Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-15

Date: 15 Mar 2010   Author: NewspaperGirl   Comments: 0

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-08

Date: 08 Mar 2010   Author: NewspaperGirl   Comments: 0

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-01

Date: 01 Mar 2010   Author: NewspaperGirl   Comments: 0

5 Tips for Using Sponsored Tweets

Date: 18 Feb 2010   Author: NewspaperGirl   Comments: 0

I got a mention in an article about getting paid to tweet on ReadWriteWeb (thanks HARO!). I occasionally tweet ads for pay on SponsoredTweets. I’m also trying it out more as an advertiser. I’m totally sold on having @Shoemoney tweet something – awesome results! I try to get the cost per click down to less than $3 and most average half or less. I also look for people with high engagement scores.

I’ve made all of $60 total on SponsoredTweets but the great thing is it’s easy. I’ve turned down some offers because they don’t fit my audience but several have worked out. The best is from an outsourcing company. They hired me to tweet. Then they became my client. Now I hire them back.

After reading the article I wanted to try Twittads but I gave up after not really getting how it worked and not having the time to look into all the details.

Here are 5 tips for using Sponsored Tweets:

  1. Post something conversational or like a question – not an advertisement.
  2. You can and should rewrite tweets so they are in your own voice.
  3. Use related hashtags in your tweet.
  4. You can use the term “brought to you by” instead of ad.
  5. Don’t be greedy. It’s crazy what some people charge for a tweet. Keep it reasonable and you’ll get to choose from more offers. I’ve found little correlation between cost and results. As an advertiser I skip the people who are priced much higher than their peers with similar numbers of followers and engagement.

As John Chow said in the article: Since they allow you to use “brought to you by” as one of the disclosure mechanisms, you could write: “Hey guys! I found this great $1.99 web hosting deal bought to you by bluehost. Go check it out. URL” and get away with it.

He was also mentioned in a New York Times article about being paid to tweet.

Who should use SponsoredTweets? Authors (like me). People planning events. People who are launching campaigns and want to attract more participation and visibility. The results are quicker than some other methods like SEO, press releases and articles that build over time. Plus it tends to cost less than Google AdWords which has gotten quite crowded (read: expensive).

Sponsored Tweets made me a hero today – so I’m extra motivated to write about them. Plus I’m so fascinated by the instant feedback you get on the results. It’s like candy to a marketer.

Note: I’m partial to Sponsored Tweets (so far in the past several months I’ve experimented with others & it’s my fav so far). I’m also an affiliate. As mentioned I also manage advertising campaigns on Sponsored Tweets. You can use my links above to give me credit for referring you or go there directly (or not at all).

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Is Tweeting your News to Journalists on Twitter Effective?

Date: 16 Feb 2010   Author: NewspaperGirl   Comments: 1

I’m addicted to LinkedIn lately. I asked this question and got so many answers.

Have you ever found success tweeting your news to journalists on Twitter?

I was looking for people who have gotten news coverage because of a tweet. I also want to know if people had found success using a paid service like Muckrack. PR Newswire will tweet your press release for $75 and PRWeb will for free (at the $200 level and above).

Google now ranks tweets in search results and the higher authority the person who tweets the better it is for your rankings.

I’m also curious if anyone has ever used a paid service to reach journalists on Twitter. One service is Muckrack: http://muckrack.com/press_releases

PR Newswire charges $75 to tweet your news. PRWeb does it free. Have you used these services? Is it worth it?

Google now ranks tweets in search results and the higher authority the person who tweets the better it is for you…

Here are some insights that I got back:
Mahr from Microsoft says they do short interviews of their CEO on Twitter that gets them coverage:

“we use at Microsoft twitter to do interviews (twitterviews) with our CEO and other specialists of the department and we often get a good coverage on newspaper or magazines.”

Kristopher who does PR for ARUP Laboratories has had some success pitching on Twitter:

“We got a product write-up in BusinessWeek online for a very big client last year. We built a twitter page for our product as it was launching at CES and then targeted the industry as well as media. Just getting that coverage in BusinessWeek was a success to me.

I have pitched other reporters through twitter with varying success, either outright ignoring my pitches or replying kindly that they weren’t interested. Robert Scoble has a friendfeed room designed specifically for pitching him, and he really responds…

It’s a good venue for reaching out to the media because it circumvents the gatekeepers, and in that light I think PR people need to understand how twitter and other platforms work. (Even so, when a writer takes a story idea, they usually still have to clear it with their editor.) But it’s not the place to build a strong, lasting relationship with the media, I think that it can be an ice breaker, but email or phone call or face to face are the best places to build lasting relationships.”

Tonya who is an adjunct professor gave a great tip – to set up keyword searches on Twitter:

“I’ve used Twitter to reach out to journalists and bloggers, schedule interviews, and follow up to their requests. I wouldn’t use a paid or automated service, but I do set up keyword searches on Twitter and follow relevant journalists. Then when the opportunity comes, I’m already there.”

Melissa, a wellness expert said a tweet led to an interview:

“I don’t personally tweet links to press releases but I have had editors from Better Homes and Gardens and Parents Magazine interview me because of a specific tweet that I sent offering a wellness tip.

I also always tweet out my media coverage – you never know who is watching!

I made a list of several national media members on twitter if you’d like to follow. It’s mostly lifestyle oriented.”

She has a Twitter list that includes journalists: http://www.twitter.com/casseracomm

Now it’s your turn to answer – had any luck using Twitter to pitch stories?

7 Ways to Piss People Off on Social Media Sites

Date: 17 Jan 2010   Author: NewspaperGirl   Comments: 4

If you’re new (or not new) to social media, there are some things you can do to make people angry. Here is your guide to pissing people off on web sites like Twitter, Facebook, Digg or other sites.

7 Ways to Piss People Off on Social Media Sites

  1. Always blog about your product, your company, tools, etc.
  2. Make sure all links go back to your site.
  3. Leave comments about yourself on blogs.
  4. Incessantly invite friends to become a fan of you or your company on Facebook.
  5. IM people on Digg asking them to link to you.
  6. Put auto DMs on Twitter that are not personalized & link to spammy sites.
  7. Try to stifle or censor people when they say things you don’t like about you (or your business) on social media sites.

And the winner is…

The WORST thing most people can do to piss people on Social Media Sites:

Aggressive Self Promotion

Don’t do it (unless you want to piss people off).

Taken from Affiliate Summit presentation by Rebecca Kelley @rebeccakelley

Twitter Fight Leads to a Murder

Date: 11 Jan 2010   Author: NewspaperGirl   Comments: 0

“I don’t know what’s going on with that Twitter thing.”
-The Daily News quotes the victim’s mother,
Madeline Smith, expressing her disbelief over the murder

Two friends got into an argument that became heated and included angry, taunting tweets. One of the men ended up shooting the other in the neck, killing him. It might be the first time tweets are used as evidence in a murder case.

According to a Mashable article: “Jameg Blake, 22, is accused of fatally shooting Kwame Dancy (pictured), also 22, in a shotgun blast to the neck – he pleaded not guilty this Wednesday.” The murder took place in Harlem.

Worth noting is that Twitter didn’t cause a murder, it was simply at least one of the ways the two fought. What’s different is how public the fight is – compared to IM, email or text messages it’s out there for anyone to read.

What I think is strange is how people will not put the Twitter names of the people involved. Tweets are public they are indexed in search engines. If you’re willing to tweet it, to me that means it’s fair game. Same story with this incident where a mom was visited by police after she wrote a disturbing tweet about suffocating her 3-year old for not taking a nap. I’m glad the police came because it means people are looking out for others (like the story about this man who was suicidal and got help after a desperate post on a forum. And the just as public example of the kid who actually did kill himself and had people encourage him to do it).

Just like Penelope Trunk tweeted about her miscarriage which is another death that was announced on Twitter. (I would link to the tweet but it was too foul. It was in really poor taste but then on some sort of level having read her blog for years, I sort of get why. Still appalling).

The media publishes far worse information that wasn’t intended to be public -  private conversations between 2 people. Unlike Tiger Woods, no one has to dig through cell phone records or have people come forward to get the dirt. It’s there for everyone to see on Twitter.

Our society is living life in very public ways online – for good, offensive, sad or bad.

Maybe we don’t really want to know what is on everyone’s mind all of the time after all. Is this decade the end of a private life?

Following a Baby’s Death on Twitter

Date: 08 Jan 2010   Author: NewspaperGirl   Comments: 1

Sometimes social media exposes you to people you’d never meet and yet you feel as if you there as they share the most intimate pieces of their life. Like their baby dying.

First, my heart ripped open and I couldn’t barely read Stephanie Nielson’s dances with death and her ongoing, slow painful recovery. I mean it literally makes you cringe but makes you happy at the same time. That she could endure this with such an attitude of optimism. She is a hero for what she endures in front of us all. It’s an act of courage to show her face and its new beauty. An earned beauty rather than a pretty face.

This week I saw this tweet that my friend Mat on Twitter retweeted:

dyingtweet

My heart stops. So does everything else. I go to the blog and learn about Natalie Norton. Her baby boy got RSV, then another infection. He’s only 3 months old. I refresh the page, looking for another update. There is hope! He’s getting better! I pray for them right as I read her request prayers. I wait. Mostly I pray that they can handle it when their baby dies. I think that it is coming but I hold out some hope. Nothing more and I go to bed.

The next morning I wake up and check Twitter. Andy Beal tweets his condolences to Natalie.

sadhedied

NO!!!!!!

This is how I know. I go to the final tweet and then to her blog. I’m stunned. I remind myself that this is real, that somewhere in Hawaii, a mother has lost her baby.  And I’m sorry and sad. But again I’m also inspired – by the faith and courage. The glimpse into lives.

It’s strange but I learn about a lot of deaths on Twitter. None so intimately. Social media means that I’m there. My empathy and love for people expands by being a part of it. To me it’s a collection of real time stories from all over the world in all sorts of languages from all types of people. Sometimes it’s an escape. Sometimes it’s voyeurism. Other times it’s helpful.

Sometimes, like today, they feel like family.

McDonalds: We Get More Customers Through Twitter

Date: 31 Dec 2009   Author: NewspaperGirl   Comments: 1

I’ve got to stop sneaking Entrepreneur Magazine from the gym and just subscribe! There’s a great article about how the top 10 franchises including McDonald’s are using Twitter.

I’m always trying to drive home how much we still tend to overvalue traditional media and undervalue new media. Since it’s free we think it’s worthless? Or because it’s trendy it can’t be effective?

There’s something to be said about jumping in and testing testing it out. That’s what McDonald’s did. They started with their Monopoly promotion. Then they found this astonishing fact:

Someone mentions McDonald’s every 10-20 seconds on Twitter.

and then they declared

We get more consumer impressions through Tweeting than through traditional media!

That’s the story! Not that they are on Twitter or how they are using it. It’s that Twitter is more effective than traditional media at reaching their customers. What is Twitter costing them compared to those big full color ads. At the time of writing they had almost 5,000 followers – I have over 7,000 followers and that’s more than just about everyone in the article (they are newbies). Now McDonald’s has almost 10k.

Entrepreneur Magazine also talks about Dunkin Donuts. Their approach to Twitter? It’s basically a channel for their fans to gush about their brand [marketer’s dream – the fans are creating the content and it’s a lot of raving. What’s more amazing is that  over 40k people are listening to it.

So if you’re still thinking Twitter is a waste of time or you don’t get it, maybe it’s worth another look.

New York Times Article on Paid Twitter Ads

Date: 25 Nov 2009   Author: NewspaperGirl   Comments: 4

In case you missed it, The New York Times covered the issue of paid ads on Twitter. It’s a discussion of the issue with those who make good money and those who are completely against the idea such as Robert Scoble. He wrote another great article about using Twitter right – (notice Scoble has no ads on his blog either – a purist).

So is there a right way to tweet, blog, Facebook or otherwise participate in social networks? I don’t believe there is. It’s relative depending on the purpose of your account. People are free to unfollow, unfriend or otherwise ignore or hate you if you abuse their trust, bore or annoy them. And they can do the same back.

Marketing Pilgrim has a poll of their readers about if a Twitter ad would make you unfollow someone. You can take it and see the ongoing results of the poll.

Like many of the commenters – if the ad applies or is relevant to what you tweet about I don’t have a problem with it. My favorite ad that I sent out was from a newswire and it  was informative to my audience.

It’s like any other form of advertising. If you start selling your MLM at a church event people will try to ban you from ever doing it again, hate you, or avoid you. But I’ve seen people give free info at a church event and have their books with them, and if someone asked they’d offer to sell them a copy. Same principles apply online.

I’m always testing these lines so I can see what works and advise clients (but trying never to violate your trust). I know we’re accustomed to getting everything free online but I think there is a legitimate place for monetizing your work. To build a Twitter network is a long-term commitment, just like a blog.

Some people tweet or blog to build a following. Some have a following elsewhere and that influence extends to Twitter. Some tweet or blog be thought leaders. Others, to make money. Some want to promote their book or conference. I think there’s room for all kinds, yes even ads.

What about you, would you unfollow someone if you noticed they accepted a paid tweet?

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