Now let me be very clear. I am not making any sort of statement about the message itself. I love animals, and I always have.

The message was lost when they decided to use spam tactics to spread it. My Asheville social media friend Allie Sullivan said it very well in her post, PETA Spam Wednesday: What Not to Do. They @ed dozens of moms the same message repeated over and over. That is spam. Period.

Their argument was that the message was important, so that was their excuse for ignoring all sense of etiquette and courteous behavior. I might not have even felt compelled to blog about this, in fact, but it seemed clear that several social media moms telling PETA their behavior wasn’t appropriate was insufficient. Their tweets repeatedly defended their behavior based on the fact they felt their message was important. If that were the case, everyone could use that justification.

Here are the replies when I retweeted Allie’s link to her post about the PETA tweets:

It seemed pretty clear that they felt their tactics were justified. Here are a few more tweets:

But I will argue that is not justified.

Social media spaces like Twitter have a way of being community driven so that what really is important to the community bubbles to the top. Proof of that lies in the #prayersforanissa tweets, and the way Twitter moms saved baby #jaeli.

When you try to manipulate the social network to force people to hear your voice, you are misusing it.

It seems very clear that there was an orchestrated effort to specifically target influential moms on Twitter. But using their tactics backfired. Even if you dismiss all other issues here, if you are trying to get buzz on Twitter you don’t want to do it in a manner that results in a nasty backlash. From exactly the influencers you want on your side. Sure, they got clicks. But they also created just as much negative buzz as positive.

They completely tainted the message by using lowly tactics to push it.

Here is just a sampling of the responses they got from moms targeted. (Just for information, in the middle of this they changed their Twitter name from @officialpeta to @peta so this is the same account. Again, not too wise timing in the middle of all of this.)

This is not the kind of buzz you want about your brand, especially as a non-profit with a cause:

You usually don’t want influential moms hurling f-bombs your way.

And of course, sage advice from Lucretia Pruitt, aka @geekmommy:

Here’s the thing. Either PETA (with thousands of followers, so clearly not a newbie on Twitter) knew what they were doing was spam or they didn’t. If they didn’t, they need to put someone in charge of their Twitter account who knows the rules of engagement or hire a consultant to do it or train that person. I would say they should get it, but even after several moms called them on it, they were defensive.

This is a major social media fail.

It also drives me nuts how many organizations and companies target moms without bothering to hire a mom as a consultant first. JUST DO IT! If you find it’s important enough to be on Twitter, to be engaging moms, then it’s important enough to throw a few bucks at hiring a consultant before you ruin your reputation. And on Twitter, it usually means ruining your reputation to thousands of people in one fell swoop.

They also argued that they normally do engage on Twitter, and this was the exception. But I can tell you they were not even following me when they tweeted me, so they hadn’t been engaging with me. They could have done it better by sending a few non-automated DMs to moms they regularly tweet with, moms they have developed a relationship with. Or do what is standard. Tweet it and ask people to retweet it.

You put it in the public stream. You don’t @ dozens of people the same tweet to force them to read it in their replies tab. That is just obnoxious. As I said, it is a tactic that is commonly used by porn tweeters and get-rich-quick tweeters. And that is yet another reason not to do it. How bad would it have been for PETA if several moms reported their account as spam and it got deleted? Yeah, not good. For PETA or for the elephants they are trying to help.

Now I will be the first to say that I know many traditional journalist don’t follow all of these 100 percent of the time. I also think in many ways traditional media has forgotten what’s most important, and has strayed from their path. These, however, are ideals that were instilled in me as important while a reporter, and they are just as important to me as a blogger.

Check Your Facts

Blogging is instant gratification. You can get on your computer and publish whatever is in your mind in a matter of seconds. We as bloggers have no editors, no copy editors, no night desk. We just have ourselves. That makes it all the more important to fact check. If you are about to publish something and you aren’t sure without a doubt it is true, check first. Often that only takes a few minutes with Google. Sometimes it means contacting someone to ask.

If something is a rumor or unverified and you still want to run with it, be sure to state that.

Get Both Sides

Blogging by nature is biased and one sided. If you saw my post, “Guess What News Business? Bias Was OK After All,” then you will see I feel that is fine. Many blogs function more like a traditonal newspaper column than a front page article.

Still, that doesn’t stop you from telling both sides of the story to present something balanced to your readers. It will be a better post for it! Are you ranting about a company? Take five minutes to shoot the company an email asking for a response. Send them a list of questions. And their replying doesn’t mean you can’t run the post. Run it with their replies.

Create Original Content

I see many instances of huge blocks of a post or story being republished, or pictures being used that are clearly not the property of the poster. You cannot use copyrighted material on your blog without permission. There are many great places to find photos that can be used (stock.xchng, Flickr Creative Commons or a company’s online press room), and even then I recommend attributing the source at the bottom of the post with a link to the original picture.

For content, anything beyond a quick 1-2 sentence blurb with a link to read the full post on its original site is probably a bad idea. Besides copyright laws, if you are pulling half of someone’s post are you really offering much of value? Better to come up with your own words to discuss a topic than to pull from the work of someone else.

Keep Editorial and Advertising Separate

This one is tough for bloggers, but still important to strive for. In old media, there are whole departments who handle editorial and advertising. They rarely cross paths. For many blogs, there is one person. You can still do what you can to handle the two worlds with integrity.

If a post is paid for (I don’t especially care for that, but that’s another topic), then it should be clearly labeled as advertising. If you notice, in newspapers and magazines when this happens, the disclosure content is paid is the first thing you see. It should be that way in blogs as well.

If you receive an item to review, that is not working for a company, as was discussed at length in comments on my post about mom bloggers deserving pay. A review is done for your readers. It requires not feeling beholden to the company or agency who sent it to you. Reviews should have both good and bad. I would even consider telling companies right from the start that you only do fair reviews.

Be Discriminating About Pitches

In any newsroom, station and magazine office on any given day, they easily receive hundreds of pitches. Of those, maybe one or two (or maybe even none) get any attention. A pitch is just that, a pitch. Saying no to it is not only acceptable, but it is standard for many who are pitched to not even reply much less write about the topic or product.

You certainly can reply to be polite, but saying no to a pitch that makes no sense for your readers or that you don’t have time to cover is perfectly OK.

Just like in traditional media, the best PR people will build a relationship with you and not simply pitch you when they want coverage for a client. So next time you say no, maybe initiate some conversation with the PR person and see where that goes.

Be a Skeptic

Many journalists are cynics, and that is a trait that serves them well. It means not taking anything on face value. It means wondering someone’s motives if they want coverage. It means always asking why.

Bloggers could stand a dose of this as well. Don’t assume what you hear or read is true. When you hear a statistic or survey results, look to see who funded that survey or what the source of the statistics are. Always be looking for the wizard behind the curtain.

Edit Your Copy

I see many blogs that have many typos and grammatical errors. It really isn’t hard to edit your posts to clean them up. If you don’t already, get a copy of the AP Style Book and read it through. If you can’t do that, at least have a mental style policy (like you always call it blog and not weblog). A simple spell check can be very helpful, but it doesn’t catch everything (for example, words that are words but the wrong word… or misuse of its vs. it’s).

If bloggers want to command respect as an important part of the media, having copy that is error-free goes a long way towards looking professional.

Even though most bloggers don’t have editors, consider pairing up with a blog friend to read over each other’s posts and look for typos and errors.

Be Ethical

There is no official blogger code of ethics. But Mommy Niri nailed it when she spoke out during the Type-A Mom Conference’s Town Hall Meeting. “If you live ethically, you’ll blog ethically.”

What I read into that is this: we should each have our own barometer to tell us right from wrong. Use it. There was a general rule that we used in newspapers that applies just as well to blogs. If you wouldn’t mind it being published on the front page (translate: home page), then it’s probably OK to do. So that means if you are doing something, ask yourself how you would feel (or your readers would feel) if you posted what you did on your home page. At the top. With H1 tags. Flashing.

Be Transparent

To the last point, always be transparent. I honestly don’t think traditional journalists do enough of it, but we can certainly set the bar for them. Yes, it’s all fine and dandy to have a disclosure page somewhere on your blog. And you always read the fine print, right? Yeah, thought so. Disclosures should happen on any post where they apply, and prominently. That will comply with FTC guidelines, but also ensure your readers really know what is going on.

You can put something at the end of your post to say, for example, a company sent you the product you just reviewed. But there are also natural ways to work that into the copy. Something like, “When Company X sent me the Widget…” This doesn’t have to be rocket science.

Think of Readers First

This is last, but most important. This is one where I think traditional media has dropped the ball, and it is part of the reason I got out of the business. They started caring more about profits and advertisers and statistics about demographic who weren’t reading newspapers anymore and they stopped thinking about the most important priority: readers. The important investigative stories readers need have been neglected so reporters could churn more 5-inch no-brain-cell-required stories into the newspaper machine.

The Watergate story would never happen today.

Your readers should always come first. Without them, you have no blog. Whenever you struggle with a decision, ask yourself what your readers would want. If you’re really torn, ask them on your blog.

Just never forget that the readers are what it’s all about. They are your community, so much more so than with traditional one-directional media. Your readers don’t just read you, they talk to you. They are important.

_{Photo of journalist, © Erik Stabile}

Here are some of the details:

WAH Marketing Bootcamp
Thursday, May 28, 2009
1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m., Eastern Time/
10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time
One low cost: $97

Register Now!

Here’s what you’ll learn at the WAH Marketing Bootcamp:

• What brand questions you should answer when you are developing your content and communities.
• How to build social capital to turn your social media relationships into business successes.
• Tested and successful techniques to bring attention to your brand on Twitter Who needs a Facebook page, and who shouldn’t bother?
• How to use Linkedin for more than just job hunting as a powerful B2B development tool.

Work at Home Marketing Bootcamp Ning
This session is jam packed with techniques, ideas and resources you can start using immediately to bring attention to your brand and find paying customers. But the learning doesn’t end when the webinar is over. You’ll also get:

• Membership in a private WAH on-line community filled with other people who attended the seminar.
• Networking with other WAH professionals and find out what has and hasn’t worked for them.
• We’ll also be posting news and links on social media developments that happen after the seminar is over. So you don’t have to spend your time scouring the internet for the latest social media developments.
• Access to tons of resources including the webinar recording, copies of all slides and a link directory of all of the web resources mentioned in the presentation.

We’ve designed this session with the stay-at-home mom or dad in mind.

• It’s scheduled during the school day and for many during nap time! (After all, we have kids to take care of too!)
• It’s short — only 1 1/2 hours of your precious time. It’s affordable. Only $97. And we don’t have a hidden expensive product we are hoping to up-sell you later.
• On-going networking from other WAH entrepreneurs just like you on a website that’s available 24/7, when you are able to get on-line.

Early registration bonus –

Register early by midnight Pacific Time on May 21 and you’ll get FREE access to a live follow-up chat with Kelby and Peggy to answer your question that come up after you’ve begun practicing your new skills. Why wait? Summer vacation is just around the corner and WAH Moms and Dads need every trick in the book to stay on top of a busy summer schedule AND grow their businesses at the same time. With the WAH Bootcamp, you’ll get a head start on taking your business to the next level. Register Today!

The trap is caused by basically three very stupid aspects of Google Analytics (and if any of these three were changed,  particularly the second two, it would probably not be a big deal):

1. Google requires a Gmail account to get Google Analytics. That means it has to be tied to a person.
2. Google does not allow you to transfer a site’s Analytics data to another email address. You can export but you cannot import.
3. Google allows you to make someone view-only for just certain web sites in your profile, but anyone you make an admin automatically gets access to all your sites.

If this is all so geeky your eyes are rolling back in your head, let me be less so. In essence, you will likely have your Analytics account attached to a person you may or may not do business with anymore (or even like). And there’s nothing you can do to get it if they don’t cooperate. And even if they DO cooperate, they can’t really give you control of your Analytics account.

Here is what you see when you try to add someone as an admin. The list of your sites disappears, and you get this message (you might need to click the image to see the full size, and do note the requirement for a Gmail address and the warning that the person will now have control over all your sites):

Sure, you can export the data, set up your own account with Analytics, and start over. But you will start from zero with no history in your actual account (just in an XML or PDF file). So here is how best to avoid the Google Analytics trap:

• Create a special Gmail account for you (for an individual) or for your company or agency and insist whoever is setting up Analytics use that account. That way, a password can simply be changed but the data will stay with you.
• Make sure this is an account that stays with you (for individuals) or the company no matter who quits or is fired or moves on. Make sure it isn’t an account tied to any other unaffiliated personal Google accounts (that can be everything from email to webmaster tools to documents). This should be a Gmail account that is not attached to anyone it shouldn’t be anytime in the future.
• If you already have it set up improperly, you might consider starting over with the first bullet point. Just realize that your new account will not have old data when you’re in Analytics. You will also want to be sure to export all old data. It also might be possible to include two Analytics code snippets for a year so you have a full year of data for comparisons. I haven’t tried it yet, so I’m not sure if there would be conflicts or if both accounts will simply record all data.

I honestly thought I must be wrong. My experience is usually there is some kind of way to do anything if someone else wanted to do it online. But I see many references that prove it can’t be done right on Google’s own sites, such as a Google groups posting about transfering Analytics between Google accounts, this Google help answer about transfering Analytics between Gmail accounts, or this post at the Analytics forum about transferring one of multiple Google Analytics sites to another administrator.

I know I am talking into the void, but seriously Google. This is probably a major issue for many people and I can’t imagine it’s that hard to fix. The easiest and best solution would probably be an import option. Let people export a file from the old account and import it into the new account. Or a simple click to transfer all data from one Gmail address to another.

This is no small matter. Imagine a few scenarios. One, for example, has a disgruntled employee who gets fired. Suddenly all of your stats are gone in a flash, and there’s nothing you can do about it except change the tracking code (if you know how) and get stats from that day forward only. Not good. I hope Google will fix this, and soon.

That is when it dawned on me that, a while back, LinkedIn nudged me to get my profile there 100 percent complete by getting some recommendations. I didn’t like the idea of an incomplete profile (I’m sure they know that), so I requested a few recommendations. I was stunned at how wonderful the recommendations were. I used them in a brochure about my services.

Before BlissDom, I had a total “duh” moment. I decided to take a few minutes to create a page with some of those recommendations. It looks like this and you can visit my What People Are Saying About Kelby Carr page here.

I also plan to get some sort of a rotator plugin for WordPress so I can pull snippet quotes from these recommendations and place them in my sidebar with a link to the page.

The process of doing this was really simple.

• Get some recommendations (and join LinkedIn if you aren’t already on there). If you already have some LinkedIn recommendations, you are already in great shape. I did, but requested a couple more recommendations before I created the page.
• Grab the quotes and avatars for those who made recommendations and place them on a page. Include their name and title and a link to their site. That is just polite, but it also will catch the attention of those you have linked to if they track their site’s stats or have Google alerts for links to their sites.
• Create a Testimonials page with an intro and each recommendation with picture. Personally, I used a table to place the pictures to the left and the text to the right.
• Promote the testimonials page in your sidebar or add it to your menu.
• Be sure to pay it forward by recommending those who recommended you!

1. I will not automate my social networking. This is not social networking, everyone. The worst of this, in my opinion, is the auto-direct message on Twitter when I follow someone. Worse yet is when that automatic message suggests I “feel free” to visit their blog or buy their crap.
2. I will give, not take. If you want to be part of a community, you need to contribute to it first. Then you will be welcomed. As you social network, always ask yourself, “What can I do to help my followers/friends/subscribers?” Just like blog kharma, social networking kharma goes a long way. Here’s the cool part. You can give for completely selfish reasons, if that helps you get through it. That’s because I have found every time I give, the social network gives back tenfold. It’s truly a beautiful and amazing thing.
3. I will be a person first. No one wants to talk to a logo or an entity. Even online. It’s OK to be representing your work or your company or a brand. But you should enter the communities of the web as a person first and foremost. Use your face (hey, a real one, not some weird created cartoon avatar). You can obscure your identity with a headshot from an unusual angle or a partial face. Use your name (or at least a pseudonym if you need privacy). Be a person who is promoting something, don’t BE the thing.

What else would you suggest to those who are looking to get a fresh start (or a fresh attitude) for their social networking? And, of course, Happy New Year.

_{Illustration © ilco on sxc.hu}

Happy Festivus, my friends. Here are my official grievances, in 140 characters or less.

typeamom:

#festivus Grievance: people who have tons of followers, follow you, then drop you to inflate their twitter followers… and fragile egos.

Reply · View Tweet

typeamom:

More airing of grievances: I don’t follow people who never @ anyone. Where do you get off thinking you can just talk one way? #festivus

Reply · View Tweet

typeamom:

Another grievance to air? When PR people treat bloggers like second-class citizens. Hey, I did print for 15 years. I’m no HACK! #festivus

Reply · View Tweet

typeamom:

And while I am airing grievances. Where do the grandparents GET OFF thinking we will automatically wrap all their gifts for kids? #festivus

Reply · View Tweet

typeamom:

Airing of grievances shall commence: Wrapping bites the big one. #festivus

Reply · View Tweet

What really clinched it, for me, was when I heard that my fellow Type-A Mom editor, Amy Lupold Bair, was already planning to visit Disney World the exact same week we were considering it. (You may have seen Amy at her wonderful Resourceful Mommy blog, or as the Type-A Mom Suburban Moms editor.) It was clearly fate!

So… soon you can follow us:

• 2 Type-A moms
• 2 dads
• 5 kids
• 3 grandparents
• 2 birthdays (ish… my daughters is soon after)
• 1 flight
• 1 roadtrip via Type-A Mom-mobile

If you follow the #magicmoms tag at Twitter or visit Type-A Mom from Friday, Nov. 28 through Saturday, December 6, you’ll find live Twitpic pictures, Qik videos, Utterli audio, blog posts, and more about our experiences at the most Magical Place on Earth at what I (at least) consider the Most Magical Time of the Year (a time of year I’ve considered even more significant since my first child spent her first Christmas in the NICU).

On a side note, I really think micro blogging and the many social tools out there are so well-suited to travel writing. Besides breaking news, I can hardly think of writing better served by the immediately to provide your audience with pictures, video, audio and just random thoughts in real-time. I love me some Web 2.0.

You can also customize the widget below with you’re preferred size and color if you’d like to follow us on your desktop or put it on your blog.

Morning Agenda

9 a.m. Blogging Panel

10 a.m. IRL Networking

10:30 a.m.: Breakout session #1

11:15 a.m. Breakout session #2

Noon: Break for Lunch

After lunch, the hands-on stuff begins. Find out more on Dave’s blog.

Blogging Panel – 9 a.m.

The day will begin with all speakers hosting a blogging panel, and the general subject will be the blogging revolution. Each speaker will introduce themselves and speak briefly on that subject and how they believe blogging has changed the way we write, communicate and receive information. Then the floor will open to questions from the audience. The idea behind this is to be sure the audience gets a chance to hear and interact with every speaker.

Breakout Session #1 – 10:30 a.m.

You can choose one session below to attend:

Track 1 – Promoting Your Blog Through Social Media

When it comes to promoting your blog, social media can be a highly effective means of increasing your reader base. But, there is a right way and a wrong way to use every service. The right way can grow your traffic and enhance your brand – the wrong way will have people thinking you’re a spammer and dismissing everything you write. In this session, we’ll tackle some of the dos and don’ts of five forms of social media: blogging, microblogging, forums, social networking and social bookmarking.

Speaker’s bio: Bio: Patrick O’Keefe is a writer, web developer, and community administrator. He is the founder and owner of the iFroggy Network and the author of “Managing Online Forums,” a practical guide to managing online forums, communities and social spaces. He writes for multiple blogs, including YanksBlog.com, ManagingCommunities.com, and Bad Boy Blog.com, and maintains a personal blog at patrickokeefe.com.

Track 2 – Finding your Voice, Blogging your Heart

This session will be a discussion (with hand-outs!) on finding and refining your blog voice. Part of our goal will be to examine why we blog, what we want our blog to reflect about us, how to do it well, and how to get what we really want from blogging (once we’ve figured that out). Developing a consistent blogging voice will help you communicate more effectively, gain readership, and win readers over to your point of view.

Speaker’s Bio: Anne Fitten Glenn has been blogging about parenting, beer, politics, books, and other topics at edgymama.com for almost four years. She writes a weekly parenting column, also titled Edgy Mama, for Asheville, N.C.’s alternative newsweekly, Mountain Xpress and a weekly business profile for the Asheville Citizen-Times. As a journalist, photographer, and educator, she has closely watched the media change and evolve during her 22-year career. Glenn spends her free time mothering two kids, one husband, two marmalade cats, and one Dorkie Poo mutt. She rarely gets enough exercise, chocolate, sleep or beer.

Track 3: Creating Online Communities or Your Site is Not a Billboard

Communities are a dynamic asset that can be encouraged with positive interaction and transparency. Cultivating conversation both on and offsite creates interaction and a feeling of investment between the author and audience. Methods and guidelines for developing communities will be discussed.

Speaker’s Bio: Heather Solos is co-author of Home-Ec101.com and recently launched LowcountryBloggers.com with the help of Daniel Tennant. LowcountryBloggers.com is a site dedicated to promoting community and interaction between Charleston area bloggers.

Breakout Session #2 – 11:15 a.m.

Choose one of the following tracks:

Track 1: Seo for Bloggers

No, SEO isn’t a dirty word. Yes, you really do need to know at least a little about if you want to find success in the blogosphere. Guess what? It isn’t that scary or even that hard. Get a crash course in the basics of driving search engine traffic to your web site, from simple tactics while you write to basic plugins that can make a huge difference in your traffic. Best of all, you can still write for people while appeasing the Google gods.

Speaker bio: Kelby Carr is a freelance writer, SEO expert, foodie, social networking chick, travel junkie and former biz-cops-political-investigative newspaper journalist turned hardcore mommy blogger. She is the publisher of a network of parenting web sites. She’s been geeking it out on computers since the age of 10 (and you had to use an audio tape to run software), and web publishing and networking since the early 1990s (when she had to create pages from code in Notepad). She is also the host of the morning session.

Track 2: Hyper-Local Reporting with Multimedia

Jared Smith will demonstrate how he makes Charleston Weather, a live and interactive weather show for Charleston, SC residents during times of severe weather, a reality using little more than ustream.tv, a webcam, and a couple free or low-cost tools.  The techniques Jared uses aren’t just limited to weather broadcasts, either — any genre of webcast can benefit from his techniques and ideas.  All you need to bring is an appetite for multimedia and your own creativity to pull it all together.

Speaker’s Bio: Jared Smith is a 20-something web developer and weather nut in Charleston, SC.  Jared has been blogging since 2000 (age 15) on a variety of topics, but he is most recently known for his efforts in blogging and reporting tropical and other severe weather that affects the Charleston area, beginning with a live blog of Tropical Storm Ernesto in 2006 as it took aim on the Lowcountry, and continuing into 2008, when Tropical Storms Fay and Hanna posed a threat to the region.  In times of severe weather, Jared hosts Charleston Weather, an interactive weather show complete with real-time chat and live radar.  He is in the process of launching a standalone weather blog to compliment the show at charlestonwx.com, which is scheduled to go live full-time in 2009.

Track 3: Speaker Selected, but Still Finalizing Session Theme

Rest of the Day’s Conference

After we break for lunch, the day is far from over. Get down to real nuts and bolts learning with Dave Slusher’s hands-on sessions.

How to Attend

So if you are interested in going, you can either RSVP at the Facebook event page or comment below. We look forward to seeing you there! Also be sure to attend the ConvergeSouth conference the day before at the same location (and I am a speaker, so stop by and say hello!), and be sure to register for that separately.

Get Your Conference Badge

OK, so I threw these together. They suck. Hey, I’m pressed on time and I don’t have Photoshop that I’m used to. But if you’d like to have a badge, feel free. Also feel free to create your own less sucky badge and use it instead.

Get the code:

<a href="http://kelbycarr.com/independent-blogger-conference-greensboro"><img src="http://kelbycarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/greensboro-speaker.jpg" alt="" /></a>

Get the code:

<a href="http://kelbycarr.com/independent-blogger-conference-greensboro"><img src="http://kelbycarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/greensboro-attendee.jpg" alt="" /></a>