Social Media Applications Are Not always as Described!

Have you ever been hit with a rogue application on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media sites? I was, and the application was called “Photas”.

The world is not always as it seems. This often goes double for third party applications for social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. I see it all the time when somebody falls for another app that will spam all of their friends. It never happens to me, because I generally stick to only a few known applications, but it happened to me today. A Facebook application titled “Photas” said that somebody has tagged me in a photo. Well, I checked it out, and sure enough, it was false. There was no photo of me. Instead, it sent out the same message to all of my friends. When they allowed the app, the life cycle is complete.

Just a simple warning for you: Think before you click … and beware of “Photas” on Facebook!

Has this ever happened to you? Tell us about it … leave a comment!

10 Really Good Reasons to Blog

You and I know good reasons to blog. Hundreds of millions of bloggers know good reasons to blog. It still amazes me when I find people who really do not understand all of the very important reasons why individuals and companies write blogs and comment on blogs, often. Maybe you don’t write a blog, and you just enjoy reading them and adding your comments, or maybe you are a full time super-blogger. In either case, it never hurts to review some of the basics. Here is a list of ten really good reasons to blog. I invite you to add to this list in my blog’s comments … as it should be.

Reason to Blog Number One:

Blogs Give More Than They Take

Blogs provide value to readers, and if they don’t, they will not have readers. Blogs normally have valuable information to offer, and differ greatly from typical static Websites that are more focused on one-way communication and sales copy. They open conversations and welcome people to answer questions, ask questions, and become more familiar with you, your ideas, your brand, and your product. Blogs are commonly produced in the spirit of creating good information that people can use and appreciate. This often creates a valuable shift in thinking for both the blog author and the reader.

Reason to Blog Number Two:

Static Pages Are Like Old Newspapers!

A static Website is like a newspaper, while a blog is a subscription. What do you do with a newspaper after you read it? You don’t toss the subscription out, but you will toss out the pages you’ve already read.

The contents of a static Website are far less likely to be discussed and even less likely to be re-blogged and linked to by others. A static Website is far less likely to make sense or be found at Blog Catalog, Technorati, Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, Mixx, and etcetera.

Promoting a boring old static Website is like an advertisement, whereas a blog is like a conversation that is enhanced by others’ input. Do you want to converse about your interests or hang a sign and hope for the best?

Reason to Blog Number Three:

Google Wants to Find You!

Google and other search engines want to find you. It is their job to know everything there is to know about every industry, every person, every question, and every answer. Having information about every possible topic is a basis for their industry. Blogs make it far easier for them to find this information. If you think this is a myth, just ask yourself why the stuff running through your head is not streaming to Google in near-real-time. Mine is. From the time I publish this article to the time it is indexed in Google, I will likely not even make it to the coffee pot. The last blog post I wrote was there, and listed on the first page of Google for “How to Sell SEO” in under six minutes. That is not always the way it goes, but then, it is for people who put forth the effort to do so. Now, highly competitive SEO is a pretty “bouncy” thing in Google, but I can assure you it will do well, just as many articles I wrote 8-10 years ago have. For example, just do a search for “h1 tags” on Google and I can assure you I am in the top two results with an article at YourNew.com that I wrote well over five years ago. Once you create good content that sticks, it is worth the time it took to create it. There are thousands of people reading things that I wrote a decade ago, and each article adds to that collection. That is the power of a blog. Now, if you are thinking about blogging, think of it like this: If you want a shade tree in your yard, when is the best time to plant it?

*Note: This blog post was indexed on Google in under 15 minutes!*

Reason to Blog Number Four:

Time Builds Trust

A wildly popular blog post may be just the gas you need to fuel your business, but that is being shortsighted. I have created things that gave me a huge return on investment, and quickly, but don’t count on that. When you think of reasons to blog, branding should be enough to push you over the tipping point. Just consider these lines, and tell me if you recognize them:

  • You deserve a break today!
  • Have a _______ and a smile.
  • Don’t squeeze the _______!
  • When _______ talks, people listen.

If you have not been under a rock for the past thirty years, you know at least a couple of these. It is because they are branded. It took these brands hundreds of millions, and in some cases billions of dollars to build their name. A good lesson to take from these successes is in consistently being visible.

You will probably not build a name like these with a blog alone, but it is your next best alternative to the decades of work and billions of dollars noted above.

Reason to Blog Number Five:

Your Competition Has Been Blogging for Years

An important reason to blog is that if you are not doing it, you are missing out. You may not think you are missing huge business from it, but over time, it can and will affect your market share.

I look at it from a standpoint of longevity, as anybody in business should. It is easy to think that the impact it has today is small, but that is often not the case. I explained the search engine optimization benefits of blogging, and the branding benefits of blogging. You surely cannot imagine that your competition is doing it just to throw time and money away, right?

Reason to Blog Number Six:

Blogging is Fun!

Blogging can be great fun. I would not expect most people to have as much fun blogging as I do, but something is better than nothing. I know it may seem like it is time consuming or hard to know what to say, but I see it like any exercise, and it is easier all the time. I do not spend my days struggling with what to write on my blogs. In fact, I find it quite manageable. That is coming from a guy with a blog for everything from my race team to my catch all blog where I put the goofy stuff that just doesn’t fit anywhere else. I have my video blogs (Qik | YouTube), blogs about each of my books, and blogs about blogs. I have so many to choose from, my biggest challenge is which one I want to create something for today.

Reason to Blog Number Seven:

Blogs Can Teach you A Lot

We each have interests. Whatever interests you, I can assure you there is a blog for that, and an audience for a blog about it. Reading the thoughts of others can be fascinating, and being able to reach into their world with your comments and questions is enlightening. When you don’t find just what you were looking for, it is a good sign that you should be blogging. Whether it is for business or a hobby, blogging about your interests and hearing what others have to say can be very helpful.

If you think that there is not an audience for it, think again. Everything is exciting for somebody, and you may be shocked how many people you will find who think a whole lot like you.

Reason to Blog Number Eight:

Syndicate This! RSS Feed

Syndication is bliss, and RSS is important. Perhaps you are not entirely familiar with RSS feeds, but you have surely heard of them, and received information by way of them, even if you didn’t know it.

I know there are a lot of people who may think that to “subscribe” to a blog sounds kind of tricky. “What? You mean I need a feed reader? Isn’t that what blind people use or something?”

There are many ways that RSS allows people to see a blog, even outside of directly subscribing to the RSS feed. For example, this post will land on my Amazon.com Author Page, GoodReads.com Author Profile, Blog Catalog, Technorati, a long list of others that will receive the “ping”, and a big portion of the huge list of social profiles on the left side of my blog. It is like magic! My RSS feed syndicates this information all over the place.

Just how confused are some people about the importance of RSS feeds as they relate to blogging? Here you go … I have a story for you.

Earlier this evening I was informed by a client that although there is a massively visible prompt to subscribe to her RSS feed or email publication, her clients “will never (REPEAT) never know or understand how to do this.” She was really becoming stressed that people were asking her how to subscribe to her blog’s RSS feed, because they had never used a feed reader before. She still has her email publication, and RSS is just another option now. Mind you, her primary market is an educated and affluent group who can master this, and with both RSS and email, I think she has it covered.

Of course, I had an answer. In fact I had a few answers. Please note that I am not a pansy with my clients, and I will tell them what they need to hear, and not just what they want to hear. I am not a salesman. I am here to help clients do more business and reach more people. Whether they love me or hate me is less concern than whether I reach their objectives, which subsequently makes them love me. My responses included the following statements:

“It seems that your focus is on reaching the ones you are already reaching, but little on the millions of people who subscribe to blogs that you are not reaching.

“… you may come to find that it is a fantastic way to both communicate with ongoing clients, and find those bizarre and gawky millions of people who understand how to subscribe to blogs.”

“One view is not a world view. With over 350,000,000 Facebook users and unknown hundreds of millions of blogs, the picture you paint is one that shows me even more reason you are now blogging. I will not ask you to trust me in your refrigerator, but with regard to this Internet, I require it. What you see is a tiny piece of a much larger picture … Much larger than you have a way of seeing.”

Now what I must point out is that my client had grave concern that her clients were contacting her to figure out how to subscribe to her RSS feed. She also has an email subscription, and now that she has a blog, people are begging for it. Now please, people, tell me how this statement from my client sounds: “So far I have 8 people asking me how to subscribe to the blog.  I hope this doesn’t continue at such a high pace.  I’ll try to have faith.”

Here is my answer, and I hope you can see it the same way:

“I hope it continues at a much higher pace. Why would you not want people begging to interact with you? You really are looking at things from a (industry) head instead of a business head. Change your perspective and look at how cool it is to have so much more attention to what you are doing. You didn’t even have a blog a few weeks ago, and now you are stressed that people are rushing to find out about it? I think what you have totally failed to see is how tragic it is you didn’t do this years ago.”

I tried to console her with the fact that RSS is only one more way people can choose to interact with her and further syndicate her content. It does not mean email is now obsolete.

Reason to Blog Number Nine:

The Author’s Point of View is Never the Only One

Blogging is not all about creating a blog of your own. When I say “reasons to blog” I also mean participating in blogs. The author’s point of view is never the only one. Reading comments and responding to the author and other readers can provide benefit in multiple ways. It can give you varying perspectives. It can introduce you to others with similar interests, and if you write something with a little thought behind it, you may be shocked what comes from it.

Nearly every blog has a place to put your Web address.  Whether it goes to your own blog, company Website, Twitter, Facebook, or other address is up to you. I have met some great people who followed a link from a comment I left on a blog and wanted to know more about me. I also do this all the time. I recently found a blog that I enjoy because the blog author replied to my comment on another blog. I followed the link back to her blog and found that she writes about things similar to my recent book, “Living in the Storm”. I like her blog, and I will be back to read it again … and participate.

Sure, I told you that I have a blog for about everything, and that I have a lot of fun blogging. Perhaps most importantly, I participate in other peoples’ blogs. A lot of the fun I have with blogs is in adding my creative commentary on other people’s articles and joining in the communication.

Reason to Blog Number Ten:

It is Your Turn!

What do you have to say about it? This is not rocket surgery. I want to hear your reasons for blogging, and I want your comments on why you comment on blogs. Indulge me! 🙂

Related articles:

How to Sell SEO (and Compare SEO)

How to sell SEO is a challenging topic for SEO agencies, freelancers, and in-house corporate SEO alike. In each case, they must have the right answers for why their job is important, why they are the right choice, and why they need more of the company’s budget. In order to sell SEO, they must have a plan that beats all of the other squillion SEO experts, and they must convey the plan properly. This can also help the person seeking to hire or compare SEO services.

Here is a bit of thought on how to sell SEO effectively, and I hope it will help you. I also hope you will participate in the discussion by adding your comments.

The SEO Client

Let us first look at the SEO client. What are they searching for, and how will you deliver what they want and need? Do they want to find out what you know so they can use it to shop it around with other SEO agencies or implement it in-house? Why are they contacting you? You need to know this!

What is the SEO client searching for? They contacted you, right? I assume that they contacted you because any SEO worth their Google should have clients contacting them, often (another blog post). The SEO client knows this, too, and it should make sense to them when you ask why they contacted you. The fact that they came to you makes them a whole lot hotter lead than if you contacted them. After all, the fact that they found you is exactly the thing they want you to do for them. In my case, if they have filled out a form on one of my sites, I know what link or search has led them there, what else they have clicked on, how long they spent there, and how many times they have come back.

This gives me some great data, but then I consider an instance where the Chief Technology Officer, Marketing VP, and the whole marketing staff was totally on board with my SEO plan for their surgical supply company, but the CEO would not present it to the board because he had already made a $150,000 mistake with the last Internet marketing decision he made. He was afraid for his job, and ashamed of his last mistake. This makes it important to dig deeper into what human elements and fear factors you must overcome to get the job done. You cannot overlook these factors, such as the last joker who came in and made your industry look bad.

It is easy to toss out a few amazing claims and sprinkle their eyes with SEO dust, but let’s look at something much greater. The human factor of offering a service for sale is important, even if you are selling a nuclear reactor. If the client cannot work with you or you cannot work with them, this will clearly not work. Both the SEO client and SEO provider should be diligent in their choices, and this requires a lot of trust from both parties.

The facts and figures are hugely important to any marketing campaign, but all the numbers in the world will not satisfy a client who does not see what is in it for them, or understand your vision for their success. This is vital, and if you are selling facts and figures without how that translates into your client’s needs, goals, and comfort level, you will not sell SEO for very long.

Shopping and Comparing SEO

I have been selling SEO for over a decade, and I do not even bother counting how many SEO contact me to try and know what I know, or to gather ideas on how to sell SEO. Prospective SEO clients and SEO agencies alike will do this. If you are one of the SEO who has been in the business for a while, you have probably given many proposals or other valuable information to somebody who has no plan of ever doing business with you. SEO espionage is pretty rampant, and you will not stop it. I remember some early lessons in selling when I would go out and present myself as a customer in order to find out what salespeople were doing right and wrong, and using the information to do my job better. In the case of SEO, it is often the reason an SEO will hold information close to the vest and avoid discussing details of a plan and their SEO pricing model. It is a hard hurdle to leap, but if you are doing the job well, they will need a whole lot more than a copy of your contract or your plan … they will need you to get the job done!

If you are going to sell SEO effectively, you will need to weed this out and spend your time wisely, which brings me to the next point on confidence.

SEO Arrogance Confused with Confidence:

Have you ever talked about SEO or Web development with somebody who knows more than you? Yeah, I remember those days. When I was new at this, I recall thinking that I would never be able to absorb all that information and store it up here in my little head. That was not only in another decade for me, it was in another century altogether, and this is 2010. I do know a whole lot more than 99.999 percent of people about my job. That should be expected. I mean, how crazy would it be if you went to the dentist and learned something about search engine optimization from the dental hygienist? If it was me, I would jump up out of the chair before the drilling begins!

The hardship here is to convey confidence without being a jerk. I am not sure I have this mastered, but I try to remember the human elements I mentioned above. Sadly, some of the smartest and most talented people in the SEO industry will have a hard time talking about their work without either seeming like they are talking down to the client or just shooting straight over their head. The conversation is also often damaged by the fear of SEO espionage and that they are just being used for free information. Withholding information can make you seem sneaky and sinister, or it can make you seem as if you do not know what you are doing. Drawing the line on what you give away can be tricky, and it will be different each time.

Feeling out the client’s knowledge on the topic and tailoring your focus to their understanding is a challenge. A little fact-finding up front can help a lot.

Ask Many Questions … and Listen to the Answers!

One of the hardest things for somebody trying to sell SEO is to give their answers without really having a clear picture of the questions their prospective client has. If you are an SEO, you know the job, and you know that it does not matter whether they are selling fishing lures or race cars … the job of SEO has many of the same basic principles. The client may not know this, and what they need to know is that you have the creativity, experience, and ambition to help them.

I cannot drive this home for you enough. It is one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made, and that anybody selling SEO or anything else makes. You cannot serve the client to the best of your abilities without knowing specifically what they need, want, and expect from you.

The best way to answer those questions is to ask questions. This seems basic, but just consider how many times you are backed down because a client simply does not want to answer the questions you must ask in order to give them the best plan for their company. When this is the case, it is often best to hang up the phone, walk out of the room, or otherwise let the client know that you cannot help them until they allow you to help them. Veterinarians struggle to find the answers from patients who cannot speak, but these are human beings, and they can give you the answers. In order to give them the best results, they must!

Sure, you can do the research and you can improve their position in search engines, but if it does not speak to their expectations and goals, you will be foolish to continue. Much of this can be improved with an engagement letter and a fee for anything over “X” level of discussion. If the client is more comfortable, whip out your non-disclosure agreement for their security.

Whether you are selling SEO or buying the service, you must drop the inherent cynicism to do business. This requires confidence, which comes from asking questions and getting accurate answers. This is beneficial to both parties. If I ask a client for their server logs before I enter a performance-based contingency SEO contract, I will have an answer or I will walk away. If I ask for a clear picture of their existing marketing efforts and results, I want it for comparison and their view of their target. If I ask for their budget, I expect an answer. I do not ask for their budget without a reason, and that reason is that if I have a $5000 SEO budget, I will have a totally different plan than if I have a $50,000 SEO budget. Each of these has a totally different focus and set of criteria. Each client will answer my questions as differently as people walking into an emergency room. How I treat them depends on honesty and trust.

Just as an attorney will not defend you in a murder case without hearing your alibi, the SEO with best intentions will not take on a client without hearing their case.

So there you have just a few factors in how to sell SEO. This could obviously become a novel, so I will continue this in other articles. In the meantime, I want your input. Give me your comments and let’s discuss this.

Social Journalism: Real Time vs. Vetted Journalism

I have been thinking about the power and truth of live Internet. The power in the numbers is staggering. Today, we can all be journalists, and many of us clearly have a story to report. In fact, before I finish this article I will demonstrate the potential of social journalism with a live video stream from my cell phone, and have it posted to my Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, and others as it happens … in real time. Speed of information delivery is a huge trend these days, as I pointed out in a recent article about social feeds in Google search results, and once you put it out there, it is not going away.

People love to tell their story, and it is even better if they tell it right when it happens. They often want to tell it before they have too much time to dwell on the details, forget about it, or in many cases even give thought to whether it should be told. If it is an important story, they may even find incentive of wide recognition for being the first on the scene.

This goes well beyond only social journalism. Entertainment has also taken on a whole new look. Earlier tonight my son came to me asking to watch some of our videos from a weekend visit to the zoo. He already had a Wii game on, so instead of showing him on the computer, I played them off my YouTube channel on the big screen television. Then I played some more videos off a laptop in the other room by accessing them through my X-Box 360. This all sounds so insane to me that my kids will never remember having to wait until Gilligan’s Island comes on at four o’clock. Who needs old school television these days, except for those who work for television?

If we did not each have a story to tell, there would not be over 35 million people (out of over 350 million active Facebook users) who update their Facebook status each day, and Twitter may only be a group of about 30 people reporting how the cookout at cousin Evan‘s place went. As it is, the world faces a turmoil of how this all works, and how can we best use all this information.

Where this is going and how it will change our society is a story that is being written each day. For some, it is a story of how drunk they got at a fraternity keg party and are sorry for the embarrassing photos they posted on their social networks. Others will apologize to customers for not being the company they portrayed when their media exposure was more one-way, and worked much slower. In extreme cases, nations will defend political scrutiny such as that of the Iran elections being lambasted on Twitter, and people will run scared from health issues like H1N1.

The threat of misinformation and lack of vetting is there, but the real time “get it now” reality creates an appeal to masses that cannot be overlooked. It opens a lot of questions on the value of real time social journalism. I discussed this with a high school journalism teacher just this evening, and we agreed on many things, but challenged others. Overall, I think our conclusions were inconclusive.

So where does it go, and how cool is it that I just coincided the release of this blog post by streaming the first comment from my cell phone? Now imagine doing that five years ago! I was ultra-high-tech in 2008 when I did a 6,000 mile nine day live mobile auto racing Webcast or my Tornado encounters on my storm chasing Webcast. Now all I need to show you my surroundings along with live GPS and live chat is a cell phone and a service like Qik or LiveCast.

On one hand, being live (or close to it) makes it easier to disclaim discrepancies simply for the fact the facts may not all be known. On the other hand, it can leave a door open to fast spread of misinformation and rumors. One known fact is that people are taking notice in great numbers.

The questions and considerations of social journalism are in no short supply, and I hope your comments are not either. Please tell me and others what you think. Let’s discuss it. Add your comments here, and of course, feel free to message me live with the Meebo chat on the left side of this page.

How Connected Are You With Your Social Networks?

I get a surprise every day with just how connected people are. Perhaps it should be no surprise at all. Networking with people is a big part of my job and my lifestyle, both online and offline, but it still amazes me on a regular basis. More amazing yet is that there are still ways to improve upon that connectivity. Here are just a few of my thoughts on the matter, and I welcome yours.

Being Interested Makes You Interesting

Consider how many times you have received a message from somebody on Twitter, Facebook, your blog, or elsewhere and found yourself reading over their latest news to be sure you are up to speed on their life. An amazing thing about social networking and life in general is that people who are interested immediately become more interesting. You can bet that if you add your comments on my blog, I am interested, and you have made another step to strengthening your network. Not only with me, but also with others who connect here. It is a perfect case of becoming more interesting by being interested.

I got to thinking about this as I added the meebo chat on my blog earlier today (over on the left side). It allows for people to start a direct chat with me. I did this because I am interested in what readers have to say, and I want to give them another option to reach me. Try it now by typing a message to me. I may just answer. It is pretty cool, and another way to be even more connected.

I think nearly every blog author wants to start a dialog, but some people are too shy to give their opinion in public, too lazy, or just don’t understand the benefits of blog commenting (like the conversation, or those extra incoming links to their Website). Whatever the reasons, a direct chat is another great connection tool.

OK, so now that you are more interesting, let’s look at how connected you are. Once you realize how connected you already are, it is easier to find ways to make it even better … and why!

Realize How Connected You Are

I keep finding that people know a lot about me. Some will call it “transparency”, and I am all about that. I try to be sure that people know who I am … just me, without any false hype. People like people, so I don’t try to be any more than that. Being genuine seems to be a huge benefit if you are trying to connect with people. Even if you do not think you are very interesting, you are plenty interesting to some people, just the way you are.

Now that you are interesting, look around and see how much people recognize you. They may be noticing you more than you think! Those people who find you interesting are the roots of your network. I will give you examples:

Just a couple days ago I was talking with my brother and he asked me about things I didn’t expect him to even know. He asked if my wife was upset that I uploaded a video of her karaoke performance. David is not all that technology oriented, and does not spend a lot of time on Facebook. However, he does have a Facebook account, along with about 350,000,000 other people. Even if he does not check his Facebook, his wife, kids, or somebody else who knows me may ask him about something relevant to my current life or even tell him something that I had mentioned in my social networks. I also hear similar things from people all around me who seem to know a lot about my daily life, and I know theirs. We are connected!

Another instance was when a long time friend contacted me earlier today to ask about book publishing. Since I wrote three books in 2009, I guess I seemed like a good guy to ask. We chatted for a while and I found that he also needed a printer, a picture framer, and some tips for his photography business. So I referred him to three different friends whom I know well and trust in their fields.  By recognizing the connections around me, I was able to help four friends … the one I was visiting with and the three I recommended.

As the conversation went on, he commented that I seem to know people in nearly any given line of work. I explained that I consider it my job to know everybody. It can do a lot of amazing things, both for personal and business purposes. Here is a piece I wrote about a year ago on building referral business.

I think networking should be a big part of everybody’s job. If your paying job is to change light bulbs on water towers, it may be good to know the guys who paint the towers in case the light bulbs ever stop burning out and you need more work. The tower painters may have work for you someday, or you may get busy and need more light bulb changers. The point is that it is always good to know where to find reliable people, and it is best to know them before you need them or they need you.

Here is the catch! How do you weigh the importance of quality vs. quantity?

Quality Over Quantity in Networking

Being connected with a lot of people is a great thing. Being closely connected is an even better thing. The importance of quality should be obvious, but it can also be easy to overlook or underestimate. Quantity is fine, but not without quality.

I got busy in 2009. In fact, I got real busy. I welcomed the birth of a son, wrote three books, and managed four new blogs, on top of an already busy job as CEO of YourNew.com, Inc. What I found was that as I became tied up in so many projects, some of my network became even tighter, while some of my network got kind of loose. Without a focus on quality in my network, it could have been a disaster.

A quality network remains solid, even when you are not looking. Like any relationship, some of your network will require more attention than others. Give them all attention, but the ones who reach out to you in return deserve a special focus. Good networkers know this, and will seldom let you down.

What do you think? How can you improve your network connectivity today? I cannot read your mind, but I can read your comments!