Gone are the gut-wrenching, mind-bending panic attacks.  I am so thoroughly geek that I have previously mourned the outages.  Lately my attitude has undergone serious degradation, sinking from the once experienced OMGWTF to a more apathetic status of Meh.

Although I am rather cavalier about the outages, I still use these times of Twitter-exia to come up with new ways to poke fun at Twitter and those of us who use it.  What fun is a ridiculously obsessive self-absorbed addiction if you can’t humiliate yourself and others like you when given ample opportunity to do so?

Can I get an Amen?

During one recent outage I looked over at my amazingly geeky other half and said, “I have the perfect alternative to that idiotic Fail Whale.”   I proceeded to explain what I believe to be a new and greatly improved Twitter Failure Mascot – one with less sweet and more meat – less happy and more snappy – a snark among snarks wrapped in the familiar net of doom and gloom.

Yes, my friends, the goofy and somehow happy-to-be-a-failure Fail Whale has been replaced by his snarkier cousin, Fail Seaman.  I believe that there is an animated version in the future, complete with Twitter related snarky commentary.

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Do you view following as a commitment and unfollowing like a broken promise — or worse — a divorce?  Do you watch your follower count and immediately unfollow anyone who has unfollowed you as if to say, “AHA! You don’t deserve to have me as a follower when you don’t follow me!”

What does following mean to you?

Most of us have had it happen.  Someone you converse with on a regular or fairly regular basis – you might even consider this person a friend – stops following you.  Maybe you tried to send a DM and couldn’t.  Or maybe you’re obsessive-compulsive frantic and oh-so-devastated over the loss of even one spam or pr0n bot follower and endlessly review your follower count, your follow-to-followed ratio and your follower growth metrics.

One…One Thousand…One Meellyun? Meh.

I don’t fret over my follower count.  I routinely clear out spammers and other questionable accounts as well as unfollow random tweeps whose conversations I really don’t want associated with me.   I’m sure that’s snobbish to some.  I’m not a Twitter Saint by any means.  But if you’re tweeting about how much pipe you laid last weekend while you were drinking like an Amish junior college freshman, straight off the farm and very curious about life in the big city, pretty much, there’s not a commonality there that I want to explore.

If that description fits you – first – wow. I might want to meet you – just for research purposes – under some very secure circumstances.  Second, unfollowing you is not a judgment of you, your lifestyle or your value as a human being.

The people I follow add value to my Twitstream for professional and personal reasons.  They are peers, mentors, role models, industry leaders, amusing and engaging people I just can’t live without.  Most of the people I follow also follow me and I converse with them on a regular basis. Of the handful who are not following me, I have conversations with some of them on occasion.  All of these folks I follow so that I can glean knowledge and understanding from their expertise and experience.  It’s a priceless opportunity that I feel very fortunate to enjoy.

My twitter-style?  I do discuss some technical geeky things in my stream, but for the most part, Twitter is a way for me to make real connections, forge and extend relationships, and contribute to a wonderful microuniverse of my own design.  This means a good bit of my “conversation” is personal, odd commentary on what I see or what I’m doing.  I act as a resource or a commentator when asked.  Interactive. That’s me.

There are also a number of folks I don’t know who follow me.  I’m not sure why they follow me.  Some folks are more voyeuristic.  Or they are snooping for scandals.  <LOL>  If I am not following someone and they engage me – I do interact.  Once I get to know someone I will follow them if we share the daily things that add to my stream.  Again, this isn’t a judgment.  I still read other streams of folks who follow me that I don’t follow. I just don’t do it daily.

Be true to YOU

The fact that I am goofy, geeky, and for some a bit too chatty or offbeat has occasionally led to some folks unfollowing me.  I’m a flibberty gibbet and I get that some folks like it a bit quieter or perhaps don’t want to hear about #geeklove.  It’s all good, yo!  I still converse with those folks.  They just don’t see my occasionally pneumatic post frenzies.

As I mentioned before I don’t obsess about it, but sometimes I notice.  Like today.

Twitter is being a bad little beastie with OAUTH and API issue galore.  The frequency and duration of the pain we all feel has increased signficantly since The Day That Twitter Died.  There have been all sorts of odd happenings including changes in message counts and follower counts, delays in tweet updates in the public stream and the ever-disappearing trending topics (that aren’t actually true trends since Twitter has filters on them but that’s a whole ‘nutha can ‘o tabacky!)

Today Twitter was PMSing again and behaving quite frightfully at times.  As a result I was on the lookout for oddities.   After noticing a random decrease of 4 followers I went on a quest for information.  Nothing.  Hmm. Curiosity peaked as I continued on my journey to discover who unfollowed me.  It turned out that there may have been some suspicious accounts removed, but there was one…one unfollower…who was a real person.

** GASP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH NOES!!!!

I may have to cry now because I am diminished by this injurious action! < /sarcasm>

Yes, I’m being silly.  I’m working on a 2 day sleep-deficit and I’m giddy.  But in all seriousness, this  unfollow caught me by surprise. It’s someone I really like, enjoy conversing with when he is in a tweeting mood, and not only did he unfollow me, he unfollowed @g33kguy!

I thought about it for a bit and grumbled to myself as I tried to figure out what egregious Twitter-Crime was committed by us that necessitated the removal of us from his Twitstream.  After wishing the pox on him (I jest) I thought, you know, we probably annoy the crap out of him.  Or we offended him.  Or, he only followed us in the first place because we goaded him into it (also in jest at the time).  I just wish he would have said, “Hey y’all yammer to much” or “Hey all this talk about love makes me heave” or “You guys aren’t worth my time”.  I totally respect that level of honesty and find it disheartening and frustrating when I don’t know why.  < /nosewrinkle>

Since I know you’ll ask – yes I have dropped off a few streams without explanation.  One posted such offensive content that I was concerned about hitting the filters at the office or having my kids walk up behind me and see it.   Another did something that designers and developers do not tolerate – they lifted an idea from us and used it as their own.  It’s not that the idea was unique.  It’s that there was never a conversation about, “Hey, I know this is your thing, but I’m thinking I’d like to do the same thing. Are we cool?”  My answer would have been 100% yes.  It’s the sneaky crappy way it was handled that chapped me enough to say FINISH!!! (inside joke).  Other than a smattering of unfollows, I love my community noisy, busy and full of color!  So bring on the tweets!

WHEW!!

If you’re still with me after this verbose ignivomous monstrosity, thanks for reading.  No really, thank you!  Hopefully I entertained you a bit or distracted you.  Oohh…shiny ball!

The point of all these letters and squiggles is to make you think by asking you one question comprised of 22 words: Do you follow to increase your count or do you follow because the individual you are following adds value to your Twitstream?

Until next time, chew on that!  I’m out.

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It’s no longer breaking news that there was a series of DDOS attacks on the internet last week.  I didn’t notice it so much on Facebook because (1) I’m not on there as much and (2) Facebook often seems slow and bloated to me.  But my beloved Twitter? Oh yes, I knew it was dead.

So what did I do?  Like any good geek I panicked, I cried, I moaned, I wailed.  I paced the floor aimlessly, babbling to myself about the end of the world as we know it, the TRUE Twit-pocalypse was upon us, dontchaknow…  (Do I need to insert sarcasm tags to avoid the sarchasm I think may ensue from those unfamiliar with my wit?)

At any rate, at one point I sang to myself, “The day that Twitter…died.”  <insert eyebrow raise and pondering face>

I make up a lot of song parodies, but rarely write them down (bad geek).  This time I did.  Many thanks to @MadBrad, @lwcavallucci and @Daily_Pinch for encouraging me to publish this.  Brad – I know you said to YouTube this, but I am video challenged.  There is always another parody in my back pocket, so maybe the next time.

So with many apologies to Don McLean, below is the work product of my Twitterless time:

The Day that Twitter Died

A long, long time ago…
I can still remember
How that tweeting used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those tweeple dance
And maybe they’d be happy for a while.

But August made me cry a river
With every Tweet I tried to deliver.
Bad news from the TweetDeck;
I couldn’t type one more peck.

I can’t remember if I cried
When I read about the twidowed site,
But something touched me deep inside
The day that Twitter died.

So bye-bye, Twittter access denied.
No more TweetChat no more TwitPics
The Twitterverse has now died
Them good ol geeks were mourning the API
Singin this’ll be the day that I die.
This’ll be the day that I die.

Did you write the Book of Tweets,
And do you have faith in the geek l33ts,
If the Twitterati tells you so?
Do you believe in Twitter polls,
Can Twitter save your mortal soul,
And can you teach me how to tweet real slow?

Well, I know that you’re addicted now
`cause I saw you tweetin all over town.
Your iPhone was a blaze.
Man, I love that touch interface.
I was a lonely twitter n00b punk
With a flip phone & my network sucked,
But I knew I was out of luck
The day that Twitter died.

I started singin,
Bye-bye Twittter access denied.
No more TweetChat no more TwitPics
The Twitterverse has now died
Them good ol geeks were mourning the API
Singin, this’ll be the day that I die.
This’ll be the day that I die.

Now for 3 hours we’ve been on our own
And dust grows thick on ev’ry smartphone
But that’s not how it used to be.
When Kawasaki tweeted for the restless mobs,
With a phone he borrowed from Steve Jobs
In a tweet that came from you and me.

Oh, and while Bill Gates was looking down,
Eric Schmidt stole his geeky crown.
Tweetchat was adjourned;
No tweet trend was returned.
And while Scoble read a book on quarks,
The tweeple gathered in the park,
And we texted dirges in the dark
The day that Twitter died.

We were singing,
Bye-bye, Twittter access denied.
No more TweetChat no more TwitPics
The Twitterverse has now died
Them good ol geeks were mourning the API
Singin, this’ll be the day that I die.
This’ll be the day that I die.

The chaos caused by hack attacks
The ‘Net was now most surely doomed
YouTube played a funeral tune.
We sent email and launched IM,
To bemoan the most certain end
Of every tweet we’d ever sent

While the hackers kept up their attacks
The world wide geeks were working fast
We tried to tweet once more
Oh but all we got was a 504.
cuz when we tried to give them our appeal
Those bastards still refused to yield.
Do you recall what was revealed
The day that Twitter died?

We started singing,
Bye-bye, Twittter access denied.
No more TweetChat no more TwitPics
The Twitterverse has now died
Them good ol geeks were mourning the API
Singin, this’ll be the day that I die.
This’ll be the day that I die.

Oh, and there we were all in one place,
A twitteration lost in interwebz space
With no time left to start again.
So come on: Ev be nimble, Biz be quick!
Ev and Biz sat on a javascript
Cuz scripting is a hacker’s only friend.

Oh, and as I watched them highjack ev’ry page
My tweets were steeped in a snarky rage.
No geek born in hell
Could break that hacker’s spell.
And as DDOS morphed into the night
Ruining Twitter’s website
I saw the Hacker laughing with delight
The day that Twitter died

He was singing,
Bye-bye, Twittter access denied.
No more TweetChat no more TwitPics
The Twitterverse has now died
Them good ol geeks were mourning the API
Singin, this’ll be the day that I die.
This’ll be the day that I die.

I met a geek who tweeted the blues
And I asked her for some happy news,
But she just surfed on down the road.
I went down to the Apple store
Where I’d learned of Twitter years before,
But the man there said that Twitter wouldn’t load.

And in the streets: the lolcats screamed,
The spambots cried, and the bloggers dreamed.
But not a word was spoken;
The Twit Apps all were broken.
And the geeks that I admire most:
Jobs and Schmidt and our Twitter Hosts
They caught the last train for the coast
The day that Twitter died.

And they were singing,
Bye-bye, Twittter access denied.
No more TweetChat no more TwitPics
The Twitterverse has now died
Them good ol geeks were mourning the API
Singin, this’ll be the day that I die.
This’ll be the day that I die..

They were singing,
Bye-bye, Twittter access denied.
No more TweetChat no more TwitPics
The Twitterverse has now died
Them good ol geeks were mourning the API
Singin, this’ll be the day that I die.

Note to original thought thieves: I have proof that I wrote this. Don’t make me send my cousins after you.  Or the law.  kthxbai.

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Every day I find more and more influence graders online.  The basis for these false metrics are number of followers or friends, number of tweets, retweets and links.  All of these things are arbitrary and do not speak in any way to the impact we have on other people’s lives.

Have you ever wondered about the people whose lives you impact daily simply by being online and having conversations?

You don’t have to be a “person of influence” to be influential. In fact, the most influential people in my life are probably not even aware of the things they’ve taught me.

- Scott Adams

So tell me, what is “real”

Many times I have seen social networking minimized, put in a sad little box called “much ado about nothing”.  People who think they know and understand, comment that online relationships aren’t real; that there is something wrong with those who connect and form so-called friendships online.  Let me assure you if you are questioning online relationships – they are very real, very tangible and for many of us,  very important.   There is nothing fake or virtual about online friends and I believe it is an insult to put “online friends” in a different category from “real friends”.

What is a real friend? Does a real friend share life experiences?  We do that online.  Does a real friend comfort you, celebrate with you, cry with you?  We do that online too.  Do you have to be in the same physical space to be a real friend? If so, cross off all those friends of yours who live across the state, on a different coast or in a different country.  In fact, cross off all those “phone friends” too – you know the ones you haven’t seen in months or years but still live across town from you but you never seem to make time to visit them in person.

Outside of the people you interact with every day online, do you think about those you don’t talk to, those who are reading your words, those engaged by your lifestream?  Do you realize that you impact their lives too? 

It all depends on what IS is…

There are people I follow, people whose blogs I visit, whose lives and commentary are priceless to me.  I feel for them.  I am engaged in their very existence in the world.  If I don’t see them online or read something from them with the same frequency I’m used to seeing things from them, I wonder.  If enough time goes by, I worry.  Online people are pretty habitual in the frequency of their interactions. Even when life gets busy, you know this.  I have lost friends who I have only known online.  It has been  no less emotional, no less tragic, and I grieved no less than I do for what some call my “real friends” because my connections are just as deep and just as real. I don’t let distance get in the way of my emotional attachment to others.  Love and friendship know no bounds in my life.

I didn’t think too much about how I might influence or impact others until recently when I was told that my presence would be missed if I went offline.  This caught me off guard because I don’t see my life as particularly interesting to anyone but me, or my words so powerful as to impact others.  Clearly I was wrong – not because I am some sort of superstar, but because we ALL impact people when we interact online.

You never know who is reading your blog, your tweets, or viewing your photostream.  You never know when something you say online reaches into the heart of someone in a bad place and lifts them up.  You never know when your words alter someone’s path, give them hope, give them inspiration or give them the kick they need to act rather than react.  Each of us does this whether we realize it or not.

I am thankful for the people who influence me daily.  I haven’t thanked them…yet.  But I have decided that those who touch my life, who inspire me, who lift me up will know about it whether I interact with them or merely watch them from the sidelines.  I will find opportunities to tell them, to thank them, to let them know they have reached into my life and made me a better person.

Who can you thank today for their influence in your life?

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According to the the Twitterface website:

Twitterface gives you the ability to design your own interface. When you show people this cool, new tool, your brand will be front and center, and you control the place you run in and out of all day long.

We also make it easier for you to view and respond to multiple accounts, and to track things like conference tweets, because you can see up to 3 accounts on your page, and change what you’re viewing in a snap.

Does the beta live up to this claim? In short, yes it does. And I’d say it can only get better from here.

Let me begin this review by telling you what Twitterface is NOT:

It’s not Tweetdeck. It’s not Seesmic. It’s not Destroy Twitter. It’s not Twhirl. It’s not any third party software/app that requires Adobe Air to work. Because it is none of these things, I won’t compare it to apps that reside on a different platform altogether.

With that out of the way, let’s get to the quick summary.

The Good:

• Above average web-based application
• Customizable with background, logo, header, icons, colors and custom footer links
• Ability to create additional pages for your account
• Accessible on any Internet-connected computer
• Multiple account usage in one interface
• Multiple column usage.

Areas for Improvement:

• Lacks the ability to add followers
• Lacks the ability to unfollow and block.
• There is a learning curve (usability)

The Details

While I normally use either Twitter’s web-based interface or Twitterfox, I have spent the past few days using Twitterface exclusively.  For those who may be unfamiliar, Twitterfox is a Firefox add-on that is handy at the workplace because it has a small footprint and can easily be minimized into the browser status bar.

Because Twitterface is a customizable web application, users must create an account before using the service.  Twitterface has an easy sign up process. Enter your Twitter username, password and your email address and you’re all set with your own Twitterface page. In my case, it’s http://www.twitterface.com/g33kguy. Once you have signed up you can begin customizing your Twitterface page, or not if you are so inclined. For me, customization is a must.

Twitterface has a centered column set-up, so I created a background image similar to the one I have on Twitter (http://twitter.com/g33kguy). In addition, Twitterface allows you to have your own header image. Logos can also be created and added into your design as well. There are many customizable features within Twitterface such as choice of different colored icons, link colors, text colors, footer section customization too.

Twitterface allows you to have multiple pages for your account that you can customize.  Add in the ability to have mutiple columns to either view other Twitter users/view @replies/DM’s/search terms-hashtags, and now you have a web-based Twitter app that’s in your face, literally. Hmmm…Twitterface…in your face.  Interesting.

I chose to go with the current 3-column view. I use the first one for my own tweeting and viewing @replies and DM’s. The middle column I set to see what my wife (@g33kgurrl) is tweeting because we converse a lot on Twitter during the day/evening. She’s awesome! ..ahem… and the third column I have set to a hashtag of #geeklove to see who is hashtagging that term.  Twitterface is working well for me in this aspect.  I like it more than my Twitter.com page.

However (yes you knew it was coming), there are drawbacks to this (early) beta version of Twitterface.  The interface has a learning curve. Although the curve is not steep, the interface takes a little getting used to. There are several usability tweaks I believe can improve the user experience with Twitterface. Here are some observations:

• The reply icon is different from Twitter.com. You have to rely on the title tags when you put your mouse over the icons to verify it’s usage. Maybe an “RT” icon would be better usage as this acronym is more widely accepted. Just a thought there.
• The “I follow”, “follow me” and “Updates” are oddly displayed at the bottom of each column. I think these could be better served if they are set toward the top of each column for easier viewing and reference.
• On the settings page, there are icons at the bottom right of the page that are not labeled. If you want to exit out, you have to look at the status bar when you mouse over the icons to figure out where to go. Usablity pain in the rear, being honest. I think it’s better served to have these icons toward the top left of the page and labeled. Make it easy for the user to navigate out versus making the user “work” to navigate away.

The biggest issues I have right now with Twitterface are in the usability department. But, after conversing with Kris Colvin (co-creator of Twitterface) many usability fixes will be in place as well as new features rolling out when version 1.0 hits the web.

The bottom line:

Twitterface is a well above average (and will only get better) web-based application that takes tweeting to a new level. If you thought Twitter had mutiple uses before, Twitterface goes beyond that by giving you more flexibility and customizing of your personal or business brand. Even casual users of Twitterface can appreciate the many features it currently has.

Am I a fan of Twitterface? Why yes, yes I am.

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It’s called Social Networking

 
I know a lot of people don’t get it.  They don’t get the Web. They don’t get the blogosphere.  And most especially, they don’t get Twitter.  Numerous people in my so-called “real” life have been led to believe that I lost the last bit of sanity I possessed because I dared to espouse the virtues and wonders of Twitter.

I gave up trying to explain about the power of the Internet, how to connect with people online, how screen names and pixels become part of ”real” life to those who think I’m crazy for living such a “connected” life.  In all honesty, if it seems completely bizarre to you, there’s probably nothing I can say that will change your mind.  If you can’t fathom how people can become friends, intertwine their lives, fall in love, grow businesses, extend their social circles through their online activity, it is highly unlikely that I can alter your way of thinking.  You won’t think the crammed inboxes of my 15 email accounts, 20 domains, handful of blogs and participation in various social networks are cool things.  You’ll likely be concerned and you’ll probably ask me why I can’t disconnect and encourage me to spend more time “in the real world”.  Even in the rarified IT atmosphere in which I move during daylight hours my peers view me as one of “THOSE” people.  You know who “THOSE” people are, right?

Ah, right.  That would be me.  Make no mistake: I am proud to be one of “THOSE” people.

You’re going to do what?

 
John Cachero, a Hampton Roads-based photographer who shoots weddings, portraits and special events all over Virginia, is one of “THOSE” people too. Thankfully.  At some point in the past couple of months, John jumped into a conversation HG and I were having with Ty about doing a Tweet Up somewhere between here and his neck of the woods out at the beach.  John is a photographer, and a bit of a geeky one at that, so he fit right in with the often frenetic exchange of quips and quotes.

A few weeks back John mentioned something about a photowalk.  It sounded like a good idea because I have this awesome Canon 30D that I don’t use nearly enough.  He initially thought June, but then came back with a date in early May.  So some rather inert bit of commentary about a Tweet Up was turning into an invitation to come out to Portsmouth on May 3 to go on a photo walk.  Coolness.

HG and I were like little kids on Christmas Eve.  We really didn’t want anyone to know how completely geeked out we were about this.  It seemed a bit…um…desperate I guess.  We didn’t want anyone to know how completely dorky we were so we kept our excitement quiet.  We especially kept it quiet from those non-Web anti-Twitter people. They would have had us committed for driving 2 hours to meet up with people we didn’t “know”.

Let me just say – it was fabulous. John is an incredible host and everyone who attended was great! We walked around Olde Towne until the downpour came.  Then thanks to HG and Ty, we were able to stand on some random Olde Towner’s porch until there was a break in the rain.  We scrambled back to the Bier Garden to commence an early breaking of bread.

My point in all this is that Twitter is a SOCIAL network.  If you don’t use the social part of it, you’re missing out.  We have made some awesome new friends because we were willing to invest in a single afternoon beyond what we do online.

Although we had some non-Tweeps in our group, the list of tweeps in attendance is below. If I left someone out, please let me know. I will update the list and add you!

@johncachero
@sourapplemedia
@djweso
@dolceshan
@iamtiff
@ericfadden
@shuttergirl
@LlamaKid
@SaMi_Am
@FreakMike
@iso757
@ciophoto
@youngck
@kristy10
@g33kguy
@g33kgurrl

The shared gallery from the #HRVA Olde Towne Portsmouth Photo Walk is viewable on Flickr.

Tomorrow HG and I are on our way to DC to attend RedUX DC.  We will be meeting up with @sourapplemedia, @lwcavallucci and @chriscavallucci.

Social. Networking. You should try it.

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According to the media Twitter is the latest, hippest thing for individuals and businesses.  The flood of news items and the resulting buzz has resulted in a corporate rush to leverage the power of Twitter. Finding your favorite business on Twitter is no longer a surprise. 

This mad dash to attain high visibility on Twitter prompted me to delve into the ways companies are using Twitter.  While some seem to understand how to leverage Twitter, a review of corporate streams uncovered a sad trend:  Many inhabitants of the Exec Suites have missed what is truly useful and meaningful to their business and brand.

It is common for marketing departments to track what is being said about their company and products.  What is different about Twitter is the fluid nature of the medium.  The comments are broadcast into the Twitterverse and millions know about them as soon as they are said.  News travels much faster these days and the viral nature of Twitter can be difficult to reverse.  Make no mistake – bad buzz in the Twitterverse can do damage to individuals and businesses. 

Having a Twitter account for a business or corporation is about more than just being there.  It’s more than tracking what is being said about you, your brand, your products.  Having a corporate face on Twitter is only meaningful when you use that presence to enhance your brand.

Getting it right

Do your executives use Twitter?  Do they understand the power of the medium?  From my observations and experience Communispace CEO Diane Hessan, tweeting as CommunispaceCEO, gets it.

Most geeks I know use Firefox except when testing for cross-browser compatibility.  Recently I was frustrated with a browser-related issue that required me to switch to IE in order to participate in a community hosted on Communispace.  In geek circles we often gripe about IE  so I shared my frustration with my other geek friends via Twitter. 

On April 10 at 3:07 PM Eastern, I tweeted:

At 3:24 I saw this pop up in my Twitter stream:

Surely this had to be a joke.  No, it was not a joke. Diane Hessan is not only on Twitter, she uses Twitter to track what is being said about her brand.  I should also mention that unlike some other high profile executives, Diane Hessan tweets for herself.

Following the above two tweets Diane and I exchanged messages publicly and privately regarding my browser issue.  She gathered some high level details along with my email address and forwarded my information to her Help Desk.  I assumed this was the end of it; that I was being shoveled off into “Help Desk Hell”.  I was pleasantly surprised when I received a message a short time later from the Communispace Help Desk asking for additional information.

It was a holiday weekend, and as a result I didn’t get the opportunity to respond to the email.  On Monday morning I received a second email about my issue.  I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised to receive the follow up email.  Most Help Desks have trouble responding in a timely manner to those who are persistent in contacting them.   I dropped the ball and didn’t respond to the initial inquiry email, yet I had one waiting for me on Monday morning as a follow up. 

In the end, the issue was known but not documented in a community FAQ.  I received information about the issue as well as some future enhancements that would eliminate the problem.  My suggestion for the addition of a browser FAQ was met with “funny you mentioned this” because it was being developed and was expected to roll out soon.

So what was right about this?  It was right from top to bottom, beginning to end.  The rather meaningless-to-most comment about Communispace was caught by Diane.  She was genuinely interested in my issue.  She engaged me as one of her customers, gathered information, and forwarded it to a very capable Help Desk team for resolution.  The Communispace Help Desk engaged me, collected additional information related to the issue, provided an explanation about why the incompatibility occurred and closed the issue to the customer’s (my) satisifaction.

How do you define Twitter success?

From my observations of and experiences with other businesses active on Twitter, Diane Hessan is the embodiment of Twitter success.  She TRACKS her brand.  She IDENTIFIES the buzz.  She ENGAGES her customers.  She FOLLOWS THROUGH with her promises to assist in a very GENUINE way.  No single one of these things makes her participation a success for the Communispace brand.  It is the combination of these things that enhances the brand and will contribute in very tangible ways to the success of the company. 

Communispace has a good foundation already which is obvious when I evaluate the various experiences I have had over the past few years.   If your business and your brand aren’t solid to begin with, you can’t expect Twitter to fix that or to somehow automagically make you into an industry superstar.   If, however, you wish to find ways to make your business and brand stronger, consider how Diane Hessan has approached her presence on Twitter as a viable model for Twitter success.

For more information about Diane Hessan’s Twitter experience I recommend her April 22, 2009 article in the Leadership section of Forbes: Yes, I’m A CEO Who Really Uses Twitter.

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• Using twitter in any niche – Social Media Simplified: Awesome video on how to use twitter.
• What Can Twitter Do for You? More than you might imagine
• Five Reasons You Shouldn’t Tweet Professionally

Every day I find more and more Twitter news and commentary, the most prevalent of which is the “proper” use of Twitter.  That’s right.  In case you haven’t already heard, there is evidently a right and a wrong way to use Twitter.  Of course, you can pose that question to 100 different people and get 150 different answers but don’t worry your pretty little head about that.

They may rescind my geek card for sharing this knowledge with you, but I stand unafraid and willing to do battle in the interest of truth and Twitter.  I am going to break with the group-brain mentality and deal you a little bit of reality – that’s a load of crap.  While I believe there are Twitter users who are without a doubt bandwidth thieves (i.e. spambots) there really isn’t a single “right way” of being a tweeting fool in the ever-expanding Twitterverse.  There are simply preferences and recommendations – which in no way equates to “the right way”.

Some folks seem to believe they own Twitter or at least own the single right way to tweet.  Eh, no.  They prefer certain types of communication, certain messages, certain folks with whom they wish to affiliate themselves.  More power to ya’ and rock on with your bad selves.  Just do me a favor and quit whining about how other people use Twitter.

Twitter is a frenetic stream of detached, collective consciousness.  If someone thinks it, they’re likely tweeting about it.  If you don’t want to hear about it don’t follow that person.  Ignore them.  But let them be.  Does it matter if no one but that person’s mother cares about what they have to say?  Nope.  But it evidently bugs some people enough that they have to write articles about the right way to participate on Twitter.

The only bit of advice I have can be summed up as the 3 B’s:

Be authentic. Be true to who you are. It’s fun to have alter personalities, but let you shine through. Don’t try to reinvent yourself.

Be genuine. Don’t fake empathy or outrage.  Be intellectually honest and don’t stir pots just because you can.

Be careful. Consider what you say before you click that button.  Once you say it you’ve lost the ability to take it back.

Simple, right? Happy tweeting!

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