I just returned from guest lecturing for Chris Boesen at American University’s School of Communication’s Public Communication department. The class was full of seniors who aspire to join the PR workforce.  I didn’t talk gloom or doom because I told them a secret.  I told all of the fresh-faced smarties the secret that will make them competitive if they’re smart: become social media producers instead of being just social media consumers: start blogging yourself into Edelman, Ogilvy, Burson, Ketchum, Fleishman, and Qorvis.

So, hopefully they’ll write themselves right into an entry-level position in 9 months when they all graduate — if they’re smart (and they seemed like they were — a bunch of them already blogged and Twittered, some of them on their own and some of them because of a class — who cares how!).  I also told them that I would be happy to help them in any way they can now and in the future — with one condition: they they send me the link to their blog.  If they can provide me with a link to a blog that is about digital PR, new PR, PR, communications, marketing, or social media, I am at their service.  Otherwise, fuck ‘em! (it’s for their own good).

So, if you want to learn more about my experience guest lecturing around Washington, check out Chelsea Reviews My Comm350 Guest Lecture. I will plan on blogging about my experience at American University again; however, I am going to first see if anyone there has has much chutzpah as the lovely Miss Chelsea Clark did over at UMD.

Is it sort of like a Schrödinger’s cat situation: if Chris Boesen’s students reach out to me via a blog post, a tweet, via email, or via phone, I will follow-up with a very positive and adoring post (a total of two for American) but if it ends up being a dud (sorry Chris), then I will have to be more lukewarm in my follow-up review.

Oh, and if you’re curious as to what I went on about for 90-minutes, you can page through the below presentation at your leisure:

Jonathan Trenn popped this insightful article about Yelp over on Marketing Conversation, The contorversy about Yelp (and be sure to check out David Gelles’ article on a similar topic over at the Financial Times, Yelp rejects claims of extortion):

Ah, controversy.

Now, it’s with Yelp, the mega online review site.  On Wednesday, the East Bay Express, an alternative newspaper that covers Alameda and Contra Costa counties in California, published a very provocative article , “Yelp and the business of extortion 2.0″ on the sales operations and tactics of Yelp.  The paper made some very pointed accusations, some of them seemingly legitimate while others sounding too nebulous.  They state that Yelp is both maniupulating the placements of restaurants reviews as sales tools and then using scare tactics to then solicit advertising sales from these same restaurants.

The accusations are alarming but, because I think the article was poorly presented, it’s left me thinking that Yelp perhaps had a major sales problem in one office as opposed to a company wide sleaze factor policy.

Yelp’s initial response, written on the company blog by CEO Jeremy Stoppleman is inept and insufficient.  He’s likely satisfied that his blog posts are enough…and it may appear to be just that for the time being…but controversies such as this, be they true or just speculation, have a way of undermining a company’s integrity in a hurry.  Especially a site that 1)  is about user generated online reviews, and 2) has trust as a hallmark of its standing.

Oddly, the Yelp blog doesn’t allow comments.  That’s not a good idea…especially for a site that’s about online reviews and citizen participation.

Here’s the gist of the article.  Writer Kathleen Richards talked to “dozens” of business owners over the “past several months” and found that six of them said that Yelp sales reps promised to remove or move bad reviews if the business chose to advertise.  And these businesses would often get sales calls from Yelp reps soon after they mysteriously started getting a rash of negative reviews.  The theory here is that Yelp employees would start to or enlist others to write negative reviews on a company, those reviews would then appear at the top of a company’s page, and the company would get a phone call from a rep looking for an advertising by so those reviews can “go away”…usually to the tune of $300 a month.

For those that declined, positive reviews seemed to begin to disappear.  For those that did manage to buy, negative ones began disappearing.

This is pretty damning stuff.  If true, it shows a coordinted effort between people in sales those on the back end tech team.  It made some establishments feel as if Yelp was acting as if it was the “mafia” in that Yelp was threatening establishments to pay (advertise) in order to not be damaged.  That’s called “protection money” in organized crime.

But as I red between the lines I ended up scratching my head.   Over several months, after talking to “dozens” of businesses, Richards found six restaurants that felt that either they were being offered a quid-pro-qo for advertising to reduce or eliminate bad reviews; or some felt that this extended to manipulative threats of the placement of poor reviews and the elimination of postive reviews.

“Dozens.  “What does that mean?  36?  60?  84?  How did Richards find these restaurants?  Did she talk to one and then ask the owner/manager if he or she knew of any others that had similar stories?  Both questions are important.   The first because it leads to how widespread the problem actually is in the Bay Area and the second, because if there is a lack or randomness to all this, then the sample restaurants are self selected by the reporter.

The article relies on the how some of the restaurant owners “feel”.  These feelings may be completely legitimate.  But it is hard to counter a “feelings”e of another is the one with the feelings remain anonymous.  I fully believe in using anonymous sources, but there should be greater evidence used.  That is, if one is trying to prove that this is a consistent sales tactic used by the company as a whole.

And speaking of as a whole.  This article seems to be focusing soley on the East Bay restaurant seen.  True, it is an East Bay pub, but the article is written as if it is a widespread problem and the issue here is “the business of extortion”.  It fully damns the Yelp based on a small sample of local business’ feelings.

Stoppleman has since written a few more blog posts, but he could use a change of attitude.  There’s been enough discussion on the net about this article denigrating Yelp.  Hundreds of tweets on Twitter, negative mentions on Technorati, and articles in substantial online pubs.

The reason why I say that Stoppleman could use a change of attitude is because he’s treating all of this as an illegitimate attack.  The accusations, regardless of their veracity, at least sound reasonable.  And his defensiveness doesn’t really address the issue.

He does have on post that does work, at bit, in my opinion.  “Nine Myths About Yelp” is designed to negate what he feels are falsehoods.  The most important one he lists is #3 (it should be #1, but he doesn’t seem to realize it).  It is stated here:

Myth #3: Yelp salespeople manipulate reviews for prospective advertisers (for example, offers to remove a negative review if a new client signs up, or a threat to remove positive reviews if the business owner does not choose to advertise with Yelp)

Reality: We have every reason to trust the smart, hard-working and ethical salespeople who work at Yelp.  Beyond this, to avoid even an appearance of impropriety, we’ve taken several steps to ensure no member of our team is tempted to game the system.  Specifically:
1. Yelp salespeople do not have access to the system that deletes reviews; only a few members of Yelp engineering and user support team have this access, and they literally work on different floors within the office.
2. Every Yelp salesperson signs an agreement that s/he will not write reviews of any business while employed by Yelp.  We trust our teammates in sales to live up to this commitment.  We also have several monitoring systems in place to ensure nobody (accidentally or otherwise) crosses this line.
3. Through our vigilance, we once did find a salesperson who encouraged a friend to write a positive review for a prospective client (that the friend had actually patronized). The salesperson’s role at Yelp ended that day.
4. When a new advertiser signs up with Yelp, the relationship is handed off to an Account Manager.  The Account Manager then takes the client through a 30 minute phone training session — and confirms that reviews have nothing to do with advertising.
5. After the training call, the Account Manager sends a follow up survey that asks each client how much s/he agrees with the following statement: “I understand that Reviews are completely separate from the Yelp Ad Program, and that there is an automated filter that may suppress some of my reviews whether or not I am a client.”  Any client who does not click “Completely Agree” in this case gets yet another follow-up call for clarification.

Myth #4: Yelp removes positive reviews from businesses its staff does not like, or from businesses that do not pay for advertising

Reality: A review you may have seen on Yelp previously is no longer there; this happens.  The review in question may have “disappeared” for one of three reasons:
1. The review may have been suppressed by Yelp’s automated Review Filter, which is always out there looking for suspicious reviewing activity (like those anonymous rants and raves you see on other sites).
2. The writer may have removed her own review; she has the right to do that at any time
3. Another user believed the review violated Yelp’s Review Guidelines and sent it to our customer service team for review. The customer service team agreed, then manually removed the review.

Both our customer service team and the Review Filter work exactly the same way for advertisers as they do for non-advertisers.

This is how he should have addressed the issue at the very beginning.  Blown opportunity and his company has suffered and will continue to suffer as a result.  And he has to go beyond stating that the sales people and the tech people with access to placement of reviews work on different floors.

My guess is what happened is that a few sales reps in that particular office would scour the reviews on Yelp, and when they found some recent newly written negative ones, they then picked up the phone and made a sales call, offering the package that places a selected postive review on top – one that is visibly marked as being sponsored.  Some pitches probably went far beyond this…saying that they could make the negative one “disappear”.  Sales people will say sleazy things.  Stoppleman should understand this and not discount this.  He should then conduct some sort of internal audit that would show the public that he is trying to address the problem and root it out if it exists.  Retrain.  Resolve.

Now is it possible that some sales types had relationships with the tech people.  Absolutely.  Different floors – HA!  So the problem may have been more than a poorly written article.  Yelp needs to look into that because, as Yelp knows, online reputations matter.

And to Jeremy Stoppleman…you should allow people to comment on your blog posts.

Fresh Air Fund not only needs host families, donations, and children every year, FAF also needs camp counselors to staff the summer camps every year. The Fresh Air Fund and Abraham Harrison LLC reached out and over 120 bloggers and Twitterers responded to the call.  We thank you all very much and we appreciate all of your hard work on Fresh Air Fund’s behalf!  Much obliged!

1. Fresh Air Fund Looking for Help via Three Rivers Episcopal
2. Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer! via The Abraham & Harrison Blogger blog
3. Fresh Air Fund via All Said and Done
4. Fresh Air Fund via Reflective Ponderings
5. banner via Spectrum, Apex College
6. Now Hiring: Fresh Air Fund Summer Camp Staff via Assertagirl
7. Old-School Fun via Half the Sins of Mankind
8. Fresh Air Fund Looking for Summer ’09 Counselors via Best View in Brooklyn
9. Wednesday, February 11, 2009 via Ghana for a While
10. Fresh Air Fund, Non Profit, Now Accepting Applications from Gen Y for Summer Jobs via The Orrell Group
11. Fresh Air Fund Needs Counselors for Summer 2009! via Chris Abraham
12. The Fresh Air Fund via Brilliance or Madness
13. Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer! via Chris Abraham Social Media PR & Blogging Expert
14. Hiring For Camp Counselor Jobs via Chris Abraham’s Weblog
15. The Fresh Air Fund! via Around the World in beautiful Shoes
16. the fresh air fund JOBS via Around the World in beautiful Shoes
17. Information via Because I’m Cool Like That…
18. Fresh Air Fund Now Accepting Applications for Counselors via Danny Fisher
19. Fresh Air Fund via Chen Chow
20. Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer! via April 24th Blogging Basics
21. Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer via My Blog
22. Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer! via Chris Abraham
23. Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer via Chris Abraham Ceci N’est Pas Un Blog
24. Help inner-city kids enjoy a summer vacation via Christifideles
25. Fresh Air Fund and saying no to buracracy via My Time in Cape Verde with Peace Corps
26. Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer! via Official Colexica Blog
27. The Fresh Air Fund Needs Counselors for the Summer of ’09 via Make it Happen
28. Senator John Cornyn;Texas’ Embarrasment! via Dicky’s Doodles &Scribbles
29. Michael Steele; The Putney Swope Of The GOP via Dicky’s Doodles &Scribbles
30. From the Mailbag: Fresh Air Fund Needs Counselors for Summer 2009! via Epluribus Media
31. Rethinking Fresh Air via Rethinking Life
32. The Fresh Air Fund: Needs Counselors for the Summer of ’09! via Faithful Progressive
33. Your Money: The Fresh Air Fund via Cute, Cuddly, and Cannibalistic
34. Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer! via Fresh Air Fund
35. Hiring Camp Counselors for the Summer via Fresh Air Fund Blog
36. Do Something Good: The Fresh Air Fund via Gingerbread Latte: The E! True Hollywood Story
37. 2009: THE FRESH AIR FUND: VOLUNTEERS NEEDED via Tom Glover’s Hamilton Scrapbook
38. 2/4/09 PRESS RELEASE: Fresh Air Fund via Greenwich Roundup: This Just In ……
39. From Ashton Kutcher to Soup: Super Bowl Giving via Have Fun Do Good
40. Fresh Air Fund via The Common Room
41. Fresh Air via The Hosanna Road
42. Link via Whole
43. Fresh Air Fund via Rickety Contrivances of Doing Good
44. Wednesday, February 11, 2009 via In the Direction of my Daydreams
45. The Fresh Air Fund via About.com Internships
46. A Peal via Jakartass
47. Wednesday, February 4, 2009 via Happy at HFC
48. The Fresh Air Fund Needs Counselors via Jewels of My Heart
49. The Fresh Air Fund via Following My Heart
50. THE FRESH AIR FUND 2009 via Whykay’s Happenings
51. Fresh Air Fund via Keokuk Radio News Blog
52. Kill Jill Turns One! :D via Kill Jill Goes to College
53. Volunteering= Good for the Soul via La Petite Fashionista
54. The Fresh Air Fund Wants You! via I Say Hella
55. Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer! via Memes.org
56. Looking For A Summer Job? Give Back! via Micah Jesse Blog
57. via Mind Warriors
58. Fresh Air Fund Needs Counselors for Summer 2009! via Blah Blah Babycakes
59. Fresh Air Fund via Money Amulet
60. Philanthropy: The Fresh Air Fund via Movable Hype
61. The Fresh Air Fund via Beyond the Clouds
62. Fresh Air via Neringa’s Corner
63. The Hot Club of San Francisco takes audience to a simpler time via Ocolly.com
64. Make a difference this summer: leave home via Our pdx Network
65. Monday Afternoon Dept of Failures & Such via Page One
66. Long overdue… via Fijate que…Life of an El Salvador RPCV
67. My Favorite Links via Peace Corps Diary: Botswana 2008
68. Link via Pine Ridge Reflections
69. Fresh Air Fund Needs Counselors: Summer’09 via Pro Equestrian World Edition
70. Fresh Air Fund Needs Counselors: Summer’09 via REVISTA PROEQUESTRIAN ROMANIA
71. Get a Job! The Fresh Air Fund via Punk Rock
72. Fresh Air Fund Looking for Counselors via Ned Resnikoff
73. Hot fun in the city… via RoadTurn: Reflections on Life
74. Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer! via The Russell Pike Blog
75. Banner via Salamu Kenya!
76. FRESH AIR FUND COUNSELORS via Samotalis
77. Make a Difference – Support the Fresh Air Fund! via In The South, We’re Not Crazy…We’re Eccentric!
78. The Fresh Air Fund via Shamazing
79. Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer! via SMNR Social Media News Room
80. Wanted: Counselors who enjoy Fresh Air via Star City Harbinger
81. FYI – summer camp counselors needed via Steph in Burkina Faso
82. Volunteer as a Fresh Air Fund Counselor via System 13
83. Banner via Tangocherie
84. Link via Livin’ la Vida Loca: Peace Corps DR!
85. Sure, I’ll Support Your Camp, As Long As It Isn’t Jesus Camp via The Political Blog For Cynical Millennials
86. “Fresh Air” for Children via The Buddha Diaries
87. LINK via Third Mom
88. Fresh Air Fund is looking for a few good counselors via Left of Centre
89. Tweet via Blog Business World
90. Who says there are no jobs? Get a summer one! With Fresh Air Fund. http://tinyurl.com/6qkwwp via Young Manhattanite
91. Tweet via Lindsey Pollak
92. Tweet via Thoughts from Meggie Poo
93. Tweet via Deb’s Search and Rescue Stories
94. Fresh Air Fund Job Opportunities via Volunteer Boston: Get On Your Feet
95. Fresh Air Fund via Winny & B
96. Fresh Air Fund Camp Counselor Opportunities via Boarding School Blog
97. The Fresh Air Fund via Novel Inspiration
98. Camp Out & Change Lives! via Bare Essentials
99. The Fresh Air Fund needs Summer Counselors via Blogging for Business
100. banner via Bloody Brilliant
101. Counselors for 09 Summer Camps Required via Cop Recruiter
102. Change a Young Life this Summer via Everyday Giving Blog
103. The Fresh Air up There via Laura in Botswana
104. HIRING CAMP COUNSELORS FOR THE SUMMER! via Peter Geisheker’s Small Business Marketing Blog
105. For the kids… via Golfgal
106. Banner via Gotham Unleashed
107. Fresh Air Fund Is Hiring Counselors via Granby 01033
108. banner via Jewish Donor Blog
109. Doesn’t Everyone Deserve a Breath of Fresh Air? via Mamanista
110. The Fresh Air Fund is Looking for Camp Counselors via Math Me Thinks
111. So…what are YOU doing this summer? Here’s an idea…that pays! via The Online Degree Dorm Room
112. Fresh Air Fund Needs Camp Counselors via Outskirts:Life and Times in Charlottesville
113. General Discussion Message Board via Ram Nation
114. THE FRESH AIR FUND IS SEEKING COUNSELORS FOR THE SUMMER OF ’09 via Republica Update
115. Summer jobs with Fresh Air Fund (now accepting applications) via Secrets of The Job Hunt
116. Fresh Air Fund Counsellors via Servant of Chaos
117. A Breath of Fresh Air via TMT
118. Fresh Air Fund Needs Camp Counselors via The Diva Network
119. The World Needs Camp Counselors via Thoughts from Meggie Poo
120. SUMMER OPPORTUNITY: FRESH AIR FUND via Writing on the Mall
121. Hiring Camp Counselors for This Summer! via The Xyience Diet Resource
122. Fresh Air Fund via Yoga and Judaism Center
123. Fresh Air Fund Needs Counselors for Summer 2009! via Young Manhattanite

BL and I adore eachother so I was very excited to receive an email from her last night with a link to her latest article on Business Week, Using social media to market your business is a good idea. Just don’t plan on getting your whiz-kid nephew to do it for free — check it out and check BL out over on her blog, What’s Next Blog. Oh, and when BL asks “how many of them have actually created a successful campaign for clients using social media tools? I bet you’d be hard-pressed to find half a dozen with real track records,” I can proudly state that Abraham Harrison LLC has the expertise, the experience, and the track record to boot!  Anyway, here’s the article:

Debunking Six Social Media Myths

For companies, resistance to social media is futile. Millions of people are creating content for the social Web. Your competitors are already there. Your customers have been there for a long time. If your business isn’t putting itself out there, it ought to be.

But before you take the plunge, bear in mind the many myths that surround social media.

1. Social media is cheap, if not free. Yes, many of the tools that can be employed in social media marketing are free to use. These include Google’s (GOOG) video-sharing site YouTube, Yahoo’s (YHOO) photo-sharing site Flickr, the social-network building tool Ning, and content aggregators such as Digg and eBay’s (EBAY) StumbleUpon. Free blogging tools abound too; among them are WordPress, Twitter, and FriendFeed.

However, integrating these tools into a corporate marketing program requires skill, time, and money. The budget for an effective social media marketing campaign begins at $50,000 for two to three months. I’m sure companies have spent less, and I know they’ve spent more.

Building a site that incorporates interactivity, allows user-generated content, and perhaps also includes e-commerce doesn’t come cheap from anyone who knows what they are doing. Even taking free software like WordPress and making it function as an effective interactive site, incorporating e-commerce, creating style sheets that integrate with the company’s branding, takes more than time. That takes skill, experience, and money.

As a rule, a $50,000 to $100,000 budget can cover the creation of a simple multimedia microsite that becomes the center of an online community. Add in some widgets to help distribute the content and form a credible group on Flickr, Twitter, or Facebook and other networking groups to enhance the community aspect of the campaign. Complex functions add to programming and design costs.

A high-yield, highly targeted blog advertising campaign to kick off and support the program will cost an additional $25,000 to $100,000 a month. Advertising through Google’s AdWords, e-mail support, co-registration, and other tools that drive traffic would be additional costs.

2. Anyone can do it. A surfeit of whiz kids and more experienced marketers are claiming to be social media experts and even social media gurus. Search the bios of Robert Scoble’s 56,838 Twitter followers using Tweepsearch (www.tweepsearch.com), an index of the bios of Twitter users, and you’ll find:

• 4,273 Internet marketers
• 1,652 social media marketers
• 513 social media consultants
• 272 social media strategists
• 180 social media experts
• 98 social media gurus
• 58 Internet marketing gurus

How many of them have actually created a successful campaign for clients using social media tools? I bet you’d be hard-pressed to find half a dozen with real track records.

A successful social media campaign integrates social media into the many elements of marketing, including advertising, digital, and PR. Opinion and theory are no match for experience, and the best social media marketers now have more than 10 years of experience incorporating interactivity, blogs, forums, user-generated content, and contests into online marketing.

Video contests by companies hoping for viral buzz and Google juice are as plentiful as mosquitoes on a humid summer night. But, like their insect counterparts, most video contests suck.

It’s the rare video contest that gets as many as 2,000 entries. Many, like Denny’s (DENM) recent disastrous effort, get fewer than 10 entries. Apparently, 48 Denny’s breakfasts over four years wasn’t a big motivator.

3. You can make a big splash in a short time. Sure, sometimes a social media campaign can produce substantial and measurable results quickly.

Social media is great if you’re already a star, but that doesn’t happen overnight. Amid the recent launch of my T-shirt design business, Pawfun.com, I have relied heavily on my 4,000-plus Twitter followers and 120,000 readers of my What’s Next Blog, which I’ve updated as often as five times a day since 2003. Because that network already exists, with not one dollar spent on advertising, we were able to generate more traffic in our first three days than some major companies get after years online.

ZapposChief Executive Tony Hsieh, whose company has millions of customers who are evangelists for the great service that built the brand, quickly became a Twitter star, with more than 32,000 followers. When Dell (DELL), JetBlue Airways (JBLU), the Chicago Bulls, and other love-’em-or-hate-’em brands joined Twitter, they immediately developed huge followings.

Tweets can be used to drive traffic to articles, Web sites, contests, videos, and so on—if people already care about your brand, or if you have a truly original idea that people will want to share with their followers.

One recent example of a Twitter-generated success is Savvy Auntie, a community for aunts, godmothers, and “other women who love kids” that was launched six months ago by Melanie Notkin. She has counted on Twitter to drive traffic, help her find suppliers, products, and even investors. She developed a Twitter following before launching her business, then tapped into it for help when she launched.

4. You can do it all in-house. Wrong! You need strategy, contacts, tools, and experience—a combination not generally found in in-house teams, who often reinvent the wheel or use the wrong tools.

It is rare indeed to find an in-house team that can not only conceive and execute a social media campaign but also drive traffic to it with effective e-mail segmentation, search optimization, blogger outreach, blog advertising, Google ads, and more.

5. If you do something great, people will find it. Quite simply, that never was true. Until you can drive traffic to your social media effort, you’ve got a tree falling in the forest, heard only by those standing nearby. A great number of tools can drive traffic, including StumbleUpon, Digg, and Twitter, but nothing works better than word of mouse—one friend telling another, “Hey look at this!”

6. You can’t measure social media marketing results. You can use a variety of methods, including mentions on blogs and in media; comments on the content; real-time blog advertising results, and click-throughs to your company Web site. You can get very precise statistics from a variety of sites, including Google Trends, Twitter search, Google Analytics, BackType, and Compete.

The tools are there. The gurus who know how to use and interpret them—not so much.

Ochman, president of Whatsnextonline.com, has been creating new media marketing and online brand strategy since 1995 for companies including IBM, Ford, McGraw-Hill, Budget Car Rental, Stacksandstacks.com, and American Greetings. She tracks online marketing trends and campaigns in What’s Next Blog.

Bloody great, best-in-breed, article about online PR and marketing ethics by my buddy David Gelles of the Financial Times — he is surely a golden child and new media journalist rock star… be sure to put this article in front of your boss, whether you are a PR flack or are a corporate stooge — I think this article is actually going to be printed into the pink pages of the FT on Thursday, February 12 — go pick it up and hand it to the members of the C-suite, Blogs that spin a web of deception:

A web of deception By David Gelles

An overenthusiastic em­ployee from the computer supplies maker Belkin posted an offer online last month – $0.65 for anyone willing to write a positive review of Belkin products on Amazon.com. Several people took up the offer, producing gushing appraisals of Belkin products they had never used.

After a blogger exposed the scam, news organisations jumped on the story. The offer was removed and Belkin’s president weighed in with an apology.

The incident was a public relations disaster for Belkin. It was also a prime example of “Astroturfing”, the unsavoury marketing practice of generating fake grassroots enthusiasm for a product.

Given the anonymity afforded by the internet, it is hardly surprising that deceptive marketing is on the rise. Consumers are spending more time online and companies are seeking new ways to reach them.

But now, in an effort to regulate how employees behave on the web, companies and industry groups are developing their own online codes of ethics. They want to ensure that when staff do engage with social media, they act ethically.

Last year, Coca-Cola established its own set of social media guidelines and distributed them in a memo to all employees. The policy emphasises the need for transparency and encourages employees to use common sense when discussing the brand online. “We’ve always had very diverse channels to reach consumers,” says Adam Brown (pictured), digital communications director. “Wherever they are, that’s where we go. That’s now evolved into the need for a social media policy.”

So when Mr Brown went online to promote Coca-Cola’s Super Bowl advertisements, he followed the guidelines. On Facebook, Mr Brown announced that he was a Coke employee and pointed other users to the Coke ads on YouTube. On Pittsburgh Steelers fan forums, Mr Brown, who is from Pittsburgh, named his employer and then directed fans to the Coke blog, which had an interview with Steelers’ defensive star Troy Polamalu.

Mr Brown said more deliberate engagement with online conversations was a necessity for a global company such as Coca-Cola. “We’re mentioned several thousand times a day on blogs, and there are several hundred tweets about us on Twitter,” he says. “There is a lot of conversation taking place about our brand without us. Where appropriate, we wanted to start getting involved.”

Companies began interacting with social media years ago. But only recently have those involved with the industry perceived a need to develop ethical standards. Among the first to do so was The Word of Mouth Marketing Association, an organisation for the viral and buzz marketing industry. Womma published an ethics code in 2005, emphasising honesty of relationship, opinion and identity.

Since then, many companies have used the Womma code as a blueprint for their own guidelines. “Companies are learning every day that there is a right way and a wrong way to engage with social media,” says Paul Rand, vice-president of Womma’s board and head of its ethics project. “Some companies are learning by touching the burning pot; some companies are learning from the mistakes of ­others.”

One company that “touched the burning pot” is Shelfari, a social networking site for book lovers, owned by Amazon. As it battled for market share in late 2007, it came under fire for its poor design and clunky user interface. Soon, comments appeared on more than 50 blogs attesting to Shelfari’s greatness. “I have been on Shelfari for a couple of months now and absolutely love it,” read one. “Shelfari is such a great site. I joined a couple of months ago and I have been hooked on it ever since,” read another.

But all the comments were posted by the same user, “schaufferwaffer”, who was soon exposed as a Shelfari employee. Shelfari’s chief executive admitted to the Astroturfing (he blamed it on an intern who knew no better), and promised it would never happen again.

Such behaviour is declared out of line in the “disclosure best practices toolkit”, an ethics code drawn up by the Blog Council, an organisation for heads of social media at big companies. The document advises employees and agencies to announce whom they work for when communicating with blogs or bloggers. It also encourages employees to provide a means for contacting them directly, if someone they interact with via social media wants to follow up with a two-way conversation. The toolkit also warns against using pseudonyms.

IBM was one of the first companies to develop its own social media policy. In 2005, it published its “social computing guidelines”, which insist that employees write under their own names, using the first person, and make it clear they are speaking for themselves and not on behalf of IBM. It also prohibits employees from referencing clients, partners or suppliers without their approval.

UPS is developing its own online ethics policy after recognising how damaging Astro­turfing and other online misbehaviour can be for a company’s reputation. “If one of our airplanes goes down, we have a very clear plan for getting information to the media,” says Norman Black, director of global media services. “We realised we did not have a good plan for responding to a crisis on the ­internet.”

In some countries, deceptive marketing practices are not only frowned upon but also illegal. In the UK, the law identifies “falsely representing oneself as a consumer” as a punishable offence. And in 2006, the US Federal Trade Commission issued regulations stating that word-of-mouth marketers must disclose their relationships. But in spite of these new rules there has been little enforcement of the measures.

Even without prosecution, Belkin seems to have learnt its lesson. Melody Chalaban, speaking for the company, says Belkin will soon be holding seminars to teach employees how to interact ethically with social media, and is also considering joining Womma. “We want to stress that this is an isolated incident,” says Ms Chalaban. “We don’t endorse or condone unethical practices like this.”

Side Bar: The last post: underhand tactics can end in a PR disaster

* Flogging. Fake blogs can help companies get a personal voice behind a marketing campaign – but they risk a PR disaster if they are uncovered. When Sony tried to boost sales of its PSP portable gaming unit, it started a blog supposedly by two boys who wanted PSPs for Christmas. When it was revealed as a fake, Sony apologised and took it down.

* Astroturfing. A technique that gets its name from the practice of generating fake grassroots enthusiasm. One Florida company, PayPerPost, serves as a matchmaker between companies willing to pay for good press and bloggers willing to plug products that they have never used. After receiving criticism, PayPerPost now requires bloggers to disclose that their posts are sponsored.

* Comment spamming. Flooding the comment fields of blogs with enthusiastic notes about a company, even with full disclosure, is not welcomed by web users. When a Motorola employee commented on dozens of posts on a technology blog – each comment a plug for the new Motorola Krave – bloggers responded with snide criticisms of his spamming, which duly ceased.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

• Shashi Bellamkonda @shashib http://www.shashi.name
• Lisa Throckmorton @lkthrock http://www.speakerboxpr.com/plugged-in
• Kim Oser @putitaway http://www.putitaway.net
• Allison Lee @dallisonlee  http://www.dallisonlee.com
• ThursdayB with Chris @thursdayb  http://www.thursdaybram.com
• Joe Loong @joelogon  http://www.joelogon.com/blog
• Steven Fisher @stevenfisher   http://blog.networksolutions.com
• Jill Foster @jillfoster http://www.womengrowbusiness.com
• Andrew Somyak @asomyak
• Kevin @kasrael  http://kl.yelp.com
• Allyson Kapin @womenwhotech   http://www.womenwhotech.com
• Chantelle Karl  @cckarl Yelp.com’s Communication manager for the East coast (That includes Canada and UK !- figure that out)
• Nakeva @nakeva http://www.meeid.com/nakeva
• Gaurav Sharma @gauravonomics  http://www.gauravonomics.com

Here is Jeremiah Owyang’s definition of a Tweetup

What’s Tweetup? A few years ago, we called them blogger dinners, and it’s where folks got to come together, meet each other face to face (scary huh?) and actually talk in real life. Despite the affection many have for these social tools, there is nothing like seeing people in real life and meeting them.

A few guidelines for social events that I mentioned on twitter: Unlike Fight Club, talk about Tweetups, before, during, and after. Come to meet folks, be social. Don’t “poke” anyone unless you’ve brought protection. The act of “throwing sheep” at anyone other than your spouse is not encouraged. If you’re going to mention people “you’re following them” be sure to give them context whether that’s on Twitter or in real life –hopefully the former.

Kidding aside, just come to network with others, buy someone you’re connected to online a drink, exchange real world information, and most importantly, be merry

In December, we at Abraham Harrison helped the Fresh Air Fund reach out to bloggers and folks online in order to remind the online Fresh Air Fund friends and family that they both need donations during this time of year as well as needing families to host children for the summer. Since the holidays, over ninety bloggers have responded to Fresh Air Fund’s call to action with the placement of banners, with tweets, and with blog posts. We are much obliged to you, Fresh Air Fund bloggers! (via Marketing Conversation)

1. Young Manhattanite via Young Manhattanite.
2. Dicky’s Doodles &Scribbles via a Banner.
3. Mexico Surfin’, Traveling via a Banner.
4. Sonofthebeaches via a Banner.
5. More Of Dicky’s Doodles and Scribbles via a Banner.
6. Willy Wipeout via a Banner.
7. Dicky’s Gallery via a Banner.
8. Mexico Surfin’, Traveling via a Banner.
9. East Village Idiot via a Banner.
10. Assertagirl via The Fresh Air Fund: Donate Today To Change A Child’S Life Forever..
11. Olean NY, Bradford PA Entertainment Connection via Give The Gift Of A Fun Summer.
12. Picking Daisies via a Banner.
13. Rethinking Life via Rethinking The Natural World.
14. Sugar and Spice & a Little Rice via a Banner.
15. Self-Absorbed Boomer via Fresh Air Fund Needs Your Help This Holiday Season..
16. Make it Happen via Help The Fresh Air Fund.
17. Serf City via Give To The Fresh Air Fund.
18. Art of the Possible Online via The Fresh Air Fund Helping Inner City Children.
19. Yoga and Judaism Center via Fresh Air Fund.
20. Blah Blah Babycakes via This Holiday Season Give The Gift Of Fresh Air..
21. The Hosanna Road via Fresh Air.
22. The Stephford Diaries via Randomness Because I Can.
23. Lost in the Ozone via Happy Holidays From The Fresh Air Fund.
24. Stories of a Traveling Diva via Share Your Blessings For The Fresh Air Fund.
25. Grace come By Hearing via a Banner.
26. LeeOdden via a Tweet.
27. Ocean Hopping: NY To London via Fresh Air For Christmas.
28. Parenting Cares via Making This Holiday Count.
29. She Lives via Fresh Air.
30. I Say Hella via Support And Awesome Cause.
31. Bloody Brilliant via a Banner.
32. Tom Glover’s Hamilton Scrapbook via The Fresh Air Fund
33. Around the World in beautiful Shoes via a Banner.
34. Circle Of Life via a Banner.
35. Fat Doctor via Give The Gift Of Fresh Air.
36. Gotham Unleashed via Don’t Forget The Fresh Air Fund!.
37. Blue Ridge Dreaming via a Banner.
38. Mountain Mama via a Banner.
39. Best View in Brooklyn via Need An End Of The Year Tax Deduction? Consider The Fresh Air Fund.
40. Left of Centre via a Banner.
41. Samotalis via Happy Holidays From The Fresh Air Fund.
42. Word Journey via You Can Give A Child A Break This Summer.
43. Blogging for Business via The Fresh Air Fund Needs Help.
44. Speaking Thru Me via a Banner.
45. Myrtus via Open Your Heart.
46. Queens Crap via a Banner.
47. Camy’s Loft via a Banner.
48. Just A Flip Flop Mom via a Banner.
49. The Online Degree Dorm Room via Try A Little Fresh Air This Holiday Season.
50. Jewels of My Heart via The Fresh Air Fund.
51. Citizen Hunter via The Gift Of Fresh Air – And A Family.
52. The Common Room via Truly Give The Gift Of Space To A Needy Child.
53. mytopicalescape.com via a Tweet.
54. Political Junkie via The Fresh Air Fund. .
55. Outskirts:Life and Times in Charlottesville via C-Ville Needs Fresh Air.
56. Zoeysworld via Fresh Air Fund Thoughts.
57. Newbie NYC via NYC Charities – Tis The Season.
58. Lessons From a Recovering Doormat via The Gift Of Charity.
59. via Editors Advise On The Pursuit Of Happiness… The Couture Pack Or Not….
60. The New Dad Blog via a Banner.
61. South Bronx Math Teacher via a Banner.
62. Christ, My Righteousness via Supporting Fresh Air Children Fund Psa.
63. Friends of Dave via The Fresh Air Fund.
64. Base Magazine via The Fresh Air Fund Needs You!.
65. Christian Spirituality w/ Edges via The Fresh Air Fund: Changing Children’s Lives.
66. Inside the frame via a Banner.
67. Sherman’s News and Editorials via The Fresh Air Fund.
68. Tri Valley Technology News via Giving To Children In Need For The Holidays.
69. Enux.org: Regional News via Giving To Inner-City Children For The Holidays.
70. The Tutorial Blog via Giving For The Holiday Season.
71. Pregnant Pause via a Banner.
72. Healing Quotes.Daily Inspiration via a Link.
73. Healing Quotes.Daily Inspiration via a Link.
74. Green Daily via Share Your Christmas Blessings.
75. Paravanes: Christian Meditations via Fresh Air; It’s A Good Thing.
76. The Diva Network via a Banner.
77. Baby Fruit via a Banner.
78. Cheap Textbooks for college English literature writing via a Banner.
79. Happy at HFC via Fresh Air Fund.
80. ClearlyEnlight’s Travel Blog via a Link – Under “Websites”.
81. Granby 01033 via Support The Fresh Air Fund.
82. Third Mom via a Banner.
83. Baby Ethiopia via a Banner.
84. Baby Ethiopia via a Tweet.
85. The Buddha Diaries via Fresh Air.
86. Third Mom via The Fresh Air Fund.
87. The Evil Beet via Amazing Opportunity To Help Out: The Fresh Air Fund!.
88. New York Portraits via Sparkly Lights In Rockefellar Center.
89. Londonderry NH net via Thinking Of Summer, A Child In NYC Is!.
90. Good As You via a Banner.

My buddy David Gelles writes for the Tech section of the FT, my favorite paper. Check out his latest article, New corporate firefighters. Sadly for me, he can’t shamelessly promote my company, Abraham Harrison LLC, because he has ‘journalistic integrity;’ however, it is awesome he works there because he writes awesomely-accessible articles about my space, including social media marketing, social media PR, blogger engagement, Twitter, and also the world of online and social media crisis-response.  It is amazing!  I beat up Pepsi Max over on AdAge and a couple weeks later, Gelles writes an article about the space.  I am both amazingly proud and a little paranoid!

New corporate firefighters By David Gelles

When advertisers launched a campaign last September for the pain reliever Motrin, they hoped to attract the attention of mothers whose backs might be sore from wearing baby-carriers. The advertisements implied that while baby-carriers might be fashionable, hauling a child around could be painful.

Mothers were not amused. Soon after the ads were released, anti-Motrin campaigns appeared on Facebook and blogs. Outraged mums, furious at the suggestion that their babies were a hassle, posted rebuttal videos on YouTube. Through Twitter, the micro-blogging service, thousands of people attacked the company.

Motrin was caught off-guard. For days, no company representative replied. Critics accused the company of being not only insensitive but also unresponsive.

Eventually a marketing executive at McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson that markets Motrin, e-mailed individual bloggers to apologise for the campaign. But the damage was done.

Jeanette Gibson of CiscoThe “Motrin moms” episode illustrates the power of social media — the expanding network of websites that allow users to interact with each other and, increasingly, with companies. It also demonstrates the perils for enterprises that are unprepared to interact with social media.

But now a growing number of companies, including Ford Motor, PepsiCo, Wells Fargo and Dell, are creating new high-level jobs to ready themselves for engagement with social media, with titles such as director of social media, head of communities and conversation, vice-president of experiential marketing and digital communications manager. The role of these new executives is to monitor and influence what is being said about their companies on the internet.

Johnson & Johnson made its own appointment in the wake of the Motrin debacle. Having already dabbled in social media, in December the company promoted Marc Monseau, a 10-year company veteran and former director of media relations, to director of social media. “My responsibility is to work with the corporate office and the individual companies to better interact online,” Mr Monseau says. “It underscores the fact that we realise this is an important audience and one that we need to develop relationships with.”

These new jobs represent a broad shift in media relations strategy at large companies. “Corporate communications has radically changed,” says Andy Sernovitz, chief executive of the Blog Council, an organisation for heads of social media at big companies. “It’s no longer just companies talking to the press, and customer service talking to customers. All these other people showed up in the ­middle. They may not be press and they may not be customers, but suddenly their collective voice is bigger than the traditional channels.”

The essence of social media is conversation. Rather than a one-way stream of information, where companies make announcements to the press and customers, social media enables a great deal of interaction, where companies are in constant dialogue with the public. “We’ve seen a shift from doing things the old way to now having conversations with our customers,” says Jeanette Gibson, director of new media for Cisco Systems (pictured).

Ms Gibson, who began her job in 2007, says there is now a mandate at Cisco that all staff be attuned to what is being said about Cisco online. “It has definitely shifted how we’ve done communications,” she says. “Our executives are video blogging every day. Everybody’s job is now social media.”

Dell, the computer maker, has one of the most robust corporate social media programmes. Bob Pearson, former senior vice-president of corporate communications, became vice-president of communities and conversation for Dell in 2007.

He now has 45 people working for him. The core team works on “blog resolution” — trawling the web for dissatisfied customers, then attempting to contact them to make amends. Others on Dell’s social media team manage the company’s 80 Twitter accounts and 20 Facebook pages. Still others manage IdeaStorm, Dell’s forum for customer feedback.

Dell is taking its customer feedback seriously. When the company launched the Latitude laptop last summer, six of the features, including backlit keyboard and fingerprint reader, were ideas that came from IdeaStorm. “It’s always worth talking directly with your customers. It’s always worth listening to them,” says Mr Pearson. “It’s the wisdom of crowds.”

Peter Shankman, a social media expert and founder of Help a Reporter Out, a service that broadcasts reporters’ requests to a network of experts, says many companies are still reluctant to get involved: “Companies are slow to adapt because they’re still not 100 per cent sure they can make money with social media,” he says.

Yet Dell, for one, has made a business of it. By broadcasting discount alerts on Twitter, it says, it has generated more than $1m in sales. And in the US, 59 of the 100 leading retailers, including Best Buy and Wal-Mart, now have a fan page on Facebook, according to Rosetta, an interactive marketing agency.

Other savings can be realised through the Web’s ability to reach many people at once. “If you solve someone’s problem on the phone, nobody knows,” says Mr Sernovitz. “If you solve that same problem in writing on a blog, it costs you no more, but thousands of people are satisfied. And then, if 100 people never call because they found the answer, you very, very quickly get to multimillion-dollar savings.”

Other companies are using Twitter to douse public relations fires before they erupt. Scott Monty, head of social media for Ford Motors, used Twitter to appease users who were angry after the carmaker sued an enthusiast website that was selling unauthorised Ford merchandise. When fans of the enthusiast site posted angry messages, Mr Monty “tweeted back” to explain the company’s position.

Bonin Bough, who was appointed director of social media for PepsiCo last year, also used Twitter to defuse a brewing crisis after the company released a series of advertisements depicting a cartoon calorie character committing suicide.

“Social media is much more than getting out there and having conversations,” says Mr Pearson of Dell. “It transforms a business if you use it correctly.”

Abraham Harrison has been at the forefront of the Twitter phenomenon since its public offering, successfully leveraging the power of micro-blogging for many of its clients. (Via Abraham Harrison LLC)

Services include:

• Twitter Consultation: Abraham & Harrison often works with clients to help them understand what micro-blogging means, the impact it can have within their industry, and the ways in which it can be utilized to implement customer service, improve customer loyalty, promote the brand, and protect a company’s reputation.

• Twitter Profile Creation: Abraham & Harrison has successfully created and populated Twitter profiles for a number of clients. Profile creation includes:
  • Twitter Brainstorming: An initial consultation with the client that outlines the goals, challenges and Twitter strategy prior to profile creation
  • Profile Creation: Abraham & Harrison will create a Twitter profile that mirrors the branding, marketing, and messaging currently utilized by the client. All messaging “tweeted” through Twitter will mimic that of the company’s branding.
  • Constant Population: Once the profile is created, Abraham & Harrison will either train or populate the Twitter profile with valuable information that connects with fellow users on Twitter. Population will include daily “tweets” throughout the work week to boost followers and community engagement.
  • Valuable Team “Retweeting”: Not only will a skilled team member help with the population of the Twitter profile, but the entire Abraham & Harrison team will be behind the client, “retweeting” their content which in turn means an exponentially larger audience seeing the company’s message. For instance, Chris Abraham, Abraham & Harrison’s President and COO, who is known as one of the top Twitterers of Social Media news (having over 2,700 followers) will “retreet” every client messaging. What does this mean? A Twitter veteran will be promoting your company, brand, and message…and people will listen. At least three Abraham & Harrison team members with high profile Twitter profiles will be able to retweet each client “tweet” at a time.
  • Continual Re-Evaluation: Abraham & Harrison will continually connect with each client to ensure the messages disseminated on Twitter stay fresh, valuable, and relevant.
• Abraham & Harrison Twitter Case Study: A fantastic example of Abraham & Harrison’s knowledge of Twitter is illustrated by our work with the client, The Fresh Air Fund, a non-profit agency providing free summer vacations in the country to more than 1.7 million New York City children from disadvantaged communities.
  • Twitterers Who Will Change The World: With Abraham & Harrison’s help, The Fresh Air Fund created a Twitter profile to communicate with other NPOs, current volunteers, potential families interested in The Fresh Air Fund, and donors. In just three months of tweeting, The Fresh Air Fund Twitter profile has over 600 followers and has reached thousands of individuals who they otherwise would never have been in contact with. Not only does Abraham & Harrison help guide The Fresh Air Fund on how to best utilize Twitter in a respectful and value-driven way, Chris Abraham is also eager to help “retweet” The Fresh Air Fund’s Twitter content, meaning that over 3,000 users are seeing this non-profit’s messaging, creating a critical relationship with The Fresh Air Fund that results in support of the NPO. Even more impressive, The Fresh Air Fund was recently nominated to be a part of the “Top Ten List of Twitterers Who Will Change The World” — a fantastic feat for an NPO who has only been a part of the Twittosphere for three months.

(By Lauren Cook) Never has the power of Twitter been more evident than in the last few weeks and months. Once known only by “techies” and early adopters, this micro-blogging site is now slowly infiltrating into the mainstream and more importantly, affecting the way many of us communicate, listen, and learn.

For those not familiar with Twitter, here’s a quick introduction: Twitter is a free social networking service that allows users to send and read each other’s updates (known as “tweets”) that are limited to 140 characters in length (think two sentences at most). At its inception in 2006, Twitter (then known as “Obvious”) was originally created as a tool to be used internally by the podcasting company, Odeo. Two years later, over 3 million individuals worldwide have Twitter accounts and the rate in which news spreads has shortened to, well, 140 characters.

Initially, the goal of Twitter was to allow users to share with their “followers” exactly what they were doing at that moment (ie: “It’s Monday morning and I’m having Cheerios for breakfast”). A common misconception among those who aren’t familiar with Twitter believe this is still the case with the micro-blogging site. In fact, Twitter has grown and expanded and its capabilities have far surpassed solely communicating the mundane details of everyday life.

For instance, take the recent Mumbai attacks in November, 2008. During the three-day battle that left more than 100 dead, social-networking services such as Twitter and Flickr were flooded with news, rumors and pictures of the tragedy by what is now termed as “citizen journalists” — users on Twitter that were tweeting breaking news faster than mainstream media could pick up the same information on the news wires. Many people now describe the situation in Mumbai as “Twitter’s moment.” As a result, major media outlets now uses Twitter to help communicate the real-time public sentiment on various issues, such as Presidential elections, natural disasters, and current events.

Abraham & Harrison has been at the forefront of the Twitter phenomenon since its public offering, sucessfully leveraging the power of micro-blogging for many of its clients. One only has to take a quick look at Abraham & Harrison’s President and COO, Chris Abraham, who is known as one of the top Twitterers of Social Media news, having over 2,700 followers, to understand Abraham & Harrison’s extensive knowledge of cutting edge social media tools.

A fantastic example of Abraham & Harrison’s knowledge of Twitter is illustrated by our work with the client, The Fresh Air Fund, a non-profit agency providing free summer vacations in the country to more than 1.7 million New York City children from disadvantaged communities.

With Abraham & Harrison’s help, The Fresh Air Fund created a Twitter profile to communicate with other NPOs, current volunteers, potential families interested in The Fresh Air Fund, and donors. In just three months of tweeting, The Fresh Air Fund Twitter profile has over 600 followers and has reached thousands of individuals who they otherwise would never have been in contact with. Not only does Abraham & Harrison help guide

The Fresh Air Fund on how to best utilize Twitter in a respectful and value-driven way, Chris Abraham is also eager to help “retweet” The Fresh Air Fund’s Twitter content, meaning that over 3,000 users are seeing this non-profit’s messaging, creating a critical relationship with The Fresh Air Fund that results in support of the NPO. Even more impressive, The Fresh Air Fund was recently nominated to be a part of the “Top Ten List of Twitterers Who Will Change The World” — a fantastic feat for an NPO who has only been a part of the Twittosphere for three months.

Are you thinking about joining Twitter? One word of warning: You can’t become a Twitter sensation overnight. As Chris Abraham says, “Growing a social media profile is like growing a coral reef: after seeding the reef, there are so many things that need to happen before a reef blooms ‘in its own.’” With Twitter, time and commitment are key in order to position yourself as a valuable addition to the community. “You need to be generous — give more than you take — and you need to be committed to the long term,” Chris advises. And it’s not all about your follower numbers.

For instance, once could argue that Lance Armstrong isn’t a valuable member of the Twitter community given that he has over 23,000 followers, but is only following approximately 40 other Twitterers (an improvement since the last time I checked, when he was following a mere 2 users: his Livestrong organization, and one other member of the Livestrong Executive Team).

Twitter isn’t about just talking about yourself, accepting every follower, and never engaging in actual dialogue. Like every other social networking tool, it’s about forming relationships, providing valuable content, listening and (like Chris said), giving more than taking.

There’s an unspoken code of ethics followed by well-respected Twitterers, and a strategy that can help you reach your customers and supporters on Twitter while not opening yourself up to criticism and in extreme cases, retaliation (ever heard of the Motrin Mommies ?). The power of Twitter is increasing daily — do you know how to harness it? Let Abraham & Harrison show you how. (Via Marketing Conversation)