Get rich quick schemes on Twitter

The web is like any other medium it soon gets filled by spammers and get rich quick artists who sell on thier idea to poor unsuspecting suckers in the hope of creaming off a few quid.

Twitter has been caught up in that in the only way it could - incredibly fast!

The number of tweets promising ways of getting 1000's of followers is incredible, even twitterers who have good long standing reputation get caught up in the volume game (I question on such and didn't get an answer). The question is why? What the point of having millions of followers if:

1. They don't know who you are
2. They have no relationship with you or your knowledge

If there two things at least aren't met then there is no connect with your message and therefore no point having millions of followers because you can't influence their behaviour. It all comes down to permission to speak to people. Twiterers are far better off having and handful of followers who will listen act and respond than millions who don't care.

Quality over Quantity every time

Social Networking, Twitter, Linkedin, FaceBook and all that

When is it too soon to begin a social networking marketing campaign? Twitter, Linkedin, FaceBook et all are all the rage at the moment and lots and lots of companies are using them to great effect. But there are a lot of companies who fail to understand the strength of the opportunity and are waiting for the best time to add it to their armoury.

What they aren't grasping is that there is never a right time to enter this now. The time to enter was about 2 years ago. Yes Twitter may not last very much longer, but there'll be something else around the corner and when that comes on you should move over to it.

Social Networking is just the same as word of mouth which is proven to be the strongest form of marketing, what scares people is the technology and time involved.

Yes it can be a time vampire but it means that you're spending time speak to your customers, asking them about your products and services and listening when they tell you something is crap, taking it on the chin and fixing it. When you get down to brass tacks and speak to customers fixing their real problems that's when magical things start to happen.

All Twitter, Linkedin and FaceBook do is make the process so much quicker and direct.

So if your company or organisation hasn't started using Social Networking yet then don't hang around start it now!

Just what is twitter anyway?

Twitter is the buzz word of the moment, its the big new thing that's going to change all the rules or so they say. Don't get me wrong I love Twitter and everything it stands for, no ads (yet) and freedom to post what you like (for the time being).

But there seems a fashion for just dropping Twitter into a conversation because its a new word. Although in Sheffield, my home city, its been used for years to describe 'to witter', which to be honest is a pretty good description of what most people do on it!

The question most asked is 'Just what is Twitter anyway' followed shortly by 'I just don't get it'.

My take on it is this: Twitter is no new thing, it's just a new website which is a really easy way to communicate with people and spread ideas. People are very used to texting, which means for most people that you keep your messages short and to the point, Twitter forces you to do that by restricting your message to 140 characters, including spaces.

So you use Twitter like any other communication tool, make sure your messages make sense, are polite and to the point.

As to who you follow, well that up to you. If you just want to follow your friends great, if you want to follow Stephen Fry (everybody does) that's fine too. Who follows you well that's up to you as well. Like any online community there are plenty of spammers and plenty of people just wanting to collect followers but ultimately if you don't want them to follow you then you can block them of if your such a private person then you can allow only certain people to follow you.

Really Twitter is no big deal, its definitely nothing to be scared of, in fact I think its a lot of fun and has loads of really great uses. Best way to to find out 'just what Twitter is' is to sign up and see for yourself.

Badmovieclub and Graham Linehan break Twitter!

Last night was the first and who knows last Bad Movie Club on Twitter. Maybe this was becasue it was Friday 13th or maybe becasue it was such an insane and easy idea.

Everyone watch the same bad film at the same time and give a running commentary
on Twitter

Well here are the numbers

• On 13th Feb 2009, around 2000 people watched the same ‘bad’ film at exactly the same time and shared their collective ‘disappointment’ via Twitter.
  40,000 individual comments were sent and tracked ‘live’ by the film’s audience.
  A total of around 80,000,000 ‘Tweets’ were therefore viewed in just 2hrs 40mins. To generate this much Twitter traffic, both Barack Obama & Stephen Fry would each have to sustain posting 68.4 Tweets an hour ‘at the same time’... on Friday they collectively averaged 1.7 per hour.

#badmovieclub on Twitter

Twitter is being used in the most imaginative ways. Just found Graham Linehan on Twitter @Glinner had he's running an experiment with the Bad Movie Club. Tonight at 9pm the club are watching M. Knight Shayamalan’s ‘The Happening’, which I paid to see in the cinema and I can tell you it really sucks.

Anyway the point is that all the members are watching the movie at the same time and tweeting their thoughts on this truly dreadful film. A great experiment and a good laugh to as well.

I don't see how this kind of collective event could have been managed without the use of Twitter. People all around the world are now using the Internet as it was envisage, well at least this far.

The Mad Men are getting clever on Twitter

Yesterday I Twitted a story from the BBC about how the series Mad Men is influencing fashion.

Very quickly after posting this I got two new followers Peggy Olson and Betty Draper both characters from the show.

Betty Draper has a blog Welcome to the Drapers which showcases life for an American housewife in the early 60's complete with recipes and hits for around the house. All perfectly put together to show the underlying stresses Betty is under in the series.

Peggy Olson has a LinkedIn site which states her experience as:

Peggy Olson’s Experience
Copywriter
Sterling Cooper
(Marketing and
Advertising industry)
1961 — Present (48 years)
I've worked on print and broadcast campaigns for clients such as Belle Jolie, Clearasil, Samsonite, Right Guard, Mohawk Airlines, Martinson's Coffee, and Playtex. I'm eager to learn and do all I can to improve my skills. I hope to be a creative director some day, but I know I have a lot to learn first.

This is such as perfect way to promote a series all about Ad men in the 60's by using modern methods.

Only question is what would the ad men of Sterling Cooper do with a smoking a drinking ban in the work place?

Twitter is really changing the world

Twitter and social media in general are changing the world - no really!

A guy using the ferry in New York posted some of the first pictures of the plane crash from his iPhone on Twitter within minutes of the incident.

This just would not have been possible even in the last two years. The news flashed around the world literally in seconds.

If anyone doubts the power that the Internet and social media have given the world now then they really are crazy. The world has changed, soon there will be two sets of people those on the inside and those outside.

Twittersphere here we come

Hey I'm getting advanced now. I've decided that just using Twitter via Twitter is so last week, so I've jut downloaded TweetDeck which seems to be the platform of choice at the moment. I'll let you know how I get on.

Great Twitter Tool

As A new user of Twitter, I was a bit lost on how to see how effective it was. Just found this great tool, after following a Twitter post.

http://twitter-friends.com/

Twitter Friends allows you to see all your twitter stats at a glance and even compare it to other twits (not sure that's the right term)

Four Twitter Tips

I joined Twitter just before Christmas. It's very odd at first but soon becomes pretty addictive.

Since I began to use it my Blog visits have gone up a huge amount which pleases me no end. It's tough to get hold of an idea what the etiquette is yet. But here are my thoughts:

1. Referencing your own blog entries is fine as long as you don't over do it. The whole point is to spread the love not blow just blow your own trumpet.
2. Saying nothing in particular some of the time is fine. There's only 140 characters so saying nothing on Twitter is fine too. Is this why the name is so close to witter? Sorry I realise that I'm wittering on myself now.
3. Following celebrities is fine, then encourage it. Just be warned that they can be just as boring as the rest of us when they only have a few words.
4. Butting in on someone else's Tweets is a bit rude, but can be very tempting. If you are going to do this make sure you give a good answer.

Twitter changing the world

At last the old firms are engaging in face to face marketing using Twitter. Giving direct answers is a big deal for the big companies who love to hide behind carefully crafted press releases, well now they are actively engaging and reaping the rewards

The Financial Times reports how they're doing it

I'm using twitter now myself and 140 words is tough but its getting easier plus its very quick on responses.