I’ve spent a lot of time over the past several months learning about Twitter and more recently answering the slue of questions from those new to the platform or interested learning more about it. As a result, we have recently put together a simple 90-minute crash course called…Twitter 101 (go figure:).

Here is a quick overview of this session – I would love your feedback…are we missing anything, did we focus on the wrong things, etc.?

Social Media Facts

• Social Media are platforms for interaction & relationships, not content and ads (as with traditional “old media”)
• 5 Misconceptions about Social Media:
  1. Another fad
  2. It’s for kids or teens
  3. Used by tech geeks
  4. Not for businesses
  5. A BIG waste of time
• Social networks & blogs = 4^th most popular online activity ahead of email
• 67% of overall global online community now visit these sites
• The biggest increase in visitors during 2008 to “member Community” web sites globally came from the 35-49 yr old age group (+11.3 million)

What is Twitter?

Twitter is “The world’s largest cocktail party!”  With 11 million registered users, Twitter is growing 6X faster than Facebook.

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ “updates” known as tweets. (wikipedia)

 Twitter Crash Course

• Create your Twitter profile
• Followers – see everything you tweet; Following – you see everything they tweet
• Search for other Tweeps – “find people”
• Tweeting:
  1. Begin engaging in conversations once you have some that you’re following
  2. Do tell people what you’re doing, but less than 50% of your tweets
  3. Share useful stories, blog posts, quotes or information – you want them to share with their followers
• @ Replies
• Direct Messages or DM’s
• Retweet or RT

 Time Management

Restricting your time on Twitter is important

• Block off three 15-20 minute blocks of time throughout your day
• When you’re on Twitter – don’t reply to email, answer phone calls etc. FOCUS on Twitter, ENGAGE
• If time allows, spend the evening catching up with your tweeps; especially if your time was cut short during the workday

 Useful Twitter Sources & Sites

www.tinyurl.com – shortens any URL allowing you to include it in your tweets, keeping it within the 140 characters

www.twitpic.com – allows you to share photos on Twitter

www.tweetdeck.com – helps you organize those you’re following into categories & makes it easier to tweet with each.

www.tweetlater.com – just like Google Alerts, it uses “keywords” to help you find others that are tweeting about things you’re interested in, allowing you to follow them.

www.twellow.com – allows you to search by category or industry + same functionality of Twitter Search

www.mrtweet.net – this is your personal networking agent that looks at your existing followers and following and lines you up with others that share similar traits.

As expected, I’ve heard a lot of buzz recently that Twitter is just a “fad”, “a waste of time”, “not for business”, etc. In fact, on Monday here in Chicago I had to laugh at the report from Bob Sirott at NBC 5 who completely misses the mark about the value of Twitter saying it is, “a place to tell other people what you’re doing.”  Such a one way dialog is quite obvious when you look at Bob’s Twitter page .

I’m not at all surprised about Bob’s reaction as this is bound to happen when you see such a surge of stories in the media. To validate this increase in media conversations, I did a quick Google News search on the top social media platforms including Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube.  Here’s what I found:

• #1 – 62,000 media mentions of Facebook
• #2 – 44,000 media mentions of Twitter
• #3 – 43,500 media mentions of YouTube
• #4 – 26,000 media mentions of MySpace

In fact, I’ve started doing a series of Twitter 101 sessions with individuals, businesses, organizations, etc. My goal is not to “hook” them in our wonderful world of Twitter…but to educate them about how they might be able to leverage Twitter as a valuable networking tool.

What do you think about Twitter? Is it hear to stay or just a lot of hype? Also, what are some of your best practices around using Twitter? Thanks!

Like most of you, I am hard at work trying to make a good living amidst all of the stress and negativity surrounding each of us every day. If it isn’t the recession, unemployment, financial distress, loss of home, or a slew of other negative things…it is something else. Earlier today, I was slapped with a quick dose of reality that I wanted to share with each of you.

As most of you have probably seen from my Twitter & Facebook profiles, a friend of mine that I went to college with at Drake University passed away yesterday afternoon. To put some context around this story, Shawndra was a 33 year-old mother who has been fighting colon cancer for the past 3 years. Her fight was miraculous as she became a role model for her young daughter, husband, family and the thousands of friends (like me) that have been honored to call her a friend over the years. 

So why in God’s name do I bless you with yet another dose of “bad news”…you might ask?!

It’s really quite simple. As much as we get wrapped up in our daily lives of work, blogging, social media, networking, etc. I wanted to take a minute to share Shawndra’s story with each of you in hopes that you might pass along just this one bit of advice…even though you may not know her…or me for that matter.

Folks, please remember that life has its many turns and bumps and we often get sidetracked by every such obstacle. Do me a HUGE favor and please take a minute tonight to reach out to someone (or many) that means a lot to you and your life. Tell them how much you love them and what they mean to you.

Sunday was Shawndra’s last opportunity to do this with her daughter, husband and family. They shared the love…and I felt it. Hopefully you and those you connect with tonight will feel that same love.

Thanks.

How many times over the past several months have you been asked about social media (i.e., blogging, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.)? Perhaps your family heard you talking about your Facebook page, a client overheard you mention something about your blog or perhaps a neighbor just learned about YouTube because a friend forwarded them a hilarious video. For whatever reason you have all of a sudden been singled out as an “expert” because you are participating across multiple social media platforms.

I’ve recently had this exact thing happen to me and I typically respond by saying, “I’m certainly not an ‘expert’ but I consider myself and advocate.”  Unless you’re Chris Brogan or a small handful of others that have been playing in this space from the very beginning, you likely aren’t an expert. Plus since this space is evolving every single day, just by nature of participation, we are all learning as we move along.

I would recommend that each of you reading this post strongly consider how you are positioning yourself in this ever changing space. I think there is an amazing opportunity to advocate (specifically to the business world) the basics of social media so folks aren’t jumping into these platforms without a clear understanding of how they work & how they work to your advantage.  Here are 5 speaking points I use with anyone to educate them on the basics of using social media:

1. What is social media? – I like to tell folks that social media are platforms for interaction and relationships, not content or ads (like traditional media). Don’t get me wrong, content is very important but only in the context of adding value to the interactions & relationships;
2. The State of the Social Media Industry – I also like to tell people that if you’re willing to be (1) consistent & (2) transparent, you’ll likely do well in the social media space.  People also love stats, so it is important that they understand the reality of today’s social media landscape – here are some great industry stats from Mashable;
3. Common misconceptions about social media – In order to best relate to someone that hasn’t yet explored social media, it is very important to discuss the most common misconceptions such as: it’s just another online fad, it’s just for teens or tech geeks, it’s not for business or it’s a BIG waste of time;
4. Corporate examples of social media programs – I was recently introduced to the good folks over at Blog Council who work with the largest corporations currently leveraging social media. They have some amazing case studies from companies such as Walmart, Intel, UPS and The Home Depot. I think this answers the question is it right for businesses:);
5. Develop a social media strategy – If at this point they are interested in moving forward, this step is a MUST. Like any good business goals, you must also be able to measure what you are doing across these social media platforms. I like to help them develop a strategy with realistic goals and measurements before they even start experimenting across these platforms.

What do you say to people who ask about social media as a whole or these specific platforms? Do you consider yourself to be an advocate? Personally, anyone who is willing to share their best practices and has proven (measurable) success should be talking to everyone experimenting with social media. If we don’t, this space that we all cherish and appreciate could quickly be flooded by folks that DON’T get it…and that would suck:).

This past holiday season I conducted a pseudo study of all the holiday or Christmas cards I received. Much to my sjogren, I discovered that almost 75% of the cards received hadn’t one bit of personalization on them except for the handwritten address. And probably half of those that weren’t personalized at all didn’t even have a handwritten address…but a printed lable. 

Please don’t get me wrong, we had a nice family photo card made via Shutterfly this year, last and probably the year prior.  But my wife and I usually sit down and sign each card typically writing a little personalized note on each. Besides, for many, this may be our only interaction with them all year!

Unfortunately, I believe we’re in a new era of “Template Personalization.” The dichotomy of the phrase is on purpose as ”template” and “personalization” are as opposite as “night” and “day.” Yet we see examples of this being used across all mediums of communication today. Here are 3 additional examples of “Template Personalization”:

• Blast Emails – We see this one all too much within the business world and in particular within public relations as many PR firms and professionals see a need to blast a pitch and worse yet, a release to hundreds of journalists…hoping for something to stick.
• Evite – I’ve used Evite’s many times and will continue to do so as they’re a great way of managing a party or event. But when you have a small group of friends, family or even coworkers your inviting for an event…why not use print invitations and write a personal invite on each?
• Automatic Direct Messages on Twitter - When you start following someone on Twitter (kind of like your “friends” on Facebook for those of you not using Twitter) there are many services out there that allow for you to send a template response or direct message to those that started following you. I’ve recently started calling attention to these via my Twitter account (here is a link to these tweets).

What are some good (or bad in this situation) examples of “Template Personalization” that you’ve seen? I look forward to adding to this list as I definitely plan on tweeting & posting on this subject often…consider it a pet peeve of mine:)