What is Twitter?
Twitter describes itself as, “a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”
If you’re new Twitter, then that description might seem a bit vague and ambiguous. So, to help you wrap your mind around the short-form messaging tool, start thinking about Twitter as a new form of online communication. Twitter is just communication in a new shape, but it’s also a platform for listening to the communication of others in new ways.
Currently we have email, instant messenger, and VoIP tools like Skype as one-to-one or one-to-few online communication tools. For one-to-many online communication, online publishers can turn to blogs to create and distribute content rapidly and reach anyone on the web through RSS feeds.
Twitter is a combination of these various forms of communication, but its primary difference is that posts, or tweets, are restricted to 140 characters or less. As a Twitter user you can post updates, follow and view updates from other users (this is akin to subscribing to a blog’s RSS feed), and send a public reply or private direct message to connect with another Twitterer.
Though users can answer the prompt, “What are you doing?”, tweets have evolved to more than everyday experiences, and take the shape of shared links to interesting content on the web, conversations around hot topics (using hashtags), photos, videos, music, and, most importantly, real-time accounts from people who are in the midst of a newsworthy event, crisis, or natural disaster.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
What is a retweet?
HOW TO: Retweet on Twitter
Retweeting is an integral part of the Twitter experience. The retweet (or “RT”) allows Twitter users to share the best links, tweets, and gems they find from others using the service. But for beginners, it’s not immediately obvious what retweets are, or what tools to use to make retweeting easier.
This HOW TO article not only covers the basics of retweeting, but also highlights some of the best web and mobile-based tools for retweeting and tracking RTs in real-time. If you’re a Twitter beginner, we hope you find it useful; if you’re a more advanced user, we hope you’ll share it with friends who are just starting out.
1. What is Retweeting and How to Retweet
Retweeting is how Twitter users share interesting tweets from the people they are following. They copy and paste the original tweet and send it out. To give credit to the original person, users usually put “RT” plus the originator’s username at the beginning of the tweet. Here’s an example:
- The Twitter user @benparr tweets: I just heard that Apple is releasing new iPods in July!
- You retweet by posting RT @benparr I just heard that Apple is releasing new iPods in July!
2. How to Track Retweets
Once you’ve gotten used to retweeting and seen some excellent retweets in your Twitter stream, you may want to track retweets on a larger scale. The most popular retweets tend to reflect the favorite articles and most important stories of the entire Twitter community. This can be great if you want to find important articles, read useful blog posts, or are looking to track emerging trends.
Here are some of the best web-based tools for tracking retweets:
Retweetradar: Retweetradar [@retweetradar] is a web tool for tracking the most retweeted and trending content on Twitter. It provides a tag cloud to see the most popular content from today, yesterday, and even what’s popular right now.
Retweetist: Retweetist [@retweetist] is a tool that tracks the most popular links being retweeted on Twitter, just like Tweetmeme. Retweetist doesn’t stop there, however – it also lists the most retweeted accounts on Twitter.
Tweetmeme: Tweetmeme [@tweetmeme] is an authority when it comes to retweeted URLs and stories. Tweetmeme tracks the most popular links on Twitter. Once a link receives enough retweets, it appears on the front page of Tweetmeme. Tweetmeme can also be broken down by categories (i.e. sports, entertainment, technology).
3. Tracking Retweets with Mobile Phones
One of the coolest aspects of Twitter is that it’s easy to use on-the-go. Tweets can be sent from any mobile phone via text, the mobile web, or iPhone and smartphone applications.
If you need to track retweets while on the move, here are some of the best mobile tools for tracking retweets:
Retweet iPhone App [iTunes link]: The Retweet iPhone app, which we recently reviewed, is a great app for tracking the most popular retweeted URLs on Twitter. It costs $0.99.
Tweetmeme Mobile: If you’re not an iPhone owner, you’re in luck – Tweetmeme has a mobile version at m.tweetmeme.com. Bookmark it so you can see the most popular retweets from anywhere!
Tweetie() [iTunes Link]: The most popular Twitter iPhone App includes a section for viewing top Twitter trends and searching for retweets.
4. How to Retweet with just Two Clicks
Another cool aspect about Twitter are the great applications people build to make using Twitter easy. There are desktop and web applications that can show you all of your Twitter friends and tweets in one place.
The coolest part? Some of these applications make retweeting as simple as two clicks: one to create the retweet, and one to post it to Twitter. No copy and paste required! Here are some of the best applications for two-click retweeting:
Tweetdeck: Tweetdeck is a very popular application for running Twitter on your desktop. It has many features, but one of its best is its one-click retweeting feature – hovering over a profile picture provides the easy option for retweeting anyone’s tweets – just click the bottom left icon.
Seesmic Desktop: Seesmic Desktop is another great desktop application for Twitter. Formerly known as Twhirl, it also helps users read, reply, and send tweets from the desktop. Just hover over the profile picture and click the bottom-left bottom to retweet any post.
Tweetree: Tweetree is a web-based Twitter application that helps organize Twitter using conversation trees, so you can see an entire Twitter conversation on one page. Tweetree has an easy-to-use retweet feature at the right hand side of any tweet. TwitZap is another web-based Twitter application that has a similar one-click retweet feature.
5. Mashable’s Best Retweeting Resources
If you’re looking to continue your education in the art of retweeting, then we encourage you to read some of our most popular Twitter and retweeting posts:
cf http://mashable.com/2009/04/16/retweet-guide/
Retweeting is an integral part of the Twitter experience. The retweet (or “RT”) allows Twitter users to share the best links, tweets, and gems they find from others using the service. But for beginners, it’s not immediately obvious what retweets are, or what tools to use to make retweeting easier.
This HOW TO article not only covers the basics of retweeting, but also highlights some of the best web and mobile-based tools for retweeting and tracking RTs in real-time. If you’re a Twitter beginner, we hope you find it useful; if you’re a more advanced user, we hope you’ll share it with friends who are just starting out.
1. What is Retweeting and How to Retweet
Retweeting is how Twitter users share interesting tweets from the people they are following. They copy and paste the original tweet and send it out. To give credit to the original person, users usually put “RT” plus the originator’s username at the beginning of the tweet. Here’s an example:
- The Twitter user @benparr tweets: I just heard that Apple is releasing new iPods in July!
- You retweet by posting RT @benparr I just heard that Apple is releasing new iPods in July!
2. How to Track Retweets
Once you’ve gotten used to retweeting and seen some excellent retweets in your Twitter stream, you may want to track retweets on a larger scale. The most popular retweets tend to reflect the favorite articles and most important stories of the entire Twitter community. This can be great if you want to find important articles, read useful blog posts, or are looking to track emerging trends.
Here are some of the best web-based tools for tracking retweets:
Retweetradar: Retweetradar [@retweetradar] is a web tool for tracking the most retweeted and trending content on Twitter. It provides a tag cloud to see the most popular content from today, yesterday, and even what’s popular right now.
Retweetist: Retweetist [@retweetist] is a tool that tracks the most popular links being retweeted on Twitter, just like Tweetmeme. Retweetist doesn’t stop there, however – it also lists the most retweeted accounts on Twitter.
Tweetmeme: Tweetmeme [@tweetmeme] is an authority when it comes to retweeted URLs and stories. Tweetmeme tracks the most popular links on Twitter. Once a link receives enough retweets, it appears on the front page of Tweetmeme. Tweetmeme can also be broken down by categories (i.e. sports, entertainment, technology).
3. Tracking Retweets with Mobile Phones
One of the coolest aspects of Twitter is that it’s easy to use on-the-go. Tweets can be sent from any mobile phone via text, the mobile web, or iPhone and smartphone applications.
If you need to track retweets while on the move, here are some of the best mobile tools for tracking retweets:
Retweet iPhone App [iTunes link]: The Retweet iPhone app, which we recently reviewed, is a great app for tracking the most popular retweeted URLs on Twitter. It costs $0.99.
Tweetmeme Mobile: If you’re not an iPhone owner, you’re in luck – Tweetmeme has a mobile version at m.tweetmeme.com. Bookmark it so you can see the most popular retweets from anywhere!
Tweetie() [iTunes Link]: The most popular Twitter iPhone App includes a section for viewing top Twitter trends and searching for retweets.
4. How to Retweet with just Two Clicks
Another cool aspect about Twitter are the great applications people build to make using Twitter easy. There are desktop and web applications that can show you all of your Twitter friends and tweets in one place.
The coolest part? Some of these applications make retweeting as simple as two clicks: one to create the retweet, and one to post it to Twitter. No copy and paste required! Here are some of the best applications for two-click retweeting:
Tweetdeck: Tweetdeck is a very popular application for running Twitter on your desktop. It has many features, but one of its best is its one-click retweeting feature – hovering over a profile picture provides the easy option for retweeting anyone’s tweets – just click the bottom left icon.
Seesmic Desktop: Seesmic Desktop is another great desktop application for Twitter. Formerly known as Twhirl, it also helps users read, reply, and send tweets from the desktop. Just hover over the profile picture and click the bottom-left bottom to retweet any post.
Tweetree: Tweetree is a web-based Twitter application that helps organize Twitter using conversation trees, so you can see an entire Twitter conversation on one page. Tweetree has an easy-to-use retweet feature at the right hand side of any tweet. TwitZap is another web-based Twitter application that has a similar one-click retweet feature.
5. Mashable’s Best Retweeting Resources
If you’re looking to continue your education in the art of retweeting, then we encourage you to read some of our most popular Twitter and retweeting posts:
cf http://mashable.com/2009/04/16/retweet-guide/
How can I customize my twitter background?
HOW TO: Create Custom Twitter Backgrounds
Since the early days of Twitter, users have had the ability to upload their own background images. From photos of cute kittens to jaw-dropping mosaics, the Twitter background has been a key medium for self-expression, personal branding, and personal fulfillment.
If you’re new to Twitter, or just never took the time to create your own Twitter background, this HOW TO guide is for you. This guide goes step-by-step into the rationale for creating a personalized Twitter background, takes a look at some amazing Twitter designers, and provides a list of useful Twitter design tools and resources. Your artistic juices shall soon be flowing.
Why create a custom Twitter background?
Some of you might ask: is creating a custom Twitter background worth the effort? While this is a valid question, and the final answer is up to you, there are a range of benefits to making your backdrop your own. Both the creative and the brand-conscious can (and have) benefited from unique background designs.
Here are a couple reasons for why you might want to build your own:
1. Personalization and expression: It’s a chance to express yourself and who you are. Are you an artist, a musician, a blogger, or a cook? Do you love Macs or the beach? A new backdrop can really help people understand who you are.
2. Contact info: It’s an easy way to add additional information you can plug into your 160 character bio.
3. Personal branding: Having your contact information, your face, or additional bio information within your background is a common practice. It helps potential followers understand what you do and why you are someone people should follow. Check out HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Twitter for more.
4. Artistic creativity: Twitter is a great opportunity to push the limits of your talents.
Some great examples of custom Twitter background designs
If you’re looking for some inspiration for your Twitter background, look no further. These are some of the most unique, most inspiring, and best-branded Twitter backgrounds around. There’s not enough time or room to showcase the thousands of great backgrounds that exist on Twitter, so be sure to check out some comprehensive lists and discover some on your own.
And remember: you don’t have to spend an obscene amount of time to make a great background. It’s all about making a background that’s perfect for you, not for anyone else.
http://twitter.com/nullvariable: Doug, a web designer and consultant, brilliantly integrates his face with his brand and contact information in this spacey theme.
http://twitter.com/cooltweets: CoolTweets, which collects, well, the coolest tweets on the web, gets an A for its simple and clean layout. Perfect for many brands.
http://twitter.com/ijustine: The popular new media star has a balanced theme that perfectly reflects her brand.
http://twitter.com/KrisColvin: Kristi, a favorite tweeter of mine, opted to create a beautiful mosaic of color and life. I could stare at it all day.
http://twitter.com/loic: No, it’s not that Loic’s background is the most amazing, most complex, or most visually appealing image in the world. It’s that his background reflects who he is – a smiling, personal, fun-loving guy…who also happened to found Seesmic. You just have to love the picture of him kitesurfing, too.
There are literally hundreds of great Twitter backgrounds. Part of the fun is discovering on your own.
Creating your own background: the basic requirements
Now that you understand the reasons for creating a background and you’re feeling inspired, there are a couple of things you need to know about custom Twitter backgrounds.
First, you need to know how to actually change your background. This is a simple process: just go to settings, then design, and then click “change background image.” You can now browse your computer and add any image you’d like, so long as it’s under 800k in size.
Next, the actual dimensions. This is important because improperly-sized images can be covered up by your Twitter profile or can start to tile, which often leads to an undesired effect. In most circumstances, you want your background to be large enough not to tile. To achieve this, the total image size should be around 1600px wide by 1200px tall. This encompasses almost all screen resolutions.
If you build a left-hand column, popular on many Twitter backgrounds, make sure that it’s small enough not to be covered up by the central Twitter content – many designers suggest smaller than 200px or 235px. For more information on dimensions, check out Croncast and their numbers.
In the end, building your ideal background often requires trial-and-error. But if you’re not a designer, that’s not a problem – there are tools to help.
7 helpful Twitter background resources
What would a Twitter resource guide be without some useful Twitter apps? Not only do many of these tools provide pre-designed backgrounds, but many can also automatically update your background, provide detailed information and FAQs, and even fully-functional image editors. Here are a few of the best:
1. MyTweetSpace: MyTweetSpace is one of the simplest ways to create a Twitter background with minimal effort. It allows users to create badges, add graphics, play with text, and more to create elegant backgrounds and left-hand text columns. You can even log in with Twitter and MyTweetSpace will automatically update your background.
2. TwitterBacks: This website provides a set of templates perfect for creating your ideal Twitter background. The templates come in PSD (Photoshop) form. In fact, my Twitter account utilizes a TwitterBack template as the basis for my design. Can you guess which one?
3. TweetStyle: TweetStyle offers free background templates, custom Twitter backgrounds, and a few useful blog posts on the subject of the backdrop.
4. Free Twitter Designer: This handy little app provides an easy-to-use image editor to help you create a professional-looking theme.
5. TwitBacks: This is another tool for creating backgrounds. This one specializes in left-hand column-based backgrounds.
6. TwitterGallery: TwitterGallery is a directory of themes based on color and category. You can even click the “install” button under any theme, log into Twitter, and poof!…your background is ready.
7. Peekr: If you stumble across a great Twitter background and want to take a quick look at it in its pure form, the Peekr bookmarklet is the way to go. Click on the bookmarklet once to show only the background, and press it again to bring everything back to normal.
Start customizing and share your background
With this knowledge and these tools at your disposal, there is no reason you can’t build a killer backdrop for your Twitter account within minutes. So what are you waiting for? Try out some different designs, and be sure to share your artistic flair with the rest of us by linking to your newly-designed Twitter account in the comments.
cf mashable website
Since the early days of Twitter, users have had the ability to upload their own background images. From photos of cute kittens to jaw-dropping mosaics, the Twitter background has been a key medium for self-expression, personal branding, and personal fulfillment.
If you’re new to Twitter, or just never took the time to create your own Twitter background, this HOW TO guide is for you. This guide goes step-by-step into the rationale for creating a personalized Twitter background, takes a look at some amazing Twitter designers, and provides a list of useful Twitter design tools and resources. Your artistic juices shall soon be flowing.
Why create a custom Twitter background?
Some of you might ask: is creating a custom Twitter background worth the effort? While this is a valid question, and the final answer is up to you, there are a range of benefits to making your backdrop your own. Both the creative and the brand-conscious can (and have) benefited from unique background designs.
Here are a couple reasons for why you might want to build your own:
1. Personalization and expression: It’s a chance to express yourself and who you are. Are you an artist, a musician, a blogger, or a cook? Do you love Macs or the beach? A new backdrop can really help people understand who you are.
2. Contact info: It’s an easy way to add additional information you can plug into your 160 character bio.
3. Personal branding: Having your contact information, your face, or additional bio information within your background is a common practice. It helps potential followers understand what you do and why you are someone people should follow. Check out HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Twitter for more.
4. Artistic creativity: Twitter is a great opportunity to push the limits of your talents.
Some great examples of custom Twitter background designs
If you’re looking for some inspiration for your Twitter background, look no further. These are some of the most unique, most inspiring, and best-branded Twitter backgrounds around. There’s not enough time or room to showcase the thousands of great backgrounds that exist on Twitter, so be sure to check out some comprehensive lists and discover some on your own.
And remember: you don’t have to spend an obscene amount of time to make a great background. It’s all about making a background that’s perfect for you, not for anyone else.
http://twitter.com/nullvariable: Doug, a web designer and consultant, brilliantly integrates his face with his brand and contact information in this spacey theme.
http://twitter.com/cooltweets: CoolTweets, which collects, well, the coolest tweets on the web, gets an A for its simple and clean layout. Perfect for many brands.
http://twitter.com/ijustine: The popular new media star has a balanced theme that perfectly reflects her brand.
http://twitter.com/KrisColvin: Kristi, a favorite tweeter of mine, opted to create a beautiful mosaic of color and life. I could stare at it all day.
http://twitter.com/loic: No, it’s not that Loic’s background is the most amazing, most complex, or most visually appealing image in the world. It’s that his background reflects who he is – a smiling, personal, fun-loving guy…who also happened to found Seesmic. You just have to love the picture of him kitesurfing, too.
There are literally hundreds of great Twitter backgrounds. Part of the fun is discovering on your own.
Creating your own background: the basic requirements
Now that you understand the reasons for creating a background and you’re feeling inspired, there are a couple of things you need to know about custom Twitter backgrounds.
First, you need to know how to actually change your background. This is a simple process: just go to settings, then design, and then click “change background image.” You can now browse your computer and add any image you’d like, so long as it’s under 800k in size.
Next, the actual dimensions. This is important because improperly-sized images can be covered up by your Twitter profile or can start to tile, which often leads to an undesired effect. In most circumstances, you want your background to be large enough not to tile. To achieve this, the total image size should be around 1600px wide by 1200px tall. This encompasses almost all screen resolutions.
If you build a left-hand column, popular on many Twitter backgrounds, make sure that it’s small enough not to be covered up by the central Twitter content – many designers suggest smaller than 200px or 235px. For more information on dimensions, check out Croncast and their numbers.
In the end, building your ideal background often requires trial-and-error. But if you’re not a designer, that’s not a problem – there are tools to help.
7 helpful Twitter background resources
What would a Twitter resource guide be without some useful Twitter apps? Not only do many of these tools provide pre-designed backgrounds, but many can also automatically update your background, provide detailed information and FAQs, and even fully-functional image editors. Here are a few of the best:
1. MyTweetSpace: MyTweetSpace is one of the simplest ways to create a Twitter background with minimal effort. It allows users to create badges, add graphics, play with text, and more to create elegant backgrounds and left-hand text columns. You can even log in with Twitter and MyTweetSpace will automatically update your background.
2. TwitterBacks: This website provides a set of templates perfect for creating your ideal Twitter background. The templates come in PSD (Photoshop) form. In fact, my Twitter account utilizes a TwitterBack template as the basis for my design. Can you guess which one?
3. TweetStyle: TweetStyle offers free background templates, custom Twitter backgrounds, and a few useful blog posts on the subject of the backdrop.
4. Free Twitter Designer: This handy little app provides an easy-to-use image editor to help you create a professional-looking theme.
5. TwitBacks: This is another tool for creating backgrounds. This one specializes in left-hand column-based backgrounds.
6. TwitterGallery: TwitterGallery is a directory of themes based on color and category. You can even click the “install” button under any theme, log into Twitter, and poof!…your background is ready.
7. Peekr: If you stumble across a great Twitter background and want to take a quick look at it in its pure form, the Peekr bookmarklet is the way to go. Click on the bookmarklet once to show only the background, and press it again to bring everything back to normal.
Start customizing and share your background
With this knowledge and these tools at your disposal, there is no reason you can’t build a killer backdrop for your Twitter account within minutes. So what are you waiting for? Try out some different designs, and be sure to share your artistic flair with the rest of us by linking to your newly-designed Twitter account in the comments.
cf mashable website
Whai is a #Hashtags?
HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Twitter #Hashtags
One of the most complex features of Twitter for new users to understand is the hashtag, a topic with a hash symbol (“#”) at the start to identify it. Twitter hashtags like #followfriday help spread information on Twitter while also helping to organize it.
The hashtag is a favorite tool of conferences and event organizers, but it’s also a way for Twitter users to organize themselves: if everyone agrees to append a certain hashtag to tweets about a topic, it becomes easier to find that topic in search, and more likely the topic will appear in Twitter’s Trending Topics.
So how do you disseminate and make sense of all this hashtag madness? By going through the art of the hashtag step-by-step, of course. This short guide details how to identify, track, use, and organize hashtags in an efficient and useful way. Just be sure not to flaunt your new hashtag wisdom.
Have a tip to share on hashtags or a unique way you utilize them? Be sure to share with everyone in the comments.
1. Identifying hashtags
For new Twitter users, and even we veterans, figuring out what a specific hashtag is being used for can be a major chore. When a hashtag starts to trend, it gets even more difficult to parse the information stream.
So what’s the most efficient way to figure out those nasty hashtags? Luckily, there a few great tools that can assist in hashtag enlightenment:
What the Trend?: This useful little service makes it really easy to learn about trending hashtags. When something starts trending, What the Trend? will provide a quick blurb on what’s going on.
Twubs: Twubs, which we recently reviewed, uses a wiki system to help disseminate information on a hashtag. It aggregates tweets and imports pictures to help illuminate the topics being discussed.
Hashtags.org: While not the best at helping you understand the meaning behind a tag, Hashtags.org is good at showing you its use over time and recent tweets, which oftentimes is enough to figure out the meaning behind the tag.
Tagalus: Tagalus is a simple dictionary for hashtags. It’s very easy to find information on thousands of hashtags as defined by other users. You can also define a hashtag by tweeting tagalus.
2. Tracking hashtags
What’s buzzing on Twitter right now? If you’re a tech journalist, marketing professional, or just a person interested in trends, there are many useful tools and techniques to keep up with the Twitter conversation via hashtags.
If you’re trying to track tweets from a hashtag in real-time, Monitter and Twitterfall are good choices. Once again, Hashtags.org provides graphs and hour-by-hour information on top hashtags.
One last tip: if you need to track a less popular Twitter hashtag, try setting up a Twilert to get a daily email of the use of a specific hashtag.
For more, be sure to check out 15 Fascinating Ways to Track Twitter Trends.
3. Using hashtags
Although not terribly complicated, hashtags have some unwritten rules. The primary one to remember: don’t overuse them. If every one of your tweets IS a hashtag, you dilute the usefulness of them by fragmenting the conversation. In addition, many people will shy away from you because it seems spammy.
Another simple tip: give your hashtag context. Most people won’t actually know what your hashtag means, so give a quick explanation in one of your tweets or, if you’re making a hashtag, make it very apparent what it’s talking about.
Finally, if you’re looking to create a hashtag, be sure that it adds value for yourself and your followers. The best way to utilize them is when you need to organize information. Conferences, major events, and even reminders (i.e. #todo) can help organize specific tweets and make life easier on you and your followers.
The Twitter Fan Wiki also has some interesting reading material on hashtags if you’re looking to further your hashtag education.
4. Organizing hashtags
When I speak of organizing hashtags, I’m talking about conferences and events, which rely on the hashtag system more than almost any other entity. It’s become standard to track the conversation regarding speakers and afterparties via a hashtag.
If you’re about to put on an event or are looking to take your event to a new level, here are some useful tips for hashtag organization:
- Choose a single hashtag early: This may seem simple, but it is vital to get right. Choose a simple hashtag that represents your event or brand. If your event is the Business of the Calling Ducks conference, don’t use #businessofthecallingducks as your tag. How about #bizducks instead?
- Remind attendees of the hashtag constantly: On your website, on your Twitter feed, at the opening remarks, and throughout the day, make a friendly reminder about your hashtag and that you can track the conversation through it.
- Provide a website widget: For anyone who isn’t using or knowledgeable with Twitter, provide an easy conversation tracker tool on your website. You can make one via Widgetbox or Tweetgrid.
cf http://mashable.com/2009/05/17/twitter-hashtags/
One of the most complex features of Twitter for new users to understand is the hashtag, a topic with a hash symbol (“#”) at the start to identify it. Twitter hashtags like #followfriday help spread information on Twitter while also helping to organize it.
The hashtag is a favorite tool of conferences and event organizers, but it’s also a way for Twitter users to organize themselves: if everyone agrees to append a certain hashtag to tweets about a topic, it becomes easier to find that topic in search, and more likely the topic will appear in Twitter’s Trending Topics.
So how do you disseminate and make sense of all this hashtag madness? By going through the art of the hashtag step-by-step, of course. This short guide details how to identify, track, use, and organize hashtags in an efficient and useful way. Just be sure not to flaunt your new hashtag wisdom.
Have a tip to share on hashtags or a unique way you utilize them? Be sure to share with everyone in the comments.
1. Identifying hashtags
For new Twitter users, and even we veterans, figuring out what a specific hashtag is being used for can be a major chore. When a hashtag starts to trend, it gets even more difficult to parse the information stream.
So what’s the most efficient way to figure out those nasty hashtags? Luckily, there a few great tools that can assist in hashtag enlightenment:
What the Trend?: This useful little service makes it really easy to learn about trending hashtags. When something starts trending, What the Trend? will provide a quick blurb on what’s going on.
Twubs: Twubs, which we recently reviewed, uses a wiki system to help disseminate information on a hashtag. It aggregates tweets and imports pictures to help illuminate the topics being discussed.
Hashtags.org: While not the best at helping you understand the meaning behind a tag, Hashtags.org is good at showing you its use over time and recent tweets, which oftentimes is enough to figure out the meaning behind the tag.
Tagalus: Tagalus is a simple dictionary for hashtags. It’s very easy to find information on thousands of hashtags as defined by other users. You can also define a hashtag by tweeting tagalus.
2. Tracking hashtags
What’s buzzing on Twitter right now? If you’re a tech journalist, marketing professional, or just a person interested in trends, there are many useful tools and techniques to keep up with the Twitter conversation via hashtags.
If you’re trying to track tweets from a hashtag in real-time, Monitter and Twitterfall are good choices. Once again, Hashtags.org provides graphs and hour-by-hour information on top hashtags.
One last tip: if you need to track a less popular Twitter hashtag, try setting up a Twilert to get a daily email of the use of a specific hashtag.
For more, be sure to check out 15 Fascinating Ways to Track Twitter Trends.
3. Using hashtags
Although not terribly complicated, hashtags have some unwritten rules. The primary one to remember: don’t overuse them. If every one of your tweets IS a hashtag, you dilute the usefulness of them by fragmenting the conversation. In addition, many people will shy away from you because it seems spammy.
Another simple tip: give your hashtag context. Most people won’t actually know what your hashtag means, so give a quick explanation in one of your tweets or, if you’re making a hashtag, make it very apparent what it’s talking about.
Finally, if you’re looking to create a hashtag, be sure that it adds value for yourself and your followers. The best way to utilize them is when you need to organize information. Conferences, major events, and even reminders (i.e. #todo) can help organize specific tweets and make life easier on you and your followers.
The Twitter Fan Wiki also has some interesting reading material on hashtags if you’re looking to further your hashtag education.
4. Organizing hashtags
When I speak of organizing hashtags, I’m talking about conferences and events, which rely on the hashtag system more than almost any other entity. It’s become standard to track the conversation regarding speakers and afterparties via a hashtag.
If you’re about to put on an event or are looking to take your event to a new level, here are some useful tips for hashtag organization:
- Choose a single hashtag early: This may seem simple, but it is vital to get right. Choose a simple hashtag that represents your event or brand. If your event is the Business of the Calling Ducks conference, don’t use #businessofthecallingducks as your tag. How about #bizducks instead?
- Remind attendees of the hashtag constantly: On your website, on your Twitter feed, at the opening remarks, and throughout the day, make a friendly reminder about your hashtag and that you can track the conversation through it.
- Provide a website widget: For anyone who isn’t using or knowledgeable with Twitter, provide an easy conversation tracker tool on your website. You can make one via Widgetbox or Tweetgrid.
cf http://mashable.com/2009/05/17/twitter-hashtags/
Twitters term to know
Twitterspeak: 66 Twitter Terms
Never read a twiller? Having twissues with your twerminology? Welcome, then, to the unforgivable abuse of the English language that some call Twitterspeak.
The trick, in most instances, is to take the first two letters of microblogging service Twitter() and meld them, often unwillingly, to the front of your chosen word. These ungainly neologisms are so numerous that they now require at least two sites to track them: Twictionary and Twittonary.
The List
The latter, Twittonary, forces you to click through every letter of the alphabet methodically, despite the fact that most letters lack a single entry. Time saver: here’s the full list, with our suggestions below:
A-S
adventuritter: an adventurous twitterer
beetweet: a buzzing tweet; a “hot” tweet
co-twitterer: a partner that tweets on your Twitter account.
dweet: tweet sent while intoxicated
drive-by-tweet: a quick post inbetween tasks
friendapalooza: a quick burst of friend-adding
mistweet: a tweet in which one later regrets
neweeter: a new tweeter
occasionitter: an occasional tweeter
politweeter: a political tweeter
politweet: a political tweet
qwitter: a tool used to catch twitter quitters- UseQuitter.com
reportwitters: reporter style twitterers
sweeple: sweet twitter people
Twa-
twadd: to add/follow someone to your Twitter account as a friend.
twaffic: Twitter traffic.
twaiting: twittering while waiting.
twalking: walking while twittering via text.
twapplications: Twitter applications.
Twe-
twead: to read a tweet from a fellow twitterer.
tweepish: feeling sheepish or regretful about something you tweeted.
tweeple: Twitter people, Twitter members, Twitter users.
tweeps: Twitter people that follow each other from one social media/network to another.
tweetaholism: the continued use of Twitter as an addiction that is difficult to control.
tweetaholic: someone addicted to Twitter, so much so that it may be an actual problem.
tweet-back: bringing a previous tweet conversation or reference back into the current conversation.
tweet-dropping: eavesdropping on someone else’s home page in friends mode.
tweeter: a user of Twitter.
tweeterboxes: twitterers who tweet too much.
tweetheart: that special tweeter who makes your heart skip a beat.
tweetin: when a group of twitterers agree to get together at a set time to twitter.
tweet(ing): the act of posting to Twitter.
tweets: posts on Twitter by twitterers.
tweetsulted, tweetsult: what do you think it means, you dumb twitterer?
tweetup: when twitterers meet in person – a Twitter meet up.
Twi-
twideo-cronicity: when you’re watching someone’s videos and they are simultaneously leaving a comment or tweet for/at/about you.
twiking: biking while twittering via text.
twinkedIn: inviting friends made on Twitter to connect with you on LinkedIn().
twis: to dis a fellow twitterer. very bad form.
twitosphere: community of twitterers.
twittastic: fantastic, wonderful, superb.
twittcrastination: avoiding action while twittering, procrastination enabled by Twitter use.
twittduit: If you need to tweet a friend that does not follow you, post a twittduit asking your followers to pass a message.
twittectomy: an unfollowing of friends.
twitter-light zone: where you are when you return to Twitter after any time away and feel disoriented and lost.
twitter stream: a collection of tweets often times in alphabetical order
twitosphere: the community of twepple.
twitterati: The A-list twitterers.
twittercal mass: a community that has achieved a critical mass of twitterers.
twitterer: a user of Twitter (compare: tweeter).
twittering: to send a Twitter message.
twitterish: erractic behavior with short outbursts.
twitteritas: women who play with their twitters.
twitterness: a person’s contribution to the twitosphere.
twitterfly: being a social butterfly on Twitter evidenced by extreme usage of @ signs.
twitterject: interject your tweet into an existing tweet stream of conversation.
twitter-ku: those who either post on both Twitter and Jaiku() or load their Twitter feed into Jaiku.
twitterlinkr: a service collecting the best links posted through Twitter.
twitterlooing: twittering from a bathroom.
twitterloop: to be caught up with friend tweets and up on the conversation.
twittermob: an unruly and ragtag horde of people who descend on an ill-prepared location after a provocative Twitter message.
twittermaps: a mashup technology that lets Twitter users find each other using google maps.
twitterpated: to be overwhelmed with Twitter messages.
twitterphoria: the elation you feel when the person you’ve added as a friend adds you back.
twitterage: rage at a twitter post.
twitterrhea: the act of sending too many Twitter messages.
cf http://mashable.com/2008/11/15/twitterspeak/
Never read a twiller? Having twissues with your twerminology? Welcome, then, to the unforgivable abuse of the English language that some call Twitterspeak.
The trick, in most instances, is to take the first two letters of microblogging service Twitter() and meld them, often unwillingly, to the front of your chosen word. These ungainly neologisms are so numerous that they now require at least two sites to track them: Twictionary and Twittonary.
The List
The latter, Twittonary, forces you to click through every letter of the alphabet methodically, despite the fact that most letters lack a single entry. Time saver: here’s the full list, with our suggestions below:
A-S
adventuritter: an adventurous twitterer
beetweet: a buzzing tweet; a “hot” tweet
co-twitterer: a partner that tweets on your Twitter account.
dweet: tweet sent while intoxicated
drive-by-tweet: a quick post inbetween tasks
friendapalooza: a quick burst of friend-adding
mistweet: a tweet in which one later regrets
neweeter: a new tweeter
occasionitter: an occasional tweeter
politweeter: a political tweeter
politweet: a political tweet
qwitter: a tool used to catch twitter quitters- UseQuitter.com
reportwitters: reporter style twitterers
sweeple: sweet twitter people
Twa-
twadd: to add/follow someone to your Twitter account as a friend.
twaffic: Twitter traffic.
twaiting: twittering while waiting.
twalking: walking while twittering via text.
twapplications: Twitter applications.
Twe-
twead: to read a tweet from a fellow twitterer.
tweepish: feeling sheepish or regretful about something you tweeted.
tweeple: Twitter people, Twitter members, Twitter users.
tweeps: Twitter people that follow each other from one social media/network to another.
tweetaholism: the continued use of Twitter as an addiction that is difficult to control.
tweetaholic: someone addicted to Twitter, so much so that it may be an actual problem.
tweet-back: bringing a previous tweet conversation or reference back into the current conversation.
tweet-dropping: eavesdropping on someone else’s home page in friends mode.
tweeter: a user of Twitter.
tweeterboxes: twitterers who tweet too much.
tweetheart: that special tweeter who makes your heart skip a beat.
tweetin: when a group of twitterers agree to get together at a set time to twitter.
tweet(ing): the act of posting to Twitter.
tweets: posts on Twitter by twitterers.
tweetsulted, tweetsult: what do you think it means, you dumb twitterer?
tweetup: when twitterers meet in person – a Twitter meet up.
Twi-
twideo-cronicity: when you’re watching someone’s videos and they are simultaneously leaving a comment or tweet for/at/about you.
twiking: biking while twittering via text.
twinkedIn: inviting friends made on Twitter to connect with you on LinkedIn().
twis: to dis a fellow twitterer. very bad form.
twitosphere: community of twitterers.
twittastic: fantastic, wonderful, superb.
twittcrastination: avoiding action while twittering, procrastination enabled by Twitter use.
twittduit: If you need to tweet a friend that does not follow you, post a twittduit asking your followers to pass a message.
twittectomy: an unfollowing of friends.
twitter-light zone: where you are when you return to Twitter after any time away and feel disoriented and lost.
twitter stream: a collection of tweets often times in alphabetical order
twitosphere: the community of twepple.
twitterati: The A-list twitterers.
twittercal mass: a community that has achieved a critical mass of twitterers.
twitterer: a user of Twitter (compare: tweeter).
twittering: to send a Twitter message.
twitterish: erractic behavior with short outbursts.
twitteritas: women who play with their twitters.
twitterness: a person’s contribution to the twitosphere.
twitterfly: being a social butterfly on Twitter evidenced by extreme usage of @ signs.
twitterject: interject your tweet into an existing tweet stream of conversation.
twitter-ku: those who either post on both Twitter and Jaiku() or load their Twitter feed into Jaiku.
twitterlinkr: a service collecting the best links posted through Twitter.
twitterlooing: twittering from a bathroom.
twitterloop: to be caught up with friend tweets and up on the conversation.
twittermob: an unruly and ragtag horde of people who descend on an ill-prepared location after a provocative Twitter message.
twittermaps: a mashup technology that lets Twitter users find each other using google maps.
twitterpated: to be overwhelmed with Twitter messages.
twitterphoria: the elation you feel when the person you’ve added as a friend adds you back.
twitterage: rage at a twitter post.
twitterrhea: the act of sending too many Twitter messages.
cf http://mashable.com/2008/11/15/twitterspeak/
Tips for building your twitter community
HOW TO: Build Community on Twitter
Sarah Evans is the director of communications at Elgin Community College (ECC) in Elgin, Illinois. She also authors a PR and social media blog.
Your Twitter community is your life line. The strength of your community determines overall what you will (or won’t) get out of the microblogging platform. What do you want to use Twitter() for? I wanted to build a community where I could engage in dialogue, stay ahead of the social media curve, and share some laughs.
I just shared my objective with you. What’s yours? Start with your community objective and then go for it. Use the 10 tips below as your guide to grow the community which benefits you (and your audience).
1. Do… Create a user-friendly Twitter ID (@yourname)
Your Twitter ID is part of your personal brand. Plain and simple. Your first choice for a Twitter ID should be your name. There is nothing stronger for creating your personal brand. If your name is taken (as mine was) find a way to keep it as close as possible. (I added “PR” in front of my name, which worked for me as it reinforced my name and my expertise.)
There are only 140 precious characters available in each Twitter post. The longer your Twitter ID, the more space it takes up, thus limiting your interactions. If at all possible, stay away from numbers or an underscore. As your community grows, you’ll have many names and IDs to remember. Throwing in numbers and underscores makes it more difficult. This could ultimately minimize your interactions.
Are you reading this and thinking you should get a new username or a stronger personal brand? It’s actually pretty easy .
2. Do… Search for people to follow
It’s completely normal in Twitter culture to “follow” people you’ve never met. In fact, it’s encouraged. Begin by looking for people with common interests, hobbies or professions. I also like to follow people who are experts in areas I know nothing about.
A few tools to get you started:
• Twitter search() – This is the only search function actually hosted by Twitter. It’s extremely easy to use and offers comprehensive results.• Twellow() – An application similar to Twitter search except that you can search by categories (which makes results more targeted).• TwitDir – I like TwitDir because it offers a search function and breaks Twitter users into categories like the top 100 people followed and top 100 updaters.•A more recent addition worth checking out is the Twitter people directory, WeFollow()
3. Do… Learn the lingo. You’ll want to join the crowd. Trust me.
As with any new network there is a learning curve. Twitter has a quirky lingo all its own. But don’t let that hold you back from interacting. If you don’t understand something, ask someone. That’s how I learned!
A few of the essentials:
• DM = Direct Message• @ = Use to reply and always include proceeding a Twitter ID in a reply• RT = Retweet• Tweet = Sending a message on Twitter• Tw + any other word. A fun practice on Twitter is to develop a new twist on old words. For example, Tworld = Twitter world, and Tweeples = Those who use Twitter. You get the picture.
It’s an evolving list. Who knows, you might even invent the next “tword.” You can also check out basic Twitter commands.
4. Do… Know who “@” replies to you
It may not seem overwhelming at first, but soon after you gain friends on Twitter, conversations tend to move quickly. How will you keep up with it? My personal favorite is TweetDeck() (however it can slow down the functionality of your PC). A great alternative to TweetDeck is Seesmic Desktop(). I recommend a combination of the following:
• Twitter search – If you use Twitter search, also subscribe to the RSS feed. I set up two searches, one with the “@” in front of my Twitter ID and one without. You will get different results for each query.• Tweetscan – I use Tweetscan as my quality check to see if I’ve missed any replies. You can also see a trends search cloud before you type in your search query.• Google Alerts – Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google() results (Web, news, blogs, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.
5. Do… Add your Twitter ID to all of your signatures
Pimp out your Twitter name (and not just on Twitter). As social networks like Twitter continue to go mainstream, you’ll want to be able to connect with new users.
A few opportunities to pimp out your Twitter ID:
• Add under your name when you comment on a blog• If you friend someone on another social network, add a personal message which includes your ID• Include a “follow me on Twitter” signature on all of your email accounts or for your social media email signature
6. Do… Reach out and say something
No one likes what I call a “virtual voyeur” (i.e. someone who watches social media interactions without responding). Everyone is putting him or herself out there and as far as my experience has shown, people are pretty darn accepting and helpful. Something as simple as a “good morning” often leads to a response. If that doesn’t work, try something a little more aggressive like, “someone say hello!”
7. Do… Read the bio of those who follow you
Know something about those who follow you. The information you get from a bio makes it easy to engage in dialogue. If someone lists knitting as a hobby, send them a link to a knitting blog you came across. It opens the door for dialogue and that is what your community is all about.
8. Do… Promote others and share your best information
Twitter is all about karma. The more good you put out there, the more you receive. When you find others with great information, don’t be shy in sharing with your community. It’s a great feeling when you promote one of your followers (instead of yourself) and it results in dialogue among your community. It ultimately reflects support for you and credibility for your follower. Win-win!
9. Do… Learn the etiquette.
Most important is to learn about when you should “@” versus DM (i.e. Direct Message):
• Sending personal information like a phone number or email address. (It may seem like common sense, but I encourage you to NEVER post personal information like your social security number over ANY public forum.)
• A conversation which will consist of multiple “tweets” or a lengthy discussion with more than three posts. (Many people on Twitter will “unfollow” someone who sends multiple “tweets” in a row. Trust me.)
• Asking multiple questions to the same person or the same question asked to multiple people. (Your content becomes less valuable when people see the same thing repeated too many times…especially right in a row.)
• Correcting a mistake you’ve identified in someone’s blog post or “tweet.” (This isn’t required, but it is considered a common courtesy. The person who made the mistake will thank you.)
• Thanking each of your new followers. (It’s a nice concept to thank each of your new social media connections, but keep in mind how many responses you’re sending out each day or within a 10 minute period.)
• Making a request to someone. (Want to ask someone to write a guest blog post or partner on a project? Don’t put them on the spot in a public forum. Once you agree on a partnership, then by all means, tweet away!)
• Constructive criticism…this is your call. (If you have some pretty serious feedback to give someone, consider the most appropriate venue.)
• Getting someone’s attention! (Want to make a connection with someone, send them a direct message to get things started. A lot of people on Twitter get direct messages sent to their email or mobile phone.)
10. Do… Find out who some of the big players are
Twitter is not a popularity contest and it’s your choice on whether or not to follow these “top tweeps,” but they do tend to share a lot of great information. Did you know Pete Cashmore and other Mashable() “tweeps” are on Twitter?
Stay tuned for a follow-up to this post on what NOT to do.
Sarah writes her own blog PRsarahevans.com and is the director of communications at Elgin Community College (ECC) in Elgin, Illinois. She also worked for Advocate Health Care, the largest health care system in Illinois, as the manager of communications and government relations at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital. She brings a comprehensive background in the knowledge of non-for-profit and health care management. Her personal mission to engage and employ the use of emerging technologies in all communication makes her effective in reaching a dynamic audience.
cf http://mashable.com/2008/11/10/twitter-community/
Sarah Evans is the director of communications at Elgin Community College (ECC) in Elgin, Illinois. She also authors a PR and social media blog.
Your Twitter community is your life line. The strength of your community determines overall what you will (or won’t) get out of the microblogging platform. What do you want to use Twitter() for? I wanted to build a community where I could engage in dialogue, stay ahead of the social media curve, and share some laughs.
I just shared my objective with you. What’s yours? Start with your community objective and then go for it. Use the 10 tips below as your guide to grow the community which benefits you (and your audience).
1. Do… Create a user-friendly Twitter ID (@yourname)
Your Twitter ID is part of your personal brand. Plain and simple. Your first choice for a Twitter ID should be your name. There is nothing stronger for creating your personal brand. If your name is taken (as mine was) find a way to keep it as close as possible. (I added “PR” in front of my name, which worked for me as it reinforced my name and my expertise.)
There are only 140 precious characters available in each Twitter post. The longer your Twitter ID, the more space it takes up, thus limiting your interactions. If at all possible, stay away from numbers or an underscore. As your community grows, you’ll have many names and IDs to remember. Throwing in numbers and underscores makes it more difficult. This could ultimately minimize your interactions.
Are you reading this and thinking you should get a new username or a stronger personal brand? It’s actually pretty easy .
2. Do… Search for people to follow
It’s completely normal in Twitter culture to “follow” people you’ve never met. In fact, it’s encouraged. Begin by looking for people with common interests, hobbies or professions. I also like to follow people who are experts in areas I know nothing about.
A few tools to get you started:
• Twitter search() – This is the only search function actually hosted by Twitter. It’s extremely easy to use and offers comprehensive results.• Twellow() – An application similar to Twitter search except that you can search by categories (which makes results more targeted).• TwitDir – I like TwitDir because it offers a search function and breaks Twitter users into categories like the top 100 people followed and top 100 updaters.•A more recent addition worth checking out is the Twitter people directory, WeFollow()
3. Do… Learn the lingo. You’ll want to join the crowd. Trust me.
As with any new network there is a learning curve. Twitter has a quirky lingo all its own. But don’t let that hold you back from interacting. If you don’t understand something, ask someone. That’s how I learned!
A few of the essentials:
• DM = Direct Message• @ = Use to reply and always include proceeding a Twitter ID in a reply• RT = Retweet• Tweet = Sending a message on Twitter• Tw + any other word. A fun practice on Twitter is to develop a new twist on old words. For example, Tworld = Twitter world, and Tweeples = Those who use Twitter. You get the picture.
It’s an evolving list. Who knows, you might even invent the next “tword.” You can also check out basic Twitter commands.
4. Do… Know who “@” replies to you
It may not seem overwhelming at first, but soon after you gain friends on Twitter, conversations tend to move quickly. How will you keep up with it? My personal favorite is TweetDeck() (however it can slow down the functionality of your PC). A great alternative to TweetDeck is Seesmic Desktop(). I recommend a combination of the following:
• Twitter search – If you use Twitter search, also subscribe to the RSS feed. I set up two searches, one with the “@” in front of my Twitter ID and one without. You will get different results for each query.• Tweetscan – I use Tweetscan as my quality check to see if I’ve missed any replies. You can also see a trends search cloud before you type in your search query.• Google Alerts – Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google() results (Web, news, blogs, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.
5. Do… Add your Twitter ID to all of your signatures
Pimp out your Twitter name (and not just on Twitter). As social networks like Twitter continue to go mainstream, you’ll want to be able to connect with new users.
A few opportunities to pimp out your Twitter ID:
• Add under your name when you comment on a blog• If you friend someone on another social network, add a personal message which includes your ID• Include a “follow me on Twitter” signature on all of your email accounts or for your social media email signature
6. Do… Reach out and say something
No one likes what I call a “virtual voyeur” (i.e. someone who watches social media interactions without responding). Everyone is putting him or herself out there and as far as my experience has shown, people are pretty darn accepting and helpful. Something as simple as a “good morning” often leads to a response. If that doesn’t work, try something a little more aggressive like, “someone say hello!”
7. Do… Read the bio of those who follow you
Know something about those who follow you. The information you get from a bio makes it easy to engage in dialogue. If someone lists knitting as a hobby, send them a link to a knitting blog you came across. It opens the door for dialogue and that is what your community is all about.
8. Do… Promote others and share your best information
Twitter is all about karma. The more good you put out there, the more you receive. When you find others with great information, don’t be shy in sharing with your community. It’s a great feeling when you promote one of your followers (instead of yourself) and it results in dialogue among your community. It ultimately reflects support for you and credibility for your follower. Win-win!
9. Do… Learn the etiquette.
Most important is to learn about when you should “@” versus DM (i.e. Direct Message):
• Sending personal information like a phone number or email address. (It may seem like common sense, but I encourage you to NEVER post personal information like your social security number over ANY public forum.)
• A conversation which will consist of multiple “tweets” or a lengthy discussion with more than three posts. (Many people on Twitter will “unfollow” someone who sends multiple “tweets” in a row. Trust me.)
• Asking multiple questions to the same person or the same question asked to multiple people. (Your content becomes less valuable when people see the same thing repeated too many times…especially right in a row.)
• Correcting a mistake you’ve identified in someone’s blog post or “tweet.” (This isn’t required, but it is considered a common courtesy. The person who made the mistake will thank you.)
• Thanking each of your new followers. (It’s a nice concept to thank each of your new social media connections, but keep in mind how many responses you’re sending out each day or within a 10 minute period.)
• Making a request to someone. (Want to ask someone to write a guest blog post or partner on a project? Don’t put them on the spot in a public forum. Once you agree on a partnership, then by all means, tweet away!)
• Constructive criticism…this is your call. (If you have some pretty serious feedback to give someone, consider the most appropriate venue.)
• Getting someone’s attention! (Want to make a connection with someone, send them a direct message to get things started. A lot of people on Twitter get direct messages sent to their email or mobile phone.)
10. Do… Find out who some of the big players are
Twitter is not a popularity contest and it’s your choice on whether or not to follow these “top tweeps,” but they do tend to share a lot of great information. Did you know Pete Cashmore and other Mashable() “tweeps” are on Twitter?
Stay tuned for a follow-up to this post on what NOT to do.
Sarah writes her own blog PRsarahevans.com and is the director of communications at Elgin Community College (ECC) in Elgin, Illinois. She also worked for Advocate Health Care, the largest health care system in Illinois, as the manager of communications and government relations at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital. She brings a comprehensive background in the knowledge of non-for-profit and health care management. Her personal mission to engage and employ the use of emerging technologies in all communication makes her effective in reaching a dynamic audience.
cf http://mashable.com/2008/11/10/twitter-community/
How to find people on twitter?
10 Ways to Find People on Twitter
Twitter is all about facilitating conversations, but until you’re following some people, it’s just a blank page. Once you find people to follow and talk to, however, Twitter becomes exceptionally useful. You can share thoughts, ask questions, get updates about news, music, brands, and businesses, and discover helpful links and information. Finding good people to follow, especially for new users staring at a blank page the first time they log in, can be a bit daunting, though.
Thankfully, there are a number of ways you can find people on Twitter(). Here are ten sites you can use to locate “tweeps” to follow. Let us know in the comments if you know of any others.
People Search
1. Twitter People Search – Twitter’s built in people search isn’t the greatest way to find people on Twitter, but it’s probably where you should start. Twitter searches the “real names” people enter in their bio fields, but because there isn’t much accompanying bio information and because Twitter doesn’t have any sort of requirement to use your actual name, that can make it a bit difficult to find people, especially those with common names. It also makes it hard to verify that the people you find are actually who you’re looking for. Still, it’s a good place to begin your search.
2. Tweepz – Because the biographical information Twitter collects is minimal, no Twitter people search engine can improve on Twitter’s that much. Third-party site Tweepz does an admirable job, though. Tweepz lets you limit searches to specific parts of Twitter’s user information (like name, bio, and location), filter results by follower/following numbers, location, and other extracted terms, and greatly improves on the layout of the search results.
3. TweepSearch – TweepSearch lets you search by Twitter name or location, or search a specific username to get a list of all friends and followers. However, if the “indexing” number listed on their main page is accurate, they’re crawling about 600,000 less Twitter user profiles than Tweepz.
4. TwitDir – TwitDir is another search engine, but if the crawling stats are accurate, it’s well behind the curve, searching about 3 million fewer users than Tweepz. Still, it’s not a bad people search engine, and has some helpful “top” lists if you’re concerned with who the most popular or prolific people on Twitter are (then again, they’re also not that up-to-date — the site doesn’t seem to know who @aplusk is, for example).
Directories
5. Twellow() – Your best bet for finding like-minded Twitter users might be to use a directory, and Twellow is certainly one of the most complete. Nearly 6 million Twitter user profiles are indexed in Twellow and placed into a huge number of categories. You can search the entire lot of profiles, or confine searches to a single category. Twellow also operates a local directory called the “Twellowhood.”
6. WeFollow() – Created by Digg() founder Kevin Rose, WeFollow is a Twitter user directory that organizes people by hashtags. WeFollow is user-generated and anyone can add themselves by tweeting @wefollow with three #hashtags that describe them.
7. Just Tweet It – Just Tweet It is another user created Twitter directory. It’s not quite as well organized or easy-to-use as Twellow or WeFollow, but it is certainly large enough that you should give it a browse when trying to locate people in your interest areas to follow.
Recommendations
8. Twubble – Twubble recommends people to follow by spidering the people you’re already following and recommending users that they’re following. The idea is that the people you’re following are interesting to you, so if more than one of them are also following another person, that person might also be interesting. Of course, that means that Twubble can’t be your first stop when finding people to follow — you already need to be following some people for the service to work.
9. Twitterel – Twitterel attempts to find people you might be interested in following by doing keyword searches of tweets. The service can update you by email, direct message, or @reply when it finds new people it thinks you might be interested in following. It’s kind of like Google Alerts for Twitter follow recommendations.
10. Who Should i Follow? – Enter you Twitter username into Who Should i Follow? and the service finds users who are similar to those you’re already following. The site doesn’t disclose information about how it works, but in my experience it is pretty accurate at finding users whose tweets are similar in content to your followers. The results can be filtered by how popular the people are, and how close they are to a specific location.
BONUS: Mr. Tweet – Mr. Tweet is a very popular Twitter app that lets you give and receive recommendations about Twitter users. The app also provides more helpful statistics about users, such as tweets per day or the percentage of tweets containing links. To get the most out of Mr. Tweet, consider installing the Firefox plugin, which gives you access to statistics and user recommendations while you’re browsing Twitter.
Twitter is all about facilitating conversations, but until you’re following some people, it’s just a blank page. Once you find people to follow and talk to, however, Twitter becomes exceptionally useful. You can share thoughts, ask questions, get updates about news, music, brands, and businesses, and discover helpful links and information. Finding good people to follow, especially for new users staring at a blank page the first time they log in, can be a bit daunting, though.
Thankfully, there are a number of ways you can find people on Twitter(). Here are ten sites you can use to locate “tweeps” to follow. Let us know in the comments if you know of any others.
People Search
1. Twitter People Search – Twitter’s built in people search isn’t the greatest way to find people on Twitter, but it’s probably where you should start. Twitter searches the “real names” people enter in their bio fields, but because there isn’t much accompanying bio information and because Twitter doesn’t have any sort of requirement to use your actual name, that can make it a bit difficult to find people, especially those with common names. It also makes it hard to verify that the people you find are actually who you’re looking for. Still, it’s a good place to begin your search.
2. Tweepz – Because the biographical information Twitter collects is minimal, no Twitter people search engine can improve on Twitter’s that much. Third-party site Tweepz does an admirable job, though. Tweepz lets you limit searches to specific parts of Twitter’s user information (like name, bio, and location), filter results by follower/following numbers, location, and other extracted terms, and greatly improves on the layout of the search results.
3. TweepSearch – TweepSearch lets you search by Twitter name or location, or search a specific username to get a list of all friends and followers. However, if the “indexing” number listed on their main page is accurate, they’re crawling about 600,000 less Twitter user profiles than Tweepz.
4. TwitDir – TwitDir is another search engine, but if the crawling stats are accurate, it’s well behind the curve, searching about 3 million fewer users than Tweepz. Still, it’s not a bad people search engine, and has some helpful “top” lists if you’re concerned with who the most popular or prolific people on Twitter are (then again, they’re also not that up-to-date — the site doesn’t seem to know who @aplusk is, for example).
Directories
5. Twellow() – Your best bet for finding like-minded Twitter users might be to use a directory, and Twellow is certainly one of the most complete. Nearly 6 million Twitter user profiles are indexed in Twellow and placed into a huge number of categories. You can search the entire lot of profiles, or confine searches to a single category. Twellow also operates a local directory called the “Twellowhood.”
6. WeFollow() – Created by Digg() founder Kevin Rose, WeFollow is a Twitter user directory that organizes people by hashtags. WeFollow is user-generated and anyone can add themselves by tweeting @wefollow with three #hashtags that describe them.
7. Just Tweet It – Just Tweet It is another user created Twitter directory. It’s not quite as well organized or easy-to-use as Twellow or WeFollow, but it is certainly large enough that you should give it a browse when trying to locate people in your interest areas to follow.
Recommendations
8. Twubble – Twubble recommends people to follow by spidering the people you’re already following and recommending users that they’re following. The idea is that the people you’re following are interesting to you, so if more than one of them are also following another person, that person might also be interesting. Of course, that means that Twubble can’t be your first stop when finding people to follow — you already need to be following some people for the service to work.
9. Twitterel – Twitterel attempts to find people you might be interested in following by doing keyword searches of tweets. The service can update you by email, direct message, or @reply when it finds new people it thinks you might be interested in following. It’s kind of like Google Alerts for Twitter follow recommendations.
10. Who Should i Follow? – Enter you Twitter username into Who Should i Follow? and the service finds users who are similar to those you’re already following. The site doesn’t disclose information about how it works, but in my experience it is pretty accurate at finding users whose tweets are similar in content to your followers. The results can be filtered by how popular the people are, and how close they are to a specific location.
BONUS: Mr. Tweet – Mr. Tweet is a very popular Twitter app that lets you give and receive recommendations about Twitter users. The app also provides more helpful statistics about users, such as tweets per day or the percentage of tweets containing links. To get the most out of Mr. Tweet, consider installing the Firefox plugin, which gives you access to statistics and user recommendations while you’re browsing Twitter.
What to do when you've followed too many people
The Twitter Followholic: An Epidemic
Elliott Kosmicki is the founder of GoodPlum.com, a productivity and personal development blog for home business owners. You can also follow Elliott on Twitter.
It’s an illness. It’s a disease that attacks the brain, affecting the response of your fingers on the keyboard and mouse. “Stop clicking,” you say to yourself as another follow button has turned into a green-checked following icon.
The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem: you’re a followholic and you can’t stay away from a Twitter user’s follow button. (Say it out loud: My name is ______, and I’m a followholic.)
You each have your reasons for becoming a followholic. Maybe your parents didn’t pay enough attention to you, so you’re reaching out to strange Tweeple on the Internet. Perhaps it’s genetic… If your father was a followholic, your twice as likely to become one as an adult. The facts* are cruel, but true.
*The facts I speak of are not actual facts, but made up for this article.
I would venture to say that most followholics started with the feeling of need. The need to get more followers, then turn to a reliance on the reciprocal-follow… However, this causes the people on each end of the follow to become followholics for separate reasons: Need and sympathy.
Following because of need
Like MySpace() a few years ago, people have become attached to the number of followers they have. They see someone with 12,000 followers and all of a sudden their 150 followers seems worthless. Their focus changes from networking and learning about their audience to a raw desire to gain as many followers as humanly possible.
In reality, the number of followers you have should simply reflect the quality of what you give. If you’re following 1,000 people, and have somehow got 800 of those people to follow you back, it doesn’t really mean that much. But if 800 people have come across you on their own and started following you, while you’re only following the 80 people you care about – that says something about your value. It says that people follow you because you’re valuable, not because you’ve started following them first.
You don’t NEED to follow every profile you come across – you only need to follow the people who you find interesting and valuable to your everyday life. Follow them if you would talk to them in real life.
Following because of sympathy
“Aw, that’s so sweet… this guy I never heard of who has no description filled out, no website, and only 4 tweets started following me… I’ll follow him back, poor guy!”
Reciprocal-following is, in my opinion, one of the most dangerous time wasters. Whether you follow back manually or through auto-following – if you spend a lot of time with a Twitter app open during the day, you’re clogging your screen and brain with information from people you really don’t care to see. Not only that, but you’re preventing yourself from building a relationship with your followers. How are you supposed to engage 12,000 people adequately? There’s no room for you in conversation if you’ve diluted yourself like that.
There is no need to feel sympathetic to people on Twitter. Follow them back if you find them interesting and valuable to your everyday life. Follow them back if you would talk to them in real life.
There seems to be a pattern emerging…
Have guidelines about who you will follow
I follow people based on the idea that if I had to slide a quarter into their Twitter page in order to activate the Follow button – would I still follow them? If I’m following you, it’s because I would pay for your updates. Either you do something interesting, you seem helpful to others, I know you in some way – or would like to know you.
If you’re following 10,000 people, would you have paid $2,500 for the privilege of having to sort through that many Tweets every day? Somehow I doubt it. I mostly doubt it because it’s impossible to do. There is no way you’re paying attention to the people you care about if you’ve clicked “Follow” on every profile you’ve ever seen on Twitter.
Do you have guidelines for yourself about who you’ll follow? If not, feel free to take mine: You’ll only follow people you’d be willing to pay to follow.
Recovering from followholism:
Admit you have a problem: If you can’t pay attention to the amount of people you’re following in a manner you would want someone to pay attention to you, you’re a followholic. Admit it, realize that it’s killing your productivity and value, then take steps to overcome it.
Clean your contacts: If you’re following only people you’re interested in – you’ll never have to do this step. But if you’re like most people on Twitter – you’ve fallen down a slippery slope and need to recover. Start by getting rid of the riff-raff.
Use Twitter Karma to clean your contact list once. This is a simple tool that shows people you follow, and who follows you back. This is your chance to stop following the people you simply clicked “Follow” to try and get them to follow you back, but they never did.
Manage incoming followers: First, turn off auto-follow in whatever program you’re using to do it. There is no possible way that anyone legitimately wants to follow back everyone who follows them. This isn’t up for discussion.
Once that’s complete, try a tool like Tweepler. Tweepler allows you to see all the people you haven’t sorted through yet. You’ll see their bio, website, and more – all from a single screen. I’d be totally lost without this. The first time you load it up, it may take you a while to sort everyone out, but once you’ve done it – you can probably come back once per week and it’ll be a more manageable list.
Run Twitoria every so often. This site allows you to instantly see anyone you are following who is “inactive.” I run this every month or so – because it’s natural to come upon someone you find interesting, but then that person just never uses Twitter again. Since that’s the case, I choose to unfollow them (and get my money back) – thus keeping my list more manageable.
Remember – you’re only going to follow people who you find interesting and valuable to your everyday life! Follow them if you would talk to them in real life.
Finding people to follow: One of the biggest problems people have at first is finding quality people to follow on Twitter. This leads to following everyone, and eventually to becoming a followholic. This not only makes your time on Twitter less worthwhile, but it can become a productivity nightmare to try and pay attention to all the people you’re following.
My first suggestion is to start with Twitter Search(). This allows you to search everything everyone has ever tweeted. By searching for topics you’re interested in, you’re very likely to come across people who have similar interests as you.
Next, try a service like Mr. Tweet. Simply visit Mr. Tweet’s Twitter page, follow him, and he’ll collect information about you in order to suggest people you might like to follow. Who knows, he might even suggest me!
The last tool I love to use to find people is Grader. Grader is meant to “score” Twitter users based on followers, Tweet rate, etc. But I love using it to find popular Tweeple in my area. First, look yourself up on Grader. Then, find the area where it says your city/state. Click on those to see the top Twitter users in your area.
Finally, followhol free!
Once you’re free of the follow epidemic, you can use Twitter to network, respond to people in a timely manner, become more engaged in conversation, and better learn about the people you’ve chosen to follow. This, after all, is what social media is all about!
I understand that some people who read this will take it personally – it’ll feel like I’m speaking to them, and that I’m saying what they’re doing is wrong. I’m fine if you’re using Twitter to run up a follower number, blast your marketing message to people, or announce 5 times in one day that your followers shouldn’t miss your upcoming conference call. I don’t take that personally. However, when I try to help people on a daily basis figure out the best way to use Twitter in their business, how to find and produce quality and personality on Twitter, don’t take it personally that I won’t be referring them to you.
Elliott Kosmicki is a web developer and marketing specialist for an Internet Retailer Hot 100 company in Madison, WI. When he’s not absorbing marketing strategy and personal development material, you can find him writing for Good Plum – a productivity and personal development blog focused on the thoughts of home business owners, freelancers, and dreamers. You can also find Elliott on his personal summary page, and on Twitter().
cf http://mashable.com/2009/03/10/twitter-followholic/
Elliott Kosmicki is the founder of GoodPlum.com, a productivity and personal development blog for home business owners. You can also follow Elliott on Twitter.
It’s an illness. It’s a disease that attacks the brain, affecting the response of your fingers on the keyboard and mouse. “Stop clicking,” you say to yourself as another follow button has turned into a green-checked following icon.
The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem: you’re a followholic and you can’t stay away from a Twitter user’s follow button. (Say it out loud: My name is ______, and I’m a followholic.)
You each have your reasons for becoming a followholic. Maybe your parents didn’t pay enough attention to you, so you’re reaching out to strange Tweeple on the Internet. Perhaps it’s genetic… If your father was a followholic, your twice as likely to become one as an adult. The facts* are cruel, but true.
*The facts I speak of are not actual facts, but made up for this article.
I would venture to say that most followholics started with the feeling of need. The need to get more followers, then turn to a reliance on the reciprocal-follow… However, this causes the people on each end of the follow to become followholics for separate reasons: Need and sympathy.
Following because of need
Like MySpace() a few years ago, people have become attached to the number of followers they have. They see someone with 12,000 followers and all of a sudden their 150 followers seems worthless. Their focus changes from networking and learning about their audience to a raw desire to gain as many followers as humanly possible.
In reality, the number of followers you have should simply reflect the quality of what you give. If you’re following 1,000 people, and have somehow got 800 of those people to follow you back, it doesn’t really mean that much. But if 800 people have come across you on their own and started following you, while you’re only following the 80 people you care about – that says something about your value. It says that people follow you because you’re valuable, not because you’ve started following them first.
You don’t NEED to follow every profile you come across – you only need to follow the people who you find interesting and valuable to your everyday life. Follow them if you would talk to them in real life.
Following because of sympathy
“Aw, that’s so sweet… this guy I never heard of who has no description filled out, no website, and only 4 tweets started following me… I’ll follow him back, poor guy!”
Reciprocal-following is, in my opinion, one of the most dangerous time wasters. Whether you follow back manually or through auto-following – if you spend a lot of time with a Twitter app open during the day, you’re clogging your screen and brain with information from people you really don’t care to see. Not only that, but you’re preventing yourself from building a relationship with your followers. How are you supposed to engage 12,000 people adequately? There’s no room for you in conversation if you’ve diluted yourself like that.
There is no need to feel sympathetic to people on Twitter. Follow them back if you find them interesting and valuable to your everyday life. Follow them back if you would talk to them in real life.
There seems to be a pattern emerging…
Have guidelines about who you will follow
I follow people based on the idea that if I had to slide a quarter into their Twitter page in order to activate the Follow button – would I still follow them? If I’m following you, it’s because I would pay for your updates. Either you do something interesting, you seem helpful to others, I know you in some way – or would like to know you.
If you’re following 10,000 people, would you have paid $2,500 for the privilege of having to sort through that many Tweets every day? Somehow I doubt it. I mostly doubt it because it’s impossible to do. There is no way you’re paying attention to the people you care about if you’ve clicked “Follow” on every profile you’ve ever seen on Twitter.
Do you have guidelines for yourself about who you’ll follow? If not, feel free to take mine: You’ll only follow people you’d be willing to pay to follow.
Recovering from followholism:
Admit you have a problem: If you can’t pay attention to the amount of people you’re following in a manner you would want someone to pay attention to you, you’re a followholic. Admit it, realize that it’s killing your productivity and value, then take steps to overcome it.
Clean your contacts: If you’re following only people you’re interested in – you’ll never have to do this step. But if you’re like most people on Twitter – you’ve fallen down a slippery slope and need to recover. Start by getting rid of the riff-raff.
Use Twitter Karma to clean your contact list once. This is a simple tool that shows people you follow, and who follows you back. This is your chance to stop following the people you simply clicked “Follow” to try and get them to follow you back, but they never did.
Manage incoming followers: First, turn off auto-follow in whatever program you’re using to do it. There is no possible way that anyone legitimately wants to follow back everyone who follows them. This isn’t up for discussion.
Once that’s complete, try a tool like Tweepler. Tweepler allows you to see all the people you haven’t sorted through yet. You’ll see their bio, website, and more – all from a single screen. I’d be totally lost without this. The first time you load it up, it may take you a while to sort everyone out, but once you’ve done it – you can probably come back once per week and it’ll be a more manageable list.
Run Twitoria every so often. This site allows you to instantly see anyone you are following who is “inactive.” I run this every month or so – because it’s natural to come upon someone you find interesting, but then that person just never uses Twitter again. Since that’s the case, I choose to unfollow them (and get my money back) – thus keeping my list more manageable.
Remember – you’re only going to follow people who you find interesting and valuable to your everyday life! Follow them if you would talk to them in real life.
Finding people to follow: One of the biggest problems people have at first is finding quality people to follow on Twitter. This leads to following everyone, and eventually to becoming a followholic. This not only makes your time on Twitter less worthwhile, but it can become a productivity nightmare to try and pay attention to all the people you’re following.
My first suggestion is to start with Twitter Search(). This allows you to search everything everyone has ever tweeted. By searching for topics you’re interested in, you’re very likely to come across people who have similar interests as you.
Next, try a service like Mr. Tweet. Simply visit Mr. Tweet’s Twitter page, follow him, and he’ll collect information about you in order to suggest people you might like to follow. Who knows, he might even suggest me!
The last tool I love to use to find people is Grader. Grader is meant to “score” Twitter users based on followers, Tweet rate, etc. But I love using it to find popular Tweeple in my area. First, look yourself up on Grader. Then, find the area where it says your city/state. Click on those to see the top Twitter users in your area.
Finally, followhol free!
Once you’re free of the follow epidemic, you can use Twitter to network, respond to people in a timely manner, become more engaged in conversation, and better learn about the people you’ve chosen to follow. This, after all, is what social media is all about!
I understand that some people who read this will take it personally – it’ll feel like I’m speaking to them, and that I’m saying what they’re doing is wrong. I’m fine if you’re using Twitter to run up a follower number, blast your marketing message to people, or announce 5 times in one day that your followers shouldn’t miss your upcoming conference call. I don’t take that personally. However, when I try to help people on a daily basis figure out the best way to use Twitter in their business, how to find and produce quality and personality on Twitter, don’t take it personally that I won’t be referring them to you.
Elliott Kosmicki is a web developer and marketing specialist for an Internet Retailer Hot 100 company in Madison, WI. When he’s not absorbing marketing strategy and personal development material, you can find him writing for Good Plum – a productivity and personal development blog focused on the thoughts of home business owners, freelancers, and dreamers. You can also find Elliott on his personal summary page, and on Twitter().
cf http://mashable.com/2009/03/10/twitter-followholic/
HOW TO: Organize a Successful Tweetup
HOW TO: Organize a Successful Tweetup
Stuart Foster is a marketing consultant in the Boston area. He specializes in brand management, social media, and blog outreach. He authors a blog at Thelostjacket.com.
Twitter meetups, or Tweetups as they’re commonly called, are pretty much ubiquitous these days. You can’t escape them. The @ nametags. The random awkward conversations that result when you have more than 140 characters to express yourself. Tweetups take an otherwise great service like Twitter() and turn it into something much bigger.
Why? Because you are able to gather with online friends, meet new contacts to enhance your career, and have a few drinks. So here are a few quick tips for both the organization and managing of the actual event.
Have your own Tweetup planning dos and don’ts? Tell us about them in the comments.
Organizing the Tweetup: DO
1. Utilize your Twitter network as a way to drum up support, help and ideas. The number of PR and marketing people on Twitter now is astounding. Use their collective wisdom and networks to create buzz and support for your event.
2. Actually visit the venue. Seems incredibly simple right? But not everyone takes the time and effort to actually visit the bar, conference room, or park where the Tweetup will happen. I’ve never heard of anyone making a great business connection at a dark dive bar.
3. Plan for more people to show up than you think. It’s Twitter. These people do know how to spread the word better than anyone. According to Sonny Gill: “Tweetups don’t necessarily have to consist of avid Twitterers. However active, they are still a part of the community.” Everyone should be welcome and thus you should plan to accommodate them.
4. Ensure a few core people/speakers are at the event. Trust me if @ChrisBrogan or @GregVerdino are at an event…it will draw a lot more buzz than @stuartcfoster.
5. Use Email. Even though it supposedly has fallen out of favor, having the contact information for a variety of individuals is beneficial for all involved. You can keep this core group informed of developments.
6. Use a service like Eventbrite, Amiando or meetup.com to organize your guests, collect donations and otherwise provide shareable content. It takes all the legwork out of the administrative work that a large Tweetup entails. If you are planning on a smaller gathering…this may not be necessary and you can use Facebook() or your blog to organize.
Organizing the Tweetup: DON’T
7. Secure a venue with limited or no WiFi. At a minimum the CrackBerry/iPhone users should have good service. People like technology. But they won’t like YOU if they can’t use their tech at your event. (This is of course size/type of Tweetup dependent, if in a large conference room/venue: WiFi and cell phone reception should be working. However, if you are in smaller venue or bar Jeff Cutler of jeffcutler.com reports: “I have an iPhone, but anyone with mobile Web knows that when 200 people in one spot are on 3G/Edge it disintegrates.” This negates the need for an elaborate setup in smaller venues.
8. Have an event in an inappropriate place. If you are having 200 people and you decide to squeeze them into a 20×20 room…it may not be a good idea. If you have a DJ at a networking event…it may not be a good idea. If you have an event where it is difficult to communicate in any way…it might be a bad idea. You get the idea?
9. Have a vague premise for the Tweetup. Most people want to know what they are here for so they can dress or plan accordingly. No one wants to be the guy that shows up in jeans to the black tie event. So ensure that this does not happen, have a clearly defined cause or purpose for the Tweetup.
10. Half ass it. If you spend the time, money and energy into putting together a Tweetup don’t pull it together at the last minute. So plan accordingly and do your homework.
At the Tweetup: DO
11. Get to the event early. Simple manners. You want to make sure people come to the right place and will be able to enjoy themselves. “As the organizer, it’s essential you come early especially if you are bringing/receiving food or materials. In the case of the SXSW Chicago Tweetup, I want to make sure to have all the schedule sheets at the event so when people arrive they have a topic to discuss,” said Len Kendall from Critical Mass.
12. Collect business cards. Event dependent; most folks will be card carrying members of the business/technology world and will be at the Tweetup to network. If you have an electronic scanner this is even better. You can send a list of attendees to your email list, providing additional value.
13. Provide food. If you schedule a Tweetup around a meal…provide food. If you DON’T plan on providing food, definitely inform your attendees. Sometimes at these events I think my stomach does more networking than my mouth.
At the Tweetup: DON’T
14. Fade into the background. If it’s your event…you’d better damn well be front and center to handle and address any concerns/problems that may arise. Daniel B. Honigman the lead social media strategist at Tribune Interactive urges “organizers to be sure to introduce new folks around. If you see someone coming out for their first Tweetup, be sure to spend extra time with them introduce them around and make them feel welcome.”
15. Have bad name tags and pens. If I can’t see your Twitter name. I’m not going to know who you are. The same is true for all people at your event.
16. Blow people off. Trust me. Nothing is worse than being snubbed. So if you want to have a great Tweetup, you have to talk to the 16 year old kid with the same respect that you would show Seth Godin. Just good business sense and karma.
17. Go open bar. Unless you want complete shenanigans (and to be broke), you don’t want @JoeBusinessGuy to be completely tanked. Also it weeds out people just after the free booze.
Tweetups are fun, productive, and great for walking away with a lot of contacts and leads. So if you are feeling adventurous and don’t mind doing a bit of hustling you can host/organize your own Tweetup. I’m looking forward to attending it .
cf http://mashable.com/2009/02/25/tweetup/
Stuart Foster is a marketing consultant in the Boston area. He specializes in brand management, social media, and blog outreach. He authors a blog at Thelostjacket.com.
Twitter meetups, or Tweetups as they’re commonly called, are pretty much ubiquitous these days. You can’t escape them. The @ nametags. The random awkward conversations that result when you have more than 140 characters to express yourself. Tweetups take an otherwise great service like Twitter() and turn it into something much bigger.
Why? Because you are able to gather with online friends, meet new contacts to enhance your career, and have a few drinks. So here are a few quick tips for both the organization and managing of the actual event.
Have your own Tweetup planning dos and don’ts? Tell us about them in the comments.
Organizing the Tweetup: DO
1. Utilize your Twitter network as a way to drum up support, help and ideas. The number of PR and marketing people on Twitter now is astounding. Use their collective wisdom and networks to create buzz and support for your event.
2. Actually visit the venue. Seems incredibly simple right? But not everyone takes the time and effort to actually visit the bar, conference room, or park where the Tweetup will happen. I’ve never heard of anyone making a great business connection at a dark dive bar.
3. Plan for more people to show up than you think. It’s Twitter. These people do know how to spread the word better than anyone. According to Sonny Gill: “Tweetups don’t necessarily have to consist of avid Twitterers. However active, they are still a part of the community.” Everyone should be welcome and thus you should plan to accommodate them.
4. Ensure a few core people/speakers are at the event. Trust me if @ChrisBrogan or @GregVerdino are at an event…it will draw a lot more buzz than @stuartcfoster.
5. Use Email. Even though it supposedly has fallen out of favor, having the contact information for a variety of individuals is beneficial for all involved. You can keep this core group informed of developments.
6. Use a service like Eventbrite, Amiando or meetup.com to organize your guests, collect donations and otherwise provide shareable content. It takes all the legwork out of the administrative work that a large Tweetup entails. If you are planning on a smaller gathering…this may not be necessary and you can use Facebook() or your blog to organize.
Organizing the Tweetup: DON’T
7. Secure a venue with limited or no WiFi. At a minimum the CrackBerry/iPhone users should have good service. People like technology. But they won’t like YOU if they can’t use their tech at your event. (This is of course size/type of Tweetup dependent, if in a large conference room/venue: WiFi and cell phone reception should be working. However, if you are in smaller venue or bar Jeff Cutler of jeffcutler.com reports: “I have an iPhone, but anyone with mobile Web knows that when 200 people in one spot are on 3G/Edge it disintegrates.” This negates the need for an elaborate setup in smaller venues.
8. Have an event in an inappropriate place. If you are having 200 people and you decide to squeeze them into a 20×20 room…it may not be a good idea. If you have a DJ at a networking event…it may not be a good idea. If you have an event where it is difficult to communicate in any way…it might be a bad idea. You get the idea?
9. Have a vague premise for the Tweetup. Most people want to know what they are here for so they can dress or plan accordingly. No one wants to be the guy that shows up in jeans to the black tie event. So ensure that this does not happen, have a clearly defined cause or purpose for the Tweetup.
10. Half ass it. If you spend the time, money and energy into putting together a Tweetup don’t pull it together at the last minute. So plan accordingly and do your homework.
At the Tweetup: DO
11. Get to the event early. Simple manners. You want to make sure people come to the right place and will be able to enjoy themselves. “As the organizer, it’s essential you come early especially if you are bringing/receiving food or materials. In the case of the SXSW Chicago Tweetup, I want to make sure to have all the schedule sheets at the event so when people arrive they have a topic to discuss,” said Len Kendall from Critical Mass.
12. Collect business cards. Event dependent; most folks will be card carrying members of the business/technology world and will be at the Tweetup to network. If you have an electronic scanner this is even better. You can send a list of attendees to your email list, providing additional value.
13. Provide food. If you schedule a Tweetup around a meal…provide food. If you DON’T plan on providing food, definitely inform your attendees. Sometimes at these events I think my stomach does more networking than my mouth.
At the Tweetup: DON’T
14. Fade into the background. If it’s your event…you’d better damn well be front and center to handle and address any concerns/problems that may arise. Daniel B. Honigman the lead social media strategist at Tribune Interactive urges “organizers to be sure to introduce new folks around. If you see someone coming out for their first Tweetup, be sure to spend extra time with them introduce them around and make them feel welcome.”
15. Have bad name tags and pens. If I can’t see your Twitter name. I’m not going to know who you are. The same is true for all people at your event.
16. Blow people off. Trust me. Nothing is worse than being snubbed. So if you want to have a great Tweetup, you have to talk to the 16 year old kid with the same respect that you would show Seth Godin. Just good business sense and karma.
17. Go open bar. Unless you want complete shenanigans (and to be broke), you don’t want @JoeBusinessGuy to be completely tanked. Also it weeds out people just after the free booze.
Tweetups are fun, productive, and great for walking away with a lot of contacts and leads. So if you are feeling adventurous and don’t mind doing a bit of hustling you can host/organize your own Tweetup. I’m looking forward to attending it .
cf http://mashable.com/2009/02/25/tweetup/
How to find job on twitter?
HOW TO: Find a Job on Twitter
Sarah Evans is the director of communications at Elgin Community College (ECC) in Elgin, Illinois. She also authors a PR and social media blog and is the founder of #journchat.
Tough economic times call for innovative approaches. An estimated 51 million people internationally are expected to lose their jobs in 2009, and with the unemployment rate on the rise, how does one find career opportunities fast? One great option is Twitter.
Twitter() is evolving as another resource, in addition to traditional methods, for both job searching and recruiting.
Get the most out of your page
• Make your Twitter presence “employer-friendly”
o Put your job pitch in your Twitter bio (which is 160 characters)o Use a professional looking avataro Tweet about your job search
• Utilize your Twitter background. There’s lots of space you can use to promote yourself. Don’t know how to create a professional-looking Twitter background? Use this free template to design your own.
• Include a link to an online CV or resume in your bio. Use a tool like VisualCV. (For more information on building an online resume, see Dan Schawbel’s post HOW TO: Build the Ultimate Social Media Resume)
• Establish yourself as an expert in your field on Twitter. It’s important to note that you should not misrepresent yourself. If you’re not a medical doctor, don’t play one on Twitter. As those on Twitter become interested in your content, when employers are looking at you, you’ll have more than just your resume to back up your knowledge and experience.
“It’s about who you know”
How do you get to know the right people? It’s not always about who you’re looking for, some people on Twitter are actually looking for YOU.
There are many job recruiters who use Twitter to look for potential candidates. Before contacting a recruiter via Twitter, check out:
• Their bio• Follower/Following ratio (Have they been around a while? Do they follow people back?)• Click the link to their website• Ask others in your network whether or not the recruiter is a credible source
Here are a few recruiters representing different professions and industries on Twitter:
Christa Foley a.k.a. @electra – Christa is the recruiting manager and recruiter at Zappos.com. Christa gives followers an inside look into her career at Zappos. She tweets out examples of negative recruiting interactions with potential clients, outreach she does with high school and college students, and ultimately looks for potential Zappos candidates.
Craig Fisher a.k.a. @Fishdogs – Craig is an IT and executive recruiter who co-founded A-List Solutions staffing firm. On Twitter he offers tweets on how to find a job in the web industry, hiring tips and tricks, along with professional career advice.
Jim Durbin a.k.a. @smheadhunter – A social media recruiter, Jim is active on the Twitter scene. His goal is to partner “social media gurus” with the right companies. Jim responds to followers’ questions, offers general recruiting advice and sends out “teaser” tweets for positions he thinks followers might be interested in.
Jennifer McClure a.k.a. @CincyRecruiter – Jennifer is an executive recruiter/coach. She often tweets out specific advice for job seekers, including words not to use on a resume. Jennifer is accessible to her followers and tweets about non-recruiting topics as well.
Laurie DesAutels a.k.a. @biotechjobs – Laurie recruits a specific niche, looking for senior level leaders in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. Her tweet stream includes links to other job search resources and lots of Twitter information.
Job search tools & resources
A reactive job search on Twitter probably isn’t the best way to find a job. There are many new Twitter tools and applications to assist with a proactive job search.
@Microjobs
Started by well-known PR professional, Brian Solis, @Microjobs was developed to bring together job seekers and recruiters through tweets.
How does it work?Recruiters begin their tweets with @Microjobs, and then submit. The @Microjobs account automatically tweets out requests to its growing network of job seekers.
TweetMyJobs
Another tool born out of Twitter for job seekers and recruiters. Follow the hashtag #Tweetmyjobs and visit the website. This is a very simple (and free) tool for job seekers. You can subscribe to desired job channels and even have new openings automatically sent to your mobile phone. Even better? You can specify which cities you want notifications from.
Job search accounts
There are a variety of Twitter accounts dedicated to providing job listings by field, company, region, and more. Once you’ve decided which best match your job search, consider turning on mobile alerts for these accounts to be among the first to receive messages (if your mobile phone plan includes SMS messages).
By company
@attjobs – Jobs at AT&T@mtvnetworksjobs – Jobs at MTV@TRCareers – Jobs from Thomson Reuters
By field
@alldevjobs – Developer jobs@ArtDirectorJobs – Art director jobs@cwjobs – Copywriter jobs@jobsinhiphop – Jobs in Hip-Hop@journalism_jobs – Jobs in journalism@juicyjobs – Green jobs@libgig_jobs – Library Jobs @mediabistrojobs – Media job listings from mediabistro.com@medical_jobs – Medical jobs@media_pros – Jobs for media professionals@narmsjobs – Retail() marketing jobs@PRSAjobcenter – Jobs in public relations, communications and marketing@reflectx – Physical Therapy jobs@seojobs – SEO job listings@socialmediajob – Jobs in social media @travelmaxallied – Healthcare jobs@travelnursejob – Jobs for traveling nurses @usmusicjobs – US Music Jobs @web_design_jobs – Web design and other graphics jobs
By job type
@findinternships – Internships and entry level jobs for college students@freelance_jobs – Freelance jobs@heatherhuhman – Entry level jobs and internships@Project4Hire – Freelance and temporary jobs@jewish_jobs – Jewish job listings
By region
@MyBristolJobs – Job listings from mybristoljobs.co.uk@chicagowebjobs – Web-related jobs in Chicago@ChicagoTechJobs – Technology jobs in the greater Chicago area@ITJobsLondon – IT jobs in London@ITJobsSydney – IT jobs in Sydney, Australia()@JobsBoston – Jobs in the greater Boston area@jobshawaii – Jobs in Hawaii@NewYorkTechJobs – Technology jobs in the greater New York area@PDXJobs – Jobs in Portland, Oregon@sdjobs – San Diego technology jobs @sfmobilejobs – Mobile Web and Digital Media jobs in Silicon Valley@mtltweetjobs – PR/marketing/social media/tech jobs in Montreal@TopJobsInLondon – Top jobs in London, UK@web20jobs – UK-based web 2.0 jobs
General
@JobAngels – Helping the unemployed find jobs@indeed – One search. All jobs. @jobshouts – General job postings@simplyhired – Job search site @StartUpHire – Jobs at VC backed companies@twithire – Job board service
To find additional Twitter job resources, use the Twitter search function and type in keywords important in your job search. For example, “job openings,” “looking for a job,” or “healthcare career.” Additionally, you can search out others in your desired career field on sites like Twellow(), Just tweet it, and TwitterTroll.
Your next job could be just a tweet away.
Have more tips, accounts, or stories of your own to add? Tell us about them in the comments
cf http://mashable.com/2009/03/13/twitter-jobs/
Sarah Evans is the director of communications at Elgin Community College (ECC) in Elgin, Illinois. She also authors a PR and social media blog and is the founder of #journchat.
Tough economic times call for innovative approaches. An estimated 51 million people internationally are expected to lose their jobs in 2009, and with the unemployment rate on the rise, how does one find career opportunities fast? One great option is Twitter.
Twitter() is evolving as another resource, in addition to traditional methods, for both job searching and recruiting.
Get the most out of your page
• Make your Twitter presence “employer-friendly”
o Put your job pitch in your Twitter bio (which is 160 characters)o Use a professional looking avataro Tweet about your job search
• Utilize your Twitter background. There’s lots of space you can use to promote yourself. Don’t know how to create a professional-looking Twitter background? Use this free template to design your own.
• Include a link to an online CV or resume in your bio. Use a tool like VisualCV. (For more information on building an online resume, see Dan Schawbel’s post HOW TO: Build the Ultimate Social Media Resume)
• Establish yourself as an expert in your field on Twitter. It’s important to note that you should not misrepresent yourself. If you’re not a medical doctor, don’t play one on Twitter. As those on Twitter become interested in your content, when employers are looking at you, you’ll have more than just your resume to back up your knowledge and experience.
“It’s about who you know”
How do you get to know the right people? It’s not always about who you’re looking for, some people on Twitter are actually looking for YOU.
There are many job recruiters who use Twitter to look for potential candidates. Before contacting a recruiter via Twitter, check out:
• Their bio• Follower/Following ratio (Have they been around a while? Do they follow people back?)• Click the link to their website• Ask others in your network whether or not the recruiter is a credible source
Here are a few recruiters representing different professions and industries on Twitter:
Christa Foley a.k.a. @electra – Christa is the recruiting manager and recruiter at Zappos.com. Christa gives followers an inside look into her career at Zappos. She tweets out examples of negative recruiting interactions with potential clients, outreach she does with high school and college students, and ultimately looks for potential Zappos candidates.
Craig Fisher a.k.a. @Fishdogs – Craig is an IT and executive recruiter who co-founded A-List Solutions staffing firm. On Twitter he offers tweets on how to find a job in the web industry, hiring tips and tricks, along with professional career advice.
Jim Durbin a.k.a. @smheadhunter – A social media recruiter, Jim is active on the Twitter scene. His goal is to partner “social media gurus” with the right companies. Jim responds to followers’ questions, offers general recruiting advice and sends out “teaser” tweets for positions he thinks followers might be interested in.
Jennifer McClure a.k.a. @CincyRecruiter – Jennifer is an executive recruiter/coach. She often tweets out specific advice for job seekers, including words not to use on a resume. Jennifer is accessible to her followers and tweets about non-recruiting topics as well.
Laurie DesAutels a.k.a. @biotechjobs – Laurie recruits a specific niche, looking for senior level leaders in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. Her tweet stream includes links to other job search resources and lots of Twitter information.
Job search tools & resources
A reactive job search on Twitter probably isn’t the best way to find a job. There are many new Twitter tools and applications to assist with a proactive job search.
@Microjobs
Started by well-known PR professional, Brian Solis, @Microjobs was developed to bring together job seekers and recruiters through tweets.
How does it work?Recruiters begin their tweets with @Microjobs, and then submit. The @Microjobs account automatically tweets out requests to its growing network of job seekers.
TweetMyJobs
Another tool born out of Twitter for job seekers and recruiters. Follow the hashtag #Tweetmyjobs and visit the website. This is a very simple (and free) tool for job seekers. You can subscribe to desired job channels and even have new openings automatically sent to your mobile phone. Even better? You can specify which cities you want notifications from.
Job search accounts
There are a variety of Twitter accounts dedicated to providing job listings by field, company, region, and more. Once you’ve decided which best match your job search, consider turning on mobile alerts for these accounts to be among the first to receive messages (if your mobile phone plan includes SMS messages).
By company
@attjobs – Jobs at AT&T@mtvnetworksjobs – Jobs at MTV@TRCareers – Jobs from Thomson Reuters
By field
@alldevjobs – Developer jobs@ArtDirectorJobs – Art director jobs@cwjobs – Copywriter jobs@jobsinhiphop – Jobs in Hip-Hop@journalism_jobs – Jobs in journalism@juicyjobs – Green jobs@libgig_jobs – Library Jobs @mediabistrojobs – Media job listings from mediabistro.com@medical_jobs – Medical jobs@media_pros – Jobs for media professionals@narmsjobs – Retail() marketing jobs@PRSAjobcenter – Jobs in public relations, communications and marketing@reflectx – Physical Therapy jobs@seojobs – SEO job listings@socialmediajob – Jobs in social media @travelmaxallied – Healthcare jobs@travelnursejob – Jobs for traveling nurses @usmusicjobs – US Music Jobs @web_design_jobs – Web design and other graphics jobs
By job type
@findinternships – Internships and entry level jobs for college students@freelance_jobs – Freelance jobs@heatherhuhman – Entry level jobs and internships@Project4Hire – Freelance and temporary jobs@jewish_jobs – Jewish job listings
By region
@MyBristolJobs – Job listings from mybristoljobs.co.uk@chicagowebjobs – Web-related jobs in Chicago@ChicagoTechJobs – Technology jobs in the greater Chicago area@ITJobsLondon – IT jobs in London@ITJobsSydney – IT jobs in Sydney, Australia()@JobsBoston – Jobs in the greater Boston area@jobshawaii – Jobs in Hawaii@NewYorkTechJobs – Technology jobs in the greater New York area@PDXJobs – Jobs in Portland, Oregon@sdjobs – San Diego technology jobs @sfmobilejobs – Mobile Web and Digital Media jobs in Silicon Valley@mtltweetjobs – PR/marketing/social media/tech jobs in Montreal@TopJobsInLondon – Top jobs in London, UK@web20jobs – UK-based web 2.0 jobs
General
@JobAngels – Helping the unemployed find jobs@indeed – One search. All jobs. @jobshouts – General job postings@simplyhired – Job search site @StartUpHire – Jobs at VC backed companies@twithire – Job board service
To find additional Twitter job resources, use the Twitter search function and type in keywords important in your job search. For example, “job openings,” “looking for a job,” or “healthcare career.” Additionally, you can search out others in your desired career field on sites like Twellow(), Just tweet it, and TwitterTroll.
Your next job could be just a tweet away.
Have more tips, accounts, or stories of your own to add? Tell us about them in the comments
cf http://mashable.com/2009/03/13/twitter-jobs/
Using twitter for customer service
HOW TO: Use Twitter for Customer Service
Customer service can evoke some serious misgivings or negative emotions. Although customer support is designed to help the consumer, the pain of waiting for a phone representative and the impersonal emails can cause more damage than good for a brand. People are turned off by the term and companies have begun to use different terminology to describe their efforts.
This is not how customer service has to be. With the connectivity made possible by social media, companies have found a new way to engage their customers, solve their problems, and build goodwill for their brands: Twitter. Understanding how Twitter can transform customer relations for the better can be substantial for reducing costs and improving brand image.
Step 1. Understand why Twitter is an ideal customer service platform
Before calling the company executives into a meeting and telling them we must use Twitter, you need to understand just why Twitter and customer service is a match made in heaven. Let’s think about some of the major tenants of good customer service and how they relate to Twitter:
Problem resolution: The main goal of customer service is to help someone resolve their issues. While phone conversations can help solve problems, wait times do not. Twitter is a lightning-fast platform that can help sift through and solve problems quickly. If it’s a small issue, a single tweet may be enough. For a more complex problem, the brand can initiate a deeper conversation with the customer.
Positive brand image: Great customer service gets talked about, and this can lead to more sales and more attention. Twitter is one of the most viral platforms around, which can make one happy customer into an international story.
Staff involvement: If the team does not buy into the notion of helping the customer, they are going to provide sub-par assistance. Twitter is not only a more interesting platform than phone or email, but gives staff a better picture of their impact on others.
Cost reduction: Customer service via Twitter often takes less time and a lot less money than a dedicated call center. With Twitter, it’s necessary to be short and to the point, which reduces the time needed to solve each problem.
Step 2. Track the ENTIRE conversation around your brand
Once you understand how Twitter can play a role in customer service, the next step should center around conversation tracking. What are people already saying about your brand? Have people misinterpreted your message? What about the good things they say about your new feature? Track ALL the possible keywords that are related to your brand, like the names of your key features or any nickname your company may have. Here are two tools we recommend:
Monitter: Monitter makes it simple to track multiple keywords on one page using columns. Create a new column for each new keyword or keyword variation you want to track. Monitter will update in real-time whenever those words are mentioned on Twitter.
Tweetbeep: If your brand isn’t getting dozens of mentions per hour, or if you want to be sure you’re catching everything, Tweetbeep will check Twitter for you and send you emails with all of the mentions of your brand, as well as links so you can easily save tweets or write a response.
Step 3. Make customers aware of your presence
Watching a conversation gives you a good idea of your brand’s reputation and standing in social media and elsewhere, but it’s a passive approach. Great customer service is active. To get started, make your Twitter presence known. Ask users to follow you on Twitter, prominently place a button on your website, and advertise that you’re trying to engage with your customers in problem resolution via social media. Customer service on Twitter won’t work if nobody knows where to find you.
Step 4. Respond quickly and transparently
The key to great customer service is the speed and quality of your response. When you find someone complaining about an issue, @reply them asking if you can help. Don’t take an arrogant tone and don’t tell them they screwed up. Ask them if they’d like you to intervene and provide them the information they need.
If a problem is sensitive, the customer is extraordinarily upset, or you want to get in contact with a customer fast, either try to direct message them or give them a fast way to contact you, like a special email address or even a personal phone number. Let them know you’re there to help and go with them step-by-step.
@replies work best because there are no restrictions on who you can reply to and it provides a public and transparent face to your customer service. Others can see what you’re doing, which can help reassure customers or even solve problems they were going to ask you about, saving you additional time.
Step 5. Be engaged in the conversations
Twitter is a conversational platform, and people like to talk to people, so take time to chat as well. Twitter is an opportunity to build an image and identity for the brand, so talking with customers about why you like the brand so much, what cool things the company has done, or retweeting a success story gives people many reasons to follow what you say.
So remember, even if you’re using a software like Salesforce’s Service Cloud to manage Twitter customer service, it needs to be supplemented with personal conversations.
Step 6. Be authentic
Most of all, when you’re conducting customer service and customer relationship management, you need to be forthcoming. It’s easier than ever for your customers to research whether or not you’re telling the truth. And if you aren’t, they will punish you by mobilizing and making their anger heard. I can give you plenty of examples where this was the case.
Despite this warning, the benefits to your brand and your customers by using Twitter as a customer service platform are immense. Comcast, Dell, Southwest Airlines, Ford, Starbucks, and many more have been successful in promoting a positive brand image and solving customer problems with less cost than phone or email service. Twitter and social media are helping redefine how customer service is done.
Customer service can evoke some serious misgivings or negative emotions. Although customer support is designed to help the consumer, the pain of waiting for a phone representative and the impersonal emails can cause more damage than good for a brand. People are turned off by the term and companies have begun to use different terminology to describe their efforts.
This is not how customer service has to be. With the connectivity made possible by social media, companies have found a new way to engage their customers, solve their problems, and build goodwill for their brands: Twitter. Understanding how Twitter can transform customer relations for the better can be substantial for reducing costs and improving brand image.
Step 1. Understand why Twitter is an ideal customer service platform
Before calling the company executives into a meeting and telling them we must use Twitter, you need to understand just why Twitter and customer service is a match made in heaven. Let’s think about some of the major tenants of good customer service and how they relate to Twitter:
Problem resolution: The main goal of customer service is to help someone resolve their issues. While phone conversations can help solve problems, wait times do not. Twitter is a lightning-fast platform that can help sift through and solve problems quickly. If it’s a small issue, a single tweet may be enough. For a more complex problem, the brand can initiate a deeper conversation with the customer.
Positive brand image: Great customer service gets talked about, and this can lead to more sales and more attention. Twitter is one of the most viral platforms around, which can make one happy customer into an international story.
Staff involvement: If the team does not buy into the notion of helping the customer, they are going to provide sub-par assistance. Twitter is not only a more interesting platform than phone or email, but gives staff a better picture of their impact on others.
Cost reduction: Customer service via Twitter often takes less time and a lot less money than a dedicated call center. With Twitter, it’s necessary to be short and to the point, which reduces the time needed to solve each problem.
Step 2. Track the ENTIRE conversation around your brand
Once you understand how Twitter can play a role in customer service, the next step should center around conversation tracking. What are people already saying about your brand? Have people misinterpreted your message? What about the good things they say about your new feature? Track ALL the possible keywords that are related to your brand, like the names of your key features or any nickname your company may have. Here are two tools we recommend:
Monitter: Monitter makes it simple to track multiple keywords on one page using columns. Create a new column for each new keyword or keyword variation you want to track. Monitter will update in real-time whenever those words are mentioned on Twitter.
Tweetbeep: If your brand isn’t getting dozens of mentions per hour, or if you want to be sure you’re catching everything, Tweetbeep will check Twitter for you and send you emails with all of the mentions of your brand, as well as links so you can easily save tweets or write a response.
Step 3. Make customers aware of your presence
Watching a conversation gives you a good idea of your brand’s reputation and standing in social media and elsewhere, but it’s a passive approach. Great customer service is active. To get started, make your Twitter presence known. Ask users to follow you on Twitter, prominently place a button on your website, and advertise that you’re trying to engage with your customers in problem resolution via social media. Customer service on Twitter won’t work if nobody knows where to find you.
Step 4. Respond quickly and transparently
The key to great customer service is the speed and quality of your response. When you find someone complaining about an issue, @reply them asking if you can help. Don’t take an arrogant tone and don’t tell them they screwed up. Ask them if they’d like you to intervene and provide them the information they need.
If a problem is sensitive, the customer is extraordinarily upset, or you want to get in contact with a customer fast, either try to direct message them or give them a fast way to contact you, like a special email address or even a personal phone number. Let them know you’re there to help and go with them step-by-step.
@replies work best because there are no restrictions on who you can reply to and it provides a public and transparent face to your customer service. Others can see what you’re doing, which can help reassure customers or even solve problems they were going to ask you about, saving you additional time.
Step 5. Be engaged in the conversations
Twitter is a conversational platform, and people like to talk to people, so take time to chat as well. Twitter is an opportunity to build an image and identity for the brand, so talking with customers about why you like the brand so much, what cool things the company has done, or retweeting a success story gives people many reasons to follow what you say.
So remember, even if you’re using a software like Salesforce’s Service Cloud to manage Twitter customer service, it needs to be supplemented with personal conversations.
Step 6. Be authentic
Most of all, when you’re conducting customer service and customer relationship management, you need to be forthcoming. It’s easier than ever for your customers to research whether or not you’re telling the truth. And if you aren’t, they will punish you by mobilizing and making their anger heard. I can give you plenty of examples where this was the case.
Despite this warning, the benefits to your brand and your customers by using Twitter as a customer service platform are immense. Comcast, Dell, Southwest Airlines, Ford, Starbucks, and many more have been successful in promoting a positive brand image and solving customer problems with less cost than phone or email service. Twitter and social media are helping redefine how customer service is done.
The media maker's guide to twitter
The journlist's guide to twitter
Leah Betancourt is the digital community manager at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, Minn. She is @l3ahb3tan on Twitter.
Journalists are using Twitter to engage with their audience, connect with sources and continue building their personal brands.
The 140-character format forces writers to focus their attention and get to the point quickly. But this isn’t just sound-bite style reporting. I talked with some reporters about Twitter() and how they use it.
Twitter enhances reporting
Jason DeRusha, who’s @derushaj on Twitter, a reporter at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, uses Twitter daily as part of is his job. He started using it Aug. 2, 2007, the day after the 35W bridge collapse. He said in an e-mail interview that it lets him continue building his personal brand as a journalist.
DeRusha uses it specifically to crowdsource stories and promote his work. He does a segment called “Good Question” five nights a week in which Twitter plays a role.
He often puts his questions on Twitter at the start of the day, and then his followers (more than 2,200) help him come up with angles, or chime in with their opinions. Rather than interviewing random people on the street, he’s able to get more targeted feedback from people with relevant life experience.
DeRusha’s first Twitter success story was in late 2007. He was doing a story on December sniffles caused by allergies to Christmas trees. He used Twitter to find someone who was allergic to Christmas trees, who has to use heavy protective gloves to decorate theirs. He said he would never have found this source without Twitter.
John Dickerson (@jdickerson), Slate’s chief political correspondent and author of “On Her Trail,” has been using Twitter as part of his job since November 2007. He said in an e-mail interview that as a writer, he finds the voice he uses for Twitter is different than his normal voice. He said that he feels Twitter helps him think differently about how to communicate or perhaps just come up with a more clever line about something.
Dickerson learned from Twitter that people regularly confuse a fact that you report with advocacy for the fact you’re reporting. “So if you quote the president, they assume you approve of the quote. I know people did that, of course, but I’ve been surprised how much they respond that way to items I write on Twitter,” he said. “It’s reminded me that this is sentence structure, since a sentence is about all you get on Twitter.”
cf http://mashable.com/2009/05/14/twitter-journalism/
Leah Betancourt is the digital community manager at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, Minn. She is @l3ahb3tan on Twitter.
Journalists are using Twitter to engage with their audience, connect with sources and continue building their personal brands.
The 140-character format forces writers to focus their attention and get to the point quickly. But this isn’t just sound-bite style reporting. I talked with some reporters about Twitter() and how they use it.
Twitter enhances reporting
Jason DeRusha, who’s @derushaj on Twitter, a reporter at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, uses Twitter daily as part of is his job. He started using it Aug. 2, 2007, the day after the 35W bridge collapse. He said in an e-mail interview that it lets him continue building his personal brand as a journalist.
DeRusha uses it specifically to crowdsource stories and promote his work. He does a segment called “Good Question” five nights a week in which Twitter plays a role.
He often puts his questions on Twitter at the start of the day, and then his followers (more than 2,200) help him come up with angles, or chime in with their opinions. Rather than interviewing random people on the street, he’s able to get more targeted feedback from people with relevant life experience.
DeRusha’s first Twitter success story was in late 2007. He was doing a story on December sniffles caused by allergies to Christmas trees. He used Twitter to find someone who was allergic to Christmas trees, who has to use heavy protective gloves to decorate theirs. He said he would never have found this source without Twitter.
John Dickerson (@jdickerson), Slate’s chief political correspondent and author of “On Her Trail,” has been using Twitter as part of his job since November 2007. He said in an e-mail interview that as a writer, he finds the voice he uses for Twitter is different than his normal voice. He said that he feels Twitter helps him think differently about how to communicate or perhaps just come up with a more clever line about something.
Dickerson learned from Twitter that people regularly confuse a fact that you report with advocacy for the fact you’re reporting. “So if you quote the president, they assume you approve of the quote. I know people did that, of course, but I’ve been surprised how much they respond that way to items I write on Twitter,” he said. “It’s reminded me that this is sentence structure, since a sentence is about all you get on Twitter.”
cf http://mashable.com/2009/05/14/twitter-journalism/
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