Running URLs through a service that shortens their length is a fairly standard practice at Twitter. After all, when you only have 140 characters, you don’t want a lengthy URL address taking up most of your precious, limited space!

At the moment, Twitter uses tinyurl.com to automatically shorten long URLs that you might enter into your Tweet. There are also about a gazillion other free services on the web that let you turn a whale of a URL into minnow. TweetDeck, for example, lets you choose from over a dozen different “URL downsizing” services.

photo credit: scazon

What’s Your Favorite URL Downsizer? My favorite URL downsizer of late is BudUrl. Sure, it creates longer URLs than the popular is.gd. But I love BudUrl for its juicy, mouthwatering metrics. With my BudUrl account, I can track how many people click on my shortened link, from where, and when. When I post a BudUrl, I can check on how many people click on it from Twitter. And because my Twitter posts go directly to FaceBook, I know who clicked on my link from FaceBook. And when.

Better Metrics Lead to Better Writing. Budurl helps me determine which topics are more popular, where, and when. It also gives me insight into which “headline” techniques work better. For example, I may post the same link twice — but with different Tweet lead copy. If I get significantly different clickthrough results, I need to think about which words seem more likely to inspire action. (Hint: many of the old “direct response marketing” copy techniques that work elsewhere in life work well in Twitter. Fancy that.)

Customize your Shortened URL. As I go about my day, I realize that many folks don’t know that you can customize a shortened URL to make it more memorable. Let’s take FaceBook Profile and FaceBook Fan Pages. Those URLs can be doozies!

For example:

Here’s the direct link to my own FaceBook Fan Page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Laura-Bergells/20431199713

Who can remember that? Not me! So here’s how I abbreviated it:

http://budurl.com/lbergells
or
http://tinyurl.com/laurabergells

Shorter. Relevant. More Memorable. Better Metrics. What’s not to like? When someone emails me and wants to know my Fan Page link, I can actually remember http://budurl.com/lbergells witout looking it up! And I can put this link on my Profile Page without it looking like a lengthy, sloppy mess!

Watch the video! If you’re the kind of person that likes a demonstration of how this all looks, I posted a quick 2.5 minute “show and tell” video on my FaceBook Fan Page about shortening your FaceBook URL. You can find it here – http://budurl.com/xlongurls

All at once, I am flattered + horrified.

Flattered, because a public figure asked me to manage her online reputation.

Horrified, because she wanted me to “ghost write” her blog content, accept social media invitations, and interact with her fan base.

Without (much of) her involvement.

The horror!

I have nothing against ghost writers. After all, I write speeches and design presentations for others. It’s a collaborative process. Framing, shaping, editing, and polishing always goes on behind the scenes.

Collaboration is a huge part of ghosting. Without collaboration, it’s not really ghosting. It’s sort of like fiction. But not the good kind of fiction that leads you to deeper universal truths. No, social media fiction of this nature is completely made up junk — with no social value.

photo credit: Sérgio Savaman Savarese

I  asked my would-be client about her motivation for getting involved with social media. What are her goals? If the goal is to grow or deepen her fan base, perhaps reaching out to fans through various social media plays can help. Or if the goal is self-expression  — maybe social media involvement can provide a vehicle and an audience for creative ideas.

Or maybe not.

But neither of these goals is likely to be achieved through “faking” relationships and stories.

So I made my “no ghost posties” position clear in my pitch. Crystal clear. Transparent, as the social media types say! But my would-be client pushed back: if I wouldn’t do it, she would have to find someone who would.

My arguments about the value of authenticity and truthfulness seemed to fail. Perhaps one argument hit a nerve — the likelihood that she would eventually get caught. Imagine it: a publicist pretending to be a client might ghost-post about how groovy her new nail polish looks. But at the exact same moment, the client is actually getting a traffic citation. Something as simple and inevitable as a simultaneous Twitter/Arrest would definitely brand a public figure as a fake and disgrace.

Getting arrested? No big deal.

Getting outed as a liar on YouTube, FaceBook, or Twitter? That’s hard to live down!

So when it comes to social media, what’s an appropriate role for the publicist? I asked pals on Twitter to share their insights. Here’s their Twittery response:

Perhaps Twitter pal Charity Hisle said it most succinctly: “Set-up, Monitoring, Advice.”

That’s it. In essence, those are the only 3 appropriate social media publicist roles.

1. Set up. This can include developing a social media strategy and response framework, as well as navigating the client through technical set-up and initial content creation (profile pictures, resumes, background, schedules, etc. “Publishing Data” as Dennis Stevenson put it. But definitely no character or voice pieces… )
2. Monitoring. Listening and responding to online buzz is a huge part of social media publicity. The publicist should stay on top of breaking stories that can impact the reputation of the public figure. That’s where than can offer…
3. Advice. A great publicist will put a client’s reputation first and recommend effective practices for navigating the sometimes tricky tributaries of social media channels.   Embracing and engaging an online fan base requires authenticity: anything less is likely to be a disaster.

Where do you stand on the ghost-post? How many times have you interacted with a public figure online and thought, “I wonder if I really connected with person — or just their army of advisors?” What’s your trust factor when it comes to public figures and social media? Who have you connected with that seems authentic — and who falls into the “fakin’ it” column?

I’ve been noodling with the delightful Wordle.net application for a few months now. Initially, I used Wordle to create word clouds that I use as art in PowerPoint presentations.

For example, I entered my opening remarks on a presentation about Social Media for Business, and Wordle generated a unique and relevant welcome slide image. The main subject of the presentation “pops” — with supporting words adding meaningful visual subtext.

Two More Reasons Web Marketers Will Love Wordle. Since my initial Wordle experiment, I’ve managed to find two other terrific web marketing uses for this simply delicious product:

1. Try the Eye-Popping Web Copy Exercise. On occasion, prospects will call to tell me that they’re all about “enter product / service here“. When I go to visit their websites, however — I often struggle to find any words that support their claims! So, when I enter web page copy into Wordle — and the name of the product doesn’t “pop” — I have a visual demonstration of a potential copy writing problem that may be damaging to web marketing success. Try this exercise with your own website!
2. Dig the Most Amazing Brand Exercise Ever. Ah, the pricey “brand brainstorming” mission. Ad agencies generate Scotch-fueled words to present as your new corporate “vision and values statement” or “the cornerstone of brand messaging”. Rubbish. Instead of disconnecting from your customers, use your customers’ very words to discover your REAL brand image, as it exists today. Pump your latest testimonials and product reviews into Wordle. Which words pop? (That’s your real brand, not something made-up and wildly out-of-touch with reality.)

Brand Reality Check. As a personal example, I popped in my LinkedIn recommendations and a few offline testimonials I’ve received for my own, personal “Laura Bergells Brand” reality check. You can see the results below. I’m a smidge dismayed by the hugeness of the word “work”. I always thought my work product appeared playful and effortless.

Turns out, I’m delusional.

I’m also alarmed that the word “creative” is absent — but the words “hand” and “months” are in there — eh? It appears I have some work to do on my image!

Sales psychology 101. If you use your customers’ words in your messaging, you’re more likely to resonate positively with your audience. You’ll be in harmony. You’ll also appear more authentic and credible. Trustworthy.

All these qualities are important for online marketing!

What creative uses have you found for using Wordle? If you have a Wordle brand exercise or other creative use you’d like to share, point me to it!

photo credit: dyanna

I love the work of usability expert Jakob Nielson. I really do.

His latest UseIt Alerts are must-reads.

One alert takes a cranky old man’s slap at bad web design. Bad content, bad navigation, big bad badness.

Another discusses middle-aged folks and our declining web performance.

Both contain awesome analyses. Couldn’t agree more.

But keep two things in mind:

1. Criticizing is always easier than creating. Spotting bad design is easy. Creating great design (or content or navigation or anything, for that matter) is tougher. (And more rewarding.)

2. I’m middle-aged. I know how fun it can be to criticize the work of others. Especially whippersnappers.

So please do enjoy and appreciate Mr. N’s work — and his unique style of presenting it!

If I lived in denial – I would have to admit my MAC never crashes. Further, my MAC makes me more productive and creative. And above all else, I’m a cooler person for merely owning a MAC.

Here are three short stories about denial and design. To me, they indicate a kind of brainwashing caused by hypnotic conversation-marketing hysteria.

I could be wrong, though. Tell me what YOU think these stories mean:

Story #1: MACs foster greater creativity and productivity. I’m working at a client’s office. I bring my notebook PC, but we’re working on a”creative” project, so he wants to use his beloved MAC. The “creative” stuff amounts to little more than moving around some images, but no matter. He’s the client…and his monitor is bigger, so it makes sense. But his MAC continually crashes while we’re merely looking at some photos. After the first two crashes and re-boots, I start working on my PC while my client keeps repeating,

“MACs never crash. They never, ever do. I will always use a MAC. The MAC is an excellent computer.”

To me, he sounded like RainMan as I finish up the project on my laptop. He keeps trying to make his MAC work, while I’m working on the actual project. When I show him the finished project while his MAC’s rebooting for the umpteenth time, he’s delighted with the results. But he mourns,

“If only we could have done this on the MAC. It would have been more creative.”

Story #2: The MAC is a superior tool for collaboration and writing. Three of us are writing a lengthy report. And we’re collaborating from three locations. But we can’t use Google Docs to collaborate, because two of the writers are using MACs, and they’re telling me that Google Docs crashes the Safari browser. Really? OK, whatever, so we agree to use MS Word to write and email drafts back and forth. Old-fashioned, clunky, and non-productive…but what can I do? I’m outnumbered. I work on the MAC at home, but I bring my laptop PC to the party when we all get together to finalize the 70+ page report. Since I have an artistically-challenged notebook PC, the the PowerBook user insists that he put the design touches on the final report. The PowerBook guy gives up after 2 MAC crashes, and actually hands a disk with the raw content to the guy with the MAC desktop! But the MAC desktop crashes, too — so it wasn’t a network thing, like they both supposed. As a last resort, they hand the raw content to me — just TEXT, mind you – to format on the PC. Oddly enough, my PC could handle the job of importing a small .rdf file without crashing.

“But the final report would have looked so much better if we could have used a MAC,” laments PowerBook dude.

Story #3: My MAC is in the basement. I don’t use it anymore. It’s collecting dust. Yes, I’m aware of the hypnotically parroted lines:

• The MAC is more creative. 
• The MAC is so cool. 
• The MAC never, ever crashes.

But honestly. I need to get stuff done. And I need to create and collaborate and communicate with others…so I feel I have to use my PC.

Note: the root word of creative is “create”. If you can’t effectively create something on a MAC, how “creative” can it make YOU?

As for productivity — don’t make me roll my eyes!

But should I carry my MAC about as some hip fashion statement? Kind of like having a chihuahua in my purse or something?

What do you think?

Imagine a well-dressed, sophisticated professional woman enjoying a glass of fine wine in her favorite four-star restaurant.

A nice-looking, well-groomed young man approaches her and says,

Hello. I’m a hot stud.

Now, what chance do you reckon this young man has with successfully continuing the conversation?

I ask you this because when I see companies and people with self-congratulatory names, taglines, web copy, and social media profiles — I wonder if they seriously hope to attract sophisticated, mentally competent clients!

Sure, a self-congratulatory approach may work on airheads and rubes, but it turns off sophisticated consumers. Overselling has a decidedly low-brow, mass-market appeal. It works for “Wonder” Bras and “Wonder” Bread and “AAA” Insurance — but not for a sophisticated, niched professional market!

In fact, this approach is exactly like a guy coming up to a gal in a bar with some kind of cheesy line. If people were companies, think of how ridiculous this might be:

• “Hi! I’m a Prestigious Lawyer. I close your case with style and satisfaction!”
• “Hello, I’m the Most Preferred Real Estate Agent. I’m the top professional home sellers trust!” 
• “Yo! I’m a Distinctly Different Accountant! Competent AND Aggressive, I can’t be beat!”

Lay off the cheese. One of the happy benefits of social media plays like LinkedIn and Facebook is that you can let other people brag for you! Testimonials from your professional network speaks more strongly than ape-like chest pounding.

In a social media world, online bragging is so O-U-T.

(Not that it was ever really “in”…!)

In his internet marketing blog, Andy Beard writes a post titled Twitter is unethical for business use. His main beef?

It seems that many businesses use Twitter for reasons other than its stated purpose of answering the question,

“What are you doing?”

The Beard Argument. Using Twitter for anything other than literal truth might be ethical — if you could only provide a disclosure statement. However, the 140 character limitation prevents a business from full disclosure…ergo, Twitter is unethical, according to the title of the Beard post.

Twitter for Business. Instead of literally answering the question, small business people (like me!) are using Twitter as a tease that points subscribers and others to my blog posts. Conference organizers use Twitter to keep attendees informed. Woot uses it to let their Twitter subscribers know about sales. Are all these Twitter-for-business uses unethical?

Everybody lies. The problem with Mr. Beard’s reasoning is that most sentient beings quickly recognize that everything entered in Twitter is a literal lie! If I were to truthfully answer, “What are you doing right now?” — I would write:

“Breathing. Typing. Wondering. Adjusting my feet. Blinking.”

Everybody knows. If I write that I’m drinking coffee right now, I’m lying. And you know it. It’s painfully obvious: I cannot type and drink coffee at the same time. To be literally truthful, I’d have to Twitter, “I’m typing and glancing at my desk, which has a steaming coffee cup on it. Thinking about taking a sip.”

Here’s the real truth. Everything you read on Twitter is a literal lie. And that’s OK — because you’d be very dim indeed not to realize this! It’s implied. When lies are so big and flagrant and obvious, it crosses a line where it is not really a lie. This is where you enter the zone of creativity and abstraction — an area of endless human possibilities.

The Art of the Lie. When you Photoshop an image of yourself on Time Magazine’s Cover and tell your friends you were voted “Person of the Year” — it’s not a lie because everybody knows. If I say I’m drinking coffee right now, it’s not a lie — it’s just not the literal truth. It’s an accepted abstraction. Creative Lies are Entertaining. Twitter is not a forum for the strict, literal truth. It’s a forum for creative and abstract expression. To be blatantly truthful and to literally disclose every Twitter post is an exercise in being dull. Instead of peaking interest with a fun headline like:

“PowerPoint Templates? You don’t need no stinkin’ corporate PowerPoint templates. http://urltea.com/1g77″

I’d have to write something tediously truthful like:

“Promoting my new blog post about Corporate PowerPoint Templates at http://urltea.com/1g77″

Creative and effective headline approaches are often abstract instead of literal. So let me ask you this — when it comes to Twittering:

• would you rather be entertained by a creative approach that isn’t literal,
• or be given the mechanical, literal, un-artistic truth at all times?

Do you think you’re smart enough to spot the difference? And are you worried that other people who aren’t smart are going to feel completely defrauded by abstraction?

My subscribers are smart. They take intuitive leaps. They understand and appreciate abstract concepts.

Ergo, using Twitter for business isn’t unethical. Rather, it respects the innate creativity and intelligence of my audience.

————————————————-

ps - oh, and speaking of ethics, I’m (maybe?) being paid to write this post. I was going to write it for free, but noticed a link at the bottom of Mr. Beard’s page that read:

Get Paid Just For Linking To Me
Sign up with PPP and they will pay you $7.50 to write about this post.

I love irony! So, three more questions –

• Do you think the offer of the paltry sum of $7.50 influenced this post?
• Is this post unethical because I am (perhaps?) being paid to write it — especially since neither PPP or Andy Beard requested that I fully disclose the payment on my blog or in this post?
• Do you really think I’m going to receive any payment from PPP for this post?

By the way — I enjoy Mr. Beard’s blog. And I noticed that even though he writes that Twitter is Unethical for Business, he hasn’t stopped Twittering. He found a loophole — he points to his blog’s disclosure statement in his Twitter “About” sidebar.

Fancy that. I don’t suppose Mr. Beard ever really thought that Twitter was unethical, after all — he was just using a creative headline approach to spark interest and conversation!

You may know English. But can you write convincingly — for the web?

Beware the English Major! I have worked with English majors who cannot seem to write web copy that anyone wants to read! One English major I worked with focused obsessively on using big words to ”sound smart”. Instead of bending the rules of grammar and punctuation to sound more personal, conversational, and lively — she insisted on following rigid rules that made her copy sound stiff and robotic.

Unfortunately, her Super Smarty-Pants, Follow-the-Rules copy didn’t emotionally connect with an internet audience. People abandoned the site in droves, never to return. Her approach might have worked well for her Master’s thesis — but it didn’t make people want to buy software online.

So how can you tell if your copy is really connecting with your audience? Here are the top four (and completely objective!) signs that indicate that you write great web copy for your site.

1. You get decent traffic. This indicates that you probably write clickable title tags along with concise meta descriptions. Further, your on-page written content is so brilliant that other sites have linked to your site. Search engines tend to reward well-written, linked-in sites with higher rankings.

2. People subscribe to your site. When your visitors subscribe to your site, they have voted with their mouse fingers! Essentially, subscribing means that your visitors like your content and style — and that they want to read more.

3. Visitors keep coming back. Your site gets lots of repeat visitors. People cannot wait to read what you are going to write about next, so they keep coming back. You enjoy the “high visitor loyalty” metric!

4. People take desired actions after visiting your site. They buy stuff. They comment. They contact you. They bookmark. They download your reports. They click on your other pages, wanting more.

If none of these four objective signs above apply to your site, it may be poorly written. (or it might be a brand new site — or a badly coded site. But those are different topics that I’ll cover on another day!)

Oh, don’t get me wrong: your site may deploy perfect grammar. And your internet marketing committee may have agonized over every word choice to insure its absolute perfection.

But if people are not coming to your site, if they are not subscribing and coming back, and if they are not buying, clicking, commenting, or contacting – you may have to face facts.

You may have a poorly written site.

Yes, words matter on the web. You may know English — but do you know how to write for the web?