Susan Finch - Web Solutions Provider

Overwhelmed with social networking invitations; clear your daily calendar.

We are all so excited ad the cute little polls, applications and invites at our fingertips.  Please reconsider before you send your entire address book or friend list a poll on their favorite cereal or "which shoe describes you?"  Compound your cute little request by their entire friend list.  Between being tagged, polled, and hugged, more social networking time is wasted installing applications that only benefit those who create them. They slowdown your page, annoy your friends you invite and just cut down on the REAL visiting time. If you don't have real stuff to visit about, maybe you open your friend list a bit too much. Find something about YOU to tell them.  Don't rely on social marketing/media crutches of installed applications, nudges, tags and hugs.

We all have limited time to socialize. That's why we are online in the first place.  I can't get together for coffee with my neighborhood girlfriends, but we can banter about for a bit at 11 pm during the week.

This rant was inspired by an article in AdAge today:

How to Get the Most Out of Social Networks and Not Annoy Users:
Amid Constant Deluge of Requests, Marketers Must Work Harder to Persuade People to Join Their Pages

by Emma Hall  | Published: April 27, 2009

LONDON (AdAge.com) -- Welcome to social-media message overload.

The constant barrage of invites to sign up for this group or download that app are starting to wear on social-network users, presenting big challenges for the brands and marketers who are looking to use these sites to aggregate fans and cultivate relationships with customers.

Read the full story here on AdAge >>

Twitter Training Courses from Lynda.com

I received a gift in my email today.  Actually a prod in my pattootie because I haven't recorded my own classes on this topic yet.  Lynda.com offers some great classes, depends on the instructor. Some are snoozers, many are VERY helpful.

No secrets in social media - that's the point!

There are those out there that think it is still their private thought or opinion when they post items to the web.  This is a reminder, if you post it, it can be found and is public.  Call, email, FedEx if you want to keep it under wraps a bit better.  Remember what your mom told you, "If you want to keep it a secret, don't tell anyone."  This story struck me as a big "oh duh!" moment.

Privacy Issues with Online Social Networks - from dubofflaw.com

Do you post on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or other social networking sites?  A recent ruling by the Superior Court of Fresno County cautions Internet users about the lack of privacy inherent in the use of such sites.

The woman's family still lived in Coalinga and claimed that as a result of the newspaper's publication of the Ode, they received death threats and their home was shot at.  They also claimed that the father's business lost so much money it had to be closed.  Morena and her family sued the principal and the school district as well as the newspaper and its publishers for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The appellate court noted that Moreno had "made her article available to any person with a computer and thus opened it to the public eye" and went on to say that "under these circumstances, no reasonable person would have had an expectation of privacy regarding the published material."  The court pointed out that although Morena had used only her first name on her online journal, her identity was "readily ascertainable" from her MySpace page, which included a photograph of Moreno.

While most of us are aware that Internet postings are not private, this case serves as a reminder that unless your settings provide for limited access, you should be extremely careful when using social networking sites.

http://dubofflaw.com doesn't have an archive for these great articles, but you can sign up to subscribe to them.

Mom Shop 2 - Mamapreneur's Expo Event

This was a professional event I volunteered at today.  It was beautifully organized and a great venue for mom business owners.  Mamapreneurs is a professional organization for moms who own businesses to plan, connect and grow their businesses.  With the nature of my business, I didn't have a booth. This was more geared towards those with products and services specifically for families with younger children.  I'm so glad I volunteered.

Trust me, I work for @hotmail

Congratulations!  You've landed a fabulous job working for a company called Hotmail, or better yet - Gmail. They send mail to anyone with a g in their name and you are their top dog! 

Many times your email address is the first thing people see from you.  When it shows up in their inbox, or is presented on a business card at a meeting, or listed in a membership directory, that first glance tells them more about you than you know.

Enjoying what you don't know and going for the ride anyway.

I appreciate the word pictures this Mark Wnek uses to describe Twitter, microblogging and his affection for both.  Don't think too much, don't make it hard, just participate in community.

Wnek: Zen and the Art of Twittering -Embracing the Microblog

Posted by Mark Wnek on 04.10.09 @ 05:20 PM on AdAge.

There's a famous IQ test that goes like this: Using as much rope as you need, how would you get across the Grand Canyon? Many of the smartest people of my generation I know got stumped by this one. The answer is: You fill the Grand Canyon with rope and then walk across on top of it.

The mental gymnastics required to get to the solution is interesting because it's about doing the opposite of what comes naturally. Traditional solving is a matter of focusing and cutting away the extraneous. Here the mind needs to open itself out, to achieve a state of abundance. FULl STORY >>

Seen any good books lately?

Not only am I working on a new book, but I have the privilege of helping an author promote his new book and manage his marketing sites.  I've been exploring creative ways that the self-published set promotes their work and thought I'd share this with you - Book trailers are a great way to preview a book.

What triggered this two hour distraction on YouTube was an email from my cousin asking me to vote for her in a book trailer competition, in which she was a finalist.  I'm old-fashioned.  I read the book reviews in the New Yorker, on Powell's website, Barnes and Noble and Amazon.  I walk into bookstores; yes I do,, walk into book stores and read the reviews, pick up the books and read random sample pages to see if I can embrace the author's style.

After reviewing the other finalists in the book trailer competition I started to poke around and searched YouTube for "book trailers children" to see what the competition was in the category of my project.  I was amazed at the treasures I found there.  Some of them I wouldn't not have found at Powell's without it being on an endcap display.  It was fun and much more useful than the movie previews that shout at me in the theater.

Try this search in my favorite category: biographies >>  Results above the line, "Playlist Results for..." are paid advertisers.

You might find a treasure. I know that it adds one more task for my illustrator partner and I before we publish our upcoming children's book. 

New Ad Agency Embracing Twitter and It's Working.

We are fans of MadMen in this house. We can't help it. We both come from and advertising agency background.  This series is so right on the money for how the advertising biz was in the 60's and 70's.  This captured my attention and I thought I would pass it along. 

Building a Twitter-Based Ad Agency for Entertainment Companies
Tweeting Star Carri Bugbee Explains Her 'Mad Men' Success

If you have not seen this recent Advertising Age clip (PRSA included it in their post today as well), Carri Bugbee talks about how she received a Shorty Award for creating a Twitter persona based on the MadMen TV series, and how she’s designing a new ad agency around using Twitter for business.

In the wake of her high-profile promotion of the AMC series "Mad Men" on Twitter, Carri Bugbee is building a Twitter-based ad agency for entertainment clients. In February, the first Knight Foundation-backed Shorty Awards honored Ms. Bugbee's "Mad Men" character tweets as the year's best Twitter advertising campaign. In this nine-minute video interview, she discusses the details of how she did it as well as how she's working to parlay that success into an expansion of her 15-year-old PR business.  >>

To Tweet or Not To Tweet: Is Twitter right for your company?

This may lose me some business, but I have to agree with this article in AdAge. Twitter isn't for EVERYONE and every company.  There are some things to think about before you jump into yet another social marketing venue.  In addition to the tips and questions in this article, think about time-management and who your customers are. If you sell yarn - are crocheters and knitters apt to be looking for you on Twitter and will that affect your sales or their loyalty?  Probably not.  The time would better spent writing creative articles to submit to club and craft sites.

When you read the article, I take exception to #4.  The comments at the end lead me to believe most people do, as well.

Top 10 Reasons Your Company Probably Shouldn't Tweet:
Everyone's Talking About It, but Should You Be Doing It?

Posted by B.L. Ochman on 04.07.09 @ 09:16 AM

Mainstream media has gone ga ga about Twitter, which grew more than 1,200% in the past year, doubled its members in the past few months and attained 14 million members in March, according to Compete.

Everyone and his dog seems to be tweeting, from CEOs, celebrities and not-for-profits to venture capitalists, banks, business services, government and, well, dogs (and cats and the random parakeet, too). Should your business be tweeting? Twitter is not for everyone. Here are the "Top 10 Reasons Not to Tweet."  Read the full story here >>

Relaunch - "Honeymoon With My Brother" site

Rescue the captives! 
This site needed to be updated and they had no resource. I was already a fan and was so happy to be called upon to help them convert it and update.

"Before and after" sort of fits this project for my new clients, Franz & Kurt Wisner.  It's great to be a part of their new launch:
Franz Wisner's new book:  "How the World Makes Love." 
Check out their site for the book tour schedule.