Six Social Media Blunders and what we can learn from them

Social media is incredibly powerful – it can keep us all in contact with friends and family, market our books and lose us great opportunities. Yes that is right you read the last part correctly. Social media can be as much a pain as a gain. Here are six social media blunders that have cost people dearly and what we can learn from them.

1.                   Connor Riley tweeting about her job offer

Connor Riley had a job offer from Cisco when she tweeted – “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”

Shortly afterwards Cisco employee gave a tweet back - “Who is the hiring manager? I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the Web.”

But if that wasn’t enough, she was soon the target of several internet trolls that called her names that would upset even the thickest skinned of us. It is likely it will be a long time before the “fatty Cisco” incident is forgotten forever.

Lesson learned: If want to say anything that could be construed as negative, use privacy functions that limit who see it – or better keep it to yourself and don’t say it at all.

2.                   #McDStories hashtag got hijacked

You can’t control hastags and if we have learnt anything with social media is that people who really want to promote negative aspects of your brand - will. With McDonalds they wanted people to share their positive experiences in their restaurants – however consumers quickly did the exact opposite.

Lesson learned: Use hashtags that can’t be turned into negative aspects about you.

3.                   Ashley Johnson blasting customers over tip onFacebook

Waitress Ashley Johnson decided to take her frustration out on Facebook after she didn’t receive the tip she expected from two customers. She took the extraordinary step of mentioning the restaurant by name. Unfortunately her bosses discovered the update and she was sacked for “speaking disparagingly about customers and casting the restaurant in a bad light on a social network.”

Lesson learned: Be careful what you say about customers online. You never know who is reading.

4.                   Ashley Payne and her photos

Teacher Ashley Payne was forced to resign after she posted a photo online of her out drinking. Someone obviously took offense to the message as the head of her school was e-mailed with a copy of the photo.

Lesson learned: If you are in a public facing position (even if you don’t realize / advertise it) keep your social media profiles professional. If something is deemed unsuitable for your main audience someone will let you know one way or another.

5.                   Employee’s rant on Facebook

Read the exchange and you’ll see why it was a blunder.

Lesson learned: Where to start? I think the important points to take away are remember who you add onto Facebook, don’t write negative comments and be honest.

6.                   2009 Habitat using trending hashtags

Back in 2009 Habitat sent out a number of tweets that contained popular and trending hashtags that had limited if anything to do with the message. The crisis exploded later on when they took advantage of events happening in Iran at the time. Habitat later apologized and stated the hashtags were not authorised.

Lesson learned: Use meaningful related hashtags not just any that are trending.

I hope you have found this article useful. If you have any more examples please let us know in the comments below.

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Six things not to do on Twitter

Twitter is one of the biggest social media platforms out there. Everyday articles are posted, shared and talked about. With everything that is put out there and all there is little wonder that people make mistakes. But few people understand that Twitter is also an advertising platform. Everything you push on Twitter says something about you and your brand. So if you do make a mistake it can make a dent in your publishing career. So here are six things not to do on Twitter...

1.                   Don’t comment on an article without reading it

There are those that comment solely based on the title or first line of a tweet. People can tell if you haven’t read the article you are commenting on. Sometimes titles can be misleading or the article has a secret message. Read the articles not just the tweets. It looks unprofessional and it will cost your reputation.

It is also advisable to make sure that you aren't making the same point if you want to debate a topic. It will look silly if aren't adding to the conversation but debating for the sake of it.

2.                   Don’t DM people for articles / products

I don’t really want to go over this again – but it seems people do not understand. In fact I now get more DMs than I did before. So I will just link here to my original article for you to read.

3.                   Don’t acknowledge those who share your news

People just forget their please and thank you when people share their tweets. If you can remember to do that it shows that you are caring person who is mindful of the people who help them.

4.                   Spam

Spamming is ineffective. It is as simple as that. I’ve written about it before for Facebook groups but the message is very useful for Twitter as well.

5.                   Directly insult other authors

It is unprofessional to say something nasty to people on social media. Don’t show your nasty side and stay polite with all conversation.

6.                   Don’t expect everything for nothing

Work hard with your following and reap the rewards. Too many people expect to sit back after they have posted and watch the results fly in. Work with your following to get better results and remember that social media is a two way conversation.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog post. Please feel free to leave a comment.

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Why online retailers needs to change their review policy

It is no secret that I am someone who loves reviews and reviewing. I‘ve already written a couple of review centric posts on my blog:

Six Reasons Why Reviewing Is Good

Six Differences between a Bad Review and a Troll Attack

6 Tips to Writing A Good Review

On each one I have made clear that I feel that reviews should solve one purpose. To give honest, critical feedback on the experiences of the product as it was intended to be used.

Last year Amazon decided to delete hundreds (if not thousands) of reviews written by other known authors. Very little explanation was given though some sources claimed they had financial connections to the books they reviewed.

Interestingly a few of mine had disappeared and I will admit that I do have a financial connection to the books I reviewed – I am part of the Amazon affiliate program.

In contrast to a lot of people who review, I take it very seriously and am proud of what I publish. My reviews give an overview of my experiences with the product from their intended use. For example a recent one, that is not part of the affiliate system and amazingly has stayed thus far.

But there are many reviews out there that aren’t giving constructive feedback. Take some of the reviews on Fifty Shades of Grey. It didn’t take me long to find these five star reviews on Amazon.

And even one star reviews have some poor reviews among them.

I don’t agree with either set of reviews and I think Amazon and other retailers need to consider what they publish on their sites. It took me just two pages to find three usable examples of poor five star reviews. I could have used others if they weren’t so long that they wouldn’t fit on the web browser in one shot. Yet it took ten pages to find those two one star reviews. That suggests that these fake reviews are artificially inflating the overall score of the book. How many other products out there have fake reviews? Read this blog post as a clue on the subject.

Amazon would have you believe that they deleted the fake reviews last year, but they were rather inconsistent. I have just shown you five reviews that seem to go against the principles of reviewing and could post many more. Why are these posts that are not honestly talking about the book be included?

If it is this attitude to reviews; is there any value to them?

I seems online retailers have very little control which reviews are posted online. Which is why troll attacks can and do happen.

Online retailers should stop and consider whether in the long term reviews need to be better regulated so that their value is not demolished by rogue commentators.

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Six Differences between a Bad Review and a Troll Attack

So it was after I had written the post a little while back about Six Things We Should Never Do As Writers that I had some feedback debunking the 2^nd point. The argument was that a successful writer had challenged a troll who had been stalking them and posting obscene 1 star reviews about their books on Amazon and such. However I feel that is not a real review. Trolls have to be separated in mind (and in practice) from those of real reviewers and readers. And here are six differences between them both.

1.       Trolls rarely read the book

This is a point which I think people don’t tend to get. Reviewers by name means that the person has viewed (or used) the item and is commenting on their experiences. Trolls rarely spend any money on the person they are persecuting and therefore cannot reliably be trusted to have read the book – meaning they have not actually written a review by definition.

2.       Trolls are malicious – Reviewers give honest feedback

I will admit that reviews can be hurtful, but a true review is never malicious. A troll is setting out to create an atmosphere which you will feel terrible. A reviewer is providing other readers with their experiences – whether good or bad.

3.       Reviewers tend to write and forget – Trolls linger for the spoils

Trolls can sometimes be persistent with their attacks. I’ve seen trolls post a dozen or so reviews on the same book within a short period of time. Sometimes responding to them will only encourage the Troll to write more horrible stuff. What did your mother tell you about bullies – they are after a response, don’t indulge them. This is not what reviewers tend to do. Normally a true reviewer will write their peace and then leave.

4.       Trolls are selfish – Reviewers are Selfless

There is very little reason why reviewers should give reviews at times. After they have said their peace they gain very little from it (unless they implement my advice from this blog post). However trolls are selfish. They have a goal in mind – they want to get a reaction / hurt your sales (and boost their own) / have a laugh at someone’s expense. None of those reasons are particularly selfless; in fact they all serve one purpose – to fulfill the need of the troll. Hence their reviews are selfish, a reviewer’s are not.

5.       Trolls tend to be badly written

Okay so I admit that this is a weak point. Some genuine reviews are not Shakespeare either, but Trolls are generally WRITTEN IN CAP LOCKS and are written in shorthand. Ths iz nt da gud way to rite a review tho. Most reviewers try to write in proper English. You can tell those who have put in the effort to write something meaningful rather than just write something fast to get their laugh.

6.       Reviews have context.

This is a little gripe of mine. As a reviewer myself over at The Indie Ebook Review Site I create reviews that have detail. I rarely give an opinion without a reason, and that is what every review should do. If you don’t like the book; why? Why don’t you like the characters? Why don’t you like the action scene? Why, why, why? Just saying that the book is terrible isn’t good reviewer practice.

I know that some reviewers won’t live up to my expectations and that they might not give reasons, may be a little rude or can write poor English. But that is why I am firm believer that all reviews should be vetted by the companies that allow them. I don’t mean censorship of reviews, but I do mean weeding out the reviews which have no substance or are attacks on the producers of the work. Both 1 star and 5 star reviews have a place in our system, they are helpful to readers and writers alike and can turn a floundering book into a bestseller. Trolls serve no purpose except to appease their creators.

Some big changes may be coming soon. To keep informed follow me on twitter and my facebook page