flyte blog: small business web marketing blog

Avoiding Twitter Phishing Scams: Don't Click On That Link

There's a popular new phishing technique on Twitter that a lot of people are falling for.

Someone you follow on Twitter--maybe even someone you trust--sends you a DM (direct message) that encourages you to click on a link. Some of the come-ons I've seen include:

• Is this you? [bogus link]
• I just found out my iq from [bogus link]
• I made $426.23 online today with [bogus link]
• I make money online with google. i learned how here [bogus link]
• I've got pictures of @therichbrooks naked. Check them out here: [bogus link]

It's amazing how many people fall for that last one.

The reason why spammers are sending these phishing attempts via DM is so that the account owner is less likely to see them until too many of them have gone out through their account.

If someone on Twitter DMs you with something that seems phishy, don't click on it. Instead, DM that person back and ask if they meant to send that last DM. I often just send a message:

I think ur acct may have been hacked; u should change ur pw.

Because that's how I roll.

Only you can prevent phishing scams!

Rich Brooks
Something's Phishy

Social Media for Business: Setting Goals and Measuring Results

One of the problems with social media right now is the lemming effect: everyone's jumping in because everyone's jumping in. Unfortunately, few businesses seem to have a real strategy or know how to measure the effectiveness of their time spent on the social web.

Which makes the upcoming Social Media Breakfast here in Maine all the more timely. I'll be presenting, along with Monica Wright of Vont and Calvin Gilbert of Goodwill of Northern New England on the topic of Setting Goals and Measuring Social Media Results.

I'll be leading off, talking about how to integrate social media tactics into an overall strategy that helps you achieve your business goals. Monica will talk about how to measure your results from social media, and Calvin will be providing real world data from his experience using social media for Goodwill NNE.

Tickets are only $6.11, seats are limited, and breakfast is included. So what are you waiting for?

Date: Friday, 11/20/2009
Place: MPX, 2275 Congress St., Portland, ME (map & directions)
Time: 7:30am - 10:00am

Rich Brooks
Social Media Strategist

SEO & Social Media Slides from Social Media FTW

After much nagging from my good friend Jaica Kinsman, I finally got around to posting my presentation slides on SEO and Social Media from the Social Media FTW Fall Conference that we co-founded along with our partner Chrystie Corns.

SlideShare is like YouTube for PowerPoint presentations, or in my case, Keynote presentations. And like YouTube, you can easily embed your presentations in other places once they're uploaded.

You can view SEO & Social Media at SlideShare or embedded below. You can follow me at SlideShare under my therichbrooks handle.

SEO And Social Media

View more documents from Rich Brooks.

Rich Brooks
Share and Share Alike

How to Build a Business Blog That Generates Leads

Today's issue of flyte log--our email newsletter on everything Web marketing related--is all about turning your blog into a lead generation machine.

How to Build a Business Blog That Generates Incoming Leads is a crystallization of a number of thoughts, a session at BlogWorld by Chris Baggott, a review of my analytics, and a recent post called Questioning 6 Blogging "Truths."

The new article revamps some of the points in 6 Truths, mixes in some new ideas, and tries to deliver some actionable items that any small business or non-profit can use to drive more traffic to their blog and convert those visitors into qualified leads.

If you've been considering starting a blog, or have been wondering how to improve the performance of your own blog, be sure to check out How to Build a Business Blog That Generates Incoming Leads.

Rich Brooks
Small Business Blogger

Can Multiple People Tweet Under One Corporate Account?

Dear Rich,

I really enjoyed your presentation yesterday at the Great Bay conference and I walked away with a lot of useful tips and info. 

I'd be interested in your opinion re: a company Twitter account. We have one that is managed by only one person in the agency: all Tweets come from her. 

1. Is there a way to give others access to the same Twitter account so that others can also Tweet 
2. Do you think this is a good idea?

Thanks!

--Wondering in Wakefield

Dear Wondering,

Thanks! That's great to hear.

Yes, it's easy to give multiple people access to one Twitter account. I do this with our Social Media FTW account, which gets contributions from me, @jakks and @ccmaine.

We all just know the login and password; I've also added @socialmediaftw as an account on TweetDeck and Tweetie, 3rd party apps for my desktop and iPhone respectively. That way I can send out tweets from my main account and @socialmediaftw as needed.

The 2nd part of your question is more complex. Having multiple people tweet from a single account can be a good idea, unless the person who's been tweeting for you feels like she's losing some of her independence, but that's more of an HR situation rather than a marketing one.

It might also be helpful for multiple people in your organization to have their own Twitter accounts. These could be "corporate" accounts, like rachel_yourco, sue_yourco, etc., or they could be their own accounts, where they tweet about your company as part of their ongoing twittering, similar to what I do w/@therichbrooks.

Hope this helps!

Disagree? Argue or debate with Rich Brooks on Twitter.

How Do Companies Know You're Tweeting About Them?

Dear Rich,

Good Webinar on Twitter last Thursday - I picked up some good tips.

After your presentation, a question came to mind that I wished I had asked, as it might have been helpful to others.

If I mention a company's name in a tweet, they often pick up on that and start following me. Is there  software that follows Twitter searching for a mention ? I am not speaking about using a hash tag or @ sign to directly get their attention.

For example, several months ago as a test, my wife tweeted "I can't wait until J. Crew launches their fall clothing line". Almost immediately J. Crew started following her.  How did they pick up on that? I would like to follow people who are tweeting about my industry -- or more importantly, anyone who is mentioning my  company name -- either good or bad. Is there a way to do this even if they are not just trending?

Thanks for your help.

--Tweeting in Trenton

Dear Tweeting,

That's a great question. There are a number of robust, sometimes expensive "listening platforms" for businesses who are curious about finding out what people are saying about them on the social webs. However, what you're looking for is free.

Just go to Search.Twitter.com and plug in your industry, company, competitor or the name of your favorite superhero to see what people are saying about them in real time.

If you need to find out what people in a specific part of the country or world are saying on Twitter be sure to check out my recent post on NearbyTweets.

Rich Brooks
Your Twitter Answer Guy

Alaska Vacations with Goldbelt Tours

Flyte recently launched a Web site for Goldbelt Tours, an Alaskan tour company with a tram, hotel and marina.

Goldbelt Tours is a one-stop-shop for your next visit to Juneau, Alaska. Goldbelt, Inc. owns and operates the Goldbelt Hotel, the Mount Robert’s Tramway, and the Seadrome Marina. They also offer unforgettable adventures and excursions in both Juneau and Ketchikan.

Flyte designed and built the site on WordPress, allowing Goldbelt to update their site, upload images and embed video without needing to know any HTML.

Flyte is also working on the redesign and redevelopment of Goldbelt Corporate, offering shareholders and natives access to the latest news/information that Goldbelt offers. Stay tuned.

Lindsay Babayan
Project Manager

Find Local People on Twitter Using NearbyTweets

Despite the global nature of the Internet, many of us still do most of our business locally.

Restaurants, doctors, locksmiths, massage therapists, all get most of their business from their extended neighborhood. Even when you're able to do business anywhere, such as Web designers, business coaches, and super nannies, we still find that we get a large part of our business form the local economy.

Whether through desire or necessity, many of us search out local people to network with. If this sounds like you, there are plenty of Twitter applications that help you find local tweeps, including LocalTweeps or the search tool on Tweetie for the iPhone, my favorite desktop app is Nearby Tweets.

Unlike a lot of its competition, the layout of the site is slick and elegant. It will often recognize where you are in the world and pre-populate your location. If it's not right, or if you'd rather find tweeps in the city you'll be visiting next week, just change your location.

Next up you can filter the results by keyword. Although when I'm looking for new local folks to follow I generally leave this spot blank, you could find out who locally is "hungry" or cheering on the "Patriots" by using the keyword filter.

Last up you can vary the search radius to whatever size you want. The default is 100 miles, but feel free to shrink it to 10 or double it to 200. Once you hit search, Nearby Tweets will pull up all the recent tweets from the people who meet your criteria in the right hand column, and their avatars on the left. It's up to you to decide whether you want to follow them or not.

I generally right-click their profile pages into a new tab in Firefox, go through the list, and then check out their profiles one at a time.

This isn't a tool where you add yourself to a directory, nor does it ask you for any of your own Twitter information. (Thank God.) In fact, like Search.Twitter.com, you don't even need to be on Twitter to use it.

Very slick, very powerful, very free. Check it out .

Rich Brooks
Twittering from 04101

Yes, You Do Have Time to Blog!

One of the common refrains I hear from people is that "I don't have time to blog."

On the surface, this seems believable. What small business owner isn't over-worked, whether it's with marketing, sales, bookkeeping, managing people, making the coffee, buying the computers, sending out proposals, answering the phones, taking out the garbage, and every other task that fills our days from the moment we hit the office (whether in or out of our house) to the moment we shut down the computer for the day?

And still, I call "B.S."

Because if you're a small business owner like I am, then blogging is something you can always fit into your day. I'm not saying it's easy. I'm not octomom (dignity in check, thanks), but my wife and I do have kids, and a work/life balance is important to us.

You see, blogging isn't some self-indulgent activity; it's investing in the future of your business. Blogging increases your search engine visibility, establishes your credibility, and generates inbound leads. In my opinion, it's probably the best marketing tool you have at your disposal, and once you get it set up it's nearly free.

Unlike other required tasks (phone calls, meetings and making the coffee, for example), you can blog any time. In fact, I recommend doing it in the off hours so you can follow up on all the leads active blogging will deliver to you during your normal business day.

Here's how to get it done:

• Write a blog post before the kids get up, or after you've put them to bed. (No kids? Then no excuse. Seriously, this is the time to be blogging like there's no tomorrow because feedings in the middle of the night can kill your creativity.) 
• Give up one night of TV a week and pump out two or three blog posts, and deliver them Monday, Wednesday and Friday the following week. 
• Review your Google alerts for your targeted keywords and write brief posts while eating at your desk two days a week.
• Use a voice-to-text tool while on the treadmill and speak your next blog post (85% less weird if you have a home gym.)

Listen, this is your business. You're an entrepreneur. No one said this was going to be easy. A blog isn't some toy, it's a business tool that's going to deliver qualified leads to your Web site. If you'd rather watch American Idol that's fine; just hope your competition feels the same way you do.

Rich Brooks
Blogging Past Midnight

Every Day Love: A New Approach to Commitment

Earlier this week flyte designed and launched a blog for David Sanford's new project: Every Day Love.

David is an experienced couple's therapist located in Greater Portland, Maine. As he says on the site:

My experience as a couples therapist and relationship coach is that far too many marriages and committed relationships fail because partners are too intent on getting love and too disinterested in giving it.

I want to use this blog as a vehicle for sharing what I know about loving behavior and for exploring the many ways in which a committed life with a partner can be an adventure – not just the burden that so many people find it to be.

The blog is part of a bigger project. David also has a podcast for Every Day Love, and is writing a book on the same topic. 

If you're in a committed relationship, or just want to be ready when you are, be sure to check out the Every Day Love Blog, and follow David Sanford on Twitter.

Rich Brooks
Maine WordPress Development