Ripoff Report's Extortionist Business Practices

If you haven't heard of them, ripoffreport.com seems to provide a valuable service, but in reality they're only providing an opportunity for them to get rich blackmailing businesses.

I actually posted a ripoff report about ripoffreport.com on their website and they have yet to post it on their site. 

So much for transparency and fairness.

This is the report I wrote about them:

Ripoff Report seems to be providing a valuable service to help people come to resolution on a problem; however, posting a complaint anonymously is only an opportunity for someone to rant and rave and air their grievance, real or imagined. 

The company being attacked can't defend themselves as the person posted anonymously so it's hard to respond without having all the details. 

And there's no way to reach out to work with the person.
Ripoff Report will allow you to contact the person for a FEE. And they do offer arbitration for a FEE. So it amounts to extortion. 

Just do a Google search for "Ripoff Report" and there are lots of sites that talk about how bad their business practices are and there are even other companies that have started solely for the purpose of combating ripoff reports. 

If you have a grievance, contact the company directly or contact your local Better Business Bureau.

Your Customers are Listening to WiiFM. Are You?

There's a popular radio station out there called WiiFM. 

(And it's not broadcast by Nintendo.)

Your customers are listening to it all the time. And if you aren't broadcasting on this station your messages won't be heard and your customers won't take the intended action you want.

The call letters WiiFM stand for What's in it FOR ME.

Your customers are always listening to find out what's in it for them when they see or hear your message. If your message is all about you and your company your customer will tune you out.

To ensure you're always on the same channel as your customer find out what's important to them and ensure you address how your product or service will help them with meet that need.

To do this, use "you" language, not "me", "we" or "I". 

Continually tuning to WiiFM will ensure your customer is tuned in and receptive to your messaging and the action you want them to take (that will help them).

Content is (Still) King. Just ask Coca-Cola.

Good article on the consumer is now in charge and marketing needs to reinvent itself to meet the changing needs of consumers.

It's all about the content

Creating original, engaging, on-brand content that consumers will happily engage with and pay for (either in hard cash or precious time) is what really matters.

Even Coca-Cola’s advertising strategy is to “move from creative excellence to content excellence.”

22 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You Don’t Have a Clue

Just thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and promote an Infographic.

check out the Copyblogger post, http://www.copyblogger.com/create-content-ideas/ for more tips.

Don’t Be a Wall Flower in Your Marketing

Marketing is like attending a party. All the other attendees at the party are your potential customers. If all you do is decorate the wall, you are limiting that potential customer base to just the handful of people in your immediate vicinity.

Until you start mingling and working the room, you aren’t going to broaden your reach. But there’s more to it than just walking the room. If all you do is walk around looking at the floor, no one is going to notice you or converse with you.

It’s the same for your business. Just being there; having a website, having a profile on social media sites; isn’t going to help you grow your business. You need to make it easy for your customers to converse with you and you need to respond back. Start the dialogue and keep it going.

The same as at a party, once you’ve started that dialogue, a person is going to stick around you if you show interest in them and not just focus the conversation on you.

The same goes for your website and your social media discussions. Don’t make it all about you and what you have to offer.

Talk to your customers to find out what is important to them; develop the relationship and the rapport – the trust. Then you can mention how your product or service can help meet their needs and goals.

And if you help your clients and make their life easier, they are going to want to help you by continuing the relationship with repeat business and referrals.

You’re going to have more fun at the party if you put yourself out there and ask people what’s important to them rather than tell them what’s important to you.

Tips on Marketing on Twitter and Facebook

Writing for Facebook and Twitter isn't that different from other web writing. It's likened to micro blogging.

Writing a tweet is similar to writing a good headline - action words, leave out the articles (a, an, the) and start with the specific key words.

LinkedIn is more B2B, where as Facebook is more B2C when it comes to companies using it.

Using Facebook and Twitter for marketing always has to be for the customer, not the company. The customer is always listening to WiiFM (what's in it for me?).

So, tweets and wall posts always have to provide a benefit for the customer or provide for their needs not be marketing the latest product or service for the company.

You can get away with that occasionally provided there's lots of other stuff for the customer.

If you're not already on Twitter, I'd suggest signing up and searching for "social media" for people to follow and learn from them. Follow me on Twitter @jason_clements

Copyblogger (http://www.copyblogger.com/) is a good place to learn about writing titles and blog posts.

Have any other tips on writing for Twitter and Facebook?

7 LinkedIn Profile Tips and Tricks

The profile you present on social media sites (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) is your personal brand and needs to be managed effectively.

Here are some tips to ensure you're presenting your best self online

1. Headline: Don't just put your job title. Target this to your benefit statement or 30-second commercial
2. Profile Photo: Don't leave as default. Use a professional head shot of yourself.
3. Websites: Use "Other" to create your own label with keywords for your site(s)
4. Public Profile URL: Edit to create a URL with your name
5. Add Skills, Certifications, Publications: Include keywords
6. Education: If your diploma/degree was a long time ago you can omit grad year by selecting " - " for years.
7. Groups: Join a few of the larger groups to quickly expand your network.

Bonus Tip: If you're doing a number of edits to your profile, turn off your activity broadcasts under Settings until your last edit.

These tips are specific to LinkedIn, but are also relevant for other social media profiles. Consistency is also good with profile photos and descriptions.