Tag: twitter usage

I’ve Been a Bad Social Networker!

I hope you can relate to this recognition of friends the way I do. When I think about the friends I meet through social networking, it brings a mental image. The particular friends that come to mind at any moment change based on my mood, or based on things around me. If I feel comical, I may think of friends who make me laugh, and if I feel intellectual, I may think about friends who make me think. These friends are a part of my life, just as much as the friends I see for lunch, or for coffee at my favorite coffee shops. These relationships deserve my attention, and when my attention to them is lessened by other things around me it can feel a bit awkward.

I would like you try and recall some of the friends you have made with which somehow the communication has faded in time. Perhaps you cannot recall why, or you had little control over the circumstances, but the communication has slowed down. One instance that comes to mind is a good friend, Jeff. I used to spend more time riding motorcycles with Jeff. Since my work has been in overdrive all year, and with a newborn baby in the house, I have not spent much time on my chopper, which is one of my favorite hobbies. We still talk now and then, but there is a kind of disappointment that we surely must remedy with a good road trip. I am still Jeff’s good friend, but life got in the way temporarily. Another reversed example is my good friend, Mike. Mike is a state legislator, and while he is in session, he becomes really busy. We still talk often, but with our busy lives it can become far too easy to lack communication. Fortunately, I spent much of my day yesterday helping Mike with a project, followed by a cookout at my home with our wives and children. It was a real treat!

How I Was a Bad social Networker

So how have I been a bad social networker? Similar to the instances above, I feel that I have neglected many of my friends here at my blog, and also Twitter, Ustream, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social networking sites. This is something I always try to warn people against. After all, if you have invested your time in a relationship only to neglect it, it is worse than never having forged these relationships at all.

Why I have Been Bad

I have tried to make my excuse obvious, and I hope that people will understand. If you feel like I have neglected you, I want to be sure you know why.

On Sunday 10 May, I decided to write a book. A number of people have asked me to write it, and I believe I have a good message to share, so I decided to go for it. Since it was Mother’s Day, I did not begin the book that day, but rather I would begin on Monday the 11th. I decided to finish writing the book that week. That’s right, I wrote a book in a week! If you have ever written a book, you can surely understand how my days went. It was a big job, but I got it done. The reason I decided to write it in a week was to minimize the time I would be away from my social networks.

So the book is done? Well, not entirely done, but the initial writing is done. The book is now in a second round of editing, and it is all looking very good. I have two highly experienced editors combing through the book, and both of them have been very flattering to me. It should not be surprising that there is a whole lot more to producing a book than just writing the initial content.

What is This Book About?

The book is about practical use of Twitter and includes many tools for buliding relationships for both business and friendships. The title is “Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends”. I feel very confident that this book will be a valuable resource for new and experienced Twitter users alike. I will provide a more in-depth review of the book soon.

When Does the Book Come Out?

I will let you know more very soon, but I anticipate having the book in print and available for sale within the next two or three weeks.

I Miss My Friends!

I miss my friends and the many engaging moments that we share. I promise to be back to my regular blogging, Tweeting, Facebooking, and etcetera, very soon! I hope that if you should choose to read my book, that it will make up for the time I have neglected you, and that you will forgive me. 🙂

How Twitter Improves Blog Traffic

Nearly anybody with a blog or other Website that is worth reading has heard of Twitter by now. The bloggers who use Twitter efficiently may already have realized some of what I will share here, but from what I have found, many bloggers have not. To say the least, I am shocked just what a small percentage of blog owners and authors are actually using Twitter, and even more shocked by those who are not embracing the synergy the two can produce when used properly. Note that while I say “blog”, this is completely interchangeable with “Website”, so don’t be confused.

Twitter-Improved Traffic: A Simple Example

As a simple example of how Twitter can improve your blog readership, I will use the blog you are presently reading. While looking at my statistics to find how many people arrived at this fledgling blog via Twitter, I found that an estimate of nearly 15,000 unique readers arrived by way of Twitter over the past 30 days. I say estimated because it is challenging to provide an exact number due to the many readers arriving by way of Twitter clients not providing an accurate source (although my numbers will be much clearer in May). This is more than the number of subscribers to my Twitter feed, which is presently just over 11,000 but was far fewer last month (ref TwitterCounter). So how did that happen? In short, people read it, talked about it, and retweeted it.

Blog Traffic Numbers: The Real Scoop

I will write more on this later, but I find that too many people find it convenient to try and lie about the real traffic of their blog. Let’s face it, this stuff is trackable. Some people may say that traffic estimates generated as a result of Twitter is bloated or that it is not so great, but just a simple look at Compete.com or Alexa.com will reveal a lot of what I am telling you. Of course, these are usually a bit behind and do not reflect an exact accounting, but they are usually reasonably close. I share this with you because I want to provide a real example for the purpose of this article.

When considering these numbers, let’s weigh in the facts that this blog was launched in December 2008, and my Twitter account only had 78 followers on February 7th of 2009, and it is a targeted blog about social media marketing and search engine optimization. I am not seeking everybody to read my blog, but rather the right people to read my blog. Be sure to also look at your own blog / Website and review the numbers and percentage of increase. It is pretty eye-opening what Twitter can do when used properly.

The traffic and level of engagement prompted me to question how Twitter has changed blogging. Here are just a few things that i found.

Twitter-Improved Reader Engagement

I will show examples of blog reader engagement separated into three parts, but this remains only one of the three areas of benefit derived from Twitter discussed in this article. There are many ways to determine reader engagement with a Website. Some ways blog authors have traditionally found valuable to measure the reader’s engagement are as follows:

Time on Page: The average time the user spends on a page is a good measure of whether they are actually reading what you have to say. This is clearly subject to the type and length of content you provide, but in any case, readers who are not interested will not stick around very long. A minute is a very long time for many internet readers. What I have found in the measure of time on page is that readers initially engaged by Twitter will spend more time reading my blog, totaling about three minutes per page view. This is a significant increase over users arriving from other sources, and is longer than any other source.

Page Views Per Reader: The number of pages each user visits is a strong reflection of the user’s interest in your industry, beyond the single topic of the initial page they viewed. I have noticed an improved page views per reader coming from Twitter, up .5 page views per reader compared to other sources, which is a significant sign of reaching the right audience.

Blog Comment Volume and Quality: An important measure for the blog author is in how many comments, and the quality of comments the blog post receives. When writing something relating to Twitter, I have witnessed great results for blog comments, on this blog and others. One of my recent blog posts relating to Twitter usernames has received upward of 140 approved comments. I attribute much of this to the fact that many readers already have some knowledge of the author, and are already a part of a conversation. A blog is one way that they find out more information and continue the conversation. I think many bloggers would agree with this finding.

Assessing the reader engagement of Twitter users, both on a blog and on your Twitter feed, can also be measured by the comments received in reply to the posting of the blog link to Twitter. I find that some people will respond to the title of the tweet. It seems that every day I see somebody respond to the text of a tweet in a way that I know without question they have not read the blog post linked to the tweet. A great example of this was when I tweeted a blog post titled “Will Oprah (@oprah) Ruin Twitter?” and I received a lot of comments in defense of Oprah Winfrey’s use of Twitter. That was kind of silly, because the blog discussed the changes that may come from the inevitable increase in traffic and how a large influx of new users may change how we use Twitter. This absurdity should always be considered a measurement of engagement of your Twitter following and not of your blog. What it also points out is that Twitter users who do read your blog are likely truly interested in what you have written. If your Twitter account is managed properly and you spend time to get to know your followers and let them know you, blind comments should largely only happen with your newest followers.

Twitter-Improved Search Engine Optimization

Many search engine optimizers (SEO) will overlook the value of Twitter for improving search engine penetration. If they miss this part, they are making a big mistake. A reason many SEO will dismiss this value is that Twitter uses the “nofollow” attribute in outbound links, thus, no increased Google PageRank. Make no mistake; Twitter can greatly enhance your visibility in search engine results. This can come from many outside factors related to Twitter, as well as Twitter itself. I will just name a couple, but here are some ways SEO is enhanced by using Twitter. First, I should point out that Twitter’s Search is a Search Engine! As more people use Twitter search to find information, using Twitter will help many people to find your information. Aside from just Twitter searches, the likelihood of particular tweets being listed in other search engines referencing a Twitter tweet or one of the many Twitter-related applications along with your link are improved. Be sure to realize that each person who reads your blog also comes with a voice to further spread your blog in many other ways. Thus, each reader who finds your blog in any Twitter-related way has the potential to further propagate your message in search engines as well. It all adds up to make a significant end-result.

Twitter-Improved Call to Action

Along with the added benefits of brand recognition and brand loyalty, comes the greatest benefit of all … an improved call to action. This means that the message you distributed has gone beyond just readership, and the reader has heard and responded to your call to action. In my case, that literally means that they have made a call to reach me and discuss improving their market reach. For you, it may be that they enter their order for your product, apply for a job, donate to a cause, or many other possibilities.

How I measure a greater call to action from Twitter: It has become standard that I speak on the telephone (direct line *REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE*) or on Skype (username murnahan) to a minimum of five different inbound callers per day as a result of Twitter users who also read my blog. In addition to inbound callers, I also call at least five people I meet on Twitter to simply make an introduction and to get to know them better, so this certainly works both ways.

I make it my practice to reach people beyond the singular communication tool of Twitter, and expand my communications to other tools. This means that not only has Twitter greatly impacted my blog readership, it also goes far beyond blogging to reach people I would likely have never met otherwise.

How Does This Apply to You?

Surely some people reading this do not have a blog or Website, and may not have a great importance of reaching out to other people, but I think those numbers are fairly small. Most people who read this have a reason to reach others. If this is the case, you should not neglect the value of Twitter for reaching a very important audience.

Reaching a larger and more valuable audience is what I do for my clients, and what I am paid for. I have found Twitter to be an extremely useful tool. If you are getting frustrated and you want to see better results for your blog or other Website, please reach me to explain how I may help you.

Don’t Just Comment on Twitter!

If you made it this far, I hope that you will give me the honor of reading and responding to your comments right here on the blog. Yes, of course, your comments are also always welcome by way of Twitter, too. Please tell me what you think!

Kutcher vs. Murnahan Twitter Dance-Off (well @aplusk?)

This is not a review of Dancing with the Stars, and I have already told Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) that I dance like a goon.

If you are not already familiar with this blog, it may help to know that I wrote an article recently that criticized the highly publicized race between Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) and CNN (@CNNBrk) to reach one million followers on Twitter. I look at this today and realize that nearly anybody could do that if they put the resource into the campaign that each of these giants did. There is even a billboard in my home town of Topeka, Kansas advertising to follow @aplusk on Twitter.

Ashton Followed My Twitter Feed

I have been asked a lot about the bar fight / dance-off talk on Twitter between Ashton Kutcher and myself. First, I want to say that there was no bar fight. Secondly, as of yet, we have not determined the venue for our dance off. However, Oprah’s show (@oprah) seems to be the crowd favorite. So what is the real story? Since I wrote a recent post criticizing the race between Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) and CNN (@CNNBrk) I suppose it deserves this follow up.

The Ashton Kutcher Bar Fight

The story behind the bar fight is pretty simple. I sent a tweet as follows: “20 Athletes You Would Want with You in a Bar Fight http://bit.ly/hxNg0“. This tweet was subsequently retweeted (see tweet) by my friend, Phao Loo (@phaoloo). Ashton Kutcher follows Phao Loo’s tweets, and he liked it, so he retweeted it again (see tweet). The bar fight story was really this simple.

The Ashton Kutcher Dance-Off

Although there may be a dance-off, I have made Mr. Kutcher aware that I dance like a goon. However, I will be a willing participant if it should come to pass. Interestingly, the whole notion follows through nicely with some of what I believe his intended message was for CNN and Ted Turner. That message is that the little guy can still have a voice in social media, and can still make a difference in the world. The misguided part of that equation was that Ashton Kutcher is not the little guy. Unfortunately, Ashton did not have me on retainer at the time of his message, so a lot became blurred with many mixed signals and lack of solid personal branding.

Perhaps if Ashton Kutcher really wants to show the sincerity of his message, a better approach may be to come down to my level and visit with a guy who uses social media to build relationships and good will. Then perhaps he can win me over as an active part of his audience, and even his advocate. Beating all odds, he and I could work as a team to clear up his message and do some really properly meaningful things together. As it is, I have been bombarded with questions of what really took place, and whether I think he is genuine. To all of the many questions, I must say that I simply do not know, yet.

I have not made an attack on Ashton’s integrity, but I have had reason to criticize his signal. In my previous blog post on the matter, I made observations that his message is flawed, and that I do not respect much of what I observed. Perhaps a lot of that has to do with Hollywood, publicists, contracts, and a whole lot of time spent being desired by masses. I have a strong immunity to the whole celebrity bit. I have spent enough time with “the desired ones”, and also been the focus of some of the same. I do understand the awkward feeling of being envied, as certainly we all have for one reason or another. This transforms each of us differently on different levels. To me, it has made me work even harder to be real and to be humble. In Hollywood, this is a method that is often not embraced, or accepted properly when it is. After all, a little cockiness seems to make you cool. Sadly, the people it makes you cool with are the same people who are wearing a similar mask of blended pride and shame.

When it comes down to who the man is or what he intends, I do not know the answers about Ashton Kutcher. I will gladly welcome him to call me at *REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE* on my nickel, join my Webcast as a co-host and come down to “the people’s” level, and I will gladly meet him for a dance-off and show just how horribly I dance.

The way it all went down was like a firestorm of tweets about a dance-off among my followers. Note that I follow well over 8,500 people’s Twitter feed, whereas Ashton followed (at the time) 84. Not only do I follow this many, I do so very actively, and as I write this, I have reached my 1000 direct message daily limit and I am waiting to be able to send direct messages again. 

Within my Twitter friends rampant tweets, the speculation of a ghost tweeter was common, as were many RT,  and questions of Ashton’s intent (PR, damage control, etc). So that there is no speculation, the Tweets we have shared, and some of the related communications surrounding the bar fight / dance-off tweets are as follows:

@murnahan: Hey, Ashton Kutcher just RT me. http://bit.ly/Gt5Yf LOL!

@kimsherrell: OH SNAP ~>more drama. @aplusk just RTd @murnahan. but did he read mark’s blog? http://bit.ly/4SBD8

@murnahan: ROFL! –> RT @KimSherrell: OH SNAP ~>more drama. @aplusk just RTd @murnahan. but did he read mark’s blog? http://bit.ly/4SBD8

@kimsherrell: WHOA @aplusk has challenged @murnahan to a bar fight?! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

@aplusk: @KimSherrell i don’t have time to go to kansas. I just find the assumptions to be interesting.

@aplusk: @murnahan Kind of ironic?

@murnahan: @KimSherrell I guess he did see it. 😉 http://bit.ly/9iHpE

Right about this time is when I realized (from a friend’s tweet) that @aplusk was following me. I was number 84 that he was following out of 1,234,083 following him. So the questions that came to mind was, whether he would still be following me tomorrow, and does this guy meet the criteria of those whom I prefer to follow?

@murnahan: @aplusk Are you an OK guy after all? I like seeing that you are listening. 😉 Dance off, huh? LOL I dance like a goon!

@aplusk: @murnahan lets dance brother. I think you paint interesting picture with your words.

@murnahan: @aplusk Thanks! Do you need any help at the TweetDeck? http://bit.ly/AKIra

@aplusk: @murnahan no I’m quite efficient i’m sure @oprah could use a tutorial though

@murnahan: Well then hook me up, brother. LOL –> RT @aplusk: @murnahan no I’m quite efficient i’m sure @oprah could use a tutorial though

@aplusk: @murnahan you wouldn’t want to teach her she might ruin the platform by connecting with too many people

@aplusk: @murnahan or she might end up saving lives…

@murnahan: Well, @oprah, @aplusk said you may need a hand. http://bit.ly/2zog7w – REF: http://bit.ly/NHRbb

@kimsherrell: ashton kutcher now following mark murnahan. thank you + good night.

@kimsherrell: LOL… a low-budget internet musical: @aplusk versus @murnahan – http://bit.ly/dgyxa

@murnahan: Hey Ashton (@aplusk), I am following you back now, but don’t go messing up my reputation. 😉

There were many more tweets about this, but I must stop at some point. For more tweets relating to this, click here for a Twitter search and refine the search to find related information.

Will There Be a Dance-Off Between @aplusk and @murnahan?

To answer the question of whether there will ever be a dance-off between us, only time will tell. I may never hear from Ashton again, or we may turn out to grow a mutual respect for each other. Who knows? To my notion, Ashton is a funny and talented guy. I simply do not believe that social media stunts last all that long, and I am here for the long-term, just as I have been since the 90’s with my Yahoo! chat clubs, where I met my wife.

I want to hear your thoughts. Please give your comments here on this blog, and feel free to give other readers your Twitter username in the form of http://twitter.com/murnahan (substitute the murnahan part).

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Jack Walden Teaches Social Media

Jack Walden Murnahan, Twitter’s youngest user, sent a message to social media yesterday that we should all take heed of. The message that Jack Walden sent at only minutes old was not just as you would think, and it should prove to each of us the greatest of lessons in social media.

Jack Walden’s message was delivered more directly to the heart of social media than even the most cleverly devised sales pitch or news story. It did not need to be spread around the world to every Internet user, and there was no attached agenda. It was simply the sharing of one family’s very excited welcome to their little boy.

The Response to Baby Murnahan Tweeting

The responses have been overwhelming. As I made announcements of progress toward the birth of our son, the outpouring of excitement and love was more than I could possibly keep up with. I sat down today to write a personal thank you to each of the people offering their congratulations and excitement for us. After writing several hundred personal messages of thanks, I started realizing that I was actually losing ground. More messages were coming in by Twitter, Facebook, and email, faster than I could keep up. Beyond just that, I knew that I would soon reach the 1000 direct message daily limit and 100 per hour limit for @ messages on Twitter. I have reached both of these limits before, even without having a new son.

What this incredible outpouring of support for and about Jack Walden teaches is that people really do care about people. Social media provides a means to reach into people’s lives, get to know them, and share in their joys, defeats, likes, dislikes, and more. It allows for unique and often touching insights to people’s lives, and for many of us, it provides great joy to feel a part of something bigger than ourselves. The power of friendshinp and caring is something that cannot be described in a single blog post, or in only a few lines. It is built over time, and built with trust.

Even if you skip the rest of this blog post, I hope that you will heed the message that a little boy named Jack Walden Murnahan has come to deliver about sharing in joys and pains of others, and the very deep-reaching power of communications with others that is so greatly enhanced through social media.

I will, however, since so many people have asked, share some of what lead up to Jack’s birth, and give you a story of this piece of my life that has been very touching to me. So read it if you like, and know that I have held your many well wishes and congratulations very dear.

Jack Walden’s Story of Social Media

A while back, I announced that my wife, Peggy (@pegmu) would soon give birth to our new baby. Since so many of our friends are spread around the world, the Internet and social media is clearly the best way to share our excitement and details with our friends and family. It is a lot faster to make a baby announcement using Twitter than to call each person to deliver the great news. Plus, it is a great way to show the new baby photos and video to the people who wish they could be there but cannot.

One of the earlier announcements of our joy was our Twitter Kids video. The video showed how our “human resources department” (Peggy) was working on bringing us more help to keep up with our work. If you have not seen it, you may get a chuckle from it. This was a fun video for all of us to make.

As the pregnancy progressed, I shared it with friends on Twitter and Facebook. On April 1st, I shared that we thought we would be welcoming our new baby that day. This was not an April Fools Day joke. Peggy was having very regular contractions, and they were increasingly strong. However, once she finally got too tired to stand any longer, she went to bed and the contractions subsided.

Several times since April 1st, we were pretty convinced that it was time to meet the little one. It really dragged on for a long time. We were visiting our midwife weekly, and we kept our fingers crossed that we would meet our baby soon. On April 16th, we made yet another a visit to our midwife following a series of contractions that seemed productive and getting closer together. Peggy was having contractions as frequent as every two minutes. Norla, our midwife, promptly put Peggy on a monitor and checked dilation. She sent us home and said that she would not be at all surprised to see us back either that night or the next day. At this point, Jack was already a week late, and we were becoming concerned that we may end up in a hospital where they would require a cesarean section (surgical) delivery, because Peggy had a cesarean section delivery with our first born, Simon. This was a very frightening prospect for Peggy, and she hoped to avoid it.

That night, Peggy did as she had been for days, she paced up and down our street, stayed on her feet, and hoped that gravity would help to enhance the labor, as it should. She finally wore out and had to go to bed. She was completely exhausted. She finally got some good rest, and I did my part to be sure the kids would not wake her too early. I wanted her to rest as much as possible because I was certain that she would have a very exhausting day ahead.

That morning, she walked with her mother around our neighborhood, and went shopping, mostly for the walk. By about 1:00pm, Peggy said that some of the contractions felt stronger, but they were just short ones that went away pretty quick. i suggested that we call Norla just to be safe. We described what was happening, and Norla said to come on in and we would take a look at her. As we left our home, it looked like things were getting more serious. Peggy had a couple of pretty strong contractions.

We arrived at the birth center at about 1:55pm and they checked her blood pressure, pulse, and the baby’s pulse. All of the sudden, Peggy was hit with a really strong contraction … I mean really strong. Of course, I tweeted it with one hand as I held her hand and comforted her. 🙂

It became clear that it would not be very long before we met our son. Norla could tell that things were happening fast, so she told Peggy to go ahead and put on a gown and that we would not be leaving without a baby in our arms. I will save some of the graphic details, but Peggy went from being dilated to 4cm to giving birth in under a half hour. She pushed three times and delivered our son directly into daddy’s waiting hands in under five minutes.

Minutes after his birth, Jack was ready to send his first tweet. Jack’s first official tweet was as follows:

Jack’s 1st tweet: Hi Tweeps. I was born! #baby #twanic #whew (now press enter, Jack)

That message, and the ones leading up to it, caused a huge rush of support and congratulations that I have been shockingly unprepared, I did not expect so many people to listen or care enough to show their interest of compassion for our moments of joy. I feel very honored by the warmth given to our family. As much as I want to respond individually to each person, I have provided this story to tell a bit about what happend for our family, and how deeply thankful I am to each person giving their support and love.

I owe a huge “thank you” to each of you. You really are the reasons that social media is great. You are the people who understand that the very best things in life are the people and relationships that you build. You are my social media rockstars!

Will Oprah (@oprah) Ruin Twitter?

I want to start by saying that from most I have seen and heard of Oprah (@oprah), she is an absolute doll. I love the heartfelt message that she represents to the world, and I hold her in very high regard. She has clearly surrounded herself with an aura of absolute attraction. I believe that she truly is the beautiful person she presents herself to be.

The Burning Question: Will Oprah Ruin Twitter?

Obviously, Oprah would not, and could not ruin Twitter. However, the power of her influence could have damaging effects on the fledgling community. I recently questioned the responsiveness of Twitter to the recent Mikeyy worm, and received many confirmations that the Twitter community was very unhappy with the company’s lack of communication regarding what to do about the worm. Some will recall that I was the first on the scene with the second outbreak and set the top trend on Twitter that late night and early morning. It left me with concerns about Twitter. So, let’s say Twitter is actually up to the task from a technology standpoint, as big a stretch as that may be. For this point, we will assume that Twitter made some miracle fix to the Fail Whale and speed problems of the service in the past couple days.

The concern about the Oprah Winfrey show is not about Oprah, but rather what happens with the sudden boom of any product or service. With sudden growth comes sudden growing pains. There will likely be a substantial enough fluctuation in new users that as an existing community, we may find difficulties in accommodating.

Be Ready for Twitter Newbies!

Along with the growth will likely come a huge number of people here for the wrong reasons or with bad methods. After all, how many people have you seen start twittering with a me, me, me message to advertise their goods or services only to become a really fine twitizen a short time later. We must allow patience and understanding, and show that Twitter is a great place to settle in, relax, and build great relationships. However, in the beginning, this may be a challenge. An additional challenge is that it may be much harder to discern true spammers with great people just trying to get started. Most users eventually develop their own system of deciding which users to follow, and which to block. This comfortable system could be thrown into a complete upset with a massive mainstream influx in users.

I certainly welcome the many newbies. I really hope that they will find me for some early tips on how to play nice. I am not saying that I am a Twitter teddy bear or anything like that, but I do have a few tips to offer, and I certainly understand the great value of developing friendships using Twitter.

I want to hear your thoughts. Please give your comments here on this blog, and feel free to give other readers your Twitter username in the form of http://twitter.com/murnahan (substiture the murnahan part).