My Story: It’s hard for me to imagine life without technology. After all, I am a part of Generation Y, the age commonly referred to as the Net Generation. I was born around the same time as the World Wide Web, so I guess you could say we grew up together. I remember the days [...]]]>

My Story: It’s hard for me to imagine life without technology. After all, I am a part of Generation Y, the age commonly referred to as the Net Generation. I was born around the same time as the World Wide Web, so I guess you could say we grew up together.

I remember the days of boxy computer monitors and when the slow, grey machine that my dad had in his office gradually made its way into my school and home. I began studying basic computer functions during “Library Time” at school and playing “Oregon Trail” for fun (awesome game, by the way). Computers were still pretty strange to me, though. They were just for playing solitaire or typing school papers. Everything changed when computers moved into the social world.

The Explosion: By late elementary school, all of my friends had become obsessed with AIM. Then everyone migrated to MySpace, and then Facebook, and now there is somewhat of an epic battle going on between Facebook and Twitter. Off of each of these networking explosions, there sprouted more connections to the music industry, advertising, business relations, etc. It seems social networking now affects everyone in some way.

Of course different businesses try to target different age groups, but my guess is that most companies are constantly focusing on how to market to the up-and-coming working class. In the current case, that class is Generation Y. Since this generation has social media bonds that go way back, it is to be expected that marketers will have a presence on social networking websites. Indeed, more and more businesses have been getting on board the Facebook and Twitter bandwagons. But it’s not that simple. There are lots of questions to be answered:

• Which networking site is the best? Facebook or Twitter?
• Which features on each of these sites are worth most of our time and focus?
• Should we make efforts to connect with other businesses via social networking?
• What is the best way to update/post on our account?

I’m not here to answer all of these questions because the answers are different for each business, but each of these areas are worth considering as opposed to blindly posting for the sake of having some sort of internet presence. However, if you’re looking to market to the next working generation, I do have some recommendations.

The Facts: A 2011 report from PewInternet examines percentages of Twitter users within various age groups: 18% of people are 18–24, 19% of people are 25–34, and 14% of people are 35–44. The most striking observation is the 10% increase of tweeters ages 25–34 since last year, the largest growth among all the age groups. On the other hand, several reports in the past few years have concluded that users older than 35 are quickly on the rise in the world of Facebook. It seems that Twitter is getting younger, and Facebook is getting older.

What’s going on here? From a personal standpoint, and I think I speak for many friends my age as well, Facebook has become too fake. The basic concept is: you sign up for a profile, you choose pictures of yourself to display to others, you fill out information about yourself (a great opportunity to make yourself look pretty smart), and you “like” or comment on other posts or pages. All of these activities are performed on the giant stage known as “News Feed.” True, it’s genius. But it’s also a big show.

The Solution: Generation Y is looking for up-to-date and honest businesses. To us, Facebook has become a social scene. Twitter, on the other hand, is like a database with endless information. People can share ideas and interact with one other; you can ask a question and get relevant answers. Because Twitter is made up of users’ ability to thoughtfully contribute, businesses that tweet seem more authentic and relevant.

I think I speak for my generation again when I say that campaigns are not the best way to get us to buy. Sure, Facebook pages are good for some businesses, but all of those little ads on the sides of News Feed pages are pretty annoying. Instead, we tend to buy products based on our peers. So this means that businesses should build up foundations of trusted and credible content and use these as platforms to connect with people and grow their communities. Because of reasons I listed in the previous paragraph, Twitter seems to be the way to accomplish this strategy.

Don’t get me wrong, Facebook can be a great outlet for businesses. Facebook is wonderful for popular products that don’t tend to cause a lot of internal debate when buyers are trying to decide whether or not they should support it. For example, the Oreo Facebook page is catchy and has done really well. But for businesses in the process of building trust to create a dedicated client base, Twitter is the way to go.

So what are you doing to attract Generation Y? Which social networks are best for your business? With which generation is your current style of marketing most successful?

Not everyone likes Twitter or Facebook. Some use social media sparingly and some use it excessively. I use social media somewhere in between the two and take it for granted. I forget that it’s free. Until the other day. When Twitter lost all of my @ messages. I was not happy. Maybe they’ll eventually show [...]]]>

Not everyone likes Twitter or Facebook. Some use social media sparingly and some use it excessively. I use social media somewhere in between the two and take it for granted. I forget that it’s free.

Until the other day. When Twitter lost all of my @ messages.

I was not happy. Maybe they’ll eventually show up again, but I’m guessing they disappeared during some database cleanup–never to be recovered.

Oh man… how ticked would people be if Facebook disappeared tomorrow? Well, I can think of some people who might not be upset, but a good majority of people rely on it for a lot of things. If all of your messages from someone disappeared, you’d probably be a little peeved. But do we have a right to be? It’s not like we’re paying for the service (I know, we put up with ads).

So is my dissatisfaction justified? Should I be upset that Twitter lost all of my @ messages? Or was I just taking their free service for granted?

Even his mom thought it was wrong. “Mean-spirited,” she said. Bill Simons, writer, blogger, podcaster, NBA basketball fanatic, Celtic fan, opened a Twitter feed with this stated purpose: “A far-fetched idea to see if we can mobilize Celtics chants during a playoff game.“ May 11 | the concept is born. His big push, Game 6 [...]]]>

Even his mom thought it was wrong. “Mean-spirited,” she said. Bill Simons, writer, blogger, podcaster, NBA basketball fanatic, Celtic fan, opened a Twitter feed with this stated purpose: “A far-fetched idea to see if we can mobilize Celtics chants during a playoff game.“

May 11 | the concept is born. His big push, Game 6 of the Celtics | Cavaliers series on May 13. Followers: 13,000+

May 13th | 11 pm.  It takes awhile, but by the last quarter the stadium chants grow louder and louder reminding the Cavaliers their superstar, LeBron, is a free agent at the end of the season.  If you watch the last 3 minutes of the game you’ll see and hear it. Bill signs off: 

Bill Simmons mobilized an entire stadium of Celtics fans to chant against the Cavaliers during Game 6 of the NBA Playoffs. He did it entirely through Twitter.

I’m left wondering…Is there a degree of social manipulation where it’s too much? Does this action cross it?

We’ve seen an explosion of social spaces during the past couple of years – Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc. Many organizations have built their own social space to provide the communication needs of their people. I live in several virtual worlds or neighborhoods, some public and some private, and I just got bit by an ugly [...]]]>

We’ve seen an explosion of social spaces during the past couple of years – Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc. Many organizations have built their own social space to provide the communication needs of their people. I live in several virtual worlds or neighborhoods, some public and some private, and I just got bit by an ugly downside of this!
I teach one MBA class in which we use an online world that includes many of the social networking tools including email. I teach that class one semester every other year.

Recently, unknown to me, a whole bunch of new people moved into this world. They represent a group that I’m very, very interested in — prospective students! They are the life blood of a teacher. No students. No one to teach. No reason for existence! One of the new kids on the block decided to send me a communication via this space. Since I’m not teaching the MBA course this semester, I don’t frequent that space and completely missed the communication. Until today, when I was notified that a major change had been made to the space, so I decided I should make sure I still exist in that space. Upon entering the space I was greeted with a 2 month old message from a perspective student! Horror of horrors! Not a good way to impress such a person to invest tens of thousands of dollars to come to my institution for a 21st century liberal arts education!

Communication is a key aspect of this type of education. We sell it. We brag on it. We promote it. We teach it. But in this case, it seems obvious that WE MISSED IT. Or at least I missed it. It never dawned on me that a prospective student even had access to that space.
What’s the solution?
•    remove myself from all these extra spaces? not going to happen
•    spend time in each space every day? not enough time in a day!
•    notify everyone everywhere that I prefer to receive my communications in a specific space? while I would like this, I don’t think everyone else would like to have to keep track of which space I prefer!

In my opinion, as a seasoned bit builder, and keeping in line with Alan Cooper’s exhortations about software interfaces in his outstanding book The Inmates are Running the Asylum, the only reasonable solution is to improve the software! The space should, recognizing the importance of communication, give me the option of having my emails automatically forwarded to another space. There are other variations I can think of on this option, but I’ll leave those for the interaction designers of this world to decide. May their very small tribe increase so we can free the inmates from running the asylum!

A word to businesses – be careful to instruct your people to know which spaces they are in and make sure they don’t miss any important business related interactions in those spaces! Poor communication is not good for business.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at http://woosters.org/dan/?p=584

Do you ever get lost in your Twitter feed? Maybe it’s just me but sometimes when I leave Twitter for a while and then return to find that I have 3278 new tweets I become a bit overwhelmed. How in the world will I be able to read all those tweets much less respond and [...]]]>

Do you ever get lost in your Twitter feed? Maybe it’s just me but sometimes when I leave Twitter for a while and then return to find that I have 3278 new tweets I become a bit overwhelmed. How in the world will I be able to read all those tweets much less respond and engage in conversation?

I find myself a Twitter Panner – you know someone who pans the streams / feeds of tweets looking for that golden nugget of information. In other words just like a gold panner searched for gold in the streams out West so I search for gold in the digital streams of Twitter. Sometimes I miss good tweets and sometimes I scoop them up. I just have to consistently skim through the endless stream of data in order to find those nuggets of truth.

Once you’ve been on twitter for a while you recognize who to look out for in the stream. So I simply skim through tweets (occasionally finding some good stuff) until I find those people I have identified as providing helpful information or fun tweets. I then read what they have to say and refer to anyone they might have mentioned.

Here are just a few (of the many) people I have found to provide golden nuggets in the stream of tweets:

@thebrandbuilder – helpful articles and thoughts on social media and branding
@BillCosby – always good for a laugh
@ChickfilA – only b/c I just ate lunch there and love their food
@ShellyKramer – all around fun and helpful articles on a variety of topics
@BrainTraffic – great for helpful web content

This in no way means the other people I follow are boring / irrelevant / unhelpful. Like I said these are a few of the many people I follow.

What can you walk away with? Know what you’re looking for in the stream of tweets. Identify where to find those golden nuggets of information. Retweet them. And as always make sure your tweets are “golden nuggets” and not “fools gold.”

Happy panning!
(Shameless plug: follow The Worthwhile Company on Twitter — @Worthwhile)

All you Twitter fanatics crack me up. Not you Twitter fans — you’re cool. I dig you. But for all you people who engage in verbal make-out sessions with Twitter at every networking event, I have a message for you: Life called. It misses you. Where are the innovators on Twitter? The ones who don’t [...]]]>

All you Twitter fanatics crack me up. Not you Twitter fans — you’re cool. I dig you. But for all you people who engage in verbal make-out sessions with Twitter at every networking event, I have a message for you: Life called. It misses you.

Where are the innovators on Twitter? The ones who don’t “Join the Conversation” … but take the “Conversation” and turn it on its head? Twitter is, and always has been, a tool. And while some are keeping it at the tool-for-chatting level, it’s time for others to step it up. It’s time for Twitter to be used in new and innovative ways.

Defining the Next Level
Please understand what’s being discussed here. We’re not talking about more tools for using Twitter to simply “talk” and “manage.” Blah-Blah-Blah. Not Tweetie or Co-Tweet or TweetDeck. Nor am I talking about a Twitter app that’s fun to mess around with like TwitPic, GroupTweet or Twitterpool (<– see what I did there?).

I’m talking about using Twitter to create something revolutionary. Something game changing. Perhaps it’s so simple that somebody says, “Dude! Why didn’t I think of that?” Perhaps it’s so out there that nobody sees, at least at first, what the value of the tool is. The point is this: there are tons of tools and apps that are niche and that help people do “something.” But …

… what if you created a tool that was a game changer — something that changed an entire industry?

Now That’s What I’m Talking About
I found such an example just yesterday. I met Gary Zukowski, “Founder & Chief Bottle Washer” of TweetMyJobs.com. The idea is brilliantly simple: You’re a company looking to post a job opening online. You go to TweetMyJobs.com. They tweet your job. Simple enough, right? But here’s the deets:

• TweetMyJobs.com has more than 6,100 twitter accounts at its disposal. (You can’t create that many now; but TweetMyJobs started early enough and has gone through the ropes to obtain permission from Twitter. So, no competition)
• TweetMyJobs.com has more than 100,000 followers over its 6,100 accounts
• At the time that I’m writing this, there have been over 300,000 jobs tweeted over TweetMyJobs’ accounts. (Yes, you read that right … makes the word ‘recession’ sound irrelevant, doesn’t it?)
• Netflix, Kelly Services, Home Shopping Network, and FedEx are among hundreds of regional and national companies that use TweetMyJobs.com

So how has TweetMyJobs.com been a game changer? Well, for starters: It costs a small fraction of the cash it takes to post a job on Monster.com or Career Builder. And these days — those savings are gold to companies.

Second: It goes after a far different market. According to Gary, their tracking has shown that most of the people following and using TweetMyJobs.com’s twitter accounts are people passively searching for a new job. Many of them still have work and are just looking, often casually, for a different direction or better situation. Companies are relishing this crowd, and the fact that they can get to them cheaply.

So what’s the catch for TweetMyJobs? Well, none. They run off of a simple WordPress site and they use Twitter and its gloriously open API to do the rest. So that’s your overhead. And exposure? Well — PC Magazine rated them one of the Top 20 Job Boards online. They’ve been mentioned across multiple national news sources. So yeah, they’re doing just fine.

So Just to Recap
Twitter can be so much more than just a “conversational tool.” It’s too often boxed in as such. Who is next to be like Gary and think outside the box? Who’s next to come up with a game changing way of using Twitter?

I asked Gary if people often responded to him with, “Well, that’s so simple. Anybody can do that!” (Which isn’t true, because of the restraints on Twitter accounts now, but I digress.) He said, “All the time.” I was quick to reply, “Pay no attention to them. You’re a genius.” Because while everyone else in the world is reacting to his idea, that’s all they can ever do. Because he thought of it.

So what’s your idea?

Are you struggling to make sense of social media and its effectiveness for your business? Never fear, you’re not alone. In fact, even while Worthwhile has seen great success from social media — from brand awareness to attaining new clients — we still can’t confidently say it’s been worth the investment we’ve put into it [...]]]>

Are you struggling to make sense of social media and its effectiveness for your business? Never fear, you’re not alone. In fact, even while Worthwhile has seen great success from social media — from brand awareness to attaining new clients — we still can’t confidently say it’s been worth the investment we’ve put into it thus far.

We keep convincing ourselves that there’s a missing element to all of this. Something we’re not seeing. I think a lot of businesses feel this way — like they’re on the precipice of figuring out how to effectively connect online, but just not quite there. Well, I think I’ve found that element, and I want to share it with you.

I had the privilege of attending Social Fresh on August 24th. It was a full-day extravaganza of people verbally making out with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogging. Gotta admit: It was a lot of fun.

While there, I remember one speaker (can’t remember who it was — I’ve searched through all my notes and still can’t find them) made the following point:

Too many businesses are getting on social media and trying to reach the masses, when really they should be focusing on one relationship at a time.

That hit me like a ton of bricks. I was able to put two and two together on that one because someone had just engaged me, personally on behalf of their company.

Charter — yes, folks: that Charter — recently won me over. Using Twitter, no less! AT&T had completely ripped me off on the DSL front. I had ordered a 6mb connection, and it turns out I only received 1.5mb. When I called to complain, customer service just said the sales person never should have led me to believe that I was getting 6mb, that it wasn’t available in my area. Are you serious?!

I also was supposed to get a Visa Check card loaded with some cash for switching to AT&T. But there AT&T was three months later saying I didn’t qualify for the reward back in April. When I said that I double and triple-checked with the sales person to confirm, they again told me that the sales person was “misinformed.”

I was furious that there is no accountability with the sales staff of AT&T. I had been lied to.

So I let my fury out on Twitter (here, here, here, here, here and here), and Charter took notice. Specifically Josh (@UMatter2Chtr2) took notice. Josh immediately began talking to me over Twitter directly about my problem and a solution Charter could offer to counter it.

I put up a fight with him, right over Twitter. I had left Charter for AT&T because I was frustrated with Charter’s customer service and their high rise in prices. Josh, though, would not be dissuaded. He kept talking with me, even DMing me his direct line so we could talk over the phone. 30 minutes later, I was a Charter customer again.

Now, I’m a Charter evangelist. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one out there; because there are quite a few haters here in Greenville. But I know how Charter treated me, and that means a lot.

__________________________________

So it got me thinking, who am I engaging directly? Who is the one person I want to build a relationship with?  The lesson is: Love them, and bend over backwards for them until they’re completely won over. They’ll sing your praises — and then you can move on to the next one. Having 20 followers on Twitter, and those twenty being strong evangelists for your company is far better than 2,000 followers who really could care less about what you bring to the conversation online.

So it’s not a question of how many relationships will you build this week …

… it’s a question of which one.

In public speaking or personal conversation, you have non-verbal communication — ways of communicating without actually saying words to communicate those elements. You’d think nonverbal communication would be lost with media — texting, blogs, social networks. Not so. The element I’m referring to is the ellipses. Wikipedia says that an ellipses can communicate “a pause [...]]]>

In public speaking or personal conversation, you have non-verbal communication — ways of communicating without actually saying words to communicate those elements. You’d think nonverbal communication would be lost with media — texting, blogs, social networks. Not so.

The element I’m referring to is the ellipses. Wikipedia says that an ellipses can communicate “a pause in speech, an unfinished thought or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence.” The main idea is that something has been left out of the thought. But the trouble is in figuring out if what has been left out affects what wasn’t left out.

The ironic thing is, half the entries on twitter must be unfinished thoughts! Whether I’m on Facebook, Twitter, or just checking email I encounter “…” constantly. It really does communicate something.

Examples:

• Mr. Uncertain who doesn’t know how to end a sentence — “Guess I’m going to the pool today…” (11 minutes ago)
• Ms. Unhelpful who has a lot to say, but nothing of actual value — “(After 3 paragraphs of explanation), so, I don’t really know what to tell you…” or “I guess it’s just up to you to decide…”
• Mr. and Mrs. Non-committal — “to tell the truth, I don’t really know what to think about all this…”

As I look over my Twitter and Facebook accounts, some people use “…” on the Web like others use hand gestures in conversation. Even though this sounds like a pet peeve (and probably is), consider the effect on others in the way you communicate. Take this last example from a staged Instant Message convo:

• Mike — “So, what do think about what the client said?”
• Steve — “I don’t really know…”
• Mike — “Well what are we going to do now?”
• Steve — “We could do it over again…”

In this brief example, you can see what I mean. The “…” here could mean: (1) I don’t have time to discuss it right now (2) I’m ticked at you already and don’t want to discuss anything further (3) I really don’t know what to say but I know it’s my turn to respond, (4) I’m really just throwing out ideas right now.

If nothing else, pause before using “…” today and make sure it isn’t going to fog up communication or even cause you to miscommunicate.

Taking advantage of our three day holiday weekend, Stephan and I went to Charleston for the day with his brother.  On the way down to the beach, we played a little game: Love it or Hate it. Instead of being wishy-washy about our feelings, we were forced to be definitive about whether we loved something [...]]]>

Taking advantage of our three day holiday weekend, Stephan and I went to Charleston for the day with his brother.  On the way down to the beach, we played a little game: Love it or Hate it. Instead of being wishy-washy about our feelings, we were forced to be definitive about whether we loved something more than we hated it and vice versa. For example, I said that I loved mullets while Stephan and his brother both claimed to hate them. For them, their dislike overrode any entertainment they may have gotten from seeing them. Since I don’t remember a time where mullets were actually acceptable, I find them highly comical, and therefore, I love them. We also discovered that I loved station wagons while they both hated them–probably because they had one growing up. Some things we have in common are a love for Princess Diana, the beach (obviously), and hot dogs.

This game was a fun conversation starter since we got to defend our feelings of love or hate on different topics. The interesting part about it was that it forced me to make a decision about something that I may have been previously ambivalent about. I think this game points out how not black and white our lives are. Even though we all said that we loved hot dogs, I’m sure we’d agree that all hot dogs are definitely not created equal (Have you ever bitten into a hot dog and gotten something crunchy? yeah…).

This game gets even more complex for me if I think about the technological world. There is so much debate about the intended use of some applications: twitter, facebook, linked in etc. that it becomes harder to distinguish a definitive love or hate for some things after realizing how differently every person in the world could use a computer or a piece of software. Still, even after all the debate, it comes down to how useful the computer and technological advances have been for education, growth, business, and relationships. Ultimately, I’ve come to the conclusion that I love the computer and even some of those hard-to-love applications!

Remember in late 2003 and into 2004, when certain people started claiming their affiliation with “New Media.” Yeah, that was sooooooo 2004. New Media is done. Like a well-done steak with the gristle shriveled up. Yeah, it’s that done. Social media is the new hot news source. These past few weeks proved it. Heartbreak on [...]]]>

Remember in late 2003 and into 2004, when certain people started claiming their affiliation with “New Media.” Yeah, that was sooooooo 2004. New Media is done. Like a well-done steak with the gristle shriveled up. Yeah, it’s that done. Social media is the new hot news source. These past few weeks proved it.

Heartbreak on the Interwebz.

Long before Jon and Kate made their “shocking” announcement to dissolve their marriage, social media outlets were rocking — first with speculation, then with unconfirmed reports. Time stamps reveal that People Magazine actually published the divorce announcement on Twitter before officially publishing their report.

All in all, an estimated 10,000 tweets went out about Jon & Kate filing for divorce before the Monday night episode even ran. As of today, everything can be found on Twitter, from first hand accounts of running into Kate, to the publishing of the divorce papers via PDF.

Of course, Gov. Sanford was no less lucky. Though he was able to keep his affair private until he made his bombshell announcement, it took no time at all for the word to get out over Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and Yahoo Buzz. By the time the Spartanburg Herald could call for his resignation, there were thousands of people all over Twitter demanding the same thing. It made the newspaper look positively dated … and the demand came only 16 hours after the announcement.

Death and War

Over the last few weeks, Twitter has become a torchbearer for news regarding the Iran elections and subsequent protests. Twitter users were so far ahead of mainstream news coverage of the event that many began to cry foul towards the networks, CNN in particular. Before long, CNN was actually relying on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook to provide its coverage of Iran. That alone should tell you something, folks. While the press is still trying to peg the president on a few more sound bytes regarding Iran, people all over Twitter are showing support for the Iranian rebellion in various ways: changing avatar colors to green (you can do that here) and quickly spreading the word on tweets or news coming over the twittersphere.

Of course, we also saw the passing of three American icons this week: Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson. I found out about all three deaths via Twitter, watching the “Trending Topics” bar on the right. And I wasn’t the only one. Mr. Liebson of Portland, OR said it best when he tweeted: It’s a strange world when you follow CNN breaking news on twitter, but you learn Michael Jackson died from @McCainBlogette. “McCainBlogette” is Meghan McCain, the daughter of John McCain.

Bottom Line:

“The News,” as our parents knew it, was in trouble years ago. But now, even “The News” we know is under threat of extinction. CNN, Fox News, and others tried to stay on top of the game by creating social media accounts; but it’s still people, like you and me, who are breaking the news and spreading the word.

If there’s one thing this should teach us: The People will always hold a power that The Establishment will never be able to grasp.