Brett Borders – Online Reputation Management

I just finished responding to a bunch of interview questions about community building from a good friend, and social media rockstar, Brett Borders. If you haven’t had the opportunity to check out his site before, I strongly recommend going through each and every post, and of course, when the interview is published, you’ll want to have a look at that as well. Brett is one of the smartest people in the social space, and I guarantee that you could stand to learn a thing or two from him.

In addition to social, Brett is a bonified expert in online reputation management. He publishes a blog focused on the topic called Online Reputation Edge, and if you’re ever need some help in that field, I strongly recommend you check it out or get in touch!

Charles Feldman – Crisis Management & Media Consulting

I’ve known Charles for many years now, and he is flat out brilliant. Formerly with CNN, he is an investigative journalist with KNX Radio in Los Angeles, and writes for such outlets as Reuters, Huffington Post, WalletPop, HousingWatch, and the BiggerPockets Blog . He is also co-author of the book, “No Time To Think-The Menace of Media Speed and the 24-hour News Cycle.”

According to his website, “He has extensive experience as owner of a Beverly Hills based media consulting company in corporate, as well as individual media crisis management. Feldman has trained lawyers, doctors, corporate leaders and private citizens in how to best present themselves and their business/practice to the media.” Very few consultants have the experience in television, radio, print, and the internet, as do Charles.

Wrapping it up . . .

DISCLAIMER: I don’t get paid for referring these people to you.

Both have the experience and expertise to help you in the event that you need assistance with your reputation or crisis & media management. So, in the event that the shit hits the fan, you now know where to turn.

You can contact them on their sites, or follow Brett and Charles on Twitter.

Tags: crisis management, media consulting, reputation, Social Media

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

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

I’ll admit that I’ve become accustomed to using Twitter (and other social media) throughout my day to share interesting information, links, articles, etc. I’ve been doing it for some time now, but I came to an epiphany yesterday that is going to change my behavior. I wasn’t sharing my every move like the guy in the video below (and like a HUGE number of people that I watch do), but I was still spending quality time building up Twitter instead of this and my other websites. Dave Fleet put together a good post about the commitment requirements of blogging vs Twitter, and in response to his article, I’ll argue that your time is better served blogging.

When you post links, tips, and other information on Twitter, you get little direct benefit, unless your linking to your own content only, which is a turnoff for many followers. While your followers may appreciate the information you share, and you may build your Twitter follower count, you’re foregoing the opportunity to build your own direct community for immediate gratification.

Instead of Tweeting About Your Niche, Blog About It!

One of the perks of Twitter, of course, is that it lets you send short bits of information. We may not always want to do an entire blog post about something, but I’ve noticed in my case and that of others, that we are spending more and more time chatting it up on Twitter at the expense of our own blogs.

I realized that I was spending close to an half hour a day on Twitter . . . time that I could otherwise spend building up my own content and blog’s brand. Some people may argue that I can better build the brand by spending time on Twitter, but I disagree. I think Twitter is a great tool to help extend the reach of your brand, but in that half hour a day I was Tweeting, I could be working on my own articles and creating better content for my readers.

Reasons to Blog Instead of Tweeting

• First and foremost, you retain the traffic – Content is king, and once you go on Twitter and other networks to share content instead of doing it on your own site, you’re helping to build their community instead of your own. Of course, your followers may enjoy the link out to a cool story or link, but why give away the link juice when you can do a post about it on your own site and retain eyeballs?
• Monetization – There are certainly some tools designed to monetize Twitter for users (primarily, these are money making URL shortner tools), but if you’re adding the content to your own site, you increase the monetization capabilities of your blog.
• Deep exploration of a topic, site, link, etc – I realize that the beauty of Twitter is that it is a “micro blogging” application. That said, it isn’t a great place to deeply explore and delve into a topic. You can certainly talk about a topic in a series of tweets, but it makes it difficult for a large group of readers/followers to stay on message. Obviously, a blog post can deeply examine any subject, of course provided the writer is capable of expressing himself.

I do think that there is value in participating on Twitter, and I’ve made a ton of great connections through it, but I think it is very easy to get caught up in it all. A little bit of time each day is fine, but any more and you should probably be hanging out on your own website or building up your own content.

Are there other reasons that I’m missing? What do YOU think?

Is your time better served posting on Twitter or adding additional content to your own website?

Tags: blog, Blogging, community, make money, Online Communities, Social Media, Social network, Twitter