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Twitter Zen: The Four Conversational Paradigms

Twitter can be confusing for the uninitiated, and the fact that there are effectively four different ways of viewing it certainly contributes. Although the main Twitter stream seems like a unified set of short messages, the client applications used by end users present it in very different ways.

The stream of tweets is subdivided by privacy controls, and most clients separate out directed “@replies” and searchable “#hashtags”. There are also private direct messages to consider. No wonder new users are confused!

The main, public twitter stream can be viewed by anyone, but nearly everyone only sees a very small portion of it. Users only see the tweets from people they “follow” when they are logged in to the Twitter website or using a third-party client. If you don’t follow enough people, Twitter can seem like a wasteland, with no action at all. Follow too many, however, and it can quickly overwhelm your attention.

Probably the most confusing aspect of the Twitter stream is the situation around “@replies”. There are basically 2 types of tweets:

  1. A Tweet beginning with the “@ sign” will only be visible in the main stream for people following the sender and recipient. This is important, because many people wonder why their message to @someone does not get any attention. The reason is likely that many people are not following that person.
  2. If you want to make sure that a certain tweet is seen by your followers, as well as the intended recipient, put their @TwitterID somewhere other than the beginning. This is the second type of “@message”, one that will call the attention of people mentioned in it but not be hidden from everyone else.

Hashtags can also be confusing, and can quickly overwhelm the content of a tweet. Essentially, any single word beginning with the “#” symbol becomes a clickable, searchable term in most Twitter clients. Many events and topics have an agreed-upon hashtag, and these form special universal streams that many people follow. New users should not worry too much about hashtags, but should consider using them as a way to gain a little bit more visibility.

Direct Messages (DM’s) transform Twitter entirely, making it function more like a private instant message service than a public conversation. I personally use Twitter DM’s far more frequently than Google Talk, Skype, or any other instant message service. And many people have DM’s sent as SMS text messages or e-mails. The best way to contact heavy Twitter users is through a DM, but you can only DM users who follow you.

As you can see, Twitter is not a simple, universal, open conversation. The stream is divided based on who you follow, hashtags, @replies, and DM’s. Depending on how one uses it, Twitter can be an intimate conversation or a global podium.

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Twitter Zen: Joining the Conversation

It can be difficult to start using Twitter, since you must decide who to follow and it will take some time before people follow you back, let alone interact with you. Imagine yourself walking into a room full of interesting people, all having conversations with each other. Do you expect everyone to notice that you have arrived, stop what they’re doing, and greet you warmly? Or do you expect that you will need to find someone interesting and join their conversation?

It takes quite a while to work up to numbers like these...

The first thing you should do is locate a few interesting people to follow. Don’t go with the initial set that Twitter offers. Rather, think of some people (both famous and ordinary) that you would like to have a conversation with. Search for their Twitter people and follow them. Since you’re reading this, you might like to start with me (SFoskett) and some of the Tech Field Day delegates (my tfd-delegates list)!

After you have done this, Twitter will recommend other interesting people in the “who to follow” box. Don’t bother with anyone “Promoted” (that means they paid to be suggested) and focus on the “natural” suggestions. These will be people followed by, or similar to, the people you selected above.

Ignore "Promoted" suggestions, but the others are likely worthwhile

Look through the “Tweets” of these people, and see who they interact with. Follow some of them as well. And check out who the people you respect are following (here’s my list) until you have followed a few dozen people.

Read what they have written, how they interact, then join the conversation. Reply to something they say or chime in with an interesting anecdote, and see what happens.

Many new twitter users wonder why no one pays attention to what they say, but there is a reason for this: Only people who follow you will see your simple tweets, and it is unlikely that many people are following a new user. Twitter users are not actively trying to exclude you, they just are not seeing what you are writing.

Join a conversation by including the “@TwitterID” of some people who will be interested in your tweet so they will see it. They may decide to follow you back, and begin conversing with you. I personally follow back anyone who engages in interesting conversation with me, and I believe many others do as well.

If you’re having trouble engaging with other Twitter users, consider the form and content of your tweets. Are they interesting, with wry observations and witty anecdotes? Are they readable, following convention for format and grammar? Are they directed at people who will care about the topic? And, once again, are you engaging people by including their @TwitterID so they will see what you’re saying?

It’s very easy to get dispirited at first. I actually created a test Twitter account to try these suggestions, and it took weeks before I had any real interaction and followers. I empathize with the plight of the new tweeter, but I heartily recommend that you stick with it. Once you’re part of the Twitter conversation, it’s worth it!

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Twitter Zen: Setting up Your Account

When you create a Twitter account, you will be asked to enter some profile information, including your name, URL, description, and photo. All of these are critically important: Many people will look at them to decide whether they want to follow you. If you have not set these up, other Twitter users likely will ignore you!

Consider carefully how to make your Twitter profile reflect how you want to be seen to potential conversation partners. You can only have one profile picture, one URL, and one name, so what do you want to say about you?

Make sure your ID, name, avatar, and URL are entered, and create a reasonable description of yourself

Your twitter ID should be capitalized appropriately to help people identify you. I use capital S and F to show that SFoskett is my first initial and last name. If your twitter ID consists of multiple words run together, consider capitalizing them in CamelCase to highlight each word.

If you wish to be identified as a real person, enter your complete name in your profile. Know that most Twitter clients will highlight the name rather than the twitter ID, so this is what people will see as they read your tweets. I use my full proper name, but others sometimes enter a humorous description of themselves. But this should not change too often to avoid alienating your followers.

I picked this Polaroid photo by Jennifer Huber because it is distinctive, recognizable as me, and includes a relevant and amazing piece of computer history in the background!

Your avatar photo is one of the most visible elements of your Twitter account. Many people change their avatar fairly frequently, even though this can be confusing for followers. I like to keep mine consistent, with only occasional tweaks, so that I’m more recognizable. And I recommend that “real people” Twitter accounts use a recognizable photo of their face.

Twitter only lets you enter one URL, so make sure it’s a good one. Recognize, too, that Google and other search engines use this URL to associate a twitter account with a website. Although many people have a large Internet presence, it is important to pick the one site that best represents you. I use my blog URL, since I can control that content and include links there to my other sites.

Pay some attention to creating an interesting and informative description of yourself for your profile. Don’t stress too much over this, since it’s easy and non-disruptive to change it later. But know that many potential followers will read it, so it should reflect the type of conversation you would like to have on Twitter. If you are sneaky, you can stick another URL in your description, but don’t count on people clicking on it, since most clients don’t allow this.

You may also enter a location in your profile, but these are not widely used, and a static location value may be more confusing than useful. You can tweak the colors and backgrounds of your profile page, but this is much less important since many people use a third-party Twitter client and will not see this page. So don’t stress much about location and colors.

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Twitter Zen: A Global Conversation like No Other

The most important concept to grasp is the fundamental nature of Twitter: It is an ongoing, global, democratic conversation. It is not a blog, USENET, Facebook or MySpace, or an instant message platform, though it does have certain elements of all of those. Let’s take a look at these elements in a little more depth.

Discussions on Twitter continue constantly, whether you’re there or not. And discussions are meant to be ephemeral, vanishing after just a few hours. Twitter is like a dinner party where everything you say hangs around in a thought balloon but fades rapidly after. In my experience, the mean time that a message will be read is about 15 min. After this, tweets tail off and vanish in a few days.

Twitter is global, encompassing many languages and disciplines. But each user self selects their own content based on who they “follow”. Everyone’s experience with Twitter is different, because everyone follows different people. Some talk about technology, others about celebrities, local happenings, sports, or sex. And many discussions take place in languages other than English.

Twitter is also wonderfully democratic, allowing direct conversation between people who would not otherwise be able to converse. I have interacted directly with celebrities (and sometimes their ghost tweeters) and industry titans, and it is wonderful to see how many people are thrilled to converse with me.

Critically, Twitter is a conversation not a broadcasting platform. I wish marketers and “social media experts” would spend more time helping their clients actually to converse on Twitter as real humans, rather than simply spamming it with nominally on-topic content. The best tweeters are those who engage in real conversation not just shout from the rooftops.

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Live Events For The People

Nothing beats meeting in person!

In this age when video conferencing has come to the palms of our hands, not to mention our laptops, desktops, and tablets, it is tempting to be dismissive of live events. Who wants the hassle and cost of flying across the country and staying in a hotel when we can see each other wherever we happen to be? But attending events live and in the flesh is a totally different animal from online interactions. Nothing beats meeting in person, and techies more than most should get on the plane and go to events, if only to build stronger connections with their peers!

This was really brought home over the last two weeks as our own Stephen Foskett flew to Las Vegas (twice) and New York for Symantec Vision, IBM’s Storage Innovation Summit, Interop, and EMC World. The interactions we had at these events was priceless, and it will pay dividends the whole year through. We saw cool new technology and met interesting new companies as well as getting to know folks better.

One person who understands the value of personal contact is Thomas Jones, of “Coffee with Thomas” fame. Thomas understands that our back-stories are often as interesting as our day-to-day work, and he’s quick to connect on a personal level. We enjoyed sitting down with him, and turned the tables, interviewing him for a change. Watch the video below and subscribe to his podcast!

This personal connection and community-building is one reason we work so hard to put together the Tech Field Day events and spend so much time away from home. Truly, nothing beats meeting in person, and nothing beats the great folks in our community!

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How To Make Your Event More Blogger-Friendly

Do your events foster discussion or scare bloggers away?

With traditional media and analyst organizations declining in numbers and influence, conference organizers are turning to social media for coverage and attention. If identifying and attracting bloggers is difficult, keeping them happy at an event is doubly so. After three years running the Tech Field Day and a decade attending conferences, trade shows, and other events, I’ve learned a thing or two about that. Here are my suggestions.

Make Blogger Passes Available

Trade shows and conferences have long offered free admission to members of the press, and many events cater to industry analysts as well. But do bloggers get invites too? Many independent influencers don’t write for a living, and even professional organizations operate with limited budgets.

Every event should offer a number of free passes for bloggers and other social media types. These blogger passes should be all-access and should include special meetings with executives, presenters, and attendees. It can be a challenge to identify, invite, and vet potential attendees, but that is another topic for another day!

Offer Travel Support

Non-professional writers often don’t have the luxury of an expense account to draw on to attend events; many even have to take vacation days or unpaid leave. Merely offering a ticket will not be enough for these desirable attendees: Event organizers should offer to pay airfare, ground transportation, and hotel costs too. Once again, vetting prospects is key, since this can easily get out of hand. But paying for travel is a great way to entice attendees!

Give It Some Structure

Many bloggers are industry event neophytes and need guidance to help navigate the schedule, while others are just too busy to do much pre-event planning. Offer to create a custom schedule, including key presentations and event highlights, one-on-one interviews, and time off for writing. But make sure they can opt out of certain events if they choose – not all are willing to go with the flow! Offer a custom schedule in printed and electronic form, too.

Shepherd Gently

On-site guidance and shepherding is a tricky task. It can be helpful to remind bloggers where and when they should be in a scheduled event. But be careful that you don’t appear too strict: There is a fine line between influencing and imposing! Your best ally is an organized insider who can help guide their peers through the event.

Identify Yourself

Social media is exceptionally real-time focused, so make sure bloggers know who is talking at all times. Handouts with names, titles, bios, and photos are a big help, as are table cards and large, easy-to-read nametags. Never assume that the audience knows your PR staff or CEO at a glance.

Mix and Mingle

Make your staff and guests available to the audience, and resist the urge to clump together. Events can be great fun for the PR team to bond, but insider conversations can exclude the very people you are trying to reach out to. Avoid talking shop and focus your friendliness on the invited attendees.

Provide Wi-Fi and Power

What good are bloggers if they can’t blog? Make sure there is plenty of power and open Internet access everywhere they will go. Go crazy with the outlets, providing two or three at every seat, and set up special powered spots at keynotes and mixers. Make sure the Wi-Fi network is mobile-device-friendly, without excessive splash screens and passwords that interfere with iPad and smartphone users. Typical paid hotel Wi-Fi is a non-starter; set up your own.

What’s the Hashtag?

Twitter hashtags can be created on the fly, and your attendees will create a few if you don’t standardize ahead of time. Every event should have a simple, short hashtag associated with it, and the best are consistent over time. “#CorpWorld” beats “#CorporateWorld2011” hands-down and still gets the message across.

Connect to Existing Social Networks

Set up a event-related groups on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Flickr rather than creating your own forum for event-related discussion. Walled-garden social networks tend to fail, and empty discussion boards are just embarrassing. Go where the bloggers are rather than asking them to come to you.

Keep On Top Of Things

Once you standardize the twitter hashtag and identify the online groups, actively follow the discussion and immediately address any concerns that come up. Real-time chat can rapidly turn nasty, but it can also save your bacon. If a presenter is boring the bloggers, he’s probably also turning off the rest of the attendees. Pull the plug or redirect the session rather than allowing the heckling to start.

Promote Them Back

The most valuable commodity in the blogging world is a link. Actively promote the bloggers who attend your event with lists and links to their sites, and share and tweet their coverage. Balanced coverage is much more credible than straight praise, so don’t be afraid to promote less-than-flattering content. You’ll gain respect from the bloggers and their audience if you acknowledge and engage rather than aggressively refuting their commentary.

Team Up

Social media is a two-way street. Rather than going it alone, event organizers should team up with bloggers, user groups, and organizations to maximize communication and cooperation. That’s one reason we created Gestalt IT, and why today I spend 100% of my time at Foskett Services organizing and coordinating events like this. It’s nice to see so many companies reaching out and getting involved!