SisterSledgeSays

There have been tons of blog posts and wikis written on the use of Twitter and I couldn’t hope to improve on a one of them. But, I’d like to provide a resource here for just those who’ve asked me about Twitter…what it’s good for and how to go about getting started using it. These questions usually come from my clients or coworkers hoping to use Twitter to further their eCommerce businesses, so this resource will be tailored to those needs.

I have two Twitter accounts, one just for hobbies/entertainment and one for business endeavors:

For business I tend to follow quite a few marketing/PR specialists, content writers, developers and designers…with a sprinkling of news, brands and eclectic peeps. With this group I get a lot tweets of great links and information about new happenings in website programming, free tools and pointers to kewl new sites as well as helpful resources and ideas pertaining to internet marketing of all kinds. Peeps who follow me receive my tweets along those same lines, and can provide quick answers to my questions…I might be able to help answer their questions and I can help others promote their stuff.  A few of my followers are also my clients, which means I have an additonal avenue for providing assistance and friendship to them via Twitter.

Basically, my business use of Twitter is focused to research and promotion. For your business needs, you might use Twitter in multiple ways and though one account may be dandy, you may find the need to have more than one Twitter account to provide for meeting specific business goals…such as having one account for marketing, another devoted only to customer service and one for research.

When you find someone who might be interesting to follow, read their Twitter profile to find out their location and their description and check out their site they’ve linked to get to know them better. You might read the tweets they’ve marked as favorites, see who they follow and who follows them, read some of their past tweets…these aspects will provide the basis for deciding whether you want to follow them and perhaps you’ll learn some ways that you can engage them.

Below are some links to more resources on Twitter and a list of peeps you might want to follow and learn from, after you get your account set up. When you find someone you want to follow, check out who they follow to find additional peeps in the same niche.

Twitter - http://twitter.com

Here are some examples of Twitter searches you can do, where the tweets will all be focused to your interest - grab these random tweets of helpful info and find peeps interested in your topic to follow.

“ecommerce” - http://search.twitter.com/search?q=ecommerce

“marketing” - http://search.twitter.com/search?q=marketing

Peeps that you decide to follow will automatically get a message that you’ve taken that action…they in turn will check you out to decide if they want to follow you back (some will follow you back automatically). When you follow someone, you will see their tweets on your Twitter page.

Getting started list of interesting peeps:

SisterSledge - that’s me

PawLuxury - eCommerce

SomeEcards - eCommerce

Zappos - eCommerce

GaryVee - eCommerce

PandoraRadio -marketing

BDCsharon - eCommerce

MyBabyFirst - eCommerce

Chiropractic - marketing

Comcastcares - customer service

CoWorkUtah - marketing

Popshopology  eCommerce

GoGreenTube - marketing

UtahNewsSource - marketing/PR

MattCutts - developer

NewspaperGrl - marketing/PR

Twitter does put a cap on how many new peeps you can follow in time period, so take it easy getting started…keep it below 50 for awhile and then add more in small bursts.

Here are some links for interesting and helpful resources to learn more about Twitter:

Twitter Alltop - http://twitter.alltop.com/

Top Twitter Tools - http://www.longest.com/2008/10/28/top-twitter-tools/

TwittURLy - http://twitturly.com/

Using Twitter for Customer Service - http://www.searchengineguide.com/paul-jahn/using-twitter-for-customer-service.php

Using Social Media Wisely - http://www.searchengineguide.com/jennifer-laycock/stick-and-stones-may-break-your-bones-an.php

7 Ways to use Micro-Blogging Platforms for Traffic and Brand Exposure  - http://www.doshdosh.com/7-ways-to-use-microblogging-services-for-traffic-and-brand-exposure/

~Edited to add more links~

Twitter Benefits for Freelance Writers - http://theadventurouswriter.com/blogwriting/quipsandtipsfreelancing/139

TweetLater (tools to be more productive on Twitter) - http://www.tweetlater.com/

Why do People use Twitter? - http://wearesocial.net/blog/2009/01/why-do-people-use-twitter/

Use Twitrans to Tweet in a Variety of Languages - http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/14/use-twitrans-to-twitter-in-a-variety-of-languages/

Twinfluence to measure your Twitter Influence - http://twinfluence.com/

Twitter To Go: How one local coffee shop used Twitter to double their clientele - http://blog.mrtweet.net/twitter-to-go-how-one-local-coffee-shop-used-twitter-to-double-his-clientele

Who is 1 peep you recommend to follow on Twitter? Who’s the 1st peep you followed?   

Please, have your say in the blog comments here

May winter treat you lightly and the stars for you shine brightly, may your homes be filled with wonder and joy all throughout the year ~Solstice Salutations~

A very interesting application recently developed, Twitter Venn, looks perfect for data mining the details of keyword combinations used on Twitter, identifying how much engagement there is for specific keyword combinations such as your longtail targets. Twitter Venn also identifies the most used terms in connection with the terms you’ve specified. I can imagine saving results from Venn searches with a screen shot in order to compare results over time (or perhaps functionality such as this will be developed by Jeff Clark or someone else later on).

Click here to try out Twitter Venn

As you may know, there are many applications that developers have created based upon the data Twitter makes available via API. If you’d like to learn more about what sorts of data streams are available and the types of applications best suited to Twitter, read more about Twitter API’s here.

Okay, after thinking about my last post and getting some feedback, I’m afraid my main points are lost within my ramblings…so here’s the short story:

KRCL has been my fav radio station since I moved to Utah…there are lotsa reasons why I felt this way:

• so many genres of music represented (too numerous to mention here)
• diversity in DJ personalities
• community supported public radio
• internet streaming
• community awareness/promotion/education
• no ads
• live studio performances
• giveaways and special promotions
• finding new music to LOVE that I’d never heard before
• feeling my radio truly was my radio because they care about my needs/wants

However, KRCL recently decided to make big changes to their DJ’s and music that changed the way I felt about them. Their decisions affected so many things:

• music is now played from an approved “list”
• daytime volunteer DJ’s have been replaced with paid staff
• music and personalities have less variety
• KRCL provided little information or ability to communicate on the changes beforehand
• KRCL hasn’t provided any community outreach afterwards nor do they bother to attend to any reputation management for the fallout

Here are additional links to more information:
KRCL
SLWeekly - 1/31/08 first notice of changes
CityWeekly blog post 1/31/08
Twitter: SisterSledge profile page
Twitter search - KRCL
The “New Safe KRCL”
follow-up article at City Weekly 11/13/08
CityWeekly utahfm.org article
Utah Free Media

That’s what KRCL says as their new slogan: “All the radio you need”

Well, there’s so much about KRCL I want to say, rant, share, ramble on about, whatever you wanna tag this…unfortunately, I’m not a professional writer nor have I much blogging experience…so, bear with me as I attempt to convey my thoughts?

When I first moved to Utah from Washington, I missed so many things I was apart from…I won’t list them all here, I don’t like to dwell….

But, one of the things I missed a lot was the radio station I had listened to most often…music is an almost constant companion throughout my days and this station had been a really good fit for my tastes; a great public station, playing plenty of diverse music within a grant/donation-supported no-ads structure. The station supported the community interests and the community supported it.

This station was perfect as my main source for music and community awareness. My favorite programs were the blues shows that ran on Sundays and Mondays - practically two out of every three songs played would be a new experience for me and I had thought I was pretty familiar with the genre. I wish my memory were better, so I could share the radio station name, etc…but I don’t recall…small numbers way left on the fm dial…88.9? Sorry, it’s been ten years since then.

Anyways, after I’d been in Utah for a few months I discovered KRCL and was SoHappy (*remind me to tell my “SoHappy” story sometime)…as I was saying, I got into KRCL and found it was even better than the Washington station I lost. Only problem was that I couldn’t get very good radio reception on the station in my home or at the office (no streaming anything online allowed at work, so regular radio was the only option then). Thus, I mostly listened to KRCL in the car and suffered at home through static to listen to my fav program broadcast on Sunday nights DJ’d by Sohrab (it wasn’t called Ethnosphere then). So, I wasn’t totally vested in this station…until I got my laptop…with wireless…now I could listen online from any room in my house with crystal-clear sound I became a more regular listener and really got hooked! - this station was as close to “All the radio you need” as any could ever get with me!

Many years have ensued since I got that laptop…and for quite some time now I’ve also enjoyed the ability to listen online at work too and I’ve been listening to KRCL full-time during the day and sporadically at night (family, TV, chores, hobbies and reading take up most nights) - KRCL became as close to “All the radio you need” as any one station could for me. I wonder if you can imagine my disappointment when I heard earlier this year that KRCL was changing their format? Would I still love it? I had my doubts and change always comes a little hard for me anyways, so I was worried. Add to this the fact that I heard the news second-hand..from an article in the City Weekly with 336 comments (they have a blog post on it too). Their report detailed how the station was going through troubles and what changes they planned to make, but what concerned me even more was that KRCL wasn’t telling the story to their listeners…it was all being done very hush hush and felt underhanded…felt deceiving…felt uncaring…where was that community connection??? I began to doubt the morals of the organization I had grown so fond of and felt a part of, let alone worrying for my music source.

I listened to the station regularly and never heard a peep on-air about the upcoming changes nor could I find info posted on the KRCL website. I searched Twitter for any related info, looked for blog posts…nada The City Weekly article said the changes would take effect after the Spring radiothon…I waited with trepidation.

~sigh~ The wait is over and I’ve had many months to see how things have panned out and I must say, I’m disappointed but not entirely crushed…there’s less diversity in the music and voices, less community and some favorite DJ’s are outright gone…but much remains the same as well. I see that the sticky-note I keep on my desk to jot down finds on new-to-me bands/songs I learn about while listening to KRCL hasn’t had a notation added in months though - and I’ve sent my very first email to a DJ requesting begging that a played song never “grace” their airwaves again

Still remaining are those personal feelings of betrayal, etc based on the station’s less-than-open process throughout the change…and I’m not the only one with remaining angst. On Twitter I’ve seen tweets of unhappiness and I’ve found a blog created for no other purpose than to vent about the changes made to KRCL and their process for those changes - The “New Safe KRCL”. I’ve also found a follow-up article at City Weekly. Also, there seems to be discrepancies in reports of market-share increase/decrease since the changes, so I’m not sure whether there are more listeners now or not?

So many questions and yet I don’t think KRCL will ever open up the dialog with their listeners that is sorely missing so that I can get answers: How do you know what I need? Why did you do so few studies??? Why were there no listener surveys??? Where is the open dialog with the community you purport to support??? As a marketing professional, I wonder about KRCL’s lack of reputation management and the missed opportunities to convey their messages to their listeners as well as wondering about their lack of advertising to the community to grow their audience in these troubling and changing times. Will I be able to recommend this station in future as I did wholeheartedly in the past?

KRCL, I still love you but I feel wronged…and you’re no longer the only radio I need

Lastly, although I’ve only found out about it during my recent research and haven’t had a chance to listen yet…many of the lost DJ’s from KRCL are broadcasting here: Utah Free Media

Oopsie…here’s lastly: While on the subject of great music, I’d love to share this Utah band with you - Vile Blue Shades. I can’t convey just how awesome they are so hopefully you’ll check out these links to learn more for yourself - definitely get their music and see their live shows with go-go dancers - intense!

City Weekly article for Vile Blue Shades (written by Circus Brown, a KRCL DJ)

Vile Blue Shades on MySpace -their song Ensoniq is a fav