A little payback

I’m starting the New Year feeling pretty damn lucky. I have a job I love, we’ve got great energy, and the company has tremendous upside. As you may have seen in a previous post, much has changed for me over the past year.  Although the economy has improved, unfortunately there are still many friends who are in transition. I am so grateful for the help and support that many friends gave me during my jobless period. Today, it is time to give back.

Doug Haslam is making a career transition.  This is the first time in about ten years that he’s left one job without immediately having another to go to. Doug is truly one of the nicest guys in social media. He was one of my first friends on Twitter.  Doug is generous by being helpful to all he “meets” online. He is so witty that it’s no surprise that he had a ton of followers when the Twitter universe was small and that actually meant something. With his Boston references and Sox chatter, he always helps me stay connected to the Hub of the Universe, even from 3000 miles away. I am confident that Doug will find a great opportunity that suits him soon.  He is just too bright, too connected, and too much of a real PR professional that understands social media as well as traditional media. As you can imagine, Doug has a wealth of social capital that will no doubt help him. He’s also got some pretty good insights on using social media to find a job.  Having been through it myself, I know he’s got the right approach that will propel his career. Still, I know that a little help from his friends will be appreciated.

So how can you help Doug? Even if you don’t live near him or work in his industry? If we’ve learned anything from social media over these last few years, it’s the importance of community and the connections we make within that community. In my experience, there are three things that will always help and always be appreciated.

1. Reach out to him and make an introduction that you think will be meaningful.
2. Write a Linkedin recommendation for Doug.
3. Write a blog post like this one which will introduce Doug to your blog community.

These actions are not hard to do and take it from me, not only are they appreciated greatly, but they do help.

 

 

A new brilliant character campaign

Image via Wikipedia

Back in the old days of Twitter (last year), we were all enthralled with the Madmen characters.  Fans were taking up the personas of Don Draper, Peggy Olson and the other members of Sterling Cooper. It was fun to receive tweets from the characters as their responses were influenced  by the characters personalities and the time frame they represented.  We even debated whether the characters were sponsored by Madmen producer, AMC, or directly by fans; and then whether fans had the right to tweet. Of course, it proved to be a fan driven exercise that many of us enjoyed.

Last night, Shel Israel pointed out another Twitter character campaign, this one more factual and based on history.  In honor of the 50th anniversary of his presidential campaign, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum has created Twitter characters to relive the historic campaign that most were too young to follow.  The JFK Library will use campaign documents to follow the trail and provide daily updates that will tell followers exactly what occurred on the corresponding day in 1960.

Presently we can follow JFK, President Eisenhower, and Kennedy opponent, VP Richard Nixon, Nixon’s running mate, Henry Cabot Lodge, JFK’s eventual running mate and then rival, Lyndon Baines Johnson and Senator Hubert H. Humphrey. It will be interesting to see which other characters join the reenactment.  Shortly, I expect to see JFK’s father, Ambassador Joseph Kennedy, and first brother, Robert F. Kennedy. I’ve set up a Twitter list to follow all of the “action”.

I am very excited about this approach. What a fantastic way to educate people who were born after that period about JFK’s meteoric rise and what political campaigns were like then.  Could this be the basis trend for educating people about historical pre-internet events? Given our need for interaction and engagement, is this the way to educate people in a fun and interactive way?  What other activities/events could be adapted to this style?

 

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• Twitter Feed to replay JFK’s 1960 campaign. (Boston.com)
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• Fifty years ago – Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts Announces Candidacy for President of the United States (JFK Library.org)

Random Funny Twitter Status Update Tweets

Tweet
I'm not falling again for the 5-year-old's "eat some spaghetti" trick. It's always Play-Doh. But this fried egg looks delicious. Oh, damn.
I have serious ethical problems participating in human cloning experiments.. I just couldn't live with myself.

Oh, this is my step ladder. My...my real ladder left when I was only 5.

I'm watching "The Sound of Music" on TV. For those of you who have

@HiltonAnaheim – There’s more to Twitter than broadcasting your ads

Last week we took a family vacation to Southern California and spent a couple of days at Disneyland. I noticed that the hotel where we had a reservation, the Hilton Anaheim had a Twitter account and was even advertising a special Twitter rate.

We changed our reservation and were able to save some money thanks to the great offer.  In appreciation for the discount, I followed the hotel and tweeted that we would be arriving the next week.

 

 

Having been on Twitter awhile, I knew what was supposed to happen.  I’d get a follow from the hotel and a response to my tweet. Perhaps even a note from the hotel at check-in.  So I waited and waited, but nothing happened.

 

 

 

While at the hotel, I tried again. The accommodations were lovely and the hotel staff provided great service, so I wanted to let people know.  But the same thing happened.

 

 

 

As you can see from their tweets, the Hilton Anaheim is using Twitter as a one way stream to send out updates and special offers.  Obviously, it can be effective as witnessed by my stay.  But of course, we know that Twitter can be so much more.  As Twitter has grown in usage and become more mainstream, some best practices for brands have emerged.  People want to be engaged and have relationships with brands. In a survey that Peter Sorgenfrei and I did of 208 Twitter users in May, 97% of respondents agreed that brands should engage their customers on Twitter.  They certainly want to know about discounts and coupons (71%), but they want more – a relationship. There have been many other studies which have demonstrated this.  This is why you see brands following the best practices of following, responding and engaging with their customers. That is how they get so much more out of Twitter.  In the hospitality field, two hotels that do a fantastic job in this area are the Roger Smith Hotel in New York and Seattle’s Hotel Max. As a result of his customer engagement and relationships, Brian Simpson of the Roger Smith has been recognized as a leader in using social media in the hospitality industry.  And not only does Jen at the Hotel Max send out offers and hotel news on Twitter, but she is very responsive to guests and is a vibrant member of Seattle’s Twitter community.

The glass is half full for the Hilton Anaheim, you can advertise your specials on Twitter or you can engage with guests to turn them into evangelists. Which one do you think the guests would choose?

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Follow-up to my People Magazine Twitter Post

We’ve had some great dialog in response to yesterday’s post about my People Magazine Tops on Twitter post. I really appreciate your insights and conversation.  The comments were spread all over the different social platforms, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and here.  Sometimes it feels like you’re playing three dimensional chess. There were some great analogies that people gave to describe the phenomenon of mainstream users following celebrities in a big way.  I’ve consolidated them and placed them all here. Thank you all for sharing your points of view. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

On the blog Veronica Sopher said that “It's like everyone in the house goes for a different section of the Sunday paper: politics, news, classifieds, funnies, coupons, etc.”  She also compared “having a high # of followers = # of direct mail postcards sent”.

On Facebook, Timothy Carter said, “I'm sure you'd agree...bigger, isn't always better.”

On LinkedIn, Chris Hare said, “It goes back to quality of conversation rather than # following. Vast #'s of Americans are also overweight but that doesn't make it healthy.”

Many Twitter comments were in response to Diane Hessan who tweeted, “When I read this post, it makes me want to cancel my twitter account”

On Twitter, Eric Andersen equated the most followed list with a “TV analogy: change the channel”

Ann Batko, in response to Diane Hessan said, “Nah, to me it's akin to saying one should stop watching Weeds because so many more people are watching The Bachelor!”

And Todd Randolph posted on Twitter,” lots of idiots drive, but I don't sell my car.”

The post also compelled Todd to respond on the blog and create his own blog post, twitzophrenia: the hard road to critical mass http://post.ly/GJPJ

 

Which analogy did you enjoy?  Can you come up with another one?

 

 

 

Can you believe these are the Top Twitter users?

Britney Spears via last.fm

The recent People magazine (makes time on the elliptical at the gym go faster) lists the ten most followed people on Twitter. Quite a surprise to me, maybe even a shock.

Celebrity	Number of Followers
Ashton Kutcher	4,091,518
Britney Spears	3,942,948
Ellen DeGeneres	3,868,521
Barack Obama	2,829,240
Oprah Winfrey	2,757,922
John Mayer	2,723,642
Ryan Seacrest	2,688,172
Kim Kardashian	2,664,702
Shaquille O’Neal	2,626,098
Ashley Tisdale	2,374,478

All I can say is yecch! I don’t follow any of these people, although I followed Shaq when he first joined Twitter.  Where are all the tech and social media people? Thanks to the controversial suggested user list, Pete Cashmore of Mashable has over 1.8M followers. But Scoble, just 107K and social media Trust Agent, Chris Brogan, 113K. 

What does this all mean? I think we can definitely say, it is another indication that Twitter is today mainstream. Twitter has certainly distanced itself from its tech and social media community origins. But has it jumped the shark?  Is this list and the followers behind it representative of today’s twitter? And finally, do you think it’s a good thing.

 

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Funny Christmas Related Tweets

Tweet

How to ruin the holidays in 3 words: "It's a Zune!"
I'm at that "pay exorbitant shipping fees and hope for delivery by Christmas" or "convert to Judaism" fork in the road.
Dad loved the holidays. He'd wear a Santa beard as a merkin, smoke some mistletoe, and watch White Christmas over and over in stony silence.
Much like your inflatable holiday decorations, I look presentable at night but