Tags

Today Twitter broke again.. too much traffic.

3 Hollywood celebrities die and the consciousness of the internet can't handle the traffic. (by the way, I am saddened by their deaths, I don't mean to trivialize that)

I know I dedicate too much time to Twitter in this blog. There are so many aspects of it to comment on. From the spammers who are trying to exploit it, to the people building their "personal brand" by creating thousands of followers, to the companies making real efforts to add transparency to their customer communications.

At the end of the day, nobody likes the Twitter application itself.  It's the public stream of consciousness we want to read and write to. People tweet form their cell phones, third party apps or by clicking a "share this" link in an article. So if it's all just the data, why aren't the bigger players stepping up?

The transition would be easy.. register your Twitter account.. some giant database run by a giant internet power suck all your information out, and we all move on.  RIP Twitter. 

Amazon, with your "elastic cloud services" you provide, you must be set up with a LOT of hardware and availability? How about setting up a web service for people to post status updates into one giant database, and track their friends? See my past post on some enhancements you might want to think about.

Google? How about you? I'm happy with the speed my search results come back. I've never seen a "FAIL WHALE" pop up during that request. It would set you up great for rolling out Google Wave.

All we want is some borg-like company to manage the info for us. Then all the twitter application developers would happily point to that stream to save their information. We'd also happily cross post to Twitter before it died completely. So let's all agree, Twitter was a great idea that was poorly implemented. Now get out of the way and someone build it right.
more »

• Comments (0)
• Print

With Twitter being the hottest online space at the moment, marketers are trying to crack the code on getting to twitter users.  Lets face it, Twitter is broke, and in the exact same state email was at in the early days.  Why not  try to exploit it.  We tolerate a flow of junk because its new and cool.  We can easily point to a relevant tweet to justify our obsession.  Spammers see an opportunity too and are mirroring genuine behavior. I see a number of tactics in use.  Don't be offended if you personally use these tactics for your own personal tweeting. Spammers want to look like you.  However, ask yourself if you use these tactics because you are trying to get the most out of the conversation, or are you personally trying to attract followers?  You may be a spammer. 

Follow lots of people.

Sure, you aren't really reading their content, but if you follow them, they might follow you back.  Its easy to find your targets. http://search.twitter.com will return a list.  What makes your brand look better than a gazillion followers?  Some spammers even un-follow if people don't reciprocate the follow (the nerve).  They don't want their follow/following ratio to get out of hand.. they might look like spammers.

Get lots of followers. 

If you are a spammer you need eyeballs reading your stuff and following your links. Do people read everyone they follow? The followed profiles certainly get more attention than the general twitter stream of content , but even the mavens I follow in social media put so much content that is not relevant   to me that I barely notice their good stuff.  If you watch there are gems, but these same people are also offering political  opinion, sports shout-outs, responses to other tweets.  The noise in twitter is numbing.  If they follow you though.. you can send them direct messages. 

Send Direct Messages

Your first chance to send a direct message is the auto-follow message.  "Thanks for following me, I look forward to reading your tweets.. click here to buy my book", or insert your favorite spammy message.

Hi-jack popular Hash Tags

Argh... (you caught me.. I was "grugging" there for a sec)  I hate this one. For good reason, people tag their conversations which allows you to search a "topic", not just a person.  You will see things like #awarenessinc used by our company in our tweets so people can group information about our company or during our webinars.  Actually combine the two  (hash tags and webinars) and you have a Twebinar.  Say it "twebinar, its fun.  Here's what spammers do.  Spammers create an account, watch for trending topics in Twitter, then join the conversation. People will say "hey, who is this guy?",  and read the profile, or even follow blindly like Lemmings running off a cliff .  Sadly it's what you should do if you really want to be part of a conversation, spammers know that.  I click a lot of profiles and see if people are actually writing about the content I want to read on a regular basis, then I follow. 

Post often. 

If people are getting a flooded with tweets, make sure you are in the stream of content.. often.  Its tough, because you have to think of stuff to tweet about. Those doing it manually have learned to just speak random thoughts out loud.  "Wow this hamburger is good", tweeted the social media expert.  Try it in real life.  Walk down the street just blurting out things that pop into your head.  Pretty soon you will realize your side of the street is relatively free of people and the general public are walking on the other side.  For some reason its perfectly acceptable on Twitter.   Yes, I have started to do it on Twitter.  I can argue for or against it, BUT spammers know that.  See the next point.

And lastly my new favorite...

ReTweet posts.

If new content is hard to write, retweet others.  If the this bubble we live in wasn't already the ultimate echo chamber before.. it is now.  The Retweet (see the "RT and @address in front of the tweeted message) has become an Twitter endorsement of your content. I am always flattered when someone thinks my content is so worthwhile they retweet it.  Especially if the content is retweeted by someone in the business.  I do it.  It beats the heck out of a "poke" or "nudge" or whatever you do to get somone's attention.  If I retweet you, assume I am saying "well done".  This morning, my post was retweeted by a Candy manufacturer.  Ummmm, not sure how that could be anything but an "auto-retweet" based on that fact that I used the word "candy" in the content. The content was clearly in the category of me posting random stuff.  No thought leadership there.  I commented that I was eating candy for breakfast, thanks to a package a client sent.   I could be wrong, maybe that company was endorsing that behaviour and thought of me as some dietary thought leader, but watch for it as a tactic.

If the fact that I have called out these tactics as spam tactics offends you.. don't be. I use them, and I like to feel when I do its genuine. Plus, the ultimate test of a spammer... If you are offended.. you are not a spammer ;)



more »

• Comments (5)
• Print

Is there too much "me" in "social media"?

One of the fears big companies have with Social Media is that they will set expectations too high.  Give an immediate response, and the customer will begin to expect it.  I'm all for giving crappy customer service a kick in the pants, but this recent social media high-five that's being broadcast across Twitter that is a little disturbing to me.

JetBlue Twitterer Gets Customer a Wheelchair

In case you don't want to click the link, here is a synopsis.

a woman writes...

"@jetblue, I need a wheelchair!". 

the JetBlue person immediately texts back...

"Are you in an airport? shoot me a DM and let me see if I can help"

OK, first.  Excellent for JetBlue for getting on it.  Great customer service should be applauded.  But is this sustainable?  Someone had to read and respond, and other than avoiding being on hold, will this be staffed any better than their customer service on the phone?  A great outcome would have been if another citizen had chipped in to help too.  If thats the case than Iwould like to say ...

@starbucks "Latte's are too expensive"
@ImmigrationCanada whats with the freaking long lines for a passport
@IBM @Microsoft @Apple @anysoftwareonmycomputer.. stop freezing up
@haircut lady - I SAID NO GEL!

Right now, although those of us who work in social media think its a big audience, Twitter is somewhere between 1-2 million users (correct me if I am way off).  Unfortunately there are 1.5 billion internet users in the world, and well over 2 billion people with mobile phones. Lets say this catches on. If each and every person starts to believe they can simply shout something and get an answer from the company, I think we are heading for a fall.

I love this video "Everything is amazing, nobody is happy". 

What am I saying?

• Brands/Companies -  you can do a better job and leverage social media to get closer to your customers, respond quicker, AND help customer help each other.  "Better" will depend on the company, the price of the product, the quality, the loyalty of their customers... etc
  


• Brands/Companies -  bad news - crappy customer service will be broadcasted to the public in realtime


• Brands/Companies -  good new - great customer service will be broadcasted to the public in realtime


• People of the Planet Earth - Expect better, but reward good customer service.  Don't be a hater the second it doesn't go your way.
  


• People of the Planet Earth - Help when you can.  Thats why its called "social" media. There is not nor will their ever be a customer service person dedicated for your use only. 

Yes indivuals weild more power than we did.  Lets not abuse it.


more »

• Comments (1)
• Print