09. June 2021 · Comments Off on Cats and Cicadas · Categories: App Updates, Blogging, Mountain Woods Media · Tags: , , ,

cats and cicadasIf we were still building iOS apps, the next one would have been called “Cats and Cicadas” and even if it was a productivity app, we would still have managed to have a cat and a cicada lead users through it as mascots….somehow.  Maybe like Clippy in early MS Win95 days.

This week is peak Cicada Week here in Northern Kentucky.  It has been rainy and cool and so all of the windows are open.  Around 2 pm each day, the Cicada buzzing is loud and vibrant, almost deafening.  Have tried to work and write with music, without music, with podcasts going, without them, with the attic fan on, with the fan off….still the surging cicada pulse is slightly maddening.  It increases and decreases collectively in volume non-stop till dark.  They have been fascinating to watch crawl around this cycle..they have gotten in the car to chirp, the restaurants, they are in all of the trees.  Practically biblical in a 7 year locust kind of way.

Today, a stray Persian orange-y cat in need of a good brush showed up on the porch to hide from the rain and perhaps the cicada noise.  He/She rowrs through the door letting me know she has arrived.  Maybe hoping for a snack.  She curls up underneath the chair and starts to dose after we have a bit of a conversation through the screen door that she is not going to be allowed to come in the house.

A cicada flies on the porch and starts crawling around.  Kitty opens only one eye and glares at it.  Cicada leaves.

Circle of life.

 

P.S. if anyone knows this cat’s owner, dm us here info@

sleeping cat rowr  napping cat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

29. April 2021 · Comments Off on SSL Insecure Content Fixer Settings · Categories: Blogging, Mountain Woods Media · Tags:

Trying to get rid of that yellow padlock notice regarding SSL Insecure Content on a few sites this week…finally including this neglected one.   We had put off SSL chores on several projects until technology caught up and simpler versions became available.  The SSL certificate installed easily, but we were still struggling getting really, really old content pages https compliant.  They were still drawing traffic and we weren’t quite ready to delete although we have been toying around with a site redesign.

This was probably best plug in we have ever installed:  SSL Insecure Content Fixer by WebAware

We haven’t tried it on really complex sites, but for a simple WordPress blog, it will save you time.

Here is a screen capture of how we set our settings…nothing broke so far.

SSL Insecure Content Fixer

We only changed the toggle in the first section to “Capture” and left everything to default settings in the lower section.

 

 

Just when we were ramping up again for business networking, spring fun and frolic, concerts, andpink and white kentucky derby hat patio lunches all of us globally have been very suddenly relegated to “Healthy at Home” social distancing status.  Two trade shows cancelled, multiple community meetings indefinitely postponed, even SXSW and Derby until maybe September they say!?? No juleps, no spring hats, no ponies….

So this is what they mean now by going viral?  We are beginning newly defined work in the age of a possible pandemic.

Most surprising during Covid-19 have been the efforts to reconnect. Calls from senior friends and relatives joking about being “in lock up” and to send more craft supplies.  All of the airlines sending email begging us to fly.  A personal call from a business banker checking on our business after only the second week.  Are we alive?  Are we working?  Do we need anything?

Truthfully, we said we had lost a couple of marketing clients temporarily but happily gained some business coaching client projects trying to find their way through the current economic crisis.  We have familiarized ourselves with the online forms and paperwork steps needed to coach some people through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan process with the SBA.  It is pretty much like preparing a fresh business plan, just a bit darker in tone.  You are telling the lender numerically how you plan on finding your way during the pending economic crisis and how you plan to stay in business.  Very challenging to coach someone through it.  A deep dive into crisis management.

We have also been watching the daily 5 pm fireside chats with Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear to check for updates for updating client social media accounts.  He has become an overnight meme celeb with his empathy and his tough talk to get bingo parlors in Pikeville to shutdown to protect their clients and encouraging all of us to flatten the curve.

We learned a new hashtag:  “#doomsurfing” and have resolved not to do any more of it just before bedtime.

The biggest business lesson has been finding inner resolve to stay positive within a now very, very quiet office and resisting the urge to binge the daily firehose of negative news.  Staying productive, doing some computer updates and consolidating computers with some data migrations, catching up on paperwork, finally reading all of the slides from last year’s Pubcon workshops and tackling a few new virtual management workshops will be on the top of the list.  Maybe a little distance walking, garden weeding, and furniture restoration in the garage on the back side.  And of course, we welcome your cheery phone calls:  859 816 5176.

Stay healthy.  We will be meeting face to face again soon.

28. January 2020 · Comments Off on Starting and Restarting 2020 · Categories: Blogging, Business Development, Mountain Woods Media, SEO · Tags: , , ,

You know that spring clean feeling when you start the first week of a new year?  Yes, that one.

I had that. One.  For a very brief shining moment.

With a fresh New Year’s Eve tiara on my desk from a glittery dinner the night before, I resolved to kick it into high gear this year.  Fully.

Then I looked down at the orthopedic boot still velcroed to my leg.  Wondering how soon I could actually kick anything or hike rocks or dig in the dirt.  And took some more ibuprofen and drank some more coffee.

Hung up on some more Apple Support spam calls from a Motel 6 in Texas.  Told the fake Googler that I didn’t need any help with my search engine rankings.

Closed political news.2020 Mountain Woods Media, LLC

Sighed.

I took a week off from writing that week and delayed post holiday business until later in January.  Got out fabric, needle, thread, paints and queued up a massive watch list on Netflix.  Hobbled to the fridge occasionally and gobbled Ferrero Roche chocolate and kissed the hazelnut in the middle every time.   Everyone I knew was on a beach in Mexico anyway, so staycation for me was the new plan.

Giving myself permission to heal, I willed the bones “good luck” and focused on just rest and fresh media.  My mother sent jokes by text.  She had broken the same foot two years before.  We were kindred pals.  It was a good week.   I hemmed a pile of dress pants for business networking, designed a few new items for an upcoming toy show display, journaled with a pen and paper rather a keyboard.  Made mad plans for a decade do over to 2020.

It worked.

The next week saw a break in the weather and a few warm January days making it easier to go to some business meetings and start physical therapy appointments.  The exercises aren’t hard, but must be done.   My therapists know people that I know.  So chit chat and leg lifts have been bearable.   The ice machine is my reward.

So in it’s own time, 2020 is evolving and patience is the goal.  A client reported a phone call lead he received from Los Angeles never would have happened without our optimization work.

Time to hustle, get through another Valentine’s Day ….because spring is just around the corner.

 

30. September 2019 · Comments Off on Gardening vs. Writing – Who Won this Year? · Categories: Blogging, Mountain Woods Media · Tags: , , , ,

flowering plum treeWinter is generally when I best shiver over a keyword in black mitts with a mug of cider or chai and pound out long wordy paragraphs dripping in self-reflection as a tool of procrastinating taxes or client work.  Sometimes published, oftentimes not, they languish around waiting for a blog or social media home.  Waiting for my writer pal, Cheryl, to send me a nag text.  Waiting for their release into the wilds of the internet, frowning when their author mom chickens out and stashes them in yet another Windows folder.

Then, a warmish day and 2 daffodils later, spring fever hits and I’m bolting out the front door, leaping down the steps, garden tools in hand ready to dig in the mud, hunched over the weedeater, smack talking crabgrass, and going door-to-door begging for river stone and orphan perennials from neighbors.

This year was no exception.

What sent me down the garden path of responsibility abdication this year was an exciting gift of 6 trees. One tree I requested through an energy saving trees program, a Japanese Plum with beautiful burgundy leaves.  It got a bit windblown on its journey from the Peace Bell in Newport when my neighbor and I put it in the back of her little red pickup truck.  But happily, new growth showed up and “Plum” has persevered even when beetles chomped her in June and I neglected to water her while road tripping in July.

The other 5 trees were planted during a neighborhood planting event on a cold spring day.  It was a lucky gift.  They were healthy and in huge pots with big root balls.  Four Sweet Gums and a Serviceberry were assigned by the Covington Urban Forestry Board to my little corner and really filled in nicely the empty mulchy spots left by the two enormous elm trees that had to be removed after they died.  The neighbor kids had been calling the dead trees the “haunted” trees because they looked so forlorn.  The Sweet Gum trees did very well especially when the city attached water bags.  The Serviceberry bloomed but has been struggling a bit.  Am hoping it will come back to a perkier status in the spring.

Adding to the perennial beds with gifts of bulbs and roots from neighbors has been the best distraction this year.  The apricot tree bore it’s first fruit which the squirrels rudely ate without sharing so much as a morsel.  Neighbors thanked me for my efforts, curious pre-teens stopped and asked “what plant is that?” and then continued to flip flop their way to the Dairy Queen.

Everything is quite dry now thanks to mid-90 degree temps in September and spider webs are everywhere.  Sparrows seem to be enjoying the crabgrass seeds and pollinating bees and monarchs are still fluttering around the Red Sedum and the last few purple butterfly bush bouquets.

Gardening won, indeed, in 2019.

14. September 2019 · Comments Off on Avoiding the Unprofitable Time Suck in Your Business · Categories: Blogging, Digital Marketing, Mountain Woods Media, Social Media Consulting · Tags: , , ,

Does it always seem like there’s never enough time to get everything finished in your business day? Where does the time go?

Sometimes, for business owners and operators, there always seems to be a “fire” that needs to be put out. An upset customer or client; some employee drama or your regular six-month check-up at the dentist, etc. and just like that your day is gone.

What happened?

Actually, you probably accomplished quite a bit during your busy day, but if you feel like you are burning the midnight oil; working weekends, etc., and still falling behind on getting work accomplished, perhaps there are some things you can do – and other things you should cut out – to help make your day more productive.

For instance:

  • Stay off Facebook and other social media platforms. This is such a huge time suck. A post here; a picture there and before you know it you’re comparing bushy squirrel tails to Donald Trump’s hair.
  • Constantly checking e-mail. Again, this is also a time-wasting task. Checking e-mails and immediately responding to them gets you off-track. It also lets the receiver of your email know you’re available for a back-and-forth e-mail conversation. Try to get into a habit of checking your e-mail once in the morning (when you get to the office); once at lunch and then at the end of the day.
  • Get organized. If you can, plan tomorrow’s tasks and “to do” list at the end of the day. Then, when you start your work day, you have a plan. Follow the plan.
  • Try to avoid other distractions. This includes checking sports scores; playing online games; scanning the news websites; watching YouTube videos, etc.
  • If you schedule and conduct meetings, sales calls, etc., schedule them for less than one hour. If you’re hosting a meeting, get to the point and move on quickly. Your clients will appreciate it, too!
  • When possible, conduct meetings via mobile phone or through an online meeting software platform. This will save a ton of unproductive travel time.
  • Take your lunch. Not only is this a budget-minded issue, but going to a restaurant; ordering a meal; waiting for your meal, etc., also burns 45 minutes or more per day.

Are you guilty of any of the aforementioned time sucks? Trim it back. Get things done. Be more productive and more profitable.

Looking to pick up my darn chin….maybe fly a bit.

Slightly bummed that the annual snow feature no longer worked on this WordPress site due to a long ago Jetpack update, what was even more disconcerting was over the last couple of weeks my devices were blocking editing my own website. I initially discounted it because I had plenty of client work to do…but this week it was starting to really bug me and was wanting to drastically revamp the site. I tweaked DNS settings, ranted at Namecheap, messed with different cache cleaners, ran scans in Wordfence, dropped the broadband modem accidentally on the floor. Nothing. It was mystifying as I had been able to access all of the other sites hosted on the same server. On a whim, I finally changed the settings inside of wireless security and toggled a few things…magically my site came back up.

So a toggle, a reset, a new view.

Everything, and I mean literally everything, has been a “new view” for the last year. So many new views it has been a bit paralyzing. The cheery outside view of my over-the-top Vegas style Christmas lights masked the inside-the-house chaos and my inner spirit pity party for one. I have changed views and moving destination plans twice, shifted from owning to renting, to renting again and again, back to owning. Now I listen to trains while I write instead of goats. No longer do I have a partner corporate structure, nor the same desk, office furniture, conference table, filing system (still not solved), clients, car, coffee pot and mugs I had for many, many years. Realization that I can make snack choices without taking an office vote, take lunch whenever, luxuriously read writer blogs till midnight, set the thermostat as low as I like and secretly wear ragged black mitts like Charles Dickens’ Tiny Tim without staff ridicule is wildly freeing!

As well as scary.

This week also meant dealing alone with a dead furnace on a zero degree day, a power outage where I couldn’t do client work, and a young woman bleeding in my foyer after an assault on the corner. I intervened, solved, picked up my darn chin. I warrior goddessed without a pal. I looked for light.

Telling people I was postponing some decisions due to grief fog was a bit of a cop out this year, but also a comfort. Pushing out of the scheduling box, getting back to having international dinners with a view with new friends, as well as many driving adventures has been good energy and allowing for the necessary reset. Even slowing down to look at trees covered in hoar frost as I drove up to Hamilton, Ohio this past weekend was magical…despite the zero degree weather. Making rest stops without having to worry about compromise, both mentally necessary and completely novel.

The time spent has also helped determine business direction, what to keep, what to throw away in terms of client services in a “spark joy” way. It has been a better time of transition than I originally envisioned. Have also been strategically looking for cracks where new light can get in….taking inventory of the depth of my consulting resources.

“…Reveal the fierce urgency of now. Reveal how shattered we are, how capable of being repaired….”

Two writers who have been stretching me, Rebecca Solnit, author of Men Explain Things to Me and Maria Popova of Brainpickings.org fame both shared the “Focus” meme which I caught in social media in Maria Popova’s blog entitled: A Responsibility to Light: An Illustrated Manifesto for Creative Resilience and the Artist’s Duty in Dark Times. I have printed it out multiple times and pasted it all over the office. Although my workspace is still chaos, I have periodically unpacked yet another box, painted another wall while rereading this meme. You can even order it as a colorful poster.

Inspired by Toni Morrison, illustrated by Wendy MacNaughton and written by Courtney E. Martin, this to me offered a call to humanity, action, and creative resilience for traumatized artists in rough times. Written shortly after Leonard Cohen’s death, these words echoed as well to me Mary Oliver’s “Wild Geese” observations on grief, widely shared this month following her passing:

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

 

So all this to say in a very round about, disjointed way that apparently I am on a trajectory of visualizing new work as art, rather than work.

It is a must in these times.

Onward.

07. November 2018 · Comments Off on Climbing New Mountains, Finding Soul in Seoul, Going Home · Categories: Blogging, Digital Marketing, Mountain Woods Media, Social Media Consulting · Tags: , , , , , , ,

Up the stairs, down the stairs.  Up the stairs, down the stairs.

This week, it all came flooding back.  Vivid memories of the constant fitness challenge of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway System, the most efficient way to get around this enormous city of now 26 million people.

Back to 1986, a time of my life when I was at my most idealistic, a thin, healthy, mostly vegetable eating shy badass, wide-eyed at my first hand glimpse of human rights violations on a global scale and tear gas, where my BFF and I teased Korean police following us on the train down south with “resistance” style giggles.  It was such a different time, a dramatic time.

Long ago arriving in Seoul in autumn, fresh from a summer of dealing with my difficult father while waiting for my visa to Korea, I remember how somehow the application had been misplaced in a drawer.  There had been some Korean government consternation about my government data-entry internship with USIA, parent agency of Voice of America.  Out of the gate, a naïve pixie treated like a “spy” – this crazy story wrinkle was going to have to be in a book at some point.  Visa finally in hand, with a promise of a $6K annual stipend and housing, I marched across the tarmac of the Asheville Airport — where I had played clarinet in the band for Jimmy Carter’s reception — in my home-sewn yellow windowpane plaid dress, the skirt billowing behind me.  Energized but apprehensive to be leaving home in light of my mother’s tears (sorry, Mom), I didn’t think about the fact that I had never flown before.

But deep down, I knew it was well past time to leave home.  I could no longer accept the old rules of patriarchy, the misogyny, the disapproving glances because I resembled my dearest grandmother, her dark hair, tiny stature and fast walk.  All because I was outspokenly different…an empath, a creative, a non-conforming rule breaker.   I walked…I race-walked to the waiting plane dragging a giant steamer trunk of handmade clothes because in Molly Ringwald “Pretty in Pink” style, I couldn’t afford mall ones.  Hoping that I would fit in, that I would be smart enough, trendy enough.  That I could have an interesting life and make a difference.

I made a difference, but not in the way I had anticipated.  I worked to build tiny human bridges, face-to-face conversations with visiting groups trying to understand Korea and students eager to practice English trying to find a path to make Korea more open like the West.  I moved endowment funds globally and guarded the keys to the safe where the “dojang” 도장 (rubber stamps) were kept and worked to erase the remnants of colonialism by helping with land transfer paperwork…handing property back to Korean institutions rather than American ones.  I tried to understand human trafficking issues and the pain endured by the “comfort women” of WWII.  Sensitive, rarely discussed topics in 1986 such as women’s ordination and family reunifications with North Korea are now widely discussed.  Families having a few unifying celebrations with the North’s approval in 2018.  Women pastors and female public servants today abundant.  It was a positive assignment. My American colleagues wrote a funny tribute poem about me.  After 3 years, I had hopes to have stayed as I was contemplating grad school at Yonsei University and a cross-cultural marriage proposal all at once.  Not to be, a family emergency came up and I returned to the States.  I took a different road.

Fast forward 32 years.  An opportunity came about.

While helping a client over dinner pre-prep financials for a business plan, he mentioned he was headed to Korea to research suppliers for an industrial project…heading to a trade show in Korea in late October.  A serial entrepreneur, this was the 3rd business pivot I had helped him with.  I immediately said “Cool! I used to live there!”   We joked a bit about what he could expect culturally on his trip and by the end of the evening said: “Come with me…I’ll pay your way.  I just don’t want to be over there as one of those Ugly Americans. I want to see the real side of Seoul.  But I only have a day to do it.”

Although we had had a 10-year professional client relationship, my business and life partner had just died and I was a little freaked out about such a long journey so soon – but also professionally flattered that he would ask for my help on this project.   He said I impressed him with my Korean knowledge.

We kind of left it that I would think about it, but he needed to know in a few days because flights were filling up.  He emailed me the next morning again imploring me to take the chance….

“So, what’s holding you back???”

I could have written multiple Wikipedia entries of what was stopping me at that point but I kept my thoughts clear, made my own decision without checking in with my tribe and oh so professionally wrote back, “Okay, yes, thank you for your kind invite…Yes, I would like to join you.  Sounds like a fun adventure.  :>)”

My phone rang immediately and we made our travel plans.  He reserved my ticket and separate hotel in a trendy district that I knew nothing about.  We set up some dinner meetings for his chopstick practice at Riverside Korean in Covington, KY.  I made sure we got a western table…I didn’t think he was quite ready for sitting on the floor yet.

I ordered two Korean phrase books from Amazon to refresh my limited vocabulary from the one semester of language study I had at The Korea Herald Hahg-won.  A bit daunting when I opened them again, my brain cells more senior now, I was petrified of embarrassing myself with rusty Korean…especially with a client.

But I rose to the challenge by putting the books away saying confidently….”Oh, I’ll just study on the plane and wing it.”

Well, I didn’t have time to study on the plane because we were racing for it due to mechanical delays on a connecting flight.  It was Amazing Race worthy to be one of those people paged by the gate staff.   However, winging it went better than I had anticipated.  We never got lost, we never got food poisoning even though my client was eyeing food on a stick from the night carts in Myeong-Dong.  I kept redirecting him to higher end restaurant choices as a precaution.  He wanted to eat where “the people” ate.  We compromised.

We successfully made it to the trade show venue at Kintex which was indeed a wonder.  As big or bigger than McCormick Place in Chicago, it was squeaky clean and all of the booths were technically top shelf.  Our goal was to find a certain industrial supplier and do some business networking using my bad Korean.  We were fairly successful, learned a lot but determined that we may need to go back and do more pre-trip research and get out of Seoul on our next trip.  At least we now had some stronger resources.  It was ultimately a lovely autumn trip.  There was so much fall color, latte machine coffee shops on every corner, it was so cosmopolitan and I enjoyed the return to anonymity than when I had lived there with grandmothers squeezing my cheek every block saying “Yep-ah-yo!” 예쁜 여자 (pretty girl).

After the work meetings and chores were behind us, we walked and walked and walked and absorbed the vibrancy of Seoul.  Up the stairs, down the stairs of the subways and the Bukchon artist district only stopping briefly for hot mugs of coffee and dinner in the evenings.  We accidentally wound up in a mad cap romp in Itaewon with thousands of teenagers on Halloween night getting face painted.  Caught up in the revelry I posed with the Dada Itaewon theatre troupe raising money for their production and we talked “hashtags” and Instagram.  Eerily costumed impersonators of game characters and Kim Jong-Un roamed the tiny hilly streets.  I rescued a baby’s wizard hat in the wind and his parents were thrilled when I spoke to him in Korean and he smiled.  There was a freedom here that was new and fresh.

My client departed quickly for his next meetings in Europe, so left to my own devices and without a car I continued to walk and wander.  There was so much energy.  I marveled at what had been built since the 1950’s when the Korean War had flattened all of this.  I delighted in being anonymous and away from the pre-midterm election toxic media in the States.  I could breathe again.

Coming across the river walk where all of these magical characters were perched on platforms in the river was a serendipitous find.  The river rocks reminded me of my recent rock scampering escapade on the Ocoee River in Tennessee and I was so drawn to the scene.  It was a historical interpretation of the Korean Royal family going for a walk in the Secret Garden.  The rocks were placed in orderly rows as stepping stones across the river.

I looked at the rocks in the river as refuge.  I reflected on the breakfast conversation I had had that morning with a young woman from Singapore.  She had taken a gap year to study Korean and was on sabbatical from her demanding job with an MNC.  Her father had died many years ago (mine only recently).  Her brother was newly married.  I felt the unspoken anxiety in her words, some slight homesickness and also her desire for adventure.  She told me she had been trying to figure out her “what’s next” and I shared a bit of how I had been going down the same path after my partner’s death and that I was also restoring an old house.

I could tell she was intrigued and wanted to visit.  We exchanged business cards.

Her hardest question to me: “Is America really as dangerous and violent as we hear?”

It was so hard to figure out “how” to explain that nugget of a question, flashes of violence in my own past and recent shootings at the synagogue in Pittsburgh fresh on my mind hit me like an anvil.

We hugged after breakfast.  She went to catch her flight.  I went for yet another walk to the fabric market where I made a new friendship with Sunny, seller of fine silk.  His sister (friend?) business partner showed me her Instagram page and sewing creations.  They were professionally wonderful and very creative.  Sunny posed for a picture making a finger heart sign as my partner had done in the hospital.

We are all so connected.  Life is indeed magical.

It was a very healing trip. I garnished it with a celebratory Chocolate Donut with bitter dark chocolate filling and 2 orange peel slivers at the Krispy Kreme stand at the Inchon airport.   I carried it around luxuriously eating it ever so, so slowly and looking at $1000 duty free designer purses.  Not quite my Audrey Hepburn moment in Seoul, but I dearly enjoyed it.

“What’s stopping you?” still resonating in my brain.  It sent me home eager to write and do.

15. January 2018 · Comments Off on Online Review Websites: How They Work and Why They Are Important For Your Business · Categories: Mountain Woods Media · Tags: , ,

online review websitesThere are dozens upon dozens of online review websites that encourage participation from both individuals and businesses. These include sites such as Yelp, Manta, City Search, Google+ Local and many more.

Individuals (your potential customers) can create free accounts and use review websites to find more information about your company; get directions and leave reviews, etc.

For businesses, review websites are extremely important in gaining more local customers. Participation is required if you want to take it to the next level with local search engine optimization (SEO).

Here’s why:

  • Review websites, such as Yelp, for example, give your business more visibility to more local customers. Some users are addicted to the Yelp app on their smartphone and only use it for locating businesses or for finding products and services they need.
  • There are approximately 50 (or more) high-quality and high-traffic review websites – all of which give you another opportunity for your business to be found in Google search results and in other search engines. For example, if a customer is searching for “Greenville, SC florist,” your website might be ranked high in search results, but the review website might also be ranked high. This gives your business another opportunity to be on front of a local customer.
  • Participation in review websites gives your business another online source of generating new traffic to your website.
  • Review websites create inbound links pointing to your company’s website. The more review websites your company is listed in, the more links you have gained from credible websites pointing to your company’s website. SEO experts call this “link building” (the act of one website publishing a link pointing to another website).

Unfortunately, some businesses refuse to participate in review websites. Why? Because they fear potential bad reviews might be published for their company. However, individuals (again, your customers) can add your business to any review website and they can also leave reviews for your company whether you choose to participate or not.

As a local business owner, you need to claim and confirm your business profile in review websites and begin taking control of your company’s image in Yelp, Bing Local, Yellow Pages and other business listing websites. Once you “own” your business profile, you can then start optimizing your profile for better rankings and improve online conversations with your customers.

01. February 2017 · Comments Off on White Hats, Pink Hats, Black Hats… · Categories: Blogging, Digital Marketing, Mountain Woods Media, SEO, Social Media Consulting · Tags: , , , , , ,

White Hats, Pink Hats, Black Hats and the White House

Many of us in tech tend to be introverts.  We are passionately engaged with our clients. We feel  and experience deeply but you would never know it as we are reticent to speak up, or cause controversy in order to avoid a drop in web traffic, fewer consulting gigs, or trolls from high school taking issue with a mildly progressive meme involving the color pink.  When Googlers this week finally started “marching” in support of immigrant colleagues, this made me smile and also remembering fondly an SEO conference from several years ago.  The SES event we attended involved a meet and greet icebreaker  which involved identifying your firm as to whether it was “white hat” or “black hat”.   “White hat” meant you used technical skills that were above board, slightly less aggressive in order to earn higher rankings but none which would trouble the search giants such as Google, Bing, Duck Duck Go or Facebook.  “Black hat” meant you were not above being scrappy and slightly nefarious by using keywords hidden in white fonts, misdirected pages, buying followers, or other questionable tech tactics.  We were provided real cowboy hats during the event and instructed to both wear them and mingle.  Surprisingly, it was a 50/50 color spectrum.

But when you have always leaned “white hat” and have turned down more gigs than you have accepted due to questionable client ethics, there comes a point when you need to actually wear your sheriff’s badge and come clean.

In the early 90’s I both interviewed and processed grants for disaster victims, for women at risk who had been violated and burned with cigarettes in the trafficking industry, human rights activists in foreign jails housed in horrendous conditions,  and health professionals who had their hospitals and lifesaving equipment bombed by political factions.  Later, as a case manager and small business developer, I went on to help refugees impacted by similar events try to build small family microbusinesses in order to escape tough working conditions from jobs they had to accept once they had been admitted to the US.  Many of these tiny businesses made it.  Some did not.  I was new to understanding the impact of PTSD on many of my clients and looking back wondered if stronger mental health support would have allowed more of these families to thrive.   One client had been chased by gangs with knives through the jungles of Togo.  He was heartbroken to be separated from his wife.  A large man with a broad smile, he came to my office and cried when he was placed in a job with a meat packing plant.  Idealistic, but inexperienced, it took me several years to understand that the knives in the meat packing plant were probably not helping him recover from his experience of being hunted in the jungles of Togo.

So…as I saw people unjustly detained and then finally “making it” through the gauntlet at so many airports in these United States this weekend to cheering crowds, I was haunted by the man with the broad smile.  He never had a crowd to greet him, just me.  And this is how we continue to work.  If we can cheer for your success (and the standards are high) then you qualify for a sheriff’s badge with our “white hat” team.

 

~  Leigh M. Drake, President, Mountain Woods Media, LLC