Tweetworking (Twitter Networking) and Can Be Good for Business

"Twitter twitter, twitter, twitter twitter."
2:31 PM May 07, 2008 from web

That was my first entry into my Twitter.com account, @ktjames. When I logged in for the first time, I was met with a wall of words, individual conversations between people who referred to themselves with @ in the beginning of their names. Was I, a social networking addict, overwhelmed? Yes! I had been resisting Twitter, despite friends asking to become Twitter friends, because I knew it was such a ... busy place. So I became a fly on the wall, studied everyone's 140 character mini-mini-conversations, and started to converse with them slowly, until I realized that no one was talking back, and I was all alone. It prompted my next entry of brutal honesty:

"Feeling like I have no Twitter friends...talking to no one...can anyone hear me??"
12:53 PM May 09, 2008 from web

Feeling like an avatar lost at sea, I bobbed in an ocean of silence in my home office, waiting, then moved onto other projects. Suddenly, a little email landed in my gmail. It was a private, "DM" (aka Direct Message) from a Twitter friend who I didn't realize was "following" me (aka keeps tabs on all of my tweets). She said that sometimes no one replies, and that it can be lonely. Quite a humble statement from a woman who has plenty of followers herself, and has a big Twitter Star with over 800 followers visiting her, in person, with kids and husband. We are watching/reading the whole road trip on Twitter as the Twitter Star drives with her family and sends Twitters mobile updates from her cell phone.

Then I got another response:
ManicTrout @ktjames I hear ya! 01:56 PM May 09, 2008 from web

and then:

DeAnnaCochran @ktjames I hear ya. Sendin the luv your way :)
01:04 PM May 09, 2008 from web in reply to ktjames

And that's when I realized we were all like truckers on the information super highway, talking on our CBs. Many of us work from home. Many of us have children and work from home. What was once a very solitary place physically, has become a mentally cluttered, clucking place of, in my case, women talking to each other about life, dinner, ever expanding to-do lists, SEO articles, and more.

Is this Twitter a waste of time? It really is IMing on hyperspeed and can rob a lot of your time. Can it help your business? Well, if you look at it from the networking perspective, you are networking with people in other ways than job fairs or trade shows or meetup events. You are networking through your computer in condensed forms, which makes you be direct, to the point, a little witty, and a little honest. Women are very active in social networks, as these demographics from RapLeaf show. In an interview for Ladies Who Launch, Patricia Handschiegel, founder of StyleDaily.com (which she sold to Styehive.com), may have said it best: "The best thing women can do is network. Women entrepreneurs are different. There’s a loyalty between us … an honest bond."

Since then, I have seen my Twitter friends promote each other in wonderful and unexpected ways. They:

• Publicly welcome each other (goal: get more Twitter followers)
• Tinyurl each other, which condenses a long link into a very short link (goal: get traffic to website)
• Visit each other in person (goal: friendship)
• Share quick dinner ideas (goal: eating good food and providing for family)
• Identify with each other over kids or admin requirements (goal: feeling normal)

So should you do it for your business? Sure. How to do it for your business is a whole other article that would talk about finesse and genuine interest in others. It requires creativity in how and what you express to your online friends.

But for now, this business owner is hooked. When did I know I was hooked? When I twittered this:

"Goodnight Twitter! Have a good Midnight Maintenance!"
11:06 PM May 19, 2008 from web

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer Egged During Presentation in Hungary

Yes, egged, during a presentation in Hungary. Saw this in my Facebook feed from @smbeebe . Amazingly, there were no "Don't taze me 'bro!" actions, or much of any actions for that matter. The egger did come prepared with a message written on the back of his shirt. But, there were no fast running police launching over rows of chairs, no screaming girls. The guy calmly left as calmly as he threw the eggs.

Groundswell: Good Social Networking Book from Forrester Research Analysts Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff

Groundswell: Should you buy? Yes.

For my learning pleasure, Stephanie L. Cion of WELLalarm, treated me to a social networking seminar hosted by MIT Enterprise Forum to promote the social media guide book, Groundswell, a book by two Forrester Research analysts, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. I knew what I'd be exposed to in terms of socialness, but what I didn't know was what to wear, and ended up the only girl in the room in pink velour, surrounded by a sea of black suited banker types. After a while, a few more girls in colors trickled in. In the end, I was mistaken for a member of the media, so the outfit was perfect. I do, however, need a snazzier pant or pencil skirt suit, which means only one thing: shopping excuse.

About Groundswell the Book, and Socialness
Why did I go to hear what two research analysts had to say about social networking? I went because the authors are research analysts. For a minute of my life, I worked in the Research Department of the Food network, and it was fascinatingly wonderful. Through focus groups and other methods, you could very nearly get the answers to why a program was flailing (Al Roker's food show was the main program in question at the time...it was discovered that people responded negatively to the silliest hand gesture he did...and when he ate chocolate).

Josh Bernoff was giving the Groundswell presentation for the MIT Enterprise Forum event. He brought to light to a few considerations for social networking:

• Social networking has opened a whole new arena of types of focus groups and involvement. Voluntary focus groups, unpaid focus groups, fun focus groups, anything focus groups. All because people want to participate and be heard from the comfort of their own homes. Or mobile devices. He showed a case study where one man who had voluntarily posted thousands of posts in a Dell support forum did it because he liked to hear people say "Thank you." Others do it because they like to be trend setters. Some do it because they like to feel powerful. Whatever the motivation, people are speaking online and they are being listened to - by each other (ie normal people) and by the companies making the products they are chatting about. If you get the book, look for the example of why CBS brought back Jericho (angry fans sent them thousands of pounds of nuts), and whether or not that was a successful decision.
  
• Beyond focus groups, however, is relationship management. Those of you who participate in social networking know that your relationships with your people is crucial. You want to reply to them, give them new information to respond to about yourself (albeit carefully), show them cool links, and dazzle them with your energy.
• Brand management. Whether you want to get involved with social networking or not, your customers may do it for you - in a good light or bad. So it's best to be familiar with the tools they are using, so that if you need to hire someone to fix damage, or continue to spin good vibes, you will be able to make a more informed decision about a social investment. Josh kicked off his presentation with the Comcast video posted at YouTube, created by a fluent social networking guy, when his Comcast service man came to fix his cable, needed to call Comcast for some reason, was put on hold for one hour, and fell asleep during that time. This video got millions of views. No such thing as bad publicity? As Josh pointed out, this video is the first video that comes up in YouTube for a search for "comcast." It was added to YouTube a year ago. As of this writing (5/16/08), the video ranks on page 1 in Google, #9.
  
  
  
  

For another example of social networking gone bad, read Groundswell to find out what the authors discovered about a cease and desist letter regarding a photo posted online of Barbara Streisand's house.

Should you buy the book, Groundswell? Yes. I am. I don't buy many business books. But Groundswell will have charts and case studies. And it's from research analysts. They only consider cold hard facts! Which are really very fun. It will open my mind to knew ways to use social networking to promote my business or pieces of my business. And by "pieces" of my business, I mean anything from a sexy silk sleep mask, to website design, to social networking services and strategy. My strategy is not to force brand and messages down people's news feeds (Facebook term), but to let anyone know who is interested. If interested, they will contact. Or purchase a product. The end. That is how social networking works.

Hurray! iPhones Can Multi-Text or Group Text

You can imagine my shock when I went from multi-texting from my regular Nokia phone and later my Nokia PDA, to not be able to text to more than one person from the genius iPhone. Shocked and awed. So socked and awed that I could not recommend the iPhone with the enthusiasm that I wanted. Now, however, my iPhone can multi-text. It drank an update when I synched it, and I can group text! Sigh of relief.

Why would you want to multi-text or text to a group? To tell 2 people who you are meeting with in 15 minutes that the address has changed. Or to wish everyone happy new year at once. Or to ask your bridal party for their measurements all at once.

Here is an article at MacNewsWorld on speculation on the new iPhone. AT&T may sell it at $199? *whistle*. I bought it at $600, and now have the $99 unlimited talk plan (with $20 additional for data ie web and email), and am apparently locked in. As of 5/8/08, the plan is still being offered. Here are Apple's price plans for the iPhone. Apple features a $119 unlimited talk and data plan. This is really AT&T's plan that I have:

$99 unlimited talk + $20 unlimited data = $119 (plus taxes for your area)

You can buy the iPhone at Amazon, and activate via iTunes!