Lots of people don’t think twice before advertising where they are, or where they’re going, on Twitter or Facebook. “Dinner’s only half made, but I’m rushing to pick up my kid from soccer.” “Leaving home and heading to a client meeting at Pete’s Bistro.” “Outa here for a weekend on the ski slopes.” If that describes you, and… Read More
Social Media
Video explains new changes to Facebook's home page
By Joan Stewart Frustrated Facebook users are still complaining about the redesigned home page. That’s my Number One complaint about Facebook. Just when I’m comfortable with the various tweaks and other changes they make, along comes a wholesale redesign, and I feel like I’m back where I started. Thanks to Christine Buffaloe, my virtual assistant, for pointing out… Read More
How to promote a group of expressive arts facilitators?
Gabrielle Javier-Cerulli, of Rochester, New York writes: “I just launched the Global Network of Expressive Arts Facilitators and need to get the word out about it and attract new members on an international scale. “It’s a membership-based organization for facilitators, all non-therapists, who use the creative process (painting, drumming, singing, journal writing, collage-making) with their… Read More
Let people comment at your blog without logging in first
By Joan Stewart One of the biggest frustrations of blogging is seeing too few comments at your blog—or no comments. Here’s one way to encourage comments. Don’t require people to first log in. Because I’ve created Google Alerts for my Publicity Hound website URL and my name, Google alerted me this morning to a blog post someone had written… Read More
Don't be anonymous at social media sites–use a gravatar
By Joan Stewart When you go to a blog, call up a post and see a comment that’s accompanied by an illustration of what appears to be a pawn on a chess board, or just a gray square where there’s supposed to be a photo, don’t assume that the person who posted the comment necessarily… Read More
Huffington: ‘Blogs more effective than press releases’
If you had to choose one or the other, which would you choose: a blog or press releases? Arianna Huffington, cofounder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, says a blog is more powerful. Her comments appear during a Q&A interview in the Febuary issue of PR Week. The magazine asked if PR pros were reaching out to offer rebuttals… Read More
Find social media frustrating? You’re not alone
By Joan Stewart The next time you’re trying to figure out how to do something on Facebook, and after an hour of struggling you feel like you’re the only one in the world who doesn’t “get it,” rest assured that you’re not alone. Jonathan Lansner and Jeff Collins, who write a real estate column for… Read More
Membership directories could include social media URLs
If your organization publishes a membership directory, allow members to include URLs for social media sites like Facebook Fan pages, Twitter profiles, YouTube channels and LinkedIn profiles, not just URLs for their websites. That would be a nice value-added feature for chambers of commerce, convention and visitors bureaus, health care associations, school groups, etc. and it would distinguish… Read More
Facebook makes it easier to reply to wall comments via email
By Joan Stewart If you’re a Facebook user, you might rely on email messages from Facebook, like I do, to let you know when someone has commented on your wall. That’s a nice feature. But if you want to keep the conversation going, you have to drop what you’re doing, log into Facebook, and then respond to… Read More
Meet Jeanne Hurlbert, my new (and unlikely) business partner
If you asked me to describe my ideal business partner, never in a million years would I envision someone with a PhD in sociology. Such degrees, I always believed, are expensive pieces of paper printed by the diploma factories otherwise known as universities. They seldom lead to “real world” jobs outside of academia. I certainly wouldn’t want a Phi Beta… Read More