Twitter Tips: How And Why To Use Hashtags (#)

I would like to thank CG Lynch with CIO for this posting
Guest Blog By C.G. Lynch
Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

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While you can use Twitter's search tool to find specific people, companies, and their messages ("tweets") on the service, Hashtags allow users to sort topics into useful categories to revisit later.

If you've spent any time on Twitter, you've probably seen a hashtag before. A "#" symbol sets off a hashtag. For instance, if you wrote a tweet about Google, it might look like this:

Here's a look at how to utilize Hashtags to organize information that you contribute and consume on Twitter. As the tweets pile up, the extra time you take to thoughtfully categorize your tweets with a hashtag will help the greater Twitter community (and you individually) make the most of the service.

The story behind Hashtags

Twitter (the company) didn't create hashtags. The Twitter community's early adopters came up with the idea to put a "#" in front of topics to add context to tweets. The tag would also help filter and sort them out for future readers.

According to a Twitter fan website, the hashtags achieved significant notoriety with Twitter users in 2007 during the San Diego fires, when users designated their tweets with "#sandiegofires."

The trend to use hashtags led to the community-driven site hashtags.org, where a semi-official index of Twitter's hashtags now resides. To access the site, Twitter users merely need to opt-in (for free) by following @hashtags on Twitter.

If you're writing a tweet about a topic you think might have a unique hashtag assigned to it, you can visit hashtags.org to find it.

When you arrive at the site, choose "Tags" on the right-side menu. After the menu drops down, choose "directory."

Hashtags are listed alphabetically, but the directory won't be helpful unless you have a lot of time. It's jammed with obscure-looking hashtags (many are acronyms). As a result, you might have better luck searching the site for your hashtag of choice.

Say, for instance, that you want to assign a tag to a new product that Google released. To find the official hashtag, type "Google" into Hashtag.org's search bar. It will return results with a list of Google-related hashtags.

The site also keeps analytics for popular tags, showing recent messages in which people used the tag, the people who tweeted it, and related tags.

How Hashtags Are Born

The Twitter community organically and collectively decides what a hashtag should be as it pertains to a certain topic. Third-party sites, such as tagalus and HashDictionary allow Twitter users to define hashtags. HashtagNation facilitates discussions around how certain hashtags should be defined and formed.

All of these user-generated sites have drawbacks. For one, they often fail to return definitions for common hashtags on Twitter. This could be due to the fact that some are really obvious — if you type #facebook into tagulus, for instance, no results appear, as no one bothered to take the time to note that it would be used for a tweet about the social network.

Secondly, because multiple dictionaries chronicle Twitter hashtags, definitions for the same hashtag can vary.

Use Twitter Search to Find Hashtags

As Twitter hashtags became more popular, Twitter integrated them into its search tool. You can search for a hashtag in two ways.

The first: If you perform an advanced search, under the "Words" section, you can search for a hashtag.

Or, you can simply use Twitter's main search bar (which they recently made available on people's home pages), and put a "#" symbol in front of your hashtag.

Whichever method you decide, Twitter will return back results with tweets where users employed the hashtag. The upside to an advanced search is that you can define dates, so you don't return hashtags since the beginning of Twitter time (unless, of course, that's what you want).

Use Hashtags Judiciously

Hashtags can be overused. Chris Messina, a San Francisco-bases social media consultant (who was credited as first formulating the hashtag idea in his blog), noted some of the drawbacks in a post about how to make the most of hashtags.

"Already it's been made clear to me that the use of hashtags can be annoying, adding more noise than value," Messina wrote. "Some people just don't like how they look. Others feel that they encumber a simple communication system that should do one thing and one thing well."

As a result, he said users should make use of hashtags sparingly and only when they bring additional context to a tweet that would otherwise be absent. For instance, take these examples:

"@google gave a nice presentation. #CIOconference."

That tweet, with the hashtag, would provide better context than:

"@google gave a nice presentation."

In this case, the writer of the tweet informs people that his message is meant within the context of a conference he is attending. The benefit: his followers do not need to read past tweets in his Twitter stream to find out where he is or what he means.

My Two Cents

Twitter's hashtagging system remains a nascent form of organizing the Twitter world. Messina's contention that they should be used sparingly is well-taken. Hashtags have largely been employed by Twitter's first adopters, and their overuse has two unfortunate consequences.

First, hashtags can give Twitter an insular feel that will detract people from staying on the service, as evidenced by Twitter's poor retention rate of new users (60 percent bail not long after joining, according to recent Nielsen research). Second, it's presumptuous (and ironic, considering Twitter power users' championing of social technologies) for these folks to assume they know the best way to organize the service before more average Joe Web-Users have their say.

© 2008 CXO Media Inc.

 

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Twitter Tips: How to Write Better Tweets

Guest Blog by C.G. Lynch, CIO, CXO Media Inc
Original Post on CIO, Guest post on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

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Twitter's growing popularity has yielded one unusual result: It has exposed the frailty of writing skills in the business world. You can fudge bad writing in a 20-slide presentation, but not in a 140-character tweet. From abbreviation-laden tweets with no discernible value, to tweets that fail to compel followers to click through on a link, examples abound. The process of constructing a good Twitter message takes careful thought, time and analysis.

More Twitter Tips on CIO.com

Twitter Etiquette: Five Dos and Don'ts

Twitter Tips: How to Safely Blend the Personal and the Professional

How and Why to Launch a Business Presence on Twitter

Clearly, the 140-character limit adds a degree of difficulty for people who already struggle with writing for less restrictive, more long-form friendly mediums, such as e-mail or blogs.

While we failed to find a panacea for constructing the perfect tweet — since the "perfect tweet" largely depends on your audience, your profession, and how you use Twitter — we compiled some guidelines from industry analysts and people who tweet uncommonly well.

Avoid Abrevs

Every day, we all receive work e-mails that are littered with improper grammar, spelling and all-lowercase letters. Given how many e-mails most of us receive in a day, such messages become, at best, an unwelcome sight, and, at worst, disrespectful of our time.

Twitter is no different. Some people follow thousands of other people on Twitter, populating their streams (home pages) with, in some cases, hundreds of tweets a minute. Obviously, people will skip over sloppy tweets, or trivial tweets, because they simply don't have the time.

"If you sound like a 13-year-old in an instant message conversation, that's not going to make people want to read your [Twitter] messages," says Susan Daffron (@susandaffron), president of Logical Expressions, a company that helps people self-publish books.

As your user-base diversifies to include people from different backgrounds, you should avoid abbreviations unless it's absolutely necessary, says Laura Fitton (@pistachio), who runs Pistachio Consulting, a firm that helps companies utilize Twitter.

"I generally go out of my way to avoid abbreviations," she says. "There are so many abbreviations you really can't always assume people will know what they are."

Twitter power users can be particular offenders with regards to that rule. Despite the fact that Twitter's user base has broadened substantially during the past six months, the majority of its users descend from a technical background. Depending on how your follower list has diversified, people might not know a lot of the Twitter lingo.

"I had people asking me what are these "#" signs," Daffron says, referring to Hashtags, which Twitter users employ to categorize topics, such as #sanfrancisco. "By writing things that are more obscure to new users, you essentially block them out."

Take Your Time

Twitter allows you to publish information instantly. The open field to tweet a message sits in your web-browser or in an app on your desktop. Since it's such a short message, the natural inclination is to post away without much thought. Much like you'd proofread an important e-mail message, you should consider sitting on a Tweet, Fitton says.

"Don't feel shy that, even though they're short, they [tweets] can be a lot work," Fitton says. "If you take your time, you will most likely put more thought into it. Thoughtful tweets are more likely to be appreciated."

Due to the fact a tweet must measure 140 characters, a quick writing job combined with lack of context can create misunderstandings. If you take time to not only construct the tweet, but also analyze your audience to see how it might be received, you can avoid upsetting people, Fitton says.

Tweeting Links: Headlines Matter

On Twitter, people often tweet links to their own published work, or articles that they have found relevant. In fact, so many people tweet links now that it requires a lot of work to get people to click on them. As a result, you must have a headline that sets your Tweet apart for the other stories of the day, says Stowe Boyd (@stoweboyd), a social media analyst who writes the /message blog

"It could be humorous or topical," he says. "But you also must pare down to the absolute minimum."

One key differentiator can be pulling a quote from a piece that might entice people to read it. For instance, if everyone knows the general news of the day on a certain topic, tweeting an article with a general headline on the topic ("Democrats Reach 60 Seats in Senate") might not be as compelling as a new quote from President Obama or a Senator. In other words, assume people already read the nuts-and-bolts news story that first hit the wire, and show them why you read something that has greater depth or value. This approach also shows what about the article stuck out the most for you.

On Pistachio's website, a guest blogger, Marshall Thompson, published a helpful guide, seven steps to writing a successful Twitter headline. In the piece, he includes the following guidelines: keep it short, no puns, use keywords, use hashtags, don't consolidate stories (one tweet per story), link directly to story (not home page — don't be a page-view monger), and don't use subheads.

Learn from Past Tweets

Twitter's web-based version, and its ecosystem of apps such as TweetDeck, track every time your Twitter handle appears in a tweet. After you tweet a link or make a statement, watch how your followers receive it and whether they retweet it.

In addition to following your retweets on Twitter's search tool, other tools help you track the pervasiveness of the links you share. TweetDeck users utilize bit.ly to shorten URLs they tweet. If you visit bit.ly's website, you can track the performance of links you tweet.

Over time, you should notice patterns for what material your followers receive well. In many cases, it will depend on the audience, which can be quite diverse. Figuring out what makes your Twitter followers click and retweet is a process Boyd calls "micro-psychographics."

In his blog post explaining the phenomenon, Boyd observed that, based on anecdotal evidence, Twitter users respond to tweets differently. Some engage more heavily with questions or declarative sentences, while others prefer emotional prompts evincing anger or happiness. "I have noticed very different responses to different styles of URL-ed tweets," Boyd wrote. "And I think it has to do with the psychological makeup of the recipients of the messages, just as much as the text in the message."

Staff Writer C.G. Lynch covers consumer and social technologies for CIO. You can follow him at @cglynch.

© 2008 CXO Media Inc.

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Syndicating your blog to multiple sites

In order to get the most out of your blog you need to get it seen by the most amount of people as possible.  Many bloggers setup a new blog on a free service such as wordpress, typepad, blogger, successful thinkers, or even just utilize facebook.  Each one of these sites as a unique following and a new network of people that follow them.  To get the most exposure you will want to reach out to each of these communities.  Here are a few quick tips on getting your blog out to the most number of people, or sites.

Originally posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Understanding RSS Feeds
RSS feeds are how sites pickup your syndication.  RSS provides a standard xml formatted feed in which thousands, if not millions, of RSS readers can pick up.  Be sure that which ever blogging site you use supports sending out an RSS feed of your posts.  Successful thinkers supports RSS feeds of everything you do.  From blogging to comments, posts, forums, our calendar, announcements and even searches.  Most social networks today, support sending RSS feeds, and many support RSS readers.

Setting up your RSS
Once you have a blog setup, that you know supports RSS, you will want to register your blog’s RSS for syndication through Feedburner.  Feedburner is powered by google, and will convert your RSS blog syndication to multiple standards.  As standards evolve, feedburner will be sure to syndicate your blog in the format best formatted for the receiving end.

The next challenge is to find out where to plug in your RSS feed for blog syndication.  Some sites such has facebook have built in utilities for merging your blog syndication directly into your wall and the sites content.  Other sites such as myBlogLog (powered by yahoo), technorati, blogged and Google Reader make it easy for you to claim her blog, simply by entering the URL address to your blog.  Remember to always use your feedburner RSS syndication address in all sites, so that you can easily make changes and control your feed. 

Force feeding other Blogging Platforms
Blogspot, friendster, and wordpress are all great blogging platforms.  Each one of these has its own audience, and you should include your blog on each one of these sites.  The challenge here is that they don’t always provide an easy way for you to just cross post your content.  You can add an RSS reader widget to the side bar so that your blog posts will be indexed and listed on the side of that blog, but cross-posting is much easier.

My favorite blogging site is successful thinkers meetup blog, which is why I post there first.  Within the configuration of your blog, you can even set it up to cross post your blog to multiple sites, beyond the typical RSS feed.  Cross-posting is an easy way to post once, and to have your blog automatically post onto other blogs.  This simplifies getting your content the most exposure.

Adding your blog to Feedburner
To add your blog to feedburner, start here.
The steps are really easy, so I’ll let you follow their online guide.

Adding your blog to facebook
It is a little harder to find where to add your blog, so I have outlined the steps below.
To add your blog to facebook follow these steps. 
Create a facebook account  
Add your blog to facebook
     a. Click Profile
     b. Click on settings (on the far right next to "All Posts"
     c. Click on "Automatically import activity"
     d. Click on "Blog/RSS"
     e. Paste in your URL to your RSS feed to your blog

Setup MyBlogLog
MyBlogLog, powered by yahoo, is a great way to keep track of all of your blogs and sites.  By now, you have probably setup at least 6 different accounts, and are starting to loose track of where your blogs are.  It is best if you create an account on MyBlogLog so that you can easily keep track of all of these accounts and sources.

Another Shortcut to Cross-posting
If you are still having trouble getting your blog syndicated to multiple blogging sites, try using Microsoft Windows Live Writer.  Once you set up each of your blogs within the application, you can quickly switch over to each of your blogs and click the post button to send your post on its way to multiple sites.

More Information
For more information about syndicating your blog to multiple sites, check out my post on Maximizing your blog.

Feedback
If you are posting, cross posting, or syndicating your blog to other sites, that I have not yet mentioned, please list them below in the comments section and I’ll be sure to update this post with your blog.

Originally posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford 

 

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Syndicating your blog to multiple sites

In order to get the most out of your blog you need to get it seen by the most amount of people as possible.  Many bloggers setup a new blog on a free service such as wordpress, typepad, blogger, successful thinkers, or even just utilize facebook.  Each one of these sites as a unique following and a new network of people that follow them.  To get the most exposure you will want to reach out to each of these communities.  Here are a few quick tips on getting your blog out to the most number of people, or sites.

Understanding RSS Feeds
RSS feeds are how sites pickup your syndication.  RSS provides a standard xml formatted feed in which thousands, if not millions, of RSS readers can pick up.  Be sure that which ever blogging site you use supports sending out an RSS feed of your posts.  Successful thinkers supports RSS feeds of everything you do.  From blogging to comments, posts, forums, our calendar, announcements and even searches.  Most social networks today, support sending RSS feeds, and many support RSS readers.

Setting up your RSS
Once you have a blog setup, that you know supports RSS, you will want to register your blog’s RSS for syndication through Feedburner.  Feedburner is powered by google, and will convert your RSS blog syndication to multiple standards.  As standards evolve, feedburner will be sure to syndicate your blog in the format best formatted for the receiving end.

The next challenge is to find out where to plug in your RSS feed for blog syndication.  Some sites such has facebook have built in utilities for merging your blog syndication directly into your wall and the sites content.  Other sites such as myBlogLog (powered by yahoo), technorati, blogged and Google Reader make it easy for you to claim her blog, simply by entering the URL address to your blog.  Remember to always use your feedburner RSS syndication address in all sites, so that you can easily make changes and control your feed. 

Force feeding other Blogging Platforms
Blogspot, friendster, and wordpress are all great blogging platforms.  Each one of these has its own audience, and you should include your blog on each one of these sites.  The challenge here is that they don’t always provide an easy way for you to just cross post your content.  You can add an RSS reader widget to the side bar so that your blog posts will be indexed and listed on the side of that blog, but cross-posting is much easier.

My favorite blogging site is successful thinkers meetup blog, which is why I post there first.  Within the configuration of your blog, you can even set it up to cross post your blog to multiple sites, beyond the typical RSS feed.  Cross-posting is an easy way to post once, and to have your blog automatically post onto other blogs.  This simplifies getting your content the most exposure.

Adding your blog to Feedburner
To add your blog to feedburner, start here.
The steps are really easy, so I’ll let you follow their online guide.

Adding your blog to facebook
It is a little harder to find where to add your blog, so I have outlined the steps below.
To add your blog to facebook follow these steps. 
Create a facebook account  
Add your blog to facebook
     a. Click Profile
     b. Click on settings (on the far right next to "All Posts"
     c. Click on "Automatically import activity"
     d. Click on "Blog/RSS"
     e. Paste in your URL to your RSS feed to your blog

Setup MyBlogLog
MyBlogLog, powered by yahoo, is a great way to keep track of all of your blogs and sites.  By now, you have probably setup at least 6 different accounts, and are starting to loose track of where your blogs are.  It is best if you create an account on MyBlogLog so that you can easily keep track of all of these accounts and sources.

Another Shortcut to Cross-posting
If you are still having trouble getting your blog syndicated to multiple blogging sites, try using Microsoft Windows Live Writer.  Once you set up each of your blogs within the application, you can quickly switch over to each of your blogs and click the post button to send your post on its way to multiple sites.

More Information
For more information about syndicating your blog to multiple sites, check out my post on Maximizing your blog.

Feedback
If you are posting, cross posting, or syndicating your blog to other sites, that I have not yet mentioned, please list them below in the comments section and I’ll be sure to update this post with your blog.

 

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Web Marketing Analysis Steps Up - Google Analytics API

Google Analytics API Announced
Google announced its new Google Analytics API today.  As a developer, this means more work.  As a business owner or executive, this means more information.  Many of you are already familiar with Google Analytics, as it the best tracking system for free.  When you first started using analytics, you probably learned more about your visitors wanted to know.  But over time, the information wasn’t enough.  You started thinking outside of the box, and began wondering how the tracking information that you saw related to your business data.

With Google’s new Analytics API, you are able to pull data out and match it with data from your proprietary or existing database.  The new API is a read only interface into the life of your website.  All of the information that is available through Google’s Analytic reporting engine, is also available through the API.

Beyond Simple Reporting
Beyond making the data available for merging with your internal reports, you can now expose your web traffic reports to other medias or platforms.  For example, if you want to access Google Analytics from your phone, you can with this Android application from Actual Metrics. Accessing Analytics from your desktop is also an option like Desktop-Reporting as developed. 

See What Others are Doing
Others are well on their way to enhancing their business, like MailChimp who integrated Google Analytics into their email marketing platform and ShufflePoint® who provides a service for adding Google Analytics data into PowerPoint® presentations. Also check out youcalc who has created apps that allow you to mashup Google Analytics, AdWords, Salesforce.com and other enterprise data.

There are plenty more customer examples for you to check out on Google’s developer site. These apps demonstrate only some of the creative possibilities and I’m sure you'll discover other interesting ways to use the Analytics API. 

Start Developing with Google Analytics
If you are ready to get started, you will want to jump into the code at Google’s developer site Google Code.  There are developer guides, example code, FAQ’s, and more.  The complete API is available and ready to use.  With Google Analytics API being so new, you will want to join the Google Analytics APIs Group so that you can reach out the developer community for some assistance.

Please let me know if you are looking into doing any Analytic API projects.  I would be interested to hear about them and would be willing to publish them here, if you’d like.

 

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Google Profiling – Getting your name seen on Google and controlling it

Google Yourself
We all have googled ourselves. Some more often than others, and most not because we have big ego’s, but we are curious to see what it is that the world sees about us. Google has offered little to no support in controlling what it is that googlers see about us, until now. By simply searching “me” in Google , you will be given the opportunity to create or edit your profile.

Originally posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

Who are you?
Social networking is all the buzz. And I’m sure that if you are reading this you have profiles on mySpace, Facebook, twitter, and linked In. And now… you need to maintain your Google profile. Often these social networks allow us a little more control of expressing who we are.

Set Up a Google Profile
Setting up a Google profile is very easy and pretty quick. So if you haven’t done it yet, I’d recommend doing that as soon as you finish this short article. Google has modified their search results to include profiles at the bottom of the page. These profiles show up like regular search results, and while it is at the bottom of the page, and you have little control over what is delivered on the top half, you can control what is delivered at the bottom and what Google says about you.

So maybe this isn’t as reassuring as we’d all like it to be, but it is a start. With the improved profile options, it makes it even easier to link to your Google profile, and to control what is shared through this profile.

Get Found on Google
I left my Google profile settings as default, but you will notice that it says “If you want your profile to appear in Google search results, make sure you've selected to display your full name on the Edit profile page. Adding more information will help you improve your profile's rank.” If you take this a step further and verify your name (either by credit card or phone number), you can get a verified icon near your name, showing that you truly are who you say. This isn’t completely reliable yet, and I have not done it. These Google profile searches will appear at the bottom of the first page regardless of whether your name has been verified or not.

Google software engineer Brian Stoler explains, "These results offer abbreviated information from user-created Google profiles and a link to the full profiles. We've also added links so it's easy to search for the same name on MySpace, Facebook, Classmates and LinkedIn."

Originally posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup by Josh Shackelford

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Things are heating up – Combating project management delays

These last couple days have been got. We are breaking records, and the cool weekend can’t come quick enough. Yesterday it was 97 degrees, breaking the old record of 94 degrees set in the 80’s. It normally isn’t this hot this early. At work our air conditioning is only working in half of the building, so it is working overtime just to maintain a tolerable temperature. So what does all of this have to do with project management? Happy, comfortable employees work harder.

Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup By Josh Shackelford

Big Things Coming
We have a big event coming up on May 23rd, and plan to release about 7 new products. Only half of these are even ready for full production. And if they all were all ready by now, we probably would have already launched them. The fact that these products aren’t ready is not an issue. The challenge is that we need to get all of them created, reviewed by legal, and then sent to print. Once the products are ready we need to create all of the marketing material, such as web promotions, print promotions, flyers, postcards, store display signs, video for the internet, and videos for the live events.

Adjusting to Cuts
I’m sure that IT departments across the US have made cuts over the last year. We have all had to deal with the reality of the current situation. So how do you deal with the staffing adjustments you made in the past, and compensate for the increased work load of the current?

One solution would be to pick up some temps. Without committing the long term work force, you can hire some very well qualified individuals to help get you over that hump. We have had tremendous success with Pride Staff, and Express Employment Professions, both of which are temp agencies here in Stockton, California. Though we use Express nationwide, as we host events across the US.

Having a strong workflow management is the only way to adjust to increased work load, without adding additional staff. IT receives projects from just about every imaginable source within a company, and even outside of a company. If all of these tasks are not funneled through an easy to manage task management list, you will lose too much time.

Lost Time
Your staff needs to be effectively communicated to. Without an easily managed task management system for all projects to funnel through, your staff will have a lot of dead time between projects, and questions will not be addressed very quickly. In addition, if people are allowed to circumvent the task management system, tasks will not be completed on time, and your days will be chaotic. Often executives of companies feel that their tasks will be completed more quickly if they circumvent management, going directly to the laborers that perform the task. While their personal task might be completed slightly a head of schedule, the company will suffer. They do not see the impact on the overall workflow.

Team Work Project Manager
About two weeks ago I started putting our current projects into a site on http://www.teamworkpm.net/, and then 3 days later, I introduced the site to our graphic designers. The following day, to our programmers, and the next to the balance of the IT department. This site was met with excitement from everyone. It was rolled out in stages to the department to ensure a smooth adoption, and was a complete success. The next step would be to start introducing the site to the rest of the company.

All of the staff that have begun using this site have really enjoyed it. I was glad to see that the adoption went so smooth. I had been exploring various project management applications and task management resources, when I stumbled on teamwork. It is very close to Basecamp, but came out a head.

Hopefully within the next couple weeks, I will be able to introduce a login for management throughout the company, so that they can track the progress on their projects, without being able to interfere with our workflow. For now, I just meet with them regularly to give them updates.

Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup By Josh Shackelford

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