stark REALITY check

Tag: twitter

  • Duke Long Shares a #LafayetteTweetUp Best Practice

    Dave Woodson introduces Duke Long, Real Estate Broker from Lafayette IN.

    As Duke discusses the evolution of the Lafayette TweetUps he shares a KEY TweetUp Best Practice, “Number one thing for a tweetup? Free Beer!”
    To which Dave Woodson replies, “How you gettin’ the Free Beer?!?!”
    Later @NatFinn shared a famous witticism,     “Because if it ain’t free…” and @DaveWoodson finished the sentiment and said,  “…it ain’t for me.”

    Duke finishes by saying, “It started out with two people.”

    Rather than watching the video < which is a failed attempt to capture a tweet stream during The Blog Indiana 2010 TweetUp Panel > try to unscramble the words below while listening to these words of wisdom.  You’ve got 1:34 minutes. GO!

    Social Media Sites Word Scramble

    1. iclkrf

    2. bokcefoa

    3. tahesiceykrakltrc

    4. iiscoulde

    5. kndeinli

    6. tidred

    7. tocreanthi

    8. gigd

    9. utbuyoe

    10.  iwtetrt


    Bonus Scramble=> Social Media Best Practice:

    11. ghatr    Hint =>  All social media interactions should abide by the _________ principles.

  • Last Week’s Tweets 2010-09-12

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  • Last Week’s Tweets 2010-09-05

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  • Social Media Grid

    STEP #1


    Basic SM presence Grid Donated to Safe Sitter. I set up Google and Twitter accounts then encouraged them to fill out the rest as quickly as possible to grab their brand.



    The corresponding email can be found here.

  • mini Social Media campaign

    Safe Sitter® is a 501(c)3 headquartered in Indianapolis that “prepares young adolescents for the profound responsibilities of nurturing and protecting children” They have “almost 900 teaching sites from coast to coast and in England. Each year almost 35,000 young adolescents take the course.” This worthy organization is in the process of hiring a development person. In its 30 year history Safe Sitter has not used traditional fundraising techniques for their operating budget, they have relied on sales from the training courses and grants.

    I was recommended for this position by Marilyn Burger, a well-respected fundraising professional in central Indiana who is friends with the Executive Director, Sally Herrholz. After meeting with Sally I learned this is a new position that has yet to be fully defined and that I was among the five possible candidates. I asked her, “Compared to the other four, what is my greatest weakness?” She said, “You have no traditional fundraising in your background.”

    What I DO have is 20 years in Marketing/PR/Sales in the for-profit world and a Masters in Philanthropic Studies, but no fundraising experience. She then said my greatest strength (comparatively) is my social media experience. This gave me an idea: what if I ran a mini-social media campaign using twitter and asked some of my highly influential social media friends to send a tweet recommendation?

    The Safe Sitter website is great and they are already using several social media techniques but they aren’t using the tools available, so I set up a @SafeSitter Twitter account for them as a donation. Soon after I was tweeting with Diane Brooks – @TalkToDiane – and I asked her opinion about this twitter campaign. She suggested I first get a buy in from Safe Sitter before tweeting anything.

    I met with Sally a couple of days later and gave her this proposal:

    ___________

    Mini-social media campaign:

    I will tweet the following message a few times throughout the day:

    @NancyMyrland [for example] I’m among the final 5 people being considered for a position at @SafeSitter Would U please send them a “Hire @AmyStark” tweet?

    This AWARENESS-RAISING campaign will:

    • Introduce the @SafeSitter brand to my 9,300 + followers (repeatedly as I will be sending out 5-9 individualized tweets per day for the next 3-5 days).
    • Introduce the @SafeSitter brand directly to the influential people who will receive the personalized tweet.
    • Introduce the @SafeSitter brand to all their followers if the recipient sends a tweet as requested.
    • Introduce the @SafeSitter brand repeatedly in the public timeline.
    • Build a small following of well-respected tweeters throughout central Indiana.
    • Introduce the @SafeSitter brand to influential tweeters in major metropolitan areas throughout the U.S. and the world.
    • Give you an idea of my capabilities at building a community online and leveraging the power of just one social media tool.

    Cost to Safe Sitter ………………. $ 0.00
    Return on Investment ………… off the chart
    __________________

    Sally agreed saying, “I see no downside to this, however I cannot promise anything. The Board is in charge of winnowing down the five candidates to two possibilities based on the resumes of the I forwarded to them.” My heart sank a bit. If the board is traditional they may not consider my social media skills and connections as valuable.

    Somewhat disheartened , I moved forward with the campaign beginning Tuesday, July 13th. If I’m hired this will become a tremendous case study on how to leverage social media connections to gain support during a hiring process. If I am not selected, I will be publicly humiliated and use the case study to demonstrate how NOT to use social media in the hiring process. = ) I hope it is the former and not the latter because I believe in their mission. I sent my daughter through the training three years ago and she gained valuable information that will help her not only when she babysits, but also when she becomes a mom.

    So what do you think? Would Safe Sitter benefit more from hiring a traditional fundraiser, or a well-connected social media strategist?

  • GetIndiana2Trend

    Statewide social media initiative to increase Indiana’s visibility on twitter

    December 3, 2009 (12:30pm EST / 11:30am CST) tweeters from the banks of the Ohio River to the shores of Lake Michigan will donate one minute to the future of our state by sending a tweet containing “#Indiana”. The goal is to get #Indiana to trend among the top ten words on twitter, exposing our state to this global audience.

    Twitter is the preeminent emerging technology used by social media advocates and early technology adapters from every continent. There are currently four billion twitter ready devices in use globally because – unlike facebook and LinkedIn – twitter is a text based service that can be accessed from very basic mobile phones. According to Compete.com twitter had over 25 Million unique visitors in September 2009 ( http://bit.ly/3wPSs6 ), and the latest numbers from Pew Internet and American Life show us that 1 in 5 Internet users tweet; “Fully 39% of internet users with four or more internet-connected devices (such as a laptop, cell phone, game console, or Kindle) use Twitter” (Portrait of a Twitter user http://bit.ly/2ZffjH ).

    When words or phrases start to trend on twitter there is a snowball effect as tweeters begin to ask, “why is Indiana trending?” Among social media platforms twitter is unique in that virtually all tweeters participate on at least one other social networking platform, so when messages spread virally on twitter they quickly appear on other platforms. If “#Indiana” trends it will increase name recognition globally, it will provide favorable exposure to existing Indiana businesses and possibly attract future business. It will also raise awareness of social media among Hoosiers and encourage them to lend their voice to the global dialog happening round-the-clock on twitter. There is no downside to this initiative.

    Twitter can no longer be discounted as an inane platform where self-absorbed individuals share what they are doing minute-by-minute. It is a viable business tool increasingly making headlines – e.g. Business use of Twitter, Facebook exploding, “using Twitter to get the word out .. jumped 250% since Spring..” (Computer World November 9, 2009 http://bit.ly/22BQct) and, Internet Use Increases Social Connectivity, “Rather than pulling people away from each other, Internet use actually enhances the size and diversity of people’s social networks…” (Information Week November 9, 2009 http://bit.ly/3sDmtb). Twitter is the largest bridging social capital group in the recorded history of our species, and if Indiana wants to remain relevant in the 21st century Hoosiers should actively participate.

    # # #

  • The Genesis of The Tweeter’s Almanac – First Edition: The Great #Indiana Initiative of Aught Nine

    The Almanac was conceived in January 2009 as a result of a digital conversation on the Smaller Indiana social networking site. On January 21, 2009 Pat Coyle – owner of Smaller Indiana – posed the following question:

    “…So how will President Obama keep America engaged and focused on the “common good,” and not drift back to our own special interests? … is there anything you are planning to do to make sure you participate in the process today, tomorrow and over the long term?…” http://bit.ly/32FUcq

    In answer to that call to action I launched The Great #Indiana Initiative of Aught Nine where I encouraged Hoosier Tweeters to use the “#Indiana” hashtag in a “concerted effort to raise awareness of Indiana” simply by adding eight keystrokes a couple of tweets a week.

    “I propose all tweeple on Smaller Indiana make a concerted effort to raise awareness of Indiana through twitter. Indiana is a shining example of how a state CAN operate in the black, be family-friendly, foster independent sensibilities and a Midwestern work ethic. If all Smoosiers began adding #Indiana or some other hash phrase in their tweets ( e.g. #llerIND =) it would allow all hoosier tweeple to find each other easier then do the courteous reciprocal follow.”


  • The democratization of information

    I’ve been following the election debacle in Iran closely via twitter. During this six minute video chronicling the protests I discovered on the SOCIAL MEDIA platform called YouTube, I noticed a recurring image => cell phones. Out of the dozen or so cell phone images in the video only 1 person was using it as a telephone, all others were using it as a video-camera or a text messaging device. Like it or not, twitter and all other social media platforms that provide Internet access to a mobile device is an EVOLUTIONARY game changer. Repressive regimes will no longer find it easy to manipulate and control information dissemination. To allay any arguments that may arise from social media naysayers, please take a look at the news articles below.
    __________________________________

    ‘Twitter war’ proves kilobyte is stronger than the megaton
    “Twitter is most suited to a psychological information war, and right now in Iran there is a war over information,” …“This is the first Twitter war.”

    “On the one hand, you’ve got Ahmadinejad’s regime striving to manipulate and hide information, and to create an information monopoly. But unfortunately for them, this can no longer be done because of the democracy of the new media,”
    ________________________________


    Social Networks Spread Defiance Online
    “Many Twitter users have been sharing ways to evade government snooping, such as programming their Web browsers to contact a proxy — or an Internet server that relays their connection through another country. “
    _________________________________

    Iranian media crackdown prompts Tweets and blogs
    “ Tiananmen + Twitter = Tehran, highlighting both the similarity between events twenty years ago in China’s Tiananmen Square and in Tehran today and the difference that the Internet has made in how the Tehran events have unfolded. “
    ________________________________


    Follow Iran protests … on Twitter     | CharlotteObserver.com
    “The Iranian government reportedly has blocked opponents of President Ahmadinejad from sending emails, but they are being outwitted by another form of technology — Twitter. ”
    ________________________________

    There are reports that the Iranian government chided the U.S. Government for meddling, however I’ve seen little to no action from our president. The meddling is coming from the global twitter community. Repressive regimes be warned. Tweeters are watching and chronicling.

    Wasn’t it Thomas Paine who said something like, “A mind expanded by a new idea can never go back to its original size.” I contend that a world connected by social media will never be the same.