ONE Tip for Twitter Shout-outs

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Don't you love getting mentioned on Twitter? It’s so refreshing and reassuring to see that someone took the time to think of you! Recognition is something we all crave (whether you admit it or not) and “small doses” are just plain nice!

Shoutouts can have hashtags such as these:

#shoutout  / #SO / #FollowFriday / #FF / #happy(day of the week)

...or perhaps no hashtag at all.

Naturally you want to RT and add a few kind words, right? Well, at least I TRY to. Here’s a tweet that mentioned me (fella who tweeted this is fuzzed and blanked out):

This tweet is at the limit! When I attempted to RT it went well beyond the 140 characters and my own Twitter handle would have been cut off since I'm near the end! And of course; no room to say hello either. So, I didn't RT it. I DID sent a tweet to this tweep suggesting he make his shout-outs shorter; will I hear back?

There's one thing that is clear: Shout-outs, though intended to be something good and positive, can be annoying!

This is not rocket science. It's plain old thinking a step ahead. Why am I bringing it up? Because I see it happening several times a day suggesting that the issue may be fairly common. So I'll do what I can to get the word out and recommend a solution.

Simple rule of thumb: If you want your shout-out to be retweeted keep it under 120 characters. I will be happy to RT your friendly tweets then!

Tears for Fears sang about shouting in the eighties long before we heard a chirp out of Twitter (see below). If you are looking for social media strategy that will make your business sing, stop by the website, or visit us on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.    

‘Cause You’ve Got…Personality!

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Lloyd Price once sang his desire to behave like a fool “O-o-over an’ over”, opening admitting to it. His message was heard by millions. Nowadays, we don’t have to have a hit record to be heard by the masses.

And we’ve all got something to talk about! Mind boggling, isn’t it? So what are you contributing to the mix?

Some time ago, a research study suggested that a large portion of the content on Twitter is “babble”; what IS that, anyway? Well, the Merriam-Webster dictionary states: “wordy and generally unintelligible jargon”.  Hmmm. So I set out to find some prime examples (account names removed to protect the innocent):

• Could you fill out my resume for me... while I hit it from the back?


• People run past my window all day long. I watch them go by but I never get any thinner. I guess it doesn't work that way. Sigh......


• 2 females were sitting at a table & they didn't gossip the whole time...who got this joke?


• what was will be..... what is will be nomore


• You can loose everything but you can NEVER loose your character...BUILD IT !!

While not really making sense, they are however, part of those Tweep’s personalities. Now think of how you display your personality as a small business owner, blogger, or perhaps as someone who just enjoys being connected on Twitter:

• If you’re a business, does your Twitter bio contain info on what your business is?

• Does your Twitter bio contain info on what your passions are so that people gain insight as to what you’re usually tweeting about?

• Do all of your tweets make sense to the casual observer?

• Is everything spelled correctly? One of the examples used "loose" instead of “lose”, changing the tweet's meaning and making her appear less bright than she may be.

• Is your grammar correct? Sure, you can take liberties with the limitation of characters, but it should always be an easy to comprehend tweet.

• Do you converse with those who share your passions?

• Can people see you smiling through your tweets? Positive energy will take you places!





And a few thoughts on what not to do when displaying your personality:

• If you’re having a bad day, don’t tweet about it. (see example above regarding the gent who doesn’t get thinner; would you respond to his tweet?)

• If you’re a big cursor when you’re alone, that’s one thing, but consider it a part of your personality that should remain private and keep those words off your tweets.

• Having personality does not mean tweeting every move you make in every moment of the day. Keep it to a few highlights that would be interesting enough to open up a conversation.

• Don’t selling your product or service by tweeting about it. No personality there! That’s spam. And besides, Twitter is not a sales tool.

• Getting into an argument with someone on Twitter is not going to fare well on your personality overall. People do forget quickly and move on; but why open up that can of worms? Move to direct messaging and leave the public forum to settle it.

♫

So what have you got?
Walk (with personality)
Talk (with personality)
Smile (with personality)
Charm (with personality)
Love (with personality)
An' plus you got a great big heart…

♫

By now you’ve probably got the idea. The challenge is to reflect who you are on Twitter while remaining confined to the limitations it has. Let your personality shine through via your tweets; your followers will pick up on your vibe and are more likely to respond and retweet you.
Speaking of vibe, click here for the song that inspired this post.

Wanna be Retweeted? 3 Things to Remember.

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What do we all want? To be recognized, of course…though many of us won’t admit that (yeah, me too). In the twitterscape, Retweets are a way to give recognition and show admiration, respect and appreciation for a deserving tweep.

But sometimes those wonderful tweeps can make it a challenge to retweet the tweet! Do YOU tend to forget that Twitter allows just 140 characters? It’s an art in itself. One needs to be crafty sometimes to make a meaningful chirp.

Just grabbed a tweet off the timeline. Here it is:
"Men are disturbed, not by the things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen." – Epictetus

111 characters with spaces. Whew. Not a problem. Even if the person tweeting has a 15 character account name, there may still be room for someone ELSE to tweet it after me. Now I grabbed the one just below it (note: changed to avoid promoting this event):

TONIGHT -- Rock XX.X presents SYSY Rocks: The Scandellions & Lennie Struthers w/ The Zucchini Boys and Mysterious Sons! 8P/9P – (11 character link)

And now we have a problem...it’s 136 characters! This tweep wants to get some important information out about an event. It could be critical to get this information out to boost attendance. Sadly, that’s Not going to happen. Here’s the best I can do:

RT @Zxtweeper TONIGHT Rock 99.1 presents SYSY Rocks: Scandellions & Lennie Struthers w/ The Zucchini Boys + Mysterious Sons 8P/9P (11 character link)

Oh no. I can’t retweet it with unless I slash more! It’s 146 characters. The original tweeters name was 9 characters long; if it was seven or less I would have made it. I’m sunk. No, actually, not me.

The poor tweep is sunk. His message will not go out to thousands of my followers.

It’s a simple message folks. If you have an important message that you really want to get out there, keep it as SHORT as possible. Use below 120 characters as a rule of thumb. Then you’ve got a shot at it. Otherwise, well intending folks like me may start taking out words and using funny abbreviations. The end result could be a retweeted message with some the original meaning missing. It’s easy for me to interpret what to remove from your original tweet, but would I have made the choices you would have made? Don’t leave it up to me.

Once you’ve got a short snappy tweet to put out there with LOTS of extra space, don’t be tempted to add “pls retweet” or “please RT”.  It won’t happen. Think about it…don’t you feel a little put off when you see that? YOU’RE telling ME what to do? It’s not polite to ask and it’s just plain not nice to try to whip people who likely don't know you into action. If there’s something  you feel begs to be retweeted, select a few tweeps that you converse with on a regular basis that have an interest in the subject matter and send them a direct message alerting them to the particular tweet. Let them know that if they feel it’s worthy of a retweet you’d appreciate them doing so.

Don’t be alarmed if they don’t retweet it; not everyone will. For the most part, this practice works well and it stays within those who have an interest in what you are saying. Tweeps ask me to RT via DM from time to time, and I do the same. Recently, I DID have someone turn down my polite request recently, however he explained why. Remember, you DO have to be selective when you choose the best candidates for retweeting.

Recap:
#1 If you want to be retweeted, keep it short, sharp (KISS)
#2 Don’t ask to be retweeted in the tweet
#3 Contact tweeps who may have an interest in your tweet via DM in regards to retweeting

Common sense, not rocket science.




Photo courtesy of wallpaperslibrary.com ...we added the caption.