Guest Posts

The 7 Phases of Twitter

This is a guest post by Matt Andaloro.

Twitter, the never-ending story.

It’s a platform I find myself pitching to my friends and family more and more, as it has increasingly become a platform that the general public has become more open to using on a regular basis.

As a result of this, people I know have been gradually joining this social media snowball.

Which, truth be known, is pretty exciting because it means this social network is simultaneously becoming more powerful in general, and more personally pertinent for myself.

Along with this, If I look at who I follow, I am able to see a snapshot of different people I know in various stages of their journey through the Twitterverse.

This has caused me to think about my own trip through Twitter and what I considered the evolution of my Twitter experience. After putting some serious (but not too strenuous) thought into my Twitter milestones, I found that I was able to break my entire experience into 7 distinct phases.

Phase 1: The Beginning

The beginning is literally where it all started for me, from the initial set-up, the choosing of that first (sexy) avatar, following several celebrities, news sources, and friends who are already on the platform. Then came the daunting task of sending my first tweet, which I CLEARLY put so much thought into:

This tweet was followed by several weeks equally as insightful tweets, until some combination of the novelty of this new toy wearing off, and a lack of understanding of the platform induced a dormant and update-less Twitter-state.

Phase 2: The Second Push

After the 10 month dormancy came my second push into Twitter. For whatever reason, maybe another social media account has asked me to link up my various accounts, or I was simply harassed by some people in the social sphere, interest was sparked again.

This time I started discovering many more interesting people to follow, and my Twitter feed began to become much more interesting (and more tailored to my tastes), and it began to dawn on me why Twitter is so? Magical.

To quote a friend on his own dawning moment he said:

When I was on Twitter and I saw a David Bowie Official tweet right below a CBC News tweet, and I thought to myself: Oh? I see why people love this.

Suffice it to say, I was hooked like many of those before me had been.

Phase 3: Learning How To Tweet

The quality of my tweets didn?t see any remarkable improvement in the first little while, mostly because I was sitting in front of my computer trying to sound insightful or make meaningful observations.

It wasn?t until I got Twitter on my phone and started relaying actual observations that I received my first non-gratuitous re-tweet!

It was a big day. Tears may have been shed.

From that point on, my tweets became less angst-y, and my thoughts were those that more than one person could share, as I learned more Twitter-oriented ways of expressing myself.

Phase 4 ? 5: Searching and Engaging

Phase 3 was arguably the longest phase of my Twitter experience, as I spent month after month content with my micro-blogging and my information ingestion.

One fateful day, however, I was scrolling through my Twitter feed, and I wanted to talk to someone and I realized that the amount of people I was following who would actually message me back was very low, so phase 4 became finding and following real people.

I started with Hamilton, Ontario, then searched for people from my University, and then drilled down even further to people in my classes trying to find anyone to interact with. Phase 5 then became actually reaching out to these new connections I?d formed and starting ?actual- conversations.

The results led to phase 6.

Phase 6 ? Twitter IRL

The people I started connecting with online started connecting with me in real life!

(Note: Prior to this, being a very recent transfer into the Communication Studies program, I knew very few of my new classmates.)

I connected with a bunch of people and was afforded the opportunity to establish a common ground that I had been unable to do previously while a professor was lecturing. This then built into several relationships.

The power of this platform simply continued to grow.

Phase 7 ? The Present

Which brings me to my present phase. Although I recognize that it may be the seventh phase of my Twitter adventure, I still find myself plagued with nearly as many questions as I had in phase one.

How do I create valuable content?
What value do I bring to online interactions?
How do I interact successfully in a professional manner?

I even find myself re-facing some of the questions from the previous stages, if only at a greater stage.

How do I create messages that my audience will jive with?
Do I sound cool enough?
Is what I am talking about old news?
Am I too sensational?
How do I make sure my personality bleeds through?

Whether or not I?ll find answers to these questions in this phase, or in an unknown phase in the future (The 10,000th tweet? Building a Following? Becoming a Source?), remains to be seen.

All I can do right now is work at it while trying to enjoy the journey as much as possible.

If you made it to the end of this story, I would love to hear your story. Do your phases reflect any of mine? Or did you have an entirely different experience? Do you have any advice for someone entering phase 7?

Thanks for reading.

About the author: Matt Andaloro is currently a Marketing Analyst and an aspiring blog writer at Jugnoo. A lover of magic, learning, stories, and the intricacies of interpersonal communication, Matt is an avid rock climber, a part-time improviser, and a self-proclaimed outdoorsman. You can converse with Matt on Twitter, but be forewarned, he is exclamatory and excitable!

The Commoditization of Expertise and Why You Should Never Trust a Guru

This is a guest post by Ryan Hanley.

The Internet is a canvas for Creativity…

Using the Online tools of today’s age, thought-leaders the World may never have otherwise known are given the opportunity to?paint their picture of success.

It’s amazing really…

But for as much as I love the Internet and the possibility for greatness it presents, there is a dark pattern forming that troubles me deeply. ?This may not be news for those of you that’ve been in the blogging game longer than myself… But its systemic and horrifying none the less… A true Internet nightmare.

The black plague of idea…

The rape of creativity…

The death of original thought…

The Commoditization of Expertise!

Everyone’s an Expert

So what’s this scourge of the Internet?

What could be so horrible that I would give it such a dramatic intro? Here it is…

Online… Everyone’s an expert. All you need is the most basic computer skills and an Internet connection and anyone can become an instant expert in the Online world.

How??

Easy… You call yourself a Guru.

That’s it.

Read a couple A-List bloggers like?Danny Brown?or?Marcus Sheridan,?regurgitate a few of their concepts, throw the word Guru on your About Page and BOOM… You’re an expert.

It’s that easy.

Now the truth is your blog will suck. ?But some people will find you and read your writing and consider you a thought-creator… then a dog will be kicked, a baby’s candy will be stolen and?an Angel will lose its wings.

Well maybe that last bit is an?exaggeration?but certainly all the rest.

The result is the Commoditization of the Expertise. ?A few great minds creating ideas and concepts that get chopped up and spit out over and over and over again… ?Their ideas, thoughts and creativity exploited by a thousand hacks trying to capitalize on a knowledge thirty public.

For a visual, picture the Pits of Hell scene from the movie Constantine?(yes… I’m an unashamed Keanu Reeves fan), now hold that image except replace the demons with bloggers and the lost souls with content.

Gruesome…

Why is the Commodization of Expertise a problem?

Over time it’s hard to discern the Expert from the Hack…? Marinate on that thought for a couple minutes.

Never Trust a Guru

In my very humble opinion… Guru is a terrible term.

I put Guru in the same bucket as Rockstar and Ninja. ?The first person to call themselves a social media Ninja was wickedly awesome and creative… everyone else since then is simply lame.

So my advice…?Don’t trust the Guru, trust the person.

“Ryan… A Guru is a Person?!”

Technically… Yes. ?But really they’re not. ?People who pump themselves as a Guru or Rockstar or Ninja are trying to play a roll. ?Guru is a costume… Guru is a character…

Guru is a front that attempts to tap into your inner desire for inspiration and success…

…and that makes a Guru dangerous.

The Guru calls themselves a Guru because they?re own content isn’t interesting enough or original enough or inspiring enough for people to see them as a Guru.

So they brand themselves Guru and instantly become an expert Online

Why Expertise Commoditizing Gurus are Bad for us All

(If this were my blog and not a Guest Post I’d call this section “The Rub”, but it’s not, so I won’t, but I guess I kinda did anyways)

Right now you’re probably thinking to yourself:

“Ryan… Don’t hate the player, hate the game.”

“Ryan… You’re drinking some Hater-Aid”

But the truth is I have no intention of playing the Guru game and I have no idea what Hater-Aid is.

What I do know is?Expertise should be Celebrated.

We all know about Malcom Gladwell and the 10,000 hours thing, right? ?Basically, in his book Outliers, Malcom Gladwell?(Google him if you?re not familiar)?theorizes that it takes a person 10,000 hours of practice to master a task.

10,000 hours is a lot…

What I want… What purpose of writing this post was when I first started is to provide a simple and sincere warning to those of you that thirst for knowledge Online.

Beware the Guru.

Don’t let the commoditization of expertise cloud your judgment when putting faith in a resource.

There are dedicated, inspiring individuals who’ve put in the time, who’ve done the work and deserve the title Guru.

Celebrate their Expertise.? Learn from them.? Allow their thoughts to help you shape your thoughts so you too can Succeed Online!

Thank you and Good luck,

Ryan H.

About the author: If you found value in this article, I encourage you to connect with Ryan on Twitter at @RyanHanley_Com or visit his website to read more about Content Warfare – Win the Battle for Attention Online. You can also subscribe to Ryan?s free newsletter, How to Blog Your Business.

Is Seek or Shout the Holy Grail for PR, Bloggers and the Disconnected Media?

This is a guest post from Yvette Pistorio of Cision.

Two shifts have dramatically changed the way media and public relations professionals interact over the past few years: the move away from email in favor of online social channels, and the emergence of versatile, freelance content creators who are as comfortable writing magazine articles as they are blogging for brands.

For PR pros, that means media outreach will soon be more likely to take the form of a Twitter conversation with a freelance writer than an email exchange with a full-time reporter. With these shifts in mind, Cision has created a space for today?s content creator?journalists, bloggers, and PR and marketing professionals.

For those wearing multiple hats, we don?t force you to choose your role.

True Community Takes the Lead

In mid-April, Cision launched Seek or Shout, a new online community for media and PR professionals.

We built it to help journalists, bloggers, public relations, marketing professionals and other professional communicators research and promote their content while connecting with each other in a productive, relevant way. It allows you to connect directly on what is most valuable to you whether it be a story, blog post, video, podcast, etc.

You don?t have to choose a role, you can be both. The site isn?t just a listserv or dashboard, but an interactive community with photos, live comments and direct collaboration. It appeals to social and real-time sensibilities.

Inside Seek or Shout you can?

Seek?products for review, experts to interview, and research materials for an upcoming news article or blog post.?Choose to make your requests anonymously, or syndicate them to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for maximum response.
Shout?about your latest content, campaign or product. Users who follow you or the tags you place on your Shout will see them in their News Feed.
Communicate privately with other users about exclusive inquiries and offers.
Define your interests and find relevant messages from other users in your News Feed.
Maintain a profile outlining your roles and background.
Search editorial calendars, like CisionWire and PitchEngine, to spark content ideas.

Seek or Shout the Anti-Spam?

We hope the site helps alleviate the deluge of email pitches for journalists and bloggers. The ?anti-spam? if you will.

Receiving pitches through the site provides a more manageable environment to work in allowing you to see pitches easily without other correspondence cluttering your view.

Since you choose the tags you?re interested in, you are deciding what you want to see on your homepage. They can be modified to narrow or broaden your feed. They can represent the industry you cover or just the news you want to read.

?As a freelance reporter covering health, caregiving, antiques, and other topics, I?m inundated each day with pitches from PR professionals who want me to incorporate their client?s product, service, expert, or angle into a story,? says Elizabeth Hanes, freelance writer and a sponsored Ambassador for Seek or Shout.

To help clear out her inbox, she began requesting that PR professionals only pitch her through Seek or Shout.

Gini Dietrich, CEO of Arment Dietrich and author of Spin Sucks, agrees. ?I also really love that I can push pitches to come through there instead of to my inbox.?

More Than Just a PR and Blogger Tool

It?s been really great to see how members find new ways to use Seek or Shout and engage in ways we didn?t necessarily anticipate. There?s a diversity of users including book publishers and literary agents seeking experts and other writers.

We?ve also seen more universities and students signing up which is great since they are coming into the field and will be the new content creators. They need a tool like this because the marketplace is evolving, expects versatility from communication jobs, and helps craft a wide content experience to stay competitive.

?We?re fostering a relevant exchange between public relations professionals, journalists, and influencers who need to find sources and information quickly on deadline,? says Jay Krall, business development manager for Cision.

We want Seek or Shout to become a community, a valuable space for everyone to interact, build relationships and collaborate directly on stories, blog posts and any other project members are working on.

?It?s a lot easier to find an expert source to interview on short notice when you leverage the power of a strong community, rather than a few friends or colleagues on an email thread,? adds Krall.

About the author:
Yvette Pistorio is the social media manager for?Cision, and a blogger for?CisionBlog. She is a lover of cupcakes and HGTV, and enjoys a good laugh. You can find Yvette on?Twitter tweeting on behalf of Cision.

If LinkedIn.com Fails in the Social Network Forest, Will It Make a Sound?

This is a guest post by Kevin Green.

Would anyone be really upset if LinkedIn?s .com destination up and disappeared tomorrow?

It?s safe to assume that recruiters scouring the site for new talent and current shareholders would be pretty peeved, even if the stock (LNKD) is trading at half price from the IPO.?But how would the lack of an online destination really impact everyday users?

Users that are tethered to their mobile phones and enamored by the promise of applications, innovation and integration?

Of the top 10 most trafficked social networking sites, LinkedIn is a bit of an anomaly.?Its success is not dependent on status updates, games or rich media content, but on connecting individuals around professional interests and capabilities.

Even with 135 million registered users, LinkedIn has (not surprisingly) had difficulty keeping the attention of its user base ? with members spending an average of only8 minutes per visit (source: Google DoubleClick Ad Planner).

Compare that to the new social media darling, Pinterest.com. Traffic to Pinterest has grown a whopping 40% in the last 6 months ? and its 13 Million users are spending an average time spent of 15 minutes and 40 seconds on the site ? nearly double time spent on LinkedIn.com.

With numbers like these you can?t help but wonder how LinkedIn will compete for mindshare when interest-based social networks are cropping up everywhere and stealing bigger pieces of the consumer engagement pie?

If I was Reid Hoffman, I?d A) ? be a lot wealthier, and B) ? try a new approach that liberated LinkedIn from its .com chains, and focus more on applications and integration.

From a pure functionality standpoint, the standalone LinkedIn.com destination doesn?t offer anything that can?t be found or easily deployed within Facebook or Google+.? However, as a brand, LinkedIn has established a lot of credibility with business professionals around the world and has become the de facto standard in online CVs.

But there is only so long LinkedIn can maintain that credibility without innovating to better meet user needs ? because it?s only a matter of time before someone does ?LinkedIn? better.

Opportunities and Competitive Challenges

Facebook?s Open Graph applications present an interesting opportunity and risk for LinkedIn.

Of the initial 80+ applications within the Timeline Apps catalogue, Monster Worldwide managed to squeeze in the LinkedIn competitor Branch Out. Although the application struggled initially, the feature set is nearly identical to what is offered by LinkedIn, and deeper alignment with Facebook could gain significantly more interest.

Note – Alison Hillman of BranchOut offered a correction the the comparison Brian makes. You can find more information here.

Considering Facebook?s 800+ million global user base and the staggering amount of time users spend on the social network per visit on average (23 minutes and 20 seconds), Monster?s move to integrate Branch Out deeper into the Facebook ecosystem presents significant risk to LinkedIn?s externally-focused strategy.

To date, LinkedIn has focused more attention on bringing users from Twitter, Facebook and Google+ deeper into its social network.? Users have linked accounts to share their activity in these more populated destinations rather than participate within the LinkedIn destination itself (we?ll see what happens when users realize the Tweets application is no longer supported as of January 31, 2012).

The result has been a redundancy in content and value.? While some of the LinkedIn Groups are thriving, many times it?s still not enough to warrant a separate destination as participation is infrequent and the feature is not dramatically differentiated from circles in Google+ or Facebook Groups.

LinkedIn has traditionally held the user base close to their vest and been strict about third party application development and sharing information.?However, the opportunity to bring down some of those walls, innovate and integrate is now.?While Branch Out may not be a true competitor in the long run, it?s only a matter of time before someone approaches the professional audience and delivers a more seamless experience with a unique feature set.

With such a powerful brand presence, LinkedIn has the opportunity to own the professional dialogue and connectivity across social networks, and not just on LinkedIn.com.

Time for LinkedIn to Re-Engage

As it?s become such a trusted resource in finding, evaluating and hiring employees, the LinkedIn ?Seal of Approval? carries weight and should be amplified to encourage more connections, more conversation and more action.? It?s not a new concept, LinkedIn tried back in 2010 to deploy an application in Facebook, but it failed miserably (9,000 likes compared to 398,347 for Branch Out).? Why LinkedIn chose not to continue its integration with Facebook is a bit of a mystery, but it?s time to re-engage.

The development of a robust application could dramatically increase interaction and time spent among LinkedIn?s core user base.? It also creates an opportunity to gather more data about members and enhance their targeted advertising around interests and behaviors.

If the core functionality of LinkedIn was more portable, then the role of the LinkedIn.com destination moves away from being a standard social network that requires daily participation, to a distributed presence that can more easily integrate with highly trafficked and engaging social networks and eventually, permeate corporate websites.

Just think about how LinkedIn community engagement would change if it was effectively integrated with Facebook, where 81% of users log in at least weekly (in comparison to the 14% of users that log in to LinkedIn)? (Source: Mintel ?Use of leading social networks, June 2011?)

In my opinion, LinkedIn as a social network is too valuable and useful to disappear entirely, but without some strategic adjustments, it faces the biggest challenge from competitors and entrepreneurs.? Segregating itself from others and facilitating fringe connections with Twitter and others is a missed opportunity.

That said, if there was one social network to watch over the next two years, I?d place my bets on LinkedIn, if it strives to innovate and integrate.? Otherwise, LinkedIn could become the MySpace of professional social networking.

About the author: Kevin M. Green is the Vice President, Strategy at Digital Influence Group, a full service digital marketing agency located in the Boston, Massachusetts area.? He blogs regularly at Green Matter Thoughts?and can be reached on Twitter @kevinmgreen.? For more on his professional background, you can visit?Kevin’s LinkedIn profile.

Social Media Marketing Success Doesn?t Have To Be A Hunt For A Four-Leaf Clover

This is a guest post by Stacey Acevero.

The rise of social media has created all sorts of new opportunities for small business marketers to get the word out, but it has presented challenges too.

The days of sending press releases to media outlets with the hopes of being lucky enough to get some coverage are long gone, morphing into constant opportunities to catch the next social media sharing phenomenon.

Today, it?s not enough to hit just those traditional media outlets.

You need to create a social media survival kit to help your business? content fly on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and countless niche sites across the digital horizon.

Take heart, shareable content is not as rare (or hard to create) as you might think. With just a few tweaks, your content could be the talk of the sharing community.

Try these four tips to help make your press releases more social media friendly:

Understand your audiences.?You?ve heard it before: make sure you are writing content geared toward your audience. Before you can write for them, you must understand who makes up that group. It?s more than just the specific prospects you are trying to appeal to; search engines are your readers too.?This is where search engine optimization comes in. Make your content highly rank-able with optimized keywords and phrases. The computerized audiences will love them ? but don?t forget that your primary readers are still human.

Provide opportunities for sharing. Incorporate buttons that will allow readers to share on a number of networks. You may have thought of Facebook, Twitter and good-old-fashioned email, but you should also include sites such as:

Tumblr
StumbleUpon
Digg
Delicious
Reddit

Making your content easy and compelling to share is just one more way to motivate readers to spread your word.

Tap into viral trends. All those videos, photographs and jingles floating across the web are making the rounds for a reason.?? Take a look at the top memes (virally spread ideas) and ask yourself, what can I do to make my content more playful, provocative or just plain different?

You may find that a simple video aimed at a niche site is the crux to a viral campaign that spreads to networks everywhere.

Use your press release as a palette. Don?t think of your press release solely as a way to get out information. Put creativity into every element of your template by adding videos and photos to make the complete piece better positioned for social media marketing success.

Experiment with quirky or bold headlines
Use subtitles that ask questions or identify different takes on your topic
Use links, multimedia and photos to tell your story

Stay away from PR speaks; nobody has the time or interest to read it. Write like a storyteller and remember, there are millions of speed-readers on the net who skim content to determine readability.

Find a way to appeal to these scanners in an instant so they won?t just finish your press release, they?ll want to share it as well.

Think about the content you?ve been motivated to share. What about it drives you to let others in on the treasure you?ve found?

Translate that to your press release. If it?s important,? interesting and valuable, then with a few touch-ups you can make it eminently shareable too.

Shareable = Social Media Marketing Success!

So, your turn – how are you finding success in social media? Let’s hear your best practices below!

About the author:?Stacey Acevero is the social media community manager of PRWeb, where she engages the online community through PRWeb social channels such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn daily with articles and conversation about PR, small businesses, SEO, social media and more. She is all about creative social media marketing ideas as well as building the PRWeb brand. Stacey also pens of some of PRWeb?s case studies. Connect with Stacey on Twitter at @SaceVero.?