Carol Stephen, Author at

Battling Content Thieves

July 18, 2013 By Carol Stephen 11 Comments

Battling Content Thieves

You work so hard at your business. You’re out marketing, making phone calls, visiting companies, and shaking hands. Is it really fair that you should have to create original content when there’s so much out there already? Why not just swipe it from someone else? After all, if it’s on the Internet, anyone can use it, right?

Discovery

Recently, I learned about a new and nefarious Internet Villain: a scraper. A blogpost I wrote was scraped. Scraping means that someone took the content, without permission, and posted it on their site. I discovered it through a pingback on my blog. By the way, I’m not sharing the crook’s name with you.

What to Do if Your Content is Stolen?

That made me wonder…what can you do if your post is scraped? First, I asked some of my friends. They were outraged on my behalf, but also thought that it was a result of being successful. One said that the more you write, the greater the odds of being scraped. Next, I went to Google and did a search. And Ginny Soskey’s wonderful Hubspot article came up on how to fight back if people steal your content. Luckily, I could skip the first step–I already knew it had been stolen.

Is it Worth the Fight?

Soskey asks this question, and comes up with some instances when fighting isn’t worth the effort. For me, the answer is yes, since I’m delving more deeply into this subject, and writing about it here. But you could ask yourself how much time it will take.

Take Screenshots

I took screenshots of the offending scraped material, created a folder, and saved it.

Contact the Offender Directly

Asking people to remove your content

Although I contacted the offender three different ways, apparently they weren’t listening. (Ironically, the title of my blogpost was “Twitter as a Listening Tool.”) I commented on the material, asking them to remove my post. No response. Then, I tweeted to them directly. Still no response. Some of my followers retweeted my tweet, too. Then I emailed then. Still nothing! I wondered if perhaps Twitter wasn’t the best platform for them!

Has Your Material Ever Been Stolen?

What happened and how did you choose to handle it? Please leave a comment! Thank you.

P.S. There will be another update to this story! Stay tuned!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Blog, Content, scraping, Social Media, stealing, stolen, thief, thieves

Pinterest: 6 Reasons I’m Not Following You

July 16, 2013 By Carol Stephen 15 Comments

Why I’m Not Following You on Pinterest

You’re following a million people a day on Pinterest in the hopes that a few of them will follow you back. However, some of your practices make me instantly not want to follow you. Here are a few!

You Don’t Consider Your Audience

If you have women as part of your audience, consider not pinning images that are demeaning to women. And if you are trying to gain business from Pinterest, that goes triple for you. You might not get reported for porn, but you certainly won’t get followed, even if 99% of your pins are of good quality. Considering your niche and what they want to see should be part of your pinning strategy.

You Pin Too Much

Even if I like your pins, if my entire stream is filled with stuff from you, I might decide not to follow. While one or two Hello Kitty products are ok, seeing 100 of them all at once will probably make me want to unfollow. However, a thousand of them would be the best thing ever! (Joking!)

Subject Matter Doesn’t Interest Me

If you only pin ballet shoes, snow removal equipment, or feather dusters, I probably won’t follow you. But if you make those subjects interesting, I might follow you after all. Having a sense of humor about a subject matter that’s dry would probably make me admire you for the creative effort.

Too Many Boards with One Pin Each

If you have 150 boards with only one pin on each, that looks like you’re a newbie, or worse, a spammer. Fewer boards with more content on each board looks better. For one thing, your followers won’t have to scroll as much.

You Steal Content

If you steal content and claim it as your own, I’ll definitely unfollow you. Right after asking you to remove those pins, that is. Nobody likes a thief.

No Pins, No Followers, and No Boards

If there is nothing on your account, I won’t follow you. How will anyone know what to expect if there’s nothing there? There has to be some “there there!” Here are some ideas on how to unfollow on Pinterest.

What Makes You Unfollow?

Did I leave anything out? Please let me know in the comments! Thanks!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: audience, Followers, Pinterest, Unfollow, unfollowing

Twitter as a Listening Tool

July 11, 2013 By Carol Stephen 9 Comments

One day, while chatting on Twitter, I got this tweet from @Tsledzik, above, and got to thinking about how to use Twitter as a listening tool. Yes, everyeone says Twitter can be used that way, but how does that work? What does that look like on a day-to-day basis? Large companies or brands can search on their own names or special hashtags. But how can a Startup just starting out or smaller company use Twitter as a listening platform? Here are a few simple ideas.

Use Twitter to Listen

Click on @ mentions

From the Twitter client, click on the @ or connect sign right at the top of the screen. Your interactions will appear in the column and you can easily thank or respond to people. Yes, this is basic, but some people only seem to use Twitter to broadcast, and listening doesn’t even occur to them.

Use Hashtags to Search

Not only can you use hashtags to allow people to search for your tweets, you can use them to search for any topic you can think of that might allow you to start conversations. For example, type in #Startup in the search bar to find others tweeting about startups. In the example above, I searched on #Startup problems, with only the word “startup” hashtagged (it’s unlikely that #StartupProblems would give many results). Now you have a whole string of possible people to talk to. Note: the top result is promoted, and like the top search results on Google, you may want to overlook it.

Create a List

You may want to listen to local news through Twitter, or what people in a certain geographic area are saying. You can create a list called “Locals” or “San Francisco” and add people to that list. This is a great way to cut down on the “noise” of Twitter. And you can make your list private or public, depending upon whether you want to be in stealth mode.

How Do You Listen?

I would love to hear what you have to say! Leave me a comment below! Thank you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: hashtags, list, listening, search, Startup, Startups, topic, trending, Twitter

Social Media Meetups We’d Like to See

July 9, 2013 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

Social Media Meetups We’d Like to See

Have you signed up to get email from Meetup.com? If so, then you get a few emails from them every day, showing you some meetups that you’d supposedly be interested in. “20-somethings partying the night away” and “Hikers Who Speak Tagalog” could very well be in the same email.

What’s a Gal to Do? Create her own meetup, of course! Here are some of mine. Feel free to create your own, and then send me an email!

Tweeters Without Washing Machines or Change

#MismatchedSockExchange

We could meet at a public laundromat or any place where we could get change. We could take turns watching each other’s laundry, folding, telling our worst laundry stories, and tweeting. Hashtag: #MismatchedSockExchange

Not a 20-Something

Let’s be frank. We’re tired of Millennials. Let’s get together and not talk about Millennials. They’re not invited. If anyone can figure out how, we’ll make a video about something non-Millennial-related and post it on YouTube. No one will watch it, but still.

Seriously Old School

Do people tell you you’re a Luddite?

Do people tell you you’re “old school” or a Luddite? No, me neither! Do you still have an aol account that you cling to like a security blanket? Do you think Twitter is only for talking about food? Perfect. You have found your people. And when people show up to this meetup, thinking it’s about social media, their phones are taken away, and they get a lecture about the evils of social media.

iCanHazCheeseBurger Meme Lovers

Because how can there be too many pictures of cute cats? Or jokes? Or stories about cats? And yes! You can bring your cats if they have their own carriers. We’ll each share our favorite icanhazcheeseburger meme. And make our own memes.

Overposters Anonymous

When you can’t sleep, you post. You post closeups of your face, your tattoos, your kids, your kids’ butts, you post when you’re drunk and when you’re high. You go to a lot of restaurants and you post pictures of food, perfectly lit. Sometimes you Instagram said pictures. Sometimes you post from Instagram to Facebook or to Twitter. You know who you are. You disrespect underposters.

Those Who Put Tape Over Their Webcam Viewers

Is this you? I didn’t think so. Could be, though. Really? That’s not you? It seems like it could be you. Ok. It’s not you. But you do think there are aliens living among us, right? Thought so.

Is There a Meetup You’d Like to See?

Let me know in the comments! Thanks!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: anonymous, Facebook, hashtag, Instagram, meetup, Millennials, old school, overposter, Social Media, Twitter, underposter, YouTube

Social Media: First Steps for Startups

July 5, 2013 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

Maintain focus to maximize your time

You are the CEO of a startup, about to launch. The website is looking great. You have an app and a product that looks like it will be an enormous success. Suddenly, you realize that you have no social media. Quick! What are you going to do? Here’s a high-level overview.

Choose Your Name

Make sure your name is available across all the platforms you are looking for. You may need to insert an extra space, or an underline (for example, my name, @Carol_Stephen, has an underline between my first and last names on Twitter). Now check that your name is available on all the other platforms, too.

Pick a Platform

The platforms with the most traffic are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and GooglePlus. Depending upon the type of startup you’re in, you could also use Instagram and YouTube. But to simplify matters, choose the top ones you’d like, then pick one platform to start with. The easiest one is LinkedIn. Like juggling, once you have that first object in the air, you can add another and another.

Grab Your Handle

Register your name across all platforms–even if you don’t plan to start posting yet. Create an email account just for your social media, for example, social@startup.com, and use that email exclusively.

Organize the Names

Write down email, along with the login names and passwords in one place, and tell someone else on your team. Put the names into a Google doc, binder or other safe spot with office procedures. The number one problem I hear is that people have lost their own passwords. Yes, really!

Have a Backup Admin

Juggle one social media platform at a time

Make sure at least one other person is the admin for all your accounts in case something happens to you. This should be a trusted friend, co-founder, or your mom, but someone trustworthy and a little bit tech-savvy.

Designate a Lead

If your time is limited (and people in startups are always busy), designate one person as the social media manager. You may want to share this responsibility, depending upon how many are on the team. The lead will be the point person, and main decision maker for your brand.

What First Steps Would You Take?

Is there something else you would include for a startup? Let me know in the comments!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: admin, First Steps, how to, Manager, Platform, posting, Social Media, Startup

Follow Friday: 8 Best Practices

July 2, 2013 By Carol Stephen 9 Comments

Friday Follow: Best Practices

What is Friday Follow?

Every Friday, people on Twitter recommend their friends to their other friends, using the #Friday Follow or #FF hashtag. If you have someone you like, you can tell your other friends about that person, and connect good friends. This practice has been going on for years. However, some #FFs have become more spammy recently, as described in this fabu-tastic article from The Onion.

Some Avoid Friday Follow

Your #FFs Are Boring!

Many people now pull the covers over their heads and go back to sleep just to avoid Friday mornings. Why? Millions of tweets go out with that all-too-familiar #FF hashtag and the much-maligned list of @ThisPerson @ThatPerson that fills tweet after tweet. To make matters worse, people retweet those #FFs! If you’d like to optimize your time on #FollowFriday, here are some ideas for you.

Don’t Tweet Big Lists of #FFs

People like to have a reason to follow other people. So if you stuff as many of your followers into a tweet as possible, that can be very off putting. And people may decide to unfollow you, if they categorize you as a spammer.

Don’t Retweet #FFs

If you happen to be recommended, do not retweet the entire list and add to the spam. Just thank the person who recommended you (and delete everyone else on the list, please!).

Choose Your Top Engagers

Give People a Reason to Follow!

There may be only a few people who really engage with you every week. Pick four or five of them. Now tell us why you follow them. Be as specific as possible. I like recommending one person per tweet. Then, next Friday, pick different people to recommend.

Follow Other People’s Suggestions

If someone recommends you in a list of people to follow, check out some of their friends. Following friends of friends is a good way to extend your reach on Twitter. Notice who has good recommendations and whose recommendations are, well, bogus.

Tell People When You Follow

I like to thank the person who is the connection, like so: “Thank you, @PersonA, for the #FF! Also followed your friend @PersonB.” This often results in @PersonB thanking and following back. And @PersonA will notice that you read their tweet, too.

Recommend On Other Days

Why not do a #FollowMonday or #FollowRightNow hashtag? It’s unexpected, won’t add to the spam, and is much more likely to be well-received by your followers. You could slip one of these in between your other tweets (maybe do one per day), instead of #FollowFriday.

Go the Extra Mile

If you want extra bonus points and gold stars, you could tell everyone to follow, “like” on Facebook, and also follow on Pinterest, along with shortened URLs. This gives the person getting the recommendation a warm, fuzzy feeling.

Create a Friday Follow List

Put the people you really like onto a list, and then recommend that people check out or subscribe to the list. This requires a little more work from you, but will pay off in the long run.

What Are Your Friday Follow Recommendations?

Did I forget anything? Please leave a comment! Thanks!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Friday Follow, Spam, Twitter, unfollowing

Pinterest: 5 Annoying Things

June 27, 2013 By Carol Stephen 16 Comments

What Would Help Improve Pinterest?

Many of you love Pinterest as much as I do. You spend hours and hours there, so you may have discovered some things that really bother you about Pinterest. If you’re a newbie on Pinterest, maybe these things don’t bother you. But for those of you who are past being beginners, here are a few changes that I’d love to see in their next release.

Messaging

Wouldn’t it be great to have a messaging system? I’d love to be able to say to someone “I love everything about this board!” Or “Your entire Pinterest account really inspires me!” But there is no way to do that. Leaving a comment on a particular pin, even with a tag for the owner of the account, seems inadequate. Right now, you get an email if someone has @ messaged you, but it’s easy to miss , given the volume of mail most people get.

Deleting Multiple Pins

Deleting pins is a headache. I like to go through and delete pins that no one has liked or repinned and it takes FOREVER! You have to go to the board, scroll, scroll, scroll, then click three times in order to delete one pin. Why? I’d love to be able to select a bunch of pins and then delete them all at once. Could we have a way to do this, please?

Unfollowing

I’d like to know easily who’s not following me so I can decide if I want to continue following them. There are some workarounds, and there’s an app that lets you unfollow, but in general unfollowing on Pinterest is not easy.

Pinning a Board Cover

Pinning a Board Cover Takes Forever

Right now, you have to click through many pins to get to the one pin you want to choose as a cover for a board. There has to be an easier way! Doesn’t there?

Seeing Boards I Follow Versus Pinners

I’d love to be able to see whose boards I follow (versus entire accounts). Sometimes I only follow one or two boards, and not everything by a pinner. There are ways to unfollow boards, but it’s clunky.

What’s On Your Wishlist?

Are there things you’d like to see in the next version of Pinterest? Would you like to see any of the changes above? Please let me know in the comments!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: boards, cover, deleting, messaging, pinning, Pinterest, Unfollow, unfollowing, wishlist

Social Media: Overposter or Underposter?

June 25, 2013 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

How Often Should You Post on Social Media?

If your business is just getting started on social media, you may wonder about how often to post. Once a day? Once an hour? Several times a month? Every other month? Unfortunately, there is no easy formula to discover the perfect number of posts on a platform. Each brand uses social media differently, but here’s what I consider appropriate.

Each Platform is Different

If you’re talking about LinkedIn, then you probably don’t need to post that often. A good rule of thumb would be a couple of times a week. The same with GooglePlus. However, on Facebook, most businesses post more often, in comparison. I post once a day on my business page–twice if there’s a big announcement or something I can’t wait to share. On Twitter, if you only posted once a week, people would probably never see your tweet. On Twitter, I post 11 times daily, plus engagement, for a total of 30 or 35 tweets daily. Each platform also has its own language.

Who is Your Audience?

If your audience is primarily younger, say, under 30 years old, you can probably post more often. If they’re a bit older, they may not respond well to frequent posting. That’s a huge generalization. And if your audience is Gen C, you might want to post more often, too. You might also ask your audience what they would like.

How Big is Your Audience?

How big is your audience?

If you have a larger audience, you may need to post (and engage) more often. Since social media is social, if you are asked questions, people will be looking for answers and responses from you. So for instance, if you only have 30 followers on Twitter, you will have fewer conversations than if you have 300 or 3,000. On Facebook, you might only post once, but interact multiple times throughout the day. Consider how often you’ll check in and put that in your social media strategy.

What is Your Brand Promise?

If you’re big on customer service, you may want to check in and post more often. Bigger brands often have an entire team of people who make posts. Consider that your needs may change as your audience grows.

Do You Consider Yourself Someone Who Posts Too Little?

How often do you post and how do you think you compare to others? I’d love to hear from you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: audience, Followers, frequency, overposter, Platform, posting, Social Media, underposter

Pinterest: Five Ways to Prettier Boards

June 20, 2013 By Carol Stephen 2 Comments

Five Ways to Prettier Boards

If you’ve been on Pinterest for a little while, you might be interested in finding some ways to go beyond being a newbie. You’re pinning like crazy, but still only have a few followers, and plus, you just feel like the entire experience could be, well, better. Here are some ideas that have worked for me. My main rule is I want my boards to be beautiful–because Pinterest is a visual medium! Engagement on Pinterest is another issue, for another day.

Pick a Color

Occasionally, I like to change the board covers on my Pinterest account. So I’ll pick a color (right now it’s red). I’ll go through each board and try to pick a cover with some red in it to give the entire account a unified color theme. If there isn’t a red pin on a particular board, I’ll search for one, and then make it the board cover.

Use Seasonal Colors

Sometimes, using seasonal colors can be fun. For example, in the spring, I’ll choose more pastels and neutral colors (think Easter egg colors). In the fall, I’ll pick fall colors, such as deep burnt oranges, mahogany, and copper. Think about the leaves as they change colors. In the winter, snowy whites are perfect, and for summer, greens and blues–the colors of the ocean and pools and summer vacation!

Use Black and White

Sometimes I like to have no color at all. That is, board covers that are all black and white. Or they might be mostly white. You could make all of your boards one color to emphasize one spot on one board. Or you could choose all black boards except for the one board you want to emphasize. Have some fun with it!

Black and White and a Spot of Color

Pick a theme to unify your Pinterest boards

Another, similar theme to not picking a color, is to have all black and white covers with just a tiny dot of color. This highlights a tiny spot on each cover, and can be quite stunning.

Pick a Theme

Is there something that you can choose that’s a visual theme, other than color? One example is to go for an uncluttered look. Choose a word, such as “serenity,” for example. Could you find pictures that embodies the Serenity theme across all your boards? This kind of theme would work really well for a business such as a yoga studio or a spa. Is there a word that describes your business?

Do Any of These Ideas Appeal to You?

If you’ve tried any other ideas, I’d love to hear from you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: beautiful, boards, Pinterest, pretty, visual

LinkedIn: Profile Still Under Construction?

June 18, 2013 By Carol Stephen 5 Comments

Is Your LinkedIn Profile Under Construction?

With over 200 million users and a 10-year history, LinkedIn is like the sleeping giant of the social media world. People tend to forget about it and not spend very much time there. LinkedIn is not as fast moving as Twitter, artsy like Instagram, or visually beautiful like Pinterest. So we tend to ignore it, like a shy guest at a party. However, if you spend a little time on LinkedIn, you will be rewarded.

Search for Similar Businesses

LinkedIn is a mini-Google

Pretend you’re someone else for a minute. Say, a hiring manager or executive recruiter looking for someone just like you. What would you search for? Take a look at the top searches. What do those people or businesses have in their profile that might be missing in yours? Just like Google, you want your LinkedIn profile to come up at the top of the search results when someone searches for you.

Upload a Photo

Having a good quality photo will always improve your profile and make people want to connect with you. If I don’t see a photo, I am not likely to connect with a person, and certainly not with a business. People remember faces more than they remember names. Like all social media, not having a photo makes you look spammy.

Fill out Your Profile

Is your profile completely filled out? Have you added all your school information, all the places you have worked, and your employment history? Don’t forget your certifications, and any special training! Since all the information in your profile is searchable, add important keywords to help people find you. Make sure to use full sentences on LinkedIn, since each social media platform has its own language.

Give Recommendations

Like all forms of social media, being generous first works well. Which businesses would you recommend? Recommendations are gold, and businesses appreciate having recommendations more than you might realize. If you’re just getting started on LinkedIn, try giving a few recommendations. It’s a good way of being social on social media.

Make Connections

Ask people to connect with you on LinkedIn to increase your contacts. When you send an invitation, make sure to personalize it and give people a reason to connect with you. “We have similar business goals, are in the same city, and share the same demographic” would make me want to connect more with someone than “I want to connect with you.”

How Has LinkedIn Helped You?

Have you had success with LinkedIn? I’d love to hear from you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Google, LinkedIn, Social Media