Putting the ‘Social’ back into Social Media

Posted by execva on May 14, 2013
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Anyone else find it amusing how stressed out people get about Facebook? But they stay on it?

Newsfeeds are filled almost daily with people complaining about the latest Facebook changes – changes to settings, tweaks to profiles, reminders to update information leading to accusations of privacy invasion.

Here’s a very cool video that pretty much sums up how people think:

If you’re on Facebook, no one is breaking your arms to be there right…? If you don’t like something you have the right to deactivate your account.

Why do people blame Facebook for being …. well…. Facebook?

Facebook is a tool – a service provided by a company who has the right to change its terms of reference, terms of use, the way the site looks and functions, and anything else they choose to. AND it does all this for free for the regular user. But we get bent out of shape because of it. Humans don’t like change … clearly. But the power still rests with you to deactivate your account…. just as it rests with you to leave your employment if the company you work for changes things and you don’t like it. But you don’t see us complaining under those circumstances. We just put up with it and move on.

There is a definite shift in energy around Facebook and social media in general and I believe the reason is because people have forgotten the one thing social media was set up to do – BE SOCIAL!

Instead we have a generation of users who have lost the art of respectful communication, we have abuse, armchair critics and flaming. Speaking in 140 characters will do that to you I guess.

Everyone knows you can’t have an argument via email – but we do it on Facebook. But what’s the point? We say things to each other online we would never DREAM of doing face to face. No one wins that kind of one upmanship. And again… what’s the point anyway?

Sites like Facebook were set up for one reason – to help people find other people with whom they share interests. It morphed into a way for families to stay connected, and to find and catch up with old friends. And all for FREE! But we still think we have a right to judge and berate!

Facebook actually does have very strict security settings – they have in the past shown that they act fast when something goes awry (as it is likely to do in any online situation) and they have quite good security controls. In fact they showed very good corporate responsibility by setting up an entire department dedicated just to security and listening to user feedback. The user however has to change the defaults on their settings – and why not? We should all be taking responsibility for our own security – it’s not their job really but in this digital age we do have a tendency to try and offload responsibility to the service provider.

Then there are the business owners who are complaining that now they have to pay to ‘boost’ their posts otherwise not all of their 1,000+ likers will see them. This usually comes from a place where the business doesn’t realise social media is … social! It’s about ENGAGEMENT! You use your newsletter or your site to push out your product and message, but you use social media business pages to get people finding you, and engaging there with them.

And again, at the end of the day Facebook is a business with the right to charge or not for whatever they see fit – and for you, your listing/business page is STILL FREE! That is AMAZING for businesses yet we still hear them complaining about Facebook! They’re not MAKING you pay for posts – they give you the option. The choice is yours. And you’re a business – you understand a business needs to make money to function. Facebook has investors – now also shareholders. They have a right to try and make money. They are doing it in my opinion, in the most unobtrusive way possible – they could at any time turn around and say “Hey all you businesses catching the free ride – time to pay up for the space you’re taking up on our servers” – and they would have every right to do so.

If you decide to stick with Facebook you might like to come along to the presentation I’m giving at OIVAC next weekend on whether you are killing your online reputation by the way you behave online. Check out the schedule here. If you miss it, recordings are available!

 

© Lyn Prowse-Bishop – eSOS

 

 

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Comment Spam

Posted by execva on April 17, 2013
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Hands up who’s sick of comment and trackback spam on your WordPress site?

If you’re running a blog or site powered by WordPress, you may be getting a number of comments on your posts along the lines of:

“Greetings! I just read through your blog and we liked it. We were curious if you’re going to develop more web content to go in conjunction with this blog?”

or

“Love your site! I’m going to bookmark it now.”

Most often there will be a link of some sort included in the poster’s details. Another feature is the poster may be using a strange name like “Bolle Sunglasses” or “Lose Weight Now”. These are dead give-aways that they are not legit comments!

Image: Dan Sumner www.dansumnerblog.comThese comments are known as CSS Hack Attacks - CSS meaning “Cross Site Scripting”. The commenters are using software to post on your site automatically, without even visiting it. Why? They’re hoping they may get a backlink from your site to theirs (or the site they are representing) thereby improving their search engine ranking and getting visitors to their site from yours should people click on their link. Usually the link is to some sort of sales page.

There are a couple of things you can do. First of all ensure that commenting on posts needs to be approved by you before the comments go up. Do this in the Discussion section of your Settings ensuring that ‘An Administrator must always approve the comment’ is ticked beside the ‘Before a comment appears’ setting. Then, say, once a week go to your control panel of your blog or site in WordPress and go through the comments. Legit ones you can approve. Any that look a bit sus you can either spam or trash, or if you don’t mind what they say and can’t bear not putting what appears to be a positive comment on your site, you can remove the link before posting it.

You can automate this process however with a couple of plug-ins:

1. Akismet - possibly the best way to protect your blog from comment and trackback spam. From your plug-ins control panel search for Akismet to find and install it. It’s free for non-commercial blogs but you will need an API Key – follow the links in the plug-in settings to get one.

2. Anti Spam Bee is another popular plug-in – I’ve not used it so cannot comment but search for it from your plug-ins control panel.

3. This little plug-in was written by Charly Leetham – one of the best WordPress people I know! It’s designed to stop people being able to post the comment unless they are actually on your site – so that’ll get rid of any of those people using automated software. Get it at: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twpw-stop-remote-comments/

© Lyn Prowse-Bishop – eSOS


(Image credit: Dan Sumner www.dansumnerblog.com)

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OIVAC 2013!

Posted by execva on April 10, 2013
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Are You the Early Bird?

The OIVAC is launching its 8th Annual Online International Virtual Assistants Convention (OIVAC) May 16; it will run through May 18, 2013.

We’re doing a shout out to all “early birds” to grab your rod and grab your seat for the OIVAC, — before April 15–to receive a $50 discount from the original “sign up” price.

This year’s Convention, themed, Building Business Success in the Virtual World, is designed and the presenters assembled to guide Virtual Assistants at all levels of their business, so they can do their building and maintaining on a foundation strong enough to last for years to come.

Now, in case you may have forgotten even one of the benefits you’ll get in on by attending OIVAC here are some teasers for this year’s events:

  • 45+ hours of training, best practices seminars, networking and workshops
  • Learn how to get new clients, to make your current clients happy, and how to grow your business by leaps and bounds.
  • You connect with like-minded colleagues and find new opportunities to branch out
  • Recordings available.
  •  Intro to the VA Industry session – for new VAs or people thinking about entering the industry
  • Awards presented to two Virtual Assistants for the footprints they’re leaving on the industry
  • Events are presented completely on line in PC and Mac compatible VoIP meeting rooms
  • Pay one fee to cover the entire convention. (No hotel, travel, food, babysitting or loss of business while attending).
  • Network with and exchange ideas with people from all over the world
  • Sessions all hours of the day and night (across continents and many time zones)
  • As the Seasoned VA sessions, a panel of experienced, expert VA
  • And more

If any of the above “speaks to you” and if you’re inclined to see a $50 savings in your hand, be an “early bird” and click the button now  (and definitely before April 15th) to register for the 8th Annual Online International Virtual Assistants Convention.

By clicking the “buy now” button, you’re not only saving $50, you’ll receive access to the Private Convention Facebook Group where you can ask questions and connect with other VA participants. Click it now, and we’ll “see you on the other side”.

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Social Media Love Seekers

Posted by execva on February 4, 2013
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We’ve seen a disturbing trend on social media over the last 12 to 24 months – people using it to make themselves feel better at the expense of others. Now this is slightly different to – and perhaps even the flipside of – cyberbullying – a catchword that has made headlines around the world and even birthed cyberbullying awareness programs, anti-bullying weeks, and countless government and other websites and fact sheets on how to counter, prevent, or avoid bullying and cyberbullying. But this “cyberlove-seeker” doesn’t get quite as much air time – though can create just as much angst.

I found myself confronted with this last year when someone directed members of a group I do not belong to, to have a look at a discussion that person and I were having on their profile (a discussion members of said group would not otherwise have seen had they not been subscribed to it). Why? I believe it was done primarily because the person felt bad about what I’d said and wanted their “friends” to make them feel better via their ‘virtual support’.

Unfortunately discussions on social media between parties are easily taken out of context – directing people who are not aware of the full situation to have a look and then share their own thoughts is counter-productive to the discussion and potentially damaging to the other party – and thus, technically, a form of bullying of the other party. Whilst the “cyberlove-seeker” feels supported by their network it’s a false support because that network has no idea what the full story is. It might make the person feel better, but in the eyes of the other party, you’ve just become a whiner – or worse, a bully.

Seth Godin recently wrote about a similar concept in his blog. He was referring to people who put forums on their sites or other places for customers to engage. Unfortunately the internet has created a plethora of arm chair critics and conversely ‘experts’ and these forums tend to attract those with little to contribute constructively. As Seth says:

“Just about every organization, every online service, every product and every element of our culture now has chat rooms and forums devoted to a few people looking for something to complain about. Some of them even do it on television.

The fascinating truth is this: the people in these forums aren’t doing their best work. They rarely identify useful feedback or pinpoint elements that can be changed productively either. In fact, if you solved whatever problem they’re whining about, they wouldn’t suddenly become enthusiastic contributors. No, they’re just wallowing in the negative ions, enjoying the support of a few others as they dish about what’s holding them back.”

So if you’re in business, are you using social media and forums for what they are intended – or are you one of the whiners?

In addition, there has been some use of social media for self-promotion disguised as helping others. Of course social media is a brilliant platform for self-promotion – but it’s also important that if you are trying to show the usefulness of your service, your skill and/or your expertise, that you enter these forums in the spirit they are intended: first and foremost as places to help. The self-promotion comes from actually being in the space and participating regularly – not just when you have something to sell. This is especially true if you are hoping to earn some money from the other members of the forum.

For those using their social networks as a virtual crutch perhaps these words from Susan Jeffers should be our parting comment:

“Remove those ‘I want you to like me’ stickers from your forehead and, instead, place them where they truly will do the most good – on your mirror.”

© Lyn Prowse-Bishop – eSOS

 

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Show me the money!

Posted by execva on January 29, 2013
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I posted a quote recently to Google+ and a few other social media sites which caused a bit of a stir:

“If you take a lot of time to ask, “how will this pay off,” you’re probably asking the wrong question. When you are trusted because you care, it’s quite likely the revenue will take care of itself.” – Seth Godin

 

The stir came from people wondering whether I was actually saying we’re not in business to make money and that this says caring should be ranked higher than making money. This raised a bit of a debate then about why you’re in business and that surely it’s to make money.

I have to admit … personally, I’m not. Sure making money is a bonus but I did not start my practice primarily to make money. I didn’t get a business idea, leave my job and throw everything into it. This business plan naturally requires you to make money – or within a very short time if you’re not, you’re kind of stuffed! It’s also a business plan that sees more than 80% of businesses in Australia fail within the first five years. If you’re all about the money, IMHO you’re bound to fail.

Of course we all need to make a living – that goes without saying. But personally I feel that focusing too much on that one aspect of business – the need/desire/expectation of making money – loses sight of so many other brilliant things about working for yourself! For me those include:

  • freedom to be my own boss, to call the shots, dictate my life, my day and not account for every minute of it to a third person;
  • not being tied to a dead-end job because I need the money (trust me, I did that for a loooooong time and know how soul-destroying it is);
  • freedom to take a day off when I choose;
  • freedom to be available for my daughter;
  • the pleasure I get from helping other people (my clients) achieve their goals (even if for them that goal is making money!).

Funny that a recurring theme there is ‘freedom’. For me THAT is what being in business affords me.

I didn’t go into this lightly – I had a plan before I started my business (though not a ‘business plan’ in the true sense of the concept) and that plan was not to send my family bankrupt. (And this is not the same as a goal to make money.) I didn’t give up my day job – but got part-time work so the pressure wasn’t solely on my husband. (For how I got started see Episodes 4 to 7 inclusive of The Virtual Business Show Podcast!)

For me, in my practice, it’s all about what drives ME to keep going. I’m not talking lofty ideals! See the above dot points – these are WHY I started my practice and if things I’m doing in it are not meeting those then I change or ditch them. Notice that ‘making money’ isn’t on that list. I did not start my practice to have “enough” money to meet mortgage payments, “enough” money to take holidays, pay bills or whatever. (In fact, those reasons were why I stayed in part-time employment!) I did not start my practice to be “rich”. I started my practice because I wanted to be available for my daughter – that’s it.  Full stop. Nothing ‘lofty’ about that. It was a fairly basic, primal desire. And for 13 years (as at Feb 2013) I have done just that.

Now if your primary driver for getting into business IS to make money then that’s terrific! Provided you know that is what you’re in business to do. Don’t make up other, loftier reasons why – be true to yourself and everyone else and say you’re in it for profit.

In another recent blog, Seth Godin says:

“And of course, when the only rudder you have is ‘profit now,’ expect that your long-term prospects are in doubt, threatened by those with a different goal, one more congruent with their customer’s needs. … Being clear about what we’re doing and why is the first step in doing it better. If you’re not happy about the honest answer to this question, make substantial changes until you are.”

I couldn’t agree more.

© Lyn Prowse-Bishop – eSOS

 

 

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