You Twitter haters can say what you want about it, but it surely is helping fulfill the early promise of the web to make the world smaller.
Yesterday, I asked (via Twitter) about everyone’s favorite Mexican food appetizer, as I was making chicken enchiladas for Buffy night and wanted input on what to serve with that. Within 10 minutes, I had nearly 15 replies. The verdict? Chips and salsa are big favorites, as is guacamole, queso, and the traditional appetizer, everyone’s favorite: tequila. (So, of course, I had to make them all. Well, I didn’t actually make tequila. I didn’t have any agave plants handy.)
Speaking of Twitter’s usefulness, I also learned that today that Britney Spears lost custody of her kids. If not for Twitter, I would have such more limited knowledge about the world around me.
Yesterday, Natala Menezes (@natala) from Microsoft adCenter joined me on GoodKarma on Webmaster Radio. You can download the podcast or just click play below.
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We talked about all things Twitter and took questions and comments from both the chatroom and (fittingly) Twitter. Thanks to everyone who chimed in and sent us @ tweets.
What is Twitter?
Twitter is a microblogging platform that Natala describes as “social text messaging”. You send out short messages (via SMS, IM, web, or a third-party app) about what you’re doing, what you’re wondering about, maybe a question that you have, and anyone “following” you gets the updates in any one of a number of ways. (For instance, you can add an app in Facebook that causes your Twitter updates to show up there.) You can also track particular keywords (for instance, you can get twitters from anyone talking about your brand).
For more details about Twitter and how to use it, see Chris Brogan’s Newbie’s Guide to Twitter and Caroline Middlebrook’s Twitter Guide.
In short:
How is it useful to search marketers?
You can use Twitter for search marketing in several ways. An obvious one is reputation management. There’s a lot on the web about me competing for first page ranking on a search for my name, but somehow, my Twitter profile comes in at number ten. Natala’s Twitter profile ranks number four for her name on Live Search.
Individual Twitter statuses can rank as well. You might write a short blurb about a particularly interesting blog post you wrote or new product page on your ecommerce site for an opportunity to rank in addition to the page itself.
And Twitters can drive traffic. You have to be careful about this. Many people, for instance, have unsubscribed from Guy Kawasaki’s twitters because they feel he simply spams his followers with links all the time. If you use WordPress, you can install a plugin that automatically Twitters links to new blog posts, but be cautious with this. Michael Gray (@graywolf) does this, but that’s not all he Twitters. He also updates with lots of other interesting information and thoughts. Search Engine Land (@sengineland) does this as well, but they are strictly a news site, so the assumption is that anyone following Search Engine Land on Twitter is expecting notifications of new stories. I occasionally Twitter about new blog posts (I’ll likely Twitter this one), but I really only do this when I write something that I think might be of extra interest. Otherwise, I Twitter about needing more coffee.
I have found that when I post a link on Twitter, I get a good amount of referral traffic, so people do click on them.
On the show, Natala pointed out that she gets Twitters on her phone, and it’s often not convenient for her to click links. I only get a few Twitters on my phone. I mostly scan the web interface, where it’s easier to click links, although if I get a link on my phone that seems particularly interesting, I’ll save the text message so I can look it up later.
How is it useful for brands?
Todd Friesen (@oilman) wondered if Twitter could ever become a really useful marketing tool. Brands can use Twitter in a number of ways. If nothing else, you can use it to track conversations about you. Natala, for instance, mentioned that she often Twitters about Alaska Airlines, as she flies a lot (I have no idea what that’s like; heh). Alaska could track mentions of them to see what people are saying – if they’re having good or bad experiences and how discussions about those experiences are impacting brand perception. Rick Klau (@rklau) of Feedburner tracks mentions of his product and Twitters back answers to questions that people have.
You can easily track a keyword by texting or IMing “track + keyword” to Twitter (for instance track feedburner). If you want to track over the web, you can use Terraminds to search Twitter for your keywords, then subscribe to the RSS feed of that search.
Brands like Jet Blue (among others) use Twitter to offer exclusive promotions and sales. Drive, a short-lived TV show, Twittered details about show production during airtime to generate interest.
You can also use Twitter as part of your overall community engagement strategy. Get involved in the conversation. Become part of the community. If it’s true that we can’t actively engage with more than 200 people, then Twitter is a great way to get connected to that 200, who each are connected to another 200, who each are… Well, you know.
Susan Reynold’s recent frozen peas campaign in support of the American Cancer Society is a great example of how Twitter can virally spread a message. As is Greg Boser’s recent Twitter “joke” at Pubcon.
How is it useful for personal social interaction?
Many people use Twitter to stay in touch with their friends. For instance, you might Twitter that you’re thinking of heading out to a local bar for a drink and is anyone around to join you? At the airport last night, Natala Twittered a question about the weather in Seattle (we were about to fly back) and she got at least four responses in around 10 minutes.
How is it useful for current events?
On the show, we talked about the recent death of the ex-Prime Minister in Pakistan (actually, we mispoke and said the Prime Minister and in short order, got a Twitter from Deepak Singh (@mndoci) correcting us!). Natala said she first heard the news via Twitter. Current Buzz talks about how journalists aren’t allowed into the country and have found it difficult to get accurate details, but a dentist inside Pakistan has been Twittering as “teeth” with the latest news.
I learned about the latest earthquake in San Francisco from Twitter. And I often get news I wouldn’t otherwise see from Twitter.
How do you balance personal and professional tweets?
Several people asked this question during the show including @SEMaven. This is a hard question (the same question could be asked of any kind of online interaction, such as blogging and forum participation). I think it really depends on the person and the situation. How separate to you want to keep your personal and professional life? Are you representing a large brand or yourself? If you’re representing a large brand, you want to come across as authentic, but you probably want a separate personal account.
Stuart Maxwell (@stumax) asked “what should I tweet?” Are some updates too personal? If you choose to maintain one account for both professional and personal use, you may seem more genuine, but you also have to be aware of how noisy your Twitters might come across. For instance, if you send a lot of personal replies to friends, those who are following you for industry news might unsubscribe. Michael Gray recommends that no more than 20% of your Twitters be off topic.
What addons exist for Twitter?
An Bui (@anwith1n) wondered what the most useful third party apps for Twitter are. You can use a number of third-party apps for posting and reading Twitters. If you’re a visual person, you might like Twitter blocks, which graphically shows you updates and Twitter “neighborhoods”. In addition to receiving updates via the web, SMS, or IM, you can also Twitter from Outlook, your Blackberry, your iPod, or a standalone client, such as Twitteriffic (for Mac) or Snitter (for either Mac or PC).
You can use Hashtags to tag your Twitters with an event tag, much like people tag pictures of events on Flickr. Twitter Hacks has the latest Twitter tricks.
Tweeterboard shows you the top 100 Twitterers and gives you stats on about 2600 people. How is this useful? If you’re a top Twitter, you become more visible and can gain more followers. And you can use the stats to find out who is most influential for your niche as guidance for who to reach out to. Jeremiah Owyang has some tips on becoming more popular on Twitter. Be interesting and useful. Make your Twitter profile visible on places like Facebook and your blog. Follow others. Ask lots of questions. Reply to people. Basically, get actively involved.
Use Terraminds to set up an RSS feed that alerts you when people are talking about your brand and keywords you’re interested in.
You can use a Twitter widget to display your latest updates on your blog (see mine in the lower right sidebar) and can use a plugin to automatically update Twitter with your latest blog posts. CShel, in the chatroom, recommended Alex King’s WordPress plugins for Twitter.
What’s the best way to manage being connected/not connected? Is it rude to check your twitters during Christmas dinner?
Marc Levin (@dogballs) wanted to know how to check your Twitters at the dinner table without being yelled at. I used to only read Twitter on the web, but I’ve started getting Twitters on my phone lately, and to be honest, I really sort of like it. Here are my tips:
As for Twittering during Christmas dinner? That probably depends on how tolerant your family is of your technology addiction in general. I tend to text and email a lot, but I’ve been trying to cut back lately. I might need a technology patch.
How mainstream is Twitter?
Well, Natala’s mom is on it, but she’s pretty hip. Twitter was a key plot element in a recent episode of CSI, so it’s definitely gaining in popularity. Even though it may not have millions of users yet, enough influencers use it who will see interesting tidbits and blog about them for their readers that you can definitely reach a large audience with it, albeit sometimes indirectly. For instance, going back to the Jet Blue example, only 555 people are following those Twitters, but some of those 555 are likely travel bloggers who post about the more interesting deals.
More questions?
I’m usually really good about keeping up on what’s going in in the world around me through my RSS feeds. Lately though, with all the travel and work and sitting on the balcony watching the seals, I’ve been getting behind in my reading. I seem to be keeping up OK though, just by skimming Sphinn, Techmeme, and my Facebook newsfeed. And surprisingly, I seem to get a lot of news lately from Twitter.
The Twitter-Only View
So, I wondered, what if I only got news through Twitter. How lopsided would my world view be? I suppose this experiment would be very different for everyone, because unlike a similar experiment with something like Sphinn, the news you get depends very heavily on who you’re following.
As I mentioned the other day, I recently started having some Twitters sent to my phone, but I primarily still keep up using the web interface. Twitter by phone is great for random messages from close friends (“we’re having dinner at my house, who wants to come over?”), but the web seems to work much better for following everyone else. For one thing, it’s much easier to click on links people post when I’m not driving in my car at 60mph.
So what does the world look like through Twitter? Actually, pretty comprehensive! Sure, maybe what people are having for dinner and where they’re shopping isn’t exactly news, but here are things I learned in just the last few days:
All in all, not a bad view of the world. I like that the people I follow aren’t reading the same sites as I am so I get much more variety the types of news than I might if I just read my feeds.
A Facebook Perspective
My Facebook news feed has potential too (particularly if enough people add the new Google News Facebook application). My current feed is:
Augment all that with Sphinn hot topics and Searchcap to keep me up-to-date on search, with a little Techmeme tossed in for good measure, and I’m set.
In a world of information overload, with everyone jumping on the crowdsourcing bandwagon, why not take advantage of others to do the work of sorting through it all for you!
What’s not to love about Twitter? It’s nowhere near the commitment of a blog. You don’t have to dodge people chucking books and sheep at your head like you do with Facebook, and it captures the brilliant laziness of a Christmas letter — why send personal messages to your friends when you can send an instant message to all of them at once?
Until yesterday, I only used the web version to update my status and browse through what my friends were doing. If I was traveling, I used the mobile web version (which is to say, mostly, I’ve used the mobile version). As with many things, I never used it in the way it was originally intended. I think the idea is that you find out what your friends are doing via text message and then you text back what’s going on with you. I would think this concept falls apart with more than a few friends, not only because you wouldn’t have time to do anything except check your phone, but also because you’d eventually run out of money paying your text messaging bills.
But everyone I know is on the Twitter-by-text bandwagon, and I was feeling a little left out. Natala said that the fastest way to get in touch with her was by Twitter. And I’ll never forget having dinner with a bunch of fellow geeks after Gnomedex, with everyone’s phones on the table, vibrating every few seconds with Twitter updates.
So yesterday, I decided to give it a try. First, I checked over the list of people I’m following. If I was going to start getting text messages about every waking moment of someone’s day, I figured they should be from people I actually know. Then, I hit the switch and on came the texts.
First thing I noticed? That you feel very popular and surrounded by friends when you’re getting texts from them every few minutes. Twitter messages on my phone make me feel warm and fuzzy in a way that scrolling through a web page just can’t measure up to. Yay Twitter. Send me more!
I also noticed that sometimes I would get a Twitter text long before it made it to the web version, and in some cases, the web version didn’t show up at all. I need to keep text messaging on just so I don’t miss anything!
Next, I realized that my phone really doesn’t have much storage space. Things filled up pretty quickly. I have an unlimited text messaging plan, so I wasn’t worried about costs, but I need to hit that delete button more quickly.
And then I found a fatal flaw with the direct messages coming to my phone. It’s difficult enough for me to keep up with and reply to regular email. When someone sends me a direct message via Twitter that then goes to my phone, how can I possibly remember to email that person back if I don’t have time at that very second to reply?
My next problem was that I didn’t actually read the directions and wasn’t sure how to send Twitters from my phone. So, my ability to Twitter each new moment was a bit hindered.
But the biggest problem? Robert Scoble. I was overloaded with Scoble Twitters that piled on like that downpour of salt following around that girl with the umbrella. Ironically, he was Twittering to people who were complaining about his barrage of Twitters.
@jbb tells me I’ve broken Twitter’s unwritten rules again and that I should go back to my blog. Listen: there’s a little unfollow button” in Twitter. Just use it. Why try to make me feel bad? I have a lot to say. If you don’t want to listen, unfollow.
I totally agree. What kind of whiner subscribes to what someone is writing and then complains about the frequency of that writing. Dude, unsubscribe.
Indeed, it’s ridiculous for me to complain about getting his Twitters on my phone.
Except.
I’m not following Scoble on Twitter.
Because he’s so prolific and I have such little time, I much prefer to scroll through his blog or Twitter feed when I have time. His is pull, rather than push, content.
As you can see, when I look at Scoble’s profile, I see the “follow” button.
Compare that to Baratunde who I am following, whose profile shows a status of “following”.
So why am I getting Scoble’s Twitters on my phone? I don’t see them in the web version of Twitter. He is following me, but I don’t get the Twitters of anyone else following me who I’m not following in return.
I turned off phone notifications while I figure it out. I might try following him, then setting his notifications to off, although that seems like a bit of a hack. (I do need a way to get back that feeling of all my friends keeping me company with their texts though, so it might be worth it.)
A while back people were talking about Scoble hijacking the newsfeed on Facebook. I have my account set to “less of the Scoble” and I still get him there too.
Maybe social networks just operate now with default Scoble, whether you sign up for him or not.
