TwiTip » People

Tweeting with Zombies

Neal Wiser — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 02:27:05 +0000

I’m a lucky guy. Although I never received credit (I didn’t have an agent), I was fortunate enough to have done some “script-doctoring” on a few forgettable network TV series back in the 90s. Of course, as a writer, I also had aspirations of penning the next great American novel, or at least one that would be a best-seller. But then Al Gore had to go invent the Internets and I didn’t do much writing for over a decade.

Fast-forward a few years and social media, tablets, e-readers and e-books are changing everything. Indeed, there’s never been a better time to be an aspiring author. You can build an audience on your own, sell directly to your readers and pocket the cash without splitting a penny with a publisher or an agent. As a result, I’ve not only taken the dive back into writing, I’ve become fascinated with how writers are using social media to build their careers (and to sell more books).

In this post, the first in a series about how authors are using social media, I interviewed Jonathan Maberry, author of such zombie brain-feasts as Patient Zero, Rot & Ruin, Dust & Decay, Dead of Night and Wanted Undead or Alive (for more about How Jonathan uses social media and zombies, read the full, extended interview at Addicted to Social Media.com).

Please tell our readers about yourself. Who is Jonathan Maberry?

Zombie Author Jonathan Maberry

I’m a professional writer and part-time writing teacher. I write thrillers, horror novels, post-apocalyptic adventures for teens, movie tie-ins, and short stories. And I freelance for Marvel Comics. I teach a weekly writing class for teens and run a few classes on novel writing for adults.

Before I went full time as an author I had a grab-bag of different jobs. I was a bouncer in a strip club (in my wild youth), a bodyguard in the entertainment industry, a college teacher, the executive director of a writers center, an Expert Witness for the Philadelphia D.A.’s office (for murder trials involving martial arts), and a graphic artist.

I live on Bucks County, Pennsylvania with my wife, Sara Jo.

When, and more importantly, why did you decide to start using social media?

I got involved with message boards early on, but mostly to communicate with like-minded people on subjects that interested me; martial arts, books, film, the paranormal, folklore…things like that.

Then, while teaching a program at the Writers Room in Doylestown, PA, one of my students made a presentation on the subject of a new thing called ‘social media’. At the time the hot topic was MySpace. I wound up exploring MySpace and then becoming heavily invested in the online community.

That student was Don Lafferty, who is now a publisher, writer and a social media consultant of some note. He frequently advises a number of other successful authors on social media.

What platforms are you on?

I’m all over the place, but I’m most heavily invested in Twitter, Facebook (regular page and group page), LinkedIn, and GoodReads. I rely heavily on Yahoo Groups for my classes and special projects –such as an anthology I’d editing, and we use the message board for posting info, submissions, and so on. I also have a website (www.jonathanmaberry.com), and I belong to Shelfari, LibraryThing, and a bunch of message boards –many of which are connected to writers organizations to which I belong (The Mystery Writers of America, Horror Writers Association, International Thriller Writers, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers.

For authors, what platforms would you recommend?

The big three are Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. That’s where the crowd hangs out, that’s where they talk, and that’s where the most useful connections are made. I also recommend that all writers join GoodReads and LibraryThing, and also build a website that draws a lot of traffic to one central point.

What’s your social media strategy?

I spend most of my time having fun. I read a lot of the posts other people make, and comment as often as I have something interesting (or funny) to say. I also post a lot of humor. These are dark times, so lightening the mood seems to work. I post links to events and publications by other writers and to items that I feel are of general interest. I’m a science and pop culture geek, so there’s a lot of that in what I post.

So, my strategy is to post positive stuff and generally have fun on the Net.

One thing that has greatly increased the traffic to my platforms and dialed up the volume of interactive posts is to include my readers in my projects. I’ll have contests online for people to name characters (including letting them win the chance to have a character named after them); or to pick the title of my next book; or win something nice like a Kindle or Nook. And, yes, giving out prizes is fun for me, too.

Has social media helped sales? If so, how are you measuring that?

Social media definitely bumps up sales. I see it in the analytics that track click-throughs from newsletters or social media posts to purchase sites like online booksellers.

And with social media I’ve been able to build an international fanbase that I might not otherwise have built. Publishing houses can’t afford to send as many writers on tour these days, and even when they do it’s usually a limited tour.

What kinds of interactions do you see people/fans responding to?

It’s pretty clear to anyone who visits my Twitter or Facebook page that I’m having an enormous amount of fun driving my jet-ski at high speed through the social media seas. Fun is infectious; people want to play with the happy kid in the playground. Try it out. Make a negative post and count the ‘likes’ and reposts then post something fun like a link to a cartoon (I post a ton of cartoons), a fascinating bit of science trivia (zombie ants, for example), praise for someone else’s accomplishments and then see how many MORE hits there are. Positive trumps negative every time.

At the same time I believe that people respond to my integrity. I never bash, never descend to base humor, and I don’t use the Net to proselytize any political agendas. I think that also engenders within them a greater sense of trust in the quality of the products I have on the market. Integrity and good will are hard to fake in anything but the short term, so people who hang out with me online know they’re safe and that something weird or silly is going to happen. We all dig that vibe.

Do you see social media becoming part of the story telling process?

It already is. We use social media to engage interest and to share information. The Net encourages us to get to the heart of our message, and as a result we’ve learned (and continue to learn) how to do that. The 140 character limit on Twitter is brilliant, and the fact that you can post a quick message and a hot link allows people to jump right in.

From a different perspective, some folks are using social media as an actual delivery system for storytelling. The Japanese Twitter novels are an example of that, but that’s been going on for years and I don’t see it catching fire here in the States. That said, I think the door is open for some new kind of multi-platform and interactive storytelling that we haven’t seen yet. I’ll bet money that it will happen. And, yeah, once it’s there I’ll probably experiment with it.

I hear you’re in talks to develop one of your books into a TV series. Do you see social media/Twitter playing a role?

That’s one of those Hollywood horror stories. Sony Pictures had optioned Patient Zero for TV. They hired Emmy Award winning writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach to do the pilot script, and he nailed it. They brought it to ABC, and we got all the way down to the wire so that it was pretty much a decision between my show and a remake of Charlie’s Angels. And they went with the Angels.

As of now, the option is open again and my agent has been fielding reach-outs from various producers, so we’ll see. We’re all pretty optimistic, however.

Once something does catch fire, social media will be crucial. I’ve seen how that worked for The Walking Dead, a show based on the comics by my friend Robert Kirkman. The production company was all over the Net with that. It was everywhere, and it paid off, because the show was an instant hit as it deserved to be. But without social media buzz, it might have struggled to gain an audience and might not have done so soon enough to get the nod for a second season. Social media greatly helped that show.

Do you think zombies make good tweeters?

They’re relentless and they never tire, so yeah…they’ll be tweeting 24/7 with only a short break for some fresh brains.

Can you recommend any zombie related Twitter accounts, our readers are dying to know (pun intended)?

For more about How Jonathan uses social media and zombies, read the full, extended interview at Addicted to Social Media.com. And if you’d like to read any of Jonathan’s books, click on the links below.

Neal Wiser is the owner of Neal Wiser Consulting, a Digital Marketing consulting firm. You can follow Neal on Twitter (his handle is @NealWiser). Neal is also the Cofounder and Co-host of the Addicted to Social Media Podcast. You can also read more of Neal’s Twitip posts here or on his blog at NealWiser.com.

Why Twitter Lists are Less Effective

tdomf_2ae17 — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 14:00:21 +0000

Image credit: Michael Hamburg.

Twitter introduced the concept of lists about 16 months ago to enable the manual grouping of people into categories.

If you visit Formulists or Listorious you can type a keyword and see the different lists that people maintain. Searching for the keyword apples, for instance, you can read Twitter biographies of the 491 people who someone added to a list about honeycrisp apples. You can either follow the list or follow its members individually.

Any Twitter user can create his or her own list, or follow an existing list — such as the above one about apples.

I used to love creating lists. I embraced lists with passion and for the better part of two years I followed few people by way of the “follow” button and followed everyone else by lists instead. Because I kept changing the names of my lists and the people in each list, I also kept following and unfollowing different people.

But the passion is gone. I still like the concept and continue to follow some lists around government and public relations, but I’m tired of having my own lists. And, in fact, short of a local community list and a humor list, I deleted the other dozen lists I’d managed.

Because I use twitter.com as my primary view (and not third-party tools like Tweetdeck or Seesmic), it was time-consuming and unproductive to click a different list’s link every time I wanted to view its members’ recent tweets.

Which leads me to announce a new tactic in my ongoing quest for internet enrichment and resource productivity: I am once again following people outside of lists. It’s a tactic I once employed. I count 700+ people today (up from a mere 12 only two weeks ago). I don’t care about Klout scores and I don’t care if anyone I follow chooses to follow me back.

Do I look at twitter all day long? No.

Am I more productive since following people outside of lists? Yes.

Am I seeing more people’s names flow by quickly? Yes.

Will I see everyone’s tweet? No.

My purpose to tweet today has not changed since creating an account on day one. I tweet to enrich myself, to learn, and to share. Twitter lists, as helpful as they are to showcase people around categories, are less effective (to me) as a means of following and conversing with people.

But these are my thoughts about lists. How do you use lists?

An Interview with TweetDeck’s Richard Barley

Neal Wiser — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:00:36 +0000

Richard Barley

If you use TweetDeck then you may have heard of or met Richard Barley (@richardbarley), TweetDeck’s Community Manager. I first “met” Richard last year when he provided some thoughtful comments to a pair of posts I wrote about TweetDeck, 10 Features I Want to See in TweetDeck and 9 More Features I Want to See in TweetDeck.

I had planned to ask Richard for an interview, but it got put on hold on my end. Finally, after long delay, that interview is here (you can also listen to an extended version of this interview on my podcast, Addicted to Social Media).

Tell us about yourself. What did you do prior to working with TweetDeck?

Prior to joining TweetDeck I had been involved in IT support for my local council, then Help Desk manager for a local telecoms company, before eventually becoming a consultant for Cap Gemini working on CRM projects. From there I moved on to a similar position with BT, before ending up at RightNow Technologies.

Being on the road gave me lots of time in the evenings to get addicted to Twitter and start using TweetDeck. I eventually started supporting TweetDeck users in my spare time and wrote several blog articles about it, including a hugely popular series of FAQs, something that, at that time, Iain (Dodsworth, TweetDeck founder) was unable to produce as he was working entirely on his own. It wasn’t long before Iain noticed my work and offered me a job as Community Manager. This coincided very nicely with me leaving my previous position, so I joined the “team.” The rest, as they say, is history…

In your own works, why is TweetDeck so special?

I could go on for hours about the great features that make TweetDeck “special”, but that’s not really important. What IS important is *how* TweetDeck has become special. We are a small team working in a shared office in East London, working our socks off for this project that we are all hugely passionate about. We don’t have an office in Silicon Valley. We don’t hold big press conferences or feel the need to show our faces at every hipster event that goes on. We just quietly get on with building a great suite of products that people love to use. This attitude was the case when I first joined in July 2009 and remains the case now. This is what makes TweetDeck so special – fantastic products from a dedicated team who enjoy building amazing things with no fuss.

How many users are now using TweetDeck in its various versions?

We have several million active users and our desktop app has been downloaded over 15 Million times. Around 6 million tweets are sent from our apps each day, which we think is really rather cool.

What’s it like working with Iain Dodsworth?

TweetDeck Founder Iain Dodsworth

Working with Iain has often not been like working at all. Certainly, in the early days it was more like just getting together with a friend to hang out and chat to people online. Basically, he’s just a down-to-earth guy who has priorities very firmly set on his family, employees and his company rather than trying to be a celebrity in the tech “scene”. This is why he has so much respect from those that know him.

What was the genesis of the idea for Deck.ly?

Deck.ly came about for several reasons, the main one being that ever since I can remember, TweetDeck users have been clamoring for TwitLonger support in the app. It was our biggest, longest-running feature request and I was fielding tweets literally every day asking for it. Now, we were not keen at first, mainly, I guess, due to the fact that none of the team used TwitLonger and thus didn’t really think it a priority. Ultimately, I brought to the team the undeniable evidence of the huge support for the feature, so we looked into it.

We could, of course, have just implemented TwitLonger, but really, that’s not what we’re about now. We haven’t integrated new third party services for a long time because we’re now in a position to be able to build our own. By offering a “long update” service, we realized that we could grow and expand into other areas, lifting us away from some of the shackles of individual networks and offering more of a TweetDeck layer on top, thus adding value and bringing integrated services that would have previously been impossible.

Deck.ly is pretty controversial. Why the controversy?

There was some controversy when we launched “Deck.ly” long updates. It certainly divided the user base with some offering their hand in marriage in thanks for finally bringing long updates and others cursing us to eternal damnation for destroying everything that is good about Twitter. We admitted that our very first release had some flaws. With no way to disable the long update feature, accidental long posts were far too easy to send. But we moved quickly and issued several updates to the app based on feedback from the users and we now think that we have a good flow in place with the option to disable long updates if you wish.

So, as for the controversy… well I’m not going to fan the flames, but it is interesting to note that both UberTwitter and Twitter for iPhone had TwitLonger support over a year ago. Lots of other very popular apps have the same or similar functionality. We are, in some ways, flattered that so much has been said about our implementation of what is, on the face of it, pretty much the same thing.

Is Deck.ly going to compete with Twitter?

No, Deck.ly is not a competitor to Twitter any more than TwitLonger is, or Tumblr, or Posterous or any of the multitudes of other apps out there that post tweets with a link to see more detail.

Any plans to buy out Loic Le Meur and Seesmic?

We won’t comment on acquisition rumors. Sorry.

I recently set up a search to follow tweets about the Space Shuttle Discovery’s launch on STS-133 and noticed that there was a promoted tweet at the top of the column that remained in a fixed position even when I scrolled through the column. Is this a deal directly with TweetDeck or did it get pulled in via Twitter? Is it part of TweetDeck’s monetization strategy?

We introduced support for Twitter’s promoted tweets several months ago and this is a good example. They only appear in search columns where the search terms match a keyword that has been purchased. Twitter has a page about promoted tweets here

What do you think of Klout scores being introduced to Twitter (via chrome plug-in)?

To be honest, having tried many “influence ranking” systems, I have yet to find any one that is more than vaguely helpful to me. I’m sure such services are great and a lot of people put a lot of importance on such “scores”, but for me I find the whole idea rather “meh”…

What’s next for TD?

First priority for us now is to launch our brand new iPhone app. We’ve been building a totally new iOS app from scratch for the last few months and we’re just about ready to unleash that on the world. It’s such a great app, taking the best bits from our hugely successful Android app, blending in some of the great features from our Chrome app, along with some seriously cool new magic specifically for iOS. So that’s coming up in the next few weeks. We’re also looking to take our Chrome app and build versions that will run on the other major browsers out there. So soon, you’ll be running TweetDeck in the likes of Firefox & Safari. We also have a bunch of new services to launch, including cross-platform column sync amongst other things. There’s so much going on!

If I ask nicely, can I get a feature built into TD?

Ha-ha! Well that depends how nicely you ask and if you send donuts Seriously, though, it’s my job to listen to the users and make sure that their requirements are being met by TweetDeck as much as possible. We can’t always promise to do everything people ask for, but if it’s important enough for our users to be demanding it, I will always fight in their corner to have it considered.

I like to add a personal thanks to Richard for both his time and for being such a great interview subject. Remember, you can listen to an extended version of this interview on my podcast, Addicted to Social Media.

Do you have a question for Richard? Add your question to the comments and we’ll see if we can him to answer a few.

Neal Wiser is Vice President of Digital Strategy and Operations at The ODM Group where he leads teams in the creation and execution of digital marketing campaigns. You can follow Neal on Twitter (his handle is @NealWiser). Neal is also the Cofounder and Co-host of the Addicted to Social Media podcast.

The Power Of Having Twitter Conversations Off Of Twitter

tdomf_2ae17 — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 12:02:27 +0000

I hear it so often: “Conversations on Twitter are impossible to have.”

Or,”It’s impossible to track conversations on Twitter.”

Both can be valid points, however, it all depends on how you use the service. For those just starting out on Twitter, having conversations is essential for your business and to develop your personal brand. The conversation aspect that Twitter brings allows you to show others what you are about. Are you real and not a bot? Are you transparent? Are you just trying to sell me a product?

Since other users on Twitter are most likely not familiar with who you are, these are the types of questions that are going to be running through their heads. They want to feel you out, but social media is all about “wanting” to trust people. The conversation aspect of Twitter allows you to build that trust and relationship with another person. However, the best part of a Twitter conversation is bringing that conversation offline. Now, you may be wondering if this is actually possible. You might worry that someone who doesn’t know you in real life would never want to talk to you offline. You would be surprised, it happens very often.

I’ve had the pleasure of having conversations with many people that started on Twitter, but we took the conversation offline. Well, alright, when I say offline, I mean off of Twitter. Since I do podcast interviews on Social Tech Zone with many well known internet personalities, I’ve had the opportunity to get to know these people not just from conversations on Twitter, but also on platforms like Skype. Talking on Twitter is a great starting point, but when you continue the conversation off Twitter, that’s where Twitter provides its ultimate value.

Wondering how it’s all possible?

Well it’s simple. When someone agrees to talk to you off of Twitter, they want to know more about you and what you represent. Twitter defines relationships and starts new friendships. Since Twitter restricts how many characters you can type, taking the conversation to a platform such as Skype is where you can pick the brain of the other person. You now have more of an opportunity to talk about your business, learn what they’re doing, and build a community around Twitter and not just a “follower” which isn’t very credible. Just because someone is following you, doesn’t mean they take the time out to actually pay attention to what you tweet.

The moment the conversation is brought off Twitter means they have taken interest in the things you have posted and want to learn more about you. They’ve gone from a follower to apart of your community as well as you becoming apart of their community. The more relationships you have with people off Twitter instead of ONLY on Twitter shows how strong of a community you have. That in itself defines the true value of a Twitter conversation. Its fine if you only have one brief exchange with someone on Twitter, but when you have frequent conversations with a person…they will be more likely to pay closer attention to your tweets the next time around.

People always wonder how some users get so many clicks on their links. It all comes down to conversations. The amount of people, they’ve reached out to and talked to in a “one on one” capacity are going to be interested in seeking out what that individual is sharing. Believe me, this technique works. I’ve been able to interview some well known people like Robert Scoble, Cali Lewis, and Chris Pirillo to name a few… and its all from interacting.

If you don’t believe me, try it out for yourself. Interact with people, especially those that you appreciate. Sooner or later they will realize that you are interacting with them often. They will reach out to you. Yes, there are some people who just ignore, but you will get that. However, there are more genuine people out there who want to talk especially if you share a common interest.

Never Go Out Without Your Twitter: Wear It!

tdomf_2ae17 — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:55:55 +0000

As Twitter enthusiasts, we are very proud of our Twitter feeds.: They reflect our centers of interest as well as our opinions. So why not integrate your Twitter account to your clothes?

This is precisely what myTwittshirt is intended to: with this web service you can create custom t-shirts that embed a QR-code (similar to a bar code, used by smartphones and the like) pointing to your Twitter home page. Scanning the QR-code will redirect to the wearer’s Twitter account!

Will you wear your Twitter too?

Did Twitter Kill the Video Star?

Lara Kulpa — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:34:49 +0000

Today’s post comes from Jenni Izzo, a Drexel University graduate turned Central Florida PR professional with a social media obsession. Follow her at @jenniizzo.

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?

A Twitterified Football World Cup

tdomf_2ae17 — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:47:59 +0000

There were a lot of things that were new to the World Cup 2010. Of all the things that were new, one of it was the fact that this was the first World Cup after the onset of the Twitter fever.

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”

I Wrote a Book with Twitter

tdomf_2ae17 — Wed, 19 May 2010 12:40:59 +0000

You get out of new technology whatever you put into it.

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.

Why You’re Better Off Following the Little Guy

tdomf_2ae17 — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:20:48 +0000

I know how you think. Here’s what you tell yourself about Twitter: “If I follow Mr. Celebrity Man and if I get Mr. Celebrity Man to notice and reply to me, I’ll get all sorts of new followers!” You heard the story of the girl whose life changed because Conan followed her, you’ve seen how cool it is when Shaq answers people’s questions, and you’re thinking that you’ve found your ticket to fame.

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.

How to Fight on Twitter

tdomf_2ae17 — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:00:58 +0000

With so many websites, blogs and books available on how to use twitter effectively, I’ve yet to see anyone dedicate an article, post or page on “How to Fight on Twitter“. And there’s a perfectly good explanation for that–you just don’t do it. When you have a huge social media platform like twitter at your disposal, why would you want to use your 140 characters to spread verbal garbage in a viral way? Shouldn’t we use this tool in a positive manner? But twitter fights are happening daily, in fact I’ve experienced two twitter fights in my twittering career and so this a tale of “Why NOT to fight on Twitter” and the three reasons why.

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?