10 worst crimes in social media and blogging

Those of you who blog, tweet on Twitter and connect on FB, Linkedin , Xing, ............ you have probably seen all of these crimes.
So here we go....

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1. Not engaging before driving off.
Why do you think anyone would follow you if you don't contribute? Top of the pile in this crime are those who say they are passionate about social media and put three hearts of exclamation after it, and yet follow 20 people, are followed by 3, and protect their updates.
Now, unless you are Bill Gates or Barak Obama and have top secret stuff to protect, don't do this.
If you want people to follow you, why would they if they can't see what you have to say?

2. Don't go to the party if you don't want to mix.
Yes this is for you ... the guy with the cocktail in his hand checking out the crowd and rating them all beneath him. You have no idea where your most dedicated followers and enablers will come from.
Does this mean you must follow everyone who follows you? No, but would you go to a cocktail party and snub 99% of the people there who greeted you? If so, you're much better off picking the fluff out of your navel.

3. Asking bloggers for guest posts and then not posting them.
Now this may be one of the tricks to get more people to read your blog or tweets, but where I come from it's fraud. If you want someone to write for you based on their content which you like, then at least pay them in traffic.

4. When someone interviews you, or features your product in a post and then tells you when its up, LINK to it!
You're getting free press, that doesn't happen easily. In my experience, and I've interviewed quite a number of startups and established people, the higher the influence, the more likely to link. It doesn't make sense if youre Mr. nearly-nobody and someone writes on your company, to not link to them, especially when they have three times the traffic you do...DOH!......

5. Playing policeman on Twitter, FB or anywhere else.
Now if someone's link is broken, sure be nice and send them a DM. But, these boring people leap out at you to correct your spelling on an abbreviated tweet written at a precarious angle on an iphone with a tiny keyboard, while holding your handbag and running for a train. I have two words to say to them, and they are both short!

6. If someone expresses an opinion that may differ from yours, that's their right.
It's called democracy , freedom of speech, or whatever other name you want to give it. It's a conversation, not a legal document. Attack them and you will probably get blocked, and not benefit from the network of the person you where following. Get over yourself!

7. If you are building your social media empire see the post here, then don't copy other peoples content and shadow them in every follow. RT them and always give credit where credit is due. There's lots of it to go round.

8. Don't send auto DM's nothing gets peoples' goat more than being spammed.
Twitter is not passive, why would I ever want to open the DM of another affiliate spammer who never reads my tweets? Bots will be outed.

9. Twitter, Facebook, blogging, writing content, it's a community, a very big community 200 million plus, so give and take.
Find your niche and then give something. People are writing amazing things for free always respect that and give back.

10. So you want comment but you don't give comment?
This is the easiest way to contribute even if you're a boring git whose never written anything original in a lifetime. Bloggers ,tweeters give out vital information, they entertain you for free. You print out their content to go and buy that new smart phone or camera, you go to that site to see your pic which they took and uploaded for free and you can't even write a comment.
Do you steal books from your library, read magazines for free or slip them in your bag when no one's watching?
Bloggers entertain you, the least you can do is leave a comment.
Small businesses are catching on to Twitter Now, bloggers go and leave comments everywhere on other blogs, it's the best way to build a presence. I comment on at least five blogs a day.

So there you are, have you committed any of these crimes? Are you ready for rehab?
Go forth and multiply the love and information.
Donna Jackson
Social Communications Specialist.
Wisequeen

How to build a social media empire

Video on networking with twitter One of my favorite Bloggers Guest post Christine Gilbert is a full time traveler, freelance writer and photographer. She blogs about her transition from Fortune 500 Manager to traveling vagabond on Almostfearless.com. Her tips about traveling Europe on a budget can be found at europestring.com. She travels with her husband and two large, slobbery dogs-- and still wonders why it took her so long to make the leap. How to Build Your Social Media Empire (in 13 easy steps) These steps assume a couple of things. First, that you have a blog (or business) that you want to promote. Second, that you haven’t really started using social media to promote your blog or your unsure where to start. Next, that you already know what your brand is, how to be consistent you’re your brand message no matter where you write and you actually have something to say. Finally, there are tons of additional places (like plurk, for instance) that I don’t mention here, because this is intended to get your started (not overwhelm you with the thousands of sites out there). 1. Sign up for an RSS Reader if you don’t already have one. I suggest bloglines or google reader. 2. Add your blog, plus the blogs of anyone that comments on your site (or blogs that you read). This will become your task list. 3. Sign up for a stumble account. Add everyone you know as a friend. Be sure to list your own blog on the profile page. 4. Everyday try to comment on at least 5 blogs per day. You want to change up who you comment on, so use your RSS reader as a “To-do list” 5. Everyday stumble at least 5 posts. You definitely want to pick the best content to stumble, and be sure to write a review. Thumbs up without a review has less bang for the buck. (Note: you can but try not to, it doesn’t look good. ) 6. Check your webstats. Are you getting stumbles? Go to your post that got a stumble and use the stumble toolbar to see who reviewed it. Add these people as friends. If they have a blog, add them to your RSS. 7. Sign up for twitter. Add everyone you know. Be sure to use tweetlater to autofollow and autorespond with a link to your blog or RSS feed. 8. Go to a twitter account of someone with a similar blog topic and start adding their followers. You can usually get away with about 100 a day. After 3 days, drop anyone who doesn’t add you back. Repeat. (Always follow everyone who follows you first). 9. Start experimenting with Digg, Mixx, Reddit, Delicious, and so on. Watch your stats. See what works. There are times when these sites have great rewards, but it takes some finesse. 10. Respond to every new commenter on your site with a personal email. Let them know you have added their blog to your RSS (if applicable) and thank them for commenting (offering assistance or something free (like an ebook) doesn’t hurt either). 11. Sign up for twitterfeed to auto post your last blog post to twitter. Be sure to participate in twitter in a friendly way. Respond to what others write. Offer cool links not on your blog. Give tips. (Don’t just post links to your blog over and over, this is spammy). 12. Once you get a hang of it, create a daily to do list. It should read something like: check webstats, 5 comments, 5 stumbles, 5 tweets, add followers to twitter, catch up on emails, 1 digg/reddit/mixx. After a few months of doing this you should have a healthy following of a few thousand people. Always be gracious and helpful. 13. You have a social media empire, now what? Use it for good. The best self promotion is selfless promotion. Give new bloggers a leg up. Gently promote your stuff. Enjoy the warm glow of being part of a bigger community. Got something to say? dying to tell us what you think? comment below, Wisequeen

Wisequeen Advice - Should I go to Rome for a man?

a wonderful thing happened to me - i > fell in love with an Italian and he will fetch me to > go and live with him in Rome in October! > Everything has happened so suddenly and i must admit > i am still quite overwhelmed by it all, but have > realised that i better find out a bit more about the > country, its ways, etc. and this is where u come > into the picture, because Sue told me u know it > all. I have googled the country a bit, but i need > to know more about the nitty gritty aspects. > I would literally need to know everything, from > applying for a VISA (i believe it is a shengen visa) > to possible cultural aspects to look out for. In > this man's eyes nothing is a problem (language > barrier of note still exists, but should be better > once we communicate face to face - this is an > internet connection!) and as he said "if visa > problem we marry!" I know that a holiday visa would > limit me to a period whereby i would have to return > and re-apply and at my age (i'm 49 - by the time i > go i will be 50) a work permit would not be an > option, so i need to know if u are aware of any > other ways and means. > I am literally trying to obtain as much possible > information and am concerned that i might miss > important issues because of the excitement > involved! This is your proverbial "leap of faith", > so u can imagine. > Hope u can enlighten me. Shirley I don't know what to say to you without putting a big pin into your party balloon, other than a big "Be careful", that is Italian men are very romantic, I know. I can sense your excitement. But as a person who as advised many people on relocations and expat matters, I have to warn you it will be virtually impossible for you to get residence unless you're seriously rich, which I'm assuming you're not. Even EU citizens can go through years of hell to get a permesso. (Permission to stay) A shengen visa is simply something a person from a non-shengen country like yours needs to visit the European countries on holiday. If you want my unfiltered advice, and I take it you do, as you wrote to me, I'll say this; without a job you can't even apply for the permesso. If there was a definite intention to marry, which he will have to prove with the authorites and sign guarantees on your behalf, you could enter Italy again on a new visa, after the holiday, with all this in place. If this man's intentions are more than just a fling, and I hope they are, He must marry you. I say must because in Italy as a foreigner without EU rights, you cannot stay. Without a husband, if you were able to get a get a job without a permesso, which is unlikely and illegal, it will be too menial to pay the rent. If found overstaying your holiday visa, you will be deported, never to return. Whatever you have read, this is a very catholic country, marriage is everything. Has this man been married before? Have you checked if he is still married? You won't be the first foreign women who has arrived in Italy with stars in her eyes, and then after the fling, to find out he has already walked down the isle with his lifetime moglie (wife). Separation is not akin to divorce in Italy. It takes 5 -7 years to get properly divorced and is crazy expensive. So very few men chose to go that route. So beware. My suggestion is this, Suggest to him that you visit for a holiday, to check things out, then set the wheels in motion in your own country for a marriage there, before you give up your job and life. If you are still convinced after the holiday, your local consulate will apply to Italy for a nulla osta for him- which means a certificate, stating he is free to marry. When, and if, you have that, he can come out to you for a holiday, meet your family, and then if you are still "in love" with this man, you can marry there. I strongly advise you not to consider being his live-in-lover in Italy, you will have uphill struggle in every way. Something you probably don't need as you enter your fifties. It's so much easier for him in Italy. He has nationality, his family, he can get a job, pension, medical care, everything, without a struggle. You in Italy, as a non-wife, will have an impossible time, and what's worse he will not understand this because its not like this for him. The language problem is a challenge, but the cultural one far greater. You can't find a job without fluent Italian. The English teaching jobs that there are, are snapped up by the EU foreigners with a permesso who followed a partner. Whatever your profession is, you probably can't practice it here because of language and registration. Even those who were lawyers, doctors, and dentists in the home countries, do odd jobs trying to translate a document here and there. Don't believe the romantic stories of women who come here to Tuscany to buy a villa and live in bliss with an Italian stud. They are rich and keep ties with America. For every one of these, there's a hundred who return home broke and bitter. Do you need to work to survive ? If the answer is yes and you decide to spend your life with him, then you must marry this man before you come, and can therefore enter Italy as a wife of an Italian citizen, a very different story. If you are not sure about this man who says" if visa trouble we marry". You could be putting your life into real difficulty. This man obviously hasn't done much research into what must be done for you to come. So I have my doubts. Read the permesso posts here Italy And the excellent Europe site here PS. Think hard, read this, and other "real life" Italy sites with all the links that you need, not just the Under the Tuscan Sun and the "eat pray love" approach to Rome. Wisequeen. Do you agree with Wisequeens advice would you like to add something or disagree? Here's the place to do it, send a comment.