NFL’s Facebook Message to Fans Example of Social Media Fail

By Stephanie Stradley FanHouse Writer 

Why is it that so many large corporations are so bad at social media? The latest example of social media failure is the NFL’s recent use of Facebook to communicate with fans. On Tuesday, the NFL used Facebook to get Roger Goodell’s message out to fans about his desire to get a labor deal done by March. Most fans agree with this point of view. However, the Facebook message went beyond that and added an ill-advised question:

“A message from Commissioner Roger Goodell on a new agreement: “This is an opportunity to create a better future for the NFL, to improve the game for our fans.” How would you like to see the game improved?”

Uh oh. The number one response by far seems to be some variation of “Fire Roger Goodell” and calling him various mean things, sometimes referencing private anatomical parts. After that, the majority of the sentiments include no lockout, no 18-game season, and not screwing up the game with other seemingly arbitrary changes.

Trial lawyers know that the first rule of asking questions is to be cautious in asking an open-ended question where you may not like the answer. That’s not a bad guideline for corporations to follow when using social media. In addition, most fans are cynical enough to know that the NFL isn’t really interested in what fans have to say, and to pretend they are is an insult to them. So asking disgruntled fans what their opinions are to see the game improved is an invitation for online abuse. In which case: mission accomplished.

Social Networking Etiquette: Mind Your Manners to Grow Your Business

Social media marketing is hotter than a firecracker, and growing hotter every day as online entrepreneurs realize just how effective this particular marketing technique can be.  If you aren’t using social media marketing—you should be. 

However, a word of caution: Use social media wisely or you can end up doing more harm to your business than good.  There are certain, basic, unwritten rules of etiquette that apply to social media.  Before diving into the deep end of the social media scene, familiarize yourself with these rules of etiquette so that you don’t jump in there and start putting your foot in it. 

There is a lot more to social media marketing than joining Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin and trying to get friends or followers.  First of all, don’t rush in and start requesting friends like somebody that’s been stranded on a desert island alone for the past 10 years and is desperate now for companionship of any sort.

Take your time. Go slowly. You’re impatient, that’s understandable. You have probably looked around and seen some of your competitors with 3000 friends and/or followers and you want to catch up.  But, quality is actually much more important than quantity, anyway. 

Think of your social community friends sort of like traffic to your online store. You want traffic, of course. But you want the right kind of traffic, not just a torrent of visitors who are not ever going to become buyers.  This applies to your social media friends, too. Be a bit selective about who your friends and followers are and aim for quality. 

A big No-No is to go through your online address book and send friend requests to everybody on it. You will not win friends this way. In fact, you will antagonize many of those people to the point where it will damage any existing relationship you have with them. 

The correct way to go about letting folks know you now have a page on Facebook or whatever is to announce it on your website, or in an email newsletter, or in your email signature.  This way, your contacts who want to participate will, and the others who don’t want to—won’t.  You don’t want them, anyway. 

Although you don’t want to bombard anyone you’ve ever emailed with friend requests, you do want to connect with net workers who approach you. If it seems like a real, live person and not a spammer, then friend them. Not to do so would be offensive and against the social media etiquette rules. 

Be professional at all times. Don’t tweet messages from Twitter that would offend some of your followers, for example. Remember that you never know who will read a message you post online or send out in a tweet!  

Don’t be too sales-y with your new friends, especially at first. People don’t like to feel used and it’s bad social manners to give someone the impression that you only want them as a friend to try and sell them something.  You do want to build your business, naturally.  But be tactful about it! 

Mind your manners in social media marketing and watch your business grow!

Impossible Is Just A State Of Mind

I went to the gym earlier this evening and I noticed the resolution crowd is already starting to dwindle. Every year the first week of January has a huge draw of people. There are sign-up sheets to use some of the treadmills and stationary bikes. There is a sea of cars in the parking lot. It is louder and much more congested.

Of course people want to knock out their resolutions to be more healthy, lose weight and get in shape – the first week of January – and then move on to excuse making the rest of the year. Like clockwork, every year the same happens. What could be an annoying inconvenience with the large crowds of people chugging away on the equipment is decreased by the knowledge they will be gone in 3 weeks or less.

How about you? How are your resolutions going? Are you continuing down your chosen path? Or is your confidence fading? After two weeks doubt can start creeping into the thoughts. “The first week was great! But this week I don’t feel so good,” are normal. Like all great achievements, there is a weeding-out period. The weak must be separated from the strong. The “wheat from the chaff“.

So today I would like to appeal to your pride. Yes, step aside for a moment and let me talk to your ego.

Ok Mr. pride and Ms. ego, now that we’re alone, let me ask you!. What would it mean to you to be one of the few who makes it? What if the goal you have chosen is difficult, so difficult most people quit after two weeks, but you keep going? What does that say about you? Doesn’t that mean you are stronger than most?

And what about the negative thoughts that weed their way in? Can’t they motivate you even more? You could choose instead to welcome all the negative thoughts into your head. The more the merrier. Yes, let them all in as long as you do one simple task….show up and work your plan.

Look at it this way. You might think “this goal is impossible!” But if you simply show up and keep going, you will be doing the impossible. Again, what does that say about you? It might say you “chew up impossibilities and eat them for breakfast.” The negative challenges are part of the process – part of your life story.

What if there were no negative thoughts, no challenges? I’ll tell you…nobody will ever read your book! Nobody wants to read a book about how you climbed Mount Everest with the greatest of ease. “It wasn’t even cold” you say. “The air was fresh and clear..we even had a picnic on the top.” Makes for a boring story doesn’t it?

The challenges we inevitably face are part of our life stories. We can even learn to appreciate them as necessary to well-rounded success. We can record them in our journals, blogs, videos and tell them to our grandkids one day. So let the negativity come and make a note of it as you continue down your path. Your grandkids will thank you for it.

The Power of Who Author and Eastman & Beaudine CEO Bob Beaudine on The Chris Treece Show

Please Join The Chris Treece Show on January 31, 2011 at 12PM EST as my guest will be “The Power of Who Author and Eastman & Beaudine CEO Bob Beaudine.  Call in number is 347-633-9495. www.blogtalkradio.com/Chris-Treece

Bob Beaudine, CEO of Eastman & Beaudine, manages the nation’s leading executive search firm in sports and entertainment. Bob has helped shape the leadership teams of some of the world’s most innovative and dynamic businesses- NBA, Major League Baseball, Hockey, Tennis, Rodeo, PGATOUR, Arena Football, US Olympics, NASCAR, Horse Racing, and Ultimate Fighting Championships. He has interviewed & coached Senators, Governors, Generals, CEO’s, University Presidents, Top Athletic Coaches and Studio Presidents. Bob also works with major college athletic programs and has placed 33 Athletic Directors at major universities across the country as well as 24 Head Coaches in Football and Basketball. Bob’s leadership also extends into the local community. He recently served as Chairman of the “Doak Walker National Running Back Award”. He is on the Board of SMU’s Cox School of Business. He is a graduate (1977) of Southern Methodist University with a bachelor of business administration degree.

Fisher’s exit May have been because of Nepotism

Four years ago, the Chargers abruptly fired coach Marty Schottenheimer weeks after the conclusion of a 14-2 regular season that was followed by a one-and-out performance in the playoffs.  The move reportedly occurred after Schottenheimer tried to hire his brother, Kurt, to serve as defensive coordinator.

On Thursday, the Titans abruptly fired coach Jeff Fisher weeks after the conclusion of a mediocre regular season that was followed by no performance in the playoffs for the tenth time in Jeff Fisher’s tenure.  There are reports that the abrupt reversal arose from efforts by Fisher to hire his son, Brandon.

According to Darren McFarland of TitanInsider.com, G.M. Mike Reinfeldt initially approved the move.  Owner Bud Adams reportedly intervened, prohibiting the hiring of Brandon Fisher as part of his general philosophy against hiring family members.

As McFarland explains it, Brandon Fisher worked as a volunteer for the Titans last year, and Jeff Fisher planned to take Brandon to the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama.  But Fisher reportedly was told Brandon could not attend at the team’s expense, and that he would not be given a position on the Titans’ staff.

Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean, after initially sharing a quote from Fisher that the suggestion that efforts to hire his son triggered the firing are “bogus,” reported via Twitter that the effort to hire Brandon Fisher was a “point of contention,” and but that it was “just a part of the decision” to part ways.

Still, given that Jeff Fisher didn’t make an appearance at the Senior Bowl this week and given that he was fired during Senior Bowl week, there’s a chance that the “point of contention” also became the catalyst.

Nepotism is in many respects a fact of life in the NFL.  Earlier this week, Tony Sparano hired his son in Miami.  In Washington, offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan need not worry much about being fired, since his father, Mike, is the head coach.  In Denver, the brother of former head coach Josh McDaniels served as quarterbacks coach in 2009 and 2010.

The acceptance by some teams of nepotism in the coaching ranks possibly comes from the reality that, at the ownership level, nepotism has become an integral part of the long-term management of the business.  But the spoils of holding equity in the club don’t necessarily extend to the men hired to coach the team, especially in a city like Nashville, where the lengthy list of club officials contained in the Record & Fact Book contains only one person named “Adams.”

How to Manage Your Online Reputation

If you’ve ever Googled your name, you know how important managing your reputation online can be. Each day, thousands of individuals are searching online for information about others simply by searching on Google or other leading search engines. With information being so readily available, managing your reputation is more important than ever.

How to Manage Your Reputation Online

Fortunately, managing your reputation online isn’t all that difficult, but it does take work. Here are 7 basic steps you can take to ensure that your reputation doesn’t become negatively impacted by what’s being said about you online.

1. See where you stand. Start your reputation management initiative by Googling your name. Try it with quotes and with out (first and last name together). Look through each of your results on page one and page two of Google. Are there any negative items you wish to remove?

2. Set up a Google alert. Visit Google and set up an alert for your name. After setting up the alert Google will send you and email to confirm that you wish to receive the updates. Accept the alert and each time your name is published to the Web, you’ll know about it.

3. Contact website owners for name removal. If there are sites that include your name and commentary that is less than desirable, contact the appropriate websites requesting that the information be removed. More often than not, website owners will agree to remove your name and/or inappropriate information.

4. Purchase a domain with your name. Add sites and WebPages associated with your name and watch negative search results get pushed lower on Google rankings. Visit GoDaddy or another provider of website URLs and hosting, and purchase a domain that contains your name. Even if your name is rather common, experiment with variations until your name can be established in the form of a dot com. Once you own a domain, publish a webpage with your personal profile.

5. Start a blog under your name. Blogger is a great tool for setting up your own blog which can be used to publish information about yourself. Popular blog sites are often picked up by Google and you can control the content. Be sure to sign up for Technorati after your blog has been published. Submit your blog for review and its popularity will increase, improving search rankings and continuing to push down negative search results.

6. Free press release. Use free-press-release.com or a similar free press release site to publish favorable information about your and your reputation. This form of reputation management is easy and costs nothing. Be sure to use your name throughout the release and in the release title.

7. Author articles in your field. Publish article relative to a particular topic or area in which you’ve done some work or have experience. Use article distribution services to build online references to your content. Make sure your articles contain an about the author section that links back to your main website.

There are a variety of strategies you can use to manage online references about you, your family, or others that need to manage their reputation online. Other online sites like Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube, and Squidoo, offer ample opportunity to deliver favorable search results that can push unfavorable results down in search engine rankings. The key is to start today – proactively manage your reputation and put yourself in a favorable light.

Shedrow Author Dr. Dean DeLuke on The Chris Treece Show

Please Join The Chris Treece Show on January 26, 2011 at 12PM EST as my guest will be “Shedrow” Author Dr. Dean DeLuke. Call in number is 347-633-9495. www.blogtalkradio.com/Chris-Treece

Dean M. DeLuke is an oral and maxillofacial surgeon, a graduate of St. Michael’s College, Columbia University (DMD) and Union Graduate College (MBA). Currently, he divides his time between the practice of oral and maxillofacial surgery and a variety of business consulting activities. Dr. DeLuke also performs volunteer work with many charities and medical missionary work with Health Volunteers Overseas. He has a long history of involvement with thoroughbred horses—from farm hand on the Assunta Louis Farm in the 1970s to partner with Dogwood Stable at present.

SYNOPSIS

From rolling pastures in Lexington, KY to darkened alleyways in Newark, NJ, from Manhattan’s posh ‘21’ Club to a peculiar and mysterious landfill in Eastern Kentucky, and from Saratoga Springs, NY to the tiny island of St. Lucia, Shedrow portrays a collision of characters from many divergent worlds.

High society and the racing elite, medical and veterinary specialists, mob figures, and Kentucky hill folk become entangled in this unique twist on the medical thriller. Dr. Anthony Gianni, a prominent Manhattan surgeon, becomes involved in a racing partnership as a diversion from a thriving surgical practice and an ailing marriage. The excitement builds when the partnership acquires Chiefly Endeavor, a two-year-old colt with the breeding, the spirit, and enough early racing success to qualify for the Kentucky Derby.

When a new partner with an unsavory background appears and a breeder’s nightmare becomes real, Dr. Gianni and a dedicated veterinarian must confront organized crime and solve a complex mystery that threatens to destroy both of their careers, and possibly a great deal more.

Bonded Family Founder and Expert Dan Snell on The Chris Treece Show

Please Join The Chris Treece Show on January 25, 20011 at 12 PM EST as my guest will be Bonded Family Founder Dan Snell. Call in number is 347-633-9495. www.blogtalkradio.com/Chris-Treece

Through joys and trials of their blended family experience, with no readily available Christian resources for blended families available at the time, they found themselves on their knees often in prayer… together seeking the Lord in times of tremendous praise and joy and yes the deep challenges and dynamics of step-family life. They were looking for help. To their amazement, they found that God began to lead them, guide them, and direct their paths…. His word began living in their lives. The Holy Spirit was at work. God showed them how to love and ‘bond’ to Him, and then through that ‘bond’, love each other and all their children. The experience was so incredible to Dan and Rebecca, that they made it their life goal to walk alongside others in their blended family experiences. Through the encouragement of Dr. Dan Erickson, nationally recognized speaker and author of ‘Finding Your Greater Yes’, and people like Dr. Ken Canfield, as well as family therapists, attorneys and even court system mediators, the vision for a faith-based message was born. God then went to work in Dan and Rebecca. They dove deep into the Word of God, seeking references and scripture to address the common challenges and dynamics of life. He led them to ‘take their mess and turn it into His message’. They have seen first hand that God could bind two people to Himself and as a result, bind their marriage together. Through that cord of three strands…they would not fail. Dan and Rebecca acknowledge and rejoice that God has allowed them to learn as much through their mistakes in stepfamily life, as they have from their victories and successes. Their goal is to see healing in families where their has been brokenness…so that the future, will not look like the past…and that the children, by understanding and watching who God was and what He can do in their lives…would be better equipped for their own marriages one day. Dan and Rebecca feel called to share with other families what God has shared with them. They want to change the face of blended families, divorce and brokenness for children, extending their vision to leave a legacy that echoes in eternity for millions of families. A LEGACY that says “Keep your eyes on God…not eyes on self”. GOD CAN take your step-family…”From Broken to Blended to BONDED.”

Why Isn’t My Business’s Social Media Following Growing?

There are a ton of reasons why your current social media strategy may not be serving you well. Here are a few possibilities — take a look and see if anything sounds familiar to your business:

• You update your page too often or too little. There isn’t an exact science to figuring out when you should send out a tweet, post to Facebook or update other social sites, but you should figure out some general guidelines that fit for your company. Try to update your social sites at least a few times a week and daily if possible. If you notice that customers are complaining about frequency, adjust accordingly.
• Your messaging is too promotional. Your followers and subscribers do not want to be “sold” or bombarded with marketing messages. Your audience is used to being barraged with marketing messages from all angles — in their homes, at work, on the street. The last thing they want is to opt in to another marketing message from a brand that they trust and enjoy. Keep the promotions to a minimum and try to provide meaningful and useful content to your followers.
• You don’t offer value to your followers. Also related to messaging is the possible lack of value propositions. Set up a clear idea of how you will use each social site and what type of value you’ll be providing. Then, communicate it clearly. Most people follow brands on social sites to get deals and discounts. Make sure you understand your consumers’ motivations for following you and respond accordingly.
• You aren’t promoting your social profiles enough. “If you build it, they will come.” That old adage may be true for baseball fields, but it’s not true for social media profiles. You need to get the word out that you’re using certain social platforms. While some dedicated fans may find you via search or by perusing the web, others need a bit of encouragement. Utilize your website, businessplace, flyers and even business cards to get the word out.
• Your need to interact more. Social media is, well, meant to be social. If you aren’t responding to questions or engaging with your followers, chances are they think you’re just a blank-faced marketer or an automated feed updating your company’s social sites. Give your social profiles a face by engaging with the community.

“The P. Word: Provence Traps and Initiates the Unwary” Author Renee Rosch Lewis on The Chris Treece Show

Please Join The Chris Treece Show on September 29, 2010 at 11 am CST as my guest will be “The P Word” Author Renee Rosch Lewis. Call in number is 347-633-9495. www.blogtalkradio.com/Chris-Treece

Renee Rosch Lewis is a recently retired judge and attorney from New York. She and her husband Charlie spend the summer months in the Adirondack Mountains on Lake Champlain. She gardens, plays golf, and partakes in the laid back community activities in her small lakeside town. Her peaceful life is conducive to writing and she is beginning work on her second novel.

Once the summer season ends, she returns to Naples, Florida, for a completely different pace. To her each place is home, just a different setting. The similarity between the two places is beautiful scenery — the joy of song birds and the majesty of trees and flowers.

Renee and her husband also enjoy France, especially Provence!