How To: Get More Clicks On Twitter

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Twitter Manners

The Rundown: Get Glue

We all enjoy various forms of media such as music, movies, television shows, books, movie stars, and video games. One night while reading my Twitter timeline I ran across a tweet that included a link to a site that I’d never seen before, of course the site I’m speaking of is GetGlue . GetGlue is bascially a mash-up of Twitter and Foursquare because the user can follow or allow other users to follow them. GetGlue partners with various studios and production companies so they’re able to offer the user a “Stickers” when they check-in to the music, movie, television show, book, movie star, or video game they’re currently checking out. The Stickers are broken down into tabs that consists of Limited Time Stickers, Featured Stickers, All Stickers and there’s even a Search for stickers too.

In a short amount of time I’ve watched as GetGlue rocketed past it’s competitors such as miso for example. Actually there are quite a few other sites that offer a similar service to what GetGlue offers but it seems to be the site of choice for majority of Twitter feeds I follow. GetGlue makes checking in easy due to the range of applications available for iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, other types of phones. So far I’ve used the iPhone app on my iPod touch, the iPad app, and I was a beta tester for the BlackBerry app on my 9650.

On the Suggestions section of GetGlue you will encounter an tabbed page that offers the following: New Releases, Recommended, Trending, and Lists. Items shown in the New Releases tab is a list generated from recently media items coming to market. I enjoy this tab because I’ll see something advertised and like everyone else get busy and forget all about it and then I’ll come across it in the New Releases tab. The Recommended tab consists mainly of media picked that are very similar to the media items that you’ve selected to mark as a “Like” or “Favorite” which kind of annoys me a little because I never like any of it. The Trending tab displays results of hot items on GetGlue that are getting a lot of hits at the current time from each type of media. The Lists tab on GetGlue provides the user the opportunity to sort through various lists using Quick Rate which contains all media selections and mark the particular media as something they “Like” or “Favorite”.

Like many others I enjoy surfing the web while I enjoy a tv show. A favorite show of mine, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations on the Travel Channel, has incorporated GetGlue into it’s ad spots. The show utilizes the Twitter conversation hashtag #NoReservations and Anthony Bourdain will frequently live tweet during the show. Currently the Travel Channel is promoting GetGlue check-ins to the show where if you check-in to the show each Monday night and you earn all the Stickers for No Reservations you will be entered in an drawing for swag from the Travel Channel gives away some sweet swag.

The Rundown: Twitter

Guest Post: Jason Roberts

  Twitter has revolutionized the way and speed in which we obtain news and information about people we know as well as notable figures in different fields such as sports, movies, television, technology, and world government just to name a few. It’s totally changed the  method in which breaking news is announced worldwide. I had no idea when I first signed up how hooked I would become on the site and how much I would depend on it to view majority of my web content daily.

  One night in March of 2008 while watching Attack of the Show on G4, Kevin Pereira mentioned a unique site that he was using and wanted to share it with the viewers. That night Kevin introduced viewing audience to Twitter. I had previously signed up for Plurk and was unimpressed so I abandoned my account. I was curious about Twitter because Kevin spoke so highly of the site that night so I headed over there and signed up under  the name @microblogger (which I no longer use). Under my original account I managed to accumulate around 9,900 tweets under that account before I deleted it and switched over to my current handle. Originally when I signed up for my second account my Twitter handle was @jasoncroberts but sometime later I was able to snag @jason_ because it was a dormant account because @jason already belonged to Jason Calacanis. I simply asked @Support if I could switch my account over and they approved and ported all my tweets over too. I definitely grabbed a great piece of digital real estate and I’ve enjoyed my experience on Twitter a lot more since the switch.

  In the short time of three years and four months I’ve witnessed the exponential growth of Twitter and it’s been an amazing ride so far. At first I was a tad bit skeptical at first when I signed up because it just wasn’t that busy of a site like it is today. Now I laugh to myself when I hear people that are Twitter newbies say that it’s a waste of time and I’ll never use my account then a month later they’re completely addicted to the site. To a novice internet user I can see how Twitter could be overwhelming and quite confusing with retweets, url shorteners, etc. I’ve always enjoyed the simplicity of the Twitter and that I don’t have to write a long involved statement, I can just tweet out 140 characters of goodness at a time.  

The day I felt that Twitter had arrived as a commercially accepted tool for communication and for media usage was on January 15, 2009 when Janis Krums aka @jkrums tweeted this Twitpic with the quote:

“There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.”

Janis Krums was of course talking about the now famous picture he snapped that shows US Airways Flight 1549 sitting in the Hudson River which went viral and spread like wildfire across the web in no time. The fact that Krums beat every national news outlet to the punch with his picture proved how valuable Twitter can be. Capt. Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger and crew were hailed as heroes and the story was a sensation for months to come. I was in amazement how fast Twitter allowed information to be shared and how far behind the news networks were.

#Hashtags are an integral part to the success of Twitter. #Hashtags when used properly allow you to track a conversation on Twitter and it makes it easily searchable. A perfect example of this is when in mid 2009 when the #iranelection story broke on Twitter the world watched their monitors closely as each bit of information trickled in from the few on the ground in Iran that were still able to transmit their tweets and pictures. Late 2010 early 2011  Twitter was a driving force of communication that helped to spark the revolution in #Egypt when the people demanding that former Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak step down after being in power since October 1981. I learn a tremendous amount from the various sources of articles and snippets of information that are available. Twitter keeps me alerted to various happenings around the country and around the globe.

Twitter quickly replaced my RSS feeds because I’m able to follow everyone or every source of what interests me on the internet and in real life. I’m a firm believer of cycling through my list of people that I follow to give my timeline a fresh perspective. I tend to mainly unfollow accounts that have become inactive since I started following them or others ones with poor content. Your timeline can quickly become flooded with too much information if you follow too many users so being selective about who you follow is very important.

Spammers were far a few between in 2009 when I first signed up but as Twitter’s popularity grew it seemed that spammers took to the site like crazy. I love the Block and Report … for spam options that Twitter provides the user and I use them both frequently. I’m always extremely cautious when clicking on a shortened url unless it’s from a trusted, verified, official  Twitter account. You can easily be redirected into a scam site that can hijack your Twitter log in so I suggest you think before you click on what you think is the hot trending topic url.

Without a doubt Twitter has quickly become one important piece to the modern method in which we communicate. Twitter makes brands who provide online customer service like  @ComcastCares easily accessible. The account is now managed by Bill Gerth but it was originally established by Frank Eliason. When my Comcast internet had issues this past May I actually contacted the Comcast Cares account and Bill helped to expedite the process and made my ticket a corporate escalation which was eventually resolved. Other companies have taken notice of Comcast’s success  and now provide excellent customer service on Twitter. Twitter also allows the average person to interact and contact celebrities, professional athletes an news media personalities and many other interesting people.

The dreaded Fail Whale

In the early days of Twitter the Fail Whale (as seen above) was a common site due to strain on the servers from the mass of traffic spikes. The afternoon that Michael Jackson passed was something to see internet wide. I recall reading my Twitter feed at work and I was totally shocked to see the headline about Michael. Twitter users are infamous for killing famous people off early even when they’re perfectly alive and breathing. The most recentvictim is Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner.

In the coming years it will be interesting to see what direction @jack guides Twitter into. I’ve seen reports of advertisements coming soon to user time lines very soon. I wonder how the user base will respond to them once they start showing up? The current promoted trending topics are off to the side and are easy to be ignored. With the mass of tech related companies in line to go public I wonder how long down the road it will be before Twitter decides to file for their initial public offering (IPO). Linked In had a successful IPO and Facebook looks to have a huge IPO in 2012 so I personally feel that it will be  just a matter of time before Twitter follows suite. The future appears very bright for Twitter as long as they continue to stay true to their original mission and don’t let advertisers ruin the site.

TECHREALITY: #Hashtags

TECHREALITY: at the intersection of life and all the things your grandmother can’t figure out. 

• Guest post by: @ChicagoRose

There’s something special about introducing one of those “I’ll just stick to Facebook” types to the magical world of Twitter. In college, reading tweets was the first thing I did each morning after clearing my eye boogies and, really, I shouldn’t have added that “In college” ‘cause it’s still kinda how I roll. But this is acceptable behavior for someone like me who is looking to create something for herself here on the interwebs. I’m a social media enthusiast of sorts, having profiles on more networks than I’m willing to upload a photo for. Things get interesting (do they?) when I tell you I’m dating someone with 8 followers. For the Twittilliterate (you like how I did that, don’t you?), “followers” are the people who agree to have all the bullshit you deem important, or tweetable, in their timelines. I’m NOT explaining a Timeline. It’s like, a Newsfeed, okay?

We all know the downside to bringing forth new converts are all the annoying questions whose answers sound just as silly as the uncertainty that inspires them. I”m getting better with time, though. I’ve adjusted my response to the imminent “What am I suppose to say?” from “Just tell people what you’re doing” to ” Share something you find interesting or quote rap lyrics like you do in real life…all day long!” Better, right? To some, this typey-typey-textey-textey, 2011 stuff is a hard sell and I’m slowly but surely bringing Mr. 8 over to the dark side. Two things he still doesn’t get: retweeting and “those number signs”. The retweeting confusion was an easy fix after switching his iPhone app from the auto retweeting feature to retweet with comment, but #hastags? Oy vey! 

• Do I even understand #hashtags? 

Duh! #Hashtags are by far my favorite feature on Twitter. The first step to understanding #hashtags (you’re wondering how long I can keep up the #hashtagging of the word #hashtag, aren’t you? All day, buddy. All day.) and making them more of a mainstay in your tweets is knowing that they can serve a different purpose for each tweeter and for each tweet. But explaining #hashtags to a newbie is almost always a failed mission so, you’re often forced to provide the textbook answer and keep the tutorial chuggin’. 

#Hashtags are awesome during big events like the Grammy’s or, if you’re me and a lot of my friends, 90’s cartoons being re-run on Nickelodeon (#90sNick) as well as meet-ups or conferences like #Techweek, taking place in Chicago now. It gives people the opportunity to see what others who enjoy the same thing (watching the #2011Grammys or attending #Techweek) are thinking or doing and blah blah blah by simply clicking the link created by the #hashtag. (THEE Twitter Textbook, 2006)

• People who already understand Twitter are really annoyed with me right now. Suck it. 

My preferred use of the #hashtag is as the do-do-do-CHING! at the end of a funny tweet. If followers didn’t already get it, the #hashtag brings the joke on home. For example, I follow comedian, Jordan Rubin (@jordanrubin), who tweeted the other day: “Lord, please let the actor who played the bad guy in Karate Kid title his autobiography “Sweep the Leg”.” Funny as is, sure, but what could adding a #waxonwaxoff hurt (or, a less famous personal favorite #gethimabodybag)? Just me? Could be the reason I don’t have my own show on Comedy Central but a risk I’m willing to take. 

I just have a thing for music and movie references. Specifically, rap lyrics and lesser known movie quotes. Suppose I thought to tweet about a struggle like trying to take my shoes off without unlacing them (in between tweets about current events and aiding starving children, of course), I may add at the end #thefibersarefusedtothehead—a line Danny Devito screams during a scene in Matilda where he realizes his hat has been super glued to his head. 

• You’re wondering why you don’t follow me, right? It’s never too late. 

I also like the use of music, movies and art #hashtags as a means to make Twitter conversations more…conversational? There are times when dozens of people in my timeline retweet the same exact thing, which can cause feelings of “Ok, so…?”. Give me something to work with, people! For example, many of my friends retweeted @CNNMoney yesterday who revealed that “The average black household wealth was $5,677 in 2009; for Hispanic families it was $6, 325; white households had $113,149.” I chose not to repost the information, but if I had, best believe it’d be followed by a #whowillsurviveinamerica. This way, my followers understand that I’m up for discussing the economy (I’m not, really) and Gil Scott-Heron and having a lively debate about how Kanye West’s Dark Fantasy is next-level shit. 

So, what do you use #hashtags for? And quick! Give me your best #hashtag tutorial in four sentences or less. I promise the smartest first step is explaining that the actual pound symbol means nearly nothing in and of itself. I’m giving you tools for life here. No need to thank me. 

• Oh, but follow me: @ChicagoRose. 

One of my favorite #hashtags currently: #firstworldproblems. Here are a few random examples from across cyberspace. 

@ahenspants: I hate it when my muffin is as cold as the air outside the car. #firstworldproblems

@n00neimp0rtant: the “good denny’s” is too far away so [my] family goes to [the] “bad denny’s” #firstworldproblems

@lewconway: I want to drink orange juice but i just brushed my teeth :( #firstworldproblems

Apple IOS 5 - Twitter Integration

Apple is adding a host of native Twitter functions to IO5.  Apple has a longstanding relationship with Google via Maps and Youtube native apps.  A similar partnership is emerging with Twitter.  Features:

• Location - Tweet directly from Maps.
• Sign-on - Single sign on and ‘Tweet as you go’.
• Photos and video - sent direct to Twitter.
• Safari - Tweet directly from the browser.

These functions were available previously via Twitter or third party apps.  What’s interesting to note is Apple’s commitment to the platform.  As Apple goes, so goes the world.  In the next 24 months we’ll see full Twitter integration on TV.  Media consumers are changing.  There will be real-time communication on TV and during movies.  You must participate in the conversation or your brand is toast.  It takes time to build trust in any relationship.  The time to take Twitter seriously is now.  We can help.

You and your brand are the star of Twitter.  Run with that.  Document everything and allow your stakeholders to draw their own conclusions.  Gone are the days of the boob-tube masses, alone in their living room.  With Twitter, consumers bring all their friends with them, all the time.  Be a good friend.  

Thoreau famously said ‘Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.’  How many people have gone before us without anyone they can relate to?  Many, I suspect.  Today we are connected to anyone we want; to the degree we are comfortable.  We are singing that song.  Can your stakeholders connect to you and your brand?  How close can they be?  Given the opportunity, they will embrace you.  Let us nurture those relationships.  We can help.

twitter: @talklaunch

email me: estes@talklaunch.net

- Ryan Estes