Today I wrote a few words of advice to a political committee looking to expand their online presence & message (read: new media). This is roughly what I wrote.
DON'T put all your eggs in one basket. Facebook will not be around as it is now forever. Neither Twitter, Google, or anything else. You need to understand the direction, not get mired down by a certain service.
DON'T use Twitter to syndicate your blog feed or site updates. Twitter is about Proactively LISTENING and responding to what people are saying. Why Congressmen don't take a few minutes to follow everyone in their district (it's easy) I do not understand.
Another Twitter thing no one's really doing - taking questions, answering them on your site or in a video. Google is scared of twitter search, so they're indexing every tweet. Link back to the original tweet in your post - BOOM, synergy that gives you some SEO Google Juice.
DON'T expect anyone to pay attention to anything for more than 30 seconds. Tons of Reps are uploading everything they say on the House floor to Youtube. If people wanted to watch you ask for unanimous consent to revise and extend your remarks, C-SPAN would be a lot more popular!
The SECRET to online video is AUDIO. There are very cheap, easy software tools to remove the echo and noise from your videos. Also, adding background music is HUGE. There are plenty of Creative Commons licensed songs you can use for free.
DON'T make the mistake Tim Ryan (D-OH) did and use a rap song you don't own the rights to, does not reflect your message, has sexual innuendo, and contains the word "niggaz":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLUDt2zoI9U
Facebook has a huge bandwagon effect. You have to be funny, clever, or articulate a very specific cause to get attention. Remember that different age groups use FB in dramatically different ways. Tap into the Merchandising.
Yahoo Answers is a great place to get the message out to people looking for ANSWERS, build relationships and drive traffic to your site. Nobody seems to be doing this.
Be POSITIVE always. You can't make people scared on the internet. It just doesn't work.
Twitter's Hidden Feature: RSS Favorites
As this is my third Twitter post in a row, I'm beginning to feel like a one trick pony. Rest assured, as I've got a few Congressional (non-Twitter) ideas forthcoming.
The big problem facing Twitter summed in one word: noise.
Favorites can bring order to the chaos. Make networking and searching much more viable. Make "ranking" a lot easier for all those sites devoted assigning us numbers. Eliminate the need for #followfriday.
Do you Favor every tweet that you find interesting, or every one you re-tweet? You should. In this way we'll build a more coherent, structured community. One that's not just based in "right now" and in other words, disposable.
Here's the syntax to start getting your and other users' Favorites feeds. I used Google Reader, but the concept is pretty general.
The big problem facing Twitter summed in one word: noise.
- I want people to see my Tweet, but there are lots of Tweets in a day. So I post my content multiple times a day... Creating more noise. (I don't actually double-post.)
- The disposable nature of the service makes it rare that anyone will search past the last few days, or remember when and from who a particular link came.
- The open-ness of Twitter, how hard it is to effectively use the web version, and the many varied tools and ways people tweet make the experience different for everyone.
Favorites can bring order to the chaos. Make networking and searching much more viable. Make "ranking" a lot easier for all those sites devoted assigning us numbers. Eliminate the need for #followfriday.
Do you Favor every tweet that you find interesting, or every one you re-tweet? You should. In this way we'll build a more coherent, structured community. One that's not just based in "right now" and in other words, disposable.
Here's the syntax to start getting your and other users' Favorites feeds. I used Google Reader, but the concept is pretty general.
- Go into "add subscription."
- Enter twitter.com/someusername/favourites (note the british-style spelled favourites with the superficial U.)
- Hit "show details" (upper-right in Google Reader.)
- Now you'll see the direct RSS feed. mine is http:
/ , where 16504159 is my user number. Presumably I'm the 16,504,159th account to sign up. @Ev's number is 20. (Note that here, there is no superficial U; go America!)/twitter.com /favorites /16504159.rss
A Tale of Two Tweets
Something funny that I happened to watch unfold on Twitter last night:
Ellen Degeneres (@TheEllenShow) has been on a week-long crusade to amass followers and become the most popular Twitterer. Any "normal" person who self-promoted like this would be considered an egomaniac; I feel obligated to point that out. I also disclose that Ellen has my favorite day-time talk show, if I were to pick favorites for such a thing.
Anyway, I wasn't aware of Ellen's hopping on the TwitterWagon until one of the very few celebrities that I follow posted this tweet:
Poor fella. And then, adding insult to injury:
Eh, maybe you had to be there ..
Ellen Degeneres (@TheEllenShow) has been on a week-long crusade to amass followers and become the most popular Twitterer. Any "normal" person who self-promoted like this would be considered an egomaniac; I feel obligated to point that out. I also disclose that Ellen has my favorite day-time talk show, if I were to pick favorites for such a thing.
Anyway, I wasn't aware of Ellen's hopping on the TwitterWagon until one of the very few celebrities that I follow posted this tweet:
Poor fella. And then, adding insult to injury:
Eh, maybe you had to be there ..
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