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Do you hate getting automated direct messages after you follow someone on Twitter as much as I do?  You know the ones that generically say something like “I greatly appreciate the follow!  When you get a chance find us on FB too!” I don’t know about you, but I want a little courtship before a proposal is given.  I need to be swooned before I determine If I want to move our relationship to the next level of “liking” you on Facebook.

When automated direct messages were first introduced to Twitter, I’m sure it was a innovate thing to do- maybe.  I personally feel automated DM’s are no longer the cool thing to do- and are lame.  This is why.

#1.  Automated DM’s are equivalent to a street peddler standing on a corner yelling the same message over and over again- all it does is create noise while nobody listens.  It appears the goal is quantity vs. quality.

#2. Automatic DM’s on Twitter make you look like a spammer.  Everyone hates spam- it’s annoying and makes it hard to weed through the worthwhile DM’s.

#3. Automatic DM’s become less about engagement and more about a unilateral discussion.  Social media is not just about the pitch.

#4. Automatic DM’s make you part-of the crowd, and not someone who stands-out.  …“Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn’t mean you should.”

#5. Automatic DM’s is a clear indication that you are more concerned about yourself than building and joining a community.  Social media is about listening and participating verses being the loud one at the party.  The only people who gravitate to the “loud one” are those who are new to the crowd, who are unsure of the social rules, and don’t have anyone else to meet.

#6. Automatic DM’s stop the conversation. Isn’t the goal of social media to ensure people hear about your business from other trusted sources other than yourself?  Word of mouth is essential to the success of social media.

#7. Automatic DM’s show anxiety, and the want for immediate social media success.  In other words, those who send out automatic DM’s are those who are not willing to put sweat equity into their social media campaign.

#8. Automatic DM’s don’t give value.

#9. Automatic DM’s sets a “used car salesman” feel to the business.

#10. Automatic DM’s lack authenticity.  It doesn’t open the door to let people know who you are- it’s impersonal and uninspiring.

Conclusion

Twitter is a great tool that allows for connections to be made with some really great people who offer value.  Be selective about who you want to follow.

Want to add to the top 10?  Forward your rant with your user name, and URL and we will add your thoughts.

Daniel Offer the owner of the Facebook chat client Chit Chat writes. Chit Chat is used for desktop Facebook messaging such that its users can chat online with Facebook without using their browser.

Twitter is a social networking monster that is growing from strength to strength. The last available figures from 2009 showed that there were approximately 600 tweets made per second. This is an astonishing number and shows why Twitter is regarded as one of the best sources of real-time information.

Businesses and website owners are learning the true value of Twitter – that of a viral promotion behemoth. With the right tools, Twitter can spread content and initiate huge brand recognition, faster than a mainstream news bulletin.

Twitter has the popularity, but without the additional assistance of a promotional partner, its true potential can be wasted…or worse – not realized. Thankfully, due to the social frenzy that Twitter has invoked, there has been a flood of tools, apps and plug-ins that have come forth to lend Twitter a hand and assist anyone eager to utilize Twitter for mass-marketing and product recognition.

Supercharging Twitter with TweetMeme

There is a new service that combines two of the most powerful online promotional platforms available today – namely, Digg and Twitter.

Both these platforms can send thousands of visitors to any website that is fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of a viral post. A submission to Digg, that sparks enough interest, can snowball into a massively popular post that receives a huge amount of positive ‘diggs’. This can send masses of targeted traffic rushing to find more information from a website. The same can be said of Twitter and its ‘Retweet’ capability.

An online service called TweetMeme (tweetmeme.com), utilizes both these services by integrating the platform functionality of Digg, with Twitter’s viral retweet capability. Tweet Meme displays the most popular content on the web in accordance with how many times it has been retweeted.

With a Google PageRank of 7 and an Alexa Ranking of 404, TweetMeme is immensely popular and sees millions of people searching its pages to find popular stories and content. Big news sites like CNN, BBC and MSNBC are no longer the only places that people visit for the latest news. More and more people are flocking to TweetMeme, as the site to locate the top current events.

This can be lead to a potentially mammoth audience for any website content that is featured on the pages of the TweetMeme website. This audience can then retweet any of the stories contained there, further increasing their popularity. TweetMeme is viral marketing at its very best.

How Websites can take Advantage of TweetMeme

TweetMeme offers a free retweet button that can easily be placed on any website, or any website page. The button can even be embedded into an RSS feed, or placed inside an email. There is now a new version available solely for use on Wordpress platforms and the button can be activated as easily as any normal plug-in.

Once installed, the TweetMeme retweet button is displayed next to content and makes it easy for any reader to retweet the content. The button displays the total number of times that content has currently been retweeted. For any website, or blog, with an active readership, this retweet button makes it easy for visitors to share the content with their friends. If the content receives enough retweets, it could end up on the front page of TweetMeme – resulting in masses of new traffic flooding back to the originating website.

Why Twitter loves TweetMeme

Twitter has positively commended the TweetMeme button. The retweet button encourages readers to spread good quality content and assists Twitter in displaying the most popular posts, as voted for by its users. This provides up-to-date topical information that keeps Twitter ahead of the competition and helps to secure its ever-growing reputation as the place to go for real-time news, events, and top stories.

Why Everyone Should Love TweetMeme

The functionality and end-user benefits ensure that TweetMeme will remain popular with relevant content seekers and searchers. For any website, or blog, that provides quality content, the retweet button should be seen as a free tool to assist with getting that content out to a larger audience.

Even if Twitter was alone in the equation, anybody that read a retweet and then visited the originating website would be a targeted visitor. This person will have read the retweet and now be aware of what the website offers, in terms of information. By choosing to seek out more information from the website, the visitor is acknowledging an interest in its content and is therefore not some random visitor that has simply stumbled across the site.

The added bonus is the TweetMeme website itself. As a hugely popular platform used to find the latest content, people are looking to the site for topical information – often in place of regular search engine queries. This is content that has been recommended by actual users and word-of-mouth is considered an incredibly high recommendation by other searchers. If any website, or blog, finds any of its content appearing on the TweetMeme website, it can expect a horde of targeted visitors – which may well include new customers, subscribers and future return visitors.

Social media will help your business increase your digital footprint.  Social outpost can reach those people who need your services, and can have a greater reach than many advertising mediums.  Success in social media comes from interacting in a genuine effort by offering company insights, discounts, answering specific questions, and thanking fans.  These types of exchanges allow for consumers to engage with a business, get to know them, and feel comfortable hiring them for their services.

Social media strategies should have one goal in mind; that is to drive business and consumer awareness around your brand.  Creating a home base is essential, and will aid in the success of connecting with consumers, and increase your conversion rates.

Your corporate blog should be your home base, and be a device that is responsible for managing and dispersing all information.  The goal here is not to drive your traffic to Facebook, Twitter, or other social networking platforms that act as outpost for your business.  Social outpost is where initial interactions should take place, but should have a clear focus on driving consumers back to your blog.

It’s your corporate blog that can be controlled completely, and can offer additional information along with site-specific content, which will move customers to action.

So how do you guide your followers back to your blog?  The best way is to create new content, or blog post on a consistent basis.  Just make sure to include links back to your blog in your Facebook and Twitter posts.  It’s as easy as that!

Side note:

Customized Facebook tabs and landing pages are a great idea, and will help consumers connect with your brand.  Since Facebook is a social outpost, then importing your blog and Twitter feeds into your Facebook page should be avoided.  After all, the goal is not to keep people on your Facebook page, but should be to drive people to action by brining them back to your blog.

With a little strategic planning mixed with creativity and innovation, your social media efforts will drive more traffic to your blog and website, and will aid in the conversion of customers that have been educated by you through your social media efforts.

Mind you, I really enjoy getting hand written notes in the mail, and this article is not a rant against someone taking the time to write me.  But this scheduled note, which says the same thing every month, lacks sincerity!  It’s like someone went to an inspiring seminar held at a hotel on how to get referrals the “easy way”.  To me it’s desperate.  Doesn’t everyone know that desperation isn’t an attractive trait on anyone?

Businesses can’t afford not to be actively engaged with potential clients.   Applications such as Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and LinkedIn have taken engagement to the next level.  No longer is it about a unilateral conversation- like in the example above.   Businesses have incredible opportunity to interact and educate.

Social media engagement can reach far beyond scheduled hand written notes, and can contact those who are actually interested in your services.  Because people want results and information, they are searching.  All we have to do as business owners is demonstrate that we have something of value.  We need to engage in a way that says we hear what you are looking for, and understand the challenges you are facing.  We need to earn respect.

So how is respect earned? Here is a small list of how to be cool and collected while engaging in social media.

#1 Be cool and real. We all want to date the hot guy/girl in the bar.  Be that hot.  Have real conversations with people that show your personality.  No one wants to interact with someone who is sending out scheduled tweets without some kind of engagement.

#2  Write your own content. I think it is great to send out other people’s wisdom, and to re-tweet.   I do it all the time.  However in the mix, make sure you include some of your own blog articles.   After all, you want to be known as an expert.

#3  Don’t follow everyone. Be strategic on who you would like to follow and follow you.  We’ve all seen the people that have sent out 2 tweets and are following 1,200 people.  Where they have a couple of hundred followers themselves.  I never follow these people.  Make sure that your ratios are in balance.  I personally feel it is important to have more people following you than the number of people you are following.  Remember you want to be the hot chick.

Don’t become the Arsenio Hall, The Carrot Tops, or the Vanilla Ices of social media.   Their cool was short lived.  Become the Sean Connery or Denzel Washington’s of social media- where they are known for just being cool.  Just look at Chris Brogan- now that’s cool.

I don’t know about you, but I like to be on the winning team and am attracted to people that are successful, (or faking that they are successful).  Don’t act desperate.  Desperate ill-fated attempts always fail.   Plus, it’s just lame!

No longer is social media just the “cool thing” to do – like rocking an 80’s inspired flat top hairdo in 2010.  Social networking now has a definitive effect on your SEO efforts, and as such, it must be monitored closely.  While previous social networking efforts were generally tied to connecting with a business’s customer base, Google is now including real-time social media into their search results – resulting in increased (and practically effortless) SEO opportunities.

Twitter and Facebook has always needed to be somewhat strategic for businesses, but now it’s more important than ever to have social media content that utilizes strict SEO guidelines like potent keywords, pertinent links and updates ripe with useful content and hashtags.

Real-time social media search results are also strategically placed on the first page of Google search.  These real-time updates are not only pulled from Twitter, but will soon be streaming data from Facebook and Myspace as well (as long as the content is open to the public, and not private). This means that any status updates, wall links, and posts can – and will – be picked up by Google’s search algorithms to add to their search listings.

What this means for companies is that social media is a much more integral part of search engine optimization, and where some companies chose to forgo the Twitter accounts and Facebook pages, they can no longer ignore the colossal impact that these tools now have on online marketing efforts.  And instead of using social media and SEO as separate marketing tools, these attempts will need to be combined to work together for optimal performance.

While still new, it’s important for companies to jump on board quickly as companies will soon be syncing their social media efforts with SEO practices and by taking advantage of this now, small businesses can possibly get prime search page space by utilizing carefully crafted keywords and targeting popular subjects in their social networking efforts.

Social media has always been a great way to connect with consumers and get the word out to large base of people, but never has it been so integral to online marketing and SEO efforts.  And it greatly increases the possible ROI for business social media endeavors.

Saying “no” to social media may have been a semi-acceptable response in the past for businesses – especially ones that cater to other businesses rather than the general consumer.  But with these recent game changing real-time results, it’s opening doors for SEO that weren’t previously open.  Social media and SEO now go hand in hand – like a skinny jean wearing hipster and Brooklyn.  Don’t be the square that falls behind.

Recently I saw a retweet on Twitter about “5 ways to Tweet more than 140 characters” and it occurred to me that the author (and retweeter as well) seem to be missing the fundamental concept of Twitter.

Dom Sagolla recounts that 140 characters was settled on because it was shorter than the 160 character limit for phone text messages, and shorter was better in order to keep SMS costs down with early versions of Twitter.140 characters was settled on because it was shorter than the 160 character limit for phone text messages, and shorter was better in order to keep SMS costs down with early versions of Twitter.

We don’t worry about SMS costs any longer because Twitter is web-based. However, the 140 character limit still stands, and I think it should be adhered to for a few reasons:

1. Twitter is not your blog. By all means, use your blog to flesh out your thoughts on anything you’d like – much like I’m doing here. But send people to your blog with a short headline and a link, don’t try to cram an extended thought into 140 characters. Also realize that engaging with your followers on twitter means limiting your conversation with readers to 140 characters at a time, which also doesn’t allow for much thoughtful discussion. Ask people to comment on your blog and try to keep the discussion there.

2. Twitter is not your Facebook page. Facebook is a great place to post pictures of your recent product launch party, or show a video of your office walkthrough. Twitter is a great place to write a short message with a bit.ly link directing people to that post. (Added bonus of signing up for a bit.ly account – you can track statistics of click-throughs as a way to see where people are arriving from and what days they clicked the link.)

3. Twitter is also not instant messaging. I have seen people have lengthy conversations on Twitter, and while a bit of back-and-forth is good engagement, all parties need to have a sense of when it’s time to move the discussion to e-mail or IM to continue the conversation.

4. There is much to be gained by being brief. But not by trimming letters from every word in your post. If you need extra space, take a hint from above and post to your Facebook page or your blog, but don’t redirect me to the last 15 characters of a 155-character tweet – it’s annoying and wastes people’s time. Use your writing skills to edit, censor, rewrite and cut your words down to the 140 character limit. It’s liberating, really.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery said it best: “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

Setting up Facebook and Twitter accounts can be a frustrating process for many business owners – especially if you’re not familiar with the online terrain, web lingo and social networking practices that are the inherent domain of the young whippersnappers that flock to those sites.  But given that most small business owners are working with minimal resources and small marketing budgets, not having an online presence just isn’t a viable option anymore – especially with the lost cost involved.

Promoting Content with Facebook

Setting up a Facebook fan page is pretty much a must-have in today’s social media-sphere.  To begin building fans, add your friends initially, and ask a few close friends to email it out as a “page suggestion” so that you reach a broader network of readers.  Join other fan pages that are similar or within your niche and participate in their comments and forums section, while providing a subtle link back to your website or fan page.  However, make sure that you are contributing poignant content, rather than pushing your own website.  It’s bad online etiquette and makes you look like a spammer — and Facebook will penalize you if you leave similar comments on multiple fan pages.

One of the most common, and successful, uses for companies on Facebook has been to use the social media site to promote giveaways and contests that promote user interaction between consumers and the brand.  It’s also a fantastic way to get instantaneous feedback on products and conduct impromptu polls.

Using Twitter to Spread the Word

Twitter is the most beneficial online promotional tool — if you use it correctly.  The most common mistake that people make in trying to promote their business or blog on Twitter is making the content completely self serving.  Twitter is, in the most basic way, a social networking platform.  It’s sole purpose is to allow users to quickly and efficiently interact with one another.

A good rule of thumb for promoting yourself on Twitter is to “tweet” two to three personal musings for every blog post tweet you send out.  “Re-tweeting” (or copying another person’s tweets and crediting them) is a great way to get more exposure, since most people tend to give an online shout-out to people who re-tweet them.  The key to mastering Twitter is interacting with other users.  Comment on their statements, answer questions, and get involved.  It will make you stand out and give you credibility in a sea of Twitter spammers.

Social networking is a fantastic way to reach out to a broad audience, and even easily target your ideal consumer.  But like most tools, there’s a definitive learning curve that’s mandatory to master if you want to get the best results.  Being outgoing and quirky is part of the package, but what really sells online is genuine outreach and helpful customer service.  If there ever was a reason for businesses to be online – that’s it.

…Consider this a top 10 rant.

1. Stupid people on Twitter don’t focus on developing a community of sharing information that matters.

2. Stupid people on Twitter send-out automated tweets that are easily detectable, where they follow thousands of users, and “tweet-out” quotes from the greats of yester past!  They don’t realize that its about quality not quantity.

3. Stupid people on Twitter don’t set a goal on what type of community they want to form. They focus on large communities instead of growing a small specific group.

4. Stupid people on Twitter don’t show that they care first before they ask their community to react.

5.  Stupid people on Twitter don’t direct message (DM) those who are contributing valuable information to their community (this a good way to say thanks for sharing), because they are only interested in hearing their own voice, and are less concerned about engagement or showing that they care.

6.  Stupid people on Twitter are concerned more about popularity verses forming a community.   They will follow 50+ people in the time that you have received the email that they are following you.   (Thanks for that point @samthebutcher).

7.  Stupid people on Twitter copy their competitors conversations without giving credit to those they recite.

8.  Stupid people on Twitter engage in inauthentic conversations that are only about themselves or their company. They don’t go out of their way to show their own personality and provoke a conversation.

9.  Stupid people on Twitter don’t invest enough in their social media programs, therefore they get nothing out of it.

10.  Stupid people on Twitter don’t realize that people are actually listening.

My background is in architecture.  Not the digital architecture that includes wireframing, or the mapping out of websites and applications, but the kind that deals with gravity, building materials and a team of engineers (I know, I should write an article on the journey from architecture to internet marketing).

Thinking about a social media strategy for my own business, I am reminded of a project I did in my undergraduate years (many years ago), while attending SCI-Arc- a little architecture school in Los Angeles.  I thought I would share.

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SCI-Arc’s move to a freight yard in downtown Los Angeles was the largest alteration to the Artist District at that time.  The school now found itself situated in a culturally diverse and active community. How the institution and community adapted to accommodate this transplant was a delicate subject. I and two other classmates, decided to address the school on the architectural level and its cultural responsibility- incognito.  Since the new building was spatially unique (having a nearly two dimensional floor plan that is ¼ mile long and 60’ wide) the building’s skin had the potential and responsibility to function not only as the barrier existing between interior and exterior, but also as a major visual and social presence.  We figured the social responsibility of this façade must establish communication with its new environment and neighbors.

We initially considered creating this communication by covering the façade with school news and activities by projecting exhibition dates, reviews, and student work.  However this uni-directional conversation- the institution speaking to the community, would do little to develop a true relationship with the public.  After realizing that transforming the façade into an overwhelming billboard was not the solution, we understood that we had to create a skin that became involved in the community by somehow creating a public forum.  We began thinking of the school not as a fixed concrete object, but as something far more ephemeral, visualizing skins that blurred the confinement and inclusion of the school itself. Knowing that our goal was to create a condition that encouraged dialogue, action, and reaction by the students and community without bias- we began the following project.

“I will purr for you- lonely swf” was the first message we posted.  It appeared early one February morning atop the freight yard building.  The sign was constructed of 10 sheets of whitewashed plywood spanning 40’ x 8’ with three foot black and white Helvetica lettering.  This initial sign was an attempt to cause intrigue and the opening line in a semester long conversation.  Within a week “I will purr for you” disappeared from the roof and “you are dumb” appeared on a neighboring fence. The message carried no apparent relation to the previous sign, yet the format was identical- 40’ x 8’ of whitewashed plywood with Helvetica lettering.  From this point on, approximately 75 t-shirts and hundreds of stickers using the same white background and Helvetica font complemented the weekly signs.  They were left at random locations throughout the community from the school bathrooms to art district town meetings.  They carried messages that conversed with the 40’ plywood message- “not dumb” “am dumb” and “dumber” etc.  This created a media conversation in which a sticker on a light post would relate to a person wearing one of the T-shirts that then corresponded to the sign in the area. The focus was never on the message itself, but its location and effect, encouraging any response whether it is compliment or criticism.  Though the messages discretely provoked communication at some level they did not directly relate to each other in order to keep the publics intrigue high and turn their ambiguous meanings into conversation topics.

By constantly changing the location of the signs in the community they redefined boundaries within the area involving the habitants in a common conversation.  By the fourth week accusations of the possible culprit were so high, we responded by placing a sign in a vacant lot adjacent to SCI-Arc, which read, “it wasn’t me.”  By the end of the week the sign had been changed to “it was me,” then to “it was meat,” and “it was neal” (referring to the director of the school, Neal Denari) by various unknown parties.  Ultimately numerous conversations, web postings, and two other graffiti projects were created as reactions.  We began seeing people unaffiliated with SCI-Arc wearing the T-shirts and placing stickers on their personal property.  In collaboration with a local art gallery, variations of the weekly message appeared on its sign above the gallery.  This weekly transformation continued for the next nine weeks culminating with a final sign that was backlit by fluorescent lights in a grassy vacant lot.  The sign read “purrr- swm” in correspondence with the first sign that sat above the freight yard building.  On the final day of the semester anonymous artist hung a 18’ x 20’ banner from a neighboring loft building with a large bulls eye painted area with the word “hôm” in the center, signifying the school’s acceptance to the neighborhood.

The ultimate goal was to create a skin that was not defined by any tangible constraints, but by creating a dialogue with the community.  The skin was now anywhere that the message was identifiable or discussed, with no constant beginning or end.

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…So how does this apply to my thoughts on social media?

#1. The best conversations are often ones that standout because they are unique, showing personality which in return provoke conversation.

#2.  Engaging in authentic conversations isn’t just about yourself, your company, or about self-service.  It can’t be a unilateral discussion, or a daily quote from a famous dead person (who cares about that- right?).

#3.  Social media is about getting attention by focusing on a specific community with a strategy in mind.

#4.  Your voice needs to be strong enough for people to want to follow and collaborate with you.

#5.  The results of a good social media strategy are that people will start to get interested in your dialogue and they will start to tell others about it.

…Hopefully all those years of school have paid off!