Guest Post
Reflections from a new tweeter: 10 reasons why Twitter should limit our daily tweets
Guest post by Lydia Odell
The story is familiar. Girl sets up twitter account, follows a few people, tweets twice, doesn’t get it and never goes back. Many of us have “been there done that.” It only took me another two years to come back around and try again. Once I finally got the hang of hashtags, mentions, and retweets, there was no turning back. This girl was hooked.
After reading hundreds of blog posts and listening to hours of webinars, I subscribed to the 80/20 rule and believed in the “less is more” philosophy. The experts tell us 80% of the time should be spent sharing informational links, answering questions, supporting others, retweeting, showing our human side, and joining other conversations. 20% of the time can be self-promotion.
Out of the 150 I follow, 1/4 of them are abusers of the system. They send 60 or more daily tweets that are mostly self-promotional in nature, and quite frankly not very interesting or helpful. Ironically, these are also the self-proclaimed experts telling the rest of us “don’t do what I do.”
What if twitter announced a cap of 20 tweets per day? In addition, what if everyone had to agree to the 80/20 rule? What would our experience be like? I argue the following:
1. Our timelines would be sprinkled with the diverse faces we choose to follow and want to hear from
2. Our opportunity and capacity to learn from many would increase
3. More prospective tweeters would sign on, participate, enjoy the conversations and not give up
4. Tweets would be even higher quality and more creative
5. Retweets would really catch our attention
6. Only the best of the best blog posts, pictures, and videos would be shared
7. Self-promotion would be strategic and targeted
8. When we ask for help, we’d get responses
9. When we show our human side it would be done with passion and meaning
10. We’d spend more time really paying attention and listening to what others say and less focused on our own agendas
Next time you are logged in think about the marathon tweeters who seem to never sleep. Also think about how nice it would be to catch a thought or two from ALL those you follow. Let the truth be known that less is in fact more. It is definitely easier to keep up with each day.
Groupon’s $6 Billion Blunder
GUEST POST
The way we shop is changing and it’s most likely that you’ve heard of the group buying site called Groupon. It’s a new and exciting model, but over the last little while, I’ve come to learn that it’s not exactly perfect. And in case you haven’t heard, Groupon recently turned down a $6B acquisition offer from Google, which I believe was a big mistake.
My Groupon Experience
When I first signed up with Groupon, I remember being excited about all of the deals that were flooding my inbox. The novelty of the site and huge discounts encouraged me to try a deal or two. But then something happened – Groupon started becoming popular and suddenly I was bombarded by my friends about participating in deals. Truth be told, it was becoming difficult managing all of these offers. And then another thing happened - if I tried to book an appointment with one of the deal providers I was put on a list. That meant I had to wait three or four months just to get a massage or to try a new sushi restaurant, and that wasn’t exactly appealing.
A Small Business Experience
The overwhelming popularity of Groupon kept small businesses (SMBs) busy. But, were these businesses flourishing as a result of their Groupon experience or barely breaking even? It turned out that some of the businesses underestimated the amount of demand that Groupon would generate. They didn’t calculate unperceived expenses like paying staff longer hours or having enough inventory to fulfill orders. In fact, a recent study by the Merchant Circle Report claims that 55% of SMBs are saying that they do not plan on using the Groupon service again. So perhaps the group buying model is failing to generate repeat customers? Or maybe it’s just too costly for a small business?
Facebook Places Emerges
Geo-targeting applications like Facebook pages and Foursquare are becoming popular and SMBs are taking notice. The same Merchant Circle Report states that 32% of these companies are currently using it and 12% are planning on using it. Essentially, Facebook Places allows businesses to track people who are stopping by their store. It’s an evolving application and there could be some promising business opportunities.
Using Twitter
Twitter is another great tool for SMBs to leverage their fans. A burrito company out of Boston called Boloco spread the message of a free gift to all of their customers on Twitter. And it turns out that their fans showed up in throngs to discover that they would receive a free burrito. The main difference here is that Boloco controlled their own expenses and revenues from this campaign and it resulted in excellent word of mouth and repeat customers.
Seriously? $6 Billion?
I’m actually not here to castigate Groupon. I only wish the best for the company and I’m surely aware that there are a lot of fans of the site. But I wonder if the novelty of the site has worn off? Are the amount of deals too much for us to manage? And from learning about the disdain of the SMBs, I wonder which businesses will be left for Groupon to target? Will they blast through all of the SMBs and put them out of business or will they help them generate repeat business and long term customers?
As for the Google deal, a lot of people were claiming that Google was making a huge mistake by offering the deal to Groupon? Maybe these people were right? Or maybe Google inadvertently avoided a $6 Billion mistake? At the same time, if I was Groupon, I would have signed that deal right away.
Key Lessons
- If you’re a small business and you want to leverage the power of social media and group buying sites like Groupon, prepare for the unexpected demand and try your best to predict any unforeseen costs that could arise from excess customers
- Make sure your business is listed using Facebook Places and connect it with your company Facebook Page. Learn how here.
- Develop a following on Twitter and nurture your fans. Treat them like gold and they will praise you relentlessly. Come up with creative campaigns that generate buzz and word of mouth.
- If someone offers you a $6 billion dollar deal, say yes and take it:)
About the author: Zaid Rasid is the founder of the internet marketing blog Better Social* Skills. He provides expert social media, lead generation & brand awareness advice to small and medium sized businesses. For a practical look at how online marketing can work for you, visit www.zaidrasid.com or follow him on twitter: www.twitter.com/zaidrasid
How I Filter The Noise, Wayne Sutton
Wayne Sutton is an entrepreneur, strategist, and producer who blogs at SocialWayne.com. He is also co-founder of OurHashtag, a community and technology event company.
Some describe noise as irrelevant content in reference to a subject matter when looking at data in a particular channel. Noise can be spam. Noise can be repeat content from the echo-chamber of the world wide web. Either way, filtering the noise should be on everyone’s mind today as we’re evolving from the static web to the conversational web to the real-time in your face web.
As someone who loves technology, gadgets and information, the real-time web is a geeks’ dreamland, but it’s also a huge time waster if you don’t have filters setup. Not only do you need filters to manage information gathering and filtering information online, but you also need self control. There are plenty of tools available, but it’s how well you manage those tools to filter the noise. Below are a few of the tools that I use.
RSS Reader
To manage my RSS feeds, I use Google Reader, just like Jason and Taylor. I’m currently subscribed to over 1600 feeds, each categorized into groups by topic. Some of my groups include WordPress, Social Media, business, mac news and mobile. My RSS feeds list continues to grow, therefore having them categorized is very important. Inside of Google Reader I have a personal star rule. I star items that I want to read later and share items that I think others will find interesting. In other words, RSS feeds are not dead, and are very important to the social web.
Social Bookmarks
For social bookmarks, I use Diigo to bookmark blog posts that I may not be subscribed to, and save them to content-based groups. I have set up groups for topics like wordpress plugins and wordpress premium themes for blog posts pertaining to each.
Real-time
Gmail Filters
Filtering day to day activities involves constant email management with filters I’ve created in Gmail, which need to be constantly updated. Filtering emails and setting time slots to read emails daily and weekly can increase productivity so you’re not always checking your inbox. The same rules apply to a select list of blogs that I’ve created where I “try” to read and comment on daily.
Brand Reputation
When dealing with clients and brand reputation, businesses can filter the noise depending on the customer base and engagement level. Tools like filtrbox, trendrr, blogpulse trackur and tons more can do a lot of work for you if setup and use them correctly.
Needless to say, filtering the noise is about being organized and having the right tools in place and accessible. Therefore my iPhone is always nearby, able to access almost the same content when I’m mobile. 
Then the challenge becomes filtering your time after you have filtered the noise. New web apps and tools are created daily, such as lazyfeed, to constantly push and gather information in front of us and filter that information will become more important as we continue to use the web as a learning and communication platform…. Good luck.
How I Filter The Noise, Hermione Way
Hermione Way (@HermioneWay) is an entrepreneur and journalist, She is founder of newspepper.com and techfluff.tv and was named as on of The Spectator’s Stars of Tomorrow.
Netvibes
Every morning the first thing I do is open my Netvibes account. This pulls all the stories from my favorite news sites (BBC, Mashable, Wired, TechCrunch, Telegraph, TheNextWeb). Not only does it pull in these news sites but it also pulls in my Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube accounts. The reason why i choose Netvibes over Google Reader is because of the layout format. It shows me all the sites in mini format, on one page just like a newspaper. It enables me to check all my news without having to leave the site.
Tweetdeck
As more and more people are becoming their own news outlets, Tweetdeck enables me to follow the streams of people i deem bring me important informative news about my industry. For example i follow Mike Butcher, iJusine and Robert Scoble’s Twitter feed to see what they are up to, who they are meeting and any links they share.
Twitter hashtags
Twitter search enables me to search for a topic or subject of interest eg. #iranelection Twitter search produces real time search results for the searched topics which enables me to find out what people are thinking/talking about right now on a topic.
How I Filter The Noise, Beth Harte
Beth Harte is a marketer, blogger, speaker, communicator, thinker, connector (people & dots), adjunct professor and Community Manager for MarketingProfs. Beth’s blog, The Harte of Marketing is featured in AdAge’s Power 150. Beth also blogs for MarketingProfs Daily Fix blog.
The more you engage in social media, the more you realize that there are a lot of folks out there talking just to talk and that there are some folks that aren’t as well known, but are absolutely brilliant. Of course, brilliant is a highly subjective term. For me brilliance isn’t someone who’s like Einstein. For me a brilliant person is the one who has a unique voice, isn’t a lemming, questions the status quo, always tries to spark a conversation (no matter how small or large) with an insightful post, tweet or comment, and someone I learn something new or different from.
So, how do I cut through the clutter to find these brilliant people?
Tweetdeck
When dealing with Twitter, I like to use Tweetdeck because it allows me to create groups…lots of groups! I create groups of friends, people who tweet on certain topics, keywords – you name it!
The more I can slice and dice (I am a marketer, after all), the more I can find those brilliant people and nuggets of information that they might be sharing.
BackType
BackType is a cool site that allows you to keep track of your comments, people who have commented about you and, more importantly, the comments that people you follow leave for others. BackType also allows you to search on keywords, again, very helpful to a marketer. The best part about BackType is I can see where the people I follow leave comments, which helps me to find blogs or smart folks that I may not have known about.
Google Reader
I’d be lost without my Google Reader. Every time I find a new blog using the tools above, I add it to my Google Reader. You can imagine that over time, I have a TON of blogs bookmarked. Every morning, I change the reader to the “All Items” view and I scroll down all the posts, not by blogger…but by date. Those with the best or intriguing titles win my attention. Again, I also look for posts on topics, people’s names, and information I might not have had access to previously.
These tools might seem basic, and perhaps not so cool, but for a marketer, they relieve a lot of the time burden that social media places on us.
