Twitter Dear Tweeps: I love you so much …

As a dedicated user of Twitter, I enjoy my Twitter friends. I sincerely enjoy communicating with the people I have met on Twitter, so I thought I would share my love with them.

What is a Tweep?

These Twitter users who follow my Twitter feed are affectionately called (by me, anyway) “Tweeps”. In a unique and cute way to express my appreciation and to give a good laugh, I have written, and continue to write, a series of short Dear Tweeps letters. These are a part of my own unique Twitter brand, but I welcome you to share them with your tweeps to show your affection as well. However, I kindly ask that you be reminded that if you should choose to tweet any of these, to observe copyright law and Twitter’s rules relating to crediting the source with RT @murnahan. Enjoy!

Dear Tweeps: I am going to keep on loving you! ? http://blip.fm/~5ajg3 (RT this)

Dear Tweeps: I love you so much. My love for you is as unique as mustard on a peanut butter pie! #love (RT this)

Dear Tweeps: I love you so much that I found this video to express my love.http://bit.ly/452UM2 #love (RT This)

Dear Tweeps: I love you so much. I would kiss you after you drink a garlic milkshake. #love #halitosis (RT This)

Dear Tweeps: I love you so much. My love for you is stronger than buffalo farts! #love (RT This)

Dear Tweeps: I love you so much. You are as cool as an ice bathrobe! #love (RT This)

Dear Tweeps: I love you so much that I would wash my hands after the restroom just to shake your hand. #swineflu #swine #flu #love (RT This)

Dear Tweeps: I love you so much. If you were here I would hug you until you shart! http://bit.ly/kprDG #love (RT This)

Dear Tweeps: I love you so much. If you were bit on the butt by a snake, I would … um, hold your hand to the very end. #love (RT This)

Dear Tweeps: I love you so much. Accepting my love in small dose is like sipping from a firehose! #love (RT This)

Dear Tweeps: I love you all so much that if we were in prison, I would protect you in the shower. #love (RT This)

Dear Tweeps: I love you so much. Please respect attribution (RT/via) for material copyright.

More fun Dear Tweeps are yet to come. Keep watching @murnahan

Swine Flu Outbreak: Perfect Case for Twitter

Swine flu proves a perfect case for widespread use of Twitter. Never before has there been a method by which important breaking news can spread with the velocity it is spread on Twitter. When I saw the stories of swine flu in the news, I tweeted about it, just as thousands of others did.

There has been a lot of misinformation on the topic of Swine Flu (H1N1), but the fact that Twitter has provided for such fast spread makes me wonder if Twitter can outspread the flu.

Swine Flu Outbreak on Twitter

Here is a compilation of just a few news stories that I found interesting and that I tweeted:

11 more suspected swine flu cases in U.S. http://bit.ly/17VeWH PLEASE RT (View Tweet)

Kansas health authorities confirm new cases of swine flu http://bit.ly/17VeWH (View Tweet)

U.S. swine flu outbreak confirmed (video) http://bit.ly/QrFlR (View Tweet)

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) surgical masks for 25 times their regular price http://bit.ly/YW1Cw #swineflu #flu #swine (View Tweet)

Mexico May Isolate Patients With Deadly Swine Flu http://bit.ly/gs01Y (View Tweet)

High school near San Antonio closed indefinitely http://bit.ly/12Rqkq#swineflu #swine #flu (View Tweet)

Dirty hands spread #Swine #Flu (video)http://bit.ly/jEtZP #swineflu (View Tweet)

RT @CDCemergency 11 swine flu cases confirmed by CDC in U.S.: 7 in CA, 2 in TX, 2 in KS: http://bit.ly/1133Zz (View Tweet)

More Swine Flu Tweets by @murnahan

More Swine Flu Information on Twitter

There are a lot of recent tweets about Swine Flu on Twitter. Twitter will surely be the best place to keep an eye on this news. Here is a link to a Twitter search for Swine Flu. Additionally, a presumably credible authority on Swine Flu on Twitter is @CDCemergency (Website). Keep an eye on this, and if you have seen an interesting story on the subject, please tweet it and also add it to the comments of this blog post.

Twitter News: What are your thoughts?

Tell me what you think of this powerful use of Twitter as a means to spread an important news topic. Give your comments, please.

Kutcher vs. Murnahan Twitter Dance-Off (well @aplusk?)

This is not a review of Dancing with the Stars, and I have already told Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) that I dance like a goon.

If you are not already familiar with this blog, it may help to know that I wrote an article recently that criticized the highly publicized race between Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) and CNN (@CNNBrk) to reach one million followers on Twitter. I look at this today and realize that nearly anybody could do that if they put the resource into the campaign that each of these giants did. There is even a billboard in my home town of Topeka, Kansas advertising to follow @aplusk on Twitter.

Ashton Followed My Twitter Feed

I have been asked a lot about the bar fight / dance-off talk on Twitter between Ashton Kutcher and myself. First, I want to say that there was no bar fight. Secondly, as of yet, we have not determined the venue for our dance off. However, Oprah’s show (@oprah) seems to be the crowd favorite. So what is the real story? Since I wrote a recent post criticizing the race between Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) and CNN (@CNNBrk) I suppose it deserves this follow up.

The Ashton Kutcher Bar Fight

The story behind the bar fight is pretty simple. I sent a tweet as follows: “20 Athletes You Would Want with You in a Bar Fight http://bit.ly/hxNg0. This tweet was subsequently retweeted (see tweet) by my friend, Phao Loo (@phaoloo). Ashton Kutcher follows Phao Loo’s tweets, and he liked it, so he retweeted it again (see tweet). The bar fight story was really this simple.

The Ashton Kutcher Dance-Off

Although there may be a dance-off, I have made Mr. Kutcher aware that I dance like a goon. However, I will be a willing participant if it should come to pass. Interestingly, the whole notion follows through nicely with some of what I believe his intended message was for CNN and Ted Turner. That message is that the little guy can still have a voice in social media, and can still make a difference in the world. The misguided part of that equation was that Ashton Kutcher is not the little guy. Unfortunately, Ashton did not have me on retainer at the time of his message, so a lot became blurred with many mixed signals and lack of solid personal branding.

Perhaps if Ashton Kutcher really wants to show the sincerity of his message, a better approach may be to come down to my level and visit with a guy who uses social media to build relationships and good will. Then perhaps he can win me over as an active part of his audience, and even his advocate. Beating all odds, he and I could work as a team to clear up his message and do some really properly meaningful things together. As it is, I have been bombarded with questions of what really took place, and whether I think he is genuine. To all of the many questions, I must say that I simply do not know, yet.

I have not made an attack on Ashton’s integrity, but I have had reason to criticize his signal. In my previous blog post on the matter, I made observations that his message is flawed, and that I do not respect much of what I observed. Perhaps a lot of that has to do with Hollywood, publicists, contracts, and a whole lot of time spent being desired by masses. I have a strong immunity to the whole celebrity bit. I have spent enough time with “the desired ones”, and also been the focus of some of the same. I do understand the awkward feeling of being envied, as certainly we all have for one reason or another. This transforms each of us differently on different levels. To me, it has made me work even harder to be real and to be humble. In Hollywood, this is a method that is often not embraced, or accepted properly when it is. After all, a little cockiness seems to make you cool. Sadly, the people it makes you cool with are the same people who are wearing a similar mask of blended pride and shame.

When it comes down to who the man is or what he intends, I do not know the answers about Ashton Kutcher. I will gladly welcome him to call me at *REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE* on my nickel, join my Webcast as a co-host and come down to “the people’s” level, and I will gladly meet him for a dance-off and show just how horribly I dance.

The way it all went down was like a firestorm of tweets about a dance-off among my followers. Note that I follow well over 8,500 people’s Twitter feed, whereas Ashton followed (at the time) 84. Not only do I follow this many, I do so very actively, and as I write this, I have reached my 1000 direct message daily limit and I am waiting to be able to send direct messages again. 

Within my Twitter friends rampant tweets, the speculation of a ghost tweeter was common, as were many RT,  and questions of Ashton’s intent (PR, damage control, etc). So that there is no speculation, the Tweets we have shared, and some of the related communications surrounding the bar fight / dance-off tweets are as follows:

@murnahan: Hey, Ashton Kutcher just RT me. http://bit.ly/Gt5Yf LOL!

@kimsherrell: OH SNAP ~>more drama. @aplusk just RTd @murnahan. but did he read mark’s blog? http://bit.ly/4SBD8

@murnahan: ROFL! –> RT @KimSherrell: OH SNAP ~>more drama. @aplusk just RTd @murnahan. but did he read mark’s blog? http://bit.ly/4SBD8

@kimsherrell: WHOA @aplusk has challenged @murnahan to a bar fight?! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

@aplusk: @KimSherrell i don’t have time to go to kansas. I just find the assumptions to be interesting.

@aplusk: @murnahan Kind of ironic?

@murnahan: @KimSherrell I guess he did see it. 😉 http://bit.ly/9iHpE

Right about this time is when I realized (from a friend’s tweet) that @aplusk was following me. I was number 84 that he was following out of 1,234,083 following him. So the questions that came to mind was, whether he would still be following me tomorrow, and does this guy meet the criteria of those whom I prefer to follow?

@murnahan: @aplusk Are you an OK guy after all? I like seeing that you are listening. 😉 Dance off, huh? LOL I dance like a goon!

@aplusk: @murnahan lets dance brother. I think you paint interesting picture with your words.

@murnahan: @aplusk Thanks! Do you need any help at the TweetDeck? http://bit.ly/AKIra

@aplusk: @murnahan no I’m quite efficient i’m sure @oprah could use a tutorial though

@murnahan: Well then hook me up, brother. LOL –> RT @aplusk: @murnahan no I’m quite efficient i’m sure @oprah could use a tutorial though

@aplusk: @murnahan you wouldn’t want to teach her she might ruin the platform by connecting with too many people

@aplusk: @murnahan or she might end up saving lives…

@murnahan: Well, @oprah, @aplusk said you may need a hand. http://bit.ly/2zog7w – REF: http://bit.ly/NHRbb

@kimsherrell: ashton kutcher now following mark murnahan. thank you + good night.

@kimsherrell: LOL… a low-budget internet musical: @aplusk versus @murnahan – http://bit.ly/dgyxa

@murnahan: Hey Ashton (@aplusk), I am following you back now, but don’t go messing up my reputation. 😉

There were many more tweets about this, but I must stop at some point. For more tweets relating to this, click here for a Twitter search and refine the search to find related information.

Will There Be a Dance-Off Between @aplusk and @murnahan?

To answer the question of whether there will ever be a dance-off between us, only time will tell. I may never hear from Ashton again, or we may turn out to grow a mutual respect for each other. Who knows? To my notion, Ashton is a funny and talented guy. I simply do not believe that social media stunts last all that long, and I am here for the long-term, just as I have been since the 90’s with my Yahoo! chat clubs, where I met my wife.

I want to hear your thoughts. Please give your comments here on this blog, and feel free to give other readers your Twitter username in the form of http://twitter.com/murnahan (substitute the murnahan part).


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Jack Walden Teaches Social Media

Jack Walden Murnahan, Twitter’s youngest user, sent a message to social media yesterday that we should all take heed of. The message that Jack Walden sent at only minutes old was not just as you would think, and it should prove to each of us the greatest of lessons in social media.

Jack Walden’s message was delivered more directly to the heart of social media than even the most cleverly devised sales pitch or news story. It did not need to be spread around the world to every Internet user, and there was no attached agenda. It was simply the sharing of one family’s very excited welcome to their little boy.

The Response to Baby Murnahan Tweeting

The responses have been overwhelming. As I made announcements of progress toward the birth of our son, the outpouring of excitement and love was more than I could possibly keep up with. I sat down today to write a personal thank you to each of the people offering their congratulations and excitement for us. After writing several hundred personal messages of thanks, I started realizing that I was actually losing ground. More messages were coming in by Twitter, Facebook, and email, faster than I could keep up. Beyond just that, I knew that I would soon reach the 1000 direct message daily limit and 100 per hour limit for @ messages on Twitter. I have reached both of these limits before, even without having a new son.

What this incredible outpouring of support for and about Jack Walden teaches is that people really do care about people. Social media provides a means to reach into people’s lives, get to know them, and share in their joys, defeats, likes, dislikes, and more. It allows for unique and often touching insights to people’s lives, and for many of us, it provides great joy to feel a part of something bigger than ourselves. The power of friendshinp and caring is something that cannot be described in a single blog post, or in only a few lines. It is built over time, and built with trust.

Even if you skip the rest of this blog post, I hope that you will heed the message that a little boy named Jack Walden Murnahan has come to deliver about sharing in joys and pains of others, and the very deep-reaching power of communications with others that is so greatly enhanced through social media.

I will, however, since so many people have asked, share some of what lead up to Jack’s birth, and give you a story of this piece of my life that has been very touching to me. So read it if you like, and know that I have held your many well wishes and congratulations very dear.

Jack Walden’s Story of Social Media

A while back, I announced that my wife, Peggy (@pegmu) would soon give birth to our new baby. Since so many of our friends are spread around the world, the Internet and social media is clearly the best way to share our excitement and details with our friends and family. It is a lot faster to make a baby announcement using Twitter than to call each person to deliver the great news. Plus, it is a great way to show the new baby photos and video to the people who wish they could be there but cannot.

One of the earlier announcements of our joy was our Twitter Kids video. The video showed how our “human resources department” (Peggy) was working on bringing us more help to keep up with our work. If you have not seen it, you may get a chuckle from it. This was a fun video for all of us to make.

As the pregnancy progressed, I shared it with friends on Twitter and Facebook. On April 1st, I shared that we thought we would be welcoming our new baby that day. This was not an April Fools Day joke. Peggy was having very regular contractions, and they were increasingly strong. However, once she finally got too tired to stand any longer, she went to bed and the contractions subsided.

Several times since April 1st, we were pretty convinced that it was time to meet the little one. It really dragged on for a long time. We were visiting our midwife weekly, and we kept our fingers crossed that we would meet our baby soon. On April 16th, we made yet another a visit to our midwife following a series of contractions that seemed productive and getting closer together. Peggy was having contractions as frequent as every two minutes. Norla, our midwife, promptly put Peggy on a monitor and checked dilation. She sent us home and said that she would not be at all surprised to see us back either that night or the next day. At this point, Jack was already a week late, and we were becoming concerned that we may end up in a hospital where they would require a cesarean section (surgical) delivery, because Peggy had a cesarean section delivery with our first born, Simon. This was a very frightening prospect for Peggy, and she hoped to avoid it.

That night, Peggy did as she had been for days, she paced up and down our street, stayed on her feet, and hoped that gravity would help to enhance the labor, as it should. She finally wore out and had to go to bed. She was completely exhausted. She finally got some good rest, and I did my part to be sure the kids would not wake her too early. I wanted her to rest as much as possible because I was certain that she would have a very exhausting day ahead.

That morning, she walked with her mother around our neighborhood, and went shopping, mostly for the walk. By about 1:00pm, Peggy said that some of the contractions felt stronger, but they were just short ones that went away pretty quick. i suggested that we call Norla just to be safe. We described what was happening, and Norla said to come on in and we would take a look at her. As we left our home, it looked like things were getting more serious. Peggy had a couple of pretty strong contractions.

We arrived at the birth center at about 1:55pm and they checked her blood pressure, pulse, and the baby’s pulse. All of the sudden, Peggy was hit with a really strong contraction … I mean really strong. Of course, I tweeted it with one hand as I held her hand and comforted her. 🙂

It became clear that it would not be very long before we met our son. Norla could tell that things were happening fast, so she told Peggy to go ahead and put on a gown and that we would not be leaving without a baby in our arms. I will save some of the graphic details, but Peggy went from being dilated to 4cm to giving birth in under a half hour. She pushed three times and delivered our son directly into daddy’s waiting hands in under five minutes.

Minutes after his birth, Jack was ready to send his first tweet. Jack’s first official tweet was as follows:

Jack’s 1st tweet: Hi Tweeps. I was born! #baby #twanic #whew (now press enter, Jack)

That message, and the ones leading up to it, caused a huge rush of support and congratulations that I have been shockingly unprepared, I did not expect so many people to listen or care enough to show their interest of compassion for our moments of joy. I feel very honored by the warmth given to our family. As much as I want to respond individually to each person, I have provided this story to tell a bit about what happend for our family, and how deeply thankful I am to each person giving their support and love.

I owe a huge “thank you” to each of you. You really are the reasons that social media is great. You are the people who understand that the very best things in life are the people and relationships that you build. You are my social media rockstars!

Will Oprah (@oprah) Ruin Twitter?

I want to start by saying that from most I have seen and heard of Oprah (@oprah), she is an absolute doll. I love the heartfelt message that she represents to the world, and I hold her in very high regard. She has clearly surrounded herself with an aura of absolute attraction. I believe that she truly is the beautiful person she presents herself to be.

The Burning Question: Will Oprah Ruin Twitter?

Obviously, Oprah would not, and could not ruin Twitter. However, the power of her influence could have damaging effects on the fledgling community. I recently questioned the responsiveness of Twitter to the recent Mikeyy worm, and received many confirmations that the Twitter community was very unhappy with the company’s lack of communication regarding what to do about the worm. Some will recall that I was the first on the scene with the second outbreak and set the top trend on Twitter that late night and early morning. It left me with concerns about Twitter. So, let’s say Twitter is actually up to the task from a technology standpoint, as big a stretch as that may be. For this point, we will assume that Twitter made some miracle fix to the Fail Whale and speed problems of the service in the past couple days.

The concern about the Oprah Winfrey show is not about Oprah, but rather what happens with the sudden boom of any product or service. With sudden growth comes sudden growing pains. There will likely be a substantial enough fluctuation in new users that as an existing community, we may find difficulties in accommodating.

Be Ready for Twitter Newbies!

Along with the growth will likely come a huge number of people here for the wrong reasons or with bad methods. After all, how many people have you seen start twittering with a me, me, me message to advertise their goods or services only to become a really fine twitizen a short time later. We must allow patience and understanding, and show that Twitter is a great place to settle in, relax, and build great relationships. However, in the beginning, this may be a challenge. An additional challenge is that it may be much harder to discern true spammers with great people just trying to get started. Most users eventually develop their own system of deciding which users to follow, and which to block. This comfortable system could be thrown into a complete upset with a massive mainstream influx in users.

I certainly welcome the many newbies. I really hope that they will find me for some early tips on how to play nice. I am not saying that I am a Twitter teddy bear or anything like that, but I do have a few tips to offer, and I certainly understand the great value of developing friendships using Twitter.

I want to hear your thoughts. Please give your comments here on this blog, and feel free to give other readers your Twitter username in the form of http://twitter.com/murnahan (substiture the murnahan part).