, usually they'll have your name in them and often will have nothing to do with printing. These emails are kinda random and annoying and usually aren't at all something you need. Its spam, really.

The twitter response (Good Idea)

It was from one of these emails that I discovered VistaPrint had a Twitter account. I got one of their marketing letters with a title like: "Kat, You are the Greatest!". It was a rough day and I thought one of my lovely friends had sent a pick-me-up email. I was sorely disappointed to realize it was just VistaPrint spam. So I complained on Twitter. Well VistaPrint does a great job monitoring Twitter for their name because within ten minutes I got a reply from them apologizing for the confusion. I was impressed at the speed of their response and the fact that the account user took the time to chat with me.

The Lesson

Regularly search Twitter for your business name and relevant topics. Social media gives you the chance to instantly gain a relationship or, as in Vista Print's case, improve your reputation. Doing this can immediately create a positive impact. It can also repair damage.

The Conclusion

Marketing has many facets. When reviewing your business be sure to look at every area. You may have great social media presence but your branding could use some work. Take the time to regularly review. Build on the things you do well, but take the time to improve on what you don't. Marketing is a constant process. However, for the areas that might need a little work, keep a strong Twitter presence with quick response. A little tweet goes a long way.

You probably started to notice it a while back: you started recieving more emails from Facebook. Conversations you never got involved with were suddenly filling your inbox, cluttering your smartphone  and generally obstructing your regularly-scheduled messages. Suddenly, groups you joined years ago are clamoring obnoxiously for your attention and some you never even opted-in for. How did this happen?


In October, Facebook restructured its famous "groups." They added a ton of new features including group-only, as well as an offline email address so members can stay in touch. However, along with these additions came the annoying email messaging and the removal of the opt-in feature. Now, anyone you have as a Facebook friend can add you to their group, with or without your permission. Then, whenever someone posts to this group, you'll get a message. (Read about how this caused Matt Zuckerberg some personal issues he didn't foresee.)


You may not have noticed these changes in October. But now Facebook is only allowing this new style of groups to exist. Old groups are required to make the switch to the new format or be deleted (archived is the word Facebook likes to use). The archiving process started sometime in the last month and group admins are now getting emails alerting them to upgrade. And your inbox might start reflecting those changes.


Many people have complained about the changes to groups (specifically the constant emails). So let's quickly go through the ways to stop the stream-of-consciousness filling your inbox.


There are three options to shut-up your groups. We will go through each one:

1. Silence a particular group (you can still read messages on Facebook, but won't get alerts).
2. Leaving a group.
3. Changing your settings for all groups.

You must, unfortunately, be logged in to Facebook to access any of these changes (aka, no unsubscribing from your email). Log-in and let's begin. We'll start with muting a group.


Look at your home page (the news feed). See the list of groups to your left?





Mouse over the most bothersome of the groups and select it. Then click on the "Edit Settings" link.





Or, for quicker service, just click the x that appears when you mouse over the group.





This will not delete the group, it will bring up the "Edit Settings" box.





The most important section here is "notify me when". You can pick what you are notified for (for the least amount of interruption, select "only posts I am subscribed to"  without emails you are only notified in Facebook). But also make sure to uncheck the email alert box.


From here you can also edit how this group shows up on your page and if you receive group chat messages. (You can also use this to access ALL of your group notifications but we'll get there later.)


Leaving a group permanently is even easier. Select the offending group. On the right sidebar, under the member list and a few other options you'll see "Leave Group" with a cute picture of an open door.





Click it! Facebook will give you a final sales pitch and ask if you aresure, so make sure to verify your escape route.





Note: if someone added you to this group without your permission and you leave the group, they can never add you to another group. The same does not hold true for groups you joined before they upgraded.


Finally, how to change all your settings at once. You can reach you notification settings by editing a single group's settings (see #1) and selecting the "edit your notifications notifications" link in he edit pop-up box,





or select "Account" from the top right corner of any Facebook page.





Click "Account settings".





This will take you to your basic settings. There will be a horizontal navigation bar with different tabs. The third one will be "Notifications".





Be prepared, this page is long.





To the right there is a list of where you can "view settings", click the third section labeled "Groups".

Here you have some limited options to stop unnecessary emails. But notice there is a link "change email settings for individual groups" giving you the option to edit all your groups at once.





This will let you stop postings by checking or unchecking all of the groups you've joined or been added to.





When you're done, make sure to select SAVE at the bottom of your screen!





It should be noted there is not option to stop all group messages. In other words, you will need to update your setting for every group you are added to. (Unfortunately.)


I hope this helps control some of the madness and give you a little hyperspace peace!

Klout managed get a hold of $8.5 million dollars in new funding this past month. A big congrats to them, but some of you may not have used Klout or know how it can be helpful to you right now.

Klout is a free social media analytics tool. It measures your internet influence. Klout started with Twitter and has recently added Facebook to the websites it analyzes. (Klout's team promises Linked-In is upcoming as well, to complete the trifecta.)

So how does it work?

Klout  rates your social media profile on a scale of 1 to 100. It rates for different things including your reach, your influence and your engagement. A number of factors go into these numbers. Klout (with your permission) measures your clicks, comments and responses. Overall, Klout measures over 35 different factors for each area it gives a rating to.

But Klout doesn't just give you a number. It describes your online personality: socializer, explorer, activist, pundit, broadcaster are all examples. You can see what you are and what some of your top friends show up as, too.

Klout also tells you a little about your top followers. Who influences you? Who do you influence? And finally Klout analyzes your content. What you tweet and talk about with others.

Keep it in Perspective

While Klout can be a great tool for discovering more about your network and your influence, Klout can be scary for two reasons.

1. Your score can be scary. Don't worry if you're not tiptop in your network. Social media is a long term process and a simple score can't explain everything you do. Don't let it take over your head, its just an algorithm.
2. How Klout determines influence can be scary. Klout works with a lot of numbers and metrics that may or may not pan out in real life. For example, this article about how Klout shows Justin Bieber to be more influential than the President of the United States. While Klout responded that online, Bieber can shift more people into action, as an influencer of human events at large, he probably can't compete.

So take a moment, go check your Klout score and see how well you add up in the world of social media.

This week eMarketer published a study about the most compelling corporate blogs. Followed directly by iMediaConnection running a headline article titled "5 agency blogs you should be reading" by Michael Estrin. It seems that though many online marketers have "moved on" from blogging to bigger and better social internet outlets, these two media giants still think blogging deserves our consideration.

Blogging is the foundation to any online effort. It gives a personal touch to an impersonal sale pitch (your website). It creates an opportunity for interaction that is available to the public  in most any format (including your ebook reader). Estrin describes a corporate blog as a chance "to testdrive a company's... persona". In a previous post, I describe your blog as "getting coffee" with your reader.

Let's quickly discuss 3 reasons you should have a blog:

1. Optimization: New, expanded text and keywords will never hurt your website.
2. Introduction: Think of your blog as a handshake with potential clients. This is your chance to show a little of your best before they do business with you.
3. Foundation: A blog is a place you can build from. Social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook should always connect back to good solid content that shows your expertise.

Its fun to post, and tweet and check-i , but a blog should never be forgotten as part of your online marketing. Its also the best place to start a more engaging online effort. Hands down: It is still the best way to truly connect with your target audience!

DIFF Sponsor Opening from Basik Films on Vimeo.

During the Dallas International Film Festival or #DIFF, I had the opportunity to work with Dallas-based Red Carpet Crash (owned by the cheer-inducing Devin Pike). Special thanks to them for getting me the link to this video.

The video above was created as an advertisement specifically for #DIFF and they played it before pretty much every movie playing through out the festival. But I was impressed every time I saw it. #DIFF truly understood their audience before making this. Its witty, well-filmed, it has indie-esque background music and shows something the audience can relate to even if its over-exaggerated. The only problem I had with this commercial was the fact that I didn't see it before I got to the festival.

Often times we don't bother thinking about what our audience wants to see from us. This is a mistake. A short commercial like this truly connected with people watching. Here are a few quick ways to market directly to your audience.

1. Find your Target: Obviously you need to know who you want to reach before anything else. Find your target market and then research the heck out of them.
2. Find common interests: Learn about your audience. Discover what else they enjoy besides your product: adventure sports? cooking? gaming? Try to relate those other interests to your product.
3. Find the medium they prefer: Is it video? Texting? Mobile? Web? Facebook? Go to where your audience is.
4. Pay attention to details: With the #DIFF example, the videography is really sharp. They knew their film festival audience wouldn't put up with grainy image and bad sound, so they made it look professional. What kind of details would turn your audience off?
5. Create the warm fuzzy feeling: What makes your audience go "awwww". Don't assume everyone likes babies or kittens. Figure out what makes your audience smitten then feel free to use it.
6. Learn the Language: Every generation has their own pattern of speech. People who play sports use different slang than those who play jazz. Find out the little words that will make you in-the-know. (Don't over-do the colloquialisms though, too much is a bad thing.)
7. Make your message clear: For any audience you need to keep your message simple and easy to understand. If people don't know what you're selling all your efforts are wasted.
8. ASK: Want to know if your efforts work? Find your target market (online, in the grocery store, wherever) and ask them

How would you want to be marketed to?

We're going to do a quick lesson on e-mailing-list etiquette. Mailing lists are a great way to keep in touch with your clients, connections and possible synergy partners. However, readers should be able to equally opt-in or opt-out. They should have some kind of connection to you so that your newsletters remain relevant.

Note: a connection to you does not mean that they handed you their business card once at a happy hour after you talked to them for five minutes. That's spam. I'm all about connecting, getting to know you and possibly getting business from you. But you are never earning my business if all the sudden one week later I'm on some random mailing list. The problem is, I might even like your product/service, I might have considered a business relationship with you... but when you cross the line into spam, I'm not going to support you. In fact, I refuse to do any business with spammers.

So what's the classy way to handle adding people to your email list? If you think someone could benefit from your monthly newsletter when you meet them, ASK. Its not hard. Just say, "Hey, would you mind if I added you to my mailing list? After our chat I really think its something you'd enjoy." (But only if it is. If you just talked about the weather, you probably need to get to know them a little better.) Or later, send them an email and ask. We handily call this permission-based marketing.

Be respectful. Don't spam.

Just a few weeks ago LinkedIn announced their new blackberry app, allowing you to take LinkedIn with you wherever you go.

I have to admit I was already macgyvering a way to do this. I synced up my blackberry to Outlook and then downloaded the Linked-In Outlook plugin. This made life slower but eventually all my contacts ended up on my phone (more on this here).

LinkedIn must have had the same thought I did. All those connections are great but I need to be able to access them easily from my phone. There's just no point to connecting if I can't call them up.

But its more than that. For a long time I categorized LinkedIn as a lesser social media platform. It was for getting business cards stored logically and paper free: that was about it. Don't get me wrong, I know it has more features and some people use it very effectively in their business. But the lack of real time updates and notifications shoved it in to the I'm-too-buzy-to-devote-that-much-energy-right-now category.

But much like my recent post on how Twitter is ineffective without apps; LinkedIn is ineffective without mobile. I have a feeling I will be doing a lot more with LinkedIn in the next few months.

(Additional Note: If you watched my last video blog you'll know my blackberry, may it rest in peace, finally keeled over. So I have not actually gotten to try the LinkedIn blackberry app. However, I got an android and downloaded a Linked-In app. Even though its not an app developed by LinkedIn, I'm still excited to test it and discover all the things I've been missing!)

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: