I decided to have some fun and produce this video parody of “Johnny Come Lately” style Internet marketing in conjunction with my new book launch on Monday. It shows various wrong ways to do things, and then makes a statement about building relationships and the importance of growing a social network based on friendships and trust. If you will take the time to watch this video and get to the core of the message, I hope that you will appreciate it enough to help me spread the word.
If you are not yet familiar with Twitter, you surely will be soon. As a dedicated user of Twitter, I enjoy my Twitter following of nearly 20,000 users. I mean, I sincerely know, communicate with these people, and very much enjoy them. I spend a lot of time with them on Twitter and on the phone, and I have had a lot of amazing laughs with them. In order to give an idea of my dedication, consider that since February 2009 I have sent well over 20,000 public messages and I very commonly reach the Twitter limit of 1000 direct (private) messages per day, and the 100 per hour public message limits set by Twitter.
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!
I want to tell the story of how my six year old son, Simon, pwned Guy Kawasaki. In order to set the story correctly, I have to share a little bit about my take on social media and how I think Guy Kawasaki gets it wrong. Of course, Guy is invited to chime in here on the blog or ring me at my direct line, 866-293-2489.
I Love Social Media
Most of my readers know that I love social media. I love being social, and the Internet is a great place to do that. If you have read any of my articles on social media, or have ever been to one of my interactive live Webcasts, you probably understand my thoughts on this topic. My feeling is that I would rather start with ten people saying something nice about me, because I was good to them, than to have 100,000 people to shout my message at. I do not mean to sound too much like “Stuart Smalley“, but people seem to like my message because they know I mean it. If those people tell a friend “hey, I know this marketing guy, Murnahan … I think he could help you”, I have received much more than I would by shouting at a deaf audience of 100,000. You can say that this does not apply to organizations seeking to reach millions of people, but it does, indeed. Let’s say for example that if those like Guy Kawasaki made a greater effort at communicating with me, he would suddenly have many thousands of additional people seeing his message, because I would pass it along, and my friends would pass it along … etcetera.
So how did a little boy pwn Guy Kawasaki? A lot can be said about intent. I am not going to fact check and give source citations on this. It should be pretty easy to look it up for yourself. As I have been told, Guy Kawasaki employs three or more writers to do his tweeting on Twitter. I have also heard speak that Guy Kawasaki holds the value of a Twitter Retweet in very high regard.
A while back, on February 20th, I had this funny idea to create a Twitter-related video to show my personality and to make a few laughs. I even blogged about funny Twitter videos, because they are great fun to watch. It was all in fun, and we set out to make this video which went from concept to completion in well under an hour. The kids had a great time making it, and they still bring it up about how fun it was.
Here is Simon’s Video Pwn of Guy Kawasaki
The video is not actually how Simon “pwned” the social media master. For the real “pwn”, you will need to read the whole thing!
After making the video, I sent a message over to two guys who were mentioned in the video by Simon. These guys were Rob McNealey (@RobMcNealey) and Guy Kawasaki (@GuyKawasaki). I thought for sure that they would take it in good humor and have a fun laugh at the little six year old redhead from Kansas talking trash on them. Rob McNealey promptly responded with a good laugh and he Retweeted it to his friends on Twitter to see how he was “shamed” by this little boy. The response from Guy Kawasaki was not the same. In fact, Guy Kawasaki and his team of writers chose to completely ignore it.
Since the time we made that video, I have quite a few more friends on Twitter. I sometimes send the video out just so new friends can see it, have a laugh, and maybe get a better feel for who this @murnahan guy is. The video came up in conversation with one of these friends who wondered if Guy Kawasaki had seen it and, if so, what his take on it was. I explained that he, nor his writers, even gave it a nod. So, this is when “Simon Pwned Guy Kawasaki”. The tweet went out, and it was retweeted many times. The Tweet read like this:
So how is that really being “pwned”? Well, it was really a joke when Simon said in the video that “we need to put him back in his spot”. Of course it was a just a joke! I was just a small guy who had very few followers, and certainly was not out to compete in any way with this social media giant.
When it actually came down to being pwned is when Simon and his daddy are very commonly more popular in all of the measures of Guy Kawasaki’s coveted Retweet than the man and his ghost writers who do not respond to their audience. Social media is about hearing and being heard. It seems that all his camp really cares about is being heard, which clearly indicates to me that they really don’t care about us “followers” any more than they do about their ability to sell us their words.
Regarding the real “Pwn”, just look at how many people follow each of us, respectively, and then see who is really being listened to. Here are some 3rd party references:
Now you tell me what you think, because I really want to hear. Is social media for broadcast or is it also valuable to hear what others have to say? I think it can be used either way, and it is the users choice, but I wonder which you think makes more sense.
Twitter username selection may not be my most interesting blog post, but the stories behind them may be. I want to keep this short, because what I am really after is your input. I wish to use some of this information in the release of the book, Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends. I want to know if there is a story behind the Twitter username name you selected, so please share your story, and I will tell you mine.
I am @murnahan
My Twitter username does not have a particularly unique story, as it is simply my surname, @murnahan, which has become a personal brand. My wife is @pegmu, which is her first name and part of her last. Her name is Peggy Murnahan, so @pegmu fit and sounded cute. When her name was chosen, length was a consideration in the selection. When I helped a friend choose his username, I suggested keeping it short, due to the limitation of 140 characters on Twitter. He really got it right with @uj1. His name is Uday Jadhav. I don’t think he could have done a lot better to keep it short and sweet.
How did you choose your Twitter username?
Did you consider length when choosing your Twitter username? Did you use a name that carried over from another service such as Google, Yahoo, Digg, etcetera?
It is your turn to share. Tell your story, and give your username. Be sure that you enter the URL for your Twitter profile (example: http://twitter.com/username), because you never know who you may meet.
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.
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!
When you need more Web traffic and a better customer focus with stronger relationships, you need my services. Call me to sell more online and develop happier customers who will talk about you to all of their friends.
