Independent Thinking » Twitter

Twitter, Followers, and First Date Syndrome

Daria Steigman — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:02:58 +0000

I 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

Daria Steigman — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:03:05 +0000

What 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.

Are Your Customers Feeling the Love?

Daria Steigman — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:48:57 +0000

We 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).

Why I Quit Klout

Daria Steigman — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:04:26 +0000

I 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).

Whose Privacy?

Daria Steigman — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 12:32:07 +0000

A 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).

12 Ways to Lose a Customer

Daria Steigman — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:05:08 +0000

So much of customer service should be easy, and yet companies screw it up every day.

A new survey by Consumer Reports finds that the top three gripes of customers are the inability to reach a human on the phone, phone trees, and rude salespeople. Rounding out the top five: long hold times and unhelpful solutions.

What the survey results suggest is that companies that excel at customer service are doing three things right:

Using technology to improve customer service (e.g., answering the phone, phone callbacks instead of keeping you on a holding cue, live Web chat options, useful online FAQs, Twitter support, and so forth)
Empowering employees so they can solve problems rather than read a problem-solving script (read The Key To Great Customer Service for a great example of this)
Listening to customers (e.g., picking good hold music instead of playing sales messages on an endless loop, selling rather than trying to up-sell)

Is any of this really so hard to figure out?

Have You TweetPsych-ed Yourself Lately?

Daria Steigman — Tue, 24 May 2011 10:05:36 +0000

Want a good laugh? Run your TweetPsych profile.

TweetPsych–

“creates a psychological profile … and compares it to the thousands already in the database. This identifies those traits that are used more or less frequently by the user analyzed.”

My TweetPsych says that, compared to the “average user”:

I tweet about the future 56 percent more
I tweet positive sentiments 53 percent more
I tweet about thinking 48 percent more
I tweet about anxiety 39 percent more (apparently when I’m not tweeting positive thoughts)
I tweet about numbers 37 percent more
I tweet about constructive behavior 34 percent more

There’s more of course. I also apparently tweet a lot less about the past, work, learning, the media, and physical sensations than the average user. My tweets also contain about 34 percent less “primordial” content, which is defined as “lower-level dream-state and unconscious modes of thought. Some researchers refer to this as reptilian thought.” Whew.

TweetPsych is the brainchild of Dan Zarrella, so I’m sure there’s an analytic report and a book about the psychology of tweets in our future. Given how hilarious my “profile” is, however, I’m not sure what value any of this might have.

What do you think: Valuable tool or just a good laugh? Have your run your TweetPsych profile?

What’s Your Favorite Tweet Chat?

Daria Steigman — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 10:14:24 +0000

Tweet chats* can be a great way to connect with your online community, make serendipitous connections–and learn a lot too.

My favorite tweet chats:

Hashtag Social Media, which was started by my friend Marc Meyer. It’s all about social business (emphasis on business). And smart people sharing what they know and thinking through what comes next. (It runs on Tuesdays from 12 noon-1 p.m. EST.)
SoloPR, which is built around a community of small business PR, marketing, and communications professionals on Twitter. It is sometimes about PR, sometimes about business basics. I don’t always find the topics relevant to me–but I love the comaraderie that host Kellye Crane has created. (It runs on Wednesdays from 1-2 p.m. EST.)

I’ve also been trying lately to make it onto Marketing Profs Profschat (Fridays from 12 noon-1 p.m. EST) when I can.

There are several other great tweet chats, including a couple that are scheduled after hours when I’m disengaged from the office. Though I’ve been known to lurk around blogchat (Sundays nights) on occasion.

What’s your favorite tweet chat?

*For the uninitiated, tweet chats are organized conversations, on Twitter, around a defined topic. Each one has a hashtag (# sign) to make it searchable as the hour ticks by. Just picture 100 or 1,000 people in a room all talking to a host and each other, spreading ideas and/or shouting out stuff they just heard that’s worth sharing with their wider audiences. Get the idea?

Photo by Shannon Kringen (Flickr).

Libya, Liquor, and Comment Luv

Daria Steigman — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 10:11:54 +0000

I had real-time conversations about Libya, liquor (and European trade shows), and CommentLuv the other day without leaving my desk or picking up a phone. Mickey Mouse and Gumby too.

Maybe it was the randomness of the topics. Or the serendipity of the connections. Or the fact that I can today talk so easily with people scattered from Tripoli to The Big Easy.

Heck, we all can.

Usually I take this immediacy for granted. But every now and then I have to catch my breath. It really is pretty remarkable how all of this is changing the way we can see, hear, touch, and understand our world.

Would you agree?

Photo by Tony Moyoy (Flickr).

10 Social Tools to Help Your Business

Daria Steigman — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 10:02:19 +0000

We talk a lot about the “big 5″ social media platforms (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr). But the conversation universe is a much bigger place, and there are other platforms, channels, and tools that just might make sense for your business too.

Here are 10 of them (thanks to a terrific closing session at the Frederick New Media and Technology Conference on February 24 that featured 10 speakers, three minutes each, talking about 10 less-well-known social tech tools):

BuddyPress. Beth Schillaci said that this “social networking in a box” open-source WordPress add-on lets you build a community within your own space (e.g., where you have control and own your data). Suggested uses, said Schillaci, include a safe space for a student community and an in-house (employee) community that you can tuck behind a firewall.
Tumblr. Jessica Hibbard called the microblogging site “an elegant solution” for curating content. She said it is an easy way to post content as diverse as video, photos, and chat scripts. Hibbard said business uses include showcasing your thought leadership by creating a central location for industry news (LL Bean does this) or as a way to connect with your community. There’s even an “ask me anything” button.
Meetup. Kelly Beach said that you need to give to your community before you can start selling, and a Meetup group is one way to do this. She also pointed out that, with 250,000 meetups monthly, it’s a great way to connect with like-minded people in your community.
SlideShare. See my 4 tips for using SlideShare.
Quora. Lisa Byrne said that the fledging Q&A site is great way to both be helpful to your community and to ask for help. She said one way to use Quora is to ask questions that will help you deliver a better service or build a better product. (See here for my early take on Quora.)
HootSuite. Like TweetDeck, Hootsuite is another popular Twitter client designed to make social media monitoring and engagement easier. Sandy Sponaugle said that Hootsuite supports several multimedia sites and recently rolled out a new analytics tool.
3D Visualization. Darian Robbins talked about using Google Earth to layer information to create a 3D representation about your business. Can you say cool?
Open Source E-Commerce Systems. Nick Damoulakis talked about six good e-commerce products. UberCart and WP e-commerce both work with WordPress. His favorite: Magento, which he termed a “mini-Amazon.com” (lots of functionality, but it’s not plug and play).
HTML5. Jon-Mikel Bailey said that HTML5 is all about user experience. He said that the code is easier to develop and maintain, and that it gives you lots of options (including chat features and better form management). This is developer geek chic. While the rest of us don’t have to know how to do it, it helps if we know what can be done.
Google Instant. Jeannine Morber said that Google is moving increasingly toward valuing relevance in search. She said that the biggest implication is that content is and will continue to be the most important and relevant element of your Web site.

What’s your favorite “outlier” social platform or tool?

Photo by tuppus (Flickr).