Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

Think of Your Social Media Like Dating

There are still plenty of companies and individuals who still don’t quite grasp the concept of social media and how they should use it.  Let me break it down into an easy to digest analogy that we can all relate to…dating and long term relationships.

The first step is you have to make yourself look goood.  This means dressing well for women and creating a dynamic profile on a social network.  You want to make yourself stand out from others and this is the first step to doing so.  Now that you’re presentable, reach out to women/consumers you are interested in and think will be interested in you.  Even if you’re dressed to the nines, it won’t mean anything unless you actively go out and meet people.  When you first make contact, be sure to bring value to the table.  Why should they go out with you when there are a ton of other options out there?  Make sure you’re interesting, give people a reason to stick around.

When you do get the girl/consumer and there is a  budding relationship how do you keep it going?  Listen.  Simple, yet so important.  You have to know what they’re saying about you and your competitors and use that to your advantage.  Aside from listening, you need to let them know that you’re listening.  Which means conversing back and forth often.  Keep daily contact, several times a day, to keep their interest and let them know you’re there for her/them and that you’re always listening and willing to be there for any reason they might need.  When you’re conversing, remember that’s it’s not all about you and what you have to say.  If you’re the only one talking, especially about yourself, the girl and the consumer will lose interest and leave.   There is always another guy or brand out there.  When you’re talking, go with the flow, not everything said is premeditated.  You have to find that balance between listening and sharing that you can only figure out as you go along.

If you follow these steps, you will have a healthy, successful relationship that both parties benefit from.  More than likely, the girl and consumer will tell their friends how wonderful her boyfriend/brand is because of these in tuned conversations.  Communication is key in any good relationship.  So there you go.  That is how social media interaction is like dating and long term relationships.

If you have any more questions about social media or how your company can start to incorporate it feel free to send me an email at contact@boumanblog.com.  Take a look at my LinkedIn Profile for more professional information.

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Twitter Numbers

Jesse TwitterTwitter is a numbers game. No matter how much we want to stress the importance of their real time communication, Twitter is really a numbers game. Everyone is obsessed about getting a high number of followers. More followers means more “influence” your real time tweets have. Not only are people obsessed with the high number of people following them, but they want to follow a low number of people themselves. This Following/Follower ratio is very important to people. The greater discrepancy between your Following/Followers gives the perception that you’re someone important and worth following. So if everyone wants to be followed and few want to follow, what kind of mess does this bring us?

Hypothetically any message you send out on Twitter can be seen by anyone. The reality is that there is a small percentage of people who actually read your tweets, most of the time you’re just another person on their follower list. If your list begins to swell (mine is just over 1,000) then it becomes difficult to read many of your tweets (there are 3rd party apps and twitter lists to help this,Tech Crunch Twitter but that’s another topic).

This obsession over numbers could ultimately kill Twitter. Twitter’s network itself won’t be it’s legacy for decades upon decades. It will be their introduction of real time information to the world. That is a concept that is just being rolled out at a mass scale and that’s what we will all get out of this Twitter craze.

For what it’s worth, I don’t think the social network Ning has reached it’s full potential. It’s been around for a while, but I think it’s going to grow within the next few years. I really do.

Sunday, September 6th, 2009

Why do I like Twitter?

Months ago I wrote about how Twitter was taking over my life.  Little did I know that Twitter was going to explode, my job was going to incorporate a great deal of Twittering, and how useful Twitter could actually be.

Why I joined Twitter:

I joined Twitter in July of 2008, because it was a micro-blogging network that I thought I should get to know.  It was hardly well known, but I kept reading about it on tech blogs, so I took a look.   My initial reaction was, this is dumb.  It’s a status update.  I can do that on Facebook where I have hundreds of pre-existing friends.  So, after spending the 4 minutes to sign up, I left my Twitter account dormant for months.  I signed on sporadically, attempting to become more active with Twitter, but I failed to find any connection to the site at all.  That would all change very quickly. Continue Reading Here…

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

Be Careful…

In an age of mass narcissism and more personal information being spread among dozens of mediums than ever before, remember, you never know who is “listening”.  Give heed to the story of @theconner (a Twitter name) and his fateful 140 character tweet.  Upon being offered a job from Cisco, he (or she?) sent out this tweet:

“Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work”

Someone at Cisco saw the tweet and now the job offer may be in jeopardy.  So remember folks to be mindful what you put on your social networks and blogs.  You never know who will be watching/reading.  Despite my PSA, I will continue to vlog for you.  It’s a risk I’m willing to take.  By the time I attempt to run for public office, maybe my YouTube antics won’t be so hurtful in a smear campaign?

Read the blog post on the story by Oliver Blanchard here

and

Connor Riley’s own take here

Monday, December 1st, 2008

Twittering away my privacy

So I had this rad vlog planned out to do today, but like ALWAYS, my roommate is sitting outside my door watching TV. Seriously, I know, I should be able to tape with someone on the other side of the wall if I am going to post this for (potentially) millions to see (realistically dozens). However, I just lose a little something with the knowledge that he’s right there, hearing me cackle away at myself. I could go on about this guy, but I won’t bore you with my roommate tantrum and get to the “good” stuff….Twitter’s ruthless rule over my life. This is probably the 1,329,438th “Twitter Runs My Life” blog article on the blogosphere, but I’m putting in my two cents. First of all, for everyone out there deficient in the newest social media, Twitter is:

150px-twitter

Twitter is a free social networking and micro blogging service, that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. [Wikipedia] Basically Twitter is an away message that informs everyone what you’re doing at any given time (if you choose to inform everyone). This can be something useful like “New Blog Post at:___” or something mundane like “Watching Gilmore Girls”. Either way, you’re updating people about your life. At first, I signed up for Twitter to see what the fuss was about. Quite frankly, I wasn’t that impressed. But in an effort to be more in tuned to all the social networks, I acquiesced to my initial hesitation and started to “Tweet” more regularly. I began to begrudgingly post tweets to get more involved and acquire Twitter “friends”, but I soon found myself Twittering like crazy. During my normal day, I’d think to myself, “Hmm, maybe I should Twitter this.” Some of my recent tweets are, “Installed Gmail chat!” or “New Gmail theme…awesome!”. Goodness, I am a dork! Twitter is seeping it’s way into every facet of my life. I find that I have to resist making tweets because who really cares that I just switched toothbrushes and love my new bristles? Twitter is a fascinating site that I’ve found to be quite useful as well as consuming. It’s a great news source. I “follow”news sources like CNN and the NY Times, which give me up to date news stories. There are certain blogs I follow via Twitter so I know when they’ve posted something new (I guess I could subscribe to their RSS). I also follow friends to keep informed about their daily lives. Basically I can feel like I’m connected to a person without ever speaking to them and in some cases, knowing them. This is why I am approaching Twitter obsession. I like to be “in the know”. Twitter allows me to do this very easily. I am also very self absorbed and actually think people care what I am doing at all times. Twitter is my enabler. Did you know I can post tweets from the web on Twitter.com or on my desktop from Twirl, or on my phone via Twitterrific? That’s too many places! That’s not all of the options either. I can’t get away! I have a love/hate relationship with Twitter. I am willing to give up some of my privacy to peer into the lives of others. It may not be the healthiest thing for me, but it could be worse, I could be smoker. If’ you’d like to know a little more about me and my Twitter obsession, follow me on Twitter at:

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008

The Day After History was Made

Yesterday was a historical day…to say the least. It was a day that I wasn’t sure would ever happen in my lifetime. Even as a twenty-five year old in the 21st century and seemingly limitless opportunity, I was still hesitant to believe the United States America could elect a black president. Maybe I was too pessimistic, but I am so glad that I was wrong. It’s been 24 hours and I am still in shock.

It was only a few short decades ago that blacks were still being discriminated against in the worst possible way. There were separate bathrooms and water fountains for people of different color. This is still our parent’s and grandparent’s generation, we know people who experienced this horrible time. We’re not talking about Abraham Lincoln’s era, we’re talking about the 20th century. Now, after many brave fights, by men and women stronger than I, the United States has taken yet another step toward racial equality. I can only imagine how proud the would be 79 year old Martin Luther King Jr. would be today.

I am still having a difficult time expressing my joy over yesterday’s results. Not just because of the aforementioned historical context, but because I believe that Barack Obama is the change the United States needs right now. The leader, the voice, and the visionary to lead us out of the economic recession and war. This is the first time I voted for the winning presidential candidate and have confidence in this nation’s leader. I have confidence that Mr. Obama will steer this country in the proper course.

I’d like to finish this entry with my admiration for Barack Obama’s campaign team. I find their efforts remarkable, they were ahead of the curve and understood that there were two campaigns to run, a tradtional campaign and a tech campaign. The internet was flooded with viral videos campaigning for Mr. Obama. He invigorated the youth of America, connecting with them using mediums they are familiar with. For example, Barack Obama is the most followed person on Twitter, for those of you who just asked yourself what Twitter is, my point exactly. Barack Obama and his campaign team just completed one of, if not the greatest, campaigns in history. Congratulations to Barack Obama and everyone involved with his campaign (including my two friends Willie and John) for their hard work and determination. Thank you for putting the effort to elect our first black president, Mr. Barack Obama.