How to Use Twitter Tailored Audiences

By Robert Kilonzo
Published May 21, 2014

Do you use Twitter to market your product or service?

Do you want to focus your marketing to reach specific Twitter users with Twitter ads?

Twitter tailored audiences let you target people based on previous engagement with your website or content.

In this article you’ll discover how tailored audiences can put your Twitter ads in front of people who’ve already shown an interest in your business.

In order for your company to take full advantage of tailored audiences, you need an Ad Partner account and a Twitter Ads account.

Twitter offers two types of promoted ad options.

Ad partners collect data that identifies your audience, which you can use to market to your customers. Twitter ad partners include Adara, AdRoll, BlueKai, Chango, DataXu, Dstillery, Lotame, Quantcast, Conversant (formerly ValueClick) and [x+1].

When your ad partner is in place, set up your Twitter Ads account. The process is pretty straightforward and doesn’t take long.

Here’s what you need to know about the two options you have to promote your business via tailored audiences.

The first option lets you use promoted accounts to get more Twitter followers or build an active community of influencers and advocates.

Promoted accounts are part of Twitter’s Who to Follow widget and boost follower growth through suggestions made to your target audience.

Example of a promoted account from Merrill Lynch.

Here’s how to set up a tailored audiences ad for a promoted account.

In your Twitter Ads account, click on Create New Campaign, and then click on the New Promoted Account Campaign button.

Creating a new promoted account campaign in Twitter Ads.

Enter your campaign name and choose the campaign timeframe.

Promoted account campaign name.

Then, choose Tailored audiences as the primary method of targeting.

Choose Tailored Audiences as the primary method of targeting.

Select the audience list you want to target from your Twitter ad partner.

Import your first list audience from your Ad Partner account.

Next, select the geographic location you want to reach.

Choose all of the locations you want to reach.

Now you’re ready to create a tweet that tells users why they should follow your account.

Enter your promoted tweet text.

Finally, enter your campaign budget information, and then save the campaign.

Promoted account campaign.

Here are three ways businesses are using the Promoted Account feature.

1. Convert Existing Customers Into Twitter Followers

Seth McKeel created a promoted account campaign to suggest following his Twitter account to customers who recently interacted with his website.

Example of a promoted tweet encouraging users to follow.

2. Communicate With Devoted Brand Supporters

Twitter Small Biz uses promoted accounts to make tweets containing useful and valuable content visible to their most frequent visitors and individuals who’ve visited websites that are associated with your brand.

Example of how Twitter Small Biz is tweeting useful and valuable content.

3. Target a Specific Group of Customers

Like SERPs, you can use a promoted account campaign to deliver a customized message to prospects who abandoned their online shopping carts, customers who recently bought something from your online shop or any other customer subset in your database.

SERPS is targeting advanced SEO firms to use their software.

The second option lets you use promoted tweets to show relevant tweets to a specific target audience.

Promoted tweets are displayed at the top of relevant search results pages, within search results for promoted trends, in the Twitter feeds of users (if relevant), in Twitter’s desktop and mobile apps and in several third-party Twitter clients.

Example of a promoted tweet on Twitter.

Here’s how to set up a tailored audiences ad for promoted tweets.

In your Twitter Ads account, click on Create New Campaign, and then click on the New Promoted Tweets Campaign button.

Creating new promoted tweets campaign in Twitter Ads.

Just as with the promoted account campaign, you’ll need to enter your campaign name, choose your timeframe and select tailored audiences for the primary method of targeting. Then, choose the audience list you want to target from your Twitter ad partner and define the location you want to reach.

Next, select whether you want to manually or automatically add the tweets to promote. For the automatic option, Twitter will promote up to five of your most engaging tweets.

Enter your promoted tweet.

Again, enter your campaign budget information and save your campaign.

Promoted tweet campaign budget.

Here are three ways businesses are using the promoted tweet feature.

1. Follow Up on Customer Interests

With a promoted tweet, target people who clicked on a link from an earlier tweet and serve up related content and further your relationship with them.

Mass Relevance‘s ad partner identified me as being interested in content marketing so this promoted tweet was shown to me.

Mass Relevance takes advantage of the data collected by their ad partner to target users.

2. Regain Top-of-Mind Presence With Inactive Customers

Develop a promoted tweet campaign to target customers who’ve not visited your website for some time to remind them of your brand.

This price drop tweet from Nokia showed up in my stream months after I’d visited their site.

Nokia targets past website visitors with promoted tweets.

3. Connect With Potential Customers

Send a promoted tweet to target possible customers who’ve conducted searches for products related to your brand or visited sites similar to yours.

I’ve never visited the Eventable website, but they identified me as an in-market consumer. They targeted me with this tweet for consumers interested in in-market solutions.

Eventable targets people who’ve searched for in-market products.

Over to You

Tailored audiences help you examine each customer at an individual level and select the most appropriate kind of outreach that signifies maximum value for your business. They provide marketers with the capability to focus their marketing campaigns using external data obtained through your Twitter Ad Partner account and your website.

Use the examples in this article to give tailored audiences a try and see if they’re a perfect fit for your business.

What do you think? Will you use tailored audiences for your business? Have you tried it? What other online marketing avenues do you use that other businesses need to know to help them increase traffic? Let me know in the comments below.

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Robert Kilonzo is a sales and marketing specialist for Omnistar Interactive, a web based software company that provides tools to help businesses sell more. Other posts by Robert Kilonzo »

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How to Create a Business Blogging Plan

By Linda Dessau
Published May 12, 2014

Do you have a business blog?

Are you ready to start publishing blog posts, but don’t know where to start?

Before you start a blog to support your business, you need a comprehensive plan.

In this article I’ll show you how to create a business blogging plan in six easy steps.

People who “wing it” when they blog are only setting themselves up for failure. If you are going to put the time and effort into writing a business blog, you may as well make it the best it can be.

Follow a blogging plan to ensure success. Image source: iStockPhoto.com.

That means do your research, build a solid foundation and blog on a regular basis. A blog can take some time to build momentum, so stick to it and enjoy your blogging success!

Let’s get started.

This first step is especially important for those starting a blog for the first time. Before you start blogging, find a blog role model. See what a blog you like does well, and conversely, what a blog you don’t like does poorly. This will help you figure out the best way to present yourself.

If you’re going to model your blog on someone else’s approach, be sure they’re blogging consistently and that they’ve been publishing for at least six months. (A year is even better.)

To find a good blog to use as a role model, check out the websites of other companies and search for their blogs. You can seek out the blog of a company in your industry or a complimentary field. Or just go with a company or blog you respect.

Blogs aren’t always filed under that name on a company’s site. For example Coca-Cola’s blog is titled, “Unbottled.”

Note: Sometimes this area will be called something other than “Blog.” You may find it under “News,” “Articles,” “Tips” or in the case of Coca-Cola, “Unbottled.”

As you explore blogs, find 3-5 blogs to analyze.

Ask yourself why you like them and jot down notes. Be precise in your observations, and highlight things they’re doing that you could improve upon or customize for your own business blog.

Joe Pulizzi of Content Marketing Institute has a simple, three-part process to define the mission statement for your content marketing, which obviously includes your blog. “The why must come before the what,” he says.

To help you focus, answer these three questions for your blog and business:

Who is the core target audience?What will be delivered to that audience; for example, tips, recipes, success stories, new ideas for common problems?What will be the outcome for the audience; for instance, how will their lives or businesses be improved as a result of reading this information?

People can tell when a company’s motive is to help rather than just to sell. Find ways to help your audience through your blog and they’ll keep coming back.

On their blog, Moz shares resources that help customers and draw in new leads.

For example, Moz sells products that help people “do better inbound marketing.” If you visit their blogs, you’ll see they focus on helping their customers and prospects do things on their own.

Approach your blog as a way to support your mission statement. You’ll want to keep it focused on benefits you deliver to your readers, whether they are current or potential customers.

When you strive to help your audience first, you’ll find yourself living your company’s mission.

What are your marketing goals? What are your blogging goals? Did you know that blogging can strengthen or even replace some of your marketing activities?

Overwhelmed business owners and marketing professionals can’t imagine adding one more thing—in this case blogging—to what they’re already doing to market and grow their business. But you can have your blog content do double duty.

For example, use blog content to populate your social media pages. You can also send blog articles to prospective customers as a way to follow up after meetings.

For your marketing plan, it’s essential to find a balance between paid visibility (like advertisements) and earned visibility (such as blog posts that people choose to read and share).

Blogging can help you achieve these common marketing goals:

Demonstrate your expertise and/or thought leadership in a specific industry or specialty.Educate/motivate/inform your audience.Gain wider exposure for your business.Build trusting, long-term relationships with customers, prospective customers and your business community.

Determine which marketing goals are most important to your company, and see how you can use blogging to achieve them. Add the above goals (and any others) to your hybrid marketing/blogging plan.

At this point, you should be clear about why your blog exists, whom it will help, what it will do for your readers and what it will do for your business.

Now, choose 7-10 categories that address relevant topics of discussion in your business. Keep your mission statement in mind when you do this. Remember, you want your content to solve the most pressing problems of your customers and prospective customers.

Your blog is like a trade publication for your industry. If you are stumped on categories, think of topics people would read about in a magazine for your business. Use that as a starting point. Also, be sure that each category is something you and your team have the knowledge and experience to blog about for a long time.

Disney is strategic—and sparing—when it comes to their blog categories.

The Disney Parks Blog has carefully curated its categories to help readers find exactly what they want without offering too many options.

Try to stick with this list for at least the short-term (6-9 months).

Down the line, when you’re tempted to assign a new category to a post, carefully consider whether both the post and category fit with your mission statement and marketing goals. Also figure out if you’ll have enough fresh ideas to keep that category populated in the long-term before committing to an additional category.

When you determine how often you should publish, refer back to your model blogs. See how often they post new content. Does their schedule seem manageable to you?

There’s no one frequency that’s right for every company. Set a reasonable schedule that you can follow at least to start with. You can always increase the number of times you publish when you’re up and running.

Once you have a posting frequency in mind (every week on Tuesday, or the second and fourth Wednesday of the month), put together an editorial calendar. This document should incorporate all of your categories, seasonal/holiday content and any important events that relate to your business.

Assign a topic and title to each post that benefit your reader and are designed to support one or more of your business goals.

How to Write a Blog Post

Brainstorm ideas based on the topic and/or title in the editorial calendar or a new idea that’s come up for one of your existing themes (categories). Sketch out a rough outline of the post, including possible subheadings and main points.

Fill in your outline. Make sure you get all of your ideas down on paper so you don’t forget anything.

Research your topic online to add relevant links, facts, stats and photos to your post.

Polish and finish the draft of your post, including the photo(s), as well as all of the promotional text it needs (i.e., the post excerpt/summary) and teaser messages you’ll use on each social media platform.

Proofread your post for typos, grammatical errors and readability.

Load your article text, links and photos to your blog platform. Include keywords from the article in the image “alt” text, optimize the post for search engines and schedule the post to publish on the right day at the right time.

Promote your post on social media and notify anyone you mentioned in the post. Generate engagement as you monitor and reply to responses, comments and shares.

Ideally you want to set up your blogging schedule 3-6 months in advance. Note: It’s okay to just have a 4- to 6-week schedule, especially when you are just starting out.

At the beginning of each month, you can review that month’s content and then add the next month into your schedule. Before you know it, you’ll be adding blog content to your schedule like it’s second nature.

The only way to know if your blogging is working is to monitor whether you’re meeting your business goals.

Here’s something to think about in determining which measurements are most meaningful:

If your goal is to demonstrate your expertise and/or thought leadership, you should be receiving requests for media and speaking opportunities.If your goal is to build trusting, long-term relationships, you should see a rise in subscriptions.If your goal is to generate new leads, you should be booking new clients or selling products.If your goal is to gain wider exposure, you should see an increase in blog comments, as well as shares, likes and comments on social media. Track the metrics that relate to your goals.

You may not be able to directly attribute these increases to one specific post or even blogging in general, but there are ways to quantify the benefits of blogging. Track important blog metrics like visitors, page views and social shares.

As part of your blogging plan, schedule time to collect and analyze these measurements, and figure out how you might tweak your blogging strategy accordingly.

Over to You

Starting a blog for your business can feel like an overwhelming prospect. But the benefits clearly outweigh the challenges.

Follow these six steps, and you’ll find that it’s easy to move from planning to publishing. You’ll be blogging before you know it!

Do you have a plan for your blog? What kinds of things did you plan before you started your blog? Did you over-plan? Under-plan? Alter your plan? Please share any tips you have for setting up a business blogging plan in the comments.

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How to Stop Facebook Contest Fraud and Deter Prize Hunters

By Emeric Ernoult
Published May 12, 2014

Did you know that some Facebook contest entries are fake?

Have you thought about how fake entries can hurt your campaign?

Left unchecked, phony entries can negatively impact your contest and drag down your page’s reach and credibility.

In this article you’ll discover how people cheat, and more importantly, how you can guard against prize hunters.

With Facebook’s recent changes to its news feed algorithm, it’s harder to reach your audience organically. If you can’t reach your audience, you lose interactivity and engagement–and your spot in the news feed.

A Facebook promotion (i.e., a contest or giveaway) is widely thought to be a good tactic to get people’s attention, engagement and more eyes on your page. But if you’re planning to host a Facebook promotion, be aware of potential fraudulent behavior so you can protect your fans and your brand.

A quick look at a scammer’s profile reveals a sparse or completely blank page.

Make no mistake, Facebook entry fraud is real—these cheaters know what they’re doing.

Here’s how it works: They start by creating multiple email accounts that they then use to make fake Facebook profiles, generally with pictures of pets or symbols.

They use these multiple profiles to continually enter random draw promotions and rack up votes in voting contests.

The example below is another good representation of a fake Facebook profile. This one is clever because the last name, Concours, means contest. That should tell you a lot about her intentions.

Facebook cheaters set up multiple accounts to take advantage of you.

These guys work in concert with fellow scammers who also have multiple profiles. They create forums where they share promotion links, agree to trade votes, share answers to your giveaway quizzes and more.

These fake profiles cause at least three problems for you: You end up with fake fans, useless data and angry “real” fans.

If you’re like-gating your promotion, you’ll get an increase in fans, but they won’t be genuine. These phony fans hide your updates from their news feed, which in turn affects your visibility to all of your fans.

If you’re asking for emails to build your list, you’ll likely be getting fake emails that clog your CRM with useless emails and data. Your newsletters will probably either bounce or be marked as spam.

When you discover cheaters, react quickly and appropriately.

Here’s the worst part: They cheat your true fans out of your attention and loyalty. While fake profiles are busy gaming the system, your true fans are playing by the rules and expecting fair treatment.

So how can you avoid phony entries? Here are five things you can do to ensure your campaign is reaching the right people.

The type of promotion you choose to host (e.g., giveaway, voting contest, random draw, etc.) has the biggest impact on how many fake entries you get.

Promotions that rely on the participation of others are the most susceptible to fraud. Voting contests (e.g., photo and video contests) and random draws with viral bonus options (e.g., asking entrants to have their friends participate) run the highest risk of drawing the wrong crowd.

Run a promotion with a strict random draw and airtight rules. They’re less attractive to scammers because even the use of multiple accounts can’t help their chances much without a viral bonus option.

Hold a promotion that’s won by jury selection (not votes by their friends) – it’s the least attractive of all.

If you’re like most people, you want your promotion to draw your fans back to your page and encourage them to interact with you and to garner more likes and possibly build your list. And let’s face it, the bigger the prize, the more attention and exposure you get.

As I’ve said, that can be good and bad.

To minimize the entries from prize hunters, offer rewards that only appeal to your genuine fans or prospects. The broader the spectrum of interest in your prize, the more susceptible you are to fraudulent entries.

To enter this giveaway, participants had to be existing clients, ensuring entrants were 100% genuine!

If you must give away a prize that appeals to a wider audience, consider using your rules and qualification form to limit your promotion to your target audience only. (I’ll talk more about rules in just a minute.)

A tempting way to get extended reach is to offer extra entries for asking friends to like and enter the promotion. The promise of extra entries is terribly appealing for fans, and it’s a win for you because it gives you coveted viral reach and some new likes.

The problem with that type of entry is that it’s easily exploited. People with multiple profiles already have a lot of friends to invite—the “friends” on their fake profiles and the forums I mentioned earlier.

If you elect to use this viral entry option, I encourage you to use a Facebook app that has strong fraud protection measures in place.

Although Facebook recently changed its rules for promotions, hosting your contest or giveaway via an app is the best way to cut down on fake entries.

When choosing a promotions app provider, look for protection features like flagging suspicious entrants (for example, tracking multiple entries from a single IP address). For a voting contest, make sure your app reveals who voted for what.

Make sure you can easily identify cheaters (and all of their fake accounts) and ban them from your campaign.

Easy elimination is another important feature your app should provide. You should be able to quickly and easily ban all suspicious users from your contest, as well as ban them from interacting with your timeline at all.

When installing an app, most people use the simplest version of its entry process—just clicking a voting or entry button. Unfortunately, these are the easiest promotions to scam because there’s nothing built in to hinder multiple fraudulent entries.

The more effective way to encourage genuine entrants is to require them to download the app to enter.

Requiring the installation of a Facebook app is the first defense against entries by fictitious profiles.

Some community managers stick to the simple button option because they believe it eliminates barriers to entry, but based on our research of hundreds of Facebook campaigns over the years, we’ve found this isn’t true.

When brands require app installation, the conversion rates remain higher than 80% in most cases—sometimes much higher.

App installation is a simple step for an honest participant, but a major hindrance for scammers using multiple profiles.

Requiring all participants to install your contest app is like building a firewall against cheaters because it identifies your participants thanks to their Facebook profile data. Without this identification, you have no way of knowing or tracking your entrants.

One of the best ways to deter dishonest entries is to write good giveaway and contest rules. They’re your first line of defense against cheating.

Most of your real participants may never read your contest rules, but scammers will carefully examine each word.

In your rules, carefully explain how you will choose your winners and list valid reasons for disqualification. Here’s an ideal paragraph you can use:

“Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify contestants. Contestants shall not enter multiple times or vote for their own entry with a fake Facebook account. Fraudulent activities will be monitored and will lead to exclusion.”

Your rules determine your promotion’s winner(s), not your app. For example, even if your app shows that someone receives the most votes, your rules determine how you choose the winner.

If you’re hosting a voting contest, consider a tiered awards system. For example, choose your grand prize winner by jury. The jury can keep the number of votes in mind, but won’t be bound by them.

After the overall winner is chosen, offer a random draw among all participants. This system not only protects you, it keeps your contest interesting because everyone (even the least-talented photographer) thinks they have a chance to win something!

Facebook ads are a great way to promote your giveaway or contest, and depending on your goals, their robust native targeting options can help you protect yourself as well.

But remember, the broader your target audience, the more risk you’ll face. If your goal is fan recruitment, be prepared to implement strong fraud protection tools.

Your safest bet will always be to target your clients or customers. Targeting identified prospects increases your risk slightly, and open targeting puts you at high risk.

Wrapping Up

Your page’s fans need to be genuine in order to have good interactivity and engagement, which in turn makes for a healthy overall page reach.

Your fans are expecting you to be genuine and fair. They’re counting on you to make sure your brand rewards its true fans, and it’s your job to make good on that expectation.

Identify those entrants who use multiple fake accounts to rack up entries and votes, ban them and their participation from your contest, then tell your true fans about the actions you’ve taken. They’ll appreciate your efforts and you’ll be encouraging higher trust and loyalty.

What do you think? Have you ever had fake entries in a promotion? How did you handle the situation? Share your thoughts and comments below.

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Crisis Management: What to Do When Your Business Makes a Public Mistake

By Michael Stelzner
Published May 16, 2014

Is your business ready for a social media crisis?

Are you wondering what you should do if you or a colleague makes an embarrassing public mistake?

To learn how to handle a social media crisis, I interview Gini Dietrich for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.

The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.

It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).

In this episode, I interview Gini Dietrich, author of the brand-new book, Spin Sucks: Communication and Reputation Management in the Digital Age, and founder of the blog Spin Sucks. She runs Arment Dietrich, a PR agency.

Gini shares common mistakes businesses make when facing a crisis, and the best ways to deal with these situations when they happen.

You’ll discover the first steps you need to take, how to handle the situation throughout and when to seek legal advice.

Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, Stitcher, SoundCloud or Blackberry.

Here are some of the things you’ll discover in this show:

What happened with Applebee’s and the challenges they faced

Gini explains how approximately 2 years ago, a waitress at an Applebee’s in St. Louis left a check at a table that included an automatic gratuity of 18%. When she returned to collect the check, the customer had crossed out the 18% and had written, “I give God 10%, why do you get 18%?” The customer left a 10% tip instead.

One of the waitress’ friends took a photo of the receipt, which included the customer’s name, and posted it on Reddit. This led to it going viral and the whole world saw it.

Applebee’s response was that they were going to fire the waitress and her friend, because it was against their policy to show pictures or talk about customers. Especially when a name is included.

What happened next on Applebee’s Facebook page added fuel to the fire.

Applebee’s didn’t handle the situation well on their Facebook page.

Applebee’s replied to every person’s comment on Facebook with a canned PR response. You’ll hear what the response included.

Applebee’s customers were in an uproar.

People didn’t take kindly to the way Applebee’s handled the situation, and started to dig deep on the Internet. Pictures were discovered that had been posted with good customer feedback on their Facebook page. Although these pictures included the customer’s name, nobody got fired for it. A Facebook page was then started to try to get the waitress’ job back.

You’ll hear what Gini’s gut instinct was on the person who was handling the corporate Facebook page for Applebee’s, and why it contributed to the crisis.

Gini advises you never to use a canned PR message on social media, because it’s about being social. You need to engage, be transparent and remain human. This means you need to show sympathy and empathy toward what’s happening.

Always take time to think about the statement before you put it out there.

Listen to the show to find out how the way you handle a social media crisis can affect your sales.

The first thing you should do once you’re aware of an issue

Gini says that the first thing you should do is understand what has happened. This means communicating with both sides to get the bigger picture.

In Applebee’s case, they should have listened to the customer, the waitress and her friend before they did anything else—whether they had a policy in place or not.

Listen to both sides of the story before you jump in with your emotions. Image source: iStockphoto

You have to remember that we live in a world of instant gratification, where people tend to react before they think the situation through. This is when trouble starts and the problem spirals out of control.

As a company, you need to step back and figure out your plan of action and your strategy before you can move forward.

You’ll hear why it’s important to acknowledge that you are aware of the situation, and the type of message you need to convey.

Listen to the show to find out what happens with communication when an attorney is involved.

A reasonable response time to acknowledge a crisis

Gini always advises businesses to respond within 24 hours when a crisis happens. Don’t ever let it go all day.

When it happens outside of work hours, make sure you respond within the next work day. Let people know that you are aware of the situation and you’ll get back to them once you have investigated the matter.

On weekends, you need to have someone monitoring your social media channels, and they need to be aware of whom to contact when a crisis arises.

Always have someone monitoring your social media channels over the weekend. Image source: iStockphoto

If it’s a case of one blogger who has written something bad, but other people aren’t aware of it, then you need to approach the blogger privately. You’ll hear what you need to look out for in this situation and how to handle it.

When you do have a crisis on your hands, you should always remain honest throughout the communication and make the effort to keep people up to date with what’s happening. People are pretty understanding when you continue to keep them in the loop.

Buffer is a great example of how to deal with a crisis. You’ll hear how they kept the situation under control and the ways they communicated with their customers.

Buffer did an exceptional job of keeping their customers informed.

Whichever platform the crisis erupts on should be the channel where keep up your communication.

When two of Domino’s employees released a controversial video on YouTube, the company CEO released an apology video on the same platform.

You’ll find out the types of statements you should make to take ownership of the situation.

Listen to the show to hear an example of a statement that was made by a CEO of a blog when scraping content was involved.

Common mistakes businesses make when dealing with a crisis

One of the biggest mistakes Gini sees is that people get defensive immediately, and this is when it can get out of control.

First you need to take a step back and look at the overall picture. It’s always helpful to have a communications professional on hand who can advise you on how to communicate going forward.

In the United Breaks Guitars story, the airline didn’t handle the situation effectively. In July 2009, the first United Breaks Guitar song was released on YouTube and immediately the media went crazy.

Before you know it, people can get hold of the story, add their two cents and amplify the impact. You’ll hear why it’s important to tell the full story, and also when you’re unable to even comment.

Listen to the show to discover how Chrysler handled a crisis when someone from an agency tweeted out profanity on their corporate account.

The type of plan businesses should have in place prior to a crisis

Gini says that you don’t really need to have a plan in place. However, you do have to practice humility and not be defensive.

“I’m sorry” works extremely well if you say it and mean it. You’ll find out what words you should never follow if you want to keep people on your side.

The words “I’m sorry” go a long way. Image source: iStockphoto

It’s less about a plan to follow, and more about being human. Know how to apologize and mean it.

When it turns nasty, it is tempting to call in the cavalry. When we received all of the negative reviews for our Let’s Get Social video, I resisted the urge to contact my friends because I knew in this particular circumstance, it was the right thing to do.

You’ll discover when it helps to call in your friends, and when you need to get legal advice.

Gini advises that if you need to get it off your chest, then write it down but don’t ever publish it.

Check out the full podcast episode with Gini Dietrich.

Listen to the show hear why in today’s world, it’s easy for any business to have a crisis on their hands.

One of the challenges I face on a day-to-day basis is with my calendar. I use an iPhone and an iMac and have found it hard to synchronize all of my calendars.

So I started to research some options that were available, and came across a really awesome calendar called Sunrise. It’s a free app, which works on iPhone, iPad and I believe it’s available for Android.

The Sunrise calendar app has many capabilities.

What’s really cool is that it integrates with your social media and all of your other networks. It integrates with Google Calendar, Exchange and Facebook.

It also shows you what the weather is going to be. In addition, it synchronizes with iCloud, LinkedIn and Twitter.

I’ve just started to explore all of the capabilities of this app and I’m blown away with how well it works.

I strongly recommend that you check it out.

Listen to the show to learn more and let us know how this works for you.

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What do you think? What are your thoughts on crisis management? Please leave your comments below.

Tweet!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,'script','twitter-wjs'); About the Author, Michael Stelzner

Michael Stelzner is the founder and CEO of Social Media Examiner, founder of My Kids' Adventures and author of the books Launch and Writing White Papers. He's also the host of the Social Media Marketing podcast. Other posts by Michael Stelzner »

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