Jeremy Toeman of LIVEdigitally asked “Will Normal Folks Ever Use Twitter?”

His assumption that a rise unused Twitter accounts were people who had abandoned Twitter, not spam or data errors led him to the conclusion that Twitter should take his advice and add some feature to make status updates a game.

Might be something to that.. but the whole post seemed to old school to me.

The assumption appeared to be that Twitter users are just media consumers and some experts have to tailor the experience and tweet the show.

That’s how the corporations who run old media think.

Twitter is the greatest listening tool ever invented.. but it would be foolish to assume that we are getting a mass market here.

And that’s the point… Twitter users (not those looking at it or signing up for an empty account) are past the buzz of “why would I want to know what someone had for breakfast?” and now having real conversations with real people.

Regardless of what else Twitter or others do.. we’re not going to stop talking to our new friends.

Do we really need a point system or badges when we are having a conversation?

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From Mashable

Twitter has begun rolling out location-based trending topics.

The product is officially called Local Trends. In a statement to us, Twitter said the following:

“We’re rolling out local trends to 1 percent of users today, but we’ll share more information when it reaches a larger audience hopefully sometime next week. We’ll keep you posted when that happens.”

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One of the most popular questions we get about Twitter is What’s the next craze?

Here’s Twitter founder Jack Dorsey talking about Square. @Scobleizer called in One of the Top Startups to Watch for 2010

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Tweeps are tweeting up a storm wishing each other a Happy New Year or Happy 2010.

Here’s a better idea. Help us make 2010 The Year of Giving.

Read more on my book marketing blog here

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Thursday January 7th I’ll be in Dallas for a Tweetup with @Barefoot_Exec and many local Dallas friends.

The even will be held at the Sheraton near DFW Aiport. To RSVP click here

As you can see from the photo here, we always have a good time when we get together to teach people about Twitter and Social Media. Sometimes, there are donuts!

In my usual Twitter and make it up as we go along style. We are not announcing any gifts for attendees, how many drinks we are buying (OK.. at least one) and what else will happen.

If you are in Dallas, make plans to get out to the Sheraton that evening and tweet up. You do not have to be part of the big event at the hotel. (but you can tweet me if you want to know about More Heart Than Talent). We’ll be helping people who are just getting started in Social Media, and networking with our Twitter friends.

Open to all.. Good time Guaranteed

Let me know you are coming so we can get enough goodies

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During a recent business trip to Hawaii, Coach Deb got the honor of meeting the famous, tech-guru himself, “Chris Pirillo” while presenting at the ReThink Hawaii conference.

Twitter, Your Power PR Tool

The following video took place between the hours of 1pm-2pm, right after lunch, which was right after Coach Deb got off stage… and got Chris Pirillo all fired up about Twitter.

Here’s a little back story behind the video.

One of the things I like to do when presenting to newbies on Twitter, is relate the tool to things business owners already do to market their business, and simply show them how they’ll be doing the SAME thing, except using a different “Tool” (i.e.: Twitter) in order to do it.

As a Coach, my goal is to help business owners make mental shifts, change their paradigm of thinking, to new ways of thinking. Ways that will help them grow their business, faster, stronger, and easier while saving them time and money when using new media marketing to do so.

And as a Jersey Girl, my upbringing is one where I’ll never back down from a heated debate. No matter whom it is. And today was no different. Apparently, my presentation at ReThink Hawaii created quite the debate – and I allowed participants to “have at it,” expressing their opinions.

Topics debated ranged from “sponsored conversations” to how many people is the perfect number to follow back. At one point, it got fairly amusing when @KK was debating Rick @BlogWorld and I made a comment as it was time for my presentation to wrap up, telling them they can “finish this conversation on Twitter”.

Unbeknownst to me, this comment got Chris Pirillo all hot and bothered in the back of the room, but being the polite dude that he is, he didn’t want to prolong my presentation as I was trying to wrap it up in the final 60 seconds. So instead, Chris stopped me in the hall, on the way to lunch, to tell me in no uncertain terms, “Twitter is NOT for conversation.”

No, instead Chris Pirillo @ChrisPirillo said, “Twitter is a bully-pulpit.”

The Twitter Debate Ensues

Naturally, I debated. And debated. 15-minutes later, we were being pulled in different directions, me to an interview, him to sign auto-graphs (being the famous Chris Pirillo that he is.)

As fate would have it… we met up again. After lunch, when all other participants went into the next presentation room, we continued to debate. The following 2 part video series is our conversation (ahem, “debate”) about Twitter, and whether Twitter is or is not for conversation. (And as the island would have it, another interesting gentleman, Jordan Kretchmer, @JKretch also happened to be there, and at the end of the video – you’ll see why this conversation was serendipitous for him to be at such a table…)

Topics covered in this impromptu debate about Twitter with Chris Pirillo:

• Is Twitter about the Conversation?
• Or is Twitter just another bully-pulpit?
• Can Twitter be used just as innovatively as its user?
• Or must Twitter be used solely to answer the question, “What’s Happening”?
• How is Twitter used by Small Business Owners for marketing purposes?
• LiveFyre.com – the latest App (tool/platform) designed for threaded, LIVE conversations

@CoachDeb
Deborah Cole Micek

CEO – RPMsuccess.com
Coach & Social Media Strategist
Co-Author of 1st book on Twitter
http://TwitterRevolution.com

Co-Founder of QuanSite.com

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The twoddler application is basically a Fisher Price Activity Center enhanced with pictures of family members and friends, and an Arduino board inside. All activities are captured by sensors connected to the Arduino board and are processed in two different ways: 

• activities are translated into Twitter messages and posted on the toddler’s personal Twitter account
• activities are send to another Activity Center and will generate effects (e.g. colored lights that blink) on your friends activity center.

Not ready for Christmas though.. read about the research here

Twoddler: Twittering Toddlers from Bart Swennen on Vimeo.

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I got an email this morning from a networking contact I met on LinkedIN.

He asked:

I have a question. Currently I have about 15k twitter followers adding about 250 per day, how the heck did you get to 50k+?  Have you been able to monetize your followers in anyway?  Connect in multiple ways?

That’s actually 3 questions.. so I thought I should answer them all here to help others who ask.

My reply:

Funny you asked about Twitter in an email after I reached out to you on Twitter yesterday with didn’t get a response there.

No worries. I’ve found it’s best to listen to my market wherever they want to talk and respond to help if I can.

I’d say you are in Stage 2 the Three Stages or Twitter Acceptance

Your question about monetizing was a dead giveaway.

I took a quick look at your profile and it’s obvious that you are trying to broadcast on Twitter. Not a single conversation on the first page.

The secret to Twitter (and marketing in the future) is to LISTEN and LOVE.

LISTEN: Read others Tweets. Learn what your market wants and get it for them.

LOVE: Respond to questions, refer people to resources.. especially ones that aren’t your own sales process and say thank you whenever you can.

Stage 3 conversations are where the fun lies. Have fun helping people and you will be attractive or “Follow Worthy” as we talk about in Twitter Revolution

You may be getting advice that some system will get you more followers and automate marketing on Twitter. Many of them don’t work, even the ones that do will make you look like a 20th century marketer and could get you labeled as a spammer. (read more on “Don’t Be THAT GUY at the Social Media Party” here)

The “followers” number posted on a profile is not the best indicator of whether someone is helping other. It is one indicator of activity. Other indicators would be

• The number of conversations you have
• The time you have recommended a good link that doesn’t point to a self serving sales page
• How often someone says “thanks for the help”
• The use of the retweet functions (RT) to share others tweets.

A few “famous off Twitter” people build up a following regardless of whether they engage the public. Most of use won’t see any value from Twitter until we engage in listening and love (caring).

“People don’t care how much you know until the know how much you care” — Stephen R Covey

There are many examples of sales through Twitter. Dell attributes $6.5 million to posting deals. Dell can do that, they are a multi billion dollar company.

Zappos is a better example of a company that gets “listen and love” The CEO tweets as @Zappos and most of the office staff does too. You may see a special offer, but mostly they are listening to their customers talk about shoes and joining conversations to add value, help and spread love and good energy.

The Secret of High Follower Counts

They don’t do much for click through results. More connection give you more opportunities to listen and love and more conversations result in real people, real relationships and real business. However, when I post a link with tracking data.. the results are about the same as when I had 1/10 the followers. Twitter is not a broadcast medium.

The revolution in sales and marketing is just starting. With the technology we have now, there is no reason to ever try to pitch someone that is not anxious to hear from you. Rather, we teach our clients monitor the Tweet stream for conversations and questions of those that are looking for a solution (Listen), then where appropriate, join in the conversation answer a question give advice without any expectation of making a sales pitch (LOVE).

You can focus on helping people in your target market, or just help in general. People will be attracted to you when you GIVE.. it’s the Law of Reciprocity (you can get anything you want if you help enough others get what they want).. we want to do business with givers.. people that we know, like and trust. Asking for a sale too soon kills that process. Fortunately, the technology today allows us to meet and network, get to know people and build a trust relationship fast.

A good salesman knows that marketing is a process and hones his skill. Today, the skill that we all need to learn is “listen and love” .. it’s a lot more fun than cold calling, much more productive and will transform us into better people.

Why waste time selling to someone that doesn’t want to buy.. there are millions looking for whatever you have.. just go help them!

Follow People Who Are Doing Social Media Right

My Twitter Radio show has guests with news and tips.. but our primary goal is to allow Twitter users to meet and mingle with leaders in social media.

This Friday’s show will feature @JayBerkowitz who wrote The 10 Golden Rules of Online Marketing. Join us live for Social Media Radio to chat with hosts, guest and others who are doing social media this way or listen to the Twitter Show on iTunes

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