STOP! Know Your Online Photo Copyright Laws Before you Push Publish!

Recently a client of ours got slapped with a very hefty fine for using a copyright image on their website.

We preach until our face is blue NOT to use just any image you come across on the Internet – but sometimes it’s just easy, tempting, and fast.

But, when you get that fine for over $1,000 in the mail – you might change your mind.

So here are a few dos and don’ts we’ve learned (the hard way) along the road of social media.

DON’T:

-          - Use Google Images. Just don’t do it. All images that pop up in the search are from OTHER websites – meaning there is a 99% chance they are copyrighted.

-       - Don’t use a photo unless is ABSOLUTELY says it is NOT copyrighted. If you don’t know, don’t      risk it.

-      - Don’t rely on other shared images on social media. Just because one company shared an image doesn’t mean THEY acquired it legally. Make sure to follow to the original source before published and shoot them an email to ask permission. 90% of the time, people wont mind – and you’ll be glad you asked instead of got caught with the other 10%.

-       

DO:

-      -  Use free sites like stock.xchng – that has lots of images that mostly let you use the images if you attribute (link from your site, and/or say their name) them. The only bad thing about free sites is that there is more quantity vs. quality. But, again, it’s free and safe.

     Another is freedigitalphotos.net - you can see how they ask you to add attributions here:

     example: 

     "Image courtesy of [contributor name] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net".

-      - Do browse cheap sites like istockphoto – you can get images for as low as $1. So even if you’re only publishing 1 blog a week, that’s only $48 a year! TRUST ME – that’s a lot less than getting that hefty fine in the mail.

-      - Do use your OWN images – nothing is better for content that your OWN ORIGINAL POSTS – they are unique, and guess what – NO COPYRIGHT ISSUES! YAY!

-       - Add your own images to free sites – like stock.xchang and freedigitalphotos.net – it’s a great way to get links to your site and free exposure/traffic by allowing others to use your work and attribute you on their own sites as well. 

-   - Do keep a link sheet of all used images. Make a document hosting date, image used, link to where you found it, and where you posted it etc. It may seem like a lot of work, but it’s worth it in the end to have the paper trail.

Blogging 101: Getting Started

Blogging. It’s now a requirement more than option. It not only helps your brand by offering quality content for your customers and viewers, it boosts your SEO (search engine optimization) and chances of gaining NEW viewers online!

So, where do you start?

Blogging 101 – Getting Started

 1. You have to purchase and own your own blog/website. 

If you’re serious about it – you need to buy your blog. WordPress and Blogger are free to start, and they make it’s super easy to move/upgrade and buy your URL to your own website/blog. (Make sure to use wordpress.ORG not wordpress.COM so you can install plugins down the road!) You can also use GoDaddy.com to see what's available to purchase, and buy from them. This usually costs $8-20 per year.

- Templates and hosting. If you’re serious about blogging, it’s worth the investment of a one-time template purchase. I have used Elegantthemes.com (Wordpress compatible), which is about $40 to have access to all of their WordPress friendly designs. Another great site to use is Wix.com. They let you build cool, simple websites from scratch for free, and you can upgrade to publish/host for as little as $6 per month. They also have apps to pull in your Blogger or Tumblr blog accounts as well. (So if you already have a blog, you can easily pull the feed in!)

**Remember you have to HOST your blog as well. Wix hosts for free with your package to publish, and Elegant Themes (and other theme sites usually offer) hosting packages with a partner - such as HostGator (who is the BEST as customer service).

 2. Setting Up and Understanding SEO

I think the word SEO (search engine optimization) is scary and confusing to a lot of people, but it doesn’t have to be!  Once you own your WordPress site, you can set up SEO by Yoast! (plugin), which will help get your blog in-front of eyes for free! There is nothing like sending traffic from Google and Bing just by optimizing one key word in each of your blog posts.

- Take advantage of Google. Google is a powerful force, and if you’re blogging using Blogger - everything is already set up and built in for you. It even pulls in your Google+ account and sets up your Google Authorship for you automatically! AMAZE!

***Consider setting up your Google+ account and linking up Google Authorship to connect your name with your blog and show up in the search results! Click here to read a really-great how-to on setting up Google Authorship by Host Gator.

3. Start a social media plan.

Social media is overwhelming, even for us who live it everyday! So I figured I would throw together a quick set-up plan for you to get going on your blog!

1. pick one or two social media sites and hit them hard. It’s impossible to be everywhere at once, so pick the ones you’re most familiar with and stick to them.

- Make them personable. people want to follow you because they can relate to you – so give them little peeks into your life. Real photos engage MUCH better than fake ones. Plus, you can’t get in trouble with copyrights for using your own shots!

- Recommendations? Facebook is always a given. Twitter is great for networking and sharing the word if you can commit the time (using scheduling platforms like HootSuite can help!). Google+ is a must for SEO, and Pinterest is GREAT for driving traffic (BUT – you have to pin a really catchy image!)

My traffic? #1 Pinterest. #2 Facebook #3 Google Search Results. (Don't underestimate the power to go viral on Pinterest!)

- Overall best time to post? research shows it’s between 1-5 pm. Photos get the best engagement, so add one to with your link. And don’t forget #hastags! A post should look like this:

BEST PRACTICES ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

FACEBOOK- make a page and invite your friends. (how to).

- schedule to post is advance. (how to)

- post at least 3 x a week.

- photos get the most engagement.

-search for and join local facebook groups or mom/blogger groups. (mom it forward)

-the more ‘likes’ and engagement from them = more exposure.

TWITTER- is great if you can stick with it. you can connect with ANYONE – especially other bloggers and moms.

- tweet to other bloggers personally.

- build lists

- join community twitter parties (@SITSGIRLS are great!)

- tweet 10x a day at least. Retweet other tweets that you like, it will engage that person to tweet you as well.

- set up hootsuite for free to scheudle out tweets of other blog posts. weekly. no one sees all your orignal tweets.

GOOGLE+

-for the techies of the world, but think less ppl = more exposure!

-google ranks your posts in their real time search results with #hashtags!

-the more circles you are in, the  more your info shows up in their google searches.

- join local and mom/blogger communities (help a mom out!)

- plan a hangout for moms!

-get really creative and set up google authorship. on advanced techniwues, contact me.

PINTEREST

- recommend just using your personal account unless you’re already killing it with a brand.

- ‘pin’ your articles.

- create boards of kids stuff that can link back to your blog.

4. Set up an Editorial Calendar. It’s best to write only when you’re feeling creative, forcing posts just because won’t be worthwhile to read. but knowing that you will post once a week, gives you plenty of opportunities to find something to write about in your daily life.

- Then schedule to post on Facebook 3 x a week, and schedule out your tweets. (recommend tweeting about a new post 2x a day for at least two weeks, using new titles of course) Takes 2 hours to do a full weeks work of posting and marketing!

5. Affiliate programs - make $$$!

When you write blogs about certain items (see top 10 baby registry items), link those photos and images to yourAmazon Associate Account. Then, if anyone clicks through to buy them, you get a percentage of the sale! Set up your affiliates account here.

- Amazon/Kindle  also lets you link up your blog posts for Kindle! So anytime a user downloads it to read, you get a percentage of that as well!

- Sponosored tweets. They will contact you to tweet for advertisers, and depending on how many followers you have, you get paid more!

- Google adsense. Setting up ads on your site is a controversial topic, but it can generate some dollars for you – you can also choose what can and cannot advertise on your site.

6. Promotion!

Blogging isn’t just about writing quality content, you have to post it all over the Internet and SIEZE YOUR DESTINY! Bookmarking sites are GREAT for this. Every time you write a new post, be sure to include it on these sites:

- Stumble Upon

-Digg

- Reddit.com

- Delicious

-Technorati.com

7. After you have promoted your posts - consider Syndication.


Syndication means letting others spread your information for you - sort of like a press release site for businesses. Hey - you want people to actually READ your awesome posts right? Then it requires some heavy lifting at the beginning - start here:


- IFITT - you can syndicate to over 50 sites at once.
- Doing Reviews? Use Scribnia.com - this is THE place for reader reviews of bloggers and columnists.
- NetworkedBlogs.com - a great place to start for generating traffic to your site.

Is your anxiety starting to flare up yet? haha – it’s okay – really once you get into a groove, it’s smooth sailing! Set-ups are always the hard work. If you need some help, or someone to hold your hand through it all, feel free to contact me @ stephanie[at]socialmindedmediagroup.com.

Drilling Down: Small Businesses and Location -Based Marketing

Great article in the New York Times featuring my past intern, Brian Honigman. We have come so far!

In this week’s Dashboard roundup of small-business news, we quoted from a blog post in which Brian Honigman, a digital marketing manager for Marc Ecko Enterprises, offers advice on using location-based networks. We went back to Mr. Honigman to dig deeper into how small businesses can use these services. A condensed version of the conversation follows.

Q.

Please explain what a location-based network does.

A.

A location-based network is a social media platform that allows you to share your location with your friends and the public in a variety of ways. Facebook and Twitter allow you to share your location associated with a status or a tweet, while a more heavily location-focused platform like Foursquare or Scvngr allows users to perform a few different tasks with their location, like earn rewards for check-ins or leave tips about their location.

Read the full article here...

Does your Company PASS or FAIL? Test Your Social Media Response

We all know we WANT comments and interaction from our viewers/fans on social media, but how exactly to do respond to their comments? What if it’s a NEGATIVE response?

Social media response can be critical and damaging for a business especially when neglected. In light of the Susan G Komen response disaster, there are great lessons to be learned out there —Test your social media response:

#1 – Do you clearly have posted what your policies are and what is acceptable? Does your company have an internal social media policy that details what employees can or cannot comment or state opinion when representing your company? (If you don’t SMG actually WRITES and customizes social media policies, email me at stephanie@socialmindedmediagroup.com for more information).

#2 – TROLL or RAGER Comments – Don’t “feed” them. If the comment is completely off the wall, a rant, ridiculous in nature and irrelevant, disgrard and DELETE.

#3 – UNHAPPY CUSTOMER or ON TOPIC Comments – Difficult to respond to usually because they may hurt your feelings, but you must remove all emotion and respond respectfully and thoughtfully. DO NOT DELETE. This will in light be a positive turn as your credibility will SOAR with the transparency. You will recover.

#4 – Unfortunately, you will take a small plumet. But YOU WILL RECOVER. Learn the lesson from Komen who deleted thousands of comments that were on-topic basically because they “didn’t want to hear it.” You don’t need me to explain to you how this was a sad, PR FAIL.

***Great model provided by Scribd.com (click image to view full site)

Simplify Your Life: first step to social media – one email address

I was on vacation in Central America this past week (try not to be too jealous and yes I do have a point…) While working on the beach frivolously tweeting and emailing and cursing my iPad, iPod, and iPhone for not being more adaptable to my needs, I had an epiphany—It wasn’t my technology that needed upgraded, it was me.

I have gotten so accustomed to Google docs that when I needed my cheat sheet of client log ins, I was lost trying to toggle between everything and logging in. As I became more mad with the Google docs app (I prefer and actually highly recommend iMailG), I realized it could all be fixed efficiently with TaDa! Simplicity.

So I’ve come to Rule #1: When Starting a Social Media Campaign: Keep it Simple!

Designate one specific email address for all your logins.

(tip: make sure your email is a legit website and not a google email, such as marketing@socialmindedmediagroup.com because some sites such as LinkedIn require this for verification). This way you can also designate this email to anyone else monitoring your marketing accounts so it is not a cluster of google docs and logins.

(NOTE: I am not saying to use the same passwords! Make sure these are still encrypted. I like to coin a phrase, such as “IloveGoogleDocstoomuch” and use ILGD2M as my password.)

This is also nice because social media loves to overload your inbox with notifications of new friend requests, retweets, comments and more. Having one designated email will allocate all of these to one lonely place, and keep your regular inbox clean and tidy.

Warning! Customer Service is Making a Comeback! 5 Ways to Survive

Let’s just jump right into today’s topic, Customer Service.

I am still not sure when the decline of customer service happened, but for me, I am pretty sure the end of civilization as I know it ended when I moved to NYC. If you want a wake-up call in some of the worst of it, move to New York for a few months. Upon living here, I have experienced overbearing brokers and fees to get into an apartment that I could ironically never get a hold of again after I paid them (in cash). Then there was setting up my cable, that actually called me 1 minute before their scheduled arrival time, and when I didn’t answer, said they would have to RESCHEDULE since I “missed my appointment”—for three weeks later. And getting new furniture delivered? Forget it… I hope you don’t need a couch for at least 6-8 weeks and can take off a full day of work for them to deliver within their “desired delivery time of 9am- 3 pm, weekdays only.” Don’t even get me started about the locksmith who showed up for one price, then demanded $100 more, and when I said I don’t want it anymore for that new price, demanded a $12 “show-up fee”. When I said I wasn’t paying that, he told me he was calling the cops. I didn’t sleep well that night thinking he was going to key-in and well… shudders.

So, when did it become so hard to be a consumer? It’s our money, and shouldn’t we be able to have some sort of say in how our services are handled? And is it too much to ask that you just “deliver what you promise.” That has been the hardest realization for me to swallow. I never ask for above and beyond—if you say you’re bringing me a hot dog, and bring just the bun, it’s only natural that I am going to ask, “well, what happened to the hot dog?” Only to be accosted and attacked for even asking like some sort of raging rabid animal. Come again?

As a business owner, I realize this opens up a WAVE of opportunity for me, just by being nice. If everyone else is going to yell and demean their clients, I am going to treat them like gold—as they SHOULD be. Simply by communicating with them in a reasonable amount a time (I always say within 24 hours unless limited access to devices), delivering to them what I promised, and acknowledging issues and mistakes and fixing them accordingly.

5 Ways Businesses can Improve and/or “Social Monitor” Customer Service with Social Media:

1. Social Media is your best friend or enemy when it comes to customer service. Why not stay friends?

There is an infinite number of review sites out there, and many are specific to your type of service. Sadly, consumers are more inclined to write about a bad review, that a great one, so why give them any more incentive? Encourage your clients to write good reviews through a referral program, and ALWAYS address negative comments and reviews. Responding always gives you the hand to correct the issue. Have you not read about McDonalds massive #McFail?

2. Stay Ahead of the Game.

Google provides you this awesome little gadget called “alerts.” You can customize it to send you an email immediately (recommended), daily or weekly on search results for your chosen key words (such as your company name, your name, or your field of business). TIP: Make sure you enclose the key words in parenthesis ex. “Stephanie Barnhart” instead of Stephanie Barnhart, so it will find results for the words together and not just with “Stephanie” or “Barnhart” in the results. No matter who or what in the world is talking about you online—good or bad—you’ll know about it.

3. Communication.

I can’t stress this enough. Nothing frustrates me more than someone who cannot respond to your phone calls or emails. It’s a simple, expected characteristic of the job! If you don’t have time to respond to your customers, you need to hire an assistant (or me!) to do it for you. Nothing gets Tweeted/Facebooked about more than a company who cannot return a phone call/email to a disgruntled customer. You know you’ve seen them—don’t become one!

4. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Corporations refer to it as churn—the ratio of clients you gain to the clients you lose a year. Don’t LOSE clients due to bad customer service! If you find yourself falling behind, get help. Media consultants, such as myself, are here to monitor your presence online, and keep up with your clients so you have time to do what it is you do best! Don’t let your business fail because you think you need to hire a full-time marketing staff for your small business. There are options in the middle!

5. Be Yourself.

Don’t promise the world and then drop off the face of the earth. The best business owners on Twitter are seen for their transparency and humbleness. People want to connect with other people. They want to see that you are a person and not a robot, so show them that. If your business is cupcakes, give them cupcakes! Show them you get up 3 am to get the dough ready! Snap a photo of the process, admit that they came out banana walnut instead of banana vanilla and you’re selling them as a “new taste test” for half price! People will, literally, eat it up. (Now don’t become one of those people who has to tweet their every activities – no one wants to know about your bathroom breaks! Be realistic!)

Start with the basics, and you will keep your customers happy! Happy customers = more money, more customers! Brilliant!

Facebook, and Twitter and YouTube oh MY!

When you think social media, your mind over-floods. I know mine does. It’s okay you can admit it.

Take a deep breath.

Technology is designed to update and change at the speed of light. That’s what makes it so intriguing and “undomesticated,” if you will. It’s the pure beauty of the raw opportunity it can provide you. IF….. you can tame it a little, you say. Literally, it is a jungle out there.

So consider yourself lucky to have stumbled upon my blog! I will walk you step-by-step on navigating this jungle. Congrats! You just found your own personal Indiana Jones of the cyber world! And, after having a te

aser, if you still don’t want to take it on yourself, you can hire my company to do it for you. Problem solved!

But for today – lets start with Tip#1: Love what you do.

Because if you don’t, who will? If you don’t love what you do, stop right now and go back to your dark, windowless cubicle at your corporate office where no one cares if you even sneeze to say god bless you. People aren’t rocks – they can actually TELL when you are passionate about what you are offering.

So you love being a dentist? Great! There’s an audience for that….

So you love taking pictures of cats in weird positions in pizza boxes? GREAT! There’s an audience for that too…. (seriously)

So think of it this way… you need a new dress/suit. You wouldn’t walk into a store in a back alley that is dirty, has old garbage laying around, and smells. No one talks to you, they ignore you, and are rude, like you are interrupting their day. Now, you go to a designer super store. They have music pumping, hand you champagne, and can’t stop cat calling and drooling over you in that outfit as they parade you down a mock runway in the center of the store. Sold! In fact, charged to an almost maxed-out credit card because you can’t afford the price, but you know it’s worth it because they told you so.

Have this mentality about your own online branding. No one’s interested in an boring, old, smelly website.

So you can say you love what you do? Good! Now we can get started….tomorrow.

Now go back to doing what you love.

Cheers!

Stephanie