Dan Perry

I’m not attending SMX Social in Long Beach, California, but a lot of my friends on Twitter are, so I get all the scoop/opinions in real time.

It seems like Rand Fishkin, known for being a strong speaker (I thought he was the few times I’ve seen him speak), seems to really have stubbed his toe at this conference. Here are three comments I read, all within a minute of each other:

Smx - rand fishburn needs a few less tangents and a little more focus

and

I think Rand is on drugs. He’s full of tangents and making little sense. Someone send Mystery Guest to come collect him.

and

@smx @randfish is entertaining, but missing the gist with all his witty pop cultural asides

Ouch.

The point: Thanks to Twitter, not only the people in the room are watching and judging, but every follower of those people are as well. Personally, I’m not sure if it’s good or bad. Thoughts?

UPDATE: Per Kevin Heisler’s comment below, none of the three tweets above were direct messages. I apologize for not remembering who the first one came from, but the second is from Lisa Barone and the third from David Berkowitz. Since they weren’t private messages, and were available to anyone following them, I don’t see a reason to conceal the identities.

I originally didn’t post the names because I didn’t want to start a personal attack; I thought the conversation around the comments was much more important (and potentially interesting) than the comments themselves.

For what it’s worth, I think both comments are true to the authors: Lisa’s comment sounds exactly like her; truthful, in a fun way. Read any blog post she’s ever written, and you’ll see they follow the same style.

David’s is very relevant, truthful, and even considerate. He added the @smx so whomever is running that account could see his thoughts as well. In my opinion, that’s pretty admirable. A truthful, unbiased, real-time review, conveyed in a professional manner. Nothing wrong with that.

Brilliant little tool! Add @gcal to yoru friend feed in Twitter, associate your Twitter account with a Gmail account, and that’s it!

You can now send direct messages via Twitter to your Google Calendar. How did I not hear of this until now?

Check it out at http://twittercal.com/

There are over 3,000 twitter users in Chicago; just do a search and you’ll see. I spent some time going through the list, and pulled out the interesting ones. Take a look, and follow those that are interesting to you. (Also, feel free to follow me as well if you like.)
NOTE: The number shows the followers of the specific Twitter feed as of Thursday, April 10, 2008.

http://twitter.com/cubreporter - Newspaper reporter in Oak Park, a Chicago suburb
http://twitter.com/ColonelTribune - 259 - The Colonel knows Chicago
http://twitter.com/wxchicago - 241 - Chicago Weather
http://twitter.com/wx_chicago - 25 - Chicago Weather
http://twitter.com/ChicagoClubs - 41 - Chicago Clubs
http://twitter.com/chicagotribune - 166 - Chicago Tribune
http://twitter.com/cta - 31 - CTA station closings and delays
http://twitter.com/ChicagoIL - 269 - Local news, weather, and sports from Chicago
http://twitter.com/RedEyeChicago - 145 - A Chicago newspaper
http://twitter.com/WhereInORD - 70 - Post your Chicago Q & A
http://twitter.com/foxchicago - 55 - Fox Chicago
http://twitter.com/chicagotalks - 5 - Chicago community news
http://twitter.com/Chicagoist - 73 - Happenings in Chicago
http://twitter.com/fieldmuseum - 4 - Field Museum
http://twitter.com/AMYFREEZE - 50 - Local Fox Weather meteorologist
http://twitter.com/WGNTV - 37 - Local TV Station
http://twitter.com/irchicago - 54 - Insomnia Radio Host
http://twitter.com/adlerskywatch - 54 - Adler Planetarium
http://twitter.com/TechTalkWRLR - 5 - WRLR TechTalk
http://twitter.com/cst_sox - 4 - Chicago Sun Times Sox reporter Joe Cowley
http://twitter.com/metrochicago - 42 - Chicago’s independent music venue
http://twitter.com/chicagowebjobs - 16 - Posts Interactive jobs in Chicago

OK, who/what did I forget? Let me know in the comments.

I’ve blogged in the past about how I think JetBlue is a great example of how a business should be using Twitter. Today I saw a tweet, and it confirmed my previous impression. Check this out:

Engaged, asking the right questions, thinking ahead. Bravo JetBlue!

I’ve been running a little social media experiment the past month called Twitter Trivia. I told myself that if I didn’t have 100 followers by the end of the month, I’d end it. As of this morning, it’s 86, thus the demise of Twitter Trivia.

So what did I learn from this small, social media experiment?

• Most of the followers are new to Twitter. There are some followers that have >500 followers, but the vast majority are <100. Why? I think because it’s a way for them to interact with someone else, without sticking their neck out too far. Everyone loves trivia, and if you know the answer, all the better. It’s a good way to engage with Twitter, and get your sea legs.
• The followers break down into select groups. Not unlike the “Never Ending Friending” (PDF) report, which in part, stated that social networks break down into 5 select groups, so did Twitter Trivia. There were a select few who were always answering (right or wrong), a group of those that would occasionally, and some that never did.
• Twitter Trivia spawned others. There are two other Twitter Trivia-like games that evolved during the month of the experiment. One in particular is probably a little better, in that you can’t just copy/paste the question into Google and find the answer. It’s tough coming up with these types of questions, trust me.
• It truly was social. In the end, I think this was the most interesting takeaway for me. I found that, when I’d send out the three winners for each question, some followers would click the links of the winners, and start following them. There was even some gentle taunting/ribbing that evolved.

In the end, the game brought people together that otherwise would have never met, so in my opinion, it was a great success.

Thanks to all those who played, and for those interested, here’s the Final Leaderboard.

There are a number of companies using Twitter, but there’s a difference between using Twitter, and actually being an engaged member of the Twitter community. Let’s take a closer look at some of data, and see what we can find.

For each company noted in the original post, I’ve collected the following 6 points of data:

• Name of Company and Twitter URL
• Number of Followers (in general terms, the higher the better)
• Number of people following (the higher, the more engaged, although that’s up for debate)
• Date of most recent tweet (Are they currently engaged?)
• Date of 20th tweet (the homepage of each site shows the last 20 tweets. The farther back the date, the less they are updating, thus the less they’re engaged.)
• Notes

I’ve focused on 6 non-media companies using Twitter. There may be more, and I apologize if I left anyone out.

Technorati
4,014
26
October, 2007
April 2, 2007
Valiant effort, but it’s been abandoned. Shame, considering they have such a large, and seemingly still loyal audience.

Macworld Magazine
3,800
838
March 25, 2008
February 15, 2008
Seems like a really good mix. Not automatically following everyone, but definitely following a group. Semi-frequent, relevant updates (20 in the last 5 1/2 weeks). Tweets include info on reviews, events, and homepage design tweaks. Very impressive.

JetBlue
927
994
March 27, 2008
March 5, 2008
Frequent tweets are good to see. Like that they’re answering questions of users. Most of the latest 20 tweets are responses to questions (more legroom, etc.) Also, a shout out to The Guardian for a positive comment on the airline. Great mix.

Forrester Research
960
658
March 22, 2008
November 16, 2007
Started off slow, but they’ve posted 5 times in the past week, so they’re gaining steam. In addition, most of the first 15 posts included inbound links, while the most recent 5 are much more personal. Willing to bet that Jeremiah Owyang had a chat with the official Twitterer!

SouthWest Air
329
105
March 27, 2008
January 24, 2008
All 20 tweets are pointing inwards, with no @replys, which tells me they’re not comfortable with the tool yet, but at least they’re trying. Also, they’re following JetBlue. Competitive Intelligence? I’m guessing yes. Good for them; JetBlue is doing a lot of things right as far as Twitter is concerned.

Apple Inc.
1,529
0
January 28, 2008
June 11, 2007
Again, sort of a shame. No posts in two months, and most of the latest 20 are for products. Oddly, none of the tweets have links that point either in or outbound. For such a strong marketing company, I’m left less than thrilled.

Of the six reviewed, I’m most impressed with JetBlue and MacWorld Magazine.

I like JetBlue mainly because they’ve succeeded where a lot of companies don’t; they’re Twitter “persona” has a personality. By reading the tweets, I can almost picture the person typing them. With multiple decision-makers and multiple departments, that’s tough to do. Congrats.

MacWorld is a close second. If they would increase their tweets, but keep the same “feel”, they’d be giving JetBlue a run for their money.

What do you think? How should a company convey themselves via Twitter? Looking forward to your comments.

Was doing some research into how companies are using Twitter, and thought the list was too good not to share. Enjoy, and let me know which ones I forgot in the comments.

NOTE: The number in parentheses is the number of followers as of March 20, 2008.

Companies on Twitter

Technorati (3,746)
MacWorld Magazine (3,517)
JetBlue (778)
Forrester Research (909)
SouthWest Air (124) - Interesting: Southwest Air is following JetBlue. Competitive Intelligence? (thanks @alscillitani)
British Airways (53)
Apple News (516)
Apple (1,474)

Publishing Companies on Twitter

KPNS San Diego (1,099)
Chicago Tribune (105)
Associated Press (297)
Columbus Dispatch (13)
NPR (827)
CNN (2,134)
Fox News (533)
ESPN (1,099)

BBC (In a class by themselves):

BBC Entertainment (476)
BBC News (1,799)
BBC Sport (499)
BBC Politics (249)
BBC Business (401)
BBC Sci-Tech (637)
BBC Breaking (774)
BBC Tech (1,983)

New York Times (NA) - 15 different feeds (like BBC)

Interesting:

David Letterman (966)
I Can Has Cheezburger (1,502)
Twitter Fiction (408) - Great works of fiction in 140 characters or less.
Brooklyn Museum (394)
San Francisco Zoo (182)
Chicago Weather (205)
Seattle Weather (182) - Other cities available too.
Amazon Deals (299)
Dell Outlet (615)
PRJobs (353) - Using Twitter for recruiting. Not bad.
PollsBoutique (47) - Interesting, quick polls.

OK, who did I forget?

I really enjoy posting pictures to Twitter from my mobile phone. I think it adds a lot of value to the program, and I also like seeing pictures from other users. So what product is (currently) better; Twitxr.com or Twitpic.com? There are some differentiating factors that, in my opinion, makes one better than the other. Let’s dig a little deeper.

Both programs allow you to upload images directly from your phone to your Twitter account, and once you sign-up, both give you a specific email account to upload pictures to, so nobody else can. The difference is in the details.

When adding pictures, Twitxr.com has you add the location of the picture as the Subject Line of the email (for instance: Chicago, Illinois), and then has you add the actual tweet to the body of the message. Then, when posted, the Twitxr message displays as:

Twitpic uses a slightly different approach. The subject line is used for the tweet itself, and the body of the email is inconsequential. Here’s how it looks:

Visually, the only real difference is that Twitpic puts the link first, where Twitxr puts it second. It seems the culture of Twitter has adopted the latter (putting the link after the text), and I personally prefer this method as well: Explain the link, then link to it.

So why does Twitxr require a location? Here’s why, and it’s the reason why I prefer it over Twitpic.

Visit the homepage of Twitxr.com, and under the sign-up button, click on the link that reads “See it in Action”. You’ll see a number of Twitxr tweets on the right with images attached). On the left, you’ll see a few “Featured” users. Under the Featured Users, you’ll see a form that reads “What’s going on in…”, and then a text box. By typing in a location (I chose Chicago) and hitting enter, I see a Google Map page of fellow Twitxr’s in my area.

By clicking on one of the images, I can see the most recent Tweet.

Isn’t that cool? This is how I met fellow Twitterer @kpishdadi. She even rides the same train I do into the city!

In my opinion, this feature makes Twitxr.com much more valuable; it adds an additional layer of social interaction, by allowing you to find others near you.

Any other programs out there I’m missing? Any that offer the local-social interaction like Twitxr? Also, what would you like to see next?

The following are the final rankings for the Twitter Trivia game, which ended on March 31, 2008.

1. @spazcer, 53 points
2. @markbottrell, 39 points
3. @ochua1, 30 points
4. @loriluza, 21 points
5. @iamshadowdaddy, 19 points
6. @TheMadHat, 13 points
7. @Beever, 13 points
8. @SEMaven, 12 points
9. @blafrance, 10 points
10. @ellybabes, 10 points
11. @bhaelochon, 10 points
12. @EKBeasley, 10 points
13. @chrishyde, 9 points
14. @Giba, 8 points
15. @lonesoph1st, 7 points
16. @slobokan, 5 points
17. @surcapitaine, 5 points
18. @mattraskin, 5 points
19. @tonyBottrell, 5 points
20. @nowsourcing, 4 points
21. @Wingnut, 4 points
22. @fullfilth, 3 points
23. @hawksdomain, 3 points
24. @gbarberi, 2 points
25. @cheapsuits, 2 points
26. @darkmane, 2 points
27. @FreshPeel, 1 point
28. @gsicotte, 1 point
29. @SearchBuzz, 1 point
30. @oemperor, 1 point
31. @mayobrains, 1 point
32. @ryanerism, 1 point

Keep on playing, and good luck!

The prizes have been decided:

• 1st Place = $50 Amazon Gift Certificate
• 2nd Place = $25 Amazon Gift Certificate
• 3rd Place = $10 Amazon Gift Certificate

That is unless I can talk the twitter folks into offering some great Twitter-schwag to give away. Wish me luck!

Twitter Trivia is a game I thought of while riding home from work. I was listening to the radio, and heard a song, and could not think of the artist. I thought “I wish I could Twitter the lyrics to my friends”, and the light bulb went off.

Why not use Twitter as a platform for a trivia game? Most everyone loves trivia right? For example: In Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, what philosopher is mentioned? (Answer below)

So I’m giving it a shot. I’ll even throw in some prizes to get it off the ground. (Amazon gift certificates? Any input here?) Here are the rules.

1. Follow funtrivia on Twitter

2. Twitter all your friends to follow funtrivia (OK, not officially a rule, but you might as well; the more the merrier.)

3. Starting Monday, March 3rd, I’ll begin twittering trivia questions (although I’ll lob a few practice questions this week, to work out the wrinkles.) They can range from movies to sports, music to geography, and everything in between.

4. The first three people that reply with the correct answer will be given points (3 points for being first, 2 for second, 1 point for third). At the end of March, I’ll tally up the results, report the winners, and hand out the prizes.
That’s it. If it takes off (like I hope it does), we’ll continue the game, build a leaderboard (already built it), a champion’s page, badges for the winners, get better prizes, etc. If it doesn’t, you can go back to reading my Twitters about the cat hair on my couch.

So tell all your friends, and let’s try something new with Twitter. Any questions (or suggestions), ask them in the comments, and I’ll respond.

Oh,and the answer is Galileo. You remember, just after they sing “Thunderbolt and lightning - very, very frightening me! Galileo, Galileo” And don’t even tell me you’re not seeing the four Wayne’s World dudes in that fresh 1976 Pacer when you read that.

How can this not be fun? Start following funtrivia today!