Spence Smith

… It’s a reputation management system.

A slightly strange concept for some of you, especially if you aren’t familiar with the words, Search Engine Optimization or SEO. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Meaning… if you do a search in google for Spence Smith then you will see my name on several pages. Most people never make it past the first page when search for something on Google. OR… if you were to search for just my first name, Spence, then you will find my blog about half way down the first page. It may not seem like a big deal to you but when my blog comes up 5th out of 9,060,000 searches for ‘spence’ then this will tell you… I am optimizing the Google search engine in the best way possible.

So what about the reputation management part? Well… think about it this way. You can find ANYTHING or ANYONE on the internet. If someone doesn’t like you or the services of your company and they post something about you, then people will find it on the internet.

Let’s pick on the airline industry for a minute. One of the things you can do to see how a company handles themselves is put the word ‘sucks’ after the company name in the google search bar. I fly American Airlines… of all the airlines I have flown, they give me the best service for my travel needs especially overseas, but they suck when it comes to managing their reputation online. You can google just American Airlines and things seem fine for a bit… but put the words American Airlines Sucks in and everything changes.

Now one of the best low budget airlines is Southwest. I fly them a couple of times a year and they are great at what they do. When you do the same with Southwest and put the words Southwest Airlines Sucks after their name, well… you get a few complaints on the fisrt page of google, but there is also a list for American Airlines Sucks on the same page!!!! What!!! But I wasn’t looking for American this time… So, go a few more pages into google and you will find a few complaints about southwest, but you will also find more about American, Delta and United.

Southwest is winning in this department. Why is That? Because they have a blog called Nuts About Southwest. On this blog they have several posts about what they do and who they are, but because they are in tune with what people are saying about them online, they are willing to go directly to the source and get to the bottom of the problem and become a better company for it. You can leave a comment on the southwest blog and you will get a response. Heck, they are even on twitter. American Airlines on the other hand tried to start a blog last year through blogger and only posted 3 times.

If American wanted to work on their reputation, then they would engage people online. Join the rest of us in the conversation and be open to hearing complaints and resolving issues. Again… I am a loyal American Airline customer, but it makes me sad to see such a huge company show the rest of us they don’t really want to listen.

Want to see another example of those that listen? If you travel you won’t believe this one, but the TSA is GREAT at listening to us travelers and coming up with solutions. TSA- Evolution of Security

So… I will leave you with this.

Someone is having a conversation about you online right now. Are you apart of the conversation? Do you know it’s happening? If not… why not?

If you want to know how to know how to manage your reputation online, then come to LifeWork 2.0. We’ll show you and you will Love It!!!!

I’m bringing back The Sunday Post. It’s a highlight of blog sites I think you should check out. It’s a short list but Sunday’s seem like a good day to throw a few places out there for you to check out.

So, for this Sunday Post, I’m going to tell you about some things to come.

1. We are starting up BigTentRevival.com. We’ve decided since we still have quite a few fans out there that we want to re-connect with them and bring them into what we are doing as individuals and…as a band. We’ve been talking about playing a few shows again and we feel like this year might actually be the year for it.

2. cRE:ate Blog Conference and Expo will be going online soon. This will be a one day event in Franklin, TN on August 7, 2009. Cost is $99. We will have some great keynote speakers and break out sessions that will cover everything from Mom Bloggers, Church Bloggers, CEO Bloggers, Getting a book deal through blogging, Social Networking etc.

3. LifeWork 2.0 Seminars seem to be picking up quite a bit of speed. We will be annoucing soon two different kinds of LifeWork 2.0 classes. One will be the very basics of blogging and social networking. Randy and I will walk you through ALL of the info you need to start your blog and social network profiles well. Links, headers, photos, content, basic search engine optimization, and maximizing your profiles. The second class will be advanced blogging, social networking and SEO. This will be a very intense one day class to give you every possible tool available to do what you want to do online.

Believe me… there are some amazing things you can do that are so easy to engage your fans and clients online.

4. I’m taking Emerson Drive to El Salvador tomorrow for the week. April 13-16 I’m taking a few folks from the Southern Gospel world to the Dominican Republic. April 24-May 3 I will be in India with CompassionBloggers.com and the week of May 4 I will be filling in on drums with a band while their drummer’s wife has a baby that week.

Yep, and in the middle of all of that I will continue to train for Ironman Louisville. Crazy I know…

To read this article from MTV.com click here.

Finally!!! More artists are starting to catch on to the fact that their CD is not the end game but the entry point to engaging their fans. This is a move that seems like a big risk and yet. There’s no risk at all in it. In fact, the band will make more money in the long run of off every fan that goes for this than if that fan bought CD No Doubt made. They will go to more shows, but more merchandise and follow them online more than usual. It’s just the start of learning how to engage fans in the digital world.

YES! This is what social networking is all about. Someone creates a site that is user to user and the user gets a share in calling the shots. It’s not a free for all and there are boundaries with this move but I’m encouraged to see Facebook take this bold and transparent step.

Here’s a little bit from the article online which you can read HERE.

Users had complained that it appeared Facebook was claiming ownership of their data – even if they delete their accounts.
The founder said: “We do not own user data, they [users] own it. We never intended to give that impression and feel really bad that we did.”
Facebook has announced a new set of governing principles and rights and responsibilities.
Under the changes, users will be able to first comment and then potentially vote on future changes to the documents.
Facebook will enact a vote on changes to its governance when more than 7,000 comments have been made by users on a topic.
Mr Zuckerberg told BBC News: “We think that is pretty reasonable.
“We have designed the votes so a small minority of users cannot create a binding election.”
Facebook is the largest social network in the world, with more than 175 million users.

This is a great example of the kind of thinking we teach at LifeWork 2.0. If you aren’t willing to be transparent enough to listen to the voice of your client or fan and in this case FB’s users, then you will lose out every time with your audience. Your audience will eventually go where they are heard and communicated with. This is what it means to ENGAGE your audience, your fan base, your clients. Listening and responding with action builds your followers and builds their trust in you.

Are there times you feel like you weren’t listening and you could have responded in a way that would have worked better? If so, don’t let the status quo keep you from engaging in a way that makes sense and seems natural.

Go for it… it’s your choice, your career and your online reputation☺

I get frustrated when I want to find out more info on an artist when I go to their website… (example – www.artistname.com) and up comes a splash page that has a nice picture of the artist with a link that only goes to their myspace page. Why does this frustrate me? Because what you are telling me, dear artist, is that you don’t care about me your potential fan and that you don’t think the internet is the place you will build a following.
In the music economy of the day, myspace is a good place to listen to samples of an artist’s music. But when a myspace artist page is filled with ads and nothing more than a tour schedule and a ‘myspace blog’ written by someone at your label, then myspace is a bad place to connect.

Why?

Because outside of the general comments people can leave on your page, all your doing is creating a one way dialogue. Today there are a growing number of artists who realize that connecting with their fans online with a great blog, twitter and maybe FaceBook will mean the difference between having a career and not having a career. Radio singles are a crap shoot to get on the air and brick/mortor stores are becoming fewer every year.

Wouldn’t you think that if more and more people are buying downloadable music from places like iTunes that maybe you should hang out where the people are going to buy their music? Where are they? They are online commenting on blogs, video blogs, responding to twitter messages and tagging their favorite artists in facebook pictures at last night’s concert. For the amount of money you spent paying someone to put up a lame splash page the redirects us to myspace, you could have a fully interactive site that engages your fans.

Dear Artist…. There is a conversation about you happening online right now as you read this. Do you know who these people are? What they are saying? Why don’t you? Do you know what they want from you? Why not? Why haven’t you made more of an effort yourself to get them to buy your CD or come to your show? Because it’s your manager’s job or your label’s job? Because you are afraid of letting fans in too close? Yes there are stalkers but seriously… you don’t have to give out your cell number or street address. We just want to know you are participating in life as we are and are engaged in the conversation that IS ABOUT YOU. YOU are the best authority when it comes to the subject of YOU.

Stop letting someone else do it for you and jump on the bandwagon… it might actually work in your favor. If you haven’t made millions selling records and playing shows, then one day you are going to wake up and realize the booking agent is getting fewer calls to book you, the label seems uninterested in your career and you will feel like the kid who is getting picked last to be on a team during recess.

Does this make you a little nervous? If you aren’t engaging your fans online… it should. The longevity of our career just might depend on it.