It’s good to be a code monkey.

Okay! It’s so weird to see celebrates talking about coding. Cool, but still weird.  Just saying.  I’ll admit I had people try to dissuade me out of  the degrees I’m chasing. But after I got my first little program to run… their voices just hit the mute button.  Once you get by the self-doubt and actually try, that’s when things  start to come together.  To be honest the only I keep myself from getting too bogged down is to tell myself, “If  I keep going and I hash this out, one of these places is going to want to hire me.” Who wouldn’t want to work in an environment like that?

Keeping an eye on that online reputation

What I’m about to post is undoubtedly aimed for business, but there is no reason you shouldn’t monitor your own online reputation. But I’m sure I’ll get to that at some point.  But here we go:  (Want the original? find it here)

1. Identify your reputations – monitor names brand names, company names, product names and variations.

2. Quantify your audience – who has a stake in your online reputation?

3. Understand your goals – how are you going to measure the whether your reputation is improving?

4. Specify your needs – what tools do you require and what sources do you need to monitor?

5. How will you monitor? – what processes are in place to be alerted and respond to issues?

6. Who will monitor the conversations? – who are you entrusting with managing and responding to online reputation issues?

Here’s why you want to figure out what kind of reputation you have:

Because nearly half  of social media users like to vent about your company. And nothing flies  faster around the internet than word of a business that’s bad to use. Think about it, we’ve all fumed about how badly things are handled and when people tell…they tell all. Here’s a bit of truth, and we’ve all done this. Before I buy any kind of product I look at reviews! Good ones prod me into buying or using the service bad ones? Oh, I’m heading for the hills. That’s not even an after thought.   If what people have to say about your company isn’t something you want to hear…look at it this way, at least you know what to adjust to make your company even more appealing.

From a customer standpoint… I don’t care how you respond when there is a problem as long as you do respond. (QUICKLY) And I don’t mean one of those automated responses. I read it and feel that my compliant was never really read, and was thrown into a massive pile in the corner.  Nothing pisses me off more than that.  <— Big deal breaker. The customer is frustrated enough, all those copy and paste responses do is irritate people further.

Confession time!  My job (I really love my job) is to manage the online presence of a newspaper. It’s a small college paper, but when it’s  your job, you want to take it seriously.  So before you reach the bottom of the graphic that deals with what kind of individual this goes to… don’t be so quick to cut out the interns. Yes, they do tend to be social media savvy.  And no, they might not know what your goals are. (Hold on! Hold on!) But! This is where it’s important to make sure all employees know what your goals are!  Not to discredit any community managers… but  Interns work for cheap. And they tend to be your best resource when it comes what new social media avenues are out there.  You can do what you want, I just thought I would throw that out there 🙂

If you don’t watch your online reputation… your competitors certainly will. You don’t want to give them an upper hand now do you?  Think about it.

Pucker up for Instagram

Instagram.  It’s everywhere. Stalking you on Facebook,  checking out your twitter. People have been known to use it for absolutely everything. ( This may or may not include every meal that instagram  users have had throughout the day.)  If you’ve eluded it’s capture like I have, it’s probably because of one thing…

…Your phone is a dinosaur.

(Yay us?)

Truth be told it’s only available as an app through Apple or Google Play. So as much as I hate bracing myself for the instagram explosion that happens every time I log onto Facebook,  I have to give it some credit. It’s taken off, and the crowd is gobbling it up. Is it any wonder that it’s even become a marketing tool as well? Why not? Why not take interest in a company that sold for a billion smackers?

And while it may be true that some companies are using the population’s ravenous appetite for new photos that look like they came from a Kodak Brownie… there are some things that haven’t changed. Like, oh, I don’t know…having a strategy. Even Instagram has it’s do’s and don’ts.

Like…

1) Text is great…but only in moderation.

2) Stock is fantastic and all, but sometimes you just want the real thing. We see dressed up ads every day, how about something different?

3) That post button doesn’t have to be your friend every two seconds.  <— Apparently this is a “don’t”  for business, maybe this could extend to everyday life?

4) Keep people involved.  It’s like choosing between an automated system and a real person. Which one would you want?  I get a machine…I hang up.  Don’t give people a reason to hang up! I was going to give this one a “5)” but they kind of go together. Comment back to your followers.  It makes perfect sense to me.  In the end it’s about communication. Sure, some companies  are huge but why should you get the one size fits all experience?

Hush, Willy. In this day an age about everything is possible.  To be honest my understanding is this:

Keep

It

Simple

Stupid

It doesn’t matter if your a large business or a small one, all you have to do is to remember to KISS.