Month: February 2009

Twitter: The Tweet About Retweet

Being retweeted on Twitter is hitting blogs, television, and magazines around the world, but is it all that important? I want to tell you a couple things about the coveted retweet, and why it matters.

What is a Twitter Retweet?

Just a quick overview for those who did not know, a retweet is when a Twitter microblogger sends a short 140 character message, called a “tweet” and another user sends it to their Twitter followers by sending the same message prefixed with “RT @username” showing the source of the information. It is the holy grail for some, but just a good measurement of quality to others. If you are retweeted a lot, it is generally assumed that people like what you have to say.

Proper Retweet Usage

A retweet is very useful for sharing good information while crediting the originator. By retweeting, you are being courteous to your friends. If you want to spread helpful information, a retweet can be very helpful. There is nothing wrong with asking for a retweet, as long as the purpose is for other’s benefit.

Of course, there are cases where the retweet can be misused and annoying. The people out there to provide little value and just sell you their goods would consider the retweet to be the holy grail … the brass rings to reach for. These are also the same people who consider the number of people following their tweets more important than focusing on the value they offer to their audience. These are (usually) not the most retweeted people. If selling is your goal, you should really rethink the retweet.

Getting Retweeted by Providing Value

If you hope to be retweeted, consider how you interact with people, and whether you are giving them what they want. People do not want to be “sold at”. Imagine the difference in how you feel about going to a store to buy things compared to how you feel when the doorbell rings and there is somebody there to sell you something. This is very much how people feel about the selling invasion in their social networking space.

The methods and mentality of social networking has been written about in huge volumes. Some of the information is great, and much of it is junk. There are a lot of people writing about social networking just to sell to you something. Then, there are the ones who really “get it”. The ones who do “get it” are the people who understand what I have tweeted and said many times: “If you see somebody as a sandwich, they can usually tell.” This is to say that if your intention is more about making the money, and not about being helpful, most people will know. I call it the “bullshit perfume”. If my language offends you, I am sorry, but I just want to give a clear picture.

The Real Retweet Secret

I am going to put my neck out and say that the real secret to being retweeted comes in just a few parts. Here is a short list of the things I believe to be most important. I welcome your additional thoughts in the comments section of this blog post.

  • Forget about you: If you have the right mindset of being useful to people, rather than being selfish, it will show. People really like to talk about themselves. Let them, and don’t hog all of that enjoyment for yourself. Listen to what people have to tell you, and you will probably find some great friends.
  • Forget the dollars: (see above) If people want to know what you do, they will find out.
  • Be friendly: Try to get to know your “tweeps” (Twitter friends), and allow them to know you. This is why we use the word “social”. Address people by their first name.
  • Show personality: You are a person, right? Flaunt it, don’t hide it. I sometimes crank up my Webcast and have a chat with my “tweeps”. It has been great fun, and I doubt any of my tweeps would fault me for lack of personality, for better or worse. 🙂
  • Consider what people want: People want to connect with other people. They want to laugh. They want to find useful information.

@murnahan Retweeted

Just so that you do not think I am another one of those “Twitter experts” that I have made so much fun of, I feel that I must explain that I did not make this all up. I am consistently in all of the popular leaderboards as one of the most retweeted Twitter users, and can back it up. I strongly believe that my mindset of helping others and doing what I have said here truly is the reason. For a look at where I stand for retweets, I offer the lists as follows:

 
For more on Twitter, please reference Answers.com or these previous articles I wrote: Twitter Usage Study and Twitter Usage Study Results … and of course, I invite you to watch my Twitter Kids @murnahanvideo.
 
NOTE: If you would like to meet more people on Twitter, feel free to add a link to your Twitter profile in the comments here.
 

I hope you found this article useful. If so, please pass it along and retweet (RT) it … your tweeps will probably like it too!

January 2011 Addendum: Twitter has changed a lot since I wrote this, and since I wrote the book “Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends“. Many things are the same, and providing value is still the most important.

I have recently noticed an increase in people searching the Internet to find out the answer to the question “how do i know if people retweet me?” The simple answer is to go to http://twitter.com/#!/retweeted_of_mine and also watch for people manually retweeting your content by copying and pasting a link and including your username. That will simply show up in your Twitter account under “@mentions“.

I hope this has helped you, and I always welcome your feedback, here, on Twitter, or elsewhere.

Funny Twitter Videos Get Re-Tweeted

The burning question: What gets re-tweeted? First, I will explain for non-Tweeters (a Tweeter is a user of Twitter) a re-tweet is wheen a user of Twitter adds “RT @username” to a message and re-sends it to their Tweeple (Twitter people). This signifies the source of the initial tweet, and it pays the orignial sender a respect for their tweet (message). Being re-tweeted is not only a great honor, but it greatly expands the reach of your messages. Just imagine that when I send something out to my present group who follow me, if they re-tweet it to their group of followers, and if those people also do the same, well, the numbers can get huge!

Finding ones way in the “Twitterverse” is a very personal experience. Each of us develop our own uniqueness and personality. While there are a number of Twitter users who choose to use Twitter with little more than to promote a product, many users are in it to have fun and meet new and interesting people, with the possible side-effect of growing business. My personal Twitter experience is that it is a fantastic way to find a ton of useful information that I probably would never have found otherwise. I have written a couple other posts (Twitter Usage Study | Twitter Usage Study Results) about Twitter usage, but this one is about the fun and funny side of Twitter.

I saw a poll today that was quite revealing. It showed that good humor is far more likely to be re-tweeted to others. This kind of explains why when I look at retweetrank.com it shows @murnahan (me) in position #47 for re-tweeted messages at the time I am writing this. It is because my Twitter “channel” is chock full of the most zany, strange, bizarre stuff I can find. That is the stuff that interests me. Twitter, to me, is a great place to be the class clown. I tend to send a lot of video links in my Tweets, and what better than a funny video about Twitter? It just makes sense. So I want to share a few funny Twitter videos that gave me a chuckle.

Rob McNealy (@RobMcNealy) Twitter Gangster Video

Rap may not be your favorite genre, but this comical video of the “Twitter Gangster” is a Twitter great!

Ben Walker (@ihatemornings) The Twitter Song

This one is a hoot! If you haven’t been bookmarked, re-tweeted, and blogged, you might as well not have existed. Ben has a real hit with this video.

Mark Aaron Murnahan (me) (@murnahan) Twitter Kids

In this video, I share my secret to Twittering more by using my six year old son and three year old daughter. Don’t worry, I supply them with plenty of coffee and Red Bull … After all, I am not an animal!

Submit Your Funny Twitter Video

If you have seen or created a funny Twitter video, please add it in your comment to this blog post and Tweet it to me. I am always up for a laugh, and I will re-tweet your video to others looking for good humor. Also, please re-tweet this! 🙂

Hookers Write the Best Blogs

Hookers Are Not All Bad
Hookers Are Not All Bad

Who would have guessed that hookers write the best blogs? In this fast-paced scan-and-click Internet world, what are people actually reading? It may sound crazy, but you could learn a lot from a hooker.

With over 200 million blogs on the Internet, who can slow down and read the whole thing? Hookers know the answer, and it is really pretty basic. When you hook the reader right up front, they will have more reason to keep reading and want to know more. So keep reading! I wrote this to help you get more productivity from your time online, and if you are a blog author, to help your readers get more from your articles.

Bloggers and Hookers

If you are a writer, it is your responsibility to assure readers a good value for their time. But first, you must give them an incentive … a hook. Thus, a writer with a good hook could be called a “hooker”. In order to do this, effectively, you really must think about the way you read. I have often found myself scanning through information in such a mad rush that I sometimes miss the good stuff. Consider for a moment how many articles you start to read but never finish. You only get a fraction of the message because you toss them aside and click on the next flashy thing that catches your eye. Your readers are not so different. A look at your Website statistics will show how long an average visitor spends on your site, and it is never as long as you would like. So, if you are a good hooker, “turning the trick” is the next big battle.

Turning the Trick 

This happened to me just yesterday. I was reading a blog post that I thought was kind of interesting. I put it aside and figured I would read the rest later. I thought it was good enough that I tweeted it (sent a message using Twitter.com), but I almost didn’t finish it. Just a moment later, I saw that somebody “re-tweeted” it. The article very nearly ended up in my vast “to read” pile (which often remains unread). Once I read just a bit more, I could not stop … I was hooked! The terrible part is that I almost missed reading something that I ultimately found very interesting and useful.

So, in the example above, where did this all go wrong? I had actually read far enough to know it was a good article. The hook had been set, right? Wrong! The author almost lost me, and not because it got boring, but rather because he did not set the hook deep enough, fast enough. If the author had fully engaged me in the very beginning, I could have probably suffered through a lot of boring reading, just assuming there was something coming to re-spark my interest.

Quality Ad Copy

Quality ad copy always starts with a hook. If you get that part right, the rest is much easier. If you canont come up with the right hook, get help from a friend or hire a professional.

Quality ad copy with a good hook is more important on the Internet than any other place. You only have seconds to reach your readers. I don’t know any writer who feels good about losing a reader early, and when it comes to business writing, it hurts your bottom line. I personally love to look at my reader statistics to see people spending a lot of time on a page. This means they are actually getting what I tell them. It means I have done my job well, which is very satisfying to me. Be sure to look at your statistics, and if users are coming but not staying long, you are probably not setting the hook.

Am I a Hooker?

Yes, I am a hooker for hire. I got you to read this far, didn’t I? If I can do that, just imagine what I can do to help you reach more people and “hook” your audience. Of course, I don’t want to lose you here, because the good stuff is yet to come. If it will help you, take a deep breath, stand up and shake, get a cup of coffee, or do whatever you need to do, and then when you are ready … come back and read some more of my blog. Perhaps my section on SEO Lessons and the importance of quality Internet marketing will interest you, or take your pick from the left side of this page. This is all here to help you, and I will try to not let you down.

Origin of the Word “Hooker”

Since this blog post refers to hookers, I thought I would share this clever video to explain the origin of the word “hooker”. Enjoy! Oh, and Please Tweet This!

Twitter Study Statistical and Social Results

NOTE: This is a follow up to my previous “ Twitter Usage Study“. Please Tweet This!

I want to start by saying that I am NOT a Twitter Expert. I think it is pretty early to give clear definition to what a “Twitter expert” really is. There are some Twitter users whom I would consider highly effective at propagating a message, but even many of the best will disclaim that extremely overused claim to being an expert. The fact is that those who are good at Twitter are good at people.

My Twitter Experience

This is a summary of my past ten days as a Twitter newbie. I have learned a lot in this time, and I found interesting results of my Twitter study. First, I will start with what matters, and then get to the numbers.

I used Twitter for three other projects I worked on in 2008, but I did not make a big effort to optimize my use. Only when I recently embraced Twitter as the vital social networking tool it represents, did I see the big picture. In this short time, I have made many observations and met a few people who really influenced me.

Twitter Study: The People Matters

I explained the importance of social networking relationships in my recent article “Three Kids Prove Social Networking Works“. The article tells how I met close friends online over a decade ago, including my closest friend and wife, Peggy in 2000. Nobody can tell me that the relationships are just a side-effect … they are what counts.

Each day I use Twitter, I notice that there are a few people I look forward to reading about and having a quick chat with. I will just name a few, but there are many more whom I enjoy and respect. If you follow my tweets, or look at my favorites you can start to see the people I respect and visit with the most. Some of the outstanding people I have had the privilege to chat with one-on-one and grow my respect for are as follows:  

Jim Connolly (@jimconnolly): I have gained a lot of respect for Jim, and I suggest everybody read his brilliantly authored “Top 10 Tips” and his story “Twitter and me” about deleting his group of over 20,000 followers to do things right the second time. Many people would consider Jim a Twitter expert.

Reg Saddler (@zaibatsu): Reg called me just after midnight and we talked for over two hours. I wrote about it in my article “Social Networking: A Call from Reg Saddler (zaibatsu)“. I have learned a lot from Reg, and he is a top-notch Twitter user with over 34,000 followers.

Jimmy Vee (@5ftHighMktgGuy): Jimmy has a certain familiar swagger that I respect. After reading about his business, “Gravitational Marketing: The Science of Attracting Customers“, watching his video, and reciprocal tweeting, I have come to like his style.

Joe Scanlon (@littlequiz): Joe is an Irish Blog Awards finalist, and I am excited for him at this recent achievement! Joe is a delight to visit with during the very late night or early morning hours (my time). He “gets it”!

Mari Smith (@marismith): Mari is a delight, and a very insightful lady. She is a joy in every communication. The author of “Why Facebook?: Social Networking for Fun and Profits!“, Mari understands that the people come first, and has many valuable lessons to share.

 

I would recommend following each of these people and learn from them, just as I have. They are each fine examples of the real people you can meet with Twitter.

I was on the telephone with a friend who asked me for a one sentence description of Twitter. I tweeted his question for others to address and then answered him “It is a great way to meet interesting people and gather useful information”. I very quickly received an answer back on Twitter that was almost identical to mine. This is the mindset that will work best, and people can identify with.

Twitter Disasters

If you are using Twitter for the wrong reasons, you may find yourself very frustrated. It is fine to join the community and align yourself with others where there is a potential mutual benefit. However, it is best to leave self-interest at the door and focus on being friendly and helpful. If your motivation is wrong, you may find this impossible.

Like every social media, there will be those who do the cyber equivalent of walking into a party and try to hand everybody their business card. People don’t have time or patience for that on Twitter … or the Internet for that matter. If you think that millions of people will congregate online with the purpose of being hit up with your pitch, you may do well to get a job at a carnival. People do not enjoy being sold at. Twitter is a conversation and not your personal billboard or bull horn.

I have noticed that there is an abundance of people trying to sell their services and products, while there are relatively few who are actually achieving it abundantly. What the Twitter achievers know is that the people are what matter, as I explained above.

What Gets Under Our Skin? My Observations:

  • Auto DM – Many people abhor the automated direct message they get when they begin to follow you. If they thought you were interesting, a lot of that goes out the window when they get a message like I received. It read as follows: “blah blah blah … buy my stuff and visit my website”. OK, that is not verbatim, but that is as close as I remembered it. No, I didn’t visit your “Magnificent Wonder-Widget” Website. I want to learn about you in time … don’t cram it down my throat like the guy at the carwash trying to sell me the extra greasy crap for the tires.
  • Link Guesswork – If others are to trust your taste and click on the link you sent, it had better not be misrepresented. When you provide a link, it is respectful to others and will be much better received if you give an accurate and concise description of what to expect.
  • Same Old Stuff – If we look at your profile and see that it shows a history of the same old thing just repeated in different ways, you strike out. You are a person, so behave that way. We are not looking for a machine to hand out lines of drivol … we want to know you. Show your personality! We may not all like you, but some of us surely will.

Twitter Study Statistics

I said I would share this with you, so here are some of the numbers. As it says in my initial “Twitter Usage Study“, I started the study with a relatively unused Twitter account (@murnahan) that had only 78 followers. Here are the present numbers at publish of this article:

  • 783 Followers
  • 97.4 Percentile Re-tweet
  • 100+ Cities (first 2 days)
  • 19 Native Languages
  • 482 Unique Referrals from Twitter.com to awebguy.com/ptt
  • 33 Countries
    • 1. United States
    • 2. United Kingdom
    • 3. Canada
    • 4. India
    • 5. Germany
    • 6. Australia
    • 7. Austria
    • 8. United Arab Emirates
    • 9. New Zealand
    • 10. Switzerland
    • 11. France
    • 12. Denmark
    • 13. Belgium
    • 14. Sweden
    • 15. Pakistan
    • 16. South Africa
    • 17. Russia
    • 18. Costa Rica
    • 19. Philippines
    • 20. Netherlands
    • 21. Turkey
    • 22. Indonesia
    • 23. Mexico
    • 24. Brazil
    • 25. Hong Kong
    • 26. Ukraine
    • 27. Rwanda
    • 28. Taiwan
    • 29. Italy
    • 30. Slovenia
    • 31. Spain
    • 32. Malaysia
    • 33. Montenegro

In the past ten days, the followers multiplied by ten. As I write this, I have 783 followers. You may see a chart of growth at twittercounter.com/murnahan. I also now show a 97.4 percentile re-tweet rate according to retweetrank.com/murnahan.

I launched the study on Saturday 7 February, and I knew it would perform weak for a couple days. The study ultimately did not have an overwhelming re-tweet rate, and now I know why, but it was picked up by some of the Twitter elite and sent to their followers. I believe the reason it did not travel as much as hoped is because Twitter users are absolutely sick to death of somebody trying to sell them on a new way to “be successful on Twitter”. I suspect that the description may have been viewed that way in tweets, but it simply is not the case. The hashtag #PTT made it around the world reasonably well, but it did not drive overwhelming Web traffic (under 500 referred from the passing of the tweet). This does not mean it was not heard, it just means that a lot of the message stayed within the confines of Twitter.

In the proper spirit of Twittering, I provide this to you in hopes that you find it interesting and useful. I would also like to offer these links that I found profoundly interesting. Please Tweet!

From Brooks Bayne: “The Newest Way To Game Twitter – Fake Followers” (tweet it!)
From Pete Cashmore: “The Science of ReTweets” (tweet it!)

Social Networking: A Call from Reg Saddler (zaibatsu)

We are all people … we have emotions, motivations, body odors, and a history. Some of us are funny, some of us are deep thinkers, and some of us just want to have fun. The bottom line is that when you peel back the layers, none of us are really corporate drones, regardless how the workday may sometimes feel. Making it personal is what matters.

Reg Saddler (@zaibatsu) Conversation

I had the pleasure early this morning (just after midnight) of receiving a telephone call from Reg Saddler(@zaibatsu). We talked for over two hours. I was very honored to speak with Reg, as he is a true master in the marketing industry. In our talks, a lot was more about fun stuff, like a plan to entertain you all with a road rally Webcast (as I did with CopMagnet.com). One thing that really sticks out is that Reg said “Most people do not even know what I do for a living.” Coming from a true Internet marketing master, this emphasizes this message that “I”, “me”, and “my” are not what drives success. Now I want to speak favorably about Reg Saddler as a person, and if that is not how to reach people, I do not know what is.

I, Me and My Don’t Belong in Social Networks

Now that companies have made their peace with their best assets, the people, they encourage their employees to use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and all of the latest social networking tools. The hardships lie in their use, and a lack of understanding that promoting an agenda is not a suitable part of social media / social networking. I have heard it described as shouting out your sales pitch at a cocktail party. That is not an image of success, and it will not create success.

These are just my thoughts … and I am just one guy. But when it comes to social networking, the agenda of serving yourself only magnifies a disturbance that likely exists in other aspects of ones life. If you live your life bugging people to hear all about “I”, “me”, and “my”, you may be well reminded of why you have two ears and only one mouth.

Why Social Networking Started: In Summary

Let’s look at why social networking became commercialized. For a time, the Internet seemed very impersonal. It was like a contest to see which corporation could have the fanciest Website with the most views. The public went with that for a while, but it eventually only emphasized the absurd big bucks corporate mentality bred in the 1990s. You may remember the visions of the Silicon Valley executive taking his pick of ladies in line at the hottest nightclub after driving up in a Ferrari. It was like a Hollywood red carpet frenzy. The image of a company was more important than the real assets … the individuals. The passion to create a big corporate image was worthy of ridicule, just as much as the buzzards on Wall Street are in 2009. Fortunately, the culture has changed, and we see the errors of those ways.

As the Internet matured, and as people became tired of clicking around for precious minutes just to find a phone number to call the huge dot com, then wade through “press 7 to hold” hell, and finally reach a corporate drone, companies somehow found a better resource in the uniqueness of each of us as individuals. It finally made sense to personalize the Internet and quit trying to imply that computers could replace real people.

Related Article: Three Kids Prove Social Networking Works
Related Article: Twitter Usage Study: Pass the Tweet #PTT