In this post Jeff Hurt (@JeffHurt) tells the story of using Twitter at a conference and then proposes some tips for Conference and Event planners wanting to use Twitter to enhance their events.
I recently attended the American Society of Association Professionals (ASAE) three-day online conference for small staff associations. With 22,000 members, nearly 50% of them from small-staff associations, many consider ASAE the “go-to” association for association leaders.
For three days, I joined coworkers in our “War Room” (conference room) to view the PPT on our large plasma screen (ASAE chose not to use the webinar portion), interact with the live chat, listen to the audio on the conference phone and talk with one another during the presentation. Many of us brought our mobile devices too so we could answer email, chat and send tweets as needed. This was a familiar setting and situation, as I plan similar events for our own members.
Once the conference began, the dynamics in the room were amazing: we were listening to the presentation, debriefing comments as they were being said, typing in the live chat and sending tweets. Those walking by our War Room saw a frenzied team in hyper-overdrive, on high alert, working and talking at once.
On day one, we sat through two painful presentations: one very disorganized and one with some inaccurate and outdated information. Both of these presentations dealt with low-cost or free technology strategies and web tools.
On day two, we decided to turn to the Twittersphere to see if other social media mavens and gurus agreed with what ASAE was presenting. As we tweeted ASAE positions or statements, the Twitter and social media pros began to respond to us with facts, data, reports and articles contradicting what ASAE had said. Some of their responses were:
Twitter can be used to bring a quick resolution to such travel nightmares as those described above. The key to this strategy is getting word of the situation out to a large group of sympathetic people who are willing to ruffle a few feathers. This strategy is outlined below.
Join theTravelHelpgroup and start following people – You’ll want to follow travelers and non-travelers alike. Join in some conversations and get to know some people. There are many great travel tweeps (Twitter users) out there; a good starting point for finding them is the 200+ Travel Twitterers List.
TwitHawk launched not to long ago and first thing that came to my mind is OH another great tool to spam people! But just few hours later I convinced my self as well as @Twithawk that spamers have no place there.
With TwitHawk you can promote your profile, your product or for branding.
TwitHawk lets you reply to people that are using specific keywords on Twitter, it also lets you also auto-follow people that you send replay as well – learn more about it in their FAQ.
Here are few ideas I use TwitHawk for:
Branding my blog:
I target keyword “What is the best tech (technology) blog” – My answers
“http://www.livecrunch.com is one of the best technology blogs
“You should checkout Livecrunch.com I post about technology every day”
etc…
Targeting specific audience:
I target keyword: “What is the best antivirus software” – My answers:
“Not to long ago I posted about best 2009 Antivirus Software here http://tinyurl.com/8hejkz “
“How about 5 best antivirus software? http://tinyurl.com/8hejkz”
In other words with TwitHawk you can really engage with other twitter people giving them something they look for, in return you get traffic to either specific blog posts or product you would like to promote. All you really have to watch out that you do not apear as spam and use your imagination on how to setup keywords vs your replies.
Note from Darren: as with many useful tools for Twitter, this one can probably be used both for good and ‘evil’. I’m sure spammers will try to harness it for their purposes but used well I think it also could have potential to start engaging relationships – if you’re willing to followup your tweets and the replies that they get with actual interaction.
The only other word of warning that I’d give (as someone yet to actually use this) is to choose keywords carefully. It strikes me that some keyworks would be used on Twitter many thousands of times a day – to use them could see you sending thousands of replies a day which can’t be great for your reputation as a Twitter users.
I like that TwitterHawk has added the feature to ‘confirm replies before they send’ – this makes a lot of sense as it means you can pick and choose who you reply to and tailor those replies. In a sense this makes TwitterHawk a tool that helps you monitor what people are saying around certain keywords and enables you to reply if you choose rather than having tweets go out automatically.
by Jamie Harrop (follow him at @jamieharrop and learn more about him at the bottom of this post).
Having reached 750 followers earlier today and wrote over 6,000 updates, I’m a big fan of Twitter. But over the last week I’ve found myself becoming too much of a fan. Defending Twitter to the death has become a part of my daily life.
Across Facebook and forums, I’ve conversed with hundreds of people who “don’t get” Twitter, and people who claim to “get it” but really don’t.
Now, I have no problem with people who don’t understand Twitter. It’s a phenomenon, for sure, and one that is going to take time to develop in to a household name in any area outside of Uber-Geek-Street. But it’s when people claim to understand Twitter, but still say they hate it, that I step up to the plate and feel the need to bear arms and defend.
Sausage and Eggs for Breakfast
The conversation usually goes like this:
John Doe – “I hate Twitter”
Jamie – “Why?”
John Doe – “I don’t want to know what somebody ate for breakfast!”
Jamie – “If you used Twitter, you would know it’s nothing like that”
John Doe – “I have used Twitter, and it’s exactly like that”
Jamie – “Maybe that’s because you’re not using Twitter in the best way?”
At this point I usually scuttle away to John Doe’s now defunct Twitter account to find his last Tweet that reads “Had sausage and eggs for breakfast. Eggs didn’t smell too good”.
Have you noticed all the electronic and tree-based books that have come out on Twitter? There’s an amazing amount of verbiage being thrown at us for such a simple service. The sheer volume of training guides, paper books, and in-depth courses on using Twitter is kind of weird when it surrounds a service that worships brevity, 140 characters at a time.
You can learn about the hottest 3rd party applications that purport to make Twitter more useful, efficient, and effective on thousands of sites. You’ll find over 11,000 search results on Amazon for “twitter.”
On the flip side, there are only a little over 13,000 results on Amazon for “rocket science!” Can a simple microblog actually be almost as complicated to understand as rocket science? Requiring just as much training in order for us to understand it? Don’t forget, Twitter’s history makes it a toddler compared to the much longer history of rocket propulsion.
This made me wonder if there really could be an overlying theme or practice which could sum up in one sentence the most important thing you need to know to be successful using Twitter to generate buzz.
On Twitter, we have the real Shaq (@THE_REAL_SHAQ), the fake Shaq (@NotShaqONeal), and we’re inundated by Tweets from Mr. (@aplusk) & Mrs. (@mrskutcher) Kutcher, but who would we really like to see using Twitter?
And more importantly, how would they use Twitter? Here are 6 people people that would be great on Twitter, and how they might use it. Who would you like to see on Twitter? Add your pick in the comments!
@GeorgeWBush
Now that he’s officially not a president anymore, we’re going to miss some of those great soundbites. I also think W would enjoy Twitter. He’s used to the secret service doing everything for him, but I think Twitter could be a good replacement for some of those tasks: (more…)
Twitter is considered a micro-blogging service and though its original intention was to allow users to keep friends and co-workers in the loop, it has transformed to a vast social network of its own. For those that aren’t aware, a social network is defined as a group of people or friends that share a common goal or interest. Some users on Twitter find no reason in leaving their little community of friends, family, or office mates; they have little interest in wandering the depths of
the Twitter public in search of new ideas.
It’s quite obvious that you can’t force anyone to follow you nor can you really force anyone to go hunting for new information. You can, however, offer someone the content and dangle it in front of their face like a cruel dog owner and encourage them to click that follow button. Though it seems fool proof, this trick isn’t as rock solid as you may think: you have to actually offer content that is desirable.
Now, how do you offer great content and still keep your Twitter somewhat personal? It is pretty simple: find something you are very interested in or experienced with and start talking about it in most of your tweets. Then, on the side, post about other interesting personal moments in your life such as what fancy meal you are eating, movie you are seeing, or place you are visiting. The less posting about sleep or bathroom trips you take the more likely you are to receive followers.
Great content doesn’t just fall from a tree and into your hands; rather it is your structured ideas that form it. In fact great content can even be hidden behind a boring tweet. For example, take these two tweets I’ve fabricated:
“Just saw a good movie with some friends.”
“Went and saw Taken with a few friends. Great movie, amazing storyline, and tons of action. It is a must see for anyone!”
They both state that I saw a movie, but one is a bit clearer and provides more information. Here are some tips to focus on when structuring your tweets:
Be clear and concise with your tweets; avoid filler words, slang, or shorthand (unless you really have to cram the words in there). Being able to understand what you are saying is extremely important.
Remember that Twitter’s character limit is 140 characters. Though it may seem that characters get used up fast, a lot can be said within a tweet.
Take note of what your followers are interested in: what are they replying to? what is being retweeted the most? what is creating a bang within your network? Knowing what is returning the most allows you to better target your tweets.
Be consistent and organized. Posting heavily about an interesting topic one day and neglecting it for a week will do you no good if you want to attract followers who are interested in said topic.
Most Important: Pace yourself! No one is more annoying than someone who hops on Twitter, fills the timeline with tweets, then disappears for some time. Even in a less extreme, no one enjoys someone who posts spontaneously. If you have issues pacing yourself try a service like HootSuite or TweetLater
Some simple tips can return amazing results so don’t let them float past you. Also, when tweeting, remember that retweeting information can do more to help you than hurt you. Many services highlight when people retweet and your users might not have seen that tweet before and could be affected by it themselves. As well, retweeting information can also show users who aren’t following you that you care about that information which could also result in an easy follower.
Now, contrary to what you may believe, it doesn’t end there. What is the point in providing great information to your followers, gauging their reactions, and gathering statistics without putting it all to work? Start or find a blog to post on with your newly discovered information, provide helpful articles or encourage your friends to become a more powerful Twitter user. Don’t let your resources and knowledge go to waste, social networks exist to share information and the more you get involved the more return you will see.
There has been a lot of talk about ReTweeting in the last month (see below for some posts here on TwiTip) and increasingly I’m becoming aware that it is a part of Twitter that people either love or hate.
So here’s a quick poll question – do you ReTweet? If so, how much?
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Here are a few resources and posts we’ve done on ReTweeting lately:
It seems that we, as human beings, are facinated by numbers. I’m not talking about a mathematical fascination although many people do find numbers interesting of themselves. No, what I’m talking about is a facination with quantities, statistics and measurements. We use numbers to express value, make comparisons and to rank things, including ourselves.
This tendancy spills over into almost every thing that we do and it is apparent that Twitter is no exception. Almost every day we will see tweets about follow numbers (or unfollow numbers), rankings and statistics. What do all these numbers really mean and where do they come from?
I’m fairly new to Twitter, but one thing that I have noticed in my few months of following and tweeting is that many people are confused about the numbers and some of the activities that take place around them. So let’s take a few minutes and see if we can understand some of what is going on.
Follow Me, Follow You
There are two very important numbers in Twitter that often give rise to confusion. The first is Following which counts how many people you are listening to. The other number is Followers. This counts how many people are listening to you.
When you visit the Profile page of a user you will see both of these numbers listed (as well as Updates which we’ll talk about later). You can even list the followers and follows for the person if you are interested. These numbers can give you a good indication of the popularity of a person and the value of their tweets.
Last year one of the interesting posts in TwiTip that really caught my attention was the post about how to turn a bedroom light on and off with Twitter.
In the comment, I hinted about how that hack works — after peeking at the source code. For most people, it appears like magic but really it is quite simple if you understand how different parts interact.
Once you are aware about how a typical system like this works, hopefully you can come up with more ideas to make use of the technology.
What Do You Need?
What appears to be magic actually is a set of tools and electronic devices working together. Each of them is able to communicate with the device next or before it.
There are a few components that work together in the light switch scenario:
A computer system with controlling software. Obviously the computer has to be on for it to accept messages and to send them to the right devices. Smart home devices also have programmable controller and remote so signals could also be sent from this remote instead of a computer.
A hardware controller. You need an electronic circuit that is able to receive signals from your computer (either via serial or USB port) and respond to it. It can be as simple as an on-off switch. If the device includes support for dimming lights, you will be able to extend the feature to dim instead of just turning on and off. As you see, the controller plays a critical role here.
The controlled object. In this case, it is a light. There is nothing special about the object. Just that the signal from the controlling device — most likely computer — instruct the controller to do something that in turn do whatever it is programmed to do to the object.
Communication mechanism. The last part of the system is a communication mechanism that lets you send signal to the computer system.
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by Bill Nickerson (aka LoneWolf) from 