Employers’ Social Media Policies Come Under Regulatory Scrutiny

ibmsocialbiz:

The US National Labor Relations Board has ruled that private organizations cannot ban “disrespectful” posts that criticize the employer if those policies discourage workers from exercising their right to communicate with one another with the aim of improving wages, benefits or working conditions.

However, offensive posts by employees who are venting personal feelings rather than taking concerted action to improve conditions are not protected by federal law.

Via NYTimes.com

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.  — Roald Dahl

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it. 

— Roald Dahl

(via anthropologie)

What is your favorite blog host? Why?

I was recently asked the following question: 

What is your favorite blog host? Why? 

Since this is a topic that comes up often, I decided to post my answer in a FAQ-style post. 

First and foremost, business blogging is very important. Not only do you increase your SEO, but you’re able to share your knowledge, updates about your business, and your personality with a wider audience than you would encounter face to face. It’s a make-or-break activity, though. You can either establish yourself as a center of influence in your field or lose credibility through poor post quality and overtly sales-y behavior. 

Once you’ve established how you want your blog to function and what voice it will carry, you need to think about logistics. Your hands-down best bet is to incorporate your blog into your website. This way, all of the SEO, traffic, and link backs are benefiting your site by helping to bring users directly to the place they can receive more information, be called to action, and potentially even make a purchase right there. 

Depending on the host and your goals for blogging, you might be able to incorporate a blog into your website, use the blog as your website, or even maintain your blog separately. I’ve laid out a brief synopsis of my favorite blog hosts and why, as a means of starting you on your journey of finding the perfect host. It can be like dating. Try one out, and if you don’t like it, move on. Just remember, sometimes the prettiest blogs can be the biggest frogs when it comes to being user-friendly. 

tumblr has been my most recent personal favorite, because I love how image-centric your content can be. tumblr probably promotes the most sharing, both for within tumblr and outside via your other social media channels. With everything shifting toward social search and ranking for share-ability, I think tumblr is a great platform.

If you have a product or content (photography, graphic design, writing, etc.) centric business or a service business that easily lends itself to a large quantity of share-able images (think: wedding planner, florist, etc.), tumblr would be a great option.

You can share everything from your posting dashboard or even share links to your tumblr content on your social media sites, driving traffic back to your blog. Hello, Pinterest, anyone? There are also a lot of great cheap and free templates available, and you can customize to your heart’s content.

However, I also like Blogger a lot for clients, because it is SUPER user friendly, good for more information (words) centric blogging, and there are also a lot of great ways to customize your site.

Wordpress is probably my least favorite of all the platforms I’ve used (unless, of course, you have a designer/developer friend who can make it pretty for you). As a non-designer, I find the customization tedious and difficult. It’s also really spammy. However, Wordpress is often a go-to when designers integrate a blog into your website itself due to all of the customization and plug-in options. Proceed with caution if you’re going it alone; otherwise, bring in the reinforcements.

Additionally, I have associates who are using Weebly for their full website since it’s free and super user-friendly. They were able to create their whole site on Weebly, complete with multiple pages, forms, and their blog. 

FINAL VERDICT: I know there are a lot of options out there when it comes to blog hosts, but I like to stick with what I know works! The best blog host is going to be the one that perfectly marries fashion and function for YOU. Fashion, in that your readers are going to enjoy the aesthetic and it is a perfect complement to your brand. Function, in that it’s easy for you to update, so that you’re able to adequately communicate to your audience through your posts and blog regularly.  

Try a few options out for a personal blog of sorts before committing to one for your business blog. Then, if you’re still struggling, seek help. 

Readers, what is your favorite blog host? Why? 

Survivor Bound by this name, this description, this belonging.  Together, our people surround us, silent as softly falling snow, marking us.  That which went wrong. Those who are left.  Names in a paper, holding a face thankfully unknown. The face that haunts my dreams.  I still see you.  Nothing to it really. Clouds and lead endlessly dancing as each day slips by.  Raw. Elemental. Breathe in, breathe out.  I still smell you. Be strong.  I tell them I’m trying, but often I’m not. Because right now, I’m not sure if I want to be what they tell me I am.  Because if I am, than you are not. — Alexandra Stoehr, 29 November, 2012 High-res

Survivor

Bound by this name, this description, this belonging. 

Together, our people surround us, silent as softly falling snow, marking us. 

That which went wrong. Those who are left. 

Names in a paper, holding a face thankfully unknown. The face that haunts my dreams. 

I still see you. 

Nothing to it really. Clouds and lead endlessly dancing as each day slips by. 

Raw. Elemental. Breathe in, breathe out. 

I still smell you.

Be strong. 

I tell them I’m trying, but often I’m not. Because right now, I’m not sure if I want to be what they tell me I am. 

Because if I am, than you are not.

— Alexandra Stoehr, 29 November, 2012

The Best

Of those in the forest, which one’s the best? 
Is it the lion, 
Brave and strong, 
In pompous show 
All the day long? 
Or maybe the leopard, 
Beautifully dressed, 
Happily unmoving 
From his place of rest?
Perhaps the bear
With but one wish, 
Roaming about
to hunt and to fish? 
Or is the deer more apt, 
With antlers lush, 
Quiet and nimble, 
As he moves through the brush?
Well all those creatures are fine as can be, 
But none could best the noble tree. 
Give me the tree, 
Gnarly as he, 
A shelter from storms 
that may come in the night, 
His branches the start
From which dreams take flight.

The Self-Made Woman

Self-Made WomanAs I was sharing with friends and relatives that I had *finally* started my own business, I jokingly remarked that, “I am a self-made woman!” However, that really got me thinking, because very few people can actually make that claim, with 100% honesty.  

There is an old quote that says, “Ambition breaks the ties of blood, and forgets the obligations of gratitude.” {Sallust} 

I don’t want that to be true of me.

In my journey from child to woman, student to graduate, employee to owner, there are so many people that contributed and continue to lend themselves to my success, remaining instrumental in helping me become the person I am today. 

Looking back at each boss and each job I’ve had in the past 15 years, I can easily identify how each position served as a launching pad for the next. Even in the more difficult interactions and tasks encountered, I’ve grown stronger and developed the skills necessary to deal with those situations as they’ve arisen. 

As you move through your day, through your week, through the months and years that make up your life, I urge you to never stop seeking opportunities to be grateful. Take time out of your busy day to thank those who have selflessly lent themselves to your cause.

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but live by them.” {John F. Kennedy} Embracing each day for its new opportunities to be thankful leaves plenty of room for humility. 

After all, we’re not as self-made as we might like to think. 

Social Media Cheat Sheet

Great little cheat sheet on different social media avenues. Thanks for the share, Keith!

nationaljournal:

Here’s some really great tips on how to improve your social media presence. Me? I just stick to posting cat photos on my personal social media sites. If you don’t follow soupsoup then you should! 

soupsoup:

I started a public document on Google which I shared hoping people would add their own tips about best practices for Social Media when it comes to news gathering and distributing news. I decided to post it here as well in its current form. If you’d like to add your own tips, click the link above.

Twitter

  • Build lists of sources using Twitter lists. Use this to get ahead of your competition, news breaks on Twitter more often now than it does on mainstream news sources. (How to create Twitter Lists)
  • Follow accounts that help inform you about the topics you cover and retweet important news they share to inform your followers. Retweet your competition, if you’re sharing the best news from everywhere, people will follow you for everything they need to know.
  • Use TweetDeck to monitor multiple lists on one screen, I prefer the old version of Tweetdeck because it has more options.
  • Hand craft your tweets for all your new articles. Ask questions. “Do you agree with my take here?” “Is _______ the next great point guard?” Questions have the highest engagement and will help build your audience. (But if you ask questions, have some intention of using the feedback in some way - otherwise it’s faux engagement)
  • Share interesting articles by other people. Retweet great articles that they link to on their own Twitter accounts.
  • Use hashtags like #wikileaks #syria #ows related to your topic etc so your tweets are seen by a larger audience.
  • Do Twitter searches (search.twitter.com) and look up the subjects you write about. Respond to people who tweet about things you’re writing about, get their attention. Don’t link them to your articles right away, build a relationship over time and they’ll follow you and get the links by following your feed.
  • Search Topsy.com to find the most relevant and influential tweets
  • Search Research.ly’s PeopleBrowsr for old tweets that you might need. Enter in a keyword or a username, and you can search a number of days back (like 60 days back for 2 months ago) to narrow your search. They go back about 2 years for free right now.
  • Read “The 100 Twitter Rules To Live By” and live by them
  • Sign up for a free @muckrack account and get daily digests of top journalists’ tweets about your subject of interest. Crucial for journos & PR pros.
  • Use MuckRack.com as a way to find journalists by company or by beat and add them to Twitter lists to monitor news that breaks in those topics.
  • Incredible curation tools guide that I was sent this AM (via @scoopit):
  • Consider balancing the types of tweets with a ratio of posts addressing: (1) what you do; (2) what you love; and (3) who you are.
  • Use a URL shortening service, like http://bit.ly so you maximize the room you have to share information in your tweets and so you can track how many people are clicking and sharing your tweet. Try to keep your Tweets under 120 characters so others can add comments to your tweet in a RT.
  • Don’t start tweets with a Twitter handle unless you want that Tweet to be seen by a limited audience (by the person whose handle you’ve started the Tweet with, and only anyone who follows both of you)
  • Another good place to build source lists is with directories that media companies offer: New York Times and Reuters for example
  • Be careful about the sources you find on Twitter. Verify before you retweet and add a caveat if you’re unsure. When in doubt, don’t tweet and spread misinformation, dig deeper and verify first. There’s no harm in asking questions, sometimes crowdsourcing can help verify. “Is _____ a legitimate account/source?” Consider using a service like Storyful to help verify socially sourced reports.
  • Credit your sources with a hat tip, a retweet, anything. People are appreciative to see their content (or their find) shared.


Facebook

  • Turn on Subscribe feature on your personal Facebook. This will let you share stuff you only want to share with the people who you want to receive it.
  • Run polls asking people what they think about a specific story or subject. In a sports example, who do they think is the best player at any given position, or anything else that will drive debate and comments. Do they think the Goldman Sachs’ resignation letter author is sincere? Be provocative, get them to think and weigh in.
  • Post videos and photos, don’t just make it a feed with all links to your articles. Mix it up.
  • Find Facebook Groups related to the subjects you cover. Get involved in the conversations there. Over time they’ll head to your page and then to your website and you’ll build up a readership.
  • There are close to a billion people on Facebook, it’s a huge driver of traffic once you get the ball rolling. It won’t happen overnight but it’s worth putting in the time because you’ll eventually have a reliable major source of traffic to your website.
  • Create an interest list that focuses on a topic you want to help gather information about, or to make it easy for people to follow other people with similar interests. Example: Reuters Journalists list


Tumblr

  • Get on Tumblr and share your articles. Follow people who write about the topics you cover, follow people who blog about college sports if that’s your focus. Reblog their posts and they’ll follow you back.
  • I try to reblog and share more than I post of my own. I do about a 40/60 split between my content and the content I share of others. (I run http://sbnation.tumblr.com)
  • Tag your posts #gif #tech #news #politics #news #sports #collegefb #collegebb #basketball #football etc so they’re seen by tag editors who will then promote them on the respective tag pages. You can find widely used tags at http://www.tumblr.com/explore.


Pinterest

  • Originate all pins to places on your Website or social sites so that re-pins always come back to you.


Other

  • Keep an eye on your competitors. Watch what they’re doing, steal some of their good ideas and put your own spin on them. Over time you’ll build a friendly relationship with some of them and they may actually link to your stuff, you should do the same. There’s a link economy when it comes to blogs and it’s built on sharing each other’s stuff, it helps make your own content stronger and more well rounded and vice versa.
  • Using a tool like TrendSpottr for real-time viral content discovery can also help to identify emerging stories that have high viral potential and engagement. It identifies the top trending content (links, hashtags, sources) for any keyword, topic or even Twitter list URL. GT example, this is a link to find the most trending content about Syria in real time. For HootSuite users, TrendSpottr is also available in HootSuite’s new App Directory. Useful overview videos also available.
  • Use Storify to combine different types of social content and add context between them to make it more understandable in a narrative format.
  • Use Storyful.com/pro to help verify reports and tweets you see on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Follow @StoryfulPro on Twitter to see alerts, curated Twitter Lists and links to verified content on http://storyful.com/pro Requests and questions can be sent to Storyful’s global team of curators 24/7 on curator@storyful.com
  • Consider offering readers a way to ask questions and receive a video answer. There’s ways to explain via video that you can’t quite get across via text. One recommendation is to use something like VYou.com. Answers can be archived and accessed by other readers. Can eventually act as an FAQ.


Quora

(via kemmeyer)

A Week In

We’re just over a week in, and already we’ve celebrated one seventh birthday on Father’s Day, started summer school, toured another private school, and had several friend dates. If I’ve learned anything this past week (while juggling a birthday, Father’s Day, getting all of my business administrative details covered, working, taking care of the yard and all that other everyday mom stuff), it’s simply that time is of the essence.