Behind the Tweets

Introduction

I love Twitter and sing its praises nearly daily in both my personal and professional life. Why do I love it so much?

Well, Twitter has enabled me to connect and build relationships with new friends and business contacts from around the world. Also, I stay on top of breaking news in any and all areas I'm interested in – and like many people, my interests vary widely: from college football (especially my Oregon Ducks) to parenting (especially information around Autism) to marketing/social media (which is my profession), and more. Twitter has allowed me to build various communities of people who share similar interests for me and clients alike – and this in turn has helped foster the sharing of information.

I first joined Twitter on May 22, 2008. At the time, I had no idea what Twitter was, or even why I should join. I had just heard of Twitter through the then-new PR service, Help-A-Reporter-Out (or HARO). For those who don't know, this is a service created by Peter Shankman in which reporters/editors submit stories they're working on and experts they needed, and then Shankman would send a daily email to PR professionals and business owners asking if they could help by providing commentary and/or information. This was a great way to find free PR opportunities and was growing fast. Shankman would occasionally mention in his emails that for breaking and/or urgent requests, he would send them out via Twitter (due to the instant communication feature). This all sounded pretty cool to me, so I signed up – and promptly let my account sit mostly unused for a few months.

Slowly, I started hearing more about Twitter and the uses in business communication, so I became more intrigued and began to explore in earnest. There were a few key moments that provided me with my aha moment regarding the potential of Twitter. The first was in February 2009 when I was in New York for a legal technology conference. After I checked into my hotel, I tweeted my arrival (and hotel name) to my followers and was surprised when, a few minutes later, I saw a response to me FROM the hotel wishing me a pleasant stay and alerting me of some appetizer specials in their lounge. I remember thinking how cool receiving a personalized message like that was and how smart the hotel was to track tweets that included its name and to respond so quickly. The hotel also sent a follow-up tweet after I checked out, asking me about my stay. That was a powerful moment on the business side.

When I really saw the social potential of Twitter though, was a couple of months later during the Academy Awards. I happened to be checking Twitter during the red carpet show and was struck by the number of people who were tweeting about the various stars, what they were wearing, etc. It felt like I was in a room full of people who were watching the same show – and offering commentary (often snarky) while bantering back and forth. As I started tweeting and interacting more with people, I discovered that I was getting even more followers. It was a very fun night and I established contacts with Tweeters who I still stay in touch with today.

From that point forward I continued to learn how to find and connect with other like-minded people in my industries and grew fascinated with the many nuances of Twitter including hashtags and Follow Fridays. For those who don't know, Follow Friday was conceived as a way to help fellow Tweeters find interesting and fun people to follow. Members of the community are encouraged to share names of their favorite Tweeters, using the hashtag #followfriday (or #ff).

I liked this idea because, when it works right, you can provide recognition to those in your Twitter community you feel provide a lot of value, so that others can connect with them as well. And of course, we're always looking for more interesting Tweeters to follow, so seeing who others are recommending is a great help.

But before long, Follow Friday felt more like a chore than something I really wanted to do every week. It seemed too easy to unintentionally slight or hurt one of your followers if you didn't include them in your Follow Friday list and soon these lists were becoming huge. I realized that, for me at least, this wasn't really working with the intended spirit so I just stopped altogether for many months.

Later I realized how many interesting people I interacted with on an ongoing basis, especially those who I took the time to get to know beyond the tweets. I have an incredibly diverse group of followers who use Twitter for different purposes. I thought that featuring one follower each week to interview and learn how Twitter (and social media in general) has impacted their profession and/or life might be interesting. And that's how Behind the Tweets was born. (Initially, I called it Kaufer Follow Friday Featured Profile but that was way too long and not nearly as catchy a title.)

Since launching the feature in November 2010, I've been fortunate enough to have interviewed a very interesting group of Tweeters ranging from a top communications executive at Starbucks (and fellow Oregon Duck) to a sportswriter at a major Seattle newspaper to one of North America's most successful female entrepreneurs. I've deliberately sought out a diverse group of Tweeters to interview, because, selfishly speaking, I'm just very curious about how different people in different professions (or parts of the world) are using social media. I think it's paid off by providing a collection of opinions, insights and advice that can help us all.

I hope you enjoy this first compilation of Behind the Tweets interviews and I thank you for your support. Proceeds from your purchase of this eBook will go directly to the HollyRod Foundation, supporting families who have children with Autism. Since I have a son who is on the spectrum, this is a cause very near and dear to my heart. I hope that in my small way I can also help provide some support to families who may not have the financial means to obtain the resources they need to help their children develop and flourish.

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1. Richard Brown

Originally Published: December 3, 2010

I have known Richard Brown for at least 15 years now. He is married to Susan Pierson-Brown, one of my longtime best friends and PR colleagues (and fellow Oregon Duck). I’ve long admired his work and success as a professional photographer and of course, also think he’s a great guy.

About a year and a half ago, Susan told me that Richard was starting to really get into Twitter and Facebook – so I started following him (and of course friended him on Facebook). I soon discovered we had more in common than I previously realized (based on the types of articles and info we both shared and tweeted). Soon, Richard and I were using social media to communicate and share more than we had all the prior years we knew each other! And a few months ago I learned that he was using social media to launch another business venture (more on that below). So Richard was one of the first people I thought of to interview.

- David (@DavidKaufer; @twelve23tweets)

Twitter Name:

@richphoto

Which social media networks do you use consistently?

Twitter #1, then Facebook and LinkedIn – I also use SocialSmack, foursquare and whirl.

What was your Aha moment regarding social media (when/why did you decide to become engaged)?

Well, Facebook came first of course, so I started there. At the time I didn’t really think of its potential for business use, but more of a catch-up with friends. Then Twitter came along and as soon as I saw that it almost instantly started driving traffic to my business website, I realized its SEO potential and grabbed on full speed ahead.

I really became engaged when I was at the DEMO conference for emerging technology in Silicon Valley. I attended as part of a small team we put together to run the DEMO social media during the event and by this, I mean not just posting to Twitter – we launched real-time tweets, Facebook and LinkedIn content along with video interviews and photography.

This was a huge high-speed rush over three days and it certainly got my wheels spinning with new ideas and ways social media will become the future.

How has social media impacted you personally? How about professionally?

In general I keep to myself. I work mostly by myself and social media has brought me more out of the studio to network; in other words, it has made me more social on a personal level.

On a professional level, it has certainly drawn attention to my current business in terms of driving traffic to my website, contacts made and business that has evolved from it, and has opened many doors for collaboration and creativity.

Also it has brought new ideas for business ventures with other partners and I am currently building these ideas with new customers involving social media.

You’ve even started a business focused solely on social media – tell us about it:

After collaborating with a few other people on some early projects involving social media and studying all social media avenues we combined several elements of social content together and after seeing the effects of it via analytics it’s nice to be able to show a client why they should be doing this, In most advertising you can do amazing things with print, direct mail, online advertising but it’s really hard to know exactly what your ROI is, this has always bothered me.

I learned from being a small business sending out some direct mail promos and realizing that the return was about one percent maybe up to three percent. What we are doing is very new but the elements are not- it’s a formula of putting together a puzzle of almost everything social media and sometimes making it happen live in addition to building elements and content that are usable for a business’s social media needs. It’s a fascinating wave to be riding right now.

What advice do you have for others who are still not convinced about the value of social media?

This is a good question. It’s not often now that I talk to someone that isn’t interested in social media, although early on many people would say things like, I don’t get it or, seems like another time waste. I have noticed more people that turned it away not more than six months ago are now asking questions about it and wanting to get started. I tend to think it’s more about promoting something, be it a business, product, event or a good cause. It’s amazing what social media has done to raise money for nonprofit organizations and spread the word about a good cause, and in many ways helps educate people by directing them to data they may otherwise have never seen or heard of. I like to stay on top of technology, news and other content and I find it harder and harder to read printed material because it’s usually information you already know via social avenues.

Ok now to the advice: Nothing wrong with promoting, even if you’re just promoting yourself, embrace it because it’s not going away.

Who is a better Tweeter – you or @SevenNovember? (his wife, Susan)

Hmm, I could get in trouble here.

Funniest social media moment?

I would have to say the funniest was meeting Neal Silverman of IDG in California. We were headed to a pre-DEMO dinner and walking down the sidewalk and I had not officially met him yet. He stops, turns around, and with excitement says, You’re the Twitter guy, you’re my favorite Tweeter, I recognize you from Twitter. I thought that was really funny, considering this guy is traveling all over the country year-round and meets thousands of people.

Biggest social media pet peeve?

I will almost always un-follow a user who blasts out 10 tweets in a row. They are most likely using automation to do so. It’s ok if it’s 10, 20, or 30 a day, but all at once just kills me.

Any parting shots?

So many people are afraid to tweet or post much on Facebook; they think they don’t have anything to say. That’s the beauty of social media – never be afraid to talk about whatever you want: your interests, hobbies, events, favorite things. It really doesn’t matter. Eventually you will find people with similar interests following you and, being social is networking, so you never know what it might bring.

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2. Ryan Hodgson

Originally Published: December 10, 2010

Ryan Hodgson is the Founder and President of Team Up for Nonprofits – a very popular and fast-growing local organization that uses concerts, events and social media to help raise awareness and funds for other nonprofit groups. Ryan launched Team Up in early 2010 and the group already has more than 3800 fans on Facebook and 1600+ followers on Twitter. Ryan himself has evolved into a social media mini-celebrity – especially on Facebook where he has more than 5,000 fans and friends. As a matter of fact, he was so popular on Facebook he was forced to start a new fan page because he maxed out his friend allocation on his personal profile.

I met Ryan through a good friend and former colleague from my Comcast days, Shelly Kurtz. Shelly suggested that Ryan and I connect because she thought my PR and marketing experience could help the new organization. I was impressed with Ryan and his vision and goals for Team Up for Nonprofits so I agreed to step in and assist