twitter

In my 2 years on Twitter, I've found it to be an incredible networking tool, resource and place to vent. And in the past months, it's become even better - brands are proactively reaching out to answer questions I have. How? A variety of ways, but many are using a tool called Twitter Search.

Today Twitter announced plans to roll out advertising in the form of Promoted Tweets. From Twitter's blog:

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.