One of the greatest tools of social media is group sharing and collaboration. In that venue, you should expand your mind with two articles a day that will grow your social media brain-power. In the case of the following two articles: they will probably make your brain explode.

Our first article of choice is from Chris Brogan- 50 Online Applications to Consider. “For those of you who are getting involved in social media a little bit at a time, consider this a list of things you might check out a little bit at a time to see what appeals, what fits into your workflow, and what you can dismiss as unnecessary for your needs.”

The second article is by Franklin Bishop - 15 Blogs All Bloggers Should Read. “A lot of of times bloggers, especially new ones, do not know where to look for help. Well, look no more.”

The interesting part is that out of 50 of the online tools mentioned 50 Online Applications to Consider, our staff has experimented with all of them. Of the 15 Blogs All Bloggers Should Read, I have 11 of the 15 on my RSS reader (and I am now checking out 4 new ones.)

There is no limit to the amount of information available and being created. Every day a new service appears (think I’m kidding- check out Mashable.com) or someone writes an epic article like Brian Solis - Comcast Cares and Why Your Business Should Too (which relates to an SEO/Reputation problem I wrote about in Online Reputation Control, Branding, Insurance, or Blind-luck? )

As consultants in this space, keeping up-to-date with the volume of information and technological change becomes a matter of streamlining your own work flow and clearing focusing on high-quality news sources.

If you have any top-notch news sources to recommend, leave a comment with some pointers to introduce high quality stuff. (Comments are moderated for this)

So many corporations are jumping into the social media space that a small few are defining exactly what you should (and should not) do. Today we are going to look at ePerks.com, a real estate web site that is a lead generator for real estate agents. Looking at the overall reaction that has occurred over the past few months, this will probably be a case of how social media killed the corporation.

From the beginning of June 07, ePerks went into a fairly aggressive campaign of traffic building through various sponsored posts in the blogosphere. To start off this wonderful story, lets take a look at some amazing quotes currently floating around about ePerks:

” Sleazeball lead vendor ePerks.com (corporate motto: “We don’t totally suck because we can’t get anything right!”) has found a great new way to respond to criticism: Censorship.” ~ Gregg Swann, Bloodhound Real Estate Blog.

Beware of ePerks- “Wow, now here’s a company to avoid. I found an ad on Craigslist for real estate Broker help. I know I should have known better, but I want to share this with you so none of you make the same mistake.” - Dennis Pease - ReMax Real Estate

One of my favorite bloggers Mary McKnight created this list of posts which includes hundreds (if not thousands) of comments:

• Ruthann Macklin: Im Mad As Hell-You Will Be Too When You Read About Vlad Zablotskyy and ePerks
• Kevin Wilhelm: Spreading the word about Vlad Zablotskyy and his battle with ePerks
• Susan Goulding: ePerks & Freedom of Speech?
• Sean Giorgianni: Zablotskyy the Scrivener
• Aaron Mallo: Suport Vlad Zablotskyy in his defense against ePerks.com frivolous suit
• Hunter Jackson: E Perks Sues Blogger Vlad Zablotskyy
• Mitch Argon: ePerks Sues Real Estate Blogger
• Dennis Blackmore: Why Real estate Agents are Bailing out of ePerks
• Barry Cunningham: Real Estate Radio
• Aaron hoffman: Nominee for PR Blunder
• Felipe Cook: ePerks and Freedom of Speech
• Don Reedy: Stop ePerks and get sued
• Debra Davis: Atlanta Homes and Condos
• Colleeen Kulikowski: How ePerks, Wake Up
• Gregg and Denise Tomlinson: Eperks using questionable tactics
• Benjamin Ficker: Spreading the word about e-jerks
• Ginger Sala: ePerks vs Blogger: Is free speech at stake?
• Scott Schang: Vlad Zablotskyy - A Martyr for Reputation Management
• Andy Beard chronicling the story
• Greg Swann starting up a fund to help the blogger (Vlad)
• Phoenix Real Estate Guy, Jay Thompson calling them out as EJerks
• Inman News which covered Vlad’s legal problems in March.

Looking at a partial list of 25+ industry bloggers in the real estate industry giving negative reviews, we can now ask the question:

What does that type of publicity do to a company?
Well… it doesn’t help it. That is for sure!

Starting in January, ePerks traffic took a staggering impact as it went from 165k a month to 50k a month within sixty days. After the decrease ePerks never came out of the tailspin.

The reduction in visitors in January of 2008 was just a signal flare, which could have been foreseen by a simple analysis of how the site was performing months beforehand. After the service launched in July 07, ePerks pages per visit (and visit duration) took an identical route straight to the bottom. The site apparently converted very little from an outside perspective since its creation. (keep in mind that the June/July 07 numbers below are artificially inflated as the only people visiting the site those months were employees, developers, and beta users who had a reason to stay on the site.)

The outrage created in the social media blogosphere was simple: dozens of unhappy customers came out and said that they had paid for leads and saw no return. When the social media space errupted, hundreds of negative reviews quickly submarined any attempt to buy more traffic. Spending more and more budget to market a business was simply driving more prospects to turn to the blogosphere and inquire about the quality of the product they were about to spend thousands on.

The impact of the reviews appears to be a rather brutal shot at the bottom line of ePerks. Taking a look at the paid advertising driving a majority of traffic to ePerks, online budgets quickly went to zero (data provided by SpyFU)

At this point in time, searching for the name ePerks on Google takes you to result #3, a proud entry saying “ePerks- A Scam or A Gem? | Go Beyond MLS” which is the original post by Vlad Zablotskyy that may have been the spark that lit a corporation soaking itself in gasoline.

The whole situation highlights some root problems for companies:

1. Make sure you have a quality product and grow your company at an acceptable rate to provide value to your clients.
2. Never call a prospective client an idiot (this was done here.) It will come back to haunt you.
   
3. Never, Ever, EVER, turn your social media relations over to a lawyer.
   

What is your perspective on companies experiencing negative/positive impacts from social media? Does anyone else see this as an increasing trend?

A good portion of online marketing is understanding how your professional brand is being influenced online. At some point in time, any company will be subject to having good (or bad) press coverage, customer commentary, or industry debate. Knowing that the conversation is occurring is the first part of winning the long-term battle of having a strong brand. For most companies, the knowledge to be aware of this information is mostly free (you just have to know it is there). For that reason, we will take a quick look at how to setup Google alerts for things that are important.

The simple description of Google Alerts is this: a simple e-mail notification that notifies you with the latest and most relevant website pages, blogs, videos, and news feeds found by Google’s search engine relating to particular search terms topics. The e-mail can be automatically set to arrive in your inbox at whatever frequency you need (daily, weekly, monthly.)

Why do you need to use Google Alerts?

This is really answered by a simple question: do you really want to be the last one to know that other people are talking about you?

There are dozens of topics (keywords) that involve you professionally. Your company name, your name, slogan, employees, products, location, competitors, clients, customers, etc.

When you write them all down, you could perhaps have hundreds of keywords and topics that would make you a more efficient business professional by being informed about things as they happen, rather than after they have happen.

Think about situations like:

• A past client post a bad review of your services- do you want to strategically respond?
• Your biggest client gets a commendation in the news- do you want to reach out and congratulate them?
• An employee posts information about the last after hours company party- should they really be publicizing some private moments?

All of this information can be incredibly valuable, you just have to condense it into a usable and friendly format.

An easy first step:

1. Visit www.google.com/alerts.
2. In the “Create a Google Alert” box on the right, insert your keyword in quotes, i.e. “underwater basket weaving training”.
3. Select the Type of alert (news, web, blog, video, etc)
4. Select your desired e-mail frequency.
5. Enter your e-mail address and you’re done!
6. Continue adding more alerts: enter your next keyword phrase, i.e. company name, competitor, employee name, etc.

Intelligence Data is the Most Valuable of all business tools

There are many ways this information can be leveraged for you professionally. Thinking a little out-of-the-box when browsing information about your business is a great way of finding niche areas that you can maximize results with.

• Manage your online identity
• Keep an eye on your industry
• Keep tabs on your competitors
• Join relevant conversations
• Expand your expertise & knowledge

If you want to delve into using Google Alerts a little more strategically I suggest you also read these articles:

• Online Reputation Control
  
• Social Media Measurement
• Can the Web Destroy Your Business?
• 10 Steps of Online Branding and Reputation Control

There are more professional networking and community sites today than you can shake a stick at. Yet as a professional business person, you need to have a presence on some choice locations to network with others, establish a communication channel, protect your reputation, and establish a brand for your company. In the online world, you have approximately ten seconds to “sell yourself” to a casual viewer. Depending on the method they find your information however, they may not be a casual viewer. They may actually be a “investigative prospect” actively looking for information about who you are.

The first place 99% of these viewers is going to begin looking for you online is in a search engine (Google / Yahoo / etc). Whether the profile in question is an individual or business one, establishing proper profiles on social media sites can increase search recognition, bolster traffic on specific phrases, and control how visitors perceive your information and presence. You need to have a PROFESSIONAL profile, image, and brand

What is a Professional Social Media Profile?

A professional social media profile is created like a well-tuned resume. It is your chance to high-light the best parts of who you are.

It is a “go to” source of information on you, your company, and the brand both entities have online. A well thought profile has the ability to influence readers and promote your brand. It also has the ability to act as a hub of information about different items such as reputation, testimonials, and reviews of your professional life.

Who needs one?

Everyone. Every business. Every team.

How many do you need?

The more the merrier.

Why does everyone need one? Why have multiple profiles?

The world of “search engines” is an evolving creature. When someone looks for your name or the name of your business online, what are they going to find? If you don’t have some established and professional profiles, they are going to find what someone else said about you or be subject to some company putting up random information on the search results of your name.

If you are “John Doe” the professional for instance, it is useful to understand that at least a few people have searched for your name online in the past six months. Depending on the exact industry and way you present yourself in the real world, that could lead to anywhere from one to thousands of monthly searches for your name.

Each profile you have online allows the search engines to have one more valid (and informative) result about who you are. If you have five different profiles online, when someone does a search for “John Doe” it increases the chance of having multiple results for your name on the first page of the search results. If you have a highly competitive name (and there are thousands of people named John Doe) you can link them properly to your website, e-mail, newsletter, and business cards to help enhance your brand control.

Most importantly- profiles you create have YOUR information and are under YOUR control.

As a professional, when was the last time you blindly trusted a random person to tell someone else who you were? If you have been in business for any length of time, the answer is probably a long time ago or never.

If you avoid having at least one professional social media profile, you are literally throwing yourself at the mercy of a stranger. They could say good or bad things, provide correct or wrong information, or purposely mislead someone into thinking something about you.

Where can you get a social media profile?

There are literally hundreds of sites that can create a profile on to help control your brand. Some example sites:

NAMYZ * LINKEDIN * BIZNIK * ZOODANGO.COM * MYBLOGLOG.COM * PLAXO.COM * ZOOMINFO.COM * SQUIDDOO.COM * CLAIMID.COM * YELP.COM * RYZE.COM * ZIGGS.COM * MEETUP.COM * NETSCAPE.COM * TECHNORATI.COM * UPCOMING.ORG * RATEPOINT.COM *

What are some of the uses for having a profile?

• You can use it to establish credibility.
• You can coordinate your reputation.
• You can catalog your testimonials (Namyz and Linkedin)
• It can connect your online brand and offline brand (use it on your collateral)
• You can pro-actively have an impact on your reputation.
• It becomes a business and professional asset, growing with time.
• It gives your audience (prospects, clients, and peers) a place to interact with you.

Why is all this important?

While some companies focus on “the top”, this is a fundamental problem in online marketing and brand promotion. Top results in search technology and branding are created by establishing a presence in many different places. You want people to have easy and quick access to accurate and worthwhile information about your professional brand. You also want viewers to recognize you as a leader in your industry and an expert in your area of focus.

How do I Create Professional Social Media Profiles?

Step One: Use strategy. Before you start creating profiles and running amok through dozens of social media sites, sit down and detail why you are creating these profiles. Securing a personal brand name, achieving higher search engine results, and exposing your company message to the community are all good goals. Each and every user of social media is going to have different personal and professional goals.

• How do you want to present yourself?
• What sets you apart from your competitors?
• Will you be active in the community?

Step Two: Identify the information you want communicate. To save a lot of time and effort, collect the information you want to share with the world. If this is a professional application to enhance your career status, have an updated resume on hand and highlight the information you want to use. Consistent and clear information through-out a social media project is essential.

It is best to have a semi-polished presentation to your profile, but also try to understand the tone and culture of the site the specific profile is on. Every social networking site has a different demographic on it (Myspace is youthful and hip, Linkedin is professionals, Biznik is entrepreneurial) and while someone may find your profile through a search engine, you also have the opportunity to interact with the community on the site itself.

• What name do you want to use? This is important- as your name will be a primary way people find this information through searching.
• What keywords do you want to be found under? In any profile system that allows titles, descriptions, and other information- your priority keywords should be used.
• What visual picture is going to represent you? Almost every profile allows an image, have a company logo and profile image handy.
• What testimonials can you share? Everyone has a few good things other people have said.
• When your business was established
• What type of products and services you offer
• What your IDEAS and INSIGHTS are.
• Who is your ideal client (your target market)

Step Three: Where will I be and who will I be with? Social Media has the word “social in it for a reason. Utilizing your existing network is the quickest way to get a boost to the results that your profiles can have online. Below is a brief sample of sites that some of my information appears on. There are hundreds, if not thousands of sites that information could appear on.

Step Four: Invite people to participate. While there are branding and minor search engine benefits of social media, the true benefits come from actively participating in the medium by invited associates and other like-minded professionals to connect.

• Jump start your social media profiles by writing a quick e-mail to your top 25 contacts and inviting them to see your information.
• Make a monthly effort to invite 5 to 10 new connections.
• Choose one new social media site each month and create another profile.

Step Five- Taking it to the next level.

Educate yourself and join the conversation happening around your professional interests. Read some of the following articles to better understand how some of these issues interact with each other and how you can maximize your time and effort to produce results.

123 Guide To Linkedin
Biznik Community Review
Social Media Reputation Control with Namyz
Online Reputation Control, Branding, Insurance, or Dumb-Luck?
Can the Web Destroy Your Business? Yes It Can.