Julia Roy, A Digital Girl

My Twitter Story

As you have probably noticed, I have not blogged in months. I know, shame on me. But good news is I'm back and ready to share my little heart out about all things digital and social. Although somewhat random, I decided my first post back would take you through my personal experience and thoughts on Twitter. I've been thinking a lot about the future lately and in doing so my mind always wanders to the past, how it all started and where it lead me to.  

Click, Follow, Click, Follow

I joined Twitter 2007 and for quite some time it was my only digital presence, and because of that it really shaped my approach to all the networks from that point forward. I was a power networker and adamant about following back those that followed me (with the exception of spammers and shameless promoters) and chatted, shared and supported anyone and everyone who crossed my Twitter path. My philosophy was simple - if someone found me interesting enough to follow, I should open the door and extend the same thing back. This was the early stages of Twitter, when it was small yet growing, and so following back just seemed like the right social thing to do. It was easy to manage then, and we were all trying to learn from each other. Following was the thing to do, and I embraced it fully without hesitation.  

Click, follow, click, follow, click, follow. As the site grew so did the follower requests, which required hours  of click, follow, click, follow every day just to keep up, not even including time spent actually engaging and interacting with those new followers. I was willing to put in the time though because I was a passionate user and believer in where this whole Twitter thing was going. Today, I'm often asked "how did you get so many followers?" and always think back to the days of click, follow, click, follow and say "for a good part of a year I spent almost all my free time on Twitter following, @ing, DMing and interacting with total strangers, who introduced me to more strangers, whom eventually  became friends and my biggest online supporters." 

What a Long Strange Trip It's Been

Those early days seem so far away to me now, and it's probably because the voyage through the ever changing and evolving space we call social media has been a journey of trial and error, big success and utter failure. My work and the people who followed, listened to and supported me have shaped and reshaped the person I am and the vision i have for myself in the future. I feel so fortunate to have connected with so many people, many of which I have never met but nonetheless are important to my life. 

With that said, there was a time (a little over a year ago) where I just about gave up on Twitter. It just became too unmanageable, time consuming and just plain noisy. The new followers were so hard to sift through because of the influx of crafty spammers, marketers and brands. For those who were watching, I was getting popular and gaining influence, but it seemed so false to me, because more followers didn't mean better relationships or experiences. [CONTINUED...]

Your Tweet Cloud is Telling

I joined Twitter on January 13th of 2007 and to date I have posted a total of 8,134 tweets. I've shared my  many thoughts, opinions, links, personal feelings and interests with my followers over the years. The reality is, Twitter has been my main vehicle to express myself, share my life with others and learn and grow from the wisdom and support of those I follow in return.

Since Twitter has been my main outlet and communication channel for quite some time now, I often wonder what my aggregated conversation looks like. Do my tweets over time reveal obvious patterns and common threads of opinion, interest and emotion. Well, of course they do, but I want a detailed report.

There are plenty of sites out there that allow you to generate "word clouds" from your latest tweets. These services aggregate, combine and arrange your most recent and frequent words posted to Twitter and visualize it back to you, revealing your most common and public thoughts, emotions and conversations. A good example of a word cloud generator is Wordle, which creates beautiful word clouds from any URL or RSS feed you enter. 

Even though Wordle and sites like it are fun to play with, when it comes to looking at Twitter conversation I'm more interested in understanding the use of words over time. I think it is much more insightful and meaningful to analyze an entire year of someone's tweets, than it is to simply looking at the last week or so. Enter - a newly launched, more extensive Twitter word cloud generator by Chad Scira called Tweet Could. Tweet Cloud allows you to aggregate and display up to an entire year of tweets into a word cloud, giving  you a comprehensive look at a year of your most frequent Twitter conversations.

As you can see from the word cloud below, some of my most frequent conversations included the words "thanks, love, follow, office, plane, fiesta and soho." I encourage you to check it out. I have found it to be quite telling and a pretty accurate representation of the last year of my life via Twitter.

 

American Express Twitter Case Study

I was one of the lucky attendees at the American Express sold-out Jon Bon Jovi unplugged exclusive cardmember show last night. American Express was nice enough to extend a ticket to me last minute and after hearing how they sold the rest of the tickets, I was inspired and impressed.

The first and only link to purchase tickets was posted exclusively on the @AmericanExpress Twitter account and they were able to sell out the show 1 day. The tickets were $50 with all proceeds benefiting City Harvest via the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation.

Everyone in the audience (roughly 500 people) were tweeting, snapping TwitPic photos and spreading the word about the event while they were there. Excellent use of Twitter to promote and sell out an exclusive event, as well as spread the word about the brand. I had a blast and think American Express has created a great case study of how to offer something special to your fans and followers, donate to a great cause and create enthusiastic and positive conversation around your brand using the power of social networks. 

Bom Dia Brazil

A Brazilian journalist interning in NYC for the largest TV network in Latin America, GloboTV, reached out to me unexpectedly last week and asked if I would be interested in discussing my experiences with Twitter and Foursquare as it relates to establishing virtual, and real life friends. The best part of the whole thing is that my the interview is translated into Portuguese, and I can't help but how awesome it is. The segment aired yesterday on GloboTV's Bom Dia Brazil morning TV show, but you can watch the video below (my part is 1:35seconds in) and read the accompanying article in either Portuguese or translated into English. I bet you can guess how I found out yesterday that the segment had run earlier that morning in Brazil. Yup, a rare Brazilian tweetie bird flew all the way from Latin America to NYC to give me the good news. ;) 

When we discuss social networking and its ability to drive more real life networking, it's important to remember that the synergy between online and offline interaction is an essential component of what this whole social networking thing is ultimately about.  You have to get out there and give quality face time to make your digital relationships stronger. Meet more people and solidify your digital relationships into something more tangible and memorable.

Twitter Dressed Me Today

I had a very important meeting last week and I needed to go shopping for the perfect outfit. I was pretty stressed out about finding the right outfit, therefore everything I tried on I felt unsure about. What kind of "look" should I go for? Does this skirt match this top? And does this dress look as big on me as it feels? I wanted to make the right choice and so I decided to bring Twitter along for some expert follower advice.

While I was shopping I'd try on an outfit, snap a pic in the mirror and post it to Twitpic. I asked for everyone's help – should I go with Option #1, Option #2, Option #3, Option #3 with a different skirt or Option #4. I watched the responses and opinions come pouring in and in the end I chose the pieces that received the most positive feedback. Not only was it really helpful to get the advice of friends while I was still in the store, but it was a ton of fun too! I have to say, you can't argue with the real-time wisdom of the crowds.

And of course, after my meeting, I told everyone that Twitter dressed me today. That got a few chuckles and some confused faces.

How CoTweet Rawks My World

I discuss how CoTweet has really changed the whole way I'm able to use Twitter at the 140 Character Conference in NYC.

My #140conf Panel about "Twitter Celebrity"

Check out me @adventuregirl, @ijustine and @chrisbrogan on our "Twitter Celebrity" panel at the 140 Characters Conference where we discuss what it is like having so many followers, the implications of having a large following, some of the larger challenges we encounter and advice on how to grow a following on Twitter.

Let's Fix #followfriday Please

I remember when Follow Friday (aka #followfriday) first started making its way around Twitter in January by @micah (Thanks to the Twitterers today for helping me remember it was Micah Baldwin). I thought it was a great idea at the time, as it is often hard to understand where you need to go to find new valuable people to follow on Twitter. If I really enjoy following X Twitterer and X Twitterer suggests I follow Y&Z Twitterer, I just might listen and click through and check 'em out. 

It is no question that Follow Friday's popularity has exploded and just continues to grow, but my feelings toward it have changed. I have a very hard time understanding its value anymore. There are a few reasons for this. First of all, Twitter is growing rapidly and there is a lot more noise than there was even merely 5 months back when Follow Friday started. Secondly, now with Twitter auto follow friday bots from services like TwitterMass and TweetLater most of these "recommendation" tweets are just randomized spam.

As I see it, the #followfriday hashtag has spread so quickly because it's a great way to say "Hey everyone, these are some of my favorite people on Twitter!" But now with the Twitter community growing so fast, people's following is growing with it and we have to sift through the noise in order to find people of real value to follow. So now, simply listing your favorite Twitterers in tweet on Friday's, is not very helpful.

The solution? Well, I know that others on Twitter have been suggesting this development as well, but #followfriday needs to evolve in a way where on Friday everyone suggests a few people they like to follow and WHY. These can be multiple tweets, but the most important thing is including the context in which you are suggesting someone to follow.

If you want to understand where my frustration with #followfriday is coming from, check out my TweetDeck on Fridays. I should be flattered, but I just get annoyed because on Friday's I have a hard time seeing real @ conversations because of all the #followfriday tweets coming in. *sigh*

Tweet Week Epsode 16

Show Notes

The ladies on The View interview Evan Williams and Biz Stone. Sell your Twitter name for cash with Tweexchange. What the Trend is a site that explains why Hot Trending Topics are on the trending topic list. @veronicaDLcruz needs your help to save her brother's life. (Also, Download Coldplay's new LIVE LeftRightLeftRightLeft performance for FREE)

And If you're interested in seeing 12 seconds of the air piano at the end of the video, I reposted to 12s:

Air Piano on 12seconds.tv

100 Interviews

I took part in the SXSW 100 Interviews project by Derek Overbey (@doverbey) and Morgan Brown (@morganb). You can watch my interview below where I talk PepsiCo, my charity: water auction and how I use Twitter and why I love the Twitter community so much.

Tweet Week Episode 15 FTW!

Hellz yah I recorded and uploaded another Tweet Week. Aren't you proud!

Show Notes

Adam Wilson in the Brain-Computer Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin posts Tweets from his brain. Hugh Jackman on Ryan Seacrest's radio show announced he was donating $50,000 to charity: water and $50,000 to Operation Hope. Tweet Dropping is added to the urban dictionary. The 2009 TIME finalists include the "Twitter Guys." Tony Hawk stashed skateboards all over the world and tweeted their locations. Neilsen Twitter Report says that 60% of new Twitter users do not return the following month.

And this is how I get myself ready for recording....

Preparing to record Tweet Week on 12seconds.tv

Tweet Week is BACK! (Again)

Okay, so I am fully committing myself to posting a new Tweet Week every week again! Yay! Below is my latest episode with show notes. Enjoy!

Show Notes

Twitter viruses are on the loose! Hugh Jackman tweets that he will donate 100K to one individual's favorite non profit organization. Of course, you must convince him why by using 140 characters or less. Aston Kutcher and CNN go at it, and Ashton wins. Pizza Hut is looking for a Twintern. OMG Oprah is on Twitter and will undoubtedly bring soccer moms with her. I also talk about how I am a little annoyed with celebrities on Twitter.

Btw, this is how excited I am that Tweet Week is BACK!

(Click to see image on Flickr)

Stephen Colbert: "Why Should I Twitter More?"

I attended last night's taping of The Colbert Report, and during audience Q&A ahead of the show, I had the chance to let Stephen Colbert (@stephenathome) know my followers believe he needs to tweet more. His response and our back-and-forth dialog, while hilarious, also brought up some serious questions in my mind about the merits of Twitter, challenging me to answer his question back at me:

"Why should I twitter more? I have 50,000 followers but I have 1.5 million viewers. It's hard. It takes a lot of time to twitter all day, and how does that get me more viewers?"

That's a really good question. Of course, unable to answer him specifically and quickly enough, I fell back on a more general response, babbling something about it being a place to connect with loyal fans, be a part of their daily lives and grow them into a more avid fan base.

But, at the time, I didn't think my off-the-cuff response answered the most critical question he posed to me, that "[Twitter] takes a lot of time...how does that get me more viewers?"

What I realized is my quick retort was actually perfect. Twitter's at it's best when you're using it in one of two ways; first, as a means of doing something online requiring a short mobilization timeframe and second, as a means of providing daily updates and reminders to interested parties -- keeping them involved in your daily activities. For Stephen Colbert, and others with a built-in base of followers, Twitter's not really a tool for growing viewers, it's for engaging and mobilizing them.

Think about the meme-expanding possibilities of follower real-time action to online pursuits like Colbert's Operation Humble Kanye. Fan-bases in the internet age are much tighter when they feel like they're a part of the action. Twitter is the best tool to make his fan base work with each other and take collective action online, driving views, chatter and sharing.  During the time his show is not on air, he can be using his Twitter audience to make his online efforts more successful.

So Stephen, I'm sticking by my guns and the truthiness of my statement -- tweet more, it'll help you keep your loyal fans and get more out of them. Plus, how can you let Ashton Kutcher beat you in followers? You gonna let him Punk you like that? I'm just sayin ;)

Kickin it Old Skool

I recently changed my Twitter avatar picture to the first avatar pic I ever uploaded to my profile.

I joined Twitter in January 13th 2007.
Which means I have been on Twitter for over 2 years now.
Wow.
Times sure does fly when you are tweeting.
[photo permalink]

Twitter Mutuality

Currently 23,335 people follow me on Twitter and I follow 22,361 of those people back (and before I am even done with this post both of those numbers will increase).

I think it is important to follow followers back, because (the way I see it) Twitter is for two-way conversations. If someone cares enough to get my updates, why shouldn't I reciprocate that action? Following someone back also opens up the opportunity to have private conversations with that person, because unless I am following them back they cannot Direct Message me.

I must admit at times, it is a bit noisy, overwhelming and confusing to follow so many people, but it is something that is important to me. This follow-back strategy is important to me and the message I am trying to communicate: two-way dialogue and meaningful relationship building.

So, how do I handle it? I create Tweet Deck groups to filter people's tweets into categories. Screenshot of my Tweet Deck below. 

Groups shown: IRL (people I know in real life) WTF (people I talk with all the time on the internet, but have never met) OMG (big twitters who I may know, but who tweet too much to put in my IRL category)