Time for a Spring Spruce-up!

Spring has finally sprung and traditionally, it’s a time that many people think of clearing out the clutter in the garage or basement. Why not initiate a spring spruce-up of your business marketing?

The best place to start is by taking an objective look at your existing brand and/or logo. Is your logo old and outdated? Is your marketing material inconsistent? Now may be the time to enlist the help of a graphic designer to create a fresh and new image that clearly enhances the look of your business. 

When was the last time you updated the pictures you have on your social media profiles and web pages? If they are more than six months old, it’s time to post new ones. You may want to consider having your photo taken by a professional photographer.

And while you are at it, why not freshen up your data on all your social media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter? Your business is constantly evolving and your social media should reflect those changes.

Haven’t taken the plunge into the internet marketing realm yet? Now may be the time to explore your social media options and make the commitment to maintain your internet presence. 

Is your website or blog in need of an overhaul?  If you don’t have a website, landing page or blog, this could be the perfect time to consult with a web designer to explore your options.

What are you doing to drive traffic to your website, blog or other social media sites? Do you send out an e-newsletter on a regular basis with “links” directing your readers to your website or blog?

All of the elements above can be included in a Marketing Strategy. Does your company have such a plan in place? A Marketing Strategy is a living document that changes monthly, weekly, and even daily, as your business evolves and adapts to your business environment. If you are currently without a marketing strategy or business plan, now is the time to create one.

I would be delighted to help you explore any of these options and welcome the opportunity to meet with you face-to-face to discuss new ideas and answer your questions on how to brand and expand your business.
 

Lunch with Two Busy Ladies

It isn’t easy getting two of the busiest women I know together on the same day for lunch. With some careful planning, long-time friends Linda Anger, Lin Klaassen, and I were able to meet last week at my home and we sure had a lot of catching up to do!

On the top of the list was celebrating Anger’s newly published, “Sweeping the Floors of the Full Crumb Café”. This book of contemporary poetry, essays and short fiction invites the reader to a “metaphorical eatery where the door is always open and the food is always fresh”.  More details about the book can be found here

She clued us in on her latest project about the secrets we keep from each other and from ourselves. What kind of secrets? She is asking us to share any secret about our self-worth, our weaknesses, and our relationships. 

Anger (pictured on left) encourages you to send your sex fantasies, porn, or any secrets that would be offensive to the average person elsewhere. Secrets that answer the questions: what are people ashamed of? What are the “…if you knew the truth, you wouldn’t want to be my friend” secrets? What have people whispered to you when they start with “Don’t tell anyone”? She promises to keep your response totally confidential, and will never reveal your name. You can contact her at info@thewriteconcept.com

When not writing books, Anger is the President of The Detroit Working Writers  and the Owner of The Write Concept

Face Reader Lin Klaassen (pictured on right) can now add “cover girl” to her long list of accomplishments. She was highlighted in a wonderful article in the September-October 2014 issue of “Women 2 Women Michigan”, written by Elaine Stenger, Ph.D., touting her expertise as one of the top face reading experts in the world and is featured on the cover of the magazine. The full article can be viewed here.

The 3,000 year old method of face reading, commonly called physiognomy, has been scientifically validated to be 92% accurate and has a wide variety of applications, such as in jury selection, law enforcement, business hiring, dating, and in playing the game of poker. Klaassen travels the country as a keynote speaker and teaches workshops on this ancient art to corporate groups or organizations.

She is currently putting together webinars to feature basic face reading to singles actively dating that want to identify compatible or worrisome characteristics of their date as well as to poker players hoping to up their game. Her website is loaded with information on everything you could ever want to know about face reading, including how to get personal reading.

Author Writes A Real Life Who-Done-It Thriller

If you were faced with having a kidney transplant, what would you do while you recuperate? If you are Carol Teegardin, you write a book.

Summoning the skills she learned over 16 years as an investigative reporter for the Detroit Free Press, Carol wrote an unbiased account of Tamara Greene, the 27-year old exotic dancer that was murdered in 2003 after performing at an alleged party thrown by former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick at the Manoogian Mansion.  Her book, “Strawberry: How an Exotic Dancer Toppled Detroit’s Hip Hop Mayor”, explores all the much publicized twists and turns of this real life who-done-it thriller that was the start of the decline of the wildly popular mayor.

The book explores the theory that Greene was killed after the mayor’s wife, Carlita Kilpatrick, came home to the mansion unexpectedly to witness the party and then physically attacked the strippers who were performing there. Investigators later speculated that Greene’s murder was a "deliberate hit" by a member of the Detroit Police Department, perhaps to cover up the fact that there even was such a party. But who ordered the “hit”?

Carol has also written “Strawberry” into a play and a screenplay is now in the works.  If you would like to purchase a copy of the book, contact the author at ctee123@yahoo.com. The cost is $10.

Now that she’s back on her feet, Carol is more active than ever before. When not promoting her book, she’s a substitute teacher, is acting in a local production of “Hairspray” at Henry Ford Community College, and is looking forward to becoming a part of the “Proving Innocence” project, a local initiative to free innocent men and women wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. She also is making plans to hike parts of the Appalachian Trail.  

Blaming it on Brain Freeze

Believe it or not, I’m a stickler for proofreading. And I know that spell check really is our friend. But I’m not perfect or exempt from making errors in my emails and sometimes I don’t adhere to my own rule of getting a second – and even a third – set of eyes to read my stuff before I hit send.

This past week I sent out a reminder to attend the premiere showing of our “Poetry Leaves” video. My postcard said “Thursday, February 25." I quickly received a shout out from an astute reader telling me that February 25 was on Wednesday. How embarrassing.  

So what’s this landscape company’s excuse? At a business expo, I picked up a “home-made” brochure for a local lawn maintenance company.  Now I don’t mean to imply that all marketing materials that are professionally produced are error free, but generally they are double-proofed before they are printed - by the printer and then by the customer as well.

The text in their brochure was all in caps, a pet peeve of mine as it makes the print look like an optical illusion and is hard to read. But still even that did not hide a glaring, and rather humorous, error in the text.

“Our beginnings were humble, one man, one mower, maintaining 50 properties a week. Due to our relaibilty (sic) and attention to detail, customers referred us to their family and friends.”

I’m hoping their service must be more impressive than their proofreading skills.

It can happen to the best of us but if anyone asks, I’ve decided to blame my error on ‘brain freeze’, literally as fallout from the brutal temperatures we’ve endured this winter. Or if that doesn’t go over too big, I can also say it was a test to see who reads my emails. 

And just so you know, I did have this piece proofed by two pros.

Reception and Premiere of Poetry Leaves Video

Everyone is invited to the premiere viewing of the 2015 Poetry Leaves promotional infomercial on Wednesday, February 25 from 6:00p to 7:30p at the Waterford Township Public Library. The video, produced by Maurer Marketing & Media and FX Productions, will be airing on 17 public access markets beginning March 1. 

April is National Poetry Month and this year, during the 2nd Annual Poetry Leaves Celebration, the events are spread out over February, March and of course, April. These include:

• March 10, 6p, “Speaking Skills for Poets and Writers” presented by Linda Anger, President of the Detroit Working Writers  
• April 1, 6p, Poet Laureate M.L. Liebler will be featured
• April 15, 6p,  “The Music of Language” presented by Don Levin
• April 29, 5:30p, Exhibition opens with Ribbon Cutting Ceremony & Keynote presentation with poet Thomas Lynch

Volunteers are needed to help with these events as well as hanging the "leaves" in the trees for the street exhibition. You can sign up and/or get more information at the reception.
 

All these events will be held at the Waterford Library, 5168 Civic Center Dr. in Waterford. For updated information visit www.poetry-leaves.com

Lunch with Dr. John Telford and Collette Cullen

Several weeks ago I had lunch with long-time friends, Dr. John Telford and author Collette Cullen. John, and his wife Adrienne, welcomed us into their lovely home overlooking Lake St. Clair. With these three dynamic personalities in the same room, all I did was sit back and enjoy the repartee. 

Often called a “lightening rod for controversy” Telford shows no signs of changing his ways any time soon. At nearly 80 years old, this educator, activist and occasional Detroit mayoral candidate, has a new book coming out, “The Poet-Emperor of Earth: An In-Depth Dialogue with The Diety”, that he is calling an allegorical morality tale. And the Diety character, according to Telford, bares a remarkable resemblance to himself. 

He had this to say about his latest project. “Much of the novella features spirited debate between the Eternal Presence and the old poet-emperor regarding the comparative value of democracy vis-a-vis autocracy, with the old activist poet stubbornly seeking to gain permission from the Presence to incorporate some democratic processes in his style of imperial governance. The book has a surprise ending--in fact, it has two.” 

Currently,he is looking to meet a publisher’s agent to help him get several other projects published. To learn more about Telford,his books and his many, many community projects, “google” Dr. John Telford. 

Author,award-winning actress and veteran educator Collette Cullen walks the talk of promoting quality standards in educating our youth. She is currently touring southeast Michigan with her enlightening performance of her reenactment of Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller’s famous teacher. 

In “Annie Speaks”, the focus is to facilitate a conversation on themes in education, motivation, community and engagement. "After my decades in the trenches of education,” Cullen said, “I found myself pondering if we have lost sight of the essential questions. Helen’s quote on her teacher seemed the key, the missing ingredient of the discourse on the reformation of education. Helen said, “The day I met my teacher was the day of my soul’s birthday”.” 

In addition, Cullen is a playwright whose one-act play, “Between the Thorns”, was chosen last year to be produced by Random Acts of Theater, an organization that gives local directors an opportunity to present their work. The play is a story of Detroiters, diversity and dreams. 

Is your school or civic organization looking for a motivational speaker with a most unique message and presentation? Find out more about “Annie Speaks” at www.anniesullivanspeaks.com

Leaving a Paper Trail

With the vast use of social media and the internet, most people may consider using paper flyers as their promotional material a bit old-fashioned. But if you think of all the people who don’t use the internet or those who aren’t connected to your online social network, there is still an untapped customer base for your business. 

Let’s use a landscaping company as an example in this article. They are seasonal and travel from one side of town to the other servicing their customers. It makes sense for them to have flyers to distribute throughout the neighborhoods they are already working in to attract new customers.

 Keep in mind that a flyer is simply a call to action.  Whether you design the flyer yourself or have it  professionally done,there are a few things to keep in mind:

• The purpose of the flyer is to educate and inform the public of what you have to offer.
• It should be clear and easy to read at a glance. You don’t want to cram so much information onto the flyer that it’s difficult to sort the message out.
• You need to have a specific purpose in mind. Our landscaper could offer “Spring Cleanup” as a service and be handing out the flyer in the winter.
• To further call attention to the piece, you might offer a discount “coupon” or special price for new customers.
• It should include your company name, logo, addresses, phone number and website address, prominently displayed in bold type.  

Before you decide to distribute the flyers in residential areas, you need to do some homework. In most areas, there are newer regulations in place prohibiting the placing of flyers inside of mailboxes or newspaper boxes at the curb. You either have to put them on the doors of the homes or hand them out to the people you encounter

The United States Postal Service now offers an “Every Door Direct Mail Program” that is affordable and quite efficient. For a fee, starting at $ 0.17.5 per piece or 500 flyers mailed for $87.50 or less, you are able to target a specific area based on your particular demographics and there is no need to purchase a mailing list. You give them the flyer and they do the work. There are more details at www.USPS.com/business/every-door-direct-mail

Maximizing Your Business Down Time

Recently while I was visiting an accountant’s office, two women popped in bearing goodies. They were from an orthodontics office located on the other side of the same large office complex. Their business was slow and they were using the down time to go door-to-door, not only to introduce themselves to their neighbors in the complex but to all the other businesses within a two mile area. 

With a well-thought out promotion in hand, their message was clear. The "swag bag" was imprinted with the company logo, tag line, address and phone number. Inside were samples, most likely donated from their vendors: toothpaste, tooth brush, dental floss, a business card, and a flyer with a coupon offering a discount to new patients.

There was, however, a minor catch. In order to receive the goodies, you had to promise to “like” their facebook page. The page url address was included on the flyer. This was a clever way to increase the followers on their social media page as well as keeping their business in front of potential new patients in case the need arises to use their service.

When is your business in its down-time? Now is the time to be planning ahead with a strategy to maximize your growth potential and trump your competition. Other suggestions to use the time wisely:

• Update your website and/or social media pages
• Go to business networking events. Don't forget the business cards (and flyers).
• Review your business plan and/or marketing strategy
• Check out what your competition is up too

What is the most innovative thing you have done to move your company through the down-time? Let me know and I'll post it in a future e-newsletter.

Next post: Creating Effective Flyers 

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Seriously . . . Another Post About Business Plans?

As I’ve said ad nauseam, before I agree to work with a client on marketing strategies, they need to have a business plan in place. And from my experience, 99% of them currently don’t have their business infrastructure put down on paper or it hadn’t been updated in many years.

If you have been following my blog, you may be wondering when am I going to move on from this topic. Before I do, I wanted to share two different experiences my clients had while writing their business plan.

Let’s start with Client #1: She is a life coach, who stepped away from her business for a couple of years and wanted to jump-start it again. Even though she had the practice for several years before her break, there never was a business plan or marketing strategy in place. Initially, she took on the project with excitement and energy. The first few attempts needed to be fine tuned and I returned each copy back to her with questions that would help make her entries more specific.We hit a rough patch when I encouraged her to find the one key thing about her business that made her different from all the other life coaches. It took her several weeks but she came up with a new area of expertise that was quite impressive and set her apart from all of her competition. I got caught up in her enthusiasm.

Then in a puzzling turn of events, she cancelled our work session and didn’t return my call or email. Not taking it personally, I chalked it up to the festivities of the holidays and knew I’d hear from her sooner or later.

When she did call, she explained that while really examining her business, she discovered that she no longer wanted to pursue being a life coach. She had signed up for some classes in a field that she had always wanted to explore and was going to focus on that. 

So in this case, going through the process of writing the business plan brought on an epiphany for my client and lead her in a totally different direction.

Client #2 is an independent publisher who is restructuring his entire operations. While doing a bit of research of his competitors, I discovered products and services that he wasn’t actively promoting to his clients. Some of the items he was offering in his repertoire, but wasn’t seeing them as services to be offered. In addition, he found some new ideas to introduce to his clients.

This is an example of a company being able to expand their business potential by adding and enhancing their products and services by simply going through the process of developing a business plan.

Marketing Tip #32: New Feature on LinkedIn

Have you been wondering about the new “Endorsement” feature that LinkedIn introduced in early October? To get started, go into your LinkedIn profile section and add your “Skills and Expertise”. Next, similar to a Facebook “Like”, you can easily endorse your connections for a skill listed in their profile.You can do that one of two ways: at the top of your profile page, a “short-cut" graphic will appear showing your connections along with a recommended endorsement. Or, you can also go into their profile page and endorse them from their “Skills and Expertise” section. You may also suggest additional skills that may not be listed. Have questions about this new feature or on updating your profile? Feel free to call me 248-787-6623.

Marketing Tip # 31 - Facebook in Search Engines

If you want your Facebook profile to be more visible on search engines, go into “account settings,” choose the “subscribers” section, and click the box saying “subscriber search.” What this does is allows people to find you more easily on search engines so they can subscribe to your posts. 24 more tips from Quinton O’Reilly at http: /www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/13232.aspx

Brand to Expand Your Business

If you have been following my blog, you can see that I'm well into my 90-day Marketing Makeover. I have reworked my marketing plan as well as defined my target market and feel confident to move on in the process to review my company branding.

Again, your niche has to be fine-tuned and well-defined before you can brand your company. Marketing Expert, Beverly Cornell-McGlynn, in our 2010 M3 radio interview, asks the question, "If your business brand was a person, what would he/she look like?" http://bit.ly/UXhDKZ

According to www.entrepreneur.com, the definition of “branding” is “the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products.” Sounds simple enough but what does this mean exactly?

A memorable brand starts with your company logo. Do you have a logo that is old and outdated? Does it convey the proper image you want to present to your target market? One of the best investments you can make in your company is to enlist the help of a professional graphics and design company to create your logo and company image.

In a 2010 M3 interview, Linda Kleist, Marketing Director at Identity Graphic Design, points out that your logo can help or hinder the business, as it is the first impression that you project into the world. It comes from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be. It is the "it" factor" that sets you apart from your competition.  http://bit.ly/TpExhX

After you have that symbol that reflects your business, the logo and brand will then carryover into your promotional materials such as business cards, brochures, website, blog, social media pages, etc. In our interview, Diane Krueger, the Brand Identity Artist at Contagious: Cure of the Common, goes into more detail. http://bit.ly/V2xXua

Coca Cola, Nike, McDonald's, Craftsman are just a few of the most famous and easily recognized brands. Because they have built powerful brand recognition, when stacked up against their competition, they can charge more for their products and consumers will happily pay that higher price. When your brand is consistent and strong, it brings added value to your company's products and services that raise you above your competition, especially a company that may not have invested in the strategic branding of their company.

Once we have the logo and brand in place, we can move on to getting the word out about our products and services. 

Have You Found Your Niche?

Last  week during the first week of my 90-day Marketing Makeover journey, the focus was on updating my business plan and marketing strategy.  Did you do that for your business as well? Did you find that you had trouble creating your marketing strategy? Or did you notice that the one you had in place isn’t working for you anymore?

If so, the problem is most likely that your target market isn’t clearly defined or your original niche market has changed.  This is crucial, especially when planning your internet marketing strategy to achieve optimal marketing success online.

Perhaps in the beginning you thought that all you needed to do was to build a website and people would automatically be drawn to the site with credit cards in hand to buy your product or service. The hard truth is that in order to reach some level of financial success on the internet, you have to do all you can to get your message in front of your target market and get them to even notice you in order to buy what you are selling.

By definition, “target marketing”, or “niche marketing” as it is also called, is the strategy of identifying your  potential clients by segments, such as age group, geographic area, business industry, etc., and gearing your marketing efforts to one or more key segment.

To refine your niche market, you need to ask yourself a number of questions including:

·     Who is going to buy my product or service?

·     Are my clients limited to a certain industry or demographic? Or can anyone be a potential customer?

·     Does my business appeal to residential or commercial consumers? Or both?

·     Is my business limited to a local geographic area?

·     What is unique about the services or products my company offers?

·     How is my company set apart from my competition?

Once you have clearly defined your specific target audience, you’ll realize a number of benefits.

·     You’ll be able to maximize your marketing budget. You’ll know where you need to focus your efforts to find your niche customers. 

·     You are able to tailor the content of your website specifically to your target market. Using keywords pertinent to your niche, the content can then be optimized for search engines so that your potential customers can easily locate you online.

·     You’ll also, in turn, be able to search for blogs and related sites that are catering to your market.

·     You are able to develop new products or services that focus more directly on the needs of your refined group.

And now that you know who your marketing efforts are directed toward, you will be able to better develop your company brand.

NEXT BLOG POST: Branding Your Company

Marketing Tip #30 - Spell Check Can Be Your Friend

Proofread. Proofread. And proofread again. Lately, I’ve gotten quite a few email blasts that were riddled with typos and grammatical errors. Hey, I’ve been guilty too. Even though I have five proofreaders look over my e-newsletter before I hit “send”, errors do happen. No time to have someone give your missive a once-over? Remember, Spell Check can be your friend, most of the time.  When there are errors, people view you as unprofessional and don’t take your message seriously. Not to mention all the emails and calls you will get pointing out the mistakes. 

Marketing Tip #29 - Keep Eye Contact

When meeting someone in a networking situation, a simple technique that makes you memorable is to keep eye contact. As the other person talks, give them your full attention and nod your head from time-to-time letting them know that you are sincerely interested in the exchange. Don’t be scanning the room looking for the next conquest. There is nothing worse than spending any amount of time talking with someone who is mentally checked out and already on to the next person.  

Marketing Tip #28 - Become Proactive

If you are like most business people, your time is mainly spent being reactive to your clients needs and in turn, you neglect the needs of your own company. Why not become proactive by setting aside the first half hour of your work day to focus on what you need to do to expand your business. Create a checklist of updates you have been putting off and work through the list as you can. Need help creating a checklist? I’m happy to help.

Practicing What I Preach! A 90-Day Journey

My client was in a panic. Within the next two weeks, he would finish a long-term project for one of his clients and was concerned that there was no new project immediately in the pipeline.

It didn’t take me long to figure out his problem. After delving into the mechanics of his business, it was blatantly obvious that he was primarily "reacting" to his client's requests, rather than "managing" them. Even after being in business for a number of years, he still hasn’t made the effort to be proactive by getting his corporate infrastructure in place.

We reviewed his goals and aspirations for the company and came up with a 90-Day Marketing Plan. For the next three months, before he concentrated on his clients, he was to commit to spending the first half hour to an hour every day working through a checklist of things that he has to explore in order to expand his business. To help him get 'up-to-speed' quickly, he has hired me to manage his list and implement the plan.

While looking over his checklist to determine what marketing advice I was going to suggest to him, I 'subconsciously' reflected on my own business. It was obvious that I needed to take my own advice! So, I’m inviting you to come along on my 'journey'.

Today is day one of my own 90-Day Marketing Plan. I’ll be reviewing my existing Strategic Marketing Plan and determine where I need to re-evaluate and update.

A Strategic Marketing Plan is a living document that changes at least monthly, sometimes weekly, or for some, daily as your company evolves and adapts to your business environment. It is a companion to a Business Plan. The marketing plan describes, in depth, how you are going to promote your product or service to your target market. The business plan defines all the other aspects of your company.

The first thing I did was to bring out my neglected marketing plan and created a checklist of areas that required my attention. The first order of business was to redefine my target market, or sometimes called a niche market. I simply made a list of all my current clients and determined what they had in common.

Do you currently have a strategy in place to market your business? There are a gazillion books and online resources to help guide you through the process of creating your own business/marketing plan
or just email me at Sandra@MaurerMarketingMinutes.com and I will send you FREE, a simple outline you can use as a guide for creating a business plan and marketing strategy that I give to my clients.

Fun Definition of Social Media

While reading “How to Make Money with Social Media” by Jamie Turner and Reshma Shah, Ph.D., I came across a fun definition of social media and thought I’d share it with you.

“What is social media? You can find dozens of answers on the Internet, some helpful and some flat wrong. But for our purposes, social media are the digital tools that enable a two-way conversation between your prospects or customers and your business.

Unfortunately, most businesses are social media for one-way monologues instead of two-way dialogues. This brings us to our first analogy:

Social media is more like a telephone than a megaphone.

Businesses that use social media as a megaphone are missing the point. You know the kind we’re talking about. They’re the businesses (or consultants) that can’t stop talking about themselves and what makes their products or services special.

Now let’s take that analogy a step further. If using social media is similar to using a telephone, then what is Facebook like? Or LinkedIn? Or Twitter?

• Facebook is like a pub. It’s a casual place where you can go to talk about what you did over the weekend, tell a dirty joke, or tell people about the checkers convention you attended last week.

• LinkedIn is like a trade show. You wouldn’t tell people at a trade show what you did in Vegas last weekend, would you? Limit LinkedIn to your professional side. Talk about business. Talk about interesting articles in the Harvard Business Review. And use plenty of phrases such as “value chain” and “business model” in your profile. That should do the trick.

• Twitter is like a cocktail party. Just be sure you send out tweets that are helpful. New Tweeple make the mistake of taking Twitter seriously when its home page asks, “What are you doing now?” Well, we’ve got some bad news for you. Nobody cares what you are doing now. They care about information that will help them in their daily lives. So stick with helpful tweets that will position you (or your company) as an expert, drive people to a landing page on your site, or promote someone else in your industry who will someday return the favor.

• YouTube is like Times Square on New Year’s Eve. Times Square on New Year’s Eve is packed with people clamoring for attention, which illustrates the problem. Just as it’s hard to stand out in Times Square, it’s hard to stand out on YouTube. Too much competition exists. [You’ll have to read the book to find out their solution.]

• MySpace is like Woodstock. MySpace has suffered the same fate as AOL – it was huge at one time, but it has faded a little during the past few years. That said, MySpace still provides some very good uses. If you’re a musician or a cause-oriented marketer, you should be all over MySpace. But if you’re selling industrial widgets in the B2B space, you should do two things: 1) avoid MySpace like the plague and 2) think about getting a new job, because selling industrial widgets in the B2B space sounds like a terribly boring job.”

Taken from “How to Make Money with Social Media: An Insider’s Guide on Using New and Emerging Media to Grow Your Business” by Jamie Turner and Reshma Shah, Ph.D. FT Press, 2011. Pgs. 34-36. More info at www.60SecondMarketer.com

Marketing Tip #27 - Watch What You Post!

 In matters of defamation of character, the hard truth is that when you are careless with your postings on Facebook, Twitter, or any social media site, you can get into ginormous legal trouble with statements that directly target an individual, company, association, or anyone that has a reputation to be damaged. And if the matter is pursued in court, it can cost you big-time.  Also note that even a truthful statement can bring on legal issues if sharing that information damages someone’s reputation.  Once it’s out in cyberspace, it’s out there forever.

Can You Be Sued For Posting the Truth Online?

During a meeting this past week, a client revealed that he had been drawn into an on-line argument with a friend. What began as a private email conversation between the two of them, evolved into the “friend” posting snarky remarks and innuendos broadcasted to all their mutual friends on Facebook. He wasn’t sure how to proceed and was wondering if these remarks were defamation of his character.

First of all, there are two kinds of defamation of character: Libel is the defaming of character or reputation in the form of a written statement, in this case, on a social media site, or slander, that is a damaging statement which is spoken.

As a former publisher of a newspaper, I was faced with the issues of libel and slander every day. I purposely wrote the content of the paper from the “third” person, disconnecting my feelings and opinions on any given matter. It took a lot of discipline not to be dragged into disagreements that were between two embattled neighbors or one business owner who was doing everything he could to put the other out of business. But my reputation was that of fair and unbiased reporting, a reputation that I am proud to have.

The hard truth is that when you are careless with your postings on Facebook, Twitter, or any social media site, you can get into ginormous legal trouble with statements that directly target an individual, company, association, or anyone that has a reputation to be damaged. And if the matter is pursued in court, it can cost you big-time. Also note that even a truthful statement can bring on legal issues if sharing that information damages someone’s reputation. Consult an attorney for the laws governing defamation of character in your state.

Before you begin sharing your matters of discontent on the internet, here are some things you should keep in mind:

• Defamatory language does not have to be direct. It can also be innuendo.

• That language must be “of or concerning” the person claiming to be harmed by the language.

• The language must have been “published” for all to see.

• The language has to damage the reputation of the person of whom the remarks are directed. It should be noted that even a statement of opinion can get you in trouble.

The bottom line: Use common sense with everything you post on the internet for all to see. This is especially true before you post something in a hasty moment of anger. Once it’s out there in cyberspace, it’s out there forever.