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Twitter

Twitter, Followers, and First Date Syndrome

by Daria Steigman on January 30, 2012

Awkward Meeting of Terra Cotta Warriers, Twitter, Independent ThinkingI cleaned my Twitter house recently, dropping off over 200 people whose streams never grabbed my attention and/or with whom I rarely or never engaged.

This was not a lazy mass unfollow; I looked at every single account. One by one. (No, it didn’t all happen in one sitting.) And guess what? I can identify most of the avatars in my stream, and I know why I’m following you (e.g., marketing smarts, entrepreneur, funny, news source, runner, baseball fan, athlete, friend, tweet chatter, etc.).

My mantra for social is engagement.

Someone tweeted me the other day:

Informal Poll: Why Are You Following Me?

It’s the wrong question to ask me.

You see, I know why I followed you. But sometimes, like a first date, it goes nowhere.

Who do you follow–and why? Is it “the right reason” for you?

Photo by Shashi Bellamkonda (Flickr).

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How 1BandID Founder is Using Social Media to Build Virtual Shelf Space

by Daria Steigman on December 19, 2011

1BandID is Branding, 1 Customer at a TimeWhat do you do when the big boys own all the shelf space?

One approach is to build a virtual shelf, one person at a time. That’s what Joe Vukson is doing.

I met Vukson via Twitter earlier this year after I saw a press release about a new runner ID product. I tweeted to a friend that I didn’t understand how the product was any different from what was already on the market. Vukson chimed in, asking me what I meant. So we started tweeting back and forth as I tried to explain that I didn’t see any competitive differentiation. (I was wrong, but more on that in a minute.)

It wasn’t until the conversation had run its course that I learned that 1BandID is his product.

The Virtual Shelf Works

1BandID has a competitive differentiator: Vukson himself. In addition to engaging with people one-on-one, the budding entrepreneur moderates an on-point bimonthly Twitter chat (#trichat) and manages an active Facebook page. And he’s a runner and triathlete, so he’s walking the walk as he builds his community.

The big boys may own the storefront space, but who would you rather buy from?  I’m sending people to 1BandID–because I know Joe.

Disclosure: Vukson sent me the red 1BandID pictured above. The best part: my running motto, “Forward Motion,” etched in there with all the contact info. But I hope you know that free swag does not influence what I choose to write.

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Are Your Customers Feeling the Love?

by Daria Steigman on December 15, 2011

Connecting Customers With Your BrandWe talk a lot about connecting with customers (and clients, prospects, and so forth)–but are they feeling the love? In other words, are they connecting with us?

These are not the same thing.

What a Two-Way Connection Looks Like

I’ve always highly valued my University of Chicago education. And I’m the second generation to earn a degree there (my mom was first), and then my brother followed me. But other than sending me an alumni magazine, the only time I ever heard from the university was when they wanted money.

(Except for the awesome local U of C Entrepreneurs Group, but I’ve always viewed that more as a business group than a university group.)

Now, thanks to, UChicagoAlumni, I feel connected to the institution.

It’s not about a Twitter feed. It’s Tracey Swanson (the voice of UChicagoAlumni), who gets that talking to people (conversation), listening to them (he honored my request to change how he identified my affiliation with the university when retweeting me), and valuing what they’re doing (he shares the occasional blog post from here with his audience) are critical in forging a two-way connection.

What are you doing to ensure your customers are engaged with you?

Photo by Worthy FM (Flickr).

Have you signed up to receive the Independent Thinking newsletter? Now’s the time! Once a month I’ll send you exclusive, subscriber-only content highlighting interesting articles I’ve found, as well as tips on marketing, social media, and how to grow your business. Sign up today!

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Why I Quit Klout

by Daria Steigman on November 21, 2011

Klout, Social Media, Influence, Independent ThinkingI no longer have Klout.

I’m not sure what pushed me over the edge. Maybe it was the endless notifications urging me to urge my friends to sign up. Or the incessant efforts to get me to link to my Facebook account. Or the fact that it was so easy to game–and I don’t even like gaming.

Maybe it was the day Klout told me I’d lost my influence over @MagicPeaceLove (aka, my brother).

Guess what Klout? I can quit you.

Here’s the thing about influence: You can’t measure it with an algorithm. Computers can filter data, but you still need humans to provide the context.

Chuck Hemann led a terrific #socialmedia discussion on this topic recently. The transcript is here, and there’s some good food for thought in the tweet steam.

Do you have Klout? Why or why not?

Photo by Meg Wills (Flickr).

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Whose Privacy?

by Daria Steigman on June 15, 2011

Whose Privacy, social media, Steigman Communications, Independent ThinkingA colleague e-mailed me the other day to warn me:

Perhaps you aren’t aware, or care, but when I was trying to change my privacy settings, I noticed something about you… Your [Gmail] contact listing showed all your tweet history. I went to “Dashboard” scrolled down to “Social Circle and Content.” Your name was shown as the only one with content and then the listings. I guess that is what tweeting is about.

I just thought this might be a privacy issue for you as well because other contacts can also see it if they have Gmail?

I really appreciate that she cared enough to e-mail me (and I immediately said  ”thank you” and tried to explain why I was okay with this). But I was struck by the fact that this had raised a red flag. After all, I knew Gmail was rolling out  a new social connectivity feature–and I already use the very robust Rapportive to keep tabs on my contacts’ online activities.

But that’s me, and many of the people in my network.

And it wasn’t this person, or most of the people in her social and professional circles.

It’s useful to be reminded that the online world is still pretty small. We tweet, we tweetchat, and we put our “public-private” lives out there. To me, the only difference between doing this on Twitter and doing it at a conference or a cocktail party is the bigger paper trail.

But lots of people haven’t dipped their toes in. So we have work to do.

Photo by Lel4nd (Flickr).

Have you signed up to receive the Independent Thinking newsletter? Now’s the time! Once a month I’ll send you exclusive, subscriber-only content highlighting interesting articles I’ve found, as well as tips on marketing, social media, and how to grow your business. Sign up today!

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