Archive for the ‘Twitter’ Category
A Beginners Guide to Twitter: 5 Semi-Practical Uses
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010Hate Twitter? Start a fake-celebrity/athlete-movie/tv-character-oh-snap!-sex-facts-jokes-Bieber/Jonas-lover/hater-rapper/model account.less than a minute ago via web
TheBestWorstAdvice
BestWorstAdvice
Many of my friends have held out on Twitter. When I tell them that I work at a social media company and often use Twitter, they take it upon themselves to try to prove to me why it’s stupid. I generally change the subject when they bring up their inevitable first point: “Twitter is just Facebook status posts.” I wouldn’t know because I don’t follow people whose typical tweets revolve around their grocery and laundry routines.
Basically, what I’m getting at is that Facebook and Twitter are different. Facebook is for friends. Twitter is for consuming media. Facebook is often a fruitless waste of time. Twitter is more useful, though your Twitter followers will not help you water your Farmville crops. To illustrate the practical nature of Twitter, I wrote this list for all of you holdouts. Without further ado, here are five ways to make your first foray into Twitter more meaningful.
Relive your childhood
Your favorite childhood star is on Twitter in all their washed up glory. For example, did you know that Pee-wee Herman is at the badass Sturgis motorcycle rally right now? And he’s leading the world’s largest group “Tequila Dance.” On another note, did you know that Weird Al crowd sources the content in his stage show? And you want know the best part of following both of these childhood heroes? Sometimes they talk to each other!
My top childhood hero picks: @peeweeherman @alyankovic @josecanseco
Win free stuff & get cheap deals
Companies give away tons of free junk on Twitter. I should know– SCG has had a hand in giving away thousands of dollars worth of free products for our clients. Do you like free stuff? Do you like exclusive deals? Follow your favorite brand or product on Twitter and you’re sure to run into tons of opportunities to save money and get free swag!
My top stingy picks: @jetblue@innatthemarket @virginamerica
Keep tabs on your friends and family
Whether you like it or not, your friends are on Twitter. Your family probably is too. My brother lives in Los Angeles, my sister lives in Boston, and my friends are scattered across the world. It’s nice to be able to see what they’re doing, what they’re interested in and what they care about on a daily basis despite our distance. Keeping in touch is hard, social media makes it easier.
My top friends and family picks: Dude, don’t be a creep!
Be the first to hear about breaking news
Yes, it’s true. Twitter is the fastest way to get both local and world news to your brainbox. Why? Because Twitter can be loaded on most phones, and people love to be the first to tweet about something exciting. Next time you hear sirens around where you live or work, do a Twitter search for that location and see how long it takes for you to find out what happened. We do that a lot in Pioneer Square.
My top news sources: Twitter Search @chicagobreaking @wallyhood
Lots of inappropriate/funny people use Twitter
I’m a man! I like dirty jokes and other similarly funny things. My editor did not like that I equated liking dirty jokes and being a man. Girls can like dirty jokes too; it just happens that I am in fact, a man. I also enjoy people who are not politically correct. Though I cannot tweet like some of my favorite inappropriate tweeters, no one can stop me from following them! So kick back and have some laughs!
My top funny picks: @garyjbusey @ericstangel @stephenathome
Social Media by the Numbers: Languages, Apps, and Mazda
Friday, July 30th, 2010
Numbers and Stats:
- Portuguese, Arabic, and Spanish lead growth of Facebook’s top languages.
- Windows Live Messanger is this week’s fastest growing Facebook app.
Changes and Additions to Facebook:
Facebook launches beta version of “Questions” in its publisher (see pic) to 1% of users. Questions are public, but it what else? They also removed the ability to post videos and events from your publisher. Here’s a more in-depth look. Facebook also launches a company run Page the hosts best practices for media companies.
Brand News:
Ford launches their reinvented Ford Explorer on Facebook. Reveals new content throughout the day and surpassed its goal of 50K fans to 53K (started at 42,500).
Mazda puts fans behind the wheel with its Facebook game, DriverVille.
Amazon launches an integration with Facebook that will pull data from you and your friend’s movie, music, and book preferences to make recommendations.
Twitter may be getting embeddable videos and photos in the tweet stream. Sweet!
Kanye gets on the Twitters – Aziz Ansari predicts them.
Oldest Twitter user, Ivy Bean, dies at 104.
…Increases video time limit to 15 minutes.
…And is banned from Russia!
Old Spice sales double with the Old Spice guy YouTube/Twitter campaign. Sales have increased by 107% in the past month!
R.I.P.B.B.
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
When Whopper peddling ad man Alex Bogusky announced his retirement from the ad game a few weeks back it was kind of like hearing about Jordan retiring. Granted, I don’t think you’ll see the former CP+B head (and later MDC man) donning the 45 and coming back into the game, but you get the picture – one of the greats is riding his Subservient Chicken off into the sunset.
And with the departure of probably one of the most-notable names (and hairstyles) in advertising since Ogilvy, so too goes @BogusBogusky.
The Twitter account, manned by a yet-unnamed writer has been using the morning to answer questions about his/her reasons for starting and continuing the account (some of which are actually heartfelt).
In a time where fake accounts pop up and die off as lawyers take up arms against the talented ghost Tweeters, the @BogusBogusky account gave a caricature in 140-character bursts of one of the most prolific, polarizing, and interesting people still in the advertising business.
So, cheers to whoever it is that’s been banging away at these Tweets for however long, and double cheers to Bogusky for not sending the suits after this person. In fact, the mystery Tweeter wouldn’t have continued if Bogusky himself hadn’t followed. Goodbye to the humor and goodbye, also, to one of the greatest ad minds in recent history.
Stats and Info in Bullets: SCG’s Weekly Social Media Digest Volume 3
Friday, July 16th, 2010Summer’s here, so why not buy a drink for your friend… on Facebook! That’s right, a REAL drink. Check it out.
Here’s some other cool and interesting stuff that happened this week in Facebook and Twitter. It’s stats and info in bullets:
Numbers and Stats:
- Facebook hits new traffic record with 141 million unique visitors in the US in June. Last year, this number was only 77 million.
- All of the below stats pertain to women aged 18-34 (Mashable reported on this)
- 1/3 check Facebook as soon as they wake up.
- 42% of women think posted photos of them “visibly intoxicated” are ok.
- 57% interact with people more online than face-to-face.
- 39% call themselves Facebook “addicts.”
- 21% check Facebook in the middle of the night.
- 63% network on Facebook.
- 58% use Facebook to keep tabs on “frenemies.”
- 50% are fine with being Facebook friends with complete strangers.
Changes and Additions to Facebook
- Microsoft launches Outlook Facebook integration. A Mashable exclusive.
- Microsoft’s Docs.com now lets Pages upload docs.
- Did you know that Facebook has a “Known Issues” Page?
- Facebook gives starter advice for new Page admins. In the pic is what they say to do.
Brand News
- Starbucks is the first brand to reach 10 million Facebook Likes. Congrats guys! 2M in a month, wow.
- Also, Facebook will always be free! Woo hoo!
- Twitter’s @earlybird has launched! Their first promotion was this week for a 2 for 1 deal to see Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
- Twitter search results now show people too reports Mashable.
*Microsoft is a client of Spring Creek Group.
Old Spice Man responds to your questions on YouTube
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010My longstanding quest to learn how to become a “real man” is over. It is over because the folks at Old Spice have not only taught me how a real man should look, smell, and act, but now, how one should tweet.
Earlier today, the already witty and masculine twitter handle of @OldSpice began answering fans’ @replies through personalized YouTube videos! The videos show the Old Spice guy, Isaiah Mustafa, wrapped in a towel in a bathroom answering @replies on Twitter, Yahoo Answers, and YouTube comments.
Here’s one of my favorites. A response to a YouTube comment from bballgirlsl981: “LMAO omg i freaking? love these ” – @OldSpice man attempts to clarify what “these” she means!
After watching a few of the other videos, I was “LMAO” like bballgirlsl981 and realized there was more to these macho six-pack ab videos: a well articulated, branding and social media strategy.
Although these videos only have direct engagement with one user, you could imagine the WOM and pass-a-long factor for bballgirlsl981 and her social networks. After the viral bug hit these Old Spice videos, I’m sure @OldSpice followership gained exponentially not only for the entertainment value, but due to the influx of @replies in hope of a video reply from a shirtless Mustafa.
I’d love to see more of these upclose-and-personal video replies – both from celebrities and brands. Brands could link instructional how-to’s or make important company statements, and celebrities can answer some of their Twitter followers’ most important questions. Questions like “@justinbieber: How do I get hair like the “Bieber-Cut?”
Those here at the office will tell you about my school-boyish excitement when Candace Cameron, aka D.J. Tanner from the 90′s hit show Full House, replied to my @reply with a “thanks, will do 
” Shoot, I almost screen-capped that baby! Needless to say, personalized video @replies create a greater connection with your fans, and brand ambassadors. It’s another way to get closer to your fans and followers.
Okay, I just mentioned Justin Bieber, D.J. Tanner, and Full House. I clearly need a little more Old Spice…
I’m on a horse.
Stats and Info in Bullets: SCG’s Weekly Social Media Digest Volume 2
Monday, July 12th, 2010It’s time for more! Lots of numbers in this one. Hooray for numbers! Any other cool stats or campaigns people saw this week?
Numbers and Stats:
- Facebook accounted for 75.73% of all social networking visits in the US in May.
- About 16B minutes are spent on Facebook a day.
- Facebook has about 60K servers.
- More than 3 billion photos are uploaded each month.
- 6B pieces of content are shared weekly.
- 1M photos are viewed every second.
Changes and Additions to Facebook:
- Facebook asking some people to set it as their default homepage.
Brand News
- Facebook “Like” buttons coming to email marketing. A report by Mashable.
- Ads work on Facebook according to Mulley Communications.
- Facebook only picked up 320,800 new monthly active users in June, compared to the 7.8 million it gathered in May. Info from InsideFacebook.
- Lady Gaga (the Page) became the first person on Facebook with 10M fans.
- Kraft Foods focuses messaging on Facebook by heavily promoting campaigns associated with Wheat Thins, Oreo, and Crystal Light. To note, they made their Oreo Facebook Page “more global.” Something other brands might consider.
- Windows Messenger leads this week’s list of fastest-gaining Facebook apps by daily active users (DAU). They gained 334K new DAUs.
- Facebook gifts die.
- Twitter search volume is up 33% since April reports Mashable.
- April = 600M search queries per day.
- June = 800M search queries per day.
- @earlybird – A new Twitter handle started by Twitter itself that tweets special offers to its followers. Link to Pete Cashmore’s CNN special column.
- Twitter’s official BlackBerry App exits beta thanks to beta testers.
- Rumor – Twitter may let users pay for self-promotion says Mashable.
- LeBron James gets 150K followers in 7 Hours and now has over 400K.
Thanks to InsideFacebook, Mashable, and CNN for providing being our resource for most of the content here.
NBA 2.0: Making Moves in the Age of Twitter
Friday, May 14th, 2010
The NBA playoffs are in full swing but this summer’s epic free agent class is overshadowing much of the playoff buzz. Why is this? Two of the three best players in the league, LeBron James and Dwayne Wade are going to be free agents this summer along with other superstars like Chris Bosh, Joe Johnson and many more. Media, fans and teams alike are rushing to create a social media buzz around why these players should stay or go. The theory is similar to that of the Betty White SNL Facebook campaign that created enough buzz to convince SNL producers to invite the 88 year old Golden Girls star to host last week’s show. If you create enough chatter they will come (or stay).
The Miami Heat’s marketing department just launched a campaign to keep Wade at http://www.wewantwade.com. This interactive microsite has generated enough traffic so far to crash their servers. The website is a “place to show your support for our MV3 and to help keep Dwanye Wade in Wade County”. They’ll be distributing media and fan kits to help Miamians show their support for their Chicago born franchise player. It also hosts recent tweets, video content and a built in message board where you can send Wade a message. There is also a push to get momentum behind the #wewantwade hashtag on Twitter. There are well over 200 #wewantwade mentions today alone. Here’s mine “#wewantwade in Chicago”. The funny thing about these campaigns is that people are turning them around to encourage these top tier players to go, not stay. Despite us rabble-rousers, kudos are definitely due to the Heat’s marketing department for creating a robust and interactive site that promises more free content up until Wade makes his decision (to play for the Bulls).
On the other side of the coin, the New York Daily News launched http://www.getlebron.com to encourage the reigning MVP to come to the Big Apple. They are also pushing the #getlebron hashtag which has blown up since LeBron and his fellow choke artists blew it last night. The site boasts a photo mash-up section where you can insert pictures of King James by New York landmarks and an open letter to LeBron discussion page. The effort that this traditional media outlet is putting behind this campaign is impressive and I expect it to really ramp now that the Cav’s season is over.
This is the question that Chris Bosh asked his followers on Twitter a couple of weeks ago, my reply “@chrisbosh GO TO CHICAGO DUH”. It created a lot of buzz in the sports world and left me wondering did he actually expect to get any helpful answers. To me this use of social media was a conundrum and seemed to just be a ploy to get @replies. But it does lead me to believe that the more active free agent tweeters will give us hints about their choices as the summer rolls on.
These and other free agency related social media efforts are just tipping off so consider yourselves ahead of the curve on this buzz when it hits full speed on July 1st when free agency (and my summer) officially begin.
A Social Media Feel Good Story
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010
Boeing’s recent situation regarding an ambitious 8 year old boy named Harry turned what could have been a typical corporate cold shoulder persona into a feel good made for TV storyline – with Social Media playing the main protagonist’s role.
Here’s the basic premise:
A young and avid airplane lover submits his aircraft design to Boeing – fully equipped with firefighting capabilities. In return, he receives a form letter pretty much rejecting his idea in a stiff, corporate template. His father, unsure of how to break a child’s creative spirits, turns to his blog and Twitter account for advice. . .
Let the power of social media (as well as essential social skills) take over from here. People appalled by the company’s response began voicing this disappointment in channels like Twitter. Luckily, Boeing got the message, as they had just begun tweeting a few weeks earlier. They actively responded to Harry supporters, thus halting the income of negative messages and instead ended up getting props for hearing and responding. “It was just so cool to see a company become kind of human,” Harry’s dad said.
Harry made out pretty well too. The Future of Flight museum called him about a kids’ drawing contest, the Museum of Flight offered him a tour, and Boeing is working on a more appropriate response to the child.
A good takeaway to remember is even if a situation occurs offline, be careful not to underestimate the possibility of social media outcomes. It could very well end up in an outpour of tweets, Facebook pages, blog posts and eventually hit major media outlets like the New York Times and Spring Creek Group blog, influencing a corporation to rethink how they connect with people in the first place.
Read the full article here: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/boeings-social-media-lesson/?ref=technology
The World According to Wentz: #OldFailLady
Thursday, April 8th, 2010
Dear Mr. Nick Bilton,
This letter is in response to your New York Times article entitled “Twitter Needs More Filters.” Typically I appreciate when the mainstream media prints geeky rants generally reserved for tech-bloggers, but in this case, your article appears a little off-base. What Twitter users are missing is not a lack of filters but a lack of knowledge of the tools available to use in concert with Twitter and the native tools within it.
Let’s start with the search tool within Twitter. As you mentioned, the service can become overrun with trending topics like “SXSW”, “iPad” and the omnipresent “Justin Bieber” (my heart skipped a beat when I was typing his name!). The answer to your troubles here is as simple as a minus sign (-). Let’s say this past weekend you were searching Twitter for the “Big Apple” to find something fun to do on Saturday night in NYC but all you were getting were users’ tweets about how long they’ve been waiting in line to buy a plus-size iPhone. Simply use the (-) limiter like this: “Big Apple – iPad” and you will get the results you wanted sans the Apple fanboys. Mess around with Advanced Search at http://www.search.twitter.com and learn other cool search limiters like date range and retweet exclusion.
So how do you manage your friends’ updates? Adding more features to Twitter will only spawn more Failwhales. The beauty of the service is its lack of bloat; they leave that to the app developers. Use clients to create groups, alerts and more with tools like TweetDeck and CoTweet. Who goes to http://www.twitter.com anymore anyway? Clients are a light-weight and (usually) free way to manage your feeds. I know that you were looking for a way to filter your friends’ feeds down within Twitter but unfortunately, that’s not part of the service. Take TweetDeck for a spin and I promise you that you’ll find a Twitter user experience unlike any you’ve had before.
Cordially yours,
@Frenchtron300
@Chex_Mix: The Healthy Alternative to Boring Corporate Twitter Accounts
Thursday, April 8th, 2010If you read our blog and Twitter feed regularly, you may also follow a number corporate Twitter accounts, both the stellar and lacking. If you have a customer service need, you may have even reached out to the infamous Frank (@ComcastCares) or Elliott (@Alaskaair.) Brad Nelson (@Starbucks) has developed a huge following by leveraging the power of the Starbucks brand with relevant and interesting behind the scenes content. It’s been well documented that the leaders of these Twitter profiles can point to their level of engagement and solving customer issues as the primary reason for their huge success. People want access to these brands, and the Twitter profile is a chance for real representatives of the brand to chat with real customers.
But for every Brad, Elliott and Frank, there are 100 corporate Twitter accounts mired in obscurity despite efforts to engage with those who reach out to them. McDonald’s appears to be decentralizing their efforts so that regions can run their own accounts. However, their own outgoing messages can have the same kind of impersonal feel of a press release or print ad, with lines such as, “Latté or Cappuccino? Mocha or Vanilla? Iced or Hot? So many ways to @McCaféYourDay! (Keeping it simple today. Small coffee. Black. Only $1!).”
Now, over on the other side of the Twitter content spectrum, there are the Twitasodes of Twit-coms like @ShhDontellSteve or @$^1#MyDadSays. The content has no real purpose besides entertainment, and to draw us in to the personal lives of people who probably aren’t real.
So, the team here at Spring Creek Group was quite pleased and surprised this week to see a huge Consumer Packaged Good product that was actually journeying to the creative and risky world of fictional characters, in order to develop a humorous Twitter presence. The antics and conversations of their made up charcter, a bowl of actual @Chex_Mix are incredibly clever, and the pace at which he/she/it is pumping out content is already legendary. @Chex_Mix’s success falls into a few key twitter lessons:
1) Be funny and/or interesting. Everything from the bio to the content says this account has a sense of humor.
2) Reply to those who follow you.
3) Reach out to the influencers. Already I see @Chex_Mix trying to reach out to @ChrisBrogan.
4) Reply quickly. You don’t get to ruminate on a response, pass it through PR and Legal, and respond to someone else’s tweet.
5) Have fun. This is Twitter, not brain surgery. If it’s not fun for you, why would your customers think it’s fun to follow you?
We’re looking forward to seeing more from @Chex_Mix. Well done. The folks here @SpringCreekGrp have poured a fresh bowl in our snack room, to honor your efforts.
