One Solid Week of Tweets
If you are going to recruit using Social Media, I suggest that you add Twitter to your strategy. Why?
2 reasons:
- Its popular and where people are, so are passive prospects.
- See previous comment.
In case you are not aware of it, I Tweet. Maybe not as much as some, but I do my fair share. In case you are scratching your head as to what I mean, I am referring to Twitter. What is Twitter? I think Wikipedia describes it better than I ever could.
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send “updates” (or “tweets”; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter web site, via the Twitter web site, short message service (SMS), instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook.
Updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and instantly delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends (delivery to everyone is the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, instant messaging, SMS, RSS, email or through an application. For SMS, four gateway numbers are currently available: short codes for the United States, Canada, and India, as well as a United Kingdom number for international use. Several third parties offer posting and receiving updates via email.
Here is a great how-to video on Twitter as well. (I posted it on my blog before, but am doing so again now for convenience sake.)
I was a bit slow to Twitter initially, but soon began to love it. As my worklife and personal life began to compete with my blogging life, the idea of typing a few short thoughts became more and more appealing. So I began “following” others and quietly taking notes, while gradually building a Twitter strategy/theory of my own. Although Twitter is built around the idea of “What are you doing?” I want to try it a different way, at least for this week.
So, for the week of June 23, 2008, I plan on blogging exclusively on Twitter. Check out what is going on at my Twitter page located at: http://twitter.com/jimstroud You can also click the screenshot of my Twitter homepage below. As you may notice, I have my comic strip in the background. I might change that, just depends on the feedback I get and my mood this week. (And just as a FYI, you might want to subscribe to The Twitter Report for more tips and tricks on how to use Twitter.)
Depending on how things go with this experiment, I may also take a peek at some other microblogging sites aka “Twitter Clones.” I have been hearing a lot about these alternative sites to Twitter, especially since Twitter has been having growing pains with their servers buckling under the increased popularity. As I have experienced a couple of outages while defending Twitter, I have to say that alternatives have been on my mind a bit as well.
These are some of the other sites I have been kicking the tires on:
Pownce
I have not jumped head first yet into Pownce, but instead have been reading user comments about it. These are some of the comments that I have picked up on.
- Looks slick and has some nice features like sending files and event announcements to all of your Pownce friends.
- You can import your Twitter contacts to Pownce, but since its not all that popular yet (at least in comparison to Twitter), chances are not to many of your contacts will already be there. For that matter, the contacts importer seems to be on vacation as well. Not good.
- I also heard that Pownce has been having major glitches with its system with nominal traffic. Not too encouraging for me as aggravated as I am with Twitter going down some times. (And I am not the only one. Click here to see a funny video about Twitter’s service going out.)
So, not only do they not have first mover advantage, their system is a bit “blinky.” I hear more complaints than praise about Pownce, but I am still considering giving them a shot by adding a profile there. Next up on my list is what I consider to be a contender for the Twitter throne, assuming that Twitter does not fix its systems fast and/or does something really, really stupid to really tick off its users. (I have no idea what that could be.)
Plurk
Plurk is the newest kid on the block and in comparison to Twitter, a prettier younger woman. I have actually received invites to join Plurk and I observe it to be the next new shiny object in the world of web 2.0. Plus, for all the hype and activity around Plurk, it manages to stay online. (Good for you Plurk!)
- I like that Plurk scrolls horizontally and not vertically, just because its disruptive to do so. However, that move may come back to bit them in the hinee. For example, one reason Twitter is on top is because so many developers have made tools for it. If they develop stuff for Plurk with it scrolling horizontally, will they have to go out of their way to make their apps fit it? Could it work on an IM Client? A non-IPhone cell phone? I dunno, just posing the question.
- That not withstanding, I LOVE the colors and the added features like Karma points that I assume will be redeemable for cash and prizes on some later date? I also like the way the Top Plurkers are displayed when you browse the members. There is also a mobile version to Plurk, but I have not tried it out yet, so nothing to say there. I have noticed that when I was on Firefox I had some issues seeing the timeline, but that might have been a momentary thing.
If you decide to give Plurk a try, send me an invite.
Jaiku
Jaiku is also a “me-too” site, but since Google recently bought it, I have to give it some attention. Jaiku has a lot of bells and whistles that Twitter does not, but I imagine will eventually integrate into its offering.
- Jaiku comes with apps that let you add external sources of information into your stream like: weather, news, your favorite blogs and so on.
- Jaiku also (and I like this) lets you set up groups of users around a common interest or around your choices. (For example, you could set up a group of family members, friends, clients, et cetera)
- Jaiku also lets you see where in the world people are (if they have set that up in their preferences).
- You need an invite to get in and at this writing, I do not have any. When I do, I will hollah out and let you know if you are curious about the service.
Honorable Mentions:
I don’t know anything about these microblogging sites, but they came up in my search so I thought I would mention them.
Okay, that’s it for now! Be sure to “Follow Me” on Twitter (at least for this week) and give me feedback on how you like reading Twitter. My Twitter homepage is here: http://twitter.com/jimstroud. And while you are at it, don’t forget to check out The Twitter Report for more useful info on Twitter.
E’ ya’ later!
-Jim Stroud
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Nothing says "Thanks for posting this Jim!" like Starbucks Coffee. Click here to buy me a cup (or two).If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
I have a twitter account and I only have a few people following me and vise versa. I don’t see too many profiles with people advertising their twitter accounts. I always have to ask them for it and it get a little old and I have to wait forever for a response. Any suggestions on what I could do.
I like what twitter has to offer and that it is a mutual blogging site along with other activities. I have begin using glyphius ads and that is something that enables other activites also. There are not many sites like these around that are so multifunctional.
[...] to post a note about an Online Recruitment Survey that I was supposed to mention prior to my “One Solid Week of Tweets” experiment. (Sorry). Well, this is the [...]
Jim, agreed. I was a bit reluctant to use Twitter initially but I have found it quite useful to quickly share tidbits of information.
Since you’re checking out Twitter “clones”, take a look at http://www.twiddict.com. It could easily be the cousin to Twitter.
Thanks!