Archive for the Twitter Category
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Twitter celebrated its 5th birthday last week. Unlike the five year old in my house, I’m fairly confident Twitter’s party didn’t have an Optimus Prime pinata and a Autobot cake… Twitter’s loss. Milestones always seem to me like a good time to reflect and ruminate. Of course, I wasn’t there on day one, but I’ve been on Twitter for a while (just over 4 years), and it’s certainly had a big impact on me. A few things that stand out in my mind: I joined in April 2007, but didn’t really start tweeting regularly until June 2008. Like all applications, it takes time to find your groove, figure out how it fits into your work flow. Does it make life easier/better/more satisfying? My rule of thumb for new Twitter users is to give it 30 days and try to follow/be followed by about 100 people. I’ve sent almost 20,000 tweets... Continue Reading
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We’re kicking off another year at the University of Oregon. I’m not teaching social media-focused classes this term, but I always encourage my students to tweet and use a hashtag for the course. This term you’ll likely see #J350 and #J453 tags from students. Because the classes aren’t social media oriented (although certainly infused), I don’t take time to “teach” Twitter. But I’m not under the illusion that it’s intuitive and doesn’t need to be demonstrated. It’s been awhile since a did a post with resources and tips for those new to the microblogging platform, so here you go! Some of my favorite resources on Twitter basics Twitter 101 for Business: Written by the folks at Twitter, this guide is a terrific how to on using Twitter professionally. For journalism students, you really do have to think about all social media in that way. You’re a professional communicator and all... Continue Reading
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Bloglines, my first feedreader, announced this week that it would shut down October 1. If one can feel nostalgic about something like that, I certainly did. The spokesperson said that the “writing was on the wall,” that most people were getting their news from Twitter & Facebook. I’m not going to disagree that more people are indeed doing so, but I don’t think the feedreader is dead. At least not for people who work in communications. You can’t possibly get all your news from Twitter and Facebook. However, you also can’t subscribe to every blog on your topics of interest. Using the two tools in a complementary way will help you stay in the know and also save you time. Find the right people to follow It’s important to find the opinion leaders and influencers for you on Twitter. There’s a lot of noise, so be smart about who you... Continue Reading
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Recently, I was (very!) honored to be included on Valerie Maltoni’s list of 100 PR People Worth Following. Because Valerie is so widely read and clearly well-respected, my Twitter follower count jumped by about 350 – 400 people in the course of three days. I enjoy meeting new people through Twitter and I genuinely try to follow back people who look like they would add value to my experience there. It took several days for me to go through the profiles of each new follow (the only ones I skipped were brands I was not interested in, spambots, etc.). I didn’t necessarily learn anything “new,” but going through so many profiles, there were a few lessons that were really highlighted by this experience. So you want a follow back? Here are my tips: Include your location: I am much more likely to follow you back if you’re in my neck... Continue Reading
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Image by luc legay via Flickr The question that I hear the most about Twitter is “How do I find people to follow?” Twitter often seems a bit overwhelming at first, but when you find the right people to follow (and follow you back) you can start to build really meaningful connections. To start, figure out who the thought leaders are. You can get a good sense of these by checking out lists of recommended people to follow. Three great lists: Dave Fleet’s two lists of people to follow: one, two. The Twitter Power 150 (the twitter IDs of the top 150 marketing, advertising and PR bloggers) But maybe you’re looking for people in a specific niche or outside the realm of marketing, PR and advertising? Some good applications to try. TweepSearch: This site will let you enter keywords or locations and searches people bios. WeFollow: Twitterers tag themselves with... Continue Reading
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Twitter, the microblogging tool, is becoming increasingly important for PR students and young professionals. The smart people are already on Twitter and building their brand, creating relationships and gaining knowledge. But if you’re not and you’re thinking about it. Here are my favorite posts. Robert French from Auburn University asked his Twitter network recently what value they find in participating. The responses tended to fall in a handful of categories: networking following news finding breaking stories (before MSM gets them) opportunity to meet people you’d not have a chance to meet, otherwise connecting with the industry discovering new trends/ideas experimenting with new tools finding internships/jobs news organizations use Twitter to find leads You can see all the tweets here. All of those things are true for me! But twitter is not valuable unless you participate and build a network that extends beyond your circle of friends. So to get started:... Continue Reading
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