Tag: twitter usage

Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) Changed Media Forever

Much of America heard about the popularity competition between Ashton Kutcher and CNN. If you did not hear about it, it is pretty easy to find on Twitter.

Social Media Ignorance and Arrogance

How could this happen that such arrogance and ignorance has become the definition of mass media? Well, it has not, and I consider Ashton Kutcher an utter failure in this respect. I watched the ustream Webcast of Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) talking about how he was changing media forever. It was fascinating, but not in a good way. It was more like the kind of fascination that gives me big sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. This guy clearly has no idea what it is like to really connect with people. He will surely never understand or relate to the feeling I get from conversations I have with the many wonderful people I meet on Twitter. He surely will never understand the social in social media.

Ashton Kutcher Changing Media Forever?

Before I sound only negative on this, I will give some credit to Ashton. Maybe Ashton Kutcher is changing media forever. If we are lucky, his actions will help to emphasize the a point of social media failure on the part of those who do a lot of talking but no listening.

Perhaps Ashton Kutcher’s best contribution ever is his show of arrogance when he thanked all of his million Twitter followers and said that it was all their help that got him there. Oh, yeah, they got him “there” … wherever that is. He said, “You guys are all of it, because I can’t follow me”  and then said the perhaps the biggest failure line a person has ever uttered in social media. Ashton Kutcher said “There are a million people who need to be thanked, because I am not following me, I’m following you” (see timestamp 20:20 on the video below). I found this really odd, because Twitter shows that Ashton Kutcher’s @aplusk account is only following 73 people. These are just a couple of assinine quotes taken from Ashton Kutcher’s recent ustream Webcast, but feel free to watch it and draw your own opinions.

What is Social Media?

If you follow my blog or my Webcast, you probably know what social media is to me. I have written volumes of publicly-deemed valuable information. My opinions are my own, and I freely share them every day with others by way of social media. I don’t feel an obsessive need for acceptance, and I do not shudder to hear another’s disagreement. This, my friends, is a wonderful thing about social media. It is not just being heard, but also about hearing, and learning, and sharing ideas and opinions with others.

A short time ago, I sent out a tweet on Twitter. It read as follows: “I would rather have 10 people speak kindly of me than a million to preach at.” (see the tweet). Apparently there is a good number of people who feel the same way, because it was retweeted many times (see retweets).

Another tweet I sent said “Just an FYI: I receive a lot of tweets, but I respond to nearly every single one.” (see the tweet). Again, there was a huge response from this, both in retweets and in replies. I responded to each of the responses. Now, I do not respond to every retweet. That, for me, would be truly debilitating, but if somebody is talking to me, you can bet I am listening.

I am listening now, and I want your opinions. Please give your comments right here on this blog and let’s discuss this socially.

The Value of Social Media Marketing

What is the value of social media marketing and social networking to a business? This seems to be a very misunderstood subject, and one which too many companies tend to relate to other marketing efforts or advertising. If you really do not see the enormous value of social media marketing today, then it is likely because you are either going about it wrong or you are not embracing it at all. It is time that we change that for you and help you to see what this social media thing is all about.

Business Social Networking ROI

I hesitate to use the term “business social networking”, because it is an awkward term. So many businesses want to know the value of networking using social media, so this is a term I use for the company hoping to implement a social media plan. This could also apply to the growing number of individuals seeking new employment opportunities using social networking.

First, I want you to understand that much of what you learned about marketing and advertising goes out the window right now. This is not likely what you think it is … it is much more! If you try to measure a return on investment of social networking, it is a lot like putting a ROI on each handshake or each “hello” as you walk through your grocery store. It is not about advertising, and the same metrics cannot be applied. The value of social networking flows down many streams, and it harnesses the value of good public relations, communications, marketing, friendships, and so much more. There is much that simply cannot be measured in a spreadsheet, and thus it will often take a degree of faith, especially if you hire a social media consultant.

Social Media is “Networking” and it is “Social”

The term, social networking really says what it is, but I often find people who continually get it all wrong. Companies seeking to use social media for business purposes often get it wrong by trying to advertise their goods or services. This sets them up for an utter failure, and can often do more harm than good. Business people participating in social networks often find it hard to come out of their shell and actually be social. How do we fix this? Well here are just a few tips about social networking that you should not overlook:

  • Always put your first name in your profile! People want to know YOU, and not a username or company name. Some people will still communicate with you, but is it really you?
  • These people you meet on social networks don’t bite! Well, maybe a few do, but most will hug you rather than bite you.
  • Get to know people. Spend time with them, just as you would with a friend anywhere else.
  • Be yourself! I have said it a million times, but I mean it. We will not all get along, but most people will respect the individuality you show.
  • Do not tell me about your business and then not remember my name! If you do this at your local Chamber of Commerce function or worse, at a cocktail party, you will look like a buffoon. You are not a buffoon are you?
  • Remember that 100 people saying something nice about you to 100 other people is far more valuable than a few business prospects. When you have friends, you will have people who want to be helpful to you. The value of a friendly referral can go a long way!
  • Be respectful of others.

Social Networking Takes Dedication

If you cannot make a solid commitment to a social media plan, it is best to not start one at all. The people you will meet are real and you simply cannot make friends only to leave them behind. Just how seriously do I mean this? Let’s examine just a couple of my friends whom I met online and through these social networks I write about.

  • Peggy (my wife)
  • Mike, who is one of my closest friends, Web developer, and Kansas State Legislator.
  • Reg, who has children 6 years and 10 months old and a stepdaughter who is 21. Reg is also a social media giant.
  • Bianca, whom I met online in 1998 and communicate all the time. She lives in Austria and used to be an au pair in the USA.
  • Eric, who ate a 6 pound burrito, lives in Las Vegas, and sells bulletproof vests and armored cars.
  • Toni, who blogs and chats with friends even while her husband Royal sleeps beside her in bed. Oh, yes … and she is lovely!
  • Melissa, who nearly wets herself laughing at things I send her via Twitter.
  • Sail, who lives in Honolulu, Hawaii and has not been to a beach in the last month.
  • Cody, who lives in Calgary, Canada, likes to party, is a bodyguard to celebrities, and met a new love interest on my live Webcast (#Shabam, Cody!)
  • Misty, who lives in Manila, Philippines and loves chatting and great design.
  • This list can go on for thousands of people.

The people mentioned above and many more are among the very important relations I have met using social networking. I communicate with these people regularly online, on the telephone, and in person. They are all parts of a very important network of people whom I can count on to be friends, and to have something nice to say about me, with or without prompting.

The Social Media Commitment

Just how important is a commitment to social networking? Like any wise investment of your time or money, you will benefit from social media commensurate with your efforts. If you have seen the news, it should be clear by now that other forms of communication such as television, radio, and newspapers are failing. If you have not heard this, it should be even more clear just how much their reach has degraded. Social media is picking up where all of those others left off, and at the horizon is Twitter. With all of the huge changes in today’s communication methods in mind, you must ask yourself just how important it could be to your company to make a significant effort toward building a social network and social media plan before your competition does.

Can a Social Media Consultant Really Help?

This may seem like an alien question to many people. After all, if you are to be yourself, how can somebody be a better “you” than you, right? That is not what a social media consultant does.

When you venture into the unknown world of social networking, there are many pitfalls to avoid, and many useful tools that can help you. Having a professional on your side to guide you and to promote you can be a huge factor to your success in reaching the right audience with the right message and with the right approach.

The answer is YES! A social media consultant can be an immeasurable benefit to your social networking efforts, and should be chosen wisely.

Which Social Network Do I Prefer? Twitter of Course!

I offer you the links below to understand how important I consider Twitter. Also, see my other recent articles on Twitter.

My personal commitment to social networking and Internet marketing is greater than I would ever expect for one of my clients. However, I expect my clients to make a substantial commitment to their efforts in social networking. In order to explain how committed I am, I will simply say that I spend far more time cultivating relationships with my social networks than most people will ever spend in an office. This is not a 9:00am to 5:00pm process. 

Related Articles:          

Twitter Study Statistical and Social Results

NOTE: This is a follow up to my previous “ Twitter Usage Study“. Please Tweet This!

I want to start by saying that I am NOT a Twitter Expert. I think it is pretty early to give clear definition to what a “Twitter expert” really is. There are some Twitter users whom I would consider highly effective at propagating a message, but even many of the best will disclaim that extremely overused claim to being an expert. The fact is that those who are good at Twitter are good at people.

My Twitter Experience

This is a summary of my past ten days as a Twitter newbie. I have learned a lot in this time, and I found interesting results of my Twitter study. First, I will start with what matters, and then get to the numbers.

I used Twitter for three other projects I worked on in 2008, but I did not make a big effort to optimize my use. Only when I recently embraced Twitter as the vital social networking tool it represents, did I see the big picture. In this short time, I have made many observations and met a few people who really influenced me.

Twitter Study: The People Matters

I explained the importance of social networking relationships in my recent article “Three Kids Prove Social Networking Works“. The article tells how I met close friends online over a decade ago, including my closest friend and wife, Peggy in 2000. Nobody can tell me that the relationships are just a side-effect … they are what counts.

Each day I use Twitter, I notice that there are a few people I look forward to reading about and having a quick chat with. I will just name a few, but there are many more whom I enjoy and respect. If you follow my tweets, or look at my favorites you can start to see the people I respect and visit with the most. Some of the outstanding people I have had the privilege to chat with one-on-one and grow my respect for are as follows:  

Jim Connolly (@jimconnolly): I have gained a lot of respect for Jim, and I suggest everybody read his brilliantly authored “Top 10 Tips” and his story “Twitter and me” about deleting his group of over 20,000 followers to do things right the second time. Many people would consider Jim a Twitter expert.

Reg Saddler (@zaibatsu): Reg called me just after midnight and we talked for over two hours. I wrote about it in my article “Social Networking: A Call from Reg Saddler (zaibatsu)“. I have learned a lot from Reg, and he is a top-notch Twitter user with over 34,000 followers.

Jimmy Vee (@5ftHighMktgGuy): Jimmy has a certain familiar swagger that I respect. After reading about his business, “Gravitational Marketing: The Science of Attracting Customers“, watching his video, and reciprocal tweeting, I have come to like his style.

Joe Scanlon (@littlequiz): Joe is an Irish Blog Awards finalist, and I am excited for him at this recent achievement! Joe is a delight to visit with during the very late night or early morning hours (my time). He “gets it”!

Mari Smith (@marismith): Mari is a delight, and a very insightful lady. She is a joy in every communication. The author of “Why Facebook?: Social Networking for Fun and Profits!“, Mari understands that the people come first, and has many valuable lessons to share.

 

I would recommend following each of these people and learn from them, just as I have. They are each fine examples of the real people you can meet with Twitter.

I was on the telephone with a friend who asked me for a one sentence description of Twitter. I tweeted his question for others to address and then answered him “It is a great way to meet interesting people and gather useful information”. I very quickly received an answer back on Twitter that was almost identical to mine. This is the mindset that will work best, and people can identify with.

Twitter Disasters

If you are using Twitter for the wrong reasons, you may find yourself very frustrated. It is fine to join the community and align yourself with others where there is a potential mutual benefit. However, it is best to leave self-interest at the door and focus on being friendly and helpful. If your motivation is wrong, you may find this impossible.

Like every social media, there will be those who do the cyber equivalent of walking into a party and try to hand everybody their business card. People don’t have time or patience for that on Twitter … or the Internet for that matter. If you think that millions of people will congregate online with the purpose of being hit up with your pitch, you may do well to get a job at a carnival. People do not enjoy being sold at. Twitter is a conversation and not your personal billboard or bull horn.

I have noticed that there is an abundance of people trying to sell their services and products, while there are relatively few who are actually achieving it abundantly. What the Twitter achievers know is that the people are what matter, as I explained above.

What Gets Under Our Skin? My Observations:

  • Auto DM – Many people abhor the automated direct message they get when they begin to follow you. If they thought you were interesting, a lot of that goes out the window when they get a message like I received. It read as follows: “blah blah blah … buy my stuff and visit my website”. OK, that is not verbatim, but that is as close as I remembered it. No, I didn’t visit your “Magnificent Wonder-Widget” Website. I want to learn about you in time … don’t cram it down my throat like the guy at the carwash trying to sell me the extra greasy crap for the tires.
  • Link Guesswork – If others are to trust your taste and click on the link you sent, it had better not be misrepresented. When you provide a link, it is respectful to others and will be much better received if you give an accurate and concise description of what to expect.
  • Same Old Stuff – If we look at your profile and see that it shows a history of the same old thing just repeated in different ways, you strike out. You are a person, so behave that way. We are not looking for a machine to hand out lines of drivol … we want to know you. Show your personality! We may not all like you, but some of us surely will.

Twitter Study Statistics

I said I would share this with you, so here are some of the numbers. As it says in my initial “Twitter Usage Study“, I started the study with a relatively unused Twitter account (@murnahan) that had only 78 followers. Here are the present numbers at publish of this article:

  • 783 Followers
  • 97.4 Percentile Re-tweet
  • 100+ Cities (first 2 days)
  • 19 Native Languages
  • 482 Unique Referrals from Twitter.com to awebguy.com/ptt
  • 33 Countries
    • 1. United States
    • 2. United Kingdom
    • 3. Canada
    • 4. India
    • 5. Germany
    • 6. Australia
    • 7. Austria
    • 8. United Arab Emirates
    • 9. New Zealand
    • 10. Switzerland
    • 11. France
    • 12. Denmark
    • 13. Belgium
    • 14. Sweden
    • 15. Pakistan
    • 16. South Africa
    • 17. Russia
    • 18. Costa Rica
    • 19. Philippines
    • 20. Netherlands
    • 21. Turkey
    • 22. Indonesia
    • 23. Mexico
    • 24. Brazil
    • 25. Hong Kong
    • 26. Ukraine
    • 27. Rwanda
    • 28. Taiwan
    • 29. Italy
    • 30. Slovenia
    • 31. Spain
    • 32. Malaysia
    • 33. Montenegro

In the past ten days, the followers multiplied by ten. As I write this, I have 783 followers. You may see a chart of growth at twittercounter.com/murnahan. I also now show a 97.4 percentile re-tweet rate according to retweetrank.com/murnahan.

I launched the study on Saturday 7 February, and I knew it would perform weak for a couple days. The study ultimately did not have an overwhelming re-tweet rate, and now I know why, but it was picked up by some of the Twitter elite and sent to their followers. I believe the reason it did not travel as much as hoped is because Twitter users are absolutely sick to death of somebody trying to sell them on a new way to “be successful on Twitter”. I suspect that the description may have been viewed that way in tweets, but it simply is not the case. The hashtag #PTT made it around the world reasonably well, but it did not drive overwhelming Web traffic (under 500 referred from the passing of the tweet). This does not mean it was not heard, it just means that a lot of the message stayed within the confines of Twitter.

In the proper spirit of Twittering, I provide this to you in hopes that you find it interesting and useful. I would also like to offer these links that I found profoundly interesting. Please Tweet!

From Brooks Bayne: “The Newest Way To Game Twitter – Fake Followers” (tweet it!)
From Pete Cashmore: “The Science of ReTweets” (tweet it!)

Twitter Usage Study: Pass The Tweet #PTT

Twitter has become an invaluable tool for bloggers, news agencies, Internet marketers, and friends who want a greater connection with the world. This Twitter study is intended to see just how far Twitter can reach, and to find how useful Twitter can be for spreading a message quickly and broadly. Before you go any further, please Pass The Tweet #PTT now!

Pass The Tweet!
(be sure to enter “#ptt” in your tweet)

The Twitter Study

The intent of this Twitter study is to determine the potential reach of Twitter micro-blogging and to find just how fast a Twitter message known as a “Tweet” can reach around the world. Let’s just pretend that this is a huge news story that we want everybody to hear. I believe that many Twitter users will be shocked to see just how quickly a message can spread. Please note that I am not a “Power Tweeter”, and I have begun this study with a relatively new Twitter account with only 78 followers, and a blog that was launched in December 2008. It is intended to find the usability and reach of Twitter for an average user, and not just the Power-Blogger or the greatly influencial … just us average people. My “Pass The Tweet” project could be “The Tweet Heard Around the World” or it can just be a couple of Tweets among friends. Tweeters will decide. 

I will post progress here on this blog, and I also welcome you to give your comments and include your location.

I have chosen a Twitter hashtag of #ptt to track the progress of this study. In order to see the reach of the Twitter hashtag, you may check it at Twitter.com or Hashtags.org. I have also decided to embed a map from Amung.us to give a visual aid to the #ptt Twitter study.

 

What is Twitter?

Since I am sure there is somebody out there hiding under a rock asking “What is Twitter”, I will briefly explain. Twitter is a service that allows you to follow short 140 character news feeds of people you find interesting, and for people who find you interesting to follow your feeds. It is called micro-blogging, and it has caught on in a huge way. Twitter is being used by many television news agencies, bloggers, newspapers, and friends just wanting to have a greater connection with the world. Twitter may be used from a Web interface on their Website, Twitter.com, from your cell phone, from desktop software, or from many Twitter tools found easily on the Internet.

Twitter is Simple

Twitter owes a lot of its success to its simple call to action. Twitter, although a method of social networking, is perhaps the most simple to implement of all social networks. Signing up for a Twitter account should take most users under a minute. In addition to a very easy to master Website interface, there have been many tools developed by others to make Twitter even more simple for users to keep their Twitter status current. Whether from their desk or from their phone while stuck in traffic, Twitter users love the simple means to keep everybody up to date, quickly. Twitter is quicker than blogging, and because of a 140 character limit, users are less likely to encounter writer’s block than traditional blogging. Thus, we call it micro-blogging.

Twitter News Media

I found it very interesting when my local CBS affiliate in Topeka, Kansas did a story on the amazing reach of Twitter. They ran a story on a recent Tweet-up, where Twitter users around Topeka came together to meet in person and network with other Twitter users. It was a great success, and many were in attendance. It was such a success that it was only a day or two later when the Topeka ABC affiliate began promoting the use of Twitter to follow news and weather stories, which the CBS affiliate had been doing for some time. I believe that it was perhaps only when they saw a local Twitter reach that the power of the micro-blog really made sense to them.