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Bad PR: The Social Media Stalker

Social media is great. Seriously, isn't social media great? It lets you connect with people you might not otherwise have interacted with, it gives you access to new and sometimes fascinating pieces of information, it provides a bit of light relief, and, yes, it can be a great tool for marketing and PR.

It's that last point I have the problem with.

Or, actually, that's not quite right. I don't have a problem with sites like Facebook and Twitter being used as a PR/marketing took per se. I can see how those sites could be useful to people in those occupations, and actually, I don't really mind people using them to pitch me the occasional story idea. Well, I don't mind too much, anyway. Personally, I tend to use Facebook and Twitter  for the third reason listed above - a little bit of light relief during the working day - but I know not everyone uses them  that way, so it's not a huge deal if PRs want to use those channels to contact me about something.

What I do have a problem with, however, is a certain breed of PR I've come to think of as the Social Media Stalker. I encountered one today, as a matter of fact. In the course of just a couple of hours, this person:

Deadbeat Employer: 25 cents for 500 words (and you have to be bilingual!)

When Toni sent me a link to this job advert, I thought at first that the rate was 25 dollars per 500 words . But no. The employer helpfully states:

"Please don't be one of those that confuses cents with dollars. This is 25 cents per clear written blog post."

Wow! Twenty five cents ALL TO MYSELF? There's more, though!

"...we will also increase your pay out too [sic] 1 dollars per article in the future once you have successfully submitted up to 1000 unique posts."

Well, that makes all the difference, doesn't it? I mean, after just 1,000 posts (of 500 words each, remember), you could be earning a massive $1 per post! Now, I'm no mathematician, but I've just worked this out, and for those 1,000 posts, you would make...

$250!

How long do you think it would take you to write 1,000 articles, readers? I'm going to guess "a while". Worth it for $250, do you think? Again, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess "probably not".

Of course, you're probably thinking this "job" advert is aimed at the kind of writers who'll barely be able to string a sentence together. You would be wrong, though, because if you want to apply, you'll need to be "intelligent and articulate" - oh, and bilingual. Yes, bilingual. Just think, all of those years studying a second language will be totally worth it when those first 25 cents hit your Paypal account, no?

I'm surprised this particular employer doesn't just charge writers to work for him. Surely that's the next step?

Freelance Writing Gigs - week ending 13/3/09

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Freelance writer needed

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Part time freelance writing/blogging

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Freelance PR writer needed

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Five ways to instantly make your blog look more professional

I get a lot of emails every week from new bloggers who want to know how they can make their blogs look that little bit more professional.

Obviously there are lots of answers to this question, but here are five things you can do right now that will make a big difference to how people will perceive your site.

(Note: these tips are aimed at people who want to blog professionally, and make money from it. If you blog for personal reasons, they may not apply to you.)

1. Don't use a generic template

There are thousands of different (free) blog templates available for all kinds of blogging platforms - so why are so many bloggers all using the same two or three of them? As soon as someone lands on your site and sees that generic Blogger/Typepad/Wordpress template, they're going to think you're an amateur who either doesn't know how to change the look of your blog, or just just can't be bothered doing it. Neither of those impressions will encourage people to come back, and you're not giving them much to remember you by, either.Why would you want your blog to look the same as everyone else's?

This doesn't mean you have to go for a custom design, of course (although if you're really serious about blogging professionally, I'd recommend at least thinking about it). Typepad, for instance, makes it very easy to change the colours, fonts and layout of your blog, and to upload a new banner. It's a long time since I last used Blogger, but I remember it being relatively easy to customise too, and I believe the service has improved drastically since then. Wordpress, meanwhile, has thousands of different templates you can use for free, and yet most users seem to plump for the same handful of designs.

At the very least, try to use a custom banner with some kind of logo: it's your brand, but if you stick to the generic template provided, the only brand you're promoting is Blogger's. (Or Typepad's, or ... you get the picture.)

Speaking of humour writing....

which we weren't really, but following tenuously on from from this post, I thought I may as well mention Twitter Titters.

This is a book of humour writing which has been produced in aid of Comic Relief. I contributed a short piece to the book, which also features work from a group of really talented writers, including Dave Spikey, Cally Taylor, Iain Aitch, Paul Oswell and more.

I bought it in paperback (it's also available as a download), and my copy arrived a couple of days ago. I've seen my name in print lots of times in newspapers and magazines, as well as on the web, but I have to say, it was a nice feeling to be published in a book!

Proceeds go to charity, and you can buy it here.

Why humour isn't the best way to get freelance writing gigs*

See the post below this one? The one about its/it's confusion, in which I used the example of an error made by a major publishing house as an example of how even the "best" of us get it wrong, sometimes?

You all understood that the "major publishing house" wasn't me, didn't you? I mean, I thought I'd made it pretty clear that the advertisement containing the rogue apostrophe was an example someone had sent me, and not a mistake I'd made myself, but apparently not because today I received an email from someone berating me for "my" mistake, and telling me I desperately needed an editor, and should hire them.

The person went on to tell me all about their writing experience and all of the "high points" in their freelance writing career, presumably to covince me they were the right person for the (non-existent) job. Sadly, the email they sent me wasn't one of those "high points": it was written entirely in lower case, and the writing quality was poor to say the least. So, not only had the person completely misunderstood my post (always a bad sign for someone who wants to be an editor), they'd also insulted me with their rudeness and displayed the writing skills of a young child.

Clearly, none of this would make me want to employ someone, and I replied to tell them so. It's OK, though, folks, because, guess what? The person was just joking! Yes, that's right, they were being "funny", and had done it in order to "get my attention".

Well, they got it alright - but not in a good way. When I told them this, though, they replied to say that I have no sense of humour.

Right. Got it. It's my fault. I just need to get a sense of humour! Whew!