Dave’s Answer:

You are definitely not the first person to bump into this, and while it’s difficult when you’re a celebrity and find someone else has registered your name for a parody, satire, or even just to confuse the market, it’s even more frustrating when you have a registered trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office. The point of registering it, after all, is to reserve its legal use to you.

Turns out that Twitter has a specific trademark violation policy and even documents it on their site (though it’s not easy to find). Check it out: Twitter Trademark Policy.

Before I explain what’s involved, I’ll note that the issue of people stealing celebrity identities is the main reason behind a Verified Twitter account. I don’t have one, but fortunately I grabbed @DaveTaylor early enough that it wasn’t already in use. Then again, I’m also not a verified account so some other Dave Taylor online could be confusing the social media world by having them follow me instead of them.

Back to registered trademark violations, however.

It’s worth quoting Twitter’s policy on this before you get too enthused about regaining ownership of a contested account: “Using another’s trademark in a way that has nothing to do with the product or service for which the trademark was granted is not a violation of Twitter’s trademark policy… Twitter usernames are provided on a first-come, first-served basis”

If you do want to report a trademark violation, you’ll need your trademark registration number and registration office, along with a variety of other information. To get your registration number, search for your trademark at the USPTO.GOV or appropriate other trademark agency. For example, “Ask Dave Taylor” is a registered trademark and my registration number is 3601636.

Got all the info they need together? Great. Print out their Trademark Policy information page, follow the steps specified, then open up a problem ticket with their support team.

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And then I re-read the 2010 State of Community Management released last week and came across an interesting data point – Executives are overwhelmingly positive about social approaches with 59% perceived as either ‘cautiously optimistic’ or ‘enthusiastic’ about it. I have to ask myself, “optimistic and enthusiastic about what?” Certainly the evolution into a social business involves much more than an emotion, right?  It’s great that 67 percent of organizations are hiring community managers, but what are they able to do? Are they empowered to actually solve customer problems or are they just moderating comments?

So let’s recap this for a second.  We are living in an era where every celebrity is using Twitter, even the bad ones.  Every news organization, media company and anchor is using social media to report breaking news (Egypt, Iran, Japan, etc.) Most fortune 500 companies are using social media in one form or another; and yet, there are no formal policies for engagement?

A similar study by eMarketer gives me a little hope; it reported that 45 percent of companies in their study are creating and distributing policies internally regarding the use of social i.e. responding to negative/positive comments and general use of social media.

While the creation of social media guidelines is certainly a very small step to operationalize social media; there is much more to consider in building social – as a behavior — into the fabric of employees’ daily work responsibilities. This initiative, this mandate needs to come from the leadership of the organization.  And, it involves much more than just creating a formal document and posting it online somewhere. Executives need to set the example and live it themselves, champion collaboration internally among business units, groups and regions; and invest dollars to support internal and external social initiatives. Only then, will organizations realize the true business value of employees engaging externally on the social web.

I talk about this in Chapter 1 of my book, Smart Business, Social Business: A Playbook for Social Media in Your Organization scheduled to be released in July 2011.

When you perform a search on Google, a menu appears on the left side of the Google search menu. On the menu are links like Everything, Images, Videos, News, Shopping, and so on. These are various universal search options, for example, you can search only for blogs, images or videos depending on which link you click in that menu. There is also one link called Realtime, it may appear as updates in some areas.

Selecting the Realtime link, after you perform a search, lists you the latest news and information on the Internet which are usually from sources like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Friendfeed, Jaiku etc. This means, using the Realtime link, even people who have no Twitter account can see your links, news, offers etc., tweeted by you. With Google Realtime, all tweeters can get their tweets in the search engines. It is an easy way to get included in the search engines and almost instantly, regardless of a Twitter account’s age. An account a year or a minute old have no differences for search engines.

You just have to follow a few steps to ensure your tweet is included in Google Realtime results.

• Register/Sign up at Twitter or log in, if you are an existing user.
• Register/Sign up at Digg or log in, if you are an existing user.
• Now link your Twitter and Digg accounts via Digg.
• Post a link on Digg (try avoiding spam).
• Then elect (via Digg again) to post it to your Twitter account as well.

The first post might take some time before it appears in the Google Realtime results, but in future, they will appear almost immediately. For your posts to appear on their own, post quality content regularly and work on getting a good Twitter following with retweets and mentions.

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I forgot my notes at home and so I had to hastily recreate them.

The topic was on the future of social media and what 2011 is going to look like. Here are the important takeaways:

• Social media isn’t free. There may be no cost to setting up a profile at Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and so on, but you need to dedicate resources for social media to work. You’re either going to do this work yourself (keeping you–perhaps–from doing more profitable work), give it to an associate (keeping her from doing more profitable work), hiring an outside firm, or bringing in an intern…and even a free intern isn’t free, as there’s training involved.
• Social media needs to be integrated with the rest of your marketing. Companies who can survive on a steady diet of social media are few and far between. Ultimately, someone’s going to want to see a portfolio of work, learn more about you, etc. Plus, not all of your audience is on social media, or they’re not in a buying mood when they’re there. Social media is a powerful channel for communication and marketing, but the message needs to be consistent across all your channels, including your web site, blog, email newsletter, brochure, business cards, company van, etc.
• 2011 will be the year of mobile marketing…for some of you. For some of you it will be critical to have a mobile strategy, for others…not so much. A mobile strategy may include making sure your site works well on smart phones, or it may mean creating a 2nd web site solely for mobile visitors, or it may mean creating an app.
• You must continually create value for your community/audience. Chrystie talked about making sure you put out valuable information, and I couldn’t agree more. It’s so easy to unfollow, unfriend, or unsubscribe on the web that unless you’re providing valuable content on a regular basis you’ll soon be talking to no one but you and your mom, and maybe not even her. Value means different things to different people; maybe your value is providing good links, or how-to videos, or being irreverent.
• You’re going to have to go beyond having a Facebook page in 2011. Having a Facebook page in 2011 is just going to be a starting point…it will be the equivalent of having a web site, i.e., a business requirement. The question is, is what are you going to do with that page? What are the conversations that you will have, what levels of functionality will you add, and how will you engage your audience to build your business?

There may have been one more point, but I’ll have to wait until I get home and check those notes. In the meantime, here’s wishing you a prosperous 2011!

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I was just sitting down with my 5 year old son, drawing some pictures and talking about the different things he was creating.  He drew his mummy a picture of a butterfly, and was colouring it with some very bright pencils and glitter.  I asked him why he picked a butterfly to draw and he said it was the butterfly we took pictures of in the garden last summer.

I remember that day really well, because it was the day before his trampoline was delivered and we were getting the garden ready for it.  As we tidied that section of the garden up, a beautiful orange butterfly came and perched itself next to where we were.  My son had never seen such a brightly coloured butterfly that close up before – it was inches away from his nose!

Although my little boy loves his trampoline, the key thing he remembered from hat 24 hour period, was the time he shared, looking at (and talking to) that little orange butterfly.

I’m glad I was able to be there to share the moment with him, so we could remember it together.  I build time every day into my schedule, where I get to see and play with him.  We spend an hour together every morning, having breakfast and then feeding his pet guinea pigs.  When he gets in from school, we spend time talking about his day and then, before he goes to bed, we sit down together and have a story.  That time is blocked off in my diary.  It’s not for sale.

Working smart

Someone once told me that although it’s good to have the wonderful things that money can buy, it’s even more important not to forget or neglect the things money can’t buy.  Many hard working small business owners are working such long hours in order to make a living, that they miss years worth of the precious things, which money can’t buy.

Any business model or entrepreneurial venture, that stops you from having the things money can’t buy, is a waste of your time. It’s a broken plan!

You don’t need to work crazy hours in order to achieve your commercial objectives.  The answer is not to throw more hours at a business model that’s failing you and those you love.  Instead, figure out why you need to work so many hours. For example:

• Are you charging too little for your time, so need to work too many hours?
• Are you wasting major working time, on minor things?
• Do you need to improve your time management or project management skills?
• Are you giving too much of your time away and then playing catch-up?

The key to business success is NOT hard work and long hours.  If it was, our grandparents would have been millionaires!  In my experience, it’s about working hard and smart during working hours, putting effective plans into place, to create a business that’s as profitable as possible.

Find a way to develop a better business, where you can work DAMN hard during work hours and still have time to smell the roses!

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With the holiday sales season only 2 weeks away, now is the time to take a look at your advertising copy and give it a tweak.

To help you out I have outlined below seven sins of copywriting that you must avoid:

1. No compelling headline – how are you going to get people to buy when the first thing they see on the page isn’t inspiring? I would argue that your headline is the most important aspect of the copy on your page. The key is to tell the visitor exactly what you are offering while also making it appealing so they will read on (and ultimately purchase).

2. No attractive benefits – we’ve all heard the adage features vs. benefits. The features are what you, as the marketer, believe about the product but the benefits are really what the visitor wants to know about. They don’t care how your SEO service works, all they care is that it will get them in the top 10 search results.

3. No bullet points – these ties in with deadly sin number 2. Make spelling out the benefits of your product/service easy by using bullet points. This will make it easier for the visitor also. Here is an example of one of our ads. It shows how easy it is for the visitor to see what the product will do for them by using bullet points.

4. Sentences too long – I have to admit this is one of my biggest challenges in writing copy. But the trick is to know when to end a sentence and start a new one. Here is what I was taught: read the sentence out loud and as soon as you run out of breath, that’s when the sentence needs to stop.

5. Hard to understand jargon – This is probably the most common sin in copywriting. But just remember that not everyone who is looking for your product is as educated as you about the product. Spell out the product in layman’s term. However, don’t talk down to them or assume they know your industry language and terminology.

6. Spelling/grammar mistakes – this is the easiest sin to avoid. Don’t assume that a common spelling/grammar checker is going to pick up all the mistakes. Read back over your copy carefully or give it to someone else to check who hasn’t seen it before (fresh eyes).

7. No break in ad copy – Put yourself in your visitor’s shoes. How daunting would it be to visit a website and find a page full of text? To be honest I would probably click away. People don’t have time or the patience to read through such a large amount of text (not to mention it would look pretty ugly). Use relevant images to break up the text such as a call to action button or an image of your product.

Are there any additional sins you would add to this list? If so feel free to share them below.

What Does “Above the Fold” Mean?
This term simply refers the portions of a webpage that can be visible without scrolling. This is seen as the most important real estate on any web page as other content can be missed if a customer decides to leave the current page for any reason.

The term originates from newspapers – where important stories are placed on front side of folded papers to entice people to buy them.

But there’s a problem. Monitors aren’t like a traditional newspaper. There are a whole range of different monitor sizes and resolutions which means it’s almost impossible to ensure everyone browsing your site is going to see the same amount of content above the fold.

Luckily for us, Google has come up with a tool which can help to solve this issue, its called Browser Size.

How Does Google Browser Size Work?
Browser size looks at the average size of browser windows for people who visit Google. Given that Google is the most popular site on the web, it’s safe to assume their averages will be accurate.

To use the tool, simply type your URL into the “Enter URL here” textbox at the top of the window and click Go. The overlay will show you the percentage of users who have their browser window open to at least this size or larger.

For example, the “90%” contour means that 90% of users can see this content on their screen without having to scroll. Keeping your main message and call to action within this section of the page will give you the best chance of converting visitors.

Google says that it found that the install rate for Google Earth increased by a whopping 10% simply by moving it 100 pixels higher on the page.

Give this tool a go with your website and leave a comment below to let us know what you think.

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Just like your website, you need to optimize your press release to give it the best exposure in the search engines.

Meg Walker, PRWeb’s Director of Online Marketing, outlined 5 ways to optimize your press release to gain the best exposure, so I wanted to share these with you:

1. Meet audience demand

Prior to drafting a release, you need to understand what your audience is demanding. Meeting audience demand is integral to accomplishing your press release visibility objectives.

The steps to meet audience demand include:

• Knowing your audience – what is it potential prospects and media are interested in? In what tone should they be spoken to? Do they appreciate a certain angle over another? Understanding is key and should drive the strategy behind the release.
• Be relevant – more than just understanding your audience, give them content that is both relevant and timely. By doing this, you’ll create the highest propensity your news gets picked up, shared and passed on.
• Satisfy customer demand – to know what the demand is, first research popular trends in search engines and stay on the pulse of your industry. By creating content that is related to hot topics you can create far more visibility for your releases. Staying up to date, informed and on the pulse of your customers is vital to connect with them through press releases.

2. Stay focused
By keeping your keywords and topics focused, your release can rank better in search engines and resonate more with media. As you are writing releases, remember you are writing about one topic per release. By segmenting the message or trying to say too much at once, you dilute your key points and take a risk prospects and media will walk away without taking next steps or remembering the point. Keep it simple, focused and impactful.

3. Use images for search

Images can increase the click through rate on releases in both regular and news search by 15 – 25%. It’s a simple step, but can’t be stressed enough. Additionally, using images creates more traction in media – journalists and bloggers both love images as it helps them tell their story.

4. Use videos to engage visitors
By using video in news releases, we have seen up to a 500% increase in time on pages. As the web shifts to a rich media experience, bloggers, media and end users are becoming more accustomed to video. In the future, it may be common that video is included with releases. But since today it is not as frequently used, it’s a chance to make your news stand out.

5. Optimize your release

• Anchor text links – use 3

One to homepage – direct visitors directly to your company website.
One to product page – send media and consumers directly to the product they are reading about.
One to blog post – this presents an opportunity to speak to readers in a less formal fashion. With social web users and digital influencers continually expecting social content, a press release presents a great opportunity to spark interest in your social content.

• Alt-tag

An alt tag helps your images get discovered in search engines – all release images should be tagged appropriately.

• URL Keyword

Top keywords can be used as part of the URL string, so be sure and include those during the release selection process.

• Description Tag

Add a keyword rich and compelling description tag.

• Title of release

The title of the release will become the title tag of the page, which is a vital element of your on-page optimization. If you have a target phrase, ensure your phrase leads the title of release.

And there you have it, 5 very useful tips to ensure your next press release gets the attention it deserves.

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So, content drives everything. Online that is even more evident. It’s relatively easy to figure out just what kind of content is important to individuals or to small groups of people. There still might be a wide range of different content likes and dislikes, but they can be gathered in, quantified, and then addressed according to that need.

The Internet however, forces us to communicate in every way possible. In business, this creates some serious problems. It’s virtually impossible for most businesses to communicate with every type of person in every type of way that is best for that person and for the company also. It’s a lot of work and, more often than not, resource limitations stop folks from being all things to all people.

What I will be concentrating on over the next few posts has to do with the intent of your content. Even if you can’t put your message in all the formats available (written word, social media outlets, video, podcast, etc.), you can control the intent of your communication. I started thinking about this a while ago at my blog and I want to expand on the idea here.

We need to decide what we are trying to accomplish with content. Once the intent is known, then the message and placement will follow more easily. I have identified six areas to look into to help define the intent of one’s content.

1. Content to inform
2. Content to educate
3. Content to entertain
4. Content to validate
5. Content to re-create
6. Content to populate

Now that I have introduced the concept as a whole, let’s jump right in and look at areas to consider for content that is intended to inform.

First, you have to decide what it is that you want to inform people about. Many times people will have so much to say (I am guilty here as well) that they will cram everything into one newsletter, e-mail update, or blog post, thinking they have accomplished something. That’s not informing someone. That’s annoying them and confusing them.

Now, you can inform people about anything, so for clarity I am going to stick to one area. It’s the idea that companies need to inform their customers and prospects alike of just what is going on within the company. This is a tricky kind of content approach, though, because if it looks like you are just trying to create content for content’s sake by updating on every little activity of your business then you will lose people. Remember, people are smarter than you think and they are in control of their experience with your content, not you. As a result, they can vote “no” on your business with a click if you have overstayed your welcome.

So what are the most important areas to inform your customers about, so that they feel that they are “in the know”?

Product updates – These are common and oftentimes far too technical. Try to make your product updates more conversational and concentrate on the benefit to the customer rather than the wizardry of the technology or process. People want to know “What’s in it for me?” so tell them. If someone wants more details, they’ll ask.

Management changes – Customers hate to be surprised just like the rest of us. If there has been a personnel change at your business that warrants communication with your customers, then do it sooner than later. Some initial pain or discomfort will far outweigh trying to explain why it was kept under wraps.

Community interest – If your company is involved in some kind of a community activity, tell the story without bragging. People like to be associated with people and organizations that pitch in.

Industry recognition – If you have received any industry accolades, tell your customers. It will make them feel good about doing business with you.

Employee highlights – The last thing people want to deal with is a big, faceless organization. When people get attention, your readers take notice. Why? Because they are people too and would love to see the same thing happen at their business.

There are more and I would love to get your comments but for now that’s enough to consider.

So, just how do you do this kind of intentional content creation? Blogs, newsletters, e-mail updates, Web site notifications and more are all viable options. Find a place, though, where this kind of information best fits in the context of what appears with it.

For example, a newsletter that is focused on what the company does in the community is not the place for product updates. Create a place where people will know that they will get this kind of information consistently and they don’t have to hunt it down or weed through other unrelated areas to get to it.

So, keep your customers informed and they will feel like they have a relationship with you and your brand. That relationship is important capital that can be stored up for use in times where it may come in handy .

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If you do have bloggers block, here are 10 topics to help you come up with an idea to blog about.

Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs

Every business gets asked the same questions over and over again. These could come from prospects or clients and are great topics for blog posts. Chances are, if they are a FAQ, they’re also searched on a lot too.

New Products and Services

What’s new with your company? What are you offering now that you didn’t previously? Maybe its brand new or maybe it’s version 2 of an existing product. Don’t be afraid to tell the world when you have something new to offer them.

Feature Spotlight

I’d be willing to bet that most people don’t know how to use half the features of the products they use every day. That’s why putting the spotlight on different features is such a good idea. People love to get more out of what they are already using.

Industry News

What’s happening in your industry? Are their new laws that will affect your company? How about a merger or another big company folding? What’s changing and how could that impact your customers?

Interview Someone

Interviews can be pretty easy. Come up with a list of questions and then interview someone. You could do it in person, on the phone or even via email. You could interview anyone from the marketing department to shipping and even your boss. Everyone’s point of view is different and it’s fun to see different sides of a company.

Review Something

Everyone is searching the internet to find out if a particular product or piece of software is worth the money. If you can, look at what your company uses and write a review. It’ll work best if it’s something unique to your industry, but it could be for anything that helps keep your business running.

Create a Top 10 list.

Lists are a great way to make easy to scan and quick to consume posts. You could write about 10 Ways To…, 7 Tips for.., 14 of the Best…, 6 Mistakes. Pretty much anything you want. Just make sure your list is interesting and provides value to you readers.

Case Study or Success Story

Every company has them. A success story that they want to tell the world. So do it. Write out the situation, the actions taken and the results. Even if you already have a formal case study, summarize it in a blog post and then link to the full case study. Customers like to know that you’ve had success and it can really help sell your services.

Solutions/How Tos

Nothings perfect, and people spend hours trying to troubleshoot products and services every day. Wouldn’t it be great if you could offer up the solution? You’d be their hero! It could be solutions for your own products or maybe someone else’s. Either way, people like solutions and providing them can help build confidence in your brand.

Company News

What’s happening with your company? Are you growing? Did you promote someone? No blogs want to be completely self-centered, but no one likes a blog that doesn’t seem personal either. Don’t be afraid to talk about what’s happening as it helps readers feel more connected to the company.

There you go. 10 topics that will hopefully spur ideas on what you can write on your blog. So what are you waiting for? Go create.

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