1. Disable Yourself on Facebook

    Facebook can be a fantastic tool for communicating with others. What a lot of people may not think about is how they are representing themselves in the digital world. How many of you have used either Google, Facebook or Twitter to “research” a potential employee? Boy/girlfriend? Boss? Adding to the frustration of keeping a low (unprofessional) profile is Facebook’s auto-tagging feature. 

    Say you go out with a group of friends and indulge in one too many beverages. No harm done, until you realize the next morning all your friends have already seen scarring images from your previous night of drunken fun. Even if you keep your friend list tight and refuse to mix business and pleasure, those images are floating around waiting to be seen by the wrong person.

    Because not everyone has the common sense to KIPS (Keep It Professional, Stupid), you should make sure to disable the “suggesting photos of me to friends” feature Facebook has so conveniently already enabled for you.

    Here’s how you do this:

    1. Go to your profile on Facebook and click on”Account” then “Privacy Settings” in the top right corner.

    2. Under “Choose Your Privacy Settings”, click on “Customize Settings” at the bottom.

    3. Under “Things Others Share”, look for  “Suggest Photos of Me to Friends”, click on “Edit Settings”.

    4. In that pop-up box, look for the option box and make sure it says “Disabled”, click “Okay”.

    Personally, I keep everything on a “Friends Only” basis for most everything, but others may feel more comfortable with exposing more information. As long as you are controlling the information and images that are revealed online, you are ensuring you are seen how YOU want to be seen by others.

  2. Human Cogs & Widgets

    Last year, I saw Seth Godin speak and it was very inspiring.  He is the author of many best-selling books, more recently, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?  He’s speaking again at an event in Orange County, March 2nd, 2011.  If you haven’t got tickets yet, I’d say you better get them soon. 

    I just watched a recent video of him speaking about the end of the Industrial Revolution. If you have five minutes, check it out.  It puts your career into perspective and makes you question what you do, which I think is a good thing.  

    A few of the key points he made were:

    • The Industrial Age has ended.
    • We built the last 100 years around the idea of the assembly line, but now computers do our jobs.
    • There is now a demand for workers who don’t just do what they’re told.
    • If you are creative, you are in demand.
    • If you’ve brainwashed yourself to think that all you can do is what you’re told, then you should be prepared to be treated poorly.

    So what are you doing to stay current?  

  3. Spelling + Grammar = Spammar

    While I was trolling through my local Craigslist this morning (as usual), I came across a post titled: Spelling - For the Love of God.

    All that was in the post were these words:

    Please learn to spell. Mirror not mirrow. Dresser not dressor. Wrought iron not rot iron. Sometimes “old” or “rustic” would be a more accurate descriptor than “antique”. 

    I had to laugh in agreement because anyone who knows me, knows I’m a stickler for proper spelling and grammar.  Not long ago, I actually posted an ad in the Free section for a very nice rug and included a clause; proper grammar and spelling in your email will influence my decision to respond to you. 

    You wouldn’t believe the responses I received.  I was called every name in the book and somehow, race became involved.  I’ll quote one of the responses, and yes, it was in ALL CAPS.

    PLEASE PEOPLE CRAIGSLIST IS TO POST NOT TO BE RACIST.FOR THAT B* OR A* WHO THINKS GRAMMER IS IMPORTANT TO THEM TO GIVE THERE TRASH AWAY I THINK YOU SHOULD STOP USING CRAIGSLIST AND PAY A COMPANY TO HAUL YOUR TRASH. 

     Case. In. Point.

    Be sure to check and double check your writing, especially for the web…it may be there forever!  When you forgo the basic principles of spelling and grammar, you become what I call, a Spammar — a person who fills up the Internet with undecipherable junk.  And who wants more spam?

    T-shirt available at Cafe Press

  4. Why Some PR People are Scared of Social Media

    One of my first jobs in PR was reading through endless magazines and articles with mentions. Cut, paste (on paper), look up publishing numbers, enter in Excel, etc. Pretty cool job, but just a tad time consuming, don’t you think?

    I also remember another instance at that old job. The Director of Marketing was asking everyone’s opinions about a particular print ad. I remember speaking up (in my little worker ant voice) saying that if I were in that position, I would pull all print ads and put everything into Web Marketing. The entire room laughed at me and thought I was c-r-a-z-y! Was I really crazy or was I just thinking progressively?

    Many people who work with traditional media are scared of the unknown. Those are the people that will have a hard time accepting Social Media and all it has to offer. I’m not saying Twitter will be around forever, but it sure is popular right now. PR is about relating to the masses - what does the public want? How can you relate to them?

    Social Media just a new updated version to the old way of doing PR and Marketing, with a fancy name. Just the communication tool as we know it has changed. It’s fast and personal, and best of all - measurable. If all this is true, then why are people so scared of it?

    1. They don’t know what they’re doing.

    Social Media isn’t something you should do professionally without having some sort of strategy. Take the time to research your audience and listen to them. The old way of blurting out your news just doesn’t work (maybe it never really did work). Believe it or not, your audience isn’t as dumb as you think!

    2. They think it’s a new fad.

    No, it’s not, really. But compared to the Wall Street Journal, it’s new.  Certain websites might be fads, but the idea of Social Media is not a fad.

    3. There’s a misconception that Social Media is only for the youth market and it’s a small market.

    The fastest growing demographic on Facebook is age 35+. Ages 35 - 49 make up 41.7% of Twitter’s users. According to Nielson Online; Social networks and blogs are the 4th most popular online activity ahead of personal email, Member communities are visited by 67% of the global online population, time spent is growing at 3 times the overall internet rate, accounting for almost 10% of all internet time.  

    4. Some people think it’s overwhelming.

    Sure, Social Media is time consuming if you’re doing it right.  But there are tools out there that help you manage your posts, like TweetDeck.  Now THERE is a market that will grow in the upcoming years! 

    5. They think their old/new/whatever way is better.

    I usually find that people with this view haven’t even tried Social Media.  And if they have without results, they probably probably need to refer back to #1!

  5. Social Media Rules of Etiquette, According to Me

    We’ve all seen it, the inevitable piss-off due to someone not suppressing themselves in the social media world. Usually the topic involves politics, religion or some other highly controversial subject. In mommy worlds, it’s the equivalent of breast-feeding and/or circumcision. We all know, it’s a “don’t go there”!

    Even though I know people are still new to this social media world, it still baffles me how unaware some folks are about proper etiquette. Of course, everyone uses social media for different things but there still are general guidelines.

    Consider this: would you bring up this topic at a nice dinner with friends, new acquaintances and a few guests you don’t know? If you say no - then it’s probably best to keep your fingers silent.

    1. Politics and Religion. Guess what? Not everyone agrees with you! You may think others want to hear about how you’re very pissed off about gun control or gay marriage. Even if most of your friends DO agree with you, keep it sweet and you’ll gain respect of everyone.
    2. Vague status updates. Some examples: “Karla is thinking”… or…”Karla just is”… or one of my personal favorites “:)” some sort of emoticon. huh? This does nothing besides clog up everyone’s news feeds.
    3. Multiple postings per day. If you need to post more than twice a day, you’re probably posting too much. On the flip side to that, if you rarely post and post a few times one day, you’re off the hook. Also included are multiple postings at one event - why not just reply to yourself as the event goes along?
    4. Know what you’re using. Don’t use an @ if you’re replying to someone on Facebook. Try Twitter and you’ll figure it out pretty quickly.
    5. Link Bait as your ONLY updates. If you’re only posting links to other links all day, where’s your personality in that? Updates should be a balance of you, what you find interesting, and what you think others would find interesting.
    6. Bragging. uggghhh. We all have one of these on our friend list. Why we haven’t deleted them yet is still a mystery. Let’s not talk about how you closed the deal, again. Or how you’re cruising in your brand new beemer with the top down pulling in money from unemployment (while the rest of us pay for your spending habits) - shouldn’t you not be posting and driving anyway? We are all happy for our friends when good things come their way, but not when it’s every hour, every day and always something FABULOUS!!!
    7. Spelling errors. Jus cuz ur on the internet doesnt meen you dont need to use ur brain.
    8. Details. What you’re having for dinner, how you are off to a meeting in a few minutes or other unimportant details. No. One. Cares.
    9. Family Life. This one is tough. I believe that some people DO want to hear updates on the kids. It’s when it becomes overboard is where you draw the line. If every single one of your posts is relating to your children, maybe it’s time you had a little time-out.
    10. Last but not least, Spoilers. If you absolutely love a certain TV show and MUST post about how great the season ending was, wait a day! A lot of people use Ti-vo or watch it at a different time. This goes for endings of books too. I’ll never forget the time I unfortunately came across the ending of Harry Potter when I was just finishing book #6. I was so pissed, I wrote a complaint letter!