Archive for November, 2008

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Charities and Not-for-Profits should take note of Tweetsgiving.

by Jeff Pulver. This guest post combines two posts that originally ran on his blog/as Facebook notes.

A Project like Tweetsgiving is an example of how a charity can use social media platforms, in this case, twitter, for fund raising. Imagine being able to raise US$ 10,000 in a 48 hour period from hundreds of people (336 at last count) who contributed $5 and $10 dollars whose only connection with a charity was when they discovered the fund raising efforts because of one of their friends on twitter?

Imagine what can be done with more established charities. I believe micro giving promoted on social media networks can have a positive impact on fund raising in the weeks, months and years ahead. Not-for-Profits should take note of this and the work of : Beth Kanter, Rebecca Bollwitt, Stacey Monk and others who are pioneering this field as they can benefit directly as they discover and learn how to properly leverage social media and the passion people have for their respective charities.

Jeff blogged all about Tweetsgiving the previous day:

Another example of Leveraging Social Media for the Social Good: Tweetsgiving

I just became aware of tweetsgiving.org.

From the tweetsgiving.org website:

“Tweetsgiving is a Twitter celebration of gratitude and giving created by Epic Change, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The project aims to demonstrate the power of the social web by raising $10,000 in 48 hours to build a classroom in Tanzania.

TweetsGiving will be held from Tuesday, 11.25.08 (12pm EST) to Thursday, 11.27.08 (12pm EST).

At last check, they were almost halfway to their goal.

From tweetsgiving.org:

“How do I participate?

1. TWEET THANKS: Share something you’re thankful for with all your twitter followers. Your tweets can be touching or silly, poignant or fun. Just tweet from the heart and be sure to include the #TweetsGiving tag and a link to: http://tinyurl.com/4thanks.

2. GIVE: Make a donation in honor of whatever - or whomever - you’re grateful for.

* Every $10 buys a brick to build a classroom in Tanzania. (1,000 bricks = new classroom!) Email your TweetsGiving tweet to tweetsgiving@gmail.com, and it will be painted on your brick!

* For $100 or more, you’ll be named one of our “Top Turkeys” and we’ll list your gift on our site.

* Or, with the holiday season approaching, you may buy unique gifts at: http://shop.EpicChange.org. With each purchase, you’ll add one or more bricks to a new classroom at the school.

3. SPREAD THE GRATITUDE: Follow @TweetsGiving to fill your twitter stream with gratitude, then blog, retweet, or even change your avatar to the TweetsGiving Turkey.”

Their story:

Tweetsgiving is a project of Epic Change that seeks to demonstrate the power of twitter and the social web by spreading gratitude and raising $10,000 in 48 hours to build a classroom at the school in Tanzania. The project was inspired by the TrickorTweet campaign organized around Halloween by @TheGrok and @ChrisBrogan.

Epic Change is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that uses the power of stories to create social change. Their current project is to rebuild and expand Shepherds Junior, a primary school in Arusha, Tanzania. Mama Lucy Kamptoni, a savvy and passionate local woman, started the school near her home in 2003 with the money she raised from selling chickens. She believes that education is the key to transforming a country gripped by poverty. By participating in TweetsGiving, you’re investing in the education and future of students like Gideon, Pius, Glory, and many more who have the potential to change the world. All the funds raised will go to build a new classroom at the school.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, please take a look at this inspiring video message of gratitude from the children:

Jeff Pulver is the Chairman and Founder of pulver.com. His blog is well read within the IP Communications Industry and in high-tech communities around the world. He is the publisher of The Pulver Report and and creator of the industry standard Voice on the Net (VON) events. Additionally, Mr. Pulver is the founder of FWD, the VON Coalition, PrimeTimeRewind.TV, Vivox and is the co-founder of VoIP provider, Vonage.

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Twitter is a communication platform.  It is a hub where people discuss where they eat, get recommendations, learn, interact, and plan gatherings.

People are social.  They eat, they meet with each other, they talk about their experiences.  If you are a restaurant, you want to be part of this conversation.

When looking in Twitter, restaurant owners often search for conversations relating directly to their restaurant.  “Am I being talked about?”  So they will search for “Bick’s Restaurant” and be happy with the results or lack thereof.

But do you understand the conversations that are actually happening that make your restaurant relevant?

For example, questions like “Where should I eat?”  The results are numerous.  Are you the response they are getting back?

What are they saying about restaurants in general? When people are dissatisfied, is it because of the food, the service, the experience?  If we search “restaurant sucked” or “excellent food” what do we see?

And when these people on Twitter have a gathering, are they coming to your restaurant? What gatherings are forming?  Who is forming them?  Here there are 4 pages of tweets talking about this particular dinner.

There are a massive number of sites on the web where people might be talking about your restaurant.  Key sites like Twitter are communication hubs that often point at other information.  Here we see blog posts that mention restaurants that are broadcast over Twitter.

You can search Twitter by using The Twitter Search Utility  or you can use tools like Twitscoop which give you graphs showing how often you are discussed.

In the end, it’s not necessarily the tool you use to make the search.  The power of a pool of information like Twitter is how you search.  What is that key piece of information that Twitter is hiding that can bring in more customers?

Jim Benson is a partner at Modus Cooperandi and blogs at Evolving Web. Jim is a management consultant who uses social media tools and principles to help his clients communicate. Follow him on Twitter.

This is a guest post by Julio Ojeda-Zapata, author of the just-released book, “Twitter Means Business: How Microblogging Can Help or Hurt Your Company.” Ojeda-Zapata is a Twitter veteran who also has harnessed the service in his print-journalism work, while writing about the twitterverse and related subjects at length.

“To twit or not?”

That was the main headline on the front of the St. Paul Pioneer Press business section this Sunday. It’s also a question many a company has asked itself. Is there business value in embracing Twitter or other forms of public or private microsharing?

In a series of three articles, I lay it out. (To see these pieces in their original, full-color, printed form, grab the page PDFs).

In the main piece (alternate text here), I profile four Minnesota companies that have learned the fine art of the Twitter-based “soft sell” (versus the harder type that can be a twitterverse turnoff):

Best Buy. This mega-retailer has embraced Twitter at all levels. Its chief marketing officer is using it. So is a customer-service manager in a Tulsa, Okla., Best Buy outlet. One Web-savvy operative has even whipped up a customized search engine dubbed Spy for tracking Twitter and other social-media sites.

continue

Hi, folks. Sarah Milstein here, and I’m honored to be guest-posting at the warm invitation of Laura Fitton.

As you all know, Twitter started out as a way for friends and family to share personal updates. But the microblogging service and others like it are fast becoming indispensable office tools, helping people share work-related info and a very appealing sense of ambient awareness–all with messages that are no more than a sentence or two long. Indeed, some companies find that internal microblogging can help cut down the inbox tsunami. What’s not to like?

In a story running this weekend in The New York Times, I look at how people are using microblogging services at work. Beyond Twitter, I talked to companies that are very happy with Present.ly and Yammer for internal posts. Check out “Now, Brevity is the Soul of Office Interaction,” and let me know what you think in the comments, in email (sarah [dot] milstein [at] gmail [dot] com) and/or at my Twitter account.

I just submitted my first tip to the Twitter for Dummies community that we launched this afternoon. Built on Bright Idea’s Webstorm platform, this website will serve both the book project and the gathered community as a place to exchange ideas about making better use of Twitter.

Be Yourself

(category: How to Grow Your Network. tags: authenticity  followers  human  personal  yourself )

I get asked - a LOT - how to “get followers” and I swear that a small part of me is sad every time. Because i really hope for people to have a rich experience of Twitter no matter which - or how many - followers they are connected to. Twitter isn’t *ONE* village, it’s your own personal gathering of friends, neighbors & strangers. Every Twitter Village is different. It’s the quality of the experience and the relevance to you that matter — not the quantity.

So, be yourself.

Yes, even if you have a business account, include some personality and some passion in the mix. we’ve always known that important business gets done at dinners, charity events and on the golf course. Business has always been social and based on relationships, and relationships are based on authenticity and genuinely having things in common.

Sometimes remaining silent about the real you can make you less interesting and harder to relate to. This is an extraordinarily personal medium. I hope you will make it your own.

Won’t you come join us? At the site you can:

• submit ideas
• vote on ideas
• set up your profile
• search ideas
• read tips by category
• invite friends
• nominate a charity!

As I write this we already have 40 59 people in the Twitter for Dummies community and 268 301 people who have followed @Dummies on Twitter. I hope you will join us too and help choose not only the best ideas for the book, but a deserving charity to receive the “community” share of any royalties.

To submit a charity for the community share of the royalties, register and log into the site, click “Post Idea” from any page and categorize your submission “NOMINATE THE CHARITY.” Community voting will determine which charity is selected, and 10% of Pistachio Consulting’s GROSS royalties.

I’d like to add a note of personal thanks to Bright Idea CEO Matt Greeley and to Michelle Fairbanks for their help getting the community site up and running.

This is a guest post Samir Balwani of the Internet Marketing blog Left the Box. He writes about social media strategies and how businesses can better utilize the web. Follow him on Twitter or sign up for his newsletter.

The post below features some pretty well-known case studies, but if you are new to Twitter for Business, this is a great place to start.

Twitter has become a popular business tool for everything from Public Relations to Customer Relations Management.

It’s an integral part of business social media campaigns but because of its youth, Twitter strategies are still vastly misunderstood. To better understand how people are using it I decided to explore the three corporate stars of Twitter. I asked each to describe how they’re using social media in 140 characters.

Zappos

One of the best things that Zappos did was create their twitter.zappos.com page. It shows their dedication to keeping in contact with their consumers, and gives people a rare look into the company itself.

What does this level of transparency bring? Trust. The less a company is perceived as a black hole the more people trust them.

When a business is no longer seen as a business but a friend, you overcome the distrust of online shopping. People feel safer using your site with their credit cards and know that returning something won’t be a hassle.

Not only are the Zappos employees easy to contact but the CEO is using it consistently. Tony doesn’t only push out press releases, but instead talks as if he were any other employee. He’s the point man for delivering discounts and conducting research for Zappos on Twitter.

Their use and the Zappos Twitter page has created an online fan base. Not only are they able to generate buzz quickly but they’re able to take care of PR problems right away. If you don’t think Twitter, along with great PR, hasn’t helped make Zappos what it is it now, you’re sorely mistaken.

Ford

Scott has taken Ford’s social media campaigns to a new level and have really used Twitter as a major part of the strategy.

Ford introduced multiple Twitter accounts based on what they talk about. You can follow @forddriveone, @fordtrucks, or @forddrivegreen depending on what you want. Not only that, but Scott has said before that each department will have a team sending out messages and chatting on Twitter.

They’ve used Twitter to create a strong customer relationship. Scott has been known to generate buzz about new launches (for example, the new Mustang) and is quick to track any Ford mentions.

The brand’s social media strategy spans beyond Twitter and is also targeted towards bloggers. For example, they have invited bloggers to events. Twitter allows them to keep in touch with these bloggers and the Internet-savvy fans of Ford.

Comcast

Comcast has taken customer service and super-sized it with Twitter. Frank is in charge of @comcastcares, which is the company’s response to some public relations mistakes of past.

Frank monitors Twitter for any mention of Comcast and works to quickly alleviate any issues. At the same time, he offers great customer service.

The brand uses Twitter for customer service, and with it, public relations. By quickly resolving any problems people might have, they save themselves from having an Internet public relations fiasco.

It’s smart because many of Twitter users are bloggers and business owners, and we know the power of bloggers and how a minority can make a lot of noise.

Twitter’s ability constantly monitor people’s feelings lets brands target aggravated (and happy) customers. You’re able to create a relationship based on helping them use your product and letting consumers know just who you are. Using it to mold and grow relationships means better public relations, more brand evangelists, and more customers.

Related:

• Motrin’s Twitter Moment
• Twitter for Business Reading List
• Let Pistachio Consulting help your business get started

Obama’s transition team has garnered much of the spotlight surrounding “Government 2.0″ in recent weeks, and with good reason.  He is on a quest to bring transparency to the federal government via blogging at change.gov and “fireside chats” on YouTube.  It will be an uphill battle to say the least, but the quest is noble; and as someone fighting for this type of change at the state government level, I most certainly hope he succeeds.

But there is big news out of Washington this week (as opposed to Chicago) on the microsharing front.  The State Department waded into the social media waters in September of 2007 by starting their blog Dipnote.  A month later they joined Twitter (@dipnote).  It’s a less-than-ideal Twitter account, in my opinion, because it’s simply a feed of their blog headlines — there’s no human touch, like with 10 Downing Street’s account (@DowningStreet).  However, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, Colleen Graffy, has a personal Twitter account (@Colleen_Graffy) and she’s using it to keep her followers up-to-date as she visits Romania during “International Education Week.”

For those of you on Twitter, you can experience public diplomacy in real-time as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, Colleen Graffy, travels to Bucharest and twitters along the way. It is “International Education Week” in Romania, and she will be meeting with students, Fulbright scholars, conducting media interviews, visiting the University of Bucharest, and speaking at the Romanian Diplomatic Institute, among other things. Follow the details of Colleen Graffy’s trip here, and don’t forget, DipNote is also on Twitter.

Twitter This: Public Diplomacy in Romania

twitter.com/Colleen_Graffy

So far she’s visited the US Embassy, met with the Fulbright Commission, done a couple of interviews, and met Remus Pricopie, State Secretary for Education.  It’s a fascinating, real-time look into the world of a US diplomat.

(Note: Ms. Graffy has changed her Twitter handle from @cgraffy to @Colleen_Graffy since the time this article was first published.)

Hillary Hartley is a leading authority on government’s use of emerging technologies to deliver on its mission of service to constituents. In her role as Director of Integrated Marketing for NIC, Hillary consults with 21 states and hundreds of local governments on portal management, Web design, marketing, and Web 2.0 best practices for eGovernment. A frequent speaker at a wide range of technology-related events, Hillary is a blogger, San Franciscan, photographer, and Citizen Space coworker.  Follow her on Twitter (@quepol).

Dirk Röhrborn is the founder of Communardo where he is involved with Communote, an internal microsharing application. In this interviewFAQ, he provides insights into the application and decisions for its implementation and execution.

Q: Why did Communardo develop a new micro-sharing platform?

A: We have worked extensively with quite a number of social media tools, e. g. open source and enterprise wikis and weblogs, in projects for our clients. We have been using tools like these also internally for many years. However, a lot of very important project team communication cannot be captured. People use (sometimes abuse) e-mail and instant messaging and many good ideas, reasoning behind decisions, risks, problem solutions etc. is buried in mail boxes and IM log files. We wanted to capture these parts of informal communication. We’ve got some very good inspirations from the Wordpress Prologue theme which is in fact a great tool, but we do need a platform with better manageability and scalability. Therefore we developed “Kenmei” which we will now offer as online-service at communote.com.

Q: Why don’t you just use Twitter.com?

A: We love Twitter for personal use and business networking purposes. There is no better communications platform around. However, for our internal project work we rather need a tool that is topic-centric rather than people-centric like twitter. Further, we need confidentiality. Don’t misunderstand me; we are enthusiasts about information sharing and knowledge exchange. But we are also bound to legal agreements with clients that demand confidentiality. Therefore we must use a secure micro-sharing platform either behind the firewall or at least as secured service private to our teams.

Q: Why should busy users use another tool for communications?

A: Good question. People say: “all these users generating own content takes up our time”. But, user generated content is nothing new. If you look at today’s companies you will find many people writing notes into large paper notebooks. Some changed these for a shiny new notebook computer or smart phones and type notes into files, email messages etc. This is all UGC. But it really takes archeological capabilities to find and share important information this way. So what we need is a tool that our colleagues can use to write down their notes into one space easily, ideally using the client of their choice.

Q: What makes communote.com different from other micro-sharing tools?

A: First of all, there is this topic-centric approach that in our opinion fits the needs of internal communication better than a pure people-centric approach. Second, we have invested heavily into the development of the tagging and filtering tools to make sure that every note can be found instantly when needed. Third, we make sure that micro-content can be exported for later processing. RSS can be used to integrate micro-content into news readers and web portals. Further, we added an access control feature as well as LDAP integration to meet enterprise requirements.

Q: How do you use Communote in your own company?

A: Well, mostly in project communications. However, other teams are catching up, such as sales / marketing, HR and finance. One very interesting use is the “IT systems log”. This is a microblog where our technicians are noting any system change and extraordinary event into a microblog rather than another logbook. This makes later analysis and sharing within the team much easier.

Q: When will it be possible to use communote.com?

A: Our team is currently busy with completing the platform and setting up a stable systems environment. We plan to start the public beta-test in November. During the beta-phase we will be introducing a number of new features. The release of the commercial service is scheduled for January 2009.

Q: What are your future development plans?

A: We are currently looking into the development of certain APIs to allow for better integration with other systems, e.g. instant messaging and email. Further, we are developing micro clients for mobile and desktop use right now. The next big thing with 6-12 months ahead will be dashboard applications that provide us knowledge workers with a mash-up of better personalized information feeds than today’s tools.

I admit that I’m a car guy; there’s nothing like a ride to help clear your mind and forget the drama of the workday. Several months ago I met Eric Miltsch, IT-Web Director for Auction Direct USA, a multi-state auto retailer focused on the used car segment. Eric was kind enough to share his thoughts and experience with micro blogging and how it’s helping to transform their engagement with customers.

Background

“Our unique selling proposition is communicated in a casual, yet professional way. We answer questions, share valuable information, and get instant consumer feedback about their experiences, habits and desires. Online car shoppers are looking for information without the fear of being aggressively sold something. They also have a powerful voice and aren’t afraid to use it when it comes to making a recommendation or comment.”

Twitter

JK: How did you get started with Twitter?
EM: Auction Direct USA discovered Twitter late in ‘07; however we didn’t start using it until early ‘08. Twitter needed to be tested to determine its worth. Our “A-ha” moment came once our follower base began to rapidly grow.  The positive feedback helped and the stats showed it was worth the effort.

JK: How are you using Twitter today?
EM: Twitter is one element within our unique online strategy. It lets us build depth to our social media reach by engaging new customer segments otherwise not tapped. We (try to) contribute valuable and relevant automotive items such as industry news, new blog articles and company specific updates. I feel it’s important to add the human element if we want to build any confidence - we’re not there to blindly sell product. The goal is to educate and inform the automotive consumer, while also getting their feedback. People are very willing to comment and review. I’ve asked for feedback on new design mock-ups and even conducted online polls.

I also use Twitter to share and contribute ideas. I’ve spoken with and met new people that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to otherwise.

Innovation in Micro sharing and Engagement: Tweet and Greet

What caught my eye about Auction Direct was something called Tweet and Greet. I love the concept and how it uses Twitter to generate a common community interest.
JK: What type of results have you seen?
EM: I’m asking 10 simple car-related questions to get to know our followers better. The answers, and their feedback, are incredible; there’s so much detail. You can really learn a lot about people when you ask them about the vehicles in their life. It began by inviting 20 early followers to share their answers. I hoped for one or two replies. Nineteen people responded, some within minutes. I kept asking and they kept coming in, so I put up TweetandGreet.com. Once published, the individual posts are tweeted. Many even link back from their sites. The traffic to our used car blog and our used cars website is tracked very closely with analytics. Not only have I learned who our followers are and developed many new relationships, I’ve also learned from our followers. Most notably, we recently had our 100^th interview completed.

Measurement

JK: How do you intend to measure Twitter’s impact on your business?
EM: This isn’t meant to be a sales channel, Twitter is another communication channel for us. I’m still measuring the traffic to our website, blog and other online properties. The key factors are obviously traffic and conversions. Our conversion rates confirm its success so far as our conversion rates fill within industry expectations. However, I consider the comments, feedback, and relationships to be the most important factor in all of our online efforts, and that’s where the real impact is realized.

Lessons Learned Along the Way

JK: What advice would you give other companies that are thinking of using Twitter or something similar?
EM: The best lesson is to get started. I’m very happy we started when we did. It gave us a nice jump on our competition. I’m sure our follower count would rapidly drop if the value of our core messages also dropped. I wear my common sense hat and simply “Think Before I Tweet.” [Having the right person to deliver valuable content ranks high as well. Shameless plug.]

Essential Tools

JK: How do you manage the time spent on maintaining the account?
EM: Good question. Without a plan, one could lose days watching the public’s tweets. My list of must-have tools are:

• TweetDeck: Neatly organizes messages & groups making it possible to see items quickly.
• TwitterFeed: Automatically distributes new blog content and new inventory updates for our “Cool Whip of the Day” tweets. (Corny - but very well received.)
• TweetLater: Every follower receives a welcome message (I send a personal note as well).
• TweetBeep: Alerts notify us when specific keywords are mentioned.
• TwitterTise: Message scheduler with built in stats.
• FriendOrFollow: Manager your network by seeing who follows who doesn’t,
• TwitGrid: Track multiple keywords within custom grid views.

JK: Most importantly: That’s an RS4 in your twitter background, right?
EM: Ohh, so close. That’s an R8.

Summary

Do’h, so maybe I don’t know cars as well as I thought. What I do know, however, is Auction Direct USA’s understanding of micro blogging extends beyond Twitter and provides an example for other organizations to follow. It’s about engaging the community and storytelling; and it’s about creating an opportunity for customers to share their stories and be heard. How do you find the right story? Look at your organization’s focus and objectives. The rest is easy.

Jonathan Kash is Director of Web Services at a non-profit based in Washington, D.C., and writes the blog Fluent Simplicity. He also created the Social Media Brand Index (originally the Twitter Brand Index). Interests include brand identity, online reputation and strategy.

Mashable’s startup review for TigerBow has raised a few questions regarding the subject of privacy and security online. This is a service that will allow anyone to send a real gift (movie or book at this time) to anyone they want via an email address or social networking ID such as their Facebook name. The gimmick is that you’ll be able to receive things without having to divulge your actual address which is nice when it comes to security. However, something about it bothers some people. They feel a little uneasy about this prospect of allowing potential strangers to send you things with someone easily attained such as email addresses and social media names which are splattered all over blogs and websites everywhere.

Tigerbow isn’t the first to do this virtual to reality delivery trick. I remember SocialFlowers being one of the first services that allowed people to ship to unknown addresses from within social networks. The way they did it was by
being the middleman that brokered the deal, much like PayPal distributes money from the buyer’s real bank account to the seller’s real bank account. SocialFlowers did the same thing but instead of handling money, they managed the real addresses of both parties, providing the cloak of anonymity for both parties involved in the transaction.

There are other services now like You Got Beer that let you send things like beer to others across the country. There are also many Facebook apps that do the same thing, and not just beer but also other items such as flowers, candy and more.

This crossover behavior has infiltrated the microblogging world as well with services such as TrackThis which lets members of Twitter receive notifications in real-time of real-world shipment updates for packages. Also, as everyone has witnessed by the deluge of new followers, there are increasing numbers of brick and mortar establishments jumping on Twitter to setup shop. Rumor has it that we will be able to place orders on Amazon from Twitter directly with a tweet. The same will happen with all types of businesses someday soon.

Now that there are services such as TigerBow and SocialFlowers that have become in essence the middle man between the virtual world (social networks) and the real world (customers), then whose to say that a microblogging platform such as twitter couldn’t also be the broker for such deals? Companies took a leap of face many years ago when they allowed customers to place orders with faxes and then even riskier emails. Why wouldn’t they go a step further and embrace the current standards of communication (social media, social networking, microblogging)?

I firmly believe that we will be able to place orders not only with a tweet on Twitter for anything we want but also instant messages. As long as the social identities can be verified and confirmed and ultimately linked to some form of financial account (PayPal or bank account), then there shouldn’t be any problems with doing business with people on Microblogs, any instant messenger or social network. If they want to keep their real address a mystery to the business then so be it. As long as payments are made and products or services have been delivered then what does it matter?

The thin line between virtual and reality continues to blur and fade. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? What do you think? Does it matter if the sender knows your real address or not?

P.S. Earlier this year, a business partner and I came close to launching a service in ultra stealth mode where we planned to allow people to place orders for anything they wanted (pizza, coffee, flowers, etc.) via twitter or even instant messenger. However, we backed out due to several factors including not only the gloomy economy but also because we found a great deal of services that failed trying to let customers place orders online for one reason or another. I still believe without a doubt this type of service will succeed someday soon if done right.

Doriano, A.K.A. Paisano or Pai to his friends on Twitter and elsewhere, has been in the I.T. Industry ever since the MS-DOS 6.22 days. Besides his day job as an IT Admin he also writes for Mashable.com as well as his own tech blog (http://ThePaisano.com) and ocassional guest posts elsewhere. His favorite service is Twitter where you can find him as @Paisano (What else?)