Reminder: FTC Regulation Compliance Deadline is Tomorrow

Just a reminder that the new FTC regulations for social media go into effect tomorrow, December 1st. Be sure to update your websites and blogs to be in compliance.

You can read more about the new FTC regulations here, how they relate to paid memberships in vendor directories here, and how they relate to Twitter and Facebook here.

Social Media Etiquette: Names on Blog Comments

One of the myths that many wedding business owners believe is that if they leave a comment on their blog, they should leave their company name as their real name in order to create SEO-friendly anchor text. This generally is not a good idea for two main reasons:

The first is that it won't get you the results you think it will. Most blogs are coded to make all comment links "no-follow" by default, which means that you don't receive any SEO link credit for them. This is done to help cut down on spam comments or comments from people who are only trying to generate an inbound link for their own website.

The second is that it's somewhat rude. The comments section of a blog are meant to be a place where conversation takes place. Would you walk into a room and introduce yourself as XYZ Photography?  Of course not - you would introduce yourself as Anne. You might even say "I'm Anne from XYZ Photography", but you would always introduce yourself by your personal name.  These same social graces apply to blogs you comment on.

Social media is about real relationships, even if those relationships are online. Many social standards that exist offline apply online as well. 

Splendid Sundays Volume 18

A handful of splendid finds and interesting tidbits from around the worldwide web:

*This past week, a man proposed to his girlfriend of six years via a video posted on Tumblr, a popular social media platform. What makes his story unique is that he had secretly worked with the staff at Tumblr so that the video would overtake every person's Tumblr home page worldwide, including his girlfriend's page. You can read the story here and view the proposal here.

*The real-life ad agency McCann Erickson was featured in the popular TV series Mad Men. Here was the ad agency's response to being written into the fictional story line.

*By the time there is a case study in your specific industry, it's going to be way too late for you to catch up. Are you innovating or just following along?

*Wedding industry icon and Eventiste, Marcy Blum, was on an episode of the wildly popular Wine Library TV this past week with Gary Vaynerchuk, author of Crush It, to talk about choosing wines for a big event.

*Vane from Brooklyn Bride is hosting her annual holiday card swap. I've participated the last couple of years and it is fun to send and receive cards with brides and vendors in the wedding industry whom you may not know. The deadline to sign up is this Wednesday, November 25th - for more information, see Vane's post here.

*Book of the week: Crush It: Why NOW is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk. From Amazon: In Crush It, Gary Vaynerchuk shows how anyone can build a career around what they’re passionate about. This book isn’t interested in making unrealistic promises while glossing over the work involved. Making a living by building content around your passion isn’t simple and it doesn’t happen overnight. What it is, however, is fulfilling and in most cases just as profitable, if not more so, than your previous job. 

 My own quick thoughts on this book: It's a great book and highly motivating, though not all of the social media techniques Gary recommends should be followed. In one part he gives a piece of advice and then follows up with "I may be wrong on this though . . . ." For that particular advice, he is correct in saying he may be incorrect.  However, overall the book is great and shouldn't be tossed or not read simply because a couple of the things mentioned are already outdated (that's the nature of social media) or don't apply across the board. As one of the book reviewers stated "It reads like a 90-minute conversation with Gary, and that's time well-spent."

Do you have any splendid finds to share?

How to Evaluate Educational Opportunities for Your Business

Each Saturday, I post Splendid Reruns on Twitter, which help new readers of Think Splendid catch up on or long-time readers refresh their memory on previous posts. Today, one of the reruns was for a post from July called Ethics, Social Media and Workshops: The Emperor Has No Clothes. The point of that article was that ongoing education in the wedding industry is important, but that it's important to learn from and spend money on instructors and mentors who can actually back up their claims. Khris from DIY Bride suggested that I write a post about how to evaluate each educational opportunity. I think this is an excellent idea, so here are some pointers for choosing who to spend time learning from and where to spend your hard-earned education budget dollars:

1. Read through the workshop instructor's blog archives. Have they provided any information that demonstrates they know the subject matter backwards and forwards? Does the information they share on the blog itself make you think about things differently, or if implemented, make your business better? A red flag, for me, is when a blog starts to share information and then says "to read more, sign up for our class, pay the subscription fee, etc". If the free content is incomplete or doesn't help you, then what assurance do you have that any paid content will?

2. Who is recommending the workshop or program other than the person teaching it? Are the endorsements or testimonials from people you trust and who have businesses you want to learn from? For example, Laura Novak has one of the highest-grossing photography studios in the United States, according to research done by the PPA (Professional Photographers of America). This endorsement carries more weight for her business-focused workshops than simply someone who is popular on Twitter saying the workshop would be fun and you should go because Laura is a really nice lady and the workshops have great snacks.

3. Read reviews about the person's business. What does their Better Business Bureau report or other company reviews say? If there was a complaint, did they resolve it quickly? This is all listed there. If a company is truly remarkable, they will have people who either really love them or really hate them - they won't have many people in the middle on the fence. Remarkable companies will rarely be complaint free, but take note of how they responded to each complaint. Was it professional? Did the explanations make sense?

4. Do a quick search on Google and Bing for their name and/or company. You might be surprised at how many of the people currently teaching how to have financially sound wedding businesses have filed for bankruptcy in the past two years. If the person is teaching how to create art - either how to take more stunning photos or create showstopping centerpieces, that is one thing, but if they are teaching on business or marketing strategy, then their financial reality should be able to back that up. Also, do they come up online at all? I keep receiving emails from someone who claims to be "America's foremost wedding business expert" yet nothing in his emails tell me why he can claim that title and there is nothing online about his accomplishments to earn that title.

5. Have they done what they are teaching? This doesn't mean they do what you do as wedding artist. Sean Low can teach about how to have a better wedding business because he has turned businesses around, from being massively in debt to being hugely profitable. He doesn't need to know how to design the centerpiece himself, he needs to be able to teach you how to make money from designing the centerpiece. If someone is teaching on marketing an offline business through online media, have they done that themselves or are they sharing theories?

6. I don't necessarily believe that number of years in a wedding business is as relevant in some areas. For example, an accountant who switched gears and decided to give up the cubicle to pursue wedding design would still have MUCH to teach other business owners about the brass tacks of crunching the numbers and doing the math related to running a profitable business, regardless of how long they had been in the event industry. When you do anything in life, you bring all of your past experiences with you to the table. Don't completely disregard a person's skillset based on a time frame.

I am 100% behind the idea that companies need to be continually learning and seeking out education. If you think you've arrived, you've stopped trying.  I also believe that you should learn from people who can truly back up what they say and that being popular is not the same as being successful.

FTC Regulations for Twitter and Facebook

The new FTC regulations that go into effect December 1st also extend to Twitter and Facebook, not just blogs. Even with the limited space of 140 characters, sponsored tweets or vested interests will have to be disclosed.

Graphic designer Trisha Hay and I were discussing this and she came up with the idea of putting *C to denote a tweet about a client. I am adopting her idea and from now on you'll see *C at the end of any tweet I do that promotes a client of Splendid Communications in some fashion. If I am simply conversing back and forth with a client, then the symbol won't be present. The bio on my Twitter page has also been updated to include this information so that anyone who visits that page know what the symbol stands for in the tweets.

I am fortunate in that I am able to work only with companies that I 100% believe in, so you won't see much of a change in my writing or posts, just the added disclosure symbol that shows I do have a specific interest in the success of a particular company. While these new regulations are causing everyone to rethink how we write and post online, I am glad that they are bringing much needed transparency to the wedding industry.

You can read more about the new FTC regulations here and how they relate to preferred wedding vendor directories here.

How Your Blog Design is Costing You Sales

Last night at dinner I was asked what I think the next big thing is in social media. While I don't know what the next big tool will necessarily be, I do know, both from my observations and from those of others in the social media industry, that there will continue to be a major increase in the use of mobile phones for research.

As far as blog design goes, this will be a huge factor, especially in the wedding industry. The most popular wedding blog templates and designs currently have flash-based headers. Most companies put the majority of their branding emphasis in those headers. Guess what doesn't get seen on an iphone and some of the other mobile phones?

The plain and simple fact of the matter is that most brides plan their weddings at work. More and more workplaces are blocking access to the Internet and brides and grooms are opting to browse on their phones as a workaround. If your site doesn't capture them on their phone, chances are very slim that they will look up your site again when they get home.

Your blog may be stunning on a large, oversized Mac computer, but if the information and story you are telling can't be viewed in the way your target market needs to see it, then you are losing sales.

Good design doesn't just look pretty; good design functions properly. I will also add that in this case, good design helps drive revenue for your business. Is your blog designed well or is it costing you sales?

Social Media Etiquette: Blog Links

As blogging has evolved over the past decade, the etiquette for linking to someone in a blog has remained the same: always link to someone if you write about them.

If you are writing about the other vendors who worked on a wedding with you, link to them. If you are using a photo, always link to the photographer who shot it, not the wedding blog you found it on (or better - link to both, but always link to the photographer - they hold the copyright and should always receive credit). If for some reason you are writing about a competitor, link to them.

If you are not going to link to someone you mention in a blog post, edit the blog post to not talk about them at all or don't publish it.  Publishing a post without links to the people or companies you mention is a fast way to burn bridges in the online wedding community. 

Splendid Sundays Volume 17

A handful of splendid finds and interesting tidbits from around the worldwide web:

*Designer Kelly Ashworth is having a special holiday season promotion. I'll admit I am a bit partial to Kelly's work (she does the graphic design for Splendid Communications and if she rolls her eyes at my 8000 crazy requests she never shows it), but she is super talented and this is a great chance to make even more of her design goodness your own.

*The new Polaroid. Since my iphone camera is pretty much the only one I used, I found this interview fascinating.

*Content is NOT king. You are.

*For the grammar snobs (don't worry, you're not alone).

*Book of the week: Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. From Amazon: In Trust Agents, two social media veterans show you how to tap into the power of social networks to build your brand's influence, reputation, and, of course, profits. Today's online influencers are web natives who trade in trust, reputation, and relationships, using social media to accrue the influence that builds up or brings down businesses online.

Do you have any splendid finds to share?

The Most Common Blogging Mistake and How to Avoid It

One of the quickest ways to dilute your company's brand and get lost in the search engines is to abbreviate your company's name while writing your blog posts. Never, ever do this. I don't think I can stress this enough. If you get tired of typing out your company name, copy and paste it instead, but never publish a post with your company's initials in place of the name.

Marketing studies have shown that acronyms are remembered far less often than the company's full name and when seen in print, they are usually not instantly associated with the company in question.  Also, while it may be clear to me that SC stands for Splendid Communications, since this company is literally what puts food on my table and pays my bills and what I spend the majority of my time on, for others SC could mean a multitude of things, from South Carolina to Scott's Cooking to Savannah Chapel. Retraining the public's mind to view an acronym the way you see it instead of the way they may have grown up knowing it is time and energy better focused elsewhere.

For search engines, SC is most commonly going to be South Carolina, never Splendid Communications. If I abbreviated this all the time, it would kill, or at the very least seriously hinder, my SEO efforts. Since having my site and blog indexed with information about an East Coast state is not my goal, it is important for me to take a few extra seconds when writing my blog posts and spell out my company's name.

Twitter Etiquette: Do or Don't? Retweeting an Update From a Locked Profile

I was recently asked a question on Twitter etiquette about whether or not it is appropriate to retweet (or re-post for those of you who may not be familiar with Twitter vocabulary) something that someone who has a locked profile said. 

I wanted to pose the question to all of you. What do you think? If you're following someone who has a private Twitter account, is it appropriate to retweet something they've said on Twitter?

If you have a private Twitter account, have you ever been annoyed that someone retweeted something you only meant a handful of people to see?

Google's New Sidewiki and What It Means For Your Business

In September, Google launched Sidewiki, an add-on toolbar for Firefox and Internet Explorer, and soon, Chrome. Once installed, users can leave comments on it about any website they visit and these comments are visible to anyone who has this toolbar installed.  This is not the first tool of this kind, but Google has a bigger brand and more marketshare than the others. Also, with the other tools they are rolling out, Sidewiki could very easily gain in popularity.

Conversations about your company are happening with or without you online and now, with Google's Sidewiki, they can happen on any website in the world, even yours . . . even without your permission.

So what does all this mean for you?

Both your internal and external customer service need to be on par. One snarky email to a bride or another vendor and that person can not only blast you on Twitter or Facebook, they can post about it to your website.

This new tool also allows competitors to comment on your site. Google does require that you use your real name to post (not exactly sure how they will monitor this, though they do track IP addresses for every interaction) and they do have policies in place that prohibit defamatory comments, however you will not have the ability to delete Sidewiki comments that others post like you can on your blog or Facebook. Google will have to do that for you and it will be at their discretion, not yours.

Because of this, you need to have a solid public relations plan in place if you don't already. Not public relations in the sense of garnering publicity or editorial features, but in the sense of protocols and actions that your company will take in responding to comments, both positive or negative, in the public arena. These policies really should be in writing, regardless of your company size.

This new tool has a lot of potential to be a great addition to the Internet and considerably useful. It can allow brides to mention that a wedding gown in a size 6 from a certain designer runs a bit small and to order larger or vice versa.  It also can help raise the bar in the wedding industry: improved customer service, better vendor relations, better products, and so on. While companies have never truly been in control of the conversations about them, tools like these only amplify that truth.

What are your thoughts on Google Sidewiki? Do you think it will help or harm your business?

Meet Olivia

I'm bumping today's scheduled social media etiquette post to tomorrow in order to introduce you to Olivia, the newest member of the Splendid Communications team. Olivia's primary role is to keep me sane. It's a tall order. Without further ado, here are some fun facts about Olivia:

Name: Olivia Ann

My Alma Mater: Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, TX

My Starbucks order is: Not a huge coffee person . . . yet! But I can never pass up their chocolate chip cookies! Mmmmm . . . .

My favorite thing about weddings: The reception and dancing to Shout "Wedding Crashers" style . . . never gets old!

I am known for: Being a huge baby hog - anywhere there are babies you can bet I'll be holding one!

People are always surprised to learn that: My mom has 17 brothers and sisters . . . she was the eighth child of 18. What's kind of ironic is the "Duggars" live less than ten miles from where my grandparents live.

By the time I'm 30 I hope to: Have possibly started my own business and family.

My celebrity crush is: Ashton Kutcher because he has a great sense of humor and seems super laid back.

When I was a kid I: Used to have weird misconceptions about things. For example, when I was four I thought that dogs and cats were the same animal . . . only dogs were the boys and cats were the girls!

My favorite dish to cook is: Baked chicken and rice and grilled panini sandwiches.

I think everyone should: Travel as much as possible; there is so much to see and learn. The world is too big and our lives are too short not to.

Splendid Sundays Volume 16

A handful of splendid finds and interesting tidbits from around the worldwide web:

*Building a Culture of Employee Appreciation via Inc Magazine.

*As Facebook Ages, Gen Y Turns to Twitter. Facebook has a role in business marketing, however with the highest group of members CLOSING their accounts being in the 18-34 age group (what's your target bride's age? The average bride is 27, average groom is 28), it is currently not the best social media outlet for wedding businesses to focus on. Do you know why you are using the online tools you are for your business or are you using them because everyone else is?

*Six Social Media Trends for 2010 from Harvard Business Publishing. Pay special attention to number 5. If your website is heavily flash-based (including blog headers), your branding message will be lost on people reading via iphones who aren't able to see those elements.

*According to a recent study by ComScore, 13.8 billion display ad impressions were viewed on social networks in August of 2009, which accounts for more than 25% of all display ads viewed online.

*Book of the week: From Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap . . . And Others Don't. From Amazon: Making the transition from good to great doesn't require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of the rare and truly great companies was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner. The book offers a well-reasoned road map to excellence that any organization would do well to consider. Good to Great is one of those books that managers and CEOs will be reading and rereading for years to come.

Do you have any splendid finds to share?

Marketing Your Business Through Blogging

I received the following email yesterday from Becka Knight of Studio 222 Photography in Orlando. I wanted to share it not because of her praise for my blogging workshops (though I will admit I loved reading that it helped her - it's the very reason I teach them), but because it shows how instrumental a blog can be in marketing your offline business. If you want the cliff's notes version and don't want to read the entire note, skip down to the part in bold (emphasis mine).

--

Liene,

I just wanted to take a minute and write you a thank you letter. I know I said it before but now that more time has gone by I wanted to tell you the big differences that I've seen in our blog since implementing changes that you talked about at your bootcamp. When I attended the bootcamp I was writing two blogs: my business one and a personal one. I'd been a blogger since high school and had always loved it. But I was having such a hard time bringing the two worlds together. After your bootcamp I started implementing simple changes like writing with keywords and using the linking rules you talked about as well as tracking my analytics and using that to help me decide what and when to post. I still couldn't merge the two blogging worlds though and ended up closing down my personal one. It was just too hard keeping my brand consistent and professional between both. After a few months I began to miss it a lot. My personal blog was where I posted recipes (I love baking), stories about Nate and I, about shopping, about life. It was where I wrote for the sake of writing (a hobby I've loved since elementary school) and I was starting to get bored to death with my business posts.

When I made the switch from Blogger to Wordpress I wasn't intending to overhaul our blog. But then I came up with the idea of having a hybrid blog. A blog that merged my personal and business worlds. I knew that not many people were doing it so I was in new territory and all the advice out there was to be careful not to be too open or too personal. Don't mix messages. Keep consistency. But I knew I had to make it work. Inspired by the Pioneer Woman blog, I asked my designer if it was possible to create a blog that was divided into sections that our readers could subscribe to separately or as one and with her help we made it a reality. Since then I have found so much more joy in blogging. I blog (usually) 5 times a week and have noticed our traffic go from in the 100-200 visitors/day to the 300/400 and even 500 visitors a day with just over 200 subscribing to our various feeds (since this past August). In the last few weeks especially (since I updated our typeface and branding to its now current look across our twitter/website/facebook page/and blog) I have gotten so many positive reactions. People have actually called me to tell me how much they LOVE how the new blog is looking. We've booked weddings because of our blog ALONE. (I just sent out a proposal today and the woman on the phone told me her deciding factor was how much she loved the look of our blog and other than seeing our photos there, our writing voice convinced her that we were a perfect match for what she wanted.) And surprisingly to me, a lot of girls tell me how much they LOVE that I've been posting recipes and that Nate is now writing a column every Tuesday. Our male readership has gone up too because of his weekly posts. And our comments have steadily been going up. We usually get between 10-30 on most posts.

I feel like we're building a little community. Our grooms are following along and commenting as well which is just amazing to me. People tell me that they check in every day at 2:22pm (because that's when we generally post) and it's easy for them to remember because it's our name and it's always the same. It's also helped to establish those three numbers as our brand and people send us photos ALL THE TIME when they see "222" out in their daily lives. It's become a fun little contest among our friends and fans to see who can send the most creative or funny images in. I've also learned that our biggest traffic days are Mondays and Wednesdays so I always post photo heavy posts on those days. On the weekends I post more personal ones.

So, thank you. Because you were the steroid shot I needed to find my way. The basics that you taught have been the solid foundation for what has become my favorite part of our marketing.

Preferred Vendor Directories and The New FTC Regulations

The new FTC regulations that go into effect December 1st also extend to preferred vendor lists and directories, not just reviews of products on blogs.

This means that if you pay to advertise in a magazine's, website's or blog's vendor directory, and display one of the blog badges that shows you are a member, you have to disclose that you paid to be included. The blogs and sites that you advertise with will also have to disclose that their membership is paid advertising, regardless of how extensive their research and selection process may be. If a blog features your work in an editorial post, and you are one of their advertisers, they will have to disclose that as well, even if it is not a "sponsored post".  If you include the badge or site's logo in your press and awards page, you will have to either disclose that it is actually a paid membership or you will have to remove it.

The FTC does not care if you pay to advertise with another company, but they do care that you are honest about money changing hands for the privilege of being listed on the other site.  It is also important to note that these regulations apply not just to blogs, but to websites, Twitter, Facebook and other areas of social media as well.

The fine for each infraction is $11,000, so be sure to review your websites and blogs and make the necessary edits so that you are in compliance by the December 1st date.

Social Media Etiquette: Responding to Brides on Twitter

I received the following question on social media etiquette (note: question has been edited for anonymity):

If someone follows you on Twitter and in their blurb it says, "[Career] gal, recently transplanted to [City], attempting to plan a wedding..." Is it okay to send her an @reply or direct message? What is the new etiquette?

In these types of situations, if the person has actively chosen to follow you, then yes, it is appropriate to send some type of reply, either via an @reply or a DM. That said, I would recommend limiting your response to something along the lines of "Welcome to our city! You'll love it here" or "Welcome to our city and congrats on your upcoming wedding!"

I would not recommend your first interaction with them being something like "Welcome to our city! If you need a wedding planner, let me know." While this may seem harmless, it still comes across as a bit creepy and spammy and would be akin to a neighbor knocking on your door and saying "Welcome to the neighborhood! Here's a loaf of banana bread. Do you need a chiropractor?" Everything was great up until that last sentence. Then the relationship got weird.

If what you do for a living is in your Twitter bio (and if you are on Twitter for business, then it should be), then that person will already know what you can potentially do for them for their wedding. Don't use Twitter to channel your inner used car salesman. Keep the conversation friendly and welcoming.

Splendid Sundays Volume 15

A handful of splendid finds and interesting tidbits from around the worldwide web:

*Nancy Liu Chin, a wedding florist and event designer in San Francisco, wrote a fantastic article for WeddingbeePRO about the financial realities of owning a wedding business. Sean Low also wrote a great follow up post to Nancy's article about pricing models on his business consulting blog.

*It's not just print magazines that are closing, some of the original web pioneers are as well. This past week, Yahoo officially closed Geocities, which was one of the first platforms for personal websites, allowing people to participate in social media before it had a name.

*Ever wanted to send one of these types of invoices to one of those types of clients?

*An interesting article on how Tiffany & Co is changing how it sources its diamonds for the first time in its 172-year history in order to overcome the challenges the luxury retail market is currently facing.

*Book of the week: The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What To Do About It. From Amazon: In The E-Myth, Michael Gerber dispels the myths surrounding starting your own business and shows how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business. Next, he walks you through the steps in the life of a business -- from entrepreneurial infancy through adolescent growing pains to the mature entrepreneurial perspective: the guiding light of all businesses that succeed -- and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business, whether it is a franchise or not. Finally, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business. After you have read The E-Myth Revisited, you will truly be able to grow your business in a predictable and productive way.

Do you have any splendid finds to share?