Hashtags (the letters and symbols that work ad a code staring with a pound sign “#”) have been on Twitter since nearly the start
While they are known for adding silly fun or searchiness to a tweet, that aspect has never been needed. Search can find ANY word in a tweet.
I’ve always liked them for events. Affiliate Summit, the big show this week in Vegas, could be in a tweet about the event, but sometimes doesn’t fit in the sentence. So without explaining where the tweet comes from, users add #ASW12 and everyone at the event, or following it can easily see what happening in real time.
Twitter didn’t invent hash tags. It’s a hack like comments in software code that was added by users. Over the years, Twitter had made them clickable, and many use them for all sorts of things.
Now Twitter is working on EVENTS.. which will eliminate this necessity
At Twitter, that means associating a tweet with an event, tied to it by a number of keywords. That may mean that the keywords auto-associate to the event itself.
“I think we’re finally going to have the Events feature,” Stone said, in a brief interview. “It’s something we’ve been talking about forever… and now that Ev’s back on products, I think that’s something that’s going to be coming up soon.
“Obviously Twitter electrifies events. You’re connected to it, in this matrix,” Stone added. “You want to be connected to it, if you’re there; but if you’re not there, you don’t want to hear about it… And in a short time, it’s gone.”
My guess would be that hashtags are going to be around long after EVENTS and other features are added.
Las Vegas: Social Media author Warren Whitlock, host of “Social Media Radio” announced a new series of radio talk show begin in late January and running throughout 2012.
“We have lined up interviews with the top authors and trainers in social media, online marketing, publishing and publicity for this series” said Warren Whitlock. “We know that many people prefer to listen to audio to learn new and better ways to marketing and online promotion and will supplement the blogs, books and training programs with free content for busy business people”
Each program will be posted on the blog talk radio network where it is instantly archived for listening on demand. The program is also available in the popular mp3 podcast format and available free of charge on the iTunes store.
Guest will include best selling authors, application software developers, social media trainers and expert in social media marketing and promotion. The program will talk about strategy and techniques so that users with any level of experience can benefit.
Warren Whitlock is author of two best selling books on social media. “Profitable Social Media: Business Results Without Playing Games” and “Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online”
I’ve been getting a lot of questions about a service that promises to add a whole lot of unsuspecting followers on Twitter. There are still some marketers who think that all we need to do is build up a massive list of people and then they all will magically buy stuff.
I’ve been replying with “This is a chain letter.. what’s next? Will you have me send $5 to each person on a list?”
But one of them admitted he didn’t believe the claims himself, and asked me to explain why it might not work.. I wrote:
It’s never a question if the chain letter works.. in fact, they were banned in snail mail BECAUSE they were so effective.
Here they have removed the “you will have bad luck if you don’t” and “send $5′ part.. thanks to emails, you can blast this out a lot keeper and don’t need to twist arms.
So I’m not saying not to do it.. I’m just betting that the types of followers you get from automated systems will be like FFA pages and freebie list builders… short lived.
Social media does because it’s so easy to opt out of reading the over hyped messages. The average person looks at 19,000 follower in a month and thinks scam and wont want to follow you.
If you pay someone to follow you, they will be more loyal.. but it’s kind of like paying people to be your friends.
Think of Twitter like a party. You can pass out a lot of business cards.. but you’ll be known as “that guy” and shunned.
Don’t you want to be invited to the next cool party? If so.. make conversations, be helpful and build a real relationship.
Some people look at social media as a new way to build a pyramid scheme.
Fortunately, we know have control.. we just avoid following them or un-follow. If we don’t follow, they become irrelevant fast
Social media gives you the chance to meet people, build relationships and meaningful connections. No reason to be THAT GUY.. you will do a lot more business if you treat people right and listen to them instead of spend your time on scams and schemes
When you start a relationship with a networking contact or prospective customers, one of the best tactics is an offer for a free gift.
I’ve noticed that there were some questions about what makes a good gift and some common misconceptions.
I do a lot of “list building” promotions and we use gifts for readers that want to get a newsletter and more information. The “gifts” have to be easy for many people to get and it’s common to make that a simple e-book or Mp3. We call them gifts because they are free, and very little obligation (you can unsubcribe).
A real gift of value can position you as a provider of value in business (or life). Dr. Robert Cialdini refers to this as the Law of Reciprocity. A gift given without an expectation of quid pro quo seems altruistic and might look like it’s less likely to sell, but studies show that the life time value of customers who get a gift early one is almost always higher than something that looks like you are buying an opportunity to pitch them
Here are some tips to increase the value of using online gifts?
Make it a real gift If you send everyone to the same page with an free report signup and then offer that as a “special gift” on another promotion it’s not special
Don’t make people sign up for your mailing list. We use this this option on a regular basis “free gift plus newsletter” but don’t assume that the recipient is giving you permission to mail any ad you wish. The more limited and targeted you use email, the more value it can have for your readers.
Give away something that others are paying for. That shows it has real value right now
Make it a wide appeal. No need to give your lead generating gift when it’s publicity for you, your site and your business.
These guidelines for for contests, charity gifts etc. There are plenty of times when a “free download” gift is perfectly right.. on your sites landing page or in as a bonus for someone buying at a partners site. That’s what we call a “lead generation” marketing program.
I ask myself this question when choosing a gift: “Would I think this was a good value if I wasn’t doing this for a living”
The law of reciprocity says that when you give a real gift, without demanding quid pro quo, you create a bond with the recipient. In marketing, we know that some of the people will come back and that the publicity value will outweigh the small investment in the gift.
Ultimately, giving away real value in gifts gets you the best results. Free can be more valuable that charging.
When I started on Twitter, I reached out to people by finding a person in a conversation with my friends and then clicking on the follow button.
That never seemed like enough.. almost immediately I decided to go one step further.
Theget to know a new twitter friend process goes like this:
Click on the name of a person I don’t know from an interesting thread
Read their profile page and look for a link to their blog or anything that they care about
Read till I find something interesting, copy the URL and Tweet about it
Include the @ handle at the end saying “thanks” and then the handle
Leave a comment if possible on the person’s blog
It wasn’t always blogs, but in the early days, I was there to connect with bloggers, so that was my favorite. I also connected on Facebook or LinkedIn when I could.
It didn’t take long and I had tweets thanking me. Even when I didn’t, I felt great sharing new finds with my friends.
Interspersed with this, and the conversations I had, I’d often say “Follow @coachdeb. She’s cool” or something like that (NOTE: that’s pretty close to the first tweet between my future co-author and I).
In January 2009, @micah noticed how many people weren’t spotlighting other like this and suggested we tell others about our friend on Friday. The #FollowFriday (also called #FF for short) hashtag and phenomena was born.
While I often quipped how this was what I did everyday.. I thought it was great that we were sharing that ethos with all the new people coming on Twitter. Trouble was, pretty soon it got very hard to see messages through all the #FollowFriday
In Fall 2009, Twitter added LISTS and @Scobleizer suggested we put our “Tweeps to follow” on lists. I tweeted this several times, and noticed that the fad has died down some, but every Friday, we see plenty of the tags.
No one wants to complain about the clutter. After all, each tweet is an endorsement. I sincerely appreciate all the people who take time to tell other about me.
In an excellent post, @ChrisBrogan shared an idea that you see used on this post. He suggests that instead of #FollowFriday list tweets, we take a few minutes to write about the people we are suggesting in a blog post, and then tweet the link.
I like the style Chris used to with a list and reasons to follow. I like bullet points and numbered lists because they are easy to read and people reading tend to use them as a checklist and are more apt to follow up.
My own style is usually more narrative. So you are seeing my list as I tell this story.
Please, if you haven’t already.. GO BACK and follow all the people in this list. While you’re at it, try the process I described above.. leave a comment, say something nice, be creative and get in a conversation.
Then, use this on your own blog. Write up who you would like to recommend, and tweet about it.
Extra credit. Pus a Twitter friend and brief description as a COMMENT here. I usually don’t recommend putting URL’s in comments (the exception being when the blogger asks for them) … but TODAY, I WANT YOUR URL COMMENTS.
Tweet about this post so others can try this.
And by the say.. this method isn’t just for Fridays… it works everyday, and works better the more you do it..
Call center employee brings works to a halt with prank with one tweet
My best estimate would about about 4000 followers when this happened. Sounds like all of them called in at once
The language is a little off what I”d hope to hear from a call center worker, but he’s off the clock and very real in his presentation.
Perhaps the most interesting part is the reaction from the big boss. I’d like to think I could end it this way, but just a few years ago, I would have blown this for sure.
This story is 2010. I’d imagine that while the attention to a single status update or tweet continues to fall, let’s not forget that the collective power of your customers is growing faster than ever.
I was asked by a Facebook friend why he should bother with Twitter.
Right away, I could tell he was in Stage 1.. so I wrote back:
I’d only recommend using Twitter if networking is important to you business. If you need to meet new people, build closer relationships with your network or keep in touch with a lot of people Twitter is the tool for you.
Most people go through 3 stages getting into Twitter.
It looks like a complete waste of time and “why would anyone want to know what people had for breakfast”
Friends say “use Twitter” and you get an account to secure your name while you can and still think it’s a waste of time
You get into a conversation with someone, pick up a new recruit, learn about some news and start saying “how did I live without this?”
Stage 1 is still most of the world. I’ve seen people in stage 2 for years.
FYI, these same three stage occurred in other technologies. For instance, when telephones came out, most executives assigned someone to make calls (if they had a phone at all). The same thing happened with email, Facebook, etc.
If you don’t use Twitter, that’s ok too. Most of my friends are also in Stage 1. I even know a few that refuse to use a phone. No sense worrying about getting everybody to do things the same way.
As we say.. NO RULES in today’s marketing. Just give people what they want, whenever, wherever, and in whatever format they desire. We all demand that today.
This video is a dramatization of the speed of Twitter.
But in real life, social media is not spreading news in real time.
Whether it’s an earthquake, weather, new product or angry customers causing your next crisis, you won’t have time to plan on a profitable social media strategy.
Today, like it or not, we need to be ready to react in real time.
Today the annual Las Vegas Wordcamp conference has a session abou content marketing.
As an author, I usually say that content marketing is just a corporate word for writing, but this session got me thinking about how it applies to every business’s profitable social media program.
The professional bloggers in the session (Aaron Hocking, Gregory Taylor and my good friend John Lynn) are content creation machines. John talked about having created 6000 blog posts and emphasized how he focuses on adding value with every post
Best part of the discussion was after a lot of mentions for mobile blogging, John said he uses the WordPress app. I had it, but wasn’t really using it.
Whatever you say or do is being photographed and recorded
No matter how public or private you try to be, you are leaving a trail.
There are cameras everywhere, backup servers, mail relays, cell phone locaters, satellites and transaction records working hard to keep track of every aspect of modern life.
My friend Bill Ganz explains this as your digital tattoo. If you decide you don’t like what’s posted online, you can attempt to change it, but it will be a lot like removing a tattoo.
In other words, count on it being permanent.
It’s human nature to fight this. In the 90’s, Bill Gates wrote in Business @ the Speed of Thought about the idea that everything would be recorded in the future. When I read this, I remember putting down the book and freaking out over the possibility that some future government body would review tapes and jump to a conclusion on something I did.
I soon realized that this was exactly what I heard as a child.
God knows what you are up to. Angels are taking notes on everything you do.
Maybe that’s how we get scared about this digital tattoo.
I won’t comment on the supposed value of scaring children into submission, but I do like to contemplate the idea of what the world would be like if everyone acted as if they were on a public stage. There’d be no reason to plot or plan a clandestine effort. We likely would not spend much time reviewing the tapes once we all got used to the knowledge that everyone knew what we were doing.
Choose To Be A Better Version of Yourself
I like to think that my awareness that my activities are making me treat people a little bit better and think a bit before I react. As Vicktor Frankl taught:
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
This has been a liberating feeling as I’ve worked to be more open, share on social media, and build more personal relationships in business. It’s been profitable and a lot more fun.
I Regret to Inform You…
No matter how hard you try, you are going to make mistakes. Some small, and some gigantic screw ups.
Thanks to social media, I’m friends with an amazing story teller named Kathryn Schulz. (Get her book Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error. One of my favorites this year. Talk to her on Twitter). Kathryn was just picked as a TED featured talk for the second time this year.
Listen to Kathryn tell the story of a tattoo and explain the trouble with thinking you can have “no regrets”
Love Shines Through
You have a digital tattoo. Most of it is just raw data that will never be reviewed. You might want to take a look and begin to recognize patterns that support you and your goals.
I think we will learn to love this transparency.
Once we get over the idea that we might get caught, that we might be judged and the world might find out what they probably know and don’t care about, we are free to focus on what does matter.
The future of business and life can be summed up in my two word marketing strategy:
Listen & Love
We’ve talked about the “Listen” part before. The technology that allows all of this digital data to be created gives us the ability to focus on individuals and hear what they want and desire.
This isn’t an invitation to stalk and be creepy. Please don’t go turning on some automated bot message to pretend to listen. If you love your audience, appreciate your customers and desire to do good in the world, you will respond with love.
These bits of data circulating all over the Internet are not much by themselves. However, they build a precise representation of who you are.
Keep focused on adding authentic real value in conversations. Let the world know you can love by treating everyone you meet in every encounter like a important friend.
Serendipity will kick in when you least expect it. What you can expect is the law of reciprocity working in your favor. Do right by people, do it often and people will notice and respond to your digital lovemark.
When I started on Twitter, I reached out to people by finding a person in a conversation with my friends and then clicking on the follow button.
It didn’t take long and I had tweets thanking me. Even when I didn’t, I felt great sharing new finds with my friends.
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