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Is Twitter a microblog or a party line?
Filed under: Business Networking, Communities, Social Networking, Squidoo Lenses, Telephone, Twitter, Western North Carolina
I have discovered that there are very few people in Murphy, NC who are using Twitter.
As a result, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how I can educate my friends and neighbors in this little mountain town to use free Internet services to promote their activities, interests, events, organizations, and businesses.
I’ve experimented with websites, blogs, forums, communities, and more, and none have gained traction, yet. Perhaps I’m just a bit ahead of time on this, but it may also just be a matter of finding an easy-to-understand analogy that will attract people to creating new conversations online.
Part of the problem, I think, is that we’ve been trained for decades that promotion and advertising are mostly one-way announcements and not two-way conversations.
To promote an event, we buy advertising on the radio or newspapers. If our area and event are big enough, we may even promote it on TV.
These are examples of one-way announcements. We tell, and hope someone listens, hears, and does what we want.
With the widespread use of the Internet, however, this is changing.
Now, we can have conversations, inexpensively or free, and these can lead to that most-wanted form of promotion, word-of-mouth recommendations.
Those of us who practically live online don’t really understand that most people don’t spend all their time thinking about websites, blogs, forums, social networking, and all the other things that we devote our time and energy to on a daily basis.
I was reminded of this a few days ago when I asked someone for his email address and he wasn’t really sure. Now, I don’t know about you, but my email address is so important to me that it has been indelibly imprinted onto my brain.
I’ve spent years making it easy for people to email me. In fact, I get hundreds of emails every day and usually send a dozen or two. How could I not know my email address? It seems almost impossible.
Yet, many people don’t depend upon the Internet for carrying on conversations and talking about what is important to them.
I can spend a half-hour or so writing a blog entry or a new web page about something that is important to me, and I can make it available to anyone in the world with an Internet connection. It’s practically free.
Even when I consider how much I pay annually for domain names, webhosting, email autoresponders, page rotators, banner rotators, and other similar services, it all adds up to less than a couple of thousand dollars per year. How much newspaper or radio advertising can I buy for that?
A blog post or web page has an indefinite life-span. I know that I’m making sales from information I put on the web years ago, not just from what I wrote yesterday or today.
Currently, a search on Google for “John Dilbeck” returns over 8,000 results and “johndilbeck” returns over 35,000 results, so there is a lot of information out there created by me or talking about me. This is just a small sample of all that I’ve put online over the last several years.
A radio ad has a life span of seconds. A newspaper ad has a life span of days. Even most promotional products have life spans of weeks or months.
What is the life span of a tweet on Twitter?
That’s hard to say.
If we’re online and watching our Twitter stream, it seems as if most tweets have a life span of seconds, almost like a radio spot.
But, that’s only part of the story.
Think of a major event or thing and search for it on Google. You’ll find hundreds or thousands of links to what you searched for, but you already expect that, don’t you?
Did you know that all those tweets are still available? Did you know that all the hyperlinks are preserved and are still active? Did you know that the search engines follow those links?
Want to know what I’ve been saying on Twitter, or what people have been saying to, or about, me?
Does that give you a different idea about the life span of a tweet?
Now, what happens if we take this knowledge and use it to try to build a conversation.
That’s one of the things I’m going to be doing in 2009.
This year, I’m going to concentrate on two things:
1. affiliate marketing
2. promoting the people, events, and organizations in Murphy, NC.
I am dramatically narrowing my focus and hope I can build higher revenue from affiliate marketing and gain better traction in promoting what’s going on in Murphy.
I’m not going to become a news organization. I’ll leave that to the newspapers and radio stations in town. After all, I’m interested in marketing, not news.
While testing it, I’ve done it for free for several years. This year, I’ll charge reasonable rates for what I will do, and those rates will be much less than what it would cost for using traditional advertising.
Still, I like doing things for free on the Internet and I’ll help people in my community learn how to do that, too.
I think Twitter can play an important part in doing all this.
Earlier, I said that it takes a good analogy or model so that people can easily understand how to join in online conversations. Things that are simple for some of us can be confusing to others.
For example, take the idea of Twitter being a microblog. Those of us who blog every day can understand that, but if you don’t know about blogging, is it a good model to use?
You may not be an old geezer like me, but I remember when several people used the same phone line. This was called a party line. At any given time, someone may have been talking on the phone, but you never knew who was listening.
Later there were private lines and now cell phones, but in the very early days, we had party lines.
Here in Murphy, this is a good analogy to use for Twitter. Why? Because it’s an ingrained part of the local culture. There is a popular program on WKRK radio called PartyLine, and it is hosted by Bill Yonce on weekdays and Tim Radford on Saturdays.
Listeners can join the conversation by calling the program and talking to the hosts. They can chat about what’s happening, offer what they want to sell or ask for what they want to buy, or just pass the time for a few minutes. A few years ago, when Mom was healthier and still able to get around well, she would always have PartyLine playing on the radio as she worked in the kitchen.
So, for the people who are much more comfortable with offline communications, perhaps a party line is a better analogy for Twitter than is a microblog.
You can listen to whomever you chose on Twitter, so it’s not like some giant chat room. You can fine tune the group of people you listen to so that you get specifically what you want. Anyone can choose to listen to you, or not, too.
Substitute the word “follow” for “listen” and you have a good understanding of Twitter.
Then, you have to think about how these groups of followers overlap, intersect, and diverge. For example, John may follow George, but not Jane. Perhaps Jane follows John, but not George. If George tweets about something interesting, John would learn about it – potentially – but Jane probably would not. However, if John then tweets about it, he would be extending the reach of the conversation beyond George’s followers/listeners. In traditional marketing, we call this “word of mouth.”
In reality, George may tweet about it, and John may post the information on a blog, lens, forum, website, or some other presence he maintains on the web. All of this can be done in a remarkably short time, with little effort, and negligible expense.
Who knows how far the information will spread?
So, while Twitter may be thought of as a party line, it potentially has a much wider reach. It brings another meaning to the old saying, “a little birdie told me.”
Unlike a party line, however, you can’t just talk as long as you want. You are limited to short tweets of 140 characters or less. You can tweet all you want, but each one is short and generally focused.
How much does it cost? Nothing.
So how is that going to help me promote Murphy, NC?
Well, there’s the rub.
There are so many tweets every day on Twitter that a few about Murphy would easily get lost in the crowd.
That’s where the #MurphyNC hashtag comes in.
By tagging all tweets that are specifically about something or someone in Murphy with that code, it is easy to search for them. It is also relatively easy to syndicate those search results.
Currently, there are few tweets with that hashtag, but I’ll be working to change that, over time.
This morning, I am testing syndicating these #MurphyNC tweets on my Squidoo lens for Murphy, NC 28906.
It didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped.
I could not get the lens to show the feed, so I ran it through Feedburner.com and created a new feed at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/MurphyNC-TwitterSearch
Squidoo can read and show that feed, with no problem. I wonder if it is because the Twitter search feed is in Atom format rather than RSS.
Another problem to consider if you want to syndicate hashtag searches on your lenses is the fact that Twitter uses relative anchor addresses in the content, instead of absolute URLs. This means that the #MurphyNC link in the content will not link directly to the Twitter search page. This will give you unintended results, depending upon where you syndicate it.
To get around this problem, I’m syndicating headlines only on my Squidoo lenses. If someone clicks the headline, it will take him/her to the status address for that particular tweet. Since this is shown on the Twitter domain, the hashtag link in the content will point to the right place.
It will be impossible to syndicate a real-time conversation on Squidoo, because the minimum update time for an RSS feed is 30 minutes for a Squidoo RSS module. At this point, that’s not a problem, because I’m the only person doing it and all my #MurphyNC tweets have been tests up until now. However, if it ever gets popular, this would not be a workable solution for syndicating the feed.
Although doable, this may not be the best way to syndicate a conversation on Squidoo.
I’m open for suggestions, because this is something I want to do on multiple lenses, as well as several blogs and websites.
Why am I talking about this on a blog that is about affiliate marketing?
This question is easier to answer. It’s because readers of this blog are generally more technically sophisticated and are used to online interactions. It’s also because I earn money from affiliate marketing even on my local pages for Murphy, NC.
And, Twitter is already helping me earn from my affiliate marketing efforts on my Squidoo lenses and blog posts.
This has been a long-winded way of asking your opinion of how to describe using Twitter to talk about a town or city. Is it a microblog or a party line, or something else entirely?
What model or analogy would you suggest to make it easier for offline-oriented people to join in online discussions using Twitter? Do you think Twitter is really effective for this?
Act on your dream!
JD
Comments
28 Comments on Is Twitter a microblog or a party line?
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Brian D. Hawkins on
Thu, 1st Jan 2009 11:04 am
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Joan Adams on
Thu, 1st Jan 2009 11:52 am
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John Dilbeck on
Thu, 1st Jan 2009 3:02 pm
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PotPieGirl on
Thu, 1st Jan 2009 3:55 pm
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John Dilbeck on
Thu, 1st Jan 2009 4:03 pm
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Dennis Edell on
Thu, 1st Jan 2009 10:44 pm
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Susan/Together We Flourish on
Fri, 2nd Jan 2009 11:48 am
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scott on
Fri, 2nd Jan 2009 2:06 pm
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John Dilbeck on
Fri, 2nd Jan 2009 7:23 pm
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Dennis Edell on
Fri, 2nd Jan 2009 8:26 pm
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John Dilbeck on
Fri, 2nd Jan 2009 8:43 pm
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John Dilbeck on
Fri, 2nd Jan 2009 8:47 pm
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Susan/Together We Flourish on
Fri, 2nd Jan 2009 8:57 pm
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John Dilbeck on
Sat, 3rd Jan 2009 12:46 pm
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Sire on
Mon, 5th Jan 2009 1:42 am
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John Dilbeck on
Mon, 5th Jan 2009 11:30 am
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Sire on
Mon, 5th Jan 2009 7:03 pm
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John Dilbeck on
Wed, 7th Jan 2009 10:49 am
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Sire on
Wed, 7th Jan 2009 7:37 pm
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Annie Maloney on
Sun, 11th Jan 2009 3:51 pm
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John Dilbeck on
Mon, 12th Jan 2009 6:10 am
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Sire on
Mon, 12th Jan 2009 6:17 am
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John Dilbeck on
Mon, 12th Jan 2009 7:02 am
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Sire on
Tue, 13th Jan 2009 12:35 am
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homes in north carolina on
Tue, 26th May 2009 1:19 am
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John Dilbeck on
Tue, 26th May 2009 10:35 am
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Steven Mure on
Wed, 8th Jul 2009 7:22 am
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John Dilbeck on
Thu, 9th Jul 2009 8:58 am
Hi John, I’m following you now with ExtremeEzine.
I spent twelve years as an over the road trucker and I’m sure I’ve been through Murphy, NC a time or two. It’s cool that you’re helping your home town like that.
I think this is the best quote I’ve heard all year, “We’ve been trained for decades that promotion and advertising are mostly one-way announcements and not two-way conversations.”. Can I quote you on that in my next Ezine issue?
Brian D. Hawkins´s last blog post..Just Ask – Ken Needs Targeted Traffic
John, I really like the party line analogy. But, sadly, not many people remember that!
Twitter is short-sentence journaling by a zillion people and you get to pick your favorites to follow.
Talk some more please about hash tags – I don’t understand that. You know I am dense about tech things! lol also more on using that RSS feed of twitters on Squidoo. Using the twitter search module has resulted in showing some language I do not want to see on my lenses. I have had to remove the module in some cases. Could you not just use the Squidoo Twitter search module and search Murphy, NC? and then all the twitters about Murphy would show up on your lens?
Tweetlater send me an e-mail daily of any subject I am interested in following. Could you somehow use that for Murphy?
Good afternoon, Brian.
My Dad was an over the road trucker for a long time and drove all over the southeast, but that was back in the 1940s and 1950s and a lot has changed since then.
I’ve been promoting Murphy mostly under the radar for the last several years as I tested what was working and what wasn’t. This year, I’m coming out of the shadows and plan to shine as bright a light as I can on our little town.
You’re always welcome to quote anything I write. Thanks for asking.
I’ll try not to get a swelled head about it being the best quote you’ve heard all year, since the year is only 14 hours old where I am and I’m sure you’ll find lots of other good quotes in the coming months.
Act on your dream!
JD
John -
Wonderful post~ I like this part, too -
following = listing
If you follow someone on Twitter, you get to listen to what they are saying. If they follow you back, they will be able to listen to what YOU are saying.
Glad we are following each other on Twitter! I look forward to seeing your progress! Murphy NC is a BEAUTIFUL area!
Happy New Year to you!
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
PotPieGirl´s last blog post..Using Twitter – My Twitter Tutorial
Good afternoon, Joan.
I’m liking the party line analogy, too. One of the reasons it works for me in terms of the Murphy, NC community is because WKRK has kept the model alive in the minds of the older adults. Many of the people who listen to the radio program are also business owners and managers and leaders in the community, so it could be a model to help them make the transition to online conversations.
I don’t know; it’s just a feeling at this point.
The younger people are already online, in one way or another.
“Short sentence journaling” is an interesting idea. I agree that it can be that, but doesn’t it suggest more of a one-way announcement model rather than a way to create a conversation?
Or does it?
I only recently discovered hashtags. Looking back through the Twitter archives, they’ve been there for awhile, but didn’t register with me because I had no use for them.
In theory, it’s really simple. Anyone can create a hashtag and use it however you want. Apparently, it has been used to carry on conversations about all kinds of things.
For example, if you wanted to use hashtags in tweets that promote Pendleton, SC, you could select any tag that suited your purpose and then add an octothorpe (also called the hash or pound symbol, shift-3 on the keyboard) in front of the tag you select.
So, in my case, I chose MurphyNC as the tag and converted it into a Twitter hashtag just by typing #MurphyNC anywhere in a tweet.
You could choose pendleton, Pendleton, PendletonSC, or even pendleton and SC. In those cases, your hashtag could be #pendleton, #Pendleton, #PendletonSC, or even #pendleton #SC. Shorter hashtags are better since tweets are only 140 characters, but they should have some obvious meaning to your target audience.
One thing that a hashtag has is its uniqueness. It makes it much easier to search on Twitter, or even Google.
Wait a second…let me check that to see if it is true…
Yes, it’s true for searching on Twitter. No, it isn’t true for searching on Google. Google filters the search and returns results for “Murphy NC” but not #MurphyNC.
I don’t want to depend upon the Twitter search module on Squidoo, because I want to syndicate this search results feed on multiple sites. So, for me, the RSS module is the better way to show it on a lens. I’ll be using javascript or PHP to syndicate the feed on other sites. Feedburner.com provides the javascript necessary, and I invested in a program that makes it easy to syndicate on some of my sites using PHP.
I know what you mean about the language some people use. The question arises, however, do we want to let crass people control what we do?
That’s a hard question to answer and I’m sure it will be different for each of us.
I don’t know of a way to apply a language filter on a search. It’s pretty easy to not include particular words, but it would be difficult to filter all the inappropriate language. I wonder if there is a utility for this somewhere.
I’ve tried searching for Murphy NC, and variations thereof, including using quotation marks which should restrict the results to exact phrase matches. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work the way we expect.
I talked about that some in my previous post about using hashtags on Twitter.
When searching for Murphy NC, I also get results for any mention of NC and any mention of Murphy, not just for tweets that have the exact phrase match.
That’s why I started looking into using hashtags. I’m still not convinced that it’s the best method, but I haven’t found anything better, yet.
I have not heard of TweetLater, but just looked at it. The email digest would not be of use to me, because I’m looking for an automated datastream and not something I’d have to deal with manually.
Who knows, maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree and will abandon this effort if it doesn’t prove worthwhile.
Still, Twitter has the potential to be an easy way to at least start conversations that may be carried on in more appropriate venues such as forums or a community on ning.com.
Still testing.
Thanks for your comments, Joan. I enjoy discussing these things with you.
Act on your dream!
JD
I just started using it but I’ll let ya know.
Dennis Edell´s last blog post..Top Commenter Contest – January – Is On!
I to am very interested in promoting within my local community. My blog is specifically for nonprofits in Western PA. The service to the nonprofits is free and will remain that way. Helping the nonprofits is very important to me, but I would not object to finding ways for the blog to sustain itself financially. I will be interested to watch and learn what and how you charge for the things you promote.
Susan/Together We Flourish´s last blog post..Thoughts Around the New Year
You may also want to check out yonkly. It’s the first “create your own” microblog to integrate with Twitter: http://yonkly.com
Good evening, Dennis.
I’m looking forward to your viewpoint on using Twitter after you have some experience with it.
I definitely plan to blog some experiences as I go.
Good evening, Susan.
I just spent a few minutes on your blog and like what you’re doing there.
I’ve been involved with a few nonprofits in western North Carolina for awhile and I enjoy helping them promote what they’re doing.
I understand and agree with you that participation by the nonprofits should be free.
One way you can cover the costs of your promotions would be to sign up businesses to sponsor particular nonprofits on your blog.
Perhaps you could set up a page for each nonprofit and post links to businesses that sponsor them. How this would be done would be up to you.
You could set a fixed price for being listed as a sponsor. One amount gets a graphic link; another amount gets a text link.
You may want to work out a deal where businesses and individuals can become sponsors with a certain split of the amount you raise being donated to each nonprofit. You’d have to be careful that you follow the fundraising laws in your area.
Whenever you blog about a particular nonprofit, you could make the final paragraph a link to their sponsors page.
I don’t know if that would be of interest to you or not. It’s just a suggestion.
How much you charge for sponsorships would depend upon your goals. Covering expenses wouldn’t be hard. Earning a profit would require larger amounts for sponsorships.
I don’t see anything wrong at all in earning a profit if you’re helping the nonprofits do their work, as long as everyone who participates understands exactly what you’re doing.
After all, it’s no different than running newspaper ads with sponsor contact info when promoting events and services that nonprofits organize and provide.
What do you think?
Act on your dream!
JD
Good evening, Scott.
Welcome to the discussion.
Thank you for recommending yonkly.
I took a few minutes and looked at the site, the tour, and the pricing schedule.
Right offhand, I don’t see how yonkly would be a better solution than using Twitter.
Could you expand on your recommendation?
Act on your dream!
JD
I like your suggestions a lot, thank you! The blog is still very young and I am still working hard to increase participation. Once I get participation and readership up I will start to implement some of the things you suggest. Response to the project is very good and I’m very excited about the potential. When I first started, I really had no idea that it could actually generate income.
Susan/Together We Flourish´s last blog post..Thoughts Around the New Year
Good morning, Susan.
As long as you’re adding social value to the work others are doing, you deserve some income for it.
Have you considered Google Adsense ads? You won’t get rich, but it could be some extra income without being too distracting.
Best of luck with your blog and helping the nonprofits in your area.
Act on your dream!
JD
G’day John, just out of interest, have you ever checked to see if all those John Dilbecks were regarding you. Perhaps you have a long lost cousin somewhere.
I didn’t realize that those old tweets still existed, so thanks for that bit of info. In regards to the email address, when someone aslo me for mine I have to stop and think about which one to give them.
Sire´s last blog post..Allowing Commentators To Edit Their Comments
Good morning, Sire.
You bring up an excellent point, and it’s one that I should have been thinking about when I wrote the original post.
You’re right. Some of those results when searching for “John Dilbeck” are not about me. Some are one of my ancestors, and some may be distant cousins. A few were about people I didn’t recognize instantly.
I looked through the first 10 pages of results, and over 90% of the results were about me, my sites, or things I’ve said somewhere.
When I started, a few years ago, when I searched for “John Dilbeck” the results were almost all about me. Now, that’s changing, as more sites come online and more people with my (relatively rare) name are joining in the conversations.
So, maybe there aren’t over 8,000 references to me, but there are still thousands of links to things I’ve been doing or what others have said about me.
I’ll have to keep this in mind in the future as I write.
When I looked at the first 10 pages of search results for “johndilbeck” all of them were related to me except for two which appear to be irrelevant results since the term wasn’t found when I looked at the source code for the page.
I made a conscious choice to use one email to send from and receive all my business-related email. Like you, I have multiple email addresses, but I think it’s made it a bit easier for me to deal with the hundreds of emails I get every day by using one main account and filtering the messages into about 100 inboxes based on criteria I use, and which changes over time as my priorities change.
I can understand that it can be difficult to remember an email address when you use several of them regularly, but I think my original point remains valid. There are lots more people who barely use their email, or don’t use it at all, than there are people like us who use email all the time.
Don’t you think?
Thanks for keeping me in line, Sire.
Act on your dream!
JD
As always John you are organized as anything, even in regards to which email to use. I suppose your desk is all nice and tidy, unlike mine which 9 times out of 10 looks like a tornado hit my room depositing everything in a virtual mess.
I once did a search on my name and was surprised on the results. It even came up with my old BBS and a add-on I once designed for Lord Of The Red Dragon, an online game. Yep, they were the days, and then the Internet killed it. lol
Sire´s last blog post..Commenting 101 Important Rules For 2009
Good morning, Sire.
You’ve given me the biggest laugh I’ve had in a long, long time.
I try to be organized on the computer and more-or-less with my business, but you have entirely the wrong idea about my office.
I’ve never had a clean desk in my life. Every horizontal surface is covered in books, printouts, scribbled notes, and notebooks. Some almost-horizontal surfaces have precariously stacked piles that may not be there the next time I look.
My main personal goal for this year is to declutter my life and be better at cleaning. It’s something I’ve never been good at, so I’m going to pretend that I’m a grown-up and take some responsibility for this mess.
While I’m mostly an open book on the Web, I am NOT going to post any photos of my office.
So, you have lived through the Information Superhighway Roadkill phase, too!
I know how you feel. There are a few things on some old private BBS sites that I’m happy never made it onto the Web.
Thanks for the laugh, Sire, it felt good.
Act on your dream!
JD
My pleasure, and may I in turn thank you, for I feel a lot better knowing that I am not the only one with an untidy office, something that I also plan to fix sometime soon.
Sire´s last blog post..Sire’s ‘Ice Breaker’ Pick Up Line
It is amazing how Twitter has exploded. I never could get into. It never did capture me. Now I have friends that tweet every single thing that they do. What you are trying to do though is pretty cool. Good luck with it!
Annie Maloney´s last blog post..Sevierville Real Estate
Good morning, Annie.
Welcome to our discussion about Twitter and promoting our local communities.
I was just on your Sevier County Blog and it looks like you’re off to a good start this year. I hope you have great success with your blog and real estate business.
At first, I didn’t understand the lure of Twitter nor its usefulness. As I tweaked my goals for using Twitter and started following people who were interested in the same things I am, it became much more useful to me.
When I start following someone who tweets about everything they do, it won’t be long before I stop following them.
I enjoy following someone with a nice mix of personal information and tweets about their business and career activities.
I’ve met some very nice people on Twitter and enjoy when one of my friends shows up in the latest tweets. Frequently, I follow the link to their latest blog post, Squidoo lens, or an addition to their website. In some cases I can get there within seconds of their posting the new item.
I’m going to tweak my Murphy, NC blog so that it will announce new posts using the #MurphyNC hashtag. I have lots of plans for promoting Murphy this year.
So, do you use Twitter?
Act on your dream!
JD
But John, even the big boys seem to put out a whole lot of static, one wonders that if they are as good as they say they are why do they have to promote themselves as much as they do?
I think I may have to follow your advice and start removing them, just so I can get some peace and quiet.
Sire´s last blog post..Blogging, It’s Not All About Money!
Good morning, Sire.
I agree. Some of the top names are some of the worst when it comes to tweeting drivel. Not all, but some. When I get tired of what they’re saying, I stop following them. No muss, no fuss.
When it comes to Twitter, I’m definitely not about the numbers. I don’t care how many I’m following or how many follow me. I just want it to be a convenient and worthwhile way to contact friends and get to know them better.
Act on your dream!
JD
That is exactly right John. I much prefer to have a small band of followers who I am interested in following and who I know are interested in following me. That way their tweets won’t be annoying, rather they will be seen as a welcomed interlude to the day’s proceeding.
I think it’s time I start deleting some twirps.
Sire´s last blog post..Commenting 101 Important Rules For 2009
Those of us who practically live online don’t really understand that most people don’t spend all their time thinking about websites, blogs, forums, social networking, and all the other things that we devote our time and energy to on a daily basis.
“This is good thinking”
Good morning, Julie,
Thanks for the comment.
Do you use Twitter in marketing your real estate business? Is it helpful for you?
I wrote this original message almost six months ago and I’m still working on plans for educating people in my area for getting more out of the online tools that are now available.
I’m always open to ideas and feedback about these topics.
Act on your dream!
JD
Thanks for this post. Also submit articles to top web 2.0 properties such as squido, hubpages, weebly etc. to gain more search engine benefit and rankings.
Good morning, Steven.
Welcome to our discussions.
You bring up a good point. While I don’t really submit articles, I do use Squidoo lenses for many things for the reasons you suggest: search engine benefits and rankings.
In fact, right now I’m working hard to promote local brick and mortar business online and a Squidoo lens will be built for each of them that syndicates their blog (if they have one), their Twitter feed (if they use it), etc.
It will also point to their profile page on the new site I’m building and I’m sure it will help put the site in the top results in a few weeks.
Act on your dream!
JD
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