Twitip

Every new car has a manual in its glove compartment. Software applications have a help link when you get stuck or want to learn more about a feature. User assistance is part of our web and so is Twitter. How can Twitter can be useful for technical writers, trainers, or web publishers who provide customer support or technical education? (more…)

Something peculiar happened yesterday.

I was sitting in a coffee shop near work as I often do between sessions when one of the baristas sheepishly approached me. I go in there all the time, so most of them know me by face, if not by name. She said, “Are you Jeff?” I answered in the affirmative and she goes, “There’s someone on the phone for you.”

My first thought was that it must be work calling to tell me that there’s been a schedule change. AT&T has spectacularly terrible coverage and this cafe could be a dead zone. One look at my phone confirmed that I was five-bars strong and I had no missed calls. She looked as quizzical as I felt. I took the cordless phone from her and the conversation went something like this:

Me: Hello?

Stranger: Is this Jeff? (more…)

In a relationship, everyone wants to have a sense of belonging, appreciation and loyalty. You want to feel like “you’re part of the group” if it’s with friends or feel appreciated by your significant other. The same can be said about businesses and their relationships with consumers and how you communicate with them. (more…)

Communities do not just happen. And they certainly don’t happen over night. You have to have something important to talk about. And you have to be prepared to consistently connect people together over a period of months.

What the hash?!

But Twitter is a big mess isn’t it? With thousands of tweets going off every hour, about hundreds of different topics, how do you build a cohesive group of fans? (more…)

What’s the big deal about getting retweeted? If you have a ton of followers who are engaged, and you’re happy, then why should you care if they retweet your junk?

If you’re using Twitter for business reasons, you should care. And here’s why:

1. Measure Engagement

Retweets are an indication of how engaged your followers are. If they aren’t retweeting any of your posts, chances are they don’t find them that interesting.

2. Follower Attrition

Some of the folks who are singing your praises now will be gone in six months. That’s because you can’t be all things to all people all the time (and you shouldn’t being trying to). People grow, they change and have different needs as time goes on. New people who follow you because of a retweet they saw will take their place. It’s not personal, it’s just business.

3. Measure Content

Getting retweeted is partially a function of good content. Or at least good headlines.

How To Get Retweeted

1. Be Relevant - A survey conducted by Dan Zarrella found that people share content because they thought it was relevant for someone they know. In other words, try and stay relevant to topics your followers want to hear about. (more…)

With the state of the world going down the drain faster than my credit–thanks Target–we single tweeters have but one thing to look forward to–finally finding that special person who will accept us for who we are–big fat slobs.  And with so many people to choose from, especially with a click of a mouse, our online dating options are endless; there’s eHarmony, Match.com and now, twitter? (more…)

If you fancy either the rock band AFI or designing Twitter backgrounds, then you’ve probably heard about the Twitter Background Design Contest that AFI is co-running with TwitBacks. While the contest runs until the end of February, there are already a lot of awesome background designs being submitted. So, how do you make your background design stand out from the crowd to catch the band’s eye and win the most votes? Lucky for you, I have some winning tips: (more…)

I judge you by you by your @ Replies….

I do. Guilty as charged. One of my quirks when it comes to using Twitter is that I don’t automate my follows or DMs. I try to follow people whom I think would be interesting and more importantly who might be cool to interact with.

Whenever I get a new follower notification, I at least check out their Twitter page to see what they like to talk about. So I thought I’d highlight some of the things I look for when I decide who to follow… (more…)

Alright people calm down, I didn’t mean it in that way. Twitter is a great tool to network, build authentic relationships, communicate ideas, and relay powerful messages but what good will that do you if you haven’t found your twitter voice? Late at night, in my Brooklyn apartment, I stay up late for two reasons, one, because Mrs. Pinkus in 3f, my 85-year-old Russian neighbor, loves to blast Madonna’s Like a Virgin at full stereo, and two, to review the day in twitterland to see what I’ve missed (in case I failed to do so during the day). Often I’ll find twitter users trying so hard to gain followers by tweeting inside their niche, but then reveal too much information about their personal life in other tweets which backfires–worse than Tiger Woods having Elin talk to Rachel Uchitel–what was he thinking? (more…)

First off, did I ever mention that I’m one of 559 people Shaquille O’Neal is following on Twitter?

(There are 2,804,494 people following him).

Had to throw that out for my Arizona SEO friend!

Anyway…

I’ve heard quite a bit lately that…

Twitter just takes too much time…

or

I don’t ever really see much come from my Twitter efforts…

You ever thought or heard this?

Both are valid concerns, I guess.

Twitter does take time.

It can be hard to see immediate results from Twitter efforts (depending on how you define “results”).

However, I wanted to share a real-life success on how to get lots of buzz (and viral marketing – which means links and brand building) via Twitter. (more…)