Posted: August 17th, 2010 | Author: Chris Norton | Filed under: General Twitter, Social Media, Tips | Tags: Twitter tips | No Comments »
This is a guest post from Andrew Dubber.
I’ve been having conversations over the past 24 hours about the ‘value’ of social media. The social transparency and personal profile that this kind of medium affords is one of those things that crops up from time to time in articles such as this one in Techcrunch and this one in Music Think Tank – and I find myself ending up defending Twitter, which certainly doesn’t need my help.
There are several common complaints:
1) It’s inane. People just tweet about what they had for lunch;
2) It’s just celebrities and narcissists full of self-importance;
3) It’s a waste of my time;
4) It makes people I thought were interesting and exciting seem mundane and ordinary.
And I have very simple responses to those complaints.
1) No it isn’t. You clearly follow boring people with nothing to say. Don’t do that;
2) Again, no. You can follow celebrities if you want, of course – but it’s far from compulsory;
3) Really? Having conversations with other human beings is a waste of your time, but passively watching television shows you don’t actually like is a good investment of your attention? Writing a sentence about what you’re up to or thinking about a couple of times a day is a time-consuming activity that takes you away from all that important stuff you were doing?
4) If you want real people to be profound, entertaining or fascinating each time they open their mouth, you’re always going to be disappointed. If you want larger-than-life heroes, go to the movies. If you want to just be entertained and not engage, just turn on the TV. If you want mythology, read a book.
The trouble with Twitter
The problem for many people is that Twitter fails to be something they’d like it to be, when that’s not what it’s for. They want to be entertained with profound, funny and engaging content. In other words, they think it’s like broadcasting, when it’s conversation.
So that’s like turning up to somebody’s house for a cup of tea, and saying “right – entertain me”, leaning back, and waiting for a performance packed with one-liners, deep insights and useful tips.
Second, they think of the people they follow as an ‘information source’. There are some Twitter feeds that provide information of course, but they’re in the minority. Mostly it’s human beings living their lives, talking about the things that they specialise in or engage their attention. And if that’s boring, go back to your Eastenders.
If you follow me because you think I might be entertaining, or because I might be a good source of information about online music marketing strategies (or jazz, or Birmingham, or digital culture, or media studies, or whisky, or whatever), you’re probably going to be really disappointed. I do, of course, mention all of those things. But I do other things too. My twitter feed is about me, the things I’m interested in, and the people I engage with on a day to day basis – it’s not just packaged nuggets of information about my specialist subject.
But if you want to get to know me – it’s a brilliant way to engage. You’ll not only hear about the stuff I’m up to, thinking about, listening to or concerned with – you’ll also get to overhear the public conversations I have with other people I happen to think are really interesting.
My personal tribe
There’s this anthropological theory that we can deal with about 150 social relationships – and when things get bigger than that, we tend to split our tribes into smaller, more manageable groups. I’m not sure how effectively that carries over to Twitter, but all the same – at present, I follow around 140 people.
Some of those people are pictured above. They live in many different parts of the world, are a range of ages and social backgrounds, have different tastes, and do lots of different things. I consider most of them to be actual friends. They’re all people I work with, hang out with, or that I just happen to think are really interesting.
None of them are super-famous (I don’t follow Stephen Fry or Ashton Kutcher for instance), though some of them have what might be thought of as a modicum of ‘celebrity’ status.
For instance, I follow Gilles Peterson, a BBC radio DJ who plays music I happen to like – and I’m friends with his business partner; Alys Fowler, a gardening TV show presenter who I’ve met through mutual friends; Brian Travers, who’s the sax player in UB40; S-Endz, a rapper in an internationally well-known Desi-funk band called Swami; David Hendy, a media historian and author; Martin Atkins, a drummer from some famous 80s & 90s rock bands like Public Image, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry and Killing Joke; Krause, a contemporary Dutch electro-pop star on the rise; John Campbell, a New Zealand television news presenter and journalist; Rhodri Marsden, author and columnist for the Independent newspaper; and Mark de Clive-Lowe, a keyboard player & music producer.
These ones are all people who have some sort of public profile, but who I’ve also actually met and had conversations with. It’s not a rule for me – and from time to time, I’ll also follow people that I’ve only ever really seen on TV (like Mark Steel or Charlie Brooker) – and some Twitter-only fictional characters I happen to find amusing (like Diana In Heaven and Average Batman). I sort of drop in and out of those ones. I tend to stick with people I’ve at least had a drink with, for the most part.
And, of course, lots of the people I follow have no ambition whatsoever to be famous or become ‘public figures’ – and nor do they do anything that would tend to bring them that sort of attention.
Following people that I already know and like in real life on Twitter is like sitting down with them in a café. And we have the same sort of conversations. But we don’t have to be ‘always on’. It’s a conversation you can drop in and out of. Some of it’s just thinking out loud. Some of it is extended back-and-forth dialogue.
People I’ve only ever encountered on Twitter
All that said, you don’t have to ‘know’ people to find them interesting. There are lots of people who follow me on Twitter who, presumably find me interesting enough to not worry about the fact that I’ve never popped over to their house for a cup of tea.
Likewise, I follow Darren Hemmings (Digital Marketing Manager for the PIAS group), Nancy Baym (a social media academic and author), Joe Muggs (an arts and music journalist), Hannah Nicklin (playwright and academic) and Katy Bairstow (a freelance tech writer).
To my knowledge, I have never been in the same room with these people (forgive me if I have that wrong – I go in a lot of rooms), but through Twitter I’ve found out about them through others, listened to what they had to say – and not only find them to be interesting people, but I’ve now had conversations with them on multiple occasions over other things we both find interesting – and I’m sure if we found ourselves in a cafe or a pub together, we’d continue the conversation in person.
But what we find interesting need not necessarily be deep or serious, though sometimes it is. Occasionally it’s just “hey look – this is quite funny” and there’ll be a link. Other times it’s personal stuff that gives people a 3-dimensional quality. Like when people who you only know through their work talk about their family, or their record collection.
And it’s that shared interest – or at least overlap of interest that allows for a connection to take place. To me, that’s what Twitter – as the social media tool of the moment – has to offer. Not a marketing platform or an entertainment and information channel – but human beings talking to each other. Sharing ideas, swapping jokes, discussing issues and just being real people together.
And in fact, some people who I now consider to be my best friends are people who I’ve been introduced to on Twitter. And I’m a fan of their music too.
The best way to use Twitter
The way I use Twitter is not “the way” to use Twitter. I know people who claim to be able to cope with following thousands, and I know others who have private accounts, and only follow a handful of people that they know intimately.
The best way is to try it out and see what works for you. Follow people you think you’d like to get to know better, then unfollow them if they become dull. Check out who other people you think are interesting are talking to. Chances are they’ll be interesting too. Don’t feel you have to keep your finger on the pulse of “all that information”. Do whatever’s manageable, interesting and useful.
But complaining that Twitter is inane, pointless, time-wasting or just narcissistic bleating only means either a) the people you’ve chosen to follow are the wrong ones; or b) you’re expecting something from Twitter it’s not offering: passive entertainment.
This is a guest post from Andrew Dubber, who kindly allowed us to repost his content. Andrew is a Reader in Music Industries Innovation at Birmingham City University. He’s a member of the Centre for Media and Cultural Research, and is an internationally-renowned lecturer, author, consultant, public speaker, broadcaster and blogger. His research interests include digital media cultures, online music enterprise, and music as culture. Dubber is the founder of New Music Strategies and Music Think Tank, is a board member of Un-Convention, and is a member of the board of advisors for Bandcamp. You can follow Andrew on Twitter here.
If you would like to feature on the Tweasier blog, drop us an email with your story idea – we would love to hear from you.
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Posted: May 16th, 2010 | Author: Paul Crouch | Filed under: General Twitter, Research, Social Media, Twitter Apps, Twitter Users | 1 Comment »
The hardest part of building your Twitter presence is finding your first few relevant friends amongst the millions of Twitterers, but never fear because the Tweasier team is here. The most useful tool I’ve come across to find your audience is Mentionmap; a visual mapping app which presents a users network based on who they @ in a handy spider diagram.
There are plenty of network mapping tools around but most base themselves on who your friends follow not who they @, the problem with that is many people can have thousands of followers but only ever talk to ten of them meaning knowing their whole network is useless. Mentionmap on the other hand highlights who a user @’s most often and who the next user in the network @’s creating a full network twitterers engaged in regular conversation for you to follow.
This is great if your looking to find relevant networks quickly, you only need to know one user tweeting about your area of interest and mentionmap will unlock a full network of twitterers for you to follow and begin tweeting with at will.
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Posted: May 12th, 2010 | Author: Illiya Vjestica | Filed under: Social Media, Twitter Tool, Twitter Trends, Uncategorized | Tags: Tweetfeel, twitter, Twitter Tool | 1 Comment »
Tweetfeel is a real-time Twitter search tool that allows you to see the sentiment and feeling around a specific keyword or search phrase. It’s a clever little tool that gives you fast insights into overall how negative or positive the sentiment is around your keyword or search phrase. I will admit, I’ve had a lot of fun with this tool by typing my most loved and most hated brands into Tweetfeel.
In Twitter’s advanced section of their search you can search for Tweets with a positive or negative attitude, however Tweetfeel allows you to delve in quickly to the data and build up an overall picture by the perctengage of negative or positive tweets.
(Twitter’s Advance search lets you search by Positive or Negative attitudes)
Think of a company you deal with that isn’t perhaps providing you good custom service? Check them out on Tweetfeel and see what others think. Thinking about choosing a companies product or service? Well, before you do….Check them out on Tweetfeel. In the search results there sometimes is some quite heated comments from fellow Tweeters, but then that is there feeling or opinion about that brand.
I find Tweetfeel very useful for gathering a opinion around a brand’s feeling on Twitter, it gives you the data quickly so you can build up a fairly accurate overview. It works by analysing the sentiment and opinions that are included in the Tweets, keywords are highlighted in green for a positive sentiment and red for a negative one.
Here’s one I did earlier….What do the Tweeple think of Nick Clegg?
Everyone’s favorite politician Mr. Nick Clegg. Well according to Tweetfeel, the sentiment around Nick Clegg on Twitter is very positive overall, he should be pleased with himself. By the way, I voted for David Cameron if anyone’s asking.
About this blog post
If you enjoyed reading this blog post, then you can take a look at Illiya’s other posts on his blog or follow him on Twitter.
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Posted: April 18th, 2010 | Author: Illiya Vjestica | Filed under: General Twitter, Social Media, Twitter Tool | Tags: election, politics, Social Media, tools, twitter | 1 Comment »
As the UK general election is fast approaching we UK voters are currently weighing up whether we should vote Labour, Conservative, or Liberal. Whilst we’ve been busy decoding politicians election policies a number of digital agencies have been busy creating social media microsites designed to monitor the buzz and tweets around the general election.
Firstly, before I get straight into giving you the low down on these Twitter general election websites I still haven’t quite decided who to vote for, although I’m leaning towards the Lib dems. These websites are a really great way for a undecided voter to canvas the opinion of their fellow Tweeters about what’s being said for each election candidate.
Tweetlection.co.uk
Tweetlection is the brain child of Leeds based digital agency Sense. Hat’s off to Sense because this is a really well thought out and designed tool. It reminded me of Google analytics by how I could analyse the social media data around each political party. I partially liked the top words section above each political party, delving into a party section will bring you in-depth analysis and data on the latest Tweets across the Twittersphere. Here you can specifically filter by Retweets, include or exclude keywords or search by gender.
Go on have a play for yourself!
Slapometer.com
Slapometer.com is the proud creation of London based digital agency Albion. Rather than focus on pure analytical insights and data, Albion have decided to put the fun back into voting by allowing you to slap a politician (depending on your own personal preference). Ask yourself this, did one of David Cameron’s policies strike you as crazy? Well…give him a slap to show your distaste in the matter.
It’s a very interesting site and very well put together. The Slaptistics page delves into the user generated data, currently David Cameron had the highest slaptistics at 50% of the slap for the first TV debate and racking up a total of 1.4 million slaps. The slapped most section in the stats is my personal favourite, an interesting fact from the site is that 62% of people slapped all three leaders!
10downingtweets.co.uk
10downingtweets, is the creation of London and Leeds based digital agency Twentysix digital. Interestingly enough it’s not just the major three parties tweets mentioned on this website, 10downingtweets also brings the tweets direct to you from the Green party, UKIP and believe or not the BNP.
10downingtweets is focused heavily on what the politicians are saying rather than the voters. However the homepage gives a nice overview of individual tweeters general election tweets.
The polls are a nice feature and there are some interesting stats from the voters, the website overall is extremely well designed and put together.
The politicians wish they had websites like these…
It just makes you think how good the UK political digital campaigns could of been if they had hired digital agencies to run their online marketing. Econsultancy recently did a post called Election memo to party leaders: Please sort out your terrible websites it’s a great read and it’s nice to laugh at such poorly thought out websites. (I only hope someone from each political party read it!)
Good to see Nick Clegg on Twitter (even though it’s managed by @davidangell his web officer) , I believe he’s a forward thinking politician. It’s really important for me as a voter that politician’s come and speak to me on my social networks because I’m sure not writing them a letter, I’d much rather Tweet my views and opinions.
If you’ve found some other websites that we’ve missed, we’d love to hear about them in the comments.
About this blog post
If you enjoyed reading this blog post, then you can take a look at Illiya’s other posts on his blog or follow him on Twitter.
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Posted: April 15th, 2010 | Author: Chris Norton | Filed under: General Twitter, Social Media, Tips | Tags: Ben Cotoon, Edelman Digital, Guest Blogger, Tweetbook, Tweets, Twitter Explained, Twitter notebook | 1 Comment »
This is a guest post from our good friend Ben Cotton. Ben is currently employed by Edelman Digital, having previously worked in PR research, a professional cricket club and busy press office. You can find out more about Ben from his blog, Tweets or Linked In profile.
Apologies for the awful title, but I was struggling to come up with another decent one. Some of the alternative suggestions I’ve had thrown at me from my wonderful friends and colleagues include ‘load 
of junk’, ‘pile of crap’ and something altogether unrepeatable. In fact, a lot of it was unrepeatable. The object which caused me to pen such an awful title and generated such outrage is the personalised Tweet Notebook I’ve just ordered.
To fill in the gaps…a Belgian company is offering people the chance to have their tweets committed to notepaper for $12. To be more precise, for your money you get a plain notepad with your tweets at the bottom. Admittedly, it does seem frivolous, indulgent even and dare I say it, a bit arrogant. But, it was the sheer novelty which immediately appealed to me – then came feelings of frivolity, indulgence and arrogance. Followed by the abuse. A lot of abuse.
However, I’ve tried to rationalise my purchase. I like the opportunism of the company. It’s a brilliantly simple idea. They’re taking something that is typically inexpensive and dull. Few things are more boring than a notepad – and they have turned it into something people will be willing to pay a lot more for.
I think this tweet-cessory (apologies) is geeky and cool in equal measures, but I also think it’s great to see your tweets being turned into something tangible rather than consigned to the bowels of Twitter search – never to be seen again.
The question is, at $12 a pad, will I use it sparingly or just start writing smaller?
P.S. For those on a budget you could always have a go yourself using Tweetbook.
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Posted: March 24th, 2010 | Author: Shannon Chiarenza | Filed under: General Twitter, Social Media, Tips | Tags: Twitter Explained, Twitter tips | 10 Comments »
This is a guest post from Shannon Chiarenza it can also be found on her blog here. If you would like to write a guest post drop us a line. 
Many people use Twitter as an online marketing tool for their business but fail miserably at it because they don’t get that Twitters main purpose is to carry on a conversation.
Here are a few common mistakes:
Mistake #1 Talking to yourself
This is something I had to learn the hard way and it’s the same for your website content and all other things you put on the internet; people don’t care about you and what you have to say unless it relates to them.
The fix:
Do your tweets look like this?: “just baked cookies, ate 3 already yum!”.
Our self indulgent ego assumes we are the centre of the universe…but we aren’t and no one cares that you just ate cookies. Here’s how to fix that statement so everyone else benefits from your baking:
“Just baked cookies, ate 3 already, so delicious here’s the recipe” AHA! Now we love you, and we will RT (retweet) that so we too can be the ones that shared a great recipe and then you become this valuable resource for all good things…see how that works?
Or do your tweets look like this:
“Just updated my blog…” “Just updated my website…” “Just wrote this post…”
“Want to learn how to think like a millionaire? Click this link which leads to my affiliate website that I’m trying to pass off as something I read and liked when really I’m tricking you” (kinda like what I just did with the cookie recipe)
Twitter is social media, think of it like attending a gathering of people, you wouldn’t approach someone and talk about yourself immediately because you look like a jerk. People want know “what’s in it for me, how are you going to benefit my life?” Keep that in mind whenever using social media, especially while promoting your business.
Mistake #2 Presenting Yourself as a Business and Not a Person
Why would I want to follow ABC moving company? Even if I was moving, why would I want your boring tweets scrolling through my twitter updates? Seriously, no one likes advertisements and that’s all you’re doing is advertising. There are very few exceptions like Starbucks, they’re a huge company with many fans and can get away with it, but for everyone else, we want to talk to a real person not a logo.
The Fix:
Talk to people, get to know them, comment on their tweets, RT the ones you like. Use your expertise in your field to jump into a conversation and give some advice but don’t use twitter as a billboard for your business.
Mistake #3 Going on a Following Spree
I get many different people following me from personal trainers promoting their protein powder to wrestling enthusiast and I know they’re only following me to gain more followers for themselves…but I check their updates anyway to see if they are worth following. What makes them worth following is seeing they converse with others and are actively participating in the bigger conversation through Twitter.
The other thing I check for is the ratio from followers to following, if they’re following 1,200 people but only 200 are following them I know they went on a following spree clicking on anyone and everyone hoping to beef up their twitter followers. I usually won’t follow back unless they have interesting tweets.
The Fix:
Stop following people and start tweeting interesting things, start a conversation. I’ve had people follow me with an empty twitter page, why would I follow you if you literally have nothing to say? Let the followers come to you, it’s not a popularity contest, it’s the quality of your tweets that matter.
Mistake #4 No one likes a Negative Nancy
Whining, complaining or just tweeting about all the things that piss you off in this world really won’t land you too many followers. The exception to that is if you’re clever and witty about it and it’s become your trademark. However most of the time it’s a drag and it makes you look sour and can be very bad for your business.
The Fix:
Look for positive things to say, compliment others on Twitter, brag about someone else’s achievements, point out something that makes you happy and share it with others for them to try. Avoid talking politics and religion unless that is what you tweet about, it’s too easy for those tweets to spiral into a heated argument…and they almost always do.
Mistake #5 Too Narrow of a Niche
I’ve had people follow me who tweet about something I’m not at all interested in like golf. I don’t golf and I personally find golf incredibly boring, no offence to those that love the sport, it’s just not my thing. So if you follow me and all of your tweets are about golfing I’m not going to follow you back because I have no interest in the sport.
The Fix:
Talk about other things too, comment on other conversations, post a link to a funny video. It’s ok if many of your tweets are about golf as long as you add other things that aren’t related so someone like me can find something in your tweets I can relate to.
And just for an added bonus:
Big, BIG Mistake…Direct Message Abuse
When someone follows you, never send a direct message that says: “thanks for following, check out my secrets to online wealth at www.Icouldcarelessaboutyou.com”. I’ve stopped following a few people for that. This is better: “thank you for following I look forward to your tweets!” It’s a bit generic and I get that a lot but it’s much better than blatant self promotion!…Like this: Follow Me on Twitter.
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Posted: March 22nd, 2010 | Author: Chris Norton | Filed under: Social Media, Tweasier, Twitter Apps | Tags: Fashion, TheFashionPixie, Tweasier, Twitter app | 1 Comment »
UPDATE: This will now be launching around end of April as we have decided to add a few more features following feedback from some Twitter users.
A while back I wrote a post about an internet (fashion) community I am involved with (http://www.thefashionpixie.com/) and I said it was just one of several web projects that I was undertaking as well as my usual digital pr and social media consultancy.
Well I have been working hard during the last five months on a Twitter application and the wait is finally almost over. We are planning to launch the product (Tweasier) in beta form in just seven day’s time. So if you use Twitter quite a bit and want to have a play and give us your feedback just add your email to the form on this holding page.
Also if you blog and are interested in blogging about Twitter tools, news, tips and advice. We are also looking for others to join our growing team of bloggers on the Tweasier blog.
We will be rolling the application out gradually over the next month and then we will have a full launch which you should all hear about in the media and (hopefully) on some of my blogger friends sites.
Thanks guys – I appreciate all of your support.
Cross posted on: Norton’s Notes
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Posted: November 10th, 2009 | Author: Chris Norton | Filed under: General Twitter, Social Media | Tags: Google Side Wiki, Google Wave, Linked-in, Twitter Business | No Comments »
Twitter has without doubt become the golden boy of the mainstream media in the last year or so, although some of the more upcoming applications like Foursquare and Google Wave are starting to turn heads too. The really exciting one for me will actually be Google Social Search, which I think will have quite a substantial impact on the way companies market themselves. 
The interesting Twitter news this week is that Linked-in has partnered with Twitter so users are now able to update their statuses from either platform. I think this is a good idea, although there were quite a few ways around it anyway by using tools like Ping.
The Linked-in Blog comments:
The idea is simple: When you set your status on LinkedIn you can now tweet it as well, amplifying it to your followers and real-time search services like Twitter Search and Bing. And when you tweet, you can send that message to your LinkedIn connections as well, from any Twitter service or tool.
To be honest, I have always found Linked-in to be a little too static and dry but I know it can be a very useful resource. Most decent recruitment companies have been using it for years to track people down with certain specialism. For a useful list of ways to get the most from Linked-in try this.
It appears Linked-in is finally beginning to make adjustments to become less static and much more instant. I think it’s time for Linked-in to step up and show us all why it is such a widely used business social network – it certainly cannot afford to sit back anymore.
Do you think it’s good you can update Twitter from Linked-in and vice versa?
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Posted: October 31st, 2009 | Author: Chris Norton | Filed under: Research, Social Media | Tags: Twitter usage | No Comments »
I read an interesting post from Stan Schroeder a while back regarding Twitter usage in May 2009. In his post Stan examines a new Harvard Business Review study as revealing:
Most Twitter users don’t actually use the service much, or even at all. In fact, 10% of active users are responsible for over 90% of all Tweets.
To be honest I feel we should have noticed this ourselves. Many of my former colleagues and contacts have starting Twittering in the last eight months some very regularly and some more sporadically. What I have noticed is with most of them the immediate enthusiasm seems to die off after a few days.
If people kept their enthusiasm and treated Twitter as a social network where you can share tips, stories and expertise they would find it so much more beneficial. I suppose this all boils down to how you use Twitter as many people use it differently. If people are careful and set up themselves properly, follow interesting people with similar interests and make an attempt to ensure it doesn’t take up too much time it can be a fantastic business resource for developing your contacts. Not only that but its great fun.
The other point which I found interesting from the study was that more women (55%) are on Twitter than men. Don’t ask me why this is though?
If you use Twitter feel free to follow me here.
Cross posted on Nortons Notes.
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Posted: October 29th, 2009 | Author: Chris Norton | Filed under: Celebrity Twitter, Social Media | Tags: Lilly Allen, Twitter News | No Comments »
OK I admit it, I have read Lilly Allen’s Twitter stream once in a while. The reason I liked it was because she spoke her mind and didn’t conform to the usual manufactured pop group nicey smiley image. However, Lilly has revealed that she is logging off from Facebook and Twitter.
The beautiful Lilly signed off in September with the phrase:
“I am a neo-luddite, goodbye”
To be honest I think this might just be Lilly grabbing some headlines. She may well have ditched Twitter for now but I think she will be back as she was known to be a social networking addict. Mark my words – she has only left temporarily and I am sure most of her followers won’t leave because they will be expecting her back too.
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