Social Media Customer Service Blunders

Well, once again I am confounded by the lack of customer service we get from the almighty Facebook site.

Once upon a time I was enthralled with social media as a great way to have two-way communication with my customers and my clients' customers. Now I am thoroughly disgusted with some social sites, simply because they seem not to care about the customers (YES, CUSTOMERS) who use them.

There is no way to contact Facebook, other than through the site's help section, which doesn't seem to help with most of the problems we experience when trying to post or advertise for our clients. The latest problem has to do with a promotion that Facebook set up for small businesses called "Small Business Boost." We were emailed that one of our client pages had qualified for $50 in free advertising. When we tried to take advantage of the offer, we had problems registering the client page. There was nothing on the help pages that helped, and when we said that the stuff didn't help, there was no way to tell them why it hadn't helped... just "OK. We're sorry."

We finally moved through the problems and posted an ad for our client today, but there was no place to log that the advertising was to take advantage of the free offer for "Small Business Boost", just an email telling us that our credit card would be charged for the advertising. Here's the notification we got from Facebook:

Hi Patricia Y. Hartman,

Thanks for creating a Facebook Ad or Sponsored Story! Your confirmation is below. Please note that you will only be charged for the impressions or clicks your ad receives. The total charge will not exceed the daily campaign budget you have set. Remember to create multiple versions of your Facebook Ads. Successful advertisers recommend starting off with 5 to 10 versions of your ads to test which combinations of images and text are most effective. If you have any questions about your Facebook Ads or Sponsored Stories, please visit our Help Center.

You will be sent an email receipt for any charges from Facebook, and the information about the charge is also available in the billing tab of your Ads Manager.

Sincerely,
The Facebook Ads Team

Notice there is no mention of the "free" advertising promotion. Also notice that there is no way to get hold of these people via email or phone to complain! And there is also no way to cancel the advertising. At least when we deal with the traditional media, we can pick up the phone and talk to our account executive. Not so with social media.

I've read rants on Facebook about the new "timeline" format. Have the techies at the social site listened to the rants from their users? Obviously not. We're getting it whether we want it or not.

Mark Zuckerberg and his minions need to go back to school to learn a few lessons in customer service. After all, the users of Facebook and advertisers on are Facebook's customers.

Business and Social Media

While everyone is getting on the bandwagon with social media for their company, there are things your company should consider. What Bill in accounting thinks is an innocent tweet could be a PR disaster for Frank, the CEO. Follow these simple rules for establishing a social media policy for your company to eliminate the chances of problems:

1. What goals are you trying to reach by using social media?
2. What specific audience are you trying to reach?
3. Make sure you hold to what your company believes and what the values are.
4. Who is the spokesperson for your company and what role do the other employees play in your social media experience? Who is going to monitor and maintain your sites?
5. Make sure there are specific guidelines for each social networking site, as each are different.
6. Separate personal from business, you don’t want your personal insights to be misconstrued as a representation of your company.

Make sure you put a working policy in place today for your company’s protection. If you haven’t started using social media as a way to market and promote your business, you should! Contact me for all your social marketing needs.

Sarah

Is Your Facebook Account Protected?

As a business owner, you may have noticed the new social media trend: online communities that allow individuals and businesses to connect – any time, any place. Smart phone and iPads have instantly open a world of knowledge, resources (and distractions) to users. These users are also consumers and you should be marketing to this captive audience. Your competitors are.

Facebook, the largest and fastest growing social media site, has over 600 million users. User protection is high on its list. If you have a Facebook business account, how do you protect it?

When using Facebook, here are few safeguards I recommend to protect your business account:
1. Check your privacy settings
Who are you allowing to “like” your page?
Are you allowing anyone to post on your page?
Have you customized your profile settings?
Who can post comments, pictures or videos to your page?
What is your profanity setting?

2. Is your browser secure?
Hackers and predators can steal information about your clients and followers
Wi-Fi – public hotspots are convenient, but ripe for data snatching

3. Sign-up for Facebook notifications
Track new friend requests and “likes”
See log-in sources - home, office, business or friend's computers, smart phone or other digital communication devices

4. Control Facebook apps
When you agree to an app, you are also allowing the app to access all of your business and/or personal Facebook information

Assuring new clients that there are ways to protect their business and their Facebook friends is the first step I take as a social media marketer. You, too, can eliminate any possibility of making a mistake as your launch your business into the world of social media.

Whether it's regular updates, monitoring, monthly page traffic reports, linking and syncing your other social sites, I'll use my knowledge and expertise to help you and your business implement safeguards to connect to the consumers you want to reach in cyberspace.

Hit me up on Facebook!

Sarah aka Queen B. of Social Media

Social Media: The Next Wave of Marketing

Does you have a website, a Facebook page or MySpace presence for your business? If so, who updates the information and how often? If the answers are "Me" and "When I can get to it", we need to get together. I can help you to fully understand your marketing and business objectives before launching off into this apparently vast space.

Sarah Greer here, the new Social Media Queen Bee of Imagery Marketing. Social media first showed up on my computer screen MySpace hit the scene. While in college, Facebook became my connection with other classmates. With the invention of smart phones, social media usage has become even more popular and necessary. Never did I imagine that social media would have evolved as much as it has. Connecting with friends in Europe? No problem! No long distance calls and no high fees, thanks to those "electronic leashes". Everything that can be done with a desktop or laptop computer, I can accomplish the same (and more with the "apps") with my phone.

With the instant ability to deliver information using social networking sites like Facebook (400 million +), Twitter (95 million) and LinkedIn (50 million members worldwide), your business must consider social media in your marketing mix.

A recent Small Business Trends article shared some pretty surprising statistics about how small business owners view social media. In the article, it cited a report that said 47% of small business owners don’t think their customers use social media and 24% didn’t think their customers research online before finding them.

Based on these numbers, it’s pretty clear that many small businesses are in denial about the power of social media and mobile marketing, despite how mainstream it has become. And, even if small business owners are willing to admit that social media is a viable marketing channel, they are still reluctant to dive in.


Here are 10 compelling reasons for you to use social media to help grow your business:
1. Own your brand’s social presence
2. You look like you “get it”
3. Brand recognition
4. Take your message directly to consumers
5. Brand monitoring
6. Generate site traffic
7. Find new customers through your friends.
8. Find new customers through your company profile
9. Niche marketing
10. Sarah Greer, Social Media Queen Bee

Using social media to its maximum advantage, you can market your products or build your brand. As a business owner, if you have not jumped on the social media wave, you are missing out on so many opportunities. So what are you waiting for? Contact me.

When Small Doesn't Mean Small

I just finished reading a recap about the Ad Age Small Agency Conference held in New Orleans recently. One of the discussions that permeated the conference was “how to replace the term small.” Everyone seemed in agreement that the word small gave the connotation that the agency did not have the ability to provide the client with all the services needed to do a first class job of communication. In some cases this might be true, but in many cases, the “small” agency is faster, more creative, more affordable, and just as darn good as the mega-agencies at providing services for clients.

Imagery is small. We are also what we term “virtual.” We don’t have fancy offices that increase our overhead. We can provide all the marketing services needed by clients – research, strategic planning, all the advertising and public relations services including creative and media, web and social media services, and a few other things that our larger competitors don’t touch, like custom training programs, meeting facilitation and custom secret shopper programs. The client has access to what she or he needs, when she or he needs it, without having to pay for the overhead of "all those people under the same roof."

How can we do it? We have a network of exceptional professionals that we bring in when the client needs the services.

Are we free? No. Are we cheap? No. We’re cost effective. Let’s face it, folks, no one gives her time and talent away. Do we get results? Yes. And we have clients that will tell you that.

Our clients are small to medium sized businesses and non-profits. The small business and non-profit clients used to think they couldn't afford an agency. We convinced them that they could and been partners in their growth.

We might be small in numbers "under the same roof," but we’re mighty in creativity, experience, skills, and abilities, and we know how to get the job done excellently. Small can be a good thing, even in the agency business.

How about a little e-mail courtesy...PLEASE?

Face it...e-mail is a way of life, whether it's personal or business. When you think about it, a necessity really. How did you feel when your ISP was down and you couldn't get into your Inbox. Arrrgh! "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!"

Which leads me to ranting about my new pet peeve - some people just don't understand e-mail etiquette. Some things that get me all "het up":

1. Forwarding received e-mail 150,000 times
OK, that's an exaggerated number, but you know what I mean. What makes you think I have the time to scroll down through all the forwards to get to the cheesy message you sent me, believing it's the first time I've ever read it?
Reality check #1: I read this back in 2004, thank you very much. Use a mail stripper progam. Many free downloads on the web, some are easy to use.
2. Not using Bcc: function
Yo dawg, no way am I interested in your e-mail address list. Bcc: means "blind carbon copy" and incoming mail appears to be sent to only one person from sender.
3. Spell check
No, not spell checker (it is not your friend). Did you hear about Mr. Webster's tome, the dictionary?
4. Something seems to good to be true, but you forward it anyway
Reality check #2: AOL, Amazon, Coca-Cola and Pepsi are not going to send you a gazillion dollars for forwarding to everyone in your address book. Before you forward that preposterous, unbelieveable claim, check it out on Snopes or some other fact/fiction URL.
5. PowerPoint e-mails with the worst music in the world
Sorry, Charlie, but even if the pictures are beautiful, if the music is smarmy, I'm outta there! 'Nuff said.
6. ALL CAPS IN MESSAGE
"What did I do to p*ss you off this time, baby?" ~Lyle Lovett, Here I Am

Sure you have you own pet peeves, sent them to me to share here.

Meanwhile, check out 101 E-mail Etiquette Tips (www.101emailetiquettetips.com) for suggestions to up your courtey quotient.

There is Hope for Customer Service

Finally!

Today I got a response to my letter to the president of JC Penney.

A very nice person called to assure me that JC Penney took customer service seriously and that my glasses would not only be replaced, but my warranty on the lenses would be good for a year after I get the replacements and they were also sending me a gift card. She also assured me that she would follow up and give me a call when the glasses were ready for me to pick up.

Frankly, I don't need any gift cards, although I won't turn it down. I am, however, very happy to see that the company responds to complaints and wants to keep customers satisfied. The sad part of all this is that it took a letter to the president of the company to get action, which means that they need to do some employee training!

I know the economy isn't good, and usually training is one of the things that companies scratch from the budget under such circumstances, but management should think twice about NOT training employees in customer service skills. The lady who contacted me on behalf of JC Penney said that one call to a regional manager from the local employees could have solved the problem quickly. I'm sure the local employees would have been happy to get me off their backs with a phone call, but it didn't happen.

Marketers... make sure your company is doing its best in customer service and protect your "customer lifetime value!" All the advertising dollars in the world can't un-do the damage that results from bad customer service. And be happy if customers complain. You'll have the chance to fix the problem. If they just walk off and don't complain, you don't have a clue that there is a problem.

I'm waiting for JC Penney to follow through.

AT&T and Verizon are Wising Up!

In the email news I received today from Advertising Age, the online publication reports that AT&T is dropping its whiny response to Verizon's "apps and maps" campaign for a more positive campaign concept. I'm not sure what "Rethink Possible" means, but at least AT&T seems to have gotten the message that spitting contests don't do much for the average consumer.

The article also says that Verizon is expected to shift gears to a more positive campaign message.

This is a good thing! Maybe the two communications giants will give us some solid reasons to buy their brands instead of acting like kids having a playground spat.

A Letter to the CEO of #139 on the Fortune 500...

Well folks, after no attempts by the J.C. Penney personnel to keep this long time customer and card holder happy, I finally had it today.

I've called and called about my lost glasses and all I get is the answering machine at the J.C. Penney optical department in Mobile. I've left messages asking for the department manager to call me back about my glasses. No call backs! No nothing!

So I just finished a letter to Mr. Myron Ullman, President and CEO. It will go in tomorrow's mail and should be in Plano, Texas by Thursday or Friday. Perhaps Mr. Ullman will get the picture. If not, I'll know that the problem is company-wide and that J.C. Penney is too fixated on door busters and one day sales to care about customer lifetime value, which can be computed in dollars and cents. Just ask Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart knows its customer's value in terms of sales and profit dollars over years of buying, and teaches its employees how much bad service can cost the company.

Obviously J.C. Penney hasn't taught its employees as well as Wal-Mart. That could be why the company must have a "sale" every weekend.

Nor have the J.C. Penney employees been monitoring the web for any "bad news." If they had, they might have answered my blog quickly, like Abebooks.com did. "Abe" gets an A+ in "net savvy", and has redeemed itself on the customer service front! I will return to the Abebooks.com site for purchases in the future. Not so with J.C. Penney.

J.C. Penney, you just failed the marketing 101 midterm. I hope you do better on your final.

Marketers, keep an eye on your company's customer service and take action to protect that "customer lifetime value!" Train employees in the art of customer retention. It's as important as any of the "p's" in the marketing cycle!

Funeral Services for Customer Service on Hold...

I've cancelled the funeral service for customer service in respect to our online book order problem. I got several emails from Abebooks.com and from the book seller who shipped the book. And the book arrived within 4 days. So we have no quarrel with Abebooks. I even got a comment on the blog posting from Abebooks. I can appreciate the fact that the book site and seller made things right. The book seller does need to make sure that his email response is correct from now on, though. It is a bit disconcerting when you pay for expedited shipping and get an email saying that your package is coming via Uncle Sam's pony express.

I haven't cancelled the funeral for J.C. Penney's customer service, though. It's been almost two weeks since the local store said I would get a new pair of glasses to replace my now long lost pair. I haven't heard a word since my last call to them. And I'm keeping notes on dates, times and what has been said.

You would think that a company of J.C. Penney's size would respond at least as fast as our online book buddies at Abebooks. Not so. And I guess they don't have anyone who monitors the Internet for things that are being said about the company. I'm not sure how large or small Abebooks is, but I'm sure they don't have the corporate hiring power of J.C. Penney, and yet they obviously monitor the blogs on the Internet.

Good for Abebooks.com! Bad for J.C. Penney! Perhaps I should offer them our services in public relations and customer service training.

Thanks for restoring my faith in techies, Abebooks.com (especially Scott)! Perhaps you need to offer your services to J.C. Penney, too.

Customer Service Died an Unnatural Death!

No wonder my blood pressure is high. I've been caught in a customer service nightmare with several companies. Companies are not paying attention to what employees are doing to ruin reputations and chase off customers! Shame on you, marketing professionals! Customer retention is of utmost importance!

Incident number 1: J.C. Penney Optical - last year I had my eyes checked and bought new glasses at J.C. Penney Optical. This was the second time I decided to use them. The first time, I has a very good customer experience and bought glasses without pressure to pay a fortune for things I didn't want or need. This time, the buying experience was good again.

However, I paid for insurance on my lenses so that I could have them replaced if they got scratched or damage, so when that happened around the first of this year, I took them back and asked to have them either repaired or replaced. The women who were on duty were trying to deal with lots of customers. It was obvious they needed more help. I dutifully waited until I could get service. The sales person was nice, but distracted. She said she would send the glasses back to the lab and call me when the lab had an answer about what they could do.

Several weeks later, I hadn't heard anything about my glasses, so I called. The person who answered my call had no idea what I was talking about and asked me to call back when the optical department manager was in. I kept calling back. The optical department manager wasn't in each time I called. I finally got her. She said she would check on my glasses and call me back. Some time later, she called back and said the glasses should be shipped to the Mobile store within that week. I called back several times and finally was told the glasses had come in. I went to get them on a Friday. The frames weren't the same. The glasses didn't have Transition lenses. The glasses made my vision blurry. But the sales person assured me they were my glasses and that I should go home and wear them for a few days. I went home, tried again, got sick to my stomach, and took the glasses back the very next day to complain. They weren't my glasses. The girl who took them said she would leave a message with the manager. I wrote the message - explaining the mistake. Since then, I have called, gone to the store and done everything in my power to get them to either give me the right glasses or give me my money back. The last time I was in, I was told by the clerk that I had to get permission to get a refund on my glasses. She was too busy talking on the phone to someone and laughing it up to treat my problem with any concern.

My next step... I think I'll write to the CEO of J.C. Penney and complain. But first, I'll blog.

Incident number 2: Abebooks.com - I ordered a text book I needed for teaching my Marketing Management Class at Spring Hill. I ordered expedited shipping (2-4 days) and was charged about three or four dollars more for it ($7.99 to be exact). I just got notice from Abebooks and from "The Book Place" that the order had shipped, but the shipping notice said it was shipped standard mail (4 - 10 days). So I emailed them back and said I had paid for expedited shipping. I got a reply that made no sense. "We are sorry you haven't received your book yet. If..." Nothing about my payment for expedited shipping, or graciously saying they would refund the difference. That's the last time I'll shop on Abebooks.com and I'll be sure NOT to recommend the site to any students, professors, peers, friends... you get the picture.

I guess companies don't bother to explain to employees that in lean economic times, the employee's job and the future of the company may very well rest on customer satisfaction and customer retention. And the employees obviously don't give a hoot about customer satisfaction once the customer has been fleeced out of the bucks.

So we must hold a funeral for customer service. It's dead. Though I don't think it's buried yet.

March 12th - Addendum: The latest from Abebooks.com and The Book Place... I received an email saying that the notification template that was used was wrong and that my order had been shipped per my payment and request for expedited shipping. So we have closed the book on this one, I hope and I'll be expecting to get the book soon. One thing I can say about the customer service for these two providers, they do answer email quickly. And that's a good sign! Maybe customer service isn't totally dead. Maybe it can be revived.

(Imagery Marketing Consultants can produce and facilitate custom customer service training programs. Contact Imagery for help in training your employees how to retain customers through excellent service.)

AT&T and Verizon: C'mon, boys! Your playground arguments are getting on teacher's nerves!

Okay. So we have "apps and maps" and we have "maps and slaps." Can anyone tell me why we should believe either of these two companies' advertising arguments?

I looked at the two maps that Verizon uses in its advertising and had to laugh. From just looking at the coverage comparison, I really doubted the truth of the commercial! It was just a bit too far fetched to think that AT& T had that many holes in its coverage. I'm an AT&T user and I call all over the United States and get calls from all over the United States. Yes, there are areas where call strength might not be the best, but I've also talked to Verizon customers who have the same problem.

And AT&T, just because I'm your customer doesn't mean I like your pouty little comeback to Verizon's maps. Your commercials and spokesperson sound like a whiney baby. And I dislike whiney babies in business!

In fact, I don't like either company's advertising strategy! I like the "Now Network" strategy that Sprint is using. Sprint isn't talking bad about the competition. They are talking good about themselves, and throwing in a little humor to grab my attention.

I thought the objective of advertising was to tout the benefits of your product to the consumer, not give your competition face time on your dime. Especially the mean way these two companies are going at it. The commercials aren't even funny! And the differentiation of any wireless brand is questionable these days. The only difference I can see is customer service, and I'm convinced AT&T still has the best. That's the reason I'm sticking with them.

Progresso abandoned its attacks on Campbell's in favor of its current ad strategy, the "string-and-can phone inquiries" which are extremely humorous, get my attention and promote the benefits of the Progresso brand and products. I've actually started buying some Progresso soups, which is a big change since I've always been a "Campbell's soup kid."

So AT&T and Verizon, stop acting like children and tell me what's great about your product in an interesting way!

2010 With A Bang! Robertson vs. Christianity?

Well, 2009 went fast! And updating the old Phlog wasn't possible with everything that was going on... helping clients through the economic wasteland, teaching future communications and marketing professionals how to think strategically, taking care of family and pet, and trying to keep the financial wheels on the track for a small Lutheran congregation.

But excuses aside! We're in 2010 and I still have some of the same obligations. However, a discussion about Pat Robertson's comments on the earthquake that devastated Haiti took place at our church this morning and gave me good reason to sharpen up my "pencil" and blog.

Pat Robertson does not speak for the entire Christian church on earth! As a Christian, I resent what he said about "God's punishment of Haiti" and I'm sure there are a majority of Christians out there who feel the same. In fact, I found one comment on the New York Times web site that said what I feel. God is really at work in the charity of nations, organizations and people who are contributing to the relief efforts to help the people of Haiti.

God is also at work in the miracles that have taken place there. I have a friend who has family in Haiti. He reported the other day that the members of his family who are still on the island were safe, pulled from the rubble alive, and who thanked God for it. He believes that this is a miracle. So do I. His entire U.S. family has been praying since the earthquake hit, and they believe in the power of prayer and point to this "miracle" as proof.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that a new-born child, just 15 days old, was pulled from the rubble alive, having survived "nearly half her life without food or water amid the ruins." (Wall St. Journal, January 20, 2010, 1:41 p.m.; by Christopher Rhoads & Michael M. Phillips; http://online.wsj.com/)

What a miracle!

These "miracles" are evidence of God at work in a world that men have messed up!

Pat Robertson... well, God bless him; maybe some day he'll learn that the Christian God is a God of mercy. That's what makes the Christian God different from all others.

A 60-Second Introduction to SEO

Hello. I am Ernie Schwarcz, and I am very proud of having been invited by Pat to be a guest phlogger and to occasionally share some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) insights and experiences with you.

Before I start, here are a few remarks (since we don’t know each other yet). First, I will assume that you have at least some basic SEO knowledge. If you are a total beginner (don’t worry, at one point we all were!), you’re welcome to refer to my introductory SEO articles on my own website. Here’s the link: www.seotrump.com/seo_articles.php

Second, I’ll try to keep my content professional but the style lighthearted. After all, SEO is great if it works, but can be quite technical on the bumpy road to success. Therefore, I’ll try to cite simple yet vivid examples and real-life comparisons.

Finally, you are welcome and encouraged to comment or criticize. The give and take of a discussion makes these topics even more interesting.

Let’s get started. First, a very simplified overview you can consider a 49-line (I counted!) crash course:

We all know that On-Page ( = Organic) SEO is the science of structuring, writing and programming a website in such a way that search engines will place the site high in their search results (for the desired keywords). This is my definition; Wikipedia’s you can find here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization. To this end, the search engines (to simplify matters, let’s take Google) frequently “crawl” millions of websites in order to register their content, HTML and other site “makeup”. Then Google files some of what it found. After every new crawl, that information usually gets updated in its databases.

When a web user searches for a given keyword or search term, such as “Montreal SEO Services” (I wonder where I got this example from …), Google compares this search term with all the information it has collected and pre-sorted from all similar and comparable sites. Then it very quickly sorts the information and displays on its search results thousands of websites most important in relation to “Montreal SEO Services” – most relevant websites first. Of course, every website wants to be first because first ranked, first clicked, first to get the opportunity.

For easier understanding, here is an example from real life. Let’s assume Jane Doe walks into her local library looking for books. The librarian will retrieve books for her based on the subject she chooses, but if Jane’s subject is too general, she’ll be asked for clarification. In other words, she’ll have to narrow down her topic. Initially, Jane is inexplicably shy. But eventually she tells the librarian that she is looking for books on bad marriages, good poison, and outstanding criminal lawyers. Now we are talking, and a successful search can be done within minutes.

A search engine is not a librarian and has no idea what you really want when you type in a general expression. But what a search engine will do is compare the search query to the information in their databases, find the contents which most closely match the requested information, and then rank them in order of importance, or relevance, whereby the most relevant contents are displayed first.

And these contents (as mentioned, they regularly are collected by the search engines) are simply what web designers or webmasters have written into their web sites, either explicitly in the copy, the HTML code, or - implicitly - as a set of logical connections, by way of internal and external links to the individual web pages.

So it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the better designed and written a web site, the more relevant its content will be for the search engines for certain keywords or search terms. Increased relevance will, in turn, rank the site higher on the search engines' results pages for those terms.

How does Google determine what is “relevant”? Great question. The answer is: it has its own set of hundreds of very complex mathematical and logical rules, aka algorithms. Of course, we would all love to know these rules as they would guarantee top Search Engine Results Positions (SERPs) at all times. Alas, no-one knows for sure since Google guards its algorithms like the vaults of Fort Knox (and, to boot, often modifies and even changes them to keep us on our toes).

Well, not quite. The general principles are more or less known, and Google itself publishes some general guidelines. What is not known is the exact weight Google attaches to each of those rules and in which precise combination they are most effective. Add to this the fact that Yahoo and Bing have different criteria and algorithms, and you can imagine how difficult it is to optimize a website to satisfy all the Search Engines’ criteria.

Welcome to the complex world of SEO!

This was a lengthy introduction and future phlogs will be much shorter (promise!), but once you’ve read the above, future tips and pointers (to follow, unless Pat ejects me) will suddenly become quite common-sense and logical.


Ernie Schwarcz is President of SEO Trump Consultant Company in Montreal, Canada. SEO Trump Consulting is a Web Design & SEO Services Company specializing in high-quality yet affordable Web & SEO Services. Services are offered to US, Canadian and International clients in a a number of languages, including English, French, German, Chinese, Spanish, and Hungarian.

Guest Blogger: APRs take PR to Heroic Proportions

Our guest "Phlogger" this week is Michael Tullier, APR, director of external relations for the Auburn University College of Education.

It doesn’t take a superhero to fend off reporters and save the CEO in distress, but in today’s fast-paced world of public relations, there is a group of professionals with the demonstrated “powers” needed to be successful. Some mild-mannered, some daring – but all equipped with the knowledge, skills and abilities demanded of the public relations profession – these professionals certainly don’t keep their Accredited in Public Relations identity a secret.

Professionals don’t earn their APR through exposure to the yellow sun or the bite of a radioactive spider. Each builds on book smarts and practical experience and approaches the process with different expectations. But since “deliverables” in our profession are critical, pursuing Accreditation results in power-packed benefits for professionals, employers and the profession as a whole.

Combining introspection and education. Accredited professionals have reported through surveys that the APR process is reflective, introspective and knowledge-expanding. And while we celebrate those employers who require the APR as a requisite for employment or financially reward those who achieve this milestone, a vast majority of APRs find contentment in the personal rewards Accreditation offers. Through a process that 96 percent of APRs surveyed find valuable, 96 percent would recommend to a colleague, and 93 percent feel assessed the skills needed to succeed in the profession, APRs acknowledge the credential for building confidence and credibility while expanding their knowledge content.

Gaining marketplace credibility. Accreditation is not a new concept to corporate America. Manufacturers, educational institutions, medical facilities and the like seek the integrity that comes with their industry’s or discipline’s accrediting endorsement. Should it not make sense that companies would seek the same in their hiring practices? Consider that the human resource industry itself has, not one, but two distinct accrediting levels for human resource professionals. Accredited public relations professionals demonstrate their commitment to mastering – and continuing to develop – the knowledge, skills and abilities, or KSAs, desired by today’s employers. The APR credential also helps employers clearly and effectively evaluate one’s qualifications when compared to applicants from other professions who see public relations as a chance to “try something new” or to take their career “in a new direction.”

Defining the profession. The Accreditation process benefits our profession by bringing structure and definition to it. As part of the Universal Accreditation Board’s 2003 effort to redesign the APR process, APR leaders sought a better understanding of what our profession entails and what it takes to be successful in today’s PR environment. And guess what? It didn’t reveal necessary characteristics like “being a people person.” It created clear delineations between the tactical and strategic practice levels, emphasized the professional’s counselor role, and clarified that public relations doesn’t “just happen” – it is a deliberate, ethically based executive function with measurable results.

Accreditation in Public Relations has prepared – and continues to prepare – professionals to lead by example in our industry and in our associations. Within the nine participating organizations of the Universal Accreditation Board, you’ll find within these associations’ top volunteer and paid leadership levels Accredited professionals equipped to advance the opportunities for their fellow professionals and our profession. As a result, those who have demonstrated an intricate understanding of our profession and their own professional practice are imminently qualified to see our industry into the coming decades.

I’m not suggesting that “APR” comes emblazoned on its own red-and-blue spandex outfit, part of a gadget-ridden utility belt or with powers sufficient to gain you a title role on NBC’s Heroes. What it does, however, is empower professionals in a manner each finds befitting their personal, professional and volunteer expectations. For professionals eager to distinguish themselves in today’s marketplace, Accreditation in Public Relations offers a means of garnering positive attention and that “second glance” in a way that wearing a cape to work never will.

Power up today at www.praccreditation.org.

Michael Tullier, APR, is director of external relations for the Auburn University College of Education in Auburn, Ala. An award-winning public relations professional with more than 15 years of experience as an organization’s chief public relations counsel and spokesperson, Michael achieved accreditation in 2003. Tullier served as chair of the Universal Accreditation Board in 2008 and is its current immediate past chair. During his UAB tenure, which began in 2005, he has represented both the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and Southern Public Relations Federation (SPRF).

Guest Blogger: What is Web 2.0? Interactivity and Social Networking are taking over!

Our Guest "Phlogger" this week is Deborah Geiger, APR, of Content Fresh LLC

Are you running Web 2.0? A dramatic shift has occurred worldwide on the Internet that will impact your business whether you follow it or not.

Web sites of the last century were diverse, and one common characteristic was that content was driven by the corporation. Polished and informative brochure-style sites contained loads of information on company history, products, purchase information, and other static business information and resources. Researchers from institutions, marketing and sales divisions of corporations and information sources loaded the Internet with information and valuable content.

The new Internet, or Web 2.0, is driven by individuals.

A Wikipedia definition: "Web 2.0" refers to what is perceived as a second generation of web development and web design. It is characterized as facilitating communication, information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. It has led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and web applications. Examples include social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashups and folksonomies.
[Citation: Web 2.0. (2009, July 10). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10:14, July 10, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Web_2.0&oldid=301344373]

While companies are still posting and adding content in scores, the change is in the fact that the majority of what people say online is no longer managed by corporations or their staff. Millions of people share information daily on social networking sites, such as Facebook (over 5 million members) and Twitter. In fact research shows that searches for social networking has FINALLY surpassed porn!

“According to Bill Tancer, Hitwise's general manager of global research, Web searches for social networking sites have finally surpassed searches for pornography.” [Source: Gina Hughes: The Techie Diva, blog, Yahoo Tech!, Tue Sep 16, 2008 7:39PM EDT]

By enabling and allowing information sharing and collaboration, the Web has become a shared “application” where the content begins with PEOPLE, not business or companies. Smart companies are joining in the conversation by adding corporate blogs, joining Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and more.

Leading edge are letting their customers post actual messages and receive feedback in real-time on their sites. It takes guts to allow your customers to post their true feelings about your products on your Web site, but the companies that do this are seen as sincere, honest and businesses where you will want to spend your money! Are you ready to give it a try?

–Deborah York Geiger, APR, owner of Content Fresh LLC, maintains a blog at www.geigerpoint.wordpress.com. With 20 years experience in marketing, public relations and business, Deborah writes about technology for business professionals. For more information, visit www.myfreshcontent.com.

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SPRF (Southern Public Relations Federation) is conducting a survey about use of social networks. If you are an SPRF member and have not taken the survey, please use the link below and take part. And if you do not belong to SPRF, please take the survey anyway. Here's a link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=6V1DTiyALEIcBDa6IIdTbA_3d_3d
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Check out this link! http://www.buffalonews.com/145/story/751819.html

It will take you to a story on the benefits of using a virtual ad agency. Imagery Marketing & Research Consultants, Inc. is a virtual agency... And we would love your business! We've got years of experience and loads of expertise. Check us out at http:www.imagerymarketing.com

Do We Still Need Newspapers? What About Local Radio?

I was skimming through my overview of discussions in the Linked In groups to which I “belong” when I came across one that immediately got my attention.

Charisse Louis, who owns a graphic design shop and is a blogger, asked the question, “Do you still read the newspaper?," bewailed that the over 55 crowd seems to be the only group that still reads the paper, and wondered what would happen when they (I assume, newspapers) were gone? She has written a blog installment on the same question. (Here's a link: http://www.charene.net/blog )

It triggered memories of bad times here on the Gulf Coast. In the wake of several hurricanes, the most devastating of which was Katrina, I saw good reason NOT to allow newspapers or local radio stations to vanish!

I know that the under 50 crowd thinks they can get their news from national broadcasts or on the Internet, but my question to them is, “what happens when there is no power, the phone lines and cell towers are damaged, you can’t get on the Internet (for lack of power or your wireless connection on your laptop isn’t getting a signal), and you can’t watch TV because it’s all digital now?”

In a media class I was teaching at Spring Hill College, many of the students believed that local radio and newspaper were “dead” until I described how it felt when a hurricane made landfall and the aftermath of the storm. Some of them had been in Mobile after Katrina, so they understood what I was talking about.

During the storm, the only connection you have to the outside world is the voice on the local radio station, since the only means of receiving news is your battery powered radio. Your battery powered televisions are no good now that we’ve gone to digital signal only. You huddle around the radio in the dark listening to that voice tell you where the storm is and what’s happening. Sometimes the voice may go off the air because the “roof of the studio is coming down.” (This actually happened during hurricane Frederic in the 70s.) So you switch to another station. I applaud these brave “voices in the dark” for staying and reporting to all the fearful folks huddled around their battery powered radios.

And when the hurricane has passed through and you emerge to take stock of the damage, you have another dilemma. Power is out, cell phones and phones may not work. Once again you feel cut off. But either that day or the next, the local paper is being sold on the street corners or delivered to your house. In the stifling heat, you read all about the devastation visited on your city and/or others down the coast; where to get help, supplies and services; catch up on the regional, national and international news; and you are eternally grateful that the paper published the issue in some other city and had it trucked in for the residents, who otherwise would be isolated.

After one of the hurricanes flooded Mobile some years back and the wind knocked out power, the Mobile Press Register still produced a daily paper. They had it printed in either Pensacola or Birmingham and trucked in. We got our in-depth news, which is still another reason for newspapers to be treasured.

Broadcast news cannot give us the in-depth coverage of a newspaper. I take the digital form of the Wall Street Journal, and treasure my time going through the articles. I read the printed format of the Mobile Press Register (as lean as it is these days). If the power goes out, I’ll lose my Wall Street Journal feed for lack of power to my computer, just as I’ll lose television coverage, but the Mobile Press Register will still be there, as will local radio stations.

I happen to like to work the crossword puzzles in the paper. I’ve tried doing crossword puzzles online, but at 9 p.m. my eyes hurt and I don’t want to be in front of a computer screen any longer!

I’m afraid of what will become of in-depth news when print is gone. I’m afraid that there will be lots of coastal residents in the dark with no friendly voices telling them what is happening if the local radio stations go automated and all we have is “national robo announcers” or satellite. I think there is good reason to have many viable mediums from which we get our news. I don’t think that digital television, satellite radio and the Internet are the end-all be-all of the media world.

Ms. Louis emailed me and said she had never considered a natural disaster when she had come up with her blog post about newspapers. And I didn’t see any other people citing similar examples in their discussions.

Is there anybody else out there that is afraid of losing our local media (especially print)? Is there anybody else out there who wonders what will happen in the wake of a natural (or unnatural) disaster? I’m afraid that we are being short sighted in our worship of the “new” technologies we have developed. How about you?

Search Engine Woes Part II

SEO, SEO…Don’t get me banned from Google, Mr. SEO!

On my last post, we looked at a couple of tricks that some underhanded SEO practitioners might use. And I promised you that in a future post, we would cover things that might get you banned on search engines. Well here we go...

Straight from the webcrawler's mouth, here are the ten "dirty SEO tricks" that will cause Google to ban your site:
1. Cloaking (This doesn't relate to a Romulan "bird of prey.")
2. Duplicate Content (Pretty much what it says...)
3. Have a Robot Write Your Web Site (Mr. Data isn't involved here, either.)
4. Add Keywords that Don't Relate to Your Content (What it says...)
5. Link to Bad Neighborhoods (They have those on the web? Believe it!)
6. Hide Text (Also called keyword stuffing or fontmatching.)
7. Title Stacking (Google calls this the "cousin" of keyword stuffing.)
8. Distribute Viruses, Trojans or Other Badware (Nasty, Nasty!)
9. Doorway Pages (Another sneaky redirect)
10. Automated Inquiries (Another Robot No No!)

And rather than "duplicate content" which might violate copyright (which to me is one of the BIG No Nos), I'm going to link you to the About.com page that explains the ten nasty tricks listed above. http://google.about.com/od/searchengineoptimization/tp/badseo.htm?p=1

Search Engine Woes Part I

SEO, SEO… What the Heck is SEO?

According to Wikipedia:
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Typically, the earlier a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.

The acronym "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers," a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems and shopping carts that are easy to optimize.

Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or Spamdexing, use methods such as link farms and keyword stuffing that degrade both the relevance of search results and the user-experience of search engines. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques in order to remove them from their indices.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization

So how do I get “SEOd”?

We are constantly being emailed about optimizing our site (which we have already done, and we do for all our clients). I had one “gentleman” tell me we had to hire his firm because no one could find our site on the search engines. I asked him how he found us. Obviously, he had been on our site, since he knew we existed, had my company email address and the company phone number. He couldn’t have found us in the Yellow Pages, since we’re not there.

Watch out for these companies that contact you by email and tell you that they can produce great results for you. These spam emails are about as useful as the emails that you get on “male enhancement” pills.

Your webmaster or mistress should understand keyword optimization and build it into your site in the design and development phase. If you have hired someone to build your site, ask them if they understand SEO before the process begins. And listen carefully. If they promise you the moon and stars, be skeptical.

If you already have a site, check with your provider and ask them if they have optimized your site. Ask them how they did it. If you don’t hear anything about keywords and site structure, then you may want to investigate companies that do search engine optimizing. But be careful. There are plenty of SEOs out there that do underhanded and unethical stuff that may get your site removed from the search engine indices (as stated above).

If you think you need SEO, check with people you trust to find out who they recommend. Talk to your ISP. Talk to Internet design firms. And be wary of the “SEO” song and dance. Don’t let anyone promise to put you at the top of the Google search. Nobody can promise that you’ll end up as number one on all the search engines.

Questions to ask:

* What experience do you have in my local area? Nationally? Internationally?
* What are your most important SEO techniques?
* How long have you been doing SEO? How long has your company been in business?
* Are you putting me in paid advertising or actually optimizing my site?
* How do we communicate? Will you provide me with detailed information about how you intend to optimize my site and the reasoning behind your plan? Will you provide me with a written plan and list of keywords?

If you don't have an Internet site design and maintenance firm, check us out. http://www.imagerymarketing.com

Next time – Avoiding practices that could get you banned from the search engine indices.

Recovering From Information Burnout

I just spent about a month not updating this blog. Why? I think I’ve been suffering from information burnout!

Between RSS feeds, e-publications, social media, other blogs to follow, business and personal email (at several addresses), and updating client sites, I finally ended up with totally singed synapses. So what did I do? I backed away from every form of communication I could and only looked at the news info I had to have to keep our clients happy and unscathed by the information age.

Having bronchitis for about four weeks didn’t help, since my voice kept cracking when I answered business calls, but it probably aided my attempt to hide from the information bombardment.

Do any of you find yourselves experiencing information burnout? I’d like to know. I don’t see myself becoming a tweeter for this very reason. Perhaps this isn’t a great admission on my part, but…

Hey! We all need a vacation at times!