Archive for January, 2009

What does Twitter do with Our Conversations?

January 31st, 2009

conversation

What happens to a conversation on a microblogging platform such as twitter? If I have a conversation with you about chess and we exchange a few tweets, then what? The conversation is lost, not indexed or searchable in any way. What if twitter allowed for everyone who’s talking about the same thing to be a part of the same conversation? Right now twittter is like a global chat room and conversation occur on a 1-1 basis or on a many to 1 basis.

Twitter should add a feature that allows for the categorization or organization of conversations. If I want to jump into a conversation with 30 other chess enthusiasts, I should be able to do so, but I can’t. There is a lot of information that is flowing around on twitter but it’s not being utilized. We have to rely on third party sites and applications that allow us do do things with twitter that twitter doesn’t allow us to do. So what could twitter do with all of the conversations?

  • allow me to search conversations based on category and allow me to see who else is participating in the conversation
  • trend the most popular conversations/discussions on twitter, almost like a google trends
  • allow me to tag or bring in other people into the conversation that I think can add value and information
  • a possible business model could be to create a market place around conversations with related products and services
  • allow for conversations to carry over from one platform to another

What are your ideas?  What could twitter do with all of the conversations that are going on online that goes beyond just using twitter search to search for keywords?  What if twitter became something like socialmedian but with instant communication?  It seems like there is a unique opportunity to make the most out of the conversations online, what will twitter do?  what would you like them to do?

What was Your Last Bonehead Move?

January 29th, 2009

bonehead

Bonehead moves, we all make them. Heck I’ve made quite a few in the past month. Looking back, I probably would have done things differently, but hey, when you look back it’s always easy to say what you SHOULD have done.

Bonehead moves come in all shapes and sizes, maybe you say something stupid on twitter, perhaps you aren’t to sharp on a phone call with a company executive, you could have even blown a partnership agreement. We’re all human and we all make mistakes, but don’t beat yourself up over a bonehead move because believe me, there will be many more. So what should you do when you make a bonehead move?

  • recognize you made a bonehead move
  • reconcile your bonehead move by trying to fix it, apologize, ask for another chance, try to regain trust
  • ask what you can do to fix or repair the situation
  • show that you are putting an effort into fixing your bonehead move

You don’t need to go overboard by begging for forgiveness (unless you did something really stupid) but definitely show that you understand and acknowledge you did something stupid and try to fix it. Past that you need to just go on living life. We make mistakes all the time and you can only do so much to try to fix them, at a certain point you need to realize you did all you could and you need to move on.

I’ve called executives by the wrong name in emails, have accidentally skipped or been late to a meeting, etc. Usually people understand that mistakes are a part of life.

Remember, we all make bonehead moves, do what you can to fix them and move on, there are always going to be some situations you just can’t make better, accept it.

What was your last bonehead move and what did you do fix it?

Want More Twitter Followers? Become Kevin Rose!

January 27th, 2009

Anyone else find it ironic that Kevin Rose is giving out tips on how to get more twitter followers?  Considering the fact that he has founded 3 companies, is on the cover of multiple magazines, and has his own webs how; I’m not really surprised that he has 91,000 twitter followers, are you?  His 10 [...]

Are CMO’s Tracking Social Media and WOM?

January 26th, 2009

We all know that social media and word of mouth marketing is great and powerful, but if you’re not measuring it or tracking it correctly then how do you know it’s working?  PPC for example is very easy to track and measure.  You are given clear stats as to what you put in and how [...]

Paying A lot of Dollars for a little Sense

January 24th, 2009

Is it just me or do people enjoying paying money to hear tech babble and fancy jargon from consultants?  Tell me if this has ever happened to you.  Someone pays you money to look at something, it could be their website, their social media campaign, etc.  You take the time and look over their info [...]

Leaving my Startup for Full Time Social Media and SEO Consulting

January 23rd, 2009

At the beginning of last year I helped create a startup in the social media space.  I was the CMO/founder and I handled everything from community creation to product design.  I stuck with it for about a year and turned down many opportunities and chances for collaboration.  I just didn’t have the time or the [...]