by Paul Kortman | Aug 31, 2010 | Social Media
This is a tip or a technique I use everyday to monitor keywords about me and my clients. There are tools which do actual sentiment analysis and all kinds of other listening, but I just want to be reminded to read the conversations.
I also like to keep my inbox small. So I trick myself and have content by keywords delivered to my inbox, that way I’m forced to read it or make a conscious effort to ignore it. Not signing into a listening application can cause problems… unless it delivers emails of conversations.
This technique will focus on listening to twitter, however there are plenty of RSS feeds out there to use this method of “subscribing”
Gathering your RSS Feed
Simply head over to twitter search and type in a query, I’ll use “elephants” as mine… however I recommend you visit the Advanced Search page to develop a better query like “elephants -peanuts -from:Elleph” This will give you this page as a result http://twitter.com/search?q=elephants (or http://twitter.com/search?q=elephants+-peanuts+-from:Elleph) And in reality you can use these URLs in most RSS to Email tools, however I recommend going one step further and locating the actual RSS feed.
In the Twitter Search Results page you should see a link saying “Feed for this query” (as seen in the image below) right click on this link and choose copy link address or link URL. This is the actual RSS feed url that we’ll use in the next step.
Finding an RSS to Email tool
There are a few options, and some have come and gone over the years, so I’ll recommend two searches, and two currently functioning tools. First off, searches:
One of the current tools I use shows up in spot number one for both of those searches… Feed my Inbox. The next sections will explain what to do with each of these tools
Feed My Inbox
Arguably the best tool out there for taking an RSS feed and dumping the results to email, Feed my Inbox makes it quite simple, when you arrive it asks for a feed url (which we got from step one) and your email address, that’s all it needs to start emailing you the tweets you care about. (or blog postings youtube videos etc). You can also login to customize more settings, but the basics are here for you.
Notify.me
Taking the RSS to inbox one step further Notify.me allows you to have it send an SMS, IM or Email. Which is very handy for the more important keywords you want to pay attention to. Once signed in you can turn on and off notifications with a simple click and add feeds by pasting the URL (from above) to add new feeds.
Simple
These are two tools, and one technique that I use on a daily basis to keep me informed of conversations around my keywords… this is how I can appear to be online all day long while actually enjoying a life offline.
Remember, Automate the simple stuff, do the conversations and relationship manually.
by Paul Kortman | Aug 30, 2010 | Social Media
The following are the 60 or so tweets I had as my presentation material for a recent talk at GRSM on Twitter Strategy for Business. I would love to post the slideshare of this presentation however it was designed as a presentation via twitter. Many of you have asked how I did it. I could not have done it with out the help of two staff members of ddm marketing & communications who posted each point as I hit it. These tweets are my content, I prewrote them and my staff only filled in 3 or so tweets where I strayed from my pre written notes. I’ve also embedded the video for your viewing pleasure.
GRSM – Aug. 26th 2010 Paul Kortman Twitter Strategy from Grand Rapids Social Marketing on Vimeo.
Were you there? What did you think? Discuss your thoughts in the comments section below
Presentation Notes as Tweets
Getting setup for , follow along at home or from your own laptop at @ by going here: Link to Tweet
Just a couple more minutes until we start the Twitter talk at , we will be Ustreaming this for those at home, follow @ for link Link to Tweet
If you don’t care about live tweeting events, or learning about use a tool to mute me: Link to Tweet
– @ and @ from @ should be thanked (or bought a few beers) for creating and giving back to the community Link to Tweet
The house is packed! Great Turnout. Link to Tweet
For those who didn’t get the link earlier, what you see on the big screen can be seen on your screen here: Link to Tweet
Paul Kortman @ is starting an non-traditional presentation, using as the presentation tool Link to Tweet
This is an experiment in action, we’ve taken the proper safety precautions, but this whole presentation could blow up :) Link to Tweet
Tweet Grid Link: Link to Tweet
I work for @ as dir of Search & Social: We help companies navigate twitter & more on a daily basis Link to Tweet
Gratuitous plug for @, did you know we’re hiring? http://bit.ly/1q7JX Search & Social, CSS, Proj Mgmt & more (plz RT) Link to Tweet
I believe that is an infrastructure like the power grid. You can use it for whatever purpose. Thus, twitter as a preso tool Link to Tweet
Pyramid of Strategy: top= Marketing Strategy, second tier includes Advertising Strategy, PR, Sales, Trad Media, Web Strategy Link to Tweet
Everything you do should be driven by objectives which come from a strategy, this includes all SocMed, but especially Twitter Link to Tweet
Pyramid of Strategy: Whiteboard pic, Marketing Strategy Link to Tweet
Under Web strategy (Tier 3 of Pyramid of Strategy) is Conversion Strategy, Content Strategy, and Social Media Strategy Link to Tweet
Ever thought about a conversion strategy for your website? What are you trying to get your users to do? How does it help your biz? Link to Tweet
Pyramid of Strategy: Tier 4 under SocMed Strat: Blog, Facebook, Twitter, 4Sq, Tumblr, Flickr, YouTube, <–All are Strategies Link to Tweet
Question for you to ponder: What are you doing with your web presence? Link to Tweet
Pyramid of Strategy: Whiteboard pic, Web/Social Strategy Link to Tweet
And finally Tier 5 under Twitter Strategy – Listen, Objectives, Voice, Content Strat, Follower Strategy, Integration Strat, & Tools Link to Tweet
Pyramid of Strategy: Whiteboard pic, Twitter Strategy Link to Tweet
Pyramid of Strategy: Whiteboard pic, Whole Pyramid: Link to Tweet
I’m going to skip over Listen as a strategy, all I’ll say is you’ve got to listen first. I’m assuming you are or have done this. Link to Tweet
Objectives flow from Marketing Strategy all the way down to Twitter Strategy, are you selling hammers? or pimping a non-profit Link to Tweet
Example Objectives for Twitter Strategy: Sell Tickets, brand awareness, buzz generation, Publicity prep, customer support and more Link to Tweet
Example Objective: Product Awareness, focus around a topic like better eyesight, this drives content and follower strategy too. Link to Tweet
Easter Egg: Link to Tweet
Voice was covered last year Personal/Person, Person behind the brand, & the brand What is your voice on Twitter? Link to Tweet
New thoughts or ideas on voice for twitter strategy? Are you going to be hip, stale, conversational, self-focused or what? Link to Tweet
How many retweets, original content, replies, and marketing are you going to post? Link to Tweet
I recommend: 40% original content, 40% other’s content and 20% (or less) ads/marketing speak Link to Tweet
Social Media is a multidirectional platform. DO NOT be 100% marketing, or 100% one-way. Dialog, Dialog, Dialog. Link to Tweet
Want to know how to create content that will “go viral” or at a minimum get retweeted? checkout @ now working for @ Link to Tweet
Questions to ask in a content strategy: ratios, do you RT? Content scheduled? Editorial Calendar? What value are you offering? Link to Tweet
So many brands get it so wrong with 90% marketing speak 10% “hey i’m going to talk to someone” Link to Tweet
Editorial calendars help plan what you’re going to say on Twitter… it’s not bad to plan Link to Tweet
We all want Followers, but you’ve got to have the right followers, total numbers mean nothing if they are not in your target market Link to Tweet
Tools to help in building follower base: @, @, @, @, @, & more Link to Tweet
Automation can only do so much, the old school methods still work the best, hand following, @ replying and unfollowing non followers Link to Tweet
It is really hard to follow 100 people manually…. use tools Link to Tweet
Some clients have taken > year to break the 1,000 follower mark, others have broken 2,000 in 6 months. Depends on target Audience Link to Tweet
Easter Egg: Link to Tweet
It’s not about the follower number, it’s about reach, dialog, and engagement of followers. Success is not measured in follower count Link to Tweet
If success were measured by follower count @ should be today’s speaker, > 5 Million followers and less than 500 tweets Link to Tweet
Key in Follower Strategy: find the right accounts to follow through keyword/topic/geo-based searches, like “Venture Capitalist” Link to Tweet
Also possible to do a contest, give-aways based on hashtag, dialog, or following. <– These are more difficult to gain adoption Link to Tweet
Contests to gain followers work well if you have a large base of engaged followers already or can engage influencers Link to Tweet
Short and Simple what other social networks are you going to integrate to your twitter presence? – this is your integration strategy Link to Tweet
Example integrations: YouTube, Blog, RSS feed, Delicious, Feed Reader, Facebook, Tumblr, Posterous, 4sq, flickr, linkedin, etc Link to Tweet
Choose your integration wisely Link to Tweet
Be careful with Integration of other SocMed content as they can be annoying, and they can mess up, automation is not always best Link to Tweet
You have to have a strategy with what tools you are going to use. Don’t use a tool just cause the twitterati use it. Link to Tweet
Too many tools to mention, but @ from @ has the best collection and review, I often find new tools there. Link to Tweet
I use @ @ @ @ (iPhone) @ @ @ @ @ @ & others Link to Tweet
Don’t forget listening tools: @ @, @, @ Automate the easy stuff, spend your time on dialog Link to Tweet
New Features: Followed by U both Follow Suggestions 4U Link to Tweet
For important topics, create an RSS feed and drop it in your email so you’re notified when your topic comes up Link to Tweet
Take an afternoon once a quarter and evaluate your strategy Link to Tweet
Can you remember twitter without replies?? Link to Tweet
Freebie: Twitter Lists: Link to Tweet
Because of Twitter and sms people’s lives were saved in last years Chilean earthquake. ISPs/web access down but sms was up Link to Tweet
Thanks for listening, reading, tweeting, asking questions and all, please feel free to ask questions here or on ! Link to Tweet
Thanks to @ and @imeghanp from @ for being the wizards behind the curtain! Link to Tweet
And thanks to @ for making space for and other learning/non-profit events. Link to Tweet
Sorry there will be no slidedeck to download :) but you can search for and find all of these tweets (for a week) Link to Tweet
Thanks for participating!! Did you enjoy the experiment? Lets carry on the conversation on Link to Tweet
Wow that’s a long outline
There is a lot to say about twitter and business!
Were you there? What did you think? Discuss your thoughts in the comments section below
by Paul Kortman | May 21, 2010 | Social Media
Skittles.com
Social Media sharing icons are becoming ubiquitious, Clients ask for better social media integration on their website and they generally mean they would like these social media icons on their page/site/content. In my oponion there are two types of social media icons by function. The first, which I’m not going to spend too much time on in this post, is the “We have a presence here” Icons
Presence Icons
levi.com
These Icons are in a consistant place on a website, typically in a header or a footer, and simply communicate to the user that we have a presence on these social networks. These icons used to say Find us on Facebook, or Follow us on Twitter, or Fan us on Facebook, or even Like us on Facebook. (There is so much wrong with the last one, but thats for another day!)
techcrunch.com
I have no problem with these Icons, they do what Icons do best, effectively communicate a larger concept, and frankly the larger concept (we have a presence on this network or that network) belongs on these sites.
getonboard.com - Transit blog
These Icons have their place and are not for debate in this post, however the other Social Media Icons are.
Content Sharing Icons
mashable.com
These are the icons you most often see at the bottom or top of a blog post, an individual piece of content that can be shared on one of these social networks. sometimes they are labeled “Share and Enjoy” othertimes they are not labeled. And even in this category there could be two different sub-categories, but for today’s arguments I’m going to lump them into one. It is my attempt in this post to show how these social media icons are over used, unnecessary, and an old concept rehashed.
Social Media Icons are Over Used
getonboard.org - Transit Blog
We are starting to see these Icons everywhere, and I’m not referring to the Facebook “Like” button that will grow to ubiquity as well. Any site that is current is or has already applied these to their content. The ones that make me laugh the most are contact us pages with the sharing icons. Who would want to have a discussion about your contact page? Do you really think that’ll go viral? I mean your phone number is sexy and all but I doubt I want to share that with my grandma on Facebook ;)
Social Media Icons are Unnecessary
nytimes.com
And why have these Icons? Anyone who is savvy enough to use these networks, who would really make something spread/go viral is going to know how to copy/paste the URL in the network they want to and with the options/content/context that they want to set.
techcrunch.com
Most of my target audience with this blog is similar in skill set as I am, I rarely find a need to use these, I much prefer to put my own title, my own bit.ly account information and my own privacy settings on something I share, why then wouldn’t I just copy/paste the URL?
Sharing Icons are the same as tell a friend from the 90s
lifehacker.com
Yeah you remember those… where it had a little email envelope, may have used the word share, but most often said tell a friend. You could then type in their email addy, and yours, a subject and a message. Ironically Email is still the best social network to make content go viral. But we can’t access the analytics on that. (Note the lifehacker image to the right, still has an “Email this” link.)
Wordpress plugin, sexy bookmarks
Email and Tell a Friend also prove the previous point of being unnecessary, most people copy and paste urls into emails, they don’t use tell a friend, why do we think they will use the sharing icons?
cnn.com
The long and short of it: If you create good (remarkable) content people will discuss and share it, no matter what tool set you provide, or don’t provide for them. So if you are adding these icons to then label your site as integrated with social media you are missing the boat. It’s about the substance of your content, not the icons.
Before you get all crazy on me in the comments for slamming icons you love, realize that some of what is written here may be from me playing devil’s advocate. I’m trying to argue for the oponent’s side to see if they are right. With that said, what parts of this article do I agree with? Good luck.
