Wrath or Anger.

It can also turn physical in terms of body language (clinched fists for example) or even further violence.  Anger is a state of being that in no uncertain terms can drive one to do things that normally wouldn’t be considered “usual.”  Psychologists point out that being angry can cause loss of objectivity and self-control.

Anger is broken down into two types: Passive and Aggressive.

Passive behavior includes a lot of Self-blame, self sacrifice, obsessive behavior, evasion, manipulation of others and secretive behavior such as ignoring others, insults, anonymous complaints, stealing, etc.

Aggressive behavior is more outward bound with such things as physical threats, physical violence, verbal abuse, destructiveness, manic behavior, selfishness and many other related behaviors.

In Social Media, anger has had success. We all know the Motrin Moms case by now.  Motrin inserted into an add the phrase:  (while carrying their baby in a sling) “…if I look tired and crazy, people will understand why.”

While they used their outrage and anger AND social media to correct Motrin’s mistakes, it’s important to point out that those involved could have easily gone down another road. Instead of organizing and pointing out Motrin’s mistakes online, it could have easily turned into a flame fest and gotten nowhere.  But fortunately, the offended moms organized together and eventually won a national apology from Motrin and the respect of several communities for the use of Social Media, namely Twitter.

Where do you stand? Do you see a tweet from someone that makes you so angry that you take it personal and immediately shoot of a reply and then after the anger subsides, you regret it? Wish you could take it back?

The beauty of Social Media is the immediate impact that those 140 characters have….but as someone with a PR degree, it also can be dangerous. Hopefully, not physically, but professionally.  It can ruin your career, it can ruin a company with unsubstantiated claims which can turn into a legal mess, blah, blah, blah…

The point of this is simple. Before you shoot off that tweet in anger…take a sec. Take a deep breath. Get up from your desk, put the laptop aside…whatever it takes to cool down with a more subjective mindset.

 Ask yourself these questions:

·         What do I hope to accomplish?

·         Is it really worth the headache or is it just someone’s idiot behavior that should just be ignored?

·         Should I just unfollow the person and move on?

·         It is a legitimate issue?

·         Would a tweet reply accomplish something…or anything at all?

As the world of social media grows and it becomes more and more a part of our lives people being connected literally all the time, it is easy to forget that our words are much more powerful than ever before. 

With everyone sending out remembrance for veterans for Memorial Day, I thought I'd share something about my own family. A few years ago, my father passed away due to complications from melanoma. Simply put, my father was an alcoholic and abusive, physically, emotionally and mentally. He was never satisfied in what he did, owned, etc.

His constant mantra to me was, "You'll never amount to anything" which, after finally finishing college turned to, "You think you know everything and you're better than everyone.."  Nice, huh? I made a promise to myself when I was kid that I would never be that sort of father to my own kids, which I believe, that I am not.

We never did anything that father and son should do, he never played catch, never supported me in anything I did...and the times he DID come to watch me play sports, he was drunk or had been drinking. That side of my family is from Northern Ireland originally. They moved here when my father was young and eventually became US citizens. From what my mother has told me, my grandfather was a hard-drinking Belfast man. Tough on his son and abusive himself. I never met him as he died the year before I was born.

My grandmother was Scottish. Hailing from the Highlands area, she was a tall woman, full of life, always happy go lucky, made custard and peanut butter fudge for me all the time. She resembled Catherine O'Hara in her youth and actually was responsible for introducing me to soccer, as we watched her beloved Celtic on public TV in Houston whenever it would come on.

As I grew older and older, the arguments between me and my father turned physical and I eventually got married at a young age and I think I did it to get out of the house. I moved out of Texas and started off on my own life adventure. Years went by and I rarely spoke to my dad, instead talking to my mom and using her to pass along info.

Flash forward, the melanoma diagnosis and eventually, he passed. I was with my mother and as we planned everything, we both made an unbelievable discovery....

My father, was eligible for a national burial with full color guard. Why? We found out from the commander of the local VFW hall that my father had been shot down twice during the Korean war and had fought off Koreans long enough for his crew to get rescued both times. I knew he'd served, but he never told me what he did. He would just tell me that he worked in communications.

Evidently, he'd served in what would be considered "Black Ops" missions today. We later found a box of medals and some pictures. Unfortunately, his request was to be cremated and his ashes spread in the water. His reason was that he didn't want to bother anyone with a funeral.

While people have different coping methods and I don't excuse my father's behavior, but it does make sense. He was hiding from his own pain by dulling it and pushing it off on others. I want to thank my Dad, while he didn't know any better, he did teach me how to be the best dad I can be to my own kids.

So with that said, I want to thank all of the veterans, past, present and future. I also want to thank the families for the sacrifices that they've made as well.

Not that kind of engaged....I mean, engaged with my users/followers. The big deal in the marketing world is the social media engagement. Seriously, how simple of a concept? This isn't the field of the dreams, you build it, they come...you know that whole thing. You set up the twitter account, you set up the Facebook page...but are you really engaging?

Engagement isn't just the responding  to emails, tweets, etc....it's much more. It's your website, it's your emails. Are they interesting? Is your website easy to navigate? Is it optimized for the subject matter they're looking for? Is your content of any relevance to your users? Is it the absolute highest quality that you can offer? (By the way, relevancy helps with SEO, but that's another post).

The moment that your user chooses to let his/her guard down and approach YOU, instead of you sending them messages is a magical moment for everyone. It's when they, the user, invites you to speak to them. This is the time when all of the research, planning and work pays off. This is when the SERPS from Google becomes nothing but something that's quickly forgotten. This is the time that they have decided to continue the conversation by finding you out of all of the others. 

So what are you going to do about it?

The beauty of the Internet is that you can reconnect with old friends and acquaintances and make new friends. Andrew Koenig was one of those people for me. I, like a lot of people, remember his role on "Growing Pains" as the funny neighbor, Richard "Boner" Stabone. Flash-forward a few years and I discover that one of my favorite comedians, Jimmy Pardo, has a podcast called "Never Not Funny" and Andrew was the guy behind the scenes on it. I tuned in each week, as the podcast grew in popularity and Andrew got more vocal on the shows and as video was introduced, we got to see glimpses of Jimmy's brother-in-law and listen to the two bicker as relatives do...knowing full well, that they actually cared for each other. Jimmy made fun of him, Andrew always took the high road and took it with a smile. Little did we know that behind that smile, depression was slowly slipping in.

As someone who has suffered personally with depression, I know how powerful it can be. It was reported that Andrew was on medicine,but had opted to get off of them....hence his constant references, in my opinion, to his vegan and natural lifestyle. It was around this point that I reached out, not because of the depression, etc. to Andrew to assist him with his website. I knew he was working on a movie and he was trying really hard to break that mold of being a "former child actor" and "Boner." Go ahead, get the chuckles in.

I do SEO primarily and I offered to optimize his site for free as a sign of goodwill. I have a few other actor friends and I won't brag about who they are....but I like to get to know the human side of people. I think I'm drawn to Pardo because we are a lot alike, same tastes in music, a disarming self-depreciation, sarcasm, a love of times when men wore suits all the time...but underneath it all a heart of gold. Andrew and I emailed back and forth a few times after I reached out, he introduced me to his web guy, etc.

I sent a Facebook request to him and he accepted, we would converse from time-to-time on there, he'd "Like" something I'd post and I'd do the same for him. The conversations would meld over to Twitter occasionally....but he never put on airs, once, he was a really cool and nice guy. Always.

Due to my being busy with life in general, I'd failed to renew my subscription to the Pardcast recently as it was now known as and had lost base of what was happening with Andrew, Jimmy and the show's producer, Matt Belknap. I sent Jimmy and Matt a business idea I had last week, not knowing that Andrew had disappeared. I want to apologize to the two of them for that. After I'd found out about Andrew disappearing, I had an unfortunate feeling that Andrew had taken his life. I've seen depression first-hand and with the chemical imbalance, mix in the situational and it's really very evil stuff if not addressed.

At any rate, I want to thank Matt and his family, Jimmy and his lovely wife and Andrew's sister, Danielle and their little lady's man, Oliver....for being a part of my life, no matter how small it is. You bring humor and laughter into my life and I enjoy you guys from afar in many ways.

I am truly, truly sorry for the lost of Andrew. I know, I for one, will miss his wit on Never Not Funny, bickering with Jimmy...and how I knew him through our brief, yet funny interactions we had on Twitter and Facebook.

I wish you all a long life.

Stacey Hood

swhood@gmail.com
#205.420-3053

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a mainstay in any website development plan…. or should be. We all want those great rankings on Google, sometimes Bing and well, I guess, Yahoo also.

But just as we get SEO worked out, along comes a new algorithm that takes everything you’ve done in the past and chucks it, requiring you to, go back and figure out why you dropped from top five to 34th in rankings. The aspect of SEO is getting to be more and more important as the big players in the world move things around.

There are very simple rules to follow as you begin your endeavor into the world of SEO:

1. Being Patient. This is the number one item on my list when consulting with a client. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was your website. It takes a while to produce good SERPS, especially with a new site as it’s already competing with other sites for that minute bit of attention span from clients.

2. Content really is king. Fresh, relevant content can make or break your site. Content can include articles, press releases, etc. Post and post often.

3. Rankings are not the end-all, be-all. A lot of time is spent by clients and SEOs alike that they want the top rankings. It’s better to be number one!! Sure, it would be great to do that…but wouldn’t it be great if you get a hit from someone who also found your article you just posted on your site thanks to the brilliant use of keywords and relevant content? See the similarity?

4. Identifying keywords. This is the most important job of anyone performing SEO on a site. Clients mistakenly look through, what I call, “their business eyes.” Just when you think you got it all figured out…along comes some variant that throws all of your prior research down the drain. Also, make sure your keywords are being used in the content you’re producing on a regular basis. Bottom-line; if you miss out on those keywords, you’ll miss out on business.

To expound further on the keywords…Short tail and long tail keywords are a very import part of developing a keyword strategy. Short tail keywords are one or two words; brief, to the point, but there’s more competition. Long tail keywords are usually over two words long and are more specific and these can usually garner you the clients that you’re looking for. Having only 25k competitors is great, but only having 10k competitors is better!

In addition to this, look at what’s called, “Latent Semantic Indexing” of keywords. It is defined as; “an indexing and retrieval method that uses a mathematical technique called Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) to identify patterns in the relationships between the terms and concepts contained in an unstructured collection of text.”

What the….?!?!?

So what this means is that you should look at related keywords, not just ACTUAL keywords. For example, if your company works in the travel industry, it would be better to do the following words; travel, trips, tour, tourism versus simply, “travel.”

Don’t forget organic efforts also. This includes, (whether Google indexes them or not, better safe than sorry), Sitemaps, Title Tags, Metatags, Alt tags, Heading Tags, Increasing back links, utilizing social media to drive traffic and try to keep your keyword density around 3%, etc. There are several free tools out there that you can use to determine all of this. The final thought is not to skimp on any details or take shortcuts. Blackhat SEO can get your site banned from Google and that’s not a good thing, kiddos. If you even think that something may do this to your site, don’t do it.

Trust your instincts.

Having been involved in the sport of soccer, football, futbol...whatever you wanna call it for many years now, I've seen more than my fair share of bad calls, good calls, horrible calls from officials. They're human, they make mistakes. They miss things. They get caught up watching the game so much that they aren't looking for infractions. I know, I've officiated. I've coached as well.

Coming from Irish stock; I'm disappointed that Ireland didn't make it to the World Cup for 2010, I will say that I have no problem with French player Thierry Henry. Watch a game on any weekend and you'll see your fair share of infractions of FIFA's laws. Everything cannot be called, if so, the professional games would be stopped every few seconds. It's absolutely ridiculous that the media, the French president, your mom and others are complaining about Henry.

He did what many others do in the game; he was playing to win. Sure he handled the ball to gain control of it, FIFA Law 12 states that a direct free kick is awarded to the opposing team if a player handles the ball deliberately. If you look at the picture, it's pretty evident what Henry did. But you know, it's not his duty to stop playing because he handled the ball. He even admitted he did and as he stated, the center ref didn't stop play, so he continued on.

So who's to blame? Well, in my opinion, the center official. He is to position himself in such a manner during the game as to not to interfere with the game but to be able to see as much as he can. Evidently he was out of position to see the handling of the ball and Henry got away with it. The official will probably get a stern lecturing or have to write 400 times on a chalkboard, "I Will Not Allow Henry To Handle The Ball Again" or something worse, but it's on him. Not Thierry Henry, who's job it is to score goals and help his NATIONAL team win. You gotta remember, they're playing for national pride everytime that they take to field in these sort of matches.

Thierry Henry is a very likable player. He has a sense of humor and truly enjoys playing. His time at Arsenal is one of wonderment and some of the goals he scored for the club are absolutely top-notch. But at the end of the day, he's the villain and he has been lumped into a group with Maradona and branded "Le Cheat." He has backed the Ireland calls for a replay. I think the guy has class; he admitted the handball and is now supporting the calls for the replay.

France was the powerhouse for years, Italy took over, now it looks like Spain is the team to beat. With Raymond Domenech at the French helm, I honestly don't see them winning the World Cup next year, but stranger things have happened. Case in Point; France beats Ireland with a controversial call. 

Being a big fan of Chuck Palanuik and his books, I'm always impressed when someone takes it to the next level and recognizes that his stories are social commentaries on life. Some great quotes have come out of just about all of his books and one of my personal favories is "Fight Club." I won't go into the storyline or rehash what happens, but one of the main characters, Tyler Durden makes great observations about society and life in general. 

I stumbled across this site; Lateral Action ran by Brian Clark and he's taken Durden's quotes and offered his own set of advice to go beyond them. Great Stuff. And without any further ado:

 

We all want to do remarkable things, and lead remarkable lives.

No one wants to spend the day engaged in mundane productivity in pursuit of a meaningless consumer existence. Certainly not you, right?

So why do we find it so hard to break out of our rut and do truly innovative things?

Because it’s hard. Because it often requires us to significantly alter our perspectives and step outside our comfort zones.

It’s almost like becoming another person.

 

I Know This Because Tyler Knows This…

If you haven’t seen the movie Fight Club (or read Chuck Palahniuk’s excellent novel), I won’t spoil the fantastic plot twist where we come to understand who Tyler Durden really is. The story isn’t for everyone, but if you think it’s about fighting, you’re on the wrong track.

At its core, Fight Club is about living the life you truly want to live, and the hard path to getting there. Tyler helps the story’s nameless hero (usually referred to as Jack) down that path to enlightenment, so maybe what Tyler says can help the rest of us as well.

Luckily, Tyler says a lot of things that apply directly to innovative action. Here are his 8 rules for creative people to live by.

Tyler’s First Rule of Innovation:

“No fear. No distractions. The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide.”

This is the most important lesson, and it’s the one people struggle with and resist. Tim Ferriss advocates the 80/20 rule of productivity, where you focus relentlessly on the 20% of the actions that lead to 80% of the return. People see this as nice in theory, but not practical.

But believe it or not, this is how I’ve been running my businesses for the last 10 years. I used to actually feel guilty because I wasn’t constantly “getting things done” at a maniacal pace, even though I was enjoying increasingly significant success each year. It’s only been in the last few years I’ve realized that this approach is essential for entrepreneurs and creative professionals of all stripes.

The 80/20 rule of productivity requires radical elimination, or letting that which does not matter to creative moves truly slide. Use that newfound time for creative thinking that leads to innovative action, and you will succeed, guaranteed.

Tyler’s Second Rule of Innovation:

“No fear! No distractions! The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide!”

Seriously. Don’t break the first two rules.

Tyler’s Third Rule of Innovation:

“I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let’s evolve, let the chips fall where they may.”

Let’s face it, when we break Tyler’s first two rules of innovation and distract ourselves with foolish productivity, it’s often because we’re afraid (which also violates Tyler’s first two rules). We’re afraid of failure, ridicule, risk, mediocrity, and perhaps even success itself.

If you’re going to evolve and grow as a creative person, you’re going to make mistakes. In fact, you should start making twice as many mistakes as soon as possible if you want to have an innovative breakthrough.

Make mistakes and let the chips fall where they may. You might like the landing.

Tyler’s Fourth Rule of Innovation:

“It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.”

Oh, yeah… don’t be afraid to make big mistakes. More importantly, don’t worry about everything going according to plan. In fact, if everything’s going according to plan, there’s a good chance nothing remarkable is getting done.

They say life is what happens while you’re making other plans. Innovation is what happens when you recognize when to change the plan and perhaps the entire game. Maybe your initial plan falls apart, or maybe you simply need to throw the current plan away.

Don’t let the plan restrict the freedom to have a game-changing idea, and act on it, at any time. Losing everything may be the best thing that ever happens to you.

Tyler’s Fifth Rule of Innovation:

“You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis.”

When we talk about fear, risk, mistakes, and losing it all, what are we really afraid of? Are we defined by the stuff we own, or would we prefer to be defined by what we accomplish and create for the world?

I’m not saying give all your stuff away or take foolish risks that harm your family or yourself. I’m saying don’t let the stuff you own start to own you to the point that you can’t live the life you want to live and do the things you want to do.

Tyler’s Sixth Rule of Innovation:

“People do it everyday, they talk to themselves… they see themselves as they’d like to be, they don’t have the courage you have, to just run with it.”

I bet you’ve got a great idea right now, bouncing around in your head. What are you going to do with it?

Be what you’d like to be, and do what you’d like to do… it really is that simple. Having the courage to just run with it is the difference between a fulfilling life and a life full of regret.

Tyler’s Seventh Rule of Innovation:

“Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken.”

On the other hand, wearing black hipster clothing and hanging in cafes smoking Gaulloises cigarettes does not make you creative. Buying a MacBook Pro and an iPhone doesn’t get it done either.

Creativity and innovation are mainly about hard work. It’s about constantly coming up with ideas and thinking through problems instead of vegging out. And it’s about taking action, plain and simple.

Tyler’s Eighth Rule of Innovation:

“This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.”

First, you have to know, not fear, know that someday you are going to die. Until you know that, you have no sense of urgency. You think you have all the time in the world to do amazing things, but you may not live to see that particular someday.

So quit reading articles for a bit and go do what really needs to be done today.

After the comeback last night in Arsenal’s Champions League game, it appears that the squad may be facing a bleak season thanks to the manager’s stubborn dedication to his transfer policy which saw only Thomas Vermaelen come in from Ajax.

Since 2005 the only team that dropped out of the top four was Liverpool, thanks to Everton’s run of success.

But no other team has broken into that elite group until this season, when Man City, thanks to its recent purchase and cash influx, pulled a “Chelsea” and bought every player that manager Mark Hughes expressed interest in signing.

The talk that Arsenal has become a selling club seems to be strengthened by the fact that they let Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor leave for the Manchester club.

The conundrum is that Wenger’s policy of fielding younger and inexperienced players pays off with a consistent top-four finish, however, he has yet to bring in more experience to support these younger players.

The defensive mistakes from the past seem to have been gone, thanks to the purchase of Belgian international Vermaelen, yet the back-to-back losses to Man Utd and Man City brings attention that Arsenal fans are in for another struggling season.

As mentioned previously, Arsenal is a conundrum and very frustrating side because just last season the squad was FA Cup and Champions League semi-finalists and took their now standard fourth place in the Premiership.

And this was without Hleb, Flamini, and Gilberto...players that a majority of pundits and supporters said the club couldn’t survive without.

With only four games played in the league and basically the season just starting, the Gunners have already contradicted themselves after blowing Everton out 6-1, putting Pompey to the sword 4-1, moving past Celtic easily, then losing to the two Manchester sides and struggling against Standard Liege in their opening round of the Champions League.  

So what’s the difference? This season has seen just about every team around the world copy Barcelona’s system which is basically a modified 4-3-3 system.

Arsenal used it to great success against Everton, Celtic, and Portsmouth, but seemed to have struggled with it against City and United.

Herein lies the question, does Wenger buy to support this system or does he adapt the players he has to the system?

Arsenal has been a free-flowing, attacking team and with the new system in play, even more so...but the problem with being an attacking team is that you have to have a constant finisher up top.

Robin Van Persie and Nicholas Bendtner have become first choices in the side with Eduardo coming off the bench as a super sub. Both strikers have their critics and Eduardo is still on the mends from his leg break last season.

The defense has appeared to be sorted with a revitalized Gallas partnering with Vermaelen, who has proven he is a great purchase for the Gunners.

Almunia has continued to be first choice between the sticks and unfortunately, his back-up, Fabianski, has yet to put in a solid performance when called upon.

The midfield unit has been solid, however they also have struggled at times and one has to wonder about such players as Song, Eboue, and Denilson. Are they actually world-beaters, or are they just there by default?

Time will tell, but again, the constant struggle in every game leaves much to be desired. Looking at the roster, there really isn’t a player on the squad who can strike fear into the heart of an opponent like someone such as David Villa or Leo Messi.

With goals coming from 10 of the first team players, Arsene Wenger appears to have quite possibly masterminded yet another coup for his side.