The Economy: It Can Happen To Anybody

Millions of Americans and people throughout the world are in need of your compassion NOW.

Oprah Winfrey and Lisa Ling Broke My Heart

A few days ago I took just a moment away from my computer to watch something that caught my attention on the television while I walked from the coffee pot to my desk. It was an Oprah Winfrey episode with special guest Lisa Ling visiting with people who lost everything they had and were living in tent cities. It truly took my breath away and I sobbed through the whole thing.

The ways that this episode of Oprah affected me changed my life. The impact I felt was so profound that I have not been able to get it out of my mind since. She was talking about people who have lost everything that they worked so hard for in life, and sadly, that even includes friendships. So many of the newly homeless and people in despair lose touch with friends, and even family. They no longer have an email address, a cell phone, or a mailing address. They have been crushed. Their spirits have often been broken, or at least very markedly bent.

How Oprah Affected Me

After watching the episode, I had an awakening of my own spirit. It reminded me of things that we all try hard to forget, and hard to avoid. I cried as I saw a man talk about how it touched him to go and clean out foreclosed homes and throw out a little baby doll and know that it was probably some little girl’s best friend. At the same time, he had 15 homes per day to clean out, often with the majority of people’s worldly possessions left behind. It all had to go to the dumpster, regardless of the value. Even the organizations like the Salvation Army could not take things, because they had run out of room.

This all got so hard for me that I wondered what this world will look like if it all continues at this rate. Will we all live in tent cities while our vacant homes rot away in the legal possession of banks that are of proportionally little value? If this is how it is going to go, I simply cannot understand the world today.

It Could Happen To Anybody!

Financial hardship can hit anybody. We can believe we are immune, but what happened to these people can happen with little notice. It is frightening, it is humbling, and depending on how one deals with it, the hardship will either polish a person brighter than ever or grind them and bring deep despair.

The psychological affects are profound. In hard times, it is common that people will tuck themselves into a shell of solitude and feel like everybody can see their shame. It is described as a feeling of being marked with a big symbol to show that you are beneath others around you. There becomes a huge feeling that you do not want to burden friends. It gets to a point where it is the emotional equivalent of the injured animal that wonders off in the woods to die. In a way, it is kind of like dying. Things change profoundly in the heart and spirit of those facing these hardships. Nobody wants to burden their friends. At the same time, it is shocking just how true it is to real friends that it is not a burden at all. Most people will want to help in whatever way they can … even if it just a hug. Perhaps not surprising, a hug can actually go a long way to help a friend.

Care About Those Around You

If you know somebody who lost their job, or who may be facing hardship like Oprah has described, reach out to them. Let them know that you care. What lies ahead is very uncertain, but one thing is clear. We must all come together and care for each other.

Skittles Web 2.0 Social Media Blitz

Skittles candy by Mars Snack Food, LLC took full advantage of social media and user generated content (UGC) today in a Web 2.0 social media blitz. As I sit here and write this, I am in complete awe of their genius. So, what is the scuttlebutt on Skittles?

Skittles Candy Goes Full Web 2.0!

Skittles.com, the product’s Website, now has just a small navigation box to guide users through a broad grouping of Web 2.0 user-generated content (UGC) sites such at Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, and Facebook. The homepage now points to the real-time search at Twitter, which shows very near real-time results for what people are saying about Skittles. The “Media” link leads you to their YouTube account, the “Friends” link leads you to their Facebook page, and even the individual products lead to their Wikipedia page! It truly is the greatest show of appreciation and understanding of today’s social media and the value it represents.

Is the Skittles Web 2.0 Move Risky?

The move for Skittles candy into a complete Web 2.0 site is truly genius, but is the Skittles Web 2.0 move risky? I have heard concerns about of people using the #skittles hashtag on Twitter to promote themselves or to say mean things about Skittles. In fact, I have seen some not-so-pleasant things there already. Using the #skittles hashtag means that anybody sending a tweet on Twitter can have their message on the Skittle homepage just by adding “#skittles” to the tweet. With this concern in mind, it is hard to guess how long this will last, but in any case, it certainly is a bold move.

In my opinion, Skittles has embraced a trend of social media that is poised for tremendous success. Even if there was an attempted attack on Skittles’  Web 2.0 implementation, I truly doubt that it would be as strong as the Internet’s fascination with and respect for the move.

What do you think about Skittles’ Web 2.0 campaign?

I would like to hear from you. What do you think about the Skittles Web 2.0 campaign. Is it risky? Will it last? Do you like it? Please give me your comments.

Twitter: The Tweet About Retweet

Being retweeted on Twitter is hitting blogs, television, and magazines around the world, but is it all that important? I want to tell you a couple things about the coveted retweet, and why it matters.

What is a Twitter Retweet?

Just a quick overview for those who did not know, a retweet is when a Twitter microblogger sends a short 140 character message, called a “tweet” and another user sends it to their Twitter followers by sending the same message prefixed with “RT @username” showing the source of the information. It is the holy grail for some, but just a good measurement of quality to others. If you are retweeted a lot, it is generally assumed that people like what you have to say.

Proper Retweet Usage

A retweet is very useful for sharing good information while crediting the originator. By retweeting, you are being courteous to your friends. If you want to spread helpful information, a retweet can be very helpful. There is nothing wrong with asking for a retweet, as long as the purpose is for other’s benefit.

Of course, there are cases where the retweet can be misused and annoying. The people out there to provide little value and just sell you their goods would consider the retweet to be the holy grail … the brass rings to reach for. These are also the same people who consider the number of people following their tweets more important than focusing on the value they offer to their audience. These are (usually) not the most retweeted people. If selling is your goal, you should really rethink the retweet.

Getting Retweeted by Providing Value

If you hope to be retweeted, consider how you interact with people, and whether you are giving them what they want. People do not want to be “sold at”. Imagine the difference in how you feel about going to a store to buy things compared to how you feel when the doorbell rings and there is somebody there to sell you something. This is very much how people feel about the selling invasion in their social networking space.

The methods and mentality of social networking has been written about in huge volumes. Some of the information is great, and much of it is junk. There are a lot of people writing about social networking just to sell to you something. Then, there are the ones who really “get it”. The ones who do “get it” are the people who understand what I have tweeted and said many times: “If you see somebody as a sandwich, they can usually tell.” This is to say that if your intention is more about making the money, and not about being helpful, most people will know. I call it the “bullshit perfume”. If my language offends you, I am sorry, but I just want to give a clear picture.

The Real Retweet Secret

I am going to put my neck out and say that the real secret to being retweeted comes in just a few parts. Here is a short list of the things I believe to be most important. I welcome your additional thoughts in the comments section of this blog post.

  • Forget about you: If you have the right mindset of being useful to people, rather than being selfish, it will show. People really like to talk about themselves. Let them, and don’t hog all of that enjoyment for yourself. Listen to what people have to tell you, and you will probably find some great friends.
  • Forget the dollars: (see above) If people want to know what you do, they will find out.
  • Be friendly: Try to get to know your “tweeps” (Twitter friends), and allow them to know you. This is why we use the word “social”. Address people by their first name.
  • Show personality: You are a person, right? Flaunt it, don’t hide it. I sometimes crank up my Webcast and have a chat with my “tweeps”. It has been great fun, and I doubt any of my tweeps would fault me for lack of personality, for better or worse. 🙂
  • Consider what people want: People want to connect with other people. They want to laugh. They want to find useful information.

@murnahan Retweeted

Just so that you do not think I am another one of those “Twitter experts” that I have made so much fun of, I feel that I must explain that I did not make this all up. I am consistently in all of the popular leaderboards as one of the most retweeted Twitter users, and can back it up. I strongly believe that my mindset of helping others and doing what I have said here truly is the reason. For a look at where I stand for retweets, I offer the lists as follows:

 
For more on Twitter, please reference Answers.com or these previous articles I wrote: Twitter Usage Study and Twitter Usage Study Results … and of course, I invite you to watch my Twitter Kids @murnahanvideo.
 
NOTE: If you would like to meet more people on Twitter, feel free to add a link to your Twitter profile in the comments here.
 

I hope you found this article useful. If so, please pass it along and retweet (RT) it … your tweeps will probably like it too!

January 2011 Addendum: Twitter has changed a lot since I wrote this, and since I wrote the book “Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends“. Many things are the same, and providing value is still the most important.

I have recently noticed an increase in people searching the Internet to find out the answer to the question “how do i know if people retweet me?” The simple answer is to go to http://twitter.com/#!/retweeted_of_mine and also watch for people manually retweeting your content by copying and pasting a link and including your username. That will simply show up in your Twitter account under “@mentions“.

I hope this has helped you, and I always welcome your feedback, here, on Twitter, or elsewhere.

Funny Twitter Videos Get Re-Tweeted

The burning question: What gets re-tweeted? First, I will explain for non-Tweeters (a Tweeter is a user of Twitter) a re-tweet is wheen a user of Twitter adds “RT @username” to a message and re-sends it to their Tweeple (Twitter people). This signifies the source of the initial tweet, and it pays the orignial sender a respect for their tweet (message). Being re-tweeted is not only a great honor, but it greatly expands the reach of your messages. Just imagine that when I send something out to my present group who follow me, if they re-tweet it to their group of followers, and if those people also do the same, well, the numbers can get huge!

Finding ones way in the “Twitterverse” is a very personal experience. Each of us develop our own uniqueness and personality. While there are a number of Twitter users who choose to use Twitter with little more than to promote a product, many users are in it to have fun and meet new and interesting people, with the possible side-effect of growing business. My personal Twitter experience is that it is a fantastic way to find a ton of useful information that I probably would never have found otherwise. I have written a couple other posts (Twitter Usage Study | Twitter Usage Study Results) about Twitter usage, but this one is about the fun and funny side of Twitter.

I saw a poll today that was quite revealing. It showed that good humor is far more likely to be re-tweeted to others. This kind of explains why when I look at retweetrank.com it shows @murnahan (me) in position #47 for re-tweeted messages at the time I am writing this. It is because my Twitter “channel” is chock full of the most zany, strange, bizarre stuff I can find. That is the stuff that interests me. Twitter, to me, is a great place to be the class clown. I tend to send a lot of video links in my Tweets, and what better than a funny video about Twitter? It just makes sense. So I want to share a few funny Twitter videos that gave me a chuckle.

Rob McNealy (@RobMcNealy) Twitter Gangster Video

Rap may not be your favorite genre, but this comical video of the “Twitter Gangster” is a Twitter great!

Ben Walker (@ihatemornings) The Twitter Song

This one is a hoot! If you haven’t been bookmarked, re-tweeted, and blogged, you might as well not have existed. Ben has a real hit with this video.

Mark Aaron Murnahan (me) (@murnahan) Twitter Kids

In this video, I share my secret to Twittering more by using my six year old son and three year old daughter. Don’t worry, I supply them with plenty of coffee and Red Bull … After all, I am not an animal!

Submit Your Funny Twitter Video

If you have seen or created a funny Twitter video, please add it in your comment to this blog post and Tweet it to me. I am always up for a laugh, and I will re-tweet your video to others looking for good humor. Also, please re-tweet this! 🙂

Hookers Write the Best Blogs

Hookers Are Not All Bad
Hookers Are Not All Bad

Who would have guessed that hookers write the best blogs? In this fast-paced scan-and-click Internet world, what are people actually reading? It may sound crazy, but you could learn a lot from a hooker.

With over 200 million blogs on the Internet, who can slow down and read the whole thing? Hookers know the answer, and it is really pretty basic. When you hook the reader right up front, they will have more reason to keep reading and want to know more. So keep reading! I wrote this to help you get more productivity from your time online, and if you are a blog author, to help your readers get more from your articles.

Bloggers and Hookers

If you are a writer, it is your responsibility to assure readers a good value for their time. But first, you must give them an incentive … a hook. Thus, a writer with a good hook could be called a “hooker”. In order to do this, effectively, you really must think about the way you read. I have often found myself scanning through information in such a mad rush that I sometimes miss the good stuff. Consider for a moment how many articles you start to read but never finish. You only get a fraction of the message because you toss them aside and click on the next flashy thing that catches your eye. Your readers are not so different. A look at your Website statistics will show how long an average visitor spends on your site, and it is never as long as you would like. So, if you are a good hooker, “turning the trick” is the next big battle.

Turning the Trick 

This happened to me just yesterday. I was reading a blog post that I thought was kind of interesting. I put it aside and figured I would read the rest later. I thought it was good enough that I tweeted it (sent a message using Twitter.com), but I almost didn’t finish it. Just a moment later, I saw that somebody “re-tweeted” it. The article very nearly ended up in my vast “to read” pile (which often remains unread). Once I read just a bit more, I could not stop … I was hooked! The terrible part is that I almost missed reading something that I ultimately found very interesting and useful.

So, in the example above, where did this all go wrong? I had actually read far enough to know it was a good article. The hook had been set, right? Wrong! The author almost lost me, and not because it got boring, but rather because he did not set the hook deep enough, fast enough. If the author had fully engaged me in the very beginning, I could have probably suffered through a lot of boring reading, just assuming there was something coming to re-spark my interest.

Quality Ad Copy

Quality ad copy always starts with a hook. If you get that part right, the rest is much easier. If you canont come up with the right hook, get help from a friend or hire a professional.

Quality ad copy with a good hook is more important on the Internet than any other place. You only have seconds to reach your readers. I don’t know any writer who feels good about losing a reader early, and when it comes to business writing, it hurts your bottom line. I personally love to look at my reader statistics to see people spending a lot of time on a page. This means they are actually getting what I tell them. It means I have done my job well, which is very satisfying to me. Be sure to look at your statistics, and if users are coming but not staying long, you are probably not setting the hook.

Am I a Hooker?

Yes, I am a hooker for hire. I got you to read this far, didn’t I? If I can do that, just imagine what I can do to help you reach more people and “hook” your audience. Of course, I don’t want to lose you here, because the good stuff is yet to come. If it will help you, take a deep breath, stand up and shake, get a cup of coffee, or do whatever you need to do, and then when you are ready … come back and read some more of my blog. Perhaps my section on SEO Lessons and the importance of quality Internet marketing will interest you, or take your pick from the left side of this page. This is all here to help you, and I will try to not let you down.

Origin of the Word “Hooker”

Since this blog post refers to hookers, I thought I would share this clever video to explain the origin of the word “hooker”. Enjoy! Oh, and Please Tweet This!