Image via CrunchBase

Last week’s survey and “award” of the Top 50 Tweeples to follow of 2008 strikes me as ridiculous. Other than being another opportunity for egos to promote themselves (similar to the “vote for my SXSW session” of a few months ago), why is there any inherent value in following these people? If I don’t care about Web 2.0 technologies, why do I care to follow people who tweet about that? Why is the twitterverse getting so full of itself?

Don’t get me wrong. I like Twitter, I use Twitter, I teach others about Twitter — heck, I write about Twitter. I think its fun and useful.

This is just some kind of weird popularity contest, along the lines of People Magazine, some kind of microcosm Hot-or-Not for the inside twitter crowd. Ick.

Mile High Social Media Club

When: October 21st, 2008, 5:30pm - 8:30pm

Where: Forest Room 5, Denver, Colorado

What: This gathering will be part networking, and part learning. The learning part will be a panel on using Social Bookmarking and Social News for marketing, PR and outreach purposes. The panel will only be an hour, and will start at 6pm, so don’t be late if you want to take part in this piece of it!

Who: Panelists are:

• Brett Borders, of CopyBrighter
• Jason Cormier, of Room 214

Visit the Facebook event page to RSVP, or visit the Ning site and RSVP there.

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Already, with Twitter entering the mainstream consciousness, thanks to CNN and the New York Times, I am experiencing spam on Twitter — that’s a first. Fortunately, Twitter makes it pretty simple to deal with spammers, but again, I think there’s more to it than that. Are there basic rules of engagement for business users that we ought to follow? I think so, but I know that some Tweeters will disagree. Why? Because they feel like what they say is so damn important and compelling, that the rules don’t apply to them.
For example, there are people I call the shameless self-promoters. You know who you are. There are some in the “social media guru/expert” space, always promoting just their own stuff (blog posts, conferences, etc. In my mind, this highly transparent self-promotion is nothing but spam. Remember people, this is supposed to be a conversation. It’s not all about you. What that means is, you talk, then I talk.

In Twitter-ville, I personally translate that idea this way: sure, promote your own stuff, but give back too — retweet someone else’s great blog post, tell me about someone else’s photos, podcasts, blog post, conferences, or other words of wisdom. Surely, you aren’t getting all your ideas just from your own genius brain?

But, again, as I write this, I think of a few that I follow where shameless self-promotion might makes sense. Like a business that’s tweeting updates about a sale, or a theme to those customers who want it — an example locally is for one of the few independent video/DVD stores around, The Video Station.

The Video Station promotes, through Twitter, themed movie watching - last week, they posted a link to a top list of Paul Newman movies as a tribute. If you are a regular renter from this store, you will know that they have theme weeks often, and so they are using this as an extension of that theme.

So what’s the difference between The Video Station and a shameless self-promoter?

The difference is that I don’t get 8-10 tweets a day from The Video Station, so I don’t mind it at all. I get one a week. A bad example of I stopped following Whole Foods for exactly that reason — I wasn’t interested in getting multiple tweets a day promoting the store.

Based on my experience using Twitter for business and promotion purposes, here are my rules of engagement on Twitter for business people:

1. Promote your blog posts — but not every one: Sure, go ahead and use it to promote a blog post to those who follow you. But remember that you aren’t the only person who has something compelling to offer. Have you read something today that you liked? Hated? Tweet that. Or, tweet a post from one of your cohorts.
2. Use Twitter to get instant feedback: Interested in what others have to say about what you think? Who agrees? Who has another point of view? Tweet your blog post to get comments from others. I’ve asked for specific Tweeters to comment, people I know that care about the same issue. It’s a great way to start a discussion about something. Again, not for every post. Use sparingly.
3. Use Twitter to inspire discussion: @jasonfalls asked the twitterverse to get in touch regarding small business social media case studies, because he’s interested in writing about them. Others will retweet his request, and I am certain he’ll get some good responses.
4. Airport acronym tweets are boring: Glad to know you are busy, but really I don’t want to know your travel schedule is. EXCEPT. If you are trying to arrange a tweetup or meeting with folks locally, by all means, use Twitter as a good way to possibly connect. EXCEPT. If you are going on a vacation and want to make me jealous.
5. How many posts per day? No right answer here, but this goes back to my first recommendation. If you are using Twitter to only promote yourself and your ideas, I suggest you limit those.
6. Be nice: This probably ought to be the #1 rule. If you want Twitter love, then give it out. If you’re confronted by a mean tweeter, block them (thanks @leahjones for refreshing my memory on how to do that). Remember that the lines between personal and professional twitter usage are very blurry, so forgive people’s excitement about the Red Sox, or the Broncos or World Cup soccer, or the election (as long as they are nice and not mean).

What do you think? What rules of engagement do you follow with Twitter? I want to know. Hey, I know, I will tweet this post and maybe get some feedback…

Image via Wikipedia

Well, Bryan Eisenberg has done all of us a favor, and posted an online virtual conference mashup of recorded presentations from conferences he’s been to recently. At the very least, its a great place to start.

Apparently not. And, the surprising piece is that of all the folks I have spoken to over the last few months, this has only happened twice. In both cases — and this is what’s weird to me — the person I was supposed to hear back from was a VP of Client Services, or some similar role. So, let that sink in. I was asked to call or respond on a certain day. I did so. I receive back the great gaping void of nothingness. From someone whose daily charge is relationship management for key customers.

Now, I know what you are thinking. Maybe they got too busy, or decided there wasn’t a reason to talk to you. I am really quite understanding of folks being busy, I have been there myself. And, if they don’t want to talk to me, that’s ok too. Just let me know, and I won’t call or email again - I don’t take it as an insult. The point is, what I am learning about this potential hiring manager, and how this person manages relationships?

Here’s how I end up dealing with this situation. I give people lots of “busy” latitude. I truly empathize. So, I make the extra effort to continue to follow up for a period of time — say, two weeks. Every few days or so, stretching out longer the farther out I get. And people appreciate my persistence if they asked me to follow up. I appreciate that they are getting back to me as well, even long after the fact.

After a while though, I am going to stop. The message I get from nothing is pretty loud. But here’s what I don’t get. In both cases, I can easily see myself needing their services in the future. Now, I am left with a less than stellar view into client services.

Follow up and follow through are key to relationships. If you have no need or desire, be direct — I know I appreciate it. If you need more time, say so. Either way is better than no response.