What Not To Do Online: Meltdown 101

Remember when you used to be able to get angry, air your opinion, and move on? Not any more.

In today’s fast paced world, if you take action before thinking, you could wind up in a whole lot of trouble very quickly.

As evidenced by a recent breakdown of a Scottsdale, Arizona company.What Not To Do Online Meltdown 101

Read here

And here

The owners of Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Boutique & Bistro were featured on an episode of Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares. The owners were too difficult to work with, so Ramsey dumped them before finishing the process. And that didn’t sit well with the owners. So they took to the online world to air their opinion.

And it quickly blew up into whole lot more.

Yelp reviews skyrocketed, and no one had anything good to say.

Reddit threads monitored the meltdown process.

Facebook reached out to tens of thousands of readers.

And the meltdown went on and on.

The problem with having a meltdown online is it’s there forever. No matter what you do, the meltdown will follow. Especially when it hits you in so many different ways.

People write about it on blogs. They report it on news sites. It circulates again and again. No matter what you do to try and erase the trail, it will exist forever.

Yes, it can quickly be the end of your business. And time will tell whether this company can survive this meltdown.

Yet for every online meltdown we witness, there are lessons to be learned. What can you do to avoid the same situation in your future?

Recognize “Damage Control” Situations

It’s easy to take a look at a situation like the one mentioned above and understand exactly where they went wrong. But can you recognize it in your own business?

No company will ever be completely immune to negative comments and disgruntled customers. There are always people that simply won’t be happy with what you say or do.

Yet the art comes in learning when to stop long before it becomes a problem. You’ve heard the phrase “friends don’t let friends drive drunk”. You may have heard “friends don’t let friends text while drunk (or angry, or emotional, etc)”. The same applies in any online application.

If you have a problem or a response to something negative, put down the phone, turn off the computer, and give yourself time to digest the situation to its fullest.

Ask yourself a series of questions.

  • What would happen if I said this to every customer I have?
  • What could I say to this one customer to defuse the situation?
  • Is saying nothing at all better than antagonizing the situation?
  • How would others feel in this situation?
  • How would I react if I read about this situation online for another company?

The longer you wait before you take action, the more you analyze it in different ways, the less “reaction” you will receive in the process.

Always Respond Appropriately

The first time you type the F word in response to a post, customer or other reviewer, you know you’ve gone waaaayyyy too far. No matter how you really feel, never, ever get into a shouting match online.

You’ll lose.

If you really are bothered by what others are saying, walk around saying and doing whatever you need to do to gain control. Cuss your head off. Scream your lungs out. Punch the pillow on your couch. Do whatever it takes to get out your anger. Just don’t do it online.

Any response you ever give online – ever – should be positive, professional and appropriate. Anything less will only make the situation worse.

Be Ready To React

After you take the time to calm down and look at the situation through different eyes, sit back and observe the behavior. If left unfueled, your customer (or the one that started the online fight) should calm down as well. They won’t go on and on if there isn’t a counterpoint. And with only one side of the story being told, very few people will join in on the argument.

If you aren’t feeding the fire, things should die down quickly.

Then you can start in with damage control.  Look at what caused the situation in the first place. Did an employee misstate information? Did a customer not understand your policies? How can you change the situation? Do employees need further training? Would a FAQ page on your site provide needed content?

Learn from your mistakes and move forward. This too shall die down. Give it time.

Here is the full show :

Fired Amy’s Baking Company Waitress Shares Story on Reddit

 

Filed Under: Social News

State Of The Blogosphere 2010 – A Look At How People Are Using Blogs

Every year I participate in Technorati’s State Of The Blogosphere survey, and analyze the results to see how others are using blogs.

Some key highlights this year:

  • 25 percent of all bloggers are engaged in mobile blogging, with 40 percent saying it has changed the way they currently blogged
  • 48 percent of bloggers believe that more people will be getting their news and entertainment from blogs in the next five years than from the traditional media
  • 64 percent of all bloggers remain hobbyists, and blog mainly to express their own personal views
  • 81 percent of bloggers have been blogging for more than 2 years, and have on average 3.5 blogs
  • 11 percent are now saying that blogging is their primary income source
  • 56 percent of bloggers use Twitter, and 87 percent have a Facebook account. The most common reason to have one of these accounts is to promote their blogs.
  • 75 percent of mommy bloggers use Twitter. 56 percent of mommy bloggers say Facebook is more effective traffic driver than it was a year ago.
  • WordPress is the most popular blog platform
  • 90 percent of bloggers use some form of multimedia on their blogs, with photos being the most popular form
  • 48 percent of bloggers receive fewer than 1,000 unique visitors per month, and 2 percent receive more than 100,000 visitors per month

What are my takeaways, and what should you be looking for in blogging?

Mobile devices will be the new way of blogging and looking for information in the future. While the numbers are low today, people predict blogs to be the major source of news and entertainment within five years, which also means they will be accessing it from the tools they use the most – which is their mobile devices.

From the rest of the data, I still see blogging as a relatively new and untapped marketplace. Very few are deriving much traffic from it, and fewer still are deriving income from it. This will change. As more people learn to use these tools in effective ways, we’ll see greater numbers of people catapulting in both areas.

Filed Under: Social News Tagged With: ,

What Is The ROI Of Your Social Media Campaign

Work for a company and trying to convince the CEO the power of social media? While most people can’t ignore the power of sites like Facebook and Twitter, the problem is getting a traditional company to buy into using it. I hear questions all the time like, “Is there a guaranteed ROI?” or “I don’t want people saying bad things about us on our own campaigns.”

Guess what? You can’t control that anyway.

There are so many reasons to use social media, and the longer you sit on the fence, the further the rest of your competition will pull away from you.  I know you’ll enjoy this video, and it might give you a little more power the next time you visit with the CEO.

Filed Under: Social News Tagged With: , , , ,

There’s A New Search Engine In Town – Open Graph Search Engine by Facebook

What’s the number one site? Google

Number two? Facebook

So what do you do if you’re number two? Fight for the number one position of course. And for Facebook, that means creating their own search engine.

Facebook recently released Open Graph Search Engine. Facebook gives webmasters tools to help index their pages in Facebook, which include a “Like” button to install on your pages, and a set of tags to use that lets Facebook know what your site is all about.

Facebook won’t work like Google, which relies on a series of SEO tactics in order to rank pages. Instead, Facebook will rely on the number of “Likes” each page has. Which means people will control what’s ranked and what’s not. The more you can get people to talk about and “Like” what you do, the more results you are going to see in the online world.

Filed Under: Social News Tagged With: ,

The Future Of Blogging – SOTB 2009 Day 5

What is the future of blogging? We’ll if you are in business or politics, chances are the paths are fully drawn and filled with gold. While blogging is pretty much across all industries these days, the two areas where people see the most success, and thus are more likely to continue are for business and politics.

Once you start blogging, your more apt to use other social tools to help you build your business and your traffic levels. According to the State of the Blogosphere 2009 Day 5 report, as of this past May only 14 percent of the general population used Twitter. But for the bloggers that took part in the SOTB survey, 73 percent use Twitter. (For corporates and self employeds, it was 83 percent and 88 percent respectively.)

sotb day 5

Using Twitter puts your hand on the pulse of society. Not only is it a great traffic booster, allowing you to bring in traffic to your blog instantly, its also a great way to keep touch with what people are thinking. You can find out instantly everything from current events to resources and business tips.  Once you start using it, its easy to begin relying on it as a way to keep up with the circulating buzz.

So how can you use Twitter if you blog?

Think of it as a resource for content. Follow the leaders in your industry, and people that offer advice and tips that relate to your target market, and of course people that may eventually do business with you. You can click through and find a ton of information that relates directly to your prospects and clients, and pass it along. Become a resource. Become an expert. The more you’re willing to share, the greater chance you have of becoming an authority – and picking up prospects and clients.

Filed Under: Social News Tagged With: ,

Can You Really Make Money At Blogging? SOTB 2009 Day 4

Blogging. It sounds like a secret club, or at least something you mess around with on the weekends. It could never provide full time income, right? Especially as a small business owner – it simply provides a few leads, but never income.

According to the State of the Blogosphere 2009 report, with 72 percent of respondents stating they blog as a hobby, that tends to be true.

But once you discover you can make money blogging, and you put a little effort into it, the sky is the limit. According to the survey, 54 percent of part timers, 32 percent of self employeds, and 14 percent of corporates have monitized their blogs in some manner. And among those bloggers that generate ad revenue from advertisers, the average numbers look pretty good:

can you make money at blogging

And that’s just the start. Because your blog makes you an authority – a respected individual in your field or niche, the money can come from many different sources.

  • Speaking at expos and industry events
  • Book deals
  • Services
  • Coaching/consulting

But it all starts with becoming the expert by blogging. Again. And again. Don’t quit until you achieve success.

Filed Under: Social News Tagged With: , ,

Are You Using Photos And Video In Blog Posts – SOTB 2009 Day 3

What makes your blog more colorful, and gives it more eye appeal? Photos and video of course.

People don’t like coming to a page, and seeing nothing but copy. They like to have something to break up the text, and focus on something pleasing for awhile.

In today’s State of the Blogosphere, they covered the how of blogging – what people are doing right now with their blogs. While there is a ton of great information, and again the interviews are well worth going through, the thing that popped out at me was the use of media sources on blogs.

using photos and video in blog posts

While audio was a big thing a few years ago to incorporate into a website, its not that big of a deal with blogs. Move to photos, and across the board, around 82 percent of all bloggers are using photographs to showcase or highlight what they are blogging about. I also found it interesting that its pretty equal where the photos are coming from – they create them themselves, and they get them from other sites. (A good reason stock photo houses are the place to be putting photos if you’re a photographer.)

I was also impressed with the number of bloggers using video – between 47 and 63 percent. Video is booming right now, and it’s a way of communicating with your readers on a whole new level. Instead of reading, they can see and hear you. It brings in another sense, and allows them to connect with you based on your voice and your body language.

3 Stock Photo Sites:

Great Video Gear:

Try the Flip Video – I love it. Take your video, pop it into your computer via the USB port, and upload your video to YouTube, Facebook, or any other video site. You can have Video on your site in minutes.

Filed Under: Social News Tagged With: ,

Why Do People Blog? SOTB 2009 Day 2

Day 2 of the State of the Blogosphere was released today, really without much surprise. (If you have a chance to head over and listen to the interviews, they are very informative) People that are professionals, corporate or self-employed blog to:

  • Attract new clients
  • Share expertise and experiences with others
  • Speak openly on topics of choice
  • Meet and connect with like-minded people

state of the blogosphere 2009 day 2

When you go into business, the first item on your list was creating your marketing plan.

  • How will you market your business?
  • How will you find clients?

Marketing is all about having the tools necessary to reach out to prospects that will ultimately turn into clients. Blogging is simply one of those tools that allows you to reach out to a broad marketplace, and raise your potential beyond what you could normally reach out to in your local community.

Blogging also gives you the ability to market once, have it work for you always. Put up a blog post today, and it can still bring in clients several years from now. How? Let me give you an example.

About 18 months ago I created a blog post on my photography blog, The Difference Between Amateurs and Professionals. It ranks high in the search engines, and I use it quite frequently in the social sites to generate traffic. People love it because of the controversy of what separated an amateur from a professional photographer. People have their own opinions, and they love expressing them.

This post works for me today to generate traffic and interest to my site. It works well because I’ve kept writing on my blog, and have hundreds of posts. Google and my followers look to me as an authority, because of the content I have within my site. So this one post that I created 18 months ago only adds to my credibility and my popularity. And still helps bring in enough traffic that allows some to convert into clients.

Filed Under: Social News Tagged With: ,

State Of The Blogosphere – Do Your Clients Actually Read Blogs?

Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2009, day 1,  was released today, providing valuable insight on who bloggers are today. state of the blogosphere 2009

This report not only provides valuable insight on who is blogging, but for me, it also provides valuable insight on who is reading blogs. If this is the caliber of people creating them, you can be sure the same types of people are reading them on a daily basis.

Some things that immediately jump out is:

  • 48 percent of bloggers are from the U.S.
  • Though blogging is pretty evenly distributed across the U.S., the 5 top states are California, New York, Florida, Texas and Washington.
  • On average, bloggers have three or four blogs they actively write for
  • 75 percent have college degrees
  • 40 percent have graduate degrees
  • One in three has a household income of $75K+
  • One in four has a household income of $100K+
  • More than 50 percent are married
  • More than 50 percent are parents

Do your customers fit this profile? Would you like more customers from this profile?

Blogging is something that pretty much every business owner has heard of, yet few know how to apply it to their business. But if you do, the rewards can be tremendous.

Filed Under: Social News Tagged With: ,

Drew Carey Bid $1 Million For Twitter @drew

Drew Carey pledges $1 million to Twitter user @drew if he can bring in 1 million follower by December 31, 2009

Filed Under: Social News Tagged With: , ,