TimeForBlogging

Over the past week or two I’ve noticed a new form of what I would deem Twitter SPAM. I’m not talking about all the crappy auto-responder messages or the direct tweets that try to get you to visit a link. This new form of spam on Twitter is more devious.

Examples:

As you can see from the examples above, the posters are sending out Re-Tweets, but in their messages, they are linking back to their websites in the very beginning of EVERY message. As you can see from the image below, these guys have made a habit out of it.

I’m starting to think that there is some social media “guru” teaching this twitter spam technique to people in real estate, because I’m not really seeing it in any other niche that I’m a part of. Anyone know who is putting this out there?

Why is This Spam?

I’d call this practice spam because it is an underhanded method of shoving your links into the face of anyone that you are communicating with. People can very easily go to your profile and see your link – you don’t need to post it in every one of your tweets that involve other people.

When your friends/followers visit your at (@) messages, these guys now have visibility.

You’re not going to build real relationships by annoying people; social media is about forging bonds. I see no reason to stay connected with someone that does this to those people who are interested in what I’ve got going on.

The Dilemma

Would you rather have some spammy person retweeting your articles, or simply block those people altogether?

I think this will pose a dilemma for many people.

These people are helping to market you, but they are doing so in a spammy way, right? They are potentially putting your link in front of thousands of their followers; is it a good idea to let them continue?

What would you do?

FYI – Clearly, anyone who knows me, realizes that I am no longer following these people; I also blocked them for good measure. I don’t care if I get an extra click here or there because of their re-tweets. The principle of how they are doing it just pisses me off!

Tags: Online Communities, Real estate, Social Media, spam, Twitter

I just wanted to share a great tool that I recently found, called Balsamiq, used for creating software mockups. This is great for developers, designers, or web-entrepreneurs like myself.

Check out the demo to get a quick walk through.

Tags: balsamiq, development, software

Here’s a great video taken at WordCamp 2009 of Matt Cutts, sharing some SEO Tips for Wordpress users:

Thoughts?

Tags: matt cutts, SEO, Wordpress

It looks like our good friend, Twitter.com is down once again. Facebook has also been giving me problems for a few days, so my guess is that there is another attack happening . . . of course that is just speculation!

Where’s the Fail Whale when you need him?

Tags: facebook, fail, Social Media, Twitter

A short while ago, a call came into my office from someone asking for me. My secretary answered the call and asked the caller how he could help them. The caller responded with his name and asked to talk to me (Josh Dorkin).

My secretary then asked the caller what this was regarding and he insisted on talking to me without providing any details. Again, he was asked what it was regarding and after a moment and a huff, responded, “real estate.” Finally, in hopes of finding out what the call was about, my secretary asked the caller if he could be a little more specific, and the caller hung up on him.

My secretary did as he was told, and screened the caller to find out who was calling for me and what they were calling about. This person refused to give any details, and my secretary was correct in not passing me the phone.

If You Can’t Respect the Help, You’re Not Going to Get Very Far!

One of the greatest things about my secretary is that I am my secretary. I was screening my own calls, and the person calling was not going to get to talk to me (the real me) if he wasn’t going to give my secretary (the fake me) any respect, or acknowledge what he wanted with me.

So, next time you’re calling for someone, treat them with respect and let them know the reason for your call, as you never know who you’re talking to.

BTW – I’m looking forward to seeing if he calls back/emails again . . . should be fun!

I’ve only got a few minutes, but I had to get something off of my chest.

After determining that I’m just not going to use my gym membership, I decided to give my 30 days notice. I knew that I had to get this handled quickly, as the end of the month was quickly approaching.

I called my gym on Monday morning and was put through to their accounting office, where I got a voicemail; I left a message letting them know that I needed to cancel, and to call me. After not hearing back all day, I called back, and again was put through to voicemail — once again, I left a message.

I then followed up with an email to ensure that I had some kind of proof that I had indeed tried to cancel.

I didn’t hear back from anyone on Tuesday, so on Wednesday I sent another follow up email regarding cancellation and CC’d my wife for yet more proof that I had indeed contacted them about the matter.

This morning, Thursday, I received a phone call from someone regarding my membership. She told me that she had canceled the membership and gave me a confirmation number of the cancellation.

I inquired why it took so long for someone to get back to me and she told me that she had called and left me a message on Monday afternoon. I thanked her and got off the phone.

I was upset that I must have missed the call and her voicemail, so I called to listen to this missed message.

It wasn’t there.

I checked my cell phone.

There was no message.

I checked my wife’s.

There was no message.

Perplexed, I decided to check the missed calls on my phone and logged into my phone accounts to see when she called, but there was NO record that she ever called!

Sometimes CYA Will Bite YOU Back

Clearly, when she told me that she had left me a message, she was covering her ass. Most people would have accepted the information and moved on, but I was fairly certain that I would have know if she called.

This woman simply lied to me.

Do you think I’ll EVER refer anyone to join that gym?

If you said no, you nailed it! I’m now going to tell everyone the story of how I was lied to, instead of telling people about the gym itself. By doing a CYA, she instantly created bad karma and publicity for the gym.

Why did she do it?

I have no idea, but sometimes it is easier to lie then to admit that you were wrong.

I bet that is the case here.

Lessons Learned?

Lying can be bad for business, so stop doing it!

Tags: advice, business, Cover your ass, Information

Yesterday, I received a message that blew my mind. In a post that I wrote for another blog last summer, I had included an image that I found in Flikr’s Creative Commons directory. This image was posted under a license requiring anyone using it to attribute the image to them.

(NOTE: Image above is not the image in question)

Of course, when I placed the image in the post, I included the image’s title, the photographer, and finally, a link back.

And Then Things Changed

The message that was sent to me went like this:

At the time that you posted the picture, it did have a Creative Commons License. . . . That said, at this point, the picture now has full copyright protection with ‘all rights reserved’. Since I have not given you permission to use my picture, would you kindly remove it from your site?

Of course, I respected their wishes and removed the image, but am I the only one who sees a problem with all of this?

Once you grant open access to your works and people start to use those works, how on earth do you come forward and ask for them to stop? Am I crazy, or is that akin to Amazon deleting the Orwell books on your Kindle?

Why Change Your Work from Open Source to Pay to Play?

I guess I don’t understand what inspires someone to go back on their promise to give the world free access to their works. Even if they do, who goes and hunts down everyone who has used that content and demands it be taken down?

Its all a bit funny to me . . . I guess I’m just still trying to process it.

Photo Credit: TilarX

Tags: Copyright, Creative Commons, Creative Commons licenses, flikr, Open source