Keepers – these all are. In late December, I cull through all wiredPRworks blog posts looking for the best of the best to share. Here’s the 2011 lot. You’ll find inspiration, ideas, trends, news and stories. What’s missing? What would you like to see here in 2012?

Rocks and Ripples

Although this post does not directly address social media marketing or PR, it is my top choice for a number of reasons: it features my son [with his permission], it tells a story, it responds to an inspiring story and it features a video. Everyone I send it to writes back about how they like it. I hope you will, too. Thanks to my son and Tim Sanders for the inspiration.

“You’ve got to go create a ripple.”

Those words came to me as our youngest son and I tromped around the woods. Early in the evening or late in the afternoon, depending on how you measured it, we were doing what we do best: an adventurous young man now, once a boy, coaxing a mom to overcome her trepidation to explore nature and life without boundaries. Where would he lead me if I said . . .

Best Picture Goes to the Social Network

Ending the discussion about whether or not social networks have a lasting place in popular culture and real life, The Social Network won four Golden Globe awards, including best picture.

Best of CES 2011 Innovation Electronics and Connections

Business Week found the 2011 show to be The Most Innovation-Filled CES in Years “The technology at the Consumer Electronics Show was more diverse, more connected, and in some cases just plain weirder than ever.” I enjoyed covering the show as one of five Sears Blue Blogger Crew members.

Personal Branding for Affiliate Marketers

Recap from a panel discussion about personal branding for affiliate marketers at Affiliate Summit West 2011 in Las Vegas. Panelists included Marty Fahncke, our moderator, Jim Kukral, and Geno Prussakov.

Social Media Twigs from the CES Tweet House

Tweet House speakers Angela LoSasso, David Armano, Jeffrey Hayzlett and moderator Steve Broback focused on social media tools and techniques for organizations.

Recovering from Being Hacked Off of Facebook – Now Back On

After two weeks and three attempts, my account was restored. Here’s how to get back on after being hacked off.

Atlantic City the Real Jersey Shore Travel Tuesday PR

When the offer came in to fly away for a girlfriends weekend, I erased my former memory files and eagerly said yes. After all, most of my friends would be away at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin. I wanted to get away, too.

SOBCon 2011 Models Teams and Tables

Deciding who to sit with can affect your SOBCon outcome. Your table is your group. This year, I got really lucky. I enjoyed sitting at the conference media production table with five amazing people, including the world-famous Lorelle Van Fossen who writes the blog Lorelle on WordPress.

3 YouTube & Video Marketing Tricks You Should Not Miss

Everybody’s making videos, but who really knows how to marketing them? For the answer to that question, I passed this topic over to a talented guest author, Bob Tripathi.

LinkedIn Checklist for Getting Your Next Job or New Client

No matter where your profile is in its stage of completeness, this LinkedIn checklist can help you not only get to 100%, but also truly present your professional credentials in the most accurate and attractive way possible.

7 Things Service Dogs Know About Love and Social Media

What do dogs know about service? What does service have to do with social media? Maybe the answer is as simple as: they know how to find somebody to love. That’s why dogs have one of the best jobs in the world.

Cloud Computing Business Basics for PR Folks

When Illinois Institute of Technology’s School of Applied Technology, invited me to attend a cloud computing workshop, I was curious. Here’s what I learned.

12 Ways to Rock Your Speech, Your Audience and Your Event

This is a post about how to be a rock star speaker – inspired by Tony Robbins.

25 Thoughts re: Google+

Thanks to Chris Brogan for the suggestion to blog about what you think about Google+.

How Gray is Social Networking

Fully 65% of adult internet users now say they use a social networking site like MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn, up from 61% one year ago. This marks the first time in Pew Internet surveys that 50% of all adults use social networking sites. Source: Pew Research on Adult Social Media Usage

37 Tweet Size Writing Tips

If you only have time to read one of the 37 tweets, read #22:  Empower writers. Because the writer runs the show. Quality content gets you where you want to go. Thanks to Ragan Communications for the ticket to the Corporate Writers and Editors Conference in Chicago.

How to Pick My Brain

Ever wished you had an on-call marketing consultant, but didn’t think you could find someone who was willing to give you the answers you need to get to increase your visibility, influence and profitability? Here’s how to pick my brain.

Guest Blogger Guidelines How to Write at Somebody Else’s Place

Writing for a popular blogger with a fanatic following online is even tougher. It’s not just their space, it’s their readers’ communal gathering zone where they can and do talk back. Here’s a quick how-to guide along with an invitation to be a contributor to wiredPRworks.

Image: Taken on a family hike at Amnicon Falls, this one got several Big Faves at my photography site over on flickr. copyright 2011 by Barbara Rozgonyi

Which of these posts/topics interest you the most?

You might call this week a LinkedIn hat trick. With two media interviews and a LinkedIn personal and corporate branding training session, this trio of events got me thinking about how it was time to update the checklist I use in my workshops. I’m sharing it with my readers – will you let me know what I’m missing?

Personal Branding Profile LinkedIn Checklist

No matter where your profile is in its stage of completeness, this LinkedIn checklist can help you not only get to 100%, but also truly present your professional credentials in the most accurate and attractive way possible.

Photo
Upload a JPG, GIF or PNG file up to 4MB and then choose to make visible to My Connections, My Network or Everyone

Need some tips? Check out how to look good in profile pictures.

Name
First Name
Last Name

Display Name choose your last name or first initial.

Professional Headline-Your Tagline
Include keywords such as industry, location, customers, projects, certifications, ect.

Country

Zip Code

Industry

LinkedIn Profile Summary

Your professional portrait goes here. While the style and format is up to you, think of this as the place to display your ideals, passion, philosophy and gifts you give to the world. Match your style to your industry. For example, corporate profiles need to be more conservative than those of an artist. You may include a call to action or contact information to request more information.

Specialties
List everything you’re good at here. It’s okay to inject a little personality.

LinkedIn Work Experience

Each position will have its own listing. You will need to complete these fields.

Position One

Company Name

Title

More information about this company
Website
Industry
Title

Time Period

Description

Position Two
Company Name

Title

More information about this company
Website
Industry
Title

Time Period

Description

Position Three
Company Name

Title

More information about this company
Website
Industry
Title

Time Period

Description

Listing Websites on LinkedIn

You may enter the name of the site or a title, along with the link for up to three sites. Do this. For example, “real estate sales news” is more descriptive than blog. Think about additing your site, blog and Facebook page.

Twitter
You may add more than one twitter profile, but only one will be displayed on your profile.

LinkedIn Public Profile Address

Change the standard LinkedIn assigned name to one like this:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/yourname
You may also choose to redirect another URL to your LinkedIn profile.

Adding LinkedIn Profile Applications

Choose from several apps that will post presentations, travel plans, events, reading lists and blog feeds. Take a look and make your selections.

Requesting and Giving LinkedIn Recommendations

To add validity to each position on your profile, you can request that people write a recommendation describing your work. You may also recommend others. When you receive a recommendation, you may review it before you approve it. Once you’re okay with it, the recommendation goes up on your profile. And, it shows up on the profile of the person who recommended you. Return the favor and recommend them as well.

Additional Information

This section includes interests, groups and associations, honors and awards.

Publications
Add excerpts of published works here.

Listing Skills on LinkedIn

You have two ways to add skills your profile. From the edit view, you can type into a search box, find the skill and then select from level and number of years. Or, you can go to LinkedIn’s skill site and search for skills. Each skill has its own profile page where you can review statistics, read a description and see a few of the leaders.

Certifications
Have a professional industry certification? Then you’ll want to add it to your profile.

Adjusting Privacy Settings on LinkedIn

Accessible from the upper right corner in the drop down menu when you mouse over your name, the settings section will allow to control access to your profile, manage updates and upgrade to a paid subscription that open up the door to better features and analytics.

Making Connections and Sending Invitations on LinkedIn

Now that your profile is all ready, it’s time to invite people to connect! Clicking the Add Connections link on the upper right corner of your profile next to the search box is the direct route to a bigger network. You can click to add people or you can make a list of who you would like to invite. Add a brief and personal message to each invitation to remind the recipient of your in real life relationship and then send.

Congratulations! You’re on your way.

What would you add? Do you need personal attention or group lessons?

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.com

The last question our personal branding panel got at Affiliate Summit West was, to me, curious, “What would you do if someone hijacked your brand?” Being an overly trusting person, I never thought about the possibility of someone intentionally hijacking your brand – or your work. Yet, it’s happened to me before. Recently I discovered that it’s happened again. Can people really be that clueless? After dashing off a quick email with links to the sites to a few peers and getting their advice, I’m coming out with a warning: take it down or I’m coming after you. And, I’m also telling you how we can work together. Here’s why . . .

That’s My Work, Not Yours, So Take it Down – Now!!!

Let’s be clear, if you ask permission, I’m really easy to work with and would, most likely, be happy to grant you an interview. But, if you take/borrow/steal my work, any of it, without permission, it’s not only unfair, it’s illegal. Copyright law protects your work to uses with your permission.

Wanna collaborate? Watch this Wanna Work Together from Creative Commons video where collaboration rules.

Need an emotional litmus test? Ask yourself: How would I feel if someone used my work in their blog or video without my permission?

In my first creative hijacking, an author’s ghostwriter called to ask where to send a book that included my post, How to Quickly Become a Subject Matter Expert Using LinkedIn. When I told another author, one with over 60 books to their credit, they told me that legally I had the power to pull every one of these books off of the shelf. I did not. But, I did write this post Book to Blog 12 Keys to Go From Publishing to Posting.

In the latest instance, someone used my image, quoted almost an entire chapter, and mentioned me briefly with no link to my site. I was shocked to listen to them reading the exact words I wrote on the video.

Where was the link to Wired PR Works? Nowhere. Link to Barbara Rozgonyi on LinkedIn? None. Link to twitter? Nada. You get the idea.

When Leveraging Someone Else’s Image, Words and Brand is Not Okay – Is It Ever Okay?

1. No connection – on any social network  or in person -  says that the person has no interest in communicating.

2. No request for permission, just blatant and overt reuse, goes beyond the boundaries of copyright, not to mention plagiarism.

3. Publishing an image without approval or a link within a blog post gives no credit at all.

4. Using the author’s name as a keyword or tag to pick up traffic to your site, not theirs.

How to Get Any Author’s Attention, and Most Likely, Approval for Limited Usage

If you absolutely, truly love someone’s work, tell them. Getting their attention is the first step to approval.

1. Get personal and get in touch. Authors and bloggers love love notes and we’re almost all easy to find thanks to social media.

2. Write a LinkedIn recommendation telling everyone why their work inspires you.

3. Post an Amazon review that points out the lessons you learned in their book and why everyone should read it.

4. Send them a message or post to their Facebook wall telling them how their work is changing your life.

5. Start a fan club – only half-way kidding about this one, but you can connect with them and their fans via social networks.

6. Leave comments on their blog that add to the community’s conversation.

7. Go to see them when they’re speaking and get that book signed.

8. Interview them on your blog or radio show.

9. Ask permission to post images. I know, I know, they’re free and everywhere, but maybe they have a preferred image they’d like you to use. And, if you’re looking at an image that they created, then be certain to check for usage rights before you post or use the image anywhere.

10. Find a reason to introduce them to your audience that gives them exposure and links them to your network.

11. Link back to their blog, site and social networks in your coverage and promote your coverage within your social network to theirs.

12. Include a bio that describes how you met them and know them. Don’t know them – what do you think you should do?

13. Need more guidance?

When using others’ images, video, or other creative content, a link may not be enough to properly cite the work. You may be violating copyrights. We recommend that you always cite your source material, and heed takedown requests you may receive. When looking for source material to include in your blog posts (e.g., images, video, audio, etc), look for hints about attribution requests by the original poster. The copyright owner may have posted a Creative Commons license agreement for you to use, or may indicate how s/he wants her or his work cited on the web. Source: Center for Digital Ethics and Policy

Image: Thanks to Shutterstock.com for allowing me to use this image, which is one of the least threatening in their hijacker category. I selected this one because I believe that most people really want to do good, but they may not be aware of the discomfort, frustration and damage, they’re causing until someone points it out. And, it should be fairly easy to fix, right?

How about you? How do you protect your work or your brand from being hijacked?

On Monday, I participated in a panel discussion about personal branding for affiliate marketers at Affiliate Summit West 2011 in Las Vegas. Thanks to Marty Fahncke, our moderator, for suggesting we hand out an action guide. Here’s a picture of our panel. That’s Marty, Jim Kukral, me [Barbara Rozgonyi] and Geno Prussakov. All speakers received complimentary event registration. Here’s our action guide . . .

Leverage your Personal Brand for Affiliate Success

Many successful affiliate marketers transcend the brands they represent and become a brand themselves. Learn how they turned their face, personality and reputation into affiliate success.

Panelists: Geno Prussakov, Barbara Rozgonyi, Jim Kukral
Moderator: Marty M. Fahncke

Personal Branding for Affiliate Marketing Success Action Guide

Geno Prussakov 5 Points of Personal Branding

1. Authenticity and Unique Promise of Value

2. Remember 3 Rs: Reachable, Responsive, Real

3. Forget Charisma, Remember 3 Is: Inspirational, Intellectual, Individualized

4. Build Bridges

5. Be Courageous & Prepared

Barbara Rozgonyi How to use the power of free publicity to leverage your personal brand into affiliate sales

1.   Words – communicate in their language with an SEO accent

Tools I mentioned: Wordle to gauge keywords and SEO Scribe [affiliate link here and in how to use SEO Scribe with WordPress video] to analyze WordPress blog posts

2.   Intentions – be their buyer, their resource, their connection

3.   Routes – why PR is the most overlooked and fastest express route

4.   Experiences – storytelling makes connections that make sales

5.   Design – repurpose and repackage content within an elegant model

Marty Fahncke Personal branding success action items

1.   Write, and be written about

2.   Speak and be spoken about

3.   Be seen online

4.   Be seen offline

5.   Borrow social influence

Jim Kukral 5 Personal branding perspectives

1. Trust is required. Do you have it?

2. Nobody cares that you’re a middleman as long as you give them what they need

3. When you solve people’s problems, you win

4. Content, content, content

5. Make more content

Jim challenged us to go from writing and blogging to diversifying content with video and podcasts. How do you diversify your content?

Here’s my ASW11 presentation – all images from Paris . . .

Last night I taught a class originally titled “Facebook and Families: Keeping Peace in the Statusphere.”

What qualifies me to teach a Facebook and parenting training class?
I am a mom blogger, have two teenagers, a twenty year old and an extended family in real life and on Facebook.

And, earlier this year NBC5 interviewed me as Facebook for students, families and schools expert.

Handed this Facebook and parenting teaching assignment by the College of DuPage Continuing Education Department, I set out to solve all the perplexing and challenging Facebook puzzles parents face.

Prepping myself with all kinds of philosophical and real life questions, I was ready to rush in and be a pseudo social media therapist. Whether or not I would give away the tracking software link, so parents could spy on keystrokes, was still up in the air as I pulled into the parking lot at Building K.

Checking into my room, I noticed what could be a student waiting to get in. Was someone really 25 minutes early to my class? Yes. The other students, except for one who registered that day, all arrived at least 15 minutes before class started. As they settled in, I thought about their families and Facebook and how we would talk about their interactions and challenges.

But . . . that’s not how the class congealed. Instead, it was a mix of people from places, both in life and business, that wanted to know how in the world this technology really works. Ranging from someone whose first Facebook experience was 48 hours fresh . . . to someone whose computer tech had set up Facebook and invited the student’s entire address book to be friends [without their knowledge or permission] . . . to others with hefty networks in the several dozens, families and Facebook was barely on the radar.

All of my pre-work was quietly sent to my inner presentation trash folder.

A new presentation surfaced: one about Facebook and personal branding as a digital scrapbook.

After two hours, we stopped and took stock of what they wanted to learn in our next class.

Turns out this course’s destiny is not about how to keep peace in the family statusphere, it’s about how to transform from a Facebook newbie into a social media fan. To make that happen, I recruited my in house in real life Facebook teaching assistants [aka my kids]. Next Tuesday night, we’re suiting up and going in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How new are you to Facebook? What challenges do you face that I can help you with? Do you need a Facebook Trainer?

Image credit: courtesy of Shutterstock.com