Online Search & Social Media Blitz

Just recently hired as an SEO & Internet Marketing Consultant by Kids Crooked House, I was told that they had worked with a group involved with a TV show and their products would soon show at some point on TV. Ok, I said, and gave them some thoughts on what might occur when this happens as I had worked with another group who was mentioned on Martha Stewart and Oprah last year. No big deal!

We thought we had it all planned out. I thought I had it all planned out! We fixed up and edited some items on the website for pages, keywords, calls-to-action and shopping issues. The IT team set the website up across 10 servers. Added one last post to the blog and let everyone know that no new updates or changes would be allowed during this time – hey, it was only going to be one day and a quick showing – or, so we thought – we didn’t think about the repeat showings occurring right now! I discussed reputation management when the first sign of references were made public online and we decided to make sure we would have someone monitoring blogs, news, Twitter and Facebook. But, then it hit… 6pm PST, 9pm EST Monday night, it’s the first show and the site crashes!

I jump on Twitter – letting Facebook take those updates as well, and start doing something I’ve only ever had to teach clients to do – never actually “doing it” myself. Yikes, here I am suddenly the only online access and voice for this company. No more teaching or suggestions now, doing it was the action to take!

I am normally just fine being a 3rd party - suggesting to clients to do certain things, correcting their mistakes and giving them advice on how to do work better with their online endeavors – and rarely having to get my own hands dirty! This was new to me, having to represent a company and making sure any and all positive or negative issues were carefully and diplomatically dealt with. We also were under strict non-disclosure and the owners hadn’t told me if I could even use the TV show’s name (I think I can now, it was Jon & Kate Plus 8 – but, shhh just in case). There were so many things that I just didn’t know about properly, so, had to wing-it in some cases (shhh to that one too). Their phones began ringing off the hook and there was no way for me to get in touch to find out what I needed.

Oh boy! And wow! Social media can be quite the sneak attack!

I have a spreadsheet a mile long of websites and blogs referencing us and commenting on us. I have TwitterBeeps and Bit.ly helping me along with Google Trends, Alerts and Analytics. I am in fear of leaving my computer in case something comes up or is said that I miss. We were at the top of Yahoo searches and Google trends today [turns out for Monday and Tuesday both]. I noticed others trying to jump on our keyword bandwagon so jumped on a few extra updates & fixes to the site. Thank goodness for dual screens – now I want triple screens! [Can you do that?]

The design and IT team at Dirigo Design & Development [awesome] team worked endlessly last night to bring the site back up – which they did so that we could all finally find a bed somewhere and sleep for a bit. I haven’t dared try to call the sales team to see what actually happened on their end. I did, however, get an nice call from Glen, the owner, whose phone was blitzed too during this time to say that he is just barely back to breathing, and… to tell me that Thursday we are possibly going to be shown on another TV channel. Oh boy – here we go again! I think after this, I will change my title from Internet Marketing Analyst to Social Media Expert! Maybe I’ll ask for a raise too! :)

Update To Twitter Abbreviations – What Does _ Stand for in Twitter

Lots of people and businesses are using or incorporating the use of Twitter as part of their online routine. Many of you ask "what does this stand for on Twitter", well, here are a few of the commonly asked for Twitter abbreviations and uses that you all have asked about:

RT – ReTweet

One uses this generally to suggest that another username tweeted the comment and you are re-tweeting for your followers to see too.

You can RT your own stuff too. Example:
RT @lydiafabry Twitter Abreviations Update: http://www.searchvisiblewebsites.com/blog/seoblog.html

An RT suggests that there was already a Tweet about this helpful web page. If the URL you point to is too long for the 140 spaces then there are tools to create shortened URLs, like Bit.ly (http://bit.ly/ ) and others.

OH = OverHeard

One uses this to suggest that they are not responsible for a certain comment they are putting on Twitter but that they simply overheard it from someone else. Generally it is overheard from physically hearing it not seeing it posted somewhere.

DM = Direct Message

The format is to use the letters DM then a space then the username instead of the @username to send a message that only the recipient can see. Example:
DM lydiafabry Don’t tell anyone I sent this!

And no one but I will see your message if you tweet that to me! You can also publically ask people to DM you with information that should stay private and not viewable by others.


Expressions used on Twitter and other “short” social media type areas:

LOL = Laugh Out Loud

LMAO = Laugh My Ass Off

OMG = Oh My God
OMFG = Oh My F%^&ing God

BTW = By The Way

Twitter, Verb or Noun, how is the language spoken?

It is official now, Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams publicly cleared up the proper way to speak Twitter. They tell us that Twitter is the noun and Tweet is the verb, so…

You can tweet on Twitter but you cannot, or should not, be twittering a tweet!

Need more Twitter tips, see Twitter Helpful Quick Tips from Search Visible Websites.