by Will Viharo

What are friends for if not to review your new book on Amazon, for the whole world to see? But per an alarming new policy, personal ties to the author may preclude anyone from posting their comments in this very public forum. 

The questions are both why are they doing this, and how do they know about your alleged relationship, which may not even be real?

The backlash has already begun…

by Mary C Long 

Twitter filed suit in federal court in San Francisco today against spammers. The suit goes after tool providers “that willfully encourage and enable the distribution of spam on Twitter.” Yay, Twitter!

In what is being framed as a show of solidarity against discrimination, racism and all things evil, Macy’s has enthusiastically boarded the Donald Trump Hate Train along with NBC and Univision. But before others rush to get their tickets stamped, they should consider the destination from a PR standpoint – because it might not be one they’ll be happy to visit.

The hate wave started thanks to Trump himself, of course. His viewpoint on immigration is extreme, and the way he expressed it was pretty unnecessary, inflammatory and ‘in your face.’ Why, it’s enough to alienate half of the country and make his chances at being a serious Republican primary contender that much less so . . . or is it?

by Kim Niemi

LinkedIn groups can be a great way to expand your professional network, call attention to your brand with well-placed thought leadership, and engage potential clients or colleagues.

Unfortunately, many on LinkedIn don’t know how to engage in group discussions properly – resulting in a cluttered stream of posts, all getting zero engagement. That’s if they’re posting at all. Here are some LinkedIn group worst practices – and their cures...

by Will Viharo

When Amazon recently announced rather radical changes to their payment policies for authors participating in their Kindle program, there was an immediate and vociferous backlash, along with a lot of high-fiving from industry professionals.

But since Amazon virtually holds the monopoly on self-publishing, despite the proliferation of competing platforms, is there really anything we can do about it? And should we even want to?

by Kim Niemi

I came across a video the other day – posted in a LinkedIn discussion group, with a nice leading question that got me to click. Good job to that video poster! They got me! And then two seconds later they lost me. What went wrong? 

by Mary C Long 

A 131-character tweet just cost Lalit Modi £1.5 million in court costs – and damages to boot. 

What happened? Another case of not thinking things through before you tweet, it seems.