Mark Murnahan's SEO and Social Media Marketing Blog

Will Bloomingdale’s Sue Over Meta Tags and a Link?

I have a question for Bloomingdale’s, and then I will move on with the story. Here is my question: “Dear Bloomingdale’s: Did you bump your collective head?”

Bloomingdale’s department store sent me a cease and desist notice for mentioning them, along with a link to their website. Strangely, I find that other companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Pepsi, and other brands don’t seem to mind positive mention from the public. No, instead, they seem to like all of those mentions of their brand name along with links to their websites. It is what makes them more popular, and it is good for SEO. That means search engine optimization, Bloomingdale’s.

Do you ever come across a company that makes you absolutely convinced that somebody “upstairs” in the corporation took one too many drunken stage dives? I do, and I got that feeling today when I sorted through an email spam folder. I discovered threatening letters from Bloomingdale’s department store claiming they plan to sue me if I do not remove their name from one of my websites.

So, what in the name of all things rational is fleeting through the legal minds at Bloomingdale’s? Are they trying to squash all mentions of their brand name on the Internet, or did they just pick on my 2002 relic that listed their website in a shopping directory?

Aside from the fact that they emailed me a spam-ish form letter, it kind of made me wonder if they just don’t receive the Internet over in their part of the world. Oh yes, Bloomingdale’s is based in New York, NY, and I know they must have access to mostly the same Internet as the rest of us. It seems odd that they didn’t figure out those links are good for them.

Maybe they are just too damn tired of being in business and want to call it quits. Maybe they have enough business, and just thumb their nose at all of the rif-raf out here on the silly and icky Internet. It beats me, but there is definitely something resembling last year’s tuna salad. It doesn’t smell healthy to me.

It made me wonder just what asinine sort of “unbranding” they are seeking by picking on me. Bloomingdale’s actually wants to erase a positive mention and a website link to their company, and they threatened a lawsuit to make it happen. Who is running the Bloomingdale’s Internet campaigns? Is it the “stars” from Jersey Shore?

To me, it seems they are having one of those moments that you or I may call a “shit the bed” encounter. You know, one of those times when you wake up ready for a challenge and say “Damn, I am feeling way too smart, and it has been a while since I topped my all time stupidest moment.”

Before I go too far, let me just say this: If you should choose to link to my website as a good resource for the SEO and social media marketing services I offer, it is pretty unlikely that I will send you nasty email messages filled with idiotic idle threats about suing you. I don’t sue for Twitter retweets, Digg votes, or Facebook likes, either. No, instead, I will more likely send you a pair of lips to virtually kiss you square on the mouth. In any case, I will not treat you the way Bloomingdale’s Department Store treated me!

Bloomingdale’s Threatens to Sue for Promoting Them

I have included letters that I received describing Bloomingdale’s threats to sue for using their name in a shopping directory (see below). I omitted the URL where the alleged offense occurred, but not because there was any violation. I simply do not intend to give the Bloomingdale’s website link on that page any further relevance by mentioning it here.

The website in question was from a retail example website for my wholesale Internet access company. It was created as a working demo for wholesale ISP (Internet service provider) clients. Although it once had many dial-up customers, we didn’t even market that site when it did have the option of signing up for dial-up Internet access. Our business is selling services to other ISPs.

Each of these letters from Bloomingdale’s are mostly the same rhetoric, and they each demand that I remove the content within five days. My thoughts for Bloomingdale’s are as follows:

Five days are up, Bloomingdale’s. Let’s shit or get off the crapper. Bring on the lawsuit and let’s see what the Internet public thinks of it. Maybe I will sue you back for being disastrously lame in your online acuity. My sense of the matter is that your legal and marketing departments should borrow a brain cell from a store clerk and stop fighting over just one.

At first, I was torn between whether to let you know just how badly you need my services to avoid coming off as a douchebag company, or whether to let others decide whether you are a douchebag company. I chose the latter, but you should probably read more of my work to determine the former. A better strategy to your online marketing efforts seems desperately in order.

Bloomingdale’s Demand Letters

Before I leave you to review the Bloomingdale’s demand letters I received, I want to say this:

Bloomingdale’s, Bloomingdale’s, Bloomingdale’s … nanny nanny boo boo. I used your name again. When you write up that lawsuit, just be sure to spell my name right.

Just one more outrageously funny thing I must mention is the Bloomingdale’s expressed concern for their name appearing in meta tags. That makes it seem even clearer to me that they are stuck in the “Miami Vice” and “Chaka Kahn” era.

Hello? Year 2011 calling Bloomingdale’s! If you are paying attention, you should probably have somebody in your “brainiac” eye tee department read “SEO Meta Tags: Oh, You Must Be Another SEO Expert!“ Perhaps they should check out the meta tags on this page while they are at it.

MARIE CAMACHO
FACSIMILE: 646-429-7521/22
EMAIL: infringement.response@macys.com

2/16/2011

VIA E-MAIL

Re: Notice of Infringement on the Bloomingdale’s Trademark

To Whom It May Concern:

This office is counsel to Macy’s, Inc., its subsidiaries, and operating divisions, including those operating Bloomingdale’s department stores (herein referred to as “Bloomingdale’s”.) Bloomingdale’s is the owner of all rights, title and interest in and to the BLOOMINGDALE’S® name and trademark, which is the basis for an extensive family of trademarks and service marks. The BLOOMINGDALE’S® family of marks is the subject of numerous active registrations with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a wide range of products and services. Bloomingdale’s has continuously invested substantial time, money and effort in the marketing and sale of products and services represented by this mark nationwide. As a result, the BLOOMINGDALE’S® name has become famous. It represents an exceptional level of consumer recognition and goodwill and is a property of incalculable value to the company.

Bloomingdale’s recently became aware of your use of the Bloomingdale’s trademark in meta tags (and/or hidden text) at http://www.********* used to attract Internet traffic to your web site. Your use of this trademark to attract Internet traffic is an obvious attempt to capitalize upon the goodwill associated with Bloomingdale’s for your company’s benefit by diverting buyers. More particularly, the Lanham Act, 15 U.S. Code Section 1117 provides for recovery of profits and damages, as well as a sum of up to three times the amount of damages for violations of Section 1125(a).

Accordingly, demand is made that you immediately cease-and-desist from any further use of the Bloomingdale’s trademark name in the meta tags (and/or hidden text) on your web site. Additionally, we must receive your written assurances that you will make no use of Bloomingdale’s registered mark in your business affairs in the future.

Provided you immediately comply with our reasonable demands, a lawsuit may be avoided. If your unauthorized use of Bloomingdale’s intellectual property continues and we do not hear from you within five (5) days of the date of this letter, my client has already authorized the filing of a suit against your company, seeking immediately injunctive relief and all damages allowable under the law.

We shall be monitoring your website and await your response in writing to this office. Should you have any questions or comments regarding Bloomingdale’s position in this matter, please contact me via e-mail. Nothing herein shall constitute a waiver of any of Bloomingdale’s rights in law or in equity, all of which are expressly reserved.

Thank you for helping us protect our brand. If you are authorized to use our intellectual property and believe you have received this in error, please provide the name and number of your contact within the company in order to verify your use and close the matter.

Sincerely,

Marie Camacho

MARIE CAMACHO
FACSIMILE: 646-429-7521/22
EMAIL: infringement.response@macys.com

2/23/2011

Re: Notice of Infringement on the Bloomingdale’s Trademark

To Whom It May Concern:

Bloomingdale’s recently became aware of your use of the Bloomingdale’s trademark in meta tags (and/or hidden text) at http://www.*********.com used to attract Internet traffic to your web site. Your use of this trademark to attract Internet traffic is an obvious attempt to capitalize upon the goodwill associated with Bloomingdale’s for your company’s benefit by diverting buyers. More particularly, the Lanham Act, 15 U.S. Code Section 1117 provides for recovery of profits and damages, as well as a sum of up to three times the amount of damages for violations of Section 1125(a).

Sincerely,

Marie Camacho

MARIE CAMACHO
FACSIMILE: 646-429-7521/22
EMAIL: infringement.response@macys.com

3/2/2011

To Whom It May Concern:

In order to avoid formal legal action, we are writing once more to follow up to our earlier letter to you regarding your use of Macy’s Inc. trademark (Bloomingdale’s) in the meta data of your website http://www.*********.com. As explained in our previous letter, Macy’s Inc. has well established rights in this mark and it is well known to consumers throughout the world.

As you know, Macy’s Inc. recently became aware of your unauthorized use of its trademark and sent you a letter requesting that you cease and desist from such use (and confirm same in writing). As of this date, we have not received a response from you about this matter, and the infringing content still appears in the code of your website. Your failure to act upon receipt of our notice underscores that your use is willful, exposing you to up to three times the amount of damages typically awarded for violations of Section 1125(a).

Your infringing use of our property is an obvious attempt to legitimize your website and/or divert traffic from this company’s authorized site. Accordingly, we reiterate our demand that you terminate the use of our brand in the meta data of your web site, and provide written assurances that you will make no use of Macy’s Inc.’s marks or other intellectual property in your business affairs in the future.

Provided you immediately comply with our reasonable demands, a lawsuit may be avoided. If your unauthorized use of our intellectual property continues and we do not hear from you within five (5) business days of the date of this letter, we reserve the right to pursue any and all remedies without further notice, including the filing of a suit against you seeking immediate injunctive relief and all damages allowable under the law. We shall be monitoring your website and await your response in writing to this email address.

Nothing herein shall constitute a waiver of any of Macy’s rights in law or in equity, all of which are expressly reserved.

Sincerely,

Marie Camacho

Photo Credit: Combination enema and douche syringe by Shattonbury via Wikipedia

Ray Skillman, Indianapolis Car Dealer Review: Bad Social Media and SEO

If you are marketing something online, give me a moment to show you how to screw it all up. Since I know a lot of people shudder at all the sacrifices associated with marketing done well, I want to show you an example of how badly it can go wrong if you succumb to being shortsighted and misinformed.

This exemplifies so much of what is wrong with today’s Internet, and why Google keeps splitting skulls on worthless website owners. It shows a downward spiral of desperation of a car dealer, and a trend that is so widely followed in other businesses that it relieves me of wondering why companies suffer from dwindling market share.

This really should open your eyes if you are trying to take the quick and easy road to your SEO (search engine optimization) and social media marketing. If this example does not show the pitfalls of shortcuts and the benefits of playing by the rules, nothing will. I know that you will probably not finish reading this, but then, that is exactly the problem … shortcuts are popular. I made an audio version, in case that will help.

In this case, it involves a car dealership in Indianapolis, Indiana that operates by the name Ray Skillman. For all I know, this fella may be a delightful car dealer. He may even be the kind of guy I would personally like, enough to buy a whole fleet of cars. In fact, his story sounds really great, but it seems that this guy has a reckless streak of delegating his business future.

On the surface, it appears that whomever is making their marketing decisions has chosen to believe an “easy money” approach to SEO and social media, or otherwise perhaps just wants to damage the company deliberately. My guess is that they simply believed a good pitch of SEO lies from a bad search engine optimizer, instead of using diligence. I could make guesses all day long, but I want you to give you what I know about the Ray Skillman auto dealerships, and help you to figure this one out.

I previously wrote about the high level of absurdity of car dealers using social media, and it really is a worthwhile read. This Ray Skillman Auto Group seems to be trying to set the bar at an all new low. Low enough that it seems they are quickly dropping off the net, despite all of their frantic actions.

Ray Skillman Dropping Off the ‘Net?

Based on statistical data, it appears that Ray Skillman Auto Group has messed up bad enough to get virtually slaughtered online. It was bad enough for it to hit my RADAR, and it gave me adequate material to send a warning slap. I will tell you why, but better yet, I will tell you just how badly they are ripping themselves a virtual new orifice when it comes to website traffic, and future search engine rankings. It will be even more obvious as they endure the effects of Google’s Farmer Update of late February 2011, just in time for the car industry’s busy spring and summer sales seasons. Google’s “Farmer Update” was designed to wipe out website farms, and this one will probably yield some pretty bad crops from Google.

Before I show you the company’s new orifice, let me explain that they seem to actually want to reach the auto buying market of the Indianapolis area. Although they are very misguided, I think they comprehend the importance of the Internet for their business, just like you. In fact, it only took me a moment to find that they have a unique domain name for each of the entities as follows:

Ray Skillman Auto Group
Ray Skillman Ford
Ray Skillman Chevrolet
Ray Skillman Buick
Ray Skillman Northeast Buick GMC
Ray Skillman Buick GMC
Ray Skillman GMC
Ray Skillman Classic Cars
Ray Skillman Collision Center
Ray Skillman Hyundai
Ray Skillman Southside Hyundai
Ray Skillman Hyundai West
Ray Skillman Kia
Ray Skillman Auto Center
Ray Skillman Shadeland
Ray Skillman Kia West
Ray Skillman Mazda
Ray Skillman Northeast Mazda
Ray Skillman Mazda West
Ray Skillman Mitsubishi
Ray Skillman Suzuki
Ray Skillman Buy Here Pay Here

Is Ray Skillman Playing Too Much Defensive SEO?

I understand the importance of “defensive SEO”. Heck, my examples in this area are the subject of case studies. Ranking for your own brand name, in multiplicity, is important. Nobody wants to become a “Suture Express” case (yeah, Google it if you are not sure what I mean). The problem here is that it seems they are using frantic tactics for defense, and abysmal strategy.

There is little or no tangible value for the consumer being expressed in their visible efforts. Even their “Happy St. Patrick’s Day” update to the 55 fans of their Facebook page was just another sales pitch to chime in with “It’s going to be a beautiful day… a perfect day to come out and look around!” They should really take the time to read this article about Facebook marketing titled “Facebook Marketing: Pages, Customer Modeling, Promoting, and Awesomeness“. Their Twitter usage is just as bad, too. They are still trying to use interruption marketing rather than building equity in social media.

So, Skillman, do you want me to have a happy holiday, or do you want me to come out and have a crappy time with a pushy car salesman? Don’t tell me your salesmen are not pushy, either. When I get spammed by you from The Philippines, a logical assumption is that it is in your company culture.

Skillman Auto Group and The Philippines?

My introduction to Skillman was in a spammy comment on my blog. The comment originated in Makati, The Philippines.

The commenter whipped out a blurb of horrible English to tout the value of social media for car dealers. They claimed to have shopped at a dealership in Indianapolis, Indiana, so I thought that was a kind of long trip from Makati, The Philippines just to buy a car.

Not only did they shop for a car thousands of miles away, they used a URL from Ray Skillman’s website as their own URL in the commenter profile. They must be a big fan, right? Otherwise, the comment seems a bit fishy? Well, I guess maybe they swam from The Philippines to go car shopping and they picked up a little fishiness along the way.

Sure enough, I was right … that is a really long trip! Check it out on Google Maps and see for yourself.

View Larger Map

Look, if this guy is pulling in customers from clear across the Pacific Ocean to buy a car, and use his website address when they comment on blog articles about auto dealer social media marketing, more power to him. According to what I see from his dwindling SEO and social media results, this is not likely the case. Instead, it looks like a cheap and easy way to get penalized by Google and other search engines, and to annoy people with more spam (as if we don’t already have enough). Let’s also not forget that a blog is social media, and social media is often very unkind to spammers.

Here is a quote from Google Webmaster Central about using comment spam as part of a strategy. Yes, this is actually in Google’s words:

“Comment spammers are often trying to improve their site’s organic search ranking by creating dubious inbound links to their site. Google has an understanding of the link graph of the web, and has algorithmic ways of discovering those alterations and tackling them.”

Here is a link to the full article: “Hard facts about comment spam”

As long as Skillman is actively offending people with their social media efforts with pitchy crap and spamming blog comments, there is no wonder why they are so busy playing defense with their SEO efforts.

Ray Skillman Auto Dealership Websites Sinking in The Pacific

Let me share what I discovered when I looked at just a couple of third-party resources for Ray Skillman’s dealership websites. I will show you results from Alexa.com and WebsiteGrader.com. I chose these, because they are well known measures of websites, and they are easy for people to understand the results.

What Does Alexa.com Say About Ray Skillman Dealerships?

Alexa ranks websites according to their known popularity, and the smaller the number, the better. Google is number one, Facebook is number two, YouTube is number three, aWebGuy.com is somewhere in the 130,000’s (still top 0.45% most trafficked), and etcetera. Alexa is not perfect, but it is pretty compelling when you see multiple of Skillman’s websites dropping in ranking by a million points or more over the past 30 days, and seven of them disappearing completely. This is a bad sign of doing something seriously wrong.

I took an average from 22 of Ray Skillman Auto Group websites and here is what I found:

90 Day Average of Ranked Domains:
9,498,928 average across 16 domains (the rest were not measurable). The best rank was 1,477,739 and the worst rank was 11,867,267

30 Day Average of Ranked Domains:
8,491,088 average across 11 domains (half were not measurable). The best rank was 2,766,597 and the worst rank was 21,187,719

So, are they moving up or down? If you look again, you can see that on a 30 day basis, even their best individual ranking was worse by 1,288,858. Worse than that is the disappearing act of seven more domains. Yes, there were seven of them which dropped completely off the RADAR!

I’d call it a game and throw in the towel before I threw another single dollar at the horrific tactics and utter lack of strategy that the SEO working for Ray Skillman Auto Group is using. My experience says that it will cost them many times whatever they are paying the search engine optimizer.

What Does Website Grader Say About Ray Skillman?

Website Grader uses information about the website to assign a numeric grade. It is explained on their website as follows: “The algorithm uses a proprietary blend of over 50 different variables, including search engine data , website structure, approximate traffic, site performance, and others.”

For the Ray Skillman Auto Group websites that I checked on Website Grader, the results did not look so good. Of course, I am a master of understatement. Fine, it looked like a murder scene, OK? Here is what I found from the websites:

Highest Grade: 86

Lowest Grade: 21

Average Grade: 64.6

The results are not just bad, but it shows a huge shortcut from trying to do things well. A website should be ready before it is ever even marketed … even in spam. For comparison purpose, and of course never to brag, this blog has a ranking of 99.8.

Ray Skillman Can Still Win!

With all of these business entities operating under the Ray Skillman Auto Group umbrella, just consider this: If they could increase their profit from SEO and social media marketing by just $1,000 per company, per month, it would add up to $252,000 per year. Even with a miserably low goal like that, they could expect a much greater increase in following years. That $252,000 per year could help them to afford a good SEO strategy, and improved social media marketing reach and response rate.

The trouble seems to be that they may not yet realize that a higher return on investment requires a responsible investment, first.

That, my friends, shows the difference between doing something, and doing something well. Rip me a new one if you like. My ears are wide open.

One more thing! Don’t take this wrong, because I love cars. I love them enough to drive them at over 200 miles per hour, race them at tracks all across the USA, and slap those who abuse them with terrible marketing shortsightedness.

Here are some other automotive-related articles from my petroleum-guzzling marketing head:

Photo Credits:
Bent screw by stevendepolo via Flickr
Screws by aussiegall via Flickr
Xray photo by Laurel Fan via Flickr

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

SEO and Social Media Reward: $5,000 for Introduction

Updated 13 June 2011 — This offer is re-opened through 30 June 2011.

I am going to give you an opportunity to pick up $5,000 just for making a simple introduction. This is not a hoax, and I really will put $5,000 in your sweaty palms for introducing me to “the right one”.

Great weather is coming, and I am pretty sure that most people can find a way to spend a surplus of $5,000 this spring. Cruise ships, sandy beaches, mortgage payments, utility bills, and many other amazing delights are right around the corner.

I hope that $5,000 will be worth a few minutes of your time to rack your brain, peel through your list of contacts, and think hard about whether you know this person I am seeking. Mostly, I hope that you will do it because I am a good fit for that acquaintance of yours, and because we deserve to meet each other.

So that you can have a better idea of who you are introducing, I offer you a link for more information about me, but you can come back to that part.

First, I will briefly explain why I am making this offer, what I offer, and who I am looking for. If you just want to skip to the details, click here.

I just reviewed the response to an engagement letter I sent out a couple days ago, and I almost wet myself with laughter and dismay all at once. I send out what seems like a squillion responses to companies that contact me hoping to benefit from my work, but this one was different. It was for a company that was referred to my services by somebody who was referred to my services. Somewhere along the line, it seems that I have picked up a reputation for what I do. This still does not mean that everybody I meet has a brain in their head, a dollar in their bank, or a sincere desire to improve their business.

As I have seen many times before, the recipient of my engagement letter hit me back with something resembling “Duh, wut duh ya mean … ya want us tuh pay fur it?” This was not their exact words, but that was my interpretation. To say the least, I am not very tolerant of cheapskates, or people who talk about action more than actually taking action.

It was after this response that I seriously realized that I had hit the wall at the end of my patience for dealing with this equivalent of The Abominable Snowman on Looney Tunes (video reference). As a husband and father of three, I am all grown up and reasonably mature, but if I must tolerate another of these abominable snowmen who insist I am a rabbit, I will likely use much stronger language than good old Daffy Duck.

Yes, I am a snarky guy, and I prefer to send a good booger from your nose to your computer screen than to make this sound too serious. After all, I am trying to put 5,000 bucks in your pocket, and that should be fun!

In this case, I am going to spell something out in sobering terms. I love the work I do. I help companies to be successful with their online marketing. It is an awesome feeling to see companies succeed. However, I must say this in true Murnahan fashion: “Business is great if not for all the damn customers.” Is that crazy? Perhaps, but it is very true. I am inundated by requests each day to offer my services to build an uncommitted company’s success for a fraction of what my work is worth.

The size of the company doesn’t matter. Building bigger and more profitable companies is my job. Even a small company with a focused desire for business growth can be extremely successful with a good strategy and a decisive marketing approach.

I broke my magic wand a long time ago. So, these days I build companies with other tools like market research, strategy, customer modeling, and well-crafted ideas to help companies look, smell, and feel like sex, bacon, and other things people crave. Yes, you read that correctly. In layman’s terms, my job is to make companies more like sex and bacon. You know what I mean, the things that people like.

That is how companies become popular. It improves their search engine rankings because all of the sudden the whole world wants to link to their website. Understanding their best value proposition and knowing the customers who want their “sex and bacon” improves their social media reach, and response rates. When it all comes together, it makes a lot of other great things happen for a company, including much higher profit.

Seeking a Frog Hair in a Fiberglass Factory

Although I am a very experienced and creative marketing guy, finding the best clients is like searching for a frog hair in a fiberglass factory. I sort through a lot of people rubbing their lamp and hoping for a genie, but a much smaller number of people are ready and able to put a signed check in my hand. They still want their fill of that sexy bacony stuff that comes when I rub a couple brain cells together, but that comes with money.

I have said it many times, and even blogged that “When I go to hell, they will have me selling SEO“. I say that, because I simply do not enjoy the selling process. Sure, you can search Google for How to Sell SEO and find me right up top, but the truth is that I love the work, and not the selling. This is why I am seeking an ongoing project, rather than the short-sighted marketing that many people ask for.

To make this fun for both of us, I am offering you a $5,000 reward to help me find that one special “frog hair in the fiberglass factory”. I want the one who wants the benefits that a great SEO and social media marketing guy can provide.

Claim Your $5,000 Social Media Reward!

The details are easy: If you introduce me to my special someone who is ready to take their marketing to a new level of success with a minimum six month engagement of my SEO and social media marketing services, you get the money.

This could be either contract work, or in-house, working directly for the company. You can introduce me by email, telephone, blog about it, tweet about it, direct them to my resume, or whatever you like. You only have to be the one who brings us together, and the money is yours. I just need to know that you are the actual person who introduced us, so I welcome you to contact me.

When do you get the money? I am sure you were thinking that, right? I will pay the $5,000 reward within ten days of my acceptance of a paid contract, or within 30 days of joining with a company full-time.

This is a limited offer! This is limited to just one … my special one. I don’t take on a lot of clients, and if somebody wants me enough to make me their Marketing Director, that is clearly a one-time offer. I am also limiting it in time, so stop dilly-dallying and claim your five grand!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The Least Expensive Hour in Social Media: Study Time!

Have you ever wondered what is standing between you and a more successful social media marketing campaign? I am not going to read your tea leaves or make a bunch of speculation here, but I will tell you where a lot of people fail miserably.

I want to relate this to something that should get your attention, and that is cost. Have you ever considered the cost of social media marketing? We can break this down in many various ways, but the fact is that social media will have a cost, whether you take action or not.

If you don’t take action with social media, it will cost you lost opportunities and dwindling market share, and that is usually the biggest cost of all. You probably understand this, or you would not be reading my “SEO and Social Media Marketing Blog”. So, I am going to take a big leap here, and assume that you intend to take action. Maybe you are already taking action, and in that case, you probably want to do it even better.

Many business people choose to spend more time than money in their social media marketing efforts. I guess they feel like the cost of time is less than the cost of money. The fear of monetary failure hits a lot of people harder than the fear of lost time.

Since your time and money are both valuable to you, I want to help you discover the least expensive hour in social media. That hour is the one spent taking in knowledge. No, not just seeking knowledge, but finding it and absorbing it. That means you will need to prepare yourself to fight the boredom and be ready to work hard at learning from others’ work. It means it is time to go back to school and treat it seriously. Just like most schooling, you will not be interested in everything you need to learn in order to be successful, but it is still there for your benefit.

I may never understand why so many people try hard to become a social media expert, but it is the way of today. I can’t fight that, and I don’t try to. I can’t understand a father studying dentistry to fix his kids’ teeth, either, but if I had a dentistry school, you can bet I would try to help them.

The Cost of Social Media: Time and Money

When you take action with social media, it will cost you time and money. You can weigh them out and spend more of one or the other, but in business, nothing comes from nothing. Regardless what you may have read somewhere on a marketing blog, success does not just come out of nowhere. Success in business comes from taking action. Not just that, it comes from taking well-calculated action.

That means you will need knowledge to balance your expenditures of time and money. Good, reliable, factual, knowledge will take the edge off, regardless how you reconcile your time and money dilemma. Think of it like a shot of whiskey before the surgeon starts cutting.

Unless you are some kind of gifted alien from another planet, or simply do not care about your business, time and money have heavy influence in your decisions. Time and money are both very precious resources to a business, and so they must be allocated with diligence.

Stop Chasing Wild Geese!

Now consider that since you don’t know it all (none of us do … even Google), knowledge is an important building block. It is why we tell our kids to go to school, and it is how we begin our careers. It is hard to dispute the value of good information, but yet, it is easy to neglect it. The Internet also makes it extremely easy to lose your attention and assume that maybe there is something even better “over there” behind the next flashy, blinky, brightly colored link.

Maybe there is something better over there, but it is even more common that it is another “wild goose chase” that will send you chasing in circles. This makes it more important than ever that once you find good and reliable resources, you hold on to them and use them and stop the goose chasing.

What is the cost of sitting in front of your computer learning? Sure, you can waste a whole lot of time. There are some astonishing statistics on how much time people waste with social media. For example, did you know that Zynga, the company that produced Farmville and Mafia Wars was recently valued at over ten billion dollars? Seriously, let’s look at that valuation in numerical format … $10,000,000,000! That says a lot about the time spent in social media websites. If you are in it to help your business, avoiding the time-wasting, and finding good resources will be essential. Ten Billion … seriously, can you believe how much time people are spending playing games? That probably includes some of your competitors, so while they cultivate their Farmville farm, you should be studying!

If you are concerned about wasting time, as I am, I hope that you will take a serious and sincere approach to this. It is easy to get caught up with the mystique and the unrealistic hype of the Internet, but if you take it seriously as a business, the results can be astonishing.

The whole thought of this occurred to me when I read and commented on a friend’s blog. My friend, Mark Harai wrote an article titled “Social Media Tire Kickers – Dead on Arrival“. It reminded me of things I tell people when they ask me about my work in social media. I will share a portion of my comment, but you may read the rest on Mark’s blog.

“I tried the approach of common sense, and appealing to a brain in their heads, but it is tough for people to jump over their own barriers. Ages ago, I quit trying to sell the SEO and social media marketing services that I provide (I still sell the services … I just quit “trying”). I found that many people worry about the cost more than they consider the return, and fears devastate their business hopes.

I often suggest to potential clients that if they don’t have enough desire to build their business to spend an hour or more in my blog archive to understand the benefits of my work, they are not ready.”

Within the context of Mark’s article and with the complete comment, I think it makes sense how much I really believe in sharing ideas and helping people create value for their business. I don’t always put it in nice and comfortable terms, but you can bet that I am very dedicated to sharing good information.

There are a lot of others out there who adhere to similar values, and I want to share a short list of them with you. If you truly want to enjoy your least expensive hour in social media, do yourself a favor and spend an hour in the archives of each of the blogs listed below. I am just going to get you started with a small selection of people I respect and trust. I have a longer list, but I would like to see yours. Who do you pay attention to, and who do you think belongs on a list of good thinkers who can help progress your efforts rather than distract you? Add your comment with a link to your favorite social media thinkers who inspire you.

I included a link to the latest article from each of these blogs, but don’t assume their latest is their greatest. Take some time to learn from them and use the knowledge they have worked hard to produce for you.

I have said it before that a small amount of good information is worth a lot more than the whole Internet’s worth of bad information. Once you get the good stuff, it is likely that your money and your time will both come into a much greater balance. I hope that you will spend some time in my blog archive as well. I have written about an extensive list of topics relating to search engine optimization, social media, and other marketing issues. They may not all interest you or inspire you, but I can say without a doubt that if you take it seriously, your time will not be wasted. I am confident that you will find useful information that you can implement to benefit your business.

Some of the best lessons in social media are the ones which inspire your own thinking and your unique adaptations to their successes. When you find those, you will be far closer to your own success.

Once more, here is the link to my archive. Don’t assume it was all written just for the sake of my own ego. It is there to be helpful.

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What Did Farmers in 1951 Know About Social Media?

The 1950’s may seem like an early time for social media, but what I will tell you is the way social media has worked since long before it existed as you know it today. It is also the way social media at its very best still works in 2011 and beyond. You don’t have to trust me on this, but I think you will.

When my “Baby Boomer” mother was a little girl of five years old, her father died unexpectedly from a very fast progression of cancer. He was a successful farmer who used all of the magical farming chemicals of the day. Although the new technology kept the pests off his crops, nobody told him it would cause him to leave his family early, at only age 38.

When my grandfather died, farmers came from miles around to help harvest his crops for the sad widow and her three little kids that he left behind. They didn’t do it for self-seeking reasons, but they did it because it was the right thing to do. They were all a part of a community which came together for the benefit of one and all. They were a part of a social network that you probably never heard of, and it was called Mount Ida, Kansas.

Mount Ida, Kansas was a farming community where they worked harder than most men can survive today. They did a very good deed for my family, and they brought in the crops that my grandmother and three kids of ages three, five, and eight could not.

Were Those Farmers Just Crazy?

In today’s society, there are some people who may look at these overexerted farmers at the height of a short-lived harvest season as crazy. They left their own crops in the ground in order to look out for somebody else. This is the kind of thing that some of us are privileged to witness, and a few of us are honored to replicate.

You can say that people don’t come together that way anymore, or that things have changed and nobody cares like that these days. Sure, we see things like a homeless person being beat up and nobody coming to their assistance. We witness atrocities of all kinds. What you may be surprised to discover is how often others band together and do what it takes, like that community of farmers in Mount Ida, Kansas, and do good things for others without an overzealous hope for immediate personal or business gain.

As I said before, you don’t have to trust me on this, but I think you will. That spirit of giving and being good to others is making a comeback. It has always been an important component of business growth, but now it is more visible than ever. It is happening in social networks today, just as it was in the 1950’s. If you take a close look at social media, you will find many instances of small communities of people sharing what they can, and offering their hand to others.

Some are giving what they know, and others are giving what they have. Some are aware that by giving to others, they receive more than ever. Some just do it because they saw it somewhere else and it made good sense to them.

How Were Those Farmers Repaid?

Those farmers would not take a thing from my grandmother. Not even a hot meal. They did what they felt was right, and you can bet that their hearts swelled by doing it.

They have been repaid, in some way, and probably even far beyond just the good feelings it gave them. Doing good deeds simply cannot go unrewarded forever. It is against everything I know, and everything I believe. This concept is steeped in history, and was even the focus of my 2009 book “Living in the Storm: Creating Joy and Inspiration When Everything is a Mess“.

When you consider why these farmers did what they did, and what it repays them over time, then you understand social media better than ever before. They planted a crop within a community, and not just in their fields. They did something which made them more endearing, and showed that they were more kind than greedy.

The Give and Take of Monetizing Social Media

For as long as people have been giving, they have always had needs of their own to address. It was impossible for television to be completely free, and it took money to build those networks … a lot of money. The same thing is true for the Internet, and all of the useful information you find here. Whenever something is given, something must be returned … somehow, someday, it must be returned. It is why we have the term “what goes around comes around” and why doing good things are reciprocated in some way.

People are still talking about those farmers’ good deeds more than sixty years later. It begs the question of what we can do today so profound that people will recount it kindly in the 2070’s. Those good farmers did not intend, forecast, or otherwise expect this. Their word is still spread because being helpful was in their nature. From a marketing perspective, many companies can take a good lesson from those Mount Ida farmers.

I hope I have been a good farmer today, and that you will use this small piece of my thoughts for the benefit of others around you.

You are welcome to subscribe and keep coming back, but what I really love are those people who will talk to me. Please give me your comments.

Just one more thing! I thought I would give you some perspective, in case you wonder “where in the heck is Mount Ida, Kansas?“

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