Public Relations Princess

Don't Fall for the "Reputation Defender" Online Scams

A couple of years ago I had a meeting with a desperate and defeated client. Due to some past personal and business turmoil, when you Googled his name, all you could see was negative stuff. A bankruptcy. A bad business deal. A public failure.

However, what you saw online and the person who sat in front of me were two completely different people. The online image simply didn't match the real person, who was in a new line of work. He had totally turned his fortunes around and wanted the world to see his new successful life.

"Can you help me get rid of those old negative web results?" he asked.

The other day, I was listening to the Glenn Beck radio show and heard an ad for "Reputation Defender." It claimed that it would monitor your online presence and remove all negative references, for a small fee, of course.

I can see how this scenario would be tempting. Just pay some web jockey to erase all the bad stuff! There's just one problem with this. The Web is not some giant white board with a magic eraser. Information on the web, especially if it's a matter of public record, is not possible to change or delete. Just ask Rick Santorum, the presidential candidate who is suffering through a cruel web hoax, perpetrated by some political pranksters.

Back to my client. I asked him if he participated in social media. Not surprisingly, the answer was no. The first thing he needed to do was create some social media accounts. The same Google that was publicly humiliating him was the same Google that could save him. How? By creating social media content in places like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, he could make those negative links appear less prominent by pushing them down to page 2 or 3 of Google results. Here's how that works:

1. Google loves social media and rewards you every time you post. It's algorythms are tuned to social content and rank it higher than almost anything else.
2. You control your own social media accounts. You control what is posted and can screen all comments before they are posted.
3. Social media accounts rise very high in natural Google results. Google my friend Drew McLellan and see what you get. Even though he shares the name of a famous web developer, Drew's social media accounts and blog rank higher than the thousands of web results of his namesake.
4. Reserve your own URL. I highly recommend reserving "yourownname.com" before someone else does. I use GoDaddy.com but there are other services out there.

It takes time, persistence and hard work to push a negative result off your Google results page. It's disingenuous (at best) to promise otherwise. Use the money you would have wasted on "Reputation Defender" and use how to use free web tools like Google Alerts to monitor your own reputation. Then use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and your own blog to create content that accurately represents you and your business. The more stuff you post, the quicker you will start smiling when you Google yourself.

Here is a site that compares these supposed "web reputation" services. The interesting remarks are in the comments section, as usual! Did you notice that I didn't link to Reputation Defender? That's because it's not worth your time to explore. Thanks for reading.

This post originally appeared on IowaBiz.com on October 6, 2011.

Make Your Social Media Presence "Perfessional"

The number one question I'm asked when talking about social media to professionals is "How can I create a social media presence that is professional but still reflects my personality?" This is a vast improvement over three years ago, when the number one question was, "How can I get all these freaks who I didn't even like in high school to stop following me on Facebook?"

Here are my suggestions for creating a social network that is both personal and professional. Hence, the term "perfessional."

1. Be Professional: Relax. It's not rocket science. You are used to being professional, day in and day out. Year after year. You know how to play office politics. You know how to keep confidences. Now take those skills and apply them to your social media presence. A good rule of thumb: Don't write it if you wouldn't want your comment read by your boss, or your mother! Or both!
2. Make funny observations: The best way to show your personality is to allow your sense of humor to show. Share a clean joke. Post a funny Onion article. Allow your friends to see that you're not a wet blanket.
3. Avoid spam: Don't be that guy that falls for every "Here's a cute photo of you!" spam link. People will not only unfriend you in a heartbeat, but also think you're a dork. If you find out you've been spammed, for goodness sake, delete the offending post and apologize!
4. Express your opinion occassionally: Believe it or not, people care what you think. Don't feel you have to remain neutral all the time. People will respect you for expressing your opinion on matters that are meaningful to you.
5. Share your personal interests (in moderation): If you enjoy motorcycle racing or are proud of your grandkids, by all means, share a photo or two! As long as you're not constantly gushing about your perfect child or posting pictures of every meal you cook, it's great to share your non-work interests.

Nobody wants to follow a business-only Twitter account or a Facebook page that does nothing but push out real estate listings or press releases. Lend your personality to your social network, and make it one of your biggest assets.

This post originally appeared on the Iowa Biz Blog.

Google+ What's in it For Me?

Despite my great admiration for Google products, I was a little trepidacious about throwing myself (and my time) into creating a new social network. I already maintain three mainstream social networks (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) and then spend time on several others just to maintain a sense of what's new and evolving in the social media space. That's what my clients expect, so I make the effort.

However, it's my life and my time. So, I truly do draw the line when it comes to creating a whole new network. Since I was already using Google's ubiquitous email product (G-Mail), and also dabble in Google Docs, use the Google Reader and Google calendar, I decided to click the "Claire +" button on my Gmail dashboard. See, they sucked me in right away by personalizing that little button. Instead of reviewing every single feature, I thought I would share a few of my favorites.

The "Feed": The "feed" or stream looks just like the Facebook feed we're all used to. One really cool difference I noticed right away: You can "edit" your feed post after you post, unlike Facebook, where you have to delete your post and re-post if you make an error. (If you have clumsy fingers like mine, that is OFTEN!) And as a PR professional who is judged my typos, I appreciate the ability to correct my mistakes. 

Easier Photos: my biggest frustration with Facebook has been the difficulty in uploading photographs. Maybe it's just me, but unless you're using iPhoto or Flickr to upload, Facebook has never made it easy. In Google Plus, you can upload from your computer in the regular way, but you can also "drag and drop," which is very slick. It only took me a few seconds to upload 20 of my favorite photos to an album and adding labels is easier, too. Don't even get me started on sharing photos on Twitter. It's an arduous process unless you're using a mobile app.

Circles: Google+ makes it easy to create different circles of people within your network. This feature allows you to easily drag and drop people into circles and also to control which post your latest post goes to. Facebooks "groups" feature is so clunky and unintuitive that I don't know many people who use it. Plus, it was an add-on, so many people already had 500+ friends by the time it was ready. Google+ was smart to make it part of their set of introductory features.

Google's transparency Here is a great G+ site that discusses the features in detail and includes video of how they work. I trust Google a bit more than Facebook. Maybe it's Zuckerberg's shifty eyes.

Sparks: Dumb name, great concept. If you're wondering how you'll ever find people to follow (the quintessenial question on Twitter), sparks provides a window into Google + that is a lot easier to use than searching Facebook for thought leaders on certain subjects. Plus, you can follow someone without their permission, unless they decide to block you (kind of like Twitter). Facebook's search does not seem to be very intuitive to me, plus, you can't just lurk on someone. You have to be friends to see their feed.

Hangouts: Here's an easy way to introduce newbies to the nuances of video chat. There are still a lot of people who don't know how to do video chat on their own. Being on Google + gives you a simple way to chat with friends. The first time you use it, give yourself a little time to download the plugins you'll need. Here's a picture of what your screen will look like when you're chatting. My good buddy Josh (one of the founders of VineMe) and I had a chat this morning. Don't laugh at my hair. It's humid, so gimme a break.

The "Achilles Heel" of Google +: So far, Google + is off to a great start, with 20 million users. But early reports suggest that even though many early adopters and internet glitterati are using it, people are not coming back to log on every day like they do with Facebook. Therein lies the problem. You can share on G+ all day, but is anyone paying attention? I think this question will remain unanswered until G+ gains critical mass like Facebook and Twitter. So I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

Sounds Like Congress Needs a Social Media Policy

I've watched the spectacle surrounding Weinergate for days now. During Weiner's tearful presser where he took "full responsibility" (whatever that means) for his transgressions, after the tears stopped, the arrogance came through.

One line really bothered me, though. It was his astonishing read on his culpability. "I am not going to resign. I did not break any House rules."

Except the catch-all House rule that states:

The House rules state that “a Member … of the House shall conduct himself at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House.” Um, I believe he violated that rule. Unless the standard of behavior in the House is sexual depravity.

The Congress could have saved itself a lot of time if it simply made each member sign a social media policy. The policy should explicity explain the following elements:

1. Every member of Congress should understand the responsibility involved with using social media. Clearly, Congressman Weiner thought that hiding behind his computer in his underwear was ok. But this is not something he would have done in his congressional office.
2. You can't be a Congressman from 8-5 and then turn it off and be a private citizen. You take the oath, you are responsible for your behavior online 24-7. It doesn't matter whether you use "government-owned" electronics or not. Former Alaska Governor Palin is finding out the hard way that conducting government business on personal email is just as wrong.
3. Lewd chat and photos are OBVIOUSLY inappropriate in a professional setting. If a private employer found evidence of this behavior on an employee Facebook page or Twitter account, they would be gone. GONE.

A social media policy should be a legal document signed by each member, much like a non-compete contract or internet use policy. That way, when things like this happen, congressional leaders can use that document as proof that each member was apprised of rights and responsibilities and are held accountable for trangressions.

Mrs. Pelosi and members of the House ethics committee, if you need some help drafting that policy or educating your members on appropriate online behavior, just call.

 

Des Moines, Iowa Ingersoll Neighborhood House for Sale

Update: Open House April 17, 2011 12-5 p.m.

I'm selling my house at 743 37th St. It's in a great neighborhood, with the best schools in Des Moines, just six blocks from Roosevelt High School. It's on a quiet street with great neighbors. I've worked on it all summer and it's finally ready to go. Here's the website. (My dear friend Paul Gates took the pictures, in case you're wondering who the genius is) If you would like a private tour, just call me at 515-554-6754.

Here's "what's in it for you." If you refer the person who eventually buys my house, I will pay you $500! I'm having a Happy Hour open house to invite all my friends to see the place. Please come and bring a friend. It doesn't matter if you're in the market for a house or not, but eventually you might know someone who is looking.

It's less than a mile from Drake University in one direction, and less than a half mile from Des Moines University in the other.


743 37th St
Phone: 515-554-6754
Email: claire.celsi@gmail.com

Bring or tell a friend! Follow me on Twitter.

Directions:

The house is located at 743 37th St in Des Moines, just North of Ingersoll. From the West, take I-235 E to the 42nd St. exit. Take a right off the exit onto 42nd. Go two blocks and take a left on Ingersoll. Take Ingersoll to 37th and go three blocks to 743 37th St. The house is on the right. From the East: Take I-235 West to 31st St. Take a left onto 31st St and a quick right onto Center St. Take Center to 37th and take a left. 743 37th is on the left. From downtown, just take Ingersoll West to 37th and take a right. Google map: 743 37th St, Des Moines

VineMe Lauches Today

I'm very pleased to announce that the latest startup in the Des Moines tech world is being launched by two dear friends of mine. VineMe is very cool!

Josh Fleming and Tony Muse come from different planets in my solar system. Josh is a colleague from the agency world and still my favorite listening ear and confidant. Tony was a high school friend and also mentored my kids in roller skating when they were young. Both of them are smart, accomplished in their own sphere of influence.

Tony Muse is a world-champion speed skater. Yep, he still looks pretty darn good in spandex, too! Josh is not only a rockstar at Lessing Flynn, but is a powerful force in the Des Moines social media community, where everyone has something to contribute. Josh is usually the first one to notice and use his considerable influence to point it out. He's also actively involved in the community, a husband and the father of four adorable kids.

Together, Josh and Tony created VineMe, a new social platform that allows users worldwide to crowdsource content by time, subject tags, places and people. The content is indexed and displayed in timeline form, allowing users to organize and search content chronologically. When I first heard of the concept, I scratched my head and said, "Huh?" Josh encouraged me to just sign up start posting photos. He was right. Select a few of your favorite photos, post and you'll get it. Here is a video that explains the concept. Happy Vining! And congratulations, Josh and Tony! WORD! 

Create a Website Before Social Networking Sites

Recent research shows that 45% of all small businesses don't have a significant web presence of their own. Business owners are ceding control of their own message, marketing channel and search engine optimization, and letting others grab a part of their brand, without permission. Why would you give that kind of control to another person or an entity? For example, if a local restaurant doesn't have a website, shady web players like Yelp can come in as the first search result, running the risk of anonymous, negative reviews to be the first thing a potential customer might read about the restaurant.

But here's another conunundrum. Many small business owners, in the rush to be relevant in the new social media age, are trying to skip a step by going straight from no web presence to social media greatness. I'm talking them out of it one by one. Here's why.

Websites and blogs are really just content storage for your business. The type of content is only limited to your imagination and server capacity. For a retail business, it's the products you have to sell. For service providers, its a description of the services you provide. Social media sites are much more equipped to broadcast information, but not that great at storing it in any meaningful way. Your website is your story, written your way. It's your opportunity to define your strengths in a compelling way. Don't you want that to be the first thing your potential customers read?

Here are the steps you should follow for your web strategy when starting from scratch.

1. Reserve a unique domain for your website. Keep it as short as possible and memorable. I use the site GoDaddy.com, but there are others out there. If your preferred domain name is taken, add on your city or state to the beginning or end. For example: www.iowaicecreamstore.com.
2. Set up a simple website. I recommend using Wordpress, which is a flexible web platform that is typically used to create blogs. Using Wordpress from the very beginning of your project allows you to easily add a blog or other social content later using plugins. This is not a task for beginners. Get some help if you're not comfortable.
3. Create content and update frequently. Start a news page on the front page of your website, or better yet a blog. The key is to keep the content fresh so that your customers will keep coming back to see what's new. Fresh content is also a key ingredient to allowing search engines to find your site and rank it higher on results pages.
4. Now, you're ready to create a Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn company page. Use the links from your website to direct people to more information on the company site you created.
5. Constantly remind people that you offer information on other mediums. For example, "Find us on Facebook and Twitter," with icons prominently displayed, should be posted to your website and in your print ads.

Keeping the content fresh on a website is another thing to do on your busy list, but it's worth it. Your website will become the best lead generation tool in your arsenal.

 

Will PR Professionals Come Out From Behind the Curtain?

From the time I started my first "formal" public relations job, I got the feeling that being a PR professional was some sort of secret society. Unfortunately, that pervasive view has not helped the old generation of PR professionals learn how to deal with the new media that's so pervasive in our work lives.

The new professionals being cranked out by old-school PR programs are receiving mixed messages. A professor at an Arizona university pulled Todd Defren's brilliant PR-Squared blog from her reading list. Odd, old school pitches are being received by bloggers from stymied PR people.

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is endlessly discussing the importance of learning new media, but most in the upper eshelons of the organization are not big new media users. They've voted two years in a row to disallow in inclusion of board members who don't have an APR designation. In my mind, this is similar to requiring all politicians to have a PhD. It's simply ill-advised to have so many people from such an insular background leading an organization.

So, my simple question is...when? When will rank and file PR professionals learn and practice their social media skills? I know a lot of people already have, thousands of excellent professionals. The folks I'm talking about are the 40-50-60 year olds who have been in the business for 25+ years. Where are they?

Social Media is Akin to Compassionate Listening

When I tell my clients that the main purpose of social media is to listen, and even to care deeply about their friends and followers, I am sometimes met with blank stares. What does compassionate listening mean? Why take the time to do it? The discipline evolved from a citizen diplomacy project in the former Soviet Union to the Middle East after the fall of communism.

"Compassionate Listening is a process rather than a product. It is healing precisely because it does not pretend to “have the answers.” Rather, it engages the participants in processes that have each side seeing the humanity of the other, even when they disagree." (Quote From the Compassionate Listening website)

Caring about what others have to say is at the heart of listening. There's no way around it. If someone is inconvenienced, angry, left out or left hanging, do you even want to know? Do you feel their pain? There is ancedotal evidence that leaving people out leaves a deep psychological scar.

When someone contacts you via social media channels and you don't respond, what kind of message does that send? To me, it's like someone turning their back to you. Are you inadvertently turning your back to people by not listening?

Monitoring vs. Listening

I think people get tripped up on the difference between "monitoring" and "listening." Monitoring entails keeping a constant vigil on certain keywords and noting trends, spotting disasters before they explode, and noting any major changes in friends or followers.

Monitoring is something that every individual and business on the planet should be doing. Simple monitoring can be done with free tools such as Google Alerts and Search Twitter. More extensive monitoring can be purchased through services like Radian6.

The word "listening" evokes a deeper connection, and I firmly believe that it only can be done by a real human, listening in real time to the conversation.

How Does One Become a Compassionate Listener?

Here are some practical tips on becoming a compassionate listener. It's not for the faint of heart, but also not impossible to learn. I've noticed that this communication style comes easier for women. But the men who flourish in the social media sphere all have these skills and traits.

1. Suspend judgement, at least temporarily. Social media studies have found that people are actually pretty true to their real selves on social media. It's likely that what you see is what you get.
2. Be nice. Make an effort to be friendly.
3. Ask detailed questions. Making the other person feel recognized and valued is paramount.
4. Give online credit and share other people's stuff more than you talk about yourself.
5. Follow up. Was someone talking about their sick mom last week? Check in to make sure she's ok.
6. The best conversations happen in real time. Take time to interact with people while they are online.
7. After a disagreement, acknowledge the awkwardness and then move on, or apologize if you know you offended the other person.
8. Don't ignore. Ignoring someone is the ultimate shaming.

As you can tell, compassionate listening is a lot more work than monitoring, but the payback is worth it. You get so much more in return. Are you a compassionate listener? Can you try to be one? I would love to hear your stories about how applying the principles of compassionate listening made you a better person.

 

 

Central Iowa Bloggers (CIB) Attracts New Attendees & Controversy

I've been a very active participant in the social media community in Des Moines for five years. I've made tons of new friends, dozens of business connections, and had lots of laughs with my fellow CIBers over the past few years at a gathering casually named CIB. CIB started as a small gathering of people who got together at Panera in Clive to chat, network and do their actual work, too. People just kept getting invited to join the gathering, until it eventually took on a life of its own. Now it's a bonafide destination for Central Iowa networking on the first Friday of every month.

Last month, a new Panera store opened in downtown Des Moines, much to the delight of coffee and danish deprived downtown denizens. The new downtown store's marketing guy, John Chattman, reached out via Twitter to the CIB crowd and invited us to check out the new store for one of our meetings. Since the two franchises are owned by the same person, it made no difference to John, he just wanted people to see the new store.

A few people mentioned on Twitter that they would be supportive of that meeting, since they were never able to make it to the Panera in Clive. The week of Nov 15, Jared Bernstein put together a poll and the two largest segment voted for holding CIB downtown. Katie Ketelsen and others commented that trying the downtown location would be a good idea. Granted, 25 participants is by no means a majority of attendees, but it was clear that at least a few downtowners were very excited to have at least one event held downtown.

So on December 3, CIB was held in two different locations. Here are some photos from the downtown event.

Since there was a vocal contingent of people who wanted to try out the downtown Panera, I made the decision to post the event on the Social Media Club Des Moines website and our weekly email went out with the changed location. Many stated that they simply could not attend the downtown relocated event, and that they would stop by the original CIB location.

There has never really been a CIB owner, it was always an organic group. It's about as informal as you can get. It has always been word of mouth, and a few of us regulars have simply tweeted that we would be at CIB, most always the night before or day of the event. There is a CIB website, but it has also been run by volunteers, and not well promoted within the CIB group. Also, it has been overrun by non-CIB spam.

When the Social Media Club Des Moines started, one of the best features of the Ning site SMCDSM President Mike Templeton created was an events calendar. We felt it could truly be a community calendar for all the social media events in Central Iowa. As soon as the Ning events calendar was up and running in April, 2010, I started adding CIB as an event on the calendar, even though it was a totally open calendar. Anyone could have added their own version of the event. In fact, for a while, there was a "Artists on the Rise" CIB event on Tuesday nights, at a different Panera, that caused quite a bit of confusion for people who didn't know the difference. I noticed that the world did not come to an end.

Friday November 26, I created an event for CIB and tweeted about it a full week in advance. The following Monday, Tom Brazelton, our SMCDSM newsletter guy, sent out the newsletter including the location change, to all 530 or so members.

By Tuesday, several CIB regulars had voiced their concerns about changing the location. Many others expressed excitement about finally being able to attend (some for the very first time). All the conversation about CIB attracted the attention of quite a few others who had never heard of it, and wanted to check it out.

The downtown CIB was held, and by all accounts very successful in attracting new people. I also had heard many harrowing predictions of snarled traffic, lack of parking options, not enough space...etc. None of those things transpired. The only person who had a problem was Phil James, but only because he did not plug the meter! D'oh. (Smiles, Phil, it's all in good fun.)

Many people mentioned that they loved being included and a few even walked over from their downtown offices. The downtown Panera is the biggest one in Iowa, so space was not a concern. There was plenty of room. When I left for a meeting in Ankeny at 11:00, there were still people chatting. "@PaneraDowntown" John drove in from Cedar Rapids to meet us at CIB, and the manager came out to greet us too. It was a nice change from the (sometimes) grouchy and indifferent service I've noticed at the Clive store on occasion.

I heard a few snarky remarks on Twitter, and I understand, a few people were upset. I really don't know what to say to them. For such an organic group to suddenly be held to a Rotary-like schedule and protocol is a little beyond the pale to me. There were no rules to be broken. My friend Jon Thompson's tweets about being "at the real CIB" and that "the execution of the event was poor" were not helpful or constructive.

BTW, Jon, I'm still waiting for my check to come in the mail for pulling it together. I'm a volunteer with the SMCDSM, and I have a day job. Next time, you can have the job of letting everyone know. By the way, if I were being paid to plan the event, one of my success metrics would have been attendance. The downtown CIB attracted at least 50 people over it's three-hour run. Not bad.

By having a lively discussion, the group has discovered that perhaps we need to broaded the discussion on what to do about CIB. Maybe it's time to have one downtown and one in Clive, or even mix up the locations even more. I have no horse in the game. Both locations are convenient for my flexible Friday morning schedule. So now, it's up to you people. What are your ideas? What shall we do? Anyone? Bueller?