Twitter | Mason Media Today

Getting Tweets From Celebrities

March 24, 2011 By Mason Leave a Comment

I am constantly sending out DM’s to Twitterville offering to answer any questions someone might have about social media. I received one question that was interesting and I thought I’d share it with you on my blog.

@Setnakt asked me, “How do you get someone famous to respond to you?” I told him that I honestly didn’t know since I have neither been contacted by someone famous on social media nor I have I attempted to be contacted by someone famous on social media. Since I didn’t know I posted the question on Mason Media’s Facebook page and Twitter account.

Neste Event Marketing replied to the question and shared the following:

“This is a great question. Neste is a company that does entertainment buying and festivals and concert events all around the country. We do a lot of interaction with artists based on our scope. My best advice for anyone inside the entertainment industry or out of it would be to start with the artists that have a smaller fanbase and work your way up. This also raises your Klout score! Retweeting videos and photos is always exciting for your users as well Hope that helps!”

Thank you NesteEventMarketing for taking the time to share your thoughts with us! I also want to thank @RodMBryan who retweeted this question to his followers as well. He is now on our Retweeters List.

I also tracked down an article entitled, “How To Get Celebrities To Tweet You.” It recommended some helpful tips such as “timing your tweets and waiting until you seem them tweeting RIGHT NOW before you send them a message.” There were some other helpful hints in the entire article which you can read by clicking here.

Early on, many people started using Twitter so they could “follow” favorite celebrities. They’re presence and interaction on Twitter has really added to it’s popularity. Getting a tweet from a favorite famous person would definitely add to the tweeting experience, not to mention, get some exposure for your profile and content.

Hope you found this interesting. What are you thoughts?

Filed Under: Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: Twitter

SocialOomph Alternative: Tweeter Karma

March 23, 2011 By Mason 3 Comments

Now that SocialOomph is charging for Twitter Automation services, such as “Auto-Follow”, I want to offer another alternative that is free. Tweeter Karma (known as Twitter Karma before Twitter slapped their wrist) provides some helpful functions for your Twitter account for free.

Tweeter Karma allows you to organize your Twitter account for simple maintenance. As you can see in the pictures below, you can look at one segment of your account and then make decisions appropriately. What do I use it for? I’m glad you asked : )

I use Tweeter Karma to practice good Twitter etiquette, which is to follow those who are following you. I can easily bring up people who are following me but, for whatever reason, I haven’t followed them back. Then I can scroll down, select all accounts, and do a bulk follow to show some Twitter love.

(right click and “view image” for full-size view)

I also use Tweeter Karma to see who I am following that isn’t following me (if I have recently followed people within the last 24-48 hours I don’t do this because I want to give people a reasonable amount of time to return the favor). Once Tweeter Karma shows this cluster of accounts, I can go through them and unfollow them. This helps me keep a healthy balance between my following and followers which is good for your Twitter ranking and influence. It’s also helpful when starting out a new account since you can’t follow more than 2,000 people without having 2,000 followers.

Tweeter Karma isn’t as automated as SocialOomph’s auto-follow service, but it is a free and efficient alternative to those who are looking for one.

SocialOomph Begins Charging For Key Services

SocialOomph Alternative: True Twit

Filed Under: Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: Social Oomph, Social Oomph now charges. SocialOomph isn't free, SocialOomph, SocialOomph alternative, Tweeter Karma, Twitter Karma

SocialOomph Alternative: TrueTwit

March 22, 2011 By Mason 2 Comments

As I mentioned in my previous article, since SocialOomph is now charging $3.97 a month ($47.64 a year) for their Twitter Automation features, I wanted to talk about some alternatives to consider this week. Today’s alternative isn’t free, but it serves some significant purposes and it’s cheeper than SocialOomph.

TrueTwit is a Twitter Validation service used by many. The free version of TrueTwit sends a validation DM when someone follows to make sure it’s an actual human being. The initiator then has to click on the validation link to confirm their place in the world of humanity.

For $20 a year, you can get their premium service. I setup this service on every Twitter account I create. The premium service will automatically validate your account without having to manually click on the link when following someone. There are currently over 51,000 TrueTwit members and when you begin to follow hundreds of people a day, you will run into them and their validation service. The premium automation then becomes a huge time-saver!

One of the other features of the premium service is that you can auto-follow accounts that not only follow you, but they pass TrueTwit’s analysis of whether or not it’s a SPAM account. Thus, you have replaced the SocialOomph auto-follow service. The $20 annual payment works out to $1.66 a month, almost half of SocialOomph’s cost. You can also write a custom validation message to send to your new followers as well.

Another aspect of the premium service is that you can automatically unfollow users that have unfollowed you. There are several more services included in the premium package which I will not dive into right now.

So this is one alternative to replace SocialOomph’s former paid service. Like I said, even when I used SocialOomph’s free service, I still used TrueTwit as well. I recommend adding it to your arsenal of Twitter tools.

I will post more articles this week on SocialOomph alternatives…

Thanks for stopping by!

SocialOomph Now Charging For Key Services

SocialOomph Alternative: Tweeter Karma

Filed Under: Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: Social Oomph, Social oomph Twitter Automation Features, True Twit, TrueTwit

Social Oomph Begins Charging For Key Services

March 21, 2011 By Mason 3 Comments

Social Oomph Begins Charging For Key Services

Social Oomph has been a favorite tool for serious Twitter users for several years now. I have used Social Oomph’s free services every time I’ve setup a Twitter account for myself or a customer.

Social Oomph has always offered “Premium” services that they charge for, but they’ve also offered a package of services for free as an alternative. There were two key Twitter services in the “Free Package” that I really appreciated:

1. Sending Welcome DM’s Automatically

2. Auto-Following Each Person Who Follows You

I’ve leaned on these services to enable myself and my clients to build relationships on Twitter and practice good Twitter etiquette.

Unfortunately, Social Oomph has promoted these services into the “Fee” category..The cost for these “Twitter Automation Features” is $3.97. Granted, it’s not a lot of money, but it’s about $3.97 more a month compared to what I am used to.

What I think (allow me to “stress” the word “think”) happened, is Social Oomph bought out a competitor, called “Tweet Later.” Tweet Later also offered similar services for free. With their main competition gone, Social Oomph currently has clear sailing to charge for these features.

I’ve already had people contacting asking me about free alternatives. I’ll be posting more articles this week on this very topic, presenting some different options in light of these changes by Social Oomph.

SocialOomph Alternative: TrueTwit

SocialOomph Alternative: Tweeter Karma

Filed Under: Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: Auto DM's, Auto Follow, Auto Welcome DM's, Social Oomph, Social Oomph Begins Charging For Key Services, Social oomph Twitter Automation Features, Twitter Automation, Twitter Automation Features

Watch What You Tweet

March 15, 2011 By Mason Leave a Comment

Gilbert Gottfried got fired as the voice of the AFLAC duck because he Tweeted inappropriate jokes referencing Japan’s Tsunami on Friday. AFLAC, the insurance giant, does 75% of it’s business in Japan. Gottfried is not the first casualty of poor tweet selection. Professional athletes have been cut from teams over their tweets, and normal citizens have been sued for harassment on social networking sites such as Twitter.

What’s the lesson? Watch what you tweet.

In the wake of being fired over his tweets, Gottfried has gained 12,000 more followers on his Twitter page!!!

What’s the lesson? Controversy works well for social media.

I wonder what Gilbert would rather have? The 12,000 Twitter followers or the six-digit contract for a couple of days worth a work every year??? I know what I would take.

So all that is left to ask is, “Who should be the new voice of the AFLAC duck?”

Filed Under: Twitter

Twitter Hashtags

January 31, 2011 By Mason Leave a Comment

You can use hashtags(#) to associate a tweet or topic along with similar tweets posted by Twitter users. This is usually a hard a concept for new Twitter users to understand when they see tweets using the hashtag(#) before keywords or phrases.

For example, let’s say you tweet regarding the Super Bowl in the near future. Instead of using “Super Bowl” in your tweet, you would use “#superbowl.” This would turn your hashtag into a click-able link that a browser could use to search all tweets containing the same hashtag. Hashtags are useful when tweeting about events, like the Super Bowl, that are commonly popular and talked about it. Hashtags are also useful for a particular brand or event. Let me share a couple items to keep in mind when using a hashtag in a tweet:

1. No Spaces

If your hashtag is more than one word, make sure to leave no spaces. For example, you wouldn’t use “#Happy New Year.” This would make your hashtag refer only to the word “Happy.” Instead, you would use “#HappyNewYear.”

2. Identify Hashtags

There are many tools you can use to test out and see what hashtags people using before you decide what hashtag to tweet with. One site you can reference is twitterfall.com. Here you can search for hashtags to see if others are using the same hashtag for your particular topic/keyword.

3. Search Tool

Since a hashtag becomes click-able link to similar tweets, it is a valuable search tool to surf the Twitter-sphere. You can find more info on a certain topic as well as like-minded people tweeting about you’re particular interest.

4. Exposure

If you’re tweeting about a popular topic, a hashtag can be an effective way for people to find your content. Hashtags become one more weapon in your arsenal to grow your Twitter influence and following.

Hope you found this article helpful! Thanks for stopping by!

Filed Under: Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: Hashtags, Social Media, Twitter

Customer Evangelists

January 10, 2011 By Mason Leave a Comment

Through retweets on Twitter, you have the opportunity to cultivate and inspire customer evangelists for your particular niche. Customer Evangelists share your information and their opinions about it with their circle of influence, thus multiplying your broadcasting ability.

Retweeting is where a Twitter user takes ones of your Twitter posts and shares it on their own Twitter page while also giving you the credit. When your mouse pointer is held over a single Twitter update, an option appears beneath it to “Retweet” it. Your followers are simply one small click away from being your brand evangelist now. Retweets demonstrate your influence. Retweets distribute your content beyond your own following. Retweets indirectly advertise your Twitter page and grow your following. Retweets can drive more traffic to a page if they have a URL link in them.

You need to have an intentional strategy to encourage and affirm retweeting. So what are some ways to inspire customer evangelists? I’m glad you asked…

1. Say Thank You

In the “Home” section of your Twitter profile it’s real easy to spot your retweets. Just go to the “Retweets” drop-down menu and click on “Your Tweets, retweeted.” You’ll see a list of your tweets that have been retweeted and when you click on each you’ll see who it was that retweed it.

Click on their icon to bring up their account and send a quick @mention saying thank you. On Twitter, “RT” is short-hand for ‘Retweet.” How long does it take to type in: Thanks for the RT? Not very long, especially if you consider the free advertising.

2. Retweet List

“Lists” are a great and often under-used tool on Twitter. With “Lists,” I can follow a few even though I’m following thousands on my overall account. Each person that retweets one of my tweets gets added to my “Retweeters List.” This way I can pay closer attention to these loyal supporters and give them more interaction which leads me into my next point…

3. Give Back

If someone has retweeted your tweet, go to their page and see if you can retweet one of their tweets. One of the reasons I use the list feature is that I can click on the list and see my “Retweeters” latest tweets. If I find a tweet that seems relevant for my audience, I Retweet it! This is Participation and The Law of Reciprocity at work.

Another way to retweet is using the @mention. Let’s say JohnDoe tweeted: “Have a great weekend!” You could simply retweet it, or you could copy the text and paste it into an @mention like this: “RT @JohnDoe Have a great weekend!” If you wanted to share a reply with the retweet you could do this: “RT @JohnDoe Have a great weekend! | You too John!” The vertical line acts a separator between the retweet and your reply.

These are just a few simple strategies to inspire customer evangelists on Twitter. If you have any more feel free to share them with us below in the comments section.

Filed Under: Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: Customer Evangelists, Retweets, Social Media, Twitter

The Perfect Twitter Page

January 5, 2011 By Mason Leave a Comment

Today I would like to give you 7 Tips on Setting Up the Perfect Twitter Page. It is possible to miss out on potential followers because your profile isn’t setup right. Some people will dismiss your Twitter account as a viable page to follow if it doesn’t have the right feel and look to it. So let’s dig in:

1. Your Twitter URL – Be strategic with your Twitter URL and remember that simplicity is ideal. I always recommend to customers that are designing a brand new site to not only check the URL against the world wide web, but check it against Twitter as well. For example, if you wanted your site to be coolshirts.com and it was available, also check and see if there is a twitter.com/coolshirts. If you really want to be strategic, see is there’s a facebook.com/coolshirts too. This just makes it easy to not only find you but also remember for future return visits.

2. Profile Pic – Remember that social media is supposed to be a place for people to connect. This is why it’s ideal to use a pic of your face for your Twitter image rather than a logo. People are much more likely to follow a person compared to a cold entity.

3. Bio – When you fill out your bio, make sure to use keywords that would be common for people search with when researching your niche and/or industry context. As of Fall of 2010, Google began indexing Twitter as it does with other websites. If you currently do not have a website, just use your Twitter page for the URL field (if you have a professional Facebook page you can use that instead).

4. Background – Make sure to create a custom background image for your Twitter page. This is relatively easy with a couple options to consider. If you are a graphics type of person, have at it! If not, you can upload an image of your logo and make your background a “Tile” format. If you want more customization and information to be displayed you can go to twitbacks.com to create a more specialized theme for free.

5. Follow Others – When creating a page, Twitter leads you to a page where they share other Twitter users of similar interest/context. It’s good to start out and pick a good 10-15 influential people within your context so you look to be somewhat active. Unless you’re a celebrity, following 0-5 people makes you look very disengaged and most won’t follow you. Also take advantage of contacting people in your email database and invite them to follow you on Twitter too.

6. Content – The next thing you want to do is fill-up your page with tweets aka content. Do not leave one tweet on your page saying, “Trying to figure out Twitter.” Fill-up your page with 8-10 tweets consisting of quotes, links to beneficial articles, and interesting retweets from other relevant Twitter pages. It doesn’t matter that the tweets are minutes apart or even seconds, the important thing is, your page doesn’t look empty.

7. Schedule Tweets – The last thing you want to do is register with cotweet.com. Co-tweet is a very efficient platform to manage Twitter and it’s free (they do offer a paid version). One of the things you can do with co-tweet is schedule-out tweets in advance. It’s very important when starting out, to have a steady flow of consistent tweets on a daily and weekly basis. This shows you are active and engaged with Twitter and worth following.

Doing these seven items when setting up your Twitter page will lay the foundation for social media success. If you haven’t read it, I encourage you to also read my article entitled, “Social Oomph.” You’ll also want to take advantage of the features mentioned in that article when launching your Twitter page.

Hope you found this helpful, and thanks for stopping by!

Filed Under: Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: Social Media, Twitter, Twitter Setup

Social Oomph

January 4, 2011 By Mason 6 Comments

For your Twitter account, I highly recommend using the Twitter tool/service called Social Oomph. It helps you setup your Twitter page in two specific and strategic ways: Automatically Following Those Who Follow You and Sending Out Auto-DM’s. I will breakdown the importance of these functions as well as how to use them appropriately. Social Oomph does have a “Professional” version you can purchase that comes with multiple bells and whistles. The “Free” version, however, allows you to do the following items outlined below at no cost.

The first task you will have to undertake is registering with Social Oomph and adding your Twitter account. Once you’ve registered and logged in, go to “Social Accounts,” “Add New Account,” “Add Twitter.” There you will have a simple one-click button to authorize access to your Twitter account.

Once you’ve done this, you can go to “Edit Welcome DM” under the “Social Account” menu extension. The page that comes up will look something like this:

First off, check the box that gives you the option to automatically follow those who follow you. Why? This is good social etiquette on Twitter. It’s a way to say thank you to those that follow you. Celebrities take pride in following no one and having everyone follow them. Why? Because nobody is as important to follow as the celebrity themselves. Don’t try to be a or look like a celebrity. The other reason this is good is that many people will unfollow those that don’t follow them back after a while. By following everyone who follows you back, you increase the odds of retaining your followers. Social Oomph was one of the first free services to provide this option.

Secondly, check the box to automatically send a welcome message to new followers. Then in the box below you can type in your welcome message. Social Oomph also gives you the option to have multiple welcome messages that randomly rotate, but I don’t currently see the need for this.

Most people use this auto-welcome message to put links to their site or Facebook page. DO NOT DO THIS! This makes you just as annoying as everyone out there that fills up everyone’s Twitter inbox with spam. Most of the time I see a link in my DM’s, I delete it without reading it.

I choose to use this auto-DM as a way to serve my followers. Since I am in the social media niche of the online community, I ask my new followers if they “have any questions regarding social media?” This auto-DM accomplishes several things for me. It communicates my niche in the world wide web to my new followers and creates a relevant context for me regarding all future dialogue with them. It helps me to initiate the relationship building process by asking a question and possibly helping them versus just spamming them. It saves me time since I don’t have to manually contact each of my followers. Lastly, it creates a mechanism in my social media strategy to generate warm leads that could potentially turn into paying customers!

After setting this up and following targeted users, simply filter all the DM’s with links from your inbox (by deleting them) and you should be left with genuine responses from real people that you can begin to engage with.

So as you can see, when setup properly, Social Oomph’s free Twitter services can be a valuable tool for, not only your Twitter page, but your business as well.

Filed Under: Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: Social Oomph, Twitter, Twitter Lead Generation

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