There’s been lots of buzz around Twitter since it launched in 2006. Twitter really came onto the scene at 2006’s SXSW conference and has been growing steadily since. Lots of brands are jumping on the Twitter wagon and more are wondering why anyone would care. At today’s Digital Coffee Klatch (DCK) for the RTCRM staff in DC, we’ll be discussing what Twitter is and how it is used for personal and marketing reasons.
One of the biggest issues right now with social media and marketing is that people seem to forget to match the technology to the business goals. There are specific types of social media technologies that lend themselves to specific types of business goals. Before jumping on the Twitter wagon you should know what it is you want to achieve and how you will measure success.
However, it’s good to have an understanding of what Twitter is first.
Here is the dicussion guide used at the Digital Coffee Klatch, I hope it helps to illuminate Twitter and the marketing possibilities for you. Questions? Twitter @carlenlea.
Brands using Twitter
Questions for Discussion: Why use Twitter? Is it good for Awareness, Aquistion, or Retention? What are key business or marketing goals that Twitter would be a good tactic to achieve? How would you measure success? What are the operational issues to plan for?
Eco is all the rage these days. From Al Gore to hipster products — it’s hip to be eco-conscious. But, as I walk around with my super fabulous new Sigg bottle it does make me wonder what aren’t we paying attention to? Eco as a trend is doomed to fail. And what really needs to happen is for people to actually change the way they live — and that requires a monumental priority shift for much of the world.
I’m all for companies making eco-friendly products fun and hip. I’m all for gestures like carbon off-sets. Each one is a step in the right direction. But my fear is we’re just creating new stuff — not a new way of life. Groups like the Center for the New American Dream are trying to re-educate Americans — but it’s an uphill battle.
I lapse regularly myself. As soon as see that hot new cell phone — I want one. I have a perfectly good cellphone that takes decent pictures — but it’s not shiny and new. I spend more on food and would rather have a fabulous meal (with fresh, local, organic ingredients — of course) than most new things that companies want me to want. But still — it has an awesome camera and it’s hooked into Flickr – I want it.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
– Ghandi
How do we radically shift our culture so we don’t measure value in stuff? How do we create a new paradigm that values quality over quantity? Think about all the giant “mcmansions” out there? They are huge and immensely wasteful. Imagine if people were more concerned about the quality of their homes than the square footage! Some people are — but not enough. And — too many of those who would gladly trade square footage for low-energy radiant heating can’t afford to.
So for now — do what you can. Examine your priorities and in the most American-way — vote with your pocket book. Buy that Sigg or Nalgene bottle not bottle water. Buy what you can from Farmers’ Markets and not food that has been shipped thousands of miles to your big-box grocery store. Learn that eating seasonally is a good thing and that you just don’t need fresh tomatoes 365 days per year. Or just change out the light bulbs in your house and learn how to properly dispose of compact fluorescent bulbs (pdf).
By all means do these things, but also learn. Educate yourself and don’t just wait for the next eco-trend. If a healthy planet is important to you, then it is your responsibility to get educated about what you can do. Each of us can do something. I can write this blog post. What can you do?
“If not me then who?
If not here, then where?
If not now, then when?”
— Rabbi Hillel
Just because we may not see the change — does not absolve us from trying.
It seems like one of the basic tools of search engine optimization (SEO) is falling through the cracks, when it’s become more important than ever. I’m really surprised how many sites, are failing to deploy unique titles and descriptions on every page of the site. While there is debate in the SEO community about how search engines, and Google in particular, make use of the description tag — it’s critical for solid interactive marketing.
Why you ask?
Let’s put the basics of good search engine optimization aside for a moment, and look at the new reason to care: social bookmarking sites. All those sites that you see under the “share this” link on my site and so many others — that’s why you care. When you click on a social bookmarking link, it pulls the page title and description. If it’s blank — you leave it to the visitor to fill it in. If you’ve pre-filled it with helpful, accurate information — most people just leave it be. If you fill it with inaccurate, self-serving crap, a lot of people will change it.
Still don’t think it’s important? Well, here is a screen capture of what I got when I tried to bookmark an article on blogging giant Shel Holtz’s site. Can you tell what article I was looking at? Can you tell what category of the blog I’m in? Me neither? Now, I have to type in everything myself or decide how much I REALLY cared about this article and if I still want to save it for later reference.
Now you may say — who really cares? So, CarlenLea’s bookmarks won’t be snazzy for her. Hmmm…okay. But what about the search and visibility value here? Social bookmarking sites provide those lovely in-bound links we all love. People like me share my links with hundreds (or thousands) of other people. So, do you really want to just let me write my own message here, or would you like to guide me a little? I’m actually really shocked that this fell through the cracks with some like Shel Israel.
Let’s look at Social Media Optimization guru Rohit Bhargava’s site and see if he missed this important little tidbit. I’m actually crossing my fingers here, because I really respect Rohit and he knows his stuff. So I’m going to be happy if his titles and descriptions are really optimized for social bookmarking.
But, sadly — they aren’t. Rohit’s are better than Shel’s but, it’s still a generic description not article specific, and the name of the article comes after the name of the site. Okay — that’s really just personal preference, but I really like to have the post title first on blogs. And very weirdly, some has added additional HTML text to the description which then appears in the description field of the bookmark. I have no idea where that bold and italicized text is supposed to appear.
This makes me very sad, and here’s a frowny face to prove it.
So, now I’m going to put my site up to the test. I’ve installed the “All in One SEO Pack” plugin for Wordpress, so it should be pretty decent. I’m using the last article I wrote, which apparently wasn’t interesting enough to merit any comments — but that’s an issue for later discussion.
Hey look at that! (to the right –>) Custom titles and descriptions on article pages! Now, I know perfectly well that my title is too long by search optimization standards, but I can live with that.
So what have we learned here? Social media optimization and search engine optimization go hand-in-hand. The same rules really apply. Develop high quality content and pay attention to those titles and descriptions. Not only is Google using them as a way to see if you have duplicate content, which is bad, but they also matter because of all those thousands (millions?) of people who use sites like social bookmarking sites like:
So figure out how to get article/page specific titles and descriptions on EVERY page of your site, and be sure to spend 10 minutes reviewing SEO best practices for title and description tags so you are sure to get the most benefit out of them.
Learn how to create connections that work. I’ll guide you through the world of sites, techniques and technologies and walk through what they are, who uses them, how you can engage on them effectively and honestly.
Twitter Me This:
Twitter Me This:
Through the Years
This site has been through many iterations since I first launched it in the Summer of 2000. Every iteration since 2001 is actually captured in the Internet Archive.
Let’s put the basics of good search engine optimization aside for a moment, and look at the new reason to care: social bookmarking sites. All those sites that you see under the “share this” link on my site and so many others — that’s why you care. When you click on a social bookmarking link, it pulls the page title and description. If it’s blank — you leave it to the visitor to fill it in. If you’ve pre-filled it with helpful, accurate information — most people just leave it be. If you fill it with inaccurate, self-serving crap, a lot of people will change it.
Still don’t think it’s important? Well, here is a screen capture of what I got when 
Let’s look at Social Media Optimization guru Rohit Bhargava’s site and see if he missed this important little tidbit. I’m actually crossing my fingers here, because I really respect Rohit and he knows his stuff. So I’m going to be happy if his titles and descriptions are really optimized for social bookmarking. 
So, now I’m going to put my site up to the test. I’ve installed the “All in One SEO Pack” plugin for Wordpress, so it should be pretty decent. I’m using the last article I wrote, which apparently wasn’t interesting enough to merit any comments — but that’s an issue for later discussion.
