Connie Bensen

Not too long ago I blogged about the Twitterpacks on a wiki where you can find Community Managers & Social Media people to follow.

Well Jonathan Kash has a similar project. He has a list of brands on Twitter. This includes non-profits so there’s something for everyone there. Between the two sources you can pretty much find who you need.

The most amazing brand presence on Twitter has to be Dell’s. Jonathan has built out a page showing their usage. It almost reads like an organizational chart! And note that it’s international in scope.

Have you seen any great examples of brands on Twitter? Do you have your brand on Twitter? should you?

Twitter, Plurk, Identi.ca, FriendFeed, Jaiku, Facebook, Mashable, Plaxo, Tumblr & Pownce, LinkedIn

That’s where I update to. Before you schedule help though – I really only interact on half of them. I’m really finding ping.fm to be an excellent timesaver. (use pingscompany to sign up – they keep changing it)

Ping.fm efficiently updates 10 services for me with one click. Here are the advantages:

• I think twice before I type those 140 characters!
• I try to add a question that elicits a response from friends
• It keeps me active everywhere.
• I don’t have to choose one service.
• Different people respond at different services.

Then awhile later I will pop into my services of choice. Usually Twitter, Identi.ca & Plurk. Doing it this way I’m finding that:

• I don’t stay as long in each one.
• I don’t ponder all the noise when I pop in (there is more of a purpose)
• I’m updating less, but it’s far more meaningful (and probably appreciated by my friends!)

One could argue that I’m not gaining the same value that I was before in getting to know people there. In regard to that I can always spend time wherever I’d like when I choose too. In many respects I feel like I’m offering more value by not contributing as much to the noise. I feel like I’ve shifted to a new level of use again (it’s like #3 or 4 – I should review them again here).

What do you think about updating often?

My friend Shashi blogged about Jeremiah Owyang listing Community Managers at larger companies. He linked to Mario Sundar’s post which linked to Sean Moffit’s list. Can you feel it?  there’s a whole lot of linking going on.

So in my librarian style – I feel the need to do the following:

• simplify it – leave it to a bunch of guys to fragment this!
• inclusion – you can include yourself!
• automate it – let all of you contribute

There is a great collaborative wiki called ‘Twitterpacks‘. I just added a section for Community Managers. (Something happened to this wiki & list – I moved them over to my wiki – password is build ) .  I think that there are enough of us to fill it up quick & others can use it to follow us in order to get excellent customer service!

So pop over & add your Twitter link, your name, title, company etc. Let’s connect!

• the password is ‘build’

About the wiki – I was introduced to it was because they also have it set up by Geographic Location. That’s cool! Minnesota is here. Password is ‘project’

And please abide by the guidelines of the wiki.

There have been many posts on Twitter & tutorials keep coming out. Awhile ago I wrote about how I had to shift my use of Twitter.

When I had only 120-150 followers I checked in 3-4 times per day. And I would page back through everyone’s tweets & open links that I would read later.

But the twitterstorm that @jowyang created disrupted that & my number started growing. It took me a bit to readjust & I started using some new tools.

Now at 750 followers here is how I use Twitter:

• pop in only on breaks (It’s too disruptive to stream)
• chat with my network that is online at the moment
• if I see an interesting comment I may
  • click on the @username for context
  • follow that person
  • put their name into quotably.com to see the thread of the conversation (it works pretty well albeit it’s not perfect)
• use quotably.com to check my favorite tweeters & follow their links
• check replies & respond

My Twitter tips:

If you tweet about a broad variety of topics you’ll get followers of varied interests

Ask questions – crowdsource your followers – they love to help! (today I asked if I should get a kayak or canoe; on another day it was what to do in Paris) It’s also a great place to get tech help (my following is very geeky).

Business related tips:

• Tweetscan.com delivers an email every morning to me with a standing search for:
  • cbensen – for DM’s that are missed – Twitter is prone to hiccups)
  • cbenson (people misspelling my name)
  • acdsee – brand monitoring
  • community manager – I’m connecting with like minded people & I like reading the news as people announce their positions or talk about their work
  • take your tweetscan search & share it with others
    • Here’s an example that I saw Radian6 using
    • *update* Look at what Zappos is doing
      • Public mentions
      • Employee tweets
      • List of employees that Tweet
      • Link to follow the CEO

• • • If you use that – make sure you monitor it so there aren’t negative tweets on it
    • Get creative with it! It’s offered in an RSS feed – where can you embed it? website? blog?

Benefits:

• Networking – I’ve met a large number of people from Minnesota. After getting to know them I’m ready to attend the Twin Cities Social Media Breakfast next week & meet them in person!
• Branding -
  • repetitive – Use your photo as your avatar
  • memorable – Use a representative photo for your home page & people will see it when they check out your profile or go to DM you. This space offers the opportunity to display your brand logo multiple times. If you have questions on how to do it, let me know – I know of some software that makes it easy!

Follow me @cbensen & I’ll follow you back!

Resources

• for the beginner – Beginner’s Guide to Twitter
• more in-depth – Caroline Middlebrook has a great guide
• And there are tons of Twitter app’s out there – Lee Odden lists 5 newer ones & @jowyang has a good list too.
• Ellen has a good resource
• all things Twitter – a wiki with many, many resources!

Update – an interesting article on Twitter