Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’

I get my social media streams funneled into my brain through five screens. Content comes in swiftly at a nice steady rate of about a tweet/post/second. Do not worry. If your content is remotely interesting, challenging, funny, edgy, groundbreaking or special… I will notice. I have a decent, well-equipped army of filters, aggregators, spam detectors and fluff busters.  None of the spam shall pass. None.

But I do get the flying green space invaders looking at messages, tweets and posts that get seeded by #’s. I know hash tags are a useful thing. I love hash tags. Heck, I use hash tags. But I would love it if people would just use them wisely, with caution. Not all the time. Not #everywordbelongsbehindahashtag you know. And if you need a hash tag so #yourmessagelooksfunny, maybe you should redefine the metric fun system.

O well. #maybeImjustgettingold.

Everyone goes high on social networks these days. Twitter and Facebook –just to name the two obvious ones- propelled themselves to the absolute zenith of popular online services. Barack Obama used the dialogue and “tribe” possibilities of social media to fuel his –winning- campaign.

Most Belgian politicians are following slowly however… they discovered social media just in time for the last elections. Bizarrely (or predictably?) a lot dropped their engagement again just after being elected… with the new elections a two weeks off, they started to target their online friends and followers again. Not very respectful, and frankly lots of orphaned followers do not take this treatment kindly.

Twitter behavior is also bizarre. Some Belgian politicians have gathered a couple of thousand followers, but do not take the courtesy to follow back. That is about as polite  as giving somebody a business card, but coldly refusing the card that is offered back… it is rude, and arrogant.

I know it is not about numbers, and I do understand you cannot interact with everybody. Star profiles like Bill Gates, or miss Spears cannot possibly even follow back their countless followers. But a Belgian politician? Should follow at least the people who are interested in him/her. Out of courtesy, for one, but also out of curiosity.

How can a politician who is not listening represent me adequately? Ignorance, or arrogance… I do not care. I will not give my vote to someone who is not even interested in following me back.

And you?

find the Belgian politicians on http://www.netvibes.com/politicibelgie

Here is me talking on Studio Brussel about Belgian politicians and their social media behavior To listen, click on the image below (Dutch only, sorry guys!).

Dear Yves,

about a week ago I sent you an open post, tweet and mail: on you and Twitter. You probably did not see it, but lots of people (yours truly included) offered you some insights and do’s and don’ts on social media.

But you and your colleagues had a busy week, we know. A week where the people of this country, and people interested in this country followed every single syllable of the politicians that are negotiating the future of this country.

You twittered about nice flowers and our Belgian tennis babes. Nothing wrong with that. And you went to sleep at 1 in the morning on Wednesday. One of my American followers found that useful information. And in the midst of the negotiations on the future of Belgium, you found time to tweet about cycling.

And half the world was amazed to hear two hours later from sleepy journalists that you did not find the solution to Brussel-Halle-Vilvoorde.

@alexanderdecroo warned on Twitter that he would bring your government down, if you had not a solution today. Did he not tell you? See, you could have known if you would have followed him on Twitter?  And @svengatz said already on Wednesday he would split something, anything really. But you do not follow Sven either.

I realize negotiating is hard and perilous work. But looking from a distance, we, communications people, see a clear lack of communication. People who do not reach out, who do not find each other. Who talk, but do not listen. Who communicate egocentrically…

Maybe, going forward, you and the other politicians could start interacting, listening. To each other. To citizens. That can start with real simple things. Like following each other on Twitter.

Tell me how you tweet. I’ll tell you who are…

sincerely,

@dannydevriendt

So you are on Twitter. Good. It’s reassuring to see that the Prime minister of this gorgeous little Belgian country is up to date and up to speed with modern technology. Not that I would have doubted that you, as an avid user of Blackberry, would miss any opportunity to stay informed, connected and on top.

And you have tweeted close to a hundred times by now, to the delight of your almost 2000 followers (not too shabby by the way, for a rookie ). It puts you ahead of @svengatz (just under 500 followers) and in pursuit of Minister Q (@VincentVQ more than 3000 followers).

In your latest post, you apologize that you’re still learning Twitter. You should. Contrary to some of your tweeting political friends you’re still mostly in broadcast mode. Sharing what you are doing, thinking, and doodling is fine. But it will not get you a lot of brownie points. It’s meant for “conversation”, you see?

So start following some interesting people (you follow nine now, which is not at all in balance with your followers ratio), interact with more people (I know you tried a couple of times), and get a conversation going.

Heck, this is wild suggestion, I know: but follow some national and international politicians, journalists, and web communicators. Look how they are using Twitter, and you can interact with them.

Dear Yves, do not make the mistake to use Twitter as a broadband broadcast tool. You have your newspapers, blog, website and co to do that. You’re a busy man, I realize that. But take the time to use Twitter to dialogue with people who care about you, this country, politics and life in general. You’ll see, it will give a complete different feeling at the end of your endless workday…

All the best, let me know if I can help…

@dannydevriendt

Since people follow me in (in? through? on?) Social Media, life becomes increasingly complicated. O yes, facing multiple ethical dilemmas here. I do like interaction, sharing and even cynical or ironical snowball fights.  But would it be wrong to employ an expert hit-man to deal with all of the lunatics on social networks? I hear they come cheap these days.

Honestly, I’m not interested in adding to your barn in Farmville, and your fish in Aquarium really would be better off in sushi. I did not receive any complaints about my reproductive hardware, and do not need a system upgrade for that. I have followers by the thousands, so am NOT interested in buying half a Pondukuriststan province into following me (buying followers, you’re joking, right?).

The 350 million dollar you want to put on my banking account would just get me in major trouble with my ego and the Belgian tax authorities. I am not into renting exotic beauties either… I hate anything that smells like TrueTwit, and if your golden formula to get rich is working, why do you still bother bothering me?

So I’m looking for a Cyber Rambo willing to root out the evil accounts, bots and tweeps that dirty my online existence. There is good money to be made

I know, it’s personal, but I’m getting a bit annoyed with how mainstream press is handling Social Media, and how they are covering it. @samfeys (great online chap by the way) drafted a nifty, nice, lighthearted piece and highlighted the vision on Twitter of a politician, a DJ, a radio presenter duo, a cinema group and an entrepreneur.

Apart from the entrepreneur (@netlash), none of these have a detectable Twitter street credibility. I follow all of them. They are nice. So is Sam. Really.

But sketching the whereabouts of social media, and the impact of Twitter on the Belgian landscape on just these people is a bit thin and shallow. Luckily @netlash, a fellow Social Media consultant was able to inject some SoMe wisdom into the article.

We’re living in a world where big brands are massively shifting their marketing/communication spending towards more online dialogue; where Twitter stays one of the most influential communication channels through knee deep trouble (Iran, Haiti,…); where celebrities can cash in their influence and translate it into tangible massive help efforts (@aplusk)…

Belgian companies and organizations are using Twitter (amongst a plethora of other digital tools) for mind casting and data mining. Belgian companies are moving towards using the crowdsourcing power of micro blogging and Predictive Web. Increasingly big brands go out of their way to forge an Intelligent Dialogue with their customers. Because that is what customers want: to interact with a brand that cares.

Not a lot of our politicians got it right at our last elections here in Belgium. Still toying with the medium, without really understanding it. Obama got it right though… it propelled him into the highest charts. It funded big parts of his campaign.

Even the presenter duo @wimenanke are still discovering the medium. In a nice and good way. But with no more followers than you can reach on an average sunny day terrace  they are still warming up, flexing muscles.

To determine if Twitter is hype or not, you need to interact with @princess_misia, @netlash, @mindblob, @horationelson, @bnox and the like. You need to interact with the marcom people of the big brands. You need to crowd source the Belgian Twitter scene.

I’ll just finish my coffee, and read a Dilbert.

I spend more time on the road than I care to compute. A formidastic part of my life seems to consist in trying to get from point A to point B while on point C yellow clad pointy haired entrepreneurs put obstacles on the road because they want to make it better. Or something.

Too often, before that snail of traffic moves, I surely have enough time to get acquainted with most of the people around me. That nose plucking sweaty teenager in the pimped up pink Clio behind, the yelling kids in the back of the Beamer in front, the aspiring Elite top model on my right. They are not moving either. They are intriguing.

But there is simply no way to shout out on a highway: “Hey! You look interesting! Want a tissue? Great car! Where do you work?” Nope. Everybody looks around, listening to some bonobo-on-steroids on the radio that is way too awake and loud for the beginning of a day. No way to connect. No way to reach out.

That’s why I decided to put my Twitter handle on my car. Hoping it will become a new trend. So people can Tweet me goodmorning on the highway. It’s safe, because we’re not moving anyway. It’s social behavior. It’s fun. I got a tweet from a Landrover Discovery today, and it made me smile. just for that I’ll keep TweetTweet, the tweet car on the road.

To paraphrase Snow Crash (great book):  The TweetTweet car has enough potential energy packed into its motor to fire a pound of bacon into the Asteroid Belt. Unlike a Johnny box or a BoomBoom beater, the TweetTweet car unloads that power through gaping, gleaming, polished exhausts. When you put the hammer down, shit happens. TweetTweet is in touch with the road, starts like a bad day, stops on a peseta… And it’s bloody stuck in traffic somewhere near you. Send me a tweet

It´s giving me a burning headache. If you look at the coverage on social media, there seems to be a frenzy around numbers. Big numbers. When people talk about Twitter-VIP´s, they add the magic number of followers almost reverently. Oprah has more than 1,8 million followers now, BritBrit 2,4, Barack´s ghostwriters1,7 million. Connecting to these Big Whales is what Tweeps want to do, forgetting that this usually is valuable for one person: mister Big himself.

Climbing higher on the social media ladder, deciding who to connect and interact with is extremely important. Where do you put your time and energy? What will get a maximum spread of your messages? What will effectively enhance your reach, impact, and social velocity?

Let´s get real, chances that the Oprah´s, Kawasaki´s and tutti quanti of this world will even notice your tweet, let alone retweet it to their followers is extremely remote. They are industrial machines, programmed to push forward their personal or business purposes, and clearly too swamped being big to notice you at all. 6 digit follower people look nice in your followship, but they will not get you in the charts spreading your precious messages.

Aim for the little fish. People roaming in their first hundreds of followers. Reach out to them, help them grow their turf. Give them tips. They will notice you, as they do not have to skim (yet) through a gazillion tweets. They have time clicking on your links, and most often happily retweet good content, (which you provide J)… and by connecting to them at their early intro you will make it to their favorites easily with a good chance of staying there while they go up the charts. 

My personal rule? 80\20.  I spend 20 percent of my effort learning from big whales, 80 percent goes into interacting with the shiny silver fish.

I´ve been watching my Twitter account and my Facebook updates with a suspicious eye lately. First Yasmine, a lovely Belgian singer died. Though all my sympathy goes to her relatives and friends, the internet frenzy that followed was crazy and horrifying. Not only were all the sinister details of her suicide smeared all over the net, hundreds of people started to comment on the why, the how, and the-who-should-be-blamed. Nobody considered apparently the grief and horror her loved ones must experience while reading…  Sympathy pages popped up like mushrooms on a dying tree in a rainforest, generating more sympathy and generosity than most of the charitable causes on the web…

And the day after, the self proclaimed King of Pop died… The social media craziness following the first announcement was mind boggling: Twitter reporting well over 30 percent of all conversation dedicated to Michael Jackson, and having to shut down some of its functionality to keep from fail-whaling. Facebook updates showed signs of mass hysteria as a gazillion people expressed whatever they felt like sharing in their status lines. I dotted down updates like “disaster”, “horror”, a “black day”, “my world ends” (!)… I need to go back to the web just post 9/11 to see so much emotion expressed. It largely beat the social online concern right after the tsunami…

Michael beat the charts big time, not only are his songs propelled right back at the top of the iTunes charts, but his death generated more compassion than the passing away of thousands of dying kids in dark Africa.

I´m not sure I like that… maybe we should recalibrate our priorities…

It was predictable. With more people on social media channels like Twitter or Facebook than I´d care to feed, sooner or later those networks had to be tapped in to. After the spread of silly adds, desperate people trying to boost traffic to a usually ridiculously bad website, or smartasses phishing around for logins and passwords, crowdsourcing seems to be the next big thing.

The principle is geniously simple: you ask those in your network to help you out with advice, or by answering a specific question. Tap into the collective intelligence of your hang-arounds and you by-pass expensive third party vendors, and Rolex-ed market analyzing consultants. People who are well connected can easily datamine a couple of hundreds, even thousands followers or Facebook friends. Cheap, easy, fast. Then, it´s just a question of a bit of common sense and some good analyzing software to turn this data into charts, insights, trend previews and shiny statistics.

People as Marian Salzman, Martha Stewart, Don Tapscott and many others have found clever ways of using Twitter as a spider web for collecting data. And that is a good thing.

I do have some future looking concerns though. People are genuinely so happy to help out in these online communities that they answer to calls for help and info often. Too often. Over the last week I´ve been asked my opinion on healthcare, millennials, blogging, the situation in Israel, baby food, tracking software for photographing stellar constellations and the ideal coach for the Belgian national soccer team. On 4 of these items I do have insufficient knowledge, insight, or authority to add anything useful to the conversation. Still I was asked, and I did answer.

I´ve seen outcome of crowdsourcing – based analyses that was dead wrong, because the question was shot at a wrong but very enthusiast audience.  You catch my drift: to gather great insights on most topics, laser profiling your focus group is very important. Crowdsourcing is testing the water with your toe. For indepth analyzing, the ability to narrowcast down to selected audiences will differentiate data butchers from data surgeons…

Bizarre thing, this web 2.0. Even hiding on a lonely hilltop in Nolleval, France -thoughtfully comtemplating a froze lake- does not prevent one from updating friends all over the planet with a simple microblog site as Twitter. Just curious what leading trend watchers as Marian Salzman and co make of this new phenomenon? It is addictive, fur sure…