Social Media Disaster: The Applebees Restaurant Perfect Storm

You might have heard about this, or read about it.  There are a lot of lessons to be learned.  Here’s what happened, and how it blew up too big, too quickly, for everyone involved.

A pastor was having dinner out with some friends at an Applebees restaurant.  Per the restaurant’s policies, whenever there’s a part of so many people, the tip is automatically added into the ticket.  The pastor was a bit frustrated by that policy, or maybe by the percentage that was added in (18%), and wrote a note on the ticket that said, “I give God 10%, why should you get 18?”  In spite of the comment, the pastor did pay the gratuity.

The waitress who served the pastor brushed off the comment, but showed it to her co-worker, who got upset by it and took a picture of it with her cell phone, and posted it to a social media site.

It went viral, and the pastor was embarrassed to find her comment all over the ‘net.  She was even more startled that her signature on the ticket was plainly visible, and was going viral along with the picture.  She called and complained to the management of the Applebees.

The Applebees management was caught in a bind.  The second waitress, in posting the picture with the signature and other personal information on the ticket, had violated the company policy on guest privacy.  They fired the waitress.

The ‘net went crazy.  Or, crazier, I should say, with facebook pages and petitions to re-instate the waitress along with hatemail to the pastor and threats of boycotts to Applebees.

Here is a report on the story: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2013/02/applebees-fires-waitress-who-posted-nontipping-pastors-check-online/

Here are some things to learn from this experience.

1 - There were no winners.  Nobody came out on top.  Applebees is reeling from a big hit to their corporate PR, the waitress is out of work in a recession, and the pastor is hurting from the backlash of a momentary lapse of her christian goodwill.

2 - The two acts that sparked this media wildfire, the waves that added up to this perfect storm, were simple, relatively innocuous acts.  The snarky comment on the restaurant ticket is something that we’ve all probably thought from time to time, when paying for a meal.  Finding something quirky or funny and posting a picture of it is not that big of a deal, either, right?

3 - A teenage friend of mine once asked me why people he didn’t know were seeing his “private Facebook posts”.  I explained to him that it’s a SOCIAL network, and there is no such thing as a “private post”.  If you want something to be private on Facebook, don’t post it on Facebook.  The bigger lesson is:  Be very careful what you post online.

4 - An extension of that is to never - NEVER - N  E  V  E  R  R  R  R - post something about your job.  Don’t complain about your job, don’t vent about your job, don’t do it.  If you post it, your boss can find it.

5 - Most companies don’t know how to handle the masses on social networking.  I’m not sure there was any clean and easy way for Applebees to get out of this one and to turn it around, but the buzz on the ‘net has not been kind to them.  It reminds me of the “United Breaks Guitars” song that caused the airline so much headache.

6 - Neither Applebees nor the pastor nor the waitress had any idea that these actions would spiral out of control.  The waitress should have known, because she did, you know, post the picture to a, well, SOCIAL NETWORK.  But all this bad karma was unexpected.

I don’t mean to scare anyone away.  Facebook is a fun way to keep up with family and friends, and to be “in the loop” on what the world is talking about.  The big takeaway from all this, the Tip from Applebees is: social media is a tough animal to control.  Use it carefully.






Mark is currently employed as an Internet Business Coach.

Mark also has other sites and blogs, including Mark's Black Pot - Dutch Oven Recipes, MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

MySpace, Facebook, Google+

I know I’m showing my age, but I used to be very active on MySpace.  Even though I was actively promoting many websites, especially my music, and I resisted the transition to Facebook.  I had figured out all the nuances of MySpace, and I didn’t want to have to relearn everything.  

But, eventually, I did.  I made the jump, and once I was in with both feet, I never looked back (I get paid extra by the cliche, you know...).  It is true there was a learning curve.  Not so much how to use it, or how to get around in it, but how to USE it.  Effectively USE it to promote my sites, I mean.  

Each social network is a different animal, and it responds to your methods differently.  There are some underlying principles, it’s true, but still, they’re NOT the same, and if you treat them that way, you’re destined to fail.

So, today, I read an article about the ascendence of Google+, and my first thought was, “Oh, no, not again...”  Now I’m going to have to work both Facebook AND Google+ for a while, and I’ll have to learn it and figure it all out.  I wasn’t looking forward to it.

Still, I jumped in.  I’ve had a Google+ account for a long time, I just haven’t been using it.  I spent some time this afternoon tweaking my profile, finding some friends, and joining a few groups.  I’m not being too active just yet, as I want to discover the lay of the land (more cliches) and watch for a bit first.

There are a few things I like, like the circles, and how easy it was to organize my friends into them.  There are some similarities, like the posting feed.  The more I read, the more I’m convinced that the secret to the future of SEO will be tied into how many +1’s you rack up, so the more I learn about it now, the better off I’ll be.  

I don’t like splitting my time between many social networks.  I don’t like posting the same thing, essentially, on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter.  I imagine there’s a lot of crossover in my audiences.  For now, however, I don’t see any other way.

Some bonus thoughts:

1 - I thought it was really interesting that by a total saturation percentage, MySpace (such as it still is) actually beats out Pinterest!

2 - Google owns both Google+ AND YouTube, but added together, they're still just under Facebook!



Mark is currently in the curriculum Department of an internet and SEO training company.

Mark also has other sites and blogs, including Mark's Black Pot - Dutch Oven Recipes, MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Guest Blogging to Increase Website Traffic

The holy grail of inbound links is an in-content text link where the link text contains one of your strong keywords.  This can be a bit challenging to get set up, because that usually means that someone else has to set it up on their site.  That means that someone else has to like something on your site so much that they take up valuable space on their site or blog talking about you, and linking to you.

This happens, and it’s great when it does.  Really, the only thing you can do to make it happen, however, is by having something really incredible at your website, and then hoping people find it, like it, and link to it.  It’s not practical to say, “Today I’m gonna go get someone to link to me!”

There is, however, a great way to establish these kinds of links and increase website traffic.  To do it, you have to approach other sites, particularly blogs, with the idea that you’re going to give them something they need:  Good content.  You’re going to offer them a “Guest Post.”  In other words, you’ll write a blog post for them to post on their blog.  In the process of doing that, you can establish a link to your website. 

This isn’t anything sneaky.  This is an accepted part of the exchange.  If I’m a blogger, and you provide good content for me, I’m going to allow you to establish a link and increase website traffic to your site as a return of the favor.

Here are some examples of some of my guest posts, designed to promote my Dutch oven cooking blog, marksblackpot.com.  This one, about Dutch oven cooking in the cold, actually contains many internal links.

This one isn’t really about Dutch ovens, but it is about food, so it fit.  I also used it to promote my Utah religious pop culture blog. 

Guesting on Other People’s Blogs

How do you do it?

First of all, read a lot of blogs in your niche.  Find out who are the best, most respected, most trafficed, and most famous bloggers.  Any other relevant blog will do, but the best ones will get you the most traffic. 

As you find these blogs, read a lot of their posts, with the comments, so you get an idea of their point of view and how their audience responds.  Think of a topic that would be good for their blog and good for their audience.  Then, write up a short 3-4 sentence teaser or outline of your topic idea. 

Then you’ll want to contact the blogger and propose your article.  Usually, there will be some kind of email link on the blog, but you might just have to use the comment space of one of their postings.  If you do that, try to pick one that’s about a similar topic.  Tell the hosting blogger that you have an article about such and such a topic, and give them the teaser.  Would they like it as a guest post?  Make sure to leave an email address for them to contact you back, and make sure the comment link (if you’re doing it that way) points back to your blog or site.

Sometimes, the bloggers themselves will put out calls for guest posts.  If you see those, make a note of it, and submit an article or an idea more directly.

If they respond favorably, then write the article, proof it, making sure that it contains good keywords and links.  DO NOT put any affiliate links in the article.  Let the hosting blogger do that if he or she wants to.

Finally, email it to the hosting blogger.  If they like it, they’ll post it, and you’ll both get the benefit.  You’ve helped them with good content, they’ve helped you with a quality link that will be in front of lots of their viewers.

Getting Guests on Your Own Blog

A great way to get started with this of increasing website trafficis to seek out some guest posts for your own blog.  If you’re nervous about contacting established bloggers and feeling like a beggar at their doorstep asking for handouts, then ask them to write a guest post for your blog first.

The contact will still be the same.  The only difference is that you’ll be asking for content instead of pitching it.  If you have an idea for a topic, suggest it, but allow them to come up with their own posts as well.

The Illogical Extreme

As I got to thinking about this, it occurred to me that you could create a blog, write a few posts of pillar content, and then recruit other writers to guest post.  The entire blog could be nothing but guest posts about a relevant topic! 

Interesting...





Mark is currently in the curriculum Department of an internet and SEO training company.

Mark also has other sites and blogs, including Mark's Black Pot - Dutch Oven Recipes, MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Writing a Blog Post

I’ve been blogging for about 8 years, now.  In the bloggosphere, that’s a long, long, long time.  Over the years, I’ve developed a pattern of steps that I follow when I make a blog post.  I don’t always follow it, and sometimes the lines between some of the steps get blurry.  But I always realize that the more closely I follow this pattern, the better my results.

•  Idea

I have a google doc that I keep for my blog ideas.  When I’m out on the web, and I read something that hits me I add it to that list.  If someone tweets or blogs something cool, that merits more than just a comment or a retweet, I post that to my list.  The document is broken into three separate lists, one for each blog I write.  It’s set up with a shortcut on my desktop, and I also can access it from my smart phone.  No matter where I am or what I’m doing, if I think “I’m so blogging this...” I can preserve that thought for later.

Then, when the time comes for me to actually write the blog, I open up that document, and I’ve got a lot of things I can write about.  I just pick one and go.

Sometimes I’ll go out actively looking for ideas.  I’ll check Yahoo’s main page or Google Trends to see what search terms are hot, and see if any of them could be related to my topic.  I’ll go to BBC.com or CNN.com and search for a few of my go-to keywords to see if there are any current news stories I can resource.

• Research

Sometimes getting an idea is its own research.  By that, I mean that while I’m out doing my normal “keeping-up-on-things” reading, I find a great topic that makes me want to write.  Other times, I get an idea from some other situation, and I’ll have to do a bit of research and reading to get some background.  Sometimes, I’ll just have to do a little fact-checking.  In any case, it’s good to base your writing on some facts.  Or opinions...

• Thoughts

Often, my first bit of writing is just actually jotting down some notes.  When preparing this post, for example, I wrote out all of these bullet points.  I just get a few thoughts down, maybe in a sentence, or maybe in a list.  That’s enough to get me started.

• First Draft

Now, I’m ready to write.  I’ll start filling in sentences and paragraphs around those ideas that I listed out in the previous step.  Or, I’ll flesh out those skeletal bits that I jotted down, either from my research or from my first thoughts.

It’s important to me, while I’m in this first draft, to not block myself.  So, I don’t usually pay too much attention to logic, sensibility, punctuation, rules.  I just write. 

Yes, my first drafts are a mess.  You got a problem with that?  I don’t.

• First Edit: Flow & Logic

The reason I don’t have a problem with messy first drafts is that I know that I’m going to clean them up long before the public sees them.  My first edit is where I look the posting over and clean up the logic and the flow.  Top to bottom, does it make sense?  Some posts, I organize chronologically, like I often do when writing a recipe at Mark’s Black Pot.  Other posts may be organized in a more “inverted pyramid” format.  Sometimes, in a more personal blog post, it’s OK to ramble.

• Second Edit: Proofread

Now, it’s starting to make sense.  It’s time to clean up by the rules.  Check for punctuation errors, spelling errors, clumsy sentences, redundancies...  There are a lot of grammar nazis out there, and I’d rather not give them the fodder.

• Third Edit: Keywords & SEO

The next edit is possibly the most important.  I go through the article and tweak sentences to include more keywords.  More of my main keywords, more long-tail keywords, and more keywords to draw people to my affiliate links.  More, more, more!

Another thing to add at this stage is links.  Establishing internal links to other relevant topics that you’ve blogged about before will draw clicks to those entries, as well as boost search engine value as well.  Make sure that you’re including keywords in your link text, and not just saying “click here”.  Links to external websites will also help to establish you as a credible, connected source of information.  You can also contact the people you’ve linked to, and they’ll sometimes mention you as well, spreading the link love!

• Rest, and Re-read

This is a strategy that I’ve just recently discovered, but I haven’t done as much as I need to.  Once a blog entry is written, it’s a good idea to let it rest before posting it.  This does a few good things for you.

First, you’ll re-read it a few hours later with fresh eyes, and possibly catch writing errors and problems that you missed before.  It might not be as clear as you’d originally thought, or there’s a spelling error you didn’t see.

Second, if it’s a very personal or emotional blog post, you can stop yourself from saying things that get too many people mad at you.  While courting controversy is sometimes one way to gain traffic and readers, it can also undermine your credibility if you handle it wrong.

• Posting

Now it’s time to go public!  Copy and paste your article into your blog host and click the publish button, right?

Almost.  There are a few more things I do here.

The first is to find some pictures to include.  Even though I don’t always do this, especially in a conceptual blog like this one, it’s amazing how much a good graphic will dress up an article.

I’ll also, at the bottom, interlink it with my other blogs.  Yes, I do that, even though they’re not always (or even often) relevant.

Also, I’ll find some relevant affiliate products (usually books at Amazon.com) and include those in my blog.  And don’t forget to tag the post.

• Promoting

The final step is to go out and tell the world that it’s there.  I post a spot up on facebook and twitter, with a clever, leading and enticing phrase to draw people there.  I’ll also put it up on a pinging service, like pingoat.com, or ping-o-matic.com, to notify blogging aggregating sites as well as search engines that I have new content.

This is a pretty exhaustive list of steps, and some even might consider it exhausting.  But to do them all each time will end with better written posts, that rank higher, are better connected, and eventually make you more money.






Mark is currently in the curriculum Department of an internet and SEO training company.

Mark also has other sites and blogs, including Mark's Black Pot - Dutch Oven Recipes, MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Do's and Do Not's of Social Networking

We can tell you to click here and click there, fill out this form and make a post over at that other website, but it's often not easy to truly understand what's going on in Social Networking.  It's true that a lot of the flavor of a meal is discovered while you're eating it.  In other words, you'll learn a lot about using social networks simply by being on them.  Still, here are some general guidelines of how to approach them so that you'll do better right from the start.

Do These Things:

1. Find your audience - Using your keywords to search through profiles helps filter out a lot of people who have no interest in your business or your products.  Spend your time and efforts on people who are more likely to buy.
   
2. Actively participate - Find your audience, and interact with them.  Before you know it, they'll be checking out your website and making you money.  But first, just join the party.  If you sit quietly in the corner and watch, nothing will happen.
3. Share good content, not just your own - If you're at a party, and someone is monopolizing the conversation, talking only about themselves and their own accomplishments, it gets pretty old pretty fast, doesn't it?  Share some links and info about other, still relevant, sites you've found, and people will like following you.
   
4. Be a source of value - Along the same lines, if they can count on you for the good stuff, the useful info, and the exciting news, then they'll be excited to see something you've posted.
   
5. Use the same avatar - From one social network to another, it's a good idea to use the same avatar or profile image.  This is a part of your branding efforts.  Use your company logo, if it works as a small image.  People will begin to recognize you.  (One time at church someone came up to me and said, "Hey, I saw you out on the 'net the other day.  Man, you are EVERYwhere!")
6. Update your site and blog, so you have something to talk about on the 'network.
   

Don't Do These Things:

1. Don't just plug your products - It's OK to mention your own products and your own blogs every once in a while, but if your twitter feed or your facebook page is nothing but ads, I'm going to unfollow you fast.  Visit with me, don't just sell to me.
   
2. Don't use tools to add millions of friends/followers - I recently tried a tool that got me thousands of twitter followers overnight.  Most of them were clogging my twitter feed with ads for diet pills and cheap mortgages.  When I posted about new blog entry, I got a couple of dozen hits from twitter.  Pretty lame percentage out of thousands of followers.  I've seen other things like this happen all the time.  Quantity is great, as long as it's a high quantity of good quality friends and followers.  Remember: find your audience!
   
3. Don't spew out flow - Some people want to post every detail of their personal existence.  I don't care if you're in a Starbucks having a mocha venti grande.  I also don't care to read about how long it took you to get to work this morning.  Unless you make it relevant to your topic, leave it out.  I don't mind if a part of your social networking posts are personal.  That's what shows you're human.  But don't just share the mind-numbing dullness of your dreary life.
   
4. Don't friend everyone - Not everyone is your audience, and not everyone is interested in your products.  Don't waste your time on people that won't buy.  If someone friends you and you can tell they're just looking for a bigger list, you don't have to friend them back.
   
5. Don't use the same accounts for personal networking and business networking - The more I work this, the more I realize it's much more effective to split them into separate accounts. 
   
6. Don't post too much - There's a guy on my Facebook friends list that shares good, informative content.  That's great, right?  Except he posts every 10 to 20 minutes.  I don't have time to read all that, and it clutters up my profile.  Even good content, 5-10 times a day, can get annoying.
7. Don't post too little - You're easy to forget, and if you wait too many days in between blog posts, or Twitter tweets, it's tough to build up an audience of readers.

Like I said before, as you use the social networks, you'll learn more and more how to make it effective for you.  There are many more tips and tricks that you'll pick up along the way.  Many of the tips that I learned were shared with me by other users!  Keep learning and you'll do well!


Mark is currently in the curriculum Department of an internet and SEO training company. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including Mark's Black Pot - Dutch Oven Recipes, MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Listening to an FTC Lawyer: Clear as Mud, But it Covers the Ground

I recently sat in on a webinar given by the site "Blog with Integrity", with speaker Mary Engle.  Mary is the FTC's Associate Director of Consumer Protection.  I learned a lot about the new FTC guidelines, especially as it relates to blogging.  This is particularly timely, as the guidelines go into effect as of today, the day of this writing!

I came away from the webinar with a slightly more clear understanding of the concepts behind the new FTC guidelines, but I'm still a bit confused about how they want them to be implemented.  As I listened, I got the sense that they, too, haven't fully defined the details, and that they're still in the process of interpreting them.

FTC Guidelines for Existing Laws

The impetus behind the new guides is that a lot has changed and adapted since the '80s, when the laws were put into place.  The advent of blogging, social networking, and a vast landscape of interconnectedness has come along since then, and now they're trying to apply those existing laws and regulations to new circumstances.

That's OK.  A well-written law should be able to be applied fairly to new situations.  It does, however, make for some generalities that can be difficult to detail.  One thing that Engle mentioned is that these new FTC guidelines, by themselves, don't have the weight of law.  They are designed to show the application of the current laws.

Disclosure, Not Deception

The idea is that whenever someone writes or talks about a product or a company, the reader or viewer should be able to know if there's any connection between the writer/speaker, and the product or company being discussed. 

So, if I post to my Facebook page that I'm gonna hit McDonald's for lunch, do I have to add a disclosure statement?  Well, probably not, but it depends:  Did McD's pay me to say that?  Am I getting my meal for free in return for mentioning it on Facebook?  If so, I need to say so.  If nobody paid me anything, or gave me anything for free, I can say whatever I want.

What if I blog about my family life, and I put affiliate ads on the site?  Do I have to tell people that the affiliate links make me money?  Again, that depends.  If it's a big graphic ad off to one side of the blog, it's a pretty safe bet that everyone "gets it" that it's an ad, and that I'm getting compensated for it in some way.

On the other hand, what if I blog about a book, and put a link to that book over at Amazon?  In that case, it's a little less obvious and should probably be disclosed.

The overall focus, according to Engle, is to eliminate the deception.  If a blogger writes about something, the readers should be able to judge his/her fairness.  Did they get the product for free?  Were they paid to write?  Are they getting commissions for recommending a particular book?  The audience needs to know.

Linking to a Website.

Let's say that you blog primarily as an effort to promote an ecommerce website.  Let's say that you sell products at the site, and you want to blog about them.  You'd definitely want to disclose that, to be in compliance with these FTC guidelines.  Fortunately, that's not too hard.  "Come check out these products at our website! (link, link, link)"

Testimonials

Having testimonials on your website is a great way to build customer confidence.  If you get a spontaneous email about how good your product is, or how quickly you delivered it, then you've got gold, and you should post it on your website.  However, if you offer discounts or other premiums in return for testimonials, that has to be disclosed.

My Own Disclaimer!

The things I've said here are the things that I gathered as I was listening to the FTC presentation mentioned above.  I don't really know how the FTC is going to enforce these.  Frankly, I'm not convinced that they're too sure, either.  My best recommendation is to take some time and listen to the webinar and learn for yourself.  They can also be contacted via email with questions: endorsement@ftc.gov. 




Mark is currently in the curriculum Department of an internet and SEO training company. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including Mark's Black Pot - Dutch Oven Recipes, MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

New Rules: Endorsements, Testimonials, and Reviews

Web marketers have been reviewing products, getting their products reviewed, and gathering testimonials for many years, but the rules are changing.  The FTC recently announced new rules that apply to web marketers, bloggers, and social network users as well as more mainstream traditional advertising, like celebrity endorsements.

The basic gist of the new rules are that endorsements, reviews, and such are fine, so long as any benefit arrangements between the endorser and the company are disclosed.  For example, if a star quarterback endorses a sports/energy drink, they have to state in the ad that he's getting paid for saying so.  If a blogger reviews a product that the company provided him/her for free, he/she has got to say so.

Where before, to not say up front who's being paid for what was simply bad manners in the internet community, now it can actually result in lawsuits and fines.

Here are a few more articles you can read about it: "FTC Sets Endorsement Rules for Blogs", and "Bloggers Covered by Endorsement Rules, Says FTC".

So, how do you do it so as to not get into trouble?  Well, fortunately, the rules are really just saying what you should have been doing all along.  If someone sends you a product for you to review at your blog, and they expect you to keep it, say so.  If someone pays you for an endorsement, or for a review, post that. 

Unfortunately, it's a little unclear how the rules of affiliate links and other ads should be handled, according to the law. Do those fall under the "traditional advertising" stipulations?  Personally, if it were me, I would recommend noting the affiliate links as being such, even though savvy surfers should be able to recognize a link to amazon.com as an affiliate.

A lot also depends, I think, on how you write your product reviews.  If your reviews are little more than thinly-veiled ads for the products, then few people will take them seriously anyway.  On the other hand, if you write your product reviews from a very balanced perspective and ask yourself, "What would my audience need to know about this product to make a good buying decision?" your reviews will come across as very useful and balanced anyway.  If you write to inform about the product, instead of just to praise it, you'll do better. 

"If you like such-and-such, and you're wanting to do this-other-thing, then this product will help you because it does this.  However, if you're not interested in this-other-thing, then you'll probably pass on buying this item."

Writing the disclosure can be done in several ways.  You could simply put a "disclosure statement" at the bottom of your review post:  "This product was provided to the author for free for purposes of this review."  Or: "The author was paid for this endorsement".

You could include the disclosure information directly in the review:  "My first impression of the product was that their packaging was great!  I opened up the box they sent me and saw that..."

Testimonials could be shown the same way, with a notice at the bottom saying, "Uncompensated opinions", or whatever you do.

Another thing that's unclear is how retroactive these new rules will be.  As a blogger, I've got hundreds of posts over years of blogging on 4-5 different blogs.  Those blog posts are still active on the web.  Do I need to go back and make sure that I've carefully attributed all of those posts?  A lot of these questions, it seems, still need to be sorted out.

And while it's also not clear how the FTC is going to go out and police the millions of blog and social network postings that happen daily across the net, they do have two very strong ally groups in the fight to keep you compliant with the rules:  one is your competition, and the other is any disgruntled clients/customers you might have.  It will help to dot your i's and cross your t's from here on out!



Mark is currently in the curriculum Department of an internet and SEO training company. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including Mark's Black Pot - Dutch Oven Recipes, MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

A Business Twitter Primer

You might have heard about Twitter lately.  It seems the world has been, if you'll pardon the obvious pun, all a-twitter about it.  But what if you're one of those who's never seen it or never tried it.  How do people know what it is in the first place?

It's kind of difficult to explain Twitter.  If you think of it as primarily a place where you can find and interact with the audience you're trying to build for your website business, it'll be a little easier to understand.  It's one of a number of sites that are referred to as "Social Networking" sites.  These allow you to find and communiciate with your audience.

You'll go to the Twitter site and sign up.  You'll spend a little time checking out some of the people that are already on there, and reading the short messages they're posting.  You'll sort out who's a part of your target audience.  Then you'll start joining in the ongoing conversation that these people are having, drawing them to your website in the process.

On Twitter, people post short messages about things they're doing and things they find on the 'net.  You'll want to read messages from people that are talking about your niche, and you'll want people interested in your niche reading what you have to say.  On Twitter, you read the messages of other people that you've chosen by "following" them.  Other people who read your messages are "following" you. This kind of interactivity is what social networking is all about.

It's much easier to experience it than it is to explain it  Let's jump in, shall we?

• Step 1: Sign up

The first thing to do is simply to go to twitter.com and sign up for a new account.  It only takes a quick minute.  You'll fill in some basic information, and you'll be ready to go.  It will offer you the chance to choose to follow some famous people, and to find some of your current friends to follow.  This can be fun, but I'd recommend that you not do that yet, because these people won't necessarily be a part of your web business' audience. 

• Step 2: Find some other twitterers

Do a search for your site's keywords and read the messages (called "tweets") that other people are posting.  You can click on the avatar or icon of the person right next to their post and visit their profile page.  Read their other tweets, and their bios.  Click to their websites.  It doesn't take much to discover what they're interested in.

• Step 3: "Follow" them

If it's clear that the person your looking at is a part of your website business' audience, then you can click the small button toward the top that says "Follow".  This means two things:  One, every time this person posts a tweet, it will appear on your twitter home page and you can read it.  Two, this person will get a notice via email that you're now following them.  Chances are, they'll at least check out your twitter profile page.  They might even check out your website.  It's very likely that this person will follow you back.  That means that whenever you post a message, they'll get it.

• Step 4: Begin "Tweeting"
  

The last step in this beginning primer is to start posting tweets of your own.  You can post about things at your website, like a new product line, or a new article of content.  You can post about a new blog entry at your blog. 

You can also do what I call "resource tweeting".  That means you find a good article or resource on the 'net, and you tweet about it.  Sharing this kind of information builds your own reputation, even if people know the article wasn't one you write.  You're seen as someone who's active in the community, spreading good information and help around.  You should post at least two resource tweets for every time you tweet about your own website.

Then, you keep doing this same process.  Find more people interested in your topic.  Follow them.  Get more information into your own tweets.  Read the tweets of others.  Before long, your follower list is growing, and you're interacting with your community.  You find you're understanding social networking better.  You get more traffic and a better search engine ranking.

And that makes your business grow!


Mark is currently in the curriculum Department of an internet and SEO training company. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including Mark's Black Pot - Dutch Oven Recipes, MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Reciprocating Content

This is an exciting new buzzword in the world of blogging. I first read about reciprocating content here. The concept behind it really isn't very new, but the term, the label, is.

The basic idea is that you, as a blogger, can involve your audience in the creation of content.

The typical approach to blogging is this:

• The blogger gets an idea for a rant
• He/she rants out his/her knowledge, opinions, feelings or thoughts, and posts them.
• The audience reads the rant
• The audience, if moved upon by the post, will comment.
• Other audience members will comment on the post.
• Other readers will comment on the comments.

For all we say about "Web 2.0" and interactivity, this model really has a "Web 1.5" feel. It is more interactive than a static website ("Web 1.0"), where the visitor would simply read the content and then leave. But on the other hand, the author can simply sit back and watch the discussion around his/her thoughts. Occasionally, the author will join in the discussion.

But the original content still originated from the mind of the blog owner. It's true that there's some lateral conversation going on, but the initial communication is still top-down.

What if the readership were to participate in the creation of the original content as well as the discussion?

There are lots of ways this could work. Here's one way the model could work:

• A reader begins communicating with the blogger, probably in a way that transcends simple comment posting
• The blogger, sensing some really good information, follows up on what the reader is saying, possibly doing some research or just pondering the concepts.
• The blogger formulates his/her own ideas and opinions on the topic.
• The blogger discusses those ideas with the reader, and, if necessary, gets his/her permission to write about it.
  
• The blogger writes a post about the topic. As a part of the post, he/she cites the original reader and his/her ideas as the source of the topic.
• The readership of the blog, then, as normal, begins to comment and discuss the topic.

The cool part about this is that now the reader feels a certain connection to the blog. He/she is no longer just a reader, but an active participant. Do that over and over, and before you know it, you have a fiercely loyal and active readership.

Here are some ways to do that:

• Read your reader's blogs. Post comments on them. Draw your own inspiration from them. When you write about them in your blog, cite them with a link. Then return to their blog and post that you blogged about their ideas.
  
• Actively ask for help. A large part of establishing yourself as an authority is in your ability to draw from lots of sources. Build that reputation. You become a focal point for good information.
• Be creative in ways to draw your audience in.
• Recognize and accept your own areas of weakness. As people share their knowledge with you, you learn more, and you become more and more of an expert.
• Be respectful. If someone contacts you outside of the comments of your blog (for example, via email) it might be because they don't want their experience shared. Ask permission first.

Getting your audience involved is a great way to build your audience. Anyone have any stories about how they've done this? I'd love to share them here! Post a comment or email me.



Mark is currently in the curriculum Department of an internet and SEO training company. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including Mark's Black Pot - Dutch Oven Recipes, MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.