For those immersed in Twitter, there’s usually a weekly hot topic that has the community abuzz and last week was no different. Ashton Kutcher threw down a challenge to CNN to see who can hit 1 million followers first. This seemed to not only be the crowning moment for Ashton, as he won the ‘race’, but for Twitter and it’s increased mainstream popularity.
The following day, Ashton was on the Oprah show (via Skype) and talked Twitter, along with guest Evan Williams (Twitter CEO). That episode, along with Oprah‘s joining and promotion of Twitter, has skyrocketed Twitter’s name. It may seem like a great time to be on Twitter but there has definitely been mixed emotions about this mainstream recognition.
Ultimately, I see people on two sides of this debate – the Optimists and the Detractors. (more…)
How to Tweet You Way Out of a Job – it’s been going around Twitter all day so if you haven’t seen it, take a quick read. I’ll wait.
Ok – so, basically what happened was a fortunate job hunter, @theconnor, landed a job at Cisco and apparently felt the need to blurt out some rather interesting comments about the position/company – sadly (ironically) a Cisco employee saw the tweet and responded accordingly. It’s pretty easy to get caught up in Twitter and feel like you’re talking to your college buds over a beer but transparency isn’t really at question here, its common sense.
If you’re using these tools, realize that as much research that we do when finding out information about a company or hiring manager, the company is doing just the same, if not more. This even goes for roles you don’t land and openly badmouth the company for not hiring you. That can have the same backlash, as a potential employer could see that and be completely turned off from even wanting to talk to you.
Some quick thoughts but just remember to be wary of your surroundings and realize that in social media, whatever you tweet out or write about is for ALL eyes to see and the damage isn’t easily reversed.
Just ask yourself, would you say it to the face of your potential/current employer? No? Ok, good.
I’ll save the buildup and get right into what started this post at 1:30 a.m. this morning. There was a lot chatter yesterday on Twitter about a new ‘service’ that basically asks this question:
So you’re looking to get a massive following on twitter?
The site is TweeterGetter and apparently Gary McCaffrey guarantees that you’ll get 16,000 (give or take however many thousand) followers in 30 days. It doesn’t require you to follow anyone back as you can just sit back, relax and enjoy the thousands of followers you’ll be getting, of whom you have had absolutely no real interaction with.
I’m sure you can sense my disdain for this service and the negative thinking that it promotes. The thought of ‘auto-piloting’ the follow process and building a humongous following has SPAM written all over it. Gary, and the unfortunate that have taken part in this, fail to realize the value of building relationships vs. just having a large follower count. (more…)
I had a quick chat yesterday with Marc Meyer and was struck by his tweet:
If I hear another company say, we’re “doing social media”
“Doing social media” is something a lot of us hear far too many times and honestly, makes it sound like a cheap date that you pick up in a dimly lit alley. (more…)
I had the pleasure to talk with Marc Meyer over the phone yesterday. We had a great chat as we talked about an issue that’s been on his mind of late – the lack of context on Twitter. He had some deep thoughts on the matter and got the perspectives of several other great people as well. The main thought I shared with him was that the minute we begin questioning what we tweet about because someone might not understand the context of it, is when we, and the industry, begin to take a step backwards in our growth. We were born into this Social Media world with this word tattooed on our foreheads:
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We all heard about it, while many others were taken advantage of, as a phishing scam hit Twitter last weekend. The scam spread DMs that told people to click on a link that went to what looked like the Twitter login page, which is where many gave away their sensitive account information. It quickly spread and everyone was encouraged to change their password. What had me thinking though was the thought about trust and our seemingly lack of understanding and adhering to that word. I was quickly reminded about an interview I did at the MP Digital Mixer with Chris Brogan, in regards to his upcoming book, Trust Agents. Though the clip was probably full of bloopers on my part, I remembered being asked what I thought a ‘trust agent’ was. The answers Chris got during his interviews were great but what I’ve realized is that we all have a vital role in creating trust and this little fiasco that happened over the weekend shows that many of us have forgotten that.
The role has more to do than just who you trust personally but is more so associated with one action, such as this past weekend’s, and its related/adverse effects. These relations encompass the services you use on a daily basis, the perception companies have on social media, and the communities you interact with.
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There’s been a lot of talk and controversy recently within our online media realm and specifically with one, Chris Brogan. He came under heavy fire from a sponsored post he did on his Dad-O-Matic group blog on behalf of Kmart, which seemingly only caught wind after Jeremiah Owyang posted this tweet over the weekend. It undoubtedly yielded a flurry of responses (good and bad) on Twitter that led to people questioning his authenticity and trust (which is absurd to begin with if you know anything about Chris and his contributions to his community). (more…)
Community Manager. It’s a role that has evolved into a must-have position for any company wanting to connect on a deeper level and communicate directly with their consumers. With today’s new media technologies, it’s the perfect way to find brand advocates, solve customer issues and ultimately, build meaningful relationships. There are many qualities and skills to be had by a Community Manager and I could easily list them out myself. Instead, what better way to find what makes a CM valuable than by asking my own community on Twitter.
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The first part of this short series related to one of the takeaways I had from the MarketingProfs Digital Mixer, people and the deep connections I made with many folks at the conference last week. The second takeaway that I’ll be touching on is passion.
Gary Vaynerchuk is as passionate as they come and if anyone is going to give you a kick in the butt about passion, he’s the man to do it. I’ve always watched his videos on GaryVaynerchuk.com & even on WineLibrary.tv (and I barely drink wine) and am able to take his energy from the videos and into my professional and even personal life. Seeing (and gratefully getting to speak & hang out with) him in person definitely multiplied the force of his words as I’m sure majority of the people at the keynote felt. Summing it up, he makes you want to get out and do 1,000 things. Powerful, to say the least.
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A couple weeks ago, I wrote on how to pre-tackle conferences and specifically related it to the MarketingProfs Digital Mixer that took place this past week. All I can say is – WOW. The event, people and venue were simply amazing. I expected a great event in Scottsdale as MarketingProfs had a stellar line up of speakers, as well as two big keynotes by Arianna Huffington and Gary Vaynerchuk, who undoubtedly ‘brought it.’ If you’ve ever watched one of his videos, you’ll notice his passion right off the bat for what he does and how much he truly believes in his community, which leads into the biggest takeaways for me from this event; people and passion. I’ll break this up into two parts so I can better explain both.
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