twitter

Broadcast networks have taken Twitter integration to different levels. For Fox, it involved invasive "live tweets" from show stars. For NBC, it's apparently a token integration to appease both their audience and the athletes taking part in this year's Winter Olympics.

Today, museums, organizations, visitors and enthusiasts around the world celebrated the first #followamuseum day. Organized by Jim Richardson of the blog Museum Marketing (UK), the campaign asked Twitter users to share their favorite museums to follow and discover new ones as well.

In one of my earlier posts, I discussed social media strategy. Nonprofits, corporations, professionals, students - no matter who you are, you need to have a goal for your interactions on social media and a path to reach them. As a nonprofit, your goal could be to increase awareness, grow local event attendance or create issue advocates.

Twitter Lists. They were introduced (slowly) a few weeks back, and, largely, confusion still reigns. Do I make a list? Whose lists am I on? What exactly are these darned things for? I can't answer all the questions, but I have found out a few things about Twitter Lists that I'd like to share:

CNN's iReport, New York Times using Twitter to build commentary, it seems like major news outlets are turning more and more to citizen journalists for photos, videos and context for current events. Anyone with an iPhone or a Flip camera can now be the source for the next front page story.

I'll be the first to admit it. I love Twitter. I’ve been able to connect with so many people, organizations and companies in the past year - it's incredible! That being said, something awesome happened on Twitter yesterday.

Nonprofits are often all about collaboration. Fundraisers, mailing, events, we're great at working together as a team when we're on deadline. When we're immersed in long-term projects, however, we often get so focused and immersed that teamwork is the last thing on our minds. I came in late to the #blogchat discussion on Twitter on Sunday night, but still had a really interesting discussion with some other nonprofiteers about who does social media for their organization.

Growing up, my dad and I would always read Prince Valiant in the Sunday Comics. I never got that into it, but I vividly remember one comic, where Prince Valiant has to ask a difficult, almost unanswerable, question. He asks, simply, "Why?" The villian, unable to answer, gave up. The answer?

Because.

I'll never forget the day I told my boss that we should probably be on Twitter. Actually, I may have said, "We should be Twittering!" - this always results in a raised eyebrow and a question as to whether the word "Twittering" is work-appropriate. If you've ever had a conversation like this, you know that social media technologies aren't easy to define. Thus, I present to you a Social Media to English dictionary, so the next time someone tells you that your organization should "do a blog", you can send them here!

My foray into social media (beyond using Facebook to "friend" people I haven't seen since middle school) began very very late. Over the past summer, I tried out Twitter with my own personal account. In June, I began working for The Women's Museum, a national women's history museum in Dallas, Texas. I did some research and, in October, told my boss that I wanted to Twitter. The following conversation ensued.