We asked business attorney Justin Daniels what advice he would give business employees and, with the help of Harvard Law student Trey Stephens, he crafted the following response for our blog:

The next time you decide to vent about your work via facebook or tweet about your micromanaging boss, you would do well to stop and think about who might be reading it and what consequences it could have for your job. We have been brought up to take for granted the rights and liberties that we enjoy as Americans – an overconfidence perhaps best embodied by the childhood mantra “it’s a free country!” – so it may come as a surprise to many that the First Amendment’s protection of free speech does not apply to the private sector.

In fact, aside from certain protections provided by anti-discrimination laws, employers are generally permitted to fire an employee at will, whether it be for lackluster sales or subversive blog postings. Chatty employees are not completely without refuge, though. Many companies have adopted policies that guarantee their employees freedom from intrusion into non-work activities, and most states recognize claims of wrongful termination where the dismissal violates public policy.

Which means that the decision, in most cases, rests solely on the business owner. If you want your employees to understand the implications of their online discussions, be sure to broach the topic with them. let them read what Justin and Trey have to say above and set expectations. Unfortunately, unless they’ve had firsthand experience or have friends like Justin Daniels, it’s unlikely that they are aware of the potential consequences of careless social media use.

And, of course, if you need help with a specific legal issue related to this, don’t hesitate to contact Justin.

Every week it seems I hear new stories about ways that small business web projects were botched, some of which have been borderline criminal.

I never like seeing entrepreneurs waste money that is difficult to replace (plus weeks/months of time that is impossible to replace) and I hope that all business owners can hire good, honest web partners that match well with their goals — even when that partner isn’t Zero-G.

That’s why we just launched a new pret project called Practice Safe Site which features a presentation, white paper and web glossary to help business owners make better decisions.

Please check it out and share the link with anyone you know that may be starting a business or looking to hire a web designer or agency — I guarantee the information there will save them a lot of time, money and heartache. And we’ll be building on it over time and adding more content with the help of some trusted partners.

I hope you check out the site, feedback is more than welcome!

The first 10 people to purchase their tickets online using the promo code “zerogcreative” at checkout will get a $75 discount! And, for an added bonus, The Business of WordPress Conference organizers will be making a $50 donation to North Fulton Community Charities — Zero-G Creative’s charity of choice — for every ticket purchased with the zerogcreative code.

We hope to see you there!

I will be presenting “How to Select a Consultant or Agency” on Wednesday, June 23rd in Room B and will also be a participating as a panelist in the following sessions:

• Achieving World-Class Web Design (June 23, 9:30-10:30AM, Boardroom)
• Adapting a Visual Design to your Budget (June 23, 10:40-11:50AM, Auditorium)

I’ll also be available for an “Ask the Expert” Q&A session at 3:30.

Tickets are still available and you can purchase them here.

I’ll look forward to seeing you there!

It’s a funny line and — unfortunately — not terribly far off from reality in a lot of cases. And it goes without saying that there are many business practices that can be considered unethical, even predatory without being illegal. But if you read this blog every now and then you probably already know my feelings on that.

Yesterday, I wrote about the dangers of hiring SEO/SEM people you’ve never heard of. Today I wanted to follow up by discussing a particular pitfall in hiring someone you might know… And yes, you know these folks. You know them because you’ve bought cosmetics, legal services, kitchen accessories, plane tickets and maybe even your home gas service from them. Thats right, they’re Multi-Level Marketers (MLM’s) and believe it or not there are several MLM groups selling Search Engine Marketing services. I won’t mention them by name but one of the more prominent ones almost rhymes with “BadMove.” I wouldn’t ever hire one of these firms and I’ll explain why in a second.

First of all, if you don’t know how MLM’s work, do some research on Mary Kay,which is often held up as the gold standard for these types of businesses. I don’t want this post to be interpreted as an indictment of MLM’s in general; my only concern is how this model has been applied to SEM services.

Selling cosmetics or home goods is one thing, but in selling ongoing business services, there is a fundamental problem with MLM’s in that the person selling the service has little business interest in what’s good for his or her clients long term — the system doesn’t reward salespeople for that. The salesperson has a much greater interest in meeting their quota as quickly as possible and moving on to more profitable activities like recruiting people to work underneath them in the MLM. I always take umbrage when the person selling me a service has little to gain from my success in using his or her product.

And because just about ANYONE with a pulse and willingness to sell a complex service they don’t understand can represent these companies, buying from an MLM also means that you won’t have any direct contact with anyone who is truly an expert. Note also that some of these services do not actually drive traffic to YOUR site with their ads, they drive traffic to a custom page that they create on THEIR site. Not a fan of that either because visitors are still another click away before they get to experience your brand directly.

No, it’s not a scam… It’s business. But it’s a business that will undoubtedly waste your time and money. Only buy search services from real experts that come highly recommended and bring real references. Otherwise I guarantee that you will be sorely disappointed in the results.

If you want to know if SEO, PPC, social media or another online marketing initiative might work for your business, talk to people you know and see who they’ve worked with and what the relationship was like. And even with a high recommendation from someone you respect, spend some time with a prospective vendor before hiring. A true expert will be willing to spend an hour with you to make sure they can help you; a true expert will help you separate the fact from the myth and explain how winning campaigns are built; a true expert will tell you not to waste your time or money on an initiative that isn’t likely to help you even if they stand to profit from it. And be wary of anyone that appears to be selling a “silver bullet” solution that seems to be the answer to all that ails your online marketing.

I know this search engine business is complicated stuff… But that’s all the more reason to do your homework before you dive in. Talk to people about what you really need. You can even talk to me if you like; I’ll give you an honest opinion and I don’t even sell SEO. But don’t hire a stranger, not for this.

Probably the number one criteria for choosing a Web hosting company is whether it provides good, fast, reliable customer service, 24/7, via email, telephone and live chat.

“All hosting companies are pretty much the same — until something goes wrong. And you’ll want to know who has your back when that happens,” stated Erik Wolf, the president of Zero-G Creative, an Atlanta-based small business marketing and Web design company.

“In our experience building Web sites for small businesses, the most important quality you can find in any hosting company is timely, responsive and competent customer service,” he said.

While hosting companies might say they offer fast, reliable, 24/7 phone and email support, Wolf advised business owners to “test drive” the help desk during the free trial. For Wolf that means seeing how long he is kept on hold or waiting for help over the phone, how good the online chat is (if the company offers it), and assessing the knowledge level of the support staff.

Although I enjoyed my contribution to the story, the other page and a half is definitely worth reading and a terrific resource for anyone trying to figure out what they should be looking for in a hosting company.

For those of you that don’t read the same news sites that I do (I’m a geek — it’s what I do — don’t judge), the Open Graph API is a software interface that allows websites to integrate Facebook functionality directly into their pages. So while “social media” has been big for quite some time as we all know, this is  a major step towards a truly social web experience. Now you can “like” things without logging into Facebook and you can see what your friends think about a particular website while you’re browsing it.

Mashable’s Pete Cashmore even believes that this technology may even grow up to threaten Google.

It’s a little premature to say where this is all heading, but we at Zero-G know that we want to go along for the ride and see for ourselves. Today, Zero-G Creative is unveiling our new “social” homepage, equipped with a “like” button and seamless integration with our new Facebook fan page.

Within the next month we expect to be doing Open Graph API integrations for our clients and we’ll make those details available soon. But in the meantime, we hope you like us. We hope you really like us.

Last Thursday afternoon, a small box came in the mail from our client Mark Taylor, inventor of The Durand wine opener. This past winter we helped Mark and his group launch their product with an e-commerce website designed to sell the innovative product to wine collectors all over the world. Inside the box was a Durand wine opener and a letter.

“Dear Erik,” the letter read, “The Durand is a huge success. Every wine aficionado who has used a Durand on a fine old bottle has expressed admiration for its effectiveness… Before offering the Durand to the general public we first created a limited edition of the Durand for those of us who created and/or brought it to market, and for those who would help us most with the Durand as we went along… With this letter we proudly deliver to you #007 of the Durand.”

 

The product is even engraved with the limited edition number — the very cool 007. It’s an incredibly thoughtful gift and one that I was very proud to receive on behalf of everyone at Zero-G who worked on the project.

And it serves as a really nice reminder of what it is that we really do here and what we help our clients accomplish.

Now if I only had a 100 year old bottle of wine to test it on…

Coincidentally, our friend Jeff Hilimire opened a debate on his blog this week asking whether social media is best managed by an agency or by the brand and I was compelled to weigh in. Here’s what I said:

In the idealistic world that exists only in my head, I’d prefer to see agencies stay out if it entirely. But that’s not reality and I think many brands are going to require the assistance and guidance of an agency to plan the strategy, provide feedback and likely handle some of the upfront and ongoing effort to maintain the strategy. But I think it is a HUGE mistake for a brand to outsource its social media entirely to an agency as it seems many are doing. As a culture, we’ve immunized ourselves to advertising in part because of overload and in part because people have become increasingly aware of how “manufactured” advertising is. By contrast, we are drawn to social media because there’s still an element of authenticity there that has been stripped out of traditional marketing, advertising and PR over the years. Ultimately I believe that brands need to control the tone, content and tempo of their social media, no matter how impractical it is from an organizational perspective. I believe that impracticality can be overcome in many cases with a combination of effort and creativity

But it’s hard to overcome the disappointment and betrayal that our best customers would no doubt feel if they ever discovered that they were being misled. How would you feel if you found out that a company insider you’ve been developing a relationship with was actually a ghostwriter or a fictional character?

Authenticity is a prerequisite for a successful social media effort and outsourcing it wholly to an agency is disingenuous at best. Agencies can and should play a role — this is a big job after all, but any scenario that takes the brand out of the driver’s seat is a failure in my book.

Don’t give your brand’s voice away. No one can manage your company’s relationships or evangelize your company’s products and services as well or as passionately as you can. Should you ask for advice? Should you engage others both inside and outside of your organization to brainstorm ideas and help you evaluate success? Absolutely. But I could never offer or endorse any service that encourages companies to outsource such a critical element of their brand.

Business owners, I promise you — you can do this and you can do it well. It takes time and effort, no doubt — both commodities that are easily outsourced. But is also takes care and authenticity which are much harder to buy and impossible to fake.