Your Twestions Answered. Part 2

15Mar09

So my answers to these questions are so long that I wanted to break this up into more manageable pieces. Plus I know I hate reading super long blog posts.

See Part 1 here.

And so it continues…

6. What is “12 seconds” and “twitscoop?”

“12 Seconds” is a reference to 12seconds.tv, it’s a way to filter in updates from that site into your TweetDeck. “Twitscoop” refers to twitscoop.com which claims to track what’s hot on twitter right now. Honestly, I don’t really use either of these features of TweetDeck, and I would take twitscoop with a grain of salt, since I just compared that to the trending topics on Twitter Search and they are completely off. I don’t use Twitscoop, so I shouldn’t really say anything about it, even though I did. 🙂

7. How do you embed a url into your tweet so people can click on it and go to a website?

What most people use is called a URL shortener. Basically it shrinks a normal URL to a much shorter version. You include this shortened URL in with your tweet. Why do this? Well we are talking only 140 characters, so taking up more characters means you have less to say. Space is valuable in the Twitterverse.

8. Why do you need to use tinyurl?  What is best way to do that?

See # 7. I will say from an association perspective, when I tweet for my .org I use http://bit.ly because it includes stats, allows you to tweet directly from their site and will also show you who has retweeted you (another way Twitter increases your word of mouth marketing). There are other ones out there too like Tweetburner and some others. If you don’t care about stats (like on my personal account) I just use whichever one TweetDeck decides to pull from in it’s interface. But if you have a good analytic software and linking to your site, this may not be as relevant.

9. Why does Ben Martin keep tweeting these things with .exe at the end?

Ha! Well it’s a reference to DOS I believe (Ben correct me if I’m wrong here). “.exe” is an executable file, so basically what he’s saying is that he’s DOING something related to the word before the “.exe”. Okay, so it’s only funny if you’re a supergeek, but whatever. I still like it. 🙂

10. Can you find people in tweetdeck?  Or do you have to do it within twitter?

There is a search function in TweetDeck that is like Twitter Search, I wouldn’t recommend using it to find people though. I would start paying attention to your stream and see who the people you already follow are talking to. In Tweetdeck you can click on “@[username]” and then it will pull up their profile either in TweetDeck or in your browser and you can follow them there.

Twitter also allows you to import your address books to see if any of those email addresses are associated with a Twitter account. It’s a good way to connect with those you already know.

Also check the sidebars & headers of the blogs you read. Usually if someone is on Twitter, they will have some sort of link so that you can follow them on Twitter. In fact this is something that I need to do for this blog!

Last but not least, check out Association Professionals on Twitter in the Association Social Media Wiki. It’s a list I started so that people can have a live list of who all is on Twitter in the association world. Add yourself & your association!

11. What is the easiest way to sign up to follow someone?  What is easiest way to let someone know you can be followed?

Well everytime someone follows me I get an email alert into my inbox. Sometimes I get a lot in one day, so I usually just log-in to the Twitter website and click on the list of my “Followers”. I then go through and click on profiles and see if they are people I want to follow. Usually I’m looking for something in common with them listed in their bio, if they are someone I want to follow, then I click the follow button and move on to the next in the list. For this reason alone, it’s imperative that you have a good bio that says something about you and isn’t just marketing jargon.

I think the easiest way to let someone know they can follow you is to tell them. I currently have my .org Twitter name in my email signature and soon to be on my new business cards. I also attend and tweet from events with hashtags, so people tend to follow those who are at the same event. And as in any other business venture, personal recommendations. There is this thing that has started happening on Twitter on Fridays called #followfriday. Basically what everyone does is allow people to introduce their followers to interesting people they are following. It also opens this up to the entire Twitterverse by including the hastag that you can use to search. This is pretty much a Twitter version of a personal recommendation. Also, a lot of times people go to their Twitterstream for advice on who to do business with, or whether something is a good idea. By providing value to these conversations, people are going to want to listen to you.

To my colleague, I hope these two parts answered all your questions. And thank you for letting me answer these publicy, so I can provide value to my community.  🙂

~Lynn

This concludes Blogging Style: Interview Blogging
9 down, 16 to go.

Filed under: Blogging Styles Feature, Twitter   |  3 Comments
Tags: Questions, Twestions, Twitter