Tech tips Articles

This morning I spent four hours on the telephone trying to find services for someone I love. Since we are in the preliminary stages of finding these services I emailed some friends, took their recommendations and then looked up the websites of the facilities and starting calling.

You can tell a lot from a phone call. When you’re a patient, a child, an advocate or a friend needing service the receptionist at the agency you are calling is your first introduction to a facility. Granted, first impressions can be wrong, but when I’m looking to begin a long term relationship with a business I’m going to be calling them with some regularity. Phone calls should be pleasant.

Websites can be an equally important as a first impression. Every part of your site matters. Take, for instance, the domain name. When I see a .com or a .net domain I assume that I’m on a business’ web page. When I see a .gov I know it’s a government page, and when I see .edu I know it’s a school. When we see .org we used to know that we were looking at a non profit organization.

Gone are the days when domainers had to write essays to explain why they needed to own a .org. A few short years ago in order to own a .org website the potential owner would have provided proof of non-profit status. A few years before that an essay was required to own any site.

Clearly essay writing and domain ownership are no longer a duo, but best practices dictate that only not for profit would host their site at a .org address. In order to protect a brand I can imagine a company owning a .org domain and then redirecting the traffic to their .com or .net, but hosting their for profit business on a .org platform would only confuse potential clients and alienate them once they figured out that they’d been snookered.

A web based economy uses trust as it’s currency. Once you’ve been deemed untrustworthy it’s nearly impossible to regain that trust. If your URL is dishonest, or just less than forthright there’s no reason for anyone to trust your content.

Although it’s possible for your business to buy and maintain any URL you can get your hands on, fight the urge to be anything less than transparent, because the web based consumer is a bright consumer and they have a lot of choices.

FamilyFinds.com launched just a few days ago in Los Angeles.

My understanding is that there will be a nationwide rollout in 2011. No matter where you are located, I’d keep an eye on this.

We all love Groupon. The internet loves Groupon so much that they said “no thank you” to an eighty bazillion dollar offer from Google. That’s a fact, go ahead and check it, I sure didn’t.

We’ve loved flash sales since Woot came on the scene with a deal a day. We fell in love a little more when Gilt gave us $25 to refer a friend (they don’t give that any longer so I don’t refer any longer). We fell madly and passionately in love when Groupon gave us laser hair removal at 80% off and 50% off at the Gap.

How much stuff do you really need? You don’t actually have to answer that.

Family Finds is a daily deal site that sells experiences. Every parent knows that the tchotches don’t really matter. What really matters is how we spend time with our families. Unfortunately some of these experiences cost quite a bit, and some of them we just don’t know about. Family Finds is an online daily promotions site that is focusing on us. Families who want to spend some time together.

If you’re looking to take your kids to a theme park, to a free concert or just to find out what is going on in your town this week, then you’ll enjoy the weekly blog at Family Finds. This week they share the free holiday concert at McCabes (I started going to concerts at McCabes in 1974).

Thus far I haven’t found anything that’s perfect for my kids, but I remember saying that about Groupon and Gilt too… cue the ominous music. Family Finds lets you suggest a deal. I’m going to suggest Magic Mountain.

Currently they are offering $10 credits to refer a friend. If you sign up early you might be the lucky one to refer all of your friends.

I’m a mom blogger. I’m a mom, and I’m a blogger and I talk about motherhood. I talk about Jane, I talk about Alexander, I talk about Mr. G., and our pets.

However, I’ve not shared pictures of my kids with you, nor have I shared stories of my children that their classmates wouldn’t already know. The way I blog might be different than the way you blog. I blog from my lens. I tell my stories, from my point of view, and I try to leave space for other people to tell their own tales.

I do this for a number of reasons:

• My children will need jobs one day. Stories about G-Spots on the soccer field will not help them
• My children are entitled to make their own first impression. Being their friend on facebook takes this opportunity away
• My blog will not help my husband’s career
• I am the only person in my home who decided to become a blogger, therefore I am the only person who should be public
• Mom Blogs are Disneyland for pedophiles

Here’s where it gets sticky. Every so often I’ll publish some of the keyword searches that bring people to this site. Here’s an image I recently published.

All I’m asking is that parents are mindful when they post pictures of their children. I’m asking that we think about WHY we are sharing images and details of other people’s lives. I don’t believe there is a right or wrong answer to the issue of sharing, but it’s essential to think these things through. I know the answer for my family. It’s all evolving, as is every other part of my parenting.

After having posted the above image a few folks on twitter got upset. Not a little bit upset, but defensive, angry, and namecalling upset. One of the more mild posts was this

This is a prime example of why we all need to continue learning about the web that we use. I have a search for “photo pretty girls v***ina” there is no place in this blog where I’ve ever written those words, but there are hundreds of posts in my archives and each of those words does exist somewhere on this site. Thinking that you have to bait people with exact phrases is quite simply wrong.

What I’m finding is that when I say that I’m cognizant of my children’s right to privacy, what other Mom Bloggers are hearing is You are a bad mother.

Not. True.

I’m saying plainly and simply: this is what I do, and this is why I do it.

If you read my post yesterday, you’d know that I was in a fitness class where I was videotaped without giving consent.

I can’t really stop thinking about it, for a number of reasons.

Yes, it’s creepy. The gym in a private place where every wall has signs proclaiming it a camera free place. This is a setting where I’ve paid for my privacy, and I feel strange about losing it. But there’s a larger issue.

The big issue (today) is the fact that I’m in the business of partnering with brands. I do so thoughtfully and rarely in order to preserve the value of those relationships. I price myself quite high, and brands frequently say “no thank you” just as I often decline partnerships. This is all strategic. I have worked my ass off creating a business where my endorsement has value.

By appearing in an exercise video for a branded class at a national gym it would (mistakenly) appear to be an endorsement. That would suck.

Naturally, I’ve heard nothing from the gym today. I really didn’t expect to hear anything except oops, because I clearly wasn’t taken seriously yesterday by anyone in any position. We talk about privacy quite a bit, but what are your rules for other people? Do you get signed consent forms? Do you just take a snippet of video where they say “I agree to be filmed”?

And, yes, for those of you in the comments who were guessing who the celeb trainer is, and which huge fitness chain was involved, you were right. I’m not naming any names, because part of me still wants to see this trainer and his wife succeed. Yes, even though they have gone about things in the wrong manner.

Updated to add: They were on the Today show this week, and a class was filmed at my exact gym, with a film crew, and paperwork and things like that. So no one can say that they didn’t know better. They know better.

Oh gawd I’m going to love it even more.

Recently I wrote a post that outlined the Five Simple Steps to Bringing a Brand to their (Virtual) Knees. I can’t offer you a problem without a solution.

Brands really don’t need to be afraid of bloggers, they just need to think like them (a little bit) so here are six tips for brand managers. Please feel free to add more in the comments if you think I’ve left something out.

1. Build Social Capital early and often: The best way to make sure you never have a big problem with bloggers is by participating in their discussions before the drama. If you follow folks like Scott Monty and Christopher Barger on Twitter you’ll see that their streams aren’t just about Ford and General Motors, they are simply on Twitter to be part of the online community. I’m quite certain that they are listening intently for their own brands, and for automobile news too, but both men have tweeted about their shoes within 24 hours of writing this. Now, you may think that they are wasting their time, but I can tell you that I personally have emailed each of them (called one of them on vacation) when disaster looked like it was looming.  Both men interact with a diverse community, and the Social Capital they’ve built (and continue to build) acts as a set of eyes and ears, even when they are on vacation.

2. Do not hand social media over to interns: Interns are adorable, and I recognize that businesses need them for things like answering phones and fetching coffee. However, when your intern is in charge of your facebook page you’ve just handed the keys over to someone who was probably delivering pizza last month. I know any idiot can “do” facebook, but it takes a non-idiot to figure out which gripes require your attention, and when your silence will be deafening. Social media is maturing, and there are pros available. Hire them before you have to shop for a crisis communicator (I hear those guys are expensive).

3. Monitor your brand round the clock: Small businesses do it, because they have to. You need to also. It doesn’t have to be one person, but at the barest minimum a google alert with YourBrandHere and boycott, sucks, or criminal as a keyword will keep you informed of a tempest brewing. If you’ve hired a pro they’ll be able to look at it and see if it’s worth paying any attention to (not all shrieking matters). Again, if you’ve built social capital you might have eyes and ears everywhere.

4. Respond truthfully: One big criticism of of the Motrin fiasco is that the apology wasn’t sincere (authentic). Seth Godin says “This isn’t a honest note from a real person. It’s the carefully crafted non-statement of a committee. What an opportunity to get personal and connected and build bridges…” To a degree he’s right, but my understanding is that J&J’s hands were tied because of legalese required by drug companies. I may be wrong, it may have just been a crappy reply. What works though is a well thought out reply that explains why you are an important part of a community. Just this weekend Rufus from Babble added a very long comment at phdinparenting that included these two paragraphs:

I encourage everyone who is concerned about this to spend some time on Babble reading about breastfeeding — just type in “breastfeeding” in our search box at the top of the page. You will see that we have worked hard to cover the breadth of breastfeeding issues in a way that is rational, non-judgmental, and supportive of women in their efforts to breastfeed for as long as possible. Katie Allison Granju wrote a wonderful post on Babble — Confessions of a proud Breastfeeding Zealot (tongue and cheek) — http://bit.ly/b8i2MZ — in which she concluded: the challenge is to create a supportive breastfeeding culture while being respectful of people’s individual choices. I think that’s well said; it’s what we aspire to do at Babble.

Here are some other interesting Babble takes: Madeline Holler on breastfeeding her daughter until she was almost 4 (http://bit.ly/dhOjQk); Tricia Grissom on why she had to switch to formula after a few months (don’t pounce on her until you read about her ordeal – http://bit.ly/9VApUq); and Kate Tuttle on the growing popularity of exclusive pumping (http://bit.ly/ayvXu9), and Madeline again on The Case Against the Case Against Breastfeeding (http://bit.ly/bmXO5R).

Clearly Rufus (and Babble) value the community at PhDinParenting, and clearly Babble supports moms and breastfeeding. It seems to me that his entire comment is the gold standard for how to respond when your brand is attacked.

5. Don’t participate if you don’t have the resources: Really. I honest to goodness recommend that brands stay out of social media if they aren’t going to make it part of their business. Do not set up a facebook page and then let it sit there. If you want to protect your name online buy your URL’s, take your twitter ID’s and just park them. Don’t invite a conversation you won’t show up for. People will take over your page. I think everyone remembers when Nestle set up a facebook fan page and then had no idea how to handle it. If you don’t know how to administer a fan page, if you don’t know a tweet from a grunt, do not jump into social media alone. There’s nothing wrong with admitting you need help, or deciding that you don’t have the resources to grow your brand online.

6. Just be yourself. Social media isn’t about your brand, it’s about you. If people like you they will help you. It’s just like high school, only everyone’s pretty now.