Are you all of a sudden seeing banner ads all over your timeline and news feed?  If so you are probably the victim of adware – third party apps that you unintentionally granted access to your Facebook page.   But don’t panic, most people are not aware that their permission was given until they are overrun with these annoying ads.  To remove it, review the add-ons or toolbars that you’ve enabled for your internet browser and disable any plugin that promises special browsing abilities.   If you use more than one internet browser you’ll need to disable each one separately.   Here’s how to disable these extensions:

♦ Chrome:

Click on the wrench, hover over “Tools”, select “Extensions”, and click on the extension’s check box to un-check it.

♦ Safari:

Click on the gear, select “Preferences”, in the “Preferences” window’s menu-bar click on “Extensions” and click on the extension’s check box to un-check it.

♦ Fire Fox:

On the up left corner click on “FireFox” menu, select “Add-ons”, in the “Add-ons” window on the left sidebar click on “Extensions” and click on the “Disable” button for any extension you’d like.

♦ Internet Explorer:

Click on “Tools” select “Manage Add-ons”, In “Manage Add-ons” window under the right column (“Add-on Types”) Click on “Toolbars and Extensions”, then in the left column, look for the extension, click on it and then in bottom of the window a “Disable button will appear – click on it.

For more information and to get a list of adware offenders go to Facebook’s help section: http://www.facebook.com/help/adware

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Joining LinkedIn groups in your industry is a great way to build your reputation, learn what’s new in your industry and to meet valuable contacts.  Successful networking in the group is a pretty basic formula – share your knowledge, engage in conversation, ask questions, and offer help if needed.    Pretty simple right?

Then why do so many people join groups only to self-promote?   They boast about their newest product seemingly copied direct from a corporate marketing brochure.  These types of posts are not helpful and will not endear you to your fellow group members; know that your peers feel the same way about these posts as they do about receiving spam in their email accounts – quickly deleted.

A successful post offers information that other members in the group will find useful, or it asks for input about a problem you are trying to solve; it may even be a poll of members around an issue that you are trying to better understand.

Here’s an example:

A recent post in one of my LinkedIn Groups stated

A company that offers account receivable services posted “……….At ________, we are able to scale our operations to accommodate our Clients’ needs to allocate delivery resources and process acumen across our multiple operations. This structure enables us to offer very competitive rates on our delivery costs, …….”    This post went on and on promoting the company without giving any actionable information or suggestions.

A better post would have given group members some knowledge on how to set up a system to manage a customer’s credit worthiness or would have shared tips that members could successfully use in collecting payments.   It might have ended with a question that would encourage a conversation.  By sharing information and becoming known in your group as a respected contributor you’ll get the recognition you deserve.  Posting an advertorial will not only annoy your peers but could get you banned from the group!

So next time you’re getting ready to push the publish button stop and think.   Is this post offering any information that will help someone understand a problem better, does it offer a solution or a new perspective, does it ask for input from the group to help you solve a problem?   If not, delete and start over.

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Retweeting is a way to share another twitter’s message with your followers.  You’ll note that Twitter offers a Retweet button under each message.   I would recommend that you not use this option as it does not allow you to add any comments and it’s hard to tell who retweeted the message so not good for branding.   Here’s an example of what an automatic retweet looks like:

Compare these two messages to the following examples that were manually (classic) retweeted:

Classic RT allows you to add your own comments and shows your Twitter ID.  (Most 3^rd party apps will let you do this!)    To manually retweet, cut and paste the original message into the message box, add RT at the beginning and add your comments either at the beginning or at the end.

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Some reporters don’t want anymore than a well written e-mail pitch, but others do.   So don’t rule out the personal touch.  If they are open to it – invite a reporter out for coffee and get to know them.

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I ran across this short but informative article written by Mickie Kennedy on Ragan -

3 phrases to omit from your next conversation with a journalist

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If you have never heard of HARO (Help a reporter out) then you owe it yourself to check it out.   HARO, created by Peter Shankman, puts reporters and sources together in a very effective way.   Once you sign up (for free!), you’ll get daily e-mails with reporters requests for sources and you can reply directly with your pitches.   You can also follow HARO on twitter @helpareporter.

Last week I participated in the “How to Pitch a HARO Reporter” conference call featuring reporters from the WSJ, USA Today, AOL News and Crain Business.   Here are some of the great tips from the call:

• Most reporters want pitches via e-mail (not via phone and not via twitter).
• Know what the reporter writes about – do your homework before you send the pitch
• Subject line is key – short & sweet indicating what your pitch is about
• “Exclusive” in subject line will get attention – BUT only if it’s truly exclusive!
• Misspellings are annoying – check and double check before hitting the send button.
• Initial pitch should be short, interesting and on target, don’t include attachments.  If reporter is interested they’ll come back and ask for more info.
• Use bullet points – why newsy, why now; is your pitch related to a broader trend or related to a current news story?
• If you include a link in your e-mail pitch, make sure you explain what it is; if you can’t explain don’t expect reporter to click on it.
• The traditional press release is not going to get you coverage – usually old news by the time it’s read.

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Recently I had an opportunity to sit down with Peter Philips,  President of Philips Publishing Group and Publisher of the Pacific Maritime Magazine.  We talked about the best ways to get a company in print and he provided some valuable information:

Question –   Should a press release be sent out to all publications in general or should the public relations department try to narrow down the distribution?

Peter – “Do your homework.  Make sure that your release, email or phone call is directed at the publication’s audience.  Standard Rate and Data Service (SRDS) is a good place to find editorial and audience profiles for all US publications. SRDS is available online and at most larger public libraries.”
Read the rest of this entry »

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Recently a client asked for a simple paper on how-to use twitter so that he could pass it to his editors. Easy I thought; as I sat down to write the list; soon to find out that explaining all the nuances of twitter is anything but easy. So instead of reinventing the wheel I found this excellent tutorial “The Complete Guide to Twitter” by Mark O’Neil on MakeUseOf.com. It’s a free download once you enter your name and email address.

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NPR The Media Made
From The Stewart/Colbert rally to Wikileaks; media personalities were the headlines. Interesting interview with NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik

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According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, jingles will be used in more ads this year.   Apparently in the late 1930’s “happy music” in ads was a sure sign the country was rebounding from the Depression.   I think we could all use some “happy music” in ads or otherwise this year!       Read more about the ad trend predications for 2011 in the WSJ’s article “Ad Execs Gaze Into 2011 Crystal Ball”

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