alyssagardina.com - twitter

Listen Up: Making the Most of Twitter Search

agardina — Tue, 04 May 2010 22:17:33 +0000

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.

Now, some may call this an invasion of privacy. But, as I see it, I put the question out there in a public forum. Even if I wasn't asking the general public, it's still up to me as a user to know that whatever I say on Twitter (unless my tweets are protected [sometimes]) is there for the public to see, respond to and remember.

In the past few days, I've interacted with a couple of brands who are just getting it right. And it's refreshing:

Teleflora
I had a coworker ask me if I knew any florists in NYC. And, honestly, I had no idea. So I put it out to Twitter. Less than an hour later, I received an @ reply from Teleflora (and no, I wasn't following them prior to this - but I am now!)

Takeaway: Someone is listening, and listening well. I didn't ask about their brand, nor did I need to know about buying flowers online. But somewhere in Teleflora's social strategy, they built out a search and gave someone the task of watching it. And guess where I bought my mother's day flowers this year...

QuestCare Urgent Care
I'm very very clumsy. And so, some part of me is usually injured - right now, it's my foot. And like most people, I never know when to go to the doctor, so today, I asked. And quickly, I got a tweet from @QuestUrgentCare (and I wasn't following them either!), an urgent care office here in Dallas.

Takeaway: The text of my tweet didn't mention that I was in Dallas, but by using Twitter search's advance search functions, Quest Care was able to see my "injured" tweet that was sent from their area.

Travel Portland
Sometimes trip planning for unfamiliar cities can be a struggle. I'm headed to Portland at the end of this month, and I wanted to know where the best places were to go hiking. Luckily, Travel Portland, a visitor information site, was able to help. Their Twitter bio helpfully lets me know that I can include the hashtag #inPDX in a tweet to get an answer from them. I did just that, and they retweeted me moments later. Now I've got an entire to-do list of parks to visit.

Takeaway: Make it easy on yourself to find questions to answer. If you're a service that has a lot of information to offer, make that data readily available.

What companies have you seen listening and acting on social media?

Twitter, Promoted Tweets and the Perfect Storm

agardina — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 07:15:11 +0000

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

"Promoted Tweets are ordinary Tweets that businesses and organizations want to highlight to a wider group of users...You will start to see Tweets promoted by our partner advertisers called out at the top of some Twitter.com search results pages...Promoted Tweets will be clearly labeled as “promoted” when an advertiser is paying, but in every other respect they will first exist as regular Tweets and will be organically sent to the timelines of those who follow a brand."

Reaction on Twitter to the news has been mixed. Some users believe that advertisements will be invasive and add clutter to an already chaotic network. Others (like myself), know that Twitter had to monetize somehow, and think that this execution is a great approach.

For my part, I admire Twitter for integrating these ads into search pages (and, at this point, not profile pages or Twitter streams), where they will be seen by users who are already searching for information on that topic. Twitter's mysterious "resonance" score, calculated by click-throughs and ad response, can add another layer of moderation.

What's most interesting about this launch is how Twitter approached it. I'm still in the anti-retweet button camp, so I'm wary of anything new that Twitter foists upon it users. However, from the perspective of a launch, Twitter created an almost perfect storm. Leading up to this announcement, Twitter:

Began to feature posts that were popular (as calculated by retweets and replies) at the top of search pages:

Redesigned their home page and added a section for "Top Tweets"

As opposed to some of their other feature launches, it seems like Twitter has really thought this through. Promoted Tweets, if moderated well, can provide a solid business model for Twitter, a better marketing experience for companies and (dare I say?) a more useful environment for users.

Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments!

NBC and token social media integration

agardina — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 05:02:44 +0000

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.

Leading up to the games, there was some confusion with the IOC (International Olympic Committee) about whether or not athletes could even tweet during the Games. It was finally decided that they could tweet - about their personal experiences, and with some severe limitations on what kind of photos and videos they could share.

Those regulations, combined with NBC's apparent reluctance to integrate user-generated content or social media sites, has severely limited the potential richness of their broadcasts. In an ideal world:

Athletes could tweet and share whenever they wanted. There's already live coverage, instantaneous news distribution and people constantly. tweeting. about. the. Olympics. It's not like athletes are going to break a story before Bob Costas can get his hands on it. Odds are, their insight and tweets about nerves, conditions and competition will add to the viewers' experience. Imagine a glimpse of a tweet from Bode Miller before his bronze-medal winning run - a TwitPic right on NBC, describing the emotions before a big race.

NBC would share athletes' and coaches' tweets with information or context. Right now, on NBC's Olympic Pulse page, they're posting tweets from athletes - without timestamps, geotagging or even specifying what country the athlete represents.

Share athlete's videos and photos from the opening and closing ceremonies. Grab a couple of athletes before the Games, recruit them as content creators and give them the tools. Let them lose at the Olympic Village and collect their content as they go. Post the stories, photos and videos as the games go on to show the story behind the competition. NBC makes a darn good dramatic mini-documentary, but that content could be so much richer if gathered by the participants themselves.

What do you think? How would you make the Olympics a richer viewing experience?

Why #FollowAMuseum was a social media success

agardina — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:28:31 +0000

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.

By all accounts, this campaign was a success. As a person who tweets for a museum, I was fortunate to see our replies stream fill up with people suggesting us as a museum to follow, new followers saying hello and retweets of content we were sharing that had nothing to do with the #followamuseum hashtag. According to Social Mention, #followamuseum was mentioned once every 13 seconds. The event organizer estimates that there were over 6000 tweets with the hashtag today. So, why was it successful?

It mobilized preexisting advocates. Nonprofits have an advantage when taking part in conversations on social media. For better or for worse, many people feel passionate about their cause. Fans of museums had an incentive to promote their favorite museums on Twitter: by providing this information, they demonstrated their involvement with the museum's mission.
It provided focus in a cluttered medium. Hashtags are primarily used to tag tweets on a similar subject. The #followamuseum hashtag could be followed in Twitter Search or via a third party application, allowing museums & users to easily find and follow new organizations.
It engaged on a worldwide scale. In preparing for the day, the organizer did something very smart: he created a directory of museums on Twitter. Rather than relying on disparate Twitter lists and Twitter search, he centralized the cause and organized the museums geographically.
It united organizations that share a common cause. Museums have very little to lose in promoting one another. Odds are, not much business is lost when a visitor chooses to go to one museum over another. Frequently, it's beneficial for organizations within a city to promote each other, in hopes of growing cultural tourism. All day, museums were sharing their favorite counterparts on Twitter and thanking each other for mentions.

What could other industries do with a #followa_______ day? There could be days focusing on educational nonprofits, on colleges, on... wineries. Essentially any industry that's populated with distinct Twitter users that share valuable information could have one.

Social Media for Nonprofits: Getting Your Hands Dirty

agardina — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:11:13 +0000

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. Take that and create a strategy (maybe with a solid trunk and branches?), and you're ready to start getting your hands dirty.

It's time to get down to the nitty-gritty of social media tactics. In my next couple of posts, we'll talk best practices, ideas for campaigns and some case studies. There are a lot of great resources to help with specific tools and technology questions. Following are posts that serve as a great jumping-off point for nonprofits new to social media, or anyone who has a few questions:

From this blog:

Technology Terms Translated (Need to explain "Twitter" to your boss? This is a good place to start!)
Trunk and Branches: Social Media Strategy (It's important to start with a solid foundation and a strategy that coincides with your brand and mission.)

From the web:

4 Ways Social Media is Changing the Non-Profit World (Beth Kanter, writing for Mashable)
Social Media for Nonprofits: 26 Great Slideshare Presentations (These presentations, collected by Rebecca Leaman, cover a wide variety of topics, tips and case studies)
Messages, Stories, and Conversations: Creating a Strategy for your organization and your supporters (Great post from Amy Sample Ward that can apply to overarching strategy or individual messages)
Market or Promote Your Cause on Social Media? Yes, You Can! (Kivi Leroux Miller)
Are You Ready to Take the Social Media Leap? (LevelTen, registration required for download)

Next post, we'll talk online video - in a video! If you have any additional resources you'd like to share for nonprofits who are new to social media, let me know in the comments!

Research & Relationships with Twitter Lists

agardina — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:27:26 +0000

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:

They're useful for finding new resources & connections. Example: I was looking to connect with non-profit science education organizations and museums in regards to an upcoming project. Before Twitter Lists, I'd go to websites like We Follow and Twellow, where users put themselves into groups. Due to the opt-in nature of these sites, I was missing out on anyone who just hadn't updated their directory entry. Now, with Twitter lists, users are creating their own groups of the followers they find most valuable. That said...
They add a degree of credibility to an account. Before, you could assume a user was a spammer if they were following, oh, 1200 people and had about 50 followers. Now, you can also glance at how many lists they're on. 20,000 followers and 9 lists, none of which pertain to your interests? Might not be in it for the conversation. And, if you're a selective follower, you can glance through the lists a user is on to see what you have in common.
Application integration will be key. Twitter has spent a lot of time over the past month improving their web interface. Tweets now automatically refresh, and the same goes when you're viewing users within a Twitter List. But, if you're loyal to an application (like me!), integrating Twitter lists into an app like Tweetdeck will make your social media life infinitely easier. Example: I live in Dallas, and want to know what other Dallas Twitter-ers are up to. There are several lists to choose from (a little homework never hurt!), but once I decide, I can import that list into an application and voila! Those updates load like a group or column. (Ideally. Seesmic Desktop currently offers integration, while TweetDeck does not)

Twitter Lists can be used to save you, or your organization, time as well as help enhance the conversations you have. What other uses have you found for Lists?

Giving the public a voice - and what it means for your nonprofit

agardina — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 02:16:43 +0000

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. While the consequences for journalism are numerous, this trend will also have an impact on your nonprofit in a variety of ways:

Transparency
Even if your organization doesn't currently have a substantial online or social media presence, the rise of citizen journalism means an inevitable increase in the transparency of your industry, if not your organization. Attendees can share their experiences from your events and programs on their blogs, and now, even in major publications and on major news networks. A commentary on your use of funding may no longer be contained to Twitter, but can be a headline on CNN. Public relations moves from press releases to responsiveness plans, and knowing what people are saying about you becomes more critical than ever.

Listening
Which brings me to my next point. Social media aficionados love to tout the importance of listening as part of a social media strategy. However, even if your organization isn't ready to take the step into social media, it's still important to keep track of what's being said about you on these networks. Set up Google Alerts, check Twitter Search every now and then, and look through Flickr and YouTube after major events, programs or giving campaigns to see if any new content has shown up there. You may be able to head off a problem, provide customer service, or share in content with your perspective before it gets picked up by these big players.

Content creation
Who says you can't be your own citizen journalist? Now, I'm not saying to post content other a different name - be sure to own your brand and don't decieve the public. But, if you have quality video, photos or a story to tell, get that content out there. You can share content with publications to make their lives easier, but also get some press for your cause. It's a win-win situation - the first step is to sign up and start posting.

Citizen journalism isn't a fad, it's a longterm trend, and I believe it's here to stay. With preparation, listening and giving video or photos a shot, nonprofits can prepare for this next step in journalism.

Museums on Twitter: Girl Power Edition

agardina — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:53:50 +0000

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. #Women2Follow, a hashtag that's the brainchild of @WomenWhoTech, had a few of us focusing on museums with women directors (thanks, @cjn212!). The geneder imbalance in leadership positions at museums is well-documented, so we felt it was important to shed light on the museums who are not only led by women, but who are taking a technological leap and getting involved in social media.

Here’s the list that we got of museums on Twitter that are headed up by women directors, CEOs, and presidents. Did I miss one? Let me know in the comments!

The Women’s Museum (@thewomensmuseum)
Metropolitan Museum of Art (@metmuseum)
American Museum of Natural History (@atAMNH)
New Museum (@newmuseum)
Brooklyn Historical Society (@brooklynhistory)
Dallas Museum of Art (@dallasmuseumart)
Nasher Museum of Art (@NasherGirl)
Kemper Art Museum (@kemperartmuseum)
Seaport Museum NYC (@wavertreewire)
Asia Society Museum (@asiasociety)
Museum of the City of NY (@museumofcityny)
Magnes Museum (@magnes)
Tacoma Art Museum (@tacomaartmuseum)
Miami Science Museum (@miasci)
MOCA North Miami (@mocanomi)
Frost Art Museum (@frostartmuseum)
Minneapolis Institute of Arts (@artsmia)
Walker Art Center (@walkerartcenter)
Tree Museum (@tree_museum)
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (@crafthouston)

More! (Added 8/19/09, thanks to @CJN212)

Cleveland Museum of Art (@ClevelandArt)
Weeksville Heritage Center (@Weeksville)
Museum of Florida Art (@MuseumofFLArt)
Shiloh Museum of Ozark History (@ShilohMuseum)
Rogers Museum (@RogersMuseum)
Skyscraper Museum (@SkyMuseum)
Museum of Arts and Design (@MADMuseum)
White River Valley Museum & Mary Olson Farm (@wrvmuseum)
Log Cabin Village (@logcabinvillage)

Social media and nonprofits: don't try to go it alone

agardina — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:47:14 +0000

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.

If you're doing social media for a nonprofit, you're probably in the marketing or membership department (no offense to education, volunteers or accounting, them's just the facts). In addition to running Twitter, Facebook, a blog, Flickr and YouTube, odds are you're also taking care of reports, administration and plenty of other department-related tasks.

First, breathe.

You are not an island. You're more like a penninsula.

Second, don't be afraid to ask your coworkers for help. Sure, some may think that Twitter is just for talking about what you had for breakfast or that Facebook is for college kids. But here are some tips to get even the most technologically-afraid coworker contributing:

Start with blogging. Odds are good that someone else in your organization is writing grants, reports or guides. Give them the advice to write in smaller paragraphs, and ask that they send their post to you via email before posting it. Comb through it, add some links, include a photo, and (voila!) you've got a new voice and perspective on your blog.
Offer an incentive. This may otherwise be referred to as bribery, but it works. I've offered to bake cookies for anyone that posts on the blog - not exactly honest, but it gets people in the game.
Show concrete results. If you can show that you've gotten event RSVPs on Facebook, donations on Twitter or a great contact through LinkedIn, you've got their attention. Nonprofits are usually open to outside the box thinking, as long as you can show it's worth the time. Need some more reasons? I've got plenty.

Nonprofits have a lot to gain by building a presence on social media. Conversation, awareness, resources - they're all pretty much there for the taking. Working slowly but surely, you can get your coworkers involved and really build a stellar online presence. Questions? Contact me. I've got the bribery thing down.

(And yes, this is my first post in awhile. Pot calling kettle, I've been too busy. I'm back now, though, I promise!)

Social Media: I'm giving you one (or several!) good reasons

agardina — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:36:20 +0000

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.

Why should you give social media a shot? Because! Okay, there are more detailed answers than that, but, when it comes down to it, social media is a great thing to try - it requires minimal financial investment and there are tons of resources online (like this site!) to help you along the way! More specifically:

Why blog?
Blogging is a great way to tell a story. It's easy to incorporate photos, videos and links, so you can connect it to other sites. Many organizations integrate their blog with their website. You can add several authors to a blog, so each person in the organization has a chance to contribute.

Why Twitter?
Reason #1 is because you can't afford not to. In the past year, Twitter's unique visitor count has grown 1,192.13%. Granted, user accounts are being opened and abandoned at high rate as well, but it's still growing - and is now the #3 social media network. Plus, Twitter's benefits, from conversations to a wide range of user search and metrics functions, make it a great place to start a social media campaign.

Why Facebook?
If you're going to start anywhere and you want something quick and easy, try Facebook's Pages. Facebook's system allows you to add information easily and select applications that are right for your page. The pages system was recently reworked, making it very similar to Twitter.

Why Flickr/YouTube/Vimeo/Blip.TV/etc.?
Odds are, your organization has a camera (whether it's 5 years old or older remains to be seen) or maybe even a camcorder. Start taking it with you to events and uploading what you capture. Your videos may be dark, your images blurry, but having a multimedia presence is more important than your photography skills. Plus, if your photos and videos are a hit, all the more reason to put in a reqeust for some new equipment!

Why social bookmarking?
Social bookmarking is just like regular bookmarking. If you're already using the tools your Internet browser provides, it's just one small step from there to sharing what you're saving. Start an account on Delicious or StumbleUpon and install the right Firefox add-on. (You are using Firefox, right?) Now you're bookmarking and sharing.

So go give it a try! Really! Got questions? Leave a comment or contact me!