Tag Archives: twitter

#Meme15 Assignment 2: All A’Twitter

sqlfamilyA new monthly blog series has entered the #sqlfamily. The brainchild of Jason Strate (b|t), “#Meme15” focuses around the ways social networks can further our professional development.  This month’s assignment is one dear to my own heart (and brain. And fingers): Twitter. I’ve written before about what Twitter can do for your company—how it can give high-tech B2Bs personality, credibility and new leads. What I haven’t covered as much is what it can do for you, the employee. There are two questions in the assignment:

 

  • Why should average Jane or Joe professional consider using twitter?
  • What benefit have you seen in your career because of twitter?

As a person whose primary job responsibilities involve social media, I’m going to go with the first option—for an excellent answer to the second, check out Stacia Misner’s response.

So, why should you, the non Social Media Marketer/Specialist/Strategist etc use Twitter? In short, there are three main reasons: build relationships, gain knowledge and enhance your public image.

In slightly longer, Twitter is a public conversation, a place to learn, share and connect. Someone posts a link to a blog post about Power View; you read it and learn something new about Power View (animated data points, oh my!). Someone asks a question about stored procedures, aka your pride and joy, and you answer them. Bonds form between the teachers and the taught, the @er and @ed, tweeter and retweeter—but they can also form, albeit more loosely, between all of the above and their networks of listeners. When you perform any activity on Twitter, from favoriting a Tweet to organizing a Tweetup, it deepens your digital profile to anyone who thinks to look or happens to listen at the right time.

Twitter allows you to join  (or start!) non-geographically-restricted communities grouped around any interest or combination of interests. It lets you play pin the avatar on the body at conferences. It’s a virtual kickstarter for eventual IRL relationships. For all the banality of some of its content, Twitter’s function as a connector is far from trivial.

 [#Meme15 logo by Matt Velic]

Ruminants’ Ruminations, or The Coolest Things We Ingested This Year

Another best-of list blog post! Another best-of list blog post whose preface warns you it is a best-of list blog post! So sue me. Or don’t read it. ‘Tis the season, and I’m a copycat.

2011’s been a kind of wild and crazy year, both for us as a company and for the software world as a whole. But rather than do a straight recap, I decided to poll our crew on the hands-down coolest thing/language/trick/product/comestible/visual symphony/regular symphony they’ve ingested this year, and let you extrapolate your own state-of-the-union conclusions from these. Alors:

  • Sean Kermes:
    • Sugru! Sugru is super frigging cool.  It starts life as putty that can be hand-molded at room temperature for a bit upwards of half an hour, then over the next 24 hours it adheres to whatever you stuck it to and becomes a flexible (but tough) and slightly grippy silicone.  I’ve used it to repair and craft drawer and cabinet handles and fix some random crap, and I’m planning on starting to make some custom-fitted mouse grips so that I’m not dragging my fingers across the desk all day. Continue reading Ruminants’ Ruminations, or The Coolest Things We Ingested This Year

SPC11 Tweeting Guide: How to Use Twitter to Become Rich, Attractive and Popular

[Image via  Renegade HR]

  1. Do you currently own or have you ever owned a twitter account? If yes:
  2.  Do you use it more than once a month? If yes:
  3. Do you use it as a therapist? If yes, you might want to tone it down a bit.  No one likes a whiner! If no:
  4. Do you use it because you read/heard/saw on The Today Show/Tosh 2.0 that it offers a lot of networking opportunities? If yes:
  5. Do you think you’ve taken advantage of these networking opportunities? If yes, why are you still reading this article? Tweet my headline and get back to networking! If no: read on.

So here’s the deal, would-be networkers: SPC is a huge conference stuffed with “influencers” and “inventors” and “evangelizers” and other people of import. Unless you snag a front row seat at one of their sessions or have a honing pigeon ability that tends to kick in da club, you may not be able to meet these poobahs in real life. But you can meet, shoot the breeze, swap Qwickster jokes and photos of the grandkids, divulge industry secrets etc… with them on Twitter.

“But howwwww do I do that no one likes me sad face going to cry into my spplatypus now,” you say? Here are the steps: Continue reading SPC11 Tweeting Guide: How to Use Twitter to Become Rich, Attractive and Popular

SPTechCon’s Top Tweets, Vol. 2

So tweeps at the ‘Con have definitely gotten past the point where I can keep up. Meaning, perchance you tweeted something ah-mazing, and I missed it, and thus you missed your chance to be immortalized here. Mea culpa! Talk to me at tonight’s SharePint–perhaps I’ll let you beat me in a plank-off.

  • @mikegil Best tweet of #sptechcon from my 20 y/o nephew, just lurking: “Everyone here looks like you.” Compliment? Jab? If so, to whom?
  • @BCJonesey: back of @cmcnulty2000 session = tweep-ville, glad I wore my glasses @janishall @mikegil #SPTechCon #Nerds
  • @DougHemminger Just heard @WonderLaura refer to a “G – U – I – D” instead of “Gooid”…Is “Gooid “a developer pronounciation? #SPTechCon
  • @lefteyes: “Everyone likes rainbows and ponies” #SPtechCon
  • @TiffanyWI: All the cool #SharePoint kids are at #sptechcon Continue reading SPTechCon’s Top Tweets, Vol. 2

SPTechCon’s Top Tweets, Vol. 1

While we aren’t rolling into the ‘Con until tomorrow morning, the party has definitely already gotten started. I know, right? Sounds impossible, and yet a quick search for #sptechcon on twitter says otherwise. Tweets have ranged from the informative recap to the feed-me-seymour to the cheerleader. Below, a few of my favorites:

  • @timferro Great #InfoPath session at #SPTechCon @cwheeler76 ! I now only dislike it rather than my previous outright loathing!
  • @Chomp1313 Loving #sptechcon but lack of chocolate may be a problem
  • @buckleyplanet @gvaro + Lady Gaga meat outfit = #SPTechCon lightning talks tonight at 5pm
  • @sitwalkstand Useful tool for explaining “virtual folders” and metadata in SP is Excel filter feature to create a SP view #sptechcon
  • @lefteyes: The base metaphor for document management is a filing cabinet. Why are we still using 1950 tech to organize info in 2011? #sptechcon Continue reading SPTechCon’s Top Tweets, Vol. 1

Are Tweets Another Way of Saying I Love You at 300 baud

Yesterday I attended the very useful MIT CIO Conference. For the first time at a conference, I was one of those a live tweeters, using HootSuite on my iPad. Unlike that curmudgeon Bill Keller,  I did not experience anything akin to crystal meth. Tweeting along the way enhanced the conference experience significantly.

The most enjoyable part was sharing thoughts with others in the room in real time. I was able to see the emphasis on parts of the dialogue that I would have otherwise missed. Based on retweets of my own messages, others likewise found value. Being constantly tuned in helped me keep my focus even after hours in a darkened theatre.

The immediate feedback from presenters was a nice surprise. To comment about a presenter and then get an individual response three minutes after the session is new and exciting. Continue reading Are Tweets Another Way of Saying I Love You at 300 baud

The 9 Things a B2B Should Be Doing on Twitter

Twitter is closing in on its 5thanniversary, which is kinda old in contempo-startup world.  Even though I jumped on the blogging bandwagon fairly early, and the Tumblr bandwagon almost immediately, I spent about the first four years of Twitter’s existence scoffing at it. I was one of the myriad “twitter-is-for-c-list-celebutards-oggling-eachothers’-french-toast-stix” kvetchers. And then, I graduated, got a job and realized that, as far as the B2B world is concerned, Twitter is maybe the best thing since trade shows.

Why? Because it humanizes a sector that is inherently barricaded. Those French toast stix pix? Humanizing. Because B2B employees eat breakfast too, yo.

But seriously, what Twitter provides is a direct path to both the direct customer and the indirect end-user.  It provides a steady and constantly updated stream of industry news, gossip and watercooler fodder. It provides guppies with a way to swim with sharks. It’s like a virtual bar crawl where cred isn’t a credential. Continue reading The 9 Things a B2B Should Be Doing on Twitter