I just read an article on ReadWriteWeb about people buying Twitter followers. What a waste.
Most of these people who are buying the followers are probably selling something and are hoping to leverage Twitter as an advertising/marketing platform. What they don't understand is, just because they are gaining follower, doesn't mean that any of those followers are listening (to your marketing message).
And listening not following is the key. You can easily follow someone on Twitter, but not listen to anything they have to say, which is what is happening with the purchased Twitter followers.
Speaking to 1 person and have that 1 person listen yields a net gain of 1 person listening.
Speaking to 20,000 people and not having anyone listen yields a net gain of 0.
Its about listening, not following.
Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Where there are people, there's Spam
Spam is nothing new. It started with email, but is quickly spreading like a virus to each new emerging technology and platform. Right as each technology hits the tipping point and moves from early adopters to mainstream use, that's when the spammers start.
It happened this year with Twitter. One search of a trending topic shows real conversations, mixed an increasing amount of Spam.
Mayra Ruiz notes on her blog, "What is up on LinkedIn these days? I have heard countless folks complain about *all the limitless spam* that can be found in groups." Linkedin groups are full of Spam too.
With each new technology, the spammers find a way to abuse it and spread their Spam and as long as there are people there, they will continue.
One thing that concerns me is Facebook's talk of making the popular social network more public than private. Right now, the privacy wall does a pretty good job of keeping the spammers out. But I guarantee, the more public Facebook becomes, the more Spam we will see. (Personally I think making profiles public will be the death of Facebook).
If social networks and other emerging technologies aren't careful to control Spam, they will lose value and people won't use them. And no one, is immune to this.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
I've been #twitterjacked
Over the weekend, I discovered that I had been #twitterjacked. An account by the name @lncjmsjones76 had been stealing my tweets (@ljjones) and republishing them as if they were his own without giving any credit to me. It was easy enough to do, as I am sure the person just grabbed my Twitter RSS feed and used a robot to republish it to his account.
Like anything rising in popularity, Twitter has experienced its own forms of spam and nefarious behavior. We have seen many accounts set up to impersonate famous people. While some were created out of respect for the famous person, many have been set up with the intent to deceive.
The great thing about Twitter is that everyone is willing to look out for the people in their network. I was alerted to the fraudulent account by a friend of mine named Anthony Power (@apowerpoint). I had sent him an @reply a few days ago, and over the weekend, he received the same exact @reply from @lncjmsjones76. Realizing someone was stealing my tweets, he sent me an email with a link to the account.
What I can’t figure out is why steal my Tweets. I would like to think that it is because my Tweets were so full of wisdom that they are worth stealing, but I am sure that’s not the case. I was probably randomly picked by someone too lazy to tweet themselves who was trying to build a profile. The weird thing is that I couldn’t see any objective in creating the profile. The profile looked liked it used a fake name that it had created from my initials and there wasn’t even a link to a website.
After doing some investigating, I contacted Twitter and they suspended the account for me, but not before I had a little fun with it. Knowing that it was all automated, I figured I would post a few tweets proving that the account was a fraud. So I tweeted and an hour later, this tweet showed up in the other account.
If you think you have been #twitterjacked, grab one of your tweets that’s a few days old and plug it into the Twitter search. Do it both, with and without quotes around it. If you do find that someone is doing something suspicious, report it to Twitter through their @spam account.
Like anything rising in popularity, Twitter has experienced its own forms of spam and nefarious behavior. We have seen many accounts set up to impersonate famous people. While some were created out of respect for the famous person, many have been set up with the intent to deceive.
The great thing about Twitter is that everyone is willing to look out for the people in their network. I was alerted to the fraudulent account by a friend of mine named Anthony Power (@apowerpoint). I had sent him an @reply a few days ago, and over the weekend, he received the same exact @reply from @lncjmsjones76. Realizing someone was stealing my tweets, he sent me an email with a link to the account.
What I can’t figure out is why steal my Tweets. I would like to think that it is because my Tweets were so full of wisdom that they are worth stealing, but I am sure that’s not the case. I was probably randomly picked by someone too lazy to tweet themselves who was trying to build a profile. The weird thing is that I couldn’t see any objective in creating the profile. The profile looked liked it used a fake name that it had created from my initials and there wasn’t even a link to a website.
After doing some investigating, I contacted Twitter and they suspended the account for me, but not before I had a little fun with it. Knowing that it was all automated, I figured I would post a few tweets proving that the account was a fraud. So I tweeted and an hour later, this tweet showed up in the other account.
If you think you have been #twitterjacked, grab one of your tweets that’s a few days old and plug it into the Twitter search. Do it both, with and without quotes around it. If you do find that someone is doing something suspicious, report it to Twitter through their @spam account.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The Real Shaq is the Real Social Media Guru
By now its no secret that the real Shaquille O'neal is on Twitter as @THE_REAL_SHAQ. The truth is, he is doing a great job and people could learn a lot from watching him.
Shaq Is Real
The greatest thing that we can learn from him about participating on Twitter is that he is participating as a real person who just happens to be a celebrity. Its not his assistant or some marketing agency acting on his behalf. Its him, sending tweets from his phone and tweeting with normal, average, everyday people just like you and me. Now that's cool. After all, he could have just followed and tweeted with other Twitter celebrities like Lance Armstrong @lancearmstrong or Steve Nash @the_real_nash.
He is real. He is personal. And he also has fun with it.
Recently he gave away two tickets to a suns game with this Tweet.
People n phoenix u have 5 min to touch me I have 2 laker tickets n my hand I'm on a corner at a bus stop
4:42 PM Feb 28th from txt
And 9 minutes later @austino won.
Wow the winner is @austino he saw mw walgreens on 7th and glendale congrats follow him
4:51 PM Feb 28th from txt
Be real. Be personal. And have fun. It takes time, but you will be rewarded.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
You Can't Buy Influence
Today I came across a post about Gary Vaynerchuk Using Adwords Ads to Buy Twitter Followers?. The author, Jacob Morgan - a social media consultant, asked the question is it ethical? Gary is being very transparent about what he is doing, so I am not sure that its an ethical question. I think the bigger issue here is whether or not Gary has influence over the people that follow him through Adwords.
Gary has gained a lot of followers with this tactic but I doubt that he has much influence over them. Influence is about earning trust. Its a relationship and a relationship that starts with money, is bound to fail. As soon as the money runs out, the relationship is often over.
Plus this tactic just smells funny. It may not be as bad as Belkin paying people for good reviews on Amazon.com, but it feels like it belongs in that same category, along with buying links for SEO and paying people to Digg your story.
True social media is about trust, and it can't be bought. Key things we should learn from this:
Gary has gained a lot of followers with this tactic but I doubt that he has much influence over them. Influence is about earning trust. Its a relationship and a relationship that starts with money, is bound to fail. As soon as the money runs out, the relationship is often over.
Plus this tactic just smells funny. It may not be as bad as Belkin paying people for good reviews on Amazon.com, but it feels like it belongs in that same category, along with buying links for SEO and paying people to Digg your story.
True social media is about trust, and it can't be bought. Key things we should learn from this:
- Social media takes time and effort
- Be authentic
- Don't force it (You can't buy it)
- Avoid tactics that "smell" funny
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
How I use Twitter
When I first saw twitter, I have to admit, I wasn't sure what all of the fuss was about. After all, Twitter's tag line is "What are you doing?" and I couldn't figure out why anyone would care what a person was doing at any given moment.
And if that were its only use, I don't think I would use it. But that's not all it is for. Its much more.
A better tag line for Twitter would be "What are you talking about". Twitter is like a bunch of chat rooms where people come in and out and talk about just about everything. Its a great way to communicate and to meet people who share common interests with you.
For me, Twitter is about communicating. I have met people that I would never have met before and have learned and discussed ideas with really smart and interesting people.
One of the most interesting things about Twitter, is watching what people are talking about. Check out the search.twitter.com to see what people are saying. What people are talking about on twitter, is a good representation of what people are talking about in real life and vice versa. So if you are wondering about what people are talking about, check out the search.
And if that were its only use, I don't think I would use it. But that's not all it is for. Its much more.
A better tag line for Twitter would be "What are you talking about". Twitter is like a bunch of chat rooms where people come in and out and talk about just about everything. Its a great way to communicate and to meet people who share common interests with you.
For me, Twitter is about communicating. I have met people that I would never have met before and have learned and discussed ideas with really smart and interesting people.
One of the most interesting things about Twitter, is watching what people are talking about. Check out the search.twitter.com to see what people are saying. What people are talking about on twitter, is a good representation of what people are talking about in real life and vice versa. So if you are wondering about what people are talking about, check out the search.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
You think I am reading your mind... but really I am just reading your blog.
Today's blog post is inspired by a secret I recently saw on Postsecret that read, "You think I am reading your mind... but really I am just reading your blog." And it got me wondering, what does a blog and other social media tell you about a person.
I find that people blog about what they are passionate about. Whether its marketing, their kids, a hobby, or a specific facet of their life, people write about something that is important to them and occupies their thoughts.
I think that's why when I meet someone and I am interested in learning about them, the first place I turn is their blog. I could go to Linkedin, but that's like reading a resume and tells me more about what they have done then who they really are.
Because a blog has that personal feel to it, people have that tendency to open up and show their true colors and you really get a feel for who the person really is.
Another place in social media that I like to see how people describe themselves is their Twitter bio. You only have 160 characters so you have to get right to the point. There is only room to include vital, important info and no room for fluff. 160 characters says a lot about what is important to a person and their reason for being on twitter. And when someone hasn't taken the time to fill out their Twitter bio, it just tells me they are there for the wrong reasons.
My twitter bio says "Social Media and Internet Marketing Strategist. Internet and Star Wars Geek. Dad and Husband. Snowboarding, Sports and Video Games." It tells about what I do, who I am, and a few hobbies I enjoy.
What do your social media profiles say about you?
Thursday, October 30, 2008
How to make real connections on Twitter
What's the secret to get a lot of people to legitimately follow you on Twitter? Common Interests.
Its the one link that ties together a bunch of people who don't know each other. For more on the importance of common interests in social media see my previous post "The Glue that Holds Social Media Together". I don't know a lot of people that I follow or that follow me on Twitter, but with many of them we share a common interest in Social Media and Internet Marketing. And this gives us a common ground that we can use to start a conversation. The truth is, most people on Twitter are looking to communicate, you just need to show them that you are worth talking to.
The best place to start is with your personal profile because if your profile isn't right, no one will follow you. When people look at your profile, to decide whether or not to follow you, there are two place they will look. The first place they look is at your bio, to see who you are and what you are interested in and to see if they would have any interest in following you. If you share a common interest or your bio seems particularly interesting, then you may get a follow. And you only have 160 characters, so get to the point and say something interesting.
The second place they may look is at your tweets themselves. Your tweets say a lot about you, so tweet about things that you are genuinely interested in.
Once your profile is taken care of, the next thing to do is go out and find people to follow. My rule of thumb when looking for people to follow is, "Could I have an intelligent conversation with this person?" Don't just follow everyone just for the sake of following.
Twitter has made it very easy to find people who are like you with whom you share a common interest. Search.twitter.com is a search tool that you can use to search for keywords in the public stream. Just type in something that you are interested in and see what others on Twitter are saying about it.
Another great way to use the search is to find an event that you are interested in that others may be tweeting about. Twitter users have developed a special way to track events in Twitter. They use hashtags to tag something that they are talking about, like an event. Hashtags start with the number symbol # and are followed by the tag. For example, last night was the world series and Twitterers watching were using the hashtag #worldseries in their tweets. To follow what people were tweeting about the world series last night as it happened you could have search #worldseries in the search, http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23worldseries.
So now you have a list of people who are tweeting real time about an event that you are interested in. Before you reach out to these people, make a comment about the event and tag it with the hashtag. There is a good chance that many of these people are also following the hashtag and will see your tweet. Once you have sent a tweet, go out and follow some of them. After receiving an invitation to follow, they will most likely see your last tweet with the hashtag about the event they are participating in, and because of the common interest, will follow you back. And will most likely follow you right away, as they are sitting in front of their computer just like you.
Twitter is a great way to communicate and find people like you.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
The Glue That Holds Social Media Together
A friend of mine named Andrew Roush said it best when he said, "Common Interests are the new demographic." Common interests are the glue that hold social media together. They are what bring people of different ages, backgrounds, geographic locations, races, income status and education together and get them communicating.
Its common interests that start a conversation about the upcoming Presidential Election between a business professional in New York, a farmer in the Midwest, and a mom with four kids in Utah. None of them have met before and all are quite different, but all have some opinion about who should be President.
The wonderful technologies that have been developed in Social Media are bringing people together in ways never before thought possible. Because it is so easy for people to communicate about their common interests, there is something for everyone in social media, they just don't know it yet.
When I say there is something for everyone in Social Media, I mean everyone. Short or tall, young or old, dog lover or cat lover, Star Wars geek, music lover, business professional, or soccer mom, there is something in the billions of pages of content and millions of users that will interest everyone.
My favorite thing to do is to show someone something that interests them in social media and to see that light go on when they finally "get it". Its like when I taught my son to ride his bike. At first, he didn't understand why riding a bike would ever be fun. He thought it was something I was doing to torture him. Until the day he figured out how to ride on his own, and the light went on and he "got it". Social media is a great and has something for everyone, people just don't "get it" yet. But they will.
So how do you find people who share common interests with you? Here is a list of tools that can be used to find conversations about a particular topic. This is not an all inclusive list, but a good place to get started.
www.technorati.com
Technorati is a blog search engine. It regularly spiders content on blogs and allows you to search through and find blogs that might interest you.
www.boardreader.com
Boardreader is a search engine for forums, blogs, twitter, and a number of other social media.
search.twitter.com
Would you like to know what people are talking about on twitter, go to the search and type in a word, and the most recent tweets with that word will pop up. Start following people who talk about things you are interested in.
Social Bookmarking
Check out some of the social bookmarking sites and see what people are bookmarking. www.digg.com, www.stumbleupon.com, www.delicious.com.
Social Network groups
Each social network has some form of groups that people who belong to the network can join. Search through them and look for something that interest you.
Feel free to post any other tools that you think might be helpful.
Not sure what social network to join? Can't find anything on a particular topic or interest? Need some help getting started? Just ask, I am glad to help. ljjones6 at gmail dot com.
Its common interests that start a conversation about the upcoming Presidential Election between a business professional in New York, a farmer in the Midwest, and a mom with four kids in Utah. None of them have met before and all are quite different, but all have some opinion about who should be President.
The wonderful technologies that have been developed in Social Media are bringing people together in ways never before thought possible. Because it is so easy for people to communicate about their common interests, there is something for everyone in social media, they just don't know it yet.
When I say there is something for everyone in Social Media, I mean everyone. Short or tall, young or old, dog lover or cat lover, Star Wars geek, music lover, business professional, or soccer mom, there is something in the billions of pages of content and millions of users that will interest everyone.
My favorite thing to do is to show someone something that interests them in social media and to see that light go on when they finally "get it". Its like when I taught my son to ride his bike. At first, he didn't understand why riding a bike would ever be fun. He thought it was something I was doing to torture him. Until the day he figured out how to ride on his own, and the light went on and he "got it". Social media is a great and has something for everyone, people just don't "get it" yet. But they will.
So how do you find people who share common interests with you? Here is a list of tools that can be used to find conversations about a particular topic. This is not an all inclusive list, but a good place to get started.
www.technorati.com
Technorati is a blog search engine. It regularly spiders content on blogs and allows you to search through and find blogs that might interest you.
www.boardreader.com
Boardreader is a search engine for forums, blogs, twitter, and a number of other social media.
search.twitter.com
Would you like to know what people are talking about on twitter, go to the search and type in a word, and the most recent tweets with that word will pop up. Start following people who talk about things you are interested in.
Social Bookmarking
Check out some of the social bookmarking sites and see what people are bookmarking. www.digg.com, www.stumbleupon.com, www.delicious.com.
Social Network groups
Each social network has some form of groups that people who belong to the network can join. Search through them and look for something that interest you.
Feel free to post any other tools that you think might be helpful.
Not sure what social network to join? Can't find anything on a particular topic or interest? Need some help getting started? Just ask, I am glad to help. ljjones6 at gmail dot com.
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