Since I joined Twitter, I have particpated in and organized numerous Tweetups. As the size of the Twitter population has grown, I’ve been asked by countless numbers of people, what is a Tweetup?

So, I decided to put this little set of slides together to answer that question. Enjoy!

Dominos, the pizza maker, became the latest victim of a viral video drive-by brand massacre. Yesterday, 2 employees from an individually owned franchise posted several disgusting videos on YouTube. To say the videos are inappropriate would be an understatement. One of the videos shows a staff member putting cheese up his nose before using it on the pizza he appears to be preparing for a customer. It gets worse from there. You can watch for yourself:

What did Dominos do?

Some good. Some missed opportunities.

Once they became aware (more on how long this took later), the company worked to get the videos removed from the original hosting provider (doesn’t matter, as they have since been uploaded to other sites). Dominos then responded with email communications from Tim McIntyre, Vice President of Communications. He indicated how repulsed he was, and described that their security team was going to look into the matter to identify which store and responsible individuals.

Email from Tim:
We just got off the phone with the franchise owner, who was absolutely dumbfounded by this. He has told us that he will be terminating their employment effective immediately. We suggested that he call them and get a written statement from them, asking them to “explain” (to the extent anyone can, really) their actions. We are also seeking legal counsel to see what kind of action we can take against them for damage to the brand.

You are welcome to use anything I’ve sent to you in the past 24 hours. I do want to thank you for bringing this to our attention…I just wish it hadn’t been posted so prominently on your web site…while it was certainly fair game, it does hurt the company and the thousands of people we employ in this country whether it’s intended or not.

Regards,

Tim McIntyre
Vice President, Communications
Domino’s Pizza, LLC

The company is in damage control mode, operating reactionary during a crisis. While they are taking some of the steps you would expect a brand to do under the circumstances (like terminating the employees and filing criminal complaints with local authorities), they are still missing the opportunity to repair some of the damage done with their customers.

Consumers expect a human response, not messaging

I’ve described before how the social era has changed consumers expectations about how brands interact with them. Consumers want to see and hear the company’s responses from trustworthy employees. Crises like this are no different. In fact, it matters even more. Of course the corporate communications group will be involved in responding (and they should be), but what about the affected store manager? the individual franchise owner? the other employees that work there? Dominos is missing the opportunity to make consumers BELIEVE their side of the story because it isn’t human enough. The work that Scott Monty did last last year during the Ford Ranger Station controversy is a prime example. If consumers were to hear the message from some of the others Dominos employees I mentioned above, it could can help make a real connection, reasonate, and build trust. So make it personal. Make it believable. Make it REAL.

Consumers expect brands to be paying attention

Digital Marketers and Social Media professionals often talk about the importance of listening aka online brand monitoring. Think of it as your brand radar or reputation protection. Had Dominos been engaged in doing so, they mostly likely would have learned about this event sooner, and been in a better position to deal with it. How do we know they weren’t monitoring? We cannot be certain, but ancedotal evidence suggests they have no online brand radar in place (they failed to respond to several attempts by consumers who notified them via email and their website). So it appears the company learned about the event from individuals online reporting it, not because they were listening.

Hopefully they learn how important it is to have an ongoing social monitoring program in place. Consumers expect them to do so. And the benefits of doing so, could have prevented some of the damage, and allowed them to respond individually to consumers who were talking. Pay attention to online conversation. It matters more than you think. Don’t believe me? Go read what people are saying about Dominos now.

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=dominos

This isn’t insignificant. Don’t allow your hard work building a brand get decimated overnight. Put the right steps in place to proactively listen and respond in a human voice that matters. If not, the negative perception and experience from consumers can translate to lost revenue. Dollars and cents.

Social Media continues to be the hottest topic in business, advertising, marketing and communications worlds. Why? Because it is a game changer for businesses. The future of business online (and offline for that matter) for brands will be based on the relationships they have with individual consumers and influencers. The tried and true method of top down brand marketing and advertising is already proving less effective each and every day. And it will continue to become so as social media continues to enable consumers and influencers to define brands, define what is important, set the terms for how to be engaged and where. 

Not Convinced?

Maybe you’re sitting on the sidelines watching with a skeptical eye. Or perhaps you’re somewhat involved personally in social media, but haven’t actively moved forward with your business because you’re waiting to see how this plays out. Forget all the talk about monetizing social media, ROI debates, and chasing shiny objects (social media tool du jour). Social media has morphed into a global phenomenon, and consumers are demanding that brands, companies they do business with (YOU), join them in the social media landscape.

Let’s look at just how big this movement really is. Twitter is the most talked about social network right now, and rightfully so.  Great things can happen there for brands. To date, there have been over 1.4 billion messages sent on Twitter. However, the real story on Twitter isn’t about what is happening here in the US. In fact, over 60% of all web traffic to Twitter comes from outside the US. The rest of the world has a bigger footprint on Twitter. See the graph below for a breakdown by country. 

Let’s turn our eye to Facebook. As of this moment, Facebook is truly international social platform. There are more than 35 translations of Facebook.com available, and an additional 60 others in development. Every month,  approximately 70% of Facebook’s 200 million active users come from outside the United States.

Consider how Facebook users are spending their time. Take a moment to let these numbers sink in:

• More than 850 million photos uploaded to the site each month
• More than 7 million videos uploaded each month
• More than 28 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each month
• More than 2 million events created each month
• More than 25 million active user groups exist on the site

Finally, let’s combine the sheer volume of individual participation and interaction online, with consumer expectations. According to a  2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study, online consumers have some lofty expectations for brands & social media.

“93% of Americans believe that a company should have a presence on social media sites and 85 percent believe that these companies should use these services to interact with consumers”

 

Get into the Game

Companies spend a lot of time, money and energy trying to understand what consumers want. They talk about keenly understanding their audience all the time. Social media has gift wrapped a golden opportunity for brands to get the answers these questions and more, by developing real relationships with consumers, on their terms, in the spaces that are relevant to them. Sure it can be scary. You lose control. You open yourself up for criticism and attack. Guess what Mr. Brand, you already did and you’ll be worse off the longer you wait. 

Listen. Understand. Engage. It is time to leave the sidelines and get into the game. Your customers and the marketplace are giving you all the signs you need. 

Earlier this month, David Mullen had a great idea to create a Twitter starter pack on his blog (click here to go read the orignal post), that listed 50 people to start following in the areas of marketing, advertising, PR, and social media. Whether you’re new to Twitter or have been there awhile, you will benefit by following the people in his starter pack.

Afterwards, Dave Murray, David Mullen and I were chatting (via Twitter of course!) about how even the best list, leaves off so many interesting and unique personalities on Twitter. So without further explanation, we have put together a Twitter Hidden Gems list. This list is unique because it is full of incredible people from the Twitter commnity that are off the beaten path. Some of the best individuals one can hope to find.  We hope you find following them as valuable as we do.

Don’t forget to visit the blogs of the other 2 contributors to this post. You can find them at:

David Mullen – Communications Catalyst – http://davidwmullen.com

Dave Murray – The Way of TheMurr - http://www.themurr.com/

As an online network grows, it eventually attracts enough eyeballs to warrant the attention and efforts of spammers and scammers. Twitter has both. Over the last several days,  Twitter has been hit hard by a Phishing scam. The only surprise is that it took this long to occur.

The Wikipedia definition for phishing is:

“the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.”

While Twitter Phishing seems to make less sense than email Phishing to harvest bank account info, or some other confidential information, it can certainly still cause headache for the Twitter account owner.  So, it’s an appropriate time for some practical advice on how to protect yourself from falling prey to such scams.

• Do not click on any links contained within Direct Messages – This is difficult because we use DMs to share so much information, particularly links. Send an @ reply to the sender of the DM asking for confirmation if you’re not certain the link is legitimate
• Do not follow any of the instructions contained in a suspicious Direct Message – Don’t follow the link (see above). Don’t reply back with any information that may have been requested by someone if you’re not sure. Sending a reply with details via email is a safer alternative.
• Notify Twitter – Report the hijacked Twitter account so the it can be properly restored to the rightful owner. Also, Techcrunch has written a post with details on how to report Twitter spammers/abusers
• Delete the Direct Message
• Alert your network - Send a public Tweet notifying others about the hijacked account
• Rotate your Twitter password – You may want to think about incorporating this practice into your normal routine. With so many Twitter tools and services online, you’re taking on elevated risks every time you authenticate to Twitter Karma, Tweetree, Twitterfone, etc…  (I am a big fan and trust these sites, but the risk exists regardless). Anyone can create a “Twitter tool” that requires passing your username and password to the Twitter API. Trusting that everyone who does will protect you and not capture/keep your password is asking too much. Proactively protect yourself by changing your Twitter password regularly (You decide how often, but monthly isn’t a bad idea). In addition, make sure your Twitter password is unique. Never use the same password that you use for email, network access, bank account access, etc… Good identify security is about having strong layered defenses. Don’t put all your accounts at risk by using the same password universally.

UPDATE: Added these tips from Twitter user Axel Schultze

• Don’t retweet a clickeable BAD LINK. put a space between http:// and the rest if it.
• Never retweet a link that you haven’t clicked yourself.

What did I miss? Feel free to add any additional tips in the comments and I will update the post crediting you.

Google has transformed our lives with its uncanny ability to answer the question, “What is X?”.   Enter any term and Google will tell you what it is and/or how it works. If Google’s spiders can find a web page, you can find the content within it using Google Search.

Enter Social Media.

The proliferation of real-time, mass conversation online is something that Google hasn’t done as good a job at keeping up with. Opportunistic individuals have taken advantage of this fact to create specialized conversation search engines. Currently they do the best job of finding “Who is talking about what, and where”.  There are many tools online that do this. Some, like Social Mention and Samepoint scour a large portion of the social media landscape, while others like Twitter Search focus on a single social network. For purposes of this post, I’m going to focus on demonstrating how you can use advanced features Twitter Search that often get overlooked.

Much like Google search, Twitter search is very straightforward. Enter a term and it will display a results page that shows all mentions of that term, or combination of terms, that are being discussed on Twitter. You can also search by Hashtag to view all Tweets with that tag. These features are only the tip of the iceberg that Twitter Search offers. By clicking the “Advanced Search” link, you’ll see a feature-rich search page that offers.

People Search

Is ideal if you:

• Want to find all tweets from your favorite Twitter personality
• Want to find all tweets to a particular person
• Want to find all tweets mentioning a particular person

These methods of searching can be useful if you want to catch up on a particular topic between people, follow all replies directed to someone, or  monitor buzz on a specific person.

Location Search

Ever wonder who else living  or working in your city is on Twitter? Enter your location and select the distance radius. You’ll most likely find other people, in some cases extremely close, near you that you had no idea about. It’s a great way to expand your Twitter network by adding new conections that bring new and different perspectives.

This method of searching can also be useful when attending conferences or other events, and you want to search & find which other Twitter users are near you.

Date Range Search

This is a great way to find that tweet that you loved but didn’t save, or couldn’t easily find because it happened  more than a day or two ago. Often times, you’ll have a conversation with someone and need to go back and reference one of the tweets. The date range search makes it easy. The only thing you need to remember is a rough idea of when the conversation occurred.

Attitude Search

Automating sentiment analysis has not yet perfected, even with the best natural language processing technologies on the market. Despite being imperfect, there are insights that can be revealed by experimenting with searches to uncover the positive or negative tones in the key topics. Try both, you may uncover something that really surprises you.

Link Search

This is one of my favorite search options. Remember, one of the primary reasons many people tweet is to share links that interest them, or links they think will be valuable to their network. Shared link tweets are an important way to keep up on news, trending topics, and key blog posts. It’s easy to miss links though, because Twitter conversations happen quickly. And your attention span cannot scale with the noise on Twitter. It’s simply not possible, even with tools like Tweetdeck. So, this search method makes it easy to catchup on what you missed.

Enter the username of the person you want to search for link tweets from and check the “Containing Links” box. You’ll be returned their tweets that only contain links. You can then easily scan the links without having to wade through all the conversation in between them.

You can take this even further, by subscribing to the RSS feed generated for any Twitter Search query. Add the feed URL to your favorite reader, and you will have automated your search. I use this method to keep up on link tweets from key folks I follow Chris Brogan, Jeremiah Owyang, Mack Collier, Aaron Strout and Alan Wolk.

There are surely creative people out there that have invented more sophisticated ways to search twitter conversations, and you’re EXACTLY the people I want to hear from. Please share any power search tips you have!

As 2008 draws to a close, I took some time to reflect and analyze how I tweet, what I tweet about and who I tweet with. I used a neat little tool called Wordle to create a visual topic cloud.

This topic cloud, which can also be made with Tweetcloud, makes it pretty clear that I spend a lot of time talking about Twitter, the people on Twitter, and saying Thanks. That’s no surprise to me. Every day I’m thanking another member of the community for the advice, knowledge and help that they so generously give. This year wouldn’t have been the same without every single one of you.

Thank you.

I look forward to an even more properous 2009 for each and every one of you.

Happy New Year!

If you’re regularly active on Twitter for any length of time, you can quickly outgrow the standard way of using the service. By standard, I’m referring to the fact that Twitter provides a straightforward and easy to use web interface to update your status and send/receive direct messages. This method of using Twitter works but doesn’t scale efficiently. That is, as your tweet  volume and social interaction increases, the standard tools begin to degrade the exprience. They can require too much effort, cause you to miss important tweets, or make it difficult to follow conversation on specific topics or trends.

Time to enhance your experience by incorporating some Twitter power tools into the mix. While there are many of them out there, few are as important to me as Tweetdeck. According to the the website, Tweetdeck is:

TweetDeck is an Adobe Air desktop application that is currently in public beta. It aims to evolve the existing functionality of Twitter by taking an abundance of information i.e twitter feeds, and breaking it down into more manageable bite sized pieces.

In simple terms, Tweetdeck is a program that becomes your window to Twitter. You interact with Twitter through Tweetdeck.

In my terms, Tweetdeck is the killer app for Twitter (translation: kicks ass!) Why? It makes Twitter more efficient. More productive. More manageable. It enables me to get MORE value out of twitter than I would otherwise be able to do.

With Tweetdeck I can:

Segment the people I follow into categories that make sense for me.

This is important. It dramatically reduces the signal to noise ratio, and gives me an unobstructed view into the people and topics that matter to me most. You can easily add/edit/remove people you follow to these categories with a single click. Here I add Scott Monty, someone I admire for the incredible work he is doing with social media at Ford, to the “Thought Leader” group I created.

Tweetdeck has a built in Twitter search feature as well. I use it to search & find topics that I want to monitor. Twitter search on the web is great, but Tweetdeck will continuously update as new tweets come in from the Twitter community. How is this useful? For starters, it’s probably one of the best ways to learn about and follow discussions about sessions at key conferences that are of interest to me, like SXSW, Forrester Consumer Forum, or Web 2.0 Expo. Most often these events are tracked on Twitter by using hashtags. Hashtags are a convention for grouping tweets together. They’re like tags on any blog, only added inline to your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag (thanks to Adam Cohen for originally showing me how to track hashtags)

Using Tweetdeck to create a live feed of an event by searching for hashtags isn’t quite the same as being there, but it does provide useful information and gives you the ability to interact with others that ARE attending. This commonly results in incredibly valuable backchannel discussion, often more interesting than the event itself.

Or for less professional interests, like my favorite hockey team: The Detroit Red Wings

Tweetdeck also shows replies and direct messages (sorry, no screenshot of these!) to you.

Another feature of Tweetdeck that I use regularly is the integrated URL shortening services. These are invaluable because Twitter limits messages to 140 characters. Tweetdeck’s URL shortening saves precious characters when you are including links in your tweet. Whether you prefer tinyurl, twurl, bit.ly, snipurl, or is.gd, Tweetdeck supports them all and more. I prefer using thurl, because it provides some analytics about the link, but that’s a topic for another post. You can use whichever URL shortener you prefer like so:

Tweetdeck does even more than I cover here. I encourage you to download it and give it a try. You’ll need to install the adobe AIR runtime environment before you’re able to install Tweetdeck. If you find yourself liking it, I’d also encourage you to support Tweetdeck’s creator, Iain Dodsworth, by donating a small amount to fund the project.

And if you’re having trouble with Tweetdeck, you’ll find plenty of answers at the customer feedback site.

Lately, more and more people I know on Twitter are discussing the idea that it seems to have crossed, or is approaching, a threshold and has gone mainstream. What signs point to that? Celebrities, politicians and other well known non-marketing/PR types are joining in greater numbers.

For starters, a Twitter user doesn’t get any bigger than the President. President elect Obama joined the microblogging service back in March 2007, and rose up the charts to become the most followed user on Twitter with well over 100k followers. He used Twitter regularly during the campaign to communicate the campaign message of Hope and Change.

Other well known celebrities are diving into the microblogging pool.  Britney Spears joined Twitter. And then Gary Vaynerchuk criticized her for using it as another broadcast channel, not a platform to engage fans. NBA stars Deron Williams and Shaquille O’neal both joined Twitter.

In addition to people from all walks of life and business giving Twitter a try, there were 2 important book announcements this week. Twitter power users, Laura Fitton and Shel Israel announced recent deals to write Twitter books, details here and here.

The significance of these annoucements isn’t the topic, although it is an interesting one, but rather the way in which the content, stories and topics covered will be written and selected. The authors are community sourcing the writing. This gives everyone on Twitter the opportunity to submit ideas, content, tips, tools, etc… for the book.

Laura has taken it a step further, launching a Twitter for Dummies community to make this process even easier. The site allows members to:

• submit ideas
• vote on ideas
• set up your profile
• search ideas
• read tips by category
• invite friends

This is another great example of community sourcing at its finest, and one I believe we will more and more of in the future. If you’re on Twitter and have something to share, what are you waiting for? Click on over to the community and start contributing!

I just came across this great presentation by Chris Wilson, Designer/Marketing Strategist at Hester Designs. In it, he succinctly describes the critical steps businesses should take if they are considering establishing a Twitter presence and engaging with the community.