This week, in addition to the usual crowd of dogs and people in the Long Meadow was a photo shoot for a music group.

A Golden Retriever puppy wandered over to the photo shoot, and as the owner walked over to get the pup, he said he saw one of the band members grab the puppy by the collar and kick it.

Some words were exhcanged, and I thought it best to walk over and back up my friend. I pulled out my phone and took a few pictures of the band.

My friend was quite upset about what they did to his pup, and wanted to find out who the band was,  so  he asked that I post it on  Brooklynian .

I say this a lot, but again,  you don’t own it once you hit the Submit button.

Brooklynian is a local hub for several neighborhood online bulletin boards. The Daily Slope ( the Park Slope bulletin board on Brooklynian ) is where I posted a note about what the band did to the dog, asking if anyone could help identify the band.

There were about 3,000 views of the post in 3 hours, and 50 replies to the post. Almost all of the posts were snarky attacks on the band members, and 2 suggestions for how one could identify the offending band.

The Brooklynian and its neighborhood boards is a helpful site, but the boards seem to be more a place for people to try to out-do each other in sarcasm and bitterness. A popular target for Daily Slope participants are people with baby strollers.

A popular blogger, F***** in Park Slope, with 1900 followers, linked to the Daily Slope post on Twitter:

So the floodgates opened. A few hours, a few thousand more views, more snarky replies.

Curbed and Gothamist both pick up the story:

More views of the Daily Slope post, and many replies. The band has become the latest punching bag for the regular commentators.

“I seriously want to find out what band this is. I would like to show up at one of their shows and kick them. Guy sitting on the ground is dangerously close to mullet territory.”

“Oh my God, what is with the guy in the vest and offensively tight jeans? Is this a Strawberry Fields Forever revival? In response to what these shitheads did to that poor little dog, I would have grabbed these ugly bitches by their collars and kicked them in the f******* head.”

“More evidence that Brooklyn is going downhill if you can’t even walk your Golden Retriever puppy (possibly the cutest sort of puppy ever) in Prospect Park without having to look out for assholes on the prowl.”

A regular poster commented visually:

Douche Bag Nation : Born Entitled

After a few hours I added a note that we wanted to ID the band here, not devolve this post into name calling. But that had no effect.

Then the Village Voice calls and emails me, asking to contact the dog owner. I decline his request, knowing my friend does not want to be the lead story on the local news. The Voice does write a post on their site.

The band is identifed as Surefire, and soon they issue a denial, calling me a “lackey” and my friend “a bitter man” and accusing us of slander and using “shock and awe” techniques.

It is awesome and shocking the power one has by hitting the Submit button, especially if you write about puppies. [ note to all bloggers wanting to increase viewership... ]

I added to the original post on the Daily Slope the Surefire’s denial, but that I still believe my friend.

I posted a reply to the Village Voice Surefire response, and got nailed by a few commenters there, so its not just the DailySlope that is a home for anonymous snarkiness.

When I post online I use my real name.  I think its important and I believe it adds crediblity to the what your are saying. Something posted under an assumed name doesn’t have the same heft.

The band handled this badly from the start. A simple “Hey sorry for any misunderstanding here, we’ll move to a different part of the park” instead of a heated conversation in the meadow would have made for a better outcome. After the fact, it be a good thing for the band to reach out the original poster, but that hasn’t happened. Instead the band has gone the verbose name calling route – never a smart move.

I did not think this one post would spiral into the name calling it did. It was certainly an effective way of using social networking to find out the band’s name. [ To date the original post had 16,000 views and 239 replies. ]

But one has to keep in mind, when you post something like this, you can’t control what will happen afterward. A lesson for people, bands, and corporations.

My answer was that she herself was probably not going to get more people to interact, but I suggested she use her talkers. Talkers are people who spread your message for you. In this case the talkers would be people who already interact on the site, they can get others to take part because the targeted people see someone like themselves who is participating; its a peer to peer thing, rather than the webmaster trying to get them to particpate.

I learned a ton about this at Andy Sernovitz’s Word of Mouth Marketing Crash Course, which I will talk about in a separate post.

The big red flag for me here was the person did not say what company he worked for, and in his signature line, it didn’t list the company either. It did list his email address, I immediately recognized the domain name as a children’s modeling agency.

When you talk to me about attracting children to your site, and don’t tell me who you work for, there is no way I’m going to get near you.

I wrote back telling them I would not allow the shows on their site.

I’m big on gut feeling, though I have been wrong at times, more often your gut feeling is the right feeling.

Andy Sernovitz of Gas Pedal and the blog Word of Mouth Marketing wrote about this in relation to marketing today, he calls it Honesty of Identity:

Trust your gut if you get the slightest feeling that something isn’t honest. If you have to ask — don’t do it.

I know this word is used to death, but Transparency is paramount when using the web. Maybe we should use the word Honesty instead.

Have any good examples of non-honesty you’re run across? Tell us.

Just heard about SocialDevCampChicago from TechCocktail, and I have signed up for a slot to talk about “What’s it like to create and manage a niche social network” . I’ll talk about how I decided to create The Green House, and what I’ve found works and what doesn’t, and more as I think about what I’ll say in 25 minutes.

I’m a veteran speaker from several PodCamps, and I love the un-conference model. I’m also talking with several people in Chicago about having a MediaCamp, a mash up of a PodCamp and a WordCamp, and whatever else we throw in. Interested? let me know here. eric — at — ericrochow.com

photo by Steve Garfield

Reading this email today, I am thinking about several things that could improve this message. In this latest installment of “What Eric Thinks”, here’s what I think.

Like you, I meet many people each month, I sometimes get their business card. We talk a for a minute and move on to the next person.

My problem here is that I don’t recall who Jim XXXX is. I click on the link provided and am brought to a Plaxo page that list a few things about Plaxo, NO picture of who Jim is, [ this isn't Plaxo's fault, its Jim's fault ] and no information about Jim.

I don’t use Plaxo, and Jim has chosen to keep his information private, from what I can tell. Plaxo has a very brief description of what it is, but I’m still not completely sold on the idea. The problem I see here is that there is no link to Learn More about Plaxo, there is only a sign up form.

I think everyone who knows what Plaxo is, the early adopters, the biz networking pros have already signed up. I’ve heard of Plaxo, but I’m reluctant to sign up for yet one more social network when I can’t find out more information about it before handing over my email address and information.

So here is What Eric Thinks:

• Add a link to this invite page to Learn More about Plaxo before signing up.

• Jim XXXX needs to upload a picture

• Jim XXXX needs to make his information available to me, before I buy into this network.

I went to Plaxo.com and on their initial landing page, they have a much better introduction. The have a ‘Take A Tour’ link. Drop that Tour link onto the Invite page and watch your join rate climb.

Here’s a big red flag from the get-go: an email from Twitter saying someone is following me, but the name of the person is off somehow. What’s wrong here:

• ALL CAPS , my father uses all caps in his emails still. I keep telling him its rude, he doesn’t listen.

• What an odd name; what or who is AISIJWOODS?

I don’t have a problem with companies using Twitter, but this one isn’t thought thru clearly.

• there is a lack of personality here. Obviously, we know someone is sending out these Twitters, but there is no person associated with this. Its just ‘EnviroMetal’

• the fact that EnviroMetal follows 1,195 people and only 68 are following EnviroMetal is a red flag. People vote with their feet; or in this case, mouse clicks.

Digging thru the web links, I’m betting Jim Woods of the Steel Recycling Institute sends out the Tweets. This isn’t very obvious, as the links are really small and buried at the bottom of the EnviroMetal web page. Looking thru both  the EnviroMetal and the associated  Steel Recycling Institute websites, there is no ‘Contact’ or ‘About’ page, and no email address provided to contact them, only a phone number; another red flag.

If you’re going to step into the Social Media fishbowl, master Web 1.0 first. Few people will call you, many will email you.

My suggestions:

Make it personal. A better Twitter name would be EnviroMetalJim, its easy to remember, and its a lot better than AISIJWOODS. [ My twitter name is EricGardenfork. ]

Make the bio honest. The Green social media people know they’re being pitched by the steel industry, so be upfront about it. Transparency is big in social media:  “I’m Jim, and I am the green outreach coordinator for the Steel Recycling Institute.”

Make it readable. On your Twitter page, don’t put green type on a green background. Its hard to read. Make it as easy as possible for the end user.

Page 1 of a Google search tell us Jim’s email address:   jimw@recycle-steel.org  and from looking in LinkedIn,  I’m guessing Jim is about 35 years old, and he lives in Pittsburgh. He is the Director Public & Education Relations of the Steel Recycling Institute. But one shouldn’t have to look for this on Google, it should be front and center on the sites.

Both websites associated with this Twitter account, http://www.sustainable-steel.org, and http://www.recycle-steel.org/ , have some interesting information, but by having no easy way for someone who might want to blog about them to contact them for further info, EnviroMetal’s outreach efforts will be futile.

But there is a glimmer here, in one Tweet, Jim offers up a Roscoe lunchbox for whoever gets the most people to follow him on Twitter, which, though I’ve never seen a Roscoe lunchbox, it sounds very cool. Bloggers like swhag just as much as movie stars.

]]> http://ericrochow.com/2008/07/15/using-twitter-as-pr-tool-how-not-to-do-it/feed/ 3 http://ericrochow.com/2008/07/07/performance-bicycle-if-you-ask-please-read-the-note/ http://ericrochow.com/2008/07/07/performance-bicycle-if-you-ask-please-read-the-note/#comments Mon, 07 Jul 2008 10:00:06 +0000 eric http://ericrochow.com/?p=410 I bought a new bike helmet from Performance Bicycle’s website this week. The site experience was pretty good, no glaring human interface flaws.

Going thru the checkout, I unchecked any button that offered to add me to an email list of any sort.

And in the special instructions text box, i wrote:

Please do not add my name to any postal or email lists. I do not want to receive any email or postal mail information.

I’m not a buyer of of much in the way of cycling, and I don’t need yet another catalog or emails clogging my inbox. And today, I get a promotional email from Performance Bicycle: “Welcome to our Email List”

If you offer people a place to type a note when placing an order, you need to pay attention to what people say.

Of the two, Mr Culberson is using Twitter for what it does best, which is to have a brief conversations; answering back to queries from followers, he is following 768 people. Mr Ryan is using it more to announce what he is doing at that moment, he has 332 followers, but is not following anyone.

Mr Culberson is also using the Qik, ( here is his page on Qik ) which allows you to stream video from your cell phone. He tried to use Qik in the Oval office, but the Secret Service did not allow it, so he did a Qik from outside the White House

This, I think, is great. Using social media tools to reach out to people who would probably not call their office, write a letter, or attend an event, can now connect with their representatives and have a say in politics.

I’ve replied to a few of these emails, asking the sender where they got my email address, below is typical of the answer I get back, this one came today, hence this post.

Quite honestly, I am not sure how I got your address in that at one point in this project a former colleague and I pooled together group emails we had received from like-minded organizations.

The sender of this particular email used Constant Contact, which is the service I also use. They have a very easy one click procedure to unsubscribe – keep that easy unsubscribe in mind when choosing a mass email vendor – but still, I had no idea how they had gotten my address. Here is my response I sent back:

…while i certainly applaud the work you are doing, and the smart use of an email service that provides an easy opt-out policy, ( i also use constant contact ) people need to be careful who they send email news to.

my experience has found that people, more and more, are guarding their email addresses, and at times can react in a way not intended to unsolicited emails. instead of garnering support for your cause, you lose them.

i’ve been added to several lists the same way i was added to yours, and i’ve gotten similar answers when i ask how they got my name.

my suggestion to you would be to put at the end of your letter a short sentence something along the lines of :

By compiling several groups lists, we got your email address and thought you’d be interested in this event, if you do not want to receive emails from us, please click on this link to remove your name.

that will defuse most people who might be annoyed with yet another unsolicited email. yes, there is unsubscribe link at the bottom, but a link within the body of the letter works better, its more personal .

Constant Contact requires you to attest that all the email addresses you use with their email service have agreed to receive emails from you. So my answer is not letter perfect.

If you are sending out an email, my suggestion is to not compile a bunch of addresses that everyone in the office has, you can run into trouble. Instead, ask the recipients of the email you’re sending to forward it to people they think would be interested. And include a link in your email letter allowing people who have received it to forward to people they feel may be interested.

Photo by Todd Ehlers 

To some people, Twitter may seem like a waste of time. I find it useful, to a point. You follow people, they follow you, you and they learn things and perhaps grow a bit.

Twitter can get out of hand. There are some people who I’ve followed on Twitter who post constantly. I am not the only one who has wondered if these people do anything else other than post on Twitter.

My answer to the question of how many people to follow is less than 150.

When someone decides to follow me, I check their Twitter page to see what kinds of things they post. I don’t follow people who:

1. Almost all of their posts are “@person” posts. I more than likely don’t follow the person they are talking to.

2. Their posts are mainly about what kind of food they are eating. A bit of the mundane of life is interesting, but learning what all of my Twitter friends are having for breakfast is not a good use of my time.

3. They post multiple Twitters to write out a thought. When you see someone’s name next to 4 posts in a row on your Twitter, that’s not using Twitter for what its best for. Twitter’s beauty is its 140 character limit.

4. They are following hundreds or thousands of people, with few of those following back. The goal for some on Twitter is to get as many people to follow them as possible. Their posts are not relevant, many of them blatantly post, “get your friends to follow me” Why?

5. Their ‘about me’ section is blank. If I can’t learn more about you before I decide to follow, I don’t follow. Transparency is key here.

What causes me to follow people? I’m very pragmatic in life, and this shows on Twitter.

1. People who post interesting links. Usually something like: “Good blog post on Social media and Senior Citizens http://tinyurl.com” . What I find frustrating is when someone will post something like: “You must check this out! http://tinyurl.com” . I don’t have any idea what this is, you need to tell me more. Don’t waste my time.

2. Thoughtful comments. These might be on the news of the day, or a personal observation. To be able to sum things up in 140 characters is not easy.

3. New blog posts. Some people use Twitter solely to plug their blog, but someone who intersperses blog post notices with their regular Twitter chatter is fine with me.

4. People whose lives are interesting.

Newmediajim is a cameraperson for NBC News, and is always doing and observing interesting things. His posts are a look into the world of news and politics.

5. Web Shows and sites that post new items that interest me.
Make Magazine twitters neat things from their blog. Potato bazooka is a long time favorite.

Social Media Club uses Twitter to announce new meetings.

OK, that’s Eric’s early morning Twitter thoughts. You can follow me on Twitter if you find me interesting.