During the Dallas International Film Festival or #DIFF, I had the opportunity to work with (owned by the cheer-inducing ). Special thanks to them for getting me the link to this video.
The video above was created as an advertisement specifically for #DIFF and they played it before pretty much every movie playing through out the festival. But I was impressed every time I saw it. #DIFF truly understood their audience before making this. Its witty, well-filmed, it has indie-esque background music and shows something the audience can relate to even if its over-exaggerated. The only problem I had with this commercial was the fact that I didn't see it before I got to the festival.
Often times we don't bother thinking about what our audience wants to see from us. This is a mistake. A short commercial like this truly connected with people watching. Here are a few quick ways to market directly to your audience.
Find your Target: Obviously you need to know who you want to reach before anything else. Find your target market and then research the heck out of them.
Find common interests: Learn about your audience. Discover what else they enjoy besides your product: adventure sports? cooking? gaming? Try to relate those other interests to your product.
Find the medium they prefer: Is it video? Texting? Mobile? Web? Facebook? Go to where your audience is.
Pay attention to details: With the #DIFF example, the videography is really sharp. They knew their film festival audience wouldn't put up with grainy image and bad sound, so they made it look professional. What kind of details would turn your audience off?
Create the warm fuzzy feeling: What makes your audience go "awwww". Don't assume everyone likes babies or kittens. Figure out what makes your audience smitten then feel free to use it.
Learn the Language: Every generation has their own pattern of speech. People who play sports use different slang than those who play jazz. Find out the little words that will make you in-the-know. (Don't over-do the colloquialisms though, too much is a bad thing.)
Make your message clear: For any audience you need to keep your message simple and easy to understand. If people don't know what you're selling all your efforts are wasted.
ASK: Want to know if your efforts work? Find your target market (online, in the grocery store, wherever) and ask them
We're going to do a quick lesson on e-mailing-list etiquette. Mailing lists are a great way to keep in touch with your clients, connections and possible synergy partners. However, readers should be able to equally opt-in or opt-out. They should have some kind of connection to you so that your newsletters remain relevant.
Note: a connection to you does not mean that they handed you their business card once at a happy hour after you talked to them for five minutes. That's spam. I'm all about connecting, getting to know you and possibly getting business from you. But you are never earning my business if all the sudden one week later I'm on some random mailing list. The problem is, I might even like your product/service, I might have considered a business relationship with you... but when you cross the line into spam, I'm not going to support you. In fact, I refuse to do any business with spammers.
So what's the classy way to handle adding people to your email list? If you think someone could benefit from your monthly newsletter when you meet them, ASK. Its not hard. Just say, "Hey, would you mind if I added you to my mailing list? After our chat I really think its something you'd enjoy." (But only if it is. If you just talked about the weather, you probably need to get to know them a little better.) Or later, send them an email and ask. We handily call this permission-based marketing.
Welcome to the new face of Search Engine Optimization.
credit:
Here at Veribatim we've been following SEO trends for years, watching the gimmicks and trick used to put a site at the top of a list. We've done work in the optimization field before, but I'll readily admit its not been our forte. The trends and tricks changed too quickly to not devote a full time staff person to analyzing the right direction. While most of the basic principles of SEO have remained the same (see the four ares Google pay attention to in SEO), the unobtainable algorithm to get your page to #1 has been like the search for the Holy Grail.
That is until Google Caffeine started to break onto the seen. As a marketer who believes in purity of message I am pleased by what I perceive Caffeine to be. Caffeine depends more on your than your meta-data, meaning that your site should reflect what you actually do. Right now some websites are written just for search engines,. Google is trying to reward people who write for their audience instead of trying to game the system.
To find out more about what Caffeine brings to the table and how it might affect the current standing of your website, check out on Caffeine.
This post is inspired by the from Big in Japan and by a conversation with about what 3 superpowers I'd want (in case you're curious, they are teleportation--to avoid traffic, telekensis--also to avoid traffic and telepathy).
Facebook: Superman
Who can leap building in a single bound? Facebook can. Its the all-performance, all powerful social media platform of choice. If you need to connect with someone Facebook is the first choice. It also offers every app imaginable (for great justice!). It exists in every time and place, it allows you to tweet, blog and show pictures. It is the website of steel. However, like Superman, Facebook has its kryptonite: privacy. Unfortunately all the awesome things that Facebook offers can be instantly over-shadowed by a single brush with its single Achilles heel. Privacy issues have continued to plague Facebook's massive growth, threatening to strip the social media giant of its powerful grasp on the internet. Hopefully Facebook will overcome this evil (or it might be reduced to MySpace's social media superhero persona: Aquaman---in other words, still have followers... they're just fish.)
Twitter: The Flash
Need to connect with others at the speed of sound? Find Twitter and find it fast. Always on the go, always getting the most news and conversation in quick bite-sized servings, Twitter has all the powers of the famous Flash. It also latches on to some of The Flash's best and worse qualities including witty sarcasm and a sense of arrogance (its okay Twitter users, we all know you think you're better than other platforms). Most serious Twitter users converse in real time with a application like Tweetdeck or Seesmic. Or they connect on their phone. Either way they except all their news and conversation right now. The problem is, Twitter as a company might be too caught up in how wicked fast they are to notice their need to catch up with their users.
Linked-In: Professor Xavier
Solid, thoughtful and constantly in your head, Linked-In keeps all your contacts in line so you don't have to. If a social media platform could be psychic, this one would take the cake. Professor Xavier had a much tamer ability than other X-men, but was the leader and the most powerful. Linked-In offers the same, while not offering the same robust social atmosphere, Linked-In calmly offers professionals what they need most, tools and connections. It does this without forcing you to log-in every day, and allows you to download or interact as needed. While often overlooked, Linked-In is an immensely powerful networking tool. It certainly leads the charge for unruly mutants.
What super powers do your social connections give you? Tell me in the comments!
The overall message of this video is find where your audience is and go there. More and more young people, Gen Y, Gen X and rapidly even babyboomers use some kind of social media. So charities need to be on these sites if they want to reach people. The old ways just aren't good enough and its not enough to rely on Word of Mouth to reach the younger generations.
If you already love social media, or technology, help out the causes you are passionate about. They need volunteers to help them utilize new technology and get with the trends!
Finally, if you don't have a cause that speaks to you yet be sure to check out Captain Hope's Kids here in the Dallas area.
Last Friday I was interviewed by for his upcoming show and book: The New Millennial Leadership. If you'd like to hear it, feel free to download the interview or read the transcript!
Transcript:
Patrick: Welcome to The New Millennial Leadership. This is Patrick Dougher. My guest today is Kat Rice. Kat is a social marketer par excellence. She was recognized in 2009 by Microsoft as one of the premier social marketers in her industry. She has had over seven years of being an SEO and master Internet marketer.
She and I connected about a year ago at a speakers meeting, and I was really stunned with her depth and her understanding of what you really need to do to have a presence and to build a marketplace in the social media.
The other thing I was really stunned with is how she is so cross-generational. She can speak geek, and she can speak Boomer, which is cool because so many of the group that I grew up with can barely spell “geek,” or “Microsoft," or “Windows,” or any of those things. We are trying our best to keep up with the New Millennials that were born with a keyboard in their hand. Kat, I'm so thankful for you being on the show today.
Kat: Well, thanks so much for having me, Patrick.
Patrick: One of the things that I want to get into, I know you've got a book coming out, and you really have a clue when it comes to how to have a huge impact in the social media.
I know you're big in the arena of elections and politics. I know you're actually a consultant to some of the different parties and stuff like that. What’s your story? How did you get started in all of this?
Kat: It’s actually funny. I wanted to be a novelist. I wanted to write fiction novels, but I knew that I couldn’t make any money at that. I didn’t want to be a starving artist.
My parents were entrepreneurs, and they had a business mentor. I remember being 16, and going to see him in his office, and sitting down, and being like, “Well, what do I do? What business should I go into so that I can pay for my writing habit?”
He said, “The Internet's where it’s at.” Then he asked me if I was a coder, and I said, “No. Well, I could do basic programming, but I wouldn’t call myself a hacker or anything like that.”
He said, “Well, you're too old now.” I was 16 at the time. He said, “You're too old now, so you better find something else to do online.”
So, I started researching when I was 17 and started my first company at 18 doing online marketing. It was great advice, though. I never hire programmers now unless they did it as kids.
Patrick: Really?
Kat: Yes.
Patrick: I've heard that from a couple of people. I know Mike Caning’s a big guy in that industry, and he trained himself as a child. I sit there, and I'm thinking, “Wow, that’s an interesting transition.”
But, as far as what you're doing to create the success you're having today, what would you say you're doing the most significantly? What are you really bringing to the table now?
Kat: I think that it’s probably just persistent passion. There have been any number of uphill battles. My second company started in 2007, or maybe it was 2008. Anyhow, right about the time when the recession was hitting. It was so hard. It was so hard.
I was watching people who had way more experience drop out of the game, but I realized that was my moment to start shining. The fact that we made it through the dip is what kept us going. We didn’t give up. Anybody in my company, we all worked hard to make it through those crunch periods, and I think that that’s the biggest thing is the constant. If your passion is big enough, you'll continue to be persistent.
Patrick: You really have tied together your passion and your profession, haven’t you?
Kat: Yes. I'm the same person online that I am offline. Some people are really frightened of that, but I try to be the same person everywhere, so it seeps into every area of my life.
Patrick: One of the things that we talked about last week, and I’m so thankful that we had the time to visit because you really flipped something inside of my head, and that was I want to be a benefit and a blessing to not just my children, but their whole generation. I think it’s really important as fathers, as people that are trying to have an impact and be a benefit to the nation. You want to always give.
I just noticed that a lot of your generation, so to speak – the New Millennials – had grown up in a certain way, a certain surrounding that was very groupish. Yet you said all the Millennials have tremendous leadership within them. They see themselves as leaders.
The more you said that, the more I went, “She is absolutely right.” As leaders, your generation – how would you want to contribute to them? What would you tell them to really shine in and to expand their own leadership, to grow their own leadership within themselves during this time period?
Kat: Well, we're in a period that Generation Y, or Millennials, whatever you want to call them, are getting the short end of the stick. We're really hurting with the job market. A lot of us were raised by really entrepreneurial parents or we watched our parents do corporate America and it didn’t work.
So, there’s a lot of antsiness that our parents are telling us to do one thing, which is go to school, get a good job. But a lot of people want to be entrepreneurs. They don't want to do the ball-and-chain thing forever, because it’s just not the same. The go to school, get a good- ob thing doesn’t work because companies aren’t willing to keep you forever anymore, and we're all aware of that.
So, a lot of people are doing the job-hop thing right now, where they're trying to get enough experience to go out on their own. Then there are a lot of people who are starting companies right now. I would say my advice to my generation is just really stick with it.
Find something that you are really passionate about that you want to do every day and whatever it takes, find a way to do that every day because you're not going to be happy if you don't.
Patrick: I so agree. It’s find your purpose and your passion, make sure those are congruent, then find an invoiceable activity around that. You have, with the social media that you do. What are some of the services that you offer into the marketplace right now?
Kat: They call us a boutique online marketing store. In other words, we dabble in a little bit of everything. I have some really high-end designers who do logo and design work. We do websites. We set up blogs.
I also do online strategy where I'll sit down and help somebody with their total online presence. We do the social media. We do training. So, if it has to do with the Internet, then we touch on it. We even do viral tracking and things like that.
Patrick: You also do a fair amount of speaking as well, don't you?
Kat: I do. I love speaking. I think that this was my avenue to get there indirectly. I particularly like doing hands-on workshop-type stuff so that people feel like they walk away with something they can immediately use in their company.
Patrick: What do you think you do better than anybody else?
Kat: What do I do better than anyone else? It’s the ability to take someone else’s idea and magnify it. There are so many people out there who have, across the generation, really great ideas that they're really passionate about, and they just don't know how to tell other people about it. They feel stuck. They've got this big idea in their heart, but they can't express it to anyone.
So, I am the ghostwriter, in essence, for their dream, whether that’s in the form of an online media campaign, whether that’s the form of a website, whether that’s generically just being this is the direction you should go with that. That’s how I see myself, as being really good at that.
Patrick: I completely agree. I see you as a universal translator, for the Trekkies out there, but with a megaphone with a real amplifier built in because you have the ability to take... You did it with my idea of the New Millennial Leadership Program. You said, “But you're missing one key.” Then once that key is inserted, then it makes all the sense in the world, because I see leaders in this generation.
I see massive leaders that are going to have huge impact and that are going to be able to affect not just one country, but nations. Yet, they need to believe that they can. Even more so, they need direction. It would be helpful if they were able to look at some of the good stuff that in leadership that’s been passed down along the way, take those pearls and use them to amplify their own mission. What do you think?
Kat: I think my generation has a lot of really great ideas and a lot of big ideas, ideas that they think are much bigger than them. So, they either get stuck in two places. They either start announcing that idea to everyone with nothing to back it up. They don't actually know what direction to take and they're not putting a lot of action behind it. This is generic. Obviously, there are some people who’ve really shined.
Or they have this big idea, but they don't tell anybody because they don't know what the practical steps are to where they can get their message out. So, the problem here is that there are a lot of really great ideas and a lot of leadership meant to be had, but the building blocks to get to the point of being able to express that is the problem.
Patrick: What would you recommend that someone do to begin to put that plan together and move into that mission and purpose?
Kat: One of the first things to do is if there’s anybody who’s done anything even close is start talking to those people, whether they're older, whether they're the same age. Just start asking questions; every question you can think of, to get started. Then start physically making a plan on paper or on your laptop. But, start writing that stuff down.
Then the next big step is market research. I don't mean that you hire a company to do market research. That’s very ‘90s. Now, you can do it through things like Twitter, or you can just Google to see who’s done research before and plant that research into your own idea. Those things can start at least giving you a map of where you need to go.
Patrick: The other thing that I've seen is that this generation really does understand the concept of find the people that want to hear what you have to say and go stand in the middle of them. They get it. They're beginning to see how to do that.
The other kind of cliché, but it’s so powerful, and it’s a lot more fun to live this way, is go where you’re celebrated, not where you're tolerated. So, you get into the group. You get into that. Whether it’s online or offline, you get into that group, that tribe, if you want to call it, that will celebrate your creativity, and your vision, and your passion, right?
Kat: Right. Eventually you're going to have to step out of the happy comfort group and deal with the people who maybe are less excited about your group. But, you definitely need that backup, that support, if you're ever going to get anywhere, because without it, the first wind that blows you too hard, you'll break, and you need that support group behind you.
Patrick: That is so good. That is so good. How would you want somebody to get a hold of you?
Kat: Email is definitely the best way to get a hold of me. My email address is kat@veribatim.com. It’s just like “verbatim,” but with an extra “i” in it.
Patrick: Very good. Of course, you’re all the social places too. They can find you on Facebook, I know because we're friends on Facebook. And then Twitter and any other media that you want to make sure people connect to you on?
Kat: Veribatim is the key. If you look that up on Twitter, then I'm there. If you look that up on LinkedIn, I'm there. If you look it up on Facebook, I'm there. That’s also my website and where my blog is at, which I update at least once a week.
Patrick: That’s great. How did you come up with that name?
Kat: “Veri” is the Latin root for “truth.” Then we were playing on the word “verbatim.” We wanted to take what people's concepts of their company are and make it verbatim onto a website. So what they had in their mind was truth in marketing directly to the consumer.
Patrick: That is so good. I know that a lot of people really want authenticity in marketing, don't they?
Kat: Yes. It’s so important, especially if you're marketing to my generation. Transparency is definitely key.
Patrick: Anything else that you would want to say to even my generation as far as marketing to your generation?
Kat: For your generation, I would say just don't assume we're all kids. It sounds really cliché because we want to be grown up, but a lot of us are getting older, and we're making decisions. We can vote now; things like that. We've got a lot to bring to the table.
Don't be scared of us. Also, don't just assume we don't know what we're talking about. There’s a lot of energy that can be gained by the Baby Boomer generation by feeding off of Generation Y. What we need to have is a successful relationship, and sometimes it needs to be the older person who reaches down first.
Patrick: That’s absolutely right. I totally agree. One of the things that I see is I see tremendous, not just potential – there’s real leadership, real energy, real wisdom, just goodness and glory in the generation coming next.
The thing that I was so impressed with when I started studying the Millennials is that they didn’t accept a brand. They named themselves.
Kat: That’s exactly right.
Patrick: They weren’t the Gen Y, or Gen X, or Gen Whatever. They said, “No, we're the Millennials.” Then even beyond that, instead of continuing the descent of, if you look at the Boomers – well, really, the Boomers; I hate to even admit this, but they're the ones that embraced a whole bunch of noise. They were part of pulling, really, I have to say it this way, prayer out of schools. They began abortion. They endorsed it as far as allowing it, and legalizing it, and so many other things that really changed a whole lot in the way that our nation had been thinking. Let’s put it that way.
I know that we've run up a huge debt, which is just going to be a real nightmare for a lot of people. But, once we get through that eye of the needle, your generation is going to shine in a way that is going to be amazing because you guys literally stood up and said, “You know, we're not going to be like you. We're more inclined to wait to get sexually active. We're more inclined to be a little bit more good to our word. We really don't want the BS as far as who’s telling us what you promise. If you tell us something, you just do it.” That’s the best thing. Am I being consistent with what you know about your own? Is that what you're hearing, too?
Kat: Yes. There is definitely a want to be better. That’s huge, especially from people in leadership positions, whether they're corporations or politicians. Holding people to task, the desire for transparency, the desire for keeping companies and other people honest is really important. Of course, in exchange we try not to be hypocritical and do those things in our own lives.
But, I've got to say, everything positive that I see in my generation, we definitely learned some of it from people, Baby Boomers, whether they were our parents or other leaders that we said, “That. I want to be that.”
So, everything that’s good, I would say it comes from the Baby Boomers and then the other things, like the individuality, is stuff that we learned as a cohesive generation.
But, I think there’s a lot of hope. We are the future, but we're really aware of that burden that’s on our shoulders, that there’s a lot of things that are wrong, and that we need to fix it before it gets any worse.
So, there’s a lot of responsibility that’s been thrust on my generation. They say by the time we're 30, with immigration, Generation Y will be as big or bigger than the Baby Boomer generation, so it’s a huge group of people. I think that we get underscored a little bit by how large the Baby Boomer generation is.
There are a lot of things that are being thrust on all these kids’ shoulders, and I think we're stepping up. So, what we need is just people to believe that we can. It’s this circular process that if you believe in us and we believe in ourselves, then we do things good, which makes people believe in us more. We need that positive reinforcement happening from the generations higher than us.
Patrick: I completely agree. I am so proud of your generation and what I believe it’s going to become. I'm going to hold that out there and just say I believe that you guys are going to do amazing things. I'm really thankful to be able to sew into it
Kat, thank you again. Let me make one more thing. People should get a hold of you via email, and that email again is?
Patrick: And if they do connect with you, what should they expect?
Kat: In how long it takes me to get back?
Patrick: Yes, probably pretty quickly, I imagine. Actually, is there anything they might be able to request of you; maybe some keys to being better on social media? What should somebody ask for when they connect with you?
Kat: Yeah, if they have questions about social media or generic marketing questions, I can definitely answer those if they're simple enough, or at least point you in the right direction. I love being able to help and educate people. It’s very, very important to be educated in technology in this current age, so I'm more than happy to do that.
Patrick: I appreciate that. Kat, thank you so very much. Again, this has been The New Millennial Leadership show. My name’s Patrick Dougher. Our website is DoerSuccess.com.
I'd love to visit with you on ways that we can change this generation and be a benefit, I should say, to this generation coming forward, and helping support them, and building them up to be the leaders that they are and that they're becoming. Thanks again, Kat. We'll talk to you next time.
Just a few weeks ago LinkedIn announced their new blackberry app, allowing you to take LinkedIn with you wherever you go.
I have to admit I was already macgyvering a way to do this. I synced up my blackberry to Outlook and then downloaded the Linked-In Outlook plugin. This made life slower but eventually all my contacts ended up on my phone (more on this here).
LinkedIn must have had the same thought I did. All those connections are great but I need to be able to access them easily from my phone. There's just no point to connecting if I can't call them up.
But its more than that. For a long time I categorized LinkedIn as a lesser social media platform. It was for getting business cards stored logically and paper free: that was about it. Don't get me wrong, I know it has more features and some people use it very effectively in their business. But the lack of real time updates and notifications shoved it in to the I'm-too-buzy-to-devote-that-much-energy-right-now category.
But much like my recent post on how Twitter is ineffective without apps; LinkedIn is ineffective without mobile. I have a feeling I will be doing a lot more with LinkedIn in the next few months.
(Additional Note: If you watched my last video blog you'll know my blackberry, may it rest in peace, finally keeled over. So I have not actually gotten to try the LinkedIn blackberry app. However, I got an android and downloaded a Linked-In app. Even though its not an app developed by LinkedIn, I'm still excited to test it and discover all the things I've been missing!)
Want to know more about how to have better followers, the kind you can have personal relationships with? Many people get on twitter looking for a business solution. Some realize its the personal touch, really connecting with people. But then how do you find people to connect with on Twitter?
One way is through conferences.
Start a hashtag (#) - If you go to an event, a seminar, a conference, a meetup, whatever, start a hashtag about it. Make sure that hashtag is simple, short and easy to remember. Tweet on that tag, tell others about the tag and give good vital information from wherever you are. (Note: Check and see if this hashtag already exists.)
Get added (+) - If you're giving good info about your hashtag's subject, people will add you. (Might be a good idea to add other people who tweet on this tag as well.)
Start Talking (@) - Once you've established the hashtag, and used it, start talking to other people who use the hashtag, or tag conversations that relate to the hashtag. Commenting and conversing with people is the only way to personal relationships on social media.
Extra links:
: Create awareness about women's rights in Iran. (Yes, I'm wearing a #boobquake shirt in the video.)
: Instead of Wordcamp, we'll be having all the different open source platforms come together for one awesome weekend. (I will be there!)
Today did a presentation at the DFW Wordpress monthly meet-up. I was very excited once they started talking because we feel very similar about design and approach as they did. So instead of doing a review of them, I'm mostly going to summarize their presentation with a few of my own thoughts interjected. This presentation was given either for people planning to work with a design team, or someone who creates blog/website design.
What is the biggest challenge of design?
Design is subjective, its personal. Most people have trouble explaining why they pick a color scheme. What needs to happen is you need to move to an objective place. Colors, for example, maybe they support the mood of the pace, exemplify a fundamental change in the company, convey the message, or just support their branding colors.
Why?
The best way to be objective is to apply the "why" filter. With every design, color, piece of content, we need to ask why? The answer to the question why should line up with one of the following:
Overarching reason or purpose
Mission
Key Summary
Core Value System
You need to keep an overall goal in mind. What is the purpose of the website? Is it to put out information, leverage your clients or customers, share knowledge, network or maybe just establish yourself as an expert? Get this well defined.
Steps
Know your goals
We talked a little bit about the why up above. Spend a lot of time defining the goals. Again, just apply the "why" over and over again. Without goals you won't be able to get anywhere.
2. Identify Your Audience:
Its so important to KNOW your audience. RD2 suggested actually doing full profiles of possible users of the website, including slice of life descriptions. (AKA, how old is the user, where do they live, why are they on the site, what do they do, activities, family, etc.) User profiles can be real people. Feel free to interview the kinds of people who would actually visit the site.
3. Know your competitor.
Visit competitor sites. Pick what you like and don't like on those sites. What can you use? What can you improve on? Take those elements and decide what would make someone come to this site instead.
4. Research some Inspiration.
Inspiration can be about content or design, it can be cause by competitors or outside influences.
5. Plan Your Content
Its important to know your content before your design Layout pages, text, what you know you want. Have it written down in a flow sheet. Start a layout and plan as much as you can before you ever design anything.
6. Plan Your Features
After you know what you want on the pages and all the content you expect, try to decide what you want the site to do. (Again, looking at competitors might help here.) Do you want to connect to social media? Do you need a contact page? Interaction? Write all those down. Even brainstorm without the web (aka, "if your website could do anything, what would you have it do?")
7.Outline Your Needs
Once you've got your content and features decided on, start wireframing the site. Decide exactly where you want everything to go before you ever start with the art.
But we want to end up on the importance of "Why". Everything you do must go back to the goals, values and needs of the site itself. Make that your foundation and everything else will fall into place.
Many companies now see twitter as an integral part of their social media strategy. They log on, start a feed and immediately start posting into an echo chamber. No relationships, no responses, just waiting for their customers to find them while they tweet away about what they think sounds good.
Like all brands of social media, twitter needs to have a personal aspect. There should be conversation, interaction and relationships forming on a regular basis. Unfortunately, Twitter does not really lend itself to the high-level of personal interaction that Facebook does. You have to remember to regularly log-in and check your replies, it often takes time for people to respond and its even harder (despite "lists") to read comments from the people you want to regularly check in with.
Twitter is Nothing without Apps
If you've tried Twitter and found it frustrating, welcome to the game. If you're considering giving up on Twitter, but haven't downloaded an app, hold your horses. The difference between Twitter and other social media sites is that Twitter doesn't allow you as many options. This keeps Twitter simple, but not always effective.
That's when Apps step in. You can download them to your phone or to your desktop. They can run live in the background or send messages to your phone. The take your entire Twitter experience to a truly interactive place.
My favorite, by far, is Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck is a downloadable desktop app. It allows me to follow multiple twitter accounts, direct messages, hashtags and lists. I can know when the people I want to respond to are talking and when someone's talking to me. And the communities I participate in, I get those updates in real time. Other examples are twitter apps for your phone, Hootsuite, and Seismic.
So if you're not sure about twitter, make sure you try an app. Simplify your user experience and make sure you stay in touch with all the right people at the right times.
