Twitter recently introduced a new feature called lists to many users. This isn’t available to everyone – I’ve heard many reports of people who are unable to see anybodies lists. Basically, it allows you to organize the people you follow into several different categories. These can be made private and can be followed by others.
This is an awesome for those who are using the web interface as you can choose the groups you want to read at any time.
However, there are some considerations you need to make before embracing this feature.
1. People may be offended by not being included on a list.
Some of my friends created lists like ‘awesome friends’ and ‘top bloggers.’ They used these terms as generalist lists but some people took offense at not being included on a list.
This is very similar to the follow/unfollow situations that happened before people started to embrace groups on other clients.
So, what can you do to avoid offending?
• Have a disclaimer on your twitter landing page
• Make your list private
• Organize lists by geographic region – ie, Melbourne bloggers.
I regularly attend tweetupmellers. At first I assumed that all tweetups and get togethers have the same sense of community, but I soon learnt that there was something different. I quickly learnt that this was due to the organizers efforts to ensure people felt like they were part of a larger community.
10 Ways To Create A Community Around Your Tweetup
1. Have a twitterwall
One of the great features of the last few tweetups has been the twitter wall. It is simply a search on Twitterfall which is then projected onto a screen in the back corner of The Social. It is a huge talking point and really added to the fun of the evening.
There were some people who tweeted simply to bump someone else’s name from the top. There were also times when the whole room went silent as there was a mass update of tweets. (more…)
Finding your community in Twitter can sometimes be a challenge, especially for Twitter beginners. Social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and NING have flourishing and established communities that are easy to find. Twitter has some growing and thriving communities too but it’s often a best-kept Twitter secret.
Enter #hashtags and Twitter chats.
Twitter chats offer an effective way to meet people with similar interests and share insights into specific topic. Currently there are more than 35 weekly scheduled Twitter chats on certain days and times with like-minded professionals discussing a variety of questions. Here’s how you can find your Twitter community and participate in a Twitter Chat.
#Networking can be a daunting prospect for Tweeps who are used to networking of the internet variety. If you’re an introverted person who is most comfortable communicating in bite sized chunks of 140-characters at a time, I suggest you throw open the comfort circle and delve into some #Networking.
Yes, I’m talking face-to-face networking. For you, it may conjure up images of all those A- type personalities gaily laughing over canapés and glasses of fine wine, being all witty and interesting with no effort whatsoever made on their part…
Wrong. I’ll let you in on something… the extroverts are secretly just as daunted as you are. And the good news is – networking is a skill that can be learned.
And believe it or not, #Networking is a great way to complement your online efforts. Meeting someone face-to-face makes you a standout from the rest of the online world. People suddenly want to help you, refer people to you and refer you to other people they know that may help you (did you catch all that?) all just because you’re standing face-to-face with them!
Networking engenders a community spirit – and one that is sorely needed if you spend your days at your keyboard in the privacy of your own home.
All it takes is a little practice, dear Tweeps. I started my career in Public Relations at a very young age, and would front up at events where everyone else had a good 5-10 years on me, feeling extremely out of place and nervous. Luckily, I was taught by one of the best in the business – she is still a great mentor of mine and I have never seen someone disarm a stranger the way she can. I learned a lot from her, and have since developed my own techniques that set me in good stead.
So here are some of my very best tips to get you started. Even the most shy people can get by with a few simple tricks:
1.Pick your events wisely
Networking groups are popping up all over the globe that are meant specifically for Bloggers, Tweeters, Diggers and every other social networking and bookmarking site you can think of.
These are an ideal start because not only are they relevant to you and what you do, but EVERY other person there will talk your language. Hell, every other person there probably also had to specifically get dressed just to leave the house and attend the party! The good news is, you have a common ground before you even get there. (more…)
Twitter can be a great space for building community around your membership-based organization, whether you work for a professional society, trade association or a cause-related nonprofit.
Here’s a quick eight-step rundown of how to set up a Twitter account for your “.org”. This isn’t the only way, of course. But if you are starting from scratch, this is what we’re finding works the best.
1. Set up a main “umbrella” account for the organization – e.g. @ORGtweets or just @ORG (“ORG” being whatever your acronym is).
Why? So people can find you easily. In the description, put in a nutshell what the organization does. A mission statement in under 140 characters, for example. (Be pithy – people like that. There are lots of other places you can be boring). For the website link field of the profile, create a Twitter landing page on your website which says, “Welcome to the Twitter page for [ORG]! We’re glad you’re here. Here’s what we’re all about. Here are some of the things we tweet about. And here are our team members, should you be interested in following them too.” Then list your staff on Twitter as per #2.
Today Phoebe King (follow her at@bizlady08), a Web entrepreneur who provides small business and social networking solutions for baby boomers atGratefulGrebe.com, takes a look at a new Twitter tool that will help you grow your Twitter network by leaps and bounds.
Twitter Groups is an exciting new application that was launched by a small U.S.-based technology company November 27. With it, I have almost doubled the number of people following my smallish organic gardening niche and have added more than a dozen new resources to my blog! In the span of 18 days, more than 1,700 groups have signed up on Twitter Groups, from the Albuquerque (New Mexico) group to the Zut Society. I predict big things for this innocuous little app.
Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover
At first glance, Twitter Groups doesn’t look very special. Go to http://twittgroups.com and you’ll find a plain-looking page with a Twitter Groups header, some text about Google Friend Connect, a bunch of ads and networking links in the right column. It looks deceptively simple. If you give it a try, however, I think you’ll discover that this tool will help you not only find the people you are marketing to but also give them an easy way to find you!
The big news is that on Monday TwittGroups.com joined forces with Google Friend Connect. Now you can connect with peeps all over the social networking universe. My Twitter group now has a Facebook-like wall that comments—even videos—can be posted to. I suspect Twitter Groups pages will not be “plain-looking” much longer.
Today social media and content strategist Kari Rippetoe, author ofThe Caffeinated Blog, reviews group Twittering app Twittbot.
Do you have a Twitter account for your company, and would like to give employees access to post to it? Would you like to start your own Twitter group and allow others to join and post their own relevant tweets? Twittbot may just be what you’re looking for.
What is Twittbot?
According to the website (twittbot.com), “TwittBot is a service that allows multiple people to publish to a single Twitter account, and for a single person to post to multiple Twitter accounts.” Developed by app developer Nick Davis (@davinic), it’s a free service that just launched in open beta on December 4th.
How Does it Work?
By creating a Twittbot account using your current Twitter username and password, you can allow others to post to that account with a simple @ reply. This allows you to create your own groups on Twitter. You can keep the group (or “bot”) closed (meaning that only authors that you allow will be able to post tweets to the account), or open it up for anyone to post.
The Test
To test this out, I created a Twitter account called coffeelinks (for my inner coffee geek). I kept the coffeelinks bot closed and invited others to join my group. I added those who were interested as authors, as shown below (click to enlarge):
I then told all allowed users to post links to coffee-related news, recipes, reviews, etc. to @coffeelinks. When they did, it showed up on the coffeelinks Twitter profile like this:
The post is preceded by the author’s username, so you can see who is posting to the account. I’m able to monitor the status of all posts through the Twittbot user interface and decide whether or not to publish a certain post. I can unpublish posts, or even allow authors who aren’t on my list (since the bot is closed).
The Verdict
Overall, I think Twittbot is a useful tool. It makes “group tweeting” and community-building via Twitter pretty easy – either for a company that wants a new way to engage customers on Twitter, or an individual who wants to start a Twitter group around his/her hobby. Twittbot does, however, have a little way to go before it becomes the robust group Twittering tool that I know it can be.
Looking through the user interface, there are quite a few bits that are still in development and “coming soon” – such as pro settings for auto-following, spam filtering, and update frequency. Also, once you’re in the UI, there are no links to help documentation or even back to the Twittbot homepage (where you’ll find a link to the tutorial). While the UI is pretty intuitive, it wasn’t entirely clear to me how to do certain things (like post to more than one account), and I ended up having to send a tweet to Nick Davis for his help. To his credit – he did respond quickly and with clear instructions for a single user who wants to post to more than one account.
Another drawback is that it can take up to 10 minutes for a post to be published to an account. One of the coffeelinks group members pointed this out to me – he mentioned that he posted a link to @coffeelinks; but it wasn’t showing on the @coffeelinks page. It eventually did; but I think 10 minutes is a bit long to wait in the Twitterworld.
What I’d Like to See
What I’d eventually like to see is a better way to manage multiple Twitter accounts through one Twittbot interface – and clearer instructions for doing so. As far as help documentation goes, I’d like to see a help section fleshed out and added to the UI for easy access – without having to go back to the homepage.
I’d also like to see options for how authors’ usernames are shown on tweets they post. Currently, they’re shown in parentheses at the beginning of the tweet. Depending on how you plan to use this tool, you may instead want author usernames to appear at the end of the tweet, or perhaps not appear at all (useful if you have several people at your company posting to a single company Twitter account; but you want tweets on that account to all show as coming from the company rather than individual employees).
Twittbot has a lot going for it, and a lot of potential as well. I recommend taking a look at it if you’re interested in building your own Twitter community.
Twitter can be a great space for building community around your membership-based organization, whether you work for a professional society, trade association or a cause-related nonprofit.
