It has long been recognized by public men of all kinds . . . that statistics come under the head of lying, and that no lie is so false or inconclusive as that which is based on statistics. – Hilarie Belloc (The Silence of the Sea)

I always find that statistics are hard to follow and impossible to digest.The only one I can ever remember is that if all the people who go to sleep in church were laid end to end they would be a lot more comfortable. – Mrs. Robert A. Taft

On Thursday April 16, 2009, Jeff Turner writing for the Social Media Marketing Institute gave irrefutable proof that the number of people you have following you on Twitter is a completely useless number. And he did this with brilliance and aplomb.

I won’t go into a lot of detail as you can click on the link above and read it for yourself. Briefly, here’s what happened. He created two fake Twitter accounts. Used a script that randomly followed 100 users an hour and used other automated Twitter services to post messages and handle re-tweets. He generated thousands and thousands of followers.

The results of this experiment are fascinating. The most interesting and disturbing result to me was that Mr. Turner actually changed the sex of one of the fake accounts and only one person out of the thousands that were following that account even noticed the change.

Mr. Turner’s conclusion:

There is a huge difference between a follower and someone who is engaged and listening to what you have to say…. It is better to have 100 truly engaged, targeted followers, people who are listening to you, care about what you’re saying and are willing to act on your behalf, than 10,000 who wouldn’t notice if you changed your gender.

I fully agree with Mr. Turner’s conclusion. I believe, like him, that social media is about engagement, not broadcasting. Broadcasting is old school and is dying a slow and agonizing death. No one listens to commercials anymore, and no one is going to listen to your stream of continual links, quotes, and promotions. Sure its OK to occasionally shout out a quote or a link promoting one of your sites or products, but people gravitate to social media to be…well, social.

I like Twitter. I really do, but I’m getting frustrated by several things:

1. People who continuously re-tweet only stuff about themselves.
2. Spammers who have no intention whatsoever to connect with those they follow, except to dump their crap in the Twitter stream.

3. People who are only interested in tweeting their blog posts.
4. People who constantly broadcast, but never join in conversation.
5. Celebrities who never actually respond to their followers.

6. Companies who promote but never listen to their customers.

7. People who actively promote the myth of “the bigger, the better” about your follower numbers.

As far as I’m concerned, if you are any of these people you won’t be followed by me. If I’m currently following you, I won’t be for long. Read Mr. Turner’s article. I think you’ll find it educational. Here’s the link:

YEO – Why Twitter Follower Counts Mean Nothing

Picture by flicker user kevinzhengli under Creative Commons License. Use of this picture does not constitute an endorsement by kevinzhengli of the ideas in this post.

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Creating a group.

I’ve already covered this in an earlier post (TweetDeck Groups A Life Saver). What I didn’t mention in that post is that if you have a lot of followers it can take some time to create a new group. This is because when you create a group, TweetDeck will open up a window that asks for the name of the new group, and at the same time creates a list of all the people you are following. Each person’s user name has a check box next to it so you can check which people you want to include in the group.

If you are following lots of people, it can take a while to bring up and go through this list. So you might want to create a few critical groups before your All Friends list gets too big. When I first started using TweetDeck, I created the following groups:

• Close Friends — for those with whom I communicate every time I’m on TweetDeck.
• Quotations — for those who predominantly post quotes.
• Link Posters — for those who predominantly post links.
• Jazz Fans — for those who, like me, are eternally in love with jazz.
• Conservatives — for those who are conservative in their politics.

Now to avoid the problem of having to go through your whole list every time you make a group, you can make the group and not select any individuals at the time you make the group. Then as you get to know a person you can add them to a group or multiple groups at a later date.

Adding and Removing Group Members

TweetDeck not only displays a person’s post, it also displays that person’s icon next to the post. At the bottom of that person’s post is the person’s username, a plus sign [+], the date and time of the post and from where the post came.

To add a person to a group you only need to click on the plus sign underneath that person’s icon. This will bring up a list of groups with a check box next to each group. Click on the check box(es) you wish to include that person into those groups. When the person next posts to Twitter, that post will show up in the group.

If you wish to remove a person from the group, click on the plus sign and uncheck the box(es) next to each applicable group. That will immediately remove all posts by that person from the group.

Deleting Groups

At the top of each group column is the name of the group and a small ‘x’ at the right edge of the column’s label. Clicking on that ‘x’ will cause a warning to be displayed informing you that the removal of the group can’t be undone. If you really want to remove the group, click on the icon that looks like a garbage can next to the warning and the group will be removed. If not then click on the ‘x’ next to the warning and the warning will go away and the group will be preserved.

This is important to note. Once a group is deleted, the only way you can re-establish the group is to start over and manually re-create it. So be careful and make sure that you really want to delete the group before you do.

Also, the group is the only thing that will be deleted. All the members of the group will still exist in your “All Friends” column. So don’t worry about losing any followers out of TweetDeck when you remove a group.

Final thoughts on Groups

Be careful with creating groups. TweetDeck limits you to the number of columns you can have to 10. So take some time to think about how you want to organize your friends. Create the groups all at once and populate them as you follow people. I find that if I look at a persons posts on their Twitter page before I follow them, I can usually figure out pretty quickly which groups I want to add them into. I’ll follow them, and as soon as the show up on my All Friends column I’ll click on their plus sign and add them to the appropriate groups.

I don’t always add a person to a group. If I feel like I’m going to want to keep a closer eye on their posts, then I will. Otherwise I simply leave them in my “All Friends” column and read their posts when I have time.

So that’s my way of organizing the people I follow. How do you do it? What secrets do you use to keep your Twittering organized? I’d like to hear from you. Your ideas just might help another reader, so leave a comment and share your Twitter organizing secrets. Thanks.

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How do we help business become fluent in the social sphere while maintaining authenticity for us all?

I’ve been thinking lately about all articles and “discussions” about social networking and social media. It strikes me, at least in my experience, that most of the discussions center around how to best use social media for marketing or promoting your business. I’ve been wondering is that all Twitter and other social sites are good for? Are there people in the social arena that have no agenda other than to build relationships? Why do you tweet?

I realize that something has to be done in this day and age of cynical distrust of business and marketing. However, it strikes me as disingenuous when there is such a huge focus on using the social to promote your agenda. Liz’s question is a vital one, because if you are not genuinely trying to connect with me regardless of the end result then our relationship will be based on deceit. That’s not a good basis for any relationship.

My roommate told me the other day that he got a direct message on Twitter from someone he followed. That direct message was nothing more than an ad for that person’s business. He told me the following:

“I felt like I introduced myself with ‘Hi, I’m Mike.’ and he responded with a commercial. ‘Hi, Mike. Take a look at my product, it’s really cool.’”

I’m not just talking about spamming here. Spammers will always be with us (unfortunately), but in the rush to use Twitter and other media to promote our businesses are we killing genuine connections?

I really believe that Liz asked a very valuable and important question, but I want to ask a deeper one. Why do you Tweet? This isn’t about authenticity, it’s about motive. Until you settle that, authenticity is moot.

What are your thoughts? Is it wrong to promote an agenda on Twitter? Is creating a connection with people the only good reason for Tweeting? Why or why not? How can we prevent the promotion of an agenda from blocking genuine connections?

Leave me a comment and tell me what you think. I genuinely want to know, why do you tweet?

Picture provided by Flickr user 7son75 under Creative Commons License.

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Twitter and FriendFeed have been really fun for me and I wanted to help others who were just getting started with them. I write in hopes of sharing my knowledge and reducing the learning curve of others so they can enjoy them as quickly as possible.

I want to be up front on this because I don’t want to mislead anyone. I’m going to make mistakes as I explore the Social media world. I’m going to be doing things that will work great for me and not so great for you. I’m going to be changing things and doing things that others advise against. But that’s OK because it’s all part of the experiment.

Having said all that I want to tell you about something that I did this week, and about why I did it. To set the context, I would like to ask you to listen to Ed Dale’s Rant on Twitter. Here it is: Damn It TWITTER!!!! This Follow Thing Has Gone TOO Far!!!

After listening to Ed and evaluating my recent experiences with Twitter, I found that I was in total agreement with him. Even with Groups in TweetDeck, I found my Twitter experience was filling up with just a lot of noise. The more I tried to filter the noise, the more frustrated I got. So this week I did a massive “unfollow” to eliminate those people that either were part of the noise or those who I have never interacted with. I made a commitment to myself that from now on I will only follow those who interest me or those with whom I interact.

I truly believe that Ed is right. Twitter is not high school. It’s not a popularity contest. It’s about genuinely connecting with people and enjoying and participating in on-line conversations that interest you. Nothing more and certainly nothing less. Marketing potential be damned!

What do you think? Are you frustrated with Twitter noise? Are you willing to risk doing a mass unfollow and streamlining your Twitter stream to only that which interests you? I’d like to hear from you, so please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Picture by takomabibelot under Creative Commons License

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TwitScoop allows you to see what are the most current “hot topics” being discussed on Twitter. As you can see by the picture the listing is displayed in the form of a tag cloud. This means that the bigger the font, the more popular the topic.

To activate TwitScoop simply click on the icon to the immediate right of the magnifying glass icon at the top right of the TweetDeck screen and the tag cloud column will be displayed.

This can be an excellent tool for two purposes. First it can be used for market research. By observing what gets talked about over time, you can identify markets that are growing.

Secondly, it can be used for conversation generation. Don’t know what to talk about on Twitter? Looking for someone to converse with? TwitScoop can work wonders. Simply look at the list of topics and pick one. Then use the Twitter Search function to follow that topic in real time. You can easily pick someone and respond to their tweet and start your conversation.

This has the added benefit of building your followers, because usually people will follow you after you have engaged them in an interesting conversation.

Speaking of following conversations twitter search is, in my opinion, the most powerful aspect of TweetDeck. It is activated by clicking on the the magnifying glass icon in the group of icons at the top right of the screen. When you click on that icon you will see the following dialog box.

In this instance I’m searching on the phrase “social networking“. Type in your chosen key word or phrase and click on the magnifying glass icon next to the dialog box. This will create a column of the most recent tweets using that keyword or phrase.

About once a minute TweetDeck updates that column with any new tweets using the keyword or phrase. Using twitter search this way you can keep current with those conversations you wish to engage in. You can even get more specific by using the filter function activated by clicking the filter icon in the row of icons at the bottom of the column.

Suppose I wanted to answer people’s questions about social networking. I’d click on the filter icon and type in ? in the resulting dialog box. TweetDeck would then display only those tweets that contained the phrase “social networking” and a question mark.

This way I can quickly identify questions people are asking and offer my help. When I’m done answering questions and want to go back to the general conversation regarding social networking, I just blank out the filter box and the column will again show all tweets containing social networking.

This will work for any keyword or phrase you wish to create a search column for. The other cool thing is that once the column is created it stays a part of your TweetDeck until you specifically decide to get rid of it. You can do that by clicking on the “x” in the upper right corner of the column. Don’t worry about the warning that pops up telling you that you can’t undo the column delete. You can always re-create the column by using the twitter search icon with the same keyword or phrase as before.

So have you tried TweetDeck yet? What are your thoughts? Do you like it or not? Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Thanks.

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The first strategy I use is what I call a dip in – dip out strategy. You can’t follow every individual tweet that passes by in the twitter stream. You wouldn’t get anything done all day. Instead you occasionally dip into the stream of all your friends and respond to those things that interest you, then you leave for a while. Broadcast a post or two that you think will bring value to all your friends, and respond to individuals who reply to you. Reply to individuals that post interesting info. This keeps you in touch with your stream of friends yet allows you to go on with your life.

The second strategy works to make sure I don’t miss anything important. TweetDeck allows you to create groups. Go to the icon at the top of TweetDeck and click on the one that looks like two people (one standing behind the other). This will bring up a window that allows you to establish a group. Type in the group’s name and a listing of all your friends will be displayed.

Go down the list and click on the box next to each name which will select that person to be part of the group. When you are done click on the save button at the bottom of the window. TweetDeck will then create a column for the new group and you will see all the tweets of the group members.

In the illustration you will see I have established an Internet marketing group and the number of unread tweets is 10. A lot less than 258 in my All Friends column.

You can make any number of groups and each can be for a different purpose. As you add friends or you can add them to a group by clicking on the plus sign next to their username (at the bottom of their tweets). This will bring up a list of groups and you can select the ones you want add your new friend to.

Groups can be a life saver. They allow you to follow those things you need to keep current with and yet still give you time to dip into the full Twitter stream when you so desire. Try TweetDeck. Establish a couple of groups and let me know what you think. Has it helped you manage your Twitter time better? Leave a comment and let me know. I’m interested in your thoughts.

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If you’ve been using Twitter for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed that there are some key players in the Twittersphere. Three of the most popular are AlertThingy, TWhirl, and TweetDeck.

NOTE: AlertThingy is releasing a new version sometime today so I may give it a try in the near future and report on my findings in a future Twitter Tuesday post.

I originally started using TWhirl when I first started getting active on Twitter. Then I tried TweetDeck and have never gone back. With one exception, which I’ll cover later, TweetDeck immediately stole my heart and loyalty. Here’s why:

1. Groups

When you start to follow more than about 100 people, it gets tough to keep up. Two strategies help. The first it to dip in and dip out. Don’t try to keep up but respond when you see something interesting or response worthy at the moment. The other is to create groups of Twitterers that you wish to watch regularly. TweetDeck allows you to do this. For instance, I have a group called IM (for Internet Marketing). I watch this group more closely than others so I can learn and add value to a “conversation” that interests me.

2. TweetScoop

Wanna know what is hot on Twitter right this very moment. Then click the TweetScoop icon at the top of the TweetDeck screen and it will open a column called TweetScoop. This will display a tag cloud of current topics that Twitterers are Tweeting about. At the bottom of the column it shows a list of hot topics for the day.

3. Search

Wanna monitor what’s being said about you or your business? Wanna find out the latest gossip about Brangelina? Wanna find out what’s hot in social networking? Well just click on the magnifying glass icon, fill out the resulting search box with your favorite search term, and wallah! A column will appear displaying real-time tweets that include your specified search term. A great way to keep up with what’s current.

4. Filtering

One of the coolest features TweetDeck offers is filtering. This is a great feature for Internet Marketers. Suppose you sell a product on wedding planning. Now you could add real value to your web site or email newsletter or your product if you could know what is on the mind of your market right now. What problems are the currently facing? What really stumps them?

Well set up a column for wedding planning using the TweetDeck search function. At the bottom of the column you’ll see an icon that looks like a something being put into a file. Click on that and a data entry field will be displayed. Type in a ? and hit enter. TweetDeck will then filter all the tweets in the column and only show you the ones where people are asking questions. How powerful do you think that would be in finding out about what your market is struggling with?

Or type the word “problem” in the box and hit enter. TweetDeck will display only those tweets that contain the word problem in them. Again, how powerful is that? Very cool stuff.

The One Minor Problem

TweetDeck has a number of great advantages over most other Twitter desktop apps. It does, however, have one minor problem. It is a resource hog. If I run it on my Mac laptop for more than two hours, it slows things down way too much. I have to shut it down and wait a few minutes, then re-launch it. I haven’t yet found a solution to this problem. If any of you fair readers know of any solution to this, I’d really like to hear from you. Leave a comment, please. Let me know if you’ve tried TweetDeck and what you think of it.

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Quotes:

Posted by @AaronMartirano:

“Always do right – this will gratify some and astonish the rest.”

“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living; the world owes you nothing; it was here first.” — Mark Twain

Posted by @inspiremetoday:

“Today the average individual has access equal to the knowledge base of an entire country 30 years ago!”

Posted by @ScottGiorgini:

“Chuck Norris can have both feet on the ground and kick ass at the same time ; )”

“The Wisdom of Wayne Dyer: How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.”

Posted by @JerryBroughton:

“Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life” – Sandra Carey

Articles:

ReTweeted by @adriandayton:

RT @debrah6: RT @atomicpoet 10 Twitter Tips That Get Followers http://bit.ly/tFW8k

Posted by @Astronautics:

Internet visitors can now see the Earth as never before – live from the International Space St… Read more at http://tinyurl.com/dg9gsx

Posted by @AlexKaris:

Forrest Gump in one minute flat..lol http://TwitPWR.com/7Vy/

Posted by @abecherian:

The real opportunity in this economy is…http://tinyurl.com/djo4qs

photo by Flickr user zoonabar — used under a Createive Commons license.

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