Posts Tagged Be Useful
Posted on June 22, 2009 by Miller
Today I read a very interesting report on Twitter use from Hubspot. Its their 2nd ‘State of the Twittersphere’ report.
There’s a lot of other great info in the report that you can download by clicking here (by the way big ups to Chris Brogan for bringing this to my attention).
After reading the report I was a bit surprised to say the least. Especially when it seems like Twitter is mentioned incessantly on cable news, TV, and most recently as a catalyst for things that are happening right now in Tehran. Its everywhere. So why the huge amount of inactivity?
This data was gathered from 4.5 million users and there are some really surprising stats:
79.79% failed to provide a homepage URL
• 75.86% of users have not entered a bio in their profile
• 68.68% have not specified a location
• 55.50% are not following anyone
• 54.88% have never tweeted
• 52.71% have no followers
In an effort to quantify exactly how many dormant accounts exist, we labeled users as inactive if they satisfy all of the following conditions:
• Fewer than 10 followers
• Fewer than 10 friends
• Fewer than 10 updates
By this definition, 9.06% of all Twitter users are inactive.
First, I can’t tell you how many times in the past few months I’ve been at a party, family function, etc. when someone comes up and says “So, what exactly IS Twitter?” Guh. It’s not that I don’t want to help… Its just that Twitter isn’t any ONE THING. What it is depends on what you want it to be… Want to find cool links? Want to take customer service to the next level? Want to get loads of information on a particular industry or just find out if your customers are talking about your brand online? Yeah, you can do that. I really don’t think the ‘What Are You Doing’ description holds water anymore and for many people that are just getting started, that’s what they think tweets are: “Taking a dump.” “Picking up the kids.” “Eating a ham sandwich.” If you’re going to tell me just what you’re doing … you’re not going to have a great expierince with this tool.
So I’m thinking that one of the biggest reasons behind the stats in the report is that people just don’t know what the hell Twitter IS, nor how to use it effectively. That goes double for brands. Maybe triple… Its the openness that may be a tough thing for lots of people. Facebook was easily definable as a tool - connect with people you know. Once you get there, you realize that there’s so much more to it, but at least there is a jump off point. Same with things like MySpace (find good music, connect with friends) and even Match.com (find a mate). I don’t think Twitter has that yet.
So I guess I’ll leave this post with a couple of links and questions… First, I wrote a post a couple months ago about how to Be Useful on Twitter. Its gotten a lot of positive feedback, so if you’re looking for a primer, maybe this can help. On the other end of the spectrum, check out “How Not To Use Twitter” from Social Media Today (big ups to @theyinspire for passing the link along to me).
But what about you? How to YOU use Twitter, and how would you describe it? Or don’t you?
Posted on May 5, 2009 by Miller
image by bcostin
I was very fortunate to have one of my posts picked up by the popular blog Twitip last week. In case you’re wondering, the post was giving users 10 Ways to Be Useful on Twitter.
The post got mostly a warm response and was retweeted over 1,500 times, which made me feel like I provided some useful content to people. By the way, thanks to everyone who retweeted the post or shared their comments. Very nice of you.
One of the questions that a commenter raised I gave me an idea for this post. He mentioned that it seemed strange that my post was being retweeted so much for someone with only about 300 followers. Could this be spam? Why didn’t I have more?
It’s not a dumb question, and I’m not trying to pick on him. He brings up a good point, because I think to a certain extent we are all judged (or we ourselves judge others) by things like the number of followers we have, or the number of ‘friends’ we have on Facebook.
We naturally look for some sort of metric to use when deciding whether to follow or friend someone that we don’t know. And its weird isn’t it? Do we do this because we want to determine if the account simply isn’t spam? Is it some sort of digital popularity contest? Do we only want to hang out with the popular kids? Or, is it because we’re careful about who we want to let into our network – even though the gateway to entry is only the click of a mouse.
Does that make the quality of information I’m able to provide less valid that anyone else’s? I don’t know, but I hope not. And would I love to have 50K followers? Absolutely. But, here’s the point: Its not the size of your network that matters – it’s the quality.
I’d argue that it’s not at all about the number of followers someone has (though I’m guilty of checking that out too). I look for a few things. First, what’s their ratio of followers to those they are following? If they’re following a thousand people but only have 10 followers – that’s a red flag. It tells me that they’re not participating in the conversation, or will try to sell me some get rich quick scheme.
I also ALWAYS give their page and the Bio a quick scan. If they’re sending out useful information that interests or helps me, or if their bio makes them sound like an interesting person – they’re in.
Ladies and Gentlemen, anyone can go out and follow a thousand people in an hour. You also will probably get a fair amount of follows back thanks to services that auto-follow or people who just follow back as a courtesy (which is great for people who just love making connections with as many people as possible). But as twitter grows, and networks grow, and the amount of information thrown at you grows its going to be more important than ever to be useful and provide good content to your network. Give people value and your network will grow organically, I promise.
Afterall, Twitter is a great tool for conversations, but also a great opportunity to create your network. Its not like Facebook where both sides need to agree to follow one another. With Twitter, you can have a one to one, or one to many relationship, and because of this, I’d urge everyone to cultivate their networks – find what works for you when you’re thinking of following people, and focus on quality, not quantity.
Posted on April 8, 2009 by Miller
With Twitter being the big buzz word all over the MSM, blogs and just about everywhere you look, it seems like everyone is jumping on the Twitter bandwagon. And that’s not a bad thing at all. But most people don’t know how to ‘use’ it or don’t understand how it can be a great tool meet new people, manage lots of conversations, track buzz, and help your business. While there’s no one RIGHT WAY to use Twitter, the ‘What Are You Doing’ moniker is just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s 10 ways to Be Useful on Twitter:
1. BE NICE - Its a big big world out there with so many cool people talking about every topic imangineable. If you like what someone is saying, Follow them. Just dug a good article they wrote on their blog? Leave a comment, or tell others about their post. Its just good manners. Likewise, if they Re-Tweet one of your messages or link up your blog post, give a shout out or just say thanks. It goes a long way.
2. The Art of the Retweet - Retweeting is really effective way to spread good information quickly. Really quickly. I’m a re-tweet-aholic. There’s so many great links I see from people I’m following that in many cases, the people that follow me would also dig. So you Retweet. It keeps the links flowing and helps good ideas get exposed to tons of people.
3. Bring It - Face it, we’re ALL super passionate about something, or an expert in some particular field. Maybe you know more than anyone else about vintage He-Man toys, are a beer enthusiast, or a travel guru. Maybe you are good at connecting people. Search.Twitter.com is your friend and mark my words, it’ll be one of the most valuable pages on the web very very soon. Plug in your search terms and ‘boom goes the dynamite.‘ You’ve got a real time stream of conversations happening on that topic. Engage. Help people. Share your knowledge. Then Repeat.
4. Be You - You’ve only got 140 characters to get your point across. That’s what makes Twitter a killer-app. You have to be brief. Get to the damn point. But at the same time, BE YOU. Tweet like you speak. Talk about things that matter to YOU. Your best asset is authenticity.
5. Don’t Spam - I’m sure you’ll be tempted to talk about all the great things your business can offer, or send a million notices of your upcoming event. But here’s the thing. No One Cares About Your Business (see Krista’s article for more info). Be authentic, show you’re knowledgeable, and put a link to your biz in your description on your profile. If you’ve got the chops and show it, when people are looking for the type of service you offer, you’ll be top of mind. Its all about the soft sell.
6. Have a Tool Box - Use apps like TweetDeck or Twirl or Tweetie to keep an eye on your conversations and groups of followers. Once things start growing they grow quick, so its important to build systems that will allow you to interact, track, and manage your Tweeps.
7. Integrate - Make sure your updates are posted in real time cross platform. Have them injected on your blog, make them automatically appear on your Facebook profile, and post your @handle at the end of comments you post. All this will help people engage with you regardless of where they found your content.
8. Hashtags are your friends - If you’re tweeting about an event or topic that’s trending, give it a #hashtag. It will help when searching for certain topics. #FollowFriday is a great weekly tag where you can suggest people others should follow.
9. Keep Your Profile Current - Make sure you have links and a good description of yourself in your profile. Potential followers and friends use this to get a sense of who you are, what you do, and use it as a way to find additional content you might be putting out.
10. Be Useful - Don’t overdo it. Don’t Be That Guy. And don’t tell us incessantly about stuff we don’t care about. It doesn’t matter to me that every day you tweet out that you just picked up your kids from work, or are cooking dinner, or just woke up, or that you’re going to the bathroom. So stop it. Now. Everyone has something to bring to the table that’s egaging, fun, and can help the conversation. So Be Useful, and get to it.
