Here’s the thing:  If I don’t use the eyeballs this blog gets to help make the world a better place, I’m not being true to who I am.  Bare with me – yes, I have my punny on today!  Today is April 5th and that means that I’ll be barefoot all day long.  Everywhere I go.  I’ve committed to One Day Without Shoes.

Now, if you see me out today, you’ll notice that I’m barefoot and some of you will ask me why.

I will educate you on Podoconiosis – a soil-transmitted disease caused by walking in silica-rich soil – and how easily the painful and debilitating disease can be combatted with the simplest of measures.  Shoes.

I will explain about the massive numbers of children who must walk, barefoot, through silica-rich soil every day because there is a luxury they cannot afford.  Shoes.

I will share that I’m a huge fan of Toms Shoes because “for every pair purchased, Toms gives a new pair of shoes to a child in need.  One for One.”

I tell people about Toms all year long (and Warby-Parker eyeglasses).  One Day Without Shoes is a barefoot global awareness event.  Join us?

Twitter is to communication with the haiku is to poetry.  The constraint of using 140 characters to convey a complete thought requires that we distill that thought down to the very base of what we want to communicate.  Sometimes, try as we might, that’s just not possible and we end up sending 2 successive tweets.  I’m alright with that but it’s not always the best route of delivery for, say, a news outlet who needs their headline and link to be complete in a single tweet.  Enter Deck.ly.

Essentially, Deck.ly allows people to type longer tweets that can be read, in their entirety, within TweetDeck.  Great news for TweetDeck users, right?  For the rest of us?  Not so much.

I currently use HootSuite and every time I see a Deck.ly tweet come through my stream, I cringe a little bit.  I know that if I want to read what’s behind that tweet, I have to click on the Deck.ly link to pull the tweet out of HootSuite then I have to click on the Deck.ly link again to read the complete tweet then I have to click on any info link included in the tweet to see what’s going on.

The ensuing clickfest that follows a Deck.ly sighting is bad enough on my Mac, but it’s torture on my phone and here’s what’s happening:  I’m choosing to ignore Deck.ly tweets from those of you who overuse the tool.  When I don’t read your tweets, I don’t share them.

The danger of Deck.ly is that your lazy over-reliance on a worthwhile tool is losing you my attention and my reach.  Don’t make me work so hard to read what you have to say every time you tweet.  Use Deck.ly, but use it responsibly.  That’s all I’m asking.

~ Image from Creative Commons-licensed photo by cgines

This one time, at Barnes & Noble . . .

Two days ago a smart and savvy marketing person wrote a post called Bigger Ear Marketing For Authors.  Most people who took the time to post a comment to his article agreed that he had shared a particularly brilliant way to use Twitter and Location Based Marketing (Foursquare, in this instance) to market to an individual at the point of sale.

Today, another super smart and savvy marketing person wrote a post called Why Brogan’s Bigger Ear Marketing Is Wrong.  She disagreed with what she saw as a flawed approach to creating sales conversion.  Some of Gini’s commenters mentioned that they viewed the tactic as having a high “creep” factor.

To be clear, stalking anyone with Foursquare is uncool.  Using Check-ins to push your sales message at anyone who hasn’t opted in to receive them is spammy but, I don’t think Chris was aiming at sales at all.  I think he was looking for another way to begin relationships and get people talking with and listening to him.

Chris filtered some search results to identify people who fit into what he views as his consumer profile and used Twitter to reach out to them based on where they were.  The “Hey, have you seen my book there” schtick?  An ice breaker that could just have easily been “I’m at CES, too – come see me” or “I see you ate at Red Bento last week, I love their Miso”.  The opening line to a conversation.

Data mining.  I use it to find my client’s target consumers and begin a conversation before they find or need my clients.  Because people like to do business with people they know. Don’t you?

~image by evilneedscandy

You aren’t telling us where you are.

It doesn’t matter where you’ve chosen to spread your Social Media wings – YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook; your nest is going to be pretty bare if you don’t help the people who visit your website find you there.  Help us help you feather that nest.

Here’s a list of 20 Free Social Media Icon Sets For a More Shareable Website from Mashable.  Find some icons you like.  Have your web designer link them to your profiles and put them them on your website where we can easily find them.

Finding your business on social networks shouldn’t be an exercise in rare bird sighting.  Show us where you are.  You’ll be surprised how fast we flock to you.

~image by brooke27

The Terms of Service. They’re long, sometimes cumbersome and full of sentences so long that you might feel you need a sandwich and a compass to make your way safely through them.

But.

Terms of Service also define the relationship between you and the provider. They tell you how your privacy will be protected, what you can or can’t do while using the service and what happens if you violate the rules you agree to honor.

Facebook’s Terms are easy to understand. And still, every day (and I do mean every day) I see businesses and other organizations endangering the communities they are growing by flagrantly violating the Terms they agreed to when their Facebook presence was created.

What does violating Facebook’s Terms look like?   I’ve provided 3 of the most common examples I see each day.

Building community on a Profile instead of an Official Page
Facebook says, “Profiles represent individuals and must be held under an individual name, while Pages allow an organization, business, celebrity, or band to maintain a professional presence on Facebook.”

Facebook also says, “You will not use your personal profile for commercial gain . . .”

If you are a business, organization or cause currently building your Facebook community on a Profile instead of a Page, you stand to lose everything you’ve gained when Facebook identifies your violation.  All the time and effort you’ve spent collecting Friends, loading images and creating community will have been for nothing when Facebook identifies the violation and the Profile vanishes.  Save yourself the headache, create a Page.

Running an unapproved contest on Facebook
Facebook says, “You may not administer any promotion through Facebook, except that you may administer a promotion through the Facebook Platform with our prior written approval.”

No matter how small a promotion, contest or sweepstakes seems to you, if you haven’t received written approval from Facebook to run it, you open yourself to committing multiple violations of the Terms.  From how you can ask users to participate and what prizes can be awarded to how you can contact winners, Facebook has rules for you to follow.  Start here by requesting a Facebook Account Representative.

Tagging people who aren’t in an image, without their permission.

Facebook says, “You can tag a photo only with the express consent of the user on whose behalf you are doing the tagging, and must only tag images when the tag accurately labels what is depicted in the image.”

Tagging your Friends in the photo logo of a cause to promote awareness of that cause is not only a violation of Terms but can be reported by those you are tagging as abusive behavior on your part – which brings your violation to Facebook’s attention and opens your Page’s content to review.  It’s spammy.  Just don’t do it.

The bottom line?

If you are using Facebook for business of any kind, treat it like a business tool.  Read the Terms before you sign them.  Obtain the necessary permissions and rights when administrating a promotion or contest of any kind.  Understand that you can lose all or part of your Facebook presence if you don’t honor the agreement you sign.  At best, Facebook will remove the content that violates their Terms; at worst, Facebook will remove your entire presence and there’s no getting it back.   A full list of Facebook’s Terms is available for review at any time.

Have you taken the time to read and understand the Terms for Facebook  and other online platforms you participate on?

It’s not that the phone book is dead, it’s just that people are searching for information differently.  These days, most Americans turn to the internet before they grab a copy of the local phone directory.  As a businesses owner, you need to make certain that your internet based information is up to date and easily accessible.  In addition to a webpage or blog and branded social platforms, claiming the listings that make up your digital footprint lets you have some control in how your business is presented on the internet.

According to Comscore’s latest report, Americans used Google search over 10 billion times in August 2010.  Many of these searches resolved with a Google Places listing for businesses that provided what the searcher was looking for.  Claiming your Google Places page (formerly Google Local Business Center) is a smart place to start.  Does your business have a Google Places listing?  You can find it by searching for your Business Name and Location with Google.  I’ll wait while you check it out here.  If your business isn’t listed, don’t panic – you can register and create a listing from scratch, right here!

After you make changes to an existing listing or create a new listing, Google will verify that you are an authorized representative by calling you or post mailing you a code to enter on your Google Places Dashboard.  The process is simple, but if you have questions or need some help, just ask, I’ll walk you through it.

Once you have control of your Google Places page you can use it to promote your business for free:

• Post a special (with a tracking code) that will be visible near the top of your listing for 30 days.
• Add up to 10 images of your products or your business so that people can find you more easily.
• Designate up to 5 categories that your business falls under so that your business appears in refined search results.
• Take advantage of the free coupon option.

Use the dashboard to learn more about the search results your listing appears in:

• See how many times your listing has been viewed in search results.
• Track how many people have clicked through to the listing from the search results page.
• Monitor what terms people searched that resulted in your business listing appearing.
• See the number of times people saw your business listing in the search results for top search terms.

This is just the beginning; there is much more you can do with Google Places, and there are other free business listings on the internet that you’ll want to claim.  GetListed.org is a good tool for finding them.

What free listings do you find most helpful in getting customers to your storefront?

Dealing with overzealous, inappropriate and unsolicited posts is part of working in Social Media.  I recommend that determining how to deal with these situations should be addressed, before they occur, in your organization’s Social Media Use Guidelines.

What tips can you share on how to curate a Facebook Page Wall?

Dress it up any way you want, Spam Musubi is still SPAM

You’re looking for a way to spread the word about a fundraiser and think to yourself, “Hey, I’ll make an Event on my Facebook Profile and all my Friends will see it – I’ll hit 327 pairs of eyeballs in seconds, and their Friends will see it and their Friends, etc.!”  Excellent work, Facebooker – that’s a great use of your Profile.  Then you think to yourself, “Hey, I’m a Fan of SOUPER SALAD and they have tons of Fans, I can post my information to their Page and reach their people, too.”  Hold on there, Facebooker – just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

These tips are only the beginning, what advice can you offer to help others from becoming unintentional Facebook Spammers?

Gone in 30 Days

Why are there 2 ways for you to “Like” LisaDJenkins.com in the right-hand columns of my page?

Let me be clear:  THIS IS NOT AN ATTEMPT TO GAIN EYEBALLS FOR MY BLOG.  As noted in my tagline, I publish posts erratically.  I’m not a committed blogger and don’t pretend to be one.  I do speak my mind from time to time.  I’m not about gaining a huge following of readers here – I’m about sharing what I believe are helpful pieces of information and my opinions for people who find them useful.  It’s okay if you don’t find them useful, and it’s okay if you never come back here.  We can still be friends.  So that’s out of the way, then?  Excellent.  Let’s move on . . .

I want to know, by a show of “hands”, which personal data sharing options you are most comfortable with, based solely on the information you already have.  My aim here is not to educate you or to sway you – that’s why there are no links to descriptions of either option.  You have 30 days in which to decide to enter your opinion by clicking either the Facebook LIKE or the OPENLIKE option.  At the end of 30 days, I’ll be deleting these widgets and any information that may come my way through their use.  If I wanted to stalk you, I’d already know where you buy your coffee and whether or not you like onion in your Tuna Salad

If you choose to trust my word and participate, I thank you and will honor that trust.  If you decide that trusting my word is a bit risky, I understand completely and thank you for taking the time to think about it.

Any questions?  Comments?  Tuna Salad recipes you’d care to offer?