How to Unfollow Contacts on LinkedIn

LinkedIn can be a proper mare sometimes. It's so stable, doggedly reliable, but the interface can be a pig if you're looking for something specific. After a month of job hunting last year I need to purge a bunch of agents who are still spamming with the latest positions.

You wouldn't think it'd be rocket science to unfollow people, but it was a bugger to find. So much so it's worthy of a blog post.

To start with, on the main horizontal nav, go to 'Network>Contacts' in the drop-down (as below, but you can access this from the Home page as well).

From here you'll be directed to the main Contacts Page. Just scroll down a little and you'll see a large white area with a couple of drop-downs of filtering options. These include 'Recent Conversations', 'Last Name', 'First Name' and "New' (as in, new contacts). You can also filter by location, the companies you manage pages for, tags, job titles (handy in my case) etc.

Then once you've got some filtering sorted - and no offence to anyone in the pics above, I'm just using them as an example and not unfollowing any of these loverly peeps - head to the small drop-down under each that says 'More', and then click on 'Remove Connection'. It'll ask you if you're sure, just to be certain.

Not hard, but the devil to find if you don't know. For a couple more LinkedIn tips you could try "How to Automatically Post Content to LinkedIn and Google+", "Targeting Companies With LinkedIn and Facebook Social Data", and "How do you go Incognito When Viewing LinkedIn Profiles?".

Hope this helps someone :)

Where to Start With Blogger Outreach

Bloggers are awesome. Though I suppose I would say that…

They're a rich pool of passionate content creators with their own followers across a plethora of topics, from fly-fishing to post-natal stress. If you want it from the horse's mouth, and an impartial opinion based on experience, blogs are the place to go. 81% of Internet users trust bloggers, and 61% of the online population claim to have made a purchase decision based on a recommendation from something they’ve read that was posted by a blogger. That's serious fried gold.

Bloggers also drive those precious links, so beloved by SEO’s everywhere, and have an AuthorRank of their own to boost Google credibility. They have a social media audience, and their sites are peppered with distribution tools (or should be). Needless to say, bloggers are the influencers you want in your corner.

Modern PR agencies need to court bloggers for the future, and need to form relationships in the same way we do with journalists.

Here’s a few general guidelines to get you started:

Go to bloggers' conferences and say hi. Making a personal connection with the folks who publish in your niche is fantastic for future relationships - plus, it’s great to learn more about what the folks who are passionate about your niche really want and how they behave (in a cool supportive way, not a creepy stalker way). Try casting an eye over BloggerEdge for Blogger Events that might be on topic for you and in your area. There’s a lot of good stuff over at PRNewswire for Bloggers as well. There’s tonnes of conferences and meet-up’s around, from food bloggers to mummy bloggers and from automotive blogs to travel blogs. Do a bit of research, and pop along with a smile and a decent sized bag of high-quality freebies to an event that’s suitable for your industry.

top bloggers have a big damn audience

If you want to know who the top bloggers are in your field give Technorati a go. This is a big blog search engine and ‘authority index’ that lets you mooch around by keyword, to find article and topic info on the sort of blogs with the sort of following that’s going to help you spread the word.

There’s also ProfNet, which is packed with regularly updated story leads from jornos and bloggers (and there’s a free trial version available at time of writing). Google’s blog search tool is worth a punt and AllTop’s worth a good look (if a little tricky to search). I also like using Pinterest search to find relevant boards, clicking through to the blogs by topic, and then using 'Page Rank Status' in Chrome to quickly see if they have any SEO kahunas.

Go and have a read of some of these results pages, then (if you like what you see) make contact with the writers and owners via email or through Twitter and strike up a conversation. Hopefully, there’s space for future collaboration by the very virtue that you share a common interest and ongoing experience in the subject matter. Introduce yourself and form relationships - but don’t be a pushy gimp. Play nice. Make genuine relationships. No one likes a pushy gimp.

not well liked

Think about how relationships can be mutually beneficial. You have to put in to get back, that’s how life works. Why should a blogger give you valuable column inches in their ongoing labour of love?

Can you offer their readers a discount code? Do you have exclusive info you could release to them first, maybe in a high-quality branded Infographic? Are you going to pay them (though do bear in mind the recent ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) memo reiterating its policy on using blogs for advertising)? Have you got some cool freebies you could throw to them to use as prizes? Are you going to invite a group along to test drive your new prototype or for a look behind the scenes at your innovative new whatever's being made? If you’ve already build a good relationship, are you going to send them a bottle of festive vino and wish them joy of the season to keep them thinking about you? Can you post them a gift card with a view to getting an impartial review? If the blog you are looking at has already reviewed a competitor's products or services then this is a great place to start.

Yes, this is time consuming. Yes, you’ll get a lot of rejections or sometimes ignored. When you do build relationships a topical contact list will be beneficial for the future. Start collating now. List people by subject and make copious notes on contact methods etc.

These folks are assets. It’s important to treat them as such.

I Can Haz Job: The Social/PR Fit

It's my belief that digital, as an industry, doesn't truly understand social media. I realise this is something of a sweeping statement, and that there's obvious tie-ins to SEO and the digital side of content marketing, but on the whole it's a practice more akin to branding, traditional marketing, brand journalism, and public relations.

Social is about people, and the tools they use to communicate. It's about strategy, and agile growth. It's about sharing, caring, and giving. Yes, it's about numbers too, but above all it's about listening and making sure the right people get to hear what you have to say in the most open and sympathetic way possible. It opened my eyes when I was working with PRNewswire's Fuel Team in Denver, on the Agility platform, as to how close a match both disciplines truly are.

Over the past few weeks I've been to a crop of interesting interview with brands in markets as diverse as international banking, food retail, SEO agencies, online gambling, high-street outdoor wear, and mobile communications. None of them felt like a good fit, and then my efforts in social channels paid off big time. I met up with my good friend Trevor Palmer for lunch, and he made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

how could I say no?

Now Trev and I have been friends for a long time, since my days at the Associated Press, and he's the Director of Tank PR in Nottingham. He's just as addicted to Skyrim as I am, and he's a gentlemen of values not often found in our industry. In short, a good solid chap. His company, Tank, has been established in Nottingham's Lace Market district since he went out on his own back in January 2010. Their clients include such well-known faces as Hilay Devey (of Pallex and Dragons Den fame), Red Bull Events, the NSPCC, Holiday Inn, the list goes on.

With all the things that have been going on of late at Chez Hewitt - my dad being ill etc. - I've come to realise a few things. Quality of life is really key to where I am in my life. I want to work in an environment sympathetic to my skills, without 2 hours of travel each way, and where I have time and space to develop my craft. I want to work somewhere that it's easy to sell in my skills - because it makes sense for the clients - and where there's good content begging for distribution. Somewhere campaign focused, where I can add real creative input and be of real value to the communities I'll be creating strategy for.

Plus, I want some cool clients and it's been ages since I've been up for any awards ;)

Trev and I have been talking about working together again for over 10 years. When he offered me a place in the agency, I didn't have to think twice. If you'd like to know any more please give us a follow on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. I've gotta say, this couldn't have worked out better. His team are a really friendly and savvy bunch - Martin, Louise, Max, Marie-Anne, Helen, Glen, etc. - and I know I'll learn a lot from them, and how PR really works, in the months to come. As an added bonus, someone makes a cuppa pretty much on the hour and there's a killer bacon butty shop just around the corner.

big damn 12' tank poster, next to my desk

I'll be speaking on behalf of Tank at the East Midlands High Growth Business Summit this month. It's a great line-up, and if you're in the Uk it'll be well worth coming along. Exciting times. I can't smile wide enough :)

Job Hunting Again. Any Takers?

So, I'm job hunting again. Let me explain:

2 months ago my dad had a couple of nasty strokes. Paralysed down one side and learning to walk again type of nasty. As far as original Hewitt's go there's only 2 of us left, and he needed my help. Consequently, and a massive thanks to Just Search here for being so cool about this, I've had to leave the agency and I've been helping my dad run his epoxy resin business and to get back on his feet.

Thankfully, being the original source of the Hewitt bloody-mindedness, he's well on his way up the path of recovery and I can now start job hunting again.

giz a job?

So, who needs a strategy level Social Media and Digital Marketing specialist? If you hear of anything interesting, gimme a shout and feel free to connect via my LinkedIn.

I'll be using a lot of social tools (I ended up working for 3 years in the US with Monique and the guys at Conversify thanks to Twitter) and a LinkedIn pro account has always seen me right in the past. I'll report back with anything interesting, and if anyones's got any suggestion please gimme a shout.

5 Punctuation and Grammar Rules all Marketers Should Know

Yes, I know this is filler because I haven't written anything in an age, but this is important.

As a content marketing bod, writer, p/t sub-editor and full-time anal retentive, I need to know this stuff. If you're in the same industry you should too. So pay attention and be told. I get things wrong all the time - nobody is perfect (except possibly Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction) which is why as a team we check each others stuff. Here's a few things that come up a lot - especially when clients or tech folks are writing the content and we're converting them into English afterwards:

Punctuation Marks: Inside or Outside of Quotation Marks?

Good question, and here's the definitive answer according to Miss. Jackson (my high school English teacher). The comma and the full stop (that's a "period", for you colonials) should always be inside any quotation marks. The exclamation mark, question mark, semicolon, hyphen, interrobang (or whatever) all go inside the quotation marks but only if they apply to the thing you are quoting (and not the whole sentence). If they apply to the entire sentence then they get relegated to outside the quotation marks. Rocket science it ain't.

As an aside: quotation marks are for quoting speech, words, or sentences. Also, on occasion, to show irony. They are not, however, for emphasis (that's why God invented bold type).

Multiple Punctuation Marks

This is one of the (admittedly many) things in the world that genuinely annoys me. Unless you're writing in a brand voice and your brand is an annoying, illiterate, prepubescent ass-hat, this is always a no-no.

One exclamation mark at a time. Not 3. 1 mark good. 3 marks bad. "Oh my god, Becky. Her butt is so big!" not "Oh my god, Becky. Her butt is so big!!!"

Three dots at the end of a sentence for ellipsis. No more. Just 3. 3 shall be the number of the dotting. Not 5, or 6, or 7...

WTF is Title Case, and why Should I Care?

Now here's a "rule" that's not quite so cut and dried. Every blog or collection of articles has a style and you should ultimately establish and stick to that house style. That said, here's what I was taught in the 80's back in Miss. Jackson's class and it's stood me in good stead. This is also how they did it when I worked for Associated Press.

Basically, capitalise any words (including conjunctions and prepositions) that have four or more letters. If the title starts or ends with a word with less than 4 characters, make that a capital too. On top of that, all the usual abbreviation and capitalisation rules (like the capital letter "I") still apply.

Doing this saves those of us who are going to embed your article in Facebook from cursing your name as we have to alter the title to look literate before pressing "post".

Effect and Affect, and others.

"Affect" is (pretty much always) a doing word. It means to cause change or emotion. It can also mean to feign a false character trait (like "affectation").

"Effect" is a thing (noun) and a doing word (verb). We get "an effect", and something can "be effected" (i.e., "cause and effect").

'irregardless' is my killing word.

While we're on the indirect topic, "should of" should be "should have". "That" and "which" are not transferable, and the same is true of "less" and "fewer". Irony and Coincidence mean two completely different things - please look them up. Let's not even get started on "who" and "whom".

How the Hell do Apostrophes Work?

Don't worry, any non English major gets this messed up. Apostrophes are there to indicate possession for naming words, like "The Doctor's fez," but not with a personal pronoun such as: your, their, whose, and its. To indicate a plural possession you make the noun a plural and then use the apostrophe, like "the Timelords' robes."

Apostrophes are also used to replace letters in contractions ("has not" being "hasn't", "is not" being "isn't" etc.). Most of the time they're not there to show plurals. Very handy for brand voices where you want to be a bit more casual and friendly and have a younger tone.

The Basics of Using Semi Colons (and Colons).

Most of us have no clue how semi colons work, but we use them anyway because they look pretty. To be fair, I'm guilty of this myself.



It's actually pretty simple. just use a colon (like the vid above) when you want to list or clarify something. It can also be used to start (and to introduce the latter part of) a sentence. Eg. “The role of the colon is easy: to introduce.”

Semi colons are used when you get two clauses that can also work separately as two separate sentences, but they also work well together. In the rhythm of the sentence it's like a little pause, but not a comma. Eg. “His wife calls it socialising; Nik calls it anthropology.” Very often you can replace a semi colon with a full stop or a hyphen. Again, big thanks to Miss. Jackson (and for insisting I read Hitchhikers Guide).

So there you go. As a content creator, social gnu, and marketing bod these are the big ones that I find people ask about or have problems with. If you have any more please share, and feel free to point out any punctuation or grammar errors in the above.

Oh, and on a personal level, "like" is not a conjunction. Thank you.

Setting Standards: A few Possible Ways to use Facebook Hashtags?

So Facebook now has hashtags.

I like them. No really, I do. They're great for passive outreach and sharing. They're awesome for research - you just follow the tag to riff on a topic. I am, however, starting to feel #spammed by the way some people are using them.

#rug #persianrugs #tiestheroomtogether

Sceptically, I do wonder what Facebook has further up their sleeve. They never do a damn thing without a financial reason, and rumours of them working on 'a reader' (thought I've been told it's not the RSS kind, and not a Google Reader replacement) have me curious as to how hashtags might fit into the equation for topical monitoring.

It's fair to say that uptake is slow amongst the average users, especially on personal accounts where security settings seem to make this all somewhat moot, but a lot of Facebook Page admins have charged into this with a degree of relish worthy of Heinz. So much so, many posts look ridiculous and there's a real chance of them alienating their community. I thought I'd throw my tuppence-worth in, for the record.

Don't use Them for Every Word

Stop it. Just, stop it. I've seen posts where almost every word had a hashtag in front of it, making the whole sentence just tags. It looks bloody stupid and your audience know they are being marketed to and that you no longer give a shit what your actually saying, just so long as someone sees it. It's not funny, or ironic, it's just bad practice. Bad Page admin, go to your box.

Keep Them Simple

It's not a game. You want to capitalize on others using your hashtag, so keep it as simple as possible.

Say your a crafts author like the good lady wife - tags like #jewellery (you might even want to try #jewelry), #steampunk, #crafts (maybe), or something like #beading or #cooking are going to be tags other people are going to use as well - and so the outreach on them (and chance of them being seen by genuinely interested parties) is going to be better. This isn't Twitter, so hashtags shouldn't have more than 2 words in them. Something like #steampunk is great, and #steampunkcooking might have it's place (if others are also using it), but #steampunkcookingonanengineblock is very likely a hanging offence.

#beer #carlsburg #couplesdatinginalex

There's one possible exception to this. Getting everyone to remember one tag (like #ourevent2013, or whatever) is sometimes easier. I you're trying to get people to submit photographs from an event, for example, using one tag across Google Plus, Twitter, Instagram, and now on Facebook, will always be the right way to go.

Cap at 3 or 4 of Value

Once again, don't spam your audience. Personally I've found 3 hashtags just about right, especially if you're still object tagging, location tagging, and all the other tactics. There's nothing written in stone here, but if you do any more it starts looking really obvious. If necessary add them at the end of what you're saying, though personally I don't mind them being part of the sentence so long as it looks natural. Also, bear in mind that hashtags don't act as links through the mobile interface so this can get shoddy pretty quickly on smartphones if it's tagged to bits but not linking anywhere - I'm reliably told this will, however, be coming on line in the next few days.

Find What's Appropriate

Take a look at what's popular by taking a look at a hashtag you think might work, and see what others are using as well (around the same subject). Right now topics and communities are still finding out what works and experimenting. You can poke around a stream and get to the content of a topic by using the URL structure like https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/bacon, where #bacon is the hashtag for the stream you want to look at. If you search on a hashtag through search (just type in #wordofyourchoice) you now also get a list of similar tags that other people are using, which I presume they'll be rolling out more functionality on soon. Do a bit of research to get the most bang-for-your-buck, and for gods sake think about it properly and what it's look like on the Page (no one wants another #susanalbumparty).

Don't be Flighty

If you have a core topic, try and stick with one core tag (the most appropriate that fits what you do) based on that topic. Play with the others, great, but tags are generating 'communities' around topics, and other admins (I've found) are sharing my tagged content more when I mention core topics (because they are using these tags to source topical content for their pages). If you're a digital artist and have a Page about your work, be sure to always use #digitalart (or whatever your peers are using) no matter what else you're doing. Rocket science it ain't. I fully anticipate different communities developing their own crowdsourced hashtags of choice as people become more confident with their use.

#harmless  #campwaconda  #ohmygodwereallgonnadie

So there you go. Facebook hashtags are still in their infancy, and we don't know where Facebook is going to go with this - or how they'll cleverly monetize it. It would be great if we could set some standards and best practices that are good for our communities and outreach instead of just using these for spam. When, after all, does spam ever work?