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Posts tagged Twitter

Review: How to Network on Twitter by Jade Craven

Jan05
2012 Leave a Comment Written by James Dabbagian

Cover: How to Network on TwitterOne of the best things I like about Twitter is its ability to interact with others quickly on a real-time basis. You can make your name known to the best in the business, tell a company how much you love their product, or even participate in a discussion. Twitter is a great networking tool, but it’s a rather bizarre tool to wield. Fortunately, Jade Craven  has provided a great how to for networking in a cheap eBook.

What I like

Craven’s book provides a very comprehensive study on the many ways one can use Twitter to interact with others. They range from simple steps to take at startup such as writing your Twitter bio to participating in a Twitter Chat, to even live-tweeting real-time events as they happen. She gives detailed advice on putting these to work for you, and includes examples as well.

She also provides advice on using other social networks, as well as other tools. For instance, Craven gives advice on when a conversation on Twitter should instead be moved to another place, such as a blog or through email. All good information to make sure you avoid making an epic faux pas like certain celebrities have done in the last year.

What Could be Improved

Craven also includes blog articles from other bloggers on Twitter as well, but in the form of links to their specific blog articles. While she has every reason for doing this (quoting parts of their work without permission would result in copyright infringement and/or plagiarism, especially since this is a paid ebook) it’s a little annoying to have to click on the links in order to see the information that the other blogger has working for them. I’d like to see the information all in one book. What if I didn’t have a data connection at the moment? I wouldn’t be able to see the content she recommends.

Bottom Line

Jade Craven’s book is a great way to get started if you want to learn the basics. Since the cost is under $5, it won’t be too bad of an investment either. While there are some content holes in that they are other blogger’s content, it’s still a good resource for your first few steps in Twitter, and establishing yourself or your brand.

How to network on Twitter  (Disclaimer: Affiliate Link)
PDF version coming soon.

Additional Disclaimer: I received this ebook free of charge from the author as a review copy. However, The above review was not under any form of influence by the author nor any other party.

Posted in Book Review - Tagged ,

Why Auto-DMing new followers is the stupidest thing you can do on Twitter.

Sep16
2011 1 Comment Written by James Dabbagian

Hey, thanks for following me! Check out my new book/song/product which is sure to be awes….

UNFOLLOWED.

Sad but true. So many people seem to believe that automatically sending a Direct Message to people on Twitter helps to establish their relationships with their customers. I’ve had people argue that it increases their sales as well.

Unfortunately, it also makes you look like a spammer.

Granted you’re not as low on the rung as a real Twitter spammer, but you’re still in the vicinity. It’s like if I come to your door to shake your hand as a new neighbor, and the first thing you do is try to sell me a Kirby Vacuum. You just don’t do it. Here’s a few more reasons:

  • Forced relationship - A relationship on Twitter should develop naturally. Maybe with a few replies here and there, and then you can go into selling the product. Sending an auto-DM forces open a relationship in a very one-sided way.
  • First Impressions –  On that point, the moment someone follows you, it’s first impression time. You need to prove your following worth to the person who did it. And when you respond with an offer, you aren’t getting off on the right foot.
  • Unwanted Sales Ad – Nobody likes unsolicited advertisements. That’s why we skip through commercials and have our email programs scan and kill spam on-sight. When you send an auto-DM, you’re sending us a commercial.
  • Robotic – The thing about automatic DMs is the word AUTOMATIC. You look like a robot who only cares about selling their product. Don’t be that robot. Be a human.
  • Selling to a seller –  Remember that Twitter isn’t just customers. Some of your colleagues may be interested in what you say, but not in your product (Because they know it already themselves, or are even selling something similar!) So when you drop your offer, you’re treating a colleague like a customer. And you shouldn’t.

Just remember this. To some customers, you may interest them, but to the rest of us, this is the situation your Auto-DM best represents: 

Posted in Social media - Tagged , , ,

How to NOT use hashtags on Twitter (And how to use them better)

Sep02
2011 2 Comments Written by James Dabbagian

We’ve all seen them. The number sign, followed by a near random word with some semblance to the tweet at hand.

# A Hashtag.

Hashtags form the bread and butter of Twitter, as people can search for them using Twitter Search, run analyses on them with tools like Hashtracking, and allow Twitter Chatssuch as #blogchat to work. That being said, lately I’ve been seeing Tweets from people that look a lot like this:

My name is Joe and I’m a #social #media #consultant with #effective #Wordpress ability.

There is so much wrong with this tweet that I cannot even BEGIN to tear it down. There’s a hashtag #Every other #damn word! Nevertheless, this is why your attempt at Social Media fails:

  • Hashtag Overload – Hashtags are good. They let you be a part of a greater chain of social on Twitter. However, when #every #word #is #a #hashtag, it only serves to confuse the hell out of your followers, and reduces your SEO because you look like a spammer.
  • Searchability – Here’s a fun fact for you: Those words you keep #hashtagging? They are just as easily searchable without a # as they are with one. In fact, some terms are BETTER without hashtags than with them. Try it. Search for “Social Media” on Twitter, then search “#Social #Media.” See what comes up. 
  • Search queries –  Seriously, who the hell is going to be searching for #effective on Twitter? Nobody. That’s who.

Now that we got that covered, here’s my tips on how to use Hashtags to the best:

  • Use 1-2 hashtags TOPS –  You can’t make every damn word a keyword. Just use one. Two at most. 
  • Make them relevant - Don’t talk about cooking food and add #socialmedia to the Tweet. If it’s about food, make it #food. About blogging? Use #blogging. Don’t use frivolous hashtags that make no sense.
  • When chatting, Twitter Chat Hashtags take priority –  This should be obvious.
  • Place hashtags at the end of a tweet –  While not a hard and fast rule, you should do this for the sake of clarity for the Tweet.

Hashtags will help people seek you out and employ you if you use them properly. Abuse them, and you’re in there with the spambots.

Posted in Social media - Tagged , ,

Five Twitter Chats for Bloggers & Writers

Aug31
2011 1 Comment Written by James Dabbagian

If you (Like me) are of the written word-inclined, there are several different twitter chats available for you. Check out some popular choices below:

#blog101 - Allison Duncan hosts a blogging chat for newbies weekly, with topics covering the very basics of blogs, such as what to write about, choosing a blog engine, and basic instructions for using and running a blog. Chat topics typically relate to WordPress but can be applied to most other blogs.

#blog101 is hosted weekly every Friday, from 8pm-9pm PST.

#blogchat – One of, if not the biggest Twitter Chat of them all. Mack Collier hosts Blogchat to bring together bloggers from all walks of life, and of all experiences. His Twitter Chats are typically brought together under one subject which participants discuss for the duration of the chat. Mack also has two special #blogchats per month: One where 3-4 bloggers have the opportunity to be reviewed by the community as a whole, and an open-forum on the last Sunday of each month.

#blogchat is every Sunday from 9pm – 10pm EST. Check out the #blogchat information page as well.

#wordcarnival - A blog carnival is one of the first true forms of lists. It’s a group of blog entries that are shared around a particular theme for that month. #blogcarnival is a monthly chat celebrating that blog carnival, led by Tea Silvestre and including the bloggers of that carnival.

#wordcarnival is a monthly chat that’s from 4pm – 5pm PST, on the Thursday following last Wednesday of that month. Learn more about Blog Carnivals.

#Journchat – #Journchat is one of the oldest Twitter Chats of the group. Originally founded for journalists, the chat now incorporates bloggers and public relations experts, although chat topics typically revolve around journalism. The chat is hosted by Sarah Evans.

 

#Journchat is hosted every Monday, from 8-9pm EST.

#Writechat – A basic bread and butter type of chat, #Writechat is a chat for writers that want to improve their craft. Often includes writing prompts and challenges. The moderator is Julie Issac.

 

#Writechat is on Sundays at 12-3pm, PST.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Social media - Tagged , ,

Twitter Chat Series Part 3: Etiquette

Aug22
2011 Leave a Comment Written by James Dabbagian

Check out the other titles in the series:

In our last article, we covered the basics in surviving in a Twitter chat. However, there’s more to a chat than surviving. Like back in kindergarten, you gotta know your manners. There’s some unwritten rules about how to go about behaving in a Twitter chat. Here are some:

Lurk – It is always fine to lurk. In fact, you should do so for the first few chats so you get a feel of what’s going on. Once you feel comfortable, jump on in.

Never announce that you’re late – If you’ve just arrived late halfway into the discussion, the best thing to do is jump in. Do not apologize, do not say you were late. It’s rude, and it makes you look arrogant, as if the chat wasn’t important at all without you. Jumping on in makes it look like you were simply lurking and waiting for an opportunity to speak.

No Trolling - This should go without saying. Don’t be an asshole. People come to chats for advice, and while there are such things as stupid questions, people AREN’T stupid for asking them. Either be polite with others in the chat or shut up.

Stay on topic – If the topic is on branding blogs online, don’t start talking about using influence metrics like Klout, even if it partially relates to the topic at hand. If you need to continue a debate/commentary/discussion that’s off-topic, take it out of the chat (No Hashtag.)

Do not link to any content unless it’s relevant to the conversation – #blogchat’s Mack Collier put it best:

 If we are going to discuss ways to get more comments on your blog, and you are promoting your post on ‘How to pick a great WordPress template’, and you add the #blogchat hashtag, then it comes across as ‘spam’ to the #blogchat community.

While good content can and should be given, as it helps everyone involved, don’t link crap willy-nilly. Furthermore, always follow the specific guidelines of the Twitter chat. For instance, #blogchat discourages any links being given during the actual chat. However, the time before and after #blogchat is fair game.

Don’t take stuff personally - Again, people are jerks. Sometimes they don’t mean to be jerks. I’ve blocked a few people for sounding like assholes when in reality, they were trying to help me. Then again, there’s just people who have a snarky edge to them (such as myself) but are genuinely nice underneath. 

Follow up immediately – If you promise to do something for someone in chat (such as send a document or look at a form) do so as soon as you possibly can. Preferably right after the chat so it’s fresh in your mind.

If you mess up, apologize – We all make a social faux pas at one point or another, and we understand. If you act overly belligerent or you break a guideline, and someone calls you on it, apologize. Believe me, no matter how bad the fuck-up, it’s even worse if you don’t apologize.

Obviously, entire encyclopedias can be written on proper etiquette, but hopefully, these can serve as some ground rules.

Your turn

What are some etiquette tips you have to share for Twitter chats? Anything I didn’t cover? What are some situations you have seen?

Next time: Creating your own Twitter chat!

Posted in Series, Social media - Tagged , ,

Twitter Chat Series Part 2: How to survive a Twitter chat

Aug01
2011 Leave a Comment Written by James Dabbagian

For part 1 of this series, check out How to participate in a Twitter Chat.

So, you’ve found a cool chat to partake in, and you’re ready to start talking…except that the moment you load up Tweetchat, the tweets roll by faster than a hummingbird, and you’ve been lost in the conversation. Relax, it’s happened to everyone. We’ll be taking a closer look at how to survive your first Twitter chat.

What you need to do is figure out how exactly to talk. In smaller Twitter chats, this may not be a problem as the speed of the chat might be slow enough to look at what everyone says. However, for bigger chats like say, #blogchat, you’re going to need to do some tactics:

Feature the Chat leader and guest (if applicable) – The first thing I do is determine who the chat’s moderator is. If you don’t know, ask. Once you know, you can use Tweetchat’s “Feature” option to highlight that user’s tweets. This means that their tweets will stand out over others, allowing you to keep track of when the conversation turns. Also do this for any special guests in the chat.

You can enable this by clicking on the icon on a person on the person’s Tweet, then click “Feature.” Once you do this, you should also follow the chat leader on Twitter to keep up on future news regarding the chat.

Reply, Reply, Reply – There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY to keep track of every conversation happening in a given chat. However, you can still reply to people in a chat publicly while still having the hashtag. Tweetchat lets you reply to multiple people at once, so you can all stay in the same conversation. Who knows? Maybe the convo can continue after the chat is done.

Keep your Twitter @Mentions page up – The more active you are, the more likely people will reply to you, and the faster the chat, the more likely you are to miss when someone sends an @ to you. The best solution to this is to keep your Twitter’s @mentions page right next to Tweetchat’s tab, so you can alternate between the two as needed. If the chat is particularily intense, you may want to wait to reply until after the chat.

WARNING: If you use Twitter proper to reply to people, DON’T forget to add the hashtag!

Be aware of questions asked -  Many chats ask questions to their followers, using the format of “Q1: What is a man?” To respond to these, you typically reply to the chat lead (or whoever asks the questions) with “A1: A miserable little pile of secrets!” As the chat progresses, you’ll notice Q2, Q3, etc arising. You should respond to those with “A” followed by the corresponding number, then your response.

These should keep you floating in the turbulent Twitter chat sea. For Part 3, we’ll be looking at Twitter Chat Etiquette.

Posted in Series, Social media - Tagged , ,

Why you shouldn’t restrict your chat partipant commentary

Aug01
2011 Leave a Comment Written by James Dabbagian

Why do we participate in chat rooms? To chat, of course.

Whether it’s on IRC, Twitter, or some other chat engine, we participate in a chat to share content. Granted the content isn’t always useful or interesting…or intelligent, but it still gives everyone the same ability to participate in the conversation.

That being said, it seems extremely contradictory that some people will host a chat and block off anyone from asking questions to someone, or even letting others chat during the chat. I recently attempted to partake in such a Twitter chat, only to discover that only the chat moderator and the special guest could participate. This presents an issue.

Restrict conversation – Nobody likes to be told to shut up. If people wanted to watch you ask someone questions, they’d watch a video. If you’re using a chat room, you need others to participate and comment.

Loss of Ideas – If only one person is talking, it means that others can’t share their thoughts about the subject at hand. Granted the other person may be an expert at what they do, but they may also need to be clarified, or another person have a supporting argument. Of course, if questions need to be asked and only the moderator can ask it, that’s out the door.

Loss of overall participation – To put it bluntly, what’s the point of chatting when you can’t chat at all?

Just remember, what’s the point of having a chat when it’s blocked off? You may as well be talking to yourself…or to your guest, anyway.

On a side note, this is my first post using Ubuntu. :)

Posted in Community Management, Social media - Tagged , ,

Twitter Chat series Part 1: How to Participate in a Twitter Chat

Jun16
2011 4 Comments Written by James Dabbagian

By now, you’ve probably seen either my feed or the feeds of the people you follow get flooded with a ton of responses, all with the same #hashtag. They say things like #socialchat or #blogchat in them, and can be RTs, replies or arguments. This is the next wave of Twitter’s application to people: Twitter Chat.

Basically, a Twitter Chat is when a group of people talk on Twitter using the same hashtag to link it all together. For instance, there’s my chat, #freelancechat. To participate in that chat, you Tweet what you want and add #Freelancechat to the end of it. There’s no better way to network with other people that share your interests, as well as demonstrate your knowledge.

Find a Twitter Chat – Twitter user Robert Swanwick maintains a comprehensive list of Twitter Chats available on a Google Spreadsheet. Simply scroll down the list of Twitter Chats until you find one that’s interesting. There’s a variety of choices, from the Horse fans of #Horsechat to the Christ-centered #Jesuschat. Make a note of the time the day and time of the chat. Also, some chats may have different time zones than yours, so Schedule accordingly. While you’re at it, follow the chat’s host on Twitter so you get the latest info on the chat.

Follow the Chat – Let me make one thing clear: DO NOT USE TWITTER’S WEBSITE TO FOLLOW THE CHAT. Most chats (especially large chats like #blogchat) go so fast that when you get the results from Twitter’s search page, 20+ tweets will have passed. Instead, use websites designed specifically to auto-update, such as Tweetchat or Twebevent. 

Lurk in the chat – Spend a bit of time getting a feel for the chat from the other chatters. Figure out what the topic is if you didn’t see the announcement, and see how people talk in-chat. Once you feel confident enough, start talking.

Use Replies Generously – Things go REAL FAST in a Twitter Chat, and if someone posts something you want to comment on, they may not notice your post. Hence, you need to use the @ symbol in spades. This puts your reply in the person’s mentions bar, making it easier for them to reply.

Etiquette

Use Common Sense – Don’t be a jerk, don’t namecall, act your age, etc. If you disagree with someone, or if they disagree with you, be polite about it. If they’re a jerk to you, don’t say anything, just block them. If they are being disruptive to the chat as a whole, you may wish to report them as well. Use this rule: If you wouldn’t say it to a person in a professional meeting, don’t say it in a Twitter Chat.

Don’t spam your blog/website – If you’re in a chat talking about Basket Weaving, and you link your blog on Gas guzzling cars in the chat, chances are it’s not going to go well for you. Don’t link to your blog or website unless asked to do so. The only exception to this: If you have written a blog entry relevant to the topic, you may link it.

Additional Rules -  Some chats may have additional rules you should follow, such as minimizing RTs in-chat or not asking questions in public. Check the website for the Twitter Chat (Which can be found on the Twitter chat list.)

Posted in Social media - Tagged , ,

Four Ways to Improve your Twitter profile.

May25
2011 Leave a Comment Written by James Dabbagian

Now that you know how to create your Twitter bio, you probably realize that nothing teaches you brevity like summarizing yourself in 160 characters or less.

Your Twitter profile is extremely important, as when users click on it to see who you are, it’s all they got. Your profile is the only thing that helps you in the viewer’s decision to hit the “Follow” button or hit the Twitter road. Hence, it needs to snap, crackle, pop, and rip off several other popular cereal crunch noises.

Pick a Style

Browse through the Twitter profiles of several users, and you’ll encounter profiles of all different types. Some type in the first person (Ex: I’m an experienced freelancer who speacializes in Basket weaving” to third person “John smith has a master’s degree in electioneering.” The popular one seems to be terms as sentence fragments: “Writer. Hacker. Social Media Enthusiast. Speaker. Coach.” My favorites are Darren Rowse’s twitter bio for first person, Robert Scoble for third person, and Robin Fay for the broken text.

Ultimately, keep your profession in mind when you work on your bio. The designer may love the broken sentence stuff, but you try that if you’re a professor or a writer, and you’ll look weird.

Keep SEO in mind

Ahh, the ever so wonderful SEO. Keyword generation on Twitter is just as important as it is on a blog or website. Use a combination of local and keyword terms to really generate  business. Terms such as “Los Angeles Social Media Consultant” really help narrow people down to finding you; you may not be able to go national unless you’re Hugh Macleod flaunting the creation of social objects, but you can dominate in your area.

If you do other things, such as blogging or designing, add those as well.

Describe your Projects

Got any current projects you’re doing? Describe them on Twitter. On my Twitter profile, I talk about #Freelancechat in it. You can discuss your site, your social network, your programs, or anything of the like. Steve Cassidy talks about being the Community Manager for the Fraternity Alumni Association. You can talk about the communities you manage or the company you work for.

Simplicity is Golden

Be as simple as possible. Don’t get cute and do poems, riddles and the like. A twitter user will look at your bio for two seconds AT MAX before deciding whether to click Follow or not. Make it obvious as to why you should be followed. Twitter already encourages this with the 160 character limit, but the shorter you are, the easier you make it on everyone.

Your turn

What do you think is the most effective bio? What should go in or go out?

Posted in Social media - Tagged , ,

#freelancechat call for topics for 5/18 Twitter Chat

May15
2011 Leave a Comment Written by James Dabbagian

This is a call for topics for Wednesday’s Twitter chat for freelancers, #Freelancechat! Topics can be about anything freelance related: Topic ideas and subjects include:

  • Getting clients and maintaining them
  • Tax information, tips and deductions
  • Selling yourself
  • Different areas of expertise (writing, design, social media, etc.)

To suggest a topic, simply post in the comments below. #Freelancechat broadcasts on 5/18, at 9am/12pm Western and Eastern, respectively.

Posted in Freelancechat, Social media - Tagged , ,
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