It appears that MTV’s attempt at reviving itself with a Twitter Jockey (an updated version of a VJ) has fallen short. After a month of Twitter-focused challenges to find the most appropriate individual for the job (measured by MTV’s own TweetLevel), the network announced the top five contestants in their “Follow Me: The Search for MTV’s First TJ” competition – and people are angry.

See, for the duration of the competition, MTV kept an up-to-the-minute contestant ranking by measuring influence, popularity, engagement and trust. In addition to these metrics, anyone could vote for their favorite via MTV and American Express’ MTVTJ Facebook page. When voting closed, the top five were listed publicly – as they had been throughout the competition – but when the announcement was made on Friday, several of the original top five were noticeably absent.

A quick search of “@MTVTJ” shows that people aren’t just voicing their complaints – they want answers. With more than ten Twitter accounts, MTV is notoriously chatty, but they’ve remained completely silent on the topic.

The way the situation is currently being handled is only making things worse – MTV and American Express are deleting the negative Facebook comments.

It’s been almost a week now, and the competition’s blog, Facebook and Twitter have not been used to confront the complaints. In a world where we are all still navigating the slippery slope that is social media, what will MTV and American Express’ (lack of) reaction mean for their image? Social media is a two-sided conversation, and you can’t expect to talk, talk, talk, then stay silent when people ask for answers.

What are your thoughts? Has MTV put the nail in its own coffin? Will this case join Southwest in the Twitter history books – or is it merely a one hit wonder?

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Did Twitter Kill the Video Star?

A few days back I read a post somewhere that talked about Twitter having set a new record of about 3.2K tweets per second, thanks to the Japanese football fans. That is more than evidence that Twitter has changed the way we saw the World Cup.

Twitter certainly gave us a different view of the World Cup this time. It was the match between Brazil and Chile. I wanted to get an update into the match and before I could get an update from any other website, I could get it from Twitter. I was continuously updated about the match. All I had to do was search Twitter with a few hash-tags like #brazil and #football. I could get the latest on the world cup. Just imagine the amount of tweets surfacing on Twitter every second.

Twitter showed us all a glimpse of their “promoted Tweets” just before the USA-Ghana match. Searches with hash-tags of #USA, gave results with a promoted tweet being the first results. This tweet was from Nike Soccer. It was there until the game was over and then they pulled it off. But, one sure got to know how Twitter’s promoted tweets are going to look like.

Twitter has influenced us in more than one ways. World Cup football is one such thing, but a macroscopic view shows that it was not just confined to the World Cup. Twitter is a more important member of our Internet family, more important than even Google. Or, so at least for me. Why?

1. Because I can get updated news feeds on Twitter, much faster than Google.
2. Because I am able to market my products on Twitter at zero cost, in comparison to the thousands that I would have spent at Google.
3. Because I have been able to make some good friends at Twitter.
4. Because Twitter is fun and Google is not.
5. Because I can research about anything that I wish to sell, much easily at Twitter than Google.

These are just some of the things in addition to the searches on Twitter. Carefully built search parameters can get you the desired results extremely easily and much faster than Google. What’s more, you can even save the search for future so that you do not have to write the query again and again. How useful is this? It depends upon your purpose of the search. It saves a lot of time if you are researching your market and that is where I think it is pretty useful.

As the World Cup nears its finale, it would be not be wrong to say that, at least Twitter has stamped its authority as a news channel. Twitter has given us a new perspective to the way news was read. Staying updated has a new meaning and I am sure that this World Cup will be remembered as a “Twitterified World Cup”

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



A Twitterified Football World Cup

So when people scoff at Twitter and say they don’t care what people had for breakfast, they don’t get it.

I wrote a book with Twitter.

As a work-at-home dad I found Twitter to be the ultimate commiseration tool. When my kids drove me nuts I could share stories and hear from other parents. I began to tweet more about my family. I posted the weird things my kids said. I told funny stories. I talked about our adoption journey. I recruited others to support the causes we love.

I tweeted a lot of other junk too, but when I went back and sorted through all the updates there was a clear story. I didn’t set out to tell that story, but it was there. That story became Addition by Adoption: Kids, Causes & 140 Characters, a book I self-published. It captures my family’s adoption journey as we grew our family and embraced a wider world.

Early responses–received through Twitter–call it hilarious and heart-warming, which means this book is hopefully more than narcissism.

It’s also a book that will save lives. A portion of the proceeds will fund a clean water well in Ethiopia through charity: water. It’s humbling to be able to give back to my son’s homeland.

All from a navel-gazing bit of technology.

So the next time someone dismisses Twitter, Facebook or any other new technology—tell them to think again. You get out of it what you put into it. Put in fluff like what you had for breakfast and it likely won’t amount to much. But put in something more, and you’ll get a lot more in return.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



I Wrote a Book with Twitter

Well, don’t take this personally, but you haven’t, for three reasons:

• Only a select (albeit popular) few celebrities take a significant amount of time to reply to their followers.
• While your chances of getting someone famous to respond to you—to be honest—aren’t all that bad, the odds of anyone else seeing their response are not so good.
• If you’re getting followed by the random marketer lady who goes around following people who celebrities send @replies to, random marketer lady isn’t exactly the kind of quality follower you’re looking for in the first place.

With that out of the way, let me give you a revised strategy that will build quality followers. Even better, my strategy will boost your ego because you’ll at least feel more popular because of the number of replies you get. So, what do I recommend? Follow the little guy.

I’m telling you, if you follow a guy with 25 followers, you’re much more likely to get his attention than someone like Ashton Kutcher with 25 hundred thousand followers. Not only that, but you’re much more likely to get him to notice you and your tweets more than once, which is your real goal.

Here’s my hunch: lots of people are just using Twitter because everyone else is, not necessarily because they want to be power users. By befriending this type of follower, you’re not only spreading out your influence, you’re really making sure that you build quality relationships. And trust me, lots of quality relationships with people with only a few followers are much more beneficial in the long-term than a fluke @reply from some million-followers-celebrity who’s going to be out of the news tomorrow.

Now for the qualifications. You can’t just follow the little guy, you’ve gotta make an effort to communicate with him. He’s the little guy for a reason, he’s not monitoring every tweet. Choose a Twitter user directory, find some people who look like they use Twitter often but don’t have too many followers, and start a conversation. Oh, and don’t be a creep. Or at least if you’re going to be a creep don’t tell anyone that I gave you the idea.

So give it a shot. Follow five or six people who don’t get too many people to follow them. Start a conversation. I bet you they’ll appreciate it, and I bet you they’ll respond. It’ll be a lot more fun, if nothing else. Let us know in the comments section below how many new friends you’ve made.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Why You’re Better Off Following the Little Guy

Since I also VLOG for the beauty industry, I get pampered like no other male Mexican alive. I review spas, beauty treatments and sometimes get to try new beauty advances like eye-lash extensions–yes, they exist. Well, there I was staring into the looking glass – not recognizing myself when I tweeted a before-and-after photo of myself with and without the extensions provided by Wink Eyelash. Several of my followers wanted details, “Where do I get mine?” “Give us the address!” and “Did it hurt?” But in the mixture of all the happy tweets came one lonely tweet that left me confused, dazed and bewildered, “I’m a married woman with children you PERVERT! Stop sending me this trash!” Did she confused me with someone else? See for yourself – click here for the photo I’d posted. I tweeted back, “I’m not sure why you think I’m flirting with you but I’m not.” And in a flash, several of my followers joined in and tweeted in my defense. The exchanges were flying higher than Amy Winehouse after a crackfest. I asked everyone to stop tweeting the woman and just blocked her. Well, in the morning, I had 10 evil tweets from her husband threatening to hurt me and my new eyelashes.

Three weeks ago, I received a call from a Literary Agent asking me for a meeting, as it turns out, she found me through twitter and had been reading my blog and now wanted to work on a “blog-to-book” deal. We met the following week, exchanged ideas and are moving forward with the project. After the meeting, and after keeping my followers in suspense, I let the cat out of the bag and tweeted about the book deal. I received so many congratulating tweets and since I follow my own advice on engaging with my followers, I tweeted people back saying thank you. But since there were so many, I did it in clumps. And if you follow me, you know me and my off-beat sense of humor; one group got, “Thanks for the support! This Mexican hearts YOU!” another received “Yay! You all ROCK now get back to work!” and the last group got, “Yay, Skanks! We did it!” Wouldn’t you know, I immediately got tweets that said, “Yay! I’m a Nando skank!” and “Nando skank for life!” but in the mixture was, “Don’t you ever call me a skank, you will speak to me with respect!” I didn’t recognize the name, but I replied, “Child, if you follow me, you gotta get used to the Mexican, I ain’t changing for no one.” And she replied, “I’m not a child, I am a grown woman and will be treated as such.” I clicked on her page, she wasn’t following me nor I her. What was she doing retweeting my happy-book-deal-tweet in the first place? (But that’s another article) I saw she had 30 followers and was following 150. I hate to be a twitter snob, but I had a feeling she didn’t know how to use twitter and mistook this forum as a Jerry Springer message board; I blocked her. Later in the day, I went back to her page–cause I’m a nosy Mexican–and discovered it was full of tweets to her 30 followers on how she “had to put a punk in his place.” I also noticed that she had a few negative tweets about other twitter-ers as well. I believe her bio said she was a motivational speaker and author.

I’m sure you’re thinking, is twitter really a place to call your followers skanks? Well, it is over in NANDOISM world – because I have the best followers ever… but just for the record, I haven’t used the word skanks since then – but the point is, even if you didn’t like what I tweeted, send me a DM, ask for an e-mail address, or even request a phone call, but to start using twitter to infect the information super highway with your negative thoughts and then to rally others in your cause is just bad. Twitter fights are wrong for three reasons.

1. Negative tweets discredit your  status. No one will really take you serious if your a dating blogger ranting and raving or complaining about your day. I don’t have time to read your negative tweets. I was casted as the main character of my own telenovella 34 years ago and don’t need your constant negativity. And in her case, an author? I don’t want to read her stuff.

2. Twitter Fights make you look petty. A friend of mine, @TheUngayGuy got celebrity twitter-er @KirstieAlley all wound up and fuming when he snarkly remarked about scientologists traveling to Haiti with e-meters rather than medicine. That twitter fight got ugly because Kirstie went mad crazy, used profanity and extremely vulgar language to get her point across – but in the end, it cost her thousands of twitter followers.

3. Just leaves a bad digital footprint. With everything being indexed and easily linked to your name, accounts, online persona, why leave a digital footprint the size of big foot associated with online fights? It may seem like a worthy cause at the moment, but in the long run, the very long run, it will leave a damaging effect that’ll haunt you possibly making you lose clients, followers and friends.

So the next time you feel the heat of a twitter fight coming on – take a deep breath, eat a donut, or just take a break from the internet because the cost is just too high. Have you seen twitter fights in your stream? How do you react to them?

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



How to Fight on Twitter

To announce the event of following someone randomly Conan tweeted “I’ve decided to follow someone at random. She likes peanut butter and gummy dinosaurs. Sarah Killen, your life is about to change.” That was the best part of the story and after that Sarah has been rubbing her status next to celebrities with lots of tv interviews and MTV appearances.

From just 3 followers to over 20000 followers (at the time of writing this post) she is growing and she is growing fast. At the personal level, she and her fiancé had been announcing the amount of gifts they have been receiving after Conan made them famous.

After the famous out cry even Sarah’s Mom has come on the twitter and named her account promptly as Sarahkmom. Who knows Conan may even follow her.

Kinda cool, eh? She’s been on all sorts of news programs now, and getting tons of attention. On Good Morning America this morning, Sarah’s fiancé announced a request that Conan be the best man at his wedding!

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Conan Meets Sarah – A Cute Story

You can use Twitter to find speakers, locations, equipment, get discounts and drive the attention you need.

Tweetups are a great way to provide a great Social Media Experience in your local area, and at the same time share this experience with the Twitter community.

For every Social Media Experience I provide, I create what I call a Social Media Toolbox. One great tool I use now to manage my tasks is Remember The Milk.

Here is my Tweetup Social Media Toolbox:

Create your Tweetup outposts

Primarily you want to organize your Tweetups around Twitter. But you need to set up various outposts to make it as successful as possible. One of the real benefits of a Tweetup is the ability to network person to person with authorities in your local area, and with keynote speakers you have been able to attract to the Tweetup.

Make a landing page for your Tweetup. Your landing page can be a blog, website or event site. Eventbrite and Twitvite is just two examples of Event sites you can utilize. One tip also is to utilize Facebook Events.

Here you want have the sign up form; record any offers of help; and generate interest. You also want to use your landing page as an outpost after the event where you provide pictures and information from the event.

Create your Tweetup #hashtag

The most efficient way to get out the information during the event is provide a #hashtag that defines the event. Make sure this a unique #hashtag. Check out Hashtag.org and Twitter Search.

Also provide this #hashtag on your landing page. When you are ready to start the Tweetup, then make sure to invite everyone to follow and participate in the discussion through Tweetchat. You can also provide instructions for how to create a search column for your #hashtag on some of the popular clients like; TweetDeck, Seesmic or Hootsuite.

Create Tweetup alerts

Setting up Tweetup alerts is something that has to be done before the Tweetup. Use services like Google Alert or TweetBeep to send alerts to your email when either the #hashtag, event, event keywords, or the blog for event is mentioned.

Create Tweetup attention

One tip here is to create a Twitter List for your Tweetup. Here I recommend using the #hashtag for the event as name of the list. You want to add this list to you landing page. This so all attendees can follow start follow the list. If you have keynote speakers fro the event, then make sure they are follow on this list.

Have some tweets ready on your landing page that you request your attendees to send out after they filled out the sign up form.

Create a Who is Who

I use my task manager Remember The Milk to keep track of simple things like volunteers, who is coming, how many tweet lead up to event, how many tweets during event, sponsors… etc.. There is also options that will allow you to send notice to your cell phone for some minor charges.

Tweetups is a great way to network and meet others that are using some of the same tools as you to get their blog or business noticed on various Social Media Channels. Some off the best relations can be built on a offline Social Media Event.

I gave you my Tweetup Social Media Toolbox here..

What about you? Have you created your Tweetup Social Media Toolbox?

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Planning A Tweetup

I’m perpetually positive by nature, but getting off the couch proved tricky. Chemo really took it out of me. And thanks to the grapefruit-sized tumor pressing on a nerve in my chest, I was also wonked out on morphine to control the agonizing pain.

But I was determined to be a survivor. I knew eventually I’d start feeling better again. I looked for a goal and project to motivate me to get off the couch when that day came.

The project turned out to be Haunt Jaunts, my travel blog for restless spirits. It allowed me to indulge my passion for paranormal tourism, even if only virtually.

My first post went live March 30, 2009. I’d of course heard about Twitter back then, but I was still undergoing chemo and my energy was limited. It wasn’t until September 2009, when I was done with treatments, in remission, and had regained my strength that I incorporated Twitter into my blog promo regimen. I was shocked when I got to 100 followers in less than two weeks, hit 500 followers a couple of months later, and then soared past 1,000 right after the New Year.

There are a lot of paranormal bloggers out there. Many who have been Twittering longer than only several months. Few have over 1,000 followers. (Most barely have 500.)

I started wondering, “Just how many followers could I get up to this year anyway?”

Then I got the bright idea: Haunt Jaunts one year anniversary is coming up. Why not throw a party? Part of the bash could be a campaign to increase followers.

Except, that didn’t feel entirely right. Sure, I love the challenge of seeing how high the follower number can grow, but any celebration of Haunt Jaunts was also a celebration of Life. Any party had to honor that, too.

So I decided to make my followers worth something. Five cents to be exact. (I know that might not sound like much, but I’m no Oprah. In case my campaign proves successful beyond my wildest dreams, a nickel per follower should still let me put my money where my heart is without going into debt.)

I posted my intentions to donate a nickel to the Lymphoma Research Foundation (@lymphoma) for every follower Haunt Jaunts has come March 30, 2010. Then I Tweeted about it with a plea asking people to ReTweet.

The RTs flew. Just five days later, my followers had already grown by 100.

And since I’m not done Tweeting about my quest to raise money for LRF, I fully expect the number to keep increasing.

Not that I’m recommending you get cancer to increase your followers. But we all have hardships we’ve survived and organizations and causes that are near and dear to our hearts. This was my way of not only increasing my blog’s visibility and my Twitter followers, but also showing readers they’re valuable to me in more ways than one.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



How to Get More Followers and Give Back at the Same Time

I never joined Twitter to Tweet with celebrities and even now, two years after joining, it’s a small part of why I love Twitter so much. However, after Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) sent several Tweets to me and even created a hashtag topic dedicated to me (he also followed me as one of the 32 people on his following list for a couple of days but sadly, that ended), there was an unintended side effect: people I know suddenly were interested in joining Twitter to Tweet with their favorite celebrities.

In addition to Justin, I’ve Tweeted with many celebrities including Samantha Ronson (@samantharonson), Jewel (@jeweljk), Virginia Madsen (@MadlyV) and Internet celebrities Penelope Trunk (@penelopetrunk), Chris Guillebeau (@chrisguillebeau), Gary V. (@garyvee, though, let’s be honest, anybody can Tweet with Gary V.), YouTube celeb Mr. Chi City (@MrChiCity33) and many others including people that I am a huge fan of but aren’t so well known. If Tweeting with your favorite celebrities is your goal – and hopefully it’s not your only goal for being on Twitter – here are my tips for you.

Make sure you’ve got the right person first

I’ve had many people who questioned if I was actually Tweeting with the people that I said I was. Most Twitter users usually know to look for the Verified Account badge in the profile information of someone’s Twitter page. You should also make sure the badge is clickable because sneaky fakers have gotten clever and made the background image on their Twitter profile include that Verified badge image but the badge isn’t clickable. This happened to Danny Devito (@Danny_Devito) and the fake account was eventually suspended but not until after the faker had accumulated tens of thousands of followers.

Tweet celebrities who will reply (or at least DM)

Celebrities handle Twitter etiquette differently and some don’t send replies at all. One of my favorite Twitter users, Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago), rarely ever replies to anyone. Though I reply to him when he Tweets something interesting (which is often), I don’t expect to hear back. Others, like Penelope Trunk usually reply via DM (though she has replied to me once, she confesses that she doesn’t like to do that).

Time your Tweets wisely

If you just randomly send a Tweet to your favorite celebrity, the chances of getting a reply are pretty minimal given the quantity that most receive. However, if you see them Tweeting, that’s a great time to reply because you know they are on RIGHT NOW and any replies they receive are at the top of the list.

Tweet the celebrities, not their employees

Check and see if it’s actually the celebrity Tweeting and not somebody on their team. People like Dolly Parton (@dolly_parton) have different people Tweeting from their account on their behalf but they also personally use it. In her case, it’s obvious it’s her when it’s sent from her Blackberry (which you can tell by the use of the app UberTwitter) versus her web team which usually Tweets from the web.

Another way to tell if it’s the celebrity or not is if the Tweet contains links pointing to the celebrity’s own site. They will often have people who work on their web team who will update their site and then send out Tweets to point to the content. The celebrities are often not the ones Tweeting links to new content.

Say something to get their attention

For about 2 hours after Justin Timberlake started Tweeting me, I experienced what celebrities must get every single day: I was inundated with a new Tweet every few seconds. So many people just wanted me to reply to me “omg, how awesome, please reply back!” or “please follow me!!!” The only ones I replied to were ones that said something funny or insightful. When there’s so many Tweets for celebrities to read, you’ll need to say something interesting and unique to stand out from the pool of freaked out fans.

Incidentally, the Tweet that I sent that started it all with Justin Timberlake was this:

“Might have to unfollow @jtimberlake because a 34-year-old mother of 2 should not squeeee every time he Tweets. Embarrassing. I love him.”

I wasn’t trying to get him to reply to me (I was more talking about him, not to him) but because I said something unique that other people weren’t, he must have decided to reply. I’ve Tweeted with Jewel regarding her usage of both a Blackberry and iPhone. I didn’t say it for the purpose of getting a celebrity to talk to me, I was genuinely interested why she used both and that makes somebody stand out above the “omg, I LOVE YOU” replies.

Spend most of your time providing value to your followers

That’s my advice for people wanting to connect with celebrities via Twitter though I hope you’ll spend most of your time providing value to your followers and trying to connect with the real people who make Twitter such a great community.

What about you? Do you try to connect with celebrities via Twitter? Have you heard back from any?

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



How To Get Celebrities To Tweet You

For writers who like a challenge, there are a number of Twitter-based ezines that publish short (and I do mean short) stories. Some call them “Twisters,” others micro- or nano-fiction, and others simply “one heck of a challenge.” You’ve only got 140 characters to tell a complete story that leaves your readers nodding their heads with a sense of fulfillment.

If this sounds like your cup of java, there are several venues where you can submit your tales for consideration. Some even pay big bucks (up to $1.50), so what are you waiting for?

Twitter-fiction markets:

Thaumatrope – @Thaumatrope

If you can write a science fiction, fantasy, or horror story that fits in a Twitter box, send your submissions to these folks. Pays $1.20.

Tweet the Meat – @TweetTheMeat

This publisher of horror/weird/speculative fiction wants “fear in 140 characters or less.” Thanks to their weekly themes, there’s plenty to inspire you. Pays $1.

Nanoism – @Nanoism

Submit your thoughtful, literary nano-fiction to these folks. They’ll accept all genres but particularly want “stories that move us with their writing, stories that stay with us longer than the few seconds it takes to read them.” Pays $1 for one-tweet stories and up to $5 for serials.

@Microcosms

This publisher’s first “issue” isn’t scheduled to appear until April, but you can send in your submissions of science fiction, fantasy, and horror now. Pays $1.

Know of other markets for Twitter stories? Share them in the comments!

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Flex Your Literary Fast-Twitch Muscles Writing Twitter-Sized Stories