Comment spammers are relentless. I have not posted to DaveWrites recently, but I spend time every day just deleting the comments that make it through Akismet and other spam filters.

I believe the spam-filtering service Akismet defeats most automated spam, but I suspect there is a class of low-wage human-powered spamming going on based on some internet marketer's idea of link building.

The reason some people post short comments like "Nice job. Keep up good work." or "Good information, thanks for the post!" is because the comment form gives them the opportunity to link to another web site. That link becomes a part of my blog because it is published with the comment. This a legitmate way to build connections between bloggers. When I comment on someone else's blog that has much more traffic than mine, I hope that people will check out my site to see what else I'm writing.

But the reason spammers comment on blogs is to improve search engine rankings. Links from blogs to web sites increase the ranking of those sites, because search engines believe sites with many inbound links are more authoritative and creditable. So a business might pay a marketing firm to go out and comment on all the blogs they can find. Then, they report back to the company: "we've generated 100 inbound links for you!"

The sad thing about such an approach--apart from my annoyance at these bozos--is that it is a fraudulent scam on the companies who are paying the "internet marketing firm." Read Google's opinion of comment spam on their blog. The message from Google is clear:

• it does not work; they will detect it and ignore it
• it can hurt you; they will penalize sites that use it

My simplistic description of how inbound links affect search engine ranking is NOT very accurate. Google has spent the last decade refining their algorithms for ranking sites. So it is not as simple as getting some links.

None of this is new. I've been deleting comments like this for years, and I try to avoid even thinking about it because it is a distraction from working on something that might actually generate some revenue for my business. But I think all bloggers should review Google's recommendations on how to fight comment spam just to make sure they are not just hitting the snooze button every day for years. Let's walk through Google's recommendations with some real world practical commentary...

I think the CAPTCHA and Akismet approaches are the most worthwhile to pursue. Many of us set up our sites years ago and it's worth a review of the technologies available to update our sites to make sure we are minimizing the amount of predictible spam, then, just delete those bogus comments that slip through.

This post turned into more than a few minutes diversion...feel free to submit your own comments and links to practical ways to fight spam. I'm sure this post will itself create a moderation challenge for me. :)

Last Friday night, I attended an unconventional book-signing/networking party in Boston that brought together Gary Vaynerchuk, Jeff Cutler, and Mike Langford along with the usual suspects of the Boston social media scene. I picked up a copy of Gary's book and then--because I missed the earlier train home, had an hour and a half to read it while waiting for the next commuter rail.

Gary is a "rock star" in the social media space because he used Twitter and Facebook to take his video blog, Wine Library TV, to stratospheric levels of popularity. He's an inspirational phenomena of optimism, energy, and attitude whose contagious enthusiasm motivates and inspires.

I have a skeptical streak...and I will not to waste time here critiquing but instead focus on my takeaways. Like so many sources out there...you take what you need; you find the parts that challenge you to think.

People like Gary have aligned their passion with a platform that essentially makes sharing and self-promotion one and the same. The more he talks, the more people want to listen. Are his ideas revolutionary? No. Is there some deep insight in this book that will change your life? No. Is there a plan you can apply to your business idea to make a fortune and replicate Gary's success, including a 7-figure book deal? No. So what is the point?

The point is that social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, and blogging give every person the power to both publish their own experiences AND, more importantly, CONNECT with others who share and amplify those passions. Find what you love to do and "Crush it!" Every person can become an enthusiastic authority about something and then, as they draw attention to their passion, perhaps they can "monetize" it. It's not even all about money though really--if you could just afford to live your dreams, would it matter to make $60 million or $60 thousand a year?

But on this path, you really need to "Crush it." To do that, you need to love what you are doing. A hobby blog about something you are kind of interested in is not going to do it. Starting a blog at your company and following the steps to promote it...is not going to do it. It's not that Gary Vaynerchuck has a great video blog about wine. It's that Gary Vaynerchuck is the Wine Library TV guy.

It's not about expert opinions. I don't know if Gary is an expert on wine. It doesn't seem to matter. If you want a professional wine evaluation, I'm sure you can get that from people who are much less famous and making a lot less money. But they are boring. Gary is fun. You can complain that it's not fair (if you are one of those people, for example) or you can realize, hey, it doesn't freakin matter. Maybe if I find the thing I love and share it with everyone, they will love me enough that I can just do that and be happy.

But you've got to Crush it. Can you think of 100 or 500 blog posts you could write about the thing you are excited about? Do you want to scour the internet for information on that topic, commenting on everone else's blog and engaging with everyone you can find? Are you motivated to hustle in this way? If not, don't bother because there can be only one.

You need to find that passion...the thing that keeps you awake at night and is the burning fuel that will sustain you through what others would see as a lot of hard, tedious work. The good news is that social media gives you another tool that has the potential to hit the ball out of the park.

But you also have to pay the rent. That statement is the dream-killing, self-defeating reality check on so many aspirations for so many people. Fine, so pay the rent. Get a job and work 8 hours a day or whatever. But that leaves 16 hours for other things. After family and eating...ok, I guess you need to give up sleep. That's the deal, really.

If you want to turn a dream into reality, you need to "Crush it." You go "all in" on it and when you see an opportunity, you throw everything you have at it. Sunday, the Patriots beat the Titans 59-0 in 3 quarters of football. That sucks for the Titans, but it's what happens when one team gives up against a team that doesn't have a concept of "dialing things back a bit." It does not mean you have a license/excuse to neglect other priorities...but when you are doing the thing you love--you need to give it all you have.

The passion is hard to find.

I found it hard, it's hard to find, oh well, whatever, nevermind.

I don't really know what Curt Cobain was thinking when he wrote that, but for me it symbolizes the fleeting nature of dreams for so many...especially those of us in Generation X who allow our cynicism to truncate promising optimism.

I do not write from the platform of a $60 million wine busines. I'm excited I found a project to do some consulting work this week that could turn into a longer term project. But what keeps me awake at night is thinking about how I can take this topic of active transporation, apply it to my town, and pull together my love of cycling and running, my desire to be a part of civic life, and my analytical and techincal skills to not only support my family, but make my world a better place.

I'm looking forward to a social gathering and speech tonight where Dan Schawbel will talk about "personal branding"--how you market yourself to other people. I've had an amazing amount of interest in my story of using social media in my search for work, including a number of media interviews, most recently a front-page story in the Boston Business Journal.

I've expanded my network greatly, but I recognize I am still not very narrowly-defined...people send me job listings I'm way under or overqualified for and they are surprised when I talk about my involvement in local issues. The "mash-up or blended life" is not a great "closer" for an interview. And pursuit of starting my business Dave Atkins Media! is confusing--am I looking for a job or work or both?

You can watch me talk about this in my first video blog post below:

That's a first draft video effort, so bear with me! Note: in the video, I say something like "why would anyone know more than a dozen people..." I was talking about people in your technology specialty...not your family, friends, etc. !

Update:

I'm including the raw video footage below from Dan's talk. This will not win any awards for production quality, but the content is worth listening to...

Yesterday's Social Media Jungle in Boston was full of great discussion and ideas. One discussion leader, Justin Levy, advocated the need to stop talking about social media and start doing. But many of us are trying to figure out how to help others who aren't ready to "do" yet.

Justin has used social media to help make his Caminito Argentinian Steakhouse successful. His Prime Cuts blog is all about food--he uses the site to talk about something he cares passionately about and that passion and enthusiasm contagiously engages his customers.

But Justin is also General Manager of New Marketing Labs where Chris Brogan is President. These guys are "social media rockstars." He's totally practicing what he preaches, but it's a little bit like the crazy hypothetical of working a job next to Lance Armstrong and having him tell you that you ought to be bike commuting.

I asked what advice he'd give to a company that was unlikely to have the time to do it themselves--but how to preserve authenticity. His answer was to find someone who could write passionately about something relevant to the company.

That's much like the strategy I've adopted for my first client, Heroix, a vendor of applications monitoring software. I'm blogging about what I know--the technology operations day-to-day life and relating stories of what I learned the hard way. I'm passionate about improving things--eliminating frustration and utilizing technology to make people's work easier. That's a trait I share with many of the people who should be customers of Heroix. I'm not trying to directly sell their product, but to help them connect with their customers.

But as my wife quickly noted, this is not reproducible. I'm using a part of myself to execute the strategy and there's only so much of me to go around. But it did give me an idea for moving beyond "consulting company" or "solopreneurship."

What if we truly think of marketing as a partnership between enthusiasts and producers? When I worked at ConsumerReview, their approach (for flagship site MTBR.com) was based on the idea of having a passionate enthusiast like mountain biker and founder Frances Cebedo manage a community of people who wrote reviews and shared tips. I think, if you are Gary Fisher, Trek, or Santa Cruz, and you want to get into the social media space, you need to find guys like Francis to blog, tweet, and manage your facebook pages. In fact, that is exactly what Trek is doing with their Trek Life site.

It's daunting to tell people they should be doing things like blogging, tweeting, participating in Facebook, etc. when they don't want to. And social media is not some advertising campaign you can just pay someone to execute effectively. It is all about making personal connections and engaging in person-to-person communication, not business-to-consumer commerce. So find people not to speak for the company, but to participate in what they love under the sponsorship and guidance of the company. Hire a third party to facilitate and measure effectiveness (hint: that's Dave Atkins Media!).

But now...I need to get back to following Mr. Levy's advice and stop talking and start doing...

The advice from many on Twitter these days seems to boil down to a desperate quest to build a massive following. A tweet this morning promised a way to generate something like 20,000 new followers in a day. Then there are e-books about how someone built a massive following...by writing a book about how to build a massive following--it's ridiculous.

I joined twitter last Spring and slowly accumulated a little over 500 followers. I did not have a grand plan, I just started following interesting people and followed back anyone who appeared human and mildly interesting.

But as I've looked at this in the context of actually making Twitter work for a client, I've become a lot more selective. I believe the ideal place to be on Twitter is to follow and be followed by a group of people who share a common interest but don't already follow each other. In that situation, you can gather enormous amounts of useful information and re-tweet it back to a network of folks who will find it valuable.

It's hard to consistently generate massive amounts of original content. As in blogging, the vast majority of information being published is simply repetition of ideas already published elsewhere. It's not about coming up with a new idea...it's about connecting people to ideas.

Connecting is different from "exposing." Great writing is about telling stories in a way that the underlying ideas literally resonate with your audience. The connection is not simply making a person aware of an idea, it's making them aware of how they relate to the idea. It's infecting them with the passion that inspires you.

On Twitter, you have only 140 characters of text to work with. I'm the kind of person who can sit back and write 2000 words off the top of my head, so Twitter is good discipline for me. Words alone don't suffice.

Connecting actions are what matter. The most influential people are the people who share the most relevant information. They re-tweet each other's posts--posts that link to some other blog or news article they found valuable.

The top spots are already taken. The people who have 50,000 followers quickly sort out into a handful of people who are the Twitter elite and the rest who are using some scheme to get many followers. Trying to compete with Robert Scoble is pointless because numbers alone don't matter.

You have to ask yourself what does matter. At one extreme, if you are running for President of the US, then having 90% of the people on Twitter follow you is a good start...but it's hardly determinative. You need millions to not only be aware of you, but to vote for you. On the other hand, if you have 100 people you follow and who follow you back...and when you ask a question, you get 5 answers right away, that's probably better than having 10,000 random followers who are equally likely to follow you as they are to follow someone's cat.

It's the same thing with blog comments...quality over quantity. I recall one blogger I like was on Yahoo for awhile and every post generated hundreds of often idiotic comments. Meanwhile, her regular blog grew steadily and was interesting because the comments were thoughtful and intelligent. You could see the connection happening between writer and responder. The massive following of idiots on Yahoo was impressive in numbers, but worthless in terms of anything that mattered.

So my strategy for my client is to stake out a niche, to follow people who have something to say that matters in that niche, and engage with them, connecting them to each other and sharing information in that niche that matters to them. We may have 100 followers or 1000. But I'm not going to try to rig some chain letter twitter campaign just to be able to say we have thousands of followers.

Social media is fundamentally about conversations. Blogs, Twitter exchanges, even random comments in response to a Facebook status, represent new opportunities to connect not only on a personal, but also business level. My business is about developing strategies for getting those conversations started and using them to engage clients, constituents, and customers in a dialog that strengthens existing relationships and helps lead to new opportunities.

Clients

I wrote about using social media in my search for work and it is fair to question the effectiveness of it. I'm meeting people, but I don't have a job offer. However, I am developing relationships that are leading to business opportunities. Working with business owners to develop their own strategy for this kind of engagement is how I can help other professionals.

By simply friending people on Facebook or following them on Twitter, I maintain awareness of what they are doing. Do you get holiday cards from your Realtor? Of course. It's all part of their effort to keep you aware of them so you will utilize their services again in the future or refer friends to them. But traditional efforts to maintain connections like that are very limited because they require expense and broadcast approaches that are transparently marketing efforts--a "turn off" to many of us.

Imagine if I friended my Realtor on Facebook. I would occasionally notice her status updates and the repetition of her name would strengthen her brand. In the case of a criminal defense attorney, he is probably hoping NOT to find clients among his Facebook friends! But everyone you have ever worked with or known in person is a potential referral. Everyone knows people in need. If you solicit their help, they may be turned off by it. But if just stay on their radar--your name will be the first name they think of when an opportunity presents itself.

Constituents
My WestwoodBlog has generated a good deal of interest in town, but I have yet to convince the elected officials to participate directly. There is still a desire to control information--out of a legitimate need to ensure official information is accurate. But the blog plays a role in surfacing issues and providing a less official forum for residents to talk about things.

I'm not looking to be hired by the town to blog--in fact, I think an official blog of the town would lose credibility among people with dissenting opinions. But towns should consider all forms of media and develop a strategy for communication that is a two-way street. I've described how towns might use wikis...and I do believe elected officials should be blogging. There may be be a role for Facebook, Twitter, and even private sector solutions like Customer Relationship Management systems, e.g. Salesforce--but relabeled as Constituent Relationship Management.

Towns need to do more that put up websites and broadcast information to their residents. I can help customize a strategy to start a real dialog.

Customers
My first client is a local technology company. I will be blogging for them, setting up a Facebook fan page, and tweeting regularly. My strategy for them is to build awareness of their brand--as a provider of software that helps IT professionals keep their systems running--by telling stories of relevance to their target audience and engaging that audience in a helpful exchange of information. I will be telling my own stories of things I've learned the hard way and tweeting about helpful tips and tricks.

In this case, my own domain expertise in technology is invaluable. But I could just as easily partner with a company who had a story to tell in another area and just needed a strategy and platform to tell it. My eclectic background in technology, media, politics, economics, business, law--and passion for issues of sustainability and creative fulfillment--gives me a flexible canvas upon which to draw.

The goal in social media is relationships. It is fundamentally different from information or even communication...it is the process by which we engage. It's what's been done in other venues for years--on the soccer field, around the water cooler, by word-of-mouth. But the tools we have today give us an opportunity to develop new channels, build stronger relationships, and ultimately, find and create new opportunity.

I've added a "re-tweet" link to my blog posts to encourage twitter users to share my posts with their followers. When you click the link next to a post below, it should take you to the web-based interface to twitter and pre-populate your tweet with "RT @daveatkins Am I Tweet-Worthy http://bit.ly/xbc6" or whatever the post title is. Read further down the page to see the individual posts and possibly re-tweet them.

The purpose of this is two-fold. One is to virally publicize my blog by making it easy to re-tweet. I do not blast twitter with every blog post I do and really, I don't know if some of these are truly "tweet-worthy." But if they are, I'd like to make it easy for followers to help publicize my site.

Secondly, I want people to follow me. When you retweet the post, it may encourage others to follow me for all the great content I have planned in the future :)

Now, to make this post itself valuable and not just the self-promotion vehicle it is, here is how I did this so you, fellow blogger, can do the same--if you think it will help your blog.

Read more »

I am featured in a story today in the Christian Science Monitor, Blogs: An Effective Job-Hunting Tool?, but after describing my efforts positively, the article quotes one naysayer in particular who does not understand the context of my efforts:

Not everyone shares his enthusiasm. "Blogging and Internet searching for jobs is worthless," says Drew Stevens, a business growth consultant in St. Louis. "Almost 65 percent of positions are discovered from your network and peer group."

I wrote about how my blogging has greatly expanded my personal network and increased my influence even before I was laid off, but it is worth re-iterating here how social media is a complement to offline activities. I have difficulty finding the time to keep my blogging up because I am so busy with other efforts that have been generated from the relationships I have developed and strengthened through social media.

Read more »

Update:
You can now view:

• Dave Atkins interview with Tory Johnson on ABC NOW
• Susan Kang Nam talks about Salty Legs Job Club with Tory Johnson
• Madeline Laurano talks about finding her new job

Staring into a television camera for a remote interview was a surreal experience. I felt spontaneity and improvisation that is challenging to describe. I suspect, for celebrities, the feeling changes, and it becomes like just another conversation. Those who have never done it probably think it sounds terrifying. There is fear, but not terror. For me, I felt the sensation of being completely and utterly "on," with no safety net, no ability to control or plan, and an almost detached sense of hearing myself respond in the moment.

In that moment, I found my instinct and preparation ruled the day. There is not time to consider 5 seconds ago and no time to plan the next 5 seconds. There is faith that who I am will show and hope that what I've told myself is truth will reveal. But there is no analysis, there is only the moment...a moment that goes on for several minutes and then is gone.

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