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Disappointed: Twitter Polls Don’t Degrade Nicely In Other Clients

Most people seem to have missed the news, but Twitter added in-tweet polling this month. This is an interesting new feature, and one of the biggest changes to the platform in years, but there’s a problem: When viewing a poll in one of the many not-yet-compatible clients, just the text of the question appears. There is no indication that a poll was attached, leading to some weird, out-of-context possibilities.

As you can see from this embedded tweet, Twitter’s polls are nicely composed when viewed on the web site. You are still limited to 140 characters (including the answers) but everything is neat and tidy. And once a logged-in user answers the poll, they can see the results immediately. After 24 hours, the poll is disabled and only the answers show.

For the historical record, here's how my Twitter poll looked on the Twitter web site after 15 hours online
For the historical record, here’s how my Twitter poll looked on the Twitter web site after 15 hours online

When services like Twitter add new features, it is best for them to “degrade” nicely for those using older or third-party clients. But this has never been the case for Twitter. When they added group direct messages, their existence was invisible outside new first-party clients. The same is true of longer-than-140 DM’s, and now this pattern has repeated with polls.

Here's how that same poll appears in the popular third-party client, Tweetbot. Note that there is no indication that I intended to tweet anything beyond the question.
Here’s how that same poll appears in the popular third-party client, Tweetbot. Note that there is no indication that I intended to tweet anything beyond the question.

In all three cases, it is disappointing that Twitter chose to hide critical content rather than showing it in an alternative way. And in all three cases a simple solution presents itself: Embed a link to the Twitter web site.

This would be especially-easy for polls, since the answers use up some of your 140 characters. Surely they could reserve enough space to include the link while still preserving the question! For example, my tweet could have read “What do you think of Twitter’s new polling feature? https://twitter.com/SFoskett/status/659865337630822400”.

Alternatively, they could simply replace the tweet with “@SFoskett has posted a Twitter poll: https://twitter.com/SFoskett/status/659865337630822400”, though this would be sub-optimal since the reader would have no idea if they wanted to click through or not. This solution would have been vastly preferable to showing nothing at all for group DM’s, however.

Here's how a Twitter poll looks on an official client (Twitter for Surface RT) that doesn't support polls
Here’s how a Twitter poll looks on an official client (Twitter for Surface RT) that doesn’t support polls. Still no dice.

Note too that we aren’t talking about rogue Twitter clients here. Tweetbot is authorized by Twitter (if grudgingly), and Twitter for Surface RT by Twitter, Inc. is surely a first-party client. It’s not that these clients are “non-supported” by Twitter, they’re simply “non-supporting” of this new feature.

With rumors swirling that Twitter will add longer-than-140 tweets in the near future, I am concerned. Of all the elegant solutions proposed, it seems that this Twitter, Inc. will likely choose one of the least-palatable options for non-supporting clients: Truncate them or simply don’t show them. This would be a terrible mistake.

Please, Twitter, allow your new features to degrade elegantly and usably in the future!

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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: 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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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!

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Always Punch Above Your Weight

Punching below your weight just makes you look like a foolish bully!

It’s tempting for companies to smack the little guys around. After all, it’s easier to bump off some new startup by spreading FUD than it is to challenge the top dog in your industry! But easy pickings should be avoided, especially when it comes to online communication and social media: It’s far easier for a company to lose mindshare by calling attention to the little guys than it is to gain anything from even the most justifiable argument. That’s why I advise my clients always to punch above their weight.

Pick a Fair Fight

It’s hard to pick the World Series winner before the Major League Baseball season, and World Cup “Futbol” is similarly competitive, but most fields of battle feature mismatched foes. Consider the University of Connecticut’s amazing “Lady Huskies” basketball team. They just won their 89th straight game, an amazing winning streak. Yet commentators were quick to downplay their success, claiming women’s college basketball just isn’t as competitive as other sports.

Spectators love a “David”, and schadenfreude always clouds a “Goliath”. Who wants to see Michael Shumacher drive another Ferrari to victory? It’s much more fun to see him fail to turn in a top lap, let alone stand on the podium! Seeing the Red Sox knock off the hated Yankees after losing the first three games in the 2004 ALCS was perhaps more important to fans than the two World Series victories that followed.

Social Media Lessons

I am always amused when an industry titan decides to go toe-to-toe with a tiny upstart. Sure, they often win these fights. But simply by taking up the challenge they have validated the whippersnapper’s cause, who often leverages the losing fight in the ensuing PR blitz. David and Goliath is a natural news story, after all!

This is even more true when it comes to companies responding to negative coverage online. Often, an up-and-coming blogger or analyst will intentionally pick a fight to get attention. When the victim punches back, they drag the little guy into the spotlight.

Always Punch Above Your Weight

This is an admirable tactic, and the lesson works in both directions:

  1. Always focus ahead and take on a foe larger than you
  2. Ignore everyone smaller than you – anything you say or do will weaken your position

When it comes to social media, companies should never respond in anger. It’s a rare blogger indeed who is bigger than the companies they cover! Companies should ignore the specific attack and respond with a reaffirmation of their actual value. And shooting the messenger just looks petty!

Keep this in mind the next time you see an angry response to a blogger or analyst!

Image credit: “Boxing Ring Santa Cruz IMS Academy” by KoKo Krispy

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The Four Stages of Vendor Blogging

Successful vendor blogging requires a careful balance between corporate Kool Aid and personal authenticity

It’s not easy to be a public face for your employer, and doubly so when you’re using social media. Blogs, tweets, and the like value personal authenticity (and shun “corporateness”), forcing vendor bloggers to walk a tightrope:

  • Sway too far towards your own personality and beliefs and someone from PR or marketing is going to smack you
  • Sway too far towards the press release mentality of “old communications” and your audience will abandon you

It can be hard to accept this burden, and many a bright young blogger flames out as the reality of the situation settles upon them. Yet some emerge from the trials with a reasonable philosophy and are able to continue – witness the success of folks like Chuck Hollis, Val Bercovici, Barton George, Duncan Epping, Lori MacVittie, Brad Hedlund, and many others.

Let’s consider the stages new vendor bloggers go through as they mature into a viable and authentic voice for their employer.

1) Drinking the Sweet Nectar

It’s tempting to drink the corporate Kool-Aid and jump head-first into the fray with a company-logo shield in one hand and product sword in the other. After all, if social media is a sure way to promote your employer, why not take the plunge and reap the rewards?

Because it won’t work, that’s why. Adults don’t go for overly-sweet drinks, and they won’t read “Corporate Kool-Aid” posts. This category of writing tends to be totally over-the-top corporate cheerleading: Ignoring one’s own faults, jumping on the shortcomings of competitors, and expounding on the merits of simple press-release content.

New employees often start here, but those who have worked for a while often skip this step. This is why some “people who blog and work for companies” aren’t really “vendor bloggers” at all – see, for example, Chris Hoff and Marc Farley. But who is and isn’t a “vendor blogger” is a topic for a different day!

2) Stepping Over the Line

Whether they start with Kool-Aid or with self-respect, the next step for bloggers (and tweeters, Facebookers, and other public speakers) who work for companies is to step over the line and get slapped for it. Perhaps they will enter a discussion charged with corporate or real-world politics; perhaps they will overzealously release inside information; or perhaps they will simply overshadow the marketing efforts of the company. Regardless, the repercussions are terrifying: Loss of “the mic”, a reprimand from the boss, or even an employment threat.

This is usually the low point for a vendor blogger. An act of corporate promotion becomes a threat to their employment, and they begin to question the wisdom of it all. “Keep your head down and do your job” seems like a reasoned response. Many an aspiring “public voice” is silenced at this stage. Trust me – I’ve been there, too.

3) Parroting the Press Release

Those who decide to persevere after the corporate slap-down tend to resume with a stripped-down, PR-focused style. Their blog posts contain a straightforward paragraph of praise followed by blocks pasted from official press releases. Their posting becomes less-frequent, too, as their heart has gone out of it.

If the “over the line” stage is personally risky, the parrot stage poses the greatest risk to one’s reputation. We all know that the Kool-Aid tasted great, so we can forgive posts that start with “my new job is awesome!” But seeing a formerly-vigorous individual reduced to quoting corporate marketing is harder to take. If many blogs disappear after phase 2, more are ignored when they reach this phase.

4) Being Honest and Forthright

If they survive the earlier stages, vendor bloggers eventually emerge as honest and forthright voices for their employer. They will try to avoid drawing attention to faults, writing about the highlights instead. When pressed, they will point to their tie of employment and hope the reader understands why they cannot say some things.

Great vendor bloggers are compromised and have sacrificed some authenticity. But their honesty about the situation makes this ok, and their creativity and thoughtfulness keeps the readers coming back.

It’s a tough task and not everyone can do it. But some can, and they earn my respect.

Image credit: “One Hundred + 16 — Drinking the Kool-Aid” by Khürt

“Kool-Aid” is a trademark of Kraft Foods and is used here for the purpose of satire