Will Scott, a search marketer in New Orleans, who I’ve met online, emailed me yesterday asking me if there was a way we could talk. “IM? Twitter?
That email was sent around 10:30am, I responded “not really” at around 3 because that was the first time I checked my email since early in the morning. So, the combination of the content of his message along with my inability to respond quickly has woke me up to the need to get more social.
So last night I got the kids down and joined twitter and despite feeling a little awkward I twatted tweeted my first tweet.
Now, feeling empowered and ready to move forward… what’s next?
LinkedIN? Facebook? (oh! Dear God no, not Facebook), maybe I just better start with a few IM accounts and have my 9 year-old teach me how to aggregate them.
I would like to follow some of the local bloggers I read most often including , Miriam Ellis, Mike Blumenthal and David Mihm but I couldn’t find them in the people search or they had me pre-emptively blocked 
Any other tips to help me get more social in 2009, please let me know. Especially any tips that help me understand how you find the time to be social online.
Will Scott | 10-Jan-09 at 12:02 pm | Permalink
So first things first, you should have included your twitter name.
Mine is w2scott (my name is Will Scott, whatcha gonna do).
This is a great list from Matt of fellow twits (hehe): http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/local-search-industry-on-twitter/1358/
All things considered, for 1-1 communication I think Twitter falls somewhere between IM and Email. It’s main value is that it can be asynchronous, like email, but brief and informal like IM.
The greatest value however is the broadcasting aspect. When not in 1-1 mode, you have the ability to communicate (albeit in a leaky way) with whomever is following you.
If you look at someone like @mattmcgee, he has 1100 plus followers and he’s not even that active. That’s 1100 opportunities to:
– start a conversation
– rebroadcast (she tells 2 friends, and she tells 2 friends)
– sell something (shhh, social’s not about selling)
I won’t say for whom, but I “introduced” one of my clients to a super-twit who rebroadcast their twitter handle and w/in 15 minutes they had 20 new followers.
Like the rest of (good, well done) internet marketing it’s just like real life: Make friends, behave, give without hoping to receive and you’ll be rewarded.
Will
SPK | 10-Jan-09 at 2:05 pm | Permalink
I’m on twitter too(patrickkaine). So far, I haven’t figured out what value people see in it. I *want* to see it, but I can’t.
I started really using my facebook account about 2 months ago and I have to say, it’s the place I spend most of my “social media” time. Tweets are replaced with status updates and @conversations are replaced with simply replying to a wall post.
Sounds like you feel about facebook like I feel about myspace. Ick. But, since I’ve joined facebook, I’ve made some really great connections including CPAs and other professionals. (An FBI agent friend, a doctor friend) So, it’s not just for kids.
You can always close your account after you sign up, so give everything a try!
I’m on LinkedIn, but haven’t seen any value there yet. I had a link to my LI profile on my work email for a while and a client mentioned she read it (my profile) But I’ve since removed it. I’m there in case someone looks for me.
Time? Hmmm, I can’t answer that for you. We have 3 computers internet connected at most times and I have my smartphone (Treo 700WX) with internet access – so time doesn’t seem to be an issue.
I guess the real question is: What are you like in real life (socially) and how far from that do you expect to be in internet life?
Local Search Hound | 10-Jan-09 at 5:30 pm | Permalink
Patrick you may have cut me to the quick with that last question
Will,
Like the rest of (good, well done) internet marketing it’s just like real life: Make friends, behave, give without hoping to receive and you’ll be rewarded.
is articulated very well… and it’s localhound – my twitter name that is.
Mack Collier | 11-Jan-09 at 1:56 am | Permalink
“Like the rest of (good, well done) internet marketing it’s just like real life: Make friends, behave, give without hoping to receive and you’ll be rewarded.”
Good advice from Will on how to connect with other via social media.
As for the other question….the dreaded ‘now what?’ part. Do NOT assume that you now need to go join Facebook/MySpace/Plurk/LinkedIn/etcetcetc. It might be that you end up joining all of these sites, or you could never look at any of them, and dump Twitter.
My advice is to TRY each site, and if it works for you, stick with it. If not, dump it. Find the ‘power’ users for each site, and watch how they use the site. Usually, you can get a lot of insight from them about what value the site can give you.
Good luck, and welcome to the insanity
AhmedF | 11-Jan-09 at 2:24 pm | Permalink
Twitter’s usefulness (to me) is it is the best way to keep an eye on the ground, and do it with a minimal amount of news. Eg I found out about the YP.com sale pretty quickly because I was following Andrew, and then people who were following me found out the sale price pretty quickly.
Dissemination of useful info.
I do not follow people whose Twitters are all self-promo or highly personal all the time (which is fine, just not why I use it).
Larry Sullivan | 11-Jan-09 at 9:43 pm | Permalink
Hi Tim
Twitter is definitely nice to see what is going on and what folks are thinking. I do like Facebook for networking. Good luck with being more social, I definitely need to do the same!
Local Search Hound | 11-Jan-09 at 10:44 pm | Permalink
Ahmedf thanks for stopping by… that makes sense to me. I am definitely getting a better understanding of how it can be useful.
I appreciate the help, thanks
Local Search Hound | 11-Jan-09 at 10:46 pm | Permalink
Thanks Larry… I am following you now.. . that sounds shady
. Look forward to keeping in touch more often.
Ya, this twitter thing is making sense to me.