Copying Something? Give Credit

I once read a post where someone mentioned at the end of it that they had "borrowed" the preceding paragraphs from another blog. No link or author's name attached. Just the declaration that hey, I borrowed those paragraphs you just read.

Sometimes when I read something, everything is fine until I reach a jarring paragraph. Then I think, "This doesn't sound like their voice." Sure enough, a copy + paste + search turns up something from the New York Times.

If You Copy, Give Credit

For the record: you can copy a couple of paragraphs, provided you give attribution. Online, you should provide the link. Example:

I can't believe how much snow there is in Buffalo today. According to forecasters, it's going to get pretty bad:

A new blast of lake-effect snow began pounding Buffalo on Thursday, piling more misery on a city already buried by an epic, deadly snowfall that could leave some areas with nearly two-and-a-half metres of snow on the ground when it's all done.

If your work wasn't written for online consumption, then you should explicitly say where a quotation came from.

Some people are sticklers about footnotes and end notes, but what's important is that you tell people where you got it: author, publication, date.

No Whole Hog

Note that you can't copy a person's entire work without permission, even if you do give attribution. Instead, you can quote a couple of paragraphs and provide a link so people can read the rest there.

As for the post I read where the person finally, after 400 words or so, got around to saying they didn't write any of it yet didn't say who did, that's about as close to the line as you can get, if not stepping right over it.

Lies And Consequences

Some of the time, it won't matter. Someone like me will just get their nose out of joint about it. Other times it will matter a great deal, though if you're a well known scribe, people may be willing to overlook the transgressions without canning your outright:

Laura Parker was fired from The Post in 1991 for lifting quotes from the Associated Press and Miami Herald. Denver Post columnist Ken Hamblin, meanwhile, was suspended for two months in 1994 after he copied five paragraphs from a Rocky Mountain News report. “The sin itself carries neither public humiliation nor the mark of Cain,” CJR’s Trudy Lieberman wrote. “Some editors will keep a plagiarist on staff or will knowingly hire one if talent outweighs the infraction.”

Perhaps. But they shouldn't. And you shouldn't be chancing it, anyway.

How To Find Good Content Ideas In 5 Seconds

You've probably been told that you need to blog and post to your social media pages more often. (If you're a friend or colleague of mine, then you've definitely been told this at least once; hopefully I shut up for a little while after that one time and let you get back to your drink).

One thing I hear as an excuse not to post is that a person doesn't have any ideas. They have writer's block, or they don't know where to get a new idea.

Writer's Block Doesn't Exist

First, writer's block doesn't exist. If you have nothing to write about, it's because you haven't done your homework in a while. Screenwriting teacher Robert McKee says that "writer's block" is cured by a quick trip to the library. Solid point, but no need for that. Just flip on your computer and your writer's block shall be cured (unless your "writer's block" is just laziness in costume, in which case no one can help you).

Do Some Homework

Here's how to get a blog post or update onto your pages today. Let's say you're a palaeontologist and you need something to blog or comment upon. Here's the steps:

• Go to Google
• Search for something in your field. Like "dinosaur bones"
• Click on the News tab at the top of the screen
• Look at the fresh stories in your field
• Pick one that interests you
• Write about it. Agree, disagree, whichever. But reference the story and write about it, whether it be a lengthy blog post, or a quick comment on your social pages. Just make sure you reference the piece and provide the link.

Show Your Followers You've Got Game

Done. You learned something in your field today, showed your followers that your head is in the game, and you've sharpened your writing and social media skills. Keep going.

Enough whining. Social media is there to help you. Use it.

Yes, yes, I know you've been reading a lot of stories in the past few months about what a joy it is when people "unplug" from Facebook in particular or social media in general. Leave those people to the newfound anonymity they crave - except on LinkedIn, where they can't wait to weep about social media being bogus....even while they use LinkedIn.

In the meantime, go ahead and reap the benefits of having a number of cheap tools for you to use in your quest to highlight your expertise and your accomplishments and hence further your career.

Get Involved. Get Known.

Yesterday, I was reading a news story which I knew a client of mine would find interesting. I sent it to him for comment and he responded a few minutes later. I tailored the response and put the comment on the news article. Then I went looking for the reporter's social feeds, so the reporter would be sure to see the comment and know that someone was interested in their stuff. This would help the reporter by flagging a future expert source if they needed one, and it would help my client by giving them a chance to be recognized by someone in the press.

Make Contact. Communicate.

A few minutes after posting the Tweet, the reporter got in touch and wanted to talk to the client for a few minutes. A phone call was made and the two of them had a ten minute interview. The reporter now had 1) a source for a new story and 2) an expert they could call on for future stories on the same subject. Meanwhile, my client was getting exposure in the mainstream press which could be turned into social media exposure by sharing the story when it came out. This would then add burnish to his expert halo and help him make more money from clients of his own.

None of this came through whining about Facebook and Twitter intruding on our lives, nor did it come from misery seeking company on LinkedIn and throwing in the towel on social media. It came from using these tools to do what they do: allow you to easily find people and talk to them.

The Most Important Symbol On Twitter

Whenever a discussion of Twitter comes up, invariably someone says that its purpose is to stay "top of mind." When I dig a little deeper on what people mean by that, they seem to believe that posting a news story every day or retweeting an article is a good way to stay "top of mind" with their followers. Post story > follower sees your face > follower thinks you're great > mission accomplished. Most Twitter feeds look like that.

I'm lukewarm on this theory because I don't think that's what Twitter is for. Or at least, that's not where I think its power lies. Also, because people "follow swap" so much, who knows if anyone even sees your face in their feed. If they're following 5000 people, probably not.

Passive vs. Active. Active is better.

In order to truly reach someone and stay top of mind with them, you must use Twitter as an active tool and not a passive one. In my way of thinking, posting news stories or using hashtags to get attention is passive. You are literally hoping someone crosses your path and takes notice of you. Retweeting is semi-passive. With a retweet, you stroked an ego, but you didn't probe for a response. The best you'll likely get is a quick, "Thanks for the RT," and that's it.

Shift-2 gives you @. Use it.

The active way to use Twitter is to make sure that you're using the @ symbol on at least more than half your tweets. If your tweet isn't directed at somebody, then you are being passive, and you aren't opening up the main possibility that Twitter makes available to you: the chance to connect with someone specific.

Use the @ symbol, start a conversation, and get noticed one person at a time. Revisit them again. Keep talking. It will be more effective than hoping one of the tens of thousands of people using a hashtag will somehow think you're the sole voice of authority in the wilderness.

Don't Treat Your LinkedIn Colleagues Like Also-Rans

Apps like TweetDeck and Hootsuite have made it incredibly easy to post to all of your social media pages at the same time. Unfortunately, this leads to laziness and can expose you as someone who doesn't care what their audience thinks, or even who their audience is. Your goal simply becomes "updating" for the sake of "updating," and you want to get it done as quickly as possible.

A key indicator of this is hashtagging on LinkedIn. LinkedIn stopped using hashtags a long time ago. On LinkedIn, they're just spelling mistakes. So why do you still see headlines and posts like this:

How to #win at the #game of #LIFE by #writing hashtag stuff on #Twitter.

The reason you still see posts like that on LinkedIn is because a) the person doesn't know that LinkedIn stopped using hashtags or b) more likely, the person is flicking a switch to send it to LinkedIn at the same time as their Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ accounts. While they've saved a few minutes of time, they've also managed to insult their entire following by telling them, "I haven't signed in here in ages. I'm just broadcasting stuff so you'll see my name every day. I actually don't even know who's reading this."

Craft a Different Message for Each Platform

Different platforms have different audiences and call for different messages. While apps make it easier to send the message to your different social media accounts without having to open them all, you should still be crafting a different message for each.

I saw this comment on one of the forums:

I connect to Twitter and LinkedIn using Hootsuite. I want hashtags to be a part of my tweet but not carry over onto LinkedIn, is there a way to do this?

Yes, there is. Write a new message for your living, breathing LinkedIn audience.

Sometimes The Best Move Is: "Do Nothing."

Back in my cruise ship days, I often heard a bar manager say, "If it's not good, it's better to have nothing."

He would say this whenever he saw a fruit display that looked less than appetizing, a promotional flyer that looked amateur, or a dying palm frond being used to dress up the bar. The fruit display would vanish, the flyer would go in the garbage, and the palm frond would head to the incinerator.

I didn't work in the bar department, but you couldn't help but hear him before the doors opened for an event. He constantly preached that people wouldn't miss something they didn't get a chance to see, but they would notice something sloppy and cheap.

If you feel you absolutely must have a newsletter this month, a social update by noon, a PowerPoint presentation to go with your speech, or a bunch of flowers in the reception area, you're wrong. Those things might be important, but it's more important that they're good.