Justin G. Roy

I frequently receive requests from the twitter world on how I know when somebody stops following me and/or when somebody adds me to a twitter list. A few thought I constantly monitor and search twitter; though I wish I was that ambitious, I use two tools that monitor and notify me:

TwUnfollow: “Notifies you about Twitter followers that are not following you any longer. At the moment we check the followers about four to five times a day” says their website.

I receive one email a day with a [usually] short list with links to the followers who decided to stop following. Use the information as part of your strategy. I know when I follow somebody it’s because I like the information they are posting and NOT because I simply want them to follow me back. A lot of the unfollows I receive are from accounts who have followed me, then when I do not follow back they decide to unfollow (which, I think is bogus – follow me because you like what I say, not to get more followers).

List Watcher: “It sends you a DM when: Someone adds you to a list, Someone deletes you from a list, A list with you is made private or deleted, and/or A list containing you is renamed” says the website.

If you follow @listwatcher they will do the rest! I absolutely love these DM’s; they keep me on top of lists that followers have added me to, directly view the list, and I can find new people to follow!

Hope these help! As always, if you have a question about Twitter, feel free to ask in the comments!
Justin G. Roy

Last week I posted about being approached by Barbara Talisman from Talisman Associates to comment and contribute on her blog, Talisman Thinking Out loud, to a blog post she was at the time writing on social media connections. A wonderful (I might be biased) post came out of our conversations and interviews and was divided into two parts; it was pretty long as one and I think Barbara forgot how much I like to talk and how difficult it is to interrupt/cut me off when I get going.

(Click here to read Part 1)

The two major questions we talked about for Part 2 of the post, included:

• What does looking at someone’s website or blog tell you about them?
• Does it matter if they represent a company v. personal brand?

Remember with whatever web (2.0 or have we decided on 3.0 yet) era we are in it’s important to remember that our main source of information is the world wide web. World Wide.

How do you, or your brand, want to be portrayed? As somebody who understands the need to claim their space online and engage with their visitors or somebody who half-you-know-what their strategy?

Click here to read Part 2!

Honestly, it’s 2010 and if you do not have a URL for me to browse to you have lost me. You do not need to be a technical genius to build your own website on Go Daddy (or any of the others) or a blog-website combo on WordPress. If you really cannot build one, ask your network and barter with your strengths – somebody once offered me a home cooked meal (with her family) in exchange for help setting up a WordPress site (the meal/deal was amazing).

I was recently approached by Barbara Talisman from Talisman Associates to comment and contribute on her blog, Talisman Thinking Out loud, to a blog post she [was at the time] recently wrote on evaluating your social media connections.

The first three questions we addressed (the next set will be posted next week):

• What makes a good person to follow on Twitter or how to determine who to follow v. block?
• How can you tell if someone on Twitter is legit – coming from a place of honesty, truth or knowledge?
• Does having a lot of followers and tweeting a lot mean you have something to say?

In today’s follow me – watch me – please engage with me world it’s important for everybody (regardless of industry) to understand their strategy, understand who and what their brand is, and communicate properly. Insert integrated communications.

Rather than repost the entire article, please visit the blog: Click here to read the post!

Jon Bishop from johnbishop.com had another great article the other day: Get More ReTweets Out Of Your ReTweet Button. In the article, Bishop discusses some of the important functions your retweet button should do/have. A few of  his suggestions include:

• Shorten your link
• Use retweetable titles
• Give you credit
• Make it simple

These are some great suggestions, and are often overlooked (as Bishop comments as well) by many. Additionally, I think a major missed opportunity in the world of twitter (and the knowledge of search engines pulling your tweets) is keywords. Not only do keywords allow you to be found on twitter searches (for tweets or for people) but also allows followers and users alike to quickly understand who you are, what you do, and what this tweet may be about.

Using the K.I.S.S. rule is best on Twitter; keep it simple with shorter and trackable links, make sure people can easily find you, and use keywords in the tweet and title. By keeping it simple, you allow more characters to be used by 2nd or 3rd dregree RT’s!

If I read your tweet on Twitter, I sure do not want to read it when I open my Facebook. And I sure as heck do not want to read it a third time on LinkedIn.

A few weeks ago it was announced that your tweets can automatically post to your LinkedIn account. Unfortunately the same option is available for Facebook. Why do I say unfortunately, you ask? As a user of all three spaces, I am consistently on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

If I read your tweet on Twitter, I sure do not want to read it when I open my Facebook. And I sure as heck do not want to read it a third time on LinkedIn.

Though some can argue branding purposes and the ‘ol “see my logo or message 36 times and you will recognize me” and rightfully so, but I challenge this mentality and strategy.

I am more likely to see your updates on Facebook and LinkedIn, and more likely to learn more because of the increase in character space allowance. Twitter is more of a 50/50. However, once I recognize that you really want me to read the tweets, there is an increased chance of me changing the settings on what I see from you or changing our connection status on other social media platforms.

As a social media consultant, I hear hundreds (or even thousands) of social media strategies and approaches. Some work and some don’t. Social media strategy should revolve, reflect, and assist your brand strategy, marketing strategy, and sales strategy -BUT, it should also revolve around your audience, potential customers. Think about what they want to see, hear, read, and be engaged in.

Below, just to share, are some brief thoughts and how I use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn:

I follow people on Facebook because it’s personal; I can learn and get to know more about their life, professionally and personal.

I use Facebook to let people know more about me; more about the person behind that business card. I also think status updates are longer lasting, can explain more, and call action.

I connect with people on LinkedIn because it’s professional; I learn more about their professional history, can see connections, how I am connected to other folks. Additionally my connections are open to my network, and I encourage introduction requests (if it makes sense)

I follow people on Twitter because I am interested in what they have to say, learn what they are reading and discussing, and for the instant conversations that can be had. It’s an open networking event where people interrupting to give their opinion is not only acceptable, but encouraged.

A good friend of mine forwarded an article on proven ways to get retweeted on twitter.  I think she sent this article because she knew I would enjoy and she knew I would have more than two cents to talk about.

Boy was she correct.

This is a subject that many brands are looking to conquer and learn how.  I’ll tell you one thing, bar none, there is NO guaranteed way to get retweeted.  It’s similar to guaranteeing a person will be in a certain mindset, have the same schedule every day.  If you can guarantee that, I know a lot of extremely large brands who would pay through the nose for this.

It simply is not true. 

However, the article does have some wonderful pointers, enough so that I have decided to share it with you – but with the previous disclaimers. 

A few of the proven (based on numbers – not percentages, which I think is where the author looses me) methods include: what URL shorteners to use, common words and phrases and punctuation.

I will agree here.  Take your time to use the correct punctuation and words/phrases and I might be more inclined to retweet you.  However, content is still king and will overrule many of these. 

Give me a tweet with information, catchy, and link to a good article and I will resend [retweet] to my followers. 

Click here to read the full article.

Thank you for visiting our new website, JG Social Media!  As with all website related design, it will be a work in progress as I tweak some of the HTML, widgets, etc. 

As a social media consultant to the A/E/C industry, I have been witness to many design processes from buildings to wastewater treatment plants; I have learned that no matter how much you tweak a design, there will always be something else to change.

I’ll leave you with a Twitter Tip today:

When re-tweeting (AKA: RT) somebody, try to insert (before the RT) a reason why you are “sending” this to your followers.  Something as simple as “worth reading” if it is an article; “can anybody help” if it requires attention/help; etc.