Red Zone Marketing's Blog

A Picture Says 1,000 Words – Especially on The Internet

Blog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing

If a picture of you appears on Facebook or somewhere else on the Internet, it is likely that just about anyone can see it if they search for you. Right now there is a Facebook application called Photo Finder, powered by Face.com. It uses facial recognition and social connections software to locate a photo of someone – even if it wasn’t identified by name (tagged). You want you and your business to be searchable, but are we becoming too searchable on the web?

According to the exceptionally insightful article in The New York Times Magazine, “The End of Forgetting,” by Jeffrey Rosen (July 25, 2010), as facial recognition software becomes more sophisticated, people will be able to find any picture of you located anywhere on the Internet. Someone could simply take a picture of you with a cell phone, plug the image into Google, and pull up all photos (whether identified or not) of you that are on the Internet. Yikes. What about that fun neighborhood party last weekend where a bunch of adults were swimming… yeah, better not put those on Facebook...

The lesson to takeaway from this is to remember that our public image and our reputation are not just in our hands to control.  Being a key player in your brand and your business means that you must use caution with your online presence. Make sure you know what is out there about you - pictures, reviews, and everything else.

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Do You Have a “Reputation?”

Blog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing

When I was growing up, we wanted to avoid being someone with a “reputation.” Today, we want a reputation, but we need it to be positive. However, maintaining one’s reputation is getting harder and harder. As social media and social networking sites continue to flourish, the power of the individual voice is growing greatly. We have to protect our reputations, and have someone (it’s probably you) that is fully in charge of managing our online reputation. It may seem insignificant now, but new things on the horizon will make this a part of any businessperson’s life.

According to an article in The New York Times Magazine, “The End of Forgetting,” by Jeffrey Rosen (Sunday, July 25, 2010), in the near future, people will be rated on reputation (trustworthy, good parent, good insurance risk, etc), similar to the credit report rating services of today.

There are services now that can aggregate information about people from the Internet and social networks. Not your private information like social security or credit card information, but information that is readily available: the movies you like, books you read, search terms you use, blog posts you write, videos you post/watch on YouTube, and people you follow.  These reputation and trustworthy ratings could eventually be used to determine employability and other factors. And it can be incredibly positive or incredibly detrimental to your career.

There are services that can help. Check out Reputation Defender or other similar consulting services that, for a fee, will monitor your online reputation and help you remove inaccuracies, etc.
Although no one (absolutely no one!) is perfect, it may be best to keep the imperfections away from the web. Is what’s out there about you having an impact on your business? 

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Sharing Your Credit Card Purchases with the World is the Hot New Trend. Are You Kidding Me?!

Blog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing

Would you want the purchases you make on credit cards public for the world to see? Allowing friends and strangers to not only see what you buy, but share their thoughts and comments about it too? Well now you can if you sign up at Blippy.com, a website started in January that allows you to, “see and discuss what everyone is buying.”

Most of us make credit card purchases on a regular basis, if not daily. I use my ATM card to purchase items sometimes several times a day instead of using cash. I know I wouldn’t want everyone in the whole world to know what I downloaded from iTunes, what books I’ve ordered on Amazon, or the shoes I bought at Zappos. And what about the purchases I make at the grocery store, Walgreens, and Starbucks? I think some things are better kept personal. Furthermore, who would care to take the time to pour over the details of my purchases?

But the hot new thing is sharing everything. Twitter is designed to share what you are doing every minute of the day. Unless you’re a celebrity – who really wants to know about every detail? My day is pretty boring consulting, flying in airplanes and speaking – so when I do post on Twitter the purpose is to link to some hopefully valuable business-related content – not factoids about MY every move. I use Facebook mostly to check in on what my 2 teenagers are saying online (they are not allowed to de-friend their mom). And I use LinkedIn to communicate and build relationships with other business professionals. But following someone’s credit card purchases…? Is there real value in something like this?

However, just because I think Blippy.com offers a questionable service doesn’t mean it hasn’t captured the interest of many people. Since the site opened to the public at the beginning of this year, members have shared more than $15 million in purchases with their friends (New York Times, March 13, 2010). But, on the other hand, it may be fun to monitor my husband’s purchases (…ok, not really, that would be kind of boring too – I hope).

What do you think? Would you share your purchases with the world?
  

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Become the Media & Reach the Most Elusive

Blog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing

Have you been staring at that list you made of important contacts to keep in touch with, trying to figure out how you should reach out to them next? 

Do you need a new and unique way to connect with them?

Become the media. One great way to connect with those on your Powerful Connections list is by “becoming the media.” Members of the media interview others, write articles, and host radio and TV shows.  

Want to hear the good news?  You can do this too - all from your desk.

Here’s How:

Today, thanks to the magic of social networking, you don’t have to be a trained media professional to interview those with whom you’d like to connect. Use a web-based company called Blog Talk Radio (www.blogtalkradio.com) that anyone can use easily (and for free). Basically, it allows you to host your own real, professional, and very awesome radio show. You can link to your shows from your website, people can listen online live or archived, and they can even download your show to their iPods! The key is, you can use this medium to reach out to people on your Powerful Connections list. Just call them up (or email them) and ask if they would let you interview them about their successes. 

Want to create your own series of video interviews with your Powerful Connections? Set up a webcam on your computer, and through Skype (www.Skype.com) and an onscreen recording program like Jing (www.jingproject.com) you can easily perform video interviews with your Powerful Connections around the world (without the costly phone bills)! This is a great way to get some face-to-face time with those you seek to continue to build relationships with. These videos can easily be updated to your website, blog, and YouTube channel.

You’ll find that most people will be flattered and more than happy to accept an interview. The best part is that you will have permanently opened up a previously closed door to developing a powerful connection for you! And by promoting the interview via Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites, you will both get a lot of exposure from fellow businesspeople as well as from potential and current clients.

www.redzonemarketing.com

Maribeth Kuzmeski, is the author of the new book, The Connectors: How the World's Most Successful Businesspeople Build Relationships and Win Clients for Life (Wiley, September 2009, ISBN: 978-0-4704881-8-8, $22.95)

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