Custom pages
We’ve been telling clients for years that WordPress makes an excellent platform for building a website that’s easy to maintain and very search engine friendly. WordPress 3.0 takes a big step towards making that easier with several different options for custom pages without having to hand-code new template pages.

Custom snippets.
WordPress coders call these “custom taxonomies” but let’s speak in English here shall we? Now you can have more options than adding just tags and categories to a post. For example, a movie review site can add the ratings to each post. (G, PG, PG-13, R) to every post automatically and users will be able to sort posts by selecting the one they want to view.

Menus administration
If you use the Thesis theme you’re used to being able to manage your menus to put them in the order you want. Now you can do this across WordPress themes with nifty AJAX drag and drop tabs.

Custom designs
The new theme “Twentyten” lets you add a custom header or background image or set background colors without having to touch or understand the CSS for your site.

Shortlinks
Link shorteners abound, but do they use your own domain name? Now you can create a shortened link with your own domain name and keep your branding. Of course it would be best if your domain name is short!

Multi-site control
Remeber WordPress MU (multi-user)? Now it’s fully integrated with the latest version of WordPress. If you’ve got a lot of sites running within your network you can manage all your sites from one central location.

Warning!
Before you go upgrading though, you should read this post–”Upgrading WordPress” for step by step instructions.

Video overview
Here’s a quick overview from the folks at WordPress.

Need help with upgrading, installing or modifying WordPress? We’re here to help! Drop us an EMAIL and we’ll get right on it.

I’m a bit more pragmatic than some of my co-panelists on what privacy we can actually have in this day and age. After all, if you own a home it’s likely anyone who wants to can search online tax records and find your address and more personal information. If you carry a cell phone you can be located by anybody who can triangulate the signal. I’ve been an active user online for many years so I’m pretty easy to find. I’ve always stuck to the "if you don’t want it public don’t put it online" philosophy. This is especially true when you are on multiple networks. Think of your online conversations as an aggregate whole and not just one network at a time.

Unfortunately you don’t always control what’s online about you so I’m a big advocate of setting up alerts in Google and Social Mention among others to get a heads up when someone posts something about you online. New York, Philadelphia and several other city police departments are monitoring Twitter to watch for trouble before it starts. There are stories of activists using Twitter to tramsit summaries from police scanners to let protesters know what actions police are taking too.

I’m trying to keep my focus in this case on activists and their issues with privacy online. You can’t mention activism and Twitter without James Karl Buck coming up. As an activist and a blogger he’s very visible online and his one word Tweet "Arrested" made headlines around the world. His tweet activated his social network and word spread quickly. Buck was released, but it was quite some time before his translator was also released–due in part at least–to Buck’s nonstop reporting on Twitter about his friend’s plight.

This is one example of social media being used to secure the privacy of an individual. Blogging and frequent updates on social networks can at least let people know where you are and if the communications stop or radically change, your friends will be paying attention.

Being visibility can keep you from "disappearing" in remote locations. On the other hand it can make you an easily visible target too. Social media can be used against you personally or against the cause you are fighting for. Telegraphing the location of a protest can increase the opposition at the same location.

So, how can an activist use social media to promote their cause and stay safe at the same time?

• Set up those alerts for your name, the organization you’re working with and the opposition as well and monitor them frequently.
• Get a P.O. box and use it for all of your online accounts (not just social media).
• Set up an email account just for social media and don’t use it for anything private
• Get a Google number that forwards to your cell phone for any time you have to put a phone number in a form online
• Create an active social voice so you can transmit your ideas and keep in touch wherever you are
• Make sure that network is active long before you need it and identify who is going to speak for you on your behalf if something happens
• When using a public computer at a cafe etc, be sure to log off and clear the cache and delete cookies of the browser.
• When you join a social network you don’t have to use your real birthday. Change the date across all your networks.
• Use a service like Hushmail for secure email that is encrypted and virus scanned
• Use a USB device like StealthSurfer so data is stored on your USB instead of the computer
• I was told about this list of 8 things you shouldn’t give to social networking sites at CFP. Good stuff here too.

Bottom line? If you understand the internet and the privacy issues we face it’s your responsibility to help others see the issues too, advicate for privacy rightsand then self police yourself.If you don’t know about these issues start educating yourself. Start with CFP and some of the videos of sessions at this conference. Don’t put it out there if you’re not willing to stand behind it and watch what you say in aggregate form about yourself AND other people. Responsible use of social media is up to all of us.

Janet

We’re honored to have a hand in the creation of the blog for Help a Lost Child. This organization was founded to help little Rimaan, a child suffering from pervasive development disorder. Through the blog we’ve raised almost $10,000 to buy Rimaan an HBOT to help himewith his daily struggle. You can help too. Learn more about Rimaan and the Help a Lost Child Foundation.

We built the site in WordPress for ease in updates, search engine optimization and social media optimization. Dr Riddle will be blogging through the site and use it to drive traffic to buy the books and to her other websites.

Basic
You choose a WordPress theme you like and we’ll take it from there! This is perfect for somebody who already knows WordPress and knows it’s time to move WordPress to their own domain.

• Set you up on *WordPress friendly hosting
• Help you secure a domain name and transfer it if necessary
• Configure your server and install current version of WordPress
• Install Widgets and Plug-ins to improve search engine optimization, fight spam and enhance comment and sharing abilities for your users

Pick a WordPress Install Plan

Basic Install (plus hosting) $175.00 Basic Plus Install (plus hosting) $249.00 Blog Evaluation $250.00

Basic Plus
This is the version you want if you’re moving a blog from another service onto your own server. Like the package above, find a theme you like and we’ll install it or we an recommend appropriate themes for your needs. We’ll need access to the old blog and the new server.

• Move blog content over and create necessary user permissions (if necessary)
• Help you secure a domain name and transfer it if necessary
• Back-up of existing blog (if necessary)
• Set you up on *WordPress friendly hosting
• Configure your server and install current version of WordPress
• Install Widgets and Plug-ins to improve search engine optimization, fight spam and enhance comment and sharing abilities for your users
• Free access to tutorials for WordPress common tasks to get your on the right track
• 1 hour of phone support

Pick a WordPress Install Plan

Basic Install (plus hosting) $175.00 Basic Plus Install (plus hosting) $249.00 Blog Evaluation $250.00

Custom WordPress Design and Install
Need a little more than an off-the-shelf theme? No worries, we can build a custom design or leverage popular themes like Thesis and Headway to get you the best Search Engine Optimization benefits as well as a theme that will be easy to keep up-to-date year after year. We can build custom code or install a suite of plug ins and scripts to add dynamic content to keep your site fresh and vital. What do you need your blog to do for you? We can help you get there.

Contact Janet for details and pricing on custom designs, code hacks and installs.

Blog Evaluation
Not sure what you need to do to build traffic, attract readers, or fine tune your search engine find-ability? A blog evaluation can make a huge difference and help you fine tune your blog for the best possible performance. We’ll look under the hood and recommend tweaks and plug-ins to help you run more smoothly, ways to get better search engine optimization and build your readership.

Pick a WordPress Install Plan

Basic Install (plus hosting) $175.00 Basic Plus Install (plus hosting) $249.00 Blog Evaluation $250.00

*Hosting is additional. We recommend Lunarpages, Media Temple or Dreamhost and we can walk you through step by step (it’s easy, trust us!) or do it for you for a small additional fee. Average hosting fees range from $100-$200 per year.

Web sites.
Check to see that those dead campaigns and micro-sites actually got removed from your web sites. A few Google and Bing searches are a good place to start. Then look into the site directories (or have your web team do it) to ensure there aren’t any orphaned pages laying around sucking up your SEO juice and giving the wrong impression. If you’re not using them anymore put in a re-direct to point the incoming links to a more relevant location and delete the old page. Is the look and feel getting dated?

Domains.
Are all your domains up-to-date? Have you reserved all the domain names related to your business? Don’t forget the .net, .me .biz and .tv domains. Even if you don’t use them now you can point them to your main domain. Who’s the admin contact on the site? Is all the registration information up-to-date and stored somewhere you can find it? (That doesn’t mean a post it note on your monitor either).

Social Media Sites.
Have you reserved your company brand on the social media sites you need to be represented on? Are all the profiles sending a consistent message? Mind you, your messaging should be tuned to the style of the network, but you still need to check and make sure it’s on point. Are there consistent links to important information? Take the time to update pictures and evaluate which networks are getting the most of your energy and which need a little more love.

Search Engine Optimization.
Review your current strategies for SEO. Are your keywords still relevant? Has the phrasing or positioning of the company changed? Check for Alt and meta tags as well as your site map. Has it been updated lately? Do some searches and see how this year compares to your search engine rankings from last year.

Newsletter and Emails.
Been meaning to delete those accounts that bounced from the last 12 newsletters? Get to it because it’s messing with your open rates. Before you send that holiday promotion or greeting letter clean up your list and make sure it’s up-to-date. While you’re at it take a look at your newsletter and make sure the look and feel reflects your brand well.

Janet Fouts hand-picked some amazing social media coaches, consultants and practitioners to help you understand what social media is and how to use it for business without getting bogged down in the details.

The site is your one-stop shop to really learn about social media and online marketing and the content is top-notch. No matter whayt your learning style, you’ll find something here of interest.

In addition to the content on the site Janet will be doing weekly call in shows with social media and on-line marketing experts where you can ask any questions  you have about social media, social media networks or social media coaching and get answers. She’s even offering to build tutorials or videos to demonstrate her answers!

The site is in response to the many questions that came up while Janet was writing her book, Social Media Success! which just came out this week. The book gives you the strategy to make your social media efforts successful and the website gives you the tools and techniques to use to implement it. All and all a perfect couple! So, what are you waiting for? Check out the Social Media Coaching Center while it’s still free!

The debate continues. Recently we’ve had a lot of discussions internally and with others in the field about setting expectations. When do you expect to see return on the time invested in creating long term relationships? One of our clients pointed out that she often spends 6 moths to a year just to gather data, segment the market and determine the goals for a particular marketing campaign. Then it may take another 6 moths to a year to see the carefully created alliances blossom into measurable return. Yet people seem to expect that a social media marketing campaign will happen faster because the reaction to a particular post or video can happen so quickly.

the thing to remember here is that those times when you get a big hit in social media seldom sustain the interest. These days the attention span is short and the consumer moves off after the next big wave in a heartbeat.

So, what to do? Build lasting relationships with the knowledge that you’re not in “this” for the short haul. You are building long term programs to help increase communication of your message and turn your faithful friends, followers and readers into evangelists. Your virtual sales force.

While we invite you to discuss your campaign with us (well, Janet actually), we ask you to be realistic in your goals and to believe us when we tell you the truth about social media instead of what you’d maybe like to hear.

Social media is hard work and it takes a committed team to build trust in their relationships. That doesn’t happen quickly, but we firmly believe that a relationship based on trust and sharing information will reap bigger rewards than any flash-in-the-pan campaign.