Helping You Rock Out Your Site Like A Rockstar!

Faustos Fernós asked on Facebook: Lets talk about social media and Buddypress- will self-installed social networks ever become a threat to Facebook, or just another place to network?

Probably with all the Facebook suing companies over trademark, you have to wonder if they would ever go even more senile and try suing other social networks. Heaven forbid that happen, but I do not see a problem with this happening.

There are millions of users online and millions of sites- and you know, everyone still has plenty of places to go. Facebook is a nice stomping ground, even if we might grumble at some of their cockeyed plans sometimes. With the ability to use WordPress and install the BuddyPress plugin to turn it into a social network, this allows you to create your own little social circle, devoid of Facebook drama.

You can make your own little niche for anything from WordPress fans, to a class reunion site for a high school, or even perhaps for an organization that it is not always easy to get all the members to the weekly in person meetings.

Facebook has been around for a while and will be for some time, so no- social network platforms or BuddyPress will never threaten that lifestyle. Just to show a somewhat similar case- It works out like Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation. There are hundreds of Media Wiki websites out there with the same platform, but are niche based in topics, but they have not brought Wikipedia down. It merely has brought more users to enjoy their special corner.

Thank you for asking Faustos!

What are your thoughts on this?

So, you started blogging. For whatever reason it was (teaching, personal, entertainment, or other), you must have learned something. What has blogging taught you?

For me, blogging has taught me a lot. I am a person that has a wide range of interests. I started with one site and ended up with several. However, a couple of them, I ended up knowing that I loved to help and teach others where I learned practically by myself. No many taught me b2 or WordPress. Not many taught me how to create graphics.

I painstakingly read books, and experimented. Every success was shared and my readers exercised those between 2002 to 2007. In 2008, I started refocusing. I also was a little burnt out. I networked with a lot of bloggers and they were more into not engaging so much. The few who did actually still blog today. Those who blogged the old way fell into three results: either having several blogs for different topics, totally quitting the blogging scene, or moved onto the social network scene for personal and entertainment reasons.

It was also in 2008, a new breed of bloggers started. They were new and had the same goals in mind. Some with good intentions, and others still not quite at the point to be teaching… however their readers learned along with them. Since then, I have enjoyed seeing the blog community grow. Although I am practically an evangelist for WordPress, I was happy to see what others were talking about and their opinions no matter the blogging platform or content management system. It adds a unique twist to anyone’s day. It also encouraged my own drive to continue on.

Just shy of a decade, and I am happy to be where I am at. I do have ambition to be a better blogger, but I know this one thing.

A long time I drove myself to be the top in the blog world, in a time where social networking was not emphasized much. I did well and had a lot of traffic, a lot of comments, and even visited and commented at other blogs. However, my blog was everywhere and just was not where I wanted to be. I did not want to mix my extremely personal life in the midst of sharing my love for teaching. I was not happy with this as I climbed too quickly and some of my better friends got left behind. I had to go back recently to search and reconnect.

Blogging has taught me many things. I have learned to try to stay humble about my blogging and not seem ‘know it all’ or forgetting those who helped my site grow. I have learned how to write and express myself better. I have also learned exactly what I want to do with my blog… well, blogs.

I know there will be a lot more to learn, even after 10 years of blogging. Please remain on my journey to keep learning if you have been for a while. After all, I have learned a lot from my readers too.

If you are a blogger or have been in the past, what has blogging taught you?

Manage Online Reputation Before It Manages You

The simple fact in the 21st century is that if you do not manage your online reputation it may end up managing your life. The majority of employers are now searching their job candidates before making a final decision on who to hire. People are researching potential love interests on the web to find out the skeletons that may be hiding in the closet. Co-workers and friends are joining the search as well. With the Internet affecting the views of all of these people, it is time to manage your online reputation.

Limit Who You Connect With

In everyday life, who you are spending time with reflects on your character. People who spend the majority of their time with others who get into trouble, eventually will be associated with that crowd. The same is true when trying to manage online reputation. The people that you connect with on social networks reflect on your character. When a profile for Facebook appears in search results, it lists some friends alongside the profile. Manage online reputation by limiting the people that you connect with on the web.

Find Out What Others Are Saying

The next step to manage your online reputation is to find out what others are saying. Do a search on typical search terms for your name. What information do you find? Is there any negative content? To manage your online reputation, you need to know where to begin.

For a free consultation on how to manage your online reputation, contact us at 1-800-889-4812.

As I drank my morning coffee and skimmed the news, I read that Courtney Love has settled a lawsuit for $430,000 over a tweet that she had written regarding a fashion designer. Even though $430,000 is not a lot of money for a celebrity like Courtney Love, for most people spending so much money over a tweet is ridiculous and not feasible. Keep in mind that the $430,000 does not cover her attorney’s fee! This got me to thinking about social networking sites and litigation.

We all are aware of the benefits of social networking sites. You get to keep in touch with people, inform others of what you are doing, and overall just use it to be in the “know.” However, communicating in cyberspace also exposes people to many risks. The most common risks known are being prone to scams and identity thefts because your information is out there. However, with updating your social networking profile, there comes another risk—the possibility of being sued.

People often say that you can sue over anything. Well, it sure does seem that way. Especially when you learn that Courtney Love paid $430,000 over a 140 character tweet! In reality though, causes of actions such as defamation can cause people to pay a hefty amount. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter make it easy for people to defame others. With a few key strokes and the resulting words causing harm to the reputation of others, a person can very quickly find themselves a lawyer’s office trying to get out of a lawsuit they never thought they would be in.

The reality is that when people update their Facebook or Twitter statuses with opinionated views, it rarely crosses their mind that they could be sued over their Twitter tweet or Facebook update. What does this tell us? Do social networking sites have a responsibility to educate their users? It is necessary for them to warn their users that they may be sued over an update?

I feel that they do not. Rather, people need to educate themselves on any unfavorable consequence that may result from their online actions. After all, if we are all adult enough to use social networking sites and consent to having our information out there, then we are adult enough to educate ourselves on the dangers of our tweets and Facebook updates. In fact, I believe it is out responsibility to do so. Especially if we want to enjoy our Facebook and Twitter sites, rather than sit in a courtroom dreading the day we joined.

If you are the person behind building your brand online, what you say can have a huge impact. Your reputation can literally change in 140 characters or less!

Every day someone says the wrong thing and literally that person gets unfollowed, or even harassed. Perez Hilton was a prime example when he bashed Michael Jackson after the legendary pop star passed away. Tila Tequila bashed Perez Hilton, Kanye West bashed… Twitter, and of course, there have been other kerfuffles from celebrities, non-celebrities, and even members of the blogging community.

You of course, have a right to share your opinion, but it comes down to: should you? Regardless, of the subject and no matter how many or how few people hear you, your reputation is important. It is not censoring if you keep your mouth closed on certain things – it is common sense.

There are going to be people out there that are in for the shock value, but if you do not want the backlash, have second thoughts over what you say. On Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks, no matter how old you are, you are speaking to people of all ages.

The worst case scenario is when your social network account has been reported and flagged because of what you say. Unfortunately, Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks have a moderation team that is not sympathetic to sharing controversial opinions, especially if it may end up pretty chaotic. So… in worst case scenario, you could lose your social network account or the conversation that is offensive removed. It seems unfair, but most websites, even blogs have a responsibility to make sure things do not get out of hand.

So, think about it:

• Will it emotionally harm someone?
• Would you regret saying it later?
• Is the topic highly controversial and already having trouble on other websites?
• Are you willing to take full responsibility of the backlash?

Have you had an incident online where it was very controversial and caused your social network account to be suspended, flagged, or even terminated?

For those still floundering out there in the social networking community while using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more individually, I am sure it has become time consuming and a bit tedious. I have put together a 5 minute screencast video, a walk through Hootsuite.com to help you condense your time and focus on both marketing and engaging at the same time.

As you can see from the video, you can click from each of your social networks, whether it is for your business or for yourself, that you can easily submit new posts, quotes, information, and more, far more quickly than visiting each site individually.

Do you use Hootsuite? Are there other websites that do what Hootsuite does or better?

I thought I would put together a short video tutorial on creating a username for your Facebook profile or Facebook fan page. Normally, for both, when you first sign up for either a profile or fan page, the URL structure is very generic and often has a long number.

For those who brand their user profiles online, the number can be a bit of a pain. However, it is only temporary. For profiles you may have to authenticate your account by cell phone to have use of this feature. For fan pages, you have to at least have 25 fans.

As a quick reference from the video. The link to the page to change your Facebook username or Facebook fan page is http://www.facebook.com/username/.

In the case you are having troubles with gaining fans, I might suggest participating in #FanPageFriday at both the Facebook fan pages of Nile Flores and Kim Castleberry. Just remember to also share the link to your favorite fan pages and then another wall post to your own fan page.

Sponsored Tweets, an Izea brand to help Twitter users make a little cash while tweeting posts has tweaked their suggested prices. For those who have been in Sponsored Tweets from the beginning, may have seen a big change.

This could be based on what advertisers are willing to spend, how much clicking is actually done on links tweeted out there in Twitterville, and trying to find some way for Izea to make money too.

However, for those who have been in the game for awhile, getting paid to tweet has not really been on the up and up with bloggers and social networking enthusiasts. In fact, based on seeing two and four cent CPC opportunities pop up like crazy, and a lack on actual hard core offers, it makes me think that:

1, The advertisers were not happy with their results despite the fact their tweet may have been seen by thousands, but only clicked about a dozen times (they do run that risk)

2, Izea is not making money and needs to set prices for recession (listed a bit cheekily)

3, More advertisers are investing in the cheap CPC (even as little as $50, and splitting it to the two and four cent opportunities I mentioned) to pay for Tweets.

I get paid more from Adbrite, Text Ad Links, and Google Adsense per click than I get for a Tweet! Kind of said.

Here is a screenshot of the list of tweets in my dashboard for the CPC program. (Note: I would not even touch these or the ones I clicked to hide.)

When Sponsored Tweets began, the suggested price feature was something new for them to try out and hopefully try to follow on how much a Twitter user’s tweet is actually worth. For the most part, the price would fluctuate very little and seemed fair, maybe even a little more fair than Be A Magpie and TwtMob (other Paid to Tweet competitors.) With this tweak, some of those prices have fallen, even for celebrities. Mine has fallen too!

I still think this tweak needs extra looking in, as most of the opportunities there I cannot take because they are ridiculous, and somehow even after putting my exact interests, I am getting bad opportunities. Even some of my colleagues with a follower count and similar Klout score are not getting what they use to.

I ask – What gives Sponsored Tweets?

Do you use Sponsored Tweets? How has it worked for you? If you have used Sponsored Tweets for quite some time, what are your suggested to improve the service? Your complaints about it?