The Problem

I participate in a number of weekly TwitChats. These TwitChats are often very educational and can be a lot of fun; that is, for the participants. For everyone else, they can be a real hassle.

The problem is that while you’re having a heated debate about the merits of origami (no offense to origami fans), you’re going to have followers who couldn’t care less. Moreover, if you fire off fifty or sixty tweets during an hour long TwiChat, you can really flood some of your follower’s streams. I’ve had plenty of people unfollow me because of this and if you participate in TwitChats, I’m sure you have too.

The Solution

Now, you might say that Hash Tags (#) are the solution, but they’re not. The Hash Tag evolved as a way for Twitter users to more easily find tweets on a specific topic. TwitChats are dependent upon them (just add a #Topic to any tweet and set up a search to find them).

Unfortunately (as mentioned above), when people whom you follow are participating in TwitChats, if you don’t filter out those tweets, you’re going to see every single tweet they send. Also, while Twitter does nothing to help you filter out unwanted Hash Tags, TweetDeck does have a filter feature, but I’ve never bothered to use it. Have you?

Finally, while I find setting up searches in Twitter and TweetDeck easy, many people simply do not. However, even if they do set up searches, it still does nothing about a user’s stream being flooded with unwanted tweets. Fortunately, there is a solution that Twitter could implement, and that solution is creating Channels.

How Channels Can Benefit the User

A Channel would simply be a Twitter stream that is parallel to the main Twitter stream, but isolated from that stream just as one TV channel is isolated from other TV channels. A user would only see that Channel if they intentionally visited that Channel’s page or followed it.

When in a Channel, the user could dispense with adding a Hash Tag to each tweet as everything being tweeted in that Channel should be on topic. Alternately, the user could use a Hash Tag if they’re discussing a related subtopic, or they could create a new channel (a SubChannel) under a main topic Channel, and it could extend from there.

For example, a Directory of Channels might look like this:

• Main Channel: Medicine, or Healthcare (whatever)
  • SubChannel: Diabetes
    • Sub(Sub)Channel: Type 1 Diabetes
    • Sub(Sub)Channel: Type 2 Diabetes
      • Sub(Sub, Sub)Channel: Type 2 Diabetes Research

We can figure out the nomenclature for SubChannels later, but I think the above structure is clear and simple enough.

A Few More Notes on Channels

• Channels would differ from Lists because while you can follow individual Lists, you still see every tweet of everyone on that list regardless of topic. Channels would create topic specific conversations.
• Users could set up Channels as being either Public or Private and invite participants.

How Channels can Benefit Twitter

While Channels could be setup by any Twitter user for any topic, they can also drive revenue for Twitter in two ways.

• Branded Channels: Companies and/or brands could setup their own channels and SubChannels and pay Twitter for the privilege. Perhaps Twitter could even charge different rates depending on Channel size. For example, $X for a Channel with 100 users following it and $XXX for a Channel with 100,000 users following it.
• Targeted Advertising: Since, by definition, Channels are topic specific, Twitter could charge much higher ad rates for Sponsored Tweets in those channels. Why? Because tweets in those Channels would be noticed by the target audience at much higher rates than on the main Twitter stream. Additionally, the Channel audience would be much more likely to respond to a Call to Action.

Btw, I know there are a lot of third-party services that enable groups in one fashion or another. In my experience, they don’t work all that well. Also, they tie you a specific third-party service and given Twitter’s recent history with their third-party developers, I would expect most of those services to disappear in the near future.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

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. You can also read is blog at NealWiser.com.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Why Twitter Needs Channels

I have been following Darren regularly since September 2007, shortly after launching my first lifestyle site myBeautyMatch.com in June 2007.  I remember him announcing his new TwiTip site, devoted to using Twitter to promote your blog and your business, and visited immediately.

I’ve been using Twitter to reach a broader audience since late 2008, but it was only in the spring of this year, when I launched my second site (EatSmartAgeSmart), that I really stepped up my Twitter game and started pro-actively interacting with other members.

When Twitter became a regular topic on The View, The Ellen Show and Larry King Live, I knew this platform wasn’t just a tool for techies any more. It had become mainstream and a great way to reach my audience.

I read a lot of Internet marketing-related sites and noticed a “retweet” button on a number of them. I didn’t pay that much attention at first — I dismissed retweeting as something hardcore business sites would use, but not a site like mine about healthy eating.

In June, my Internet marketing coach Yaro Starak agreed to feature one of my posts from Eat Smart Age Smart on his site as long as I made sure it spoke to his audience of entrepreneurs. Since I am both an entrepreneur and a blogger, I know all about the effects eating habits can have on productivity levels, so that’s what I focused on in my post.

When Yaro sent me an email to let me know my post was up, I was really excited. I was expecting a few congratulatory comments, but I was not prepared for the flood of messages or the staggering number of retweets the post received.

When I noticed the retweet counter climbing and climbing on Yaro’s site, I started clicking on some of his other posts and was surprised to discover a lot of them didn’t have as many retweets as mine did. I also looked at other expert guests Yaro featured and noticed many got around 30 retweets on average, but not the 70+ retweets I did.

The guest blog was originally intended to generate some much-needed attention for my new site, but it quickly turned into a lesson on why a lifestyle blog like mine absolutely needed a retweet button. There are a number of lessons I’ve learned from including a retweet button on my site:

1) The retweet button is a great way for my regular readers to share content they like from my site.

2) Retweeting is an incredible way to get old content recirculaed around the web.

3) Readers seem to be more inclined to retweet than use Digg.

4) The retweet button is a great market research tool.

I want to spend a bit more time on the last point because it’s so important for new blogs and new bloggers. When you are just starting a new blog, there are very few ways for you to know if people like your content or not. You won’t always get loyal readers leaving long or multiple comments, and you may often feel like you are shooting in the dark when it comes to content creation.

By adding a retweet button to your new blog from day one, you’ll be able to follow the posts with high retweet rates and know what people like to read, and, most importantly, what they feel valuable enough to retweet. Basically, your retweet button becomes an amazing free market research and polling tool!

I added a retweet button to my blog in early August. Since then, I’ve been amazed by the posts that did well and were highly retweeted and those I thought were great ones, but didn’t score so high with my readers.

Since my second blog only launched in April 2009, I’m sure I’ll get a more accurate read on which posts are of interest to my readers as I get more traffic, because the increase in traffic should also mean an increase in the number of readers likely to retweet.

Here’s something else I’ve discovered: a lot of the posts that were featured before I added the retweet button are getting high retweets as well, which helps older posts circulate on the web and generates even more traffic and comments from readers!

So to answer my initial question … yes! A retweet button can help you write a better blog, regardless of your niche.

Read my post on Yaro Starak’s site here.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Can the retweet button help you write a better blog?

According to eMarketer, by the end of 2009 there will be 18 million adults in the United States who use Twitter. Most of these 18 million Americans want to lose weight. The obese Americans want to drop into the overweight class. The overweight Americans want to drop to a normal weight. And the normal weight Americans want six-packs.

But how can these avid Tweeters lose weight when they are so busy tweeting? Trying to tweet and lose weight at the same time is like trying to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time. It’s impossible. Wrong!

I am going to give you 10 thoroughly researched and tested tips to help you lose weight using Twitter. Excited? Good!

The Twitter Weight Loss Program

Tip #1: Get Informed

Knowledge is power. There are thousands of Tweeters giving out free weight loss information and some of them actually know what they are tweeting about. Start by following @PreventionMag, @MensHealthMag, and @WomensHealthMag. Despite the fact that I am a man, I do subscribe to all three of these print magazines. So, it was a no brainer for me to follow them. All three are owned by the same company, but their content rarely overlaps.

Tip #2: Get Inspired

Walk in the path of those who have done what you want to do. There are many Tweeters who have lost weight and kept it off. Many of them share their tips, successes, and daily struggles. Their stories will inspire and educate you. Start by following: @PastaQueen, @PriorFatGirl, @RonisWeigh, @DoneDieting, @FormerFatGirl, and @MrLowBodyFat.

Tip #3: Get Support

It takes a village to lose weight and keep it off. Let Twitter be your village. Use @Grader to find other Tweeters who are trying to lose weight. You can encourage, support, cry with, and vent to each other. You can create a local weight loss group by using Nearby Tweets to find people in your neighborhood trying to lose weight. Before you eat that Big Mac, tweet one of your Twitter supporters. Also consider following these active pound-droppers: @SeeSaraShrink, @IsraelLagares, @JohnIsFit, and @MrMeltDown.

Tip #4: Track It

The number one key to weight loss is managing your calorie intake. But, you cannot manage your calories if you don’t remember what you have eaten. Use @Twye as a food journal to log and track your meals and your calories. You can also use @Twye to get information, inspiration, and support.

Tip #5: De-Stress

My 4 Keys to Permanent Weight Loss are:

1. Eat Less,
2. Move More,
3. Sleep More, and
4. Stress Less.

Too much stress causes physiological changes in your body that hinder weight loss. Follow these Tweeters to decrease your stress: @StressLess, @TaraBurner, and @LifestyleOracle.

Tip #6: Laugh

I use Twitter to literally LMAO. You can too. Laughter decreases stress and that helps you lose weight. For great laughs follow these Tweeters: @ShitMyDadSays, @FatherKelly, @Nick_Nolte, @ChuckNorris_, and @TheRules.

Tip #7: Plan

Weight loss does not happen by accident. You must plan all aspects of your weight loss from grocery shopping to working out. Use @RememberTheMilk to plan your days and your weight loss.

Tip #8: Share

Share your weight loss successes and failures with everyone. Use @TwitPic for picture blogging or @Twitvid for vlogging. Sharing your success will make you feel great. The fear of posting a weight gain picture or video will keep you in-line between your posts.

Tip #9: Sleep

This is an anti-Twitter tip. Similar to stress, sleep deprivation causes physiological changes in your body that prevent weight loss. Don’t let Twitter keep you from getting the 7 to 9 hours of sleep you need per day to lose weight and keep it off.

Tip #10: Don’t Watch Porn

Do not follow @FoodPorn. Looking at those beautiful food pictures will surely cause you to fall of the weight loss wagon. This is a hypocritical tip because I love food and reluctantly follow @FoodPorn with a tear in my eye.

Bonus Tip #11: Follow Me

Do follow @DrKal. That’s me. I’ll provide you with weight loss tips, support, and advice mixed with a little bit of humor. I’ll even share with you my personal weight loss struggles and successes.

Unknown to Twitter’s founders, Twitter’s sole purpose is actually to help you lose weight and keep it off. So, if you want to shed some pounds, use the Twitter Weight Loss Program and tweet me your success pics.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



10 Ways To Use Twitter For Weight Loss

By Neal Wiser (follow him @nealwiser) and Peter Marinari (follow him @krisis)(http://twitter.com/krisis).

First in a series of brief case studies about using Twitter for social good.

Sure, you can use Twitter to tell people about your literal and metaphorical dirty laundry (you really shouldn’t), or you can use Twitter to try to overthrow governments such as Iran and Moldavia (please be careful), but personally, I believe that one of the best uses for Twitter is to rally people around good causes.

And despite the annoyances that can sometimes result when people misuse and abuse Twitter, except for television there has probably never been a technology that can spread the news about events faster than Twitter. As a result, Twitter may just be the perfect platform for charitable causes and institutions.

Getting the Word Out

While some may argue that anything you do to raise awareness of your cause is a good thing, what you really want is to have people take a desired action and actively participate. Otherwise, your cause is just an idea, not a movement, and it’s movements that drive change.

Enter Twitter and its unique ability to instantly disseminate any idea to thousands or even tens of thousands (if not more) people across the globe with just a few clicks. Of course, that’s only part of the equation. Because of how Twitter works, in order to receive any given message, your followers have to be online and reading your tweets at the same time you send them. Or they could subscribe to your Profile page via RSS (or another alert system) so they can catch up on your updates later. Otherwise, they’ll miss the message.

Regardless how you send your messages, we are fortunate that there are many groups who are using Twitter effectively. One of the more interesting and successful examples is BlameDrewsCancer.

What is #BlameDrewsCancer and What am I Blaming it for?

#BlameDrewsCancer is rare for a charitable organization because it’s also a meme.

As a charitable organization, BlameDrewsCancer was founded by Drew Olanoff (@drew), who was recently diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkins Lymphoma. Blame Drew’s Cancer’s mission is to support and raise the hopes of people battling and surviving cancer through the use of humor to erase the stigma behind cancer and by inspiring frank discussions of the impact it can have on the lives of those fighting it, as well as those who love and support them.

The #BlameDrewsCancer meme was born when, as a coping mechanism, Drew thought it would be funny to blame his cancer on, well, anything he could. He blamed his cancer for lost keys, the Phillies losing, Twitter going down, and whatever else he could think of.

Then a funny thing happened; thousands of people all over the world starting blaming things on Drew’s cancer too. From “self-inflicted dehydration” to “blinding migraines” to “annoying trance-y techno-y music,” Drew’s cancer got the blame (you too can blame Drew’s cancer. Just click here to automatically insert the Hash Tag #BlameDrewsCancer into your tweets. Then you can blame whatever you want on Drew’s Cancer).

Happy Accidents; Using Twitter as a Tactic

In one context, Drew got lucky; the humor of the #blamedrewscancer Hash Tag was contagious. It also coincided with heavy media coverage of Twitter from Larry King to the local news. The result; the meme went viral. In less than 100 days, over 11,000 people have blamed more than 25,000 things on Drew’s Cancer, and Drew and his team have raised thousands of dollars for cancer-related charities.

Of course, not every charity movement is lucky enough to have a catchy meme. Fortunately, Drew didn’t depend on luck. Realizing that a mere Hash Tag wouldn’t be enough to capture the attention of the general public, Drew turned to developer Mike Demers to create a web site, blamedrewscancer.com. The web site takes advantage of Twitter’s open API to dynamically track tweets with the #blamedrewscancer hash tag and displays them on animated picket signs.

With the web site generating additional buzz and media attention, Drew leveraged Twitter to build a grassroots team of supporters. He solicited volunteers from active twitter users who frequented the Philadelphia Tweetup scene and used team-building techniques, such as an extensively live-tweeted, blogged, and photographed skydiving expedition to establish an esprit de corps. Drew also empowers the entire team to tweet, blog, reach out to sponsors and even appear on panels on his behalf.

Drew’s Twibbon Avatar

But Twitter had even more to offer. While his team actively blogs, supporters branded their Twitter avatars with LiveStrong bands and Blame Drew’s Cancer logos via Twibbon.com to help spread the word even when they were tweeting about other things (click here to add the Drew’s Cancer logo to your Twitter avatar).

How Successful has Twitter been for Drew?

The combination of Drew’s compelling story, his Hash Tag and his newly launched domain quickly garnered the attention of the media. In the months following his diagnosis, Drew had appeared on CNN, AOLHealth, Philadelphia’s Fox29 and in numerous blogs and print outlets.

And celebrities are even participating with Lance Armstrong blaming a shoulder injury on Drew’s Cancer. This tweet ultimately led to LiveStrong, The Lance Armstrong Foundation taking notice of Drew by inviting him to sign on as an official spokesperson and partnering with Blame Drew’s Cancer to provide a meaningful cause for Drew’s supporters to donate towards.

Since its inception about 100 days ago, and thanks to the media coverage and to Twitter, BlameDrewsCancer has been visited over 85,000 times. Additionally, three well-attended fundraising events have generated over $3,000 in donations with a fourth, Drew’s Blame-a-Thon, a 24-hour, marathon benefit concert and film screening held in two locations and live-streamed globally via the internet, is scheduled for Wednesday, 9/9/09. Drew’s Blame-a-Thon represents the culmination of a summer of raising awareness and donations for the fight against cancer. A sellout crowd would raise as much as $10,000 for LiveStrong.

A Good Meme Travels Far and Wide

In addition to the successes listed above, gene research company 23andMe has joined as an official sponsor, contributing $1 each for 500 unique blamers to LiveStrong and helping with costs for the Blame-a-Thon. Taco Bell has also offered an unsolicited $1,000 to LiveStrong for the next set of unique users who blame Drew’s cancer and are planning to send social-media-driven Taco Bell Truck to the Blame-a-Thon.

Meanwhile, Drew continues his fight against cancer (he has had a chemotherapy treatment the week of each fundraising event and Blame-a-Thon will not be an exception) and plans on continuing to raise money for LiveStrong by using the awareness generated by Blame Drew’s Cancer to help other young people fighting cancer find support both online and locally via social networks.

How to Use Twitter for Charity

While there are no hard and firm rules for using Twitter to promote and organize your charity, organizers should keep the following in mind:

• Use Twitter as the foundation of a viral strategy. It’s the fastest, best way to virally spread word-of-mouth.
• Augment Twitter with other social networks and tools. Twitter is great, but don’t limit yourself to only Twitter’s audience.
• Make sure your virtual strategy is realistic. Setting goals too high will result in disappointments instead of surprisingly exceeding expectations.
• Legitimized by partnering with established brands. Many brands like to partner with good causes organized by smart people.
• Advertise in the medium your users communicate on. In other words; be where your “customers” or likely followers are.
• Don’t focus on top-down advertising. It’s slow and hard to build momentum.
• And if you can launch a catchy meme, do that too.

Good luck.

For More Information

Blame Drew’s Cancer Web Site: http://blamedrewscancer.com
Drew’s Blog: http://www.drewolanoff.com
Blame-a-Thon: http://www.blame-a-thon.com
Follow Drew on Twitter: http://twitter.com/drew
LiveStrong Foundation http://www.livestrong.org
American Cancer Society http://www.cancer.org
Make a Wish Foundation http://www.wish.org
Tweetup scene in Philadelphia http://www.phillytweetup.com
Mike Demers http://mikedemers.net
LiveStrong bands http://www.livestrongaction.org/avatar
Blame Drew’s Cancer Twibbon Logos http://twibbon.com/Search?searchQuery=blamedrewscancer

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



#BlameDrewsCancer for this Case Study

I’ve been asked these questions so many times since starting TwiTip that I thought I’d write a post answering it. I hope that it’s helpful for those of you just starting out with Twitter (or considering getting involved).

Twitter has changed the way that I use the web and connect with others online in many ways. Those of you who’ve traveled with me on my Twitter journey since the beginning know that I started out very skeptical of the medium.

It always seemed like a waste of time – however once I started using it I immediately began to see its potential and some tangible benefits to me. Let me try to break some of them down:

1. Research Tool

One of the things that I value very highly about Twitter is the way that it allows me to tap into an amazing community of people from around the world to find out what they are thinking, feeling and experiencing in different ways.

I’ve often said that Twitter makes me smarter because among those in my network are 18,000 people who collectively know and have experienced a lot of stuff.

I’ve always known that together a group is smarter and more powerful than any single member from within that group – but I’ve never really been able to tap into that power…. that was until I started using Twitter.

I use this every day as I write posts for my blogs (and ask readers for their ideas and experiences to help deepen what I write), as I tackle issues and problems that I face (there’s always someone ‘out there’ who has been through something similar and will quite often have a solution), as I face questions and as I develop my business.

Being able to tap into the Twitter community is incredibly illuminating. In fact these days Twitter is starting to replace Google for me. If I want to know something I’ll quite often ask my followers before I ask Google.

Also what I consider to be research is the ability for me to use a tool like TwitScoop at any point in time to see what is trending up in the Twitterverse at any point in time. In a sense Twitter becomes a news service with this and you’ll quickly find if there is a breaking story somewhere in the world by watching it.

2. Branding

I once wrote a post on ProBlogger about how a personal online brand is made up of the many ’strands’ of ‘presence’ that you have. You might have a blog or website – but when you’re also present on other social networking sites, forums, social messaging sites (etc) you reinforce that brand.

I’ve definitely found this to be true for Twitter.

Here are some of the comments that I’ve gotten from people in the past:

• ‘I used to read you at ProBlogger but had lost track until I found you on Twitter’
• ‘I subscribe to your RSS feed on the blog but seeing your posts on Twitter reminds me to read them more’
• ‘I was scanning through someone else’s Twitters yesterday and saw your face. I recognized it from your Facebook account so thought I’d check out you.’
• ‘I saw your name mentioned the other day on Scott Karp’s Twitter feed. I hadn’t seen your blog for a while and it reminded me to resubscribe.’

Twitter is a place that people are searching for connection and information. For me as a blogger who is interested in giving people information and drawing people together into community it is a logical place for me to be present because it reinforces my brand.
For me it’s like having a billboard on a busy virtual intersection.

3. Collaboration and Networking

I’ve lost count of the many opportunities that I’ve had to interact with amazingly talented, smart and insightful people on Twitter.

Some of these interactions have led to new ideas, others have led to temporary collaborations while still others have led to ongoing partnerships over time. The collaborations that have come out of Twitter for me have been both big and small – but collectively they’ve been incredibly significant.

In fact the opportunities have been almost overwhelming. There are days when I Tweet that I’m looking for someone to work with on an idea when the response is simply too much to handle.

Not only does Twitter open up new relationships – it’s a great place to cement and deepen existing ones. For example after a trip to Los Vegas for Blog World Expo earlier in the year I was amazed to find how many of those that I met were on Twitter when I returned home. In the months that have followed quite a few of those that I met in person at BWE have become regular Twitter buddies to this day.

4. It’s my Water Cooler

I’m a solo entrepreneur, working out of the front room in my house in suburban Melbourne Australia. Most of my contemporaries, readers and business partners live in other parts of the world (many in North America) – so at times it is easy to feel quite disconnected, isolated and even lonely.

Having previously worked in workplaces with teams of people – since starting to work from home I have always missed the banter, collaborative opportunities and companionship of having people around me.

Twitter in many ways has fulfilled some of these needs. There’s always someone around to bounce ideas around with, have a joke with or just to talk with about what you did over the weekend. While it doesn’t’ quite match up to real life workmates – it certainly has helped (and at times is even better….. because you can’t switch off work mates when you need to get work done!).

5. Direct Traffic

As a blogger I’m interested in building traffic to my web properties. Twitter has been an increasing source of this traffic over the past year or so. While it isn’t my primary reason for being on Twitter it certainly is nice to be able to post a link to a post that I’ve written or an online project that I’m launching and to see people coming directly from Twitter to that page.

What is even more special is seeing others promote my links on Twitter on my behalf either by ‘Retweeting’ my tweets with the links or simply by finding something I’ve written on their own and promoting it to their followers.

It is difficult to know exactly how much traffic Twitter has driven to my blogs (particularly difficult as so many people don’t actually follow Twitter on Twitter.com but use desktop clients that don’t come up with a referral metric) but as the picture to the right shows – last month Twitter.com alone directed over 8500 visitors to my blog at ProBlogger – I’d estimate at least that much again came from other Twitter clients.

What Would You Add?

The above 5 reasons that I use Twitter will not appeal to everyone. What I love about Twitter is that the more people I talk to the more creative and wonderful (and sometimes wacky) ways that I discover people are using the medium.

How does Twitter benefit you? I’d love to hear your own list of ways that you benefit from Twitter in comments below (or feel free to write a blog post about it and leave a link to it in comments below).

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



5 Ways I Benefit from Twitter

We have all been there. After I registered with Twitter in 2007, I sat down looking at the screen, didn’t know what to do next.

“What the heck am I going to do with 140 characters?”

I didn’t understand why people want to know when or why I just took a can of Coke. (After all, the question on the Twitter page is “What are you doing?”)

I still don’t claim to know everything about Twitter until today, even though I learn hard to understand it. Well, perhaps that is the awesomeness of Twitter. Right now, if you go to TechCrunch, starting from their home page and browsing through the archives, almost in every page you will see a mention of Twitter or one of the myriad number of Twitter-related services / tools.

It seems like every day there are new ways to use Twitter. Some of those tools stay, but a few of them are no longer with us.

There really is something in the 140 characters.

Out of those fun things to do with Twitter, one thing that I personally think most useful is using Twitter as a research tool.

Even if you just heard of Twitter right now, you can start using the data if you know where and how to get them.

This article is written to help. Because there are so many things you could do with Twitter, I will only give a few examples of using various tools for research, and leave the rest for you as an exercise of imagination.

Twitter for Historical Research?

With millions of Twitterers who mostly are making their tweets public, we are actually building a database of information. Remember that once tweet, those tweets will be archived, probably in multiple places. FriendFeed is an example that immediately comes to my mind.

That could only mean one thing. Twitterers are writing history in real time. As more data become available, and as more people tweet in the future, anyone will be able to fetch historical data from any point of time about any topic.

For instance, forever the 2008 US President election is going to be recorded in Twitter. In the future people would be able to dig into the Twitter accounts of both Barack Obama and John McCain to see the schedules, summaries, opinions, etc. about the campaigns and debates.

A big difference between Twitter and a personal diary is that people are able to interact or witness the interaction live or anytime in the future. Another great thing is, everyone is now able to participate as part of the history and be read by interested people.

If that doesn’t impress you a bit, I don’t know what will…

Know How to Use Twitter

Fortunately, using Twitter is just easy. There is not much convention to remember. Basically you can just type in and send, just like instant messaging or short message service.

The difference is, to get the most out of Twitter, you need to know the following syntax:

• @username – Reply. Tweets that start with an @ and then a username is a reply to that user. If you follow someone and want to reply to her, using reply is the way to go. Of course, this presumes that you don’t mind the message is available publicly.
• #tag – Hashtag. Hash that is immediately followed by a tag (hashtag) in Twitter is a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. The contexts could be events, disasters, memes, or others.

As more Twitterers use the right syntax, they will add to the repository of data, which in turn return more useful results for future searchers. Right now, a lot of people forget to use hashtags for a particular event, and that increases the likelihood that their tweets will not be seen by others — or various Twitter tools that use hashtags.

Two Main Ways to Perform Research with Twitter

Twitterrers with a lot of followers certainly have an edge here. It happens everywhere. If you have a group of people who are willing to hear what you have to say, or if you have friends who you can call anytime, you can just do that and ask them for opinions or anything.

This leads us to the first way to perform research with Twitter, which is to…

1. Ask. If you follow Darren, you will occasionally find him asking questions. Not only does that encourage participation from his followers, but he also gets the information he needs to write the next blog post, or just as an insight to understand his audience better. What you could ask the followers is limited only by your imagination. Questions that can be answered quickly are winners. With the right engagement, results will pour in soon after you tweet. Directing the followers to a series of questions, such as a survey, on the Web may work but I haven’t tested this yet. To get more responses from your questions, you might be interested to learn how to ask effective questions on Twitter.
2. Search. By using publicly accessible data, you can also learn a lot. For instance, if I search for tweets from Darren and his followers, I’d be able to find out answers from his questions and use those for writing ideas or for other things.

With so many useful Twitter tools, searching is more complex than you might imagine. Using Twitter Search is useful to find event-related tweets, but if you want to get information about the trends, #hashtags is more useful though.

Knowing what is possible and which tools to use at the right time are two critical keys to save time and retrieve wanted results.

Essential Twitter Tools You Should Know About

This list is by no means complete. As of this writing, there are hundreds of Twitter tools out there but here are a few of them that I frequent. With these tools under your belt, you should be able to get started in using Twitter’s data effectively and expand your toolbox as you see fit.

• Twitter client. Your mileage may vary but I find it easier to use Twitter client such as Twhirl to post updates. Not only that but you will be able to perform search inside Twhirl because of its integration with Twitter Search and TweetScan.
• General search. Both Twitter Search and TweetScan provide reliable search for Twitter’s data, but the former allows you to drill down your search queries using the Advanced search feature.
• Tag search. Twitter Search is also able to search for tags, but #hashtags returns a graphical representation of the trend for a specific tag. The downside is currently #hashtags is a bit slow and incomplete.
• Conversation search. If you want to search for previous conversations, again Twitter Search is able to provide you with the information. If there is a conversation related to a tweet, you will see a link to Show Conversation.
• Location search. TwitterLocal is a useful tool if you want to perform a search for tweets within or around a specific geographical area.
• Keyword search. Monitter lets you monitor 3 keywords live at the same time with the ability to nail down geographic area. Use this to get a hint about current trends (how popular one keyword is).
• Topical research. If you know someone who is an established expert in an industry or niche, use TweetStats to see which keywords he uses most often. TweetStats represents the data in TweetCloud, which is much like tag cloud but for Twitter.
• Popular URL search. Twitt(url)y sorts URLs by how frequently they were mentioned in tweets. Think of a mention as a vote in Digg. The more people talk about a URL, the higher the rankings in Twitt(url)y will be. This tool is useful if you want to spot popular topics using aggregated Twitter’s data.
• Data aggregation. This is not specific to Twitter, but a lot of people syndicate their Twitter feeds to FriendFeed. With it, feeds from Twitter and other social media sites are aggregated in one central location for followers to consume. FriendFeed also has powerful filtering and search feature.
• Search result monitoring. Again, this is not directly related to Twitter, but often times conversations shift back and forth between blogs and Twitters. If you monitor the the Web and news, using Google Alerts or the blogosphere with Technorati, among others, you would be able to track the whole conversations.

Many of the tools above also publish feed related to the search queries. The only effective way to keep up with all of them, in my opinion, is through an RSS reader. While you can still receive Google Alerts via email, I find it more convenient to use an RSS reader because of the amount of information I track on a daily basis.

Use whichever you like most because there is no right or wrong way to do this.

Successful Twitter Stories

Of course, the following stories or case studies are related to using Twitter for research, basically anything from getting information to understanding a bit better about your target market.

1. @bbgeeks builds 500+ loyal followers in 8 months (as of this writing there are 1,114 followers). Those followers are people who are interested in Blackberry. Not only they able to get free brand exposure and traffic, but also tons of content ideas and direct feedback from informal polls. How do you like your audience to tell you what to write instead of you struggling to come up with ideas to write next? Click here to read more about bbkgeeks case study.
2. Just last week, offended moms took revenge over Motrin ads through Twitter by uniting and voicing their displeasure with the ad. The key is in the term “uniting” which in Twittersphere (Twitosphere?) can be as simple as using a uniform hashtag (#motrinmoms). Motrin’s web site was crashed by the rush of traffic. People were using Twitter Search to monitor conversations in real-time. Miss the entire story? The same tool tool also allows you keep up with the conversations. To be fair, after J&J apologized, Twitterers also twittered about it.
3. David Murray (@DaveMurr) reached out to his followers and publicly announced that he was looking for work. He did a research in Twitter Search and keep track of conversations with RSS feed. He landed a job that had not even been posted. (Read full story.)
4. If there is one company that aggressively — in a good way — uses Twitter, it is Zappos.com. Zappos jumped on the Twitter bandwagon early to engage with their prospects and customers. They currently have more than 20,000 followers. Zappos encourage their followers to participate by holding a contest, in which they asked their followers to help them rewrite confirmation email. CEO Tony believes connecting more deeply with customers is important, although Twitter takes up a lot of his time.
5. Businesses of different sizes are using Twitter for different purposes. Tapping into the minds of their customers through Twitter is a great way to research the market. But, what if you are a solopreneur who works from home? How could you use Twitter for research, with no followers? Just use those various tools mentioned above such as Twitter Search to find out what people are talking about in your niche. If you are a blogger, you could use it to get constant flow of ideas for blog posts or your next product.

I think you now agree Twitter is a powerful business tool that changes how people reach and respond to the market. Best of all is how average people are able to use the publicly available tweets to better understand their target audience.

If you have used Twitter in one way or another for research, or if you have thought about how it should be used, please share with us here!

Hendry Lee helps bloggers overcome strategic and technological challenges in starting and growing their blogs. He also writes about social media on his blog Blog Tips for a Better Blog – Blog Building University. While you are there, download your free eBook and subscribe to the blogging e-course!

Follow Hendry on Twitter (@hendrylee).

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Twitter for Research: Why and How to Do It, Including Case Studies